Aden (Vampires in America) (42 page)

He lifted his hips, letting his already-hard shaft drag in the wetness between her thighs. Sidonie made a greedy little noise and spread her legs wider, thrusting against him.

“Am I cold, Sidonie?” he whispered again.

“No,” she insisted fiercely. She reached between their bodies, taking his cock in her slender fingers and stroking him lovingly before tightening her grip and placing his tip between the swollen folds of her sex, letting him feel her heat.

There was nothing cold about his Sidonie, he thought as he as plunged deep into her silky warmth, her sheath clasping and releasing his cock as he drove in and out. He groaned at the satin slickness of her pussy, at the sensual fullness of her breasts, the hard pearls of her nipples.

The slow seduction became a demand as his pace quickened. He slammed his hips between her thighs, his cock burying itself deep inside her, then pulling out and doing it again. Her sheath squeezed him with every thrust, a thousand fingers caressing his length, stroking him, urging him to come, to go over that edge with her, to tumble into the unknown of ecstasy, to take the chance.

“I love you,” she whispered against the sweat-slick skin of his neck, her fingers digging into the muscles of his back, her legs crossed over his back, trapping him inside her. “You’re
my
passion, Aden. I love you.”

A rush of emotion answered her whispered vow, a fire that spread to every inch of his body, lighting up his nerves and warming his cold heart until it slammed against his ribs, feeling as if it was beating willingly for the first time in two centuries. As if until now, this moment, it had pumped only because it had to, because it kept him alive. He felt it pounding in his chest, felt Sidonie’s heat surrounding him, welcoming him, loving him.

The climax came from nowhere, roaring over his body, every muscle taut with desire, every nerve thrumming with electricity. His balls tightened and his cock swelled, growing harder and thicker inside Sidonie, filling her so completely he could barely move. She moaned, a sound full of heat and desire, and it was
his
name on her lips.

“Aden.” She repeated it like a prayer, her head thrown back, her nails digging into his shoulders.

Aden growled, his fangs splitting his gums eagerly, hungry for her blood, for the fever that was Sidonie.
His
Sidonie.

He lowered his mouth to her neck, slicing through her velvet skin, piercing the thin wall of her vein and drinking down the smooth, honeyed flow of her blood, feeling it speeding to every cell of his body, giving him life, giving him
her
.

She bucked beneath him, crying out as his bite brought euphoria instead of pain, her mouth closing on his shoulder as she tried to muffle her scream. He felt his skin tear beneath her teeth, felt the pull as she swallowed his blood. He tightened his grip, lowering his full weight onto her body, holding her in place as she thrashed against the double assault of his bite and his blood. She’d never tasted that much of his blood before, never had that connection. Aden knew what could be forged if she drank more, if he permitted her to do it again in the future. A powerful link would be created, the kind of link humans could only try to replicate with their vows and their protestations of love.

If asked, he’d have said he didn’t want such a link with
anyone
. So he couldn’t explain why he pressed her face against his shoulder, while he urged her to bite harder, to drink more. Why his cock stirred anew when she complied, why he joined her as she moaned against his skin, as a final orgasm rolled through them both, leaving her shuddering and limp in his arms.

Aden gathered Sidonie close, holding her tightly as he rolled over and pulled the comforter back on the bed, then slid them both into the warmth beneath the covers.

“You’re staying with me today,” he said fiercely. “No more roaming around the office for you.”

She didn’t even stir, only cuddled deeper into his embrace and went to sleep. He smiled down at her, marveling at the feelings tightening his chest. He didn’t know if it was in his nature to take a mate in the vampire way, to bind someone to him forever. What he felt for Sidonie was love, but forever was a long time. She might grow tired of him, of the life he led. Maybe she wanted children and grandchildren, and he could give her none of those.

But for now, she was his. And he intended to keep her for a very long time.

“Sleep,
nuur il-‘en.
We have a busy night tomorrow.”

When he lifted his head again, she was breathless
 . . .
but still in possession of a brain, so she asked, “How long did I sleep?” thinking that perhaps she’d been unconscious for days, and that’s why her various injuries were healing already.

“Through the day, a little longer. Sunset was an hour ago.”

“But just one day?”

“You’re wondering why your injuries have healed,” he guessed.

She nodded.

“Do you remember biting me?” He nodded his chin at his left shoulder where she could just make out the imprint of a human bite mark. Her bite?

“Oh my God! I’m so sorry!” she said instantly. “I don’t—”

He kissed her again, stopping the flow of words. “Don’t apologize,
habibi
. It was a good thing.”

“Did it hurt?”

He didn’t answer her directly, saying instead, “My blood healed you.”

She gave him a puzzled look. “Professor Dresner, that bitch,” she added, when his eyes narrowed at the name. “She told me the reason you all were so good-looking—”

“Not
all
of us.”

