Scarlet Heat (Born to Darkness) (30 page)

To my mingled relief and desperate
disappointment, she did just that, wiggling away from me and pulling her tight
little pussy off my cock. But then, instead of jumping off the bed to get away
from me, she turned and shoved me hard in the chest.

Surprised and off balance, I fell over on my
back. Once again, Taylor straddled me. Her face was wild, her eyes wide and
filled with hunger as she looked at me. For a minute I thought she would lean
down and rip my throat out. And God help me, I would have deserved it.

Instead, she reached down and grabbed my shaft,
making me hiss and tense in her grip. But instead of hurting me she fit me to
her entrance and pushed my cock back inside her in one swift motion.
Apparently, she’d just wanted to be on top.

I groaned when I felt myself hit bottom inside
her again. God, she was so
tight.
It
was like being gripped by a hot, velvety glove. This time I knew I wasn’t going
to last long—not with her riding me like that.

“Oh God, baby!” I groaned. “Oh God…can’t take it
any more! Love you…love you so damn much.”

Taylor didn’t answer. She placed her palms flat
on my chest and began to move in a rocking motion, thrusting her hips to take
me in deep, making me groan and swear with each delicious stroke.

I thrust up to meet her, pumping deep into her
pussy, watching as her full breasts and tight pink nipples swayed above me. I
wanted to suck them while I fucked her—or was she fucking me? I couldn’t tell
anymore. I only knew I never wanted it to end.

But we couldn’t keep it up forever. Taylor’s
rhythm sped up and then she threw back her head and let out that wounded cry
again. At the same time I felt her inner muscles ripple, tightening so much it
felt like she was trying to fucking
milk
me.

I wanted to hold out, wanted to make this last
because I knew after it was over Taylor would probably never want to see me
again. But I couldn’t help myself—I let her orgasm trigger my own.

With a low growl, I grabbed her hips and pumped
up into her, shooting my seed as deeply into her willing cunt as I could. She was
mine—just this once and never again, mine completely. Mine to claim, mine to
mark. Mine to love.

And then it was over. Taylor collapsed on my
chest, panting and I felt myself growing soft within her. I struggled to catch
my breath, my lungs heaving like bellows. It was the most intense sexual
experience I’d ever had—and the most forbidden.

Despair hit me like a blunt intstrument. I’d done
it—I had broken my word never to hurt her, never to take her against her will.
Sure she’d been begging for it but she hadn’t been in her right mind. The
minute she came back to herself she was going to hate me. Now that my lust was
satiated, a wave of remorse rolled over me. What had I done? Oh God, what had I
done?

“Victor?”

I looked up to see the frightened, wounded look
in her big blue eyes.

“Victor?” she whispered again. “What’s happening?
What…what’s going on?”

Shame filled me like hot bile and I couldn’t even
look at her. I put an arm over my eyes, trying to hold back the emotion that
wanted to swamp me.

“Victor,” she begged. “Talk to me—look at me.”

“I can’t.” I muttered. “I’m sorry,”

I wanted to fucking die.

Chapter Twenty-two—Taylor

Oh my God—what have I done?

I looked down at Victor in horror. His long,
muscular torso was covered in scratches and bites—obviously marks from my nails
and fangs. And there was blood—so much
blood.
Was I responsible for all of this? The taste of his blood on my mouth and
the skin under my nails told me I was.

“Victor?” I said again but he still wouldn’t look
at me. He had his arm over his eyes and his hands were clenched into fists. My
God, what had happened—what had I done?

I raised up to get a better look and realized
that I was naked—we both were. And when I moved, I felt something slide out of
me— no, I felt
Victor
slide out of me.

Oh no…oh no, no, no…

Some people think a female can’t rape a male—those
people had never seen my old mistress, Celeste in action. Time and again she
had made me watch as she took an unwilling male and
made
him willing, manipulating his body until he was hard for her
whether he wanted to be or not. She took great pleasure in riding her victims
slow and hard, torturing them as she did so, cutting them with knives,
scratching them, biting them… I looked with fresh horror at his bloody torso.

