The Merzetti Effect (A Vampire Romance) (21 page)

“Del?” murmured. Again, no response.

Carefully, she lay down on the bed, pulling the covers up to her shoulders. When he failed to stir, she let her breath escape on a sigh, rolled onto her side to face the door and drew her knees up. Finally, finally, she could sleep. She let her eyes drift shut and was gone in moments.

The dream had him again.

He loved this time, the interval between the deep, restoring sleep that claimed him each morning and the full wakefulness that came with sundown. He loved it, and he loathed it, too. For in that short space of time, he slept almost like he used to sleep. Like other men slept. That’s when the dreams came. Yes, and the nightmares, too, sometimes. And as often as not, the dreams tortured him worse than the nightmares ever could.

This was one of those dreams, the kind he would pay for with a deep, persistent ache that would be with him for days. But God help him, he didn’t care. He just wanted to hang onto it as long as he could.

This time, he lay on his back, with Ainsley’s body curved sweetly against him, one silky-smooth leg twined with his. And her skin! The parts that touched him blazed like a furnace against his own skin, and her scent, a potent mix of sandalwood and sleepy woman, filled his nostrils. Beneath the soft sound of her breathing, he heard the strong, steady
lub-dub
of her heart and the fainter but even more thrilling surge and whisper of her blood.

His member, already engorged, grew harder still. He lifted a hand to palm her unbound breast through the thin t-shirt she wore, and felt the tip harden.

“Delano?”

“Ainsley.”

Effortlessly, he rolled her beneath him.

Oh, Lord! She felt so solid, so real, so warm. And soft in all the right places.

“Del! Wait! You can’t … I mean, we can’t‌—”

“Oh, but we can.” Here in this twilight place, they most definitely could. They could do anything.

He grasped the hands pressing against his chest, pushed them over her head and pinned them to the mattress. Then he took her mouth the way he’d been dying to do since he’d ravished her in the lab. But unlike that night in his lab, she just lay there, accepting the thrust and swirl of his tongue.

He adjusted his grip on her wrists so he could keep her arms pinned with one hand. The other hand he slipped under her t-shirt, gliding over the hot silk of her skin as he pushed the material upward until his hands closed on one bare, plump breast. “Kiss me back. Please, Ainsley.”

With a groan, she caught fire beneath him, arching up into his aching hardness. And her kiss! At last, she fed at his mouth as avidly as he could wish.

His hand tightened involuntarily on her breast, drawing a high moan from between her lips. He swallowed the sound, letting it thrill him to his very marrow.

More. He wanted more of those sounds. He wanted to make her sob with wanting.

Slowly, he drew his palm away from full contact with her breast, letting his fingers skate closer and closer to her areola, until they closed gently on the hardened nub of her nipple.

She whimpered, and again he swallowed the small noise.

More.

Down her side, over her hip, along a slender thigh until he found the hem of the shorts she wore. Then around to squeeze her bare, oh-so-luscious ass. Sweet merciful heaven, could anything feel better?

“My hands!” She panted against his mouth. “Let them go. I want … I need… Oh, please, Del, let me touch you.”

Her words sent a bolt of excitement straight to his groin, causing him to surge against her. He released his grip on her wrists.

Her hands went to his head, shaping it, pushing his hair back. He levered himself up slightly so he could look at her breasts. Beautiful. Ripe, full, strawberry-tipped. Groaning, he bent to apply his mouth to one pink crest. Closing his lips around it, he lashed it with tongue, then suckled it.

She made a high keening sound. He would have shifted to her other breast, but she held him fast, demanding more. He obliged, licking, sucking, biting gently. Beneath him, she surged upward with unmistakable purpose. Oh, God, she was so hot, so responsive.

The blood lust rose, turning his vision dark and threatening to unsheathe his canines, but he reined it in, sending it the same message as he’d sent his throbbing cock.

Not yet. Not yet.

