Kapitel 12: Delicious Disaster

Nick

I knew I should turn away, but by the moon, I didn't have the strength. I cursed under my breath at this captivating woman. Soon her pants and shoes were discarded, and she stood before me with not an ounce of discomfort that I could see. The thump of her pulse at her neck was as distracting as all the creamy white flesh on display before me.

She stood in front of me seemingly daring me to mention the scars that riddled her torso and thighs, or the intricate tattoos that swirled between them. Oriana's crew had obviously enjoyed their task. I felt my muscles bulge and my eyes glowing hot, furious on her behalf. But what good was that feeling now? She'd already been through this hell and come out the other side. All I could do was prevent anyone from ever hurting her again.

Not breaking eye contact, I shucked my own clothes quickly until we were standing naked in front of each other. My cock stood at attention, and I wanted her to know exactly how much I needed her. Her scars were a challenge to me, to explore and taste each one, replacing the tortuous memories with pleasurable ones. To have her body crave mine as much as I craved hers.

I held out my hand in silent request. A moment passed, then two. I breathed and waited. Finally, she placed her long fingers in my palm, and I guided her to the hot waters of the spring. Silently, we submerged ourselves in the steaming water. A relieved moan escaped her mouth and I grinned, my teeth scraping my bottom lip. I tasted a drop of my own blood there. That hadn't happened for years. My focus was completely on the fiery, Fae goddess in front of me.

Once in the water, she moved languidly away from me, flashes of her bare ivory back and slender arms taunting me through the black waters. Her crimson hair flowed like liquid fire behind her back, and I'd never wanted to be burned so badly. My eyes shone like beacons through the dimness of the cavern as I tracked her, the most beautiful prey I'd ever hunted. Prey that I was desperate to possess.

She came to rest at the other side of the pool, her arms spread wide on the smooth lip of the spring. My body burned, attuned to every ripple across the dark waters around her body. This bond clamored to be consummated, to erase any barriers left between us. Still, I clung to fraying threads of control. I would not be that vampire. I wouldn't take unless she invited me, no matter the cost.

A small gasp of distress snapped my intense focus. My nostrils flared as I smelled the sweetest blood I'd ever experienced. My breath came in pants and my control tugged without restraint at its fragile tether. She was bleeding. My insides roiled at the thought of her somehow having an injury but that scent! I wanted to devour her.

I was beside her without conscious thought, wading through the waist-deep water as fast as the predator I was. Celeste went very still at my sudden proximity. I couldn't tell if her cheeks were flushed from the steam or from our auras again snapping together in a sensual dance. A dark welt peeked out from the tattoo on her shoulder, and a trickle of bright red blood skipped down her sculpted shoulder blade.

"You're injured," I rasped, reaching out a finger to lightly explore the newest marring of her skin. Even this small point of contact scorched my cool flesh, and I hissed in a breath.

"It's just a scratch," Celeste whispered. "It's nothing."

Something within her captivating green eyes shifted when they met mine. Fear replaced with desire. Her tongue peeked out and swiped at her bottom lip. Reaching out a finger to follow its path, an almost painful groan escaped my lips as her hot, wet mouth closed over it and sucked. Invitation granted.

In a blink, my body was pressed to hers from shoulder to knee and my hands fisted in her tantalizing locks, now darkened with the damp of the steaming water. Without a word, I slanted my head and took her mouth hungrily. My sharp teeth scraped her pouty lower lip, and my tongue lapped at the drop of blood. Ambrosia! My veins sizzled with that single taste, and I forced her head back until I could kiss and nip at the pulse racing in the smooth column of her throat. A tattoo of a dagger with runes in red rested there and I thought no ink was ever more perfectly placed.

"Celeste…" I murmured in her ear. It was plea and prayer. Her hands slid upward to link behind my neck, drawing me down harder to her.

But not yet. I wouldn't allow myself to sink my fangs into that dagger until I had tasted every part of her, explored every curve and crevice, made her beg me to take her. This self-denial was an all new experience for me but felt necessary to my very being.

