Blood Wolf, page 9
Suzanne caught herself. Was she beginning to believe? “No, that’s not it.”
“Anyway, they need blood to survive. But most of them either drink from each other or subsist on animal blood. The sheep farms around here supply a lot of blood to the vampire population.”
“Oh God.” Suzanne clutched her stomach. Just the thought of it… She closed her eyes, hugging herself. Her arms suddenly felt chilled, and she rubbed the goosebumps in an attempt to warm herself with the friction. Her heartbeat quickened, and a vision appeared in her mind, of Rex Donnelly leading her behind Café Oxter and pushing her into the arms of a large blond man. Rex’s low voice telling the men not to take too much, that he’d bring more later. Six hands poking her, groping her, and then, on her neck―the scraping, the sharpness.
Teeth.
Fangs.
Damn.
They might have raped her, but sexual gratification hadn’t been their primary goal. They had wanted her blood.
She had been attacked by vampires.
24
“They have incredible strength, as well,” Isabella said. “The weakest vampire is as strong as the strongest human.”
“I’m sorry.” Suzanne jerked her head back toward her cousin. “What did you say?”
“They’re strong. Stronger than humans.”
“I see.” The fog of that perilous night cleared slowly, and images unfolded on a screen in her mind’s eye. The three men―were they indeed men?―attacking her, her heart pounding, her fear a palpable mass of emotion. Their eyes full of hunger, their mouths salivating, their bodies crushed against hers.
Then, out of nowhere, Damian.
He had plowed them into the ground. All three of them. Three vampires with super-human strength, and Damian had pummeled them as if they were the dust beneath his feet. How?
Suzanne shuddered as she erased the images from her mind. They hadn’t been vampires. That was the only logical explanation. Damian couldn’t have beaten three vampires.
Of course they hadn’t been vampires. What had she been thinking? Vampires didn’t exist.
She inhaled, tried to relax and force the chills from her neck. “When does the electrician get here?”
“That was an abrupt change of subject,” Isabella said.
“I’m afraid I’m done with this nonsense, Bell. You’ll never get me to believe there are vampires in Padraig.”
Isabella sighed, closed the book on Suzanne’s lap, and placed it on top of her dresser. “To tell you the truth, Suze, I’m not so sure I believe it, either.”
“Now you’re talking sense,” Suzanne said. “What should we do today?”
“I need to stick around. I want to be here when the electrician comes.”
“Can’t Dougal take care of that?”
“It’s my castle now, so it’s my responsibility. Plus, I’m the one who’s going to be paying for it. I hope the cost won’t be too dire.”
“You’ve got Merlina’s inheritance.”
“Yeah, but that’s not much, only fifty grand. It needs to last. Especially if I’m going to stay here.”
Suzanne’s head nearly spun off her neck. “You’re going to what?”
“I’ve decided to stay here and live at the castle.”
“Bell…”
“I’m not like you, Suze. I don’t have a big job that pays tons of money waiting for me back home. I’m a part-time waitress who does Tarot readings on the side. I can do that anywhere.”
“You’d turn your back on your home? Your country?”
“I’m not turning my back on anything. I’m facing my future. I belong here. I felt it as soon as our plane touched the ground. This is my destiny.”
Suzanne’s skin iced over. The thought of not having Isabella nearby speared into her heart like a hunting blade. “How can you be sure? We haven’t even been here a week.”
“I’m sure. There’s incredible lunar energy here. I felt it that first night. And so did you.”
Suzanne shook her head.
“Don’t try to deny it, cuz. I know you felt it. And now that I found Merlina’s Book of Shadows, it all clicked together. This is where I belong. I can learn so much here about my family and my craft.” She sighed. “About myself.”
Suzanne embraced her cousin. “I’ll miss you so much, Bell.”
“You could stay, you know. Maybe a certain handsome Scotsman might convince you?” Isabella’s lips curved into a mischievous grin.
