The Purest of the Breed (The Community) (38 page)

She blinked. A…? “Lord, something else?” She pressed a palm to her forehead. “Was
that
in the manual?”

He tried to smile, but it wobbled off his mouth. “P-probably not. D-doesn’t tend to be an issue. Everyone just…you know.”

Has sex
. She set the wine bottle down. “All right, we need to get busy. Quickly, by the looks of it.”

“I don’t want it to be b-b-bad.” His teeth clattered together a couple of times.

“Jesus, Dev. At this point, that’s hardly the primary concern.”

“And I u-u-upset you.”

“Not on purpose. And it’s upsetting me more to see you suffer.” His body language was getting really weird, like he was on the verge of crumpling in on himself. She marched over to the bureau. “Come here and take me from behind. That’s the quickest way to get it done.”

“S-such a s-sweet-talker, you are.”

“We’ll worry about making it pretty later. Come
here
.” Hiking her bathrobe up around her waist, she turned toward the dresser and planted her palms on top of it, presenting her naked hind end to him.

A breath came out of him, a catch of air that turned into a deep growl.

She shivered. Okay,
soon
, she needed to get used to those animal sounds he made. “Don’t get shy on me now, Vampire.” She arched her back and lifted her rump, offering him a better view of her lady parts.

He was on her so fast she had to stifle a gasp. How the devil did the man move that quickly?

His strong hands grasped her waist and pulled her back against him. She felt the heat of his hard length brush across her bottom, and she squeezed her eyes closed as the wide head of his sex found her entrance. He plunged inside.

A sharp, barbaric howl came out of him, his body spasming so hard, he stumbled slightly sideways.

She exhaled raggedly and flexed her fingertips into the top of the bureau. The depth of his penetration was unimaginable. Thank God, his Fiinţă had prepared her sheath, or what might’ve been painful was only uncomfortable.

Hissing, he scrambled to right himself, then surged into her, setting a crazy tempo. The power of his pistoning hips jerked her chin up and down and clacked her teeth together. The pleasure rumblings in his chest were volcanic. She stared at a torn piece of wood veneer on the dresser and forced deep, even breaths.
Just ride it out
… God, the man was fricking huge.

She nearly sagged in relief when she felt him stiffen. A sound of utter astonishment tore out of him as his hips made a final, jerky push against her. His fingers dug into her flesh and a guttural roar of completion filled the bedroom. He collapsed on top of her, winded, shaking and sweating, his heart hammering against her spine. After a moment, she heard him gulp, then he raised himself slowly off her, a hand set on her lower back, and pulled out.

She straightened and let her bathrobe fall back into place, turning around in time to see him sit down heavily in the folding chair across the room, his jeans half-buttoned closed.

The other chair was by the bureau, and she perched herself carefully on the edge of it, her hands cupped together in her lap.

An awkward silence sank down between them.

“So I suck in bed,” he said at length. “There have to be worse things than that, right? Ah, fuck.” He leaned forward and slapped a hand over his face. “Somebody just stab me in the throat.”

“You don’t suck,” she said quietly.

“Really?” His eyes flew up. “You enjoyed that?”

“That was just the mechanics of sex, Dev. We weren’t sharing our love, so it wasn’t good or bad, it just…was what it needed to be right then.” She scrubbed a hand over her cheek. “This is my fault, honey. That was your first time, so it was my job to make it go smoothly. Instead, I didn’t keep my wits about me, so I ran from you, pushing you into a predatory state, and then made you go into a half-bond on top of that.”

“Shit, Riss, the Vârcolac culture is totally new to you. You couldn’t have expected to know all that crap was going to go down.” He flung a hand out. “Especially because that fucking manual is a work in progress.
I’m
the one who should’ve kept my head on straight.”

She gazed at him, and a slow smile spread across her face.

His eyebrows inched up. “What?”

“We’re sitting here arguing about who’s more to blame.” She chuckled. “We can’t be in too much trouble if we’re doing that, right?”

