Authors: Romance Novels Publishing
He yanked his shirt off and watched as Marissa’s trembling hands coursed down his torso, stopping only once they reached his pants. She reached inside, her warm hand stroked his shaft as she worked it out of his pants. His cock jerked in her hand. She looked up at him under her dark lashes, her bottom lip tucked between her teeth and a smile in her eyes. He had no idea what she was thinking, but based on the way her heart rate tripled and a spike of adrenaline shot through her body, he could only guess that she was pleased with what he had to offer her. She gave his dick a gentle squeeze and worked her hand up and down the length of him, eliciting a deep, throaty moan from him.
Carson moved out of her grasp and finished removing his pants, tossing them on the floor. He found her lips again and kissed her with a hungry dominance, pushing her back down onto the bed. His hands roamed over her body, memorizing every inch of her soft skin. “You are so beautiful,” he murmured.
He curled his fingers into the waist of her panties and slowly pulled them down. His gaze landed on her neatly trimmed lips, her folds glistening with moisture. The scent of her arousal was a shock to his system. It affected him in a way he hadn’t expected. Undiluted possessiveness filled him. His reaction was instant and intense. And wholly terrifying.
Marissa was his.
She belonged to him and for as long as he walked the earth, no other man, human or otherwise, would ever see her like this. Carson smiled in an attempt to calm his reaction and kissed his way up one leg, across her stomach and down until he reached her clit. His tongue licked over the nub.
She cried out and jerked beneath him. “Oh god!”
“Mmm,” he said as he continued to taste every inch of her. “Fuck, you taste so good, Marissa. So good.” He spread her lips with his fingers, licking and kissing up one side of her folds and down the other. She was incredibly sweet. The taste of her was like an aphrodisiac to his senses, and he couldn’t get enough.
Marissa bunched her fingers in his hair. Her hips lifted, meeting each thrust of his tongue into her pussy with desperation. Her breathing was fast and ragged. “Carson,” she whimpered, “please, oh god.”
“Please what?” The sound of her seductive voice, thick with desire, ratcheted his need to claim her, dominate her, to an unmanageable level. He worked a finger into her, his mouth closing around her clit and sucking on it, making her scream. Carson stilled his finger and flicked his tongue over her swollen nub.
She moaned loudly. “I need to come. Please,” she pleaded.
He smiled. It wouldn’t take much more to make her come. She was teetering on the edge. One thrust of his finger or one well-placed kiss to her clit and she’d come. His body ached with the need to taste it, to experience that part of her, but his control was waning fast. He was so hard, so aroused by her that his balls were heavy with the need for his own release. But oh how he wanted to please her. He inhaled her intoxicating scent and then drew her clit into his mouth, his finger stroking her delicate inner walls.
“Yeah, oh god, yes!” She bucked beneath him and cried his name as she came.
Carson laved in the sweetness of her nectar until he couldn’t take it any longer. His need for her was too great. “Marissa,” he whispered as he brought his body over hers. Carson looked down into her hazy eyes and brushed the hair from her face. “You’re breathtaking.” And then he entered her, his cock sliding into her with ease. “Fuck.” He drew out the word and groaned. She was so hot he swore he was going to catch fire and burn alive.
Her fingers curled against the hard flesh of his biceps and a strangled sound of pleasure tore from her lips. He started slow at first with perfectly controlled thrusts and then faster, pumping into her with reckless abandon. The rasping sensation of his flesh against hers added to the eroticism of the moment, and he didn’t know how much longer he could hold on. He’d lost his sanity the moment she’d whispered to him. Their bodies moved in perfect harmony with each other, and he knew without a doubt that Marissa was his soul mate. They were connecting on a level that was much deeper than the physical one they shared. He felt it. And he knew she felt it too.
So how the hell was he supposed to kill her?