Suzanne sighed. Damian had already all but demanded she never leave. But as irresistibly drawn to him as she was, there remained a mystery, an enigma, surrounding him that she couldn’t ignore. Until she knew him better, she wouldn’t consider staying, no matter what her heart and body wanted.
“I have a job, Bell. They’re expecting me back. They’re depending on me.”
“I was pretty sure you’d say that.” Isabella grinned impishly. “But we’ll talk again after you and Damian do the deed.”
Suzanne’s skin warmed. She rose and strode toward the bed, picked up a pillow, and hurled it at her cousin. “We’d have done it three times by now but for your interruptions!”
Isabella ducked the assault. “Touché, cuz. Touché.”
25
Damian paced the cellar room as Dougal tapped away at his keyboard. Damn. He had been so close. So close to finally joining his body with Suzanne’s.
“What’s troubling you now, lad?”
“She likes wolves, Da. She collects them.”
“She, meaning Suzanne?”
“Aye.”
“I’m thinking you don’t mean she collects real wolves.”
“No. Figurines. Prints. Stuffed wolves.”
“And?”
“It’s got to mean something, doesn’t it? This need I feel for her, this knowledge that she’s mine?”
“I don’t know, lad, but I’ll research it. How was your date?”
“Perfect, actually.” Damian sat down, his hair still damp from his most recent cold shower. “Until her cousin interrupted us this morning. Again.”
Dougal chuckled, his back quivering. “Patience, lad.”
“And she talks about going home. I can’t bear the thought of her leaving, Da.”
“She’s only here for a few weeks. Isabella said four, I think.”
“Well, then, I’ve a little over three more to convince her to stay with me.”
“I hate to bring up the obvious, lad, but what exactly are you going to tell her about your condition?”
Damian inhaled sharply, paced to the end of the room and back, and then grabbed a Guinness out of the refrigerator. “I’ve been thinking. I don’t think she really needs to know.”
Dougal’s eyes widened as he stood up. “Michty me! Of course she needs to know!”
“No, Da. I’ll lose her for sure then.”
“How do you know that? Maybe she’ll understand.”
Damian took a long drink of the dark beer. “Who in the name of God himself could ever understand what I am? I don’t even understand it myself. She can’t know, Da. She can’t.”
“Lad—”
“I’ve thought about it. You can continue to lock me in the tower during the change. I’ll tell her I’m out of town on business or something. I already told her who I am and what I do for a living. She’ll understand that I need to meet with editors and agents and such.”
“And she’s too stupid to figure out that you’re gone during every full moon?”
“It will work,” Damian said. “It has to.”
Dougal shook his head. “There’s nothing I want more than your happiness. I’d give my life for it. But this’ll never work. You’ve got to be honest with her. How do you expect to build a relationship with this lass if you cannot even be truthful about yourself?”
Damian took another drink of the bitter brew. “I don’t know, Da. But I can’t let her go. I’ll die without her.”
“Crivvens, lad, you’ve never been prone to histrionics. What has gotten into you?”
Damian shook his head, puzzled. “If I knew I’d tell you, Da. I swear it.”
“We need to figure this thing out.” Dougal began punching on his keyboard. “Have you been writing?”
“Aye. The sequel’s nearly done.”
“Good. Now tell me. Why do you think you’ll die without Suzanne?”
“I don’t know. I just know that I will.”
“That’s no answer, lad.”
“It’s the only one I’ve got.”
“You can do better than that. You’re a writer. Describe to me what you’re feeling.”
Damian paced the room again.
“You’ll wear the carpet out in here,” Dougal said.
He sat down next to his father. “It’s not something I can describe, because it’s not something I’ve ever felt before. It’s like…she fills a part of me that I never knew was empty. She completes me. And now that she’s here, she’s like an addiction. My body craves her. Needs her.”
“Just your body, son?”
“My mind. My heart. My soul.”
“I’ve never heard you talk of heart and soul before.”
“There was never a reason to.”
“I see.”
“Can’t you be a little more specific on your posts, Da?”
