Kissed by a Dark Prince (Volume 1) (20 page)

She nodded but looked uncomfortable with his praise and fell silent for long minutes before finally speaking again.

“Loren… have you met many vampires?” She sounded more uncomfortable now, more nervous about her question and how he might respond.

“I have.” He stroked her palm, his focus on it so he could control the dark feelings in his heart, not wanting her to sense them.

“But you’ve been in your realm for thousands of years… are there vampires there too?”

“There are.” And he hated that fact. “The vampires who consider themselves purebloods, those who have only born vampires in their families and no turned members, have a small army in the lands around my realm. I have had many encounters with this army known as the Preux Chevaliers as they often involve themselves in the demonomachies… the demon wars.”

She looked fascinated again and he could almost see her filing away the information. “I would love to see all these realms you speak of.”

Loren shook his head.

“You, dear Olivia, will not be visiting any demon realms. They are too dangerous and I do not want my—” Loren cut himself off, cursing himself for still thinking of her as his to have and hold forever, when she was never likely to become his mate.

His precious and beloved ki’ara.

Thinking of her that way only brought him pain and made him suffer, and if he felt it keenly now, it would kill him when he finally broke the bond and she left him.

He averted his gaze, trying to escape the way hers bore into him, intent and focused, as if she sought to discover the words he refused to voice and knew the way to divine his thoughts.

“Rest now, Olivia. I will make sure nothing happens to you.”

He went to stand, but she caught his arm.

“Loren?”

“I will not tell anyone what you told me, if you swear not to tell anyone the information I have given you about my species.” He turned back to her, sure that was what she had meant to ask him, and she shook her head.

“I... thank you for... just thank you.” She leaned across and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

Loren’s heart galloped and he stared beyond her, unsure what to do. Olivia lingered, her lips against his cheek, burning him and igniting a need he had been fighting from the moment he had come around to find her watching over him.

He wanted to kiss her.

“Olivia,” he whispered, surprised by the gravelly dark sound of his voice.

She eased back and he fought to voice what he wanted to tell her.

She didn’t give him a chance to get the words out.

She burned them and all reason away with a kiss that scorched him right down to his bones.

L
oren stared wide-eyed into the distance, the world around him blurring as Olivia’s lips claimed his, her ferocity startling him. Before he could bring himself to believe this was really happening, and begin to respond, she jerked away. Her enormous brown eyes and her emotions warned that she was going to bolt, and his very soul cried out in protest. She had kissed him. She couldn’t undo what she had done and he wasn’t going to let her run.

He was going to kiss her.

He had her in his arms before she could blink, pulled her awkwardly against his body, and claimed her mouth. She resisted at first and then she was kissing him again, her lips clashing desperately with his, driven by the same need that echoed within him. He groaned and deepened the kiss, tangling his tongue with hers and tasting her. Sweet, intoxicating, Olivia.

Her hands pressed against his bare chest, burning his flesh, and her kiss branded her name on his heart, an indelible mark that he would bear forever.

She owned it now.

He was a slave to her, lost in the pleasure of their kiss and how incredible it felt. It overwhelmed him, bringing forth emotions so intense that he shook from them, barely able to control himself. He needed her now, needed to satisfy his soul-deep hunger to claim her as his female and to give her pleasure the likes of which she had never known. He wanted to make her belong to him, steal the heart she guarded so well, shake her to her very foundations as she stripped him down to his.

Olivia moaned, the sound bliss to his ears, guiding him and telling him that she enjoyed the fierce way he kissed her, mastering her mouth and giving her no quarter.

He hadn’t kissed in over four thousand years, but he could remember the times he had been with a female, and it hadn’t felt like this. Olivia created feelings in him that were beyond powerful, emotions that detonated and rocked him, and that were addictive. He wanted more. He needed more.

