Bait

Chapter Fifteen

I slipped the red heel back on.

Rurik crossed his arms over his chest with a crooked smile on his face. “Please, don’t let me interrupt.”

A nervous laugh escaped me. My mental shields no longer protected me but I didn’t need them with him. He wouldn’t hurt me. After all the opportunities he’d had to harm me, he never did. Why would he start now? I felt wild and free, like a huge weight lifted from my heart. Rurik did this to me, not the drug. It may have affected my defenses but not my soul.

I undid my pants and let them pool around my ankles. The cuffs were wide enough I needed only to step out of them. I shook my head to send my bouncy, blond curls to fly wild around my face and turned in a lazy circle. His gaze never left mine. It waited for me as we lost contact for a moment when I completed the turn. Full of hunger, he absorbed my presence, but his eyes never wandered lower.

Mine did though.

His body’s reaction under the towel told me he liked what he saw. The crooked smile on his face turned salacious as I advanced toward him.

I ran my fingernails down the sculpted ridges of his chest muscles until they reached the towel and gave a tug so it fell from his hips. It was hard to believe someone so sensuous could be real. That he wanted me.

His hands caressed my shoulders and he pulled me against him. I felt a potent snap of sensual awareness at the feel of his hard length along my stomach. Drips fell from the tips of his wet hair and rolled over his chest to rest on his hardened nipples. They summoned my lips.

I knew of the darkness in Rurik and his potential for ... evil, but I trusted he wouldn’t do it. Use me, feed from me, and kill me even though I stood before him helpless. It was a lot of trust to have. More than I’d ever thought possible.

His chest rose with heavy breaths as my mouth moved lower. I kissed the smooth pale skin to his navel then nipped at the short hairs that grew in a line to more delicate bits.

He nudged my chin with his tip, asking for more attention. Fingers brushed through my hair before I blew a gentle breeze over his hot and needy end. He clenched his hands, entwining my curls in his fingers. I slid my mouth over him. A moan echoed in the silent room. Hard and stiff, I fought to take in as much of him as I could and swallowed him. My instincts cried out something this big shouldn’t be coming down my throat whole but I found if I didn’t struggle I could still breathe.

When my lips felt the solid touch of his base, I knelt lower to change the angle so he could watch as he slid from my mouth. Breathless, I was pleased with the results.

Rurik stared at me with carnal urgency. Maybe I wasn’t as rusty at this as I’d worried. Almost a year and a half had passed since I’d been with a man, almost two since I had a wild one. I bent my face back over him. It was easier to take him in, harder, faster.

His short gasps filled the room and he gave gentle thrusts, trying to hold back so as not to hurt me, while griping my hair. It felt good to have him in my mouth, ripe and firm, to hear him make all those enticing sounds. The skin was so soft and silky as it rolled over my tongue. I took him deeper and concentrated on relaxing my throat so not to choke but it convulsed around him as I reflexively swallowed my saliva.

His breaths were frantic now, making everything from his abdomen to his shoulders move. He stumbled back. “Enough. I don’t want to come this way. Not our first time together.”

On tiptoe, I stretched my body along his torso to come eye to eye with him.

“Connie.” A bare whisper fluttered from his mouth before he crushed his lips to mine. The kiss woke a fierce yearning and sent a shiver of anticipation down my spine.

His hands slid around to my back and with an expert’s grasp he unclasped my bra. The butterflies in my stomach took wing. I gave up to his kiss in sweet surrender and opened my mouth to invite him in. His tongue swiped a sure stroke inside, he left no spot unexplored.

I felt him graze the underside of my breasts as he slid his hands under my bra to cup them. My nipples hardened when his palms brushed over them, he then pinched them between two fingers to twist and pull. A flood of reckless desire flowed from me. I returned his kiss with as much fervor as he gave. I grasped his broad, strong shoulders and jumped to wrap him in my legs. I wanted to be part of him, to be as close as possible, to feel every inch of him.

My action broke our kiss as he caught me. He gave me a shameless grin before he pressed me to the bed and removed my bra, tossing it over his head.

There was no way to describe the intense effect he had on me. He shouldn’t have felt so familiar, as if I’d known him all my life instead of just a few days. I wanted so much for things to work out for us but our worlds fought against each other.

He pushed himself against the thin lace of my panties to remind me only this separated us.

I laughed at the hint and scooted out from under him to crawl further onto the bed.

He chased and trapped me on the pillows. One hand pinned both of mine above my head and the other teased along the edge of my underwear. “I’m not usually a gentle lover, Connie.” His husky voice whispered in my ear. “If I get too rough stop me.”

For a fraction of a second, it seemed as if my heart stopped beating. At the bathhouse he was far from gentle but it had excited me. I stared into his clear honest eyes, with my mental shields useless, I never once felt him reach out to influence my mind. It supported my confidence in him. I knew with an unknown surety he wouldn’t hurt me. Not unless I let him. I nodded. I belonged to him.

