Vamped Up (9 page)

Instinctively he knew how far he wanted this to go. He wanted
all
of her.

Dropping her head back, letting the skill of his hand take her over, was the last thing Eve should’ve done when he was having trouble reigning in his impulses. A luscious purple vein pulsed strong on her neck, just beneath her skin. Her long golden hair fell over her shoulder and flowed down her back. What a sight to behold . . .

Ruan felt his pupils widen. His fangs dropped low. His throat was dry—
so dry
. One drink wouldn’t hurt. He could stop before he hurt her again.

And this is what she’d wanted, wasn’t it? She’d told him to drink from her. In fact, she didn’t give him another option, right? All the other bloodlusting bastards in ReVamp got to drink from her whenever they wanted. They signed a paper indicating their feeding preferences and filled up on her blood any time hunger pangs hit them.

Why couldn’t he? He was hungry as hell and she was
his
. Forever. One drink would prove to her that he could do this . . . and then she’d never share herself with another.

She’d be his. To take. To drink. To kill.

He lowered his head to the curve of her neck, his jaw dropping, his lips quivering in anticipation.

Wait . .
 .

His body went still.

To kill?

“Ruan, what is it?” she asked, stroking him, making him gasp. “I want this. Don’t deny me what I want most . . . you can’t. You can’t stop now.”

Ruan sucked in a short breath as his gaze settled on her lips. The corner of Eve’s mouth was smudged red. The blood he’d licked off her palm—her blood—had made its way from his lips to hers. His cock strained so hard that his stomach ached and his balls seized. The trace of blood on Eve’s mouth was the sexiest sight he’d ever seen.

Something inside him cracked like a twig. Fuck restraint.

“You don’t know what you’re asking for.” He crushed his mouth to hers, licking the remnants of blood from the corners, sucking her plush bottom lip between his teeth. “But I’ll give it to you. Everything you want and more.”

A smile crept across Eve’s lips as she pushed Ruan backwards until he was leaning on the edge of the desk. She turned around, back facing him, the vein on her neck fluttering strong. Ruan swept her golden veil of hair over her left shoulder so her right was bare. So he had an unobstructed view of the most luscious vein he’d ever seen, pulsing beneath her silky skin.

She maneuvered one leg on either side of his as he kneaded her hips with greedy hands.

“What are you doing?” he asked, out of breath and light-headed. The room spun in dizzying circles. His gaze traveled down her back from the hourglass of her waist to the curve of her bare hips.

“Giving you what you need,” she said softly over her shoulder; a strand of honey-gold hair drooped over her eyes. “Take from me.” She rose up on tiptoe, bent over slightly, and backed herself against him until the thick head of his shaft met the slippery entrance of her core.

Oh God.

She sank down over him until he was deep inside her. She leaned back. Tilted her neck.

The animal inside him roared. With each pulse of her muscles clenching around him, he came closer to climax. But with each little movement of her hips, she leaned further back, offering her neck to drink. She was flush against him now. From hips to chest. His mouth to her neck. The scent of her blood was so strong from here. It would be so easy. One taste . . .

Her hips rolled faster, up and down his cock. He groaned, pressing two firm hands on her sides to control her rhythm. She was so wet. Drowning. And so was he.

Was this enough? Was this what he needed all along?
Maybe he wouldn’t need to feed from her . . . he could taste her without getting carried away.

Eve leaned back against him until he was supporting all her weight. Her head lolled on his shoulder, her hair falling over his chest in a wave of blonde.

His gaze traveled down her body to her arching breasts. He cupped them with rough hands, pulling her pink nipples taut. As his fangs grazed along the arch of her shoulder, he reached down the flat of her stomach to her hips, to tease her heat again.

“Drink from me, Ruan,” she whimpered. The rhythm of her hips sped. Her heart raced. “Drink from me as I come.”

Ruan froze as his mouth set upon her neck in a hot, smothering kiss.

“
Oh,
Ruan . . .” She rode him harder. Faster. Until he felt his muscles clamp like a vice. As her body softened, riding the waves of orgasm as it rippled through her, Ruan’s body seized.

An instant before his own climax hit, a breath before he let himself shatter inside her, he bit down hard on her neck, letting his fangs sink deep.

She whimpered again, wrapping an arm around his head to keep him drinking.

Her blood slid down his throat, heavy and intoxicating. A rush of warm heaven. He pinched his eyes closed, dug his fangs deeper, and sucked harder. He’d take all of her this way. She’d be
his
. Completely. Blood, body, and soul.

He let his eyes roll back as he bit hard, sparks of ecstasy rising to a peak. Her shoulders tensed beneath him, fueling his hunger. Possessive instinct exploded like lightning rods through his body. He hissed and thrashed his fangs into her skin as he held her firmly against him.

God, she was so deliciously sweet. His for the taking. He’d drink every last ounce of her blood so she couldn’t donate it to another. He’d take her in, as she was taking him.

He’d never stop.

With a shallow hiss, Ruan lifted her off him.

