Chapter Thirty-Five
“What are you doing here?” She didn’t know whether to call for Cole. Would her mother be in the house yet?
She and Chase may have fought alongside each other in the Sinister penthouse, but he was still a vampire - a true vampire - and he’d snuck up on her.
Chase scuffed his foot against the decking, his curls falling over his face, and seeming nothing like the cocky movie star she had previously encountered. Of course, she couldn’t forget that he’d saved her from that building. She’d never have gotten down the stairs without him.
“Eli’s letting me stay in the pool house,” he jammed his thumb over his shoulder towards the classic weatherboard studio at the other end of the pool. “I can’t go home, not with the media hounding for my blood.” he took a step towards her and she couldn’t help tensing ever so slightly. He noticed and raised his hands in surrender. “Sorry. Eli said I should stay out of sight until he talks to you, but I wanted to see you and say thank you.”
“For what?” She was the one who should be thanking him.
He let out a huff of laughter and waved a hand at her shoulder. “You took a stake for me. I can never repay a debt like that. I’ll be forever in your servitude.”
“My servitude?” She couldn’t help but laugh, which seemed to make Chase relax. His lips split in a too-handsome grin. “You vampires don’t do things by halves, do you?”
“When it comes to life-saving measures, there are no halves. We are bound, you and I.”
She sobered a little as visions of the night that had bound them flashed through her mind. “What have you told Eli?”
His brow puckered, endearingly boyish despite the preternatural power that lay within. “Nothing yet. I haven’t spoken to him, save to ask if I could crash here. He hasn’t been home since that night.”
She worried her bottom lip between her teeth.
“That woman we saw at the bottom of the stairs,” Chase pressed. “Did you know her? She said I was the wrong vampire, but after that she did something strange to my ears. I couldn’t hear what she said to you.”
He didn’t know. Hadn’t heard Adriana reference the debt and her grandmother. She gave a jerky shake of her head. “I don’t know. I don’t… I don’t remember.”
He nodded slowly. The sliding door opened behind them.
“What are you doing on your feet, Baby?” Zita demanded and Soph automatically lowered herself onto the deckchair. In her confrontation with Chase, she’d completely forgotten that her shoulder had barely any pain since Cole had applied the pixie wine.
“Nice to see you again, Love,” Zita added to Chase, who hadn’t moved. He inclined his head.
“You too, Zita.”
Soph’s head twisted so fast between them she almost gave herself whiplash. “You two know each other?”
“Oh, we’ve got a history, eh, Chase?” Zita plonked herself into another deckchair and pulled her cigarette case from her bag. “Eli told me he was hiding out here. Didn’t want me to get the shock of my life or something.”
“History?” had her mother slept with Chase?
With an airy wave of her hand, Zita explained, “different city, different time. Chase and I had some business dealings…”
“Business -”
“Where is Eli, anyway?” Zita cut her off as she put a cigarette between her teeth and lit it.
“Here.” Eli appeared at the other end of the patio. He no longer looked tense, but he was dripping in sweat, so much that the front of his shirt was plastered to his chest, revealing the definition of his torso. Zita appraised him over the top of her sunglasses.
“Mmmm,” was all she said on the matter. Then, before Soph could lean over and smack her, she added, “you don’t mind if I smoke, do you?”
“Go for it.” Eli waved a hand at her. “Cole, get Zita an ashtray, please.”
Cole, waiting by the door, nodded and withdrew inside. The four of them on the deck lapsed into silence; Chase looking oddly demure, Soph feigning fatigue and Eli trying to hide whatever torment the fae blood was putting him through. Only Zita seemed content. She reclined back in the deckchair, kicking her shoes off and taking a long drag of her cigarette. “Nice,” she decided with a nod. “I could get used to this.”
* * *
Soph finished towelling her hair dry and left the ensuite to find Eli prowling around the bedroom like a caged tiger. He’d held it together for most of the day, but by the end of dinner, he was practically crawling out of his skin. Soph had the good sense to excuse herself for bed, though the pixie wine was still keeping her bolstered. Eli excused himself with her.
She watched him quietly, noting the slightly inhuman speed of his stride, the tight set of his shoulders and the way he clenched and unclenched his fists at his side. He’d discarded his shirt and his torso gleamed with sweat, as it had all day. He whirled at the end of the room, and his eyes landed on her, roving from her bare feet to her head, taking in the white shirt and black underwear she wore. His gaze was hard, and she was sure she saw the Predator behind it. No, the Possessive? The flash had been so quick.
