Undeniable (14 page)

Diana bit her lip for a few moments, then nodded although
her eyes still held suspicion. “Okay. Guess I was lucky.”

“Guess we both were.” He grinned and breathed in the scent
of her body responding to his. His body hardened as her eyes swept over it
beneath her lashes. Reminding himself that she may have led Marek to his death,
that he had to win her trust if he expected to uncover the truth, he held out
his hand and asked, “Feel up to a walk?”

Diana hesitated a moment before sliding her hand in his. The
moment their skin touched, Sebastian felt a jolt of pleasure ripple up his arm.
When he wrapped his fingers around her hand, the feeling surged through the
rest of his body. The night would not last forever. He had much to learn from
Diana Nostrum before he gave in to the desire and hunger slicing into his every
thought.

A man singing a sultry rendition of Enrique Iglesias’ song
Can
I Have This Kiss Forever
broke the silence surrounding them. White lights
covering the trees lining the path twinkled.

“It must be midnight,” Diana said. “Midnight Music in the
Park is starting.”

“I’d say you owe me at least a dance.” Sebastian stepped in
front of her and grinned down into her startled face. “One dance and one kiss?”

Diana’s eyes still held uncertainty, but she nodded and
rested her free hand on his biceps. It tensed under the heat of her touch.
Every muscle tensed in anticipation of more.

An owl hooted woefully. People strolled past, some working
their way to the outdoor theater, some enjoying each other’s company on this
warm, clear night. Sebastian darkened the shadow surrounding them, wanting more
privacy than the tree bestowed. Diana’s fears nibbled at his conscience, but
her arousal destroyed his determination to keep his mind on weaning information
from her. They swayed to the music, keeping a scant inch of air separating
their bodies.

“I don’t even know your name.” Diana’s gaze shifted away
from his mouth to his eyes. As he opened his mouth to answer, she cursed under
her breath and slid her hand from his. She dug her nails into the spot where
he’d taken her blood last night. “Damn!”

When he raised his hand and moved it toward her neck, her
eyes widened. He slid his knuckles down the side of her throat. Her vein leapt
at his touch, then stilled.

Diana sighed and smiled. “That’s been driving me mad all
day.”

Filled with guilt by her offhanded referral to the madness
that he knew could overtake her if he failed to sate her hunger, he took her
hand in his, then drew her body into a tight embrace. Bringing his mouth to her
ear, he whispered, “I’d say this means I get two kisses.” He brushed his lips
over the whorl of her ear.

“I’d say you have to do more than soothe a twitch for a
kiss.”

“Like what?” Enjoying himself, he smiled and sent a vision
of straight, fang-free teeth into her mind.

“I don’t even know you.”

“Yes, you do. I’m the man who saved you from kissing
Cabana’s floor.”

Laughing, Diana relaxed and leaned closer. Her hair flowed
over the hand he slid up her back and sent the sweet fragrance of jasmine
drifting up to fill his lungs.

“Sebastian,” he murmured in her ear before pulling away to
gaze into her dazed eyes.

“Hmm?” Diana blinked.

“My name.”

“Oh.” Her lips quirked up in a lopsided grin. “Mine’s
Diana.”

“Diana. How fitting. The name of a goddess.” Sebastian
watched her eyes twinkle. “She frolicked in the forest nude, didn’t she?” He
shifted, bringing his mouth very close to hers. “And bathed in the lake.”

Diana stared up into his eyes. “Nude. She was quite vain,
you know. She felt she was too beautiful to allow any mere mortal to look at
her body.”

“Alas, poor Actaeon. If he were not a mere mortal, do you
think she would have turned him into a stag or opened her arms and allowed him
to feast his eyes upon her body?”

“Oh, goddesses are very picky.” Diana grinned. “It probably
would depend on his looks more than his mortality.”

“Really? And do I have what it takes to win over a goddess?”
Sebastian hooked Diana’s chin with his finger and tilted her face up. His hands
itched to explore every curve of her body. It took all the control he had to
keep his fangs from exploding into view.

“Are you a mere mortal?” Diana’s grin failed to reach her
eyes.

