Undeniable (9 page)

He felt powerless, ensnared. Her bare leg slid across the
mattress toward him, brushed against the painful bulge of his cock in his jeans
and inflamed his need even as it soothed the pain. Her hands seemed to beckon
to him, coaxing him as they crept up, then down her thighs. His eyes burned,
but he didn’t dare blink and chance missing the moment her fingers sank between
her dewy folds.

Diego’s earlier words sliced through his passion. “We could
play with her a little before you do it. You’ve got her in such a deep sleep,
she’ll never remember.”

But he would remember. And he would never forgive himself.

He realized with a start that he had somehow climbed onto
the bed and now knelt between her legs, that he was bent so far over that his
mouth hovered mere inches from her glistening swollen flesh.

His mother had been right. Diana was her father’s ultimate
weapon, the one they’d all been trying to uncover. An enchantress, she could
lure them with nothing save the promise of her body. Pain lanced his heart.
Fear coiled in the pit of his stomach. He couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe.

His eyes took in the sight before him and, with a weary
sigh, he surrendered. If this was a trap, then a night in Diana’s arms would be
worth greeting the sun in Frank Nostrum’s pen.

She moaned as the warm air he’d held trapped in his lungs
fell upon her soft, quivering flesh. Closing his eyes and wondering if she
moaned for him or some dream lover, he delved into her mind, then nearly bolted
from the bed when he saw the vision that had enticed her. As if her eyes were
open, he gazed through them down along her naked length upon something Diana
had never seen and could not possibly dream about.

His face.

But what rocked him, what freed him from the web she’d
woven, was her conviction that he and only he would ever gain entrance into her
body and that once there, once she’d captured him, she would never let him go.

He started to back away, never expecting her hands to grasp
his head, never expecting her to drag it down so quickly and forcefully that
his lips met her wet, hot pussy before he could react. He drew in a deep,
shocked breath and was lost. Her erratic pulse thrummed beneath his lips,
calling to him, sending blood surging to his already engorged cock.

Control, ingrained in him from the last time he’d almost
drained one of the virgins his mother had brought him, crumbled when Diana’s
sweet nectar seeped between his lips. Without a moment’s hesitation, without a
care to the consequences or the approaching dawn and Diana’s father, Sebastian
ran his tongue down from her pulsating nubbin to her sweet entrance.

He covered her with his mouth, delved his tongue between her
labia and, encouraged by her ever rising moans, drew the satiny skin between
his teeth.

His hands crept up her quivering stomach, skimmed over her
ribs and searched until they found the soft swells that rose up to greet them.
Her pebbled nipples pressed into his palms. Cupping her breasts, he marveled at
the heat filling his hands. The pain in his cock grew unbearable as it strained
in the confines of his jeans. Sebastian ground his hips into the mattress to
relieve the pressure. Angry at himself and her, he took hold of her nipples and
squeezed them until he heard a soft whimper.

Her back arched up, then fell as her hips rose and slammed
her pussy into his mouth. He heard her heart thundering in his ears, sensed the
tension coiling deep within her core and knew that, while he could never take
her virginity as she slept, he could at least bring her to the climax she
strove so desperately to attain, one his bite would send spiraling out of control.
Yes, before carrying out her father’s punishment, he should give her one last
moment of ecstasy.

His fangs scraped along her outer lip, slightly piercing it.
The droplets of her blood mingling with her juices tasted like the sweetest
ambrosia. An alarm went off in his head, warning that soon he’d awake to find
himself bound and stripped in her father’s pen. No blood could taste this
sweet. No normal woman could create such an undeniable hunger. He was doomed.

He had to have more.

When her hips once again slammed her dripping pussy against
his mouth and her hands fisted in his hair, he sank the tips of his teeth into
her skin again, this time into the vein that lay just within her entrance. He
nearly roared out loud when her soft cry told him she wanted more, needed so
much more.

He drove his teeth deeper, then compelled her to stifle her
screams from the climax he felt racking her body as he fed his own voracious
hunger.

