Blood Hunger (An Adult Paranormal Romance) (Deathless Night Series #1) (25 page)

***

     As Nik felt the nervous tension leave her body, he gathered her wrists in one hand and held them over her head. Sliding his other hand under her plump ass, he held her hips still as his cock slid down her wet folds to her entrance. With one powerful thrust, he entered her, crying out against her mouth at the feel of her slick tightness taking his entire length. He heard her wince sharply and stopped, barely holding himself there as she adjusted to the size of him. Kissing her softly, his entire body trembled with the effort it took him not to pound into her, but he held himself still, waiting for her.

     “You’re so tight. Are you ok?” he rasped.

***

     Emma had never felt so completely possessed by someone. The massive, swollen length of him invading her so suddenly had shocked her at first, stretching her to her limits. But now she could feel him pulsing slightly inside of her, and her body was responding to the delicious feeling.

     “I think so.” She cautiously moved her hips a bit to test it, sliding Nik just slightly in and out of her, her breath catching at the feel of him moving inside of her. As he fought to hold still, she felt his whole body tremble even harder, his hand squeezing her ass as his head fell to her shoulder on a loud groan.

     “I can’t stay still much longer, sweetheart,” he hissed in her ear. She moved again underneath him. “Emma! I
have
to fuck you, I…Ah!”

   
 
“Yes. It’s ok, I’m ok.” She moved her hips again, moaning softly as she encouraged him.

     Taking his arm out from under her, he lowered her ass down to the grass and slid his hand under her leg, lifting it onto his shoulder, opening her up even more for him. Letting go of her wrists, he propped himself up with a hand on each side of her shoulders, then slid himself nearly all the way out before slamming back into her with a hoarse cry. “You feel so good…” He slid out again slowly, thrusting back in hard. Lowering his head, he nipped at her nipples as she arched her back, then he could take it no more.

     Pulling his arm out from under her leg, he braced himself on his forearms, holding her under him tightly as he gained speed. Taking her mouth with his, he swallowed her cries as he pounded into her, hard.

     Emma clutched helplessly at Nik’s shoulders as he possessed her. The position he had her in rubbed her in all the right places. Each hard, fast thrust going so deep inside of her she could feel him touching her womb. Waves of delicious sensation flowed through her, and she threw her head back, breaking off their kiss with a cry.

     Taking her head between his hands, Nik held her there, as with a loud snarl, he struck again. As she felt his fangs pierce her skin, the tension in her belly rose to unbearable heights, hovering there on the brink, until, with a strong pull on her vein, she crashed over the edge.

***

     Nik growled against her neck as her body bucked underneath him. The sounds of her cries and the feel of her snug warmth surrounding his cock as her blood ran down his throat almost too much for him to bear.

     Lifting his head from her throat, he slid his arms under her, holding her immobile as he slammed into her almost violently, until, with a hoarse cry, he shoved himself impossibly deeper and exploded inside of her. Spurting hotly into her over and over so hard, his entire body convulsed along with his pulsing cock. He’d never come so hard before.

     And as he slowly came down, he knew. He was never going to be the same again.

     Emma lay limply as Nik continued to slide slowly in and out of her, catching his breath.
So that’s really what all of the fuss is about.
She’d never quite understood the big deal about sex…until Nik had invaded her shower. And now this. His tongue lapped at her neck and breasts, healing her wounds and cleaning off the last of the blood. Her head swam and her limbs felt limp and lifeless. She couldn’t move if she wanted to. And she didn’t want to.

     “Emma?” She heard Nik’s husky voice say her name from far away, but couldn’t get her throat to work to respond.

     “Emma!” Louder this time.

     She tried again to answer him. “Hmmm?”

   
 
“Open your mouth, sweetheart.”

     He was giving orders again, but she did as he asked. As soon as her lips parted, she felt the warm skin of his wrist against them, and the sweetest taste dripped onto her tongue. She swallowed automatically, and then started sucking in earnest at the delicious liquid. Raising her hands, she held his wrist to her mouth as she drank greedily.

