The Shadow Zone 2: Winning Madeline (7 page)

“No, no.” He didn’t like the way her hand trembled as it clung to the plate of grapes on her lap. “It’s not like that at all. All of the villagers of proper age and size give blood, in small amounts, every few weeks. They aren’t even required to give enough to weaken them. Those who are ill or too old don’t have to offer blood at all. It’s a rather large village and they just need to provide enough for Rick, his guests, and his vampire servants. There aren’t many of us.”

“How do you… Do you bite them or…”

“No, Madeline. That would be cruel. They draw it themselves, using needles and storage bags.”

“Your kind doesn’t mind that?” Madeline revealed more by the moment what a sharp mind she had. As if she could become more appealing to him.

“It’s not the natural way we’d prefer to feed, no. But the compromise works. It’s a way for us to feed ourselves and ensure our survival, and at the same time, we provide the humans support and protection so they can survive. Madeline, the humans in the village live good lives. They are able to care for their families and have a natural existence. They have nice homes, plenty of food. They don’t have to worry about the poverty and lawlessness of where you came from. We protect them from the threat of other vampires and even other humans. The village hasn’t been there long and we’ve had a couple of defections. But so far, it’s working well.”

Madeline didn’t say anything for a couple moments. Her hands loosened on the plate of grapes however. Surely that was a good sign. “I could live there, right? You could come see me there…”

Maddox pushed back the stab of pain those words brought. He tried to remember that she had no idea how he felt about her. She’d had no time to develop feelings for him.

She would develop the same feelings for him, wouldn’t she? What would become of him if she didn’t?

“Madeline, is that what you really want?” he asked gently. “To continue to sell yourself to other men for money?”

“No, it’s not what I wanted. I guess I thought…” Her throat worked as she swallowed hard. “I guess I thought I could live like that. Growing a garden, giving a little blood here and there. You said you’d be my only client so just you…”

Maddox did smile now. She remembered his conditions. She wasn’t trying to get out of their agreed sexual arrangement which made him happy. She was, however, testing the waters about living in the village. Away from him. No, he wouldn’t allow that as a possible avenue for her.

“But we have Vincent to consider,” he reminded her. The flash of fear in her eyes bothered him but he could tell it effectively ended any talk of her moving away from him.

A low rumbling growl echoed in her body and he shook his head.

“I’m told you’ve eaten very little today. Why?” he asked her. “You’re starving.”

Her face flushed pink. “I am hungry, but I…”

Maddox waited patiently but she seemed at a loss for words. “Yes?”

“I’m adjusting to everything, I suppose. And you have to realize that the food here is, well, a lot more than I normally have to eat. I guess I’ll eat more in time.” And with that she set the plate of grapes to the side, glancing up at him with determination in her face. The look that told him she was ready to fulfill her agreement to sleep with him was in place on her face like a mask.

Maddox sighed. Physically he didn’t care that she was going through the motions as his hired lover. His body ached for her and would take her any way he could. His heart ached for her too and not in a good way. He didn’t want to be her obligation. He wanted her to want him.

He just hoped one day she would.

Chapter Seven

Madeline took a deep calming breath as she contemplated the evening ahead. Now she
did
feel hungry after worrying all day about the mysterious world of vampires she’d entered. Her new and exclusive client was one-or so he claimed. There was still some unease for her in knowing he wasn’t technically alive. How easy it would be for him to kill her at any moment.

Still, Vincent had been just as dangerous and unlike Maddox, he’d been ill-tempered. As a Lycan, he too had incredible strength and had been rough with her on many occasions. Out of bed, he’d been civil but never kind.

Maddox had shown her more warmth in a day than anyone else had in years. He’d been unconcerned with her wandering around the enormous house. He’d taken her to see Gerald and Ivy who were safe and well cared for just as he’d promised. And it had made her heart so light to see the little girl in her pretty dress, her stomach no longer growling because of the food available to her now.

Gerald, like Madeline, seemed a little haunted and cautious, considering their circumstances. They were surrounded by vampires and it was foreign and dangerous territory. But like her, it seemed he’d been treated well enough to give it a try.

Maddox’s blue eyes watched her from under impossibly long lashes. Sitting there next to her on the edge of the bed, he didn’t seem real. He was too handsome, too beautiful, to be real. The night before with him had been surreal given what he’d told her and she still hadn’t completely squared with the idea that her new client was a vampire. But he’d allowed her to do what she wanted at her own pace and he responded like her other clients. He’d seemed quite pleased by her efforts, satisfied with just a blow job.

She hated that her hand trembled as she brought it up to his face and all the while she wondered if it was a good idea to touch him at all like that. Touching a man’s body - anywhere -- was generally not a problem. More intimate things like a kiss or a caress to his face were often not welcome gestures for her clients.

