::CHAPTER 25::

I watched her every move as she crossed my path and took a seat at the couch. There was a determined blaze in her eyes but it was all for nothing. I already knew that she could do this. She had nothing to prove. I’d seen it in the set of her jaw and the squaring of her shoulders.

I’d goaded her for the simple reason that I wanted her pissed, determined and irritated. I needed her to be distracted by her own mule-headedness. I had to make her feel anything but the emotions I couldn’t process; fear, anxiety, nervousness.

She pinned me in place with a pair of blue eyes that were nothing like my own. Hers burned like the hottest of flames while mine was as cold as a hunk of ice. But none of that mattered now. What had my attention was her neck.

Just beneath the red of her hair was a pale expanse of skin. It was so fair, so milk white, that I could see my next meal pulsing just under it. The veins weren’t visible to the naked human eye, but I saw them. Slender ropes holding the sweetest experience I’d ever had while feeding. That brought a smile to my face.

I strolled over to her, keeping my pace slow.

As determined as she was now, that could all go to hell in a second. I couldn’t afford to spook her. Not when I was so close. If I did this right, like I did just about everything else, there would be regular feedings. Feedings free from any anxiety or fear.

Her head tilted up to look at me from where she sat. I lowered myself to the floor. Kneeling before her, I shifted the power play. I was eye to eye with her, but it didn’t matter. She still looked at me kneeling before her.

The visual impact of that ‘submission’ would calm her better than seeing me hovering above, crowding and backing her into a corner. It was not a true submission of course. Subconsciously she knew damn well that I was the one in total, utter and complete control. But it was a pacifying illusion.

Cupping her face with both hands, I made sure her attention was on me and me alone. “I would have you by the neck tonight,” I whispered a hair’s breadth from her face. Her lips parted as if she was about to reply. Nothing came out. “I also would take your silence as permission to do so,” my voice dropped with my fingers trailing down her neck and over her pulse. She hesitated before nodding. “Very good,” I murmured and nipped at her lower lip.

She gasped but didn’t pull away. I took a sparing taste of the crimson liquid beaded on her open mouth. I closed my eyes at the nectar and honey flavors exploding on my tongue and in my mind. “Just as I remembered,” I nodded quiet praise. She flushed, but that determined look never left her face.

Scooping her hand up from her lap, I looked at the slender middle finger. It was the same one I’d taken my first taste from. She looked down at that finger and then up into my face before blushing again.

She remembered that time as well as I did.

Keeping that eye contact, I raised her finger to my lips. She stared, transfixed, as I punctured the skin with the lightest bite. Her swallow was audible but I felt no anxiety from her. She looked…expectant.

I sucked on the finger tip. A long, slow draw of metallic-sweet blood. The longer I suckled that finger, the more her expression changed. I keep that reaction in mind for a rainy day. That heavy lidded gaze hinted at something I doubted even she realized.

The scorching in my throat soothed. The blistered skin was calmed and I could swallow without wincing.

That aside, the very flavor of her was another slap to my senses. It exploded on my tongue, keeping me entranced and unwilling to relinquish the perfection of such a taste.

When I couldn’t keep my control in check anymore, I raised to my full height. Her attention followed me and there still was no hint of anxiety there. Taking advantage of that fact, I took hold of her and swapped our positions. I took her seat while she sat in my lap. She gripped my bare shoulders for balance, knees on either side of me.

Her hands were trembling though I felt no fear in her. I was going to question her about it but paused. The answer came to me soon enough.

Her arousal was a crisp scent in the air that made feeding that much better. It was strange. The arousal of others had never played a part in my feeding…but this time was different.

Above all else, there was a noticeable tightening in my pants. The warm heat of her was pressed flush against my stomach. I could feel her with how low my boxers fell on my hips.

The girl is wearing not a scrap of cloth beneath this robe. It was a surprise but not an unpleasant one. That knowledge hardened me in a way that was only vaguely familiar. The heavy weight behind my zipper distracted me from the feeding.

I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind. Cupping her neck, I pulled her closer. Her scent was the most tantalizing thing. Warm, sweet, feminine and very much aroused. I didn’t need to smell the room to know that. The warm flesh resting against me was enough.

Running a tongue against her neck, she shivered away. The skin was soft to the touch and caused a burn in the back of my throat. Baring my teeth to the flesh, I bit down to penetrate the spot that was untouched by any other.