“Maybe. But I’m not willing to sacrifice your safety or sanity for this.”
“I’ve got money, Da.”
“We can’t tell anyone that, lad. People will come up with stories just to get their hands on your found. You know that.”
Damian sighed. “Aye.”
Dougal continued to type. “I do have some good news, though.”
“What’s that?”
“This morning, Isabella told me she hired an electrician from Thurso to install power throughout the castle. He’s coming today.”
“That’ll be mighty nice. Did you tell her we’d pay for it?”
“No. I didn’t think you’d want her to question that. But I’ll take care of it.”
“Aye.” Damian sniffed the air.
Fresh. Springtime. Suzanne. He smiled. He sniffed again, the whiff of testosterone unmistakable. A chill crept up the back of his neck.
“He’s here now, Da.”
“Who?”
“The electrician. And he’s with Suzanne.” Damian leaped out of his chair and ran out of the cellar room and up the stairs to the front entrance.
Suzanne stood near the doorway, her face lit by the afternoon sun streaming in. God, she was beautiful. But the smile touching her lips teased another man—an attractive man dressed in jeans and a green T-shirt, holding a tool chest.
Damian stalked forward, grabbed Suzanne by the arm, and pulled her behind his large body.
“Can I help you, friend?” Damian said to the stranger.
“I’m Clyde Ross. The electrician. I’m here to see Isabella Knight.”
“This isn’t Isabella.” His voice was low, feral.
“I know. Suzanne was just telling me Isabella’s on her way down.”
“This one’s mine, friend,” Damian said. A hissing growl escaped his throat.
Clyde’s blue eyes widened. Was it fear the man felt? Damian hoped so.
“Look, I was just talking to her.”
Suzanne struggled out of Damian’s grasp. “For God’s sake, Damian, you’re being ridiculous. Isabella’s tied up for a minute upstairs, and I was just letting Clyde in.”
“You’re mine,” Damian said in a savage whisper. He grabbed Suzanne’s hand and whisked her away.
“Uh, excuse us,” she called back to Clyde and then demanded, “What in God’s name are you doing?”
When they reached the stairs, he tossed her over his shoulder and ran upward to their bedroom.
26
“What has gotten into you?” Suzanne stared into Damian’s swirling irises after he tossed her onto the bed.
“You were talking to another man.” Damian’s voice sounded savage, bloodthirsty.
“I answered the door for Isabella.” She struggled to stand, but he pushed her down. “What would you have me do? Leave the poor guy out there? It’s steaming hot, and at least it’s cool in this stone dungeon.”
“Stone dungeon? This is my home.”
“Whatever. Look, we need to get a few things straight.”
“You’re absolutely right, lass. I don’t want you talking to other men.”
“Oh, of course. No problem. While I’m at it, why don’t I stay away from women, too? And dogs and cats. But can I still talk to plants, Damian? I don’t know how I’d live without my botanic conversations.”
“You’re being sarcastic.”
“Really? I hadn’t noticed.”
“How can you make light of this? I’m completely serious.”
“Completely insane, you mean.”
“Aye. Insane. You’ve invaded my mind. My psyche. My consciousness. I haven’t written in days. Thoughts of you plague me.”
“I’ve done nothing.”
“You’ve captured my heart, lass. I need you.”
“Please don’t say I’ve caused you to stop writing. I couldn’t live with that. You’re an amazing talent. I’ll leave Scotland right now if you can’t write because I’m here.”
“No. You can't leave.”
“But you need to write.”
“If you leave, I’ll never write again.”
“Dear Lord.” She held out her arms to him, her heart aching. His eyes swirled with sadness. “Come to me.”
He lay down next to her and took her in his arms. “You’re my world, Suzanne. I love you.”
“I want to understand you, Damian. But you can’t possibly love me. You don’t even know me.”
He feathered butterfly kisses over her forehead and cheeks. “I know you don’t understand it. I don’t understand it myself. But I do love you.”
