Текст книги "Chains of Darkness"

Автор книги: Caris Roane

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Текущая страница: 5 (всего у книги 16 страниц)

CHAPTER 4

Sometime later Claire awoke to Lucian moaning. She turned toward him and her increasingly improved vision warmed up. He looked better, but he seemed to be in some kind of distress.

The chains suddenly spoke to her. He was no longer suffering from the deprivation of blood, but from something else.

Her body seemed to know and responded accordingly, as warmth climbed her cheeks.

She slipped from under the covers and rounded the bed to the other side. He was wide awake and lucid, but his lips were parted.

Claire. His voice was sensual within her mind. Be with me. Please. I need you.

She’d wanted him from the first, but this was new territory.

She felt flushed and hot. They were alone, in a private room, and the door was locked. Only the dim lamplight burned.

She wanted Lucian. She valued and respected him, which caused her own need to soar. And the time with him at the club, especially the kiss they’d shared, had somehow opened the gate for her.

Her gaze slid down to his chest, his pecs heavy with muscles, his nipples in tight beads.

The single sheet that covered him had formed a tent at his groin. And he was still in restraints.

She licked her lips.

Lower the sheet. I want you looking at me. All of me.

She hesitated. It was one thing to feed Lucian, to give up her lifeblood, but another to engage with him physically. Part of her knew she shouldn’t—if she had sex with him, she’d become much more attached than she should.

Yet she wanted this with Lucian more than she wanted to be careful and wise. As one enthralled, she picked up the edge of the sheet and slowly peeled it away from his body, taking it all the way to his bound ankles.

Lucian came from her mind unbidden. You’re beautiful.

I love that you’re looking at me. I’ve wanted this. From almost the first moment I saw you in the cave, I’ve desired you.

She nodded as her gaze became fixed on his erect cock, then on the line of hair leading toward his navel.

His abs flexed and released.

His hips rolled. He turned toward her slightly and arched his hips so that she watched his cock thrust.

Her body responded in kind, clenching deep.

“I can smell your sex, your desire, Claire.” His voice came out in a soft purr. “Please come to me, give me release. Your blood has eased the madness, but now I have a new kind of agony.”

Maybe it was because the vampire used his manners; Claire would never be sure. But some kind of meet-your-vampire’s-needs insanity took over her mind. She reached down to the hem of her T-shirt and pulled up and up, stripping slowly. His gaze raked her face, the slope of her neck, then drifted down to her breasts.

She leaned over so he could see her cleavage. His lips parted and his gaze fell to half-mast. She moved closer, leaning over him from the side of the bed.

With her bra still on, she eased her chest down to his lips and watched his tongue emerge. She lowered herself until he could lick the swell of her breasts.

He groaned. Claire. My God. Claire. More.

She reached back and unhooked her bra, tossing it aside. She fed him a nipple. He latched on and suckled. And it felt so good.

Look at me. His voice in her head commanded her.

His eyes had a wild look, but very different this time from his earlier blood-crazed expression. Each tug on her breast brought an answering pull deep between her legs.

Claire couldn’t blame the blood-chain. She needed this, too, and she needed Lucian now.

She slid her hand down to his hip, lower, until she could stroke the crown of his cock. He moaned and suckled her breast harder as she ran her thumb over the wet tip, then slid it lower to caress the ridge, playing with him.

Desire shot through her, demanding more. Claire had never experienced anything so erotic in her life. Not only was her own desire heightened by their chains, but she could also feel what he was feeling. Panting, she pulled back, then slipped out of her jeans, losing her thong at the same time.

He watched her, breathing hard now, deep gulps of air, as his gaze flew over her body.

She leaned over his cock and took him inside her mouth.

His back arched and he groaned so loud that she was sure he would come just like this. She drew back, giving him a moment. When he settled down, she returned, sucking gently, letting him feel the pleasure of what had been denied him during the year of his imprisonment.

Blood and sex.

The touch of a woman.

