Vampire Lords of Blacknall: Trinity (24 page)

His head turned sharply and she gave a small gasp, falling back from the window where his striking gaze was centered. Her heartbeat fluttered with fear and her fingers clamped to her mouth. Lord help her. What was she going to do?

Minutes passed and she realized she was dreading going down to the carriage. If it wasn’t for the worry she felt for Adam, inexplicably growing every hour since she’d had that terrible nightmare, she was uncertain if anything could propel her.

“This is nonsense,” she exclaimed, trying to bolster herself. She marched back to packing. Grabbing the dress and starting to fold it once again. “I’m a married woman now,” she told the dress with resolve. She thought of her parents. She’d been young when her father passed, but she remembered them together.

“They were happy,” she muttered, finally finished folding the dress, then putting it into a waiting valise. She didn’t believe her mother could have been false about the contentment that had exuded from her. How could her mother be content if there had been pain involved every time she and her husband were intimate?

“She couldn’t.” Beth let the knowledge settle in her mind. Then there was the blood … Trinity’s blood she’d tasted. Still craved. Once she’d tasted it, she’d known certain things and those vague intuitions spoke of bliss in sexual congress. Also sinking in, as though his blood fused with her body, were the merits of the man whose blood she’d drunk.

“So …” Beth paced to the door and back. “I must do something to halt these fears.” Still, the image of Trinity latched, impossibly, to the ceiling above her as his features twisted, while he roared for her to run was not an easy thought to expel.

Trinity paced by the carriage, unwilling to fetch his bride. By God, there had been a glimmer of hope to have and to hold a real wife. Nearly, he’d grasp something he’d thought impossible. Then …

Trinity made a frustrated sound, raising the carriage horses’ hackles, desperately wanting to punch something. What a bald-faced idiot he was to forget about the virgin’s blood. He cursed under his breath, and stalked to the back of the carriage. He had his stallion ready to ride, because he’d rather dare the length of full sunlight than travel inside the carriage with Beth. He tried to tell himself it was cowardliness and not worry over seeing fear reflected in her multi-colored eyes.

“Hellfire,” he cussed again. He could intimately feel her fear.

“My lord, I’m ready,” Beth’s soft voice spoke behind him. He’d been so preoccupied, she startled him. Luckily, he was a master at disguising his emotions and his body didn’t even twitch. Then he turned to look down on her avoiding gaze. “I hope you will ride inside the carriage with me,” she said.

Trinity raised an eyebrow to this … everything about her, from her gaze not able to look at him, to her stutter, and to the tremor he could see in her hands told him the last thing she desired was to be locked in the carriage with him. His Beth was not unintelligent, so she must have a reason.

“As you wish,” He bowed slightly and she glanced at him, and then nodded. Unfortunately, he could be making a horrible mistake. He had no idea what to say to her or any clue how to go about assuaging her fears. Realistically, every one of her fears was based in fact.

He couldn’t tell her he’d not turn into a primal beast again at the thought of tasting her blood, nor could he tell her that he’d be any better at trying to make love to her. He just had no experience at sex when it counted … and this did count to him in every way.

With no answers, he forced himself to the carriage door to hold it open for Beth and she didn’t shy away from him when he took her elbow to guide her up into the conveyance. There came a moment when he thought about bolting … right before he stepped up into the carriage after her.

Beth nervously twisted part of the skirt on her sturdy gray traveling dress between her fingers. At least she wasn’t shivering anymore. What had she expected, that Trinity would pounce on her? She looked at him sitting across from her. They’d both been studiously gazing out opposite windows, avoiding each other for the last thirty minutes of the carriage ride. Even though they’d not spoken, being in the carriage alone with him had given her many insights. Her husband was as worried as she was. It furrowed his brow and added lines bracketing his mouth and it stole some of the intensity from his dark blue eyes,

She cleared her throat … she had to find a way to speak to him.

“It was your virgin’s blood.” Trinity’s voice was very low, and he didn’t look at her but at the seat beside her.

At first, Beth was startled by the suddenness and then intimacy of Trinity’s words. It took her a moment to comprehend. “Blood,” she whispered, leaving out, “Of course!” Still, she blushed. She was too new at talking about such things with a man.

