GoodHunting (4 page)

“I shall never be afraid of you,” she said tenderly. “In
your arms, I am in the safest I ever am in all the world.”

Her sweet confession caught him off guard, and a smile
quirked his lips.

“Sweet words and longing looks aren’t going to get you out
of this, beloved,” he said, and before she could ask him what he meant, his
mouth crashed down on hers, his tongue spearing between her lips.

There was nothing sweet about it, it was only hunger barely
restrained. After a moment, she grasped his shoulders and pulled him even
closer. Her body craved his and she pushed up against him, nearly moaning in
her want.

Yet again, though, he pulled back, and as she watched, he
stripped off his belt with an unmistakable air of menace.

“You’ve kept yourself away from me too long,” he repeated.
“Don’t think you’ll be getting off so lightly.”

He doubled the belt between his hands and ran it along the
line of her jaw.

“Are you going to beat me?” she asked, and there was as much
anticipation in her voice as there was fear. The leather looked gorgeous in his
hands, its supple length sliding through his lean fingers, and she could
imagine the bright slash of pain as it cut into her most tender flesh.

Instead of answering her, he lashed her wrists to the bars
of the headboard, pulling the leather tight with a jerk that made her gasp.

She strained against it and thought perhaps she could break
free if she wished. Then she looked up at Daniel, who was shucking off his
shirt, and wondered why in the world she would ever want to.

“You’ve dreamed of me helpless under your hands,” she
whispered, arching her body up so that her breasts rose up out of her corset.
It made him pause as he stripped, taking in her creamy flesh and the way that
the restraints held her so taut and ready for him.

“Helpless?” he said. “I would never think you such.”

She started to reply, but then he was gloriously, splendidly
naked in front of her. Daniel was as perfect as a god risen up out of the dark
night to claim her, and when he ran a possessive hand up the curve of her
silk-covered calf, she could only hope that he found her acceptable.

“So beautiful,” he mused, quietly looking over her body,
“but still far too clothed.”

He rummaged in his discarded clothes for a moment, and there
was a beautiful little dagger in his hand, silver and studded with tiny red
gems that seemed to wink at Genevieve in the darkness. It was as wickedly sharp
as his teeth and Genevieve made a small sound when the tip of it touched her
bare ankle

“You’re entirely too dressed, my darling,” he murmured, and
there was a new huskiness to his voice when he slid the blade over her tender
skin.

She gasped at the freezing cold point of cold moved beneath
her drawers, drawing the hem up before slicing through the fabric and baring
her even further.

He kissed the curve of her calf before treating her other
leg to the same. His kisses raised lines of fire on her skin, something only
heightened by the touch of the dagger’s point and its frigid sharpness. She
tugged frantically at her bonds, desperate to touch him, and he pulled back
slightly, a smile on his face.

“So impatient,” he teased. “Restrain yourself, Genevieve.”

“How could I when you use your mouth on me so?” she
demanded.

The words were only half out of her throat, then there was a
whistle of air as Daniel cut her drawers from her with sudden, savage speed. He
had been a fencer in life and in death he had lost none of his speed or
accuracy. If he had been less precise, she would have had cuts down the lengths
of her thighs, but instead her drawers lay around her in shreds and her bare
legs were as pristine as new-fallen snow. Another few strokes of his flashing
blade made short work of the laces of her corset and she was naked before him,
bare and vulnerable, her breath catching in her throat at his strength and his
speed.

Her heart beat fast in her chest and he bent his head to her
thighs, kissing and licking up their length until his mouth was unbearably
close to her nest of damp golden curls.

“Bastard,” she moaned when his mouth stopped short of its
goal. “Oh bastard!”

He grinned at her fevered words and pulled back again,
watching her with avid eyes.

“Do you have any idea how much I want you?” he asked
quietly, and she blinked at him.

“What…what could you possibly be thinking of?” she gasped.
“You can see me like this, you can
smell
me, and you are still doubting
it?”

