The Dark Vampire: Last True Vampire 3 (28 page)

She’d smell the lie on him if he told her anything other than the truth. “Because the sight of you”—he swallowed against the emotion that clogged his throat—“twists me into a fucking knot.”

Bria opened her eyes and pushed herself up on an elbow. The amethyst depths flashed with angry silver,
though she kept her tone level. “Is that why you had another female in your arms last night? Because I
twist you into knots
? Perhaps if you’d been with me—
where you belong
—you wouldn’t have found yourself with a slayer’s silver bullet in your back.”

Her disdain peppered his skin like bits of gravel. He deflected the hurt of her accusation with a question of his own: “Why were you out alone last night? I told you not to leave the house without me.”

“And I told you that I wasn’t something you could simply place on a shelf until you found need of it again.”

“You belong to
me,
” Jenner growled. His anger was unfounded, further proving that he was nothing more than a selfish asshole. But it was so much easier than telling Bria the truth: that he’d kept his distance from her because he couldn’t bear for her to find out that he was unworthy of their tether. “Your safety is my only concern. You could have been killed last night, Bria. The slayers were right outside of Ultra.”

“Yes, my safety,” she agreed in a chilling tone. “Always my safety. And what about yours? Don’t you care that you could have been killed last night? I’m sick of you worrying about my safety and nothing else. Not even my happiness. I asked you a question and I deserve an answer. How can I possibly have any effect on you when you seem content to cast me aside in favor of another’s affection?”

If she only knew how irresistible she looked, propped up on the bed with the rumpled blankets around her, her cheeks flushed and hair a wild tangle that cascaded over her bare shoulders. Bria was sin and innocence, fire and ice. And too pristine for the things he wanted to do to her.

“You have no idea what I’ve cast aside,” Jenner grated. He rubbed at the residual burn of silver that ached in his
shoulder, but the pain was nothing in comparison to his need for Bria that slowly ate him alive.

“Is it because you think I’m incapable of passion?” Bria averted her gaze. “Have I not shown you how much I want you? That your touch sets me on fire?”

“Stop.” Jenner couldn’t hear those words from her. Every minute in her presence broke down his defenses. Hearing that she wanted him, craved him, was more than he could handle. “You don’t know how hard it is for me not to . . .” The words died on Jenner’s tongue and he raked his fingers through his hair.

“Not to
what
?” Bria pushed herself from the bed and Jenner nearly choked at the sight of her clad in nothing but her underwear and a strappy top that was so thin he could see the dark outline of her areolas and the tempting points of her nipples through the fabric. “What is wrong with me that you feel you have to leave me every sunrise? That the only contact you can have with me is when you’re teaching me to fight? To protect myself from an enemy that I’ve never even seen? How can you give me pleasure, take the vein at my throat, and in the next moment put me at arm’s length? Why, Jenner?”

Jenner kept his gaze straight ahead. The accusation in her tone stung. “The thought of losing you—” The words lodged in Jenner’s throat. “Bria, you have no idea what I’m capable of. I don’t know that I’d survive it,
viaton.
”

Bria let out a soft snort. “I’d no longer be a stone around your neck.”

A stab of pain shot through his chest. He’d worked Bria. Pushed her. Made her train until she was too exhausted for anything but sleep. She wasn’t a burden but a
temptation
. One Jenner found harder to resist by the day. He bent over her smaller frame until his mouth hovered close to her ear. “I
ache
for you. The light of your soul
scalds me with its brilliance. I feel you everywhere, but I don’t trust myself to be near you. To touch you. To take what I’ve wanted since the night you tethered me. I’m the prisoner, Bria. I’m nothing more than your helpless captive.”

Her voice escalated with her anger. “Those are nothing but excuses.
Why
have you put this unfathomable distance between us?”

“Because I can’t be what you need,” he rasped as he pushed away and took several steps back. “I’m not what you think I am, Bria.”

“Why don’t you let me decide what I need, Jenner?” She took a step closer to him, and another. He willed himself to back away, to put distance between them, but his legs refused to move.

