Stephen (10 page)

“
Are you going to bite me?” He nodded and pulled her hips forward enough that she moaned. “I don’t want to have sex with you. Well, I do, but that’s not all you want, is it?”

“
No. I want to feed from you as well. But there is so much more I want than sex, too. I want to taste your pussy as well. Would you enjoy that?” She nodded, then shook her head. “Ah, so it sounds enjoyable but not with me doing it. Is that it?”

“
I want to come. Then I want you to let me go.” She rode him, moving up and down his cock as if she were actually riding a horse. “I need to come, but not at the expense of you thinking this will continue.”

“
If you let me bite you, I’m sure you’ll change your mind.” She was afraid of that as well, but moved off him and stood. His cock was soaking wet and straining from his groin. As much as she wanted to finish what he’d started, she didn’t want him to own her. And if they mated or whatever it was, she had no doubt he would think he did.

His fingers wrapped around his cock while she stood there, and her mouth watered. He was using her juices to masturbate, and she wanted to taste the pearl of cream at the tip of his cock. Taking another step back, she watched him as he continued to pleasure himself.

“
Come here, Clar. I want to come all over you.” She shook her head even as she moved toward the bed again. “Take me into your mouth. Take me and I’ll drink from your pussy while you do.”

She wanted to. Her body ached to do just what he wanted. When his hand touched her thigh, she turned toward him and he slid his fingers into her pussy. While he fisted his cock faster and faster, his other hand played with her clit and slid in and out of her quicker and quicker.

“
Come here.” She moved toward him, her body no longer listening to her. When she was near his head, he lifted her up and settled her pussy over his mouth. She looked down her body as he ate her and felt her climax rushing forward. Clar leaned forward and took his cock into her mouth and moaned around him. He tasted like paradise.

Clar rode his mouth. She needed to come so badly now that she would do anything to feel it happen. When Stephen slid his fingers into her ass, she nearly told him to stop, but he growled at her, and she felt it race along her body like a live wire. Then his cock erupted in her mouth, and she swallowed him.

“
Christ,” she heard him say as he fucked her mouth. Over and over she tasted his cum and cupped his balls when he seemed to be slowing. She wanted it all, every last drop of him. When he rolled her to her back, still fucking her mouth, she grabbed his ass just as her own release took her. Clar screamed around his cock even as she felt his teeth sink into her clit.

Her world didn’t shatter so much as imploded. Her mind skittered to a stop, and she was sure her heart did as well. As soon as her climax started to slow, he would suck hard on her and bring her again. All the while his fingers danced in both her pussy and ass. She had so many climaxes in a few short minutes that she was weak with them. Finally, she begged him to stop by reaching into his mind and telling him she’d had enough.

Clar felt herself being moved. She knew that he was lifting her up, but she was settled back on the bed so quickly that she wasn’t sure if she’d dreamed it. When he said her name, she had to will her eyes to open, they were so heavy.

“
Are you okay?” She shook her head and heard him laugh as she closed her eyes again. “You’ll need to stay awake for just a few more minutes, love.”

“
I want you to take me back to my home.” She didn’t think he answered her when she felt a blanket cover her. “Okay, I’ll rest for a minute, but I’m not staying here. I don’t want to be your mate.”

“
It’s a little too late for that.” She thought so too but didn’t say anything to him. “Clar, can you please tell me you won’t leave me if I leave you here to rest?”

“
I can’t promise you anything.” Yawning, she thought she heard him curse but wasn’t sure. “I’m going to leave here as soon as I rest up. You having sex with me changes nothing.”

“
It changes everything, I’m afraid. And you being stubborn about this isn’t going to mean anything once you realize how much you belong to me now.” She yawned again before saying anything. Her body had never been this relaxed and sated after sex.

“
I don’t think I’d be able to be this satisfied if I decided to have sex again.” He growled, and she made a mental note to remember that he didn’t like her talking about other men. “You’ll find some other blood sucker to live with you. I have to keep away from my stepfather. So if you could give me a couple of days’ head start I’d be ever so grateful.”

Sleep took her. Not a gentle roll into sleep, but where she just felt it take her. Much like one of the many climaxes that he’d given her. When she felt the bed shift, she felt herself roll toward a great weight and knew that he slept with her. She smiled.

Stephen was wrapped around her when she woke up sometime later. His body was big, but not crushing like one other guy she’d slept with. His was…well, she thought, like a warm blanket, but didn’t want to get that cozy with him. It took her several tries before she finally had to move into his mind and try to make him leave her. But when she entered his mind, she wished she’d just lain there.

Someone was going to bury him alive. The memory of it and the person who had done it was right there and she let it play out. He’d been accused of something, and his sentence was to be put to the earth to never rise again. She felt his horror at the sentencing and wanted to hold onto him when the man standing before him asked if he had anything to say.

“
Don’t do this, brother. Please. I didn’t touch your wife. I swear to you.” The man shook his head and they both looked at the woman who stood crying nearby. “I never touched her. She lies to save herself.”

“
She is my wife. She would never lie to me.” But the look on the man’s face made Clar think that he didn’t really believe his words either. “You have lain with her and now she is carrying your child. What do you have to say for yourself?”

“
It is not my child. I never touched her. You know that. We cannot father children with anyone but our mates.” The man slapped him, and she felt herself, with him, tumble back. As he lay there staring up at the man, someone threw heavy chains around him, and she too felt the weight of them. The woman stood over Stephen just as the hole was being filled with dirt.

