Chapter 5
Chapter Five
TILDA
Pleasure wraps around me. The taste of Max is still on my lips.
His blood fortifies my body. His fingers are nimbler than one might think.
Everything about him is perfect, and I feel better than I have in years.
Even though his blood was sweet and the moment erotic, I didn’t lose control.
Nothing about the experience made me want to go too far.
We’ve made an absolute mess of the kitchen, but I don’t care. “I think we should move this to the bed.” My heart pounds twice; fear that he’ll abandon me now that he’s had his pleasure and has seen that I’m truly a monster. “Unless you’ve had enough of…this.”
Gathering me in his arms, he lifts me off the counter. “Never. But I don’t want you to think you’re obligated for anything.”
“That’s nice of you to say.” My heart beats again. A vampire’s heart doesn’t need to beat very often. It’s slow, and mine only beats more often when I’m scared, excited, or nervous. Right now, all three of those emotions apply.
With me cradled in his big arms, he remains in the kitchen. “I never say anything I don’t mean, Tilda.”
“I believe you.” I grip his shoulder like a lifeline.
Pressing his lips to my forehead, he sighs. “Do you want me to help you clean up the mess we made of your kitchen now or later?”
Part of me can’t believe he’d forgo more pleasure while the poison from my fangs rules his blood. When Pierre first bit me, I would have done anything for him, for the addiction of his bite. Now, I’m the vampire in control, yet I don’t want to let this moment pass. “Later.”
His lips twitch, and he carries me down the hall.
“It’s the door on the right.” I could have told him to put me down.
I’m perfectly capable of walking, but I love being in his arms. This is all a terrible mistake, but I’m too far gone to stop now.
If he walks out, he might never come back.
People change their minds, especially when they realize my bite is manipulative.
In my bedroom, he lowers me gently to the mattress. Making quick work of the three buttons at the front of my jumpsuit, he eases the stretchy material over my shoulders and down my body, leaving me naked, looking up at him.
“I’m sorry about ripping your outfit.” He kneels and tosses the jumpsuit onto the chair in the corner.
“It’s okay. Do you want to wait for my poison to wear off and see if you’re still interested in…this?” Visions of the way Pierre manipulated people flash through my mind despite my arousal.
Max pulls his shirt over his head and tosses the black cotton to land on top of my white clothes.
His chest is broad and less hair-covered than I expected.
His shoulders and arms have a thick, soft coat that ends at the front of his wrists, and there’s just a dapple of hair on the back of his hands and chest. It tapers off at his abdomen, and his cock is smooth and soft while being thick and hard. Fuck, he’s perfect.
“It’s not poison, Tilda, it’s a venom that can cause extreme pleasure. I’m not under your thrall, if that’s what you’re concerned about.”
“Are you sure?” If I were a better person, I’d demand he leave. He could come back in a few days if he wanted, but it would be his choice.
“I feel exactly how I’ve always felt about you from the moment I saw you.” He grips my calves and pulls me to the edge of the bed. Cupping my ass, his hands are so big that his thumbs press against the inside of my thigh creases, opening me to his hungry gaze. “So pretty.”
Betrayed by my own body, my hips lift of their own accord, longing to have his mouth against my most sensitive flesh. “How have you always felt?”
“Like you are my destiny.” He slides his thick tongue through my sex, then around my clitoris. The hair on his face tickles my thighs and labia while his slips that larger-than-human tongue inside me and does it all again.
Pleasure consumes me. “Max, that’s so good. I don’t think I can hold off.”
He tongue-fucks me, then licks along my wetness before latching onto my clitoris and sucking.
The world fades, as do all my worries, as euphoria consumes me. I pump against his face. Hair tickles me while his mouth pleasures me. I’m a slave to the sensation overload.
He presses his thick thumb inside me, moving and stirring a kind of intoxication.
I can hear his heart, smell his blood, and long for more of him. I scream as my body tightens before the release consumes me.
Voice a low grumble, he kisses my inner thigh. “Is that enough, or…”
Reaching for him, I pull him onto the bed. “More.”
Lying beside me, he runs one enormous hand over my stomach, then cups my breast and pinches my nipple between thumb and finger. “You’re perfect, Tilda.”
“I was thinking the same thing about you.” I push him to his back and straddle his hips.
His cock is proportionately enormous, yet feels heavenly as I slide along its girth.
Unable to resist, I lay over his torso and press my ear to his chest. His heart beats, and his blood sings, as if they were made for me alone.
I know that’s a silly notion, but my breath catches with emotion.
“What do you hear, sweetheart?” His voice rumbles in his chest and vibrates against my cheek.
“Your heart and blood. It’s the most beautiful sound.” My fangs ache even after being satiated only minutes ago.
“And you’re still hungry.” He states it as if he already knows.
“I can wait for another time.” I try to ignore the burning need for another taste.
