The Hard Way (Box Set) (31 page)

“Oh, Ash!” Her hand fisted him, then her mouth engulfed his head, her tongue flittering under the foreskin as she moaned in delight. Her fist began to slide up and down, pumping over him with the aid of the warm water, causing Johansen to give a small thrust with his hips.

“Mmm,” she moaned. The vibrations sent shivers through his cock as she nodded encouragingly, her free hand going to his hips to force him to move. His hands dropped to her hair, playing in the delightfully springy texture. He began to slowly fuck her face, driving his cock in deeper and deeper until it slipped against the back of her throat.

“Damn!” He closed his eyes, the pleasure threatening to carry him away. Ash teased his cock, her tongue whipping around it as her cheeks hollowed with the suction. His vampire knew her way around a cock. “You keep this up,” he managed between heavy panting, “and I’m going to blow.”

He began to concentrate on his response, allowing the pleasure to run through his body, relaxing into the motions of sliding in and out of her slick, hot mouth. He felt his balls tingle and begin to draw up, and his fists tightened in her hair.

“Ash,” he gasped, finally feeling his stomach muscles clench and the telltale burning at the base of his spine that signaled climax. “You’ve got to stop.”

Ash pulled off long enough to say, “After I feed.”

Johansen only had the chance to suck in one breath, and then he screamed out in ecstasy as her fangs pierced the flesh around the base of his cock.

She swallowed around him, the contractions of her throat making his knees weak. Scream after pleasured scream erupted from his mouth. Ash fed from him, pulling him down and delivering the maximum amount of pleasure as she did so. His cock stiffened even more within her hungry maw, and his climax threatened to overwhelm him.

Even in the midst of his explosive need, he realized Ash was taking the time to ensure he enjoyed this feeding, that she was not greedily taking without giving something in return. It was something none of his own kind would do, and he definitely knew of no other species that would give the same consideration to their prey.

It seemed a very… human thing to do.

But all too soon, she pulled away and licked her lips. She bent low to lap at the two holes in his flesh, healing them as she cleaned the blue blood from around his cock. Finished, she stared up at him, big brown eyes sated and lazy as she rose to her feet. She turned and pressed both hands against the far shower wall.

“Take me,” she said.

And Johansen was on her in seconds, drawing strength from the water that flowed around them. His erection was still diamond hard. He positioned himself at her dripping portal. “Ash.” He slammed himself home.

Her scream was just as loud, just as intense, as she pushed herself backwards onto his thick shaft. The meeting of their flesh was even louder than the roaring of the water as he began to move into overdrive.

“Take it,” he growled. “Take it all.”

His fingers made small impressions on her hips as he adjusted her position, slamming his own groin into that voluptuous ass, riding her as hard as he could. Ash took everything he offered and demanded more.

“Harder!” she shrieked, and Johansen answered her call, grinding his hips, letting the head of his dick explore her sweet, tight heat. Soon, he felt Ash stiffen and knew it was okay to relax into his pleasure, okay to allow his release.

As her body convulsed around him, Johansen felt his balls draw up and then an almost painful pleasure erupted through his body. His nerve endings sizzled, and his knees grew weak. Hot seed shot from his body and he thrust again, diving in as deep as he could, calling out when he felt the heat of his own cum surround his shooting cock.

With a final shout, his knees gave way, sending his body crashing on top of Ash’s. But they did not take a painful fall. The water that flowed around them formed a cushion, gently holding them in its warm depths, vibrating gently with their raspy breathing.

“I almost feel reborn,” he sighed, holding tightly to the woman in his arms.

“Reborn,” Ash agreed. “Thank you for that.”

Johansen blinked. After that sex, she was thanking him?

“I know you could have stopped me, or simulated running water,” she continued. “But instead you let me feed and then ensured my other hungers were satisfied. Thank you, Johansen. You are a true gentleman.”

Johansen froze at her words. He could feel their sincerity. She was thanking him, not selfishly taking without giving, trusting him with her body. It wasn’t at all like the people he had observed before.

