Luther's Return (Scanguards Vampires Book 10) (26 page)

Wes nodded tightly. “She did.”

And judging by the tone in Wesley’s voice, he was still bitter about it.

“But I worked hard at getting some of them back. I’ll never be as strong or as powerful as I was meant to be as one of the Power of Three, but I’ve harnessed a lot of the power my mother stole from me. I spent years learning, practicing.” He chuckled suddenly. “Some of the guys at Scanguards can tell you a few stories about my early tries. But I know my craft now. It gives me a purpose.”

“A purpose, yeah, don’t we all need that?” Luther mused. He’d had a purpose once. He’d worked for Scanguards, protected people, helped the innocent. It had made him feel good about himself. He needed something like this again, something to live for, and something to die for.

“It’s good to have direction in life,” Wes agreed. “When Haven was a vampire hunter, I was just drifting, always getting in trouble somewhere. He had to bail me out so many times I started wondering when he’d get sick of it and would let me rot. But he never gave up on me.”

“It’s good to see that you all stick together.” And it was good to know that Katie had two brothers she could rely on. Two men who cared about her and whose shoulders she could cry on if she needed to. Even as that thought went through his mind, Luther wanted to be that shoulder. Or better yet, he wanted that Katie would never have to cry again.

“You do care about her, don’t you?” Wesley suddenly asked.

Luther met Wesley’s intense gaze. “I wish I didn’t.” And if Wesley could see that, could Katie see it, too? Did she, too, suspect that his feelings for her ran deeper than just a casual physical relationship?

40

Pleased with her work, Katie led Roxanne down to the living room, where Luther and Wesley were waiting.

“Here she is,” she said and stretched her arms out like a presenter on a TV show introducing a special guest.

Roxanne stepped into the living room and turned on her own axis. “What do you think?”

Both men looked at her with open mouths and wide eyes.

The transformation was perfect. Roxanne’s hair was now styled in the same fashion as Katie’s, hanging in soft curls over her shoulders. She wore identical clothes, which thanks to Katie’s extensive wardrobe had not been a problem at all. Her closet carried many duplicate outfits, a habit she’d acquired during her time in Hollywood. With two inch heels, Roxanne was now the exact same height as Katie, and a little bit of padding in Roxanne’s bra had boosted her cup size from a C to a D.

But the biggest change was visible in Roxanne’s face. Colored contacts Blake had quickly sourced from the large vault below Scanguards HQ, which carried everything from fake mustaches to silver bullets, had turned Roxanne’s grey eyes into stunning emeralds.

Professional stage make-up had changed the height of her cheekbones and plumped up her lips to make them as full as Katie’s. A slightly darker foundation made Roxanne’s skin color match Katie’s. With a kohl pencil, Katie had redrawn Roxanne’s eyebrows and shaped them so they were identical to her own. Roxanne’s nose was longer than Katie’s, but with the creative use of different powders and blushes, it now appeared shorter.

“Wow.” Luther let out a stunned breath. “The resemblance is uncanny.”

“Yeah,” Wesley added. “That’s totally creepy.” He looked Roxanne up and down. “You look like Katie. And that’s totally weirding me out.”

Katie suppressed a smirk. She’d noticed how Wes had looked at Roxanne earlier. Apparently her brother had a crush on the sexy vampire vixen.

“As long as Roxanne doesn’t have to talk, I think we’ll be fine,” Katie said. “I’m afraid we didn’t have time to work on her accent.”

“I’ve lived in this country for over three decades. I doubt even a whole semester of elocution lessons would get rid of my accent, dear,” Roxanne said.

“I find your accent charming,” Wes replied. “Don’t ever lose that.”

Roxanne didn’t verbally reply to Wesley’s comment, though her lips lifted into a soft smile. “I guess now the waiting begins.”

Luther nodded. “I just checked in with Blake. They haven’t heard back from Forrester yet. We still have a few hours until the exchange.”

Katie sought Luther’s eyes. “Do you, uh, could you, maybe…” She felt awkward trying to ask Luther in front of the others. “There’s something…” She motioned to the ceiling, indicating the upper floor.

Finally Luther seemed to understand. “Oh, yes, of course, there’s something we’ll need to take care of. Uh, excuse us.”

