Tempting The Gorgon: A Gorgon / Vampire Romance

Chapter 14

Arch and I spent more time than I thought possible over the next couple weeks that passed together.

He had listened to me and only kissed me when I asked him to. He took my directions so well, even though I knew he ached to have me in his place. I found myself getting distracted easily throughout the day, looking forward to each buzz of my phone and, for the first time, being somewhat disappointed if it was an order confirmation or something about the club that wasn’t a true milestone instead of one of his emoji-filled flirtatious messages.

I hadn’t realized how much Arch had been avoiding me until after our date when he seemingly gave in to the fact I was accepting his advances toward me and started showing up at the club when I was there. I figured he’d have to oversee the night crew, but it became obvious he’d only kept those hours to give me space after our initial sex fuckery.

We were walking toward the town council meeting where he had planned to discuss our idea about going off island for new residents that needed refuge when I felt a pang of need in me.

“Kiss me,” I demanded. I had started asking, or really telling, him to do random things like this throughout different points in the day to see how annoyed he got with me. So far, he had nothing of his father or brother in him. The only greed I saw in his eyes was based on a feral need for me, not something that he felt was his right to possess.

I was something he wanted to cherish, and he’d done a good job of taking my orders so far.

His soft lips were on me as he pushed me up against the nearest brick wall. Arch’s warm tongue invaded my mouth as he’d learned quickly that made me moan almost instantly.

There was something about a strong male handling you with such care but also an insatiable need that made my toes curl in my boots. I hadn’t felt this way about any kiss before. I had told Arch about my experience as a domme in some of the themed club nights and how I’d loved it so much, but was always reminded at the end of the night I was nothing more than property or a weapon for my captors.

I also hadn’t told him who my captors were yet.

I hadn’t wanted this bubble to break.

I hadn’t wanted him to realize his father and brother were the causes of my need for slowness and desire for control. From how he spoke of them, he already hated them enough.

And despite me hating them probably more than him, I hadn’t wanted to burden him with any more reasons to feel a certain way toward his own blood. I wasn’t sure where that came from, maybe the fact I had no blood kin of my own, but I didn’t want to bear that responsibility in addition to the rest.

I wanted to be with him without the baggage.

I wanted to test my body’s reactions to his vampire tongue and fangs on my own.

I wanted to feel my heart race with need instead of fear at his touches and the way he yearned for me.

I wanted to embrace this new euphoric feeling before it was ripped from me like most everything else in my life had been.

So I thrust my tongue back at him, dominating him with my mouth since I hadn’t had the courage to take him to my bed yet.

Kisses on the street? Even aggressive, and probably pornographic and not-suited-for-public kisses in the wide open of Haven Pass? No problem.

Arch alone in one of our club rooms where a bed was available for me to test out my own fear in that way? Nope. Not yet.

So I savored the taste of him. He tasted like fire and cinnamon. He tasted like his flavor was created for me.

I bit down on his bottom lip as Titi took another taste of his neck, something she’d started doing whenever I had my guard let down.

He hissed in pain and pulled back barely an inch, just enough for me to see the feral desperation in his eyes before he thrust his waist toward me to pin me further against the bricks. I felt his hard cock beneath his pretentious black slacks that were, of course, finely pressed every day.

“You little temptress,” he said with a husky baritone to his voice.

I didn’t respond with words, only licked his blood that strayed at the corner of my lip while maintaining a shocking level of eye contact. My eyes were no doubt red as the brightest of coals, but not in usual anger. Only in the deepest of desires could this vampire pull from me.

“Fucking hell, Vinni.” He pressed his forehead to mine as he took a deep breath. Then I did something I had been debating for the last couple weeks and dipped my head to the left, exposing the vein in my neck to him.

His hard body froze, and I felt the throb of his cock against my hip. His inhalation was audible before he grabbed my chin with his thumb and index finger in a way that made me even more weak in the knees.

“What is it you think you are doing, my venom?” He rubbed his nose up and down the still-exposed part of my neck before meeting my gaze again. I felt the throb of my vein against his nose on my throat. The heat in his eyes, his cedar and smoke smell, even the feel of his firm grip on my chin had me nearly climaxing then and there without him even near my pussy.

“I’m offering you a reward for being such a good boy,” I answered, knowing full well he was dominating me in every way. This was another test I kept coming back to when things were heated. Could he really take direction from me?

So far, the answer has been an overwhelming and enthusiastic yes.

It seemed Arch truly was a switch, which boded well for me since I was pretty sure I had always been a natural sub but couldn’t stop my domme from coming out after being on high alert for so many years.

The way Arch’s eyes closed in the slowest blink in the history of time had me second-guessing this move to tempt him like he kept saying I was. Was he truly not wanting to taste my blood? I had never known a vampire to turn down an exposed neck.

I also wanted to give him this. And for some reason, against the brick of a random building in town in the middle of the morning felt like the right time.

“You are such a filthy, desperate little whore, aren’t you, Mistress?”

He’d gotten good at this. He was never calling me sweetheart, or good girl, or any other term of endearment.

I was his slut.

I was his whore.

I was his temptress.

“I’m not going to wait all day, vlákas.” I started to pull away, feeling an unfamiliar ache of self-consciousness I wasn’t used to. If he didn’t want my blood, I wasn’t going to force him.

