Hot Summer Bites: A Castle of Dark Dreams Novella (A Penguin Special from Berkley Sensation) (7 page)

His control must’ve been slipping fast because his eyes grew larger and darker with that telltale slant. But there wasn’t any room in her sex-clogged brain for fear.

He half-sat and then reached behind her to slip his hands under her shorts and panties. He cupped her cheeks and kneaded with deep, firm strokes.

The waist of her shorts wasn’t up to the strain of a pair of male hands stretching it to its limit. The button holding the shorts closed popped off and rolled across the floor. Who needed buttons anyway?

A diver had replaced the octopus at the sub’s window. Who cared? A whole team of Navy SEALs could be staring in for all she cared.

Suddenly Taurin abandoned his kneading and collapsed back onto the floor. He rested the back of his hand across his eyes. “Damn, damn, damn.”

“What?” Why was he lying down on the job? Her heart was racing, and she was wet with the anticipation of him sliding deep inside her.

“No protection.” His disappointment was a harsh groan.

She stared down at him, outrage out of all proportion to his crime narrowing her eyes. “How could you forget? You can read minds. You can move at the speed of the mail bringing my credit card bills to me, for heaven sake.”

Wait. She blinked. Wasn’t she supposed to be mad at him? She could’ve sworn that he was a yucky slug. Kristin just couldn’t remember why.

Glancing away from Taurin, she tried to rein in her runaway emotions and sexual want. Her gaze slid to the sub’s large window. The diver had left. She stared. Something else had taken his place. It was big, and white, and had lots and lots of sharp teeth. And the laughter gleaming in its dark fishy eyes was all too human.

“Umm. I think Banan is trying to get our attention.” Keeping her gaze fixed on the shark, she reached for her top and slipped into it. She stuffed her bra down the back of her shorts.

“Banan?” Taurin sat up partway and supported himself on his elbows as he twisted to stare at the window. He snarled at the shark. “That’s not water outside the window, so he’s standing there in human form while he projects his shark image to us. I’ll kill him.”

“He can do that?” Once again the awesome powers of the beings she’d met so far boggled her mind.

“Evidently.” Taurin sat the rest of the way up. “We’re not seeing the shark with our eyes. We’re seeing it up here.” He tapped his forehead.

Kristin glanced back at the window. Sure enough, Banan in human form was standing there waving at them. Suddenly, she realized where her bottom was planted and slid off Taurin. He reached for his jeans.

Without even a warning knock, someone lifted the hatch, and Saffron leaped through the opening. He took in everything at a glance and then padded over to Taurin. “Tell me you weren’t on the bottom. Real men do it on top.”

Fury rolled off Taurin in waves. Kristin didn’t need any superpowers to feel it. She clambered to her feet and edged away from Saffron. One didn’t stand near a tree about to be chopped down, because you never knew where it would fall.

“Real cats know when they’re about to lose one of their nine lives and run like hell.” Taurin lifted his lips away from fangs that looked a lot scarier now that Kristin wasn’t in a sexual frenzy.

Saffron seemed to realize that maybe his entrance had been a little precipitous. Every hair on his fluffy white body stood on end, and his tail puffed up to twice its normal size. He looked like a furry snowball.

“Hey, man, I was just riding to your rescue. You were in here a long time, and the hatch was locked from inside. Everyone was worried that maybe something had happened to you guys.”

“And
everyone
was?” Kristin was with Taurin on this. If she had fangs, she’d be flashing them.

“Uh, I guess Banan and me. Real men act when they think someone’s in danger, so we decided to make sure you didn’t need saving.” Saffron backed toward the open hatch. “Banan said he’d look in the window, and I opened the hatch. Locks don’t stop me.”

Taurin was in full furious-vampire form. He hissed at Saffron. “You both wanted to see what you could see. Okay, satisfied? Question, cat, who’s going to save
you
?”

“I’ll take him off your hands.”
Asima poked her aristocratic head through the hatch.
“Oh, I left your scarf in your room, Kristin.”
There was a brilliant white flash of light, and both cats were gone.

A quick glance assured Kristin that Banan was also gone. She thought about turning her back while Taurin dressed, but decided she’d be better served by getting her last big hit of his magnificent bare body.

Because now that her heartbeat had slowed and her breathing was kind of normal, she realized what she’d almost done. The scary part? She regretted the “almost” part. Her mind knew that any involvement with Taurin Veris was bad news, but her body wanted what it wanted, and that was that. She was in trouble.

“I guess a better man would say he was sorry that happened.” His smile was slow, wicked, and totally sensual. “Guess that’s not me.”

