Blood Rites: (Royal Blood #3) (10 page)

“Come, Lorelei,” I moaned. “Come with
me.”

“
Harder
,” she replied. “
Don’t stop
…”

She began to tighten, her eyes
closing tight as her orgasm took her. My balls flared and I began
to empty, sensation overwhelming coherent thought. I came so
fucking hard, I wondered if I would ever tire of it. So much
pent-up frustration… So much desire for one woman…and I emptied it
all into her. She took it, milking me for all she was
worth.

Finally, I rolled off her, pulling myself
away to discard the condom on the floor, too taken with her to move
an inch further from the bed. I wanted to feel her lay against me
before reality began creeping back in.

I sighed, my breath seeming to go on for
eons. What the fuck had she done to me? Lorelei Lansford well and
truly had me by the balls.

“Do you want me to leave?” she murmured, her
eyes sparkling in the dim light. There was uncertainty in her
gaze.

“You haven’t done this before have you?” I
asked with a chuckle. She was so innocent, what I was doing with
her was borderline fucked up.

She buried her face against the pillow,
trying to hide her embarrassment.

“You're embarrassed now?” I asked, pulling
her closer. “After what we just did?”

She sighed, running her hand across my
waist, threading her legs around mine.

“Stay,” I whispered. “Stay as long as you
like.”

Her lips pressed against my jaw and she
settled back against the pillow, her eyes fluttering closed. I held
her until her breathing began to even out, signaling she’d fallen
asleep. She was peaceful, beautiful in her vulnerability and I
found myself not wanting to let go. Fuck, I was a goner.

She knew nothing of my dealings, the
dangerous world I lived in after dark. She knew nothing of who I
really was and the things that I was capable of. If she knew the
truth, would she stay then? One thing was certain, I’d never lied
outright to Lorelei. Not yet, anyway. I hadn't had to, but when the
time came…could I?

I ran my fingertips softly across her cheek,
pushing a lock of hair behind her ear.

I'd put off my meeting with
Sykes for as long as I could mange. He was a thorn I didn't want to
deal with, not now and not ever. If I were to choose between my
underworld business and Lorelei, I’d pick her, even without knowing
what the extent of this attraction was. I'd never slept in the same
bed with another woman, I’d never wanted to hold on and I’d
definitely never wanted more than a night.

I was walking a fine line between life and
death and everything in between. Ruin and rule.

Lorelei was worth it. I’d call Sykes in the
morning and withdraw.

Twelve

Lorelei

At first, I felt different. Almost
listless.

I woke slowly, my body stiff, but completely
satisfied. Then slowly, the memory of Vaughn’s touch began to
surface, the ghost of his mouth all over me, the incredible release
he’d coaxed out of my body. The place between my legs ached, my
flesh throbbing. I never thought my body was capable of having that
kind of orgasm, let alone more than one in the same night.

Rolling over, I opened my eyes and stilled
when I was greeted with an empty bed. The satisfied grin faded from
my face and was quickly replaced with a frown. He was gone. I sat
up, clutching the sheet to my naked chest, listening.

I didn’t have much time to feel inadequate
because Vaughn’s voice was the first thing I heard. He was yelling
at someone from somewhere down the hall. That must’ve been what had
woken me.

“I’m deadly serious,” he was saying.

There was a pause.

“I want out,” he snapped. “Deal’s off.”

He must be on the phone to someone from his
work. My heart instantly calmed and I sank back into bed, resting
against the padded headboard. I hadn’t had much of a chance to take
in my surroundings the night before and now that daylight flooded
the room, I could take it all in.

Vaughn’s bedroom was really
nice. The king-sized bed was sleek and modern in design, the
headboard behind me made from quality padded linen, steely gray in
color. His furniture was dark chestnut, the side tables and dresser
minimal and very masculine. In short, it was
very…Vaughn.

“Don’t threaten me,” he exclaimed, his voice
booming down the hallway. “Do you value your life?”

I frowned, not sure if this was something I
should be listening to.

“
I am your one and only link to
Lafayette…if I were to say something to him, then he will put you
on his no-fly list.”

Uh…that didn’t sound very good. A deal he
was brokering must be going sour. I could still hear him arguing on
the phone and didn’t have it in me to eavesdrop any more, so I did
the next best thing. I opened his bedside drawer.

My gaze collided with a gun and I gasped,
closing the drawer with a dull thud. What the bloody hell? My heart
thundered and I glanced at the open door, listening for Vaughn.

A gun? What did he have a gun
for? Were the rumors about him true? They said he was a playboy,
but some people said he was bad. Like the bad guy in the movies
bad. I’d seen nothing that had led me to believe any of that was
true. He could just have it for personal security. I knew how
rumors went in this life all too well. They started small, but soon
twisted into total outlandish fabrications.

I shifted closer to the side of
the bed and opened the drawer again, this time a little more
slowly, like its contents were going to jump out and bite me on the
ass. The gun sat there, all innocent looking and my curiosity grew.
I’d never seen a gun before. Not in real life. I pulled it out of
the drawer and held it in my hands, the metal cool against my skin.
Hmm…it was heavy.

“Lorelei.”

I gasped, and my gaze collided with
Vaughn’s. He was standing in the doorway, naked from the waist up,
and all he wore from the waist down were a pair of black fitted
boxers. Damn it, he’d caught me snooping and I was staring at his
cock.

“That’s not a toy, Lorelei.” He crossed the
room and took the gun from my hands, sliding it back into the
bedside drawer.

I stared up at him, not sure what to say
first. Color me intrigued.