Her subsequent gasp was expected. The sharp incisors had cut into her and were buried deep inside. Her fingers grasped my hair in that moment. She would have never dared to touch me without permission if she wasn’t in this position. As it were, her fingers were tangled within the dark strands. She had actually pressed my face into the deep seduction of the liquid now pooling from her neck  into my mouth.

My fingers dug into her bared thighs. Her blood was warm and tasted like everything good in this world. It was melted chocolate and smooth whiskey, honey and strawberries, diamonds and gold, silken sheets and cries in the night, blood and fresh hearts, pain and torture. Her blood was not enough and yet it was too much. My erection was a hard rock against my thigh.

I bit down harder and drew more of her into me. Never had I had a meal that satisfied me in so many ways. It was no wonder my body responded this way.

Raising her higher and lowering my waistband a fraction, she settled back onto me without complaint. The skin to skin contact was nothing like I’d felt with Darla or Carol or any other of the thousands of women I’d thrust my cock into. The bond between Master and Pet was too strong for those others to even warrant a comparison.

I pulled my incisors from her neck and reveled in the cry of pleasure and pain that fell from her parted lips. Her pupils were dilated and her eyes had the glassy look of a woman about to go into the throes of passion and ecstasy. I slipped back into the same puncture wounds I’d sank into before. I felt her moan more than heard it. Her fingers gripped my hair tighter.

I choked on the next sip at the feel of her hips rolling against me. The movement was a sensual weight against the pulse of blood that had rushed through the length of me. Flesh wet and needy with want, she rubbed against me. Once, twice, thrice and the effect was neutral. But the fourth time shot so much pleasure into my veins that my vision fell into darkness for a moment.

Her folds parted around my shaft and I had the raw urge to ride out this sexual frustration for all it was worth. But I didn’t react. Instead I sat back and drank from her as she glided onto me in long, moist strokes, skin flushed. Her pace caught up to her tumbled emotions and those emotions leaked into me.

Pleasure. Pure, wonton, unadulterated pleasure. I felt her building orgasm as if it were my own. I had never personally had one this powerful. I felt as if it would knock me over if not make me pass out before she even peaked. I wanted so badly to bury myself into her.

My mind conjured the most carnal images of entering her to the hilt. Surrounding myself with that soft, damp, feminine heat that was driving me a little mad. Thrusting into her with reckless abandon as she screamed beneath me, twisted in mind blowing, leg trembling sex. The mental images were dark and hot and nothing romantic, but I came in a hard burst of utter satisfaction at finding my cock nestled inside her heat.

Immortal as I was, there was no such thing as a single orgasm. I was still as hard as I was the first time around. Except this time, my lips were covered in blood from the end of our first feeding and I was balls deep inside of her.

Her scream had done things to me that I couldn’t explain. My sadistic mind enjoyed it more than I could say.

Undoing the belt of that dratted robe she sported, I pushed the cloth from her shoulders and let it fall to the floor. Her skin was smooth and flawless, her stomach taut with the feel of me filling her to impossible levels and her breasts were small but enough to fill my exploring palms.

I squeezed and molded, petted and stroked, teased and tasted. As with every other act up to this point, she warmed and dampened for me even more. The crown of my erection was swollen with the need to thrust into her. Picking her up, I took us to the closest wall where gravity did things for me that I could never repay.

She landed onto me and wrapped her arms around my neck, nails digging into me. That slight pain was a reminder of how twisted my nature was. It caused the greatest tremor to run through me and I was sure that I would orgasm again. I didn’t. I shook my head, trying to clear the pleasure-induced fogginess from my mind.

With her body pressed flat against the wall, I was in the best position to take her. Over and over again with shallow thrusts that had her breasts rubbing against my chest every time I entered her. She cried out and moaned and, once, gasped my name with such desperation that I wondered what it was she wanted me to do.

Molding the soft weight of her breasts seemed to take her over the edge and into her third orgasm. Her body fell limp, her core hot and quivering around the length of me. Yet, greedy as it was, her body kept accepting me inside. Liquid heat slid from her and down my cock, squeezing an addictive brand of headiness into me.

She pressed her lips to my own and it took me by surprise enough that I blinked and faltered in my strokes. Her mouth covered mine with as much possession as it was possible to have. Curious, I returned it and was well rewarded. There was an odd sort of gratification that added to this. Her tongue flicked into mine and tasted my lips. She nibbled at me and I smiled into the smarting flesh.