Sliding onto his side, he drew her with him. Her hands roamed his chest now, fingers flexing over muscle, raking through hair, palms spreading, exploring. Nails biting into flesh, thumbs scraping over a sensitive nipple, then soothing. Sweet Jesus, it felt good to be touched.

And to touch.

Remembering why he’d rolled them, he slid a hand down her rump, then around between her thighs to cup the moist heat gathered there.

She lifted her knee to give him better access. “Del!”

“Yes?”

“Touch me.”

He urged her onto her back. “I will, sweetheart. Until you scream.”

Delicately, his fingers found her slick heat, his thumb her swollen clitoris. When he probed her entrance with two fingers, she rose to meet him, surging against his hand. And, oh, mercy, the sobbing sounds she tried to swallow back! Another bolt of lightning shot through him. Grimly, he clenched his jaw to prevent his teeth from erupting.

Not yet.

Her hips bucked harder, and her breathing grew ragged as he drove her up, up, and still further up.

“That’s it, my sweet,” he praised, watching the fierce passion on her face. Her kiss-swollen lips were parted, gasping air, her eyes squeezed shut, the cords in her slender neck standing out. “Reach for it.”

She came then, in panting, sobbing joy. And once again he had to fight off the twin demands of cock and tooth.

Not yet, not yet. For God’s sake, not yet.

“Omigod, Del. That was … that was‌—”

He smiled into her eyes. “That was good, but you didn’t scream.”

Before she could respond to that, he’d slid right off the bed, pulled her to the edge of the mattress, and knelt between her slender thighs.

“Del!”

“Relax.” He kissed her inner thigh, delighting in the way it trembled.

“
Relax?
” The word came out as half laugh, half sob. “You really expect me to relax?”

He laughed, letting his breath stimulate her most tender flesh, seeing her shudder. Lord, she was beautiful, sensitive, and so incredibly responsive. This, this was why he had to rein in the blood lust.

“Perhaps I should just say hang on.”

And hang on she did. To his sheets. She buried her fists in the bedding, thrashing her head from side to side, crying out. This time, he made sure the ascent was slower and more deliberate. And this time, when she exploded in bliss, the room rang with her cries.

He kissed his way up her body, savoring all the physical evidence of her orgasm. Trembling stomach, nipples tightened to rock-hard points, heart still thudding crazily, the flush in her neck and face just beginning to subside.

Now.

Roughly, he hauled her back up fully onto the mattress and covered her with his body, nudging between her thighs. She shuddered beneath him.

“Now, Ainsley.” He urged her legs wider apart, shifting until he found the moist heat of her with the tip of his cock.

“Yes!” She bucked beneath him. “Now, Del.”

He pushed into her. Oh, Lord, she was tight. Her muscles still spasming from her orgasm, gripped him snugly. The glide of her, the hot, wet grip of her flesh… Oh, Lord, he was losing his mind. He pulled out until just the sensitive glans remained buried in her heat, then plunged in again. And again and again.

“Yes, yes, yes.”

She wrapped her legs around him, rocking her hips, taking him deeper. He wanted to spin it out, make it last as long as he could, but her hands were on his back, her mouth hot on the point of his shoulder, his neck, wherever she could reach. The call of her blood rose, deafening now. He surged into her, harder, deeper, faster, until his control broke. With a guttural growl, he threw his head back and let his orgasm take him. As he pumped himself into her, his canines erupted.

Ainsley trembled as her internal muscles milked the last of his essence. Dear Lord, she’d died and gone to heaven. She opened her eyes to tell him so, only to see his face descending toward her neck, fangs bared in unmistakable intent.

A jolt went through her, part sexual excitement, part terror.

“No, Delano! Don’t! You can’t.”

As though deaf to her cries, he used his hands to angle her head, exposing her vulnerable throat.

“Stop! Del, you don’t know what it’ll do.” Frantically, she pushed at his chest with her hands, but he was so strong. It was like trying to stop a hydraulic press. “Stop!” she cried again. “For God’s sake, it might kill you. Listen to me, Del. Where would we be then? Who’d stop Janecek? Who’d protect me?”

