Elusive Hero: Invitation to Eden (Vampire Queen Series Book 12) (26 page)

It’s okay, my lady. I’m here. I’m here.

The way she kept catapulting into subspace so hard and deep, as if he were her oasis after decades in a desert, was the most amazing gift a sub had ever given him. He’d always known a sub’s trust to do that was a gift, but this was beyond that. It felt the way a miracle should.

She’d zoned down deep, so deep he kept rocking her for quite a while, until hard trembling turned to little jerks, twitches, the occasional vibration. Lifting her from the floor, he kept her cradled in his arms, and carried her to the workout room. He had a massage table here as well, since twice a month the island masseuse came and did therapy on him, ongoing maintenance for those old injuries. He preferred to do that in the privacy of his home, rather than the more public area of the island’s employee health clinic.

Hooking the table with a foot, he brought it out from the wall enough that he could move around it, lay her down. He eased her to a position on her stomach, put her hands down by her sides, spread out her ankles and used the slits in the frame of the table to bind both wrists and ankles, hold her there, just as he’d done at the club.

She could easily break the Velcro, but she needed the reassurance of restraint after that wild flight. Her fangs weren’t even fully retracted. As he bent to kiss her mouth, he teased them with his tongue. She made another of those incoherent sounds, and the points receded. He didn’t want her inadvertently puncturing those pretty, full lips.

She’d earned every bit of aftercare he could give her. He started to ground her once again with a full body massage, because it was clear she enjoyed aftercare. She needed to feel her Master’s hands on her, owning her.

It was one of the reasons he looked forward to doing it. A reminder that the session might be over, but her ass still belonged to him. As well as everything attached to it. He thought of what he’d written on her, still saw the evidence in partial scrawls and loops, though some of it had rubbed off as a result of their movements. Though he regretted having to wash it all off, he couldn’t take her to the lagoon pool that way. Moving to the open doorway of the bathroom, he kept a close eye on her as he ran a basin of warm water.

Coming back to her side, he wiped her down all over, every nook and crevice. When he put heated compresses on her anus and cunt, she made a noise of pleasure and languorous arousal both.

I don’t really need aftercare, you know. Vampires heal from everything, even strained muscles.

Even the words in her mind were slurred, but that she’d attempted communication said her disoriented mind was trying to grasp some sort of control. He wasn’t going to put up with that.

“Every sub needs aftercare, my lady. Now shut up, or I’ll gag you.”

He said it in a mild, gentle tone. She subsided with only a token sound of complaint, but enough to deserve a short pinch. After that, though, he massaged her neck, worked his way over her shoulders, her back, loosening the tense muscles. He’d coated his hands with a lotion that smelled like sandalwood spice, and she responded to that as well, inhaling it on a sigh. Every so often, she’d quiver under his touch, another reaction he savored. Hell, he savored everything she did, including the flow of her thoughts, so easy and uninhibited.

He was caring for her efficiently, confidently. Like he’d touch something, someone who belonged to him. She hadn’t felt like she belonged to anyone since Jared, but she remembered the way that felt.

It’s a fantasy. A fantasy that will have to last a lifetime.

The first part made him frown, then she spoke. Her words were still slow, dreamy, making him smile.

“Why did you say your eyes used to be blue?”

“The explosion affected the pigment in my eyes.”

“I saw the blue for a moment, at the docks. Like cobalt. Beautiful. You’re not very…tan.” Her eyes were half shut. “Not quite as pale…as a vampire, though.”

“Yeah, not quite that pale. Sunburn on the scars makes my doctor bitch. She and her latex glove scare me. So I stay out of the direct sun.”

Her lips curved. “Every man’s fear.”

“Not fear,” he said stoutly. “I’m just averse to having a doctor’s hand up my ass.”

“You don’t seem to worry about how I feel about it.”

“Master’s prerogative.” He leaned over her, taking a firm grip of one buttock. “I put my hands wherever I want and make my sub love it.”

She closed her eyes all the way, but that smile stayed. “Too full of yourself as is. Won’t…confirm that.”

“Ah, my lady. Your mind already did.”

