Chapter 16
The following week, Emmy made more time for the workout room, with texts going back and forth so she worked out with some combination of Rhea, Felix, and Toby nearly every day. She heard about Toby’s research, about Felix’s new favorite sadist, and all the flock gossip from Rhea and Maren.
And then it was Thanksgiving. One might think the Harvest Gala is named for the fall harvest, but these are vampires, so Emmy couldn’t help but logic her way to the fact the daywalkers would be harvested of their blood at the end of the evening. Vampires love their double entendres.
Earlier in the day, the daywalkers were fed a traditional Thanksgiving meal, and Spence went up with Emmy to eat with her friends — an hour of gossip and ribbing along with possibly the best tasting Thanksgiving meal Emmy could remember having.
She went with Rhea and Felix to the media room after, to hang out with the other daywalkers while their food settled, and then worked out hard with the weights in the workout room before heading down to get dressed in her deep burgundy gown.
She put her hair into a French twist, and Spence secured it with extra bobby pins to be sure it stayed put.
He donned his fancy tux while she stepped into her gown, and she didn’t realize until after he’d zipped her gown and was stepping away that his ass was completely bare.
From the front, it was a normal tuxedo with a short jacket, but from the back, it made her want to wiggle the shiny butt plug Zander had inserted a few hours earlier.
The two went up to her room on the flock’s floor, gathered up Rhea, Felix, and Toby, and the group made their way to the ballroom.
On this night, there was no mark to show her as level one. Instead, she wore an armband denoting her as off limits. Technically, without the tattoo, no one would touch her, but the staff wear an armband as well, and Spence had put it on her after she was dressed.
He didn’t need one. Everyone knows better than to touch Spence without Zander’s invitation to do so — and she’d seen the sidelong glances when she kissed Spence or patted his ass.
The ballroom was stunning, the guests as much a part of the decoration as the opulent chandeliers and marble columns.
Gowns of burnished orange, golden yellow, ruby red, and rich burgundy swirled across the polished floor like autumn leaves caught in a whirlwind.
Opera gloves sheathed arms to the elbow, satin and velvet whispering with every gesture, while tuxedos cut sharp lines on the men, the air humming with chamber strings that started the evening in elegant restraint.
She spotted Zander right away, and his gaze turned to her the second she looked at him.
His midnight black tuxedo fit him like a second skin, and his cool hand settled at her waist as he drew her onto the dance floor.
The chamber music swelled, and he led her in a slow waltz with effortless grace, their bodies brushing in controlled intimacy, his gaze locked on hers with that familiar intensity that made her breath catch.
“You are breathtaking.” His lips barely grazed her ear, sending shivers down her spine despite the room’s warmth. Raw emotion flooded her, heat and magnetism drawing them together with every step, every turn.
Later, he passed her to Spence for a lighter, playful spin when the orchestra played a jazz piece, sensual rhythms that gave her an excuse to let her hands roam lower, teasing the curve of his bare ass.
He groaned, and she laughed into his shoulder, heart swelling with the easy joy of him.
When Zander reclaimed Spence for a dance, Emmy stepped aside with security, watching them move together.
Zander’s cool dominance guided Spence’s fluid grace, the love between them a palpable force that twisted her chest with longing and pride.
Her gaze wandered, drawn to the night’s excesses unfolding near the outer ring of the room.
Felix stood free in a cleared space, pants folded neatly on the floor before him, legs spread wide, bent forward at the hips, body parallel with the floor.
His hands were laced behind his head while he stared at the wall a few feet in front of him, and his ass and thighs were striped a deep burgundy.
Standing to his side, holding a thick belt, or perhaps a strap, was Vexare. He lifted his arm and let the belt fly again, creating yet another deep red stripe across Felix’s ass.
Weights dangled from Felix’s balls, swinging with each impact. A mirror was leaned against the wall, forcing Felix to watch himself while he was belted. She could see his reflection — eyes glazed, mouth parted on breathless moans, lost in the exquisite torment.
Nearby, Rhea was leaned over a bar, two vampires double-teaming her, and the arch of her back told Emmy all she needed to know: her friend was deep in the throes of ecstasy, wanting more and more.
Zander returned to her, studied her face, and then walked her behind a curtain on the opposite side of the room. He walked her to a bar, then turned her to him, kissed her forehead. “I can smell your arousal. Bend over the bar, Emerald.”
His voice was velvet, his hands were firm, and her stomach did a somersault, but she turned and leaned over the bar.
Emmy’s pulse thundered, heat pooling low as he lifted her gown in rustling folds.