“
You think you’re so smart. And now you’re going to pay for ignoring me.” She spit on his face, and Clar put her hand to her cheek to see if it were real. A hand touched hers just as she pulled her dry hand away. It was Stephen and he was awake, staring at her as he had the woman standing over them…him.

“
She told him that she was having my child. That I had forced her into having sex with me so that I could cockle him.” Clar nodded as Stephen looked down at her. “You should know that I’d never do that to a woman. Human or otherwise.”

“
What happened when you were released?” She watched his face shutter closed and reached up to touch his cheek. “Tell me. Tell me what happened when you got free.”

He got up from the bed and moved toward the window. There was light coming through the drawn curtain, but he didn’t seem to see it. She knew that he was still there, back when he’d been buried, and knew that for as long as he lived he’d never rest where it was completely dark again.

“
I clawed my way out of the ground when I heard someone call my name. I didn’t know who it was at the time. I had thought it was Clive, my brother, having a change of heart. But it was Vinnie…Vicente McIntyre, my friend. He had not heard from me in a while and came to find me.”

“
How long?” He looked at her but said nothing as he pulled on his pants. Clar pulled the sheet up over her nudity, suddenly embarrassed to be caught like she was. “How long were you underground?”

“
Seventy years. Not long in the life of a vampire, but long enough for me to plan out my revenge. I was starved when I was pulled free, and nearly killed the great dragon when he helped me.” Clar wondered if Stephen was using a strange reference in calling this Vinnie person or if he actually was a dragon. Before she could ask, he continued.

“
He let me feed from his strong blood, but it wasn’t enough. I needed…I was in a blood lust. A need so deep that I hurt him.” She didn’t say anything as he pulled on his shirt and sat down. But she did get up and reach for the shirt that was on the floor. Hers was in tatters, and she’d not even realized he’d done it.

As he sat there not saying anything, she dressed. There was no point in talking to him now, she could see that, and moved toward the door when she had on her jeans. He was suddenly behind her, pressing her against the door.

“
Don’t you want to hear the rest? You’ve touched my mind enough to see what frightens me badly enough that I need a night light like a small child.” He turned her then, and she could see the anger in his eyes. “He buried me there. Near the barn where we’d played as children. A place where my father had raised horses for the noblemen of the village. He told me he’d leave no marker other than a stake in the ground to show what sort of animal I was. Then I was freed. Do you know what I did then?”

“
You killed him. And his wife.” Stephen nodded and lifted her up so that they were eye to eye. “You’re hurting me.”

“
I ripped his throat out as he lay there resting. Tore it out and spit it back into his face. His blood was bitter, cold as he was. His mate, however, I took more time with. I pulled her free of her resting place and dragged her out into the sun. It took me longer than I had wanted, but I had her staked to the ground, pikes of wood driven through her hands and feet, spread out so that nothing would be untouched by the sun as it blazed over us. As she burned, her body peeling from her bones, I heard someone screaming. I looked up to see a child running to me, my mother just behind him. And when they reached me, do you know what I did? I killed it. Slashed out my hand and tore it in two. He was dead before he touched the earth.”

“
You killed their child.” He nodded and buried his face into her neck. She could feel his hot breath there as his tongue licked a path along her vein. “Don’t do this. You’ll hurt me if you do.”

Lifting his head, he looked at her, and she felt his anger pour over her. “I should have left you in the cave. I should have stayed away. This is what you get for spying on someone as powerful as me.”

He tilted her head and tore into her throat. She cried out as he drank from her. The pleasure and the pain were almost too much. When he lifted her up, she felt his cock at her entrance as he ripped her pants from her. When he entered her, hard and deep, Clar cried out again. This time he didn’t give her any pleasure, but came in her almost as soon as he took her.

Clar held onto his shoulders as he fed from her. Her body was weak with it when he finally lifted his head. When he staggered back from her, she held onto the door. There was no way she’d let him touch her again after this. As he fell to the floor, she stood there watching him, and when she was sure he was out, Clar staggered to his closet. Taking out the first thing she touched, she grabbed a shirt and a pair of his pants. They would both be too big for her, but she had no choice at the moment. When she was dressed, she opened his drawers until she found some socks and went to the door again. Looking back at him, she thought of how much pain he was in.

“
You are no better than the man who locked you beneath the ground. You took something that didn’t belong to you. If you come near me again, I’ll take your head off and never think another thing about it.” Clar went out of the room and was nearly down the stairs when she realized she had nowhere to go.

Kasen, a man she remembered from before, was standing in the kitchen when she entered. He didn’t say anything but pulled her to the chair and sat her down. Clar had no idea what she might look like, but was sure that it was frightening. As he sat a glass of something in front of her, he also handed her a wet cloth.

“
You must clean up, my lady, or you’ll frighten anyone who would happen to see you.” Nodding, she rubbed it onto her face and stared at the bloodied rag when she looked at it. “Come now, clean up. I’ll get you fed, then find you somewhere to stay.”

“
I can’t stay in the cave again. He knows where that is.” He only nodded and picked up the phone.

Chapter 6

Kennedy didn’t know what to make of the woman. She sat as still as a statue and never so much as looked at anyone when they said her name. When someone walked into the room, she looked at Brigitte and shook her head.