“Cheater.”

“Again, Master’s prerogative. Any means, fair or foul, to make you surrender your soul.”

“You and Lucifer.”

“We text regularly.”

The banter said she was returning to earth, but he liked how she stayed relaxed, inside and out. He retrieved the bikini from the living room, satisfied to find the bottoms had been sufficiently soaked by her arousal before he’d removed it. That was the way he wanted them to stay. He lifted her up like a rag doll, all that lovely hair streaming over his arm, and made her hold onto him as he fixed the swimsuit back in place.

“Fran dresses me sometimes. For formal events.”

“It’s been so long since I’ve been to a formal event, my lady, you might be called upon to dress your Master if we go somewhere like that.”

The slip had cost him some ground. Her expression transformed to that wary, puzzled look. “I don’t think we’ll have to worry about that here.”

“No. Probably not.” That much was true. While the 24/7 area had a dress code, it certainly wasn’t black tie. He tied the gauzy wrap around her hips again, made her slide her feet back into the pretty rhinestone sandals. “If you want to take advantage of the bathroom, go ahead. I’m going to call Vardalos, check in with him about a couple things. Then let’s go for a swim.”

“Yes, Master.” She said it without thinking, caught herself, looked at him sidelong to make sure it was okay. Not because she regretted saying it.

Christ, if he was going to get an erection every time the word left her mouth, he’d need medical help before long. When he gave her a pinch, he caught the tiny smug smile on her lips. She’d probably dipped into his mind to be sure she hadn’t screwed up. Only the spontaneous response that crossed her mind saved her from punishment.

It makes me just as aroused to say it. Master.

Kaela sat on the lagoon’s edge, her pale body bathed in moonlight as she gazed around her. There were other swimmers, but unlike the busy pool where they’d met the obnoxious male, there was enough room to have privacy. Particularly since the design of the pool incorporated voluptuous curves, overhanging vegetation and Grecian pillars placed within its depths. The result was a variety of shadowed alcoves, and the few other bathers were like ghosts whose sensual utterances drifted down on the wind. Sometimes there were hushed gasps, and those silhouettes she detected seemed like one shape, undulating as they came together in the water, letting their desires and the surroundings take them over.

Her vampire senses let her hear, see and scent clearly what they were doing. Since her mind was open to him, Garron could enjoy the same. She liked giving him that. In her brief glimpses into his mind, she’d seen just how hard he had to work to see and hear, even with the help of the auras. He leaned against the pool wall next to her, his hand gliding up and down her calf, playing with her foot beneath the water. Her hand rested on his shoulder, flexing as she responded to the stimulation. After the earlier intensity between them, everything was like a lovely, slow moving dream. She never wanted the sun to rise again.

“Take off your top,” he ordered, low.

She didn’t even hesitate, and she felt his approval, the only light and warmth she needed. As she untied the top, pulled it free, he turned, putting his hands on either knee to spread her wider, move himself between her legs. His palms slid up her thighs, thumbs pressing into the crease between thigh and sex before curving behind her, down into the swimsuit bottoms.

She wished he hadn’t had to wash the words off her body. If a vampire’s flesh was painted with her blood, and then a severe enough wound was made through the thin coating of that blood, the wound could become a permanent scar, overriding a vampire’s fast healing ability. She wanted him to mark her like that somehow before she left. She thought of him carving
Mine
into her back with her blood, making it permanent. The necklace wasn’t enough. Nothing would be enough. She didn’t care about the risk to herself.

“Ssshh, my lady.” He nuzzled her breasts. “No thinking. Just focus on your Master and what he’ll demand of you.”

She wasn’t thinking clearly, but she didn’t have to do so. Her fingers flexed on his powerful shoulders, slid over them to the back of his thick neck as he captured one nipple in his mouth, started a leisurely suckle. He caressed the seam of her ass, tightened his hold. He took her into the water with him, folding her legs high on his waist so he could keep her where he could tease, lick and suck on her breasts according to his own pace.

She made a warm hum in her throat, folded her arms over his head, held him to her as he moved. At length, he drew back and merely held her, waltzing through the water, making circles and glides while she arched back to wet her hair. As he adjusted his hands higher to give her support, she felt his gaze all over her.