Trinity’s rich, blue eyes centered on her. “I forgot to expect it. And, my lady, it is doubly hard for one of my kind to control both their blood lust and aggressive sexual desire at the same moment.”

Even though her cheeks were hot, Beth forced herself to continue looking directly at her husband. Desperately, she wanted something worldly to say and she wished she weren’t so naive.

“Of course,” she muttered, remembering the aggressive desire singing between their bodies, molding them together. It had been the most incredible experience of her life, until … “It hurt,” she pushed past her stubborn and embarrassed lips.

It was an incredible feat and she cringed, wishing she could snatch the unworldly words back. She couldn’t look at him and her gaze turned tragic …

Changing seats so quickly the human eye could barely detect it, Trinity grasped Beth’s diminutive chin. He was gentle, but firm, sealing their gazes together. “So brave,” he murmured, watching one crystal tear escape his wife’s green hazel eye. He’d been so involved in his own tragic shortcomings, he’d failed to remember Beth’s naivety. “I’ve not dealt with many innocent maidens in my time,” he began.

She tried to shake her head and loosen his grip as a torrid blush covered her pale cheeks. Damnation, he was making it worse, not finding the right words to say. He didn’t release her as he strove again to find the right way.

“It only hurts the first time, sweet wife, and I swear to god I will never hurt you like that again.”

She gasped in obvious relief with her plush lips parting close to his hovering mouth. It filled him with pride she so thoroughly accepted his words. He simply wished his dilemma were so easily soothed. His temper … her obvious regret … and his need to make the disaster better brought his lips down over her soft mouth. He would make her see the only monster to fear was the one starving for her blood.

Trinity half-expected Beth to reject him, but while her lips trembled at first, her body leaned toward him, not away. Her hand pressed against his chest as he loosened his hold on her chin and molded her lips beneath his mouth. She tasted of freshness and vitality — everything he wasn’t — and for a moment, it was if he were savoring her life. Then passion followed as she moaned, lifting her hand and pressing it to the back of his neck. He followed her need, going deeper, heating his tongue along hers. The sway of the carriage moved them in a dance of kissing as he supported her on his chest, feeling the full swell of her breasts.

For once, his thoughts praised her soft but ripe innocence, not finding it an impediment to his lustier nature. She called to everything that had once made him a man and she mesmerized the beast he was now. Therefore, he kissed her with honor and care, taking, but not demanding so he could have the pleasure for a lifetime. His little human wife was becoming bolder with her tongue swirling against his, and it thrilled him to feel her budding passions, but also humbled him to feel her trust.

“So sweet,” he murmured, against her warm, kissed lips. “I could kiss you for hours.” His hand strayed to the fullness of her breast and he cupped it, gently squeezing.

“Trinity,” she moaned, leaning into his hand and pressing her mouth against his lips. “You make me feel so … so …”

He found the word for her. “So aroused.”

Their lips parted as she blinked at him and he continued to hold her tempting breast. She looked aroused, gloriously so with her lips kissed redder and her multicolored eyes slightly dazed. He realized that even though he’d terrified her, in the most intimate situation, he’d also aroused her passions several times now.

His lips smirked in satisfaction, as his eyes grew heavy-lidded with his own lust. He brushed his thumb across where her nipple should be beneath the serviceable fabric of her traveling dress and he felt the faint outline as the tip of her nipple grew taut. Perhaps, with passion, he could salvage their budding relationship’s near decimation.

His erection wanted too. His desire was always going to hunger after the sumptuous treat his wife was. That fact satisfied him completely. Nevertheless, the persistent thought of whether he could entice his innocent wife to ride his erection in a moving carriage was not letting him alone. Even with thoughts about the appropriateness after what they’d been through wasn’t enough to dislodge the licentious idea. An idea that was becoming intentions as his pretty wife sighed, pressing her breast into his palm and onto his teasing thumb for more.

Chapter Twenty Seven

B
eth realized Trinity was always going to tempt her and it sent shivers trembling through her. He could barely touch her and her body responded to the promises of pleasure he was capable of giving. It was overriding her earlier troubles. His kisses made her forget everything but what it felt like to be naked in his arms. She completely forgot to be afraid of him as his thumb brushed over the crest of her breast.