Guess that wasn’t
her,
either. She was doing a great job of compartmentalizing. What he’d done to her career still outraged her—even though she understood the why of it—but that didn’t keep her from wanting to be with him, and she definitely still wanted his body. At what point would the wall between the two compartments spring a leak, and would the resulting mix freeze into a block of ice or go up in flames?

Kristin sighed. She was betting on the flames. “So what will I take away from this for my article?” She climbed from the sub and then waited for Taurin to join her. “You never finished the story about the woman and the three guys.”

He walked beside her back toward the castle. No way was she going on to another attraction with her bra stuck down the back of her shorts.

“After their time in the sub was up, only the woman came out.” Taurin glanced at her and smiled. “The park employee in charge of the attraction went into the sub to see what had happened.”

“And?” Kristin hoped the punch line to this story was great, because she needed something fantastic to make up for her sexual frustration tonight.

“The three men were chained to the instrument panel.”

“Whoa.” This was good stuff.

“Naked.”

“Wow, bet they were embarrassed.” Kristin couldn’t wait to get back to her room so she could write this up.

“Don’t think so. They were all smiling.”

And as Taurin held the door of the castle open for her, she tried not to think of his bare muscular body chained to her very own instrument panel.

Chapter Six

“So, how are things going?” Sparkle perched
on the stool behind her candy counter. She crossed her legs as she stared at Deimos, who was nervously rubbing the top of his shiny shaved head.

Her nails were perfect, her shoes were perfect, her dress was perfect, and she was perfectly bored. She missed the challenge, the excitement of meddling in the sexual lives of the people around her. But Deimos had to do this himself, hence, no meddling.

Maybe he’d fail miserably, and then she’d step in to save the day. The thought cheered her right up.

Deimos abandoned his head to lean casually against the candy counter. He was trying hard to look calm and in control, but Sparkle recognized the trapped-rabbit look in the way his gaze skittered around the store.

Sparkle smiled. Good. If Kristin and Taurin had already had sex, Deimos wouldn’t be nervous. As soon as he got up the courage to tell her he’d screwed everything up, she’d graciously offer to take over the operation. He’d be childishly grateful to her. Life would be good again.

Deimos finally met her gaze, and she didn’t like what she saw there. He looked almost defiant. She scowled.

“Everything’s under control. I’m working it. See, I remembered what you said about sexual tension.”

Amazing. Something she’d said had actually sunk in. “Uh-huh. And you’re using that info how?”

“The beach party’s tonight. Kristin and Taurin have done a fantasy every night this past week. But each time they’ve gotten close to making love, Saffron or Banan has interrupted them. Once they tried to hole up in her room, but Banan pulled the fire alarm. Nothing like a fire alarm to get a vamp out of the mood.” He grinned at the memory. “They’re so hot for each other I can smell the fire.” Deimos waved his arms to give her a leaping flames visual.

“And?” Sparkle was intrigued in spite of herself.

“Well, tonight will be the night they finally do it. I mean, this will be one sexy beach party. They have so much pent-up sexual energy that it’ll just explode.”

“Interesting.” Sparkle thought about how she could impact the party’s sexual energy in her own small way. “Oh, and get over the ‘making love’ thing. They’re having sex. Love doesn’t have anything to do with it.”

Deimos looked thoughtful for a moment. “No, I think you’re wrong. They really like each other. Oh, Kristin still thinks she’s mad at him because of what he did to her career, and he still thinks she’s all about the story, but I almost think they’re in love. Go figure.”

“Hmm.” Surprise, surprise. It took a lot of guts to tell Sparkle Stardust she was wrong. He might make a worthy cosmic troublemaker after all. “How have Kristin and Taurin reacted to all those interruptions?”

Deimos frowned for the first time. “Taurin said he’d tear out someone’s throat if either Saffron or Banan showed up again. Kristin said she suspected a mastermind behind this whole thing, because it seemed orchestrated to her. She threatened to use her investigative skills to ferret out the one in control.”

“Not good.” Sparkle tapped one perfect nail on the glass top of her counter. “But they’ll be too busy thinking about each other tonight to worry about anything else. Just out of curiosity, how’d you convince Saffron and Banan to play your game?”

Deimos fixed his gaze on a spot somewhere above her head. “I promised them a date with you.”

“Excellent. I like it when you show initiative because . . .” She stopped tapping her nail. “You
what
?”

He rushed into his explanation. Deimos knew when death was a hair’s breadth away. “They both think you’re hot, and really really admire your . . . mind. All they want is one date so they can explore . . .” Deimos’s creative lying powers finally deserted him.

