A Mermaid's Ransom (21 page)

Lack of control made him vulnerable to attack from any direction; his wildness blinded him, so he'd learned never to give full rein to his desires. Until he'd mastered such iron control, there were times he'd gone mad trying to hold the reins on himself that tightly. For days he might caper around the Dark One world like a rabid creature, half remembering everything he did or experienced. The Dark Ones had found that amusing, taunting him but doing less damage than when he was self-possessed.

She'd spread herself wide for him, her arms out to her sides, fingers clutched into the coverlet. "Will this hurt?"

"Yes," he said, "But only for a moment."

He bit, and she sucked a cry in through her teeth as he found the bloodsource he wanted. The heat of her sex was throbbing against his face as he suckled and licked, his head moving in slow, rhythmic motions that rubbed his temple over her swollen clit behind the tight, damp fabric. She moaned each time he did it, lifted and dropped.

When he was done, he pressed his mouth upon the puncture, laving it with his tongue until he'd stopped the blood flow, then he turned his mouth to other hungers. She almost came off the bed as he sealed the wet heat of his mouth over her, marking the fabric with her blood as he flicked his tongue over the soaked panel, inhaled her deep through flared nostrils. She quivered, hard and deep in her belly. She was so close, he could see it in the spiraling, chaotic tumble of thoughts, images and sensations. It overwhelmed him.

Turning her in an effortless move, he brought her up on her hands and knees. Pulling open the pants he wore, shoving the skirt to the small of her back and tearing off that swatch of silk, he entered her from behind. The way Dark Ones did it. He despised the visceral satisfaction, even as his body didn't care, surging into hers, claiming, needing.

Your wings. I want to see your wings.
He tore the shirt down the middle just as her wings came forth, spreading wide and then angling up, as if he were pressed against a butterfly, her soft feathers brushing his skin as he thrust into her, hard, greedy, feeling her spasm and writhe, so close, milking him deeply. The legs transformed at the same time, increasing that divine tightness, her tail sliding off the bed as he adjusted to straddle it.

She screamed, her climax galvanized by the different sensations, and he released as well, that quickly. Her blood coursing through his system, his seed jetting into her, was a painful yet pleasurable finish that had his face pressed into her nape, lips in her hair, while her wings trembled out to either side of him. As she slowly came down from her pinnacle, wracked with tiny convulsions, the wings went to a half fold, brushing his shoulders and hips, tips tickling his calves.

Gradually, she transformed so he was holding a human woman again. Still drained from her time in his world, something such as this could rob her of strength as quickly as the climax itself. His knowledge of her exhaustion had him turning her onto her side on the bed. Loathe to let go of her, he fitted his body behind her. Making a noise of contentment, she closed her hand with an intriguing possessiveness on his forearm, nestling her head into her pillow and under his jaw.

WHY are you helping me, Alexis?

She was asleep already, he knew. She'd answered the same question earlier, but he could neither believe her words nor comprehend the emotions in her mind when she spoke them. Too many unfamiliar impressions and feelings.

She'd had no male in her life, no sexual experiences before him, so it could be explained by that. It was plausible for one so young. The first time he'd had an actual orgasm, forced as it was by his tormentors, the pleasure of it had been addicting. A way to escape everything for a few seconds.

He'd told her he was ready to go from her cottage to this location. He'd been partly wrong about that. All those images he'd dissected a thousand times in his head were nothing next to experiencing them firsthand. Alexis had described this world as busy, always moving. He was used to that in the Dark One world, but the variety of activities here were different, often not violent or dangerous, but disconcertingly unpredictable. In the Dark One world, all activities came with danger or violence. Base needs--lust, hunger, thirst, fights for dominance.

Sequestered in this snug, warm bedroom, thinking of the love and devotion of her parents and those who served them, he had a hard time thinking she sought escape through sexual passion as he had. But his presence in her life could very well be riding on the goodwill of her youth and sexual self-discovery. When that passed, she would have no use for him and the others would try to kill him, as he expected.

They could try. And she could tire of him all she wished, but he would let her go only when
he
was ready.

Seventeen

SHE woke famished. She was going to have to start keeping Red Cross blood donation supplies in her nightstand. Cookies, juice, crackers. Then she realized Dante was not in the room with her. Amusement turned to panic. It hadn't occurred to her he would go somewhere without her. They hadn't really set any ground rules, or even established how he would react to ground rules.

Scrambling out of the bed, she ignored her growling stomach and wobbly knees, made it halfway to the door and realized he was in her kitchen. Either that or she had a very large rat emitting multiple sonar pings of curiosity. He was likely going through cabinets, examining each kitchen utensil.

