His Mortal Soul (3 page)

Kieran's arm quivered, his body slumped. “I could never hurt you,
mo lon dubh
. Never.” He staggered on all fours, placed his hand on the door behind her and moved his body upward along the surface, an arm on each side of her.

She pressed her back into the door and her palms flat against it. Excitement, not panic, rushed from her head to the tips of her toes.

The coolness of him whirled against her in bursts like gusts of artic wind. Yet being near him soothed her.

"You are perfect.” He lifted his hand and paused, hovering over her cheek. “I should go.” His eyes filled with sadness.

She wanted to know what his touch would feel like. To replace the hurt in his gaze with her. Was she grasping, or behaving desperately because of what had happened to her? The connection to him might be in her head. Then, why had he come to her aid? He could have kept walking. If he didn't feel the draw he had on her she'd soon show him.

"Please don't...” Even if this was the last thing she ever knew on Earth, just once she wanted to taste her own true passion for another. Him. Tears blurred her vision. She gathered his large hand into both of hers and skimmed his palm over her cheek. His coolness ignited her flesh.

He gasped. “And what, Sephora?” he asked. His tone had softened and his hand still cupped her face. “Tomorrow is my ordination."

That meant he'd become a priest tomorrow. All she had left was this moment with him. “One night of bliss.” She leaned into his body. “Please ... I need to take back what was stolen from me."

"And what's that,
mo lon dubh
?"

Maybe if she told him enough he'd stay. If she told him too much he'd run. “My body.” She held her breath and waited.

He slid his thumb slowly along the edge of her bottom lip. “You don't know what you are asking of me.” The intensity of his emotions cast shadows in his eyes. “I'm tainted—cursed. I don't want to put that upon you."

It couldn't be worse than what she had already survived with those demons. She needed this with him. “I want to be consumed by you. By the power you bestow upon me with a mere gaze."

"You are magnificent.” The coolness of his skin was just beyond her, working its magic.

Delicious shivers shot upward from where he caressed her lip, bringing heat to her cheeks. “Don't make me beg.” The way Matt and Alec had forced her to, only to laugh at her. “Please.” Matt had held her down, letting Alec go first.

Kieran bucked forward into her. “Sephora, stay with me...” he said against her neck. Awareness rushed over her skin, spreading in a hot, ever widening, deepening flood of sensation. “I'll never make you plead for what's already yours. All I ask is that you stay in the here and now with me. In this moment."

What did that mean? Could he know what went on in her mind? That was impossible ... Wasn't it? “I'm here with you.” She wrapped her arms around him.

He collected her hand in his, brought it to his mouth and nose then glided his lips along her sleeve. “You're scent is madness.” His eyelids opened. Black flickered in the centers of his eyes. “I don't think I'm meant to resist you. And, even if I am, I'm not inclined to if you'll have me, knowing what I am.” He parted his lips and his four eyeteeth elongated. The white teeth gleamed.

She gasped and covered her mouth with her free hand. “A vampire.” Her words were more of a confirmation to herself than a question. Part of her had suspected he wasn't human. There was a gracefulness to his movements and a flawlessness that seemed more than humanly possible, but she didn't care. Even on the bridge that first morning they'd met there had been something about him. He was unforgettable. “Are you going to drain me?"

"No. I haven't—I won't feed from humans.” He rubbed his temple.

If she wasn't food, then what? “But you said you'd never wanted to kill before."

"Not you. Never you. Freckle-face, for how he touched you. I wanted to squeeze the life from him and...” He straightened and met her gaze. “Do I scare you this way?"

She shook her head. Monsters were real, but he wasn't one of them. “I've seen real demons."

"What am I, then?” His blue eyes filled with pain.

"A lost soul maybe, like me.” She cradled his hard body to her.

As he exhaled, cool air blew on her neck. “Do you still want me to touch you?"

Aside from their need for blood, she wasn't under the impression they were different in bed. Given he'd never had a lover, she didn't have anything to live up to. “Yes,” she confessed. More than anything she'd ever desired before. “Do you want this? I'm not innocent. I've..."

How did she explain that she'd been violated without telling him? Men had breached her body but she'd never been intimate with a man.

