Guardian's Hope (33 page)

“I don’t know why I bother braiding it if
you’re always going to pull it out.” She kept her arms around his
waist and her forehead against his chest.

“Always braid it. Every night. In a hundred
years I’ll still be looking forward to this small ritual; the
pleasure of unbinding your hair.”

“Nico?”

“Hmmm?” He rubbed his nose in the softness,
inhaling the fragrance of roses.

“Those other women…”

“Are in the past, precious. You have no
reason to be…”

“Jealous. I’m not. I only wondered how… well…
if they didn’t know…” Her fingers played along the scars, down his
back, beneath his shirt. “How did you… ah… you know?” She formed
the picture in her mind.

“Have sex?”

“Well, yes.”

He chuckled. “Ah, my precious, have you ever
heard that curiosity killed the cat?”

“Of course. Everyone’s heard that one.”

Nico gripped the sides of her gown and
stripped it over her head. The next thing she knew, she was lying
flat on her back on the bed and Nico was straddling her thighs. He
held both her hands pinned over her head with one of his own. His
eyes smoldered and his smile was predatory.

Hope felt an excited tingle run the length of
her body and settle at her core. She clenched at the now familiar
wetness seeping between her legs.

“Too late. Your body has given you away.
You’re that kind of woman.” He tongue darted out, lightly touching
her eyes, her nose, her lips.

“What kind of woman?” she squeaked. She found
her hips rising in spite of her efforts to remain still.

“The kind of woman who finds it erotic to lie
beneath a fully clothed man. But we already knew that, didn’t
we?”

He was referring to their first time together
when she was so overwhelmed with the sensations coursing through
her own body, she hadn’t even noticed that he’d never removed his
clothes. She was embarrassed now to think of how selfish she’d
been.

“I didn’t know what to expect. Grace’s books…
they’re fiction… I thought…”

“You weren’t thinking at all,” he chuckled
against her mouth. His tongue traced her lips and she tilted her
chin, reaching for his kiss. “Ah, ah, ah,” he said as he pulled
away. “This is about what I want, not what you want, unless, of
course, you beg me nicely.”

He straightened a bit and used his free hand
too unbuckle his belt and pull it free of the loops and laughed at
her look of surprise when he used it to bind her hands and attach
them to the headboard.

She wiggled beneath him, tested her bindings
and realized she could escape them if she chose. She didn’t.
Instead, she closed her eyes and waited.

“Oh ho. I’ll bet you’d like the blindfold,
too.” Her eyes snapped open and he kissed her nose. “Next time I’ll
come better prepared. This time, keep them open. I want to see
their reaction.”

She relaxed and kept her eyes open. He
wiggled the fingers of both hands in front of her nose. “Now
they’re free to do as they please.”

His fingers began to play across her face and
her shoulders and where they played, his tongue and lips followed,
leaving a burning trail along her skin. She moaned when he reached
the sensitive spot behind her ear and again when he lingered at the
side of her neck. She rolled her head to the side and arched her
neck to give him better access. His teeth began to nibble and while
she couldn’t see him from that position, she thought she felt his
face harden and the graze of a sharpened fang. It didn’t matter.
The sensation of want and need it brought was nothing like the
things she’d felt before and she whimpered in protest when he
groaned with his own frustration and his lips moved on.

“Not today, my love, but soon,” he whispered
and his tongue traced her collar bone and moved down between her
breasts.

Her breathing was still heavy, but he had
obviously pulled himself together since he chuckled and licked his
lips lasciviously.

“What have we here?” His fingers danced
lightly over her skin, everywhere but her hardened nipples which
were begging to be touched. He locked his eyes with hers. “Such
mounds of beauty and warmth deserve individual attention, don’t you
think?”

She whimpered in response and closed her
eyes.

“No, no. That’s cheating.” She could feel his
breath on her face. “I said you must keep your eyes open and I
didn’t quite hear your answer.”

She opened her eyes and ran her tongue over
her lips. “Yes, please,” she whispered.

