The Turning Kiss (4 page)

“Ah. Thank you, Calam.” She smiled, and all the coolness left her face. And left him harder than ever, his cock pulsing.

Need to touch her.

His hands fisted at his sides.

“Do you need anything?” he asked her. “I called for some tea just before you woke.”

“Tea would be lovely.”

“You’re lovely,” he told her. “I’m sure you’re not unaware. I’m sure you know if you weren’t, you wouldn’t be here. But I felt the need to tell you all the same. You have the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen…dark blue, like the sky just before the sun sets.”

She blushed. So
pretty
. Absolutely female. It seemed to confuse her, either his compliment, or her response to it. She bit her lip, looked away for a moment, through the tall, paned windows at the gray London sky. He followed her gaze. It looked lonely to him, as it often did. Or perhaps it was that he’d been alone for so many years.

Something about her…maybe that he could sense the softness beneath her hard, icy exterior, the one she showed to the outside world. It made him feel that loneliness more than he usually did. It was something he’d lived with most of his life. Ever since…well, he wouldn’t think of that now.

He didn’t like that he sensed that same loneliness in her. He didn’t want that for her. He couldn’t stand it.

“Ilana?” She turned back to him as he went to sit on the edge of the bed. “How are you? Do you feel all right?”

“Yes, I’m fine. Truly I am. I feel good. A bit sore all over, but this wonderful bed is helping. I feel as if I’ve slept forever.” She stretched, her arms overhead.

He couldn’t help but let his gaze dart to her breasts as the sheet fell away. Gods, but they were spectacular. Full and heavy, the nipples pale pink. Succulent.

“For nearly two days,” he said, lifting his gaze back to hers with some effort.

He smiled once more, for no reason that he could tell. Lovely. Warm. Driving that vague sense of loneliness away. She was here with him. He didn’t need to think of anything else. And in her smile there was something seductive. Sweet, yet there was a definite invitation there. He felt a frisson of desire spark in the cool air between them that had to do with something other than his own hardening cock. It was her desire as well, emanating from her like a hint of perfume in the air.

He stared at her a moment, watched as her pink lips parted, her tongue darting out for a moment to moisten them. Nerves in that small, quick motion, but yes, desire like a flame, warming them both.

“Ah, I would climb in there with you right now if Konstantine and Luka hadn’t laid claim to you,” he told her.

“Have they?”

He nodded.

Her smiled broadened, her long lashes lowering over her alluring blue eyes. “And if they hadn’t, I would invite you to.”

If only she would lean toward him, draw him into bed with her. Let him feel her naked flesh against his.

The door opened and they both glanced up, but it was only a serving girl with the tea tray. She set it down on the foot of the bed, gave a wordless nod and left the room.

Calam poured for them both into fragile china teacups painted with the club’s dragon head insignia in black and gold, wicked teeth bared, its long tongue a graceful arc in red. He set one cup on a saucer, handed it to her along with a small plate of scones and fruit.

“So, what’s your story, Ilana?” he asked her as they sipped their tea. He had to distract himself or he was going to pull her into him, kiss her. Push her down on the bed and slide into her warm body.

Ah, no. He’d better keep her talking. Konstantine hadn’t given him leave to do any of those things to the vampire’s chosen lover. Not yet, anyway.

“My story?” She set her cup down on the saucer, took a bite of the fruit on her plate.

“We all have one. Shall I tell you more of mine first while you eat? Yes?”

She nodded, taking a small bite of the fresh scone, then licking a crumb from her pretty pink mouth.

“Well, I was born in Edinburgh, as I mentioned earlier. My mother was a prostitute.”

He saw her flinch. Saw how she tried to hide it by sipping from her cup. So, she had a story too. Most of those at the Midnight Playground did. He wouldn’t press her about it.

“It was a hard life, as you can imagine,” he went on. “Hard for her. Hard for me. When I reached ten years of age her madam gave her an ultimatum—either I start serving the customers as she did or I had to get out. My mother didn’t want that life for me. She thought I might have a better chance on the streets.”

“And did you?” Ilana asked.

