“What’s that?”
“He touched you.”
A delicious heat spreading through her body, Liv stared at the intensity of the gaze stroking her face.
“Thank you for rescuing me. I’ve never been so afraid in my life.”
“I know. I felt your fear. Just like when Khord tried to kill you in here, your fear guided me to you. And as I remember, you saved both me and my brother. We owe you our lives and our kingdom. By the way, nice trick you played on Khord and the other rogue.”
Her grin matching his, Liv flapped her hand in a ‘don’t mention it’ gesture. Yet Rogan was right, she had done an amazing thing there.
“Maybe it’s my destiny. Maybe fate pushed you to me.”
“I’m not sure. I’ve always thought we met by chance.”
“When you smelt me in the store’s parking lot?”
“Yes. Raskhan had gone on a trip to your world, but he should have been back home days earlier. I was getting worried, so I decided to pop over for a few hours and find him. Although I couldn’t get out of taking Khord with me, I figured I’d find a way to give him the slip. I did for a while then he tracked me to the parking lot and, well, you know the rest. The thing is, I never imagined I would find you instead of my brother.”
She had never imagined it either. For that matter, she had never envisioned meeting a vampire king and falling in love with him.
“Do you know how Raskhan got shot?”
“Earlier today, Raskhan went to your neighbourhood because he had picked up my scent. Figuring that I was still around, Khord and his trackers were also looking for me in the same area. He mistook my brother for me and shot him without warning. As he needed the council to witness a traitor’s capture, and to prove his loyalty to the king, he had the body brought back here. After all, nobody could testify he had used a silver bullet. He was only doing his job.”
Khord’s ‘job’ had almost killed both brothers. A picture of the man she had then believed to be Rogan sprang to mind—face hollow, unconscious, and dying on a massage table.
“Why did you stop me when I tried to go heal your brother?”
“Because I needed you to do it. I figured you’d go anyway, but I knew you’d run to him if I forbade it. You’re a stubborn little girl, Liv.”
“Look, I understand your desperate need for secrecy, yet you could have confided in me. After our first night in the woods, you knew I’d never betray you. I’m sure you knew.”
She wasn’t making a wild guess. Rogan had endangered his safety and his secret for her. He was too responsible and powerful a king to risk an empire without good reason. Even back then he had known he could trust her, yet he had chosen to pretend to be Raskhan.
At this moment, Liv realised she had hit the mark when Rogan nodded. Taking his hands in hers, she looked at him straight in the eye, and spoke in her softest voice.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
In spite of her pleading gaze and tone, he still looked somewhat reluctant to give his reasons. Then he sighed, his mesmerising eyes seeming to caress her face.
“Because I wanted you to love me.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Startled, Liv blinked. Not a trace of deception or amusement in his eyes. Only truth and sincerity.
“I’m afraid I’m not following you there. When we parted at the warehouse, I was already in love with you.”
“No, you weren’t. You had a crush on the vampire who had saved your life, and that’s not the same thing. I loved you.”
“Hold on a second! Are you telling me what I was feeling?”
“As a matter of fact, I am.”
Raising her eyebrows, Liv withdrew her hands. Although Rogan still knelt at her feet, she suddenly had the impression that he was towering over her—a mighty king ruling his house and his people. A dark vampire she had come to know as Raskhan.
“Well, you’re wrong!”
“Are you sure about that? So far you had met Rogan, the interesting, thoughtful vampire who ignited your wildest fantasies. Don’t get me wrong, I am that man. But I can also be sarcastic, scary, hurtful, violent, and cruel when I want to achieve something. And I am that man too.”
“So?”
“So I wanted you to love me for who I really am, not to fulfil some exciting fantasy you had been dreaming of.”
To her surprise, everything he was telling her rang true. He had figured her out way better than she had. Reflecting on their time together, Liv had to admit Rogan wasn’t the man she had believed him to be before stepping into the Overworld.
