Opal (Rare Gems Series Book 4) (3 page)

“
This is different.” He wasn’t sure how exactly, but he knew it was. “As for me bonding with her, I had to. You know as well as I do that I had no choice in the matter. It was either give her my blood or let her perish. And the thought of coming back to Blair and the others and telling them that I’d let her die…there was nothing left for me to do.”

“
Still.” Rufus didn’t say anything more, but he could almost hear the man thinking. He had changed him, had had to then as well. He’d been his friend before as young men, and when Rufus had been cut open, his belly spilling out onto the ground, he’d simply moved in and changed him. The man had taken a knife for him. It wasn’t a choice then any more than the one with Opal had been. It simply had to be done. Rufus had been and always would be his friend. He was crude, sometimes violent, and most of the time not fit for others to be around, but he was his friend and that was enough.

“
I’d like you to see what you can find out about the other names you found. Tonight when you rise, we’ll go over the things you found and see what we can make out with it. In the meantime, I’m going to see about getting a meeting with the council and see what they can get started.” Rufus asked a couple more questions before they stopped in front of Sloan’s house. “You should stay here today; well, forever, as I’ve said to you before. I need you nearby. We work well together, and because I have a mate, it does not change the fact that I like you being around.”

“
No, I don’t think so. When the shit hits the fan, I’m going to be as far away as I can for now. I’m thinking she’s going to bring this here house down on your head, and I’d just as soon not be anywhere I can get any of the debris down on me. She’s a hell cat; I’ll give her that. You should maybe oughta think about taking her. She’s fine to look at and with that temper of hers, she’d be keeping you on your toes.”

“
No thanks.”

When he entered the house
, he took her directly to his lair. He actually thought about taking her to another room so she’d be able to rest without him in the bed with her, but he was afraid to let her go. After yesterday…. His mind refused to think what might have happened to her had he not woke when he had.

He
’d found her standing in the sun when he’d gotten up. It had been full sun coming in the window, but that wasn’t what had terrified him. She’d cut both her wrists from palm to elbow. The blood draining from her had been a sight that he’d never forget. She was swaying on her feet, her body already beginning to shut down from starvation. Sloan had never had anything make his heart stutter to a violent stop like that had.

“
I don’t want to live like this,” she’d told him. When he wrapped her into his arms she’d been too weak to fight him. When he held her down with his body, she looked up at him with a wounded look that he knew would haunt him forever. “Please, you can just let me go and no one would know that I didn’t die from whatever made you do this to me. Please?”

“
I’ll know, Opal, and your family would know because I’d have to tell them. I’m so sorry, but I can’t let you die.” She looked away, and he said her name. “Your family is pissed enough at me. If you kill yourself, they’ll blame me.”

She stared at him for several seconds before turning away.
“Well, we can’t let that happen, can we? Let me up. I don’t want you to touch me either.”

“
Opal, I had to save you.” She nodded and told him again to let her go. When he rolled off her, she sat up but didn’t look at him. “I’m taking you home today. I can’t let you continue here with that man looking for you.”

“
Of course not. I’ll pack now.” She stood up and turned to him. “I won’t try that again, but I’m not going to be your mate. You can do whatever you think to keep me safe until we get to my family’s house, but I won’t ever be your mate. You took something from me and I’ll never get it back. I wanted to be as normal as I could, and you took that all away from me.”

He
’d let her go, and true to her word, she hadn’t tried again in the next twenty-four hours, but that didn’t mean he didn’t watch her closely. He was sure she was talking to her sisters, but there was little they could do for her from the States. But now they were home, his home, and he was going to talk to someone about having her removed as his mate. It was either that or she might die at her own hand. Sloan stared at her as he stripped down to his naked body.

“
I’m not going to take you.” He grimaced when he looked down at his straining cock. Even though she couldn’t hear him, he was still slightly embarrassed that he was so incredibly hard and wanting her. “I know this looks bad, but I promise you, I have no intentions of taking you. I will have to feed from you, but there will never be anything more than that. And as soon as possible, I’m going to have this thing between us voided; then you can go back to your normal life, and I can go on with mine.” He tried his best not to notice how badly that hurt him. He had considered himself very normal, for a vampire anyway. And even though few knew his origins, he was quite pleased with his life until now.

Sloan
lay down beside her and laughed when she rolled to the other side of the bed. Even in a deep sleep she knew better than to snuggle up to him. As he tried to get his body and his cock to shut down, he thought of the way she’d tasted to him earlier. Then he sat up on his elbow and pulled her to him.

Tearing into his wrist, he pressed his open vein over her mouth. She tried to turn away again and
again, but finally he held her tightly to his body as he commanded her to drink. Her firm ass fit so perfectly against his cock that he moaned when he rocked into her. He had no intentions of taking her, but there was no reason why he couldn’t enjoy having a lovely naked woman so close to him.

When she finally
drank, her hands wrapping around his arm as she suckled at his wrist, he felt his cock fill to the point of being painful. When he rocked again and again, promising himself that he would stop soon, he nearly came when she moaned. This was not helping him and he wanted some relief, and soon.

“
You’re killing me.” Sloan licked her throat, then nipped gently at her flesh. “Right now all my good intentions are going out the window, and I want to lift you over my cock and fuck you hard.”

Her second moan had him pulling his wrist away and sealing the wound. He knew that
if he lay there much longer they were going to mate, and neither of them would be happy about it. But when she reached between them and wrapped her fingers around his cock, Sloan stilled. Christ, if she did so much as moan right now, he was going to flip her over and take her like he wanted.

