Captiva Master - Vampire Warewolf Menage Six Feet Under Series Book 4) (11 page)

“Easily, I see the differences in your kind and mine. Not that it’s bad to be human so don’t take offense. It’s just – I don’t understand why creatures with short lifespans don’t take what they want, when they want it. I wanted my freedom; that’s all I could see. And when I was old enough,
strong
enough, I took it.”

“Adam, what happened to
you
?”

“It doesn’t matter what happened to me.” Leaning down, he brushed a kiss across her forehead, lingering before pulling away. “What matters is that I keep going, so will you.”

There was another hidden meaning behind those words and she pried, “Wanting and taking as you keep going?” Although he kept on those glasses, Dakota found it hard to ignore the sensation of his eyes on her body. She could literally
feel
them.

Putting the gown in her hands, he didn’t answer her. “Dakota, you should get dressed before I give us a reason to keep you naked.” He adjusted his glasses, stepping out of the bathroom when he said, “Such a lovely and fragile creature, as you, is impossible to resist.”

Out of nowhere, her heart started thundering. “Can you truly see me well?”

“Perfectly.”

“Then why do you wear those glasses?”

From the bedroom, she heard him say, “When the time is right, you’ll know.”

“Another secret,” Dakota mumbled as she dropped the towel and slid the gown over her body, running her hands over her rounded stomach and heavy hips, the exquisite fabric hugging every beautiful curve and every ugly one. Adam could see perfectly, and a man who looked like
that
had called her lovely. Maestru said he loved her body. That she looked like a woman should look. Somehow, maybe due to their words, Dakota looked away from the damned mirror and
imagined
herself a perfect Venus. She gathered her courage and whispered, “I am beautiful.”

Bravely, she stepped out without a robe and walked to a wooden side table dotted with decanters and small bottles of spring water, a smaller version of the table she’d used in Maestru’s library. Opening the first water bottle, she turned and offered it to Adam. He shook his head slowly, his eyes dropping to her hammering pulse point. She tried not to be frightened, but he wasn’t human and he had fangs. “You don’t even drink water, do you?”

In front of her now, Adam pushed a wet strand of hair behind her ear. “No I do not drink water. Ever. Just blood and…”

“And what?”

His face drew closer, his mouth coming dangerously close to her throat. “You fed from him. That’s why your strength returned without consuming food.”

She downed half the water before she replied, “If I accept what Maestru claims, I’m alive because he fed me his blood.”

Inhaling deeply, he admitted, “You smell like him. Oh, and your climax.”

Her face burned. “I took a shower.”

“No,” he chuckled, “you smell like Maestru because you’ve consumed his blood. As far as your climax, that’s the only other liquid a vampire can drink.” As she gaped, he trailed the tip of his finger down the slope of her nose. “Vampires regularly feed from vampires. Alternatively, they feed from humans, mainly during sex. However, when a vampire
feeds
a human, it’s not natural, particularly if that vampire is the Coven Master. Then the entire Coven wonders why. Not to mention the Coven’s enemies, but that’s another story altogether.”

For a moment, she couldn’t even breathe. When she managed to finish her water, she turned and sat it on the table. “Don’t stop now.” She kept her body facing the wall, her back to him. “Enlighten me, Adam.” He placed his hands on either side of her, caging her in without exactly touching her.

“I thought Maestru wanted you in his bed. Why are you in this particular chamber?”

Her first instinct was to sputter in embarrassment, but then she grew angry. Not at Adam, but Maestru. How had he mistaken her for a virgin? Even if she were a virgin, though she clearly was not, what was Maestru’s aversion all about? The almighty Coven Master had backed away from her as if a whole town was coming at him with flaming torches and wooden stakes. “He’s never, uh, slept with me, so maybe Maestru isn’t as
into
me as the Coven suspected.”

“But I thought -”

She turned around. “You thought wrong.” His arms stayed where they were, his bare chest inches from her thinly clad body, their mingled heat rising between them. Forget Maestru and his weirdness, Dakota was going to scream if Adam didn’t touch her.

He tilted her chin with his fingertips, forcing her eyes to meet his dark shades. “So tell me,” he said, dipping his head to her level, then sliding his hand under her wet hair to rub slow circles at her nape. “Do you want Maestru as your mate?”

A mate? “As a husband?” she asked, trying to mask her horrified response.

