Kiss Me Deadly (7 page)

Her aim fell away.

It was the moment Nikolaus required.

He lunged onto the bed and tore the towel away from her hips. The pistol landed on the pillow. One push and she landed on her back. Before she had time to react, he grabbed her behind the knees and pressed himself upon her. “This is happening, Ravin. Don’t make it a chore.”

“You call sex a chore? Oh, now, that’s romantic. Try adding rape to your list of seductions.”

“No, I didn’t mean…” He released her legs and rolled to his back to lie next to her. The textured ceiling sparkled with glints of sunshine that peeked through the tops of the shades. Not direct; he could not be burned. “I don’t want to force you.”

“Then take a hike.” She sat up, going for the towel again. “And please, cover that thing up.” She waved at his groin.

“Does it interest you?”

“No!”

“I think it does.”

He gripped a hank of her wet hair and pulled her back. Twisting his leg over her hips, he pinned her shoulders into the thick bedding. Gliding his tongue from her shoulder down to her breasts, he managed a cry from her as he tugged at her nipple without using his teeth.

“You like that,” he murmured. “That wasn’t a moan of disgust.”

“I…”

Guiding her hand lower, he placed it around his cock. She didn’t let go, but didn’t tighten her grip. Nikolaus felt himself thicken against her palm.

“You want what I can give you, sweetness.”

“This is insane.”

He walked his tongue up her neck and kissed her. Fingers compressed about him, tugging slightly.

“I would never force you, Ravin. I swear it to you.” He clasped a hand about hers, and when he thought to direct her, she began to slowly slide her palm up and down him. Expelling a tight breath against her neck, he whispered, “You want this?”

Mutely, she nodded.

I
t was happening, and it was so wrong. But Ravin couldn’t summon a single protest. Because it didn’t
feel
wrong. Not physically. Desire, long muffled and shoved aside, began to unfurl. A wanting need she’d once fed, but had learned to starve, gasped. Hell, this was not something she wanted to fight.

This man knew her body. There wasn’t a touch, glide, lick or kiss that didn’t hit the center of the target.

Should she distract herself by thinking of reality, of what was really happening?

There were just some things a woman—if she were smart—should not refuse. Like gorgeous roses. Expensive jewels. Or a roughly erotic session of petting and kissing.

Because she was already there. The orgasm snuck up without warning. It circled like a tiny hurricane right there at the pinnacle of her nerve endings, building, preparing, ready for release.

He had only touched her breasts. Kissed her, yes. There. And there, and oh, right there beneath the curve of her breast. And what he did now with his tongue, tracing it roughly over her nipple, and then barely flicking at it—oh.

And here she lay, arms sliding above her head and across the quilt, ready to rip away the protective barriers she had put up over the decades to fly free in a man’s arms.

A struggle with her conscience could be set aside for later. Now was for feeling the sensations she had denied herself through intense and determined dedication to her work. Extreme pleasure could be hers. She’d not lost the ability to reach that indescribably intense release.

Ravin lost her breath.

She’d take his.

Drawing down his head, she kissed her lover as she’d never kissed before. With intent. With urgency. With knowing.

This is wrong.

Her balance was bottoming out, sinking into the dregs of the darkness.

She didn’t care. All she wanted, right now, was to surrender.

Arching her back and raking her fingers through Nikolaus’s glossy hair, she cried out as the vampire mastered her body.

Though the vinyl shades let in much sunlight around the curved and torn edges, none of the rays beamed lower than standing-head-level above the bed. It was like lying beneath a criss-cross of laser beams used to protect museums from burglars, Nikolaus mused.

He wasn’t worried. He never slept more than a few hours a day and sometimes even left the electrochromic shades open in his home because he had never denied himself the sight of the sky during the day. Sun, his desire, his killer.

It didn’t take long, just minutes before a vampire’s flesh would begin to burn in sunlight. He’d learned his lesson the first time he’d arrogantly thought to test it by striding outside on a hot July afternoon. But unless a sunbeam hit him directly, he was good to go.

So here he lay. Next to a witch.

Everything was wrong about this picture, and yet it didn’t disturb him at all. There was something about this witch he loved, and obviously it was enough to make him look beyond the learned fear.

Ravin Crosse could not harm him, so he could not hate her. And why did he hate all the rest? Simply because they
could
harm him? That was akin to a man hating a certain race of people because one day, one of them may decide to harm him.

