“You really don’t know?” He shook his head. “You spend so much time pursuing my kind and yet you have no conception of how we think or what we really are.”
I was beginning to get impatient. “Just tell me already.”
“Sharing blood is a very erotic action for us,” Corbin murmured, stroking my cheek again. “Which is why we generally prefer to feed only from those we find attractive and who are attracted to us.”
I stepped away from his touch, feeling nervous. “Seriously?”
He nodded. “Yes. So giving blood to someone you are not sexually attracted to would be a very uncomfortable experience.”
I thought of the squirmy feeling I got in my stomach and the way it felt like insects were walking all over my skin when Taylor bit me. “So that’s why it feels so weird,” I murmured. Well, at least now I knew I didn’t have any hidden lesbian tendencies—I wasn’t attracted to Taylor so giving her blood felt wrong to me. Not that giving blood to any vamp would feel right—especially the one currently standing in front of me, so close I could smell a hint of his expensive cologne.
“I am glad to see your heart is not given to another. Even if it is not, as you say, up for grabs,” Corbin said softly.
“Don’t get too excited. My best friend might be a vampire but that doesn’t mean I want anything to do with the rest of you.”
“You will have to have something to do with me if you expect me to rescue your friend from her sad plight,” he pointed out. “So I ask you again, Addison, what do you offer me?”
Here we were, back at the crux of the issue. My heart started to beat triple time. “I already told you I’d sleep with you. What else do you want?”
“What I do not want is an unwilling bed partner.” Corbin frowned. “Rape holds no appeal for me.”
“Who said anything about rape?” My throat felt suddenly dry. “I…I’m offering myself to you. This would be completely consensual.” As well as completely illegal but I didn’t want to think about that.
“No.” Corbin shook his head and leaned back until he was half sitting on the edge of his desk.
“No?” I frowned. “That’s it? You just refuse my offer?”
“I do not want your body unless your heart is also involved.”
“Well, I’m sorry,” I said, feeling at a loss. “But I can’t make myself love you.”
“Indeed, you cannot. So it seems I must make a counter offer.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “You spoke of Celeste having a VIP in town. In all probability, he is the area Inquisitor.”
“Area Inquisitor?”
“We have a government too, as you know,” Corbin said mildly. “And it is only slightly more corrupt than your own. So if the Inquisitor is with Celeste now, chances are he will visit me next.”
“Taylor said his name was Roderick,” I said.
Corbin nodded. “Yes, that’s the one. When he comes to me I must either flatter him with gifts or impress him with a display of my strength. Otherwise, he will think me weak and ineffective and attempt to have me replaced.”
“I can’t imagine that’s ever been a problem for you,” I said dryly.
He grinned. “No. But one gets tired of doing the same old thing, year after year. This year I think a more subtle display is in order.”
“What are you thinking of doing?” I asked warily. I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like his idea, whatever it was.
“I am thinking that nothing would be more impressive than to have a non-glam human Auditor as my consort.”
“So…you want me to pretend to be your date?”
“My lover.” Corbin’s silver-blue eyes were hooded. “And you would have to play the part very…very well. If the Inquisitor suspects that I am attempting to deceive him, the consequences would be…unpleasant to say the least.”
“So I have to—what? Hang on your arm, pretend to be all lovey-dovey?” I was beginning to feel cautiously optimistic. This actually sounded doable—a lot more doable than having sex with a vampire, anyway.
Corbin seemed to catch my relief because he frowned. “I am afraid this will be a little more involved than you seem to think.” He stood up from the edge of the desk and reached for me. I stepped back by instinct and he shook his head. “First, you must not flinch from my touch. You will have to get used to my hands on your body, my mouth on yours.” He reached for me again and pulled me up against the hard planes of his chest. Then he kissed me.
