Blood Ties Read online

  And she knew that no matter what he said, he wouldn’t leave her to suffer alone.

  “Yes,” she whispered. “I’m at your mercy.”

  “Damn straight,” he growled. “And you’d best remember that I’m not merciful.” He raised his head and met her eyes again. “Bite me and you’ll regret it,” he promised, and then bit his own lip hard enough to draw blood before taking her mouth in a ravenous kiss.

  The taste of him tore a moan from her throat. She met his dominating thrusts with her own tongue, his coppery flavor teasing her bloodlust to new heights. Her fangs throbbed in time to her pounding heart. Never in her life had she wanted anything as badly as she wanted to bite his tongue, to turn that hint of his blood into a rush that would sate her hunger. Every cell in her body, every instinct demanded it!

  She was panting with the effort of resisting by the time he pulled away. His pupils were enlarged, his own desire vivid in their depths. “Good girl,” he whispered, then licked the last trace of crimson from his lips and hers. “You’ve pleased me.”

  “I want to please you,” she said, meaning it with everything in her.

  “Then you should know that injuring yourself greatly displeased me.”

  It was the only warning she had before he sank his fangs into the curve of her breast. She cried out, unable to hold back, but as his tongue flicked over the bite her cry turned to a moan. Her nipple was a hard little peak, begging for attention, demanding that she tell him to suck it, but she didn’t dare. She couldn’t even arch her back to guide him to it. All she could do was submit, take what he gave her.

  He moved then, biting the underside of her other breast, drawing more inarticulate cries from her throat. The pleasure/pain was like nothing she’d ever experienced in her life. Forcing down the urge to beg, to plead for him to use that incredible mouth on all the places that were dying for his attention, she closed her eyes and held it inside.

  He sealed the wounds with a swipe of his tongue and laid her back down on the bed. “You’re learning your place very well,” he purred, both hands sliding up to cover her breasts. A quick pinch of both nipples sent a new wave of cream to her pussy and her eyes flew open to find him smiling down at her. “Still hungry for my blood, Kira?”

  “Yes,” she said, unable to lie to him.

  He rewarded her honesty by rolling her nipples between his fingers, tugging and caressing the hardened peaks. “And which do you want more, my blood or my cock?”

  This time, honesty was more difficult to come by. She couldn’t look away from his eyes, even knowing that he could see the sexual fire warring with the bloodlust there. He gave her nipples a little tug that sent a wave of electricity straight to her clit and tipped the balance. “Cock,” she whispered.

  This time his smile had a decidedly savage twist. “Any cock, or my cock?”

  “Yours,” she said. Opening her mind, she let him see her burning need for him and him alone. “No one’s but yours.”

  “And where do you want it, my lovely young fledgling?”

  “Anywhere.” The answer came out without a thought. She was so desperate for anything he would give her, she didn’t care where he fucked her as long as he did it.

  His eyes blazed with triumph. “You’re mine, Kira,” he said savagely. “Mine, you understand me? Say it!” Only when she had repeated it did he release her breasts and ease his body off hers. “You will move only at my command,” he ordered, and suddenly her limbs were her own again.

  Kira lay there, not daring to move an inch, not even to dig her fingers into the bed as he trailed a hand down her body. “So soft,” he whispered, watching his hand as it traced the curve of her breast, slipped over her belly and down her thigh. Then he rolled away from her and lay on his back, shoulders propped against the headboard. “Crawl over here, Kira, and suck me. I want that hot mouth of yours all over my cock.”

  “Oh, yes,” she breathed, her mouth already watering at the thought.

  She rolled to her hands and knees, shaking from head to toe with the force of her arousal. As she crawled, she felt the slickness on her thighs, the aching emptiness between them, and prayed he wouldn’t make her wait much longer. Never in her life had she needed to come so desperately.

  When she was eye-level with his cock, she wrapped her hand around it and kissed the tip. Her hair slid down and cascaded to his belly. Orion fisted both hands in her damp tresses to keep them from hiding the show. Slowly, hotter than ever with the knowledge that he was watching, holding his breath in anticipation, Kira parted her lips and took the round head of his cock into her mouth.