For the second time, I felt my body shatter in the sexual experience. Driving my hips into her, I slipped into her intending to pound another orgasm out of my body. She gripped on tighter, moaning my name into my ear again as if her body clamping around the length of me was not enough silent praise. Burying myself within, I emptied myself into her.

I blinked, in a sort of daze. I was still sitting on the couch. That final act was not real. It was a fantasy and one that I hadn’t allowed to happen. We had never gone over to the wall. I had never deflowered her. She was still pure in the sexual sense, virginity intact. I had been…good.

Better than anyone would have expected at least.

Ria still sat in my lap, head resting on my shoulder and still dressed in her robe. It took a second for me to separate what had happened in real life, and what had happened in my head. The visual had been so clear. After some thought, I decided that everything before entering her had happened.

How disappointing.

It might have been worth it, to give into my expected behaviour. I shook my head against that thought. It was legal and moral rape to have sex with a Pet in this state. With so much endorphins coursing through her, it was like drugging her and then doing the act. I had far too much pride in my own prowess to rape any woman. I didn’t need to.

They might call me a scary son of a bitch, but when it came down to it they could be charmed just the same. I would never have to sink that low. I had enough control over myself than to give in despite it all.

Every male instinct in my body had arrowed to one thought, one goal, one need. But I’d ignored it somehow. It was a testament to my control that I’d gotten a grip over it.

I wonder if I should just remove her or…

I glanced at the warm, pleasured woman curled against me. This was about the point where I would have discarded my bedmate for the night. Except she was no bedmate. She was my Pet and was linked to me emotionally. Hurting her feelings wasn’t an option. But I can’t have her sleep here all night.

Making a quick decision, I took her to the shower and put her to sit on the built-in seat. Turning the water on the coldest, I let her get the full blast of it. Her scream was quite the earful. I cringed at the loudness, but left her under the icy spray.

 She scrambled to her feet and stood glaring at me. All trace of sex was gone from her eyes. That did the trick.

I smiled, very pleased with myself. “I thought you should clean up after what happened tonight,” I gestured at the shower, “That aside, I think our feeding went very well, don’t you?” She opened her mouth, probably to curse everyone from me to my mother, but I had already started on my way out. I needed to return to my own room for a shower.

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{Third Person POV}

“How dare he? That fanged bastard,” Ria growled as she showered for the second time that night. She had never been the violent type but no one would have known that by the way she attacked her arm with the bar of soap.

She wasn’t pissed off at him or because of the shower. It had ticked her off, but she didn’t mind. Not when the water had calmed the sensual burn in her stomach. Definitely not when it stopped the slick heat between her thighs from short circuiting her brain.

No. She didn’t mind the shower at all.

What really pissed her off was herself. Ria had had plans. Her virtue was something she treasured. She was always going to give her virginity – the most important thing a girl could give up – to the man she was going to spend the rest of her life with. That man most definitely was not Alejo Veracci.

But no one would have believed it a few moments ago. Her body had been starved for him in that bedroom. She had wanted him. Badly. Enough to worry her.

The way she had responded to him was almost mindless. There was no thought, no planning, no reason. He’d barely touched her tonight, and yet she had been wishing he would have. Those fleeting strokes and brushing fingers against too-sensitive skin had made her want to strip bare and acquiesce to his every whim. And that was dangerous. Some men simply could not be allowed to have that sort of power…especially not over her.

She ran a hand over her face, groaning at the memory. “I can’t believe I just did that,” she whispered into the water’s spray.

She didn’t blame Alejo. Not a single bit. He was a vampire and it was in his nature to feed. He couldn’t help that anymore than she could help wanting to eat her next meal when she needed to. This sort of sexual high was a common side effect. And it seemed extra common between them. Alejo wasn’t the one at fault here. He’d been caught up in the madness himself. She’d felt it in the erection that had been resting against her.

Ria couldn’t claim not to expect it. She had felt the effects of his feeding from the moment he’d nipped at her lip. She could have pushed him away then. The only reason that she hadn’t was because she’d known that he needed this. His life – and by extension her life – depended on this. And worse, she’d remembered the last time. Remembered how much she’d enjoyed herself. This time had been different.

Those last moments had been her undoing.

Somewhere nearing the end of their feeding, Alejo had been thinking. Hard. No, thinking was too subtle a word. It was more like fantasizing. Conjuring in his mind. Whatever it was that he’d been doing, his emotions were on such a high that his thoughts had leaked into her. And she liked it.

