Scarlet Heat (Born to Darkness) (17 page)

“Good.” I suddenly realized my fingers were still
deep inside her, filling her soft little cunt—God, she was tight. “Um…” I
looked down uncertainly.

“Oh.” Taylor looked down as well and blushed. I
had to admit it was a hot sight, her spread out mostly naked on my lap with her
pussy open and penetrated like that.

“Well, now that you’re finished…” I said and
withdrew as smoothly as I could.

Taylor gave a little cry and I looked at her
worriedly.

“Did I hurt you, baby?”

“No,” she murmured, shaking her head. “I just…I
guess I feel so empty now.” Then she blushed, her cheeks going scarlet as
though realizing what she’d said. “I mean…”

“It’s okay,” I told her. “You don’t have to
explain.” I slipped my fingers into my mouth and sucked her honey off one last
time. It was warm and sweet and delicious.
God
,
I wanted her.

She watched me do it, her eyes wide.

“You…you really do like that? Um, the way I…?”

“The way you taste?” I finished for her, my voice
dropping to a growl again. “Hell yes, baby. You taste amazing. Sweet and salty
and hot…I could taste you all night.” I didn’t mean off my fingers either and I
could tell Taylor knew it.

Her breath seemed to catch in her throat. “Is that
a were thing too? Wanting to…you know.”

“Lick pussy?” I said directly. She blushed but
didn’t seem too upset.

“Yes, I guess.”

“It is a were thing,” I acknowledged, licking the
last little bit of her juices from my fingers. “We like to taste our mates—it
helps keep the connection strong.”

“Oh.” She let the t-shirt drop and got off my
lap. “I’m, uh, sorry I can’t…couldn’t…”

“Don’t be sorry,” I said quickly. “This—what we
just did—I fucking loved it. But the main thing is, did it help? Do you feel
like we backed the heat off?”

“I
think
so.”
But she didn’t sound entirely certain. “I mean, I don’t feel like I’m burning
up with need anymore. But…”

“But?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

Taylor nibbled her lush lower lip, making me want
to kiss her again.

“Nothing,” she said at last. “It’s nothing. I’m
sure.”

I frowned. “Well, all right. But if you need help
again…”

She sighed and looked down at her hands. “It’s
the same as when I need blood, isn’t it? I have to come to you. Have to beg for
help.”

“Taylor…” I brushed a strand of hair out of her
eyes and tucked it behind her ear. “Baby, please don’t feel like that,” I said
hoarsely. “I love feeding you, love helping you. I promise you, I don’t mind.”

“Maybe
I
mind,” she whispered. “Mind being so dependant…so needy.”

“So beautiful,” I corrected. “So sweet. So hot.”
I took her hand in mine and pressed her soft little palm to my scratchy cheek.
“I…don’t…mind,”
I emphasized again,
looking into her eyes. “The only thing I’d be upset about is if you didn’t come
to me when you needed me. Okay?”

She looked at me uncertainly but at last my words
seemed to penetrate. Slowly, she nodded.

“All right. Thank you, Victor. I know I’ve been
nothing but a pain to you ever since I came here.”

“Not true,” I said, kissing her palm. “You’ve
helped me and healed me. Fed me more bacon than any one man—or wolf—ought to
eat in one sitting…”

“Victor…” She laughed at that and I was glad to
see the smile on her face. “Come on, it was only three packs.”

“But now I got nothing to make BLTs with,” I
complained.

“So that’s what the lettuce and tomato in the
fridge are for,” she said. “I thought maybe they were for salad.”

“Salad? No fucking way.” I grinned at her. “I’m a
wolf, baby—I can’t live on bunny food.”

“How about a steak then?” She looked at the clock
on the bedside table. “It’s almost dinnertime and I thought I saw one in there.
Let me make you something to eat.”

“The only thing I want to eat right now…” I
started and saw her creamy cheeks flush red.

“Victor…”

“Is a big juicy medium rare steak,” I finished.

