He nodded. Yes. God, yes.
He pumped hard now and faster. She writhed beneath him as his balls fired up once more and another shot of pleasure, more intense this time, rushed through his cock. At the same time, he felt her grip him low as she came again, tugging on him, crying out, thrashing beneath him.
Only as she started down from the heights did his body begin to settle over hers. In stages his thrusts slowed, and her hips grew quiet until at last, panting, he lay on top of her, his body rising and falling as she struggled to breathe as well.
One hand of hers slid to the back of his neck and played with his hair, the other became tangled with his left hand, their fingers entwined.
You were so beautiful when you came.
Adrien. What is this between us? I don’t understand.
Pleasure.
Understatement.
Yes. He smiled.
He didn’t want to leave her body. He felt a need to say something more to her, but nothing else came to mind.
* * *
Lily lay slack against the comforter, sated. She pulled Adrien’s palm to her mouth. She closed her eyes and kissed his damp skin, then licked. He tasted like heaven, like something she could devour over and over and still want more, a flavor very masculine, yet more, maybe vampire.
He stayed inside her, which suited her right now. She had missed this so much, the closeness, the pounding motion, the weight of a man.
Her husband had been six-two and worked out, but Adrien had so much muscle that his weight felt like the earth covering her and protecting her.
For this split moment in time she felt safe, like everything would be all right, that all would be well. She knew it wouldn’t last, but she breathed it in and savored the taste of him as she continued to lick and kiss his palm.
She sniffed his fingers. “You smell like herbs, like something I’d put in a soup to give it a strong edge. And I’m in heaven.”
He kissed her cheek gently. “Me, too. Thank you for all of this, Lily, especially your blood. You’ve saved my life repeatedly this night, and I owe you.”
She finally shifted her head on the pillow so she could look at him. Tears welled. “I have you bound in chains, Adrien. You can’t be grateful to me or owe me. You’re probably going to die because of this. Kiernan and Daniel won’t let you live once they’ve gotten their hands on the weapon.”
“I’m not going to die. You should know this about me. I have a strong will to live.”
“I know. I can sense it in you.” She caressed his cheek. “I haven’t told you everything.”
“I hope you’ll be able to.”
Her thoughts turned to her family and to Josh, the hope that he truly was still alive. Maybe it was her fatigue or the simple reality of her situation, but the pain of her loss suddenly overwhelmed her.
Tears streamed down her face and with Adrien still buried inside her, she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, wept, and cried out. The sounds came from so deep inside her they didn’t seem to come from her at all.
Adrien held her fast in return. He let her cry and groan and shout and weep some more.
The only thing he did was occasionally thumb tears away from her cheeks.
“Lily,” he murmured softly now and then. “So much pain.”
His tenderness, so completely unexpected because of her opinion of his kind, kept the tears coming. She wanted to tell him the truth about Josh, but the words wouldn’t come. Kiernan’s orders were clear: No one must know about Josh.
“I miss my family so much.”
He lifted her to a sitting position, held her close, and rocked her in his arms.
“I am ashamed of my kind right now. Your family should still be alive.”
She nodded against him as she continued to weep.
* * *
Adrien petted her head, rubbed her neck. So unnecessary, these deaths.
He understood earth-based accidents like an unexpected ocean wave that took down a ship or a bolt of lightning or an earthquake that closed up a living cavern. But acts of evil, designed by men whether vampires or humans, that took the lives of the innocent were among the most abhorred in his world, in both their worlds.
He continued to rock her until she ceased crying, until her hips began to move against his, until she lifted up and suddenly her mouth was on his and her tongue teased him to firmness once more.
He lowered her carefully onto her back yet again, needing the deep connection, and rolled his hips to give her pleasure. Her soft womanly scent floated around him and made his jaw tremble. He pushed and felt her depths pull on him. She moaned and he understood her moans, her need, that her grief had turned and become a cry for connection and life and release.
For hope.
He drove into her and kissed her. He plunged his tongue deep and felt her suckle just as her depths suckled his c**k and worked him to a frenzy all over again.
He didn’t understand what was happening, either. What was between them was something that, if Sebastien was right, had little to do with the chains, which only enhanced what already existed.
Was this the potential, then, between Lily and him? A profound depth of understanding, of passion and desire, of need? Because that’s what pummeled him as he made love to Lily, as he drove into her again: that he needed this woman, this human, who siphoned his power and behaved at times like a vampire, who responded to his body as though she’d always been with him, who wept at the loss of her family.
He’d never known a human, not like this, not a woman like Lily. He felt the sincerity of her grief, that what she’d lost had been more important to her than her own life.
Which made him wonder all over again the why of her present mission: What was Kiernan giving her, or holding over her head, that she risked her own life to go after a vampire extinction weapon?
He no longer believed that she did so for monetary gain, but something else had her hooked into the mission and his instinct told him she didn’t trust him enough yet to share that information with him. Whatever her reasons, he still had to figure out a way to get his brothers out of prison before Daniel finished them off.
He took her to the edge of ecstasy once more and brought her again, releasing into her, savoring every moment.
CHAPTER 8
Half an hour later, after cleaning up, Lily lay beside the vampire, her heart now calm, her chest eased of the usual constriction, her body empty, her mind as well. She dozed off and on restlessly, worried about Josh, about the extinction weapon, and about her growing, powerful feelings for Adrien.
She would fall asleep then awaken, uneasy sensations refusing to let her sleep.