The desire needed to be mutual. She required that a man want her when she was willing. Not for him to want to take what she didn't want to give. Nor for him to get drunk off the power of her wanting him more than he did her.

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Kieran held her, amazed by her strength and courage. Despite the images of what those two monsters had done to her, she approached him fearlessly.

Not everything about his curse was bad. The heightened ability to see allowed him to pick up the red and yellow pigments of her brown skin. The warm rose color of her lips darkened when he was near, and he was eager to find out if much of the same occurred with her lower ones too. The scent of the cream there told him of her arousal. Another gift from his heightened senses.

"Not this. You,
mo lon dubh
. I've wanted you since I set eyes on you at the bridge.” He lowered his voice. It was why he followed her. She spent most of her time alone. Except for in the last few days, she appeared to be trying to fit in.

Those black eyes of hers drew him into her. With his thumb, he parted her lips. Her warm breath passed over his skin, rushing through his veins and to his cock. Every inch of him tensed.

The tip of her tongue slid over and around his finger. “Mmm.” An instant blaze darkened her sinful eyes.

He replaced his thumb with his lips and sucked in the taste of her breath, filling his lungs with the scent of fruit mixed with alcohol. The soft skin beneath his mouth ceded to the force of his need, yielding to him. She tucked her body into the shelter of his.

"
Mo lon dubh
,” he forced out. Raw with need, he reached behind her thighs, lifting her into his arms.

She spread her legs around his waist and met his tongue with hers. The sharp edge of her teeth dug into his tender flesh. Heat from her exhaled breaths engulfed him. He needed to keep control of the demon lurking within him. If it took over in a moment of surrender, he could hurt her.

She rocked against the hardness of his length. The scent of sweet feminine arousal rose from between her thighs, her core.

He could hear the blood pump through her body like a freight train, wanting him to intercept. At least, that was what the demon would have him believe.

"Tonight is all I can offer, and all I'll ever have, so please let me take my time—savor every second of knowing you this way.” He carried her to the bed, and slid onto it with her beneath him.

Never losing sight of his eyes, she nodded.

"Say yes, Kieran,” he asked of her. It mattered that she chose to share herself with him. This had to be more than her seeking out a stranger, someone she believed knew nothing about what she'd been through. He wanted it to be about her wanting him as a man. A lover equal to her, able to mirror her passion. If not now, then by the end of the night, he wanted to earn her heart.

The corners of her mouth curled upward. “Yes, Kieran."

His cock jerked with anticipation at her words. He fumbled for the bottom of her shirt and tugged it up, exposing her rib cage and white lacy bra. Her dark, velvety-smooth skin contrasted with the pale material and the hard buds of her nipples pressed against the sheer fabric. Light from the window lit her eyes and illuminated the quirk at the corner of her mouth. What was she thinking? Did she worry he wouldn't know his way around a woman's body because of his lack of experience? He knew how to love a woman, the physical aspects one could learn on the internet.

He knelt, lifted off his shirt and discarded it. Warmth from her body sizzled into him like the ocean's tide hissed upon the shore. He needed to have his flesh flush against hers. “Sephora, you are perfection.” He kissed between her breasts, downward to the waist of her pants.

She pressed her weight into her heels and lifted her bottom. Using his fingers, he rolled down the skintight material, past her shoes and tossed it. With her dark thick thighs, she hugged his abdomen and sides. Her femoral artery rushed with blood. He pressed his thumb to the pulsing vessel. Lightning coursed through him. He forced his caress to the white lace covering the triangle between her legs.

"Are you ready to quench my thirst for you?"

With her eyes wide, she nodded.

"What's the proper response?” he asked. Did she know what he wanted to hear her say?

"Yes, Kieran.” Her voice lowered to a sultry tone.

As he slid the thin lace along her thighs, he groaned at the fragrance of her innermost juices.

"I can't wait to taste you.” He skimmed his lips down from her navel to the trimmed hairs then to the split of her labia. “You want me to savor you, don't you?"

"Yes, Kieran.” She did understand how he wanted her to respond to him.

He parted her labia, bronze folds with pink inner lips that gleamed with her excitement. She desired him, his body. “Your scent is so enticing."

Propped up by a pillow, she watched him.