The motion sent aches sliding between her thighs and gave her the intense desire to bare her breasts to him. Such scandalous thoughts to think inside a moving carriage in daylight, even though the curtains were drawn. Instead of making her timid and withdraw, it heated her desire. These were the type of impressions she’d tasted in Trinity’s blood — the hungry and naughty things men and women did together.

Things she’d barely understood before last night’s passion and this morning with a man’s hand cupping and stroking her breast. Trinity’s mouth teased her lips and she boldly took ahold of his other hand and lifted it to her other breast, while a blush made her feel hot from her temple to her toes. He groaned, and it was an obvious sound of approval as his hands cupped her breasts. She arched her spine, lifting her breasts to him for more.

“Take your bonnet off. Take your hair down,” he murmured against her lips. His fingers kneaded her breasts, while his thumbs grazed the tips, making her tremble. He leaned back a bit to watch her as he continued to caress her bosom. His eyes were blue with the rims turning yellow as his hair swept over the side of his chiseled jaw. His hands followed the lift of her breasts as she reached upward to take off her bonnet, then further to undo her hair.

The black strands of her hair fell in a stream over her shoulders and his hands. It felt extremely freeing to have her hair loose. It made her feel more wanton and worldlier as she boldly searched out Trinity’s mouth for a deep kiss. His hands left her chest and tangled into her hair, turning her mouth under his. The more he kissed her, the more her body moved with his, until she was arched over his arm with one of her legs easing up the side of his hip.

Without the support of his arm, she’d be lying on the carriage seat. It curved her body beneath his and her pelvis against the evidence of his hard shaft. Miles of petticoats and material between them and she could still feel the unbending thickness, which instantly made her core ache for him. Her body was yearning for him through the fear of pain.

“Mmm,” she moaned, lifting her hips, pressing harder against the firm ridge. The aches twirled and tightened as she clutched his shoulders. She felt his lips kissing her cleavage and she so wanted her breasts bared to his mouth.

Trinity let his fangs extend along the creamy curve of Beth’s cleavage. It was a reaction to his desire, yet this time it didn’t disturb him. He could control it, because of Beth … for Beth, his wife. Then with the knowledge he was master over his reactions, at least up until fresh blood was involved, he teased the Devil.

He grazed his fangs over plump flesh in the valley of his wife’s breasts. A tremble and a moan followed and she pressed the mound of her sex tighter against the determined impression of his hard shaft. He wanted to moan with her, the feeling was so sublime, as he licked his tongue with slow strokes after the graze of his fangs.

“Trinity,” she gasped, lifting her bosom against his mouth for more. He bent her over his arm at a deeper angle. She was a decadent offering and he freed his hand from the tangle of her silky hair. Once free, he plucked at the buttons of her cut-away traveling coat, pulling the jacket open, then down off her shoulder. The capped sleeve of her dress pulled along, baring one shoulder and gaining him access to the slope of her naked breast just to her nipple.

He used his mouth to pull that nipple free. Beth gasped with pleas of pleasure as he sucked the taut tip into his mouth. His gaze found her passionate dark eyes as he played with the jutting lance. Each taunt of his mouth and tongue crimped Beth’s gaze in pleasure and each draw played tendrils of desire over his hardening shaft. He sucked more of her breast into his mouth, drawing up tender white flesh between his fangs.

“T-Trinity,” her voice rasped with pleasure, and she began to grind against his erection.

Heat infused him, the animal rose with a growl of lust that should have frightened Beth with its intensity, however, she looked more aroused, more heated, clasping his head, pulling him tighter to her breasts. He obeyed her passionate command, sucking luscious tit and nipple deeper into his mouth with his tongue roughing the point.

“Oh, oh,” Beth’s head thrashed from side to side and he pulled at cloth, until he had her other fleshy breast bared to his tongue and fangs. The sway of the carriage was in his debt because it rocked his thick erection over Beth’s hot mound, which was grinding back. Then he had her other nipple lance dancing against his tongue as his hand tore voluminous amounts of skirts and petticoats up between them to bare her thigh. His hand found the top of her stockings and garter, then the disappointment of serviceable linen drawers. He searched, trying to find flesh.