Maybe it was time he revaluated his opinions. Maybe all of humanity wasn’t corroded. She was human before she’d become a vampire, and that humanity she’d learned in her formative years would never change. She was acting the part of the human being.

He had to think. He frowned, feeling his ideas shift. All because of this female.

He didn’t know whether to kiss her or kill her.

Johansen looked down at the sleeping woman beside him… and wanted to smash her face into mush.

She was too challenging to his ideals, too radical in her thinking, so at odds to what he was used to. How dare she draw similarities between his people and those dirty humans? Imagine, painting them both with the same brush.

But some of the things she had spoken of had merit.

He sighed, running a finger over her exposed shoulder, feeling the soft skin that remained cool to the touch, even after heated sex. She had once been human, and through a cruel trick, she was no more. She was no longer human, yet not quite Fey. She had seen so much during her years, had lived in both worlds, yet she could not see the difference between humans and Fey.

Experience counts
, his traitorous thoughts seemed to shout at him.
She has done more and seen more than you
.

Yet his hard-won beliefs could not just be cast away. He had seen with his own eyes the atrocities humans created and reveled in. But… were they any different than the sly and often cruel pranks his people played on humans and other Fey alike?

It was a quandary.

And then there was the fact that his family had been tricked…

“Outsmarted,” his mind corrected, but by humans, and he’d been left to pay the price. How much of his anger and disgust toward the human race was tainted by the knowledge that one of those lesser beings had gotten the better of his people?

He sighed and laid back on the bed, breathing in the tantalizing scent of sex and vampire and the blood he’d willingly shed for her. It was strange in a way, that this once-human was causing him to rethink the values he’d held dear to his heart since he was a child. Was he being a hypocrite? Was he just being a coward and letting this human problem be the solution to running away from and avoiding facing his fears?

And what were his fears, anyway?

“Will you be quiet?” A soft voice intruded on his black thoughts. “You’re thinking too loudly, and I’m trying to sleep.”

“I have… things to contemplate.” He watched her eyes slide open. She gazed at him through long eyelashes.

“Contemplating why you are here?” She snuggled closer into the blankets. “Your meaning in this vast universe and all that, sugar?”

“No. More like contemplating why I’m stuck here in this hotel room on this floor where there’s only one door that opens and a lot that are locked.”

“Easy, sugar,” Ash chuckled. “You are here to be my dinner and a damn good lay.” Her cool hand reached out and stroked his chest, teasing a pebble-hard nipple and drawing a shudder from his body.

“Maybe.” He picked up her hand and pressed a kiss to her palm.

“So, what are you thinking about?” She curled her fingers around his large hand, adjusting her position on the bed so she could remain on her side, yet still look him straight in the eyes.

“Humans and Fey.” He sighed, closing his eyes and slouching a bit.

“Hmm, and you have discovered…?”

“That there are more things that I need to look into.”

“And let go of, like your prejudicial belief that Fey are so damn perfect.”

“I never said we were perfect…”

“And you never admitted you have faults, either.”

“We have faults,” he hedged. “We do… questionable things.”

“How very human of you.” Ash chuckled, pulling her hand free and wrapping it around his waist. “Have you any idea why we are trapped in this room? Have you come to any conclusions, dear prince? We humble masses are dying to know.”

“Well.” He rolled her eyes at her mocking form of address. “That other female, the one who was here before you, she got out.”

“And why do you suppose that is?”

“I don’t know!’ Johansen was honestly perplexed. “She stopped acting like a spoiled little bitch after I gave her the silent treatment.”

“So she gained some humility?”

“And some self-respect. Then she was gone.”

“Hmm.”

“What?”

“A theory. She learned her lesson and she left. So what lesson do you have to learn, Johansen?”

“Lesson?”

“And for that matter, what lesson do I have to learn? It’s all so confusing.”

Johansen sighed and snuggled back into the covers, closing his eyes in frustration. “I got trapped here, running from my people. Well, from my marriage to a human.”

“Ohhh!” Ash purred. “A fiancée! My dinner has connections and attachments.”