Taylor slapped me on the chest. “Now stop
that—you’re making me embarrassed.”

“What?” I spread my hands innocently. “I was just
saying how hungry I am. So yes, I’d love a steak. Uh, do you know how to cook
though?”

“I’ve only been a vampire for six years,” she
reminded me. “I’m an excellent cook.”

“Go to it, then, woman.” I pointed at the door.
“Go make me a steak.”

“Yes, sir!” She gave me a little salute and
giggled, a soft sound that made me want to take her down to the bed and kiss
her and tickle her until she made that sound again—as well as a lot of others.

I pushed the impulse away and tried to ignore the
burning that was growing at the small of my back. If she didn’t leave soon…

But she was already off the bed and going back to
the kitchen to dig the steak out of the fridge and get started.

I heaved a sigh of relief when she left. Then I
popped my jeans open and stroked, long and hard and slow, thinking of how she’d
looked when she came apart in my arms. Replaying her soft little cries as she let
herself go, savoring the last lingering traces of her delicious honey on the
tip of my tongue.

I came with her name on my lips and a growl in my
throat, the brand burning like…well, like a brand on my skin. God, I couldn’t
keep up like this—it was dangerous. And yet, I couldn’t very well stop. I had a
feeling Taylor would be needing me to help her again—probably in the very near
future. Nobody ever really managed to stand down a heat completely. The most a
female could hope for was to put it off until her bonding day and even then, a
female in heat often wasn’t successful. She needed her male inside her, fucking
her—
breeding
her—filling her with his
seed, his essence—quenching the fire of need that rose in both of them when she
came into heat.

That’s not going to happen, though,
I lectured myself sternly.
Taylor
can’t handle it. No matter how hot she gets, we’re not going any further than
we just went.

Only I hoped we’d backed her heat down enough to
keep it manageable. Because if it got worse…more intense…

It’ll be okay,
I told myself uneasily, as I
cleaned up the mess I’d made.
For
Taylor’s sake, it has to be.

Chapter Thirteen—Taylor

“Can you believe it’s almost been a whole month
you’ve been over there?” Addison’s voice on the phone sounded positively chirpy—no
doubt the result of her new relationship with Corbin. I was pretty sure she’d
gotten more sex in the past month than she had in the past three years—it
tended to make her a little hyper, but in a sweet way.

“It’s more like three and a half weeks,” I said,
smiling a little. “But who’s counting?”

“You are, apparently,” Addison said and I could
hear her smiling too. “So it’s not as bad as you thought?”

“We had a bumpy start,” I said cautiously. “But
now…well, now it’s pretty great.”

Actually, it was more than great. Aside from the
brief week and a half I had lived at Corbin’s club, the past six years of my
life had been one long misery. Compared to that, life at Victor’s house was
wonderful. No one beat or abused me. No one constantly told me what a failure I
was, and as a result, I had blossomed—well, as much as an undead creature like
myself
could
blossom, that was. I had
just about mastered the art of healing and hardly ever left a mark on Victor
when I bit him. We had done a few more glam-sessions too—all strictly G-rated
but still, I liked being in his mind—and having him in mine as well since it
seemed to go both ways with us when I glammed him.

By unspoken agreement, we were taking it easy and
slow. There had been no repeat of the intensely passionate scene we’d shared
when he helped me back off the heat that had threatened to overcome me. Victor
never mentioned it but I thought of it often and I was sure he did too. Sometimes
I saw him watching me with a hungry look in his eyes. When that happened, I
turned away and blushed or quickly changed the subject. I just needed a little
more time, I told myself. Luckily, Victor seemed more than willing to give it
to me.

Sometimes he stayed up late with me. We watched
old movie marathons and ate popcorn—well, Victor ate it, anyway while I sat
next to him on the couch, just enjoying the smell. Sometimes I cooked for him—I
really enjoyed the look of delight on his face when he came home from work to
find dinner ready on the table or a fresh plate of my homemade chocolate chip
cookies still warm from the oven.

