Authors: Lauren Dane
Chapter Five
“I’ve been ordered to make you drink tea and to warm my rooms up for you because you’re still recovering. So do eat and drink all that tea and then we’ll shower.”
She walked past him into his rooms, comfortable in his space in a way he hadn’t thought possible six months before.
“You’re adorable when you try to give me orders.” Her tone was loose. Easy and warm. Teasing. A test to his resolve.
“You’re
not
adorable when you don’t just do what I ask because it’s the best thing for you and you know it.”
One of her shoulders rose and fell. “I’m contrary and fickle. You say so yourself.”
He gave in and smiled. “You are. And I do say so. I’ll make you a deal. I’ll make you come for every cup of tea you drink.”
“You’re going to do that anyway so I don’t need to make a deal with you. And you like it when I make you work for it.” To underline that, Rowan pulled her tank up over her head and tossed it to the side.
Contrary. Though absolutely correct. He did love this little push and pull game of theirs. “Tea!” He pointed and raised his brow. “Dina and Cataline both made me promise. Otherwise I’d let you get sick just to teach you a lesson.”
“You’re such a liar.” Still shirtless and now, as she tossed her bra to the side, bare from the waist up, she poured the tea into a cup and sipped it, challenge in her gaze.
“A liar? Darling Hunter, why would I do such a thing?” He made himself stay where he was, across the small space. Close enough to smell her, sweat and skin, power and magic. But not close enough to touch. Which was good because he wanted to touch her but they were playing a game he planned to win.
He kept his patience, knowing they’d both be naked and touching shortly.
“You’d let me get sick to teach me a lesson?” She sipped her tea, topless, like the spawn of hell she was to tempt him so. “You would not. You like me, Scion.”
During the first days after her attack, when her life had been so very thin and tattered, he hadn’t wanted to leave her side. The First had to order Clive to leave and rest as the sun came up each day she’d been unconscious. Even once she’d gotten past the danger point and had begun to recover in earnest, he’d hated to leave her each morning. Worried something would happen while he wasn’t awake.
No, he wouldn’t let her get sick to teach her a lesson. Not for a few years. He needed the time between himself and nearly losing her to ever consider being cavalier that way.
“Granted, I do feel rather fond of you so to let you get sick would be counter to my goals of sex as often as I can get it.”
“You’re the one who’s making me drink tea instead of putting your cock inside me.” She shrugged.
“For now.”
She finished her tea and raised a brow his way. “I’ve got an empty teacup here.”
“You’re spoiled.”
Her smile promised all sorts of things he’d like.
“You’re the one who spoils me. I was just a gal with a valet who made her bagels and brought her coffee. You’re the one who buys me gemstones and makes me drink whateverthefuck is in this tea. Going to guess healing mojo. Probably make me sleepy really soon. I may not even be able to have sex at this rate.”
He laughed, despite his best intentions. “What a terrible outcome to have to wait eight hours until the sun went down to have you. Again.”
Rowan sighed. “I may be too busy for that. Once the sun sets I have to yell at people and coordinate a schedule to keep everyone in this hemisphere safe. Probably too busy to fuck.”
“Now who’s lying?”
Her laugh, low and sexy, stroked over his skin as she used her power to get his attention.
Which she already had.
Rowan shuddered as she downed the last of the stinky liquid. “Two cups of tea down.”
“If you promise to eat after the shower, I’ll make you come three times anyway.”
She stood in the same graceful, boneless way Vampires did and his incisors pressed against his gums. She made him want like nothing before.
A smile of carnal promise curved her mouth. She made an X motion over her heart. “Done. After those orgasms I’ll need the calories to keep my strength up.”
“I do so admire your thinking,” Clive said, following her through to the bedroom where he’d laid the robe out on his bed.
She gave him a look over her shoulder.
“I saw the color and thought of your skin.”
* * *
Only this man could move her this way. Rowan brought the deep blue silk to her cheek. She was too tired to pretend she wasn’t pleased by the way he sought to take care of her.
