Phantom Desires (3 page)

The all-night diner was surprisingly busy, but they were able to snag a corner booth that was relatively quiet. Dmitri was the perfect gentleman, encouraging her to order whatever she liked though he stuck with plain black coffee. She noticed he didn’t drink much of his coffee, just a few sips. When she questioned him on it, he said he didn’t want the caffeine keeping him awake. She wondered why he hadn’t just ordered decaf, but let the question slide as he neatly changed the subject and started asking questions about the new software system she was installing.

Before she knew it, three in the morning was only a memory and it was getting closer to dawn. Dmitri drew her attention to the slight pinkening of the sky and she gasped. They had talked for more than two hours though it seemed like only minutes. She was that comfortable with him.

With a few parting words and a somewhat awkward—at least on her part—peck on the cheek, he let her go. She climbed into her car and set out for her little farm, about twenty minutes away by car. As she crested a hill, the sun greeted her and the beauty of the dawn stole her breath. It was a beautiful day to be alive.

Dmitri made it home from their rendezvous with only moments to spare. He could fly quite fast when there was need, but he had cut this just a little too close for comfort. Still, he reasoned, any time spent with the enchanting Carly was time well spent. She had thoroughly captivated him as they had sat in the diner, talking about anything and everything.

His mental abilities allowed him to probe a little beneath her complex surface, learning more about the thought processes that went into her answers to the many, many different questions he had posed to her. Though she hadn’t realized it, she was being carefully studied, analyzed and judged. He had decided rather quickly to let her live at least a bit longer while he probed deeper into the amazing effect this surprising mortal woman was having on his mind and body.

All she had to do was smile, and he was ready to fuck her. Hard.

He knew he could make her want it. He had read her attraction to him in the subtle shifts of her body, the alluring scent of her arousal. It was heady stuff. He hadn’t wanted sex with a mortal in a very long time, but this one woman was making him want sex with her, and her blood, in the worst way.

And he would have her. Both her luscious body and her sweet, life-giving blood. She would feed all his desires, his hungers and his needs.

Then he would decide her fate. For now, he would invade her dreams once more and begin the process of seduction. While she slept in the farmhouse two stories above his own dwelling, he would seduce her senses and bring them both an echo of the pleasure they would find together.

He spread her out before him in their shared dream, her whimpering cries of pleasure music to his ears as he licked through her folds and delved his tongue within, mimicking the motion he wanted to make with his cock. She writhed beneath him, her legs churning as pleasure threatened to overtake her.

“Come for me, little one.” He whispered against her wet, silken flesh as his fangs came down, his excitement growing. With a growl he nipped at her little clit, fighting against his baser nature to treat her gently, his teeth teasing, not hurting. He never wanted to hurt this small woman, giving herself so freely to him in the realm of dreams. He vowed silently that she would give herself just as freely in the flesh.

He couldn’t wait much longer to claim her in truth. The short time he had already spent studying her only made him want more.

She spasmed against his mouth, crying out her release as he rode her through the storm, licking softly. This time, the climax didn’t startle her out of the dream. He knew she was greedy for him now and the pleasure he could give. She stayed in the dream, wanting more. Wanting him. It made him feel like a king.

At length she quieted, and he knew it was only a matter of moments before she was once again writhing in his arms. He worked toward that goal, stretching out over her, suddenly naked in the way of dreams. He rubbed up and down, his body against hers, his hardness against her softness, his hunger against her welcoming warmth and wetness. She was almost there.

Lowering his head, he brushed his closed lips against hers, pulling back, making sure he held her eyes as he smiled, letting her see his fangs.

The moment of truth. Or close to it, at least. If she thought about it at all, she would put his appearance up to her imagination in the harsh light of day. Dmitri wanted her to think about what she had seen in the dream. There was no question in his mind. She would be remembering this dream when she woke up. He willed it so.

He’d done his best to mask his identity in their past shared dreams but no more. He wanted her to think of him and wonder until he could see her again the next night.