Her orgasm rocked him. The pain in his cock and balls
intensified while her blood warmed his body and sated his hunger. Her hands
released their grip on his hair and slid down to the mattress. Sebastian
squeezed his eyes shut and fought the consuming need to mate. He felt her body
relax as her desire ebbed. Now that he only had to deal with his own hunger, he
prayed he had enough control to deny it.

His heart slammed against his chest. He couldn’t move.
Couldn’t bring himself to rise and pass his blood to her, to leave and save
himself if indeed this was all a trap. He held his breath and waited for her
father to appear from the hall, the closet, the window, waited for her to open
her eyes and laugh victoriously as her father dragged him off.

Diana let out a satisfied sigh, raised her thigh and brushed
it against his cheek. When he scanned the house and discovered they were still
alone, relief poured over him, nearly cooling the fire still raging out of
control in his cock. She had somehow enslaved him, yet had not handed him over
to her father.

Logic demanded he accept this as proof of her innocence.

He licked the wounds he’d given her, then rose from the bed.
His gaze fell to the drops of blood marring the pure white sheet between her
legs.

“What have I done?” he whispered, wondering if his old
addiction to virgin blood and not Diana had overpowered him. He knelt beside
the bed and dropped his forehead onto his arm. His hands clenched the sheet.
“Diego’s right. I have no choice. If I fail, someone else will be sent tomorrow
night.”

Tears burned his eyes, tears for the woman who had swallowed
her own fear to help what she’d thought was a wild animal, for the woman who
could never harm any living thing, least of all sweet Marek.

The tears Sebastian had managed to restrain every time he’d
thought of facing eternity without Marek sprang free to join those for Diana. A
deluge of grief overwhelmed him. He pressed his mouth onto the mattress to
muffle the racking sobs he could no longer control.

Fingers tenderly weaved through his hair.
Don’t cry,
Sebastian. I can’t bear it.

His fangs dug into his lip, sending a fresh torrent of his
own blood into his mouth. Without uttering a word, she had spoken to him. Said
his name. Had she delved into his mind? Impossible.

He slowly raised his head, absently swiped the backs of his
hands across his chin and cheeks and prayed he would find her eyes open, her
lips moving. Her hand slid from his hair, brushing at the bloody tears still
streaming down his cheeks, yet her eyes remained closed, her breathing even.

Only one untransformed human could telepathically speak to
him, eavesdrop on his unshielded thoughts. Only his soul mate.

He must have imagined her voice. There was no way God would
choose the daughter of a vampire hunter as his soul mate. Unless he wanted him
to suffer a fate worse than eternal damnation in hell.

Staring at her face, he watched a tear escape from the
corner of her eye, felt his rejection wash over her and clench her heart in a
vise. His own heart stuttered.

He rubbed the tense muscles on the back of his neck and
recalled how Diana had managed to resurrect the memory of the scene at Cabana’s
that he’d compelled her to forget, how she’d always seemed to gaze wherever he
hid in the shadows. How they’d both so easily lost themselves in a mere kiss.

Could his mother have known that the woman she’d sent him to
destroy was his soul mate? His mother, transformed by one of Dracula’s spawn,
possessed untold psychic abilities and often bragged that she knew the identity
of a vampire’s soul mate as soon as he or she entered the world. Could her need
for vengeance be so strong that she would destroy her only son?

He brought the sheet up to cover Diana’s breasts.

His soul mate. A goddess who loved to dance naked beneath
the moon. A seductress who had raised her hands to the sky and called out for
his touch. Had he forced himself upon her tonight or had it been the other way
around?

He saw her lips quirk, realized he would have to guard his
thoughts around her, realized she had offered herself to him after hearing his
thoughts about her destruction. He couldn’t help but wonder why she’d trusted
he would not harm her. Other than the few moments they’d shared in the woods
that first night and their encounter in Cabana’s, she had yet to meet him.

How had she known that he could never harm his soul mate,
that he would rather face the sun than inflict even the slightest pain? Any
vampire, including his mother, would realize that his carrying out Nostrum’s
punishment would be suicide. His eyes burned. His mother had known when she
sent him here that once he gave Diana the scant drop she’d insisted upon he
would feel her pain tenfold.