His hand moved to her right breast where his
fingers danced and kneaded and finally moved to the tightened bud.
He took it between his thumb and forefinger and pulled, tightening
his pinch until her eyes widened and then tightened it a little
more.

Her sharp cry became one of pleasure as his
tongue and lips soothed the sting. He suckled at her breast until
she relaxed and then he did it again, only this time she was ready
for it. She let her body flow with the exquisite pleasure of the
sensations flowing through her breast. It wasn’t really pain at all
and the contrast between the pinch and the warmth of his suckling
excited her even more.

“That’s my wonton minx,” he said as he
applied the same technique to her other breast and was gratified
with the same reaction.

“Yours only,” she said when she could
breathe. “Is there more?”

“Greedy wench.” His fingers traced each of
her ribs and his tongue traced the valleys between them. He teased
with his tongue at her navel when he found it tickled her and then
moved ever so slowly downward into her nest of curls. With a sharp
intake of breath, she rose to meet him, anticipating his mouth’s
destination.

His hands gripped her hips to hold her still
and his laugh was hoarse, deep with his own need. “My wants, not
yours, remember?”

He licked and nibbled and stroked the inside
of her thighs and spread her wider each time he moved from one leg
to the other. She was already moaning by the time he reached her
core, her head thrashing from side to side with need. He touched
his tongue to her clit and she almost came off the bed.

“Honey,” he whispered after tasting the sweet
flow of her juices. “Honey and roses and all mine.”

He licked. He nibbled. He thrust his tongue
as deep within her as it could reach. And with each nibble and
thrust, she cried out. She felt the vibrations of his laughter at
her moans and whimpers because he wouldn’t go where she wanted him
to, wouldn’t give her the release she craved.

“Nico please!” she pleaded.

He lifted his head long enough to say, “Not
your wants, but mine.”

She almost screamed with frustration when he
continued to lick and nuzzle and suckle everywhere but the place
where she would find some release. She tried to push against that
teasing tongue, but he held her still with an iron grip.

Finally, gloriously, his mouth pulled away to
be replaced by his fingers. In and out. In and out. First one
finger and then two and miraculously three while his thumb rubbed
circles around and over her throbbing clit. Faster and faster and
then so slowly she wanted to cry. The pressure and thrusting
increased, taking her higher and higher. And then stopped.

“No!”

“Yes.” He gently stroked her outer thighs
down to her knees. He kneaded her hips and tenderly kissed the
round softness of her belly, murmuring against her. “Mine, all
mine.”

Slowly, he brought her down from the
impossible tension. She sighed and her body relaxed.

And his fingers began to work their magic
again.

“Nico! Please!”

Three times he brought her to the edge and
three times he stopped just as she was about to take that leap into
ecstasy.

“Nico, please, I can’t take any more!”

His finger began to weave lazily around her
clit, so swollen it was almost painful.

“What are you asking for, precious?”

“Please. You know what I want,” she
cried.

“Mmm, I do, but I want to hear you say it. My
wants, remember, not yours.”

“I hate you, Nico ad Nimeni,” she gasped as
her body once again reacted to his touch, “Please!”

“Mmm. I can tell how much you hate me and
hear how prettily you beg. Tell me what you want, precious. Just
tell me what you want.”

“I want you to let me come!” she cried. “I
want to come with your cock inside me, filling me until I think I
will burst and if you don’t do it right this minute, I will turn
you for sure. Please!”

“So fierce, so demanding.” He laughed at her
frustration and then he was inside her, thrusting just as she’d
demanded. It took only a few savage thrusts to send her head
spinning out in an explosion of sensation. Nico only paused long
enough for her to return to reality and then he was thrusting
again. She cried out with each thrust and her mind locked with his.
She could see what he was seeing, feel what he was feeling. Added
to her own rising rapture, it was almost too much. She screamed in
an eruption of color, light, and love.