Then he would challenge her. He would confront her perceptions of reality and dreams. He would claim her for his own. At least for one night.

Maybe two. Maybe a decade. Time meant little to him, a Master of his kind.

She gasped as she saw him fully on the dreamplane, her hand coming up between them. He thought she meant to push him away, but she would find him impossible to move. Instead, she surprised him, her soft eyes turning curious as she traced delicately with one finger over the sharp point of one deadly fang.

The motion cut her and a drop of her precious blood welled up onto her skin. She drew back, but he grasped her hand and brought her bloody finger to his mouth, licking to taste her.

Her eyes darkened with desire, shaking him to his core as he sucked her finger in deep. He laved the little digit, coaxing more of her essence into his suddenly starved senses.

Too bad this was only a dream. He longed to know what she tasted like for real. Soon, he counseled himself. Soon.

He pulled back, allowing her to pull her finger free with a slight suctioning pop. He parted his lips, letting her see what was coming as he lowered his mouth to her soft throat. She fired his blood as she made no move to stop him, uttered no words of fear. She wanted this. If only in her dreams.

As he moved down to her beautiful throat, he moved his cock to the hot, wet opening that was so ready for him. As his fangs plunged into her jugular, his cock thrust home inside her. A hot, wet glide of possession that fired his senses as her blood bathed his tongue in the most delicious flavor imaginable.

Too bad it was
only
imaginary. He would have her in the flesh. Soon. This phantom taste of her only whetted his appetite for more.

Her blood pulsed into his mouth on the dreamplane as his cock pumped into her hot pussy. In and out, harder and stronger, his desire flamed higher than before.

“Please,” she begged in a gasping whisper as she strained beneath him.

He could read the desire, the need in her voice. She was desperate to come. He felt her beginning to contract around him, her cries speaking nothing of fear, only of ecstasy.

“Harder, Dmitri! Harder!” She gasped next to his ear, sending him higher into the throes of his own desperate desire.

He pushed her to her limits and then beyond, his mind intimately twined with hers in the realm of the dream. Her heart pulsed in time with his thrusts, hot and hard, fast and strong. He knew she was seconds away from exploding, as was he.

With a groan, he sucked deep on her delicate throat. In a surge of ecstasy, he exploded hot within her tight depths, feeling her release squeeze him with velvet gloves while he came and came, longer and stronger than anything he’d ever known. Even in dreams.

Their coming together was magical and sublime. He found himself already thinking of when they could do this again. He wanted more of her body, more of her blood. More of her.

With a polite lick of his tongue, he closed the wounds on her neck, pulling away as they both floated back to Earth in the dream. He made sure he had her full attention before speaking, not allowing his fangs to retract. She needed to see all of him, even if she would only think it was part of her imagination the next day. When he knew he had her focused on him, he dipped his head close, holding her gaze.

“You will remember this, Carly. You are mine now. All mine.”

Carly woke that afternoon, her mind hazy from more odd dreams, her body still humming from a dream orgasm that was better than any real one she’d ever had. She remembered every moment of the strange, hot, incredibly erotic dream. Suddenly her phantom lover had a face, and it was Dmitri Belakov’s!

She scoffed at her own imagination. Why, she had dreamed he was a vampire, of all things. How ridiculous.

The man was definitely sexy and had gotten under her skin in a big way, but he was no vampire. Vampires didn’t exist. It was just his sexy foreign name and slight accent that put her in mind of those old horror movies she had loved as a kid.

Still, he certainly made one sexy hunk of a vampire in her dream. She couldn’t remember ever achieving such complete sexual satisfaction from a dream before. One thing she knew—Dmitri Belakov was potent if just the memory of him in her imagination could make her come like a freight train.

She had work to finish on campus that night and as she showered and dressed, she couldn’t get the memory of that incredible climax out of her mind. How on earth was she going to face the man when in her mind he had been making love to her half the day and sucking her blood? There was no way he could know the content of her erotic dreams, but
she
knew, and the memory would claim her the moment she saw his handsome face.