He caresses my cheek, then long claws emerge from his fingers. “I’m not human. I have more than twice the blood flowing through me.” He runs the claw on his index finger over his right pectoral, opening a small cut. “Take what you need, Tilda.”
The slightly metallic scent is too much to resist. I run my tongue over the trickle of blood. The wound immediately heals from the properties of my vampire saliva. Desperate for more of him, I sink my fangs into his chest and draw in his essence. It fills me, warms me, and makes my pussy throb.
His low growl rumbles through him and vibrates in me. Beneath me, his cock grows larger and thicker, nudging at my center.
My pussy drips with desire, and pleasure floods me.
Releasing his flesh, I lick the wound closed, and while he’s arched with bliss from my venom, I push down and take the head of his shaft inside me.
“Fuck.” His thickness stretches me, but the delight is irresistible, and I take more and more until I feel stretched to the edge, and yet there’s more of him. “You feel so good.”
He grips my hair. “You are like heaven. If it’s too much, stop. This is already magnificent, sweetheart.”
Rising, I let my knees lower, which brings him deeper. Warmth spreads from my center outward, and euphoria floods me as I come in a rush. “Oh, god.” I grip his waist. “That’s—” My pussy pulses and squeezes him, and ecstasy besets my entire body. I cry his name and a lot of nonsense.
Jaw tight, Max remains still as I take all of him deep inside me, and I wait as my body adjusts. He shifts his hips and moans. “Tilda. How are you this perfect?”
Pleasure stirs between my legs again, and I lift and ride him slow and steady.
He rises each time I lower. Flesh slaps against flesh, and the sounds of a piston through my gushing pussy fill the room in concert with our moans and cries.
I’m on fire with the rise of another orgasm. Unable to help myself, I speed my pace until I’m wild and erratic.
Max grips my hips and holds me in place while he pumps into me from below. Calling my name, he thrusts harder and faster.
Unable to wait for him, my rapture explodes, and my sheath tightens around him, milking his cock.
With a long, low, keen, he fills me with warm cum, and it pushes me into wave after wave of mind-blowing delight.
Collapsing on top of him, I close my eyes.
He wraps me in his arms and pulls me to lie on his thick biceps. We both moan as his shaft pulls free of my pussy. Kissing my forehead, he sighs. “Is a vampire bite always so erotic?”
“No.” I close my eyes. “It depends on the intent behind the bite. A vampire can control, harm, cause pain, and more.”
“I’m glad it was pleasure you were after from me.” He kisses me again. “I’ll be right back.”
I want to ask him where he’s going, but exhaustion and satiation make my eyes and limbs heavy. “Don’t leave.”
“Shhh. I won’t.”
It’s predawn when I wake up after a long sleep.
Max isn’t in the bed. The clock reads four o’clock.
I pull on a pair of sweatpants and a tee shirt.
Not liking my skin exposed in case I need to go outside when the sun comes up, I pull on a hoodie.
His scent is close, and I follow it to the kitchen.
Sitting at the kitchen counter with his phone to his ear, he nods and occasionally says, “Yes.”
The evidence of our earlier activity is cleaned away. Even the floor is washed.
Frowning, he hangs up the phone. “I have to go to work.”
“I thought you were taking some time off.” My heart clenches.
He nods. “It’s an emergency.”
I know his job is important, and logically, I know he’s telling the truth. Still, part of me feels abandoned.
Walking toward me, his smile looks forced. He wraps me in his arms. “I don’t know how long this will take. I’ll call you if I can.”
I stiffen. “I’m sure you won’t have time for that. Call me when you get home. I’m fine.” Pushing away, I wrap my arms around myself.
With a long look, he lets out a breath. “I’ll call you, Tilda.” He pulls his shirt over his head and tugs it down his body.
He moves to kiss me, but I back up a step. “You had better go.”
A minute later, he’s gone, and I’m alone in Mari’s house, wondering why I’ve lingered in this town as long as I have.
I walk out the back door and climb the tower.
Closing my eyes, I search for some kind of peace, but images of Max laughing with his friends about how he conquered the vampire swan fill my head.
It’s nonsense. It’s not true. These thoughts are the curse that Pierre left me with after so many years of torment.
Determined to push that part of my life aside, I try again to practice the breathing exactly the way Mari taught me.
In the woods, I hear a rustle and open my eyes.
Mari and Sam walk through the cemetery toward me. Their faces are etched with concern.
I stand. “What are you doing?”
Looking side to side, Mari rushes to the wall separating the property from the public land. “Olivia Manning has disappeared. She was asleep in her bed next to her sister, Dorothy, at eight o’clock last night, and when Lori checked on them at three thirty this morning, Livi was gone.”
The idea of the little girl alone in the dark terrifies me. I leap down from the tower without bothering with the steps. “Is she one to climb out a window?”
“No. She’s a thoughtful and quiet child.” Sam’s frown is a rare sight. “We thought we would check the conservation area before we join the search of the town and the surrounding area.”
“I’ll get shoes and go with you.”