Darkness In The Flames (20 page)

Adrian pulled her to him. “You were in my mind, Kat.
You
showed me how to be merciful. If it wasn’t for you, he’d be dead now.”

They both looked down at Arthur once more. Adrian wrinkled his nose. “And by God he tasted awful. Like a cheap wine that has soured.”

The sound of Katherine’s giggle brought an answering smile to Adrian’s face and he held her closer. “Father, I think it’s time my
wife
and I retired for the night.” Feeding from Arthur had been done in anger. The arousal he felt now was partly fueled by the blood, but mostly by the woman in his embrace.

“Oh lovely.” Sidney snorted. “And I’m left to clean up your mess, I suppose.” He sighed theatrically. “Such is the lot of a parent.”

Adrian shrugged. “Have Cheverly call a couple of our lads to take him to one of the St. Chesswell inns. He’ll wake on the morrow with a headache and a need to be gone from here. If I handled things correctly he’ll scurry back to his hole and not darken our doors again. If not…” He licked his lips. “Then I’ll finish it next time.”

“Hmm.” Sidney rang the bell for Cheverly. “I might toss one of my special brandies into his carriage. The one with the dash of laudanum in it. If he’s going to have nightmares, he may as well have a couple more to go with them.”

Adrian laughed. “Nice touch, father.” His gaze fell to Katherine, still standing comfortably in the circle of his arm. She blushed, as if knowing his thoughts stripped her clothing from her.

“We will see you on the morrow. There is much to settle now, I’m thinking.”

“Yes, very well.” Busy with Cheverly, Sir Sidney absently waved them away, and Adrian lost no time in sweeping his Kat from the room.

“To bed,
wife
.”

“Um, Adrian?” Katherine panted as she almost ran behind him. “Should we not discuss this?”

“Discuss what?” Adrian dragged her along, hurrying her into his suite and closing the door firmly as she stumbled over the threshold. “You’re my wife. You said so. I said so. Let’s go to bed.”

“But…” She tried ineffectually to bat his hands away as he quickly and efficiently undid her lacings and freed her from her clothing.

“But nothing. Your woman’s time is finished. There is nothing to bar our way.” He paused. “Unless you’re having second thoughts, Kat.”

Katherine looked at him, pushed his hands from her shoulders and finished dropping her undergarments to the floor. She stood nude in the rumpled silks and laces, proudly meeting his gaze.

She smiled. “I am not having much of any thoughts at all, right now, Adrian, save for one.” She lifted her hands slowly to her head and withdrew the pins securing her hair. In a cloud of red warmth it tumbled down her back, framing the whiteness of her shoulders and making Adrian’s mouth water.  “I need to tell you of my former life. I need to ask your forgiveness for the lies I have told.” She moved to the bed and sat down. “But I’m thinking such a conversation can wait.”

Slowly and with a degree of lasciviousness that made Adrian dizzy, Katherine lay back on the covers and relaxed. She let her legs fall apart naturally, the tuft of red hair topping her mound a brilliant jewel against the cream velvet of her hips and thighs.

Adrian easily slid from his own clothes. “I want to play with you, Kat.” His cock bobbed in agreement, hard and already moist with a drop of liquid desire at its tip.

“Then play, my love. I’m all yours.”

*~*~*~*

For a fleeting moment, Katherine wondered if she really was a wicked and wanton creature. Then she saw the lust and desire in Adrian’s eyes and thrilled at the knowledge she had put it there. This was not wicked, this was exciting. It was not wanton, it was loving. No matter what they did, whatever happened between them was part and parcel of that love.

She waited, the air of the room soft and cooling against her hot pussy.

Adrian’s gaze roved over her body, an arousal all its own. Her nipples beaded as he looked at them, and her sex throbbed with the knowledge he was looking between her legs. She didn’t care. Everything she had, everything she was, belonged to him now. She’d made that pledge before Arthur and Sir Sidney, and—in her own mind—God.

They were as good as wed. There was no going back. She needed this, needed to love him and to show him how deeply those feelings ran. Because when the night came for her to offer him more than just her body, she knew she was going to have a hard time persuading him to accept.

