Passion And Fire (Passion #4) (36 page)

As the reality of his emotions hit him, leaving him feeling both elated and terrified, Francesca pulled up in the driveway of Fabian’s home and climbed out as soon as she’d stopped.

I’ll leave you two to it, but you might want to get Flame inside soon before she goes up in flames.” She pointed out. “It’s only an hour or so until sunrise.”

When she walked away, Damien listened to the click clack of her heels as she disappeared up the stairs and then the sound of the heavy front door opening and closing, leaving him alone with Flame. He was still reeling, still overwhelmed with how he felt about her. She had managed to do, what no other woman had even been able to do, take his heart, make him love her.

He was reluctant to let her go, to let her out of the car, for fear she might turn back into the snapping wild cat she’d become since he turned her vampire. His hands slid down until he reached her ass, digging his fingers into her smooth flesh. As he held her, he tilted his hips up, pressing his still hard cock deep inside her. Flame made a soft, low purring sound in her throat and Damien had to stifle a groan. Fuck she knew how to turn him on with just one of those throaty sounds of hers.

“Get off me babe. We can’t fuck in the car like teenagers parking.” He said and winced when she climbed off him, her tight little cunt tugging on his piercings. Damn, she was amazing. She was everything he could want or need in a woman.

He opened the door and they both got out just as Lucian was leaving to head back over to where he and Arissa lived. He grinned when he saw them. “Aw isn’t that cute?  You two have been parking. You know that would work better if you went a bit further than your own fucking driveway.” He joked before doubling over laughing as he continued on across the road to his home. They could still hear the sound of his laughter right up until he let himself into his home and Damien growled.

“Everyone’s a fucking comedian tonight. Come on, let’s get inside before we run into any other smart asses.”

He took Flame’s hand and dragged her inside but she immediately shook him off and made no attempt to walk down the corridor. “What’s wrong babe?”

“I want to go home. This is not my home. I don’t belong here.”

“This is your home Firebird. Please, I need to speak with you. Come with me. I would prefer to have some privacy although that’s not easy in this house at times.” He took her hand and walked down the corridor, not stopping when they passed the living room but after a quick glance in, it was empty anyway. Fabian and Sirene were probably out. The events of the evening had pushed their hunting time back so they were probably out feeding before daybreak.

When he got to his bedroom, he pulled her inside and shut the door before turning to face her, suddenly feeling incredibly nervous. All these emotions were new for him. He’d gone decades not really giving a shit about anything or anyone. He’d fucked his way through as many women as he could, and yet in just weeks this bright haired woman had come to mean everything to him. This was probably what one called karma. He’d always maintained he’d never let a woman rule him, he’d never fall in love and never spend eternity fucking the same woman and now he was eating those words. For the first time in his life, he’d met someone who could be his happily ever after. Looking into her face though, the tension, the traces of lingering resentment towards him, he wasn’t so sure she felt the same way about him.

“I want you to stay with me babe, to sleep in my bed. Would that really be so horrible for you?”

“We aren’t a couple Damien. You don’t do relationships, you’ve never done relationships.” She began to pace around the room. “I can’t stay here, I can’t stay with you. This house is big. Hell you must be able to put me somewhere until I can handle going back to live with Cassie and Chloe.”

Damien watched her restless pacing around his bedroom. She just wasn’t getting it. “Babe, you can never go back to live with Cassie and Chloe. You can work once you learn to control your blood lust but you can’t live with humans. The risk of detection is too great plus you’re a night dweller and they’re not. Too many questions will arise. I’m sorry but you have to live here now with all of us.”

His heart contracted when he saw tears well in her eyes. “I can’t live here Damien. I can’t live with you. You don’t do relationships, you never have. I…I…I’m going to end up all alone aren’t I? Eventually I’ll be all alone.”

When she raised her head and met his gaze, he felt the unfamiliar prick of tears at the back of his own eyes. She sounded so desolate, so lost and he’d done this to her, he’d taken her life; everything from her with his selfish need to not let her die. “You’re not alone babe. You have all of us, you have me. I…I love you Flame.”

At his words her eyes widened and she gaped at him, her expression clearly indicating that she thought he’d lost his mind. “Are you completely nuts Damien? You don’t have to tell me you love me to make me stay here.”

“I’m not saying I love you to get you to stay, and it’s not to get in your damn pants either. I’m not a fucking school boy trying to say and do whatever I think will get your thighs parted.” He snapped. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected from her when he told her he loved her. Hell, he’d never been in this position before but she might have at least acted like it meant something.

“Well what the fuck did you expect when you said it Damien? What? That we’d ride off into the sunset together? Well, newsflash, I don’t want your fucking love.” Something flashed across her face, a fleeting glimpse of something he couldn’t quite read. “I don’t want to live here; I don’t want this life, I don’t want to be vampire and I can’t be here right now.” She shot the words at him, each word like a dagger to his heart and when she suddenly turned and stormed out of the bedroom, he couldn’t do anything more than watch her leave. He was momentarily paralysed with the pain that each of her words had inflicted on him. The first time he’d ever been in love and he’d put his balls on the line, opened up to her, not something he was accustomed to doing, and she’d brought the knife down fair and square on them, totally unmanning him.

Flame

When I rushed from Damien’s bedroom, not entirely sure where I was going but needing to be away from him, I found myself at the stairs that led down to the dungeon. I needed to be alone, to be away from all the damn vampires in this house. I felt a stab of pain when Damien’s face filled my head. He’d looked so hurt when I’d rejected his love, but I had to. I couldn’t allow myself to believe him because I knew he didn’t really love me. He’d turned me and was guilty about doing it against my wishes. This was all it was, a declaration motivated by guilt. He might think he loved me, but a man who fucked as many women as he did, didn’t fall in love. No, I was a novelty to him. I apparently turned him on more than most women and that I could believe; he’d demonstrated that on numerous occasions. He might imagine he loved me, but if I believed him, if I let my guard down and opened my heart, if I let him see my heart, I knew, it was only a matter of time before he didn’t want me anymore. Once he came to that realisation, I’d have to live an eternal hell, watching him fuck his way through the rest of the female population of Tasmania, the ones he hadn’t already fucked.

