Immortal Sins (27 page)

“You have nothing to do with this,” Rourke said, his voice little more than a growl.

“Maybe not,” Vega agreed. “But the two of you might want to cool off a little before you say anything you’ll regret later.”

Rourke glared at him. “Get out of my way. This is between me and my woman.”

“
Your
woman?” Kari exclaimed as Vega distanced himself from the two of them. “Who said I was your woman?”

“Are you not?” Rourke asked, his voice suddenly filled with tenderness. “Were you not mine the moment you first saw the painting in the gallery? Were you not mine, as I was yours?”

Kari looked up at him, all her anger melting away before the love she saw shining in his eyes. Why was she fighting him? From the moment she had first laid eyes on him, she had been helpless to resist him. She had spent hours, days, weeks thinking of him, dreaming of him, wanting only to be with him, and now he was here. He had made her what he was and, in so doing, had ensured that they could be together forever. He had taken the sun from her, but he had replaced it with the never-ending warmth of his love.

“Karinna?”

The sound of his voice moved through her, sweeter than honey.

She looked at Vega and smiled. “Thank you for your offer, but it’s no longer necessary.”

With a sigh, she slipped her arm around Rourke’s waist. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s go home. We have a lot to talk about.”

“So, tell me what it’s like to be a full-fledged, card-carrying vampire,” Kari said as they settled on the sofa in front of the fireplace. “Tell me everything.”

Rourke slid his knuckles down her cheek. “It can be a good life, sweeting, if you look on the positive aspects instead of the negative.”

Once, she would have doubted there was anything positive about being a vampire. Now, she knew differently. She had been a vampire for only a short time, yet she was already changing. She could feel it happening inside her, feel the power growing within her. All her senses were magnified. She felt wonderful, stronger physically and mentally than she ever had in her whole life. She had always been a little afraid of growing old, of being alone. She wouldn’t have to worry about that now.

“So, refresh my memory,” she said with an impish grin. “What are the positives?”

He laughed softly. “After the time we have spent together, I should think that you would know the good things better than most.”

“Well, yeah, some of them, but I’m sure I still have a lot to learn, like how to turn into mist, and how to vanish into thin air, and all your other tricks.”

He brushed a kiss over her lips. “And more than enough time to learn them all.”

“You won’t get tired of me, will you?” she asked, only half in jest.

“Perhaps,” he mused, “in a thousand years or so.”

“And what will we do for a thousand years?” Even as she asked the question, she couldn’t imagine anyone living that long. What would the world be like in a thousand years? In five hundred? Would life as they now knew it even exist that far into the future?

His forefinger trailed down her cheek. “What would you like to do?”

“I’d like to travel,” she said. “There’s so much of the world I haven’t seen. How about you? What would you like to do?”

“I would like to make love to you in every country and city in the world,” he said with a roguish grin.

“Would you?” she asked, suddenly breathless as she pictured the two of them making love on the floor of a gondola in Venice, or wrapped in each other’s arms at the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

“Indeed.” His smile grew wider. “It will be my pleasure to fulfill your every wish, your every dream and desire, no matter how large or how small. Starting here,” he said, his voice suddenly low and husky with longing. “Starting now.”

Impaled by the yearning in his eyes, Kari drew a deep breath and expelled it in a long, shuddering sigh. “Sounds good to me,” she murmured, then grinned inwardly as she imagined buying a map of the world and sticking pins in to mark every place where they made love.

She linked her hands behind his neck as he swung her into his arms and carried her up to bed. After undressing her, he quickly stripped off his own clothing, then stretched out beside her and drew her into his arms. He made love to her ever so slowly, adoring every inch of her body, from her sweet, sensual lips to the curved arch of her instep. And all the while, he whispered words of love and affection, needing her to know that he loved her as no other, that he would always love her.

Kari surrendered herself, heart and body and soul, to Rourke’s touch even as she began an intimate exploration of her own. Rourke’s body was a study in masculine perfection, a feast for feminine eyes, a magnet for loving hands and questing fingers. She had waited years to meet the man of her dreams, she thought, as she willingly yielded her innocence to him, and it had been worth every minute. They had made love in dreams and it had been wonderful, but the reality far surpassed the illusion.

He carried her above and beyond mortal limits, pleasuring her in ways no human male ever could, and when she teetered on the brink of discovery, her whole body yearning for something that beckoned just out of reach, he swept her over the top. The world as she knew it shattered, exploding into a million rainbow-colored lights that she could see and touch and taste.

She felt as if she were floating above the earth, and when she looked down, she saw that she really was floating, not above the earth, but above the mattress. She should have been scared, or at least surprised, but she wasn’t. Instead, she closed her eyes and enjoyed every nuance of the strange but exhilarating sensation.

When, at last, the world righted itself, she knew she would never be the same again, and then she was drifting, down, down, through rainbow-colored clouds, sated, complete.

When her breathing returned to normal, she opened her eyes to find Rourke gazing down at her. Was it her imagination, or did he look just a trifle smug?