Determined to start today halfway decently dressed and put together, she resolutely about-faced and headed to the shower. The bite area on the inside of her thigh was healed but still tender. As she passed her fingers over it, the memory made her shiver, the heel of her hand brushing her sex. Goddess, he'd been so urgent. So hungry. Rather than her being dismayed by his violence, her own hunger had almost eclipsed his.

That thought put a damper on her recollection. She'd let her own lust take precedence over the possibly destructive state of his mind, and that wasn't good. Hadn't she confessed such a worry to Anna? But it was harder than she'd expected. Even with her empathy, she'd always been an outside observer to the emotional fluctuations of young women who'd experienced sex for the first time. That mad flush where physical reaction was confused with emotional because of the intensity of the experience. Of course, it was hard to compare what occurred in candlelit dorm rooms, a sock hung on the door-knob to warn away intrusive roommates, with a seduction that began in her dreams and was consummated in a fiery world where her life had hung in the balance.

However, she was aware of what might be the same as some of those women's experiences. It might have meant something far different to him. She was honestly too swept away by her own feelings at the time to register his. But he had felt something. She would have sensed a physical reaction devoid of feeling.

Goddess, the truth was she was in over her head and afraid to admit it to anyone who could help her, because she
was
certain about one thing--right now, she was the only true ally he had, and he couldn't afford to have her taken away from him.

The water was running hot, so she stepped in, letting it wash away her uneasy thoughts for now. Hopefully Dante was too busy discovering the delights of cookware to have tuned in to her dilemma.

At least it wasn't too difficult to focus on this instead. Though her mother had bathed her, it was of course not the same as a full scrubbing. Plus, the washing brought the musk of their lovemaking to her as she cleaned those private crevices. She shuddered anew, remembering how he'd taken her over. If nothing else, she could be sure she was anatomically more pleasing than what he'd had before.

"Infinitely."

She yelped, opening her eyes, and found him standing at the shower door. He was still naked, the same way he'd slept with her. The sight of his tall, muscular body, so imposing and appealing at once, the cock semierect already, made her libido stomp out her attempts at self-control and rationales like a lumberjack with size sixteen boots.

It didn't help that he was studying the way the soap slid down her wet body with intense interest. He lifted a candy bar. "This was in your mind when you woke. Along with many other food items I couldn't match to what is here."

As she watched, he peeled back the wrapper and tossed it away, then extended it toward her mouth. "Eat, before you fall down."

Chocolate with the flavor of water running over her face had a sensual appeal, particularly with him feeding it to her. Her body vibrated. They had things to do. They . . .

"It does not have to take long," he noted, his eyes darkening in their flames. Before she could think of a protest, or whether she even wanted to try, he'd stepped into the shower and caught her under the arms, holding her up against the shower wall. The chocolate melted in her mouth as his closed over it. She clung to him as water poured over them both and he entered her again, cock now ready for her such that she gasped as his fullness invaded. Her legs wrapped around his back, welcoming him eagerly.

SEX with Dante was exhausting, but it was nothing next to teaching someone who'd only had a bird's-eye view of the earth everything that could be crammed into one afternoon. He never ran out of questions. They started with her kitchen, and the various assortment of things he'd taken out of her refrigerator and lined up on the counter. With some amusement and dismay, she noted he'd dismantled a bunch of items. He'd ripped the seams out of one of the couch cushions to touch the filling, opened the cover of her movie player to study the wiring. Unscrewed lightbulbs, even tested the rarely used dead bolt on the door, but thank goodness he hadn't tested its strength or she suspected she'd have been calling a carpenter to replace the frame. Or repair the drywall that would have been ripped loose by the force.

She didn't turn on the TV yet. That would be a good choice for later tonight, when she could lie on the couch, nurse her tiredness and yet keep answering the endless array of questions she expected cable programming to incite.

Plus, as much as he liked to ask questions, she noted he was increasingly restless, wanting to get out of the confines of four walls. When he took her organic eggs out of the carton and arranged them on a plate in an amazingly balanced pyramid, it reminded her of his garden and gave her an idea of where to take him.

Getting him into the car was smoother than the first time. At the cottage, he'd circled it, studied it from all sides. He'd had Alexis roll down the windows, not liking the closed feeling. Cars had been new to his mother when she was taken, but not entirely unfamiliar. He'd seen them through those rifts before Mina closed them, as well, but being close to them of course was different.

This time, she was the one who needed an additional steadying breath, standing in the open car door. This would be the first time she'd be taking him out in public, around others. After the past twenty-four hours, she was very aware she was more a guide than a guardian. Did she really know what she was doing? How had she convinced her father and Mina of this madness? Maybe it was best for them to go back inside, and . . .

He stood on the opposite side, gazing steadily at her. Fortunately, there was no anger in his gaze. "What do you fear, Alexis?"

