Lover Eternal: A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood (40 page)

She cried out wildly as she climaxed. And before her pulses faded, he shot up over her and plunged back inside.

 

She called his name, nails scoring his back.

He let himself go over the edge while looking into her wide, dazed eyes. With nothing to hold back, he came over and over again, pumping his flow into her. The orgasm kept going and he rode the waves that overtook him. The ecstasy seemed to have no end, and there was no stopping it.

Not that he would have if he'd had the power to.

 

Mary held on to Rhage as he shuddered once more, his body seizing, his breath coming out of him in a rush. He groaned deep in his chest, and she felt him jerk and release again inside of her.

It was a shattering kind of intimacy, she so calm, he in the throes of some kind of multiple orgasming. With her concentration undiminished by passion, she felt every small thing in his body as well as each heavy thrust. She knew exactly when another release was coming for him, could feel the trembling in his belly and thighs. It was happening now, his breath catching, his pecs and shoulders going tight along with his hips as he surged again.

He lifted his head this time, lips peeling off his fangs, eyes squeezed shut. His body contracted, all his muscles tensing, and then she felt the movement deep inside of her.

 

His eyes opened. They were glazed over.

 

"I'm sorry, Mary." Another spasm overtook him, and he did his best to talk through it. "Never… happened… before. Can't stop.
God damn
."

He let out a guttural sound, a mixture of apology and ecstasy. She smiled at him and ran her hands up his smooth back, feeling those thick muscles grab bone as his lower body drove into her again. She was saturated between her legs and deliciously hot from all the heat pouring off of him. That wonderful smell of his bond for her was thick in the air, the dark fragrance surrounding her.

He heaved himself up on his arms, making as though he were going to pull out.

 

"Where are you going?" She wrapped her legs around his hips.

 

"Crushing… you." His breath sucked in again on a hiss.

 

"I'm perfectly fine."

 

"Oh, Mary… I…" He arched again, chest coming forward, head falling back, neck straining, shoulders bulging. Good lord, he was gorgeous.

Abruptly he sagged, his body going completely limp on top of her. His deadweight was immense, more than she could bear and still breathe. Fortunately, he rolled away and tucked her against him. His heart thundered in his chest, and she listened as it slowed.

"Did I hurt you?" he asked roughly.

 

"Not at all."

 

He kissed her and withdrew, lurching into the bathroom. He came back with a towel, which he gently eased between her legs.

 

"Do you want me to start the shower?" he said. "I've, ah, kind of made a mess of you."

 

"Hardly. And no, I just want to lie here."

 

"I can't explain why that happened." He frowned as he pulled the covers and blankets back on the bed and over them both. "Although… well, maybe I do know."

 

"Whatever the reason, you're incredible." She pressed her lips to his jawline. "Absolutely incredible."

 

They lay together quietly for a while.

 

"Listen, Mary, my body's been through a lot lately."

 

"It sure has."

 

"I'm going to need to… take care of myself."

 

Something in his tone of voice was off, and she looked up at him. He was staring at the ceiling.

 

A chill shot through her. "How so?"

 

"I'm going to need to feed. From a female. Of my species."

"Oh." She thought of how his fangs had felt traveling up her spine. And remembered the shiver of anticipation when he'd nuzzled her neck. Shades of his night out had her pulling back. She couldn't go through that again. Waiting in his bed, knowing that he was with another woman.

He took her hands in his. "Mary, I have to feed now so I can stay in control. And I want you to be with me when I do it. If it's too difficult for you to watch, at least you can be in the same room. I don't want there to be a question in your mind about what happens between myself and the female."

"Who will you"—she cleared her throat—"drink from?"

 

"I've thought about that. I don't want it to be with anyone I've had."

 

So that should narrow the pool down to what, five women? Maybe six?

 

She shook her head, feeling like a bitch.

 

"I'm going to call on one of the Chosen."

 

Tell me they are toothless hags
, she thought. "What are they?"

"Primarily they serve the Scribe Virgin, our deity, but for a while they serviced unmated members of the Brotherhood for blood. In modern times we haven't used them like that, but I'm going to contact them, see if something can be arranged."

"When?"

 

"As soon as possible. Perhaps tomorrow night."

 

"I'll be gone by then." As his expression went dark, she didn't give him a chance to speak. "It's time for me to go."

 

"The hell it is."

 

"Rhage, be realistic. Do you honestly expect me to just stay here with you forever?"

 

"That's what I want. So, yes."

 

"Has it occurred to you I miss my house, my things, my—"

 

"I'll have them moved here. Everything."

 

She shook her head. "I need to go home."

 

"It's not safe."

 

"Then we're going to have to make it safe. I'll install an alarm, learn to shoot, I don't know. But I have to get back to my life."

 

He closed his eyes.