As if reading my mind he wasted no more time and struck, sinking his fangs into my vein right there in public.

The feeling was… everything. He took a few sips from me, and the only reason I knew they were sips was because every other vampire I’d been forced to feed in my life had nearly depleted me.

How greedy would Arch be with no verbal boundaries?

Before I had a chance to contemplate if I was a complete idiot, he pulled away and swiped his wide tongue across his puncture marks, healing them with his own vampire venom.

“I’m only taking a small taste now, temptress.” He pulled my chin to look into his eyes once more. “Because the next time I taste your delectable, addicting-as-sin blood, you’ll be impaled on my cock, screaming in pleasure, and begging me for more.”

The pain was already gone, his own vamp venom healing the wound and sealing me shut.

I rolled my eyes involuntarily, despite knowing he was most likely correct.

He growled at me, clearly not liking that. His pupils flared as if to say, “I’ll haul your ass to my cabin right now and show you how right I am,” before simmering in a heat that had become all too familiar since we had our date.

It was a simmering need and want that we refused to give in to.

Or, more accurately, that I refused to give in to in hopes I wouldn’t freak the fuck out like last time.

“I can’t wait to prove to you just how right I am, Vinni.”

I had found quicklyafter arriving in Haven Pass that the infamous town council meetings were an activity I enjoyed more than others. It gave me the same feeling in my gut that watching the reality TV that Guillermo forced on us in alpha group, as if my stomach were in knots in excitement when watching other people’s drama play out behind a screen. I wasn’t sure if it was the way folks argued about petty grievances that made my past life seem like a horror movie, or how others talked out issues without violence, or maybe it was the sheer audacity at some of the requests from residents, but I felt alive when I sat in the town hall courtyard observing the theatrics.

It was also mandatory I attend since becoming part of the High Priestess’s coven at Samhain.

“We are now opening the floor for our council chairs to bring any topics to the town for discussion,” Grom said to the open room. Their voices were all spelled so they could carry, but his orc tone boomed naturally in the space. Grom has puzzled me since joining the alpha support group. He was overly jovial and constantly smiling and having fun, which went against most things I knew about orcs from my limited exposure to them in my travels. It was like the male never had a bad day; people who didn’t have bad days felt wrong to me, like they were hiding a dark secret.

It wasn’t natural.

Or maybe some people were genuinely happy and I had no clue what that looked like.

“I have a concern to raise.” I hated the way Arch’s suave-sounding voice went straight to my core. I had kept him at a safe distance for most of my time in town, but since seeing him unleash his dominant glory in the last couple weeks, my body responded with or without my go-ahead. I was pretty sure he could recite the weather forecast, and I’d still have to clench my thighs together for some semblance of relief.

“Arch, the Fire Council chair has the floor.” Grom waved his big green hand toward Arch, who walked in front of the daises where each council member stood to face them all.

“Those of you who remember a time before the attack.” He paused, nodding his head toward Cliona in respect at the mention of the tragedy. I’d dealt with a fuck ton of trauma I was still unpacking with Guillermo every week, but your whole family getting murdered because your mom made an alliance with a psycho was next-level fucked, even for me. “Probably remember that my role was a bit different in those times.”

“You were part of our outreach and retrieval missions for future residents,” Cliona said, voicing what he was alluding to.

“Outreach and retrieval?” Rory asked from where he sat next to me before I could slap his arm in condemnation. We weren’t supposed to speak, or at least I assumed so. He was still getting used to functioning in society again after being basically feral for years hunting for Kady, so he didn’t understand when you weren’t supposed to speak.

“Yes,” Arch continued. “I was in charge of keeping my channels open to the outside world and retrieving new residents who might need help escaping one situation or another.” I thought of my own situation, of Patrick’s, and of so many other folks I’ve met. This town truly was a sanctuary, but part of being a sanctuary is accessibility.

“We remember.” Cliona nodded her head and motioned for Arch to proceed.

“Well, to cut to the short of it, I want to step into that role again.”

Silence met the courtyard, not even a murmur.

“What do you mean exactly?” Cliona asked. She had a fiery tone to her voice like she was biting each word out reluctantly. Her green eyes even flared at the question as if it were truly incomprehensible.

“I mean,” Arch raised one eyebrow at her as if he was expecting this challenge. “I want to go back to retrieving folks who need retrieving. I want to open back some of my channels?—”

“Absolutely not.”

“Stubborn girl,” Anya said sharply from the chair on the opposite side of Rory. “As an elder in your coven, I think I have the right to listen to the vampire’s plans some more before you unilaterally say no without even a vote.”

Cliona, the embodiment of High Priestess beauty and power, glared at Anya. Without my permission, my head swung back and forth between the two females, each demanding space in the room. I hadn’t felt the coven bonds like some of the others claimed to. I assumed it was because something in my gorgon blood wouldn’t allow a full bond, but I figured there was some sort of silent conversation happening between the two. Whether due to the coven bond or the fact that Anya had known Cliona since she was a girl and therefore had her respect.

“Fine.” Cliona’s teeth gritted as she turned back to Arch who hadn’t muttered a word during the silent exchange.