Dev hesitated, then snorted. “I suppose not.”

She stood up and crossed the space between their two chairs, lowering into a kneel in front of him. She set her hand on his knee. “
Now
we’re starting over.”

“Ah.” His lips twisted. “Nice to have that clarified.”

“You and I…we’ve always known how to have a good time together, so let’s do that. What do you say we hop in the shower, suds each other up, and show each other what we like?”

He searched her face for a long moment.

“Doesn’t that sound like fun?” she asked.

“Yeah, but…are you sure?”

She squeezed his knee. “Never more.”

Chapter Thirty-eight

Luvera hugged the Lalique crystal swan bowl against her breasts and looked around her apartment, trying to decide where to put it. On the standing bookshelf next to the Swarovski crystal swan figurine Alex had given her yesterday? Or on the coffee table beside the ceramic vase with a hand-painted swan on it which he’d given her the day before? She sighed a soft breath. In the ten days since the Tribunal had ended, Alex had been coming by every day to give her a present and ask her out. So far his gifts had all been swan themed.

Swans mated for life, he’d told her with one of his charmingly goofy Alex smiles.

No hidden subtext there, right?

Luvera bit her lips together. He was so danged chipper about her rejections, too, that was one of the worst parts. No long face. No attempt at a guilt trip.

“Okay,” he’d say, still smiling. “I’ll be back tomorrow to ask you again.”

Why she didn’t tell him not to bother, she didn’t know, except for the obvious part that she loved seeing him. Which was unfair of her. She could never be with Alex, no matter how much she yearned to say yes to him. She’d made her bed by blood-claiming another man with that Blood Ride. It didn’t matter that she’d bound herself through a cultural stricture rather than a physical one, she still had to lie in her consequences. Forever. Alone.

Tears climbed up the back of her throat.
Stars, not again
. She wept so easily these days. But then, she’d been on one heck of an emotional rollercoaster ride for quite some time, struggling through the long recovery from the aftereffects of that Blood Ride with Shọn, discovering the Nichita family’s dirty secrets, being smack in the middle of the life-altering event of moving into her own place—her mother had kicked her out of the house the day after the Tribunal, though kindly—and all of that topped off with Alex’s heartbreaking pursuit.

Thank goodness for Jennilĩth. Her new roommate had been an incredible support during—

Someone knocked on the door.

Crud
. She wasn’t in the mood for visitors. Setting the crystal bowl on the coffee table, she wiped her eyes with the heels of her palms as she crossed her living room. She opened the door, and a surprised breath escaped her. “Shọn.”

His black eyes were turbulent, and his body looked spring-loaded inside his black T-shirt and jeans, all rigid muscle poised to strike.

Oh, boy
. She tightened her hand around the doorknob. Dealing with Shọn in a bad mood
definitely
wasn’t on her wish list of things to do right now. “What do you want, Shọn? This isn’t a good time.”

“Apparently no time is good for you, Luvera.” He shoved passed her into her apartment, jerked the door out of her hand, and slammed it shut. “I’ve had my dick on ice for over two weeks now, waiting for you to come by and finish what we started.”

A knot of shame curdled in her stomach. “Shọn, no. We can’t…mess around anymore.”

“That’s awfully damned selfish of you, don’t you think?” His shoulders hunched up beneath his tight T-shirt, somehow making him look more threatening than usual, which was quite a feat by Shọn standards. “You got your fun. I want mine.”

“No, you don’t, I’m telling you. Blood Rides are
awful
.”

His upper lip tugged upward. “It didn’t seem so awful when you were wriggling against my face.”

“For heaven’s sake!” She felt herself blushing to the roots of her hair. “Could you please not talk about it like that, and I meant
afterwards
. Ingesting the blood of someone who’s not your mate is like poisoning yourself. You’ll feel miserable for weeks, I swear.”

“Your concern is touching. But I think I’ll worry about taking the hit later and get my jollies now.” Grabbing her by the arm, he hauled her, stumbling, to the couch and shoved her down onto it. He planted himself right in front of her, his crotch at eye level.