It had been a long time since I’d locked lips with anyone and I have to be honest—it was good. Damn good. Maybe because he’d had centuries of practice kissing or maybe because of the little thrill of danger that ran through me when he took me in his arms. He could break me in half with less effort than it would take me to break a pencil. But though I could feel his immense strength in the tension of his big body he was gentle—even tender.
I was tense in his arms at first—nervous and uncertain. But despite my hostility for Corbin, there was no denying that he was hot. Against my will, I felt myself melting and even kissing him back a little. But when one of his needle-sharp fangs nicked my lower lip, I pulled back abruptly.
“Ouch!”
“My apologies.” His voice was even deeper than usual and his pupils were dilated, the black eating the silver-blue of his irises.
I touched a finger to my hurt lip and it came back with a red smudge. It was a damn good thing we hadn’t been doing anything more sexual than kissing or there might have been trouble. I didn’t care how much Corbin talked about his self-control, there was no way I wanted to be with a vampire who was feeling the urge to feed and the urge to fuck at the same time.
“I’m bleeding,” I said.
“I know.” He took my hand in his and sucked my finger into his mouth. I felt his tongue, warm and wet, lap gently against my fingertip. Shivering, I pulled my hand away.
“Your blood is sweet. You taste…innocent.”
I frowned. “I’m not a virgin if that’s what you’re implying, so don’t get your hopes up.”
“No, but you have not often known the pleasure of a man’s body against your own.”
Speaking of which, I could feel something hard pressing insistently against my thigh. I looked up at him. “And this is different from having sex with you how?”
“Not as much penetration.” He smiled down at me, showing his fangs. “Although I may need to bite you again in front of the Inquisitor to prove my ownership.”
“Ownership? Now wait a minute!” I tried to push away from his chest but he held me close, not letting me go. “Nobody said anything about you owning me,” I said angrily.
“Of course not,” he said smoothly. “But the Inquisitor must believe that I own you—body and soul. And if he believes I am also able to glamour you, so much the better.”
“But you can’t,” I pointed out. “I’m a non-glam. I have resistance.”
“You have a natural shield around your mind that most humans do not,” Corbin said. “But shields may be let down…or penetrated.”
“I’m not letting you inside my mind,” I said, pushing against his chest again. “That’s a deal breaker.”
This time Corbin let me go but he continued to pin me with his intense gaze. “What are you afraid of, Addison? That if you let me in and came to know me intimately, you might begin to feel something for me?”
“Hardly.” I straightened my jacket and reached up to smooth my hair. “I just don’t want a vamp inside my head. I’m not about to become your puppet or one of those pathetic glam-sex addicts you have panting outside the doors of your club every night.”
“Those who become addicted to what we can provide have a weakness in their soul. The same weakness that might lead them to become addicted to any other pleasurable activity. Drinking. Smoking. Physical sex. You, my darling, have no such weaknesses. You are one of the strongest humans I have ever met.”
“Thanks. And I’d like to stay that way.” I shook my head. “I’m serious, yo
u can pretend to glamour me if you want but I’m not actually going to let you do it. Letting the Area Inquisitor think you can get into my mind will have to be good enough.”
Corbin frowned. “All right, we will table this issue for now though I may want to return to it later. However, there is one point on which I must insist.”
“What?” I asked nervously, wondering what he wanted now.
“I must heal the scars on your arms. Take off your jacket and roll up your sleeves.” He gestured at me impatiently. “Now.”
“Why?” I asked, reluctant to show even a little skin in his presence.
Corbin sighed. “Because in my world, leaving such scars on one’s consort is the mark of either sadism or extreme ineptitude. I do not wish to be thought either a bumbling fool or a savage.”
“Why can’t you just say that someone else bit me?” I asked.
He gave me a dark look. “Because if you were truly mine, I would never, ever share you. I am not into what you humans call open relationships.”
“Possessive, are you?”
“Extremely.” His voice was nearly a growl.
“Why am I not surprised?”
