The Recruit (Book Six), page 19
“No, I meant, are you hurt from when I, uh, spanked you earlier. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have been so rough, but I needed to make Ray think -”
“Honey, it’s fine.” She dropped her phone on the nightstand and crawled into his lap, putting her arms around his shoulders and pressing a kiss against his mouth. “I wanted Ray to think you didn’t care about me, it’s why I got so mouthy.”
“Are you sure I didn’t hurt you?” He rubbed her thigh through her jeans. “I saw you wince.”
“Yeah, because a slap to the ass is gonna hurt, but, honestly, I’ve had harder butt slaps from guys at the club.”
He hissed, his fangs dropping at even the thought of another man touching her but him. She smiled and rubbed her nose against his. “You’re so cute when you get all hissy and jealous. Oh, but just so you know – I wasn’t kidding when I said my pussy was the best you’ve ever had.”
A laugh busted free of his chest. He was a little surprised by it. He’d never once thought he would be in the middle of a vampire nest with the woman he loved and still be able to laugh.
“What?” She poked him playfully in the chest. “You trying to tell me it isn’t?”
“Oh, it is,” he said before cupping her breast and kissing her throat. “The best pussy, the best tits, the softest skin, and the sweetest blood. You’re the full meal deal, Clem.”
He paused. “Wait, that came out way creepier than I meant.”
She giggled. “Oh my God, I love you.”
“I love you too.” He threaded his hand through her hair and cupped the back of her skull. “Only you could make me forget we’re in the middle of a nest and in serious danger of dying.”
“Hey, if life has taught me anything, it’s that you need to laugh and find joy no matter what. Being with you, even in this place, makes me happy, Nathaniel. Even if I’m also terrified at the same time.”
“You could leave, sweet one. You could leave in the morning and not come back.” He rubbed his thumb along her cheekbone. “Being replaced by a recruit is the smart thing to do. No one will judge you or think you’re weak.”
She rested her forehead against his. “I’m not here because I’m worried about what the others think of me. I’m here because I love you. I get that I’m not a vampire and I wouldn’t be able to save you if things go wrong, but I don’t care. I can pretend that I’m helping to keep you safe, all right?”
“I’m not going to change your mind, am I?” he said.
“Nope,” she said with a small smile. “We’re in this together. I love you, Nathaniel, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, even if that turns out to be stupidly short.”
She nuzzled his neck affectionately. “Although, I’m hoping that our life together turns out to be a very quiet one. Just the two of us in a small house on the beach, making love every night to the sound of the waves. Doesn’t that sound perfect?”
When he didn’t reply, she straightened and stared at him. “What’s wrong? You don’t like the beach? Because I’m also open to the idea of a cottage on a lake. But I’m not budging on the live near the water idea.”
“It’s a good dream, Clem.” His throat ached and his chest was so tight, he could barely breathe.
“It’s more than a dream” she said. “We’ll work for the facility for a few years and save up some money. We can make this happen, Nathaniel.”
“We can’t be together, Clem.”
Her body stiffened and a stubborn look crossed her face. “Yes, we can. We both deserve a happily ever after.”
“Your happily ever after should involve a human husband and children. It should be about sunlight and warmth and aging with the one you love.”
“You said you loved me,” she said.
“I do love you,” he said. “It’s because I love you that we can’t have a happily ever after.”
“That’s bullshit,” she said. “My happily ever after involves you and only you.”
“We have literally known each other for less than a month,” Nathaniel said.
“Do you think our feelings will change for each other?”
He hesitated and she cupped his face. “Do you?”
“Not for me,” he said.
“Me neither.”
“They should,” he said angrily. “You need to find someone else, Clem. Someone normal who can give you children and grow old with you.”
“That isn’t what I want,” Clem said.
“It is,” he snapped.
She shook her head. He assumed she would be angry, but she was weirdly calm. “You don’t know me well enough yet to realize that I’m not going to change my mind. Because of that, I’m willing to wait a few years before you turn me, but us being together for eternity is happening, Nathaniel.”
