A Mermaid's Ransom (Daughters of Arianne 3)

ly, it is very difficult to kill a vampire's servant."

"Your mother didn't tell you much about servants."

"She told me some things." Dante considered that. "But some things she put in my mind had no relevance to my life there. They made no sense to me, so I just pushed them away. The seawitch said it is a bond that cannot be broken."

As he took a step toward her, she curled a hand in the excess fabric of the sleep shirt. "I was hoping to be dressed when you saw me," she repeated lamely.

His clothes didn't make him less overwhelming, she realized. Nothing human was this magnificently gorgeous, vibrating with power the way he did. Or maybe it was that when he looked at her like this, her body liquefied, making it hard to--

His arm shot out, slid around her waist, catching her to him before she buckled. As she laid her head on his chest, his head bent over hers, his lips nuzzling her hair. His palm flattened, his fingers spreading as he held her tightly against him. "I shouldn't do this," she whispered. "I'm supposed to help you. It would be best if we tried to not--"

He tilted her head up, his thumb pressed under her jaw, close to her pulse. "Now that your body has accepted the mark, my blood is no longer a poison to you. Nourishment and rest will help you recover, but if you wish your energy to return sooner, it will help the most with this weakness."

She remembered that swirling feeling when he'd given her the third mark, as if their souls were being wound together irrevocably. Now she knew they had been. She wasn't sure how she felt about that, but her current reaction was getting much clearer. He held her so close, her breasts were pressed into his chest, and there was nothing under the sleep shirt. Of course, when she had the thought, he had it, too. The hand not around her waist dipped, slid beneath the hem, and found the bare curve of her buttock. In her human form, they could come together face-to-face for the first time, his body stretched out on hers, weight pinning her down, spreading her open and burrowing deep.

He lifted her almost before the thought was completed, and took her back to the bed. As he laid her down, she reached up to his face. He caught her wrist, his face questioning, but she merely stretched out her fingers, asking without words. Slowly, he released her, let her lay her hand on his jaw, slide her fingers up into his hair. Her thumb found his mouth, the tip of a fang, the give of a sensual lip.

"I missed you," she whispered.

There was no reason for her to pretend otherwise. It was how she felt, no matter how insane it sounded, and he could read her mind anyway. With her abilities, she'd learned early that hiding feelings didn't negate their existence, and in fact often just made them worse. Whatever was going to happen was going to happen. If destiny determined that Dante would break her heart into pieces, he would.

"I've never done it like this." His brow furrowed. "In fact, until you, I've never done this with anything but a Dark One."

Lex bit her bottom lip as he slid his hand further under the shirt and found her breast, tracing the curve, making the nipple ache. "You're very good at it, for someone who's never done it."

"My mother's memories were very vivid in places. She did this often, and she had detailed memories of her best lovers. The things they would do to her."

"You know, some people might find it a little revolting to see their parents . . . you know. Oh . . ." She whispered it, emitting a tiny moan as he found the nipple, then dipped his head and suckled her through cloth. But I'm not complaining. Oh, Goddess.

She clutched at him, slipping her thumb beneath the waistband of his jeans, her fingers curling and holding on as she lifted her hips to him, rubbed against his turgid length, straining against the denim.

Nervous talking was done. She needed him inside with such a desire she could barely speak. When he opened the jeans, pushed them down his hips with her help to get them out of the way, her fingers clawed at his muscular flesh. He came down on her body, pressing her into the mattress, himself between her legs. Catching her hands in one of his, he stretched her arms over her head, tilting her upper body to him. Even as he restrained her, he continued to suckle her through the cotton, one nipple then the other, as she thrashed and rolled against him. The blood in her temples was pounding, her stomach starting to roil. She was going to be too weak for this, damn it.

He released her hands then, cupping her head to bring her to his throat. Bite hard, Alexis. Use your canines.

I'll hurt you.

I welcome pain from you. Bite me now. You will hurt me more if you hesitate and do not bite me as hard as you can.

Because she inhaled his flesh, and it made her mouth water, she obeyed. He let out a growl as blood filled her mouth. Just as in his world, she was amazed at the taste of it, and wondered if having the marks was what made his blood so appetizing. She drank deep, sensing the strength in the nectar he was offering her, and her body's response rebounded. She had her legs wrapped over his back, working herself against him in mindless, untutored need. When he freed her from his throat with a finger eased into her mouth, she latched onto that, imagining doing it to another part of his body. With an oath, he slid deep inside of her. She cried out, but opened up further to him, tilting instinctively to take him deep.

