Lothaire (47 page)

When he thrust inside Elizabeth, Lothaire roared to the ceiling from the rightness of it.

He was a born vampire, and she was his fated female—now pinioned to the bed.

Through the haze of inconceivable pleasure, he felt her tense beneath him.
No, she can take me.
He withdrew for another thrust, plunging into her tight sex.

“T-too hard,” she whispered.

“
What?
I
want
it hard! You’ll give me what I want.”

“Please be gentler with me, Leo.” She leaned up to kiss his neck with light grazes of her lips. Like a butterfly’s wings.

His mortal. So delicate. How easily he could break her little body.

Endgame! This creature is my
queen.
About to hurt her with my cursed strength.

But how could he keep himself from surging inside her? When each time he did, her channel stroked him—a moist, silken heaven that rubbed over his cockhead like a tongue, then squeezed his aching shaft like a fist. . . .

No one hurts her, including myself.

He gritted his teeth, then rose up on a straightened arm. Caging her in with his motionless body, he glided his thumb over her clitoris. “Work your hips up and down on me.” Drawing on his last reserves of control, he kept himself from thrusting, until his muscles began to quake from the effort and sweat trickled down his torso.

Then . . . his Bride began to move beneath him. “Ah, that’s it!” He dipped his head to suckle her stiff nipples. “Faster,” he growled around a peak, giving it a nip with his fang, spurring her.

“Oh!”

She liked that.
Getting so wet.
The scent of her luscious sex made him snap, “Harder!”
Put me out of my misery.

Her hands flew to his ass, fingers gripping, using him to pull herself up. Her moans grew louder, more urgent.

“You’ll give me this whenever I want it . . . let me do whatever I want to you,” he grated. “Because you
are
my Bride, Lizvetta. And I’ve got many years to make up for.”

Between panting breaths, she asked, “I’m really yours?”

“Till the day I die,” he said, his voice strained. The burgeoning pressure in his cock lashed him with the need to move his own hips, the vampiric urges he’d denied only growing stronger. Somehow he held himself still.

But he needed to mark her neck. His fangs were dripping for her, as sharp as they’d ever been. “Need to bite you.”

“Yes! Do it.”

“A true bite. Into your neck.”

Without hesitation, she turned her head to the side, offering up that golden skin.

He ached to pierce it. “Try not to hurt you . . .”
Must make the bite clean
. He bared his fangs above her, pressed the tips against her neck.

They sank in deep, as if she’d drawn him into her.

Perfection.

He felt her screaming, “Oh, God, yes!”

Delirious with sensation, he swallowed the hot rush.
Consume her completely.
Her blood flowed true, as if straight to his heart, bonding them.

“Lothaire!” She arched beneath him. “I’m . . . I’m coming!” Her nails scored his skin.

He snarled against her, relishing her marks on him.
Consume her.
When she climaxed, he felt her sex milking his organ, demanding its due.

Take as I give. Take . . .

No. He couldn’t take more blood, nor could he plant his seed.
Can’t spend inside her.
As he so desperately needed to do.

Somehow he fought the utter bliss of his bite, the rightness he’d never known. Somehow he released her neck.

Her back bowed once more. Her head thrashed.
Coming again?

“Ah, gods, I feel you!” The pressure throbbing in his cock made him throw back his head and bellow,
“Lizvetta! I claim you—”

At the last second, he jerked back his hips, just as semen began to pump from him, line after line marking her tender body.

Lothaire collapsed beside her, heart thundering, still languidly thrusting against Ellie’s hip.

“You’re mine now,” he rasped, flicking his tongue against his bite mark.

Dazed. Can’t get my bearings.
The vampire had her not knowing up from down anymore. And she couldn’t be happier.

He rose up on one elbow and brushed her damp hair back from her forehead, leaning down to kiss her at intervals.

When she could manage words again, she asked, “Why did you pull out?”

“I won’t let you get pregnant.”

She frowned. “You said you wanted heirs.”

“We will have no offspring until you’re a vampire. Tomorrow Hag will give you a contraception potion to last a month or two.”

So high-handed.
Not even asking me?
“Do I get a say?”

“Just an hour ago, you agreed that I would make decisions for us.”

Well, there was that. She cast him a smile. “You’re right. Bottoms up on potions.”

With an enigmatic look, he said, “I will guide you rightly, if you trust me.”

She stared into his gaze.
Could
she blindly trust a male like him? She forced herself to nod.

“You will also need a cloaking tattoo. I’ve much to show you outside these walls, Elizabeth.”

“What?” she asked breathlessly, because he’d already begun hardening for another round.

“Nothing less than the entire world, beautiful girl. . . .”

At the end of the night, when she asked him for just one more time, he shook his head. “No matter how badly I want you.” He dragged her close, until she lay over his chest.