As much as the realisation had cost her, she wouldn’t lie to him. He had been playing a risky little game, but he had been right. As she opened her mouth to tell him, he raised a hand to silence her.
“Okay, let’s pretend Rogan never existed. Can you honestly tell me you would have fallen in love with Raskhan? Have you already forgotten how I treated you as Raskhan? How I teased you, mocked you, threatened you, and played with your feelings? And how I get my kicks out of it?”
“Well, given time I might have…”
He ripped her robe apart. So quickly she didn’t see him move, the robe was in tatters and dangerous shards glittered in his eyes.
“I don’t have time for your fancies, little girl. Now, lie down!”
His abrupt harsh tone ignited in her a fit of rebellion. Just because he had gone out of his way to make her love him didn’t mean she’d submit to his every mood. Stiffening her back, she defied him.
“The hell I will!”
A flicker of desire crossed his eyes as she resisted his will. Then he ripped off her underwear, grabbed her wrists, and held them behind her back with only one of his hands. As she gasped, her shock drew a sly grin on his face.
“Are you sure, kitten? I seem to recall you owe me some begging.”
Flustered, she twisted her body. Not to get out of his firm grip on her, but to fight off the hot wave of desire setting her body alight. He had no right to treat her rough, yet she loved it.
“Let go of me.”
“How about I do this instead?”
He stroked her thigh with his free hand—a slow, arousing caress from her knee right up to her bush. As she clamped her legs together he went for her sex, and pressed his stiff finger against her clitoris.
“Got you!”
His teasing grin unnerved her much less than the touch of his hand. Even without moving, his rogue attitude was turning her into a horny female. As if her body possessed a will of its own she felt hot and moist, she felt like his finger, drenched in her desire. He applied a slight pressure on her excited flesh, and she moaned.
“Oh, yes, kitten. You look so sexy when you moan for me.”
Then he penetrated her with his whole finger, and of their own volition her legs came apart. As a man used to taking opportunities, he withdrew his digit to find her most sensitive spot. Tracing slow tight circles, he sent exciting flames leaping throughout her body. Unable to withstand the raw desire his finger fuelled, she let out a single sharp cry.
“What is it, little girl? Am I not pleasing you, or is it something else you want?”
When he rolled her nipple against the palm of his other hand, she realised he wasn’t holding her wrists anymore, and probably hadn’t been for a while. She couldn’t have cared less as she had no intention of getting away from the torturing bliss of his finger. All she craved now was what he had promised she would some day beg for.
“Lick me.”
His over-satisfied smile told her he had been thinking the same thing. Still, he didn’t act on it but squinted as if something was missing.
“Come again? I’m not quite sure I heard begging.”
“Because I won’t beg.”
Looking a little startled, he nevertheless kept on fondling her clit. Using her elbows to wrench herself away from him, she moved backwards to sit in the middle of the bed. Her eyes boring into his surprised gaze, she drew her knees up and spread her legs as far as she c
ould. Her cunt wide open and glistening from desire, she commanded the king of the Overworld.
“I said suck me!”
Eyes widening, he put one of his hands on his crotch as if to relieve a painful tension. He didn’t hesitate. The upper part of his body lying flat on the bed, he plunged his face between her thighs. His tongue grazed her so sensitive lips, and she clenched the sheet with both hands. Darting inside, his tongue flicked her clit a few times, and she sighed with contentment.
But when he kissed and licked her aroused flesh, she longed for more. She longed for him so violently she wondered if his touch would ever be too much. Bringing her hands to his head, she raised his beautiful face.
“Make love to me, Rogan. Suck me, fuck me, or do whatever you want with me. I love you.”
As she spoke her true feelings, his eyes shone with passion and love. Using his vampire speed, it took him a literal second to discard his clothes and stand naked at the foot of the bed. Stretched towards her, his glorious erection seemed to plead for her wet sex. Then the king of the Overworld came to her on his knees.