“Look at you,” she said. “You’re amazing. You’re gorgeous, you’re smart, you’re talented. You could have any woman in the world. Why me, Damian?”
“I wish I could explain it to you, lass, but I can't. Just don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me.”
“I’ll stay,” Suzanne said, and a look of sheer bliss covered Damian’s face. “For the next couple of weeks.”
“Oh.” His brow wrinkled.
“That’s time for us to get to know each other. Then, maybe you can come visit me in Colorado. Would you like that?”
He shook his head. “I can’t leave Padraig.”
“Why on earth not?”
“There are circumstances.”
“What circumstances?”
“I can't say.”
“Then this will never work between us. You expect me to pack up my whole life and move across the world, but you won’t be honest with me. And speaking of honesty, when are you going to tell me about the injuries to your back?”
Suzanne didn’t get an answer. Instead, Damian pressed his lips onto hers, nibbling across her lower lip and then her upper, teasing her with little flicks of his tongue. Although her brain told her she needed to know more about him, about why he was so possessive, why he felt this animalistic need for her, why he had been injured on his back and hands, her body knew only that she wanted him. In her mouth. In her body. In her heart.
She couldn’t fight his passion, because she shared it.
Brazenly, she parted her lips and thrust her tongue into the warmth of his mouth. She kissed him with longing, intensity, lust. She poured her essence into this meeting of their mouths, making all their previous kisses meaningless. She tasted, she teased, she taunted.
Deepening the kiss, she pushed him onto his back and climbed on top of him, grinding her still-clothed pussy into his burgeoning hardness. Her body ablaze, she pushed into him while she framed his chiseled face in her hands. Every groan from him fueled her passion, every thrust of his need against her kindled her craving ache. She drove into him, against him, climbing, peaking, and then jumping into the chasm as her body exploded into a thousand flaming arrows. Higher and higher she flew, her mouth still clamped to his, her body still racked with pleasure, rapture, bliss. The climax continued, pulsing through her veins like rivers of boiling honey. She moaned into his mouth, her tongue still tangled with his.
Her best orgasm ever, and they were both still fully clothed.
She broke the kiss, panting.
“Now do you believe you’re mine?” Damian’s voice husky with smoke and cinders.
“Yes.” Her whisper came in a breathless rasp. “I’m yours. And you’re mine.” She fumbled with his shirt and pulled it out of the waistband of his jeans. “Take this off.”
As he did so, she unbuttoned her blouse and flung it onto the floor. Her bra followed.
Damian’s gaze locked onto her nakedness. “You have the most beautiful breasts I’ve ever seen, Suzanne.”
“Take off your pants,” she said, unzipping her own. “I want you naked.”
He groaned as he removed his shoes, his jeans, his boxers. His eyes locked onto hers, and her whole body ignited.
“Now, Damian,” she rasped. “Take me now.”
“I want to love you slowly.”
“Later. Right now, I want you inside me. I need you. I don’t want to wait a second longer.”
“Oh God, love.” He pushed her onto her back, covered her with his body, and pierced into her, stretching her exquisitely. “So sweet, so tight.” His gravelly voice inflamed her. “Ah, yes. You were made for me.”
Suzanne gasped with pleasure so intense, so huge. She had never been filled so completely. She locked her legs around his hips, matched him, denying him nothing. She rose to meet every thrust, forcing him more deeply into her.
“I’d stay inside you forever if I could,” Damian said. He thrust and thrust.
Suzanne’s skin erupted in flames, her heart bounced in her chest. “More, Damian. Harder, faster.” Her breath whooshed outward in rapid puffs.
He increased his speed and pressure as he continued to plunge into her, wiggling his hips, filling every last millimeter.
She writhed underneath him, lost in ecstasy. Bliss. Rapture. Nirvana. The climax ascended higher and higher, and Damian rose onto his knees and pulled her hips to him as he pounded into her, his eyes squeezed shut and his beautiful teeth clenched. He thrust once more and his release pulsed into her as he groaned her name.