So for now, she would seduce him with her heart and her flesh. And hope that later on he would also willingly take her soul.

She was a little surprised when instead of joining her on the bed, he took a step back and crossed his arms over his chest, cradling his chin in one hand as if in thought. “Hmm.”

“What?” She colored a little as his thorough inspection continued unabated.

“I must consider this delectable treat that is in store for me.”

“Oh.” She blinked. “Must you?”

“Absolutely.”

A devilish smiled crossed his face. “Normally, I’d be inside you by now. My urges are not always this controllable. Especially where you’re concerned.” He moved to the foot of the bed. “But thanks to that worm Arthur, I’ve taken the edge off the blood hunger. I intent to enjoy the few benefits his foul taste has brought me.”

“Ah. So you won’t be—feeding from me?”

A fleeting frown creased his brow. “No, Kat. I will not risk you that way. I will not risk your immortal soul. I—I dare not.” He unclasped his arms and reached for her ankles, pushing them even wider apart. “But I can relish the sight of you. Drink your scent like fine wine. Savor your body. Taste your honey. I can do all those things.” He smiled once more. “And I will.”

Katherine closed her eyes against the fire that burned in his. Something about Adrian dragged away the years of schooling in what was “acceptable” behavior. With him, she could be the sensual woman she yearned to be.

“Oh good.” Two words. Two small words she could never have imagined herself ever speaking to a man under these circumstances. Two words that were the utter and absolute truth. She
wanted
him to do all those things and more. And she’d be there with him learning how to reciprocate. How to make love to a man with her heart and soul, not just her body. “Can I do them too?”

“I hope you will.” A rough note crept into his voice and he cleared his throat. “I sincerely hope you will.” He leaned against the bedpost. “Will you teach me about you, Kat? Everything there is to know about you. I want to give you pleasure and I need to know how.”

Katherine managed a snort. “I think you already do.”

“Not quite. I don’t know exactly where to touch you. How to bring you the most delight. Will you show me?”

She blinked. “How?”

“Touch yourself. Put your hands on your body and show me what excites you.”

“
You
excite me, Adrian.” Katherine stared at him. “You know you do.”

He smiled. “That’s good. But there is so much more. Just do it, Kat. It would please me greatly.”

She thought for a moment, not quite sure what he wanted. Then she realized. He hadn’t asked to see what
he
wanted, but what
she
wanted. With awkward moves, she lifted her hands and rested them on her belly.

The heat in his eyes told her she was on the right track.

“I don’t know…” She hesitated.

“Yes you do. Show me where you’d like me to kiss you.”

Slowly one hand rose to her breast, gently cupping it.  “Here?”

“Don’t ask. Show me.” He was insistent, leaning against the wood and staring at her with intensity. “Show me how you’d like my lips to touch you there. That spot where your skin turns to  dark rose and there’s a little center bud getting hard as you listen to my words…”

He was right.  Katherine’s fingers found her nipple beaded to the touch, shrinking and peaking as she moved her hand upwards, cradling the lush curve that felt strangely warm beneath her palm. It was an erotically charged sensation, multiplied ten times by the man standing and looking at her.

“How does it feel, Kat?”

“Strange.” She daringly squeezed her nipple between her thumb and forefinger. “Like…like…as if somebody is piercing me with a hot dart.”

“And where is the dart going?”

Once again she blushed as her other hand traveled down towards her mound and rested just above the curly hair. “Here.”

“There? Really?” She could hear the laughter in his voice. “I think you’re a little off…”

Katherine closed her eyes. She could do this, but not with the sight of him right in front of her. “Very well. Here.” And her hand slid between her legs, through the fronds of hair and to the hot folds of swollen and moist flesh.

“Ahh. Better.”

The bed dipped as Adrian’s weight shifted it. She sensed him between her outspread thighs. “This is treasure indeed.”

He placed his hand over hers and guided her fingers in between the folds. “Do you feel this, Kat?”

She snorted back a choke of disbelief. “Of course I do.”

“But do you feel the wonder of it?” He kept the pressure up, pushing her hand into and around her pussy, moving it gently and bringing a gasp of pleasure to her throat.