***

     Nik nearly wept with relief when her eyes popped open a few seconds later. His heart had completely stopped when she’d lain there so still and pale, past memories of Eliana mixing with the present, threatening to overtake his sanity. But then he’d seen her chest move slightly as she breathed, and noticed the small smile on her face.

     Without hesitation, he’d done what he’d swore he’d never do. There was no other choice. Or so he told himself. Lifting his wrist to his mouth, he’d bitten through the skin, opening his vein for her to drink.

     Now, fascinated, he watched her taking his blood, every swallow binding them irrevocably together forever. He should be freaking out. He should be running in the opposite direction as fast as his vampiric speed could take him. But he did neither of those things. Instead, he reveled in the peacefulness that came over him as he watched her take his lifeblood, amazed.

     Nothing had ever felt so right in all of the lifetimes he’d lived.

     Pride swelled in his chest as he looked at his female. She was so lovely, and fierce, and witty…and stubborn. A dark cloud overtook his features, his emotions leaping around as fast as his thoughts. He should never have let her coerce him into feeding from her. This wasn’t what he wanted her life to be.

     But it was done.

     Much as he didn’t want to, they needed to move. She tightened her grip with a sound of protest as he pulled his wrist away. “Enough, sweetheart.” He licked the punctures to close them, and then dropped a kiss on her adorable nose. “We need to go.”

***

     Emma felt a rush of cool air over her bare skin as he carefully pulled out of her and sat back on his heels. She licked her lips.
Whoa.
She’d just drank his blood. And it wasn’t icky at all! It was like the most exquisite wine, much better than the crap she bought at the grocery store.

     Warm and succulent, she could feel it working its way through her system, and she was suddenly wide-awake. Wide-awake, full of energy…and horny as hell. Again.

     Her hungry eyes locked on the perfect specimen of a male kneeling so casually naked between her legs.

     His cock hardened again as she bit her lip, drawing her eyes there, and she smiled with delight.  

     Nik suppressed a smile and told her in a stern voice. “Don’t be eyeballing me like that, woman. We need to get out of here, before more of these things show up.” He chuckled softly as her eyes widened in comprehension and she looked around, suddenly remembering where they were. 

     Clutching her shirt closed across front of her, she sat up so swiftly they almost knocked heads.

     Nik took her by the shoulders to steady her. Leaning down, he whispered in her ear, “As soon as we’re done here though, I’m going to take you home and fuck you until there’s not a single inch of you I haven’t tasted and we’re both too raw to move.”

   
 
He laughed again as her face flamed.

     She smacked at his chest. “Stop it! Get off of me, you big oaf!”

   
 
“I will. Just let me do this…” Reaching over, he grabbed his shirt, wadding it up so the bloody part wasn’t showing. Using the clean side, he reached between her legs and wiped her off thoroughly, ignoring her embarrassed swatting at him.

     When she was as clean as he could get her, he pulled her hands away from her face where she had finally hidden, and kissed her hard.

     As he rose to his feet and stretched, completely unabashed by his nakedness, Emma kept her head down and pulled her panties and jeans on. Sliding her feet into her shoes, she crossed her arms over her chest and looked around for her bra, finally finding it ten feet away, completely ripped in half.  She stared at the ruined undergarment, at a loss as to what she was going to wear.

     Taking the ripped ends of her bloody shirt, she tried to tie it together over her breasts, but they were too short and it wouldn’t stay tied.

     Hmmmm.

     Right as she was about to resign herself to walking back holding her shirt together, a clean piece of black cotton appeared in front of her face.

     “Here you go.”

   
 
With a mumbled “Thank you”, she turned her back to him and yanked off her ruined clothes, wiping off any lingering blood on her skin as best she could, before pulling on his shirt. It nearly swallowed her whole, but it was clean and warm, and it covered her. Rolling the sleeves up and tying up the bottom to shorten it, she turned around to find Nik already dressed in a matching clean shirt, his jeans, and combat boots. She gave him a questioning look.