  His groan echoed her own as she tasted him, salty and thick in her mouth. She licked the sweet slit at his tip before flicking a slow circle around his rim. “Damn, Kira,” he bit out as she gently squeezed his balls with her other hand, letting her weight rest on her knees and propping her elbows on his thighs. His cock jumped in her hand and she sucked gently, slowly working her hand around his shaft as she rubbed his head against her soft palate.

  Just when she felt his balls draw up and his hips rock in involuntary little thrusts, Kira changed her rhythm. Releasing his shaft from her tight fist, she swallowed him, taking his entire length down her throat until her nose rested against his skin. His hands tightened in her hair and he panted for breath as she hummed around him. Sliding back until his entire length was before her, slick and shining, she tongued his rim before sucking him deep again.

  “Christ!” he cried, throwing his head back as she fucked him with her mouth, deep and slow, alternating hums with suction, squeezing and fondling his balls in her palm. Just when she sensed he was about to come, she released his cock completely and licked a hot circle around his balls.

  His thighs were trembling now as she concentrated on driving him just as crazy as he’d driven her. One by one she drew his balls into her mouth, rolling them on her tongue. Suddenly releasing them to deep-throat him, she didn’t draw away as his hips thrust wildly against her lips, fucking her mouth as he finally lost control. Playing with his balls, she felt them tighten an instant before he groaned aloud and came down her throat. She moaned with pleasure at the hot taste, the vibration making him curse and shudder as his thick cock jetted again. Never stopping her humming, she moved her head up and down in short pumps, milking him for everything he had. When his thighs and hands finally went limp, she licked every still-hard inch of him clean, not wanting to waste a drop.

  So hot she thought she could come just from the sight of his face, Kira kissed his hip and rested her forehead against his belly. “Did I please you?”

  He growled and pounced on her, pinning her to the bed and kissing her fiercely. She wrapped her arms around him and returned his passion with all her heart, arching as he pushed his knee between her thighs, opening wide to let him in. Finally breaking the kiss just as she became dizzy with lack of oxygen, Orion tangled his fingers in her hair and pulled her to his throat. “Bite me,” he demanded huskily, and thrust hard as her fangs penetrated his skin, seating himself to the balls in her slick pussy as his blood flooded her mouth.

  Wanting to scream with the intense pleasure, Kira suckled the wound on his throat and drowned in sensation. Bloodlust and ecstasy were one, pain and pleasure and hot, scalding need, every hard surge of his cock inside her driving her higher until she couldn’t tell where one orgasm ended and the next began, wrapping herself around him and meeting every thrust with another suck at his neck, another electric jolt of pleasure, another squeeze of her legs around his waist as she drew him back for more.

  When Orion came deep inside her, she threw her head back and screamed his name to the heavens.

  And after she’d finally caught her breath, still pinned beneath his weight, his cock pulsing deep inside her, Kira managed to find the strength to turn and kiss his ear. “Thank you,” she whispered, and gladly slipped into oblivion.

  *~*~*

  Thank you.

  Orion rolled away as Kira fell asleep, every mu
scle of his body trembling with the aftermath of his orgasm. Her words echoed in his ears, haunting him. He couldn’t bear to look at her.

  It did no good. Her image was seared in his mind whether he looked or not. Her black curls were spread in magnificent disarray over his pillow, her incredible mouth puffy from his kisses. The bites at her wrist and on her breasts marked her as his as surely as a brand. Every inch of her body bore his scent. The pink scrapes on her soft skin, abraded from his rough jaw, both thrilled and shamed him. No one could look at her without knowing he’d taken her, but even those slight injuries made him wish he’d been more careful with her.

  Damn it all, why had he thought his dominant game would help him keep his emotions at a distance?

