Lure of the Blood Page 4

  “I love how responsive you are, chere, how beautiful,” and with one swift move he settled her on his lap, her long legs either side of his hips, holding her just above his cock. ”Are you ready for me?”

  His eyes searched hers and his heart soared at what he saw in the chestnut-coloured depths, before she buried her face into his shoulder and the sharp nip of her small teeth broke the last of his restraint.

  ****

  Marnie could hardly breathe at the sensation of him inside her and he gave her no time to adjust, before thrusting deeper. His hands on her hips, guiding her, setting a ruthless pace; every slide of his cool, hard penis inside her sent her further into sensual oblivion, opening her wider as his movements grew faster still, until all she could do was hold onto his big shoulders. The water sloshed around them, his grunts in her ear interspersed with French words she didn’t understand. Pressure built higher and stronger inside her, his hands seemingly everywhere at once, pushing her body further and further towards that brink, until she couldn’t tell where she ended and he began.

  She whimpered her need into his shoulder and a change of position brought with it the first of her orgasms, which made her bite hard into his flesh to mask her scream, yet still he kept going, pushing her over that edge time and again until she thought she was going to pass out from sheer pleasure.

  “Please, Lucas, I can’t…” her whispered protest was cut off with a ruthless kiss, his fangs scraping her tongue. A new kind of excitement built deep inside her, when he broke the kiss and slid his mouth down to the sensitive skin of her neck. One hand in her hair angled her head for better access, as he went still inside her, the other hand finding her clit and exerting gentle pressure with slow maddening strokes, designed to drive her once again wild with need.

  “Lucas, please…”

  Their bodies shook with need and still he did not move, his eyes searching hers with a silent question. At her whispered “Yes,” he sank his fangs into her neck, his low growl, coupled with one last forceful thrust deep inside her, sending her body into oblivion. Heat flowed from her neck through her veins and down her body, until it all centred in her clitoris, her whole body contracting around him, pleasure surging through her with every beat of her heart, the water turning red around them.

  She was dimly aware of his own growled release, before darkness claimed her.

  Chapter Six

  Marnie woke up alone in the middle of a huge bed, satin sheets sliding over her sensitive skin, causing her whole body to tingle with sensual awareness. Her hand went to her neck as memories of the most erotic dream she’d ever had invaded her mind and she froze at the soreness there. Oh, good lord. It hadn’t been a dream? The eerie howling that carried on the night breeze through the open windows brought the reality of her situation back with frightening clarity and she froze, taking in the naked man standing with his back to her.

  She took a moment to appreciate the view in front of her before Lucas turned around slowly, his eyes connecting with hers and she stopped breathing.

  The howling sounded closer this time and broke the spell between them, as she jumped, her eyes darting to the open French windows.

  “Relax, mon chere. They’ll be hunting all night.”

  He had moved closer whilst talking and the bed dipped next to her, his hand slowly lifting her hair away from her neck. She couldn’t stop the involuntary moan escaping.

  “Not too sore, I hope?”

  She shook her head in response and he chuckled at her whispered question of “I’m not dead, then?”

  “If you are, you’re the most beautiful and vibrant corpse I’ve ever seen.”

  “That’s not funny…”

  “I wasn’t joking, chere. In fact, I was beginning to wonder. How are you feeling?”

  The sudden intensity in his hypnotic eyes send a shiver of unease down her spine and she pushed away from him, bringing her knees up to her chest. Come to think of it she did feel bone-weary, and shifting away reminded her how sore she was in her nether regions.

  Lucas’s expression became closed off when she shrunk away from his touch. With movements too quick for her human eye to process, he bit into his hand and held it towards her.

  “Drink. It’ll help.”

  Bile rose in her throat instantly, remembering the last time he had forced her to drink his blood and her shrill voice bounced round the quiet room.

  “No, I don’t want to.”

  He moved closer, his smile hypnotic and compelling. Marnie found herself leaning in to him as though held by a strange sort of spell, as her bones felt liquid and her heartbeat slowed. The loud howl right below the window made Lucas’s hand clamp down on her mouth, the spell broken instantly. They sat very still, listening to the sounds of rustling and scratching, which eventually moved away.