Resting on her elbows, she watched him push his cock into her. Then she lay down to enclose his waist in the narrow ring of her legs. His rigid sex buried in her pussy, his sensual mouth right above her, he blew a lock of hair away from her eyes. His lips hovering over hers, his gaze glinted as he said something she hadn’t expected to hear from him.
“Tell me you’ll never leave me.”
“I’ll abandon you every time you tease me.”
He grinned. Although he made no move, she could feel his sex throbbing in her cunt. He kissed her cheek before his lips slid down to her neck to lick the tiny scar, the soft spot where he had last bitten. The king’s mark. Warm and firm, his mouth came up to her ear.
“But you’ll come back?”
A little short of breath, enveloped in the luscious heat of his love, she tightened her leg grip.
“That depends on what my reward will be.”
He arched his back to shove his dick deep into her. She shuddered, his sudden thrust grazing her clitoris and filling her to the brim. Letting out an excited sigh, she burrowed her nails in the muscles of his shoulders. Then he nibbled her earlobe with his teeth and whispered in her ear.
“A reward? Yes, I think we can reach an agreement. How about something like this, little girl?”
Straightening up to look at her, he began moving slowly inside her. As his stony dick sent relentless shots of pleasure throughout her body, his mouth came down on hers. All her senses sharpened by his hunger, his ravenous kiss blew her breath away. In and out, the regular beat of his cock drew her towards heavenly delights.
Born from the fire licking her loins, a long moan swelled within her throat only to be snapped up and swallowed by the brushing of his tongue. Her limbs trembled when he finally released her mouth. Her nails bit deeper into his shoulders as he slowed his rhythmic thrusts to look into her eyes.
“Is this what you had in mind?”
Lost in his gaze, she plastered her belly against his. His brief wince of pleasure had all her muscles twitching, and they both groaned while she slid her hands up to cup his face.
“Show me your fangs.”
He did. His long white canines came down over his lower lip, and he loved her more profoundly than she’d have thought possible. And when his compulsion bested him he found that she had already bared the way to her neck.
Like the first time they had made love in the woods, he bent his face down. And, like the first time, his fangs drew blood from her throat as their cries reached their climax.
* * * *
Later that night, they talked about the Bringer of Death. Zontag’s tests had proved Liv’s blood was pure. In addition to the test results, her display of power over Khord and the rogue confirmed that she was the deadly threat of their legend. It didn’t mean she would act accordingly.
She belonged to her sunny world, not to these barren, dark territories, and she had nothing to do here. If Rogan asked for her help she’d use her power to change rogue vampires into humans, but she had no desire to turn this world upside down. Thousands of years ago, it had been made this way for a reason. Who was she to decide a whole race had to be eradicated?
What weighed more on Liv’s mind was the future of their relationship. Not easy to love a vampire king. But Rogan would cross over universes to be with her every time she wanted him, and sometimes she’d come to thoroughly enjoy his hot tub. Either here or in the world of the living they’d be together. Nothing else mattered.
Although pretty tired, Liv might have dwelt on it a little longer but he kissed her then and all rational thoughts disbanded. For the second time that night under Rogan’s firm lips and probing tongue, she rediscovered the blazing sensations she had experienced when kissing him for the first time.
In the end, he had been right. Had he kissed her so brazenly when he was posing as Raskhan, she’d have recognised him in a heartbeat. But already her breasts were calling for his touch. Already her stomach was on fire and his erection seeking to enter her, to fill her with pure passion.
As Rogan deeply rooted himself inside her, Liv looked at his golden-freckled gaze. “Come on, my king, give me some more of your vampire love.”
He shivered with desire. She closed her eyes.
Also available from Total-E-Bound Publishing:
Gabriel
Chris Lange
Excerpt
Chapter One
Sunset was drawing too close for stalling.
Standing before the cemetery gates, Calista only had two options. She could walk all the way around the so-called resting place—but she wouldn’t get home on time—or she could cut across it and reach safety in a matter of minutes. Encumbered with her shopping bags, she might already have no choice.