He descended with his eyes fixed to hers and slid his tongue between the smooth bronze folds. Her tang met with his mouth, coating his lips, and he drank her in.

She slid her fingers into his hair and held on, possibly desiring to be anchored to him during the exchange, and it warmed his heart.

The fragrance of her yearning filled him with more need than he'd ever known. More than the blood thirst. He lowered into the dip of her opening and swallowed back the taste of her. “I'm not going to stop until you scream my name like it's the last you'll ever speak.” The words came from deep inside him, a longing for someone with whom he could never part. Nor who wanted to part with him. He'd never even known how badly he'd wanted to fill another's world with joy.

She gasped and jerked against his mouth's caress. Her delicate flesh quivered in surrender, and he suckled her inner labia.

With his tongue, he sailed back to her bead of flesh. A whimper escaped her. He ground his cock into her bed, working himself to feverish state. But he would not enter her body in a moment of madness. Back and forth, he moved over her swollen button. The pretty inner pink of her folds grew to a deeper shade of rose. In a clockwise circle, he traced its outer edge. Each pass around, he sped his stimulation and let out a groan. The sound was muffled against her slick flesh. More moisture gathered lower. He licked up her cream, then found his way back to her clit.

She gripped the blankets beneath her and pressed her sex to his mouth. “Yesss."

Round and round, he massaged her bead with his tongue. “More,
mo lon dubh
?"

"Yes, Kieran.” Warmed by her openness in revealing her need to him, he held onto her.

He lifted her hips to give him better access to her innermost flavor. “As you wish...” Her smooth folds parted as he tongued the entrance to her core.

With her nails, she clutched the covers. “Ohhh!"

"Mmm, entrust me with your every desire.” He licked her opening in and out, and her inner muscles spread for his tongue's intrusion.

She parted her legs further and relaxed into his arms. From her sounds, she would soon let him savor her satisfaction. Light glistened off the pink of her core lips. He slid up to her clit. Back and forth, he flicked with his tongue. His laps were like strokes from his heart. The bead beneath his lips thumped, pounding a rhythm to his stimulus down into his cock.

"Kieran,” she cried out. The raw pitch of her voice only elevated his yearning to see how far he could push her through the delight.

She jerked, her sex pressed to his mouth. “Kieran...” Quakes made the muscles of her thighs quiver.

Fluid gathered at her entrance, and he suckled her ecstasy from her silky folds. He swallowed. Sweetness washed over his tongue. “Your taste is heavenly when you come."

Her essence coated him in her sweetness. He crawled up, lay next to her and pulled her to his body. Moonlight bathed her curves. She still wore her socks, shoes, and her shirt was bunched up at her collarbone, which brought a smile to his lips.

"What?” she asked. A note of concern laced her tone.

"I hope you can forgive my haste, but I couldn't bear not eating you whole a moment longer. I failed to remove your socks and shoes.” He tucked a curl behind her ear.

She kissed him on his lips. Magnificence. That was what she was to him.

He slid his tongue into her mouth, allowing her to share in the ecstasy coating him. A soft moan faded between their lips. He cupped her breast, and with his thumb, strummed her hard bud beneath the lace. Perfection lay before him. His stiff length wanted satisfaction. He pulled back, wanting to assess if she was ready for more.

"That was amazing.” She smiled.

It was good to know his performance hadn't disappointed her.

She curled up to his chest and pressed her lips to his ear. Her breathing slowed. “Kieran?” Heat deepened the pitch of her voice.

"Yes, Sephora.” He pulled her tight to him. Since the loss of his parents he'd had no comfort like this, and nothing felt better than having her in his arms.

"If I wanted you to bite me ... Would you?” She rubbed her cheek on his.

His heart slammed into his chest. He shifted, tilted up her chin and met her gaze. “Bite you how?"

"It's just that it's always portrayed as very sexy in the movies, on TV and in books. And I'd like to share that experience with you, especially given that you haven't done it yet."

"You mean for me to drink from you?” The moment the words left his mouth, though he knew he shouldn't, the hunger inside him couldn't resist. The demon would win this battle. If she was willing, it wasn't really a crime for him to drink from her. Was it? But would he know when to stop, since he'd yet to do it? He wasn't sure what would happen.