“Do you want to know what I think every time I look at you, Bria?” Jenner bared his fangs as his gaze raked over her barely clad body. “I want to fuck every tight inch of you. I want to fuck your mouth, run my cock deep between your lips, and feel the back of your throat against my crown as I come. I want to devour your sweet, wet pussy. Lick and suck it until you scream my name.” He took a step closer and another. Bria leaned toward him, her eyes alight with silver. He reached out and fisted the locks of her silky hair and forced her gaze to his. “I want to fuck you so hard and so deep that you ache for days afterward.” Bria thought she could handle him? Crude and wanton as he was for her? She thought she could hear the lewd things he wanted to do to her? Wanted to be defiled by him? “I want to fuck your ass.” Gods, the thought of having her that way nearly made him come without a single touch from her. “Slowly, until you beg me to pound into you. I want to stripe you with my seed. Mark your flawless tits with ropes of white and make you lie still
while I admire my handiwork. Does that appeal to your virginal ears,
viaton
? Would you like your body to be the canvas for my pleasure?”

The rich scent of Bria’s desire bloomed around him and it nearly brought Jenner to his knees. Gods, after he had admitted every vile thing he wanted to do to her she still wanted him? He released his hold on her hair and let out a sharp breath as he took a stumbling step back.

“Gods, yes!” Bria exclaimed. “I want all of that and
more
! I’m tired of standing on this damned pedestal. I’m sick of you acting as though I’m this naïve, virginal creature who can’t be soiled. I
want,
Jenner. I need your body as much as you need mine. I’m not innocent. I’m not pristine. I lie in this bed in the hours before sunrise and ache for you! I touch myself. I let my hands wander over my naked flesh and imagine that it’s you touching me.”

Bria ran her hands up her torso. The flimsy top rose up on her hip as her hands moved to cup her breasts. Jenner scrubbed a hand over his face. His heart thundered in his chest and his mouth went dry. She was the most desirable creature he’d ever laid eyes on. Seductive without even trying. “Take me down from this place you’ve put me. Defile me; use me; do whatever the hell you want to me. I need you, Jenner. Do it, or I’ll find someone else who will!”

Her ultimatum ignited his temper and Jenner growled, “The hell you will.”

“Oh no?” Bria cocked a challenging brow. “You seem eager enough to share yourself with females other than your mate. I think it’s high time I did the same.”

“If you so much as touch another male, I’ll kill him and make you watch.” He wanted to be gentle with her. Whisper sweet, passionate words to her. But Jenner knew nothing of gentleness. His world had been crafted by
hardship and violence. Rather than a slow simmer, his passions raged like an inferno. He feared for Bria to see that side of him, and yet he refused to let her go.

“Why bother?” Bria snorted. “I’m sure there are plenty of females waiting for you at Ultra to occupy you while I find my own entertainment. You can visit me when a dhampir’s blood isn’t enough to fortify your strength. I’d be happy to offer you
my wrist
when your thirst mounts.”

“Unless you want to see the full force of my temper, you’d be better off not trying to push my buttons, Bria.”

She looked him up and down, but all her narrowed gaze managed was to further harden Jenner’s cock. Gods, how he loved this side of her. Wild and enraged, her eyes bright with an angry fire. Her duality fascinated him. Her strength when her very upbringing should have turned her into something weak and pathetic. Her innocence—because no matter what she thought, Bria was indeed naïve—and the wanton desire that sweetened her scent. She was magnificent.

“I’m not afraid of your temper,” she seethed. “Do your worst, Jenner.”

She’d called his bluff. He could no more let that storm loose than he could sever their tether. He blew out a gust of breath and she took another step closer. Another. Until the heat of her body caressed his.

“I should have left last night,” she said. “I should have walked out the door and left Ronan to dig that bullet out of your back.”

Her words lacked sincerity. Hurt reflected in her eyes. In the tight draw of her brows.

“Try to leave me,” Jenner said, “and I’ll hunt you to the ends of the earth.”

“Stop playing these games, Jenner,” Bria said in a sultry tone that heated his blood, “and you’ll never have to.”

Jenner grabbed Bria and hauled her against him. His
mouth descended on hers in a furious kiss that conveyed every ounce of pent-up frustration he’d been unable to release since his tethering. Bria melted against him and he wound his fist in the silken length of her hair. She was heaven and hell. His salvation and the cruelest of punishments. Her arms came around his neck and her nails scraped along his nape bringing chills to the surface of Jenner’s skin.