“Not that seeing you in my shirts isn’t ridiculously attractive, but I thought you might like something to keep here, in my rooms.”
He reached out, cupping her face, and she told herself the way she leaned into his touch was for him when she knew she’d allowed herself to need it.
“I know you aren’t always comfortable sleeping with me during daylight hours. I know you need your own space. I don’t want to own you. I want you to come to me when you need me. I want you to know you’re welcome at my side, in my bedchamber and in my life.”
The words seemed to soak into her. Damn him and his ability to know exactly what she needed to hear right when she needed it.
He wasn’t a responsibility. Didn’t need protecting or saving. Being with him was easy in so many ways, even though he was a Vampire and bossy and one of her dad’s employees so to speak.
“Thank you. It’s beautiful. I’m going to spill something on it in five minutes. You know that right?”
He pushed her to the en suite bathroom and turned the water on to get it hot.
“It can be cleaned.”
“You’re so patient with all this. Where’s my uptight British asshole?”
His features softened. “I love you, Rowan. You’ve had quite a day. I’m always pleased to poke you into a state of agitation and you’re so surly it’s not very difficult. But there are times when I’m content to let you be because you need someone in your goddamned life who’s your safe place. Selfishly, I like you better when you’re bitchy over something not me and easily punched into obedience.”
She finished getting out of her sparring clothes, tossing them to the side. Not wanting to do something horrifying like cry at his kindness, Rowan busied herself undoing her hair.
She did, in fact, really dislike being around Vampires when they day slept. It wasn’t so much like he was dead or anything, but they rested very deeply and their bodily functions slowed down drastically so they got very cold and very still. He wasn’t going to cuddle with her while he was out—not that she was much for cuddling anyway. He wouldn’t even know she was there.
And she needed a moat around herself sometimes. Needed to be alone in a place no one would bother her. And the miracle of it was that Clive accepted her nature.
She got into the shower and he followed, not crowding her physically, but taking up all her attention anyway.
The water was blessedly hot and did great things to her muscles as she grabbed his soap and ran it all over his skin.
“You should let me take care of you.”
“Be quiet.” She continued, letting herself find comfort as well as titillation at the feel of him, steady and toned against her palms.
His mouth quirked but he didn’t argue. His cock liked what she was doing in any case, so it wasn’t like there was a problem.
She stretched, going to her tiptoes to kiss his neck, licking over the sensitive skin at his jaw, letting herself delight in his groan when she grazed her teeth against his jugular. Pushing right to the edge of breaking the skin. She didn’t have teeth made for such things but when she bit down he arched into her and spun, backing her against the tile at her back.
His eyes were lit, reflecting the light back at her. She drew a breath through a gasp as sensation ripped it from her.
“I’d say you were playing with fire, but you know that.” He gripped her easily, leaning his weight against her to hold her in place as he kissed across her brow and down her cheeks.
“I like fire.” Some might say it was a flaw, but Rowan understood it brought this man to her, so she was good with that.
“Of course you do. Why not? It’s dangerous and could easily harm you.”
She laughed, her fingers sliding into his hair as he nibbled down her throat and over the upper curves of her breasts.
“You’d be bored otherwise.”
His hands, slick with soap, roamed all over her body, paying particular attention to her nipples until she writhed against him. And then...he went south, dropping to his knees before her.
She closed her eyes as the water rushed over her skin and sighed happily when he spread her open and took a lick and then another, nudging her thighs a little wider to get more of her with his mouth.
He didn’t waste any time, instead driving her hard and fast until she came in a sharp rush of pleasure.
He didn’t stop there. A man of his word, he pushed her into another climax that felt so good it nearly hurt.
He surged to his feet and kissed her. She held on as he devastated her lips and tongue, his taste filling her.
It hadn’t even been a full day since they’d had sex last, but this was different and they both knew it. He knew more about her now. Had seen enough to render her vulnerable to him. And she hadn’t worried. It meant he knew her more. That knowledge was achingly intimate. Raw.