His most basic needs.

“Enough.” His hoarse voice filled the room.

She didn’t wait for instructions or permission but climbed up on the bed. She swung a leg over his hips and mounted him. He was a big man with a big cock, but Claire was more than ready for him as she glided down on all that enormous, wonderful girth.

She closed her eyes as she seated herself. She heard his breathing, very light gasps, as if he was afraid if he felt too much, he’d spend himself way too soon.

She eased up and savored the length of him, then slowly lowered herself again. She gave herself to enjoying what felt so completely forbidden.

Sex with a vampire, a man who was essentially a stranger to her.

His hips flexed as he pushed himself inside her.

“Do you want me to release your hands? Can you control yourself right now?”

He nodded.

Maybe she shouldn’t have, but she took the risk and released the restraints, freeing his hands. She needed more of him, his hands touching her, fondling her. She wanted all of him and the moment his hands grasped her hips, she planted her fingers on his abs and slowly glided her hands up.

“Claire,” he murmured, his voice hoarse.

She lifted her hips at the same time, feeling the length of his cock once more: pleasure on pleasure.

She moved faster as her fingertips reached his mouth and he groaned, his hips flexing again. His hands dipped low, grabbing her bottom and holding her firmly. He took over, thrusting up into her, increasing the speed.

She leaned down and kissed him, bit him, sucked on his lips until they parted.

She took his tongue in her mouth and suckled him.

He pushed into her harder.

His arms wrapped around her back, pulling her closer. She wanted to be closer. The vein in her neck throbbed and a different kind of need rose. She shifted her face away from him, which put her throat in close proximity to his mouth.

His tongue licked the length of her neck, over the vein.

She groaned as he thrust and as his tongue teased her sensitive skin.

She wanted more of the forbidden. She wanted him to bite her while her hips worked him hard.

* * *

Lucian rode the edge of ecstasy as he never had before. The blood-chains and his recent starvation worked together to forge a passion that moved like a roll of thunder through his body.

He drove into Claire, his cock rigid and ready. He could release at any moment, but he needed more from the woman straddling him.

His tongue repeatedly stroked above the vein that carried all that he’d needed desperately for over a year.

His blood-madness was gone, but the cravings he felt were almost as powerful. One thought dominated all others: Even above releasing inside her, he wanted more of what was in her veins.

His fangs descended. Give it to me, Claire. You know you want to.

I do. More than anything in the world.

He licked and she arched into his tongue, pushing against the little flicks he gave her throat.

She moaned as she rode him, her hands on his shoulders.

Come closer.

She arched her neck, creating the right angle. He teased her with the sides of his fangs, up high enough that the sharp tips wouldn’t cut her.

She groaned. Do it. Please. I want you to take your fill, take what you need.

He knew she meant what she said, because the chains vibrated against his neck. He sensed she’d become desperate, just like him, longing for the experience that would bring them even closer together.

Come for me first. Your orgasm will flavor your blood. Come for me.

He sped up his thrusts, anchoring her even harder with his hands, keeping her pinned close to his groin.

She gasped for air now. So close. Damn, I’m so close.

I’m fucking you, Claire. And I’m going to drink from you as soon as you let go. Just let go.

The combination of his words and the feel of his cock deep sent Claire over the edge screaming. He drove faster and harder, wringing pleasure from her body.

He strove to hold on, knowing how much better it would be if he waited. He wanted to come while he drank from her neck. He ran through a couple of algebraic equations in his head just to calm down a little as her satisfied body slowed and she relaxed against his chest. He surrounded her with his arms.

Holding her close, he tried to remember just how long it had been since he’d held a woman like this. Too long—maybe a decade or more prior to his imprisonment. Most of his couplings had been brisk and didn’t involve any kind of intimacy. He didn’t put much stock in love in any form, but after what he’d been through, her body and the soft mounds of her breasts soothed him.

His starvation pressed him forward and he nuzzled her neck. She shifted but kept her throat close. “Will you let me drink from you, Claire?”