Carson trailed kisses across her jaw and down her neck. He paused at her throat. The combination of being inside her, the smell of her blood pulsing through her veins, the feel of her rapid fire pulse beating against his tongue made his gums ache in that familiar way. He closed his eyes and waited for the urge to pass. I will not bite her. I will not bite her. I will not… She moaned, jolting him from his concentration. He pressed his mouth hard against her throat. His fangs protruded, poised to sink into her tender flesh. It would be so easy. He could drink from her right now. Kill her as Max decreed, ensure his kind was safe. Or he could change her. Make her into what he was so that they could be together forever. With a snarl, he rolled them over so that she was on top of him.
She let out a surprised yelp and then laughed. “If you wanted me on top all you had to do was ask.” Marissa brought her mouth down to his chest and showered him with kisses.
“Shit that feels good.” He grabbed her hips and guided her movements on his cock. She sat upright, her hands coursed up her body and she fondled her breasts. Christ she was so damn sexy. He was on sensory overload, and it was about to get a lot worse because he was ready to come.
“Yeah, so good.” She rotated her hips on him, taking all of him deep inside of her.
“Fuck,” he grunted. He began to thrust, hard and fast, meeting each downward stroke of her pussy with a powerful surge. Sounds of flesh smacking against flesh filled the cabin. Carson sat upright and hugged her to him. Her pussy clenched tight as if desperate to hold him inside of her, and they both crashed over the cliff into pure physical bliss. His name fell from her lips in a wailing moan, and he could do nothing but cling to her as the world melted around them. In his entire two hundred years of existence he’d never experienced anything like it.
***
Marissa fought to catch her breath. She knew she wasn’t in the best shape sexually, but damn! She didn’t think she’d feel this exhausted afterward. Of course, she was sated and happy, too. Carson wasn’t just sexy, he was fantastic in bed!
Stretching her arms, she draped one across his stomach, content to stay right where they were for a few moments longer. She really should be getting dressed and demanding he take her to the island as promised, but she wanted to be selfish for a bit longer.
Carson put his arm around her and pulled her a little closer, kissing the top of her head. “I can’t take you to the island, Marissa.”
“What?” She sat up abruptly, wishing she had a blanket or shirt to cover herself with. “Why not? You said you’d take me. I paid to rent this boat.”
He sighed, dragged a hand through his messy hair. “I know, and believe me, I’m sorry. But you have to trust me. I cannot take you to the island.”
“Trust you? I barely know you!” She got out of bed and scrambled for the dry clothes he’d found for her.
Behind her, he snorted. “You didn’t have any problems getting naked and letting me fuck you, but you can’t trust me when I tell you not to go to Mohalah Island?”
That was a low blow, but he was right. She had trusted him enough to be intimate with him. The least she could do what hear him out about the island. “Fine.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Then tell me why I can’t go to the island.”
“Because if you do, you’ll die. And I’ll have to be the one to kill you.”
Straight up fear stabbed at her, and she took several steps back. Up until right now, she had zero concerns about Carson, no fear of him or worries that he might harm her. But now, with the way he was looking at her, she was terrified. “Wh-what? I mean, why? Is that what happened to Maggie? Did she go there and you killed her?” Marissa’s eyes widened. Was it possible she’d just slept with her best friend’s killer?
“The legends… They’re true. All of them.” Carson stood, and she couldn’t stop her gaze from raking over his body, appreciating the hard lines of his muscles. It was then she noticed how pale he was. How cool his body had felt.
She cupped her hand over her mouth and gasped, shaking her head. “No. You’re telling me there are vampires on that island?”
“Yes.” He grabbed his shirt from the floor and pulled it on. Then he put his jeans back on.
“And…” She swallowed hard, both from fear and uncertainty. She never thought she’d have to ask this question, but here went nothing. “You’re one of them?” Her voice was barely audible.
“Yes,” he said softly. “Get dressed.”
She remained still, staring at him. “You’re a vampire?” The words sounded so ridiculous, the feel of them on her tongue so foreign.
“Would you like some proof?” Amusement teased his voice, that cocky half smirk on his face.