Nico pumped with a ferocity that frightened
him with its intensity, yet he couldn’t hold back. He didn’t want
to hurt her, but his body had taken control and his mind couldn’t
stop it. Then he felt her mind lock with his, saw what she saw,
felt what she felt and knew that this was what it was meant to be.
She was his, always and forever. He felt his fangs emerging and he
fought against it with all his will. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t
time. The pressure in his loins built to a pitch and exploded. He
heard her scream his name as he drove into her and shouted his own
release and as his cum filled her, his mind spiraled out with her
into a realm of color, light, and love.

They lay entwined together for a long time,
she in exhaustion, he in wonder at this undeserved miracle. He
thought she might be asleep until he heard her in his mind.

“You are deserving and I must be, too.
Miracles don’t happen to just anyone, you know.”

It was so simple for her. It was one of the
many things he loved about her. He rolled to the side to take his
weight from her.

“It is that simple, silly man. Now go get
your shower.”

As he closed the door to the bathroom, he
heard her quiet laughter in his mind.

When he emerged, he found her sleeping with
her hands still wound in his belt. He watched her for a moment, his
heart so filled with love for her it stopped his breath and then he
laughed, softly so as not to wake her. His precious Hope didn’t
lie. She snored. And even that, he thought, was beautiful.

Chapter 34

Nora called the twins, but the news wasn’t
all good.

“He got a phone call and he acted really
pissed off, but I could tell he was scared. Said he had to take
care of some business and had to leave. He wasn’t coming back. I
would have followed him if I could, but he put me on the bar. I
couldn’t go. None of the other girls can bartend and he’d know if I
left. I can’t afford to lose this job. I don’t know where he was
going, but he was on foot. He left by the back door. We all use it
to come and go. He went right on Second Street. I know because I
followed him out a few seconds after he left. I pretended to have a
question about cashing out the drawer. He almost bit my head off,
‘cause I’ve done it a million times. I’m sorry. It’s the best I can
do. I can try again tomorrow. I’m real sorry.”

“You did good, Nora,” Col reassured her. “Is
there anything else you can tell us, anything you can think of that
you didn’t tell us before?”

“No, I don’t think so.” She paused. “No wait!
How could I forget? Jeannie says his name isn’t Smith! She says a
guy came in one time, someone who knew him from a long time back.
He called him Gary Francis and Smith was real pissed about it.”

“You’re sure that’s the name.”

“Yeah, I’m sure. She laughed about it because
the name just didn’t fit with the guy. That’s how come she
remembered. Oh, oh! He left on foot, but I know he has a car. When
he was giving me the keys to lock up, I saw car keys on his ring.
Not the new kind with the buttons. The old kind. Does that help?
Talking about his name, I started thinking about his picture on his
driver’s license. You know, does the picture match the name and I
remembered the keys.”

“You did better than good. You did great. See
if you can find out anything else, but don’t get yourself in
trouble. Smith is not a guy you want to cross.”

“Tell me about it. You be careful too, Honey.
You and your sister and brother are good people. You’re not like
all those crazy fangers that come in here and I’m afraid for you
messing with a bastard like him.”

Col laughed. “You’re right. We’re not like
them at all. Thanks, Nora. Give us a call if you get
something.”

He said good bye and turned to his brother
and the two women. “It’s not what we were looking for, but it’s
another clue to follow,” he said as he pocketed the phone. He
repeated the conversation. “Nardo’s out on patrol. As soon as he
gets back, we’ve got a name for him to work with. If it’s real, and
Nora thinks it is, we might be able to track him through the
DMV.”

Dov hugged Hope and stuck his tongue out at
Grace. “See Gracie, we can do something right sometimes.”

“Yes you can and shame on me for not
remembering it more often.”

Hope, well taught by her father to smile
pleasantly regardless of what she was feeling, nodded encouragingly
and patted both twins on the back for a job well done. But deep
inside, where it counted, she was worried. And, she admitted, if
only to herself, she was angry.

Everything was being done that could be done.
She knew that, yet every time she thought about her sister being in
the clutches of that demon, she grew sick, not only for her
sister’s suffering, but with the feeling that time was running
out.