“I do not even like the idea of your friend taking blood from you,” Corbin continued. “Though I realize it was a necessity since she is too incompetent to feed herself any other way.”
“Don’t talk that way about Taylor. She was always the best at everything she did before she got turned,” I protested. “She’s extremely intelligent—she just isn’t cruel enough to adapt to being a vamp.”
“So you think cruelty is the main prerequisite for becoming one of my kind?” he asked blandly.
“I think it helps, yes.” I frowned at him as I unbuttoned my jacket and took it off. “I mean, you’re not exactly all hearts and flowers and warm fuzzies, now are you?”
Corbin shook his head. “We do what we must to survive. That is not always easy in my world.”
I had a feeling I was going to learn a whole lot more than I wanted to about his world in the near future but I didn’t want to talk about it anymore. “Here,” I said, rolling up the sleeves of my white silk blouse and holding out a wrist. “How are you going to heal me?” I hoped it didn’t involve him trying to get inside my mind.
But Corbin simply cupped my hand in his palm and brought my wrist to his mouth. “Like this,” he murmured. Bending his mouth to my scarred wrist, he began to lick and suck. My breath caught in my throat at the feeling of his hot, wet tongue against my flesh and my heart immediately began to pound.
“How is that supposed to hel—” I started to ask and then I felt a cool tingling sensation that began at my wrist and seemed to travel up my arm and down into my chest. It felt strange at first and then really good—too good, to be honest. My nipples were suddenly stiff and achy and I could feel that I was getting hot and wet between my thighs.
I squirmed uncomfortably, wishing I could pull my wrist away from his mouth. Corbin’s gaze met mine as he continued to lick and kiss the flesh of my badly scarred wrist. His silver-blue eyes were half lidded with lust. It was as though this simple act of tasting my flesh was extremely erotic to him. I shivered from the way he was looking at me as much as from the tingling that was spreading through my entire body.
It occurred to me that I shouldn’t have been able to feel anything at all. I had been feeding Taylor for almost six years now and I’d lost a lot of sensitivity in that area—no doubt her badly placed bites had caused some kind of nerve damage. But now I could feel everything, every tiny movement of his lips and tongue against my skin—it was as though I was suddenly hypersensitive to his touch.
“How much longer?” I finally blurted out after what felt like an eternity of his mouth on my skin.
Corbin straightened up—he’d bent down to reach my wrist—and smiled at me. “See for yourself.”
I looked at my wrist in disbelief. I was healed. And I don’t just mean that the scars Taylor had left on my skin had faded—they were completely gone. It was as though they had never been in the first place.
“How did you do that?” I demanded. “I’ve never heard of a vamp that could heal before.”
He shrugged. “Many of us have special abilities we don’t share with your kind. Are you ready for me to heal your other wrist?”
I thought of the strange, hot feeling I’d gotten when the healing tingles traveled through my body and frowned. “I…guess so.”
Corbin arched an eyebrow. “You don’t sound very happy to be healed. You cannot tell me you enjoyed having such disfiguring scars in such a prominent place.”
“No,” I admitted, shifting restlessly from foot to foot. “I’ve been wearing long sleeves for what seems like forever so I don’t have to explain them to people.”
“When I am finished you will no longer have to worry about such things,” he said reasonably.
“I know. I just…” I frowned at him. “Why did that…why did having you heal me feel so…so strange?”
He gave me a sharp look. “You had other sensations than just my mouth against your skin?”
“It felt like…cool tingles running up and down my arms and all over my body,” I said.
“What else?” His eyes were as penetrating as a laser beam.
“What do you mean, what else?” I said defensively. I wasn’t about to tell him how my nipples had gotten hard or my…other symptoms for want of a better word.
“You know very well what I am talking about. If we are going to enter into this partnership, you need to be truthful with me.” Corbin sounded positively stern and his eyes flashed angrily, reminding me for a moment of why he was considered the most powerful and ruthless vamp in the entire state.