     His eyes glowed with male satisfaction at the sight of her in his clothing. “I always carry extra clothes when I travel. Us vampires tend to get bloody.”

   
 
An unexpected surge of jealousy rose in her before she remembered that he only drank bagged blood. At least before she came around. He must be talking about fighting.

     Right?

     “I get into a lot of fights.” He answered the questions going through her mind before she could ask them. She didn’t need to. The connection between them from sharing blood was already growing.

     “Of course.” She answered blithely. Holding out her bloody, ruined clothes, she asked, “What should I do with these?”

   
 
Nik took them from her and shoved them in a pocket of his pack. “We’ll burn them, later.” Scanning the area for anything they may have forgotten, he asked, “You ready to go, Em?”

   
 
Looking anywhere but at him, she answered, “Yeah. Let’s go.” He cocked his head at her behavior, but didn’t press the issue.

     With a last, longing look at her bare breasts filling out his shirt, he took her hand and led the way out of the carnage.

     Emma didn’t like this. She didn’t like this at all.

     They’d been walking through the darkness in a circular route that would take them back around to the cavern where Aiden waited, both lost in their own thoughts.

     Emma had tried to take advantage of the lack of conversation to try to sort out her feelings about what had happened. She knew she’d instigated it all, and she was glad that Nik had finally given in. She was. And it wasn’t that she wasn’t attracted to him, or that she didn’t want to be with him. She did.

     But, forever? The implication of that boggled her mind. Forever was a very, very, long time for
regular
humans. For a vampire and his mate? She had a hard time wrapping her head around it.      

     She’d been so worried about him not feeding from her, and therefore causing his own death, that she hadn’t thought much past that.

     Well, she
had
thought about it…just not that seriously.

     She wondered, did he even want to be with her? Really? He’d certainly fought hard enough to prevent it. Now that she’d finally convinced him to feed, and the bond had been completed (and then some!), she’d expected him to be all, like, miserable and angry at her for goading him into it.

     Sooo not the case.

     In fact, his behavior was just the opposite. As she watched him swagger along amongst the trees in front of her, he seemed to be back to his old self. The cocky, carefree vampire she’d met at the bar, what seemed a lifetime ago. Maybe, now that the pressure was off and the deed was done, he was just feeling relieved because he didn’t have to fight it anymore?

     Or, had this all been his idea from the very start?

     Was that it? And was she really so gullible? Sadly, she had to admit; the answer was a most probable yes. She was. She was no match for the charm of an obscenely handsome vampire who’d had six hundred years of practice seducing women. 

     After living that long, she imagined life would get rather boring. Could she really blame him for finding ways to amuse himself?

     Damn right, she could. She was not here for his amusement.

     But, he wouldn’t really have made all of that up, would he? And what about Aiden? He couldn’t have been faking all of that concern for his friend; no one was that good an actor. But, then again, he was a little…
off
. Had it really all been nothing but a big act the two of them had conjured up to amuse themselves?

     Emma glared at the broad, muscular width of his back in front of her. Had he been tricking her this entire time just to get her to sleep with him? Making it seem like it was
her
idea? The more she thought about it, the more convinced she became that he’d been playing with her all along.

    
Bastard.

***

     Nik found it impossible to keep walking with such sharp daggers being stabbed into his back.
He could feel her roiling emotions ever since they’d left the clearing, and was trying to let her work out…whatever it was she was trying to work out. However, he couldn’t ignore the downright hate he felt being levered at him now. He stopped walking.

     “What’s up, Em?” he asked casually as he turned around to face her, hands low on his narrow hips.

     Even though she’d been glaring right at him, she was so caught up in her thoughts, his abrupt halt took her by surprise. Raising her hands in front of her to prevent crashing into him, she pushed off his hard wall of a chest with a satisfying “thump” and took a few steps back, crossing her arms in front of her defensively. “Why don’t you tell me?”