He shrugged, wanting to ignore the old pain. His mother was long gone. He’d heard that much when he was still a teenager on the streets of Edinburgh. Dead from some illness gone untreated—he’d never been able to find out what it was. Mostly, he tried not to think of her anymore. What else was he to do? She’d done the best by him she could. End of story.

“Probably,” he answered Ilana. “I joined a group of street urchins. The oldest at that time was perhaps fourteen. We stayed together…” his chest went tight. This was much harder to forget. He never would. It was what drove him out of Scotland. What had driven him to seek out the vampires. He took in a breath before he went on. “Well, we stayed together until I came here.”

She watched him carefully for a moment, but didn’t press him further. He was glad for it. It was rare he told anyone about how things had ended for him there. It was too damn hard.

“Now, what about you?” he asked, trying to shake it off, that old sense of loss. Guilt.

Ilana set her teacup down on the tray, sat back, leaning against the headboard. “My mother was…wealthy. I was taken from her at thirteen and…I suppose it won’t shock you to know that I was forced into the brothel life.”

“But you escaped,” he said simply. It hurt him to think of what she’d been through. He swallowed it down.

She is just like the rest of us here.

Except that there was something different about her. For him, anyway.

“Yes. At eighteen. I got out. Went to work as a hostess in the restaurants, worked my way up until I got into the nicer places. But it wasn’t enough. It was never enough. Do you know what I mean?”

Why was it important that he understand? Ilana couldn’t figure it out. He was just another beautiful male. A
human
male.

He nodded. “Those of us who come here come looking for more. More than we could ever find in the mundane existence we mortals lead in the world outside.”

“And you’ve been here seven years, and are still human.”

“Yes.”

She searched his face, his warm silvery eyes. “Do you never give up hope, Calam?”

“Not yet. But tomorrow is another day, for good or bad.”

He was grinning again. He seemed to possess an infallible good humor, despite what sounded to be a very hard life. No harder than her own perhaps, but that had been hard enough. She felt as if they understood one another in that regard.

She liked him. And he was one of the most gorgeous human males she’d ever come upon. She’d thought so the first time she’d seen him in the club. And up close…his skin was nearly as pale as one of the vampires, with just a sprinkling of freckles across those impossibly broad shoulders. Skin like milk. And the skin on his face was just as fine, yet his features were purely male.

She was warming all over, and not only from the tea. There was something about Calam her body responded to. Something deep and primal.

“Ilana,” he said, his tone low. He leaned in, moving a few inches closer.

She could smell the scent of him, of soap and male flesh. Her sex gave a hard, sudden squeeze.

“Calam, I—”

“I know. Ilana…” He lifted a hand, reaching for her. And dropped it when the door opened once more.

Chapter Three

She knew without looking it was a vampire entering the room.

Luka.

When she looked up she found his gaze on her, that glossy hazel, his eyes almond shaped, exotic.

“It is good you two are getting to know each other,” Luka said, smiling as he crossed the room. “I can smell your desire. Both of you. This is good as well. Konstantine will be pleased.
I
am pleased.”

Calam stood as Luka approached the bed, and Ilana felt a surge of desire as the vampire drew near.

His gaze locked onto hers as he settled onto the bed beside her, leaned in and kissed her cheek. His lips were a warm brush of flesh, soft and hard all at once. She was always surprised at how warm the vampire’s flesh could be.

He lifted one hand, brushed it over the spot he had just kissed. “And your beautiful flesh even warmer than ours,” he murmured. “So hot. Hot for me, Ilana. And for our friend, Calam. Yes. And for Konstantine as well. We will make a fine group.”

“All of us?” she dared to ask.

“All of us.” Luka reached behind him and pulled on Calam’s hand until Calam stood next to the bed. “Take the tea tray away,” Luka said to him quietly, “and undress. Konstantine will join us soon.”

Calam smiled, took Ilana’s teacup from her hands, removed the tray. Then he stood beside the bed and kicked his way out of the black leather pants he wore, leaving him naked. Glorious. His erect cock was thick and dark at the tip. Ilana’s body went soft all over, a melting heat at her core.

She was to have him. Calam. And Luka and Konstantine. Had she ever dreamed of anything she could have wanted more?

“And Ever,” Luka said, a small smile on his face as he reached for Calam, stroking his hand over the strong male thigh.

