Love Bites

“I don’t know why I can’t let her go,” Luke muttered. Still not moving.

I do. Kellan resumed his stroll around the back of the car. Sydney had waited long enough. “Trust me, banging Sydney will wipe all thoughts of that virginal librarian from your mind.”

“I just don’t know.”

Luke might not have realized it, but his refusals were all the proof Kellan needed that Emily was indeed his lifelong friend’s true mate. Normally, vampires were hornier than rutting dogs. Morality wasn’t part of the equation when the fever was upon them, except after they’d found their physiological mate. Then they became almost indifferent when the subject of another female was mentioned.

Almost being the operative word. Male vampires were still men, after all. Occasionally a pretty female managed to get a bonded vamp’s attention, but she couldn’t hold it. That was the vital difference.

A vampire discovered his fated lover as he discovered many things—through scent. The vagaries of desire could always be discounted, but the potency of blood pheromones could not. Emily had already been put through the scratch-and-sniff test, thanks to her own butterfingered attempt to open a sealed envelope. Instead, she’d slashed her own wrist, and Lucas, one of many in the crowd at her lecture, had to be restrained by Kellan to keep from leaping on her at the podium. Thank God Kellan had chosen to go with him that night—TV offered nothing but reruns—or else their whole existence would’ve been in danger.

Luke couldn’t be blamed for his reaction, either. Most blood was alluring to vampires. But the blood of a mate was the sweetest nectar, almost physically impossible to resist. Or so Kellan had learned at Emily’s lecture. How else would he have heard about the disturbing new trend of youngsters wanting to go vamp? Probably due to all the hype over that series of sparkly vampire movies. Blasted authors thinking they had a right to fictionalize and embellish real life.

Glittering skin. How ridiculous.

Whatever the cause, some vamp groupies had discovered they could alter their blood with drugs to fool new vampires into bringing them into their society for real. Now even mating wasn’t as simple as it onc

e had been. Because these newfangled drugs temporarily altered the blood chemistry of both human and vamp, how could a vampire trust any female he came upon wasn’t amped up on some blood juice meant to trick him?

But that wasn’t the case with Emily. She didn’t even believe in the existence of vampires, though she enjoyed propogating their lore as if they were some fairy tale. There was virtually no chance she’d imbibed a street drug to tempt a man she didn’t find worth her time. She and Lucas were likely the real thing.

Kellan’s mouth curled as he stared hard at Sydney’s car. And no, he wasn’t the least bit bitter.

“I’m just not certain I should—”

“Enough. You in or out?” Kellan lifted his hand to the door. Already his cock was so hard that walking was difficult. He’d endured more than enough talking for one night. “You’ve got ten seconds and then the offer’s off the table. Go find some smoky pub to drown your sorrows in while Sydney and I are enjoying each other.”

“Fine.” Luke nodded, though he made no effort to lose his dour expression. “I’ll have sex with her.”

“I’m sure she’ll be thrilled.” Kellan yanked open the passenger door. His irritation at Lucas caused him to forget to check his strength, and he damn near pulled the thing off the hinges.

Sydney blinked up at him, her dark eyes gleaming in the shadowy recesses of the car. “You guys took awhile.” Her pouty mouth drew down in a frown. “Something wrong?”

Thank God they’d been speaking below her range of hearing. “Of course not.” Kellan directed a narrow-eyed look at the back seat as he and Lucas entered the car. The doors thunked shut behind them. “My friend was just having some trouble with his zipper.”

Her eyes widened. “And you had to help him with it?”

The mere possibility of what she was suggesting made Kellan’s jaw tighten until his teeth ground together. “Absolutely not. He’s on his own.”

“Oh, well then—”

He didn’t give her time to finish the statement. Kellan slid across the seat, barely aware of the console’s hard nudge into his thigh. His only concern at the moment was seeing if Sydney’s mouth was as luscious as it looked.

He gripped her chin in one hand, his gaze locking on hers as his mouth closed the distance between them. Sydney’s lips parted at the first sweep of his tongue. She tasted innocent and sugary, like butterscotch candy, but the way her hands traveled down his torso spoke of experience. No virgin here.

He hated virgins. The last thing he had time for was wooing and sweet words. Maybe he didn’t debase women by referring to their tits in normal conversation, but he was all about ixnaying the talk in favor of screwing. From the insistent pressure of her mouth on his, Sydney seemed to agree.

He helped her tug his T-shirt from the waistband of his jeans and groaned when her hands met his bare flesh. God, it had been weeks since he’d been with a woman, which equaled approximately ten-point-six in human years. Maybe more. Her touch was as heavenly as the cooling aloe he’d slathered all over himself after that nasty incident on the beach in Charleston. But even as he reveled in the feeling, he needed more.

Once again she seemed to read his mind and rolled up her own T-shirt, revealing full breasts that nearly overflowed their puny constraints. Two flicks of his fingertips on the clasp between them and they swung free, their light brown tips pebbled and ready to be sucked.

Her moan shattered the stillness as he took one erect peak between his lips. He’d forgotten all about his friend the moment he’d kissed Sydney, but now he caught sight of Lucas’s white-blond hair out of the corner of his eye. His companion had moved forward to bury his hands in her thick locks. While Kellan watched, never ceasing his ministrations on her breast, Luke bent forward to sample Sydney’s swollen mouth.

A strange sense of possession filled Kellan. She was his. Why had he thought this was such a good idea?

He drew more strongly on Sydney’s nipple, savoring the pulse of blood beneath his lips and tongue. It would be so easy to bite, though he fought to keep his fangs from extending. The urge was pure instinct and resisting took most of his reserves, especially when his frenzied suckling only made her more crazed. Her blood would taste as sweet as her mouth. Sweeter. And he could sip from her, swallow her until their essences mingled in his bloodstream, then wipe her mind before she summoned the strength to scream.

But what he could do and what he should were two different things. This would just be sex. Only sex.