She hadn’t hidden her reaction to it. Had let him see her vulnerability and that had deepened their connection. Especially when he hadn’t rejected her or walked out.
He broke away, pulling her from the shower and wrapped her in a warm towel the size of five people, picked her up and deposited her on the edge of the counter, stepping between her thighs.
“Here you are again, between my legs.”
“My favorite.”
It was a tease, but she loved the lazy confidence in his tone.
The counter put him at the perfect height to slide right inside her with one hard stroke. Hard enough she grunted and then adjusted her position to wrap her legs around his waist while she leaned back and braced her hands on the edge of the counter, just inside where his rested.
“Yes, just as delightful as the last time I was here.” He kissed her neck, teasing them both with a graze of his incisors against her skin. Always walking that edge and never crossing it. Never showing any resentment that she’d never given over to him and let him take her blood.
She’d never told him why. He’d never pushed when she hadn’t shared the details, though he did manage to leave her feeling like he wasn’t angry or insulted and that if she ever did want to tell him he was there.
She shoved that from her mind and rolled her hips to meet his thrusts.
Between them
this
was always perfect. She never had to think about sex with him, they just went at it and it worked. The rest of the relationship stuff filled her with various emotions and she already had a lot of emotions and was generally cranky and mean and yet he loved her anyway.
She opened her eyes to find him looking at her as if she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
She had no defense against this wonder he filled her with. She couldn’t hold him back or wall him out. There was nothing to do but take that leap and be vulnerable.
“I love you,” she murmured and his gaze sharpened, lips curving up as he continued to fuck her.
“I find myself rather pleased by hearing you say it.” He leaned in to kiss her as she stretched up to meet him, their mouths colliding in a tangle.
There never seemed to be a point where she got enough of him. Never enough of this rutting and petting, of the sweat slicked crush of his hips against her inner thighs. He filled her with fire.
“You are mine.” He said this and took her bottom lip between his teeth. Harder and harder until he balanced on the very edge of drawing blood.
Her heart sped. Adrenaline spiked. He brought this out in her in a way no one else ever had. It was by turns exciting and deeply exhausting. She didn’t know what to do with the tenderness so she just sort of pretended it wasn’t there until she tripped over it or figured it out.
He let go slowly and licked over the sting. His strokes had slowed, but they’d gone harder and deeper.
“Nothing to say, Hunter?”
“Your cock feels really good.”
He snarled but then laughed.
He nipped her bottom lip again. “You. Are. Mine.”
That little snarly possessive thing was recent and it totally made her tingle. He was so all buttoned up and well mannered that when he got a little tousled it was so unbelievably hot.
“Do you want me to agree? Right here with your cock in me? With my scent all over you and my toothbrush on your counter? Am I yours, Scion?”
“It wasn’t a question, Rowan. It was a statement.”
He added a swivel on each thrust so he ground himself against her clit and orgasm slowly began to build. Again.
“And are you mine then?” She regretting saying it aloud. It sounded...like someone else.
But his response, that widening of his eyes and the emotion on his features erased most of her embarrassment at needing reassurance. “Most assuredly. You’re a pain in the ass. You kill my Vampires and scare the ones you leave alive. You’re rude and ill mannered. You do have very good taste in wine, I give you that.”
She laughed. “Thank you, Scion. I’m glad to know my surly ways were what hooked you.”
He kissed her slowly as he ground himself against her again and again. “You’re so wet and hot. Drives me crazy. So close. You’re tightening up around me. Give me number three then.”
Rowan let it all go and came so hard she cracked her head on the mirror as she arched to take him deeper.
He put a hand between her skull and the mirror and sped his pace, making that hot little fuck-mumble only she got to hear and came, closing that loop between them.
Chapter Six
He’d set her on her feet and she’d looked up, her affection plain on her features. “I’m yours, Clive.”
He thought about it still, even as he made sure she ate and had some wine. The sun would be up soon. He felt it drawing power and his own waning. But he wanted every moment with her he could get before he went in to rest.