Interesting. He’d never been one to jump on a bandwagon, or to follow blindly, and yet he’d accepted the vampires’ hatred for witches as part of the package.

Stretching out a leg and shifting onto his side, Nikolaus tilted his head into the soft nest of Ravin’s hair littered across his shoulder. Smelled like coconuts, kind of beachy and fresh.

“God, I’d love to go to the beach again someday,” he muttered. “Make sand castles. Swim in the ocean.”

“Fry in the sun,” she murmured. “You got a death wish, Drake?”

So she wasn’t sleeping. He hadn’t been sure, so silent she’d become, nestled beside him, her eyes closed and her breathing even slower than his.

“Not at the moment, though I’m sure you’ll hook me up should the urge ever strike.”

“You know it.”

“Do you regret what we just did?”

“It’s not what I want,” she muttered. “I hate you.”

“I wasn’t getting the hate vibe when I was pumping inside of you, sweetness.”

She tapped a finger against his torso. Nikolaus sucked in a breath. No one had touched his scars, save Gabriel, and that had been purely for restorative purposes.

“If I say yes, I do regret it,” she said on a sigh, “I’m not sure if I’d be lying to myself. The sex was good, there’s no denying that.”

“I figured after about the third orgasm you were pretty pleased.”

“Call it surprised that a man would even care to give a woman such attention.”

She traced a fingertip from his ribs to just below his armpit. Nikolaus couldn’t feel the entire journey, for some of the scars were simply too thick. “I did this.”

Not a question. Was she admiring her handiwork?

“The first few weeks you could see organs,” he said, leaning in to kiss her on the forehead.

“And you can lie here now, calmly kiss me on the head, and forget the pain?”

“You got it, sweetness. Can we do it again?”

He nudged a leg between hers to clue her into his growing arousal.

Following the heat scent of her blood, he licked a trail across her neck and gave her a hard—but toothless—bite on the thick carotid artery.

“Hey, vampire, be careful. No teeth.”

“I won’t bite. But if I did, there’s nothing to worry about.”

Her shove did little more than zing one of his nipples, for Nikolaus wasn’t going to be pushed away. “Maybe not for you, but being bitten hurts, you know. My neck still aches.”

“It’s supposed to be pleasurable.”

“Eventually, sure. You ever get bitten by a wolf?”

“Almost.” He was faster than the loping weres that were more bark than bite.

“Well, it’s the same. Teeth cutting through flesh and muscle, and oftentimes tearing. Very painful.”

“Sorry.” He rested his chin upon her diaphragm, tilting his head to nudge his cheek against her breast. “Forgive me?”

Her sighs made him wonder about her regrets. She had them, but maybe she just didn’t know how to deal with them. He intended to waylay her concerns for as long as physically possible.

“A vampire is asking forgiveness for biting me?” she wondered.

“Couldn’t have been any more painful than receiving these dreadful marks.” He traced the lowest of the three tally lines that were nestled across the bottom of her rib cage. “I wish I could kiss away the pain.”

“Yeah, and I wish I could kick you out of my bed. Here I am, lying naked, allowing a vampire to make love to me. Not even allowing, more like…”

“Participating?”

“Yeah, what you said.”

“Denial is usually a cry for more experience, sweetness. If I have to make love to you another eight hours, I’ll do so.”

She giggled as the touch of his tongue sent a shiver of thrill through her system. “Oh, I can’t believe I did that.”

“Laugh?” He moved lower, drawing a glistening trail in his wake as his tongue marked out a path on her stomach. “I bet that’s something you haven’t done for years.”

“Try decades, maybe longer. Never had much to laugh about.”

“Your other lovers not make you laugh?”

“Oh, no, you’re not getting details. Ooh…yes.”

“Do that again—that moan,” he said against her belly. “Let me hear how much you like what I’m doing to you.”

“Drake, I—” Ravin surrendered to the giddy sparkle of sensation as Nikolaus moved lower.

Intent on a gentle stroking cruise of her inhibitions, he vanquished them quickly. He loved to feel her fingers rake through his hair, grip it tight, then tug as her body arched and surrendered to yet another no-holds-barred orgasm.

Spreading his hand across her stomach, he closed his eyes and propping his chin on her hip bone, followed the ride as her muscles tightened and released and the pleasure worked her body at its own volition.