He maintained his composure, although a bevy of alarms went
off in his head. “That depends on what you consider a mere mortal.”

When she opened her mouth to respond, he drew her closer and
stole the words from her mouth in a crushing, yet tender kiss. The ground
shifted beneath his feet, the voice of the singer and hushed conversations
filtering from throughout the park dissolved and his resolve to uncover the
truth about Diana Nostrum receded into darkest depths of his mind. Pricking his
lip with his fang, he tempted her senses with a taste of his blood.

Shrouded in the shadow he’d enveloped them in, he merged
with her mind and absorbed her every reaction to their kiss, to his blood.

Her hunger overpowered the last remnants of her fears. She
strained against the confines of their clothes to get closer and moaned when
his blood slid into her mouth. She wondered about the sweet taste of his
kisses, comparing the feel of him to that of the phantom she’d convinced
herself was really just a product of some dreams or premonitions. Her body
strummed with a desire that could only be matched by his.

Growling, Sebastian deepened the kiss until he thought he’d
drown in their combined passion. He tore his mouth from hers, but remained
merged with her mind. Had she bewitched him, again?

Her thoughts filtered into his mind. She’d never been so
forward. Her logical side warned she’d gone over her beer limit, reacting more
to the excessive amount of alcohol she’d downed than to Sebastian. Ah, but her
romantic side shoved logic aside and insisted her body ached with need because
she’d finally found her way into the arms of the man she’d waited for all these
years. She wondered if he too felt as if he’d found that special someone.

Kiss me again, Sebastian.
Her voice slid into his
mind, sweeter than any angel’s song. He realized his error when just before his
lips touched hers he saw, reflected in her eyes, two tiny points peeking out
from beneath his upper lip. Tiny, but big enough to yank her out of the fog of
desire she’d been so lost in.

Diana backed away, recreating some distance between their
bodies. Her nails dug into his flesh.

Everything in Sebastian demanded he decimate her misgivings
with another kiss and feed her hunger until she had no will left to refuse him.
Common sense demanded he resist.

Her teeth snagged her lower lip and pierced the sensitive
skin. A tiny bead of blood emerged, then burst.

“You owe another,” he murmured and brushed his knuckles down
her cheek. “Will you deny me?”

Diana’s lower lip slid free as she shook her head. Before
she could change her mind, he took possession of her lips, silencing any fears
that might drive her away, gently compelling her to accept that she’d only
imagined seeing his fangs, that the teeth she now slid her tongue over were
flat and smooth. Swamped by her emotions and her body’s reaction, he struggled
for control, but that control quickly turned to ash beneath the fire that erupted
in her core. He slid his thigh between her legs to fan the flames, then grabbed
her hips and drew her up the length of his thigh and pressed his erection into
her soft, warm stomach. His tongue teased her lips until she opened them and
offered herself up to his invasion.

Her legs buckled. Her arms tightened around his neck.
I
do know you. I know this kiss.
She pulled back.

Her voice and the fear in her eyes brought him to his
senses. “You know, goddess, I believe we have met.”

Diana’s eyes widened before narrowing with suspicion.
“When?”

“Sadly, only in my dreams.” He lifted a spiral of her hair
and twisted it around his finger.

Smirking, she muttered, “That’s such a lame line.”

“I have dreamt of you,” he said, holding her gaze. Letting
her hair uncurl from around his finger, he watched it glide down and land on
the slight swell of her breasts. “I recognize your kiss.”

Sebastian squarely met her probing gaze. He hated lying to
her, but he had no choice. No matter her guilt or innocence, he had to gain her
trust. “Just last night, I dreamt of this kiss.”

She leaned closer. Her heart beat fiercely against his
chest. “Last night?”

“Did you dream last night?” He grinned and brought his lips
back to hers. Her desire, her inability to deny it shocked her. He could see it
in her eyes, in the slight tensing of her back. Part of him regretted
enthralling her last night and implanting the command that she give in to her
desires when they touched. Part of him wished he could determine if her hunger
stemmed from her transformation or from a natural attraction to him.

