Runaway Vampire (18 page)

Eyes wide, Mary tipped her head down and watched wide-eyed over the bag of blood as he took one of her feet in hand and lifted her leg so that it was extended. He paused, seeming to examine it, then ran his fingers lightly up the leg he held and murmured, “You have the loveliest most shapely legs. I noticed that when you came out of the bedroom in shorts the morning we breakfasted at the Round Up.”

Mary's eyes widened even further. He'd liked her legs even then? When she'd looked her age? The thought startled her, but not as much as Dante did when he suddenly bowed his head and began to nibble his way up the inside of her calf.

Grunting in surprise, Mary dropped the third bag of blood she'd been holding and reached out to try to catch him by the hair and stop him, but he merely caught her hand in his and then continued to kiss his way up to her knee. He then set her foot back on the floor and it wasn't until he moved forward to kneel between her legs that she realized he'd set her foot down so that her legs were spread.

Before she had even fully processed that, Dante was tugging at her towel.

Mary immediately released the bag at her mouth and tried to grab at his hands. Fortunately, there was so little
left in the bag at her mouth that it didn't fall away and splash everywhere. Unfortunately, Dante was quicker than her and by the time her hand reached his he'd pulled the sides of the towel apart, exposing her. Mary clutched his wrist anyway and squeezed her eyes closed as she felt a blush rise up over her face. She hadn't been bothered at all at his seeing her when he'd walked up behind her as she'd been examining herself in the bathroom mirror. But then, she hadn't been so exposed then, her legs spread to him. Then too, the body in the mirror hadn't really felt like hers yet in that moment. In truth, it still didn't, but she wasn't looking at a mirror, she was sitting with her legs wide open as Dante—

Her stomach gave a sharp jolt and Mary blinked her eyes open as he pressed a kiss to her stomach. It was such a sweet, tender action . . . and then his hands closed over her breasts and his mouth moved to claim one already erect nipple.

Mary nearly bit right through the dwindling blood bag then. Managing to restrain herself, she eased her grip on it and then moaned around the plastic as he suckled first one nipple, then the other. He was so enthusiastic in his attention that she was surprised when the moment the last drop of blood had been drawn from the bag at her mouth, he was aware of it and reached up to pluck it away and toss it to the floor. Dante immediately wrapped his hand around her neck and drew her forward for a kiss. Mary kissed him eagerly back, one hand covering his where he was still caressing her breast, and the other sliding around his shoulder to pull him closer against her.

Dante let her have her way and, releasing her breast, slid both arms around her, pressing her close and then shifting his chest across hers. Mary moaned and found her legs wrapping themselves around his hips as the soft cloth of his T-shirt brushed across her erect nipples. Hearing, sight, taste, and smell were only four of the senses. Touch was the fifth one, and Mary was quite sure the nanos had improved that too and made her more sensitive. Certainly she had never been set afire by such a light caress. A butterfly's wings probably would have been stronger than that brush of hair, but her body responded eagerly to the caress and her kiss became a little more desperate.

Dante responded by thrusting his tongue into her mouth and urging her back onto the bed until she lay flat with only her legs hanging off from the knees down. He kissed her thoroughly, once, then broke the kiss and slapped the last bag of blood to her fangs before rising up and backing off of her.

This time Mary groaned in disappointment at losing his kiss as well as his touch, but he was not done. She could feel his hips still between her knees, then he began to press kisses to her stomach, blazing a trail down to her hip and nibbling there briefly before moving between her legs.

Mary cried out against the new blood bag, her hips bucking as his mouth found her sweet spot. It was really quite amazing that she didn't split the bag with her hands right then, but she somehow managed to keep from crushing it, all while twisting her head on the bed, her body jumping and trying to move simultaneously
away from his caress and into it at the same time. It didn't move anywhere, however. Dante was holding her down with his hands and arms as he worked and Mary was left to tremble helplessly under his ministrations until the bag at her mouth was finally empty and she could tear it away.

Throwing it to the side, Mary promptly sat up then and reached for Dante. The moment her hands touched his shoulders, he lifted his head, then rose up on his knees again. Now able to reach him, Mary immediately began tugging at his shirt, eager to get him as naked as her. Much to her relief, he helped, pulling the T-shirt off over his head the moment she got it free of his jeans. His hands then lowered to the snap of the black jeans he wore, but Mary already had that undone. He however, lowered the zipper and stood to push the heavy cloth down his legs. When he stepped out of them, kicked the jeans aside and turned back to face her, Mary simply stared. She'd seen him naked when they first met, of course, but not really, not fully, just glimpses and peeks before forcing herself to look away, and then she had been full of guilt for doing so. Now Mary took a good long look without that attendant guilt . . . and he was absolutely beautiful.