“Fine.” I lifted my chin. “I felt…how can I put this without feeding your already massive ego? I felt some symptoms of…of sexual arousal.”
“Such as?”
“You’re really going to make me say it?” I looked at him in disbelief but he simply nodded. “God…” I could feel my cheeks burning. “All right, fine. I…my nipples got hard and…and…”
“And you got wet. Here.” One large hand brushed lightly over the sensitive V between my thighs and was gone again before I could stop him.
I glared at him and then looked away, embarrassed. “If you already knew, why did you make me say it?”
“Because it is time that you start acknowledging what is between us—that there is a connection waiting to happen. I am standing on one side of the chasm, holding out my hand to you, yet you refuse to reach for me.”
“And I’m going to keep refusing,” I said through tight lips. “All the cheap vamp tricks in the world won’t change that.”
“Addison.” Corbin lifted my chin with one finger, forcing me to look at him. “There is no trick to this. It is simply the way your body reacts to mine. If you had no attraction to me at all, letting me heal you would have felt much the way allowing your friend to drink from you does.”
I knew he was referring to the weird, bugs-crawling-all-over-my-skin feeling I got when Taylor bit me. The way I had felt when he healed my wrist was pretty much the exact opposite. With Taylor, I could hardly bear the queasy wrongness of the situation. With Corbin, I could barely stand the strange pervading pleasure that seemed to build and build every moment we were connected. But that didn’t have to mean anything… did it?
“Look, just because it felt good when you healed me doesn’t mean we’re soul mates. Now can we get on with this?”
Corbin sighed, looking more exasperated than I’d ever seen him. “Why must you be so stubborn? I need every minute of my four centuries of patience to deal with you sometimes.”
I didn’t know what to say to that so I just held out my other wrist. “Do you want to do this one too? If not, I can go now.”
His eyes flashed. “Oh no, my darling. You aren’t going anywhere. It is almost dusk and you are coming with me to rescue your stupid little friend from Celeste. I want you to know just ho
w much trouble you are causing in case you’re tempted to forget our bargain.”
“I wouldn’t back out of our deal,” I said, stung by his implication.
“I didn’t say that you would. But I have seen for myself how willfully blind you can be when the occasion suits you. I think you need to meet the Area Inquisitor firsthand to have an idea of what is at stake. No pun intended.”
“Very funny,” I muttered, irritated. Damn it, I had the right to stand up for myself and deny this supposed connection he was saying we had! So why did I feel like a sullen little girl when I did just that?
“Let me heal your other wrist,” he said. “And then we must hurry if we wish to catch Celeste before she goes out for the night.” He eyed my sober black pants suit. “It is a great pity we don’t have time to change you into something more appropriate.”
“What do you mean? Look at how you’re dressed,” I said, gesturing to his olive green t-shirt and jeans. “You’re not exactly wearing a tie and tails.”
“I have no need to dress for the occasion. My consort, however, must be resplendent at all times.” He shook his head. “Never mind. We will see to getting you a new wardrobe soon.”
I opened my mouth to protest but by then he was already licking my other wrist and sending warm sparks of desire through my entire body. God, how could I stand it? I tried not to fidget but I couldn’t stop myself from pressing my legs together, as though by keeping them tightly closed I could stop the rush of sensation that made my pussy wet. I thought at one point that I couldn’t get any wetter if his tongue was actually between my legs instead of on my wrist. But that thought and the accompanying mental image made me blush so hard I felt dizzy and I quickly pushed it away.
Corbin must really have been in a hurry or else my second wrist wasn’t as scarred as the first. For whatever reason, it didn’t seem to take as long this time, which was a big relief to me.
“There,” he said finally, lifting his mouth from my arm. “All better?”
“Yes. Thank you,” I made myself say. I tried to look him in the eye but I couldn’t quite manage it. My nipples were aching to be touched…to be sucked. And my pussy was so wet and ready my clit was throbbing like a second heartbeat.