"You know. That you'll think someone's attacking me or you and incinerate a city block. Then my father and Mina will come and take you away . . ."
From me
. She bit it off, realizing anew how possibly counterproductive her own motives were. "Dante, I'm not sure if I was right. Maybe I shouldn't be doing this without a couple of the angels along."

"You were sure last night. It is only your fear making you doubt yourself." His straight hair, loose on his shoulders, lifted and swept across his face, his sensual lips. She wished she could see his eyes, and he accommodated her, removing the glasses so she could meet them. He was eager to get out, see this whole new world. And why wouldn't he be? He didn't want to kill and maim. He wanted to see how a car worked, walk amid people who wore different-colored clothing, smelled of different fragrances. See the sun shine, even if it was from the safety of a table umbrella at a sidewalk cafe.

Those weren't his thoughts of course, but the emotions he was emitting had hints of that in it, like a hummed song where the listener could almost understand the words from the feelings evoked by the notes.

He slid a hand across the top of the car. Intrigued, she reached out, met his fingers tip to tip, since her arm was shorter and couldn't quite reach. "What was that for?" she asked softly when he pulled back.

"Touch eases your mind," he explained. "And I like touching you."

He could relax with her. He couldn't do that with an angel escort. She'd survived the Dark One world, for Heaven's sake. She could survive being a vampire's tour guide.

"Okay, let's go."

ALL right, maybe she couldn't. "Dante," she explained for the tenth time, "I can't answer questions about everything you see, because I'm driving. If I look to see everything you're pointing at, I'll wreck the car. Though you may be indestructible, it won't be pleasant. And I like my car. We'll walk later today, and that way I can tell you about things right when you see them."

"Why can't we stop and walk now?"

"There will be time to do it all," she promised. "I just have somewhere I'd really like to take you first. There are too many people on the sidewalks. I'd rather you get used to having people around you in a more . . . low-key environment."

He seemed dissatisfied with that, but subsided, though he continued to watch the passing scenery with intense interest. She was beginning to think her comparison to an infant was not inaccurate, though it was still amusing, given that the last thing she wanted to do when she looked at Dante was shake a rattle at him or coo.

Of course, he was plundering all information around him, including her mind, so she was pressed into an explanation about babies and their entertainments.

Maybe she was more like a new mommy than she wanted to acknowledge. She was intrigued by his reactions to everything, and still nursing a nervous flutter about having him out on her own. No mother had ever been so distracted by her infant's profile or how his jeans fit his thighs, though. Plus, an infant would have been behind her, strapped in a child safety seat. She suppressed a smile as he turned a narrow gaze to her.

"Oh crap." The fuel light. In her distraction, she'd forgotten to stop and get gas, and Heaven only knew how long that had been blinking. If Dante had been practically hanging over her shoulder, as he'd wanted to do in order to watch the way the instrument board worked, she was sure he would have noticed it earlier.

They weren't far from her destination, the community center, so she pulled into the Korean grocery on the corner. The bars on the windows and door, the graffiti on the cinder block side walls and concrete island, advertised this wasn't the best neighborhood, but that didn't concern her. Her gift protected her from unfriendly advances.

The community center had been built in such an area to be accessible to low-income families, and she didn't mind supporting the Korean grocer that stuck it out here, despite constant robbery attempts. She enjoyed showing Dante how to pump the gas, talked him out of pouring some on his hand to smell it and left him leaning against the car, watching the numbers tick by, while she went in to pay. She'd told him how to finish up and put the lid back on, so that gave her an extra minute to pick up another candy bar and a bottle of juice. The healthy breakfast she'd consumed while explaining everything to him had helped steady her, but she wanted to be prepared, just in case.

However, her pleasure that things were going so well was disrupted by the storekeeper waving her back up to the front. "Your friend may have trouble," he said.

Leaning across the counter to see out the window, she swore under her breath. A car full of gang members had pulled up to the pump on the other side, and the members had spilled out, a couple coming toward the store while the others propped on their vehicle, engaging Dante in conversation.

"I can't leave the register," the grocer said, a worried look on his lined face. "I'll call the patrol officer and ask him to drive by for your friend, but he may take a few minutes."

"It's not my friend I'm worried about." Paying for the gas, Lex grabbed the items she'd bought and hurried back out toward the car.

Dante was still leaning against their vehicle, his arms crossed, sunglasses hiding his expression, but from the stillness she felt from him, he was aware he faced trouble.

"It's a pretty white boy. A
really
white boy," one of the gang members was taunting, as several others circled her little hatchback, hooting at her fairy and flower static clings. "Got any money to pay for our gas, pale boy? Hiding under that cute shirt you're wearing? Look at all that pretty hair."