A small sigh slipping from her lips, she raised her gaze to his face, then shifted and stood up on the end of the bed to wrap her arms around him and kiss him. Dante's arms immediately closed around her in response and he quickly took over the kiss, his hand tangling in her hair and tilting her head to the angle he wanted as his tongue thrust between her lips.

Moaning, Mary accepted his offering, her tongue dueling briefly with his before he broke the kiss in favor of latching on to one of her nipples. While she was five four and shorter than him by a foot and four inches, standing on the bed had placed her breasts at his face level. He took advantage of that now, his hands closing around them and kneading as his mouth closed over first one nipple to tease it with his tongue before suckling, then shifting to the other to do the same.

Groaning, Mary leaned her lower body against him and closed her arms around his head. It was all she could do really; everything on him was out of range except for his head. She bore the attention as long as she could, but it wasn't long before she moaned his name and tugged at his hair.

Releasing her breasts, Dante lifted his head to her kiss again, and then caught her under her legs, urging her to wrap them around him. Once Mary did, Dante let her drop down a bit until her face was lower than his. Now he was the one having to bend his head to continue the kiss, rather than her. It also positioned her so that the core of her rubbed against the top of his penis, pressing it flat against his stomach between them as he shifted to kneel on the end of the bed. When he then moved forward across the bed on his knees, the movement drew a groan from Mary's throat as the friction sent shockwaves of pleasure through her. She was almost sorry when he stopped moving and dropped to sit on his heels with her straddling him.

Almost. Until Dante caught her by the waist and
raised and lowered her against him, pleasuring them both with the friction.

“Dante,” Mary moaned, tearing her mouth from his. “I need—Ah!” she gasped as this time rather than just rub them against each other, he lifted her high enough for his erection to slide forward, then lowered her onto it.

Mary stared at Dante through wide, incredulous eyes as he filled her. She had been so wrapped up in the pleasure the caresses had given her, that until that moment Mary hadn't realized she was experiencing his pleasure too, but when he filled her . . . it was like nothing she'd ever experienced and she dug her nails into his shoulders, holding on for dear life as wave after wave of keen need drove through her.

“Dante,” she gasped uncertainly, not sure she could handle this, and then he covered her mouth with his and rose up slightly, pressing forward. Mary felt the headboard of the bed at her back, and reached out to hold on to it with her hands in an effort to keep from scratching his back and shoulders to ribbons. Dante immediately raised one hand to the wall behind her to brace himself. His other hand, though, slid down between them to caress her as he began to pound into her.

Mary kissed him furiously as the pleasure grew inside her to unbearable levels. She felt like she would die from it, like her body would just shatter and explode, and then the pleasure inside her seemed to do just that and she broke their kiss to throw her head back on a scream that quickly died as she lost consciousness.

T
hey were in a little heap when Mary woke up some time later. She was still straddling his legs, but was slumped back against the headboard, her arms draped over it and her head back and to the side in a most uncomfortable position. Lifting it with a grimace, she glanced to Dante and then smiled crookedly. He too had apparently lost consciousness as she recalled him saying they would. However, he'd fallen back on the bed, one arm splayed out, the other falling across his chest. His hair lay around his head on the bed like a dark nimbus, and his face . . . it was perfect in repose. He looked even younger than his normal appearance of about twenty-five without the usual worry that had shadowed his face since she'd encountered him.

Mary stared at him silently, slowly becoming aware that she was hungry again. This time she knew better than to assume that it was for food. Dante smelled just
too delicious. She found her gaze focusing on the vein pulsing in his neck, sure she could hear the blood rushing through it, and felt saliva fill her mouth one second before she became aware of a sliding sensation in her mouth and felt something poke her bottom lip.

Her fangs had descended, Mary realized. She needed blood.

Unhooking her arms from where they hung over the headboard, Mary sat up cautiously, grimacing when Dante immediately stirred. He didn't open his eyes, but reached blindly for her. He caught her arm and tried to drag her down to lie on top of him, but Mary resisted, sure that if she got any closer to his throat she'd rip it out.

“Dante,” she muttered, tugging at her arm to try to free herself.

“Mmmm?” he murmured sleepily, still pulling at her.

“You need to let me go. I think I need more blood,” she said apologetically, almost ashamed of her apparently endless thirst for the red liquid.

Dante reacted as if she'd stuck a tack in his butt at that announcement and was suddenly moving. In a heartbeat he'd lifted her off of him and set her on the bed and then he was gone, crossing the room so quickly he was almost a blur. She watched him open the fridge in the entertainment cupboard, and then he was returning with several bags in hand. Dante handed her one, and set the others on the bedside table, then lay down beside her on his back.

Mary glanced from the bag of blood he'd given her
to his supine body and licked her lips as her gaze slid down along his length. His hands were under his head, his legs crossed at the ankles, and he was sprouting an erection as she looked at him, Mary noted with interest.

“Feed,” Dante growled.