“
Fuck me.” He moaned at her sleep-filled words. “Just fuck me, honey, and I’ll scream out your name.”

“
Who am I?” Her fingers were dancing up and down his shaft, and he had to hold her still or simply come all over her. “Who am I, Opal? Say my name.”

“
My vibrator. I’m not sure when you started talking, but fuck me, baby. Make me come like you always do.” He felt his cock leak in her hand at the thought of her pushing a vibrator into her own pussy while he watched. “Fuck me so I can relax.”

“
Christ.” He jumped from the bed when she slid her fingers into her pussy. When she turned to stare at him, her eyes wide with something akin to fear, he stood there holding his cock in his hand. He had to have her, yet knew that if he did, they were both going to regret it.

“
I want to come. Jerk off while you watch me.” His voice tore from him, it seemed, and he fisted his cock when she didn’t say anything. “I need to come. Show me what you do when you need relief.”

“
I don’t know what you’re talking about. Sometimes I just need a little something. I come quickly, and then I can sleep.” But she lay to her back while her fingers worked busily at her pussy. Her breaths were short pants that he could almost feel across his cock. “I’m going to come.”

Her scream nearly had him tear
his dick off in his haste to join her. Sloan fisted his cock so hard and so fast that he shot his cum all the way across the room and it splashed on her breast. He moved to her to lick it off before he could think not to. Her nipple slid into his mouth and he nipped hard at it to draw just enough blood to feed from her. She cried out again when he joined his fingers with hers.

Come again. Come with me fucking you like this.
She nodded, and her body bowed up as she screamed out his name. Sloan sat up then and took his cock in his hand and came all over her this time. He watched as it spread all over her hot body and streamed down over her flesh. Christ, he was hurting worse now than he was before. And he knew that no matter what, it was too late now.

“
I need to fuck you.” He rolled her to her belly and lifted her hips up. Her ass looked like a heart, and he slammed his cock into her heat just as she screamed again. This time he knew it was from pain, from her virginity being taken so violently. He pounded her hard until he felt her body adjust to him. When he came this time, he leaned over her and bit deep into her shoulder. Then she came, tightening her body around his cock. Sloan knew as surely as he was deep inside of her that he’d fucked up royally.

Sloan sealed the wound he
’d made but didn’t move. His cock was still thick with need and his entire body hurt with the need to take her again and again. He knew that she would take it. She was a vampire too, but he also knew that on some level she was in a great deal of pain from what he’d done.

“
Get off me.” He started to move when she sobbed. “You made me a promise and the first time we’re together, you take me like an animal.”

“
I’m sorry.” He moved them on the bed so that he was still behind her but didn’t let her go. His cock was still buried in her, and he held her. “I’m so sorry. But the moment I came on you, I knew it was too late.”

“
So you decided to rape me.” He started to point out that she’d enjoyed it as much as he had, but she pulled away from him and he groaned. She was standing near the bed when he reached for her. Christ, she was gorgeous in all her fury. Well, he was pissed off too.

“
I didn’t rape you. In fact, if you really think about it, you’ll know that you reached for me first.” He watched her face turn red. “There you see? You know it wasn’t rape. Unless you count you raping me.”

His attempt at humor failed
, and she put her hands on her hips and glared. All he could think about was begging her to let him dine on her pussy, suckle at her lovely breast, and drink from her again while she screamed out his name.

“
Stop looking at me like that.” He pulled his eyes from her body to look at her face. “You’re never going to do that again.”

He moved then, lightning fast
, until he had her pressed against the wall and his cock inside of her. “Never is a long time, love.”

He fucked her slowly, bringing her to peak three times before he took his own
release. When her teeth, her sharp fangs, grazed his own pounding pulse, he thought for sure she would bite, but she only cried out as she came again. She held onto him, digging her nails into his skin until he bit her in the throat. This time when she came, she fainted from it. Sloan held her until he thought he could move. She was asleep when he put her to bed a few minutes later.

Chapter
3

“I see.” She didn’t, but listened to the man as he droned on about her credit rating—or the lack of one—and the fact that her having the down payment did not make them want to give her the loan she very much needed. They needed more, like something they could take in the event that she defaulted. Or—and this was really stupid—she should have the money in the bank that they could fall back on if something happened. If she’d had the money in the bank, there would really be no need for her to ask them for a loan. Bankers really sucked. She left the bank and sat in her car, wondering what the hell she could do now.

Opal looked a
t the list she’d made when she’d gotten up. It had taken her a while to find a sheet of paper, but turning left instead of right had led her into one of the biggest kitchens she’d ever been in and a houseful of people she didn’t know. The man standing there had simply smiled at her.

The man who had
come forward first, Mr. Alex, had handed her not only a beautiful ink pen when she’d asked for it, but a notebook and a small computer. She looked at the computer again as she sat at the large dining room table she was using as a desk. She wanted it, wanted to use it in the worst sort of way, but she knew it belonged to Sloan, and there was no way she was going to take something from him.

“
Mistress?” She looked up at Mr. Alex. “There is a man at the front door who is asking for someone to sign for a box that Master Sloan is expecting. Shall I sign for it or will you?”

“
It’s not my house.” He nodded once and looked like he was going to say more, but nodded again before going out. A few minutes later he came in with a small package and sat it on the dining room table. The box had her name on it.

“
I would ask that you not open that.” She looked up to see Sloan standing in the doorway, leaning against the jamb. “I have no idea what it is or who in their right mind would be sending you something, but don’t open it. Or is that like telling you to open it? You’re a mite on the stubborn side.”