“Anyway, they need blood to survive. But most of them either drink from each other or subsist on animal blood. The sheep farms around here supply a lot of blood to the vampire population.”
“Oh God.” Suzanne clutched her stomach. Just the thought of it… She closed her eyes, hugging herself. Her arms suddenly felt chilled, and she rubbed the goosebumps in an attempt to warm herself with the friction. Her heartbeat quickened, and a vision appeared in her mind, of Rex Donnelly leading her behind Café Oxter and pushing her into the arms of a large blond man. Rex’s low voice telling the men not to take too much, that he’d bring more later. Six hands poking her, groping her, and then, on her neck―the scraping, the sharpness.
Teeth.
Fangs.
Damn.
They might have raped her, but sexual gratification hadn’t been their primary goal. They had wanted her blood.
She had been attacked by vampires.
24
“They have incredible strength, as well,” Isabella said. “The weakest vampire is as strong as the strongest human.”
“I’m sorry.” Suzanne jerked her head back toward her cousin. “What did you say?”
“They’re strong. Stronger than humans.”
“I see.” The fog of that perilous night cleared slowly, and images unfolded on a screen in her mind’s eye. The three men―were they indeed men?―attacking her, her heart pounding, her fear a palpable mass of emotion. Their eyes full of hunger, their mouths salivating, their bodies crushed against hers.
Then, out of nowhere, Damian.
He had plowed them into the ground. All three of them. Three vampires with super-human strength, and Damian had pummeled them as if they were the dust beneath his feet. How?
Suzanne shuddered as she erased the images from her mind. They hadn’t been vampires. That was the only logical explanation. Damian couldn’t have beaten three vampires.
Of course they hadn’t been vampires. What had she been thinking? Vampires didn’t exist.
She inhaled, tried to relax and force the chills from her neck. “When does the electrician get here?”
“That was an abrupt change of subject,” Isabella said.
“I’m afraid I’m done with this nonsense, Bell. You’ll never get me to believe there are vampires in Padraig.”
Isabella sighed, closed the book on Suzanne’s lap, and placed it on top of her dresser. “To tell you the truth, Suze, I’m not so sure I believe it, either.”
“Now you’re talking sense,” Suzanne said. “What should we do today?”
“I need to stick around. I want to be here when the electrician comes.”
“Can’t Dougal take care of that?”
“It’s my castle now, so it’s my responsibility. Plus, I’m the one who’s going to be paying for it. I hope the cost won’t be too dire.”
“You’ve got Merlina’s inheritance.”
“Yeah, but that’s not much, only fifty grand. It needs to last. Especially if I’m going to stay here.”
Suzanne’s head nearly spun off her neck. “You’re going to what?”
“I’ve decided to stay here and live at the castle.”
“Bell…”
“I’m not like you, Suze. I don’t have a big job that pays tons of money waiting for me back home. I’m a part-time waitress who does Tarot readings on the side. I can do that anywhere.”
“You’d turn your back on your home? Your country?”
“I’m not turning my back on anything. I’m facing my future. I belong here. I felt it as soon as our plane touched the ground. This is my destiny.”
Suzanne’s skin iced over. The thought of not having Isabella nearby speared into her heart like a hunting blade. “How can you be sure? We haven’t even been here a week.”
“I’m sure. There’s incredible lunar energy here. I felt it that first night. And so did you.”
Suzanne shook her head.
“Don’t try to deny it, cuz. I know you felt it. And now that I found Merlina’s Book of Shadows, it all clicked together. This is where I belong. I can learn so much here about my family and my craft.” She sighed. “About myself.”
Suzanne embraced her cousin. “I’ll miss you so much, Bell.”
“You could stay, you know. Maybe a certain handsome Scotsman might convince you?” Isabella’s lips curved into a mischievous grin.
