Kindred (Kindred, Book 1) (22 page)

I smiled to myself then, I had never thought I could have the great Michel Durand in such a state, in such a vulnerable position, allowing himself to be pleasured without thought for his safety or for the calm and professional demeanour he works so hard to portray. I decided I liked it very much. I was certain he liked it too, when I took the tip of him into my mouth and sucked gently. He groaned and lifted his head to look at me, but before he could get a word out I pushed him back down. “Stay.” This was my moment and I was going to enjoy it. He looked momentarily surprised, I don't think he was at all used to being bossed around. He threw his arm over his face and started muttering, no doubt curses, in French as I returned my attention to his beautiful body and that most responsive part of it.

He tasted salty, but delicious, the taste calling to me in a way I had never experienced before. I couldn't get enough of it, licking, sucking, stroking and when I accidentally scraped him with my teeth, he actually screamed out. I thought at first in alarm, but soon realised it was pleasure. I started to increase my speed and the length of my stroking, all the while licking and sucking and interspersing with nibbles. He was practically writhing on the ground under me and then all of a sudden, he had moved, flipped me over and was between my legs.

I felt his hard tip against the entrance to me, pressing but not entering, he looked down at me with such longing, hovering there, then he slowly started to move himself up the length of my opening, sending wave after wave of pleasure through me. I reached up and grabbed him, attempting to pull him closer. I needed him closer, I wanted him inside me, there was nothing I wanted more in this world than that.

Just as he groaned and swore softly, I felt him shift to enter and the world fell away.

I heard myself scream, “No!” and felt the air leave my lungs as I crashed against a hard concrete floor. What the?

I was having trouble catching my breath, my heart still on its mad pursuit of leaping out of my rib cage, my body screaming for release and coming up with a gaping, gnawing hole, where there should have been warmth. I shuddered as my mind tried to wrap itself around this new reality. I was no longer with Michel, I was on a cold, unforgiving floor and watching me with amusement was the one vampire I so did
not
want to see right then.

“
Did I interrupt something?” Max smiled, a slight smirk twitching the edge of his mouth. “It looked like it had been fun.”

I attempted to straighten myself, surprised to find I was still dressed in Michel's dress. But knew my eyes were wide, my face was flushed and slightly sweaty and my heart was still thundering in my chest, all of which Max was aware of and looked like he was relishing right at that moment. I fought a blush unsuccessfully rising up my cheeks.

“You are a little vixen, aren't you, Lucinda?” Something in the way he said it, did not make me feel safe. If Michel could do to me what he just did in a dream, I didn't doubt that Max could either and by the look on his face right now, he was contemplating it. I had to distract him.

“
What are you doing here?” My voice was steady, even if my heartbeat wasn't.

He still wore that smile on his face, his lips curved in a sly smirk, his eyes devouring me. They took in every inch, from my flushed face, down my neck, over my rapid pulse, the dip between my breasts, the rise and fall of my chest and down the length of me. As though he was seeing me completely bare, laid out for him to enjoy. I was so glad for the flimsy material of the dress that was covering me, I could not imagine what it would be like to face Max naked.

He completely ignored my question. “You are a feast for the eyes, Lucinda, but I think I'd prefer to see a little less material overall.” And suddenly I was sitting there in a red lacy teddy, the cold of the concrete biting into my knees and shins as I knelt on the floor. The lace of the teddy was scratchy against my bare skin, nothing as soft and luxurious as the draping material of the dress had been, the colour gaudy, even against my slightly tanned body. I felt like a cheap hooker waiting for my client to tell me what he wanted. The feeling so removed from only a moment ago.

He prowled towards me, like a sleek jungle cat, dressed in black jeans and his trade mark open shirt, again black. I quickly jumped to my feet to better greet that hunger in his eyes. He stroked my cheek and jaw and then grabbed my head and pulled it backwards in a sudden movement that sent a sharp pain down my spine. His lips grazed over my pulse in my neck and for the life of me I couldn't slow it. I was beginning to realise just what an enticement a rapidly beating pulse was to a vampire. He softly kissed my neck, licking with his tongue.

I didn't want to feel anything other than anger and repulsion at this man. I didn't want to respond, I wanted to stay stiff and rigid and still, let my non-movement show my distaste, but my body had other thoughts. Or perhaps Max was influencing me and I melted under the attention his mouth was giving me, even as my mind was screaming against the assault. He purred and whispered, “Your scent is delicious, Lucinda, I do not think I can contain myself any longer, I must taste you, I must have you. I cannot wait.”

My mind was frantically reeling, searching for a coherent thought, this couldn't be happening, I couldn't let it happen. I had to think of something to stop this.
Wake up!
I shouted at myself,
Wake up you idiot!
It didn't work, he just kept kissing and licking with his hand gripping my arm, his fingers digging into my flesh, his body pushed against mine. I only then registered the wall at my back, it hadn't been there before. Max had me pushed up against it, his body firm against mine, his grip on my head unrelenting, baring my neck to his lips, mouth and teeth. He thrust his leg between my own, spreading them, kneading his thigh over my sensitive parts.

It was rough and ugly and I did not want it, but my body kept doing things of its own accord. My hands were suddenly in his short thick blonde hair, running my fingers through the roughness of it, pleasuring in the feel of it against my skin. He growled in appreciation.

“We will be so good together, Lucinda. Like molten fire, our passion will ignite the world.”

Some part of me registered that this was all wrong, that the green eyes looking at me with such ferocity were not good, but filled with evil. That this was not a vampire I wanted to lead towards the light, that this was not
my
vampire at all. He had stopped kissing my neck, where I was sure a bruise would form from his rough nips and nibbles, and looked me in the eye. I held my breath.