  The French curse mumbled into her neck, and the barely-controlled violence she sensed in the man crawling to the window to stare across the night sky, his hands formed into claws, made her swallow nervously. Another memory stirred, clambering to raise itself out of the darkest recesses of her brain. Perspiration broke out across her top lip, as she screwed up her nose in concentration, but it was useless. All she achieved was giving herself the beginnings of a migraine, the tell-tale throbbing at her temples making her feel sick and exhausted.

  “Here, at least have something to drink and eat. I’m afraid I was a bit hard on you. I’m sorry, mon chere. I’ll be gentler next time.” Lucas was next to her again, his face worried, a large pitcher of glass in one hand and a platter of cold chicken and salad in the other.

  She couldn’t look at him as heat rose in her cheeks, remembering exactly what she had let him to do to her. She grabbed the water, gulping it down like a woman drowning.

  “Easy, chere. Easy. You don’t want to make yourself sick.”

  His low voice washed over her, soothing and arousing at the same time. Mortification at her traitorous body rose anew, her gut churning as the smell of chicken assaulted her nose and she slapped the hand offering the chicken leg away. “I...I can’t. Please, just leave.”

  The cool hand in her hair made her shiver with fright, a vision of Ion’s face swimming in front of her eyes. God, what was she doing? Pushing against the granite-like chest in front of her achieved absolutely nothing and she growled in frustration at her weakness.

  “You need to leave, don’t you see? You can’t be here. He’ll kill you, and me probably, if he finds out you’ve been here. Oh, God, we should never have…what was I thinking? This isn’t me. I don’t do things like this…I don’t even know you.”

  Lucas’s amused chuckle vibrated through her. “Au contraire, mon chere, I would say you know me very well indeed after that bath. And I’m not afraid of a little wolf.”

  “Then you’re a fool!”

  The whole bed shook with the force of his belly laugh and Marnie could only stare up at him in wonder.

  “Chere, really it’s very sweet of you to worry, but I’m over three thousand years old. Do you really think a little pack of shifters is going to be able to put me down? Besides, I’m a friend of the pack. It’s how I got here so easily.”

  “You’re how old?” Marnie could not have heard him right; he did not look a day over thirty-five, if that.

  His eyes grew thoughtful as he studied her. “My age isn’t really important here. The point is, no wolf is going to put me down, especially when I’m this well fed.”

  The coldness of that last statement seeped into her bones and she bit back the bile in her mouth.

  “Well fed? So, this is all I am to you? Fast food?”

  “Chere, that’s not what I meant. You misunderstand me.” Lucas’s immediate denial, coupled with a disarming smile as he tried to reach for her, made her slap his face. The sound was loud and violent in the stilled room.

  “Do that again and you’ll regret it!” he growled.

  “Get out, NOW.” Adrenaline made her move fast and she managed to scramble away off the b
ed, dragging the sheet with her. But before she could head out onto the balcony, he was on top of her, spinning her around and crowding her against the wall. He blocked her raised knee with a small laugh and a shake of his head. The soft click of his fangs descending made her screw her eyes shut, whilst still desperately struggling to free herself of his grip. She froze at the scrape of his teeth against her neck, tears falling freely now, her denial an agonised whisper. “Please, no.”

  He released her so abruptly she slid to the floor, dimly aware of the blur of air, before he pulled her back to her feet. He was dressed; his expression, murderous.

  “I told you I would never hurt you. I meant it. If all you were to me were some convenient feeding tool, I would hardly have had to come all this way. Trust me, chere, I am not short of willing females only too eager to share their body and quench my thirst.” One hand grasped her chin in a firm grip, forcing her to look up at him whilst he was talking. Marnie’s fear levels increased a thousand fold at the deadly expression in his usually oh-so-compelling eyes. “Are you listening to me, Marnie? This is what I am; it’s what I do. It’s how I survive. If you can’t deal with that, then maybe you are better off with our furry friend.”

  “At least he doesn’t need me to feed on.”

  The cold laugh chilled her further.