I tilted my head to the side, allowing the
sheet to fall away from my naked breasts. Vaughn’s gaze instantly
dropped, his shoulders tensing.

“You’re not…” He trailed off, shocked that I
wasn’t running for the hills.

Things weren’t adding up, but when you were
stuck in sexual thrall with a powerful man, things just…slipped
through the cracks. Dangerous things.

“I’m not scared,” I murmured. “I’m…curious.”
His eyes narrowed and I could see his thoughts ticking over a mile
a minute. “I heard you on the phone.”

Vaughn seemed to pale some and climbed onto
the bed. He pushed me back onto the pillows, covering my body with
his, lowering his lips toward mine. “Then know that I won’t let
anything happen to you, Lorelei.”

He wasn’t denying it. He was into something
bad. Something dangerous…

I gazed into his eyes and thought that I
might see all his secrets etched in his irises. “Are the things
they say about you true?”

He frowned before lowering his lips to my
breast. “If you were worried the rumors were all true, then you
wouldn’t have come into the monster’s lair, would you now?” He
sucked on my nipple, tugging gently with his teeth. “You take me as
a smart girl, Lorelei. Am I right?” He latched onto my other nipple
and repeated his slow torture.

I gasped, wriggling underneath him, that
ache in my core beginning to flare into life once more.

“You do know,” I moaned, “that you can get a
woman to agree to anything in our current position?”

I felt his lips curve into a smile against
my skin.

“
I’m good with words.” He kissed
me between my breasts. “I have to be, in my line of
work.”

“I know that I feel something when I’m with
you.” He stilled his movements at my words, his lips hovering over
my heart. “I know that I like it, whatever ‘it’ is. I know that I
want to keep doing it…”

“Even knowing that I might be all kinds of
wrong for you?” he asked, returning his gaze to mine.

“You’re into something bad, aren’t you?”

He didn’t reply, but I could
feel the tension in his body. He was hiding something from me.
Until now, he’d shown me the face the outside world wanted to see.
The financier, the powerful mogul, the young man with aspirations
to run a company…the playboy womanizer. There was more to Sebastian
Vaughn than met the eye. There was something…dark about
him.

“This isn’t a game,” he said firmly. “You
and I.”

I nodded slowly, my lips parting in a sigh.
“I’ve been good all my life,” I whispered, totally under his spell.
“It’s time to be bad, Mr. Vaughn.”

I pushed my hands down the back of his
boxers, moving the material down and cupped his ass, digging my
fingernails into his skin. His mouth met mine and he kissed me
hard, our tongues stroking, twining, massaging in an erotic
dance.

My hands moved and he lifted off me
slightly, giving me access and I took it. His length was in my palm
and I began feeling every inch of him, from root to tip, exploring
and pleasuring as I went. Vaughn moaned deeply into my mouth before
tearing his lips away.

“You’re such a surprise, Lorelei,” he
murmured, his breathing quickening.

“Am I?” I asked, circling my thumb across
the head of his cock, massaging his pre-cum into his skin.

He fumbled in his bedside drawer and
produced a condom, before kneeling back and rolling it over his
erection. He stared down at my nakedness as he stroked himself and
sucked on his bottom lip. Fuck, he was so…carnal.

Pushing my legs open with his
palms he covered my body with his, guiding himself to my opening.
As he sank into me, he let out a sigh, his body quivering against
mine. “I’m never going to get enough of you.”

He filled me so deeply and
pressed against my sensitive clit so hard, that I almost came.
“
Vaughn
.”

“I feel it too,” he murmured. Then he pulled
out and thrust hard, our bodies coming together in a blaze of
heat.

He took me hard and fast,
whatever had gotten him so worked up on the phone forgotten. He was
working his frustrations out on my body and it felt too good to be
annoyed by it. After our interlude in the limo and subsequent
fucking all night, after he took the rest of my willpower, he could
touch me however he wanted, as long as I came.

He never slowed his pace and
soon I was cresting the wave and crashing, coming violently on his
cock, my muscles tightening around his shaft. He was muttering my
name as he pumped then stilled, joining me in my
free-fall.

Rolling off me, he pulled me
near, his fingers exploring my body. He covered my breast with his
palm, massaging the tender flesh and I felt my core spike yet
again. What was that word?
Insatiable
.

“We need to lay some ground rules,” he said,
stretching his arms over his head.

“Ground rules?” I scowled, wising he’d just
keep his hands on me and never let go. “Since when?”

“Since now.”

I scowled harder at his aloofness. “Okay
then, what are they?”

“I don’t do relationships. Or exclusivity.
I’m my own man.”

I snorted. “You could’ve told
me that before you stuck your dick in me.” Fuck, my mouth had done
a total one-eighty and all it took was a little fuckery in the back
of a limo.

He glanced at me, his eyes full of
amusement. “Would you have listened?”

He had me there. “No.”

“Then stop complaining.”

“
If we aren’t exclusive,” I
said, air quoting ‘exclusive’, “then you can’t boss me
around.”

“
Only when I want to get off on
it,” he retorted and I found myself liking the playful side of
Vaughn, very much. “Know that there are some things that I will
never be able to tell you,” he said, gazing up at the ceiling. “But
know that you will always be safe with me.”

Maybe I should’ve been a little
more worried about this ‘deal’ of his, but where matters of the
heart were concerned…love, or
lust
, made people do stupid things. Very stupid
things. It was a drug that took all sense and logic and threw it
out the bloody window.

“I understand,” I murmured.

“You’re precious to me,” he said and I began
to melt. “From now on, there’s only you.”