Eternal Hearts (28 page)

“Don’t stop.” Her breath came hard and fast against his ear.

He pulled back and looked down at her. “What?”

“Don’t stop…” She barely finished the request before she captured his lips again.

The pain in Drake’s chest melted into white-hot need when he felt Toni’s fingernails dig into his lower back as she pulled his hips down against hers. He moaned into her mouth as wet heat spread across the head of his cock and her intoxicating scent washed over him.

Needing more of her skin available to touch, he gathered her in his arms and sat back on his knees. She draped one arm around his neck while her other hand wound into his hair. Relentless with her lips, she ravished his mouth, stirring the beasts inside him to a near dizzying frenzy.

Toni pulled back from Drake’s mouth to bite at his lips as his fingers traced down the sensitive line of her spine. She sucked on his bottom lip, letting her fangs drag inside it as his large hands gripped her hips. She wanted him inside her, needed to feel him filling her. Locking a leg around his waist, she moaned as she shifted her hips and his thick head stretched her.

She stared into his eyes when the corded muscles of his neck tensed under her hand. “More.” She pressed her mouth to his. “Don’t stop. Don’t.”

He flicked his tongue between her lips, across the tips of her fangs. “More?”

She fisted the hand in his hair when he pushed her down a little more. “All of it.
Now.”

He smiled at her, but just as his lips parted and she expected another question, he drove himself deep inside her. Pain stretched into pleasure then burst into a thousand sensual embers as their hips connected. Kicking her head back, she writhed hard against him, lost in a beast driven tempest of sensation and need.

She’d never felt so full, so hot, or so whole in her life. Drake was all she could smell, all she could feel…all she ever wanted to touch.

She cried out as one of his hands loosened on her hip and the rough pad of his thumb lightly stroked her clit. First slow, then faster as he slid out and back into her again, inch by throbbing inch. Her whole body tensed as the intensity picked up and he thrust into her, leaving her little choice but to cling to his shoulders as wave after wave of exquisite ecstasy stormed through her.

Drake groaned as Toni’s muscles contracted, sleek and tight around his cock. He’d never felt anything like her before. Hot, wet. And the damningly seductive way she moved against him, how her fingers tightened in his hair as her body squeezed and pulled him in deeper.

She was reckless in his arms, licking and biting at his mouth as he eased out then thrust back into her. But he wanted more, needed to feel more of her, all of her. Leaning forward, he captured her bottom lip and pinched it between his teeth. Only after she moaned and locked eyes with him did he stop.

He brushed his lips across hers. “I want to taste you.”

Her eyes shimmered a little more as each second passed and the true weight of his request processed. “I’ve never shared…”

“Me neither.”

When she answered by pushing his lips to her neck as she wrapped both legs around his waist, something changed inside Drake. He felt it. He felt the heaviness he’d always carried in his chest, dissipate – replaced by something entirely new.

Something that scared and awed him at the same time.

But his fear surged into absolute bliss when Toni’s body shuttered and clenched around him as he bit her neck. Thrusting hard, he exploded inside her as the razor’s edge of her fangs pierced his shoulder.

As Drake and Toni’s life essence mingled, their souls intertwined.

Drinking deep, Drake shivered as every shred of pain and love in Toni’s heart coursed through him as if it were his own. He felt the longing she had when she was away from home, how much she missed her family, and how much she needed to stay in Chicago.

He saw her crying alone in different beds as she wandered from city to city, desperately searching for a place she belonged. And she hadn’t found that place…until now. He saw the worst of her tragedies and her greatest moments of joy, and was stunned to see himself in the center of that joy.

Tears welled in his eyes as he felt her heart open to him. Felt it warm him, and heard it promise that he’d never be alone again. As long as there was a spark of life in her body, she’d never leave him. Never let him go.

Toni’s body shook as the power of Drake’s blood screamed through her veins. She felt his detachment from the world and everything in it…except her. She felt the terrible sting of his loneliness like it was her own.

She saw flashes of him in battle after battle, returning bloody and beaten to an empty house. Saw tears shining in his eyes, but they never fell. She watched him swallow the pain and wear it as a deserved mark of shame. She felt his anguish and fear for her, but also knew that she, and this moment, was the closest he’d ever been to real love. Then she heard his soul whisper its love for her. Heard it promise to never forget her. Never give up on her.

It wasn’t until she felt the tug of the morning sun that Toni eased her fangs from Drake’s shoulder and looked up at him. She’d never felt more exhausted or complete in her entire life. And when he laid her back on the bed and pulled her tight against his chest, she knew she’d never feel about another man the way she felt about him.

Closing her eyes, she smiled as the stubble of his cheek brushed against her skin. She felt like she should say something to him, but she couldn’t find the words. Her heart had already told him everything she wanted to say.

Drake hugged Toni tight as she drifted off to sleep. Nothing would ever compare to what they’d just shared. Words failed every time he searched for a way to describe it. The only thing he knew was that a part of him had changed because of it…

A part of him had changed because of her.

***

“She’s back in the city, I saw her with my own eyes.”