 

"Rhage, look at me.
Look
at me." She squeezed his hand. "I have things I need to do. In my world." His lips tightened into a slash. "Will you let me have Vishous install a security system?"

 

"Yes."

 

"And you will come stay here with me some days."

 

She took a deep breath. "What if I say no?"

 

"Then I'll come to you."

 

"I don't think—"

 

"I've told you before. Stop thinking."

 

His lips found hers, but before his tongue slipped inside and stole her ability to be logical, she pushed him back.

 

"Rhage, you know this isn't going anywhere. This… whatever it is between us. It's not. It can't."

 

He rolled over onto his back, putting an arm behind his head. As his jaw clenched, the cords of his neck stood out.

 

She hated this; she really did. But it was better to get it all out. "I appreciate everything you've done for me. The sacrifice to keep me safe—"

 

"Why did you get so upset the night I went out?"

 

"Excuse me?"

"Why did you care that I'd been with someone else? Or did you just feel like a little rough sex and needed to hide behind a reason for it?" His eyes shifted to hers. The blue was neon sharp, nearly too bright to look into. "Listen, the next time you want some hard grind, all you've got to do is ask. I can play it like that."

Oh, God
. This anger was not what she'd wanted. "Rhage—"

 

"You know, I really got into it. I liked that domination shit you threw out. Liked the sadistic part, too. Tasting my blood on your lips after you bit my mouth? Huge turn-on."

 

The cold tone of voice was awful. His flat, glowing eyes were worse.

 

"I'm sorry," she said. "But—"

 

"In fact, I'm getting hard right now, just thinking about it. Kind of surprising, considering how I spent the last twenty minutes."

 

"What exactly do you think the future holds for us?"

"We'll never know, will we. But you'll stick around until nightfall, right? If only because you need me to take you home. So let me see if I can get myself tuned up again. I'd hate to waste your time." He reached under the covers. "Damn, you're good. I'm hard as a baseball bat."
"Do you know what the next six months are going to be like for me?"

"No, and I'm not going to know, am I? So how about some sex. Since that's all you want from me, and because I'm enough of a pathetic loser to take you any way I can get you, I guess I'd better hop to it."

 

"Rhage!" she shouted, trying to get his attention.

"Mary!" he mocked. "I'm sorry, am I talking too much? You'd rather have my mouth doing something else, right? You want it on yours? No, your breasts. Wait, lower. Yeah, you like it lower, don't you. And I know just how to do you right."

She put her head in her hands. "I don't want to leave you like this. Fighting."

 

"But that's not going to slow you down, is it? Not you, not superstrong Mary. No, you're just going to go out into the world—"

 

"
To be sick
, Rhage! I'm leaving you to go be sick, okay?

 

I'm going to the
doctor's
tomorrow. There isn't some huge party waiting for me when I get home."

 

He stared at her. "Do you think I am so unworthy that I cannot attend to you?"

 

"What?"

 

"Will you not let me attend to you in your illness?"

 

She thought about how hard it had been for her to see him in pain and not be able to make the hurt go away.

 

"Why would you want do that?" she whispered.

 

Rhage's mouth went lax, as if she'd struck him.

 

He shot out of bed. "Yeah, fuck you, Mary."

 

He jabbed his legs into a pair of leather pants and snapped a shirt from the dresser.

"Get yourself packed, sweetheart. You won't have to put up with a stray dog anymore." He pushed his arms through the shirt's sleeves and pulled it over his head. "I'll get V to hardwire your house ASAP. It shouldn't take him long, and until he's done, you can sleep somewhere else. One of the
doggen
will show you to your new room."

She leaped off the mattress, but before she could reach him, he pegged her with a hard look, stopping her dead.

"You know, Mary, I deserve this. I really do. I've done the same thing to so many, just walked away without giving a shit." He opened the door. "Although the females I screwed were lucky. At least they never remembered me. And man, I'd kill to forget about you right now, I really would."

He didn't slam the door on the way out. Just shut it firmly.
Chapter Thirty-two

O leaned over the civilian male and tightened the vise. He'd abducted the vampire in the alley next to Screamer's downtown, and so far the newly erected persuasion center was working perfectly. He was also making headway with the captive. Turned out the guy had a tangential connection to the Brotherhood.

Under normal circumstances, O should have been as close to a hard-on as he could get. Instead, as he watched the vampire's cold shakes and glassy, lolling eyes, he saw himself with the Omega. Under that heavy body. Powerless. Out of control. In pain.

The memories clogged his lungs with siltlike dread until he had to look away. As the vampire moaned, O felt like a pussy.

 

Christ, he had to get his shit together.

 

O cleared his throat. Sucked some air in. "And, ah… just how well does your sister know the Brotherhood?"

 

"She… has sex… with them."

 

"Where?"

 

"Don't know."

 

"You're going to have to do better than that." O hit the pressure some more.