Had I done that to Victor? Had the heat made me
strong enough to force myself on him? To take him against his will as Roderick
had taken me, over and over while I was still bound to Celeste?

Shame and horror washed over me, leaving me cold
and weak. I realized I was still on top of him, still pinning him down and I
forced myself to move, to get off him, to get away.

“Victor,” I whispered. “I swear…”

“You were in heat,” he said, still not looking at
me. “Too far gone. I couldn’t…couldn’t stop it. My curse…the heat…it was too
much. There was no way to stop…”

“Oh, no…” A fresh wave of horror washed over me.
I was sure now that I was right—I had overpowered him and done the unthinkable.

“Just go,” he said hoarsely, his arm still over
his eyes. “I’m sorry, Taylor, but I think…maybe you’d be better off at Corbin’s
place. You…you should be safe there.”

I didn’t know what to say, what to do. I had done
the unspeakable—the unthinkable. I had hurt him the way I had been hurt and it
made me want to die.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, unable to raise my
voice. “So sorry.”

“Just go,” he muttered. “Fucking…just
go.”

I nodded even though he couldn’t see me.

“I—all right. I’m going.”

I dragged myself off the bed and threw on some
clothes. Victor stayed where he was, not looking, not speaking. When I left the
bedroom, I felt like a murderer leaving the scene of the crime.

I stumbled into the kitchen and grabbed my cell
phone. By the time Addison answered, I was openly sobbing.

“Please,” I begged her. “Please, just come get
me. I can’t stay here any more.”

It was a forty-five minute drive from Corbin’s
club,
Under the Fang,
to Victor’s
house. Addison made it in under twenty. Did I mention she’s a wonderful friend?

“Oh, honey!” she exclaimed when I met her at the
door with nothing but my cell phone in one hand and a wad of dripping red
tissue from wiping my eyes in the other. “Come on, come here and tell me what
happened,” she said as she herded me into the passenger side of the Mercedes.

I could only shake my head. I was too ashamed to
speak—at least at first. But finally Addison pried the story out of me.

“And you don’t remember anything that happened?”
she asked when I had finally related the incident in a low, broken voice. “You
just woke up, uh, on top of him?”

I nodded and looked out at the dark road whizzing
past my window. We were almost back to Tampa now and the roadside was beginning
to be dotted with convenience stores and gas stations.

“Oh Addison, I’m so
ashamed
. After what I went through with Celeste…and now to know I
went and…and hurt the man I love—”

“Wait a minute.” She glanced at me sharply. “The
man you
love?
You’re sure about that?
You love Victor?”

“More than anything!” I put my hands over my
face. “I didn’t want to believe it before but now I know…now that I’ve…I’ve
brutalized
him.”

“You didn’t brutalize him,” Addison said at once.
“Come on, Taylor—it was probably consensual and things just got a little rough.
Like what happened between Corbin and me.”

“That was different,” I pointed out. “Corbin was
out of his mind with blood- and fuck-lust.”

“So were you,” she said reasonably. “I mean, you
weren’t paying the Crimson Debt but you were in heat—that’s enough to make
anybody crazy. I don’t hold what happened between Corbin and me against him—I’m
sure Victor won’t hold it against you, either.”

“Yes, he will,” I protested. “Addison, he
couldn’t even
look
at me. He had his
arm over his eyes and he told me to leave—to get out. He hates me now and I
don’t blame him a bit!”

“That can’t be true,” she said. “I’ve seen the
way he looks at you—he
wants
you,
Taylor. In fact, I honestly think he
loves
you. I mean, he gave you his mother’s pearls, for God’s sake!”

Looking down, I realized I was still wearing the
simple white strand. The pearls were flecked red with blood now—Victor’s
blood—which made me want to cry all over again.

