She couldn’t deny the place was gorgeous. A huge-screen TV dominated one wall, and lush silver curtains blocked all traces of moonlight. The massive bed was outfitted with a cover of the same hue, and pillows were heaped everywhere. Obviously, the guy liked his comfort, and she was certainly reaping the benefits.
Since she’d done enough thinking for one night, sleeping was all that was left. She slipped into the nightgown she’d retrieved from home and situated Emily beside her in bed. With the disturbing events of the evening running through her mind, she wasn’t sure if she would be able to rest.
Luckily, she was wrong. Sleep claimed her like a greedy lover, then held her in its grip for much of the following day.
When she woke the next evening, Emily was stirring. “Shh, love. It’s okay. You’re okay. I’ll take care of you.” She flailed around a bit while Sydney crooned softly to her. Her skin was too pale, though the shadows under her eyes had abated. And she seemed weak, almost frail. Her movements against the sheets were as tentative as a newborn’s.
Sydney stroked her hair and rubbed her back, trying to make sure she was comfortable. Her reassurances apparently fell on deaf ears, however, as Emily soon proved by shooting out of her near-slumber to clamp her mouth around Sydney’s neck.
Her scream was instantaneous, borne more of surprise than fear. Emily’s mouth blazed like a fever, and her fangs burned the deeper they sank. But by the time Kellan burst through the door, his eyes wild and his face an almost unrecognizable mask of fear, Sydney had stopped feeling anything even remotely unpleasurable.
Far from it.
Sydney reclined against Lucas’s pillows, her nightgown slipping so far off one shoulder that the swell of her breast was almost entirely exposed. Emily’s hand covered her nipple, and she kneaded the puckered skin as she drank.
Guzzled was a more appropriate term.
“What’s going on here?”
Kellan’s voice was rough. Sydney could hardly blame him for becoming aroused. Emily hadn’t done anything sexual beyond touching her breast, and even that gesture resembled a kitten kneading its mother’s belly to get more milk. But she could only imagine how they looked sprawled over the bed, tangled together, her in green silk and Emily’s svelte frame clad in one of Sydney’s nearly see-through gowns.
“She was thirsty.” Trailing a hand through the brown spill of hair that flowed down Emily’s back, Sydney arched to give her friend a better angle. Both Emily’s fangs and her fingers picked up the pace.
“So you offer yourself to her.” The implication in his tone was clear. Exactly how much did you offer her, Sydney?
That he didn’t demand they separate or pull any other of his bullheaded nonsense went a long way to buffing any residual ire she had at his irritating dominance. She’d left him because of it, and she’d stayed away while she sorted out her thoughts on what had really transpired between them. But whether it was because of his hyponotic golden stare or the warm, sexual thrum in her veins as Emily drank from her, none of her reasons for holding him at arm’s length seemed to matter very much anymore.
Even if he couldn’t be her true sire, he could be her lover. As he already was her love, even if she still didn’t understand how that could have happened so quickly and completely.
“I didn’t offer. She took.” Slowly, Sydney lowered the other shoulder of her gown, revealing the twin of the breast Emily continued to massage. “But I’m offering myself to you.”
He said nothing for so long she began to wonder if he would deny her. Even through her half-closed eyes, she could see the rigid bulge of his cock in his jeans, but maybe he was thinking with his big head, instead.
“What do you intend to share with her? Your blood only? Or that which you would give me?”
Something about the way he spoke, the heavy intonation combined with the emotionless delivery, set off a line of sparks from the wound Emily had made, straight into her pussy. Fireworks that traveled along the ground before they exploded into the air.
“She can watch.” Emily finally lifted her head, her mouth stained bright red. “But she can’t touch.”
Sydney waited for Emily to say something, but she only glanced back and forth between them. She appeared drugged, though her gray eyes smoldered in a way they never had before. Her fingers had ceased moving on Sydney’s breast at the same time she had stopped feeding, and now she slid her hand away. But not demurely to her lap. Instead she scraped her short, serviceable nails up her own inner thigh, her target clear from the intensity in her gaze. Emily’s lips quivered open as her fingertips found her own wet flesh—Sydney could smell her arousal now, the smoke and the tang of it—and sank deep.
Sydney took a shuddery breath. Not so long ago, she would’ve been freaked out by watching her best friend masturbate. Now most anything went.
She nodded at Kellan. “Guess she’s okay with those terms.”
He walked into the room slowly, moving as a predator would. Ever watchful, each muscle tensed. His gaze skipped over Emily before landing on Sydney. “I smell you. Even over her, with her, I smell you. It lives inside me, that scent.” He stopped beside her and knotted his hands in her hair, turning her head so he could brush his lips over hers. “God, Sydney, I need you.”
She’d thought herself trapped. By her condition, by him. But now, locked in those
gorgeous eyes that warmed her as surely as if he’d poured steaming candle wax over her skin, she felt free.
Loving him was a choice. And she was making it.
She trembled as her fingers crept under his shirt to stroke the firm, clenched muscles of his back. He stared at her, the emotion of the moment passing between them without words. Their pact had been sealed. First in lust. Then in blood.
He crushed his mouth to hers, his tongue hard and insistent as it sought entrance. Her lips parted and his groan flowed into her on the heels of his taste. Coffee. Her coffee. Rich, bold. And beneath, the metallic undertaste he’d introduced her to, the forbidden fruit she’d denied wanting but couldn’t stop needing.
She gripped his belt buckle, tugging him closer so she could coil her legs around him. Her gown rode up, exposing her where she already burned wet and hot. Beside her, Emily made a strangled sound deep in her throat, but Sydney didn’t break the kiss or halt her explorations of the definite rise beneath Kellan’s jeans.