   
 
He raised his eyebrows in a silent question.

     She scoffed at his innocent look. “For someone who has spent the past few days ‘fighting his attraction’ to me, you seem awfully damned unconcerned now that you’ve fucked me. After getting me to practically beg you to do it!”

   
 
“Emma…” he began warningly. He didn’t like her talking like that. He knew she was trying to adjust to their new situation, but he’d had no idea this crap was flying around in her head.

     “Oh! And managing to convince me that it was
my
idea for you to feed from me. Let’s not forget that.” Pushing on her temples with her fingertips, she closed her eyes tight. “You even managed to get me to drink your blood. Therefore completing this so-called bond that you, just thirty minutes ago, were supposedly so dead set against!” Dropping her arms back down to her sides, she glared at him, her hands curling into tight fists.

     Nik was trying really, really hard to concentrate on what she was saying. But she was so fucking hot when she was all riled up. Her eyes were bright green with anger, and her face was flushed with color. He could hear her heart pumping hard, her blood rushing through her veins. Her chest, braless in his shirt, rose and fell provocatively with each hard breath. He wanted to throw her down and fuck the rage out of her until she was limp and sated and happy again.

     With that thought in mind, he took a step towards her, automatically ducking when a branch flew past his head. Emma jumped, momentarily startled by it. She really had no control over her powers, did she?

     She threw out a hand. “Don’t even think about it,” she growled, stopping him in his tracks.

     He cocked his head to the side and studied her. Quickly reaffirming to himself that he’d much rather be fucking her than arguing with her, he went to take that last step that would bring her within his reach.

     Only to realize that he couldn’t. His little witch had, quite literally, stopped him. And he didn’t think she even realized it.

     His vampire mind quickly thought up and discarded various things he could use to get her to lose her focus, but the truth was, he needed to know.

     “Do you really think that about me?” he asked quietly.

     Other than a barely discernible softening around her eyes, she held her ground.

     “Alright.” Arms at his sides, he looked her straight in the eye and wrenched open his soul a little more. Why the fuck not? “I’ve been alone for more than 600 years, Em.” Shaking his head, he corrected himself. “No, not alone. Just lonely.”

   
 
“Lonely? What about Eliana? And the girls that came before her?” She rolled her eyes at him, trying to call him on his bullshit. “You can’t tell me there weren’t others. I mean, look at you. You have to be aware of how you affect women.”

   
 
His eyes were self-depreciating as they returned to her. “Yes. I’m well aware.” An unattractive thought entered his head, sobering him. “What about you, Emma? Are you only attracted to the way I look?”

   
 
“It certainly doesn’t hurt,” she snipped at him. “It seems to be your main weapon, after all.”

   
 
He wasn’t sure that he deserved that, but he decided to let it go for now. Hell, maybe he did deserve that. He scrubbed his face with his hands, trying to articulate what he was feeling. But all the thoughts and feelings sprinting through him all came down to the same thing. “They weren’t you, Em.”

   
 
“What is that supposed to mean?” Nothing he was saying seemed to help.

     Nik heaved a deep sigh. “What do you want to hear, Emma? You want me to tell you that there were others before you? Fine. I’ve fucked other females before you. I’ve fed from other females before you. Hundreds of them. Maybe more. Over and over again. And I fucking liked it.”

   
 
She flinched at his harsh honesty, jealousy and hurt fighting with the anger flitting across her face.

     He reigned in his temper, softening his tone. “But, they weren’t
you
. You didn’t even exist yet for most of that time. But from the moment I first saw you, before I ever got within twenty feet of you, I wanted you. Just you.”