May I see what you’re thinking and seeing, Master?

Progress. You finally asked permission. Yes.

He was watching her hair wave beneath the water like a mermaid’s, just like he’d said he wanted to see it. When he brought her back up, she folded her arms around him again, her breasts brought to his hungry mouth once more. She shuddered, held him tighter while he pleasured them both. As he did, he kept slowly turning them in the water.

The only kind of dancing I do, my lady.

It makes it worth it to be in the water.
But she was okay with this, especially since it wasn’t over her head. As she’d told him, most vampires didn’t enjoy the weighted-down feeling.

He moved from her breasts to her throat, nuzzling, catching the choker briefly in his teeth before letting it go. “You had to take quite a few links out of this,” she observed, lifting her hand to toy with it. It amazed her, how much she loved wearing it. “Were you expecting a big woman to be your permanent sub?”

I love seeing it on you, my lady.
He lifted a shoulder. “When I’m choosing for myself instead of for the job, that’s usually my preference. I’m a bigger than average guy. Sometimes the slim little things make me feel the way I do around Chihuahuas. I’m certain I’m going to break a limb like a toothpick. A girl with meat on sturdy bones is a pleasure to top. I like smacking a wide, round ass. The breasts are total bounty.”

“So if it wasn’t for my strength, you might have passed me over as too skinny.”

“Well, you’ve got nice-sized breasts for your frame. I’d still have given you a second look. Maybe.” He grinned when she pinched his shoulder. Catching her wrist, he linked their fingers. “My lady, the only man who’d look at you and see something breakable would have to be blind. I’m mostly blind and I still saw all it, humming below the skin. The asshole at the pool sure saw it. I’m surprised he didn’t piss himself. Nice to know I can tell anyone who threatens me that my sub can totally kick their ass.”

She sniffed. “You look more than capable of fighting your own battles.”

“More progress. I think I explained that to you, didn’t I?”

She rolled her eyes. “I think there’s another reason you like a strong woman. You like pushing a woman physically.”

“I do. Maybe it comes from sparring in the military. There’s a rush to it, taking down an opponent but knowing it’s not real, though it’s done for real reasons. Touch of danger, competitive spirit, and a test of your reflexes and strength, all in one.”

“You knew what I was from the first, but when we fought, I didn’t sense any fear in you.”

He kissed the juncture of her shoulder and slim throat. “A soldier gets past that. It’s just a matter of getting the upper hand, and hoping like hell you’ll figure it out before the other guy does.”

She sobered, touching his face. “I could have killed you.”

“After almost two hundred years, I figured you had some self-restraint. You know how to get pissed without taking a life. Maiming, crippling, those are your middle grounds.”

As they drifted through the water, he kept them away from the other couples, eventually bringing them to a fixed point beneath the overhanging limbs of some kind of willowy fern with fragrant white flowers on it. Though they were shut tight for the night, the fragrance still permeated the air around them.

“You haven’t seemed surprised that I’m an overlord.” She curved her leg more securely over his hip, liking the way their bodies were locked together, so comfortably, yet with that low hum of sexual promise.

“There’s no surprise in finding a sub like you in a leadership position. You’re an aggressive overachiever. Service submissive so strong it’s like a super power. I know you have a cape and tights somewhere.”

He tugged her hair back, made her look up and notice the ceiling of flowers over her head. She reached up, enchanted with the burst of additional fragrance that a mere touch unleashed around them.

“Then there’s the vampire thing,” he continued. “You’re a predator, my lady. You don't stop being a vampire just because you also are a submissive. It’s probably why you’ve made it work as long as you have, but it’s the root of the conflict, too. Trying to reconcile being a strong predator with your submission. You’re a hell of an overlord because the submissive side of you works with people. You know how to figure out what people want, how to help them figure it out for themselves. But when push comes to shove, if you have to unsheathe your claws, throw down with another vampire to make things work out, you'll do that too. But that part's tough for you. I expect you get some type of physical reaction to those situations afterward. Panic attacks?”