“Not funny,” he snapped, reaching out and slapping her lightly on the ass. “Besides, I let you get away with a lot of stuff because you are a phenomenal fuck.”

“And no care for the bride?”

“Hell, for all I know, she could be crying her eyes out over this.”

“And you never bothered to check?”

That gave him pause. “No,” he answered finally, pulling Ash’s hand up to his lips. “And maybe I’m beginning to think I should have.”

“Ohh, the prince is learning,” Ash teased, then laughed as he slapped her ass again.

“So I can learn,” he snickered. “Anyone can learn.”

“About time you realized that.”

“And why are you here, Lady Ash? What are you running from?”

“Myself…” Ash trailed off. She pulled away from Johansen and settled herself deeper in the covers.

“Yourself?”

“Sometimes, this monster I have within me, this arcana that doesn’t belong to me? Sometimes I hate it.”

“Hate… Are you trying to kill yourself?” Johansen asked, eyes growing wide in shock. “Do you hate yourself…?”

“I love myself, prince,” Ash growled, eyes burning red in her anger. “It took me a long time and a lot of healing to realize that, and I am not going to let anyone take that away from me.”

“So…”

“So… I wanna… I hate this thing that tries to control me. I hate this thing that dictates how I should live. I hate the monster I’ve become.” She turned to look at him, serious as he had ever seen her during their short acquaintance, and it was a horrifying sight. “Sometimes I just want to kill each and every one of you fuckers,” she hissed. “And then I realize that would make me no better than you, taking my anger out on all of you because I can’t get at the one I despise most.”

Johansen was at a loss for words. He stared at the vampire he had come to believe was nothing more than smart talk and hunger, an amusing distraction while he was stuck here, but again her words gave him pause. There was something about her… something…

“I need to use the bathroom,” Ash sighed, blinking rapidly, allowing her red eyes to take on their normal brown tint. “I need you to move so I can get myself together.”

Wordlessly, Johansen moved out of the bed and let Ash climb free of the covers. Maybe he was a hypocrite. Here he was complaining about being forced on a human when she had gone through so much more. No human, even a mate, had used arcana to hurt him. No human would hold sway over his life. In a few years, the human would age and eventually die, despite the mate bond to an immortal. With no arcana to sustain them, aging always caught up. And then he would be free again.

But Ash… She was stuck this way for an eternity.

And the sad thing was that the Dryad who’d cursed her had to have known what he was doing, known that wild arcana would alter her in this manner. He’d ensured that she would never forget him and his lake, and he’d done it in the cruelest way possible.

The betrayal she’d felt must have been overwhelming.

He jumped when he heard the shower start again. He could go and join her, but no. He needed more time to reflect on what he was learning.

The Fey who had so betrayed her was one of his own kind. How many times had he turned a blind eye to what his own people had done, because it was mainly done to the humans? How many atrocities had he allowed and not spoken out against all because he felt the humans deserved it? What kind of ruler would he be?

“I wonder what my mate is like?” he finally asked himself. He got up and absently walked around the room, tugging on his robe and covering his naked body.

His mind began to wander to the plight of his people if he ran away. It was not an easy thing to be an oath breaker. Even if the oath had not been spoken by his lips, he would still bear the brunt of the burden of bringing shame and disgrace upon his family.

“I really hate my family sometimes,” he grumbled, plopping back on the bed. Rolling onto his stomach, he buried his face in the pillow Ash had been lying on. He inhaled deeply, the scent of wild arcana, of near-human spice, and of his own blood.

Ash, as far as things that were human went, was not too bad. She managed to be intelligent without being a know-it-all. She was wise beyond her years, which probably made her older than him if the tales of her past were true. And she was blunt to the point of being brutal with her honesty.

Being infused with wild arcana would not have done anything to alter her basic personality. What she was, she was because of the things that she’d gone through. Her past had shaped her, the events that made up her life had made her the way she was.

He kind of liked her.

Maybe there were more like her. Maybe this human mate of his would be like this, as well. But he would never know unless he took a chance and went back.