Lucas (26 page)

Lucas smiled against her soft cheek, smugly satisfied with
himself
as he continued to pump his cock in and out. Her body was so hot, so wet and soft. He wanted to fuck her for hours. He wanted to make her scream in ecstasy until she had no voice left.

He kissed her again, forcing her lips to part beneath his, her breath coming in pants as she groaned over and over, the sounds coming from deep in her chest. Lucas flicked his tongue up and stabbed one of his fangs deep enough into his own flesh that blood welled up instantly. Not the tiny drop that Kathryn had bled, but a steady flow. He coated her mouth and tongue with his blood, giving her no choice but to drink. Not that she fought it. Kathryn got that first tiny taste of his blood and began to swallow greedily, her tongue twisting around his, sucking hard, then sweeping every drop of it from her mouth, and pushing into his to claim the rest.

Her moans became a needy keen as his blood hit her throat and was absorbed into her bloodstream. She began bucking beneath him, murmuring his name over and over again like a
mantra .
 . . or a prayer. Lucas growled and slammed his hips into hers, his cock growing impossibly hard as her body closed around him, as she scraped her dull nails up his back and dug strong fingers into his shoulders.

Lucas licked the side of her neck, wanting another taste of her blood, waiting
for .
 . .

“Do it,” she whispered, her voice a rasp of need. “Do it, do it, do it, damn it!”

Lucas sank his fangs into her neck with no further warning. With the first hit of the euphoric in his bite, Kathryn’s entire body seized around him, her back arching to press her beautiful breasts against his chest, thighs tightening around his hips as her pussy grabbed hold of his cock and didn’t let go.

Lucas snarled against the skin of her neck, his fangs still buried in her vein. His cock bucked, trying to dig deeper into her body. His balls tightened, pressure building as his own climax roared down upon him, irresistible, hot, demanding. He shoved his cock past the trembling grip of her vaginal walls, burying himself inside her until he could go no further, and then he was coming, pumping almost mindlessly as he filled Kathryn’s womb with his hot release, searing his claim to her inside and out. And God save anyone who tried to take her from him.

* * * *

Kathryn was becoming one with the mattress. She couldn’t move.
Didn’t want to.
Had she ever in her life felt so satisfied, so utterly sated? Something twitched deep inside her, sending a fresh ripple of pleasure out to tweak her clit one more time. She bit back a groan. Is this what having sex with a vampire did to a woman? Turned her into a sex machine? She almost groaned again, but this time the groan was because she’d even
thought
the words
sex machine
. Next she’d be hearing cheesy background music in her head.

So she’d had sex with a beautiful man, and it had been terrific. Okay, more than terrific.
Life altering.
She should be thanking her lucky stars instead of bemoaning the fact that she’d climaxed three times in one night, which was probably more times than in all of the last five years combined, not counting her trusty vibrator. And Lucas was far, far better than her vibrator. The man was a god. No, actually, he was a vampire. No wonder all those women at the club were squealing like hungry pigs when those big, bad boys had walked in. Not, she was sure, that any of them could hold a candle to her Lucas.

Her
Lucas?
When had be become
her
Lucas?

Good thing she was leaving tomorrow, or rather later this morning. She couldn’t afford to get tangled up with a man or a vampire, especially not one who lived in
South Dakota
and currently had an insufferably smug look on his face.

She narrowed her eyes at him, but he just grinned back at her and flexed his perfect ass one more time. She couldn’t help it. Her body responded
,
squeezing his cock and making her nipples harden like puffy, pink pearls.

“Insufferable,” she muttered.

“At least,” he agreed readily.

Kathryn fought it, but she laughed,
then
slapped his butt. “Get off of me. You weigh a ton.”

Lucas rolled away cheerfully, wrapping his arms around her so she came with him. He patted her ass in turn and kissed her swollen lips.

“You’re delicious, Kathryn Hunter.”

Kathryn lowered her head so he wouldn’t see her blush of pleasure. No one had ever told her she was delicious. For that matter, she’d never even
felt
delicious before. But at this moment, she did. Lucas had done that.

Time to change the subject.

She raised her head from his chest and met his steady gaze. “What is it with your eyes?” she asked. “They go completely gold sometimes, and I think they actually give off light.”

“They do,” he agreed. “It’s a vampire thing. When our power comes up, or when we see something we lust after,” he added, lifting his hips so she could feel the still-hard length of his cock against her thigh, “our eyes change. The greater the power, or the desire, the brighter they glow.”

“It’s pretty.”

Lucas smiled.

“Are everyone’s eyes the same color? Or does it depend? I mean, your eyes are kind of a
goldish
hazel all the time anyhow. But what if they were blue instead?”

Lucas shrugged. “It’s different for everyone, although most vampires, the rank and file, so to speak, simply gleam red. Those of us with greater power are more unique.”

Kathryn rolled her eyes, although she had to agree that Lucas
was
unique. “So pretty eyes go with being a vampire lord, then,” she said.

“Among other things, yes.”

She studied him for a moment,
then
said seriously, “Lucas.”

“Kathryn,” he mimicked, matching her tone.

“Where did all that blood come from on your pants earlier? And what happened to Nicholas?”