Her heart skipped a beat when her palm touched his cheek and he leaned into her touch. Again tonight his flesh was warm like a man’s. But it was so hard. She slid her hand up into his hair, let her fingers glide through the silky pale blond strands. His hair felt normal. It felt nice. And his eyes slid closed as she played with his hair, as if he were really enjoying her attentions.

“Maddox?” she whispered.

“Yes?” He didn’t open his eyes but a small smile formed on his gorgeous lips.

“You’re really a…”

“Vampire? Yes.”

“Can you… prove it?”

His sigh was a long whisper. “I could but I don’t want to scare you, Madeline. I don’t want you to fear me.”

She needed to see it. “Does it have to be so scary?”

Now his eyes opened and the enjoyment faded from his expression. Slowly he opened his mouth wide. As she watched in silent fascination, she watched his teeth change. Two upper teeth and two lower teeth slowly elongated into sharp, deadly fangs. Madeline could imagine how they’d rip through the skin and a shudder passed through her.

“See?” In a movement so quick she barely saw it, his mouth closed and she thought his teeth were perfectly normal again. “I knew it would scare you.”

“I’m not scared,” she said automatically, wanting him to relax and not worry about her. Her job was to relax him, turn him on, and keep him happy.

“She says as her heart pounds furiously…”

And it was true. Her heart was racing. “Maybe it’s desire.” She tried to sound sultry but didn’t quite hit that note.

“I wish.” Maddox’s smile widened. “But you can’t easily fool me, Madeline. I can hear your heart beat. I can sense your fear. It makes me a better hunter. Not that I’m hunting you. It’s just part of what I am.”

“It’s not my job to fool you,” Madeline said in an unsteady voice. “It’s my job to please you.” She slid her hands down to his shoulders, to the buttons of his shirt. He seemed perfectly content to let her work the buttons with shaky fingers until they were all undone and she’d pulled the shirt free of him.

His upper body was revealed and she had to do a double take. His flesh was white, too white, but flawless. He was all lean, powerful muscle and her mouth felt dry. “What do you like?” Madeline asked, anxiety blending with something else to quicken her heart and send tiny sparks of anticipation running all through her.

Maddox, gorgeous as he was, seemed unable to decide what to say. That made her think. “You’ve had sex with human women before?” Madeline kept her tone sincere.

He nodded. “But it wasn’t the same. That was either to feed, sorry, or boredom. I probably didn’t put as much care into it as I could have, though I never killed a human woman having sex with her.”

“You’re not bored or…” She couldn’t bring herself to say hungry. She didn’t want to think about it.

“No.” His smile was back. “What you think, how you feel, matters to me. I know you’re not used to that and I’m not going to explain it, but that’s the best answer I can give you.”

“Oh.”

“What would I like right now?”

Madeline nodded. She did want to know.

“I want to get to know you. I want to know what you like, what makes you feel good. That’s a… turn on for me.”

Warmth flooded her body from her head to her toes. His chuckle only made it worse.

“Do you even know what you like, Madeline?”

The question caught her off guard.

“All of those clients, all of those times. They got what they wanted, but have you ever been satisfied?”

Her mouth opened to speak, but no words came out.
Here it is
. Now he felt more familiar with her, his true kinks would be revealed. There was no way to anticipate how wild or how mild he would be. She did the only thing she could do and waited.

“I want to satisfy you,” he whispered. “Will you trust me? Will you let me do what I want with you?”

Madeline nodded, her heart thumping tellingly in her chest. She knew he could hear it. Gently he wrapped an arm around her waist and hauled her up the bed with him. It seemed an easy movement for him, as if she weighed nothing at all. She adjusted herself on the pillows while the hand at her waist slipped over her hip, down her thigh. She shivered.

“Madeline, relax,” Maddox whispered. “I won’t hurt you. I promised you that, remember?”

He did look so wonderful with all the white skin of his upper body revealed. Rising over her, Maddox gazed down at her and his deep blue eyes held fascination. “If I tried to kiss you, would you let me?” he asked, chuckling.

“Okay.” Her voice came out a breathy whisper and it portrayed her nervousness perfectly.

Lowering his head, Maddox came closer and she breathed in the scent of him. An enticing scent of man with something sweet and dark. When his lips brushed hers in a gentle kiss, she shivered but didn’t kiss him back. She didn’t know if he wanted her to -- it wasn’t usually something her clients were interested in. When she didn’t, he backed away.

“We’ll work on that,” he assured her. His hand was surprisingly gentle, feeling as if it were barely touching her skin as he swept the hair off her forehead, as he caressed her cheek. His fingers were cool as they skimmed down to the column of her neck and for an anxious moment, lingered on the point where her pulse throbbed beneath her skin. She watched Maddox swallow hard and then the moment passed and his hand moved further down.

