Honoria Ravena (7 page)

He’s the enemy
, the sane part of me whispered. Why wasn’t I fighting this? The need to have his skin against mine was overwhelming. It didn’t have to be sex either. I craved his touch. I couldn’t force my body away from his. What was he doing to me?

Black spots danced in my vision, and I had a second to wonder what was wrong with me before he released my throat. Oh right, that.

He pressed his forehead to mine and took a calming breath while his hands ran down my back. “Sorry, you taste so good, like the sweetest wine and so warm… The bloodlust hasn’t driven me to take a life in centuries, and then you came along with your golden blood, and all my common sense goes out the window.”

“Hmm…” I murmured as I stroked a finger over the pre-cum gathering at the head of his cock. “I’d love to taste you.”

I squeezed his shaft, and he gasped, throwing his head back. I smiled. It was nice to see him with his guard down for once. Not that I could blame him for keeping it up. I was trying to kill him most of the time.

He chuckled, but it was strained. He pulled my hands gently out of his boxers. “I’ve got to stop you before I lose control.”

Stopping was good.
You don’t want to stop.
No, stopping was good. I had to think. I shouldn’t want him. I could never have him. This was going to end in a bloody, violent death for one of us, and it would probably be me.

I took a deep breath, controlling my mind enough to tell him to stop, when he cupped my face in his hands and pressed his lips against mine. The pressure of his mouth almost bruising. All my fragile thoughts scattered.

He didn’t leave my mouth as he pushed me back on the bed. Pulling away, he quickly tied my hands to the headboard.

I laughed. “Oh, kinky are we?”

“Oh, I can get kinkier than this, honey.”

He leaned down and kissed me again. It was full of probing tongues. He left my lips and skimmed down to my breasts. He slid the silk nightie above my breasts.

He licked my nipple and then blew his warm breath across it before he took it into his mouth. I arched under him. His fangs sank into my breast, and I screamed his name. It should have hurt, but it was incredible. I almost came from the bite alone. He paid the same attentions to the other breast before he moved farther down.

He pushed my thong down my legs. The rope slipped from my ankles as he stripped the underwear off and spread my thighs. I hadn’t seen him untie them.

“How did you untie the ropes without touching them?”

“Handy-dandy vampire psychic powers,” he said as he put one of my legs over his shoulder and tilted my pelvis so he had better access to me.

He passed his tongue over my clit and sighed. “You taste good in so many ways.”

His gaze met mine and he turned serious. “You know, you only want to do this because of my bite. It’s intense and I’m completely willing to take advantage of that, but I’d like to give you an out. Even though I could hammer nails with this hard-on. Sex will bind us closer.”

He stroked his tongue over my clit again as he slipped two fingers into my pussy.

I gasped. “For someone who wants to give me an out, you sure aren’t making it easy.”

“I’m not known for fighting fair. I don’t want to give you an out. I’m trying to be a gentleman, and I don’t want to argue about this later when you’re angry about us being closer. I plan to keep you forever. I really don’t want you pissed at me for the rest of eternity.”

Eternity? That sounded bad. “Whoa, wait. What do you mean?”

He pumped his fingers in deep, and I didn’t get to finish my line of questioning. He smiled as he ran his thumb over my clit. “So?”

He wasn’t going to give me a chance to think about this. “I don’t care, just fuck me.”

The smile turned into a grin. “That’s going to bite you on the ass later.”

I rolled my eyes and then cried out when he speared his tongue into my pussy. I panted. “More like
you’re
going to bite me on the ass later.”

He chuckled. “Well, that could be arranged. Though I could think of better things to do with that ass than bite it.” His free hand slid between my ass cheeks to find my anus.

I jolted away and glared at him.

He laughed and returned his attention to my cunt. He had a wicked tongue. I dug my heel into his back and arched my hips to meet his mouth. That delicious pressure grew as he licked and sucked. His fingers pumped into me, and his hot breath brushed the inside of my thigh before he bit.

I shouted his name as I exploded. I writhed and tangled my hands in the ropes securing me to the bed. I needed something to hold on to.

He didn’t give me time to rest. He climbed my body and kissed me. I brushed his fangs and tasted blood. He groaned and deepened the kiss a second before drawing back.

He grabbed his thick cock and aimed. Vaguely, I wondered where his boxers had gone. He pressed inside me slowly. I gasped as my muscles stretched around him. He was so big it was almost painful.

“Screw going slow,” he growled before he plunged into me fast and hard.

“Oh yes, Zarek!”

I wrapped my legs around his muscular ass and matched his thrusts. I was on fire. There was nothing but him.

My orgasm suddenly blinded me. I screamed as my thighs tightened around his hips. He kept pumping into me, driving me higher.

He came with a roar. His cock spasmed as his cum spilled deep into my clenching sex. Breathing heavily, he collapsed on top of me. How could a woman resist this once she’d had a taste?

Chapter Seven

He pulled his limp cock from me with a groan and slid down to lie next to me.

“Wow,” I said as I glanced at him.