She jumped back, rubbing her neck where his lips had been, shock coating her expression. “What’s wrong? You didn’t hurt me.” Her gaze shot to his straining erection. “You didn’t finish . . .”

He dropped to all fours. His uncontrollable desire to drink her dry should’ve been enough to disgust him completely. The thought of living without her should’ve been like a cold shower.

But his body wasn’t listening. It still raced toward climax. Muscles taut. Ready to burst. How could he get off on knowing what the beast inside him wanted to do to her?

When Eve knelt beside him, putting an arm over his shoulder, his senses were assailed by the erotic combination of her blood and her pleasure. “Ruan . . .”

He put a hand up to keep her away. She needed to stay far, far away.

He was shaken. Disturbed. Turned on not only by the smell of her blood, but by the sight of it smudged onto her lips. Damn it, he wasn’t sure what he was capable of.

Like a thunderbolt of bloodlust striking his body, Ruan lost control. Picturing Eve in his mind’s eye, her body sucking hungrily on his cock, his fangs anchored dangerously in her neck, Ruan grabbed a hold of his burning shaft. Stroked hard, violent strokes. As his climax hit, he roared, releasing himself onto his pants that lay crumpled on the floor.

Chapter Thirteen

“Paintings are much like mundanes—jaw-droppingly beautiful, but better when admired from afar.”

Van Goslin, sixteenth-century artist

“D
ON’T TOUCH ME.”
Ruan stood in a flash, covering himself with the jeans he’d scraped off the floor. He stormed to the corner and faced it, refusing to look at Eve. He stuck his arm out behind him. “Toss me my shirt, would you?
Please
.”

There was no reason for him to be rude. Or embarrassed. Covering her own breasts, though she wasn’t sure the reason for her sudden shyness, Eve picked up his shirt and walked to his side, placing it in his open hand. “You didn’t hurt me, Ruan. If you’d just loosen up and let yourself go, you might—”

“I’ve heard enough.” He shuffled the black shirt down his sculpted torso, all the while guarding his hips with a wide pant leg.

“Any chance you’re going to talk about what happened?”

“Nope.”

She’d figured he would shut down. She only hoped he wouldn’t do it so quickly.

A surge of warmth spread through her body, down her fingers, up the base of her neck, and through the tips of her toes. Shivering from its pulsing waves, she dabbed a finger to her neck, to where her pulse beat strong. The puncture marks along her jugular were a little raised and a little swollen. Probably more than a little red, but they hummed like bees in spring. Like a lover’s first kiss. Lingering and warm and perfect.

She caught Ruan glaring at her over his shoulder.
How could he look at the marks on her neck and not think they’re absolutely beautiful?

“Would you do me a favor and ask Slade if he’s got an extra pair of pants in his loft that I can borrow?”

Without dignifying his attitude with a response, Eve walked to an oversized cabinet lining the back wall and swung open its side door. Rows of black shirts and jeans—Slade-size muscular—hung from two thick bars stretching from side to side. She grabbed a pair of dark-wash jeans off a wooden hanger and tossed them at him.

They hit Ruan in the back and fell to the floor at his feet. “Well, thanks.” He shoved his legs into the pants. They weren’t a perfect fit, but Ruan could look like GQ Paranormal Magazine material in a garbage bag.

Eve dressed in a hurry. She needed to get out of there. The room was stifling. The air, hot and stagnant, clung to the back of her throat. The warmth humming through her body was getting stronger by the second and she figured it had everything to do with the anger flowing off Ruan in heated waves. “When you’re not so angry and want to talk about tonight, let me know. I’ll be waiting for you at home.”

“Wait, you’re leaving?” He zipped up. “Now?”

She didn’t count on meeting him here tonight. She had things on her to-do list that couldn’t be shoved aside, starting with figuring out who’d sent her mother’s necklace, how they’d gotten their hands on it, and why they’d sent it to her now. Not to mention, she still had to figure out what was going on with the amulet and why she couldn’t take the darn thing off.

Eve opened the office door, ready to leave him standing in a sinking pit of his own negativity, when he gripped her around the waist and spun her around. Her hands fell into place on his shoulders. There was a hardness to his jaw, his shoulders, his chest. His eyes, though . . . they showed the tender soul beneath his hardened exterior.

What was going on with him? Why wouldn’t he let her in?
They could work on whatever problems he was having together.

“How’d you know where to find these clothes?” His voice was low and soft. A gravelly song called Apology—music to her ears. “You’ve been coming to ReVamp a lot longer than I gave you credit for, haven’t you?”

She nodded. “Awhile.” She was about to pile a heaping serving of honesty on his shoulders. “Long enough to know where Dylan and Slade keep their extra supplies, no matter what that might be. Years.”

“Years?” Eyebrows hitching, he raked his fingers through his hair. A curtain of blonde fell over his left eye. “How long is it going to take before you feel like you’ve done enough?”

When she stared at him, crossing her arms, he brushed her shoulders. “I mean, you’ve been donating so long . . . when is the debt going to be paid?”