Natasha Stryker let out a shriek as she snatched up a crystal vase and hurled it across her office. “What do you mean she’s back? She can’t be back!” When her biggest mistake ducked the flying vase just before it would have crashed against his face, she glared at him.

He stood up and brushed the broken shards of glass from his shirt, his brown eyes following her as she moved. “I saw her at The Underground.”

She paced behind her desk. “Jayson, are you sure it was her?”

“Yeah.
She was standing at the bar with Drake Black for a while, but then she disappeared and I saw him carry her out to his car about twenty minutes later. I remember what she looks like. It was definitely her.”

Stryker glanced down at the stack of papers on her desk before slamming her hand against the hardwood. “I can’t believe Christian would let her back into the city. Do you realize what this means? Do you realize how much this could jeopardize the plans I’ve set in motion?”

As usual, he looked completely oblivious. “What are you talking about? What plans?”

“Don’t worry about my plans, Jayson. You can’t even manage to eat without getting caught, let alone think about anything that isn’t right in front of your face!”

She watched as Jayson slid his ebony skinned, six foot four inch leather clad body into one of the chairs on the other side of her desk. His black dreadlocks hung in his face as he lowered his head. She crumpled a piece of paper and threw it at him. He would be the last time she’d ever bring someone across because they had decent street contacts and the body of an Adonis.

He looked up at her when the white ball landed in his lap. “How was I supposed to know the girl was a hemophiliac? It’s not like her medical history was stamped on her ass or something. It’s not like picking out a steak at the supermarket.”

Oh, the stupidity of Fledglings.
She leaned forward and braced her hands on the desk. “You’re damn lucky Brick didn’t beat you and drag you to Christian after the mess he and his team of misfits had to clean up.”

“Brick didn’t beat me because I called him the minute I realized I couldn’t heal her wound and the bleeding wouldn’t stop. And he didn’t drag me to Lord Locke because I tried to control everyone’s mind the best I could. I tried to save the Veil until he got there.”

“You shouldn’t have called Brick. You should have called me! Why in the world would you go to another family for help? Have you lost what’s left of your hood-rat mind? Do you realize what this is going to cost me in terms of favors?”

The little bastard actually found the spine to glare at her. “I went to another family because you were off at some secret meeting and wouldn’t answer your phone!”

Oh, this just wouldn’t do. Calling on her blood for speed, Stryker whipped around the desk and wrenched Jayson out of the chair. She purposely waited to slam him back against the wall until his feet were a full foot above the floor. “Because of you, Christian and the idiots he calls Enforcement are going to be crawling all over my ass.” She
bared
her fangs at him, pleased only when he winced. “So help me Jayson, if you cause my plans to fail – I’ll personally arrange your meeting with the sun.”

After forcing him to the floor, she stood over him. Her pathetic excuse for a Child was now exactly where he belonged – at her feet. “If you wish to remain in this world, I suggest you find out why the little Spanish whore is back in this city. And I don’t care what you have to do to get the information, but you better have an answer for me in the next 48 hours.” She took a step backwards. “Now get your worthless ass off of my expensive Italian tiles.”

Jayson kicked himself to his feet then hurried out of the room. Even a vampire lost the “badass” quality while scurrying.

She shook her head as she moved to stare out the window behind her desk. Why would Christian allow Toni Tutoro back into the city? What was he planning?

What kind of nonsense was he trying to pull?

Stryker let loose with a shriek as the animal inside her lashed out. She wouldn’t let him get away with this. He was going to die! No matter who tried to save him, no matter who she had to pay – Christian Locke was going to find himself on the wrong end of a wolf’s claws if it was the last thing she ever did!

It wasn’t until she caught sight of Jayson in the window as he climbed into his Viper and sped off that she remembered exactly what he’d said. Toni was with Drake Black…

Stryker cackled as she walked over to the bar and poured herself a stiff drink, the wheels in her mind practically smoking. There had to be an open contract on Toni. That was the only reason why Oktober’s best friend would be with her. And Christian must have allowed her to come back so that Drake could fulfill the contract, which would be yet another point against him that she could use when she took his place.

For some inexplicable reason, a number of vampires in the city, both old and young, liked that little bitch. And when they found out Christian had allowed a contract to be taken out on her, they’d cheer his destruction and toast Stryker for permanently removing him from the world.

She smiled as she sank back into her office chair. Soon, not only would she finally be rid of Christian, but she’d put Toni Tutoro in her rightful resting place once and for all.

Stryker lifted her glass and tipped it towards the window in a mock toast. “Here’s to you, Toni and Christian. Your days are numbered.”

Chapter 13

Sensing the weight lift from her body, Toni’s eyes fluttered open just as the moon forced the sun from the sky. And for the first time in three long years – she wasn’t tired. She felt warm, rested, and safe in the arms of the man she knew she was falling in love with.

Drake’s inviting scent drifted in the air all around her, clinging to her body as though it was as much a part of her as he was now. And a part of her he was, because she sensed his essence inside her, felt his happiness coursing through her veins. She pressed her lips together when she also sensed something hot and rather hard nestled between her thighs.