“I
know
what they want to explore.” She studied him with narrow-eyed intensity.

Sparkle didn’t like the idea of being the prize in this particular game, but she had to admit that Deimos had shown a certain amount of flair and ingenuity. And courage. Lots of courage. Because he knew exactly what could happen if he pissed her off.

“A date, huh? Banan is a sexy guy, so I won’t mind exploring possibilities with him. Saffron’s a cat of a different color though. I don’t have a clue what he looks like in human form. I do know he’s got this thing about men being the dominant sex.” She knew her smile was a wicked twist of her lips. “Maybe a date with Saffron would be fun. I can teach him sooo much about women.”

Deimos’s expression said he wouldn’t trade places with Saffron even for the chance to be an action hero.

“Go do your thing.” Sparkle waved him toward the door.

Once he’d left, she studied her nails for a long time. She always did her best thinking while contemplating her nails or a new pair of shoes.

Finally she looked up and smiled. Deimos would have the glory tonight, but she couldn’t resist adding a little twist to the end of the story.

Sparkle picked up her cell phone and punched in a number. Tonight would be spectacular. “Let the games begin.”

Kristin stood on the beach wondering when exactly
during the past week she’d been flung into an alternate universe. She glanced up at the night sky. Yep, that full moon looked like her world’s moon. She lowered her gaze to the silver-tipped waves rolling onto the beach. Sure looked like the Gulf of Mexico to her.

Then she turned her attention to the man walking toward her across the sand. Nope, he definitely wasn’t part of her world’s reality, because in the reality she knew, she’d never fall in love with a vampire.

Why had it happened? Sure he was gorgeous, but it had to be something more to shift the whole thing from lust to love. They’d talked a lot. They’d argued and laughed together. And when she’d told him she’d found a clue to his brother’s whereabouts, she’d gotten all teary-eyed at his excitement.

How did she know her love was for real? She’d deleted both of her stories from her laptop tonight. Didn’t get more in love than that. Of course, what she felt didn’t mean squat, because Taurin hadn’t hinted he felt the same. Yeah, he wanted her body, but he didn’t want her heart and soul as part of a package deal. She sat down on the blanket he’d spread on the sand and waited for him.

He stopped in front of her and handed her a glass of iced tea along with a plate that had a burger, potato salad, and a chocolate chip cookie on it. Then he dropped down beside her.

Kristin could see the glow from the fire someone had built on the beach, but a dune hid Taurin and her from view.

“Looks like Banan and Saffron are stuffing their faces. Should keep them busy for a while.” He didn’t need to add that they should take advantage of their window of opportunity.

Kristin wanted to think of herself as a romantic, but she had a big, bold, practical streak running right down the middle of all that pink lacy romanticism.

“Protection?” If the heat he generated wasn’t burning up all her brain cells, she would’ve remembered to bring some herself.

She had a sinking feeling that his little foil packets were sitting back on his night table, because unless he had them tucked in his cheeks like a sexy chipmunk, he was out of pocket options. She knew, because she’d looked.

And there was so much to look at. His swimsuit was an insignificant punctuation mark to the complex sentence that was his body. Smooth, muscular, and almost bare, his was a body to launch the sexual dreams of a thousand women.

The moonlight played with the angles and curves of him, casting some in shadow—teasing and tempting—while highlighting others just enough to make her want to reach out so she could make sure he was real.

She had to have him, and she had to have him
now
. “Umm, do you think Eric or Conall might have—”

Leaning over, he placed his finger over her lips. He should know better than to put any part of his body near her mouth when she was in a serious state of wanting. Grasping his wrist so he couldn’t escape, she drew his finger into her mouth. Swirling her tongue around it, she met his sizzling gaze. He tasted of chocolate chip cookie, her new favorite dessert.

“Keep that up, sweetheart, and I’ll forget something very important I have to tell you.” He gripped his bottom lip between his strong white teeth.

And when he released his lip, its sheen and soft fullness called to the savage Amazon in her. She wanted to visit unspeakably erotic acts on his helpless body. Not that she figured his body would be helpless any time soon.

She couldn’t talk while she lavished all her uncontrolled desire on his finger, so she released him. “This better be good, Veris.”

He grinned as he stretched out flat on his back beside her. Then he slid his palm over his chest and abdomen, calling attention to his powerful pecs and abs.

She’d bitten into her cookie in lieu of anything else yummy to sink her teeth into as she watched him slide his fingers over his body. Completely riveted, she carelessly dribbled a few cookie crumbs onto him.

He paused in his epic journey. “Uh-uh. Littering isn’t allowed. You’ve seen the signs: Don’t Mess with Texas.”

