Bitten Surrender (6 page)

Hanzi hated the guilt in his friend’s voice. “If you had been there, you’d be a vampire too or you would have died as those who did not rise.”

He had wished to join those lucky enough to stay dead. Until he had spotted Adrienne at the bonfire, he’d spent two millennia wondering what the hell the point was of his remaining on earth.

“I was the only person literate. My not being present within the limits of the town created something else...something the witch hadn’t planned on.”

“We were a bunch of dirty peasants.” So disposable, a wealthy lord had thought to have a witch kill them as if none would care. Hundreds of dead nobodies who never woke, easily burned and forgotten. Only the witch had thought to gift them with the ability to exact their revenge.

“What if I had decided to burn you? Would you have woken screaming in the blaze?”

Hanzi had awakened, but he hadn’t been screaming. He’d been underground, bearing a thirst he could never quench. “I think if you had burned me, I would have stayed dead. It’s one of the ways to actually kill me, as you know.” Because he had to, he added, “Thank you for getting Feri to help me.”

Jerome bent over and picked a bottle of red wine. “I was here when these grapes were bottled. Living in my castle. Watching from afar as you all started to change, becoming darker. I wondered if I would ever be able to reach any of you again or if you were too lost to come back to the light.”

“Jerome....”

His friend wasn’t done. “I am going to die. And soon. I can feel it. I’d hoped to see you all married before I left. The last thing I could help with, since I’ve always been able to manage so little. Go fall in love with your bride; let her do the same. Let someone else patrol the night for a while.”

****

S
he woke when he returned to the room. For the few seconds before she regained total consciousness, Adrienne appeared young, fragile—she was both of those things. What had the universe been thinking, giving her to him?

His bride rubbed at her eyes. “You came back.”

“I never left the castle. The sun was high.”

“I’m glad you didn’t take off after sunset.”

He shook his head. “As long as you were here, I’d never go far. Locking myself away to keep you safe I can do. Disappearing is another thing altogether.”

“Feri gave me some memories of you.”

“He told me. It was of the day we were changed.”

She stood, rubbing at her eyes. “Ema. I was in her body. I saw things through her eyes. Until the point you left her at home. When she went to sleep, I woke.”

“Feri put you in Ema’s body?”

The man had a sick way about him sometime. He had put Hanzi’s bride in his dead fiancée’s body?

“I...” How was he to explain? The truth worked best. “She was a girl I loved when I was a human boy.”

“Yes. I got your relationship.” She smirked. “I’m afraid if she was your type you might want to rethink your thing with me. We’re a bit oil and water, she and I.”

“Adrienne, you misunderstand me.” And it was important she follow what he said. Maybe he had never spoken more pressing words. “Ema was a sweet girl, and if she had lived and I’d not been changed, we would have married and had a very nice, ordinary life together.”

“I know, Hanzi.” She looked away, and he couldn’t have her not understanding him perfectly. Adrienne’s eyes should always be on him when they were together. Standing in front of her, he reached forward and turned her chin until she looked him straight in the eyes.

“Ema would never have survived my change. She would have taken a single look at me and dropped to the ground in a faint. She wasn’t strong enough to have wanted me as I am. I know these are early days. Too soon for so many expectations. However, you don’t strike me as the swooning type. Tell me something. If nothing else, do you want me? As I do you? In the ways of a man and a woman?”

His heart beat wildly. He couldn’t believe all the ways his day had gone. Since he’d touched her, his cock had hardened instantly to the point of pain. The blood need, however, was staying away. It was a nice change and not a gift he’d take for granted.

“Are you asking me if I want to fuck you?”

She wanted to shock him. He knew it in his bones, and so he smiled because, like her, he wasn’t easily thrown off his game.

“Yes. Exactly.”

“I shouldn’t.” She reached out to stroke the side of his face. “Only I do. Only not the same as before. Earlier my desire felt obsessive. This minute, my wanting you is slow. Hot. Needy.”

Hanzi kissed her. He needed her as he did blood, maybe even more.

S
he lost herself to his kiss. His embrace started out gentle, yet soon he took complete possession of her mouth. Adrienne closed her eyes. He licked her bottom lip. Shivers started at the base of her spine and moved upwards. His kiss was possession and she wanted  more of it.