He stared at her in blank, overwhelming shock. “You can’t… you want to be a vampire?”
“I want to be with you,” she said. “If that means being a vampire, so be it.”
“I can’t… I mean, we don’t even know if that will work,” he said. He lowered his voice again. “Only other vampires have been turned by Olivia.”
She shrugged. “If we have to, I’ll get turned into a regular vampire first, then you can turn me. Although, honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve already tried turning humans at the New York facility. They have to be experimenting with this shit, right?”
“You don’t know what you’re saying, Clementine,” Nathaniel said.
He could finally see a hint of anger on her face, feel it in the way she cupped his jaw. “I know exactly what I’m saying. I don’t want the white picket fence and the dog and the two children. I’ve never wanted that. Until I met you, I didn’t know exactly how I wanted my life to go, but I knew I didn’t want what others did.”
He hated the spark of hope that was growing in his chest, but it was impossible to extinguish. “You would live without the sun for me?”
She pressed a kiss against his mouth. “I don’t need the sun, Nathaniel. You’re my light.”
He swallowed hard, the lump in his throat making it almost impossible to do so. “You’re mine too.”
“Besides,” she gave him another impish grin, “technically we could go out in the sun. We’d just need to wear a whole lot of sunscreen.”
He laughed. “That’s true.”
She studied his face before saying, “I know what you’re thinking, honey. You believe that you can change my mind about this, or that, if given enough time as a human, I’ll feel differently. I won’t. And I hope you don’t plan on being super dreary and bringing it up day after day or acting like a dickhead to drive me away, because none of that will work. You’re stuck with me.”
He brushed a stray strand of her golden hair back from her face. “Tell you what, you agree to be a human for ten years, and then if you still feel the same way, I’ll turn you.”
“Ten years? I’ll be thirty-five by then,” she said.
“Which is the same age I was when I was turned,” he said.
She wrinkled her nose at him. “Eight years. I need to be at least a couple years younger than you, otherwise how can I call you my old man and make fun of you for being the old one?”
He laughed again, a small flower of hope blossoming in his chest for the first time in a very long while. “Deal. Eight years as human.”
“We should probably kiss on it, just to make it official,” she said.
He kissed her and then sucked on her full bottom lip until she moaned. Her breath was sweet and slightly minty, and he angled his mouth over hers and took the kiss deeper, sliding his tongue between her lips to stroke hers.
His fangs had descended, and he groaned when Clem flicked her tongue against them lightly. He cupped her breast, rubbing her hardening nipple with this thumb, until she made those small breathless sounds that turned his cock impossibly hard.
She tugged at his shirt. “Naked. You need to be naked.”
“We both do,” he said.
“Agreed.”
Grinning at each other, they both stripped off their clothes until they were standing naked in front of each other. Nathaniel gazed at Clem’s body, precum dripping from his cock, and his bloodlust turning nearly insatiable. Her body was flawless with firm, high breasts topped by small pink nipples, a flat abdomen, neatly trimmed pussy, and muscular thighs and calves.
She ran a hand over her hip. “You like?”
“You know I do. Your body is incredible.”
She made a cute curtsy. “One good thing about being a stripper – the pole dancing gives you fantastic core strength and muscles all over.”
He reached out and pulled her against him, hissing out a breath when his cock rubbed against her flat abdomen. “I want you so much, sweet Clem.”
“Then take me.” She nipped at his neck and he groaned before turning her roughly and pushing her toward the bed. “Hands and knees on the bed.”
She did as he asked, spreading her legs and lowering her upper half to the bed until her perfect pussy was exposed to him. He traced her inner thighs before leaning down and licking from her hole to the top of her wet slit.
She cried out, pushing back against his mouth and digging her hands into the sheets. He pushed her legs apart even further and concentrated on her clit. Clem tasted incredibly sweet and he would never grow tired of her taste and the sounds she made when he was sucking on her clit.