Never had she seen that kind of imagery. Not with her as the star at least. She had never imagined what it would be like to lose her virginity but if she had, she doubted that she would come up with that.

Alejo had visualized it all in a way that had taken her under with him. The world had blotted out itself and all she could see was what he did in his mind. She’d always thought being inside his head would be terrifying, but it wasn’t. It was odd, but it hadn’t frightened her.

His lack of regular emotion wasn’t something that was noticeable. He felt nothing romantic for her and that had not been any surprise for her. All she had gotten from him was lust. Regular old lust. And still, it didn’t bother her. The visuals had twisted reality into a sensual dance between two people who would have otherwise never touched each other in that way. It was like having sex without actually having sex.

What was really bothering her was that, at the time, she hadn’t realized it was a vision. She hadn’t truly realized that she was seeing the world through his eyes, fantasy or not. Which meant that, in her mind, she had consented to him doing what he did. She’d let it happen only to realize that it was all a vivid fantasy.

In a sense, she had willingly had her first time with Alejo.

Because it wasn’t a one-sided fantasy. She had fuelled her own thoughts into it. Her actions in the vision counted every bit as much as Alejo’s actions had.

Knock , knock.

She jumped twelve feet out of her skin at the sudden noise. “Who is it?” her voice came out shaky if not a little husky. There was silence.

Stepping out of the shower, she wrapped a towel around herself. She stopped on her way to the door. Sniffing the air, she caught the faint smell of male cologne. Or shower gel. Or something guy-scented that made her inhale a second, longer time. “Damn. I need to clear my head,” she said and opened the door.

Ana was leaning against the wall and the bedroom light was on. Ria walked past her sister and started getting dressed.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“Master Veracci said that you might need to talk to me,” Ana signed.

“As usual, trying to save his skin from dealing with my emotions again,” she rolled my eyes but smiled in spite of herself, “So like him.”

“And here I was thinking that he cared,” Ana signed back.

“I know better.”

“Do you want to talk?” she frowned.

“Yeah, I guess,” Ria nodded and slipped on a washed out tee and some worn shorts.

“What happened between you two?”

Ria started the story from the top. Ana sat and listened to every single thing, not interrupting once. When Ria was finished, she took a sip of the water that had been on her nightstand and waited for Ana’s reaction.

“Well hell, you two had some night,” she laughed. Ria nodded and massaged her eyes. Ana shook her head, “You and Alejo Veracci. Together. I did not see this one coming.”

“Wait,” Ria’s eyes widened, “No, we’re not a thing. We just…got carried away.”

“I know what that’s like. Loki held back the first time, but I didn’t expect that from Veracci. Who knew he had a noble streak?”

“Definitely not me,” Ria snorted, “The man is a death wish in designer shoes. I didn’t think he had it in him to hold back like that.”

“You also didn’t expect him to show up at your door, starving for your throat and dressed in nothing but his boxers.”

“Silk,” Ria laughed, “The man is such a rich-guy cliché.”

“A sexy rich-guy cliché.”

“Sexy? I thought you hated him. Especially after all he’s done.”

“That doesn’t mean he isn’t sexy. And I want to hate him. I should,” Ana signed, “But he can’t help it any more than I can help my own personality. He was born with his. And he might know that what he does is wrong to other people, but to him it’s right.”

“That doesn’t make it okay.”

“No it doesn’t. But it makes it sort of understandable.”

The sun was just about ready to rise and the girls fell asleep somewhere within that time. Both curled up side by side and snoozed away.

Later in the morning, Ria was the first to get up. It was already eleven according to her alarm clock and she was glad that she had no classes today. She felt too drained to bother with any of that.

Peering at her reflection in the vanity table, she saw that her hair was a large bird’s nest of a thing piled on top her head. She cringed at it, but figured that there was no reason to bother about it. She was just going to get a late breakfast and maybe get back in bed. Ignoring the glowing flush in her cheeks and the light bruise on her neck, she moved from the mirror’s line of sight. The puncture wounds were long since healed.

Touching the tender skin, she took a deep breath and left the room. At the sound of fading footsteps, she looked down the hall to see Alejo’s retreating back. It was as bare as it had been the night before and he still wore nothing but the pair of underwear. She frowned, wondering what he had been doing on this floor.