Pushing the gate with her shoulder, she got a move on. Focusing on the other side of the cemetery, she kept to the main path, staying off the grass and the headstones. Halfway across the holy ground, she knew she was going to make it. With the last rays of light casting shadows around her, she only had a short distance to cover. Relief creeping over her, she pressed on, tightening her grip on the shopping bags and intently watching the gates.
Calista fell head over heels almost without making a sound, her purchases flying away, her extended hands breaking her fall. A little stunned, she took deep breaths, expecting pain. When none came, she tried to sit up, but was hindered by something pulling at her ankle. Rolling and shifting, she edged closer to the grass and managed to sit.
Her left foot was caught in a loop, the line secured around the nearest headstone. Although it looked like some kind of metal, it wasn’t biting her skin. Not yet. She tugged at it and felt the noose tightening, realising at once she wouldn’t be able to get out of it this way. She attempted to untie the knot, but it was too tight. Maybe she could cut it with a knife, but hell, she was no MacGyver and she didn’t carry blades in her pockets.
Oh God, oh God, this could not be happening. Not now. Not a thousand feet from the safety of her house. Not when she had practically made it.
She glanced up and fear threatened to pin her down. The sun was gone. A gust of wind slapped her face and shadows whished about, engaged in a nocturnal, graceful dance—the ballet of the dead. Refusing to admit defeat, Calista grabbed the line with both hands and pulled it as hard as she could.
“Hey, looks like I got myself a nice titbit.”
The voice came from behind her, but she didn’t turn her head. No point. She already knew what kind of creature had crept out of the night. Trapped like a frightened rabbit, there was nothing she could do but bide her time. That was, if he gave her time.
“Please, don’t hurt me!” she whimpered.
“Why would I do that? First, let’s have a look at you, sweetie,” he said, kneeling in front of her, lifting her chin up. “Oh my, aren’t you a treat for sore eyes!”
He was good-looking for a vampire, with should
er-length blond hair framing clear, blue eyes in a thin face. Although he was trying to hold a conversation, his gaze was sort of feverish and his fangs were out. He was hungry. If she didn’t keep him on safe ground she would end up dead very shortly.
“Who’s out there?” Calista asked in a panicked voice, pretending to notice something, craning her neck towards the biggest tombstone in the cemetery.
The vampire turned around, looking for whatever he thought she had spotted. “I don’t see anything, sweetie, but just in case”—he produced a long knife and used it to cut the thin wire—“I’d better take you home.”
Grabbing her arm, he pulled her along, heading for the darkest shadows. Although scared, she didn’t resist. She had a job to do. They soon rounded the crematorium, going past the building to the edge of the cemetery. Holding on to her, the vampire bent down and opened a trapdoor in the ground. Once he had switched the lights on, he pushed her forward. She nearly tumbled down the steep stairs, and gripped his arm to catch her balance while he shut the door and locked it.
“Welcome home, precious.”
To Calista, the vampire’s ‘home sweet home’ looked like a crypt—cold marble, cold tiles, cold interior. She had been in crypts a few times in the past and this one was no different.
“Make yourself comfortable,” he teased, pushing her towards a long marble table, “I’m starting to feel quite peckish.”
She desperately needed to buy time. If she wanted to save her life, she had to make him believe she was merely a young woman, scared out of her wits. She slowly backed towards the edge of the table, looking lost and helpless. She figured vampires got their kicks out of human helplessness.
“Please,” she begged, “don’t hurt me.”
“Now, now, sweetie, there’s no need to be afraid,” he said, in what was obviously intended to be a reassuring tone, a large grin on his face that didn’t reach his cold, blue eyes. “It’ll be over before you know it.”
Fangs out, he advanced on her like a hunter stalking his prey. He brushed her hair back, baring her neck. Calista hated their fangs more than anything else. Tools of death, they were a blatant reminder of countless lives eradicated and she feared them. Besides, she had no power over the long, sharp teeth.