Well, he had a right to, she thought. He had promised to fulfill her every desire, and he had delivered. Oh, my, had he delivered!

Propping herself up on one elbow, Kari leaned forward and licked his cheek, then raked her nails down over his chest and his hard, flat belly to that part of him that should have been exhausted but wasn’t.

“You know,” she murmured, “I’m not sure a thousand years will be long enough.”

And don’t miss Amanda Ashley’s newest book,
EVERLASTING KISS,
coming in February from Zebra!

Erik sipped his drink. It satisfied his physical thirst, but he found no pleasure in it. It was like hungering for milk and being given water, though in reality, he had no taste for either.

He had just ordered a second glass when a woman entered the club. A pretty woman in her mid-twenties, with lightly tanned skin and heavily lashed green eyes. Her hair, a deep reddish-brown, fell halfway down her back. She wore flat-heeled white boots, blue jeans, and a long white leather jacket over a white shirt. His nostrils flared as she passed by him on her way to a vacant stool not far from his.

Erik frowned. She was human, but she smelled of vampire. No doubt she was one of the dozens of human females who frequented the club, getting their kicks from rubbing elbows with the soon-to-be famous and the infamous. Or maybe she got off on letting vampires feed off her. Drinking vampire blood was all the rage now, though only the very rich could afford it. The thought of her feeding off of him stirred his desire; the thought of him feeding off of her aroused his hunger. He ran his tongue over the tips of his fangs, imagined himself bending over her neck, licking her skin, tasting her life’s essence.

As if sensing his thoughts, she whirled around to face him.

She was lovely, young, ripe. Erik put the glass in his hand aside, no longer interested in its watered-down contents. Not when there was a possibility he could score something better. Something hot and fresh, directly from the source.

Daisy stared at the man sitting at the bar, felt a rush of heat engulf her from head to foot when his gaze met hers with such intensity, it was almost physical. Dressed all in black, he was long-legged and broad-shouldered, with thick black hair and the kind of rugged countenance that made a girl look twice. But it was his eyes that captured her attention. Deep, dark eyes that seemed capable of penetrating her innermost thoughts, of probing the depths not only of her heart, but her very soul.

Shaking off her fanciful thoughts, she took a seat at the bar and ordered a strawberry daiquiri. Even though she was no longer looking at the dark-haired man, she could feel the weight of his gaze resting on her. Without moving her head, she slid a sideways glance in his direction, felt a jolt of desire sweep through her when her gaze again met his. Never, in all her life, had she felt such a strong attraction to a complete stranger.

Her stomach knotted as he rose smoothly to his feet and walked toward her, although walked didn’t really describe the way he moved. More like a jungle cat stalking its prey. The thought made her mouth dry and her palms damp. Her gaze darted toward the exit, but it was too late to escape. He was already standing in front of her. He was tall, she thought, looking up. Very tall.

“I’m Erik.”

His voice, as deep as ten feet down, raised goose bumps on her arms.

He gestured at her glass. “May I buy you another drink?”

“No, thank you.” Was that pitiful whimper her voice?

“Are you sure?”

Daisy nodded. What was wrong with her? She was behaving like some teenager who had just met her favorite rock star.

His gaze moved over her face, warming every place it touched. When he smiled, her heartbeat kicked up a notch.

Pull yourself together, Daisy,
she chided.
It’s not like you’ve never talked to a handsome man before.
So why did this one have her tongue tied in knots?

“I suppose a dance is out of the question?”

She felt her cheeks grow hotter as she imagined being in his arms. She was about to decline when she heard herself say, “I’d like that.”

He looked as surprised as she was.

And then there was no more time for thought. He held out one large, well-manicured hand. After a moment’s hesitation, she placed her hand in his. A shiver of awareness coiled in the pit of her stomach as his fingers closed over hers, and then he was leading her toward the small dance floor, drawing her into his arms. Long arms. Strong arms that made her feel protected and endangered at the same time.

She had watched numerous scenes in movies where couples danced and everything else faded away—Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas in
Romancing the Stone,
Michael J. Fox and Julie Warner in
Doc Hollywood,
Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey in
Enchanted.
As much as she had loved those scenes, she had always found them hard to believe. Until now. She wasn’t aware of the music or the other couples on the floor; she wasn’t aware of anything but the man holding her close. Too close, she thought, but feeling his body brush against hers felt so good, she had no inclination to object. He was tall and dark and decidedly masculine. Being in his embrace made her achingly aware of her femininity, of the delightful differences between male and female, of the way their bodies had been created to fit together, complementing each other.

Her only regret was that the music ended too soon. Or maybe just in time, she thought, because as sure as she knew her name, she knew what was coming next. He was going to ask her to go to his place, and she didn’t think she was strong enough to refuse. Just thinking about being alone with him made her ache in places no man had ever touched.

Murmuring, “thank you for the dance,” she pulled her hand from his and all but ran out of the Crypt. She knew it was only her imagination, but she could have sworn she heard the sound of his amused laughter following her all the way home.