“Yes. God yes. I need more right now.”

“More like this?” He stroked her deep with his cock, then withdrew almost all the way out before he plunged back in. He’d been right about her; she was ripe as hell.

“Yes, just like that.” She breathed in gasps, ready for him again.

“I’m going to bite you now.”

She cried out. “Lucian. Yes.”

He cupped the back of her neck, his hips moving in short strokes, the way he would attack her vein. His fangs protruded to their farthest point, his lips easing away from the sharp tips. Saliva pooled in his mouth, ready, so ready.

Do it came as a sharp command from her mind.

At almost the same split second he bit down, and her blood spilled into his mouth.

His rational mind receded to a dark quiet place and what was pure vampire moved to the front. A beast of thousands of years of evolution emerged, groaning as he sucked, driving his cock into her hard as he drank her down.

She groaned heavily in response, her voice hoarse and loose, savoring what was happening to her.

He thrust faster, but just as deep and hard. Each time, her pelvis ground against him. Her blood glided down his throat, powering him, feeding the vampire, the entity that required her blood. She tasted of the moon and water, of the earth and stars, all that was life.

Come for me again, Claire, and I’ll come with you.

He moved faster and her breathing grew shallow and quick, brisk pants. He continued to drink from her neck. How much had he taken from her? He didn’t care. He just needed to feel her pulling on him as she came again.

He drove faster, sucked harder. The power he felt now spread to each limb so that he became one quick movement, drinking her down, driving his cock.

You’re close, aren’t you?

Yes, so close.

He pumped faster and a series of sudden cries left her mouth, then her back arched and she screamed. He kept his mouth fixed to her neck, still drinking.

He grunted, pushing harder and faster. His lower back tightened, and suddenly the orgasm rushed through him, a stream of pleasurable fire. But he kept drinking and on the sensation flowed.

Her cries continued to fill the air. Lucian, my God, Lucian. So much pleasure.

Ecstasy filled him as he released over and over, pumping into her.

Her blood was doing something to him, something miraculous, and he felt himself winding up again. As he pumped faster still, once more her cries splayed over his shoulder.

Keep sucking on me, Lucian. The sensation is making me come again.

Oh, God, yes. Same here.

He fired into her once more from the depths of his body and groaned in a steady cry against her throat.

Finally she grew quiet in his arms, maybe too quiet, but he still kept drinking from her, unwilling to let her go.

He didn’t want to stop.

Lucian, I can’t open my eyes.

Her body felt heavy on him now, more than just the lethargy following orgasm.

The blood that now flowed into his mouth had grown thin. Too thin.

His rational mind came powering back and with a jolt of adrenaline, he released the serum that would rebuild her blood supply quickly.

Oh, God, he’d taken so much.

Claire. Claire.

But nothing returned to him.

He drew back. She was limp against him and pale, deathly pale. Suddenly he felt very weak as well, and his blood-chain no longer vibrated. To his horror, he realized Claire was close to death. But if one died, so did the other. Had he just killed them both?

He felt for her neck artery with his fingers and waited to feel the pulse of her beating heart. Nothing. He pressed harder. Fear worked in him now, fear that he’d let the beast he knew himself to be take over and kill the woman who’d brought him out of captivity.

The weakness he felt told him the truth of what he’d done.

Shame crept over him. He’d lost control. He’d been unaware of how much blood he’d taken because no part of him could think.

Claire, come back to me. Please. I’m sorry. So sorry.

He rocked her. He felt weak as well, when her blood should have given him enormous strength. She walked close to death, treading the shores, almost lost.

The only hope he had was that his serum could reach her marrow and produce red blood cells fast enough that her heart wouldn’t give out and her brain would get enough oxygen.

What had he done? God help him, what had he done?

Images of his father’s smiling face, always smiling, the charismatic bastard that he was, rose up to torment him. Join me, Lucian, you’re blood of my blood. We’re the same.

