Love Is Fear (15 page)

“
I do not make the same mistake twice, my Valkyrie,” he said, his voice a mixture of lust and triumph.

His mouth was on hers instantly, demanding she open to him. And she did, twining her arms around his neck, relaxing every part of her, letting him take her weight and keep her safe. He held her flush against his chest, and she felt the world shimmer, as he took them somewhere else.

She opened her eyes—his bedroom.

His tongue met hers, lightly, gently. And then he picked her up, wrapping her legs around his waist effortlessly, still kissing her with such slow, sweet passion that she couldn’t even think about fighting or stopping.

With a hand on her back, he lowered them to his bed, his heavy body settling over her. His elbows were next to her head, and he was watching his hand smooth her hair away from her temple. He wasn’t smiling, didn’t look triumphant, more contemplative more than anything. And she felt… everything.

His head lowered to hers, eyes open, almost daring her to look away from him. It was predatory, determined, the focus more than a man who’s about to have sex…this was primal. He was going to make his mark on her.

“
You will go nowhere else. You will 
want
 no one else.” He pressed her close to him, making sure she felt the hard ridge of his erection through her clothes. “When I am done with you, you will be ruined for other men.” Lucas kissed her slowly, his tongue in her mouth, his hand sliding down her side to her hip, gripping it and then the span of flesh on her upper thigh, where her skin was sensitive, hardwired to the core of her body. From a long way away, she heard herself cry out in need—and she didn’t care.

His hand came back up to her chest, not touching her breast, but settling firmly underneath it, along her ribcage, almost burning a hole through her clothing.

It built her expectation—that hand settled on her as she waited for what would come next. What he would do next. His patience drove her crazy, the feel of his body on top of hers and the slow kiss as his tongue fucked hers. Every move was gentle and languid while her body wanted faster, more, everything.

Her breathing changed, body becoming restless, and she made a noise, urging him onwards and needing him to move. Her arms tightened around his neck, trying to bring him closer. Lucas shifted, hips pressing more firmly between her legs, so that all she felt was the steady throb and pulse of her core against his cock.

He surrounded her: his heavy weight on hers, that large hand that he wouldn’t move, his taste and smell. There was nothing beyond him. He kissed her endlessly, and with each exhale she climbed higher, wound tighter.

And somewhere in the midst of her growing need she recognized the deliberateness of his actions. That with each exhale he was a little closer, increasing the pressure of his erection against her center minutely, so that she was closer and closer to the edge of orgasm—without him doing much of anything.

In some distant part of her, she knew that he was teaching her a lesson, proving to her that he could make her come, with only the barest touch of his body on hers. Even now he was scheming, ensuring she understood how much pleasure he could give her. More than any mortal man ever could.

Jerk!

She trembled and gasped into his mouth. Dimly aware that she should protest, maybe even slap him because he was so damned egotistical. But she was so 
close. 
One more breath, and she’d be there.

Val arched her hips against him and froze. A series of sweet, sharp bursts resonating through her as she cried out beneath him and came. His mouth slanted over hers, claiming everything, including the sound of her release. She felt him around her, could smell his cologne and clean skin, feel the slight abrasion of his chin against hers. Everything crystallized, the fog of lust that had gripped her from the moment he’d twined his hand in her hair, receding a little.

Damn him! It worked!

His lips were slightly swollen from kissing. His look was beyond knowing—it was the expression a predator shows its prey before batting it around a little. Was that the look he wore before he killed someone? A look that made a promise—that if she gave in, he’d make it good.

Make the death so sweet, she might beg him for it.

He pushed away from her, so that he stood next to the bed. He took off his shirt, and she looked at his chest. Smooth, pale and muscled. He still wore his jeans—the outline of his erection huge, hard and ready. She needed it, and him, inside of her now.

Always.

Lucas leaned forward and unsnapped her jeans, pulling them off of her, leaving her underwear on. Then he extended his hand, and she took it, let him pull her up a little as he pulled her shirt over her head, tossing it to the ground beside them. Val sat there, in Lucas’ bedroom, clad only in her pink bra and underpants while he looked at her intently.

“
I am going to make you come again,” he said, and his hands settled on her raised knees, slid along the tops of her thighs to her inner thighs. His words sizzled over her, her inner muscles clenching, the empty feeling inside of her becoming an ache. He pushed her legs open, leaving her underwear on, his weight over her again as he settled between her legs, notching deep into the vee of her legs.

“
I need you inside me,” she said, near whimpering.

His body was taut, every inch of him like satin over steel. She moved under him, her body open and ready. She tilted her hips, wanting him to feel how soft and wet she was, like he’d feel it even through the layers of clothing. She kissed his neck, and then opened her mouth over his jugular as though she was going to bite down on him. Val knew he liked that, had done it to him once before, and it had almost made him lose control.

This 
time she’d make it happen. He wanted to make a demonstration of her desire? That he could make her come with a touch? Fine. She could do it too. She’d break his will right back.

She bit down, felt a shudder run through him, and gasped against his flesh. Her hands slid along his jaw, hands grabbing his head, forcing a kiss on him as she cried out his name, pouring the words into his mouth: “Take me, I need you. Please, Lucas. Please.” Her hands slid down to his buttocks. The muscles bunched under her fingers and she tried to urge him closer still.

His brows drew down into a harsh expression, and he moaned in response. He palmed her hip, thrusting against her, his erection sliding over her clitoris. Her hands were between them, and she grabbed his cock through his clothing, then fumbled with the buttons of his jeans.

He jerked away from her, taking off the rest of his clothing. His cock was huge and hard, flush against his stomach as he settled back over her.