“Exciting, isn’t it? Arousing? Makes you feel wild and wanting and sends your muscles into a dance of need?”

“Yes. Oh yes.” Her buttocks clenched involuntarily and Katherine found her hips lifting off the bed a little as the feelings intensified.

“Don’t forget your breasts. Touch them both. Find what you like—do what you like. Help me learn
you
, Kat.”

He was continuing his instructions as he moved her hand, and Katherine fell into his spell, one hand seeking out her breasts, kneading, squeezing, lifting the curved weight high as her desire grew.

The other hand was being controlled, rubbing now, and Katherine let her fingers spread to drift over places that were hotbeds of sensitivity. One spot—yes
there
—and she gasped as her touch slid through her own slick juices over a small bud of lightning within the flesh.

“
Adrian
…”

“Yes, Kat,
yes…
” Adrian continued to force her hand into a ryhthm, a flow of sensation from his hand to hers to her pussy. “Let go. Give to me. Share with me…” His free hand grasped one thigh and pulled it even farther from the other, baring her and stretching her to her limits. The extra taut skin between her legs amplified the sensations he was urging her to release.

“Oh
God
…”

Frantic now, she found her own pace, almost angry when his hand didn’t permit her the touch she desperately needed.  It was a runaway carriage and Katherine could not even think of pulling her horses.

Her heels dug into the bed, her knees bending a little to take the strain. She was blind to everything but the welling volcano within her abdomen and the red tide burgeoning through her veins.

Suddenly her hand was torn from her body and before she could scream out her fury, it was replaced by something else.

Adrian
.

Thick and cool, his cock forced its way into her welcoming body, riding the high levels of arousal and taking over the thrusting movements, copying what her hand had been doing with the strong pounding of his hips. Now her entire lower belly felt him, and as his groin abraded hers to withdraw and then repeat the action, her inner secrets learned his hardness, solid and ridged within her, rubbing places that she could never have imagined being so sensitive.

“
Adrian
…” Katherine screamed his name, lifting her thighs to embrace his body against hers, pressing herself into his need and deeper onto his cock. She looped her legs around his waist, lifting herself to him, opening herself, giving him all she had and taking all he had to offer.

“
Yes, my Kat…yessss
…” He yelled back, his muscles tightly cording against her thighs.

She opened her eyes at the last moment, needing to see him, to watch him as they claimed the heights together for the first time. His face was lowered and he was staring at their bodies melding, parting and meeting once again. His weight was all on his hands, broad shoulders knotted with the strain, and his expression—he raised his gaze to meet hers.

There was a fire burning inside him, darts of light flickering behind his fathomless pupils. His fangs were emerging a little, shiny points gleaming white against his lips.

She yearned for his bite. She yearned for the sensation she knew his feeding would bring.

Then he thrust deeply into her burying himself to his balls and she lost the capacity to yearn for anything else at all.

She simply shattered.

*~*~*~*

Shards of ice that had formed around Adrian’s heart and soul cracked and fell away as Kat shuddered and screamed her way into release beneath him. He rode the bucking hips with fierce control, letting the waves of her climax flood the space between them and wash heatedly over his brain.

He felt her spasming around his cock every bit as clearly as he felt her mind soaring to indescribable heights, and the combined sensations tipped him over into his own orgasm. It had thudded against his balls with insistent demand the minute Kat had slid her hand to her pussy and built to agonizing levels as she’d aroused herself under his gaze.

He wanted to sink his fangs into her but knew he couldn’t. The knowledge was bittersweet but controllable, thanks to his earlier feeding. Instead, he focused on the woman—her responses, her cries, her scent, the indescribable joy of knowing he’d brought her to this peak. His woman was sobbing out her ecstasy beneath him, around him, within him.

It was pure bliss for Adrian, and he let himself fall into it head first.

And he drowned.

Drowned in her pleasure, her body, her sex. Drowned in the sensation of her muscles as they clung lovingly to his cock, draining it as he pumped himself into her, emptying his balls and his heart at the same time with a wrenching groan.