Black Heart (6 page)

He ran into his house, taking the stairs
two at time. He sensed they were alone—perfect. Raylene’s arm
circled his neck, and she nuzzled his throat, murmuring what she
wanted him to do to her. He was ready to explode in his
jeans.

He lowered her to the floor none too
gently, and they both began aggressively removing each other’s
clothes. Naked, they stood facing each other. Before he fell on her
like a wild beast, he wanted her to know, even if he could not yet
put it into words. He cupped her face and angled it upward and
kissed her lips. A soft meshing, an affectionate invasion, his
tongue moved slowly inside her mouth, caressing every inch, tasting
and sucking. She exhaled with such an achingly passionate moan the
sound bordered on a sob.

His heart clenched in his chest, his
unused, blackened-to-a-cinder heart. With just that small noise,
she reawakened the heart that was so unsure of so many things after
decades of neglect. He couldn’t wait anymore. His arms pulled her
close so their bodies were cleaved into one, her soft curves
embracing his body’s sharp angles and hardness. His kiss grew more
demanding, and she gave it right back. God, he loved that about
her.

He loved her.
That thought rocked
him, but he would not think of it today. His cock had other plans.
He pulled back from her kiss, lifted and placed her on his
king-size bed. She spread her legs in invitation. Raylene was
glistening and wet as hell.

Condoms.
The fleeting thought
disappeared. The urge to mate, bond, and occupy her body overtook
all thought and reason and sanity since he took her on the dock.
All his thoughts of not wanting more children faded to mist. The
Mate Bond ruled his actions, so why fight it? The intensity of this
urge to bond surprised him.

He slid into her in one perfect
thrust. Her inner muscles clenched him
and held his cock in a tight grip.
The feeling eclipsed anything he’d ever felt with his previous
mates and the hundreds of women, and yes, the few men he’d been
with in his centuries-long life. He didn’t move, just closed his
eyes and felt—everything.

Raylene was not so patient. Her nails
scraped down his back, and her hips moved in encouragement. He
pulled out and thrust back in, and Raylene climaxed, the first of
many if he had anything to say about it. Raylene’s body shuddered
and shook under him. Opening his silver-gray eyes, he began to
pound away with his hips. He lifted one of her shapely legs, his
hand grasped her ass, lifting and angling her for maximum pleasure
for them both. He could feel that hardened clit. He moved faster,
and she blew apart again.

This time he watched. He had never seen
anything so sensually beautiful as Raylene reaching her peak. He
moved faster. Ah, yes. He could do this all bloody night. He kept
up the pace, not giving her any time to recover. He held back as
long as he could. He could tell by the blood rushing through his
veins he was going to have the mother of all releases. Just to
punctuate the point, he plunged his elongated fangs into her neck
and drank. She reached up and held his head in place, and together
they both dived off the cliff.

Everything
turned red.

The Rapture.

The ultimate plane for Vampires, blood and
sex congregated to form a state that sent the Vampire or Dhampyre
to sexual oblivion. He did not know how much time passed, or what
he was doing or saying. He’d only experienced this a couple of
times before and not with this intensity.

When the red haze in his brain
receded and the sounds of blood rushing through their veins faded
to the background, he shook his head and tried to focus.
Raylene
lay
beneath him, covered in sweat and blood.

He jumped back.
Christ, what had he
done?

Before he could react, Raylene
moaned. Deegan leaned down a
nd licked the holes in her neck. Jaysus, did he
take too much? Drain her dry? Raylene reached up to touch his
cheek, grasped the back of his neck and pulled him down and licked
his neck as well.

“
The blood—it’s not only mine,”
she whispered.

“
Damn, how long was I ...
did I hurt
you?”

Raylene pushed him on his back and
curled next to him, her hand playfully swirling through his chest
hair.

“
Oh, no. You didn’t hurt me. You
were in the Rapture for twenty-four minutes. You made me come a
total of six times. I may not walk for a week. God. It
was—fantastic.”

