Immortal Craving (Dark Dynasties) (28 page)

And still, he hadn’t been able to save them, or himself. But he had saved Bailey. Bailey, who gave everything and asked only for what scattered pieces of himself he’d been able to salvage. He could refuse her nothing… not when she was the only person in the world he truly cared about.

It was such a relief to stop fighting what he wanted and just give himself over to feeling.

In an instant Tasmin had taken back the advantage,
flipping her onto her back and pinning her down just as she had done to him.

His eyes drank her in, laying beneath him with her hair spread around her like a nimbus of light. She was perfect and proud and fierce—she was everything he would wish for in a mate, he realized. A lioness in every sense.

And he was falling, so hard and fast he couldn’t find a foothold to make it stop. His feelings for her roared through him, until he could no longer deny what they were. Tasmin’s hands tightened on her wrists, possession of an infinitely more pleasurable sort. The knowledge of what he might have had with her nearly broke him.

Bailey was his match, what the Rakshasa would have called his One. Somehow, in all this misery and darkness, he had stumbled across the woman made to fit him.

It was why he couldn’t let her be.

Why he would pine for impossible things until he breathed his last.

“Tasmin?” Bailey’s voice, breathless and thick with passion, drew him back to her. There was a question in her eyes. He wasn’t ready to give her the words, not until he weighed whether they would do more harm than good. But he could tell her so much without saying a single thing. For now, he would make that be enough.

Their eyes locked, and he could feel her blood in his veins, pulsing in time with his heart.

Instinct, far more ancient than he was, had Tasmin leaning down to rub his face against her cheeks, as though he could mark her with his scent as a lion would. Bailey arched her neck, pressing into him. She spread her legs wider to fit his hips against her more fully, and he rocked hard into her, making her gasp. When he pushed forward
again, he shivered at the friction between them, making his cock throb.

He groaned as he thrust against her again, burying his face against her neck.

“I wish we were back in the Gir,” he breathed. “I dream about chasing you through the trees. About what I’d do when I caught you.”

“Show me,” Bailey said. She was already tense beneath him, her breathing quick and uneven. “Show me what you think of doing to me.”

He raised his head to look into her eyes and saw nothing but desire, trust. He knew what he wanted—he’d imagined it with her a thousand times. He’d heard enough in his years among his pride brothers to understand that the things he imagined were common, if not to the taste of every woman. Now that he’d experienced lovemaking, he knew his inclinations still ran the way most of the Rakshasas did—a little wild.

He just wanted to be sure it would make Bailey hot too.

As a test, knowing they could communicate without words now that they shared a mark, he opened his thoughts and let her see an image of what he imagined. Her eyes lit up, and she licked her lips.

“We don’t need to be in the forest for that,” she breathed.

“Then… get up,” he said, sliding smoothly off her. Tasmin stripped off his shirt, his jeans, his eyes never leaving Bailey. In less than a minute Tasmin stood naked before her, watching as she slid the silk robe from her shoulders, then pulled the thin nightgown up over her head. He sucked in a breath as she tossed it aside and her hair tumbled back around her shoulders. He loved the way she was
built, the high full breasts, the flat stomach with the cup of a navel that begged to be licked, the flare of her hips. The round little ass he’d imagined nipping more times than he could count.

Her chest rose and fell with every breath as she watched him, nerves and desire tensing her body.

Then she grinned at him. “Catch me if you can,” she said, and leapt away from him, sprinting into the bedroom. His blood was up instantly, and he gave chase, the need for the hunt taking over.

She was able prey, as he’d known she would be. Tasmin raced after her, but she managed to stay just a few steps ahead, leaping nimbly over the bed, leading him on a merry chase back through the sitting room, around and around the cavernous bedroom. All his troubles, everything vanished but the two of them, and for the first time in what felt like centuries, his heart lightened. Tasmin laughed when his fingertips brushed the flying tips of Bailey’s hair, and she yelped, not yet ready to give up. She bolted to the side, then made a run at the bed again to use it as a springboard.

