Crave the Night (26 page)

She glanced aside, conceding the point. “If
we're all about honesty, then do you care about me or crave
me?”

He lifted a brow.
Not so easy to answer, is it, tough vampire who is
fighting the urge to lick the faery’s skin clean of any dust he can
find
? He’d never understood the meaning of
crave
until after biting Bree and
consuming her luscious ichor.

“
Give me a name,” he said. Shoving his
hands in his pockets he looked high, scanning the rafters. Anything
to keep from admiring her soft, sparkly glow and those pale pink
lips that pouted for a kiss. “Or even just a pack.”

“
It’s not that easy, Rev.”

“
Of course it is!” He lunged into her
space, prepared to grip her shoulder and give her a swift shake.
“You have to want to make it easy. Please, Bree.” He squatted
before her. “Would it matter if I told you my reputation depends on
your cooperation?”

He shouldn’t have brought it to such a
level—his desperation—but he didn’t know what else to do without
breaching his self-imposed rules not to get involved with her.

“
Won’t they just send another vampire
after me if you fail?”

“
Yes, they will. And the next one
might not be so nice. He might like to rough you up and maybe get
in a few punches if he thinks that’ll loosen your lips.”

She stroked the tip of her tongue along her
lower lip and cast a slow, sensual gaze at him. Teasing him when he
was trying to interrogate her? The faery certainly wielded the
tricks.

Rev grabbed her by the shoulders and kissed
her hard and long. She wrapped herself about him, and moaned into
his mouth as he matched her wanting pace.

“
Bree, you’re killing me.”

“
You don’t like kissing
me?”

“
Love it. Need more. Deeper. All of
you.”

He lifted her in his arms and sat without
breaking the kiss. Shifting her body, she straddled him, snugging
her groin against his stomach. He slid his fingers along the slight
curves of her body. Lithe and lean, the faery was more toned muscle
than voluptuous curves. He liked that just fine.

“
Kissing me won’t get me to talk,” she
murmured against his mouth. “In fact, it’ll keep my lips so busy
I’ll never be able to say anything important.”

“
Bree, you steal my concentration. All
I can do when I’m with you is think about how good it feels to
touch you.” He slipped a hand under her dress and glided it along
her thigh. Bad business practice, but impossible to resist. “Tell
me to stop.”

She arched her spine and her breasts brushed
his chest. “I'm sorry, handsome, but…keep going.”

Not what he needed to hear. Definitely what
he wanted to hear.

Rev kissed her through the white jersey,
using his teeth to pull the neckline low and bite softly at the
mounds of her breasts. So sweet, ever sweet and giving. She never
tried to stop his advances when she knew they could be dangerous.
How dare she?

The same way he dared.

Licking her skin, he tasted the essence of
her, the dark menace of Faery and the macabre pleasure of its
glittering seduction. Tingling on his tongue, dancing icy then hot
against the back of his throat. Permeating his body and bones and
shimmering into his heart.

The puncture, teeth into flesh, happened
instinctually. He bit shallow upon the mound of her breast, and
licked at the flowing ichor. Bree cried out softly, a moan of
delight as he sucked at her, and drew her into the giddy swoon a
vampire’s bite always delivered.

Flooded with her hot, pulsing life, he
moaned deep in his throat. Crushing her body against his, he ground
his hips to hers. Falling backward onto the bed, he rolled her to
her back and moved on top, pinning one delicate wrist to the silk
spread. Kneading her breast with his fingers, he tended the other
with tongue and mouth, suckling, drinking, devastating.

“
Oh, goddess, Rev, no.”

“
You can’t tell me no when you were
the one to start this.”

She pulled at his hair, shoved his shoulder,
but he did not relent. It wasn't really a fight. She was just going
through the motions. Pulling him closer, she settled, slipping into
the swoon, surrendering not peacefully, but feisty, as any faery
would.