From Clara and romance books she'd sighed over, she remembered foreplay descriptions, of drawing out lazy need until it was desperate yearning. Goddess, being around her parents was like being in the front seat of one long foreplay session. But this . . . she had no patience for anything but his cock filling her, completing her, joining them. Perhaps Anna was right, that his growing agitation at their separation, his influence on the marks, did this, but she rejected that because she didn't want it to be chemical. Whatever the reason was, though, it was undeniable.

Seizing her behind the neck and pulling his hand away, he kissed her, plundering her mouth with ruthless, demanding force. She writhed beneath him, begging for movement, and he answered, beginning to thrust with a force that brought a guttural moan of pleasure from her with every impact.

She could get pregnant. It was a fleeting thought, but the idea of his child growing inside of her only inflamed her in a shocking way, for she saw it as further proof of their connection, of the bond between them.

He stopped, framing her face in his hands. The roaring fire in his eyes was so close, searching her face. That tangled confusion of emotions again, and then he renewed his pleasurable assault.

She was close to climax, but she struggled to hold back, to wait for him. He was having none of it. "Come for me," he whispered, and she was lost, screaming out her orgasm into his mouth as he held her, pumping even harder so she was driven deeper into the mattress. The headboard hit the wall with a force guaranteeing broken drywall. Her cry broke into a series of notes, shrill to pleading, waves of sensation buffeting her and stealing every worry she had.

Thank the Goddess, it took a while for those waves to stop pounding, to become gentle surf that deposited her weak body on the shore of her present reality. Even then she was slow to orient herself, for he was still moving inside of her, and the friction detonated aftershocks such that she continued to cling to his broad shoulders, tease his skin under her lips, savor the lingering taste of his blood in her mouth.

While her tissues were still vibrating, he pulled out. Before she could protest the loss, he brought her off the bed, and pushed her to her knees before him.

"Take me in your mouth as you wished, in your mind," he ordered.

Though she'd never done it before, she drew him in eagerly, her body still jerking with the aftermath of her climax as his hand fisted in her hair, driving her down on him. Oh, Goddess. She wasn't sure why she'd wanted this so much, but she had. She moved over him the way he'd moved in her, following instinct and his reaction to tell her the right way of it. As his hand spasmed in her hair, she reveled in his grunts and the tremors through his legs, telling her how close he was getting. Her own response leaked on her calves. She was torn between wanting him to come this way, and having him come inside her, that hot,

searing fire branding her, dispelling the emptiness his absence had created.

This was madness. They knew nothing of each other, but could not get enough of one another, a kinetic spell gone awry. Pulling free, he took her down on the floor, sliding back inside her.

It is what I wish, too. I want you all ways at the same time, in the same moment.

Closing her eyes, she pressed her face into his throat as the thought splintered and was replaced by white-hot pleasure when he released. His arms locked around her, and she reveled in his strength, the feel of him all around her.

She hoped this was the way this was supposed to feel, this reckless speed and heat, the inability to think. Otherwise, she was allowing a situation to spin out of control that needed to be kept under a very tight rein, for his sake as well as everyone else's.

Fifteen

AFTERWARD, he followed her to the bathroom, apparently wanting to watch how she prepared herself for her day. She politely asked to be excused, but when she began to close the bathroom door, he caught it.

"I want to see you," he said, his jaw set.

Alexis planted her feet, but it was more likely the wood would splinter than his grip would loosen. Vampire and Dark One strength combined made him far stronger than even vampire lore suggested. Since he'd gone toe-to-toe with her father and three angels, it was a reasonable assumption. But if that was the case, it meant he'd held himself back during their lovemaking when he could have bruised her far more.

"You can. In a minute. In this world, we don't do this in front of one another. As courtesy." She narrowed her gaze as he refused to move his arm. "I am not going to disappear. The sooner you let me do this, the sooner I'll open the door and you can watch me get dressed. You kept the Dark Ones out of your chamber when you didn't want them around."

"You do not want me around."

Her response to that was instant, reaching up to touch his suspicious expression. "You know I do. I just don't want you around for this. If we're going to make this work, you're going to have to trust me when I tell you things about this world, all right?"