So when he drew back, she didn’t know why. He studied her face, and she wondered what the vampire, who she was sure was about to become her lover, saw there.

“Tell me something, kicsikém.”

She didn’t know what his word meant, but she liked it. Loved hearing how it rolled off his tongue. How the endearment seemed to caress her.

“If we had met under different circumstances. If I were a man, a living male, what could I say to you which would make you happy?”

Adrienne touched the side of his face to feel his soft skin. “You’re so warm, Hanzi. How can you not call yourself living?”

“I am something, only it is not alive. Were I able I would stay far from you for your whole life. I would protect you from anything harmful, including myself.” He closed his eyes. “And yet I can’t stay away. I was drawn here to you. Before Jerome read in his book it was to my turn to find my bride I knew you were coming to me. I felt it in my bones the day you were born. A jolt of electricity as if I had been struck by lightning.”

With her hand on his cheek, she rubbed the side of his eye until he opened his lid. “I didn’t choose to have a destiny. Yet, when I am with you, since I saw you in my dream, through Ema’s eyes, I can’t help but wonder what role I am to play in who you are.” She couldn’t breathe for the need to speak the question weighing on her heart. “Will it hurt me when I die?”

He sucked in a loud breath. “I won’t kill you.”

“My death is part of the path.” It had always been part of the destiny her parents described.

“I have to draw the line somewhere.” Hanzi took her hands in his. “I will not bring you into the dark night with me. I will not feed from you.”

“Hanzi.” She wouldn’t live in a dreamland or let him continue to fool himself. “I don’t think not dying’s how it’s going to work. I saw you earlier. You wanted to bite me; it went beyond a wish to do so and became a total need. And then I responded to it by desiring it, too.”

“Why don’t you let me worry about it?”

She wished she could. He was a vampire, and she’d gotten a strong dose of what it meant to be around him when he lost control. Adrienne stared into his blue eyes. No man should be so beautiful, and the sad truth was he’d always been good looking, even when he had been an ordinary human.

“You’re beautiful.”

“I’ve always been pretty enough. I really don’t care about those things. Better to focus my time elsewhere.” He bent over to kiss her hand.

“Play pretend with me.” He really did seem fixated. “What would I do next?”

“Dear vampire, have you been out of the game for so long you don’t know?”

She touched his chin. Touching Hanzi might become a habit if she wasn’t careful. His eyes flared to life every time she did it. When had the man in front of her last been caressed, stroked?

Hanzi sighed loudly. “When last I set about to court a woman, I barely touched her for potential impropriety. Since then, it has been a matter of trying not to make a lasting relationship.”

“Ah.” She wrapped her arms around his neck. “So you’re being solo is how it has been then, has it? You and I share the same history, deliberately avoiding long term attachments.”

He opened his mouth to answer, but she didn’t want to give him the chance to comment. Whatever his thoughts, good or bad, on their shared sexual history, she didn’t think they’d known each other long enough yet to discuss all those details.

She took his hand. “Come.”

He raised his eyebrows and then followed her to the couch. She sat, indicating he should do the same. “You wanted to sit?”

“No.” She leaned back against the side of the seating. “I wanted to lounge.”

With a tug on his hand, she pulled him on top of her. It took him a second to realize what she was doing and then he kissed her. As before, Hanzi made love with his mouth. She closed her eyes and let him lay siege.

He pulled back, his eyebrows furrowed. He looked like a man lost in thought, not passion. She took her cheeks in his hands. “When was the last time you let go?”

“I’m afraid doing such a thing isn’t possible for me. I’m a predator and I have to keep myself under control.”

She leaned forward to kiss him gently on the lips. “I’m not afraid of you.”

“I don’t think you’re a stupid woman. Be afraid. It’s self-preservation.”

“Hanzi....” He frustrated her, and she wanted to keep it out of her voice so he didn’t misunderstand. “You want to play pretend, right? Let’s do it. Tonight I’m a single lady—not a woman who has known for a decade her life was not her own—and you are a man—not a vampire who has haunted the night forever.”

“I wouldn’t exactly say haunted....”