As Katie turned she caught Wesley’s eye roll. But to his credit, her brother didn’t make a snarky comment, though he knew what this was about: she wanted to be alone with Luther.

Because this would be their last time.

Luther didn’t speak, didn’t even take her hand as they climbed the stairs and walked down the corridor to her bedroom. She entered ahead of him and sensed him following her. When the door snapped shut a moment later, she just stood there in the middle of the room, not moving, not turning around.

She felt his hands on her shoulders, cupping them. His breath at her nape. She shivered.

“Katie,” he murmured.

“I don’t want to talk. We both know this is goodbye. Don’t make it any harder than it is.”

“Then tell me what you want.”

“Make love to me and pretend I’m the only woman in the world who means anything to you.”

Luther sighed. “Oh God, Katie.” He molded his chest to her back. “I wish I’d met you twenty-five years ago.”

“Let’s not look back. I only want to live in this moment.” She turned in his arms, facing him.

“Will it be enough?”

She forced a smile. “It’ll have to be.”

Luther’s hand came up to stroke her cheek. “You’re everything a man could wish for. Brave, beautiful, and loving.”

“But it’s not enough, is it?” she asked.

“On the contrary. It’s too much. I don’t deserve all that.”

“Why don’t you let me be the judge of that?”

“Because I know how this will end. With me hurting you, hurting both of us.”

“History doesn’t have to repeat itself.”

“What if it does?”

She put a finger over his lips. “I don’t want to think about what might happen. I just want to feel.”

He acknowledged her demand by blinking his eyes.

Katie let her hands slide to his chest, finding the buttons of his shirt. “I want to remember everything about you.” She popped the first button open, then the next. “I want to kiss every inch of your body.”

Beneath her palms she felt Luther’s heart beat frantically. His Adam’s apple bobbed, and a strangled moan came over his lips. Katie opened his shirt and stripped him of it. She ran her fingertips over his scars.

“You’re beautiful,” she murmured and meant it. His pectorals flexed under her touch, responding to her caresses.

“I’m scarred, baby. There’s nothing beautiful about it.”

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” She brought her lips to his chest and pressed open-mouthed kisses onto his marred skin. “I wish I could take the pain away that you had to endure when you got these scars.”

“When you touch me, I don’t remember any pain.” He sighed and dropped his head back. “I only feel pleasure.”

Katie licked over the angry ridges on his skin. Luther smelled of power and pure maleness. He excreted a scent that drew her to him like a moth to the flame. And she didn’t care if this flame would burn her, because the pleasure she obtained by being with him made it all worth it.

She ran her hands down his torso, until she reached his pants. Luther’s next inhale was audible, and she felt him tense under her hands. Eager to explore him, she opened the button of his pants and slid the zipper down. Slowly, she pushed his pants down to his ankles.

Her eyes fell on his groin. Underneath the boxer briefs a large bulge was visible. It stretched the black fabric to capacity. Licking her lips, she placed her palm over it. Heat suffused her hand, and his cock jerked against it as if it wanted to leap into her hand.

Luther groaned.

She squeezed his hard flesh briefly, then hooked her thumbs into the waistband and pulled his boxer briefs down, letting them drop to his feet. His cock sprang free, curving up against his belly. His balls pulled up tightly. For the first time she could truly admire him. The times before he’d never given her a chance to look at him for long, taking her so quickly that she didn’t have time to look her fill. She made up for it now.

Thick purple veins wound around his shaft, adding to its thickness. The root sat in a thick nest of dark hair. Moisture leaked from the soft tip of his cock, making the mushroomed head glisten.

Katie reached for him, wrapping her hand around his steely length.

Luther hissed out a breath. “Fuck, baby.”

“I’m gonna lick you now and take you into my mouth,” she told him.

With one hand he cupped her cheek, pulling her face closer and dropping his forehead to hers. “You do know that if you do that, I’m going to lose control, don’t you?”

“I figured as much.”

“Are you prepared for what I’ll do when that happens?”

“Are you?” she challenged. Because she was ready for his bite, ready for the ecstasy he promised.

“What if I can’t stop?”

“You stopped before.”