Loren laid her down on the bed, across the white coat that she had dropped on the pale blue covers, and pressed his hands into the mattress, keeping himself off her. He feared he would lose control with her if their bodies came into contact now. He had been alone too long, and she felt too good.

“Loren,” she whispered and arched towards him, her hands clutching his bare arms. She slowed their kiss, teasing him with bare sweeps of her lips across his that sent shivers through him and lightened his insides.

He couldn’t take it.

He growled, the points of his ears extending, and swooped on her mouth, his kiss aggressive and hard, reclaiming her lips, designed to let her know that she was his now and he would have her.

No more dancing.

She writhed beneath him, her frantic actions bringing her body into contact with his as she clutched his biceps and raised her hips. Her thigh brushed between his legs and his fangs sharpened in response, his hunger for her spiralling ever deeper. He wanted to bite her again.

He wanted her to bite him.

He needed to complete this bond.

Loren tore away from her and breathed hard, kneeling on the bed astride her left leg.

“Loren?” she said, her soft voice edged with hunger that he wanted to satisfy.

He held his hand up and continued his struggle against his deepest desire. “A moment.”

He had bitten her against her will, bonding her to him. He couldn’t forcibly complete the bond, sealing it for eternity, changing her irrevocably. She would hate him for it. He had sworn to break this bond and only complete it as a last resort. He wouldn’t go back on his word.

Olivia sat up and reached for him, sliding one warm hand around the nape of his neck. “Come back to me.”

He read between the lines to the feelings she hid in them. She needed him to kiss her again before she changed her mind. She wanted him but she was fighting her desire, driven to push him away. Why?

She wanted him. He wanted her.

Why would she fight their mutual attraction?

Her brown eyes gained an edge that warned she was close to bolting, her fear getting the better of her. Her fingers tightened against his nape and he was powerless to resist her. She drew him back to her, her lips seizing his, driving all reason back out of his mind. Olivia wanted this. He would give her what she needed, but no more. He wouldn’t overstep the line again.

Olivia leaned back, bringing him with her, and he covered her body with his, bracing himself on his elbows above her. He kissed her harder, taking the lead again, and she writhed beneath him, rocking her body into his. He groaned and rubbed his hard length against her thigh, losing himself in thoughts of being inside her, their bodies intimately entwined, sharing a moment of bliss.

He needed that.

She moaned and he kissed along her jaw, curled the tip of his tongue around her earlobe, and then moved to her neck. He picked up her split-second tense and didn’t linger at her throat, not wanting to frighten her with the thought he might bite her after everything she had told him.

He wouldn’t even if she asked, because he was too far gone to control himself and if he sank his fangs into her throat and tasted her blood again, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from trying to complete their bond.

His ki’ara.

She felt good beneath him. Right. He loved the way she moved, the desperate undulations of her body that spoke to his, calling him to press against her, to give her what she needed. The feel of them skin-to-skin at last.

Loren moved back and grasped the hem of her t-shirt. Pain shot up his left arm from his broken fingers, a reminder of their condition. Olivia gasped and he gritted his teeth, cursing the weakness. He wanted nothing to interfere in this moment. Not her injuries or his.

Olivia’s hand curling around his and bringing it away from her clothing and up to her lips swept away his anger. He stared at her, fascinated as she pressed light kisses over the bandage and his two broken fingers, as if her kiss alone could heal his pain. There was a beautifully solemn yet tender look in her eyes as she inspected them, kissing them from time to time, and the pain did begin to fade. His female’s touch was magic, more powerful than any he commanded.

He had brought light to his people, but she had brought light to his dark world. She had given him something incredible, the wondrous bond between them that made him feel whole and gave him the strength to do what was right. He would never let her go. He would find a way to make her see that they belonged together. They were fated, destined to love each other, each born for the purpose of completing the other.

He wanted to say all this to Olivia but if he spoke these things aloud, they would scare her and she would run from him again. She wasn’t ready to hear that he had fallen for her, heart and soul, and would wither and die without her now.