His chuckle was shaky. “Understatement.”

He leaned in and pressed his mouth against mine. The kiss was slow and tender. So unlike the kisses we’d shared before. I could almost believe he cared for me. He withdrew and I licked my lips. A little zing of power went down my spine as trace amounts of his blood hit my tongue.

I frowned. “Why are your lips all bloody?”

He ran his thumb across his lip and looked at it. “I had to stop myself from biting you again. I fed deeply from you and then bit you three more times. It’s a lot of blood loss. Speaking of…”

He climbed out of bed and walked to a mini-fridge next to bay windows. I looked around the room. I hadn’t really noticed anything when I’d woken up except the gorgeous, dangerous vampire leaning over me.

The walls were dark and wood-paneled. A black, L-shaped desk sat in the corner to the left of the bed. The laptop on it glowed in the darkness. Deep-red blackout curtains covered the bay windows across from the bed. No light shone from behind them, so it was dark outside. Three doors took up most of the right wall.

Zarek returned with a package of Nutter Butters in one hand and a Gatorade in the other. He set them on the bed and leaned over me to free my hands.

His hardening cock brushed my cheek. I turned my face and took the head into my mouth before I could stop myself. I swirled my tongue over the slit. He gasped and drew away from me.

“Watch it, I’ll take you up on that offer, and you really can’t deal with that right now.” He sat me up and black spots danced across my vision.

“Whoa.”

“Yeah. Take a deep breath.” He piled the pillows behind me so I could lean against them.

I grumbled. My hands were still tied together. I struggled to get my little nightgown to cover me again.

He grinned and brushed my hair out of my eyes. “So sorry, but I don’t trust you yet.” He unwrapped the cookies and handed me one. “Now eat something before you get sick.”

“You make me feel like I just donated blood. They’re big on cookies and sports drinks when you do that.”

“Well, you did donate blood and this way, no poor innocent will have to give to me.”

I glared at him and ate my cookie in silence while he opened the Gatorade.

He handed it to me while he watched me.

“Why are you staring?”

He scrutinized me like he was trying to read my mind. I wondered if he could. “Well, you could explain why you had that panic attack earlier.”

I blinked, trying to remember what had come before the fantastic sex. God, that was sad. Where was my head? “What?”

“When I was on top of you, about to feed, you flipped out, but you were fine when I sat you up. What was that about?”

I glanced away from him. “Nothing,” I muttered. I wasn’t about to explain my weaknesses to an enemy. He didn’t need to know about my childhood and how Alaric had come to raise my brother and me.

“Bullshit. Which of your jobs went bad, Regan?”

I glared back at him. “None of my jobs have gone bad. Once I learned to fight, I never had a problem.”

“Hmm…I seem to remember Alaric saving some children from vampires a few years back. Were you one of those children?”

“It’s really none of your damned business.”

His eyes turned calculating. “So that’s a yes. What did that vampire do to the two of you?”

I looked away from him again. I wasn’t explaining jack shit to him. I blinked hard. My God, I’d just had sex with a vampire. An enemy my body still yearned to have contact with.

“I can’t believe I just slept with you.” Even I could hear the shock in my voice.

He scrubbed his face with his palms. “Man, I knew this was going to come up. What did I tell you? I told you that you weren’t completely in control of yourself. Blood-bonding causes attraction and physical affection. But no, you said you didn’t care.”

“You had your fingers in pleasurable places. It’s a little hard to say no when you have me on the verge of a screaming orgasm.” The blood drained out of my head, leaving me dizzy. “You also said it would bond us closer together. How?”

He sighed and rolled his eyes. “You’ll have more of a compulsion to touch me. Maybe you’ll even be easier to control, which I kind of like the thought of, actually.”

I glowered at him and tried to get off the bed. He grabbed my upper arm and pulled me back, taking hold of my wrists and lifting them to the headboard. I fought him, but it just made me dizzy and didn’t do any good.

When he’d tethered me to the bed, he stood and walked to the chair at his desk. He had clothes folded in it, and he drew on his pants.

“Now, we’ve got some things to discuss, Regan. How much did your brother get to tell you before Laedan whacked you on the head?”

“Some bullshit about how you found him near death in my house because someone is trying to kill us.”

“It’s not bullshit, Regan. Your brother would have died if I hadn’t turned him. Do you think I would have wanted him to rest yesterday if I didn’t care what happened to him? He’s my fledgling. He has my loyalty now. Yes, I was going to kidnap him to get to you, but I wouldn’t have hurt him
.”

I nibbled my bottom lip and stared at him as I pondered that. It seemed to be completely sincere.
Vampires are liars.
Part of me believed him already. He had seemed genuinely concerned about Jason. More than that, he’d shown compassion. What kind of vampire delayed feeding because his victim had a panic attack?

The sane part of me said it was bullshit. He’d hurt me before. He would hurt me again. Hell, he wanted to keep me as his little personal slave for the rest of
eternity
!

I shook my head and snorted. “If you had to turn him, then why didn’t you explain that before our fight?”