Either way, only her fears had the power to subdue her.
Fears he had to calm if he planned on completing their bonding. Suspicion still
lurked in his mind, but the idea of spending an eternity of nights tasting,
touching, possessing Diana kept hope alive that he’d succeed in proving her
innocence.

During the walk back to Cabana’s, Diana carried on a
one-sided conversation in her mind. Sebastian grimly noted that if she’d
actually been talking, she would have passed out by now from lack of air.

She begged him not to think she always hooked up with men
she’d just met, explained that she rarely kissed anyone like this until a
second date, then rattled on and on about her phantom. She talked about their
time at the lake and in the alcove at Cabana’s as if she truly believed he’d
been there. Then she shocked him by listing all the other times over the past
week when she’d either sensed his presence or caught sight of a shadow and was
sure it was him. She talked so much to him with her mind that he almost
believed she knew he could hear.

As they crossed the parking lot, she winced and clutched her
stomach. Sebastian realized that she needed much more of his blood than he’d
thought and much sooner than he’d anticipated.

As soon as Diana reached her car, she unhooked her micro
purse from the loop of her skirt and took out her keys. Her stomach muscles
cramped. She leaned on the car for support. Cold sweat broke out on her
forehead. How many beers had she drunk?

Over the top of her car, she noticed that all the people
smoking outside Cabana’s suddenly stamped out their cigarettes and quickly
reentered the club. Even the bouncer went in and closed the door behind him.
“Isn’t that strange. Everyone—

She felt Sebastian grab her shoulders and roughly swing her
around to face him.

“What—?” Her question dissolved when Sebastian’s mouth
covered her own.

Cinnamon mixed with that unbelievably sweet taste unique to
his kisses filled her mouth. Her legs trembled when his hand cupped her
buttocks and drove her hips into his.

With a deep, guttural moan, Diana grasped onto his shoulders
and rose up onto her toes, bringing that solid shaft of heat where she wanted
it most. The hand supporting her back bathed her with liquid fire as it slid
up, firmly pressing her breasts to his chest, then cradled her head and shifted
it so he could delve his tongue even deeper.

Moan after agonizing moan rose from her throat as she
savored his taste and alternated between sucking on his tongue and lower lip,
something she’d never done while kissing other men, something she couldn’t stop
doing with Sebastian. Her muscles relaxed as the pain ebbed.

She felt the hand on her buttocks glide lower, felt the tips
of his fingers draw the hem of her short skirt up, then brush along the tender
crease where her thigh ended and the cheek of her rear end began. Tearing her
mouth away, she murmured against his lips, “Someone—”

“Trust me, no one will come out.”

He obliterated her concern over the eeriness of the lot emptying
out with another bone-melting kiss. She swept her tongue into his mouth, found
what felt like a gash on his tongue and wrapped around it the same way a baby
would wrap her tongue around the nipple of her bottle. Suckling his tongue,
unable to stop herself, Diana drove her hips firmly into his as her head
swirled with a multitude of decadent images that seemed so real, so familiar.
Sebastian crouching behind a bush, breathing in her scent as she stood naked
before him. Sebastian growing more and more aroused as she seductively danced
in the moonlight. Sebastian holding her naked body beneath the towering pines,
crushing her against the wall in Cabana’s alcove.

Another image from her dream last night swept before her
closed eyes with more clarity than even she had dreamt. Sebastian raising her
hips and bringing his head down between her legs because…because…

Because she’d wanted him to.

She felt as if she were in a familiar embrace, as if they’d
shared all of her visions and more. Her confusion over the images began to draw
her out of the wave of desire enveloping her, but then his fingers dug into the
crease below her buttocks. Every nerve seemed to converge in her pussy as she
felt the delicate lace of her lace thong slide over then between her quivering
nether lips.

His kiss grew more demanding, as if he knew what he’d done,
as if he knew how very much she wanted and needed his fingers to follow that
thin strip of lace and push it deeper into her pussy.

Fuck me now, Sebastian,
she silently begged, wishing
she had the nerve to voice her desires. A growl rumbled through his body into
hers, sounding more animal than human. A painful, rending growl so like the one
she’d heard by the lake. The one that had not been part of a vision. The one
that had sent her friends running for cover.