Bound by the Vampire: A Paranormal Romance Novella Page 6

  It was more than bloodlust…it was a need so deep he knew he’d never be free of it again. It was a need that seemed to come from his very soul, if he could’ve laid claim to such a thing.

  But she wasn’t for him. He needed to get the hell out of here, and right now.

  He opened his eyes and froze.

  Celia had woken up, and she was looking right at him.

  Not since he was a human boy of six and the cook had caught him with his hand in the cookie jar had he felt so exposed—or so guilty.

  Chapter Six

  The absinthe haze made everything glow, and Celia felt her body come alive as she stared at Evan.

  It was a dream, of course. One of the most intense things about taking absinthe was the dreams she had afterward, vivid, sensual dreams where she could shed the inhibitions that shackled her when she was awake.

  Before she’d fallen asleep, the absinthe had taken her where she needed to go. She’d been able to travel in spirit to the other realm, and had seen the dark Fae queen talking to the demons she was sending through the portal to the place in the mountains where Liz and Jack and so many of her people were fighting. She watched her and the Fae in her royal court take absinthe, chanting spells much like the ones the earthly Fae would chant on the night of the solstice, but with a difference.

  They called for the two worlds to be joined, for the veils between them to be thinned.

  And after the ritual, they’d talked over their plans. Their plans to overwhelm Earth, slaughtering most of the humans and penning the rest like cattle, to use as breeding stock to strengthen their dying race.

  She’d learned everything she needed to know.

  It had been hard this time for her spirit to return to her body, left cold and almost lifeless on the floor of Evan’s guest bedroom. Hard enough that she knew she shouldn’t take absinthe again for several months. Every time she did her spirit flew more readily from her body, traveling more easily to the other dimension, and returning more reluctantly. She shouldn’t take part in the solstice ritual this year.

  Of course, none of the Fae should. Which meant she didn’t have much time to convince them that she was right.

  She’d come back to life slowly, her body deathly cold. As soon as she was able to move again she’d crawled into the big bed and lay shivering under the covers, knowing sleep would come as soon as she was a little warmer. She’d had a crazy urge to go to Evan, to climb into his even bigger bed and press herself against him.

  That would be sure to get her blood flowing again.

  Not that he’d ever take her up on such an invitation. He wouldn’t even take her blood; there was no way he’d be interested in her body.

  But there was no harm in fantasizing. Maybe she’d even dream about him tonight.

  She realized, suddenly, that she had no desire to dream about her boyfriend. And in that moment of clarity, she knew needed to break up with him. Danny deserved someone who fantasized about him, someone who wanted him with every fiber of her being.

  She tried one more time to think about him the way she thought about Evan. But in the absinthe afterglow, all the shoulds and ought-tos lost their power over her, and she finally gave in and let images of the vampire take over.

  Which is why she wasn’t surprised to find him in her dreams that night.

  He seemed surprised, though. He was staring at her almost apprehensively.

  She held out her hand towards him. “Why are you so far away?”

  Her absinthe dreams were the only time she ever truly felt free. It wasn’t real, after all. There were no shoulds and ought-tos, no self-doubt, no consequences.

  Evan took a step closer, and then another. “Celia,” he said, his voice husky with uncertainty. His eyes were yellow and his fangs gleamed briefly in the moonlight.

  Her body was thrumming with desire. Her blood seemed to flow thick and hot through her veins, and suddenly she couldn’t stand it anymore.

  She rose up onto her knees, holding out both hands now.

  He closed his eyes, and his throat muscles convulsed as he swallowed. “Celia…”

  Why was he hesitating like this? Was it possible that even dream Evan didn’t want her?

  The thought was like a splash of cold water, killing the joyful buzz in her veins.

  She sank back on to the pillows. “It’s okay,” she said hopelessly. “Just…forget it.” Normally she would have been ashamed of the tears leaking out of her eyes, but what did it matter if she cried in her sleep?

  And then Evan was kneeling beside the bed, raising a shaking hand to brush the dampness from her cheeks. “What’s wrong, sweetheart? Please tell me. Whatever it is, I’ll fix it.”

  His eyes were brown again, his fangs retracted. His palm against her skin was rough and cool, and his wonderful scent, like leather and tobacco and incense, filled her nostrils.

  In the safety of her dream, she could let herself feel how much she wanted him. She turned her head and pressed a kiss into the hollow of his palm.

  He went absolutely still. “What are you doing?”

  For a moment her hopelessness returned. But then, suddenly, she was angry. This was her dream, damn it!

  She shrugged away from him, scooting back towards the headboard of the bed. “I’m trying to seduce you. But since I can’t even convince my subconscious that you could actually want me, you might as well go back where you came from.”

