Conquer the Highland Beast: The Vampire Dylan Macgregor (Hearts of Darkness) (21 page)

Her heartbeat slowed and faltered. She weakly groaned her pleasure with one of his hard deep thrusts, and then she collapsed.
Dead.

He
pulled out, counted to ten, and then opened the valve. Shelby’s blood poured through the tubing into Caitlin. She was paler than usual but as the blood flowed into her, her coloring improved. While her veins filled with the female vampire’s blood, he tore open a wound above his heart with his nail, and forced Caitlin’s mouth to his chest.

Nothing. No response.

Was she too weak to swallow?

Damn. Had he waited too long?

Caitlin. Caitlin drink!

He shook her, put a drop of his blood to her lips, and massaged her throat. She hardly moved her lips, but it was something. She lived!

Then she swallowed and latched on to his chest, suckling his blood like a hungry babe. Her mind touched his, begging him to fill her—to be as one. Dylan inhaled a sigh of relief and drove into her, thrusting deeper and harder than before, encouraging her to take more.

This was pure bliss. This was what he’d been missing, the bloodlust he couldn’t share with her when he’d made love to her mortal body. The effect of having her lips drawing his blood into her pulled all the way to his groin, and he felt her pleasure as his blood and his cock filled her.

They could finally complete their bond—now that she was immortal.

Sharing blood with her was an aphrodisiac to his soul, and the promise of eternity with this woman gave him hope for the first time in his long life. Within moments, the erotic pull of her lips sucking his blood took him to the very edge of control.

Her soft hands stroked him until in her desperation she dug her nails deep. The tingling sensation climbing up his spine warned him before pressure behind his balls had him groaning for release. With her taste on his lips, her scent in the air, and buried to the hilt inside her, he desperately needed to come.

Driving into her faster and higher, he thrilled as she responded by taking him deeper with each thrust. Then she released his chest, screaming his name, this time
climaxing with her own pleasure.

Murmuring endearments into a kiss, Dylan stroked until her internal walls stopped milking him before he allowed himself to come. One desperate stroke, two, and he exploded inside her then collapsed
beside her.

With one leg thrown across his, she slept like the dead. No breathing, no heartbeat—but Dylan knew this death was the sleep of the newly turned. He rolled to his side and stopped the blood flow from his wound with his own saliva.

Gently brushing her stray hair from her face, he marveled she could be more beautiful than she’d been. Her skin glowed, and in sleep, she slowly transformed into what she would become. Like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, her full physical change would take almost two weeks. Her complete change could take several more weeks and a lot more blood.

Once he assured himself she was stabilized, he cleaned up, dressed, and prepared her for the trip to his home. Before he went for help to transport her, he took a moment to touch her mentally.
“
All will be well.”

A smile formed on her lips.
“I know.”

This joining
surpassed all others. He closed his eyes and prayed he’d done the right thing, because he believed theirs was a love for all time. No matter. He’d live with the consequences as long as he could keep her. Since he’d been the one responsible for the decision, the cost would be his to bear.

“Caitlin,
darlin’ lass, I’m taking you home.”

Sang
Froid Estate, outside New Orleans

Caitlin drifted in and out of the
cocoon Dylan surrounded her within for the next few days. But she was going stir crazy in the dark guest room and ready for a change of scenery. Their safe room was private and secluded from the rest of the estate, closer to the main living areas, but sealed from lights, scents, and sounds that would bother her new senses. It was a good to place for the new or injured to recuperate, but she was curious to see the rest of the place.

Everyone had left them alone
, and until tonight when he’d had the evening meal prepared for her, she hadn’t met anyone at the estate. After introducing her to the household staff, he took her to the dining room. “You handled everything well.”

“I think I’ll be okay.” The sounds and the mental thoughts were the hardest things to deal with because she had to block out s
o much more than she ever had before. All her senses were alive. Dinner had been gourmand’s delight. Her taste buds and sense of smell heightened her appreciation of everything. And later, after dinner, he’d promised her a tour.

“You enjoyed dinner.”

“I loved it. Wow, I’m so glad all those movies were wrong about vampires not eating. My taste buds are highly sensitive. It would have been a crime if I couldn’t enjoy food and wine. I know I ate like a truck driver.” She winked and laughed. “But I won’t get fat, and at least I didn’t eat the cook.”

“
Your injuries were so serious, you took longer to heal. Now that you have, you’ll be able to properly handle the
bloodlust
.” He rose and helped her up from her chair. His big hands splayed across her waist, bringing her up against his frame. “There’s so much more I want to show you.”

“
Great I can’t wait to learn everything and don’t get me wrong…I wanted to eat the cook, so you should be proud of me.”