His eyes, black as midnight, burned into hers. “Shut up, Ainsley.”

Shut up?
Shut up?

Then he leaned down and pressed his mouth to her throat. She braced, expecting the hot, piercing pain of his cuspids, but he merely kissed her throat, grazing her skin ever so slightly with his teeth, tasting her skin, her pulse. She trembled.

“Del‌—”

“Dammit, Ainsley, this is my dream, and I make the rules here. So be quiet, would you?”

Dream? Oh, Christmas.

“You think this is a
dream
?” She caught him by the hair, and this time, he allowed her to hold him back.

“A very nice one. And in this dream, I’m going to find your carotid artery with my fingers, like so.”

One hand splayed on her neck, and she felt her pulse hammer against his flesh.

“Then I’m going to sink my teeth into your lovely white neck until I hit that life-blood, which I’ll take straight to my heart. When I’m done feeding, I’ll close your wound, but even as I’m doing that, you’ll feel me swell inside you. And then … oh, then, my sweet Ainsley, I’m going to take you all over again. Only this time, you’ll feel what I feel and I’ll feel what you feel, and when we explode together, it will be like nothing you’ve ever experienced.”

Involuntarily, her hips surged against his.
Christ, Ainsley. Get a grip
. The man thought he was dreaming!

She tightened her fists in his hair. “Del, this is
real
. I mean, really real. And I oughta know. You just made me come three times, and you’re still inside me.”

His eyes lost some of their fire. “Real?”

“As real as it gets. Real as the phone call I have to make to Lucy when I get up. Real as the anger I’m still struggling with over the way you deceived me.”

He cursed and levered himself away from her with shocking alacrity. Though grateful he’d finally gotten the message, she felt the loss of contact like an ache. To cover her vulnerability, she resorted to flippancy.

“Well, I must say, I’ve seen smoother dismounts.”

“Hell’s teeth, woman!”

Hell’s teeth?
What kind of a cussword was that?

“I was more concerned about
your
teeth.” Speaking of which, they had already retracted, but somehow he didn’t look any less menacing.

“For God’s sake, why didn’t you
stop
me?”

She pulled the sheet over herself and sat up. “Excuse me. I distinctly remember saying we couldn’t do this. You assured me we could.”

“That’s because I thought I was dreaming!”

“How was I supposed to know that? I thought you meant it was safe to … you know … fool around.”

He made a strangled sound and ran his hands through his hair. It occurred to her that he made a very nice picture, naked.

“Okay, let’s start here: what the devil were you doing in my bed?”

She lifted her chin. “I couldn’t sleep.”

“And you couldn’t pop an Ambien?”

She glared at him.

“What? You have a very tidy supply, right there in your medicine chest. I took pains to stock it.”

“Argh!”

“Come on, Ainsley, you’re a nurse. A nurse who was known to work quite a few extra shifts. Don’t tell me you’ve never resorted to a little chemical assistance to get the rest you needed between shifts.”

“Go to hell.” Ainsley ripped the sheets from the bed and lurched to her feet, wrapping the material around her. “Why don’t you just admit that you sent your snoops into my apartment to find out every little thing about me. What food I eat, what clothes I wear. Christ, they even checked what underwear I favor. So I’m pretty sure they saw the meds in my cabinet. And yes, dammit, I take a sleep aid once in a while.” She finally managed to tie off the sheet above her breasts in a way that felt secure, leaving her hands free to prop on her hips. “I resent your suggestion I should have just taken a goddamn pill. I wasn’t suffering from your garden-variety insomnia last night, Delano. I was terrified out of my head. Every time I started to drift off, I saw Janecek coming for me, and it jerked me right out of sleep. I was worn out from battling stress hormones. All I could think about was human comfort. Companionship. Security.
Contact
. God, can you understand any of that?”