Her belly clenched and hot prickles ran the length of her spine. “Shọn, stop this.” She tried to get to her feet.

He pushed her back down, retaining a hold on one of her wrists. A knife appeared in his hand, and with a quick slash, he cut across her inner forearm.

She gasped as blood welled in a thin line across her skin, bright red drops dribbling down her fair flesh. The rich, molasses-thick scent of it filled the air, and a tremor raced through her upper jaw. She yanked at her wrist. “I said,
stop
. I don’t want to do this.”

Shọn stared down on her with merciless eyes. “Did you or did you not come when I ate out your pussy?”

Mortification flushed her cheeks. “Would you quit being so disgusting!”

“Is it or is it not fair that I receive the same consideration?”

“I—” The rest of the sentence died on her tongue. She didn’t have the strength to feint and parry around Shọn’s manipulations anymore. Emotionally, she’d already been run over by a truck. Maybe two. She had no idea what the rules of an illegal Blood Ride were. On some twisted level, it probably was fair to give him a turn, she…just couldn’t do it, not after learning she was the product of an act her mother hadn’t wanted. Not after realizing how badly she’d messed up her life by being a doormat. If she’d had an ounce more bravery, maybe she wouldn’t have hidden her true feelings for Alex behind a guise of friendship and instead, encouraged him to ask her out before she’d irrevocably wrecked everything with that Blood Ride.

“Perhaps it is fair, Shọn,” she granted him. “But I’m sorry, I just can’t. It messes me up too much being with someone who”—
I don’t love
—“who’s not my mate. You, too, I think.” Truth was, she’d never seen him like this. This was more than just his usual heartless manipulation. This was outright belligerence.

“Nice speech.” He sneered. “Now suck my dick.” With his free hand, he wrested his pants open.

She didn’t wait to see what he’d exposed. She shot off the couch and slammed her hands into his chest, shoving him backward. “That’s enough!”

He staggered back two paces, caught his footing, then leapt at her.

She kicked out at him, aiming high for his testicles. A mistake.

Shọn hooked her heel with his palm and jerked upward.

She flipped off her feet and crashed onto her back.

Shọn jumped on top of her.

Her fangs shot angrily into her mouth. “No!” She lashed out with a clawed hand. Her nails caught his cheek, raking scratches across his flesh.

He growled. “I’m
this close
to punching you in the face, Luvera.” His upper lip peeled back from fully extruded fangs, long, white razors gleaming murderously in the lamplight. “You’ve already blood-claimed me. Why are you fighting finishing it?”

She grabbed fistfuls of his shirt and straight-armed him off her body. “And be obliged to you for feedings for the rest of my life?” she grated. “I’d rather die, you demonic piece of trash!”

“Brings a man tear to my eye, really it does.” Locking her body between his hard thighs, he seized the arm he’d sliced, his fingers like metal pincers around her wrist, and latched his mouth onto the cut, sucking greedily at her blood.

She screamed when a fang indented her skin. The idiot was going to bite her! She head-butted him in the nose, hearing the solid
thump
of bone on bone. Her eyes crossed and mini meteors streaked across her vision.

She heard Shọn grunt and felt him wobble.

She thrust her arm out to the side and her fingers found the leg of the standing bookshelf with the Swarovski swan on it. She wrenched hard, bringing it crashing down on top of them.

It knocked Shọn sideways.

She kicked the rest of the way free and scrambled to her feet, running for the door. Panic locked off her throat when she heard Shọn right behind her. He’d catch her before she made it outside! Her gaze zeroed in on the alarm button on the wall to the left of the doorjamb. Leaping through the air, she slapped her palm against the button just as Shọn caught her by the arm and jolted her backward.

His fingers gripping her shoulders to the bone, Shọn glared at the flashing yellow light: the community’s 911 system. At this very moment an emergency signal was being sent to the computer command center in the mansion. From there, the warriors on duty would be notified of trouble in her apartment.