Dylan’s eyes sparkled in the candlelight. “I’ll see you properly fed in a moment.”
His gaze intensified and he lowered his head to hers and kissed her on the forehead. He turned her away from him, wrapped his arms around her, his front to her back, and sniffed her hair. Softly he whispered against her ear, “Come with me upstairs, somewhere away from the staff so we won’t be disturbed, and I’ll show you.”

“
I want...” Suddenly his scent was all around her, his thoughts inside her head with visions of what he intended to do to her. Heat beat at her. The hell with the tour, she’d take it later.

“What do you want, Caitlin?” his deep voice rasped.

“You know.” The two words sounded husky when she spoke.

“Should I carry you
, or do you want to follow me?” His warm breath brushed her ear, sending shivers of pleasure up her spine, and when his teeth scraped down her neck, all her inhibitions disappeared. Lust came rushing to the surface.

A deep cough sounded behind them. “Sir, should we clear the table?”

“Yes, thank you, Andrew. We’re finished with this meal, and the staff is dismissed until morning. Thank you.”

He was right. They needed to take this somewhere private because with his erection nudging her ass, not only was his bonding scent filling the air, so was her own aroused
scent. Hell, she was so hot all she wanted to do was tell Andre to leave it for later so she could climb all over Dylan right where he stood, but something in her Virginia upbringing stopped her.

What sort of a first impression would that make?

Dylan bent his head over hers while he ran his thumb across her lower lip. “Gods, I can’t wait.” His tone was insistent. His chest rose and fell with his quickening breath, his words frantic, rough with arousal, and his eyes were heavy lidded with passion—his expression looked as desperate as she felt. Her pulse raced out of control. Too fast. Her breathing—too shallow.

H
er fangs descended automatically, this time without her thinking about it the way Dylan had taught her. In any case, she was soaked between her thighs and couldn’t take her eyes off the pulse at his throat.
Hunger.

He glanced at her mouth, then his eyes flashed gold with desire, and he gave her a knowing smile.
“Come.”

A
round the next corner and down the next hallway, he opened a door to an empty guest bedroom and led her inside. “Come in. This will have to do until the others leave.”

He didn’t exactly pu
ll her inside the unlit room. He crowded her body, leaving her no choice, no escape.
As if.

The door closed behind them, shutting out every bit of light. The lock clicked into place as Dylan’s body heat flooded her from behind.

She looked around and was surprised that her new vampire vision made out more in the dark than she expected.

He turned her to him and kissed his way down her neck, pausing near the low bodice of her dress. “Mmm, do you know what your scent does to me?”

“I think I have an idea,” she murmured into his hair and ground against his hard length. “But tell me, anyway.”

“Everything about you drives me mad with desire—the touch of your mind, your soft skin—so beautiful, so perfect.” He kissed his way back up her
neck, briefly pausing to nip at her pulse point, then brushed her lips with his.

The thigh he nudged between hers held her in place as he inched his hands up beneath the dress, exploring each anxious inch of flesh as he stepped back and bared it to his gaze.

“No underwear?” He groaned and his vampire eyes blazed gold in the dark. “Do you ever wear underwear? Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining. I’m sorry I waited this long to explore you.”

Caitlin was relieved the tiny dress wouldn’t take much investigating to reach all her intimate places as her core heated and her insides throbbed.

He growled deep in his chest when his hand cupped her soaking wet folds. “I never knew you would feel like this, all wet, hot silk, burning for me as much as I do for you. We are usually cold creatures, and yet with you, I’m hot.”

“No, Dylan. We’re hot for each other.” She ripped open his shirt. He was wrong about a few things, this three-hundred-year-old male who’d never experienced true love before.

“Right. We’re hot for each other. I want to touch you.”

How could she resist? Why would she? She stroked his thick muscled chest, noting the tense power beneath her fingers. “I think I want to touch you more.”

“Really?” he asked. “Help yourself.” He drew one of her hands to his groin. His erection was a huge, living, beating force within her grip. “Feel that? That’s nothing compared to what my heart feels for you, how my mind needs the touch of yours.”

What could she say to that declaration?
“Now touch me. I want your hands on me, too.” She could hide nothing from him, not with him in her head and his hands all over her. “So you know exactly how I feel about you, then? Right?”

“Right. And it makes me so fuckin’ hard
fer ye, lass.”

“Mmm, I love when your accent slips through. I know you’ve lost all sense of control with the burr in your words.”

He surprised her by lifting her by the hips. She wrapped her legs around his waist and held onto his broad shoulders as he moved her nearer the bed. He put her down and kneed her legs apart. She tried to hold back the groan when he pushed two fingers deep inside her.

“More, I need more of you,” Caitlin begged, her hot mouth open, fangs dropping back into place. “I want you inside me, deep, so deep, filling me.”

“You need not ask twice.” He lowered his mouth to her breast, took the nipple between his lips, and licked.