And her hunger? To give a human soul mate the mere drop his
mother had insisted on would not bring about the slow, debilitating hunger he’d
been led to believe his mother had planned for Diana.

No. Because she was his soul mate, that drop would have
sliced through her veins and awakened an ancient hunger. If denied, that hunger
would unleash a torrent of pain too excruciating for a human mind to handle
without shutting down completely. But his mind would absorb it all and his body
would be crippled, useless. He doubted he would have had the strength to do
anything other than watch Diana suffer and wait for the dawn’s rays to enter
her room.

Neither one of them would have survived.

Why would his mother sacrifice him for Marek? Marek was not
her first. Marek had not shared nearly a century by her side. He wasn’t even
her son.

Shortly after Damien bonded with Olympia, he’d showed up
with Marek. Olympia told Sebastian the baby was the product of Damien’s failed
bonding with the human he’d thought was his soul mate. Olympia had only
accepted the baby into their family because Damien had threatened to leave if
she didn’t. Could she have grown to love Marek more than her own son?

He shook his head, clenching his teeth. His mother may be
deceitful, selfish and heartless, but she was still his mother. Even she
wouldn’t sacrifice her own son.

No, Diana’s ability to speak to vampires was a trick, or
worse, Frank Nostrum’s weapon. The strongest vampire would trust his soul mate
and follow her anywhere. He straightened his shoulders. It had to be a trick.
God, let it be a trick. His mother loved him.

My poor Sebastian. She couldn’t have known.
Still
sleeping, Diana clasped his hand and brought it to rest over her heart.
She
loves you. She must.

He yanked his hand away.
No!

Diana’s body trembled uncontrollably, terror nearly stealing
her breath away, yet he felt her heart breaking for him, for his torment over
losing what he now wondered if he ever truly possessed—his mother’s love. Tears
blurred his vision, veiling Diana in a crimson haze.
I won’t hurt you,
Diana. You have my word.

Dawn lurked behind the mountains, too close to their lofty
peaks. Tomorrow night he would find a way for them to meet. And if they were
truly soul mates—body, heart and soul—he would find a way to ease her into his
dark world and into a community of vampires who would rather face the dawn than
embrace Frank Nostrum’s daughter as one of their own.

He brushed the back of his fingers along her jaw. She
wouldn’t remember him, would think him absurd if he told her she’d spoken to
him as she slept, but he had plenty of time to bring them back to this moment.

He would take it slow; get her to accept him for what he was
before he ever touched her again. A chill ran down his spine. They were not
destined to share eternity together just because they were soul mates. Damien’s
soul mate had refused to give up her family for him.

Now, thanks to his mother, Diana’s first memories of him,
though buried deep in the recesses of her dream world, would include him coming
to destroy her. Hopefully, she would never uncover those memories.

Leaning over, he tenderly brushed his lips over hers. Her
mouth molded to his. The sudden desire to mate nearly overpowered him, but
logic and the need to look into her eyes when they first made love helped him
gain control. Pain from his gashed lower lip sent a jolt of terror into his
heart. Blood, his blood, smeared Diana’s lips. Before she could taste a drop,
he swept his tongue over her lips.

“That was close, goddess,” he whispered, smiling down at
her.

The futility of courting Frank Nostrum’s daughter struck him
as he gazed down at her angelic face. His kind would never accept her. She
would never accept him. Plus, he still had no idea if she knew of her father’s
crimes or helped him. No. Soul mates or not, they could never overcome their
differences, never trust enough to love.

He could wait until their paths crossed again, when her soul
dwelt in one he could trust, one whose father had not killed. It might take a
hundred years, a thousand. They may never meet again. Which meant he would
never know her touch, never again taste her sweet blood, never again hear her
silken voice in his mind.

Diana opened her mouth and drew in a breath as if she was
going to speak. He blinked away the crimson tears blinding him, then watched in
horror as one bloody teardrop landed on her tongue and slid down her throat.
No!