“Does a husband refer to an eternal mate for humans?”

She nodded.

“Then, yes,” he said, still working her nape with gentle fingertips. “I’m asking if you want him as your husband. Hypothetically, of course.”

“No way.” Sure, she wanted to toss her morality rules right out the window and sleep with Maestru a time or two. What woman wouldn’t want to experience all that power driving inside her body at least once in her life? However, that was where it ended for her. There was no way in hell Dakota wanted to
marry
Maestru or any other vampire.

Cocking his head in a clearly inhuman way, Adam touched his lips to hers, softly at first. Then he groaned, or maybe she did, when his fingers left her nape and knotted in her hair. When she parted her lips on a gasp, breathing in as he was breathing out, he thrust his tongue deep into her mouth, twirling and tanging with her own. Adam was rough, just the way she wanted him – raw and untamed. Dakota’s thoughts tunneled, narrowing on wild things, wild fucking, wild abandonment, where she could lose all inhibitions and join him skin to skin, sex to sex, basking in his heady scent as he drove deep inside her.

When Adam drew back, lifting his head, his lips parted as he panted through his fangs. Dakota reached up with her fingertips, feathering his short hair, the black similar to Maestru’s color, though the strands appeared to absorb light rather than reflect it. He stood patiently as she lowered her fingers and traced his face. She touched the mild cleft in his chin before she outlined his full bottom lip still wet with their kiss. Smoothing her palm around his clenched jaw, she admired his perfectly straight nose flanked by inhumanly carved cheekbones no man should possess.

Cautiously, she gripped the arms on his dark glasses, edging them down his nose. He gripped her wrists in a gentle but firm hold, but she argued, “I want to see them.”

“It wouldn’t be wise,” he said, his tone tensed and burdened.

“Please,” she insisted and he dropped his grip on her wrists, taking his glasses off himself and meeting her gaze. That’s when she spotted the eyes from her nightmares, the glittering ice-green promises of death. Dakota opened her mouth in a rush of panic and screamed for Maestru.

Adam hissed, curling his body around hers, leaving not an inch of breathing room between them. “Maestru’s gone. Dakota, there’s no one here but you and me.”

“What do you mean, Maestru left?” She dug her elbows into his ribs, and he loosened his hold, though not completely.

“There was an emergency in Scotland and Maestru volunteered his assistance. It seems that the Coven Master’s duties are never done.” His pulse was throbbing in his ears, the burn igniting his veins, his shifter rigid, readying to take her as his one and only mate. “But isn’t that the way when you fight evil?” Lowering his face to her level, he noticed green flickering across her creamy skin, his shifter’s irises blazing for her. “You fight and you fight and you fight, but still, there’s no end in sight, not ever.”
Take me as I am.
“But if you stop fighting, then there’s no good left in which to cling. As for me, I never stop fighting, Dakota.” Walking his fingers up her spine, he longed to trace his tongue over her lushness. “Can’t you see the good in me?”

“You acted like you were a vampire?” she accused. “You just went on about how vampires consume only blood and arousal and spoke of your so-called Coven as if you belonged with them! How can I see the good in you when you lie to me? Why in God’s name would Maestru leave me with you, when he knew you were the kind who nearly killed me?”

He was becoming increasingly aware of his shifter taking over his body, so he took a moment to breathe deeply and push it back. Most Habalines mixed with Species Vampires were crazy, their halves continually fighting the whole. He’d learned more control than most. Oycher thought it had something to do with his particular Habaline bloodline, but Adam would never know for sure. “I am half vampire, half Habaline. I am a Coven member. I was not one of those monsters who attacked you.” He rubbed his mouth across her neck, couldn’t help himself. “If I were to drink your blood, truly drink it and not lick it from your fingers, I wouldn’t hurt you in any way.” Although she tensed as his fangs scraped her delicate skin, she didn’t pull away. “In fact, you would enjoy my feeding from you thoroughly.” Moving down, he dipped his head, kissing the supple skin across her shoulder, curling his tongue underneath the flimsy strap holding up her gown. “As far as Maestru is concerned, his choice in bringing me to protect you was sound minded.” It would only take a flick of a fang to rent the strap, exposing her delicious breasts. “What better way to protect you from the deranged members of my race, then me? I have power I haven’t begun to tap into, and frankly, you are in the best hands imaginable.” She groaned when he nipped her there, his fangs stimulating pleasure instead of pain. “But you don’t see that do you? All you see is a glitter eyed monster.”