  “Oh no, he’s a regular boy scout our Ion. Wouldn’t hurt a fly. Just changes into a wolf whenever it suits him and hunts little fluffy bunnies.”

  “Don’t––please, don’t. I know he’s a killer. Animal attack, the papers said… I’m not stupid and I may not remember what happened that night, but I know I was there and that man is dead because of me and I can’t be responsible for any more deaths.” He let her go then, his whole body very still, his eyes drawn together.

  “You think it was he who killed that bastard?”

  The odd note in his voice made her look up at him. “Who else would it have been? The man was torn to shreds and drained of …Oh my God!”

  Sheer terror filled her. It hadn’t been Ion, had it…it had been him. The man…thing standing in front of her and watching her as casually as though they were talking about the weather, not the brutal end of another human being. The man she had allowed… She barely made it to the bathroom before being violently sick. No, this couldn’t be real. It just couldn’t.

  When Marnie finally stopped shaking she became aware of the quiet presence behind her. Lucas stood with his arms crossed, leaning against the doorframe watching her through hooded eyes, his features unreadable.

  “Feeling better now after that outburst?”

  “Why? Why would you do that?”

  “The bastard was trying to rape you. Would you rather I’d have let him have his way with you?”

  “Of course not, but you didn’t have to kill him. And you let me believe that Ion…?”

  “Oh, spare me.” His voice dripped with pure contempt as he pushed away from the doorframe. “The wolf will get over the dent in his reputation, I’m sure. What’s really bothering you, chere? The fact that I didn’t declare my undying love and devotion to you after we had sex, or that you were so responsive to a complete stranger?”

  “I… I never…”

  Another harsh laugh made Marnie flinch.

  “Never what, chere? You weren’t a virgin, so don’t act like one and don’t pretend you didn’t enjoy it. We had a connection, you and I––don’t deny it. Maybe we could have had more in time, but you’re just another hypocritical human, unable to deal with what she doesn’t understand. Can’t believe I let myself get sucked into all this crap again. And I wouldn’t hold my torch to Ion either, if I were you. He may want you for sex, but that’s all it’ll ever be. He’s been well and truly cured of any romantic entanglements with humans and if he hasn’t he will be when he sees you in the morning. Think our wolf is going to like it that I got there first?”

  Marnie withdrew into herself, letting the cruel words feed her own anger. How dare he? How dare they both? Forcing herself to stand on her wobbly legs, she faced the vampire head-on, earning herself a grudging look of respect.

  “Have you quite finished? For your information, I am not holding a torch for anyone. Perhaps I allowed myself to be fooled into thinking that what we shared, this connection as you put it, was more than just physical. Well, more fool me. But excuse me for feeling a little freaked out at the thought of werewolves and vampires and god knows what else lurking out there, and your complete disregard for human life. Have three thousand years made you so jaded, that you cannot see how wrong that is? And as for me being hypocritical, I have no idea who hurt you so badly in the past…” His low growl of warning stopped her as his eyes grew colder still, and he looked every inch the ruthless killer.

  “Nobody hurt me, human. I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction. So spare me your psychological mumbo jumbo. I don’t need rescuing.”

  Marnie couldn’t help the stab of pity she felt at the rigid way he was holding himself, his big shoulders slumped, the tension in the room so palpable she could hardly breathe. His next growled words made her eyes widen.

  “This is not getting us anywhere. You’re exhausted and need to sleep. Ion will keep you safe, and if he doesn’t he’ll have me to deal with. But––one thing. Don’t ever refer to him as a werewolf. He’s a shifter, not the stuff of popular fiction and nightmares, but he may act like it if you call him one.”

  “I don’t understand…”

  “Of course you don’t, chere. That’s half the problem; at least you know now, and shouldn’t feel the need to throw yourself in front of a train. Don’t think our furry friend could cope with that again. I sure as fuck couldn’t.”

  And before she could even blink, Lucas was gone, leaving Marnie more confused than ever. Bone-tired, she only just managed to crawl back to bed before passing out again.