  She glared at him defiantly, and for a second he stared back.

  Then, faster than she could take her next breath, Evan was on top of her. His broad chest and his arms on either side of her shoulders made a cage, his hard muscles straining against his black shirt. He thrust a powerful thigh between hers, spreading her legs with impatient force, and his yellow eyes, just inches from hers, were more animal than human. His lips curled back as his fangs burst from his gums.

  At the sound of his low, savage growl, the hairs on the back on her neck stood up.

  Then she felt his erection, long and thick and hard, pushing at her through the layers of his jeans and her pajamas.

  “I don’t know what your subconscious has to do with it, but you’re out of your mind if you think I don’t want you.” He thrust against her center, making her gasp, and she felt heat and moisture flooding her core. “I’m giving you one chance to come to your senses, Celia. One chance to send me away. But you have to do it now.”

  She’d never seen so much power on such a tight leash. Her heart beat wildly, frantically, joyfully.

  “Why would I send you away?” she breathed. “This is what I want.”

  Even then, he hesitated. “You’re sure?”

  She wanted him so much she was trembling, the pounding of her heart making her whole body vibrate. “It’s just one night,” she whispered, wondering why her subconscious was taking so damn long.

  He went still. “One night,” he repeated. His eyes turned human again, and while a part of her missed that fierce animal visage, it was this face, these brown eyes, that she was falling in—

  No. No. Not even in a dream would she think such a thing about a vampire she’d just met, a vampire with a reputation that should strike fear into her heart, not this…other thing.

  But this would be her last absinthe dream for a long time, and she wanted to make the most of it.

  She reached up and traced the harsh planes of his face, and he closed his eyes as he leaned into the caress, clenching his jaw tight.

  “If it’s just one night, we should make it count,” he said roughly. “What do you want from me, Celia? This?” He rubbed his erection against her in slow, deliberate circles, the pressure making her ache with need.

  “Yes,” she gasped, closing her eyes as pleasure drenched her. She arched up against him, pressing her body to his, needing him closer. “I want everything—everything. I want—” She stopped, and then she let herself voice her most forbidden desire. “I want you to bite me.”

  He froze. “Jesus, Celia,” he said, and
she wondered why his voice was shaking. “I…want that too. But if this one night is all we have, I can’t do that.”

  Disappointment flooded through her. “Why not?”

  “Because it might make a bond between us.”

  She opened her eyes and stared at him, bewildered. “But…you drink from women all the time. Do you have a bond with all of them?”

  His nostrils flared. “No.”

  “Then why—”

  “Celia. I’m hanging on by a thread here, love. Stop talking.”

  “But I don’t—”

  He cut her off with a kiss.

  Once Evan’s mouth covered hers, it was impossible to think of anything else. It was impossible to think at all.

  He tasted like darkness, like sin, like hunger. His tongue stroked inside her mouth as he ground his hips against hers.

  She writhed against him, desperate to bring their bodies closer, and Evan broke the kiss and pulled back a few inches, looking down at her with yellow-tinged eyes. “I need to taste you.”

  “But I thought you said—”

  “Not that way, pet. Are you attached to these pajamas?”

  “I—”

  “Good.”

  He gripped the front of her cotton camisole and tore it in two. He looked down at her bare torso, and her nipples hardened under his gaze.

  All at once, his rough urgency transformed into something else. His sudden stillness made her still, too, and she held her breath as he lowered his head to press a kiss against her breastbone. Then he moved his lips softly, softly up the slope of one breast, taking the hard peak in his mouth and running his tongue over and around it, again and again, until she was arching her back to push herself closer. He covered the sensitized skin with his palm as he fastened his mouth on her other breast.

  Celia didn’t realize she’d slid her fingers into Evan’s short brown hair until she heard his low chuckle. “I’m not going anywhere, love.” Then she looked down and saw she was clutching his hair in a death grip.

  Dream or not, she blushed crimson. Then, faster than a heartbeat, Evan rose to his knees above her and used the torn pieces of her camisole to bind her wrists to the slatted headboard.

  She stared up at him, panting, feeling an erotic rush like nothing she’d ever known.

  “Why did you do that?”

  “Because for the first time in my very long life, I feel the urge to tie a woman down.”

  “The first time? But…your club. All those chains and handcuffs and…things.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t use that shit. A lot of vampires do—we can be a possessive lot. But to tell you the truth, pet, I’ve never met a woman I wanted to hang on to that much.”

  He shucked off his jeans and pulled his shirt over his head, and then he was naked. Celia’s eyes went to the erection jutting from his hips, long and thick and hard, and her mouth went dry.