  He sighed and propped his elbows on his knees before dropping his head in his hands. The goddamned problem was that he had no emotional distance where she was concerned. He hadn’t since the day she’d walked into his study and knocked him so utterly off-balance that he still hadn’t recovered.

  The daughter of his former Associate, Kira had taken her father’s place when the man had been forced to retire by wounds sustained during the last attempt on Orion’s life. Orion had known of her from Ulric, a man inordinately proud of his only child, but had never bothered to meet her or so much as look at her picture. One human was much like another. One Associate was hardly distinguishable from the next. Orion hadn’t cared who served him so long as someone did.

  Then Ulric had brought Kira to him, an ebony-haired goddess in jeans and Tivas. She’d smiled with a complete lack of awe through the introductions and offered him her hand before Ulric could stop her or remind her that vampires only touched humans when absolutely necessary.

  Orion had shaken her hand without hesitation, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, and he remembered with crystal clarity the thought that went through his mind in the instant before their fingers touched.

  I am in very deep trouble.

  He’d wanted her since that instant. It hadn’t taken much longer than that for him to love her. Everything about her seduced him. Her easy laugh, the way she teased him until he joined her. The utter absence of fear in her eyes when she challenged him--which she did often. The unconsciously sexy sway of her hips as she walked. The way she nagged him when she thought he wasn’t taking proper care of himself, as if he hadn’t already survived four hundred years without her care.

  And the explosive, mind-consuming jealousy he’d fought since the first night she’d arrived at his home wearing the intimate scent of another man.

  Orion closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, savoring the blended aroma of their sex. Now she smelled of him and him only, and if he’d felt territorial before, it was nothing compared to the blinding possessiveness that overrode his logic and reason now.

  Kira was his. She was his. As a human she’d been safely out of reach, but as a vampire, he could have her as his mate. He could lead her through the binding ritual and brand her with something even more lasting than the bites. He could have her forever and make her love it. It was everything he’d refused to even dream of.

  And this woman he wanted above all others had led the hunters to his lair and had planned to leave him for a Nighthawk.

  He wanted to roar with fury at the injustice of it, to demand the silent gods explain themselves. Vampires were cursed and every vampire knew it. He just hadn’t thought the curse would be so cruel.

  He loved her and he couldn’t have her. Wouldn’t use her need to keep her. She hadn’t wanted him until her life depended on it, and may the gods be damned, that wasn’t enough for him.

  He groaned and dragged his fingers through his hair. The only way to preserve his sanity was to make her self-sufficient as fast as he could, and then run like hell. He’d started over before and he could do it again. Would do it again now.

  Gentle fingertips traced down his spine, jolting him from his thoughts. “Come to bed,” Kira murmured, caressing his hip. “The dawn’s breaking.”

  And even though he cursed his weakness, Orion couldn’t make himself pass up the pleasure of falling to the bed beside her and holding her close as she succumbed to the day sleep, her head on his shoulder.

  *~*~*

  Orion was already dressed by the time Kira awakened. She stretched luxuriously, either unconscious or uncaring that the movement sent the bedding sliding down to her waist and exposed her soft, luscious breasts to his view.

  Determined not to repeat last night’s mistakes, he turned away and threw a shopping bag at her. “Put that on,” he said, his voice considerably gruffer than he’d intended.

  “Good morning to you too,” she said, a hint of humor in her tone. “Wake up on the wrong side of the coffin?”

  Damn it, he couldn’t take her teasing, not now, but the stinging retort that would wipe the cheer from her voice didn’t come no matter how he tried to force it out. Giving up, he merely held his tongue and tried not to imagine her standing behind him, wearing only her bare skin.

  The sooner she hid that gorgeous body under layers of material, the better.

  He heard cloth sliding over skin, the soft whisper of the zipper. “Where’d you get these jeans? They’re the perfect size,” she said as she padded around to stand in front of him. “How’d you know?”