"Nick," she sighed in pleasure, eyes slipping closed. Delicate hands came to rest feather-light on my chest, long red nails tickling my overheated skin, warm for the first time in memory. Our connection hummed in anticipation.

My hands left her hair to take a firm grip on the smooth, rounded globes of her ass and lifted her to me. She wrapped her legs around my waist and devoured my mouth as I lifted her onto the lip of the smooth outcropping of rock. The heady sweetness of her arousal slammed into me almost as hard as the scent of her blood had. Spreading her legs for better access to her lower lips, my tongue swept up her folds, tasting and sucking but avoiding the one spot I knew she wanted me most.

I continued my assault on her flesh, circling her clit but never giving it the attention I knew it desperately wanted. Celeste writhed under me, and I clamped my strong hands down on her hips to keep her still as my tongue speared her channel, giving her a preview of things to come. Her head fell back against the wall and a deep groan of need left her swollen mouth.

As my tongue fucked her pussy, Celeste gripped my hair to the point of pain, her voice calling my name over and over in a frenzied rush of desire and want. She writhed and keeping her where I wanted her became a struggle. Finally, I gave in and sucked hard on her clit, letting my elongated fangs nick one edge. Celeste screamed as her orgasm tore through her, rocking on my face, begging for more without coherent words.

In answer, my fingers replaced my tongue in her hot, wet heat as I continued to milk her orgasm from her, my teeth surrounding her bundle of nerves in exquisite torture. The skin of her thighs tightened around my head as she rode her pleasure, and I could feel the slight raised marks there on my cheeks.

My fierce need to protect her from all harm flared again, but I managed to control my rage as she trembled around me. Instead, my lips skimmed the marks, left there I could tell by a hunter's blade. The kind I used to carry and wield without thought. More evidence of her torture. I bowed my head, feeling my eyes burn and my muscles tense with the need to find and destroy those who had dared touch her so.

But then she did something completely unexpected. She caressed my disheveled hair back from my forehead and her lips brushed my forehead with a sublime gentleness that was completely foreign to me. Something about the tender gesture snapped all semblance of control I'd been holding onto and refocused my attention to the need to possess her completely. With one smooth motion, I lifted her off the ledge and dragged her down my body, impaling her without finesse on my needy cock.

She gasped with the sudden intrusion but held on tight as I pistoned her up and down my steel-hard dick. I was an ancient vampire for fuck's sake, known for my control in all things, but this female … this Fae female, had me ready to explode like a newly turned young one. As my balls tightened up against my body, my muscles stiffened with my release, my mouth instinctively returned to the red dagger I'd admired earlier.

This time, my fangs struck deep, and I drank in the exquisite essence of my Fae as she cried out in ecstasy again. I felt her inner muscles spasm around me as her orgasm ripped through her in tandem with my own. In that moment, a bright red light sparked and surrounded us in a bubble of fire-like illumination and a rush of power surged through me. I could only give this phenomenon a minimal amount of attention, however, busy drinking Celeste in — her blood, her screams, her pleasure.

When the last spasms of my release receded, I skimmed the puncture wounds with my tongue to close them, my need temporarily sated, and dropped my forehead to hers. We panted in time for long moments, our chests heaving as we both tried to catch our breaths.

"By the moon, Bloodsucker! What did you do to me?" Celeste gasped. I felt her words on my lips more clearly than in my ears.

"I might ask you the same question, my little Fae." I chuckled, pushing her hair back behind one slightly pointed ear. "I'm afraid that was over way too quickly."

Celeste looked utterly captivating even after my ravaging of her fine features. Her kiss-swollen lips curled into a lazy smile. Moss-green eyes searched out mine. "Was that red light a vampire thing?"

"I was going to ask you if it was a Fae thing," I admitted. "I've never experienced anything like it."

We stared at each other, the warm water of the spring eddying around us, trying to comprehend this thing between us. This bond that drew two species together that should never have been.

"It can only be one thing then," I surmised. "It's the bond. Leo was right."

Pleasure slid quickly from Celeste's face. "Damn that Druid. This is a fucking disaster."

She might be right, but it was a completely delicious fucking disaster, and I was more than ready and willing to explore the territory.