Mary hesitated, then tried to emulate his earlier actions and brought the bag quickly to her mouth, relieved when it popped smoothly onto her fangs.

“Good,” he murmured and let his eyes close.

Mary watched him silently as she waited for the bag to empty, noting that now that his eyes were closed, his penis had stopped growing and was only semi-erect. She thought he'd actually dropped off to sleep again, but when the bag was empty and she pulled it from her mouth, he blinked his eyes open, took the empty bag and reached to the table to retrieve a fresh one for her.

“How many times a day am I going to have to do this?” she muttered with irritation as she took the bag from him.

“It is different for different people, but this constant need shouldn't last long,”

Dante said reassuringly. “I think it is because we did not have an IV to give you blood while you were turning and had to try to feed the bags to you orally while you were thrashing about. I suspect more landed on the bed than in your mouth,” he admitted with a grimace and then added, “That might have contributed to the length of the turn too.”

“We were in the room next door,” Dante said when Mary glanced down at the mattress they were on. “This is Francis and Russell's room. We moved you here
shortly before you woke up so that they could clean up our room and replace the mattress and such.”

“Oh,” she murmured.

“Now feed,” he ordered gently.

The moment Mary slapped the bag to her mouth, he nodded and closed his eyes again. Mary stared at him briefly, noting that his erection was smaller still and then reached out to clasp him gently. She didn't really plan it or anything. In fact, her hand seemed almost to have a mind of its own as it closed around him.

Dante's eyes immediately popped open, air hissing through his teeth as his hips bucked in response to her touch, and Mary stilled, shocked to feel a shaft of pleasure shoot through her as well. Knowing this was the shared passion he'd spoken of, and fascinated by it, she tightened her grip and then slid her hand down his shaft and slowly back up. Her own eyes immediately closed, a moan slipping around the bag at her mouth and her hips shifting where she sat as her body responded. She might have been touching herself, she thought faintly as she continued to caress him. Only touching herself had never felt this good. This was—

Mary gasped and blinked her eyes open with surprise when Dante suddenly rose up, caught her by the waist and lifted her, setting her down on top of his erection as he dropped back to lie flat again. She stared at him over the bag of blood, her eyes uncertain. He'd set her down so that her body held his erection flat between them. She could no longer touch him as she'd been doing, but he could touch her and smiled slowly as his hands
reached for her breasts and cupped, then caressed them as she fed.

Mary closed her eyes on a sigh as he played with her. Her caress had brought on sharp, hard pleasure, but this was a slower, milder pleasure. At least it was until Mary shifted her hips against him, her core rubbing across his erection. The hands at her breasts immediately tightened briefly and Dante muttered something in Italian that sounded beautiful, but could have been anything from an insult to a grocery list. He did tend to switch to Italian when excited, she thought as she shifted herself across him again.

“
Si
, Mary, ride me,” he groaned, his hand dropping to grasp her hips to urge her forward and back along his length again, pressing her tighter to him as he did.

Mary moaned around the bag at her mouth, and did exactly that, helping to move herself over him. But the moment the bag at her mouth was empty, she tore it away and leaned forward to kiss him.

Dante cupped her head and kissed her back almost violently, then turned, rolling her beneath him on the bed. Mary slid her arms around him, and then reached down, trying to grab his butt, but he was already pulling back slightly. He was positioning himself, she realized as she felt him press against her opening, and then he was sliding home and she arched and groaned into his mouth as he filled her.

When Dante suddenly broke their kiss, she cried out in protest, then gasped in surprise when he caught her ankles and drew them up to rest against his shoulders on
either side of his head. With nothing else within reach, Mary grabbed at his forearms and almost screamed as he slammed home again, this time seeming to thrust deeper and fill her more fully. She opened eyes she hadn't realized she'd closed and simply watched his face, her mind full of amazement as wave after wave of pleasure began rolling through her, seeming to expand with each surge, and then her eyes squeezed closed and she cried out as those waves all suddenly crashed against her brain at once, carrying her under as they did.

M
ary woke to find herself wrapped in Dante's arms . . . and it felt perfect. In all the years she'd been married to Joe she'd never woken feeling so content or as if she belonged right where she was. Joe had been her husband for the better part of her life. For a while he'd also been her enemy, and then he'd been her partner and best friend, but Dante felt like . . . a part of her. And she was quite sure that she could have lain there forever. At least she could have if she didn't have to pee so badly.

Grimacing, Mary glanced toward the bathroom door and then at the hand dangling off her shoulder. After a hesitation, she slowly eased downward, trying to get out from beneath his arm without waking him. At first Dante's arm went with her, but then it dropped away and she quickly sat up, then slid from the bed and rushed to the bathroom door.