When she was moaning and crying out, he stopped and knelt between her legs. She glanced back at him with a pout on her face. “Nathaniel, no. I was so close.”
He grinned and anchored his hands at her hips before sliding his dick into her tight warmth. She fit him like a glove, her heat and silky smoothness clinging to his cock with every slow thrust he made.
She arched her back and he gathered her hair in one fist. He stopped moving and let her control the pace, rubbing the faint red mark on her ass cheek as she rocked back and forth, taking his cock with eager silken glides of her pussy.
Watching her wet swollen pussy lips sliding back and forth over his aching dick proved to be too much and he clamped both hands on her hips again, holding her steady for his deep thrusts.
She moaned his name in ecstasy, her head falling back and her body shuddering as she took what he gave her. He leaned over and slid one hand around her slender throat, tugging gently until she straightened to her knees. His flat abdomen slapped against her ass as he continued to drive in and out of her.
Her hair surrounded them in a thick golden cloud, and she tossed it out of her face as he slid one arm around her waist. He kissed her neck and sucked on her earlobe as he slipped his hand between her legs and rubbed at her clit.
“Nathaniel, bite me!” she pleaded in a hoarse voice. “Honey, please bite me.”
“Come for me, sweet one,” he said into her ear. “Come for me and I’ll give you what you want.”
Her body shivered against his. He sucked on her lobe again and kissed down her throat before rubbing her clit in hard, firm circles. She made a low cry of pleasure, her body stiffened, and when her pussy clamped tight around his dick, he sunk his fangs into the base of her throat.
She made another hoarse scream of pleasure, her fingers digging into his forearm and her pussy milking his dick so hard that he was helpless to stop his own orgasm. He climaxed with a low moan, Clem’s body taking his seed as he took her blood.
Her pulse stuttered against his lips, just a little, but he immediately stopped drinking and retracted his fangs. He licked at the bite mark as his cock softened and Clem slumped against him. She sucked in a shaky breath and jerked against him when he stroked her clit.
“Too sensitive,” she moaned.
He moved his hand away and licked the bite mark a final time before easing out of her. He helped her lie down on the bed and climbed in behind her, pulling the quilt over the both of them before spooning her.
She sighed with contentment, grabbing his hand and placing it on her breast as he kissed the back of her shoulder.
“Are you all right, my sweet?” he said.
“Hmm,” she said. “I feel so good.”
“Not woozy or lightheaded?”
“No.” She smiled at him. “I love you, Nathaniel.”
He snuggled even closer to her and kissed her. “I love you too, Clem.”
Chapter 18
“Clem, are you okay?” Hannah stepped inside Clem’s hotel room, Will right behind her.
Clem shut the door and locked it. “Yeah. Sorry about yesterday, I was probably just being paranoid, but Kevin left the nest around the same time as I did, and I wasn’t positive he wasn’t following me.”
“Who’s Kevin?” Will said.
“One of the familiars. He’s been Ray’s familiar for awhile now. Nathaniel said Ray would probably turn him soon. Anyway, I decided going to the diner was a better idea. You got my text saying I was okay, didn’t you?”
“We did.” Hannah sat down on one of the double beds as Will sat in the desk chair. “But we drove to the diner, just to check. We saw you sitting in the booth by the window.”
Clem sank down onto the other bed. Hannah studied her closely. She looked pale and exhausted and her hands trembled lightly. She glanced at Will before standing and joining Clem at the other bed. She sat next to her and tentatively took her hand. “Honey, are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yes,” Clem said.
“You don’t look okay,” Will said bluntly. “You’re pale and you’ve got bite marks on your neck. How much blood is Nathaniel taking from you?”
Clem frowned at him. “Only enough to keep himself from passing out. He needs to drink more but he refuses.”