“The tea is working. I’m sleepy and warm and sort of lazy.”
She hadn’t said much and he wanted her to be relaxed so she could rest even more than he wanted to talk with her about The First.
“Come with me.” He stood and she followed, taking his hand. The robe looked fantastic on her, as he knew it would. He liked seeing her in something he’d chosen. Growing up as she had in Vampire culture, she’d know wearing it was a sign of their intimate connection.
She hadn’t just told him she was his, she’d
shown
him. He had another item, not necessarily a gift, but something he wanted to give her. But it wasn’t time yet. Soon, he figured.
“You don’t have to stay.” He pulled the comforter back. He liked warm bedding, with some weight. Since their body temperature lowered so much as they rested, most Vampires tended to choose bedding that would keep them as warm as possible.
“It’s not that I don’t want to sleep with you.” She got in and he watched the beguiling sway of her ass as she did.
He slid beside her and pulled her close.
“But you don’t know if I’m here or not. You’re unconscious and your room is so perfect and pristine and I’m not pristine. I like to work when I need to and sometimes that’s before you wake or after you go to rest. I have to make calls and yell at people. That’s a big job and it can jump time zones.” She paused. Most likely reveling in the memories of the last call she made to yell at someone.
Rowan continued. “I eat in my bed and you hate that. I have snacks in my room and your eye tic comes back every time you open one of my drawers and find jerky. I leave coffee cups on my bedside table and you’re obsessively and unnaturally neat.”
He shuddered at the memory.
“I’m not hurt or offended. And I am glad you don’t leave dried meat products in my dresser drawers.”
She laughed. “Goddess you’re so fucking uptight. You get faint when you see pillowcases that don’t match.”
“I knew it was love when my revulsion at your slovenly ways didn’t stop me from wanting to be around you. You also forgot to mention you use a top sheet instead of the fitted ones. It makes no sense. You’re supposed to use the sheets the way they’re intended.”
The look she gave him amused him greatly.
“I’m a rebel that way I guess. I hear using the wrong sheet is like a gateway to dogs marrying cats and buffalo roaming the streets smoking weed.”
He had no idea what she was talking about, but it was most likely one of her pop culture references to humans he’d prefer to avoid anyway.
“When we move in together we’ll work around it.” He hadn’t meant to say it to spook her, but once the words were out he was glad he had.
She didn’t even stiffen. “We’ll need a place with two bedrooms on either side of a shared sitting room. I can eat crackers in bed and you can iron your underpants and have a stick up your butt about lint or the pinstripe on your pajamas being too wide in yours.”
He groaned. “You’re never going to let that go. A man has to have some style, Rowan.”
“Pajamas don’t need style. You’re not even conscious when you’re resting! It’s not like you’re out at a nightclub. Just who are you trying to impress? I’d rather see you naked and no one is in your bedroom to see your PJs but me. You could sleep in a T-shirt and your boxers or sweats even.”
He curled his lip. “And while I’m at it I’ll microwave a frozen dinner and watch a reality show too, shall I?”
She guffawed. “You make me laugh, you fucking weirdo. As I was saying, the problem isn’t a solution between Rowan and Clive. We’re both freakishly odd and for whatever reason that works. But your people would be in my house, especially if we live at Vampire HQ instead of way from that madness.”
He wasn’t opposed to finding a place outside the main part of town. Once they chose the next location for the Scion to live, he could get plans started there for a custom home. But contact with his people would definitely come with being his partner. “You’re growing on them.”
“I’d like to run them over with a tank. Except Alice. You can keep her because she’s like a badass Vampire Mary Poppins.”
He’d have to tell Alice that. She’d love it.
“You’re not arguing about moving in with me?”
“We have some killing to do first. But I’m not deluded about who you are. You’re not just any old Vampire, you’re a master Vampire. Which means you’re super spoiled and haughty and used to getting your way in all things. You’ll just mope and sniff and be British until I relent. David needs his own suites and your people aren’t allowed there. I need a place to work, which will be a no Vampire zone. And a secure place to park my car.”