We talked cautiously about ourselves, getting to
know each other. Victor told me about the expansion he hoped for in his
construction company. I told him about how I wanted to go back to school and
finish my degree as a veterinarian.

“But cats don’t like me now,” I told him sadly.
“Dogs don’t seem to mind but cats hiss and run away the minute I get anywhere
near.”

“So open an animal practice that’s for dogs
only,” he said reasonably. “They have ‘em just for cats—I see that Cat Doctors
place every time I do a job in South Tampa. Why not one just for dogs?”

“I never thought of that. I guess it could work,”
I said cautiously.

“Absolutely—who needs cats?” he scoffed. “Dogs
and wolves—that’s where it’s at.”

I smiled at him. “I don’t know many people who
keep wolves as pets, do you?”

He grinned. “No, but they should. Wolves are
great. Loyal and sweet and protective.” He took my hand in his and looked into
my eyes. “Once a wolf decides to trust you, he’ll stick with you forever, you
know?”

I felt the heat rising in my cheeks and had to
look away. I knew what he was saying, in a roundabout way but I didn’t know how
to answer him.

“I…I like wolves,” I said softly. “A lot more
than I ever thought I would, actually.”

“I’m glad,” Victor said simply and then he
changed the subject to something else entirely, to my mingled relief and
disappointment…

“Great, huh?” Addison’s voice cut into my happy
musings. “Wow, that’s a rousing endorsement. Just great?”

“No, it’s…I can’t explain it.” I sighed. “Victor
is so…so surprising. So completely different from what I thought he was going
to be. In a good way, I mean.”

“A
really
good
way apparently,” Addison teased. “Corbin was right about you two. He said you’d
be well matched.”

“According to you, Corbin is always right. Tell
him to give up
Under the Fang
and set
up a supernatural dating site instead,” I said, laughing.

“Supe-Match.com,” she suggested. “Or how about OK
Werewolf instead of OK Cupid?”

“Plenty of Vamps instead of Plenty of Fish,” I
added and we both giggled like little girls.

Addison sighed happily. “It’s so good to hear you
laugh again, Taylor. I mean really
laugh
like
you mean it,” she said. “I was really skeptical about this guy at first but I
have to admit, it seems like he’s treating you right.”

“He is.” I thought of how sweet and patient
Victor had been with me. “He really is.”

“I know it sounds crazy but it almost makes me
wish you could stay with him,” she said. “You know—permanently.”

I shook my head regretfully, my hair whispering
against the phone.

“When this is all over, we’ll break the bond and
go our separate ways—we have to, Addison. Everyone knows a vampire and a were
can’t really make a go of it.”

“I’ll have to worry about you again, though,”
Addison said, sounding anxious already. “Corbin says the bond between you and
Victor is all that’s keeping you safe. It puts you under his protection—makes
it so no other supernatural creature can mess with you.”

“I can take care of myself,” I said, my pride stung.
“I mean, I know I didn’t used to be able to. I wouldn’t have survived all those
years with Celeste if it hadn’t been for you feeding me. But, well, I’m getting
better—as a vampire, I mean. I can heal wounds now—like Corbin. And I can do
glam-sessions, too.”

“Glam-sessions? Really?” Addison sounded shocked.
“How in the world did you figure that out?”

I could feel myself blushing and was glad she
couldn’t see me. “Victor’s been letting me practice on him. Nothing, you know,
sexual
but I’m learning to get into his
mind and make pictures and scenes. It’s…intense.”

“I bet. I know it is when Corbin and I, uh, do
it.”

“You’re letting him glam you?” I couldn’t believe
it. “Seriously? I thought you never wanted to let any vamp into your mind.”

“It’s nothing mind altering.” She sounded
slightly defensive. “He shows me the place he grew up, takes me to different
countries around the world he’s visited. It’s nice. Like having a sexy travel
agent in my brain.” She cleared her throat. “Besides, I thought we were talking
about
you
. Speaking of which, how is
it you’re up in the middle of the day?”