He shrugged. “Would you have believed me if I’d told the truth?”

I smirked. “I don’t believe you now.”

He rolled his eyes again. “I rest my case. It’s the truth. Everything’s changed now. I won’t harm you. I never really planned to. Navarro is an old enemy of mine, and he’s got some very elite assassins after you. I’ll take care of it, but you’re going to have to be someplace where I can watch you.”

“Even if it is true, I don’t want or need your help. I’ve dealt with assassins before.” And it wasn’t true. The bastard was lying. What better way to keep me with him than to convince me that he could solve all my problems?

“Not like this, you haven’t. These are warriors near my skill level.”

“Look, in my world the man doesn’t save the day, especially if he’s the enemy. I don’t need a hero. Just ask the ex-husband. Let us go, my brother and I can take care of ourselves.”

He braced his hands on the footboard and narrowed his eyes at me. “Even if killers weren’t after you, I’d never planned on letting you go. Your brother needs guidance. Now what was that about an ex-husband?”

His eyes darkened. Was that jealousy? Surely he’d realized he wasn’t my first. “He introduced my brother and me to hunting. I married him as soon as I turned eighteen. After a while, he didn’t like me hunting. Jason said it was because I was better and more ruthless than him. That, because he didn’t get to be my hero, it made him feel less like a man.”

“Well, I appreciate a woman who can fight. You’re one of the best vampire hunters there is, but these boys and girls are out of your league.” He straightened and walked around the bed. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go talk to your brother.”

“We’re not done talking about this, Zarek.”

He grasped the doorknob to the door next to the bed. “Sure we are. I’m your master, Regan. Keep that in mind.”

I kicked at him, but couldn’t quite reach with my hands tied to the headboard.

He laughed as he pulled the door open. “That was cute. Keep trying.”

“Yeah, well…you’re a bastard!”

He laughed harder. “Damn, Regan, you’re going to kill me.” He shut the door on my scream of rage.

“Yeah, stay amused, asshole. I’ll show you,” I muttered.

I started working on untying my hands. I was lucky he had released my feet and neglected to tie them back up. Now I could huddle against the headboard and use my teeth to work out the knots. As I pulled on the loop with my teeth, my wrists came loose. “Yes!”

I shook the ropes off when the knot finally came free. Crawling off the bed, I snagged my underwear off the floor and wiggled them on, then tugged at the little silk nightie.

It didn’t even cover my ass. I groaned. There was no way I could walk down the street like this and not draw attention. I’d get arrested for soliciting before I made it a block. It occurred to me that I didn’t have to leave. If Zarek was telling the truth, then I was in big trouble. And he was starting to seem like a decent man. Not to mention the incredible sex.

“No, no, no. He’s influencing you. He said the sex would bond you closer. You wouldn’t be thinking like this if you hadn’t slept with him. He’s lying to you.”

I had to get out of here before I gave in to him again. And again and again and again. I didn’t want to leave my brother here, but I was quickly finding out I didn’t have a choice. I’d never make it out with him. Hell, probably wouldn’t make it to his cell before I ran into Zarek or Laedan. I would have to trust that Zarek was telling the truth and wouldn’t hurt one of his own fledglings. I felt pretty secure about it. Alaric had said Zarek was loyal to them. Even if I couldn’t trust Zarek, I could trust Alaric.

Jason might not even want to come with me and could even force me to stay. He wasn’t averse to knocking me unconscious and keeping me with Zarek if he thought he was doing what was best for me. I would beg Alaric and his brothers to negotiate for Jason’s release later.

I opened one of the doors to the right of the bed and found the bathroom. Walking toward the other, I murmured, “Please be a closet.”

Pulling open the door, I sighed happily at the clothes and then cursed as a giant boot fell on my foot. His closet was a mess. Picking through the mess, I drew on a jacket and then tried on pants. They slid right off. I sighed and started digging for a belt. I found one and slipped it on and had to punch a new hole through the leather so it would tighten enough. What I had on would be perfect for falling most of the way out of one of these windows. That was assuming I wasn’t high enough to break some bones. Walking out of the closet, I eyed the bed.

It was time to try the classic tying-sheets-together thing so I could climb out the window. They were king-size sheets, so at least they would be long. I made sure the knot was secure as I moved to the windows. Jerking the curtains open, then raising the blinds, I looked out. I was at least three stories up, maybe more. Luckily, the windows faced the alley so I wouldn’t make a big scene lowering myself onto the street.

I tied one end of the sheets to the stand that the mini-fridge sat on. I prayed the fridge, the stuff inside it, and the table outweighed me.

Flinging the other end of the sheets out the window, I looked around the room. I thought about staying. I really did. If I was in as much trouble as Zarek claimed, then I should stay with him. I didn’t believe him though. That stubborn part of me refused to listen to him because of what he was. Vampires lied so easily. At times it wasn’t even a good idea to trust Alaric, and he’d raised me. Zarek was a stranger. Even if I did believe him, I couldn’t just let him solve all my problems. My ex-husband had tried and ended up getting in my way.