“I’m fine,” she said sleepily. “Your mortal can hang with even big, bad vampires.”

He curled his finger under her chin, lifted her face. “Let’s talk when you wake.” He seemed to be really looking at her.

“Your irises are so sharp right now.”

“My mind is easy.”

She snuggled closer to him. “That makes me happy, Leo.”

“You’ve pleased me this night.” He pressed a kiss to her hair. “Above all things, you’ve pleased me.”

It’s
him
. Lothaire for me.
Deal with the devil?
If this is wrong, I don’t wanna be right.

As she drifted off to sleep, she
did
feel protected, cared for. “I’m glad you chose me.”

“I am as well.” Then, in a lulling, loving murmur, he said, “But don’t ever betray me, Lizvetta.”

Once Elizabeth slept, Lothaire remained awake, wanting to enjoy this rare peace.

Her breaths on my chest. Tension easing from every muscle. Warm relaxation.

His mate. Claimed. She was the most exquisite thing he’d ever possessed.

As he threaded his fingers through her glossy dark hair, his thoughts were shockingly clear. Crystalline.
I will figure out a way around my blood vows.
His situation was merely a puzzle to solve.

And I’m the master of them.

His gaze fell on the diabolically difficult eighteen-piece puzzle among
his collection. It would take sixty-five calculated moves to assemble it—without a single misstep.

Easing Elizabeth away with a kiss on her forehead, he traced to his chair.

Sixty-five laughably simple moves later, he held the completed puzzle in his stunned grasp.

Then Lothaire smiled evilly.
I’m back. . . .

 43

I
’ll never get used to this,
Ellie thought as waves lapped at her feet on a secluded beach in France. A balmy breeze danced over her skin, most of which was bared in a string bikini.

For nearly three weeks, Lothaire had taken her to moonlit shores all around the world—after Hag had given her a cool druid-looking tattoo around her ankle.

But that pain had been worth it to see the world. “It’s gorgeous here, vampire.”
Almost as much as you . . .

He was barefooted, shirtless, wearing only low-slung jeans. Sea spray had dampened his hair and misted his chest. In the moonlight, his skin sheened, his eyes glowing.

Though he’d seen her thrilled expression with each locale they visited, his watchful gaze was locked on her face.

“Thank you for bringing me here.”

A short nod.

After that first night of mind-blowing sex, Ellie had awakened, sore but happy, expecting things to be different between them. Instead, Lothaire had dropped her off at Hag’s again, as if nothing had changed.

Well, except for the sizzling, toe-curling kiss he’d given her before he
left. And then he’d returned early, asking her, “If you could go anyplace in the world, where would it be?

“Bora-Bo—”

She hadn’t even gotten the words out before he’d traced them there. Whenever she was at Hag’s, she read travel magazines, and then he’d take her to whatever destination she’d dog-eared.

Apparently Lothaire had been
everywhere
. She had yet to stump him in all of their journeys. He’d shown her all the Greats: the Great Wall of China, the Great Pyramids, the Great Barrier Reef. Plus the Maldives, the forests of Asia, glacial floes, and jungles . . .

Now she peered down at the water around her ankles. “Uh, Lothaire, why is the water glimmering?”

“It’s phosphorescence.”

At each destination, he would teach her new things about the area. He seemed to know everything, and she sensed he genuinely enjoyed teaching her. “Foss fur what?”

He spelled the word, then explained, “Tiny organisms that give off light when disturbed.”

“Really?” She splashed for several moments, fascinated.

“You know, this isn’t the last time you’ll see it.”

As someone who’d had time limits applied to her life span—twice—she found it hard to shake the feeling that death lay in wait. “Before we go, can we walk farther down the beach, maybe collect some shells?” She had a shelf at the apartment designated for nothing but sea shells.

“As you wish.”

They walked in silence, lost in their own thoughts.

These weeks hadn’t been perfect between them, of course. When they did get to sleep together, he had to chain himself to the bed. As he’d explained, “No more unplanned trips for my Bride.”

And there were the matters of a bitch squatting inside Ellie and a ring to be found. Not to mention the constant tension she’d sensed in him, as if he was battling some force within himself.

One night after they’d made love, he’d murmured, “I wish I could tell
you the things on my mind.” Just the fact that he
wanted
to confide in her meant much. “You could help me see them clearly.”

Yet no matter how much she asked, he wouldn’t tell her. Maybe he was just growing impatient to turn her into a vampire. Could that explain the strain she’d begun to see on his beautiful face?

She was not so eager to be turned.

The idea of transforming into another
species
was terrifying to her. How could she not mourn all the things she’d be giving up forever? Her mother’s fried chicken, waffles, beer.

Sunshine
. She’d asked him, “Do you ever wish you could spend a day lazing in the sun?”

“I can’t miss what I’ve never known.”