How many times had he told Lucian that over the centuries, reminding him of his heritage, that he’d been created by a psychopath. Lucian knew, deep within his soul, that of all the brothers he was most like Daniel, created in his image.

Claire, I’m so sorry, but I couldn’t help myself.

And there it was, the absolute truth that Lucian hadn’t wanted to stop taking from Claire, so he hadn’t.

Claire. Please come back.

Claire.

Claire.

* * *

Claire.

Claire heard a man’s voice, but he sounded so far away. Her mind seemed to be drifting in some kind of fog.

Where was she? Lying down, but too weak to move. She moaned softly and the arms that held her tightened suddenly.

You’re alive.

Of course she was alive. Sort of. She felt so strange, as though she could barely make her mind work.

Where am I?

Just lie quietly. My serum will restore you in a few minutes. You’ll be weak for a couple more hours, but no longer than that, I promise.

Why was this man promising her anything?

Why did he sound so desperate?

Who was he?

The gray fog started lifting from her mind. Her bare breasts were smashed against the hard planes of a man’s chest, of Lucian’s chest. She was on top of him.

Why?

Maybe that was the dumbest question she could ask.

The smarter one came to her: Why was she so damn weak?

Oh, that’s right. Lucian had been drinking from her.

He’d sexed her up that way, made her feel impossible things.

She opened her eyes, looking at a nightstand and a lamp. She was essentially in bed with a vampire.

She tried to lift up and off Lucian, but she couldn’t move. She was too weak.

Oh, my God, he’d drained her.

Lucian, you almost drained me dry.

He didn’t answer her, but his arms grew slack. He patted her shoulder. “I was out of control. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

As the memories came flooding back of what the sex had been like, she moaned softly. He had been amazing. He’d come more than once, and because of it so had she. Sex had never been like this before.

“I’m going to lift you off me now, okay?”

Then she felt him low. They were still connected. “That’s fine.”

He slid his hands under her arms and lifted her, gliding out of her at the same time. He swiveled and laid her on her back next to him. He sat up and released the ankle restraints.

When he was free, he once more stretched out next to her, then turned to caress her face. “I’m so sorry, Claire.”

He looked sunk in his guilt, and she didn’t want him to feel that way. Her blood-chain vibrated with his shame.

He watched her for a long moment, then finally rolled onto his back as well, pulling the sheet up at the same time.

He stared up at the ceiling, but remained silent.

Then she felt it, a stream of sensation that she’d only sensed in small pieces. For a long moment, as the dark waves rolled over her, she tried to understand exactly what he communicated. Shame and remorse had all but drowned Lucian. He’d fallen deep into the pit of those feelings, one of the reasons the chains barely spoke to her. Old wounds surrounded him, spoke to him, assaulted his mind.

She looked up at the ceiling as well, the beautiful light-blue waves, like the ocean, flowing over the top of the room.

She felt better. The serum in her blood was working quickly, giving her more strength than she would have thought possibly in such a short time.

Lucian had been right: She was recovering at light-speed. Drained to the point of death, yet she lived.

But above all, she needed to remind herself repeatedly of what had just happened, that she’d almost died because Lucian had lost control. She had no intention of dying before she had a chance to rescue Zoey, and then to return to her former life in Santa Fe, to see her parents and brothers again.

She sat up, further indication of her progress, then slid off the bed, heading into the bathroom. A shower sounded like exactly what she needed.

She felt the warning tug at her neck, letting her know that she’d reached the proximity limits of the blood-chain.

As she stepped into the steaming shower and lathered up, she knew she had to do better with Lucian, to suppress what was proving to be a profound attraction and desire for the man. She washed her hair and applied a crème rinse, all the while searching for some means by which she could resist him. Unfortunately, nothing very specific came to her.

Toweling off, she was almost dry when she turned to find Lucian standing in the doorway, the sheet wrapped around his waist. He leaned an arm against the upper jamb, which revealed the powerful angled line of his chest and waist. Just looking at him, however, caused her resolve to falter.