He cupped her breast with his free hand, squeezed the flesh through the sheer fabric of her top. Bria moaned into his mouth and Jenner came back to himself as he put her at arm’s length. His head swam with her scent; where her body had touched his Jenner’s skin burned. Weeks of carefully reigned restraint unraveled under her heated gaze and the sight of her, undone, gasping for breath, her taut nipples straining against the thin fabric as though in want of his touch.

“I can’t,” he rasped. “I can’t, Bria.”

“Why?” she demanded. Her eyes flashed violent silver and she bared her fangs. “Tell me why!”

“Because I need to be gentle with you! And all I want to do—all I can think of—is to fuck you with the ferocity of an animal! I want to glut myself on your blood! I could kill you,” he said low. “I could drain you before you even realized the damage I’d done. I have no control when it comes to you—to anything—Bria. And it scares the fucking hell out of me.”

Jenner
thought he had no control? Bria stared at him, awestruck. Her lips throbbed from his punishing kisses; her body hummed with want. His lewd and heated words did nothing to deter her. In fact, they only made her yearn more for the pleasure he could give her. She wanted all that he offered and
more
. No control? Good gods, for weeks he’d been the epitome of control.

“How many times have you taken my vein and never once lost yourself to bloodlust? You could no more hurt me than you could hurt yourself. You have to trust me, Jenner. Trust
us
and the tether that binds us. It’s right. We’re right! Stop fighting it and let go. Give in. To me.”

Bria banished the image of that female in the club from her mind. Whatever life Jenner thought he deserved, whatever evil he thought he was capable of, whatever choices he made in an effort to keep her at a distance, Bria could forgive him. If only he allowed himself to trust in their bond. Darkness swallowed twilight and they stood nose to nose in the shadowed room. Bria reached out to wrap
her fingers around the solid muscle of his forearm and Jenner flinched at the contact.

“I want you to touch me, Jenner.” She took a step back and shucked her underwear. Tension sizzled in the space between them and Bria straightened to strip her cami off as well. Jenner sucked in a sharp breath and his gaze reflected feral silver in the darkness. Bria swept her hair off her shoulders so that it cascaded down her back. “I’m not made of glass.”

Jenner groaned. That same sound of half pleasure, half pain that both excited her and tore at her heart. “I don’t trust myself with you.”

“
I
trust you. Stop running. Stop pushing me away. Stop treating me like I’m something you have to watch over and be the equal I need you to be. It’ll kill me to do it, but I’m ready to walk away if I have to. Make me stay, Jenner,” Bria said with desperation. “Give me a reason not to leave!”

All Bria could think about was Jenner lying on the table, bleeding out as the silver poisoned him. She’d never been so terrified of losing something.
Someone
. She stood before him now, bared to his gaze, both her body and her heart. The vulnerability she felt at offering herself to him in this way filled her with fear that caused her limbs to quake. Another rejection would break her. He had to know that. And still he made no move to assuage her fears.

Tears stung at Bria’s eyes and she bit back the traitorous flow. She was stronger than Jenner gave her credit for. Stronger than anyone gave her credit for. With a sigh of resignation Bria bent to scoop up her discarded underwear and top. She turned away from Jenner and strode toward the bathroom. She respected herself too much to continue to live this way.

Jenner’s strong hand gripped her upper arm and he
whirled her around. He crushed her to him as his mouth claimed hers in a desperate kiss that left Bria weak and shaking. His hands trembled as he caressed from her shoulders down either side of her collarbone to her breasts. Bria’s nipples hardened from the contact and a tingle raced from the sensitive tips to her sex.

“Tell me to stop.” His growled plea tore at Bria’s heart, but she refused to give him the easy way out. He teased her nipples, rolling them between his thumbs and fingers. Bria inhaled sharply and she reached out, gripping the muscled mound of his shoulder to ground her. His palms slid down her torso and his fingertips dug into her hips with barely restrained strength. “Tell me that you despise our tether.” He reached down between her legs and cupped her sex. His breath shuddered out of him as Bria rolled her hips into the contact. “That you despise
me
. Tell me that I’m a fucking bastard, Bria. Tell me to get the fuck away from you. That I’m not good enough for you. Tell me that I scare the hell out of you.” The tremor that shook his hands spread throughout Jenner’s body and his own pain and doubt flared through the tether, stabbing at Bria’s chest. “Say something,
anything
to keep me from doing what I want to do right now.”