“Addison, don’t you see?” I said brokenly. “When
everything happened between you and Corbin, it was consensual on your part. It
was rough but you knew what you were getting into. Victor never agreed to
anything. He was trying to do the right thing, trying to take me back to the
house and get away while I was out of my mind. He never signed up to have crazy
psycho sex with a fucked up girl who couldn’t even stop herself from hurting
him. From…from…”

But I couldn’t finish the sentence.

“Oh, honey…” Addison pulled over abruptly into
the parking lot of an all night fast food place and put her arms around me.

“I’m sorry,” I sobbed. “I just…I can’t seem to
turn off the waterworks—or in this case, the…the blood works.” I looked at her white
silk blouse, which was now streaked red with my tears. “I’m r-ruining your
s-shirt.”

“Screw the shirt,” Addison said, hugging me
tightly. “Just let it all out, roomie. You’ve been through a hell of a lot,
lately. You deserve a good cry.” She rubbed my back soothingly as my tears came
back again.

“I’m sorry I’m so emotional,” I gasped at last,
when the worst of the sobbing had passed. “I swear I feel like I did back when
I used to be human and had periods. Remember how weepy I’d get?”

Addison laughed. “Oh my God,
yes.
When those ASPCA commercials used to come on and they showed
those awful sad pictures of all the poor abused animals…”

“Don’t,” I warned her, straightening up and
wiping my eyes. “I feel like I could start crying again at the drop of a hat.
And I feel so…so…
hungry.”
I looked at
her. “Is that awful? After what I did I should have
no
appetite. I should never want anything again.”

“That’s bullshit.” Addison frowned. “Of
course
you’re thirsty—you’re probably at
least a quart low from all the crying you’ve been doing. Look…” She sighed and
rolled up a sleeve. “I know you’re not supposed to be able to drink from anyone
but Victor but I think we have to at least try.”

“No,” I shook my head when she tried to offer me
her arm. “No, I
can’t
.”

“If you’re worried about Corbin, don’t be,” she
said. “I’ll make him understand. He might not like it but—”

“No,” I said. “I mean, that’s not what I need.
Not what I’m hungry for.”

She blew out a breath. “Well, if it’s Victor’s
blood you want, then we need to turn around and get this whole mess figured
out. I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding and once you explain—”

“I’m
not
going
back there,” I said. “And blood isn’t what I’m hungry for.”

“Taylor, you’re a
vampire,”
she said. “What else could you possibly want? A glass of
red wine? Maybe some tea? A freaking Bloody Mary?”

“Is that…?” I rolled down my window a crack and
sniffed the air. “Do you smell
French
fries?”

Addison looked at me doubtfully. “Uh, sure, I
guess. I mean, we
are
in the parking
lot of Checkers.”

“Go through the drive-thru,” I ordered eagerly.
“Get me a double—no, a
triple
order
of fries. I don’t have any money but I swear I’ll pay you back. And
hurry,
Addison—I feel like I’m going to
faint or throw up if I don’t get something
now.”

She’d been sitting there staring at me like I was
crazy but that got her into gear. “All right,” she said, putting the car into
drive and pulling into the drive-thru line. “But I don’t know what I’m going to
do with all this food when you can’t eat it. You know I’m on a diet right now.”

“You shouldn’t be,” I said absently, scanning the
big lighted drive-thru menu. “You know Corbin likes you just the way you are.”

“Well,
I
like
me a good ten pounds lighter,” she said. “You see what you want or is it just
fries?”

“Fries and a chocolate milkshake,” I said, my
mouth watering so much I could hardly speak. “Oh—and a double cheeseburger too.
With extra pickles and onions. And barbeque sauce on the side.”

She looked at me like I was crazy. “You’re
sure
about this now?”

“Hello, may I take your order?” The bored voice
of a teenager forced to work the night shift came buzzing out of the speaker.