Chapter 15
I t feels as if it’s only been thirty seconds before the car pulls to a stop, and my door is suddenly being opened by Billings. I blink twice before I take his hand and step out of the vehicle. Silently, Ares walks beside me as we walk into the beautiful front doors. But just as we step inside, he tucks his right hand into his jacket, hiding his bloodied weapon. Neither one of us looks up as we walk through the lobby, but thankfully, it’s empty at the moment. I push the button to call the elevator, and I breathe a sigh of relief when it opens immediately. We step inside, and quietly, we ascend through the building.
I let out another little breath of relief once we’re inside our apartment, the door locked behind us.
“I’m going to shower,” Ares says, striding across the space.
And I feel like I’m finally waking up. And I realize it’s not just me who has been acting a little shell-shocked over the last twenty minutes or so, but Ares is acting off as well. He has been so quiet. His gaze was contemplative as we rode home. And he seems removed as he immediately goes to the bedroom and then into the bathroom. I stand there, a little confused, in the dining room alone.
Shit.
I have to confront what happened tonight.
Ares killed a man.
A predator. The man literally called himself that. I was his prey.
But still. Ares killed him.
And the way he killed him?
I have to remember what Ares is. He’s told me before, reminded me, that he is dangerous. The word vampire too often becomes arbitrary. Just like how some people are electricians or Italian. Ares is vampire.
But I cannot forget what it means. And that is: not human anymore.
Ares has died.
Ares has Resurrected.
And come back as something different.
I wander into the bedroom, standing at the window, looking out at Central Park. Even at this hour, at nearly four in the morning, there are still people out and about. And for a fleeting moment, I wonder, are they out late or up extremely early?
Once upon a few weeks ago, there was no way I would ever be awake at this hour. I’ve always been a morning person, which means an early to bed person.
My life looks so damn different.
The sound of the door to the bathroom opening pulls my eyes over my shoulder. Ares stands there in sweatpants and a white t-shirt. The sight is almost jarring. I’ve never seen him dressed so casually .
And he’s so clean now. No traces of blood. His right hand is no longer solidly red.
How do you just wash that kind of blood away?
Doesn’t killing someone stain you for forever?
“You killed a man today,” I say, the words coming out hoarse. It feels like days since I last spoke, not less than an hour.
“I’m sorry you had to see it, Vengeance,” he says, and I’m having a hard time reading his tone. “But I’d do it again. You told him no, and he had the gall to touch you.”
“I might have handled it,” I say, and I don’t know what the hell is happening when something stings the backs of my eyes.
“I know,” he says, his own eyes darkening. He takes a step into the room. “You’re Lana fucking Kincade.”
Moisture pools in my eyes as I finally figure it out. I might have handled it on my own. But I didn’t have to.
For once, someone else had me. For once, someone took care of me.
And that is the reason why seeing blood didn’t affect me for the first time since my mother and sister were killed.
Ares was protecting me. And I knew it with every bone in my body.
“Lana,” Ares says, my name coming across his lips like a prayer of agony. His hazel eyes are fixed on my own, and I can tell something big is coming. “I can’t do this anymore.”
Everything in my chest drops out into nothingness. Instantly, I feel cold.
“Ares,” I say, the name coming out hurt.
He shakes his head and takes another step into the room. “I can’t do this anymore, Vengeance. I can’t pretend anymore. I want you for real, Lana Kincade. Every touch, every kiss, every glance, every night, every shower, every dinner. Real. Lana and Ares.”
The breath catches in my chest with every word he speaks. I feel something building inside me. Rising with the force of an oncoming tsunami.
I turn to fully face Ares. His chest is rising and falling hard, but the look in his eyes screams absolute confidence and conviction.
“I’m done pretending, Lana,” Ares says, his voice low, intimate. “I’m all fucking in.”
I cross the bedroom in four long strides, and I don’t slow as my body collides with Ares’. My hands come to either side of his face, and my lips find their home. Devouring. Claiming. Branding. This kiss, with no witnesses around, is searing. Ares’ lips cave to mine, moving in time with my own. His tongue greedily seeks out mine, and I am all too anxious to dance.
Finally. It’s the word that my entire body sighs as I sag into Ares’ embrace. As his hands circle my waist, pulling me tighter, holding me close. Finally. And I realize that I never stood a chance. I might have walked into this agreement with caution, with a chip on my shoulder. But Ares is my match. The equal to my bitterness. The perfect counter to my own hurt.
“I want you, Ares,” I say against his lips. A feral growl of approval rumbles in his chest as he moves his lips to my neck. And my entire body feels electric. Alive. Godlike. I realize how dangerous this is. This man has fangs, this man could drain the life-force from me in less than a minute. And his lips are latched to my neck.
But I trust him.
As a sigh escapes my throat and I tilt my head back, I absolutely trust him .
Closer. I need closer. Even though his hands are wrapped around me, I need so much damn closer.