“You look too serious,” she whispered and he shook his head, caught her hand with his good fingers, and lured her up to him.

Loren kissed her, a gentler exploration of her lips, building up the heat between them again and trying to deny his softer emotions, fearing they would colour his actions and she would sense them and bolt. He was wise to her now. She needed this to be about lust and satisfaction of carnal desires—aggressive, fierce and passionate. She needed to hide her softer feelings and deny her heart because she feared the outcome.

He was in no position to make love to her anyway.

Over four thousand years without sex meant that this first time would be about satisfying his dark need for her, to claim her body and soul, and ruin her to all other males.

He grasped the hem of her t-shirt and pulled it off over her head, breaking the kiss for only as long as it took the garment to pass between their lips. He kissed her harder, pouring out his desire and his need, letting her feel what she did to him. She made him crazy and wild, made him feel lost in his passion and ruled by his desire.

Loren dropped the t-shirt on the bed and went to palm her breasts. Material greeted his hands, soft and satiny beneath his fingers. He drew back and frowned at the garment she wore. Elf females wore corsets over their dresses. Human females appeared to wear a smaller version of that supportive garment beneath their clothing.

“What is this?” he said, eyeing the garment.

Olivia smiled and reached around behind her. “I’m not waiting while you fumble with your first bra.”

Fumble? He had intended to cut the unholy thing off her not fool around with whatever held it in place on her body.

She tossed the bra aside and he groaned, his gaze drawn to the dark dusky buds of her nipples and the creamy swells of her breasts. Touch. He went to do just that and grimaced as his broken fingers protested. He cursed them in his tongue and Olivia’s smile widened.

She reached for the belt of her jeans and he growled. He wanted to undress her. She shot him a frown.

“Your fingers are broken. You’ll hurt yourself trying to remove them and I want you naked against me.”

Naked against her.

Loren growled low in his throat.

He might have broken fingers, but there were other methods of undressing her at his disposal.

She was his, and that instinctual drive that told him that she belonged to him was strong, encompassing all of her, and therefore all of her belongings, rendering them as belonging to him also.

He mentally commanded her trainers and jeans to enter the portal to his room and she gasped, her eyes shooting wide when she was suddenly left in only a pair of cream satin knickers.

Loren didn’t give her a chance to indulge her inner scientist and ask how he had done such a thing. He threw another mental command at the rest of his armour and the scales shifted over his body and disappeared into the bands around his wrists, leaving him naked.

Olivia floundered, her mouth hanging open, eyes raking hotly over him.

His female liked what she saw. He grinned at the dark desire in her eyes, the mark of her approval, and kissed her again. She sank back onto the bed, taking him down with her, and he settled his weight on his elbows, shifted his legs between hers, and groaned as their bodies came into contact.

She was hot and soft beneath him, and the feel of her thighs cradling his hips combined with the satin stroke of her underwear over his hard length was almost too much for him. He ground his teeth until they hurt, focusing on the pain to dull the pleasure so he wouldn’t make a fool of himself.

Olivia didn’t help.

She rolled them over, landing astride him, and rubbed her core along his shaft, ripping a groan from his throat. Her hands glided over his torso and his markings flared, sensitising his flesh until even the barest caress was too much. He moaned and screwed his face up, unable to control his reactions to her touch, driving his hips against hers.

“I like these markings,” she whispered, fingers tracing them, pushing him closer to the edge.

Loren clutched the bedclothes and his broken fingers sent pain burning up the nerves of his left arm. Pain. Good.

He embraced it this time, trying to conceal it from Olivia so she wouldn’t know how close he was to coming just from her touching him.

Just from the hot moist feel of her against his aching shaft.

His dreams came crashing back to him, filling his head with replays of everything he had done to her in them. He wanted to take her hard as he had in his dream, when she had been on the inspection table. He wanted to see the pleasure on her face and feel it drenching the connection between them.