“Ever,” she repeated, dizzy with it. The idea was overwhelming, even for her, a woman who had served the desires of dozens of men over her lifetime, first by force, then by choice. A woman who had slept with a dozen vampires since coming to the club. But this…

“It will be as good as you think it might be, with Ever,” Luka said. “With us all.”

He was stroking Calam’s cock. She watched, fascinated, as his hand fisted, moved up the length of it, back down, then up again. Calam’s eyes closed, his head falling back.

“Luka, please,” she pleaded, knowing he would see into her mind, into her desires, and know exactly what she asked for.

He smiled to her. “Yes, I know what you want, Ilana. To be touched by us all. To be fucked. To watch us do these things to each other. You love to watch nearly as much as Konstantine does.”

“Yes…”

“Then lie back and watch us, little ice queen.”

Luka stood and stripped off his dark leather pants, his white shirt, until he was as naked as Calam. And instantly he drew Calam to him roughly, one hand going into his auburn hair, holding tight, pulling his head back, and kissed him.

Ilana moaned as their mouths came together, that meeting of vampire and human flesh. Their mouths lush and red, tongues darting out, then their lips crushing together. The kiss was rough in only the way a kiss between males could be. But harder, more powerful, more fierce, than any two mortals would have been. And with that lovely flash of Luka’s gleaming white eyeteeth. Shining. Dangerous.

Luka pulled Calam closer, their hips nearly meeting, their two hard cocks brushing against each other. She saw Calam arc into Luka, his hips tilting. Luka laughed, pulled away.

“You are too eager today, Calam. Is it our beautiful girl here who is making you so anxious? So needy?”

“Yes, Luka,” Calam answered, turning to look at her, his gray gaze steady on hers. “I want her.” There was challenge in his voice. She loved that he wasn’t simply submitting to the vampire.

Luka smiled, leaned in, and with his lips parted, dragged just the edge of one of his fangs over the skin of Calam’s throat, his collarbone. Calam swallowed, but he didn’t move. Heat crept over Ilana’s skin, simply watching them together. Knowing that sensual scraping of teeth along the skin that often was a precursor to the Seeking Kiss.

“Ah, it’s far too soon for that,” Luka said, reading her thoughts. “As tempting as it is. But since he wants you so badly, since I can feel it so keenly, he shall have you. And I will watch, as my dear Konstantine so often does. Do with her as you will, Calam.”

A sharp stab of need in her sex, knowing Calam was to have her. Knowing they would have an audience. Oh yes, she was an exhibitionist. But she’d known that about herself for a long time. How that extra pair of eyes drove pleasure deeper into her body. How it made her feel admired. Adored. Beautiful.

Calam had a small smile on his face as Luka let him go. He knelt on the edge of the bed, reached out, yanked the sheet down, exposing her.

“Lie back against the pillows,” Calam said.
Commanded
.

Her body went loose all over, hearing the authority in his tone. Loving it.

“Spread your pretty thighs for me, Ilana. Yes, perfect.”

She did as he said, parting her legs wide. Calam climbed onto the bed, his muscular thighs on either side of her face, so that his cock was a few tempting inches from her mouth. He lowered his head between her thighs until she could feel his breath warm on her shaved sex.

“Suck me,” he told her.

She raised her head and let her tongue curl around the tip of his cock.

His swollen flesh was sweet, the smallest drop of pre-come salty on her tongue. She licked again, heard him moan, and another moan from Luka, who had come to sit next to them on the bed.

She felt the vampire’s hand on her stomach, then lower, his hard fingers sliding in her juices as he spread her pussy lips wide, holding her open for Calam.

“Ah, so beautiful,” Calam murmured before dipping his head to draw his tongue over her aching cleft.

She sighed, pleasure trembling through her system like a small electric shock. Lovely and sharp.

“Come on, Ilana. Take me now. Take me deep,” Calam ordered her.

She opened her lips, drew his flesh in, taking as much of the thick shaft as she could. And as she did, Calam’s tongue went into her hole, and he began to fuck her. It was like some soft, hot cock, in and out. Desire undulated through her, snakelike. Liquid.

“Wait,” Luka said, and they both stilled. “Take my fingers into your mouth, Ilana. Yes, very good.”