This time, though, he was ready to move in for the kill. When she leaped, he pushed off from powerful thighs and caught her to him in midair. They landed in the center of the big bed in a tangle of covers, and he rolled with her, grappling for position. Bailey growled and snapped, letting the beast in her play as rough as it wanted to.

He flipped her beneath him, and an instant later she’d wrestled him back onto his back again, teasing his cock when she’d try to straddle him and keep him down. Every accidental brush between her thighs told him how wet and swollen she was, and the scent of her arousal hung thick
in the air. It made him want to press his face between her legs and lick her until she screamed.

An excellent idea for later.

Tasmin nipped the sensitive place between Bailey’s neck and shoulder as he wrestled her beneath him once more, pressing her stomach to the bed while she bucked beneath him, trying to escape. This time, though, he managed to get a grip on her hips, lifting them just enough so he could drive into her from behind, burying himself fully in her tight wet sheath in a single movement. His mouth opened in a wordless cry. Nothing had ever felt better than this. Nothing.

He heard her cry out, and his sexual haze lifted enough to form words.

“Bailey?”

“Don’t. Stop.” Her voice was harsh and muffled by the sheets, but there was no hint of anything but need in it.

Tasmin obliged, rising to his knees and taking her as hard as he’d imagined. He slammed into her, dizzy with raw pleasure as Bailey tightened around him with every stroke, her increasingly loud cries urging him on along with every sharp slap of skin against skin. He gripped her hips tight while Bailey’s fingers wound in the sheets, hanging on.

He could feel her start to pulse around him, could feel her quivering as she got close to the edge. Every stroke pulled him closer to climax. Everything fell away until all he could do was feel Bailey around him.

Her inner muscles clenched and she arched her back, surging against him, her voice half-roar as she came. That was all it took for Tasmin to find his own release, stiffening as he poured himself into her with his own roar.

When he could breathe again, Tasmin sank to the bed, wrapping himself around Bailey’s limp body and curving himself against her back. He loved being fitted against her this way, so he could enjoy her warmth and nuzzle into her neck, breathing in her scent.

“Did you like that?” he murmured, nibbling at her earlobe.

Bailey made a sound that was something like a word, but mainly a noise in the affirmative. Tasmin smiled and rubbed his nose against her hair. He’d take it.

He dragged the covers over the two of them, determined to do as Bailey had asked and think of nothing more than being here, being hers. This moment was far too good to allow anything to spoil.

If he was lucky, he might get more of them. Right now, that was enough to leave him content.

So thinking, he wrapped his arms around Bailey and fell deeply asleep.

Y
OU CAN PRACTICE ON THEM
.”

“No I can’t.”

“They’re not going to notice.”

Bay sighed loudly. She was perched on a stool at Mabon, Anura’s club in the city. Hidden in the basement of an old building with an entrance tucked down an alleyway, one could only find Mabon if they knew where to look.

Neither she nor Tasmin had, but Anura had been very helpful in giving directions. And truthfully, Bay had been excited to get out. They’d been in Chicago nearly a week, and as Vlad’s house filled up with visitors, leaders of the dynasties, friends, and contacts from all over the country, it was beginning to get a little claustrophobic. Not to mention the tension levels, which made everything seem closer. Bay wished there were something she could do to make Lily smile again. But it didn’t seem like anything was going to do that until this was all over with.

So she settled into what passed for a routine, and tried to learn the things Tasmin decided to instruct her on. That was, when he wasn’t diverting her with… other things. He had quickly turned into what Bay thought of as the very definition of a demanding lover.

She was enjoying every second of it.

Unfortunately, they weren’t in bed right now, and Tasmin had decided that a relaxing evening at a club was a great time to practice taking mental potshots at unsuspecting vampires. The change in him still amazed her. He’d actually done as she’d asked and stopped skulking around as though he was expecting his impending doom to arrive any minute. While he wasn’t exactly outgoing around the other vampires, he was at least more comfortable.