I needed to escape, to think for a while and I couldn’t do it in this house. I cast a look around me and saw no one so I quietly opened the door to the stairs to the dungeon and went through, hurrying downstairs. I walked the corridor I’d been brought along earlier and finally reached the cell where Damien had first brought me when I’d been turned. I felt a thrill of excitement rush through me when I saw the cuffs hanging, the very ones Adrian had locked around my wrists.

That had led to some of the hottest sex of my life as well as some of the most confusing. What was Adrian’s game? He’d started fucking me and spanking me then just pulled out of me and left me to Damien. Admittedly the sex with him had been incredible. It had been a heady mix of pleasure and pain and just thinking about it made me wet.

I left the cell and continued to walk along the corridor, going through yet another door into another corridor that was more dimly lit than the one I’d just left. There were closed doors both sides and I wondered what they were for. Curiosity got the better of me and I tried turning the handle on the door closest to me, expecting to find it locked but it swung straight open.

I stepped inside and gapped when I saw what it was. The first thing I noticed were the whips hanging on the wall. Not just typical riding crops but ones with strips of leather which hung like tails. There were what appeared to be paddles and over the far side of the room was a large wooden cross with cuffs at various points on it. I knew what that was, but some of the other wooden benches with padded tops on them I wasn’t sure about. When I looked up there were networks of heavy chains running in all directions, each coming to various drop down points where more shackles hung with cuffs attached. The only relatively normal things in the room were a slightly wider than usual single bed and a lounge.

I wandered around the room, running my fingers over the various things and wondering what it would be like to have some of them used on me. It didn’t look like anything in here had been used in a while since there was a layer of dust coating everything and spider webs hung down from the ceiling. As I touched things, I could see the clean path my fingers left in the dust.

“What do you think you’re doing little bird?” I jumped at the sound of the masculine voice and spun around to see Adrian walking towards me; his strange eyes alight with something as he watched me.

“What are you doing down here?” I ignored his question, asking him one instead.

He smiled at me, lifting one finger to shake it at me. “Oh no little bird, I asked you first. Where’s Damien? Did you two fight again?” He walked towards me and I felt the pull of desire as I watched his approach. Fuck he was a fine looking man. Tall, sexy, that air of mystery about him. I felt like I was being stalked and found worthy of, as he approached, his movements predatory, his gaze intent.

“Do you like what you see?” He asked.

“Y…yes.” I whispered.

“Have you ever been in a room like this?”

Holy fuck, it registered, he was talking about the room. “No I haven’t but I’m curious. I would like to try some of the things here.”

“You should get Damien to play here with you little bird.”

“I don’t want to play with him.” I spat out more vehemently than I’d intended and Adrian’s dark brows shot up.

“You should stop with this pretence of hatred towards him. So he turned you vampire. Is it really so bad? We’re all vampire and none of us are complaining. My brother cares for you Flame. It is blatantly obvious, and yet you throw it back in his face. You are cheating him and cheating yourself.” He stepped up closer to me, lowering his head. “You’re not fooling me little bird. You can lie to yourself, you can lie to Damien, but you can’t hide the truth from me. I see it in your eyes, I see it here.” He placed a hand over my left breast. “You’re angry at yourself so you take it out on him. Your behaviour is punishable. Take off your clothes.” He ordered quietly.

“I...why…what are you going to do? Damien…Damien won’t be happy.” I warned him but he simply threw back his head and laughed.

“Why would you care what he thinks little bird? You’ve run down here to get away from him because you can’t cope with his emotions or your own right now and you want time alone. We both know you want him to catch you with me, doing something with me, so we will give him something to see.” He reached out and grabbed a fist full of my hair. “I told you to take your clothes off.”

He released me again and quickly I pulled off the skirt and top that Francesca had let me borrow, leaving me standing before him in just my thong.

He circled me, reaching out to flick my nipple and push my hair back over my shoulders so he could see me properly. “Come.” He held his hand out and I placed mine in his where he then led me over to the St Andrew’s cross.

He got me to lift my arms where he then locked my hands in position and instructed me how to stand so he could shackle my legs and feet. With my back to him, I was spread out, suddenly nervous about what he was going to do and worried about how Damien would react if he walked in now.

Adrian walked away from me and I tried to see what he was doing. I couldn’t turn my head enough to see but suddenly he was back and he held a riding crop in his hands.

“You remember what happened earlier don’t you little bird? You liked the pain; you got off on the pain. Until you are prepared to be honest with yourself and with Damien, you will need pain.” He flicked the crop over my back and I jumped. Not with pain but surprise.

Slowly he began to work his way down my back, trailing the riding crop over me, flicking it occasionally with just enough force that it caused a tiny burst of pain. I felt the tip of the whip between my legs, running through my folds and when he pulled it away and put it to my face, it was wet with my juices.

“Are you getting off on this little bird? You aren’t allowed to get off. This is wrong, what you are doing is wrong.” He brought the whip down harder on me, the leather biting into the skin of my ass, the pain making me cry out.

Over and over he hit me, up and down my back, over my ass, thighs and to the backs of my knees. Each cut of the whip starting with a caress, as he ran it over my now smarting skin, until finally flicking it with just enough force to make me cry out. It was turning me on though and I could feel moisture running down my legs as my excitement began to build.