I lift my right leg, rising myself up onto my toes of the left. Ares’ hands slide down over my ass to my thighs to hoist me up. But my dress falls all too in the way. With an annoyed growl, Ares gives a swift yank, splitting the dress from the bottom, up to my thighs. A wicked smile pulls on my lips as he tries once more, his hands hooking behind my legs. And this time, it’s successful. My legs wrap around his waist.
Ares spins, planting my back against the wall. And the contact between my legs makes my entire body spark. Ares pins me to the wall with his hips ground into mine. He looks into my eyes for one hot, heated moment. There are red embers ignited there, his hunger a threat to the entire world.
Greedily, I take his lips again, devouring the man’s soul.
“Tell me what you want, Vengeance,” Ares says against my lips, his hands gripping my hips with the most delicious possessiveness.
My fingers lace into his hair, and he leans into my touch, his eyes blazing as he looks into my own eyes. “I want you. All of you. Right the fuck now.”
“Fuck yes,” he growls, the sound rumbling through his entire body, which I feel… everywhere.
He releases me, my body sliding down the wall till my feet hit the ground. And with another sharp yank, Ares rips the rest of the dress clean in half. The tattered fabric falls to a pile at my feet as a gasp rips from my throat.
The wicked grin that pulls on his lips is enough to melt me through.
“Like what you see, Venom?” I ask as I step forward, pushing him back a step .
He seems to have lost his words for the moment. He simply nods.
And it’s my turn. My eyes scan down the length of his body. Too many clothes. My hands find the hem of his shirt, and I hoist up, yanking the fabric up and over his head. Finally, it clears his head, a bit of a challenge considering our height difference. His shirt falls to the floor in a soft cascade.
I take a moment to take him in. My eyes scan from the waist band of his pants, up the defined muscles of his stomach, over the rise of his chest. Shit. This man’s body is perfection. I’ve been around a lot of incredible physiques throughout my life. Growing up in a combat sports gym, I’ve seen a few well-defined guys.
But none of them hold a candle to Ares Hunt.
And every inch of his skin is tattooed.
Gargoyles. Skulls. Crows. Moons. Patterns. Runes. Ares’ body is the most beautiful tapestry of art I’ve ever seen.
“Like what you see, Vengeance?” he asks, a smile tugging on his lips.
“Fuck me,” I simply breathe out.
He surges forward, taking my lips once more. He walks me backward to the bed. With one hand cupped behind my neck, he lowers me to the bed with his other. And my entire body lights on fire as Ares presses his lips to my stomach. His lips are a thousand degrees as he works them higher until, finally, they work their way up to the base of my sternum. And when he comes to the obstacle of my bra, he reaches up, and with one yank of his wrist, he tears that bit of fabric right off me, too.
A curse and a prayer slip over his lips as he unabashedly stares at my breasts. And my eyes close in ecstasy as he kisses his way up the underside curve of the right one. Until finally, his lips latch onto my hardened nipple.
“Ares,” I breathe, writhing beneath his touch.
He answers only with a growl, sucking on me hard before he turns his attention to the other side. With a wide, flat tongue, he licks his way from the underside up, until his lips once more latch onto me on that side.
Fuck.
This man.
His mouth.
His hand slides down my stomach and then to my thigh. He grips my ankle, turning my leg out until I’m spread for him. And slowly, with fingers that feel molten, he slips them beneath my lacy panties. And he doesn’t hesitate as his fingers slide to my folds, finding them slick with my arousal.
“The fact that you’re wet for me, Vengeance…” he growls as he bites at my stomach. And suddenly, he slips a finger inside of me. A gasp rips from my throat, and I feel like I’ve been lit with a hundred fireworks. He stretches me farther as he pushes another finger inside.
A moan escapes my lips, and I tilt my head back, gripping the blanket as I cling to the earth for dear life.
“You know how long I’ve been fantasizing about this?” he says softly as his thumb presses directly on my clit. He drags it back and forth across it in the most delicious way. “Since you asked how to kill a vampire. Being in this apartment, not being able to touch you, not making you scream my name every night…” he growls, licking at my skin as if I’m the last meal he’ll ever partake in. “Please allow me to make up for lost time.”
“Ares,” I say, his name coming out a little desperate as something gathers beneath his thumb. It comes from the far reaches of my body, pushing me toward the edge of a cliff.
“Perfect, Vengeance,” he says, the excitement picking up in his tone. He pistons his fingers in and out of me, picking up the pace, curling his fingers, hitting that spot deep within me as he rubs my clit with precision.
His free hand cups my side, and the bare skin to bare skin is the very best sensation in this world. He presses a reverent kiss to my stomach before shifting back. And the very next moment, he licks up the very center of me before latching his lips onto my clit and sucking. Hard.
I fall off that cliff. My entire body tenses, wound tight as a coil. And then I detonate.
The orgasm rips through me, draining the life from every corner of my being. Ares’ name rips from my chest in a wild, feral cry as I squeeze his head with my thighs. He sucks harder, his tongue stroking over my clit in the next moment, pushing my ecstasy to a level I never even knew existed.
A cry rips from my chest, and as my eyes fly open, all I see is white stars, the world dissolved into perfect bliss.