When she was bare from the waist down, cool fingers teased her slick folds, circled her clit, and dipped inside just enough to make her hips buck.
She teetered on the edge of begging or demanding, unsure which was more likely to get his cock inside her instead of his fingers fucking teasing her.
No sooner than she had the thought, he shoved inside her in a single brutal thrust.
He quickly found his rhythm, stretching her wide, thrusting with a delicious force two dozen times before pulling out slick and pressing into her ass without warning.
The burn hit fierce, pain spreading sharp and intense as he opened her, inch by relentless inch, the contrast of his cool length against her heat overwhelming. Raw, visceral pleasure twisted with the hurt, her body alternately yielding and clenching.
The fullness shattered her composure when he bottomed out and immediately pulled back. As if he knew exactly what she needed, he pounded her fast and hard, unyielding.
And he didn’t slow. In fact, with every orgasm she screamed and gasped through, he moved faster, until eventually, each thrust dragged over sensitive nerves until she was raw, exposed, and in sensory overload heaven.
Only then, when her inner walls were raw and blazing, did he lean in, fangs grazing her neck before sinking in.
He drank deeply before his venom flooded hot in her arteries, and the orgasm cocktail arced through her like molten lightning.
She came unglued, walls spasming in violent waves, pleasure so extreme it took her breath.
And all the while, his fangs no longer embedded in her neck, he kept fucking her, faster and harder than ever.
And for him, she surrendered to the pleasure, to the pain, to everything he was giving her.
This ancient vampire who respected her mind and her strength, and who saw her as his partner.
He was relentless, the raw pleasure-pain blurring into ecstasy until he pulled out with a growl, coming hot across her ass in pulsing ropes. Staff appeared immediately with baby wipes, and Zander cleaned her tenderly, arranging her gown before standing her up, cool hands steadying her shaking legs.
“Thank you,” she whispered, voice husky, body humming. “I needed that in the worst kind of way.”
“You’re more welcome than you can possibly imagine,” he said, smile slow and predatory, eyes dark with satisfaction.
They returned to the floor, dancing and socializing as if nothing had happened — her secret ache a delicious reminder of the violent, relentless thrusts that’d left her raw and tender inside, while the night’s glamour swirled around them in fall colors and sensual jazz, with the decadence of the silo on display in the form of naked flesh writhing in pain at the outer edges of the lavish, grand ballroom.
She relaxed in his arms in a roomful of predators, utterly certain he’d watch her back as well as his own.
Only Zander and her father could give her this kind of security in a room filled with dangerous vampires — but her father protected her as a precious and fragile child, while Zander guarded her as an equal who chose to stand at his side, trusting she could be dangerous in her own right.
It was the difference between being sheltered and being seen, and the realization made her throat tight.
With Zander, she was exactly where she belonged.
She let herself sink into the music, into the steady strength of his arms, into the way his hand splayed across her lower back.
The sounds around them muted, his vast power giving them a moment of privacy even surrounded by hundreds.
Emmy focused on the people around them enough to continue dancing to the same beat.
“I know you’ve been busy,” Zander said softly, his chest vibrating under her cheek, “so my neglect hasn’t been a terrible burden, but we need to begin making at least a weekly appointment to nurture whatever it is we’re growing. Can you set your work aside for a few hours tomorrow?”
Whatever it is we’re growing. He wasn’t rushing her, wasn’t demanding labels or promises. Just acknowledging that this thing between the three of them was worth tending.
Emmy pulled back enough to meet his gaze, which was dark, intent, and focused on her.
“I can. We can arrange for a specific time, or if you want to play it by ear, I’ll need between fifteen and thirty minutes to tie up whatever thought processes I’m in, so I won’t be lost when I dive back in later.”
His thumb traced a gentle circle on her spine, and she felt the gesture all the way to her toes.
And her clit. “Plan for two o’clock, then.
I’ll arrive in the suite a few hours before.
Spencer needs pain I haven’t had time to give him.
” He paused, and something shifted in his expression — softer, more vulnerable than she’d ever seen him in public.
“I’ll time it so we’ll be ready for you at two. ”
We’ll be ready for you. Not just him. Not just Spence. But both of them, waiting for her, wanting her.
“Two o’clock,” she confirmed, letting her cheek rest against him again as they swayed. “I’ll be ready.”
His arms tightened around her for just a moment, a brief squeeze that felt like a promise, and then the sounds in the room returned, and they were simply dancing again, two people in a sea of predators, building something that felt surprisingly like home.