Lucas stared back at her for a long moment, his hand growing still against the skin of her back. She thought he wouldn’t answer, or that he’d come up with another lie, but then he surprised her by saying, “Vampires are territorial, Kathryn.
Viciously, obsessively territorial.
Vampire lords even more so than others.
And we’re violent. It’s in our blood. Whatever it is that makes us Vampire amplifies aggression until it’s a constant thing, something we have to work hard to discipline, so we can function in our day-to-day lives.

“As a vampire lord, I rule a territory. To every side of me, there is another territory, another vampire lord. These territorial boundaries are old and well-established, but occasionally, someone decides he wants more. When that happens, we go to war.”

“War?” she repeated, frowning. “You mean like shooting and killing?”

“Killing, yes.
But there’s very little shooting involved. Vampires are capable of using weapons of all sorts. I’m sure you noticed the MP5s used by my gate security, along with several other guns or knives you probably didn’t see. This is mostly to impress humans who might think to test my security. But the truth is that our best weapon, the one we use against each other, is ourselves. Vampires are strong, fast and deadly. As I said, we’re a violent people.”

Kathryn mulled over what he was telling her. “So you’re saying another vampire lord is trying to take some of your territory.”

“Exactly.”

“And you had some sort of confrontation with him that got bloody.”

“Not exactly, but close enough.
You needn’t worry about Nicholas, by the way. By tomorrow morning, there will be nothing but a fresh scar, a day later, not even that.”

“You can heal that quickly?” she said in disbelief.

“Some of us.
And some of us need help. A vampire lord rules his people, but he has an obligation to them as well. What is it your Bible says? ‘To whom much has been given, much will be expected?’ I’m certain your priests would be appalled to see it used thusly, but it is never
more true
than among vampires. We live it every day.”

“How does it work? The healing, I mean.”

“We don’t know the science. We don’t want to know. And we certainly don’t want humans to know. They’d be chasing after us with those pitchforks again, but this time for our blood.”

Kathryn stared at him, nearly face to face. They were lying so close. Naked skin to naked skin, their bodies fitted together perfectly, as if they’d been made for this one moment. He gave her a crooked smile, and she felt her heart swell.

Oh, no,
she bemoaned silently. Not Lucas
Donlon
. What the hell was wrong with her?

“Kathryn,
a
cuisle
, it is nearly dawn.”

She blinked at him blankly before it hit her.
Vampire.
Oh. My.
God.

“What happens?” she asked with some urgency. “Where do you have to go? Do you have a special—
”

“Coffin?” he supplied dryly.

“No, of course not,” she snapped.
“But maybe a basement or something?”

“I’m touched,
a
cuisle
,
but no. I do like my comforts, and this bed is perfectly fine. However, there
are
security precautions. Steel shutters will cover every window and door moments before sunrise. These walls, as you may already have surmised, look flimsy, but are, in fact, rather severely reinforced.”

“What will you—
”

“I will sleep. I have little choice in the matter.”

“I should go, then,” she said hesitantly. She didn’t want to offend him, but now more than ever, Kathryn felt the need to get out of town, to flee to the
Twin
Cities
or anywhere else, as long as it took her far away from Lucas
Donlon
. He was a temptation, a
complication, that
she couldn’t afford. She had a job back in
Quantico
. A job she had fought and clawed her way into. She tried to imagine what her superiors would say if she became involved with a vampire lord. Most of the people at the FBI viewed vampires as criminals, and
that
was just the regular run-of-the-mill vampires. Vampire lords were viewed with far less favor, if that was possible.

“I
need
to go,” she said more urgently.

Lucas gave her a puzzled look, as if aware of the turmoil inside her head and not understanding the cause of it. That look tugged painfully on her heart and made her want to cry. Another thing she hadn’t done in years.

“Kathryn?” he said, with obvious concern. “Are you all right?”

“Yes.” She shook her head, as if that could brush away her feelings.
“Of course.
But I really do have to leave. I have things to do tomorrow, or rather later today, and I don’t want to compromise your security.”

She forced herself to push away from the embrace of his powerful body, from the warmth in his golden eyes. She leaned down for one final kiss, then jumped up and headed for the bathroom before he could see the tears filling her eyes.

Lucas let Kathryn go as she hurried away. He wasn’t as sensitive to emotions as his friend Duncan, but even he could tell that there was some sort of battle going on inside Kathryn’s excellent brain.
Guilt, maybe?
She’d probably broken some FBI rule or other about sleeping with witnesses. Although he wasn’t technically a witness, since he hadn’t seen anything. Or maybe she was feeling guilty about enjoying herself instead of spending every moment searching for her brother. Given what he knew about their
relationship, that
seemed likely. He could even understand it if she felt that way.

He flexed his abdominal muscles and sat straight up in bed before swinging his legs over the side. He wasn’t the kind of man who lay in bed while his lover dragged her clothes on and scurried out the door. Kicking the ruined leather pants to one side, he pulled a pair of fresh sweats out of his closet and slipped them on, along with a matching gray T-shirt. He strolled out to the living room and located Kathryn’s clothing for her—her dress, shoes, jacket. . . even those ridiculous leggings she’d donned to protect herself against unwanted attention at the blood house. As if a pair of pants would deter any vampire worth his salt.