Sid rolled her eyes. “The reason so many of you are good-looking is because once you become a vampire, your blood heals everything that was wrong, all the defects.”

“And some of us were
born
looking this good.”

She laughed and cupped her hand to his chiseled cheek. “And some of you are way more than just good-looking. But,” she continued, “now you’re telling me that the healing abilities of your blood can be extended to anyone who drinks it?”

“That’s our deepest secret. If you tell anyone—”

“I know, you’ll have to kill me.”

“Not I. They’ll have to go through me to get to you. But eventually, the Council would kill us both.”

She blinked up at him. “You’re serious.”

“I’m serious. Although the major concern is that it not become public knowledge, and you
are
a journalist. That brings you extra scrutiny.”

“Whew! Okay. My lips are sealed. What happens if I bite you again? Do I become a vampire?”

“No, it’s little more complicated than that, and I like you the way you are. But
 . . .
” He grew far too serious all over again. “If you continue to drink my blood, it will bind us together.”

She met his solemn gaze. “Like forever?”

“For as long as we choose to continue,” he amended. “But it will link your life to mine in a very direct way. The longer we’re together, the stronger the link, but even with what we’ve taken from each other already, I could find you almost anywhere. I knew you were at Pinto’s last night, because we got a tip. But once there, I could sense that you were alive and in that house. Now that my blood is inside you, I would no longer need help finding the house. I could track you from anywhere in the city.”

“So, we’re like, going steady?”

He laughed, and she reached up again to touch his cheek. “You should do that more often,” she said.

“Do what?”

“Laugh. It’s a good look on you.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, but, Sidonie, this is serious. The more you drink my blood, the tighter it binds you to me. In the way of Vampire, we will be mated.”

She shrugged. “Okay. I’d rather have a diamond ring, but super healing is good, too.”

ADEN STUDIED Sidonie as she gave him a sweet smile, as if he hadn’t just told her she was chaining herself to him in the most visceral way imaginable. Their bodies would be linked. This wasn’t some romantic human ceremony with promises of love and devotion, this was blood calling to blood. If she stayed with him long enough, their very lives would be bound together. She would remain young as long as she drank his blood, but, by the same token, if he died
 . . .

Sid pushed against his weight, and he let her roll them over until she was lying on top of him. Propping her hands on his chest, she stretched up and began kissing his face all over, light touches of her lips on his mouth, his cheeks and forehead, his lowered eyelids one at a time.

“I love you, Aden,” she whispered, and his heart clenched as his arms closed around her. But she wasn’t finished. She slid from his embrace, dropping kisses along his jaw and neck, letting him feel the heat between her thighs as she slid downward. She kissed the pads of muscle over his chest, closing her mouth over one flat, male nipple and sucking it to hardness, then locking her teeth over it and biting gently.

His cock flexed hungrily at the feel of her mouth on him, but his gut tightened and he fought the urge to take control, to obey the hard-earned instinct screaming at him to throw her over and fuck her until she begged for release. He liked, he
needed
, to dominate his lovers.

“Aden.” Sidonie’s whisper cut into his thoughts, and he looked up to find her eyes wide with emotion and filled with tears. “I know what they did to you, baby, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Let me love you. Let me do this for you.”

Aden stared at her. He knew he was twisted, that his years as a slave had warped his sexual desires by forcing him to play the submissive when dominance had been bred into his DNA. Not even his vampire Mistress had ever forced him to submit like that. He hadn’t surrendered control over his body to anyone since the day he’d left Zaahira’s whorehouse in Morocco, and he wasn’t going to start now.

Except. This was Sidonie. She was
his
. And somehow he had also become
hers
.

Aden forced himself to relax, consciously releasing one muscle at a time. Tangling his fingers in the silky strands of Sidonie’s hair, he watched as she bent to her task once more, licking the skin over his abdomen and belly, her succulent mouth leaving soft, sucking kisses in a trail to his groin and lower. And there she paused, slender fingers wrapping around his straining cock, holding it like a thick stick of delicious candy as she stroked her tongue up one side and down the other, rolling her gaze up to be sure he was watching when she took only the tip of him into her mouth, working it like she would a kiss, her tongue twisting and dipping into the slit at its head.

Aden’s snarled demand for more became a groan of pleasure when she finally took him fully into her mouth, his erection stiffening even further as her lips closed around him, as her head dipped lower with every slow suck, until finally the tip of his cock hit the back of her throat. She hummed with pleasure, and the sound vibrated along the taut skin of his shaft like a tuning fork. It was everything he could do not to grab her head and fuck her delicious mouth, not to slam deep into her throat until he came hard and she was forced to swallow every drop. But more even than that, he wanted the hot, wet glove of her pussy. He wanted her legs around his waist, he wanted her bucking beneath him where she belonged.

“I want your pussy,” he growled and fisted his hand in her hair, forcing her to look at him.