He should be suspicious of how easily she was taking this. Maybe her tea had been drugged. He wouldn’t put it past Dina to dope Rowan up to get her to actually sleep. But Brigid didn’t usually allow such nonsense and quite often burned anything intoxicating from her system.
But he’d take it. Because he did want her with him. Wanted her in his home where he knew she was protected. And, where everyone knew she was his.
He also knew David was part of the package. “Of course.” Along with Hunter Corp. and its endless politics and machinations—which he was less enamored of. But he’d take this as the victory it was and get started on the plans. Once they dealt with the hunt and whatever was going on with The First, he’d lock this living together thing in.
She sighed, content for the moment and he breathed her in. He wanted this to be what he experienced before going to sleep and her scent on the pillow when he awoke was acceptable since he knew she wouldn’t be staying. It was enough that she’d been there.
“He’ll get better,” she said very quietly, finally speaking of her father. “I think the adventure he went on eased some of the pent up stuff that led him to this place. But he can’t come with us. It would be total anarchy and I have too much to do already.”
“All right.” She didn’t need answers from him. Rowan had more experience with The First than anyone else he knew. She understood him and while she had fear, she also had love. Complicated and twisty, but that came with what they all were.
“He’s well enough to wrest a promise to visit more from me in exchange for staying here. You’re coming too.”
This pleased him immensely.
“I am?”
“Really? Now you want to be coy? After you nailed me on your bathroom counter you’re going to expect me to pretend you aren’t giddy and doing a jig in your head at more access to the boss?”
She snorted. “Well probably not a jig. Not even in your imagination. Though I might recall that image to keep from popping you in the junk the next time you get uppity. Which we both know will be very soon because you like being uppity. It’s your prime directive. That was a
Star Trek
reference, in case you’re so stunted you don’t know what I meant.”
He smiled against her hair, still a little damp from the shower, her scent now mixed with his shampoo.
“I find the return of your vulgarity and lack of manners reassuring now instead of horrifying. You’ve gone and done it, Hunter. I’m broken.”
“Next think you’ll be eating McNuggets and drinking diet soda.”
“Let’s not be hasty.”
She laughed, tipping her head back to look into his face. “Go to sleep, old Vampire. Maybe I’ll order you some Crocs while you’re sleeping.”
“Where would we put a crocodile?”
“In a moat we have around our new house. Which is a great idea, actually. But I meant shoes. Plastic shoes. People garden in them and chefs seem to like them too. They sort of look like orange rubber wooden shoes. With holes.”
“
Plastic shoes?
” Horror spun through his system at the idea.
“You could go wild and not wear socks.”
She was laughing so hard it was difficult to understand this last bit, but he knew she was teasing and quite honestly the mere thought of plastic on his feet was enough to turn his stomach.
“It’s easy to mock when some people have standards.”
She laughed more, hugging him. “I’m going now. Rest. Goddess, I feel better now. Orgasms and mockery overruled the stress. You’re handy that way, Scion.” She rolled from his bed.
“Leave the robe here.”
She paused at the door, looking back at him over a shoulder. “And walk naked back to my rooms? All right then. It’s late enough that I probably won’t see anyone.”
He frowned. “You do have a point.”
“I’ll return it here after sunset.” She turned as she shook her head, moving back to the bed to kiss him one last time. “So spoiled.”
“It’s rather a nice situation for me, I do say.”
She flipped him off as she left the room, calling out a goodbye as she left. She shut the door to his bedchamber and then he heard the locks engage. It would keep the room dark and free of sunlight and anyone not possessing the code out while he was more vulnerable.
He waited there as the sun rose and made his lids heavy. Thinking of her walking through the halls, going up stairs and around corners. He’d made the trip to her suites, housed in the same high security wing as The First, enough times to know how long it took to get there.
When he’d gone through the trip enough to be assured she’d be back, he let himself fall away and rest, knowing she’d be there when he awoke.