Suzanne sighed. Damian had already all but demanded she never leave. But as irresistibly drawn to him as she was, there remained a mystery, an enigma, surrounding him that she couldn’t ignore. Until she knew him better, she wouldn’t consider staying, no matter what her heart and body wanted.
“I have a job, Bell. They’re expecting me back. They’re depending on me.”
“I was pretty sure you’d say that.” Isabella grinned impishly. “But we’ll talk again after you and Damian do the deed.”
Suzanne’s skin warmed. She rose and strode toward the bed, picked up a pillow, and hurled it at her cousin. “We’d have done it three times by now but for your interruptions!”
Isabella ducked the assault. “Touché, cuz. Touché.”
25
Damian paced the cellar room as Dougal tapped away at his keyboard. Damn. He had been so close. So close to finally joining his body with Suzanne’s.
“What’s troubling you now, lad?”
“She likes wolves, Da. She collects them.”
“She, meaning Suzanne?”
“Aye.”
“I’m thinking you don’t mean she collects real wolves.”
“No. Figurines. Prints. Stuffed wolves.”
“And?”
“It’s got to mean something, doesn’t it? This need I feel for her, this knowledge that she’s mine?”
“I don’t know, lad, but I’ll research it. How was your date?”
“Perfect, actually.” Damian sat down, his hair still damp from his most recent cold shower. “Until her cousin interrupted us this morning. Again.”
Dougal chuckled, his back quivering. “Patience, lad.”
“And she talks about going home. I can’t bear the thought of her leaving, Da.”
“She’s only here for a few weeks. Isabella said four, I think.”
“Well, then, I’ve a little over three more to convince her to stay with me.”
“I hate to bring up the obvious, lad, but what exactly are you going to tell her about your condition?”
Damian inhaled sharply, paced to the end of the room and back, and then grabbed a Guinness out of the refrigerator. “I’ve been thinking. I don’t think she really needs to know.”
Dougal’s eyes widened as he stood up. “Michty me! Of course she needs to know!”
“No, Da. I’ll lose her for sure then.”
“How do you know that? Maybe she’ll understand.”
Damian took a long drink of the dark beer. “Who in the name of God himself could ever understand what I am? I don’t even understand it myself. She can’t know, Da. She can’t.”
“Lad—”
“I’ve thought about it. You can continue to lock me in the tower during the change. I’ll tell her I’m out of town on business or something. I already told her who I am and what I do for a living. She’ll understand that I need to meet with editors and agents and such.”
“And she’s too stupid to figure out that you’re gone during every full moon?”
“It will work,” Damian said. “It has to.”
Dougal shook his head. “There’s nothing I want more than your happiness. I’d give my life for it. But this’ll never work. You’ve got to be honest with her. How do you expect to build a relationship with this lass if you cannot even be truthful about yourself?”
Damian took another drink of the bitter brew. “I don’t know, Da. But I can’t let her go. I’ll die without her.”
“Crivvens, lad, you’ve never been prone to histrionics. What has gotten into you?”
Damian shook his head, puzzled. “If I knew I’d tell you, Da. I swear it.”
“We need to figure this thing out.” Dougal began punching on his keyboard. “Have you been writing?”
“Aye. The sequel’s nearly done.”
“Good. Now tell me. Why do you think you’ll die without Suzanne?”
“I don’t know. I just know that I will.”
“That’s no answer, lad.”
“It’s the only one I’ve got.”
“You can do better than that. You’re a writer. Describe to me what you’re feeling.”
Damian paced the room again.
“You’ll wear the carpet out in here,” Dougal said.
He sat down next to his father. “It’s not something I can describe, because it’s not something I’ve ever felt before. It’s like…she fills a part of me that I never knew was empty. She completes me. And now that she’s here, she’s like an addiction. My body craves her. Needs her.”
“Just your body, son?”
“My mind. My heart. My soul.”
“I’ve never heard you talk of heart and soul before.”
“There was never a reason to.”
“I see.”
“Can’t you be a little more specific on your posts, Da?”