“
My underwear,” she said.

Lucas smiled slightly and, with the barest tug, he ripped them off of her, tossing them aside. He was over her, breathing hard, looking into her eyes as he took her hand between both their bodies, wrapped it around his cock, his fingers and the velvet slide of his shaft poised at the gate of her body. It was intimate and surreal, doing this together, focusing on the fact that they were both invested in the pleasure that was to come.

She felt the strain in his muscles and in her own as they lingered in that moment before they did something irrevocable. He pushed against her gently, giving her time to get used to his width.

He kissed her again, and then said, lips still on her mouth, “I want to bury myself in you. One hard thrust and sink home, so you know that you are mine.”

His nostrils flared as he worked his way into her slowly. Too slowly. She wrapped her legs around his waist and drove her hips up to meet him, felt him lodge tight within her, and then he was moving, fast and hard, his forehead pressed to hers. He kissed her jaw, down the column of her throat, her collarbone. He moved faster, harder into her as she felt his breath on her pulse.

Val squeezed her thighs tight around his hips, clinging to him. She felt his lips kiss the flutter of her neck, his tongue lick her, and then he stopped, leaned back as though he was about to get off of her.

“
No, stay,” she said, and it felt like black smoke coiling through her as she shut her eyes in pleasure and expectation. That part of her—what she thought of as the Empath part of her reached outwards—needing him to bite her.

Eager for him to take her inside of him. Claim him just like he’d been claiming her. She tried to compel him with her body, moving under him, wanting to drive him higher, force him to do it.

She twisted her head, bared her neck to him. Slowly, so slowly, he descended that final inch, lips against her neck, a sound of the deepest pain coming from deep in his throat. His hair fell against her cheek.

The press of his lips on her neck affected her, making her beg him in a broken whisper, “Please, please. Bite me. Take me. Why can’t I be in you, too? Come on. Come on.”

And then the world turned around as he flipped them. She was on top, straddling him while he lay below her, eyes closed, head turned away, gathering himself. His stomach muscles bunched and released as he breathed.

She leaned down, her nipples grazing his chest, then kissed him hard, almost angrily—part of her unhappy that he still had that much control left, that he wouldn’t give her what she wanted on a primal level. But more than that, the Empath in her wanted it. He was denying her, controlling himself and this—every move, kiss and release would be at his direction. Val wanted to give up, give in, let him position her, touch her and bring her anyway he wanted, but then what? If he controlled this too, there would be nothing left of her, 
for
 her.

He looked back at her, voice soft and intimate, slightly ragged, features as soft as they were ever going to be, passion making his skin flushed. Almost, but never quite human. “I could hurt you?” The words were slow, a question, like he couldn’t remember the reason for not biting her either. “You think it’s because I don’t want you. I do. Heaven help us, I do.”

He brought his hands up to her breasts, cupping them gently, thumbs sliding over the hardened peaks. She rose up on her knees, so his shaft was almost out of her completely. His hips lifted, chasing the wet heat of her body, pulling her back down as he pumped into her.

She shook her head and lifted up again. “You tell me I’m your weakness, but you’re not weak.”

“
You can have anything else you want. I cannot let us do that.” His hand slipped between her legs, finding her wet and hot, soaking. He flicked her, stroked her, worked on bringing her again.

His voice was a low scrape of sound, a vulgar whisper in the dark. “I know why you want it. I want that too. I want to drink you down and feel you burn through me. Then I could make you mine in every way. Have you here with my cock.” He pulled her down onto him, sinking deep, and she cried out at the pleasure, writhing against him. “And here.” His hand came up, cupping her neck, his thumb brushing her collarbone. “I want to mark you, take you. It is not only you that feels denied. There is an emptiness in me, too, and you could fill it.”

He licked his lips. “The Others have always been thieves—vampires take lives, the Fey take happiness, Witches take from the elements. But an Empath takes emotion. That is their delight and torment. To take pleasure and pain, all the variations therein, and play with them.” His eyes were on her neck again.

He shook his head almost sadly, and then he held her face gently in his hands as he moved under her, grinding the base of his cock against her core. “But you can tell me.” He smiled at her, no teeth, a scornful smile. The smile of a villain. “Tell me what would happen to me if I drank you down.”

She rocked forward, and he groaned, eyes closing and flashing open to hers. Her fingers sought his, twining with them. “I’d own you,” she breathed, pressing her breasts flush to his chest, enjoying the rightness of the words.

Lucas laughed, an unfamiliar and peculiarly happy sound. Then he looked at her steadily. “That is something I will never deny.”

“
I want more.” Val said, eyes already tracing his body, feeling wet, ready and expectant.

He smiled.

Chapter 
15

His lips felt numb and his whole body was slightly…off. He licked his lips, felt how she watched him. Her gaze snapping to his mouth. It made his heart pound, sent blood rushing to his cock. Her expression changed from satisfaction to hunger. Lucas closed his eyes, needed a moment. He could still hear her cries echoing in his ears, still felt the slight tremors of her body milking his shaft.

Every piece of him felt different. His heart seemed to beat differently, every nerve is his body was 
warm
. And his skin…he felt the bed sheets in places that he never had before. The way it wrapped around his leg, brushing the back of his knee. How had he never noticed?

Lucas wondered if he should tell her that even her kisses affected him. She thought she was getting nothing from him, that he was not compromising. But every kiss and lick, every fuck, every time he tasted her, part of her seeped into him.

It wasn’t a lot. Like trying to survive on raindrops in the jungle—it prolonged the inevitable.

A slower way to die.