She held her hand out in front of her. “I’m talking. Not you.”

His eyes flared with heat. “As you say.”

“We’re you and me. Only we’re not. Do you understand? We met last night at the bonfire. I had too much to drink. You took care of me by bringing me to your house.” She reached out to stroke the slope of his nose. “I was hesitant to sleep with a stranger. But I’ve had today to know you. I’ve changed my mind.”

“Adrienne...” His voice trailed off.

“You say my name as if it’s musical. It makes me”—she deliberately licked her lips—“hot.”

His crooked his neck to the left. “Is that so?”

“Let me show you how much.” She pushed him back until he was flat on his back. “I don’t have to be in charge in the bedroom, but I can be when you need it. Tonight you do. We’ll see about the future. On this couch, you do as I say.”

He breathed her name again. “Adrienne, I had no idea you were so intense.”

“I’m full of surprises. I got to run around in your past for a while today. You’re going to have to spend time getting to know me.”

He raised a dark eyebrow. She didn’t know what his look meant, and she couldn’t care less. Running her hands over his still clothed body she got to where his cock hid beneath his pants. She rubbed her palm across it, and an impressive package jumped beneath her touch.

She bent closer and, after undoing the button to his pants, took the small slide in her mouth to undo his zipper. He sucked in his breath, and his abdominal muscles jumped.

Adrienne had always loved giving head. It made her feel powerful. Knowing whose erection she was about to caress only increased her enjoyment. By the time they got to her later, she’d be soaked through her panties. She smiled at the thought.

He wore white boxer-briefs. She stroked him another time through the single layer of clothing left before she tugged his pants all the way off, followed immediately by his underwear. His cock jumped to her attention.

Large, thick, and heavily veined, his cock made her mouth water. “Hello there.”

She raised her eyes to stare at his. Hanzi’s eyes were hooded. “I think your penis is happy to see me.”

When he didn’t answer she almost laughed. Hanzi was so serious. She had to lighten his mood. Giving head was serious, certainly, yet it was fun as hell.

“We’re playing pretend right? Remember?”

He nodded. “What you are about to do. To say it’s been a long time would be....”

She interrupted him. “Right now, we have no past, no history. Got it?”

“Okay.” His voice lowered. “Since playing a pretend game was my idea. Of course I had no idea where you would take it.”

“Sshh.” She cupped the top of his cock squeezing it tightly. He hissed in his breath, and she couldn’t help her smile. “Hanzi, I am going to make you feel so good, honey.”

She licked his tip; his cock jumped in response. Her vampire was a responsive lover. Men could be blasé about a lot of things, but not, in her experience, blowjobs. Particularly when they needed to get off as much Hanzi seemed to. Adrienne wanted to show him she would take care of him.

Opening her throat, she took him as far deep as she could manage before pulling back. He moaned, and a satisfying jolt rocked her pussy. She loved the power part. There was something so sweet about knowing he was under her control.

He tasted of hot, ready male. A salty dab of pre-cum slipped out on her second plunge downwards, and she greedily sucked it all. Hanzi smelled of the outdoors, the camping trips her parents had made her go on when she was young, the way the morning had smelled fresh and clean. Also, a hint of red wine.

“Adrienne....” When he said her name it was breathy. She was really getting to him, which was exactly what she wanted.

She got serious. If she wanted him to clear his head, she had to do the same. And since she had such a large canvas upon which to practice her art, she went to work on getting her vampire off. Minutes passed, and his hands gripped the back of her hair, pushing her further down his shaft. She grinned, squeezing his balls with her free hand. He shuddered beneath her.

Yes, she wanted him to come.

His movements became jerky beneath her, and his hands tighter in the back of her hair. He groaned, a deep guttural sound, and with a single long breath came into her mouth. Hanzi didn’t come in spurts, he expelled his pleasure in a single shot of salted goodness.

Finally, with a last lick, she raised her head to look at him. His eyes were closed, and she sat back on her knees. Yep, getting him off had gone well. Triumph had her stretching her arms over her head. One second she was doing her best salutation to the sun yoga pose, the next she was flat on her back on the couch with a not-sexually-sedated vampire staring at her with wide eyes.