“I don’t know if it ever will.”

Sighing, Ruan eyed her neck, then trailed his fingers over her skin where his fangs had pulled at her. “I can’t bear to hurt you like this.”

“And I told you,” she said tightly, “that I love you too much to let you torture yourself the way you are.”

“You could die from a vampire bite, you know.” His eyes turned cold. “You’re playing with fire asking me to drink from you like this. You could die if I take too much.”

She smiled. “If I die tomorrow it will be because I loved you too deeply, because my heart burst from the pressure of my love for you. Not because of any bite you’re going to inflict on me.”

“I’ve heard that before.” He started to smile, most likely remembering the time she’d uttered those words when he bit her thigh, then stopped short of a full knock-out grin only he could pull off.

“Yeah, it was what I said to you the last time you freaked out about biting me.”

“No.” He scrubbed his head. “Somewhere before that. It feels like I’ve heard you speak those words to me my whole life. Never mind, that doesn’t make sense. All I know is this has to stop. No matter what you think you need,
this
,” he indicated, swirling his fingers between them, “can’t happen again.”

He couldn’t be serious. She cupped his strong, square jaw in her hands. “What aren’t you telling me? Why can’t you be with me the way you want to be? The way I need you to be?”

He sighed, like he wanted to tell her, but couldn’t. Or wouldn’t.

Eve wiped a trickle of blood off the base of her neck and brought it to her lips. “If this is what you like, I can do it for you again. I don’t mind.”

“Don’t say that.” As Ruan looked away, Eve watched his jaw pulse. “I shouldn’t have gotten so carried away. And you shouldn’t either.”

“You shouldn’t tell me what I can and can’t do.” She licked her fingers, swirling her tongue around the tips for dramatic effect. Her blood was warm and bitter and clung to the corners of her mouth. But to her surprise, she wasn’t entirely grossed out. It wasn’t something she wanted to add to her diet, but if it turned Ruan on, she’d taste it again in a snap.

When Ruan realized she wasn’t going to stop licking her fingers until he noticed, he sighed. “Please, Eve. Not now.”

She nodded, knowing there’d be another time and another place to please him the way he needed. “Later then.” Grabbing a tissue from the box on his desk, she wiped herself clean.

“I’ve never seen this before,” Ruan said, as Eve leaned around him to toss the tissue in the garbage. His gaze honed in on the silver chain dangling from her neck.

“It was my mother’s.”

He held it up, turning it over, examining the swirling specks of silver and black in the amulet. He blew a single gust of air through his lips like he couldn’t believe the magnitude of it. “It suits you. Where’d you find it?”

“I didn’t. Someone mailed it to me yesterday. I didn’t get it until this morning when my new CBU assistant picked it up for me.”

Nodding, Ruan slid his finger over the larger of two raven-black gems, searching its depth. “When you say someone mailed it to you, you mean a family member or something?”

“I don’t have a clue. There was no return address. No letter with it. The weird part is that I thought I’d lost it after my mother died. After the attack . . . well, I kind of lost track of it. Of everything, really. I was planning on calling the lawyer’s office that controlled her estate once I left here, to see if they somehow got their hands on it, but then you showed up and diverted my attention.”

He growled, low and throaty, sizing her up with his smoky emerald eyes.

Eve laughed. “Exactly.”

“Sounds easy enough to figure out what’s going on,” he said, toning down his primal instincts. “All you gotta do is call the family member she left the amulet to and figure out why they wanted you to have it.”

“Yeah, that would be easy if I had any other family members, but I don’t. It was just me and my mom.”

Ruan’s eyes burned bright, the way they always did when his wheels were turning. “Well someone has had it all these years and there’s a reason they wanted you to have it now. We just have to figure out who.” He spread an open arm to the door leading back to the lab and wrapped the other around her waist. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

She didn’t budge. “You told me you had a training session tonight.”

“Shit.” He checked the clock on the wall. “I forgot. I’m gonna be late.”

She rose up on tiptoe and kissed him on the cheek. His skin was coarse; overdue for its date with a razor. “Well that’s the good thing about being the trainer instead of the trainee. You get to break the rules.”

He glanced down, meeting her gaze. Hunger glazed his eyes over. She realized he hadn’t feed nearly enough. Eve had the feeling he wouldn’t finish if she asked him to, either. Especially not after what happened moments ago.

Baby steps,
she reminded herself.
Baby steps.

“Want me to wait up for you tonight?” she asked, stroking the wide span of his back.

He arched to the side like a cat enjoying a scratch. “Sounds great, but . . .” His eyes shifted. He backed away from her touch. “I don’t know how late I’ll be and you really should get some sleep. How ‘bout you just plan on seeing me in the morning.”

Her lips twisted into a pinch. She’d hoped they could continue what they’d started here. Maybe both of them would finish this time. “Fine. Whatever you want.”

“Yeah,” he mumbled, walking into the lab. “That’s the problem.”