   
 
His eyes drilled into hers, willing her to believe him. “I’ve never felt that way about anyone else. Ever. Not in all of my years. And I hadn’t even spoken to you yet!” A sweet, yet slightly sad smile lifted the corners of his beautiful mouth. “And then, when I kissed you that night at your house, and tasted you, and realized exactly what you were to me, all I could think about…ALL I could think about…was that I couldn’t do this to you. Even if I
could
manage to complete the bond without killing you, I couldn’t disrupt your life, force you to be with me. I couldn’t tie you to me like this. I just wanted to protect you, and…” His gaze wandered off to the wilderness around them as he tried to vocalize what he’d been feeling then.

     She interrupted him to ask, “Protect me from what?”

   
 
Unobtrusively trying to move, and finding he could now, he quickly closed the distance between them. “From me. From this never-ending life.”

   
 
Lifting his hand, he took a soft, reddish blonde curl between his fingers. “I can stand here and make all kinds of excuses for what happened earlier. I can say I was messed up from the fight. Or I can admit that I’ve been feeling more mortal every day since tasting you, and I don’t want to die. But, the truth of it is,” Letting go of her hair, he gently took her lovely face between his large hands. “I’ve been stupid. I’ve been so stupid. And I only realized it when I was watching you drink from me. I really don’t want to be alone anymore. I want to be with
you
. Only you, Em. Would you consider staying with me? Please?”

   
 
He felt her relax as the anger left her. “I’m not
just
attracted to your looks, Nik. Although I would be lying if I said they weren’t part of it.”

   
 
Nik leaned down and kissed her on the head, before pulling back to dazzle her with his smile. “Well, you’re not so bad yourself you know.”

   
 
His smile faded as he got serious again. “You make me happy. Just being with you makes me feel more at peace than I can remember being in a long, long time. I’ve never felt this way before with anyone else.” He lovingly memorized every feature on her face. “I’m exhausted from trying to fight this thing with us. Give meaning to my ridiculously long life. Let me make you happy, Em. Let me love you. Let me protect you. I know this is kind of strange. You’ve only known me for a few days, and I’m asking for a very long forever. And I know a relationship like this is way different than anything you’ve ever wanted or hoped for, but please, let me try.”

   
 
“I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m being such a raging bitch,” she apologized.

     He cracked a grin at her description of herself. “It’s a lot to adjust to in just a few days.”

   
 
When long seconds went by without an answer from her, Nik began to squirm uncomfortably. Running his hands through his hair, a telltale sign of his feeling stressed, he offered, “Look, just think about it. Ok? Please?”

***

     Her mind was already pretty much made up to stay with her vampire, but she wasn’t quite ready to put it out there just yet. Besides, it wouldn’t hurt to let him wonder for a while. So she agreed with his request. “Ok. I’ll think about it.”

   
 
Could she really do this? Commit herself to this male? Well, yeah, crazy as it sounded, she thought maybe she could. She’d never wanted to be with anyone more. The fact that he wasn’t exactly human anymore made no difference to her. If anything, it made it easier. Who else would accept her and all of her “quirks” without batting an eye?

     She thought about the rock smashing into the wall and the branch flying over his head.

     His having quick reflexes helped a lot too.

     Could she handle an immortal life with Nik? Watching all of her friends and family grow old and die while she was still young and healthy?

     Well, she had no friends, not really. And Keira was her only family. Maybe she could find a vampire mate too? She smiled a bit at the wishful thought.

     Nik opened his mouth to say more, but then seemed to think better of it. “Ok, then.” Reaching out, he took her small hand gently in his. Turning it over, he placed a kiss on her palm. “Let’s just head back to Aiden. I’m not sure what he thinks he found out here, but I’m not seeing any signs of anyone else other than your monsters.” With obvious reluctance, he dropped her hand again and shrugged. “Maybe that’s what he saw.”

   
 
As they started walking again, Emma asked, “Is Aiden ok by himself in that cave? I mean, nothing would find him in there, right? If the others still haven’t showed?”

   
 
Nik looked back at her, a disturbed expression on his face. They’d been so distracted by everything that was happening between them, and not knowing those things were here…Had they left Aiden in danger?