  “But you—” he paused and tugged off her pajama bottoms and panties before straddling her, his knees on either side of her hips, his erection just brushing her center. “Let’s just say I wouldn’t mind chaining you to my bed for a while. But since this is just a one night thing, we’ll settle for this,” he said, looking with satisfaction at her bound wrists.

  “What now?” she whispered, mesmerized by the sight of his big, naked body looming above her.

  “Now?” He smiled slowly, shifting back and pushing her legs apart so he could settle himself between them. “Now, beautiful woman, I’m going to have my way with you.”

  When he lowered his dark head and licked inside her, every nerve in her body ignited.

  Even in her absinthe dreams, nothing had ever felt this good. Between her bound wrists and Evan’s strong hands on her thighs, she was utterly at his mercy.

  And she’d never felt so safe.

  His tongue flickered against her clitoris before delving deep into her channel, stroking her everywhere, until she felt truly well and truly devoured. The pleasure became so intense she tried to pull away, but he only drove her higher, his fingers gripping her hips as she writhed against his hands and mouth. Finally she fell apart, throwing her head back as she cried out. She was still shuddering with aftershocks as Evan rose above her again.

  His eyes were yellow at the edges, his expression fierce. “Are you ready for me?”

  “Yes! Oh, yes—”

  And then, thank God, he sank inside her.

  She couldn’t look away from him as he drove into her again and again. His arms were braced on either side of her shoulders, his muscles rigid, and the look in his eyes was as possessive as the thick erection invading her body with deep, relentless strokes.

  He seemed to know exactly when she was at the brink, because only then did he roar out his release as he emptied himself inside her, the pulse of his body making her climax harder than she ever had in her life.

  After a long, pleasure-drenched moment, Evan reached up with shaking hands to undo her wrists. Then he rolled onto his side and pulled her to him. He cradled her gently, his hand stroking her back as he murmured things into her hair, his voice ragged and indistinct. Celia pressed her cheek against the cool skin of his chest and listened for a heartbeat that wasn’t there, her body boneless and replete, every nerve sated.

  And yet there was still one other thing she wanted to share with him.

  She slid an arm around his neck and whispered into his ear. “Please, Evan—I want you to bite me.”

  He went still for a moment. Then he rolled onto his back, pulling her with him. “I can’t, sweetheart. Not if this night is all we have. Don’t ask me again.”

  “But it’s only a dream,” she said, unwilling to give up. Her longing to feel his fangs in her neck was turning into a primal hunger. “We can do anything we want in a dream. Please, Evan.”

  This time he was still for so long that she rose up on one elbow to look down at him.

  His face was frozen, and she couldn’t read his expression.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  He met her eyes for just a moment. Then he gripped her upper arms lightly, shifting her away from him so she lay on her back. He pulled the covers up, tucking them around her, and then got out of bed. He kept his back to her as he put on his jeans and tee shirt, and only when he was dressed did he turn to look at her again.

  He sat on the edge of the bed, his gaze tracing over her face as if he were learning her by heart. The yellow was gone from his eyes, leaving them fathomless and full of a longing that bewildered her.

  “What is it?” she asked again, reaching up to cup his cheek in her hand.

  He closed his eyes. “Tomorrow morning, when you wake up, you’re going to realize this wasn’t a dream. If you’re smart, you’ll bury that realization down deep. You’ll get up and eat breakfast like tonight never happened. And I promise you I’ll never mention it, never let you know by word or look that I’m thinking of it. And eventually you’ll come to believe it really was a dream.”

  “It is a dream,” she said, utterly certain.

  There was no way any of this would have happened in real life. Men didn’t want her the way Evan had wanted her tonight. They didn’t rip her clothes off and make love to her with that kind of passion. Every boyfriend she’d ever had—not that there were many—had been attracted to her because of her mind, not her body. She didn’t have whatever it took to arouse passion in a human male, much less a vampire.

  “That’s right,” he agreed, leaning over her to press a quick, hard kiss to her lips. “It’s just a dream, Celia. And that’s all it will ever be.”

  He straightened up again and took a few steps back. “Tomorrow we have to talk about what you’re going to do next. How we’re going to save your life, which is a hell of a lot more important than…what didn’t happen between us tonight. In the afternoon, come find me in my office.”

  And with that, he was gone.

  His sudden departure was dreamlike, too, which only reinforced her certainty. So Celia decided
to forget the parts she didn’t understand and think only about the ecstasy that dream-Evan had brought her. She closed her eyes and ran her hands down her body, reliving every passion-filled moment. She fell asleep with a smile on her face.

  Waking up was an entirely different story.

  Chapter Seven

  The first few seconds were lovely. Her body was sore, but in the best possible way. Celia stretched languidly, blinking in the bright sunlight that spilled through the windows.

  Then she noticed that she was naked.

  She hadn’t gone to bed naked.