Ares gives one last lap at my pussy as the high begins to subside, just before he surges forward, claiming my mouth with his own. I taste myself on his lips, and it’s the headiest thing I’ve ever experienced. His hand cups my jaw, kissing me like I’ve never been kissed in my life.
Desperately, I claw at the sweats slung low around his hips. I shove them down, and Ares maneuvers as I do, kicking them off the bed.
With a gasp, I push myself up the bed till my head hits the pillow. Ares kneels there, looking every bit of me over with predatory possessiveness .
My eyes trail down the perfection of his body until finally I see it. Thick and long, my mouth goes dry as I take him in. Fuck. If that isn’t the prettiest cock I’ve ever seen in my life.
“Think you can take it, Vengeance?” he asks, and while it’s wicked and teasing, it’s also sincere, with just a hint of worry.
I simply nod wickedly, reaching for him. “I want it. Now.”
Suddenly, the grin on his face falters. “Fuck. Lana, I don’t have any condoms,” he laments. “And I’m not looking to get you pregnant with any Born babies.”
“My period ended yesterday morning,” I say, breathless, pulling him to me. “You’re not going to get me pregnant this time of month.”
“Thank fuck,” he breathes, leaning in, kissing me in a searing kiss that reaches my very core. Between us, I feel him fist himself. He rubs the head of his cock along my entrance, a tease I can barely stand. He looks up, meeting my eyes for just a moment, one last request for consent.
I nod.
And Ares moves forward, sliding into me.
I have to let out a breath, my entire body freezing for a moment. Shit. I feel full. Absolutely stretched to the brim.
But as he hesitates for a moment, giving me a second to adjust to him, my body relaxes just a little. And he slides in farther.
Damn. How is there any more room inside me to take any more of him?
As I let out a breath, he slides inside me farther still until finally, he bottoms out, buried to the hilt inside of me.
“You okay?” Ares breathes, the air coming in and out of his lungs ragged. His entire body is trembling, as if it’s taking everything in him to hold back .
I take a second to answer. I feel as if he’s climbed into every bit of me, occupying my body at the same time.
But by the second, it feels… sensational. Like fate. Like exactly where I’m supposed to be.
“Fuck me,” I breathe out again as I rise up to meet my lips to his. His tongue invades my mouth, and slowly, gently, he slides out of me before pressing back inside. I let out a slow breath, Ares catching every bit of air. My body relaxes to him, stretches, adapts.
And shit, the sensation of him inside me?
“More,” I beg.
Ares buries his lips against my throat, bracing himself on his forearms above me as he slides in and out. I raise my knees around his hips, opening wider.
My entire world centers down to this moment, to this man, to this union. I rock my hips against him as Ares slides in and out. And when I moan in desperation for more, he picks up the pace. My head spins with the intensity, with the incredible sensations ripping through me.
I’ve had sex before. With two other men. But nothing, nothing , compares to Ares Hunt.
The lithe form of his body. The immense size of him. The words he whispers against my skin. The kisses that turn me electric.
I nearly cry out in frustration when Ares slides out of me completely. But I’m rewarded almost immediately by him sliding the length of himself over my clit. And the slick pressure of it immediately chases me sky high. The sensation comes over me again as he grinds himself up over my clit. And that it’s my wetness giving it lubrication… Fuck, I’ve never been more turned on in my life .
My head throws back as a gasp rips from my throat, and I’m shot out of a cannon toward my undoing.
“Ares!” I cry.
And just as I trip over the edge, he plunges back into me, spearing me all the way through the center. The feral, ragged noises coming from his lungs propel me harder, faster.
I shatter.
Ecstasy. Bliss. Ares is my undoing as I come, and it is not quiet.
Ares curses as a roar rips from his lips and he shutters into me, his entire body tensing around me, caging me in.
By the time it subsides, I’m a quivering, shaking mess. And I’ve never, never felt more satisfied in my existence.
There are roughly four million other women in this city. And I am the only one who gets to touch Ares Hunt.
He is mine.
Mine.
“You were perfect, Vengeance,” Ares pants, and I take it as a massive compliment that I can make a vampire pant.
I stare up into his eyes, and something in me darkens. I realize there is a part of me I didn’t know existed. Because I would do just about anything for this man. Not all of them good. Not all of them wise.
“You’re mine, Ares Hunt,” I tell him in a dark promise.
“Every piece of me,” he agrees.
He presses a kiss to my lips, sealing it as a vow.
My body feels heavy now, the last of my energy reserves burned up. As if he can sense it, Ares rolls off of me. Reaching for the tissues on the nightstand, he gently, carefully positions himself between my legs, cleaning me up. There’s something vulnerable about it, on both our parts, something tender .
I’d never let any other man do this. Ever.
But this is Ares.
He discards the tissues when he’s done and lays back on the pillow. He gathers me in his arms, and I let out a tired, breathy sigh as I rest my head on his chest. It feels like everything is exactly as it should be in this moment.
“Sleep, Lana,” Ares says as he presses a kiss to the top of my head. “You were perfect in every way today. Now you deserve some sleep.”
And so I do. With my arms wrapped around the center of my world, I close my eyes and let darkness take me under.