“Where are your pants?” He spat, then covered his face with his hands and groaned. “Sorry. That was a disgusting thing to say.”
Soph didn’t think so. In fact, she knew exactly what he wanted now. And with the pixie wine making her feel more human than she had in weeks, she knew what she wanted too. She sauntered towards him, her hand trailing over the bed. He bared his teeth at her, a feral grin, and she could see the glint of his fangs. Her heart raced - could he hear it? - but heat flooded through her. She’d be kidding herself if she didn’t admit that she liked this side of Eli.
She reached him and splayed a hand over his chest, feeling his sharp intake of breath. Moving closer still, she trailed her fingers upwards, feeling his pulse leap beneath them. He remained stock still, breath ragged and fists clenched at his sides as though it was taking all his willpower not to throw her down and ravage her.
But she wanted him to. Wanted to be pinned beneath him. Wanted him to destroy her in the best way possible.
“Soph,” he protested as she slid closer still, body now flush against his.
“Shh,” she whispered, tilting her head. Before he could react, she pressed her mouth to his neck, closing her teeth over his throat.
A shudder wracked his entire body and the noise that escaped him was not entirely human. She tightened her hold on him briefly before releasing him. “On your knees, Eli.”
Panting, he sank to the ground before her, mercury gaze dark and stormy as he watched her with something akin to reverence. Smiling, she cupped his cheek and straddled one knee over his shoulder.
His nostrils flared, and he made that sound again, a desperate, keening growl that pulled from deep within his chest. Turning his head, he kissed her thigh, then sank his fangs into her flesh.
It was Soph’s turn to whimper as equal parts of pain and pleasure shot through her body, straight to her core. He didn’t drink from her, though she could feel his tongue flicking over her skin to lap the droplets of blood that escaped the punctures.
Extracting his fangs, he moved higher, biting her again right at the crease of her thigh. This one made her jump and his hands folded over her, one against her leg and the other around her ass to keep her still.
“Eli,” she rocked against his hold, the sharp sting of his teeth and the soft caress of his tongue making her throb. Her fingers speared through his hair, gasping, finding purchase. “I need you.”
A low growl sparked shivers over her skin as he pulled away and buried his face between her legs, inhaling deeply. She extracted a shaking hand from his hair to slide her panties aside. Eli was on her in a heartbeat, his tongue sweeping from her asshole to her clit before plunging into her, lapping up her wetness with unrestrained abandon.
Panting, she rocked forward, and he grasped her ass, forcing her to be still as he sank his fangs into the hood of her clit.
Her cries echoed across the room, and even his firm grip on her couldn’t stop her hips from bucking. Leaning back against the edge of the bed, he repositioned her so both legs were hooked over his shoulders. With his tongue swirling over her clit and her core throbbing with unquenchable intensity, she fucked his face like she was rabid.
The first orgasm cracked through her like a whip, shattering the very foundation of her being, but it wasn’t enough. When he held her with his fangs like this, it was never enough. She rode him hard as he lapped up the gush of her first undoing, and a second one broke over her too, leaving her quivering, barely able to brace herself over him.
“I need you in me,” she demanded as he drew back, eyes deep as the night, mouth glistening. “I need you to get up and fuck me.”
With a flash of vampire speed, he pinned her face first against the window, clothes torn away, cock already pounding inside her before she’d even been able to draw a breath.
“Eli,” she mewled his name and was rewarded with a savage thrust.
“You’re mine,” he growled and with one hand gripped around her throat, he sank his fangs into the cradle of her neck and shoulder.
Sharp pain shuddered down her body, twining with the fire still roaring in her core. In the window’s reflection she saw slits of red beneath the hoods of his eyelids and a third orgasm pulsed between her legs at this primal, claiming hold he had her in.
She couldn’t escape, didn’t want to escape as he jerked and filled her. Her tight, throbbing walls pulsed around his cock and time stilled for that moment, as the fire banked to the thrum of release, as the tension in their muscles unspooled and his body softened against her back.
The fingers around her throat loosened and caressed. His fangs withdrew to be replaced with a kiss. His arm threaded around her stomach, holding her against him, his cock still filling her for a moment longer.
“I love you, Soph,” he whispered, forehead against her shoulder.
She pressed her cheek to the cool, dark window. “I love you too.”
He withdrew from her and turned her in the circle of his arms, cupping her face. The predator red of his eyes had dulled, leaving a simmering hue to his grey eyes. “I love you,” he said again, pressing his lips to hers. “And you belong to me.”