Kristin looked down at the scattering of crumbs. “Oops. Gotta do my part in keeping Texas tidy.”

She shivered at the joy of being a one-woman cleanup crew. Bending close to him, she flicked a crumb from his nipple with the tip of her tongue. To make absolutely sure she’d gotten the entire crumb, she gripped his nipple gently with her teeth and then brushed her tongue back and forth, back and forth over the sensitive nub. He groaned his appreciation.

With what she hoped was a maddeningly slow pace, she put her mouth on random parts of his torso. Some stops had crumbs that she flicked up with her tongue, some didn’t. No matter, because she was into the feel of his warm flesh beneath her lips, the taste of essential male on her tongue, and the scent of an aroused, sexy man.

When she finally abandoned his body, he glanced down to where his hand still rested on his lower abdomen. “I know I was going somewhere, but now it’s all a blur.”

Kristin made a wild impetuous guess at his final destination and decided to help. “Let me drive for a while.”

He shifted his hips as he settled in for the trip. She sucked in her breath at the sensual impact of watching the thin swimsuit material stretch tightly over his growing interest.

Kristin walked her fingers around the edge of his swimsuit, making sure she didn’t ignore where it marked the border between his inner thighs and protected territory. He spread his legs to make the journey easier.

“Taking the scenic route is always more rewarding, don’t you think?” She walked her fingers across his personal Mount Everest that was gaining elevation even as she spoke.

She interpreted his grunt as a negative. “You’re right. Time to head home.” Slipping her fingers beneath the edge of his swimsuit, she paused. Then laughed as she pulled out two foil packets. “Now that we have these, you really don’t need the swimsuit, do you?” Kristin tugged at the waist.

His smile was a predatory lifting of his lips. “I thought you’d never ask.” He arched his hips so she could skim the swimsuit from his body. Then he reached up to hook his finger in her bikini top. “Take if off.”

“Wow. Pretty direct, aren’t you?” Kristin kind of liked that about him. She looked down. Mmm. The hard length of him went
way
beyond like.

He sat up, his eyes a blaze of hunger that made her nipples pebble without him even touching her. “I’ve spent a week in hell, wanting to rip the clothes from your beautiful body and bury myself deep inside you every freakin’ minute I’ve been near you.”

Kristin knew her smile bordered on feral. “Whoa. Intense. Very sexy.” She dropped her hand to his erection and wrapped her fingers around him. She squeezed gently, instant messaging a “Me, too.”

He pulled her close so he could untie her top. She was short on control right now. His fault, all his fault. Jeez, how long did it take to untie a stupid bikini top? To keep from attacking him, she clamped her teeth onto his neck and hung on. She reveled in the warmth and taste of his skin. Would he accept her teeth’s imprints in the spirit they were given? She hoped so. Who knew this vampire stuff would be so easy?

Even before her top hit the sand, he was working on her bikini bottom. He must’ve used his preternatural speed or something because one minute it was there and then it was lying yards away. Was he hot for her or what? She smiled at the delicious thought.

Kristin glanced around to make sure they were completely private before relaxing back onto the blanket. Lifting her arms above her head, she stretched, arching her back and savoring the sensual joy of the cool gulf breeze and Taurin’s heated gaze drifting across her bare breasts. She glanced at his strong hands with fingers able to drift over a woman’s body in many different ways. Who needed a breeze?

Leaning close, he traced her lips with his tongue and then deepened the kiss into a promise of things to come. Kristin thought whatever was to come better come damn fast, because no way did she intend to give Banan or Saffron time to interrupt this.

Taurin grinned at her, his fangs proof of his own state of arousal. “Don’t worry, if they interrupt tonight I’ll kill them. No one will find the bodies. What happens in Galveston stays in Galveston.”

She thought he was only half kidding. “Were you in my head? I didn’t feel you.”

Still holding her gaze, he moved to kneel between her legs. “Nope. I recognized that mess-with-my-orgasm-and-die look in your eyes.” He slid his hands over her feet, gently massaging her heels before smoothing his palms over her calves and inner thighs. He paused there. “I want to make long, slow love to you. I want to show you every single thing I’ve learned in six hundred years about bringing a woman pleasure.”

He leaned over to whisper in her ear. “But not tonight. I want you too much. I want to take you fast and hard with lots of thrashing around and screams for more.”

She tangled her fingers in his hair and pulled him down to her. “Do it. But we’d better delete the screams. Unless we want an audience who’ll break into spontaneous applause with shouts for an encore.” Kristin trailed her fingers down the long length of his back before massaging the cheeks of his perfect ass.