With a feral growl he tore the panties from my hips with a sharp tug. They followed my bra through the air. His body pressed along mine and his free hand wrapped itself in my hair. He pulled back to expose the line of my throat where he ran his sharp fangs gently over my increasing pulse.

A heated tremor passed quickly through my groin. I couldn’t believe how much I delighted in this. Being at his mercy and held down for our pleasure. A new me flowered in this experience.

The teeth turned into kisses and I was thankful he’d just fed.

Then he entered me.

I gasped a sharp intake of breath. Things felt tight with disuse but I was wet enough that I didn’t need gentle.

He thrust with an urgent rhythm while I lay pinned. I writhed under him unable to control the greedy passion he elicited from me. My breath came short and quick with each steady plunge. Deeper, harder he drove small cries from me. The pleasure built. It wanted to overwhelm me. I’d forgotten, forgotten how good...

He released my hands and hair. The sudden freedom caused me to open my eyes. It surprised me they’d been closed.

He lifted his weight off me and pulled my hips toward him at a steeper angle lifting my ass off the bed. His pale, blue eyes burned into me with such tormented hunger. At that moment I would have let him do anything he desired to me.

I ran my hands over his hips to clutch his firm behind.

He grasped the headboard of the bed for balance as he continued with his own beat to rouse both of us. The sight of his body pounding into mine was enough to throw me over the edge and make me scream my ecstasy. I felt Rurik give one last hard push before his body spasmed over mine. He kept his grip on the headboard as his head rolled back, eyes closed, as a shudder coursed through him.

My limbs refused to respond. They rested on a tangle of pillows and sheets, too exhausted to listen to me. I couldn’t describe what Rurik and I had done as making love. More like fucking my brains out. It was dynamite. I wanted more but he said I needed to build stamina gradually or I’d regret it once the endorphins wore off.

He was right. I lay in his bed and just breathed.

The drug wore off sometime during the night. I didn’t feel any regrets about my lowered inhibitions, just happy that I’d only taken a drop. My mind felt clear and strong but tired.

The bedroom door swung open, Rurik balanced a tray in one hand as he walked in. He placed it on the wooden chest at the foot of the bed. “Breakfast is served, my lady.” His sweet, sexy smile warmed me.

“It’s the middle of the night.” I groaned as I made a half-hearted attempt to sit up. The silk sheets sat tangled at my feet and I pulled one of the corners to cover myself.

The smell of bacon made my stomach growl.

He chuckled at the sound. “You haven’t eaten today.” He stuffed pillows behind my back and placed the tray across my lap then removed the silver lid covering the meal. A plate of scrambled eggs, bacon and muffins spread before me. The bed listed as he sat on the edge to take the spoon from my hand. He scooped up some eggs and fed it to me.

I couldn’t help smile at the gesture but removed the spoon from his hands, determined to feed myself. The food tasted wonderful. “I didn’t know you could cook.”

His eyebrows shot up as he gave a sharp laugh. “I can’t. The cook made this.” He watched as I took another bite. “Is it good?”

“Give him my complements.” I mumbled around a mouth full. My empty stomach gurgled with joy. “Why would you need a cook?”

He picked at imaginary dirt in his fingernails. “To feed the humans we care for.” Though the words came out in a casual manner, his shoulders tensed and he glanced up once before continuing to examine his perfect manicure.

I took a sip of orange juice to help swallow the muffin caught in my dry throat. Obviously, other vampires lived here but the fact that other humans did surprised, maybe shocked, me.

He placed his hands on his lap and gave me gentle smile.

Anger started to bubble up inside of me. “Are they like cattle?” Even to me, my voice sounded strained.

“No. It’s not like that at all. Not anymore.” His smile grew. “They choose to live with us and in exchange we take care of them, like a family.”

“Families don’t use each other for food.”

He sighed, his smile faded. “You’re being judgmental.” His became stern. “How would you have us live? Hunting the streets at night for victims?” He crossed his arms over his bare chest. “We cherish and care for our humans. In return, they cherish and care for us.”

These heated words justified my cause to prove his innocence even more. “I don’t know what’s right anymore, Rurik.” I shook my head and felt lost. Maybe I was being judgmental. What other conscientious way could they feed? “They’re here of their own free will? No mind tricks?”

He chuckled and shook his head. “No mind tricks. No, how did you phrase it? Mojo. They’re here like you are, of their own free will.”

“Is this how most vampires live?” I picked up my fork again to resume my meal. This action seemed to calm him and he relaxed his arms.

“I can’t speak for the world, Connie, but in Budapest it is. There are those who still like the old ways. Who speak against our new philosophy to live in this way.”

I looked up from my plate. “Dragos?”