He shook his head, and for a brief moment, though she was
the one tied down, she thought he looked oddly vulnerable and naked. Instead of
lapping at her slit, he worked his way back up her body, nibbling and biting
with a tenderness that felt oddly new.

She knew that he had kissed her like this before, softly,
listening for her quiet sighs, but there was something strange about it as
well. They had been playing the part of hunter and hunted for so long that this
was as much new territory as it was a homecoming, and from the slight frown on
Daniel’s face, he sensed it too.

“What are you playing at, Daniel?” she asked quietly, and he
nuzzled the crook of her neck.

“Sometimes I don’t even know,” he admitted, and he lapped at
the soft skin there sweetly enough to make her whimper.

He plucked her nipple between two fingers, drawing it hard
and sharp before laying his mouth over the peak. She remembered how sharply she
had bitten him in the same place back in Paris, but he seemed uninterested in
paying her back. Experimentally, he flickered his tongue at the tip, and when
his reward was a thrust of her hips and cooing sound of pleasure, he did it
again.

Daniel moved from one nipple to the other, and then
Genevieve gasped when his fingers caressed the side of one breast. She was
sensitive there, almost ticklish, and she was quite certain that he had never
touched her exactly like that before. Even a gentle tickle of his fingernails
made her squirm, and when he bent down to lap at the silky skin, Genevieve
actually squeaked.

“How have I known you so long and not known this about you?”
he mused, and Genevieve only whimpered, needing more.

Genevieve felt some of the urgency drop away from him, and
he made an exploration of her body with his hands and his tongue. He dragged
his rough palms down her sides and then down her thighs. He fit his hand to the
curve of her thighs, and he gently stroked the soles of her feet, making her
toes curl with pleasure.

With a fascinated expression his face, Daniel massaged the
soles of her feet, digging his thumbs into her hard heels and the tender arch,
pulling each toe one by one. This brought groans of pleasure from her, and he
chuckled.

“What in the world are you doing, Daniel?” she asked,
breathing hard.

“We’ve been playing this game for so long,” he said softly.
“Sometimes, I think we have forgotten things that we should not have
forgotten.”

Daniel crawled on top of her, stretching his length out on
top of her body but supporting his weight on his forearms. They were nose to
nose, and he leaned down to kiss her.

She lay quiet underneath him for a moment, returning his
kiss almost chastely, and then, with a catlike quickness, she bit his lower lip
hard enough to make him draw back with a curse.

“Never think that I am harmless,” she said, laughing, and he
grinned.

“Vicious little cat!”

He paid her back by knotting his hand in her hair and
pulling her head to one side. This time when he brought his mouth to her
throat, he did it with a bite, one that stopped just short of breaking skin.
She cursed him roundly, but she would have killed him if he had stopped. He did
it again, drawing hard on the skin. When he pulled back, it was already
purpling, and he smiled savagely.

“You really don’t know when to keep your mouth quiet, do you
love?”

She started to reply, and instead, he pressed two fingers
into her mouth, watching with fascination as she first bit them gently and then
started to suck.

She ran her red tongue over and around his fingers, and she
fluttered her eyelashes at him.

“Go on, put it in my mouth and see how you like it.”

He raised one dark eyebrow at her taunting words. For her to
put her mouth on his cock would have been an act of dominance on her part, to
take the most vulnerable part of him with the most dangerous part on her own
body. The idea of dominating him thrilled her, and she waited to hear what he
would say.

“I would like it all too well, I’m sure,” he said, and pressed
his fingers back in as leaned down to bite at her nipple again.

He lay square between her legs now, and she could smell her
own arousal. It soaked into their skins, powerful and musky, and against her,
his cock throbbed. He wanted her, he craved her, and she did not understand why
he was being so slow.

“Do I please you?” he asked.

Genevieve knew that no matter how hard she swore or twisted,
no matter what she threatened, he would not be satisfied or allow her
satisfaction until he heard what he wanted to hear.