  In truth, he’d read it off the tag during one of the many times he’d stared at her ass, but there was no way she needed to know that. The Nighthawks had allowed him to send one of their Associates to shop for Kira that day, outfitting her with everything from shoes to lingerie. “Lucky guess,” he replied shortly. He handed her a new pair of shoes and tried not to notice the cleavage revealed by her new top. “Ready to go?”

  “Where are we going?”

  “Anywhere the Nighthawks aren’t.”

  She shook her head as she slipped her feet into the clogs. “You never would tell me what you have against them,” she said. “Vampire secrets and all that. Can I know now, or do I have to learn the secret handshake first?”

  That was a memory he wouldn’t revisit, not even for her. He turned toward the door. “No. Now if you’re quite finished, it’s time to move on.”

  “Wait.”

  He stopped but didn’t face her. “What?”

  Kira stepped around him again until she was between him and the exit. Reaching up with both hands, she pulled him down and kissed him softly. Her lips, full and lush and unbearably sweet, were almost the last temptation he could stand. His fists clenched to keep from hauling her against him and thrusting his tongue deep into her mouth.

  She pulled away after only a moment. “That’s how I want to start my evening,” she murmured, then released him and stepped away. “Now I’m ready to go.”

  This time it was easy not to reply. He wasn’t sure his voice was even working.

  Kira let Orion lead her from the room they’d shared with a pang of loss. No matter what happened, she would never forget the time they’d spent there. Orion’s distance hurt, but she refused to let that dampen her spirits. He was still with her and he’d held her all day long. She had time to tease him out of this rotten mood and reveal the hot lover he hid inside, the side of him she’d never expected to see.

  “Tonight I’ll teach you to feed on your own,” he said, shattering her thoughts. “With luck you’ll pick it up quickly. Soon you won’t need me at all.”

  She stumbled. Surely he wasn’t serious. “Orion, I don’t want to feed from anyone else.”

  He merely shrugged at the distress in her tone. “I’m not a buffet,” he replied coldly. “If you want to feed once I’m gone, you’ll have to learn to take humans.”

  That effectively wiped away the high hopes she’d awoken with. “You planning on going somewhere I can’t follow?” Her effort at lightness was forced at best, pathetic at worst. He was really leaving her?

  “With any luck,” he growled.

  He was to the end of the hall and two steps down the stairs before he realized she wasn’t b
ehind him. Even in the dim light, she could see his scowl. “Get a move on,” he snapped. “We don’t have all night.”

  Her feet were rooted to the spot by a rush of cold panic. She opened her mouth, fighting the urge to beg him to stay. This wasn’t what she’d thought would happen when he’d offered her life as a vampire! “You promised you’d take care of me,” she whispered, remembering his words in that dark tunnel as they’d fled the destruction of his home. “When you turned me, you said you’d take care of me. You didn’t say you’d abandon me to fend for myself.”

  His face hardened. “I am taking care of you,” he shot back, every word a bullet of anger. “You’re alive, aren’t you? Have I not fed you when you were hungry? Did I not teach you to control your bloodlust last night? You can use sex on anyone, not just me. Tonight you will. Now get your ass in gear, Kira. Dawn waits for no one.”

  “No.”

  The word was out before she so much as thought it but she didn’t take it back. Hurt feelings or not, she wasn’t the begging type. Crossing her arms over her chest, Kira raised her chin. His dominant behavior last night had been a sexy, kinky game, but this was pushing her limits. She didn’t know what the hell was wrong with him but he’d never spoken to her like this and she wasn’t going to start taking it now. “Your attitude sucks, Orion. I didn’t use sex on you and you fucking well know it. Find another tone when you speak to me or you can take off for wherever you’re going without me.”

  Forget the terror that waited to swamp her at the thought of fending for herself alone. She’d rather do that than allow anyone to demean her.

  He took a menacing step forward, then stopped. Their gazes clashed for a long moment before he sighed harshly and let his head drop back, eyes closing. “All right,” he said, the hard anger vanishing from his voice to be replaced by weariness. “All right. You’re right and I’m sorry. Kira, please come here. I need to get out of here and I’m not leaving without you.”