“Maybe. But I’m not willing to sacrifice your safety or sanity for this.”
“I’ve got money, Da.”
“We can’t tell anyone that, lad. People will come up with stories just to get their hands on your found. You know that.”
Damian sighed. “Aye.”
Dougal continued to type. “I do have some good news, though.”
“What’s that?”
“This morning, Isabella told me she hired an electrician from Thurso to install power throughout the castle. He’s coming today.”
“That’ll be mighty nice. Did you tell her we’d pay for it?”
“No. I didn’t think you’d want her to question that. But I’ll take care of it.”
“Aye.” Damian sniffed the air.
Fresh. Springtime. Suzanne. He smiled. He sniffed again, the whiff of testosterone unmistakable. A chill crept up the back of his neck.
“He’s here now, Da.”
“Who?”
“The electrician. And he’s with Suzanne.” Damian leaped out of his chair and ran out of the cellar room and up the stairs to the front entrance.
Suzanne stood near the doorway, her face lit by the afternoon sun streaming in. God, she was beautiful. But the smile touching her lips teased another man—an attractive man dressed in jeans and a green T-shirt, holding a tool chest.
Damian stalked forward, grabbed Suzanne by the arm, and pulled her behind his large body.
“Can I help you, friend?” Damian said to the stranger.
“I’m Clyde Ross. The electrician. I’m here to see Isabella Knight.”
“This isn’t Isabella.” His voice was low, feral.
“I know. Suzanne was just telling me Isabella’s on her way down.”
“This one’s mine, friend,” Damian said. A hissing growl escaped his throat.
Clyde’s blue eyes widened. Was it fear the man felt? Damian hoped so.
“Look, I was just talking to her.”
Suzanne struggled out of Damian’s grasp. “For God’s sake, Damian, you’re being ridiculous. Isabella’s tied up for a minute upstairs, and I was just letting Clyde in.”
“You’re mine,” Damian said in a savage whisper. He grabbed Suzanne’s hand and whisked her away.
“Uh, excuse us,” she called back to Clyde and then demanded, “What in God’s name are you doing?”
When they reached the stairs, he tossed her over his shoulder and ran upward to their bedroom.
26
“What has gotten into you?” Suzanne stared into Damian’s swirling irises after he tossed her onto the bed.
“You were talking to another man.” Damian’s voice sounded savage, bloodthirsty.
“I answered the door for Isabella.” She struggled to stand, but he pushed her down. “What would you have me do? Leave the poor guy out there? It’s steaming hot, and at least it’s cool in this stone dungeon.”
“Stone dungeon? This is my home.”
“Whatever. Look, we need to get a few things straight.”
“You’re absolutely right, lass. I don’t want you talking to other men.”
“Oh, of course. No problem. While I’m at it, why don’t I stay away from women, too? And dogs and cats. But can I still talk to plants, Damian? I don’t know how I’d live without my botanic conversations.”
“You’re being sarcastic.”
“Really? I hadn’t noticed.”
“How can you make light of this? I’m completely serious.”
“Completely insane, you mean.”
“Aye. Insane. You’ve invaded my mind. My psyche. My consciousness. I haven’t written in days. Thoughts of you plague me.”
“I’ve done nothing.”
“You’ve captured my heart, lass. I need you.”
“Please don’t say I’ve caused you to stop writing. I couldn’t live with that. You’re an amazing talent. I’ll leave Scotland right now if you can’t write because I’m here.”
“No. You can't leave.”
“But you need to write.”
“If you leave, I’ll never write again.”
“Dear Lord.” She held out her arms to him, her heart aching. His eyes swirled with sadness. “Come to me.”
He lay down next to her and took her in his arms. “You’re my world, Suzanne. I love you.”
“I want to understand you, Damian. But you can’t possibly love me. You don’t even know me.”
He feathered butterfly kisses over her forehead and cheeks. “I know you don’t understand it. I don’t understand it myself. But I do love you.”