“Maybe we could sneak some blood in with Clem,” Hanna said to Will. She didn’t like how pale Clem was or the dark circles under her eyes. “Nathaniel could drink it and -”
“No,” Clem said. “It’s a risk we don’t need to take. I’m not pale and sick looking because of blood loss, okay? I’m like this because for the last three nights I’ve watched countless glamoured humans be fed on and then turned, and it’s awful and scary and…
Her lower lip quivered, and she closed her eyes as tears slid down her cheeks. Hannah put her arm around Clem’s slender shoulders and Clem leaned against her, resting her head in the crook of Hannah’s neck.
“I’m sorry,” she said after a few minutes.
Hannah grabbed a tissue from the nightstand and handed it to her. Clem wiped her cheeks before straightening.
“Clem, we can have someone else join Nathaniel at -”
“No,” Clem said. “I’m fine. I’m just tired.”
“You’re more than tired,” Will said.
“I’m not leaving Nathaniel alone there. Stop asking me to do that,” Clem said crossly.
Hannah patted her shoulder. “I know you care for Nathaniel, but -”
“I love him,” Clem said. “I love him, and I won’t leave him. You wouldn’t leave Will alone in that place, stop asking me to leave Nathaniel. I won’t, Hannah. I can’t.”
“Okay,” Hannah said.
Will started to protest and she quieted him with a small shake of her head. He sat back in the chair and said, “I thought Nathaniel wasn’t sending any vamps out to hunt right now.”
“He isn’t, but he can’t stop individual vamps from going out and glamouring humans to bring back to the nest. They do it every night and if he tried to stop them, it would be completely out of character,” Clem said. “Nathaniel’s been trying to shield me from it as much as he can, but we can’t spend the entire night holed up in his room either. As the second, he has to keep the peace in the nest which means sitting downstairs with them.”
“Maybe you could stay in his room?” Hannah suggested.
“I’m his familiar and most of the time, familiars don’t leave their vampire’s side. It would be weird if Nathaniel kept me hidden away in his room. Anyway, I’m okay. Let’s go over the plan for tonight and what I need to tell Nathaniel.”
Feeling like she was leading the lamb to the slaughter, Hannah said, “All right, let’s talk about tonight.”
“Seriously?” Dante glared at Nathaniel. “That’s an hour drive outside of town. Why the fuck are we hunting so far away?”
“Because you fucked up,” Nathaniel said coldly. “Any other questions?”
Dante bared his fangs at him. “I wasn’t the one who lost eight of our best and nearly got myself staked as well.”
Nathaniel stared coolly at him. “Do you seriously want to get into a debate about who has gotten more of our kind killed, Dante?”
He rested one hand on Clem’s firm thigh before giving Dante a tight grin. “You’ve turned how many humans in my absence and yet, the halls here are almost empty. You’ve lost more to the recruits than you’ve turned, so don’t for one fucking minute, think you get to lecture me. Question where I’m sending the others to hunt again, and I’ll rip your fucking tongue out. Do you understand?”
Dante glanced at his two familiars, his hands clenching into tight fists, before he nodded. “Perfectly, Nathaniel.”
“Good.” Nathaniel supposed he was lucky that Dante hadn’t turned his familiars yet. The two men were bigger than he was and in his current state, he wasn’t sure he could defeat them if they attacked him as vampires.
You could drink more from Clem, then you wouldn’t be so vulnerable.
He glanced at Clem’s pale face. True, but taking more meant taking the risk of weakening her or dulling her wits. He didn’t know her tolerance level yet for how much blood he could take, and he wasn’t about to test it in the middle of the goddamn nest. Some humans could have a shockingly large amount of blood drained from them and still act normal. Others had only a little taken and were weak and dizzy. He suspected that Clem fell somewhere in the middle, but he didn’t know for sure.
You’re barely taking enough to keep yourself alive. You can’t protect her if you’re too weak to fight, you idiot.
“Nathaniel?” Ray was staring at him and his familiar, Kevin, was staring at Clem. He stared at her a lot and Nathaniel was fucking tired of it.
