Tall, Dark & Heartless (Pyte/Sentinel 3)

"Take control," she repeated slowly, taking a deep breath and releasing it as she forced her mind away from what he was doing and what she felt. She used the techniques her doctor showed her to escape the pain when the cancer medication didn't work. Although it didn't completely take away her pain, it did help to make it tolerable.

She evened out her breathing and focused her eyes on the wall, noting that it was tinted in shades of red, but slowly, ever so slowly the red began to fade until the wall became a light green. "I did it!" she said excitedly, barely aware of what Caine was doing behind her.

"Good," Caine said approvingly as he released her h*ps walked around her until he was once again in front of her. "Now let's see if you can maintain that control," he said as he reached out and ran the pad of his finger around her right nipple and just like that her eyes burned as everything once again went red.

He chuckled as if her lack of control amused him and of course it pissed her off. Her jaw clenched tightly almost to the point of pain as she struggled to force her mind away from his touch, her body's reaction and the need to make him eat his words. Slowly, the red began to fade away as Caine continued to circle her nipple almost lazily.

"Very good," he murmured just before he flicked her nipple, turning her vision into dark shades of red and pissing her off with that smug little smile of his.

"Try harder, Danni. You need to control it," he said, giving her nipple a slight pinch that had her knees shaking before moving on to the next one.

"I am trying," she gritted out.

"Not very hard," he mused as his other hand joined the party.

She licked her lips as she fought against the urge to melt into him. She ignored how good his touch felt as she once against focused on controlling her body. She looked over his shoulder at the wall, but that was no longer helping so instead she focused on the tattoo trailing up his neck and along his jaw.

It took a little longer to ignore the way he teased and caressed her ni**les, but somehow she managed. This time she held her control for several minutes and even when he moved his hands to cup and caress her br**sts she didn't lose control.

"Very good," he murmured, leaning forward and taking one of her ni**les into his mouth, suckling it gently as he traced the swollen tip with his tongue.

As she reached up and gripped his shoulders to steady herself her gaze flickered red. She licked her lips as she struggled not to close her eyes and focused on the top of his head as he drove her out of her mind, but still she held on. Eventually her eyesight returned to normal and when it did she couldn't help but smile and release a little moan of pleasure.

With one last lick he released her nipple and stood up, keeping his hands right where she wanted them. "Good," he said approvingly as he continued to caress her br**sts.

"Can you drop your fangs now?" he asked in a bored tone as he looked down to watch what he was doing.

"You haven't explained how to do that yet," she reminded him as she willed one of his hands to move lower to another place that needed him.

"It's all about focus, Danni. Focus on everything you're feeling, your wants, needs and desires. Then step back and allow the change," he said, sounding as if he was in a trance as he watched his hands mold her br**sts.

She blew out a breath as she tried to do just that. When nothing happened after a minute she started to become frustrated and he must have sensed it.

"Just focus on what I'm doing, baby, and what you want me to do," he said, but that didn't seem to help. She'd fought too hard to get control and now he was asking for the impossible, for her to just let it go.

"Hmm, I guess we'll have to approach this in a different way," he murmured as he allowed his hands to drop away. He walked over to an overstuffed chair and sat down, uncaring that he was na**d or had the biggest erection she'd ever seen as he got comfortable.

"You notice that my eyes aren't red, don't you, Danni?"

"Yes," she said, still struggling to drop her fangs. Why the hell couldn't she do this?

"That's because I'm in control. It took a long time, but now I don't react unless I want to, something you need to master," he explained as he looked her over and still his eyes remained a beautiful grey steel even as his c**k jerked in approval.

"That's not exactly helpful at the moment, Caine. Give me something I can work with here," she said, forcing herself not to panic. She hated having a weakness, any weakness and the man knew that.

He cocked his head in an assessing manner. "Think of all the women I'm going to f**k after this," he said crudely and God help her if that didn't get her eyes burning and her fangs dropping in an instant.

Caine grinned smugly as if her reaction to that little announcement somehow amused him. She couldn't hide the fact that it made her want kill any woman who so much as glanced his way. This was crazy and she knew that, but she couldn't help it.

"Like I said, baby, it's all about control and you don't have it," he said tauntingly.

"Oh?" she said, forcing herself to focus as she ran her tongue over her teeth and had to stop herself from doing a victory dance then and there when they slid back up, "and you do?"

He met her gaze dead on. "Absolutely."

Maybe it was time to make him lose that control, she thought, biting back a smile. "I bet I could make you lose it."

"There's nothing you could do to make me lose control, Danni. Nothing," he said, sounding so damn sure of himself that she almost believed him, almost.

Chapter 31

"Oh God," Danni said, gasping as she pulled the bag away from her mouth for what was probably the fifth or sixth time. After making her little announcement, she gave him a smug little smile as she returned her attention to eating, or rather in this case, drinking. Once she bit into the bag and took her first pull on the cold blood her smug little smile was replaced by a rather amusing expression of shock and disgust.

"I can't do this," she mumbled to him or herself, he didn't care.

"Yes, you can," he said, placing his hands over hers and pushing the bag of blood that she'd barely put a dent into back towards her face.

She stubbornly shook her head even as her face squished up adorably. "I really don't think I can, Caine. M-maybe there's a vegan alternative out there somewhere for Pytes. Maybe fruit juice, milk shakes, or hell, I'd even be willing to try wheat grass," she said in a rush as he forced the bag closer to her mouth.

"Just try a little more. You'll like it," he lied, knowing that there really was no other choice. He couldn't very well have her attacking every human they came in contact with and if she didn't learn to feed from the bag that's exactly what she'd end up doing as they made their way to Washington.