“Look at you,” she said. “You’re amazing. You’re gorgeous, you’re smart, you’re talented. You could have any woman in the world. Why me, Damian?”
“I wish I could explain it to you, lass, but I can't. Just don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me.”
“I’ll stay,” Suzanne said, and a look of sheer bliss covered Damian’s face. “For the next couple of weeks.”
“Oh.” His brow wrinkled.
“That’s time for us to get to know each other. Then, maybe you can come visit me in Colorado. Would you like that?”
He shook his head. “I can’t leave Padraig.”
“Why on earth not?”
“There are circumstances.”
“What circumstances?”
“I can't say.”
“Then this will never work between us. You expect me to pack up my whole life and move across the world, but you won’t be honest with me. And speaking of honesty, when are you going to tell me about the injuries to your back?”
Suzanne didn’t get an answer. Instead, Damian pressed his lips onto hers, nibbling across her lower lip and then her upper, teasing her with little flicks of his tongue. Although her brain told her she needed to know more about him, about why he was so possessive, why he felt this animalistic need for her, why he had been injured on his back and hands, her body knew only that she wanted him. In her mouth. In her body. In her heart.
She couldn’t fight his passion, because she shared it.
Brazenly, she parted her lips and thrust her tongue into the warmth of his mouth. She kissed him with longing, intensity, lust. She poured her essence into this meeting of their mouths, making all their previous kisses meaningless. She tasted, she teased, she taunted.
Deepening the kiss, she pushed him onto his back and climbed on top of him, grinding her still-clothed pussy into his burgeoning hardness. Her body ablaze, she pushed into him while she framed his chiseled face in her hands. Every groan from him fueled her passion, every thrust of his need against her kindled her craving ache. She drove into him, against him, climbing, peaking, and then jumping into the chasm as her body exploded into a thousand flaming arrows. Higher and higher she flew, her mouth still clamped to his, her body still racked with pleasure, rapture, bliss. The climax continued, pulsing through her veins like rivers of boiling honey. She moaned into his mouth, her tongue still tangled with his.
Her best orgasm ever, and they were both still fully clothed.
She broke the kiss, panting.
“Now do you believe you’re mine?” Damian’s voice husky with smoke and cinders.
“Yes.” Her whisper came in a breathless rasp. “I’m yours. And you’re mine.” She fumbled with his shirt and pulled it out of the waistband of his jeans. “Take this off.”
As he did so, she unbuttoned her blouse and flung it onto the floor. Her bra followed.
Damian’s gaze locked onto her nakedness. “You have the most beautiful breasts I’ve ever seen, Suzanne.”
“Take off your pants,” she said, unzipping her own. “I want you naked.”
He groaned as he removed his shoes, his jeans, his boxers. His eyes locked onto hers, and her whole body ignited.
“Now, Damian,” she rasped. “Take me now.”
“I want to love you slowly.”
“Later. Right now, I want you inside me. I need you. I don’t want to wait a second longer.”
“Oh God, love.” He pushed her onto her back, covered her with his body, and pierced into her, stretching her exquisitely. “So sweet, so tight.” His gravelly voice inflamed her. “Ah, yes. You were made for me.”
Suzanne gasped with pleasure so intense, so huge. She had never been filled so completely. She locked her legs around his hips, matched him, denying him nothing. She rose to meet every thrust, forcing him more deeply into her.
“I’d stay inside you forever if I could,” Damian said. He thrust and thrust.
Suzanne’s skin erupted in flames, her heart bounced in her chest. “More, Damian. Harder, faster.” Her breath whooshed outward in rapid puffs.
He increased his speed and pressure as he continued to plunge into her, wiggling his hips, filling every last millimeter.
She writhed underneath him, lost in ecstasy. Bliss. Rapture. Nirvana. The climax ascended higher and higher, and Damian rose onto his knees and pulled her hips to him as he pounded into her, his eyes squeezed shut and his beautiful teeth clenched. He thrust once more and his release pulsed into her as he groaned her name.