  Chapter Seven

  Ion emerged from the edge of the forest as the first rays of sun turned the night sky golden, his body exhausted, muscles screaming; his wolf, for the moment, at peace. Not caring about his naked state, he jogged across the clearing towards the main house. He needed a shower and some sleep and then maybe he would be able to deal with the frightened woman he left behind. The mere thought of Marnie made his wolf growl in appreciation and Ion cursed under his breath. What the fuck did he have to do to shut his beast up for longer than five minutes? The scent, carrying through the flowerbeds Louisa was so proud of, stopped both man and wolf in an instant. Ion crouched low, his head raised to sniff the air. He was under his bedroom window, where Marnie was supposed to be sleeping. Her scent was too weak, completely overshadowed by the dry smell of ancient vampire. Lucas had come then, as he had known

  he would, and left some time ago. So why was Marnie’s scent so weak? One smooth leap carried him effortlessly across the flowerbed, another one saw him crouch on the balcony, all his senses on high alert. He could just about see her bare back atop the bed. Ignoring his wolf’s low growls, he proceeded cautiously into the dim interior.

  Marnie was lying on her side, the sheet barely covering the essentials, one rosy nipple standing proud in the chilly morning air. Ion ground his teeth at the angry, red puncture marks just above her areola. Damn Lucas to hell and back. Of course he wouldn’t have been satisfied with just healing her; he had to have it all. The barely noticeable rise and fall of her now unblemished ribs did little to reassure the anxious yipping of his wolf, and he forced himself to step around the bed, better to see her face. Bile churned in his gut at the sight that greeted him. She was too pale, her luscious mass of hair spread out over his pillow a stark contrast to her pallor, dark purple smudges under her eyes testament to a hard night of… fuck. He shouldn’t have left her. He never should have brought her here, leaving her at the mercy of Lucas. The puncture marks on her neck screamed his guilt at him. Right now he wanted to hunt the vampire down and tear him limb from limb.

  Her soft moan as she stirred in sleep shot straight to his groin, and he cover
ed his nakedness with one of the spare cushions. Her eyes fluttered open. The sleepy expression in those chocolate depths made him harden further, and he couldn’t stop his answering groan. When her eyes slowly focused on his, all his protective instincts kicked in with a vengeance at the instant blush staining her cheeks. Marnie’s slender hand grabbed for the sheet to cover herself. The wince of pain she couldn’t quite stop, as she tried to shift up the bed, had him reaching out to help her.

  “What the fuck has he done to you, little one?”

  She froze in his arms, the slight tremble telling him all he needed to know and he propped her up against the cushions with infinite care, tucking her hair behind her ear, better to see her face. At least her hair smelled like her and he indulged himself for a moment, taking one handful of the soft mass and inhaling deeply.

  “Ion please … Don’t.”

  His wolf’s angry growl made her flinch and he made himself release her. Of course she didn’t want him this close––she made her choice, after all––and wasn’t this what he wanted? Lucas had claimed her; his bite marks on her body a clear signal to his wolf that she was off limits. It was just as well; humans weren’t for him, especially this one. Even now––polluted, by someone he called a friend––she called to him as clearly as though she was wearing his mark. He ground his jaw together, the urge to release his fangs almost overwhelming the self-control he was so proud of.

  However, all that anger evaporated in a puff of smoke when a trembling hand settled on his arm to stop him from leaving. Instead of the contempt he was expecting to see in her face, her expressive eyes shimmered with tears. Her other hand went to cover the bite marks on her neck, silent tears falling down her cheeks as she shook her head.

  “Please don’t look at those. I was such a goddamn fool.”

  A glimmer of hope settled in his chest like a hot poker at those whispered words and his body reacted in typical fashion. Marnie’s eyes widened when she noticed this, her breathing growing shallow. Against his better judgement, Ion had to smile at the ridiculous position they found themselves in. What the hell was he going to do with her? His wolf’s growled suggestions in his ear made his voice gruffer than he intended it to be. “It happens; Lucas can be very persuasive. If he hurt you, I shall hunt him down and…” The silent tears running down her cheeks––her eyes, as wide as saucers––stopped his outburst.