Even so, her answer was slow to cross her lips, and
displeased, he ran a finger over her aching flesh, sliding a roughened digit
into her slit and caressing the straining nubbin he found there. Her words
turned into a gasp and when he slid a finger into her aching warmth, she keened
like a banshee.

Just as quickly, he drew away, leaving her wanting more,
desperate for it, and she turned frantic eyes to him.

“Tell me I please you,” he said coaxingly. “Tell me you want
me.”

“I want you, oh God above, I want you!” she cried. “More,
please, give me more, Daniel!”

The words tumbled out of her mouth and she begged him,
utterly shameless in her need for him. She needed him on top of her, inside
her, and she felt as though she might go mad if she could not have him.

Once she had given in, Daniel was merciful. He stretched his
full weight on top of her, resting his naked body between her legs. His cock
was hard and pressed against her, but instead of giving her what she wanted, he
circled his hips over her until she nearly wept with frustration.

“Please, Daniel?” she whispered.

With a gentleness at odds with her bound hands and his sharp
teeth, he leaned in to kiss her while parting her legs with a questing hand. A
few strokes of his fingers brought her to a perfect arching longing, and she
felt the wide tip of him pressing her open.

“No more teasing,” she groaned, “I cannot take it…”

His laugh was hoarse, and she knew suddenly that this was no
easier for him.

Daniel thrust into her body slowly, letting her feel the
heat of him and the width of him. It wasn’t until he was fully seated inside
her that he kissed her wanting mouth.

“I’ve waited too long for this to be over so soon,” he said
huskily.

He started a slow, driving rhythm that made her bring her
legs up around his waist, and urge him deeper. He leaned down to kiss her, his
kiss as deep and powerful as his thrusts, and she moaned her desire into his
mouth.

Genevieve felt how sharp his teeth were and when he lifted
his head for a moment, she turned her head to one side. She had no coquettish
words to offer him. All she could do was bare her neck to him as a mark of her
desire and her submission.

For the first time, his rhythm faltered, and his breath
caught. He gave her no moment to regret her action, however, and his mouth was
at her throat. At first he only licked the graceful line of her neck tenderly,
teasing the sensitive skin there in a way to make her moan.

With no warning, he struck, and she moaned deep and low as
his sharp fangs pierced her skin. There was a moment of aching sweetness and he
pushed into her body more frantically, driving into her even as he drank her
blood.

Nothing is more intimate than this
, she thought
wildly, and she could think no more because his motions and the delicious, sharp
pleasure he was inflicting with his teeth was driving her higher and higher.

Genevieve threw her head back, keening out loud, and her
climax took her. It was like burning to ash and being reborn, and her body
shook as if it would tear apart with pleasure.

She was distantly aware that Daniel was still moving between
her legs, and he tore his mouth away from her throat and stiffened above her,
his seed pouring into her body in a rush as hot as the hunt.

My blood is in his mouth, she thought with dreamy wonder.
He climaxed with the taste of my blood on his lips.

He dropped his head to her breast for a moment, but then
rolled away. Gentle hands released her wrists from the belt and Daniel gathered
her into his arms. They were quiet together for several long moments, and
distantly, Genevieve heard a gondolier’s cry for customers and the howl of a
lonely city dog. Daniel’s hand came up to stroke her face, and Genevieve bit
his finger playfully before kissing it.

“Such a lesson you have taught me,” she said teasingly,
nuzzling into his chest. “Surely, I’ll never defy you again.”

“Hmm, if you never defied me again, I don’t think I would
recognize you at all,” Daniel retorted.

There was a faint chill in the room, and he gathered her a
little closer. She was warm and soft in his arms. He wondered what kind of girl
she had been before she was turned, if she had ever lain in the arms of a lover
while she was still alive, and whether there was a man who had wept to see her
die. She shivered, and he pulled the sheet up over her shoulders. It would take
more than a little cold to hurt her, but the gesture pleased him and she
cuddled closer, purring like a kitten.

It was a rare moment of peace for them, and her little pink
tongue lapped at the base of his throat.