She felt a flush cover her face and neck that had nothing to do with embarrassment. His navel was exposed along with his well-defined abs. What he could make her feel just by standing in a doorway. She honestly didn’t know what she could do to stem this tide.

She cleared her throat. “Everything okay?”

He held her gaze, nodding. “I just wanted to say thank you.”

Her brows rose. “For what?”

“For blood. For sex. For giving me what I needed despite your reservations. I know this isn’t easy for you. And it’s not easy for me, either, knowing that you’re having to do things that you otherwise wouldn’t.”

Her gaze drifted to the tiles of the floor as she thought about what he said. When she looked back at him, she took a deep breath. “I need to keep this simple between us and sex is never simple, at least not for me. I tend to get attached, and I don’t want that. When all this is through, I’ll need to go home to New Mexico.”

“I know.” His frown formed a ridge between his brows. “Then we’ll keep it simple.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “You want a shower?”

“That would be great.”

Wrapping herself up in her towel, she gathered up her toiletries. But when she tried to move past him, he caught her arm.

“Claire.” The resonance of his voice alone forced her to look up and meet his gray eyes. Right now they weren’t steely at all, as they could be at times. Instead they were warm and almost questioning—concerned.

Now more than at any other moment, even through the difficulties of altered flight or having Lucian almost drain her dry, Claire wished the whole thing undone. She felt horribly vulnerable, a state she despised. She didn’t want to desire a vampire this much.

Finally she eased past him anyway. “Enjoy your shower.”

* * *

Lucian moved into the bathroom, acutely aware of what Claire was feeling. This was perhaps the hardest part of the chain-bond, that he always knew what was going on with her. He’d felt her distress as she moved by him, and he thought he understood. She feared getting close, getting attached—and maybe for the first time in his life he felt the same way.

He turned the water on and stepped inside the enclosure. The warm water flowing over his short hair and down his shoulders, chest, and back was a soothing balm. Most of the cramping was gone, at least for now, though he knew he’d need Claire’s blood again within the next few hours.

He just wished another woman would do for the blood service part of their arrangement, as well as the sex. But the blood-chains seemed to invoke some kind of instinctive possessive response that he couldn’t override.

He didn’t want anyone else but Claire.

So what the hell were they supposed to do?

Neither of them wanted this level of connection. She wanted to go back to New Mexico and her family and he needed to be free to continue working on behalf of his society.

He’d always kept his liaisons with women on a strictly superficial level. At the very least, a man ought to know his limitations, especially where women were concerned. He had no interest in hurting Claire or any female, but if he got much closer, yeah, he’d hurt her, emotionally if not physically.

By the time he left the shower, he’d shored up his resolve to do all that he could not to make a mess of things. He wrapped a towel around his waist, feeling more confident. But when he left the bathroom, the mere sight of Claire overturned his resolve. Even with her hair damp, she looked so beautiful that his lungs seized.

She wore snug black jeans and a double set of tank tops, one cut low and hanging off her left shoulder. She looked damn sexy as she moved in the direction of the dresser. Even in profile she was beautiful. Despite looking away, desire rushed through him so fast that he coughed and sputtered.

“You okay?”

“Sure. Fine.”

She settled her brush on the dresser and turned to meet his gaze. “I called Rumy and ordered breakfast for us. I probably should have asked for your preferences.”

He waved a dismissive hand. “I’m sure whatever you chose will be fine.”

“Good.” She smiled. “And as for me, I think I’d eat anything right now. I’m so hungry, probably because I’ve been feeding you.”

He wished she hadn’t said that. He looked anywhere but at her because the thought of sinking his fangs in her neck or her wrist, or a dozen other places he could think of, sharpened his needs all over again.

In an effort to distance himself, he searched for his battle leathers and slipped them on. He added a long-sleeved black T-shirt and steel-toed boots. He was now ready for whatever came at them next.