“You have to realize,” she nearly pleaded. “I’ve never been around anyone of your specific genetics other than the night I was attacked. And if Maestru told you anything about that night, you would realize why I’m nervous.”

No matter how uncomfortable and uneasy she was of him, Adam wanted her with a shocking fierceness, with an ache he’d never before experienced. “Sixten Kovac is a friend of yours, is he not?”

“I consider him one,” she replied. “I’ve known him since I was a teenager, and he’s married to one of my best friends.”

Calmly, he asked, “What do you think he is?”

“I understand that he’s a vampire, though I’ve never witnessed him acting anything other than human, albeit an off key human.”

“He’s exactly as I am, half vampire and half Habaline shape shifter.”

Dakota gasped, bringing her fingertips to her lips. “Blythe is pregnant.”

“Yes, your best friend is his mate and is carrying his child. Sixten Kovac may be off key, as you say, but he is incredibly intelligent - as Habalines usually are, and he contributes much of his spare time keeping humans safe from the immortal world. He and I started as enemies. Thankfully, we’re starting to become friends. He understands what I’m going through more than anyone can, and he’s helped me in ways no other has.”

“I’m trying to wrap my head around all of this. Between my dad’s illness, Maestru’s demands and subsequent dismissals, being hunted by whatever that thing was, and wanting to drink blood instead of eating food, I’m a mess.”

“You’re nothing close to a mess.” They stared at each other for a long minute, his heart aching anew for her as each second passed. He couldn’t be anything but honest with his newfound mate. His pride demanded it. His soul demanded her. “While you’re trying to wrap your head around all that, let me add this to your mental load.” He touched his lips to hers and whispered, “I want you.”

“You want me,” she repeated, her nervous breathing causing her breasts to rise and fall in invitation.

He longed to bite them and suckle her blood. “I felt a connection with you the second I saw you step out of that store with Maestru. I felt our souls fuse when I briefly touched you inside that truck.” His cock pulsed, the blue cords denoting his Habaline species reaching out for her. They’d never reached out before, for any other female. “Dakota, I’ve never once felt anything other than shallow attraction or unfounded obligation for any woman. For you, I feel
everything
.” Pressing his erection against her soft belly, he made slow circles, heating her with his desire. “In your life, where things have suddenly turned to hell, turn to me. I need you, Dakota.” As she softened beneath his touch, his shifter coiled, preparing to claim what was his. “You have no idea how much, but I can certainly show you.” Adam could scent that she wanted this, wanted the physical pleasure he could grant her. He’d take her body first, and work on her heart and mind later. “Let’s end your haggard day”
my haggard
existence
– “with something right.”

Dakota’s legs trembled before she gripped his biceps, pulling him in nice and tight. He walked them backward, falling onto the bed and pulling her with him. Even though he’d been with only a handful of women thus far, he hadn’t toyed with one on a bed, leisurely, hadn’t desire to take his time. He did his business with or without Oycher participating, and left when he was finished. With Dakota, he’d love her on a bed, treat her the way a woman should be treated, and wake up with her as dawn lit the sky. He lifted her over his body, her weight slight in his hands, and arranged her legs to straddle him. “Pull your gown over your head, slowly,” he commanded with a hidden erotic promise, sending his power over the tips of her pink crests in cool ripples.

She blinked, her buds tightening under the silver silk, her pupils big as saucers in sky-blue eyes. He lifted the gown half way and encouraged her to do the rest, to feel secure in her physicality while under his unrelenting gaze. “Do it now.”

Taking a steadying breath, she lifted the gown from her creamy body, dropping it on the bed. His heart stuttered at the sight of her. “I want to run my fangs over your skin, leaving nothing unexplored.” Pulling her up his chest, he positioned her sopping pussy over his stomach as he stripped his jeans. When she reached back to take his sex in hand, he grabbed her wayward hand and brought it to her delicate sex. “Let’s rub you together,” he demanded, cupping her hand in his, working it across her swollen lips, gliding. “I’m going to glide my tongue here, until you scream your pleasure.” She moaned after a long minute, removing her hand and sliding her pussy across his taut stomach. Then leaned down and placed both hands on his chest, to steady her trembling.