This one really surrendered to the flight. She let out her voice and rode the wave, unembarrassed to give him a glimpse of the marvelous woman who really knew how to take pleasure and give it, too.

A few giggles slipped out in the wake of her climax, and Ravin finally managed to say breathlessly, “Have you used reverie on me?”

“Never.” Sliding up alongside her, he stroked stray hairs from her eyelashes.

The reverie was a way to seduce and calm the vampire’s victim by matching the pace of their heartbeats. Once matched, there was a certain persuasion the vampire could exercise upon his victim’s thoughts. Most often Nikolaus used it to persuade his victims that nothing had happened, no more than a sore neck, and they would never recall the dark stranger’s face, voice, or drinking bite.

“You want me to?”

“No,” she said. “I don’t need persuasion.”

“Not even this kind?”

Pinching her nipple, he then sucked the hard peak.

“Drake, you’re killing me.”

“I owe you one.”

She smirked. “You make it so difficult to concentrate, to want to…”

“Come again?”

“Hate you.”

He sensed her determination. The fight would not leave the slayer. But she reacted to his touch—likely against her better judgment—and spread her legs. Nikolaus slid inside her.

The heat and the squeezing tightness of her coaxed him to a quick release. Nikolaus scooped up Ravin under the shoulders and brought her to his chest to hold close. Loose and relaxed, she let him embrace her longer than was necessary. He didn’t want to lose hold of her, to stop this sweet moment. A victory he’d been wanting for months.

“Looks like there’s a new slayer in town,” he said.

He’d killed the witch. And he would kill her again, with orgasms, over and over until she cried for mercy.

She’d made love with a vampire. All freakin’ day.

Ravin lay in bed—next to a vampire. And she didn’t feel compelled to jump away and grab for the stake.

And yet…

“This is not how it should be,” she murmured.

Despite her reluctance, Ravin moved her littlest finger, which traced the smooth muscle of Nikolaus’s powerful thigh. Wandering higher, she drew along the edge of a scythed black curve that formed a sharp tip on the elaborate tribal tattoo positioned mid-back and stretching up from shoulder to shoulder, and wrapping the back of his neck, and—she could guess—across his scalp.

Must have always been a tough character, because he had to have got this tattoo
before
becoming a vamp. Vamps couldn’t get inked because their incredible healing abilities would push out the design within hours of the painful process.

Who was the man beneath the vampire exterior? What had he been before his transformation? How long ago had it happened?

Oh! She did not care. She didn’t!

“Of course.” The sheets slithered as he moved in to whisper lazily against her ear, “I should be romancing you.”

“No, I didn’t mean it that way.” The heat of his breath started that funny swirling feeling in her chest again. Her heart raced and she wanted to—

Suddenly the warmth of his presence moved away as Nikolaus sat up. Ravin slid her hand over the sheet, but then quickly tugged it back to wrap across her stomach.

Where are you going? was the question she wanted to ask, but she didn’t want him to think it mattered.

“We’ve been making love all day. Damn, lazing around in your arms? That felt good,” he said. “But it’s night.”

“Ah. That makes you a free man. Have you been counting the minutes until sunset?”

“No. I have a driver. I can leave whenever I wish.”

“You mean last night when I wanted you to leave? When I was in the shower…?”

“Yes.” He shot her the rogue’s wink over his shoulder. “I’ll go now. I have something to do.”

His exit from the bed left a warm hollow against Ravin’s back. Too quickly it cooled. She turned away and didn’t watch as she listened to the man pull up his pants and button his shirt. Well-worn leather pants and a dark cotton shirt conformed to his every muscle and bulging bicep.

Mmm, Ravin snuggled her head into the pillow and closed her eyes. After sex always left her drowsy and sated. An entire day of sex left her depleted, but giddy. Like alchemy, he’d performed sex magic on her. Incredible sex. Really. She’d never before had the like.

The thought that she should be arming herself and blasting away at a vampire left as quickly as it had disturbed her.

He leaned in to plant a kiss on her eyelid, and she snuggled into a tight ball of smiling comfort. “Think you can make it until I return?”

“Return?”

“Nothing could keep me from your warm bed, sweetness. I’ll give you a chance to catch some shut-eye, and then be back for round two. Or did we already do round two?”