“Well, this is going to be an interesting night at work,” she said to her reflection as she got ready. She was still shaking her head as she made her way out the front door of her little farmhouse.

Down below in the secret dwelling, Dmitri laughed. She had no idea.

Carly sensed Dmitri’s presence an hour after she settled in for the night in front of the bank of computers. She had more loading to do, then a bit of testing and it would be all done. She was always happy when a project completed successfully, but she would miss the campus. If she were honest with herself, she would admit she’d miss more than just the campus. She’d miss the man. Dmitri intrigued her more than was probably good for her, but she just couldn’t help herself.

Carly yawned as she faced the screen, suddenly aware of Dmitri at her back. He moved so silently she hadn’t heard him come into the room though the whole building was pretty much closed for the night.

“Didn’t sleep well?” he asked, a sexy smile on his lips.

She smiled and shook her head. “I had some odd dreams.”

He swiveled her chair around to face him.

“Some dreams,” he purred, his eyes lit from within, “are more than just dreams.”

“What do you mean?”

“How did it feel when you came in my arms last night, Carly? Did you like the way I licked your pussy and fucked you with my tongue? I can assure you, it will feel even better in the flesh.”

Carly gasped as his fingertips traced down her arm, over her soft knit shirt. Even with the fabric between her skin and his, she could feel the electricity of his touch. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about last night in our dream. I shared it with you, Carly. I’ve never come so hard or so good as I have these past nights in your arms. In your dreams.”

“That’s not possible!” She drew back from him in alarm, but his strong hands on the arms of her chair held her in place.

“Oh, I assure you, it’s more than just possible. It’s real. As am I.”

Dmitri felt his fangs aching…dropping…and he knew she would see everything. It was time. He smiled. She gasped.

“Oh my God. You’re…you’re…”

“Vampire.” His voice vibrated through the room, and he knew she was affected. He detected a slight trembling of her lithe body.

“You’re crazy! There’s no such thing.”

“I beg to differ.” His smile widened as she brought her fingers up, as she had in the dream, to test the sharpness of his feeding teeth.

Like in the dream, she felt the sharpness of his tooth but pulled back before it could pierce her skin. He found himself disappointed. How he wanted to taste her.

“You’re not kidding, are you? This isn’t some kind of elaborate joke?”

Her voice was soft with wonder and a touch of fear. All in all, she was taking this better than he would have credited. It had been decades since he’d had to reveal himself to any mortal and such revelations usually did not go so well.

“I’m afraid not. I am, as they say, the real deal.”

“Are you going to kill me?” She asked it straight out, with a courage he admired.

He shook his head. “I had given it some thought, but you are too interesting to destroy, Carly. Too intelligent.” He stroked her soft hair away from her face. “Too beautiful.”

“Then what are you going to do with me? Why show yourself?”

He stepped back, releasing her chair completely. He paced away a short distance, his eyes following her movements as she straightened her sleeves unnecessarily.

“Now we come to the crux of the matter.” He sighed. “I have been watching you for some time. Since you moved into the farmstead, in fact.”

“The farm? Why?”

His gaze pinned her. “Because I live there as well.” He paused but she made no comment. “Under your home, several stories down into the earth is a replica of the farmstead. I have been living there in peace and safety for over a century. For all that time, the same family owned the land and house above and we peacefully co-existed until old Jacob died. He had no family to leave the place to in his will, so it was sold.”

“To me.” Her voice was a surprisingly calm whisper.

“To you,” he agreed with a nod. “Now I am faced with the problem of a mortal inhabiting the space above me who has no idea of my existence and no loyalty to the agreement I had with Jacob’s ancestors, binding on all subsequent generations. That agreement is, in effect, null and void now that their line is ended.”

“So you want to make a new agreement with me?”

He smiled. “I thought so at first.” He moved closer to her once again.