As he started going up the stairs to his own floor, she heard a door open from the other side of the hall. Standing in one of the doorways was Caroline. Ria’s stomach dropped at the sight of the older immortal woman.

She was wearing a lace camisole-panty combination that showed off her flawless body. Her hair was tousled and rumpled in a way that betrayed what she’d been up to last night. Even if her hair didn’t say it, the silly grin and satisfied look in her eyes did. She screamed post-sex happy.

“Did you and Alejo…” Ria couldn’t finish the question. Caroline gave a cheerful little laugh that was flirty and pretty all at once. She strode over to Ria and pat her cheek with open affection. “A lady does not talk about those sorts of things,” she said and flashed a smile before walking away.

That was confirmation enough. After virtually taking her virginity, Alejo had gone to the other woman’s room and bedded her. It was a sucker punch to the gut.

Ria knew that she didn’t want him in that way. She also knew that after last night, he’d left with an itch she had not been willing to scratch. Above all, she knew that she and Alejo had no loyalty to each other. Not in a romantic sense. There was no reason to have expected him to go to bed with a hard on.

In fact, she should have expected this. She knew that he and Caroline had a sexual relationship with no boundaries. All he would have had to do was knock on his friend’s door and she would have taken care of him without question.

What she couldn’t explain was why she felt betrayed. She didn’t even like the man. She could barely tolerate him. Why she felt so floored was a wonder. Leaning against the wall, she looked up to the ceiling. “That fanged bastard…” she murmured, “He’s messing with my head somehow.”

The whole point of the endorphins is to block the pain of the puncture wounds and the small amounts of venom entering the system during a feeding. The high was a side effect.

After some thought, she decided that maybe the endorphins were still in her system. It wasn’t impossible. After all, there had been so much in her that she doubted that it would have all left already. “I don’t like him. I hate him. It’s just the hormones,” she chanted. That thought cheered her up considerably.

Skipping down the stairs, she made it into to the kitchen. Caroline was already there sipping on bottled blood. Ria nodded at her and went to make toast.

She then decided that it was bad for a person’s self esteem to know Caroline…or any vampire woman for that matter. The other woman was just gorgeous with a capital ‘G’. It was also hard for her to dislike the he too. She was gorgeous, but she wasn’t conceited. In fact, Caroline had been nothing but pleasant to Ria since they’d first started sharing the same castle.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” Caroline asked after catching her staring, “Not a morning person?”

“Just a little tired,” Ria said looking away.

“Ahh yes. I heard. First feeding, huh?”

“You know about that?” her eyes widened, “He told you?”

“Of course he did,” she shot me a look, “He’s been agitated for a while now. I asked him what happened when he came to me all buzzed.”

“Oh,” Ria murmured, “I suppose it makes sense. You two being friends and all.”

“Yup. So how was it?” she grinned, “Did he totally rock your world?”

“I…um…”

“Come on. He told me about that vision thing that you two shared. It sounded kind of cool.”

“He told you that too?” her eyes widened, “Seriously, did he give you a play-by-play?”

“Uh,” she gave a sheepish grin, “Was he not supposed to?”

“We didn’t really get a chance to talk about it,” Ria said through clenched teeth, “seeing as he dumped me in an icy shower and left.”

“Always the romantic, that one,” Caroline laughed, “Sure knows how to make a woman feel like a million dollars.”

“Yeah. A million wet, shivering cold dollars,” Ria cracked a smile, “Enough to have me swooning.”

“I bet,” she grinned, “So do you like him?”

“Of course not,” the answer was automatic on her tongue, “He’s Alejo.”

She said it as if those two words explained all the reasons why no one would possibly like the man. And knowing him for as long as she did, Caroline nodded. She seemed to get it.

“But on the same note…he is Alejo,” Caroline pointed out.

“Yeah. I guess he is.”

Because as bad as he was, he did have a fairly decent side. He was independent, ambitious, talented, creative, charming, good looking…the list wrote itself. But as good and each of those qualities were, he tended to use them all to fuel his bad qualities and worse habits.

A split second of jealousy wasn’t nearly enough to make Ria drop to the lowest low; actually liking the fanged bastard.

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It feels so weird not uploading within the 2 week mark. Sorry again for the late upload guys. I hope you got the message I broadcasted about it. The only reason I'm uploading now instead of next week is because I'd started like three pages of this a few weeks ago. Phew!

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