He shook his head. “Because I knew I would have you again. But tonight—”

“Just pretend this is not the last time.”

Katie made a motion to drop to her knees, but Luther stopped her. “Wait.”

She gave him a questioning look.

“Take off your clothes.”

While Luther rid himself of his shoes and stepped out of his pants and boxer briefs, Katie pulled her top over her head. When she reached for the front clasp of her bra, he gripped her hand.

“Leave your bra and your panties on.” He ran a lusting look over her. “Goddamn, woman, what you do to me…”

She unzipped her pants and shimmied out of them, kicking off her shoes in the process. Finally, wearing only her black lace bra and matching bikini panties, she dropped to her knees in front of him. She felt sexy and desirable, kneeling in front of him like this, hearing him breathe heavily as if he were running a marathon.

She reached for his cock, brushing her fingers over the underside of it and back again.

“Fuck!” Luther hissed.

She scooted closer, bringing her mouth to the tip of his swollen shaft. She darted out her tongue and licked over the velvet-soft head, gathering up the moisture with her tongue. When she swallowed his taste, her nipples hardened, chafing against her bra, and her clit throbbed uncontrollably.

She felt Luther’s hand on her head then, combing through her hair, caressing her scalp tenderly. “Oh, baby.”

Again she licked over the head of his cock, leisurely, so she could catalogue its texture and shape, burning it into her memory. She swirled her tongue underneath the rim of his cockhead, eliciting a loud moan from Luther and causing him to tighten his fingers around the back of her head. But he didn’t force her, didn’t pull her head toward him.

Instead, Katie was the one to wrap her lips around him, slowly swallowing the tip of his cock and sliding down on his hard rod until she could go no farther. He was only halfway inside her mouth, but it was all she could take. He was too big.

Katie took a breath through her nose and relaxed her jaw muscles, then wrapped one hand around his root and withdrew gently, her lips puckered around his hard flesh, her tongue sliding along its underside. Her other hand lay braced on his thigh. A thigh she felt trembling now.

“Oh, Katie!” he cried out. “You’re killing me.”

She let him slip from her mouth, only to pull him back into it, sucking harder this time, while her hand moved up and down his erection in sync with her sucking motion. There was something about his taste that made her want more. She felt him starting to thrust, slowly at first, but beneath her hands she sensed the vampire wanting to burst to the surface. Every time she slid down on him, she felt him shudder, and every time she pulled back and withdrew, his hips flexed and he demanded more.

He was putty in her hands, surrendering to her mouth, her lips, her tongue. And for the first time in her life she knew what it was like to be powerful. To be strong. Luther gave her that power. He made her whole again. As if his cock in her mouth was the instrument that infused her with strength.

Katie licked him more feverishly now, eager for his surrender. She brought her second hand to his balls, cupped him, and felt another shudder travel through his body. His cock jerked in her mouth, and anticipation made her own body tremble.

“Stop!” Luther cried out and wrenched himself from her mouth.

He pulled her up by her elbows, and an instant later she found herself bent over the chaise longue, her torso pressed into the cushions, her ass pointing in the air. Luther ripped her panties off, tearing the thin material into shreds.

“Now you’ve done it, Katie!” he ground out. “Shouldn’t have sucked me like that.”

He sounded different now, his voice raspier, his breathing choppy.

“You didn’t like it?” she teased, though she knew the answer to her question.

Luther plunged into her from behind, seating himself in her channel, before he answered, “You know as well as I do how much I liked your mouth around my cock.”

But she barely heard his words, because his hard cock stretching her robbed her nearly of all her senses. “You feel good, Luther, so good.”

He gripped her hips firmly and pulled her toward him, slamming his cock forward at the same time, doubling the impact. All air rushed from her lungs, making her gasp.

“See, Katie? Do you see now what you’re doing to me?”

But she couldn’t answer, because he began to fuck her fast and furious, plunging deep then withdrawing, his hands on her hips imprisoning her so she couldn’t move. Couldn’t escape his unrelenting cock. He stretched her to capacity, his erection touching places inside her that sent hot bolts of pleasure through her body. Her breasts were still imprisoned in her bra and rubbed against the cushions with every thrust Luther delivered. Her nipples were hard peaks begging for relief.