Her heart rate spiked. Part of her did want proof, but another, larger part of her was afraid what he’d do if she said yes. “I don’t know,” she said slowly, “are you going to bite me?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Do you want me to?”
“No!” she blurted out before she could stop herself. “I mean…This is all so crazy. Vampires don’t exist, Carson, and if you’re trying to scare me away from that island so you can hide the fact that you killed my friend, it’s working. But if you think I’m going to give up, you’re—”
Right before her eyes, his face went from handsome to horrifying. His forehead scrunched up, fangs protruded from his mouth, and he made a hissing sound. Marissa screamed and jumped back, her eyes wide. This wasn’t possible. There was no way she was seeing this. It had to be a hallucination brought on by stress or lack of sleep or maybe it was just a good ‘ole nightmare. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, praying when she reopened them, this monster in front of her would be gone.
And he was. In his place stood Carson, the sexy, seductive man she’d just had sex with. “I’m sorry,” he said, shoving his hands into his pockets. “I didn’t mean to frighten you, but I need you to understand.”
“Understand what?” Her voice trembled. “That you’re a freak?”
“Yes, I suppose I am.” He averted his gaze, and she felt bad for calling him a freak. It wasn’t very nice, and he’d done nothing to harm her.
“Please tell me what the fuck is going on because I have no idea.”
He nodded. “I’ll tell you everything, but first, you have to get dressed because if you don’t, I’m going to fuck you again, and I won’t be so gentle this time.” He stepped to her, and she didn’t move. Then he leaned down, pressed his mouth to hers, and she couldn’t stop from giving into his kiss. It was as if her body was working of its own volition, had a mind of its own.
“Carson,” she whimpered. Jumping back into bed with him excited the hell out of her, but she needed answers first.
He made a growling noise as he unzipped his jeans and freed his cock. “I was sent to kill you, Marissa.” He eased her back so she was pinned between him and the wall. “But all I can do is touch you,” he grabbed her leg and lifted it to his waist before plunging his cock deep inside of her, “be inside of you.”
Marissa cried out and arched into him, her body a slave to his touch. Carson adjusted his footing and lifted her other leg so both of them were wrapped around his waist. And then he pounded into her without mercy, dragging her to the edge without remorse, shoving her over the edge without stopping once to let her come down from her high or giving her a chance to catch her breath.
“I don’t want to kill you, Marissa,” he said, his voice hoarse. “Please don’t put me in that position.” A second later, she felt his release, felt the tremble of his body, the whoosh of breath against her neck as he stilled. He kissed her neck, and she tensed, wondering if he would bite her.
“I need to find Angie,” she said weakly.
“She’s there. On the island. With Jonah.”
Marissa’s heart thundered so hard and fast she was afraid she might have a heart attack right there in his arms. “Is she okay?” Finally, after all these months of searching, she’d found her friend. Angie was so close.
“Jonah turned her.”
“Into a vampire?”
“Yes.” Carson pulled away just enough to look into her eyes. “And she seems happy.”
Angie, happy as a vampire? Marissa couldn’t picture that. “I need to see her, to talk to her.”
“I can’t let you do that. You step foot onto that island as a human, and you’re as good as dead. And I refuse to let that happen.” There was so much possessiveness in his voice, it stunned her.
“What if I step foot on the island as a vampire?” She could not believe she’d just asked that question. She knew nothing about becoming a vampire or living as one – other than she’d have to drink blood to survive. The thought was enough to make her stomach heave.
“Is that what you want? To become like me?”
“I-I don’t know.”
He finally released her and her feet hit the floor hard, like a jolt back to reality. She’d just had sex with a vampire. Twice. But he hadn’t bit her, hadn’t even tried.
“Why haven’t you bit me?” she asked, unsure if she wanted the answer or not.
Carson laughed and shook his head in disbelief. “Believe me, I want to. More than you know, but from the moment I laid eyes on you, I knew you were different. Special.” He smiled and traced her lips with his thumb. “I want to be with you, Marissa, but I won’t make that choice for you.”