Madeline gasped when his hand slid inside her robe, gliding over her skin to cup the warm mound of her breast. Heat gathered beneath his hand and pooled low in her belly. Her nipple tightened into a hard little peak that seemed to dance between his fingers and they moved to caress it. The simple touch sent tiny sparks of pleasure shooting through her.

“Do you like this?” he asked gently. “This is okay?”

It was better than okay. She arched under his touch, the sweet torment sending pulses of need all through her body. To say she enjoyed it was an understatement.

It wasn’t familiar territory though, so she fought against the instinct to touch him, pleasure him. Her clients wanted hand jobs, blow jobs, for her to ride them while touching herself. No one had ever cared what she felt or what her body would respond to.

He pulled her robe apart, his gaze moving down her body, and she froze under his scrutiny, wondering what he thought. She was so skinny even though her breasts were round and decent. Just as she worried he wouldn’t find her appealing, he smiled in something like triumph and his mouth dove for the same breast he’d just been paying attention to.

Madeline sucked in her breath at how good his suckling mouth felt. His lips and tongue toyed with her in a way that had her squirming beneath him, had wetness gathering in her pussy. The wet lash of his tongue drew heat from her flesh, combining with the cool of his mouth, to make her feel feverish and drive her insane with need. When he moved to the other breast, she arched to meet his mouth. Like they had a will of their own, her hands came up to clutch in his hair, to hold him to her.

His appreciative growl reverberated through her. “Yes, that’s right, Madeline. Just feel. Don’t think.”

Maddox continued to tease her breasts, only now one strong hand skimmed down to her thighs. His fingers drove her crazy, too, tracing slowly over the sensitive skin at the top of her legs.

“Maddox,” she cried out when his fingers found the wet curls at the apex of her thighs.

Lifting his head, he grinned at her, though his fingers sank deeper into her pussy, delving easily in the moisture there to find the hard nub of her clit. So softly he teased her with the easy touch of a fingertip while her sanity was shredding from a flood of sensations that were unfamiliar.

“Say it again, Madeline. Say my name again.”

“Maddox.”

By the time his name had escaped her lips, his lips were blazing a trail over her ribs, down to her hips. When his lips reached the edge of her blonde curls, she nearly came off the bed. Her thighs tightened in surprise but his hands gently nudged them open as he settled himself between them.

Madeline’s entire body was one big mass of anticipation. No one had ever gone down on her before. She’d always wondered what it felt like, even though with any of her clients it wouldn’t have mattered as long as they got off. Now, with him touching her as if she were something special, looking at her as if she really meant something to him, it
did
matter.

And she didn’t have time to react as the large pads of his fingers parted her sex before he slowly licked her. His tongue was a sinfully cool lash that roamed from her opening up to her clit where it lingered and began to flick with maddening movements that quickly smashed what was left of her sanity.

“Maddox!”

All of her self-control fell away as he licked her over and over. He teased her labia and her clit, which ached and throbbed from his attention. His lips, teeth, and tongue drove her mad as her hands yanked at the comforter beneath her, ripped at his hair. Madeline screamed and pleaded mindlessly in turns, his teasing and tormenting ceaseless. Her hips worked wildly but he didn’t allow her much movement as he held her in place against his greedy mouth. The wet sounds of his mouth blended with frantic cries in an ancient dance of lust and longing.

The quivering walls of her pussy tightened, wanting more. And Maddox gave her what she wanted as he began to thrust his long, sinful tongue in and out of her greedy opening, fucking her with his tongue. Over and over he speared into her, his tongue maddeningly quick and stiff. His fingers teased her pulsing clit, until her body felt like it would shatter. In the next moment, it did. The powerful orgasm exploded in her and she was lost as she thrashed and tore at him and screamed down the walls. She didn’t immediately recognize the screams as her own as they filled the room and she desperately clawed at his shoulders, his hair.

Heat flooded her body from her face to her throbbing center until she felt as if she’d burst into flames. Delicious spasms shook every inch of her for the longest time, but he never ceased in tormenting her and soothing the swollen, sensitive flesh between her thighs with tantalizing licks and kisses.

“Are you okay?” she thought she heard him ask.

The tremors fading, Maddox pulled her against the impossibly hard length of his body. His movements were a blur as he managed to spread her wider beneath him, rid himself of his slacks, and position himself between her knees, all while she trembled and recovered from the feelings that she’d never experienced before. It had been pure pleasure that she couldn’t have imagined.

His cock was poised and waiting at her entrance and she was all too familiar with that part of it all. Only this was different. Instead of mentally preparing herself for the penetration coming, a thrill of fresh excitement ran through her just at the thought of having him, Maddox, buried inside her. He was thick and throbbing and just the sight of him had her catching her breath.

Maddox’s gaze met hers for a long moment. His eyes were so blue. “I won’t hurt you,” he assured her. Then with a movement so swift it took her breath away, he pressed the crest of his cock into her heated slit.