Deegan exhaled in relief. He knew of only
one Rapture getting out of hand, or one that had been reported to
the Bureau. A Vampire back in the Fifties literally fucked and
drank his partner to death. Didn’t even know what he had done. The
secret fear plagued all those with any Vampire blood.

Raylene purred in his arms. “I don’t
suppose you want to talk,” she teased.

“
No, do you mind, mo chuisle? I
would rather expend my energy in other ways tonight. We will talk
tomorrow, I promise.”

Raylene sat up, looking down at his still
hard-as-stone cock. Her finger trailed the long, pulsating vein
from the base to the head, her finger swirling in the mark she put
on him. Branded like a damned steer.

“
I hope you don’t mind, that I
marked you here.”

The light stroke of her finger made the
mark tingle and burn. She leaned down and kissed it, and he almost
came off the bed.

****

Raylene
smiled
. She
never was much for sucking on a man’s cock, but Deegan’s—wow. She
had a distinct feeling she would be on her knees a lot going
forward, fine with her. Knee pads were available at any home
improvement/hardware store, no worries. She wanted to taste him
again, savor his distinct flavor of earthy, musky male and the
intriguing combination of fresh, open ocean air. Damn, you could
bottle him and sell him as cologne.

She knew there was a lot to work out and
discuss. No words of love were exchanged. Surely he must know, all
these years her feelings were as firm and solid as they were when
she was sixteen. She knew then, she would love no other man. Her
sexual escapades were few and far between and usually only when her
Vampire blood demanded it.

She grabbed his cock at the base, taking
him into her mouth. He was so thick it stretched her mouth
deliciously. Raylene twisted at the base while she created suction
with her mouth, her tongue whirling over the head.

The moans coming from Deegan urged her
onward. He didn’t hold back and came in her mouth within
minutes.

It wasn’t enough.
Without giving
Deegan any time to recover, she grabbed his still-twitching prick
and eased herself down on top of him, taking him as deep as she
could. He grabbed her ass to move her back and forth. God, the feel
of this man. Raylene bounced fiercely on his erect cock, her
hardened clit swollen and sensitive beyond anything—ever. She
arched her back, grabbed her breasts and tweaked her
nipples.

“
Oh, Jaysus.
Yes, more,” Deegan
rasped.

Never had a man been buried so deep in
her. It was an eye-opener. She wanted to tell him she loved him,
that no other man made her feel this way. Intense, hot sex with the
man you loved was off-the-charts incredible. He stretched her wide;
the sensation sent her to—damn, a red haze forming in her vision.
The Rapture? She knew Dhampyres were capable of experiencing this
otherworldly sensation of sexual, blood-fuelled serenity, but here?
Now?

“
Let it happen, Raylene—mo
chuisle, let the Rapture carry you away.” His voice was husky, and
his speaking Celtic sounded sexy as hell. What did it mean? That
was her last rational thought. She floated in a red, hot, liquid
place. She couldn’t hear anything, could hardly feel anything. She
had no idea if she moved, or rode Deegan like some Irish
Stallion.

Raylene opened her eyes. She was lying on
top of Deegan, still straddling his hips, his cock buried deep. His
chest heaved, as he breathed hard.

“
How long?”

“
Thirty-two minutes. You were
astounding. I think you managed to tire me out.” Deegan
laughed.

God, she couldn’t even lift her
head off his chest. Exhausted, in such a good way. The words
burbled up her throat, but she bit them back. No, she would not
tell him she loved him. After all this time, the decades of denial
on his part, for whatever reasons, silenced her. Maybe she was
being petty, but until they cleared the air on a myriad of
subjects, she
would keep her deepest emotions hidden.

Chapter Four

The pounding on the door was
insistent and determined. D
eegan opened one eye. He was naked with Raylene
wrapped around him like a lush, silk blanket. His semi-erect cock
encased in her body. As soon as she moved and uttered a soft moan,
it hardened immediately. She was so deeply asleep she did not stir
at all from the knocking.