Mary spotted the toothbrush by the sink while she
was washing her hands afterward. The sight made her slip her tongue around the outside of her teeth and her eyebrows rose slightly when she didn't find them furry. She didn't even know when last she'd brushed her teeth. Her last morning as a mortal, she supposed. Which meant it had been . . . what? Dante said she'd been asleep for four days, but how long had they slept this time? She didn't know, but even four days was a long time to go without brushing. There should be some serious buildup on her teeth, but there didn't appear to be any. Did nanos take care of that too? Is that why she hadn't woken up with bad breath and a desire to brush and gargle? Man, if they did, that was pretty super cool. Mary had always hated the dentist.

Adding that to her growing list of things to ask Dante, she picked up the toothbrush, squirted some toothpaste on it and quickly brushed her teeth. She followed that by brushing her hair, then considered herself in the mirror.

She looked good. At least Mary thought she looked good. Her hair fell softly around her face with a natural wave that didn't need much fussing. She'd already recognized that she didn't need makeup. She wouldn't feel at all subconscious going out like this. Well, with clothes on, of course.

Making a face at her reflection, she turned and opened the door and stepped out into the bedroom.

Dante was still sleeping, his beautiful body splayed out on the bed, completely uncovered from the waist up, and one leg also free of the sheet that just draped across his hip and trailing down to cover one leg after
tenting slightly over his groin, which didn't appear to be sleeping like he was. He was a feast for her eyes. And other parts of her body as well, she recognized, as a tingling started between her legs just from looking at him. Mary almost tossed aside her desire for food to crawl on top of the man and settle herself on that morning erection pushing at the sheet, but she was hungry again. Crazy hungry.

Turning from the sight of Dante's beautiful body, she walked to the closet and eased the door open. Mary immediately spotted the shorts and T-shirt she'd worn the day of the accident among the male clothes inside. Her gaze slid over what appeared to be a dozen pairs of jeans, and twice as many black T-shirts, followed by several more colorful T-shirts, and finally a black leather jacket. Her eyebrows rose. The man was apparently a clotheshorse, she thought, wishing she had more of a selection herself. However, she didn't.

Retrieving the two hangers holding her T-shirt and shorts, Mary turned away, and then paused and glanced around the room, wondering what Dante would have done with her bra and panties. Mary hung the clothes on the bathroom door, and then made a quick, quiet search of the drawers in the room, but there was nothing resembling panties and a bra anywhere. And then something made her look in the garbage bin. They were there, right on top.

Mary lifted out the two scraps of material, her breathing slowing as she noted their state. Both were ruined, and it wasn't just because they were so caked with dry blood as well as a more oily substance. It looked like
they'd both been cut off of her. She let them drop back into the garbage bin, and rushed into the bathroom to wash her hands, not liking the oily feel to them.

Drying her hands quickly, Mary grabbed the hangers from the doorknob and then closed the door and quickly pulled on the clothes. The first thing she noticed was that they were both now quite large on her. The shorts were at least four or five sizes too big. Although she automatically unsnapped and unzipped them to put them on, she didn't have to. Mary figured that out when she did them up and then reached for the hanger holding the T-shirt and her shorts dropped to pool around her feet on the floor.

Muttering under her breath, she left the shorts where they were for the moment and pulled on the T-shirt. While it had been almost clingy before her turn, it was now quite blousy on her. Shrugging, Mary pulled the shorts back up and tucked the shirt in, hoping the extra bulk would help keep them up. It wasn't enough, however.

Holding them up herself, Mary went back out to the bedroom and considered her options. She already knew there was nothing in the closet to use as a belt. That left the room at large. The only thing in there that she might have used was the drawstring from the curtains. She even actually considered that, but it was vandalism, or theft or something, so she let that idea go.

Mary glanced toward the closet, considering using one of Dante's T-shirts, but then her gaze dropped to her own T-shirt instead. It was longer than she needed, if she cut the bottom couple of inches off . . .

Raising her head, she glanced around until her gaze settled on Dante's jeans lying in a puddle on the floor by the bed. A lot of men carried pocketknives. Did he? A quick search of his pockets proved that no he didn't, or at least he didn't have one in them now.

Grimacing, Mary straightened and scowled as she looked around the room, and then recalled the razor in the bathroom.

It would do, she decided and slipped back into bathroom again. Mary ended up having to break the razor blade casing to get the actual blades out, but decided she would explain to Dante and replace it first thing. Even before she found food. There must be a drugstore somewhere nearby. Or maybe they'd have razor blades in the hotel store. They often carried necessities like that in those places, she thought as she took off the T-shirt and began to slice the bottom couple of inches off of it.

Mary's next thought was that she hadn't seen her purse anywhere in the room when she'd been searching for things. Which probably meant it had gone up in flames with the RV. Good God, she had no money! She was completely dependent on Dante!

Just like he'd been dependent on her at first, she realized. Only she at least had clothes, even if they were too big and had several slits and tears from the accident.