A Hunger Like No Other (Immortals After Dark #2)(6)

She shrugged miserably.

He glanced at the cascade of water within a glass chamber, opened the door, and ran his hand under it. Now, this he could use. He set her away, then stripped.

Her eyes widened, focused on his cock, and she covered her mouth. You’d think she’d never seen one. He let her look her fill, even leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest while she stared.

Under her rapt gaze he grew hard, his length distending—his body, at least, must think she was his—until she gasped and lowered her gaze. His wasted leg caught her attention, seeming to startle her even more. That alone embarrassed him, and he stepped into the water to break her stare.

He closed his eyes with pleasure as the water ran over him, noticing that it did nothing to quell his erection. He sensed her tense as though to run, and opened his eyes. If he’d been stronger, he would’ve hoped she would try it. “Looking at the door like that? I’ll catch you before you make it from this room.”

She turned back, saw he’d grown harder, and seemed to choke on a cry.

“Take off your clothes, vampire.”

“I-I will not!”

“Do you want to come in here with them on?”

“Preferable to being naked with you!”

He felt relaxed under the water, even magnanimous after the excellent food. “Then let’s make a bargain. You grant me a boon and I’ll return one.”

She looked up at him from under a curl freed from her tight braids. “What do you mean?”

He put his hands on each side of the door and leaned forward out of the water. “I want you in here, unclothed. What do you want of me?”

“Nothing of value equal to that,” she whispered.

“You’ll be with me indefinitely. Until I decide to let you go. Do you no’ want to contact your…people?” He spat the word. “I’m sure you have much value to them, being so rare.” In fact, keeping her from her vampire kin would just be the beginning of his revenge. He knew they’d find the idea of her being f*cked repeatedly by a Lykae as revolting as his clan would find it. She nibbled her red bottom lip with one tiny fang, and his anger flared again. “I doona have to grant you anything! I could just take you in here and then in the bed.”

“A-and you won’t if I agree to be in there with you?”

“Come willingly and I will no’,” he lied.

“What will you…do?”

“I want to put my hands on you. Learn you. And I’ll want your hands on me.”

In a voice so soft he could scarcely hear her, she asked, “Will you hurt me?”

“Touch you. No’ hurt you.”

Her delicate blond brows drew together as she weighed this. Then, as though in great pain, she bent down to her boots, unfastening them with a buzzing sound. She stood and grasped the edges of her jacket and ruined blouse, but she seemed unable to proceed. She shook wildly and her blue eyes were stark. But she was agreeing—in a flash of insight, he knew she wasn’t agreeing because of any reason he could fathom. Her eyes seemed so expressive, yet he couldn’t read her.

When he loomed closer, she peeled the wet jacket and blouse away, then the shredded undergarment beneath them, hastily draping a thin arm over her breasts. Shy? When he’d seen the orgies of blood the vampires reveled in?

“Please. I-I don’t know who you think I am, but—”

“I think”—before she could blink, he’d ripped her skirt clean from her body and tossed it to the ground—“that I should at least know your name before I set to touchin’ you.”

She shook harder if possible, her arm tightening over her breasts.

He studied her, his gaze drinking her in. Her skin was perfect alabaster covered only by her strange pantalettes, the black silk that was like a V on her body. The front was transparent jet lace and teased against the blond curls between her legs. He remembered his two fleeting tastes of her skin in the howling rain and unnatural lightning, and his cock pulsed, the head growing slick with anticipation. Other men would find her exquisite. The vampires would. Human males would kill for her.

Her trembling body was too small, but her eyes…wide and blue like the daytime sky she would never witness.

“M-my name is Emmaline.”

“Emmaline,” he growled, slowly reaching forward one claw to slice away the silk.





2


S he’d been a fool to agree to this, Emma decided when the remains of her underwear fluttered to her ankles. Why should she trust him? She shouldn’t, but what choice did she have? She had to call Annika, her foster mother. She would be frantic when the pilot reported Emma had never shown up.

But was that really the reason she’d agreed to this? She feared it wasn’t so selfless a reason. Throughout her life, men had asked things of her—things her hidden vampire nature made impossible. Not this male. He knew what she was, and he wasn’t asking the impossible, he was demanding…

A shower.

And yet…

He held out his hand. Not aggressively or impatiently, but accompanied by a slow perusal of her wholly naked body with eyes that were intense but now warm and golden. He gave a sharp groan that she knew was involuntary. As if he found her beautiful.

His size was still terrifying, his leg sickening, but with a deep breath, and more courage than she’d conjured in her entire life, she slipped her hand into his.