“
Now, my little Nosferatin, let us play.” And he bared his fangs.

Finally I felt the veil of his influence lift, I felt my power centre in my body and the tingling created by his touch disappear. I looked back at that expectant face and with all my strength pushed against that rock hard chest and cried, “No!”

Max went flying across the room and landed in a heap on the concrete floor. He was up in an instant, fangs down, eerily red glow ringing the green of his eyes. He snarled. “You shall pay for that, Hunter, your city will pay dearly for your defiance.”

He sprang towards me, flying through the air in slow motion. I had barely a chance to register the feral look in his face, the unnatural grimace and raise my arms in protection, when the world fell away again so abruptly that my stomach was left behind.

I woke to someone shaking me roughly, my head lolling around on my shoulders, my neck screaming from the movement and the ache radiating from its side.

“
I'm awake, I'm awake,” I mumbled.

Warm arms embraced me, almost crushing in their need to be around me. “
Merde, ma douce!
I could not reach you. I thought I had lost you. Don't
ever
do that to me again.” There was such naked rawness in Michel's voice it made my heart ache.

“
I don't plan to,” I croaked and then realised I was going to be sick. I pushed him aside and ran for the bathroom, heaving up the remainder of my late night snack. I didn't stop until I had ejected everything inside me and was dry retching into the toilet bowl. I vaguely registered that vampires had toilets, before I started giggling uncontrollably. The giggles increasing until I started hiccuping. Whoa, what was wrong with me?

Michel appeared beside me with a wet cloth to wipe my face and knelt down next to me on the tiled floor, rubbing in circles on my back. “It is all right,
ma douce
, you are safe. It is over.”

I leaned back against him as the hiccoughs slowly subsided and my body began to relax its rigid stance. He reached up and grabbed a glass filled with water off the counter top and handed it to me. It was cool and refreshing and eased a little of the rawness in my throat, washing away the after-taste of sick. I was exhausted, spent and was aching from head to toe. My stomach a raw knot of ugly fists. My head pounding in unrelenting thumps. My neck so sore, I could hardly swallow past the pain. I reached up and touched the tender spot against my pulse. Michel noticed the movement and moved my hand aside. His
Sanguis Vitam
thrummed around the small room.

“
He did this to you?” His voice was flat.

He'd obviously worked out that Max had taken me from his dream into another. Perhaps he'd known all along that it was possible, or perhaps it was the only explanation that fit, either way the anger rolling off him was tremendous. He gently stroked the spot where Max's fangs had grazed my skin, they hadn't penetrated, but I did not think I'd be so lucky next time. The bruises however were extensive as I stood to look in the mirror above the sink. Max had not been playing nice.

Michel turned me towards him and slowly lowered his own mouth over that spot. I tensed slightly out of fear, I couldn't help it, it was an echo of what had just happened with Max, but Michel stroked my arms and softly whispered, “Trust me.” His lips glided over the bruises and I started to feel a tingling sensation where they touched, within a minute the ache had gone, replaced by warmth and heat and blissful delight.

He raised his head to look at me, his eyes a purple and blue maelstrom of colour. I reached out and grabbed a fistful of his hair and roughly pulled him to me, claiming his mouth in a not so perfect kiss. He did not fight me, letting me devour him as the anger inside me subsided to be replaced by something just as strong, but so much sweeter. When he noticed the change in my body language, he took control of the kiss, slowing it down and turning it into a languid exploration of my lips, mouth and tongue. Then my eyelids, cheek, face, down my neck and over my clavicle, to the crease between my breasts. He sighed as he rested his forehead against my skin, nestled between my breasts.

“This is almost too much to bear,” he murmured against me. “I do not know if I can find the strength, should I lose you.” I stroked his head, running my hands over the dark silky smoothness.

From out of nowhere came the thought and before I had a chance to temper it, to consider exactly what I was feeling, I whispered, “You won't have to, I'm not going anywhere.”

It was still daylight out, according to Michel, but the sun was not far off setting. His inner vampire clock telling him exactly when it would be safe to exit his chamber. Although Michel could venture out in the day, it did take it out of him and he needed to conserve his strength as much as he could right now. I knew the club was enclosed, with no external windows to speak of, but I relished his reluctance to leave my side, despite the fact that he could have. We cuddled for a while on the bed, his arms so warm around me, his breath so soothing against my skin. Every move he made slowly replacing the images and feelings of my dream with Max with warmth and light and safety.

When I was more or less jelly in his arms, he kissed my nose and rose from the bed. Taking one look at me, he said, “Do not look at me like that,
ma douce
. It is difficult enough to pull away from you to dress.” And when my expression of fervent desire didn't change, “Arghh, you are impossible! I need a shower. Cold, very cold, I think.” He stalked off to the bathroom, making sure I could see his body ripple as he moved.

I covered my head with the pillow and lay there listening to the water fall in the bathroom. I fought every instinct in me not to follow him and join him under that hot wet stream, trying desperately to push the images of slowly washing his body from head to toe from my mind. I was going crazy and I knew it. I was so lost to him, I had no hope of pulling back. The slippery slope had already begun and all I could do was watch in a dazed kind of horror, as I fell further and further into his arms.

A few minutes later he emerged from the dressing room, beside the bathroom, dressed in black trousers and a black shirt, sleeves rolled up. I was momentarily surprised to not see his trade mark white shirt and tie, but the reason behind his change of clothing suddenly made me realise just what today would bring and I had to the fight bile rising in my throat.

He came and sat next to me on the bed, reaching out to stroke a stray piece of my hair back into place. “There is a change of clothes in the dressing room,
ma douce
. I shall leave you to freshen up, my self control not quite as good as yours”. The twinkle in his eyes letting me know he had thought of me joining him in the shower too.