To her surprise, so was she. She was still no more a Lilim than she had been when she’d been human. She still had a life in Tipton that she’d been torn from, the trappings of which were still sitting there, waiting and dark. But now that she understood how fiercely Lily had been trying to protect her all this time—not to mention from what—the gulf between them had quickly closed to nothing. She had a great deal more appreciation for Ty, with his eternal vigilance and wry humor. And most of all, she had Tasmin… for now.

Someday soon, she was going to have to figure out how to fashion a life she could settle into from those disparate pieces. But until the situation with Arsinöe was resolved, that would be impossible. And, Bay thought, she needed to do what she’d instructed Tasmin to do—live in the moment. She blew out a breath and forced her attention back to the present.

“Tasmin,” Bay said, trying again to convince him what a bad idea this was. “You glow when you do that. I’m going to glow if and when I can do that. It’s not the kind of thing people don’t notice.”

He gave her a beleaguered look and took a sip of the deep red cocktail the waitress had brought to them, courtesy of Anura. Immediately, he shuddered, put the glass down, and pushed it away. Bay frowned at him, immediately concerned.

“Is it that bad?”

“No, no, it’s just…” He trailed off, and Bay thought his eyes looked odd for just a second before he finished. “Not as thirsty as I thought.”

He looked away, getting very interested in the other vampires milling around the club, and Bay studied his profile for a few seconds. He looked tired tonight, she thought, something vampires should never look. And she worried that his refusal to drink in front of her had more to do with the demon than it did with lack of appetite.

He didn’t bring it up, and she didn’t press him on it. Not when she was enjoying him so much, and when he seemed to have lightened up a little. But that didn’t mean she didn’t worry. Nor did it mean she hadn’t spent most of her alone time combing Vlad’s massive library of what seemed like solutions to every other problem in the vampire universe for answers that refused to appear.

Bay was hoping to see Anura tonight. With any luck, she’d made progress in getting the ritual together. It just seemed to have stalled since they’d all arrived here. Being chased out of Tipton probably had something to do with that. According to some of the Thorn wolves who took a run up to check it out, the Ptolemy had retreated. But
they didn’t dare go back yet. Arsinöe would have eyes watching.

And so Putting on the Dog stayed dark, and she continued to pay employees who she couldn’t let work while they wondered if she were either terminally ill or insane. Her mind tried to drift home, to her cozy house where she could curl up and avoid any and all forms of bloodshed. She could fight now if she needed to. It had been a little disheartening to realize that her new abilities hadn’t come with any desire to use them.

She was still herself, just with fangs. That didn’t seem to bother anyone but her.

Bay slid Tasmin’s drink over to sit beside her own. She had every intention of drinking both.

“
What
are you staring at?” she finally asked.

That got his attention. He whipped his head around guiltily, and she noticed a faint flush on his cheeks. Arching her eyebrow, Bay craned her head around, and immediately, her eyes widened.

“Oh. Wow. They’re… okay with PDA here. Good to know.”

“There are still some things I’m not used to about the twenty-first century,” Tasmin admitted.

Bay smiled, glad to be diverted. He was sexy when he was embarrassed.

Tasmin refocused on her, and she immediately knew she wasn’t off the hook yet.

“This is a good place to practice the basics of the gift, Bailey. I want you to try it.”

She looked at his expression, then took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “Okay. I’m supposed to focus on something. A scene.”

“Something you know well. Something you’ve cultivated in your own mind. This is something you’ll want to work on in your spare time. Visualization and meditation. The illusions we can create have to be worked on first. Think of each one you have as an arrow in a quiver.”

“You sound like an infomercial.”

“And you sound like you would rather go practice being a lion again.”

She hunched her shoulders and glared at him. “Mean. Really, that’s all I have to say.”

His slow, sexy smile almost—
almost
—banished the memory of finding herself on the bedroom floor with paws, claws, and a human head yesterday. It wasn’t as easy as she’d guessed. None of it was. She would happily practice, but she didn’t want an audience until she got better. The problem was that until she got better, she shouldn’t be practicing without an audience.

Tasmin was a patient teacher. She just wished he would be a little less… teacher-ish about it.