She couldn’t think of anything else but the pleasure. Her tongue tasted his neck, and her lips brushed his earlobe, her teeth nipping. “I want every inch of your skin against mine and the silky length of your hard shaft caressing my bare mound before you penetrate me. And then I want to take you, all of you, your blood an
d body as well as your mind inside me.”

A deep sound rumbled through him. “You’ve no idea what you’re doing to me.” He pressed her to the edge of the bed and drove a third finger inside her. He growled against her ear, “Putting your desire into words, just sent me to the edge.
Smell that? It’s the bonding scent. Much more of this and I won’t be able to wait. Make sure you want this now, because it’s the first step in the bonding ritual between life mates.”

Life mate.
If his rough whispered statement hadn’t been enough to send more flames licking through her body, the delicious scent he gave off and the rhythm of his blood pumping frantically beneath the surface of his skin would have been.

Any doubts Caitlin had about her transition,
and any concerns she had about adjusting to the blood exchange vanished. His need and heated haste made her want him more than ever—in every way possible. Not to mention how his desperate desire for her was a big turn on. She loved wielding this power. “Then. Don’t wait.”

If possible, he was
drawn even closer to her, in the very air touching her skin, in every breath she took. He lowered his gaze and took her in. “During dinner I imagined you naked beneath this dress, never actually believing you were.” He shook his head and smiled. “To think, I was this close to your flesh all evening and could have done this hours ago. I won’t make that mistake again.”

Running his hands over her shoulders, he linked his fingers through the straps, and pushed the material down her arms. “I need you naked
in my arms right now.”

The jersey-knit dress followed beneath his fingers. He tugged the dress down over her naked skin then the dress slid past her waist, over her hips, and dropped to the floor on its own.

He stared, his eyes caressing her as if he’d never seen her before. As she stood naked before him, he looked thunderstruck. “Did I mention I’m throwing away all your underwear? Anyone as beautiful as you are should never be covered. Besides,” he smiled when he stroked her breasts, “I want this kind of access to you always.”

Caitlin had to laugh. “There’s something to be said for easy access, but anticipation can be fun, too.”

When he started kissing his way from her ear down to her breast, the tip of his tongue tracing a line from point “A” to her nipple, she could hardly breathe. The shock waves went from her nipple straight to her core, reverberating, making her more aroused.

“What I need is flesh against flesh, your skin beneath my hands, and your thick length inside me.”
Her voice sounded ragged, gritty.

She longed to grasp that
special feeling of velvet on steel in her hand, of fine skin over powerful muscle, while his warm sweet blood gushed over her tongue. “Lose the clothes, big boy.” Caitlin’s breathless words made her feelings clear.

“What happened to ‘anticipation’?” Was that muffled sound him chuckling as he shucked his clothes?

“Maybe we can try it tomorrow.”

Soon silence replaced the sound of rustling clothes and the weight of his big, male body pressed against hers. “Good, because I have no more patience for ‘anticipation’ left in me.”

She moaned at his touch, relieved to have his large frame pushing her back into the mattress. If there was anything that felt better than a big naked man straddling her, resting his hips between hers with his weight on his elbows, she hadn’t experienced it yet.

He lifted her, as if she weighed nothing, to move her up higher on the bed, and then he spread her legs wider so she could wrap them around his hips. She dug her heels into his ass, holding onto his wide muscular shoulders and wondered at the size of him.

“
I guess wielding a broadsword back in the old days accounts for the muscles, huh?”

“Yes.”
Caressing her hips with his hands, he kissed her softly.

S
he was so aroused, she could hear her own heart beating in her ears, and then fragments of his thoughts seeped through.

Broadsword. Killing, Warrior.

“Dylan, kiss me.”

He increased the passion, and this time the kiss made her forget her concerns. This kiss was not patient or soft. No, his lips were hard and demanding, possessive—like the
man he was.

“Hot damn. Man, you sure know how to kiss.”

“Thank you, darlin’. Yer not bad yerself fer a beginner.”

A sense of his amusement trickled through his lust and the kiss gentled. Teasing her out of her concern
, he said, “In three hundred years, would you be thinkin’ I’d not practiced a bit?”

“Thank goodness for practice. Now you’re
almost
perfect and all mine to do with as I please.”

She sensed the gratification he derived from her response. With a tug on his hair, she pulled him away to take a good look at his expression. “Don’t look so smug. I said
almost
.”

He moved his hands into her hair, returning the teasing tug.
“Then pleasin’ you will be a goal I’ll be strivin’ to reach.”

Holding the back
of her head in the palm of one hand, he pulled her back into the kiss. The soft nibbles turned into a devouring kiss, until her breath hitched and her heart pounded, ready to explode. Barely taking time to catch her breath, she kissed him back.