He touched my hair. “Perceptive. Dragos is very powerful, very old, and very insane. He frightens Tane.” He hesitated. “And me.”

“Is that why he attacked you? Because you chose to live this way?” I guess discrimination wasn’t only human based. It transcended to the monsters too.

Rurik massaged between my eyebrows with his thumb. “You’re thinking too hard again. Don’t worry. Every little thing will be all right, Rabbit.”

The scrape of my fork against the plate surprised us both. I’d eaten everything he’d brought except what was in a small cup by the juice. “What this?” I held it up and emptied some pills into my hand. They looked like vitamins.

“Iron supplements.”

I glared at him. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

“By your earlier reaction after I’d fed, I thought you’d want to be my main ... ahh ... well.”

“Meal? Feed? Main course?” I laughed at the absurdity of it all. Rurik ran a vampire commune. They were paranormal hippies, who gave their ‘family ’ iron supplements. Tears spilled from my eyes. “Are you sure I’m organic?” The juice cup rattled on the tray from my laughter and Rurik saved it from spilling.

He frowned. “I don’t understand the joke.”

I wiped the tears from my cheeks. “No, you wouldn’t.”

“I hoped you’d want to join us and be with me.” The disappointment in his voice sobered me.

“You’re not what I expected.” I tried to explain but how could I without telling him everything. Our relationship was based on lies, my lies. He’d been nothing but protective, kind and loving. Who was the real monster in this bed?

I popped the pills in my mouth and washed them down with the last of the juice. It made him smile again. I needed to tell him the truth, all of it, even if it drove him from me, but I feared that the most. My heart couldn’t bare another assault. It was held together by threads Rurik had just sewn to mend the tear.

He returned the tray onto the chest. “Where are you going?”

My foot dangled over the edge of the bed. “To shower.”

He pushed me flat to the bed and slid me back up to the pillows. “So I could just dirty you again?” His smile spread wide to expose the dainty, sharp fangs. He yanked the sheet that covered my body to the floor and crawled over me.

My heart raced as he ran his hands over my skin. “Where to begin?” He brushed his face against my left breast, over my hammering heart. His tongue made contact with my skin.

I closed my eyes and arched my back. A sense of pressure built around me like the air compressed itself. Then I felt him brush against my mental shield. A flood of panic filled me. I didn’t understand what he wanted and pushed at his shoulders so he’d get off.

He never noticed or pretended not to. His power surrounded me, tried to lure me into submission, and lay down my defenses. I’d forgotten how strong he could be, he never tried to touch me mentally since we first met.

I panted, not from passion but fear. I didn’t want him to find out what I was. Not this way.

The power shifted, like a weight off my chest, and I could breathe. I looked down at Rurik who gazed up at me with curiosity.

“Why do you fight so much? It will hurt worse.”

“What the hell are you doing? I don’t want you poking around in my head.” The sharp words were out of my mouth before I could edit them.

“I got that impression the first time we met. I didn’t cross the line then. I only influenced you, never went deeper. Why would I now?” He rubbed his cheek on my breast. “You’re always so closed up. It’s like a prison in there, with stone walls and barbed wires. You’re painful to touch.”

I closed my eyes so he wouldn’t see the tears. Painful. I believed it, I lived in that prison. Colby taught me to build those walls to protect me from being taken, but I’m the one who added the barb and never opened the door.

“Let me in, Connie.” He whispered the words into my skin. “Trust me. I just want to influence you so I don’t add to your pain.”

I took a shaky, deep breath. “I don’t know how. You drugged me the last time.”

I felt him smile. “I could again, if you wanted.”

“No.” The vial hid in my pants pocket, no longer in it velvet jewelry case in the chest. “No more drugs.”

“It was a joke. I’d be affected by it as well after I’ve fed.” He pulled himself up my body to meet my eyes.

“You would be?” This surprised me. “Drugs affect you?”

“No, just this one.” I opened my mouth to continue my interrogation but he pressed his finger to my lips and hushed me. “Slow deep breaths, trust me.”

I felt the pressure again. My instincts screamed to struggle with Rurik’s invasion.

“Deep breaths,” he whispered.

I inhaled and trembled with the effort. A visit to the dentist would have been less stressful. A sense of euphoric indifference filled me, just like our first date. The thought made me giggle.

Rurik moaned at my reaction. He liked it when I acted this way, all giddy and happy. Where did that thought come from?

I gasped when I felt the sharp stab over my left breast. It hurt for a moment but I didn’t care. He squeezed that breast and enjoyed the feel of it in his palm. My eyes widened with that sensation, his sensation. I grinned. The link he used to influence my perceptions worked both ways. I got little snippets of his thoughts. Such as, he thought I tasted like champagne.

His power made me feel wonderful and free. I giggled again which only elicited another moan from Rurik. He pressed the hard bulge in his jeans to my thigh.

I guess waiting to shower was a good idea.