“
Captain? I loathe to disturb
you.”

Shite.
Brennan. Deegan gently detached
himself from the sultry warmth of Raylene and strode to the door
and threw it open. Nakedness be damned, he stepped into the hall
and closed the door behind him. Brennan looked down at his aroused
state with an arched eyebrow.

“
I can detect the Mate Bond
scent. The house is rife with it. Nightwood’s daughter?”

Deegan walked to the nearby linen closet,
removed a towel and wrapped it around his hips.

“
Aye. Raylene.”

“
About bloody time,” Brennan
murmured.

“
Speaking of the time, what is
it? Afternoon? Early evening? And why were you banging on the
damned door?” Deegan snarled with little malice.

“
It is four-thirty in the
afternoon. You have been in there almost twenty-four hours, not
that I am keeping time. I wouldn’t have disturbed you, but Raynor
Nightwood called. It is most urgent, he says. Edward is already
there, as is Tristan.”

“
What has happened?” His gut
clenched. Worst-case scenarios stirred through his brain. “Tristan
is home?”

“
All Raynor said is as head of
the clan you must be there. He said, ‘Edward perfected the
antidote’ and that you would know what he means. Tristan arrived
home this morning.”

Jaysus.
Raynor said the antidote to
revive Laura out of her Twilight state would take weeks. Edward
must have had a breakthrough!

“
Let Raylene sleep. When she
awakens see to her needs, food, bath, whatever. Tell her I had clan
business and will return, but not where I went, you
follow?”

Brennan touched his forelock in assurance.
“Aye aye, captain. Your clothes are laid out in the guestroom, and
I assume you do not need any blood?” Did he see a slight amused
smile on Brennan’s face?

“
You assume correctly. Raylene
likes blackberry pancakes. See she has them when she awakens. Also
Lady Grey tea. See it done, man. Anything and everything she
wants.”

Deegan sprinted into the guestroom across
the hall; he had so many damned clothes he kept some in various
closets in the house. Good thing. He dressed quickly in a pair of
tan khaki pants and a brown shirt. Memories of the last twenty-four
hours played through his head. Damn, they had a couple of showers
in between their sex and blood marathon. The night became the most
passionate and extremely sensual one he had spent in all his
centuries of existence, even topping that orgy in Paris in 1783.
Deegan zipped his pants and slipped into his brown Italian loafers,
and then sprinted down the stairs and grabbed his car keys off the
side table where Brennan no doubt put them as he had many times
before. Since cars had keys to turn the ignition, he
surmised.

Also grabbing his nearby
sunglasses to protect his eyes from the setting sun, Deegan ran to
his car. Brennan had also put the top up on the Thunderbird
sometime last night. What would he do without his faithful friend?
Never thought of him as a servant, that line was crossed centuries
ago when on the deck of
The Celtic Gale
, Brennan saved him from having his head
permanently separated from his neck, one of the few things fatal to
Vampires. He offered the gift of eternal life to Brennan, and he
took it. Been with him ever since.

He turned the key and glanced up at his
bedroom window. The heavy steel enforced shades were still firmly
in place; no doubt Raylene would sleep for hours yet. He kept her
busy most of the last twenty-four hours and with any luck, he would
soon be keeping her busy for the next.

Deegan pulled into
Raynor’
s
crowded driveway. SUVs were parked chaotically; he spied Edward’s
black Lincoln Navigator. He tried to tamp down his annoyance that
this gathering was called without his express permission. He would
have to crack some heads, figuratively if not literally.

Edward waited for him at the
door. His looks were decidedly British. In fact, Deegan liked to
tease Edward since the late Sixties that he looked like Michael
Caine in
Alfie
, even called him Alfie for a few years. Standing close to
six feet-six, Edward had the distinction of being the tallest
member of the clan. His body packed with the musculature of a
Viking warrior. He had the coloring as well, pale, blond with large
expressive clear blue eyes, a long blade of a nose, full lips and
permanently arched eyebrows. A young Michael Caine all the
way.