And when he’d taken a long draft and his
head swam with sparkling things of wild and mystic oddity, Rev
pushed away and slid from the bed, his back banging against the
mattress. He caught his head in his palms and swayed forward,
following the swoon’s sinister tease and the high only faery ichor
could promise.

Returning. Descending.

Swallowed once again by the addiction.

Swimming in a sea of pleasure, submission
and outright shock, Bree clung to the side of the bed. Eyelids
fluttering, she could not see Rev, but she could hear him
moaning—with pleasure.

She touched her breast where he’d bitten
her. It was sore, yet had already healed. He’d taken a lot of
ichor. So good. So wrong. Her heart sank.

“
He couldn’t help himself. And I
encouraged him." Hell, she'd seduced him when he'd been set on
business. "What have I done?”

She scrambled off the bed and stumbled
against the glass block wall. Didn’t want to get too close to him.
Wasn’t sure how to react. What to do? Rush over and hold him? Or
push him out the door and lock it behind him?

"This is all my fault. Why did I let this
happen?"

She'd been following her heart, not her
better judgment. She'd wanted to bond with her Intended.

Rev sat on the floor, head hung forward and
legs stretched out. He worked his fingers through his hair and
tossed his head back to rest on the bed. Dark eyes searching his
surroundings, they landed her face. He smiled a drunken grin and a
low guttural chuckle tainted the air.

Bree’s heart dropped to her gut. She’d
stupidly slaked her own greedy desires to seduce a former dust
freak.

“
I’m so sorry.” She shut up.
Apologizing? Like it was going to do any good now.

Rev pulled himself up by the bed and,
wobbling, sat the end of it. He smiled widely, like a junkie
knowing his next fix stood two steps away. “Bree, Bree. Apologies
are not necessary. God, I feel great. It's been a while. Come
here.”

She pressed her back against the cool glass.
What had happened to her plan to have sex with him in hopes it
would entice him with more than her ichor? She hadn’t a chance,
that is what happened. The vampire had been too fast, too eager for
the fix. So seductive. Or had that been she as the seducer? She’d
wanted him as much as he had wanted her. Maybe even more.

She should have never dallied with his
unstable condition. Once an addict; always an addict.

You risked a silly
infatuation and now you've created a monster
.

It wasn't an infatuation, it had been a
desire to claim her mate, risks be damned.

“
Do you want me to call a friend for
you?” Stupid, Bree. Make him feel like a leper, will you? “I mean,
someone to take you home? Rev, are you okay?”

He moved swiftly, his body fitted to hers
and pinned her against the wall. She felt every hard surface on Rev
Parker. Great Herne, his body was a sculpted masterpiece and every
movement flexed a different muscle against her slender frame. The
dark gaze searing hers melted her silly worries. He was gorgeous. A
man she desired. A man she'd wanted to lure into her bed.

“
You want to be rid of me so
quickly?”

“
You bit me, Rev.”

“
I know.” He dipped his head to lick
her breast, using a fang to drag down her dress.

Bree tensed, but his hot tongue worked
wicked pleasure through her body in irresistible waves. She stood
on tiptoe to keep the connection. Difficult to push away what she
wanted so desperately.

“
Didn’t mean to,” he muttered as he
glided his tongue under her chin and along her neck. “But you taste
like heaven, Bree. No one passes up a bite of heaven.”

“
Heaven is closed to you and
I.”

“
Then the closest I’ll ever get is
you. Let me have it again.”

“
No.” She pressed two fingers over his
mouth as it moved to parallel hers. “You can’t do this, Rev. Don’t
lie to me and tell me you’re not jonesing for more
ichor.”

“
Jonesing?” He smirked. The man
stretched back his shoulders as if to display his brawn, and she
did not miss the pulse of his muscles. His confident chuckle echoed
in her core. “Not even.”

“
But why not? That was—”

“
The best bite I’ve ever had. And I
want another. You going to deny me?”

He must not realize he was in the
throes of the dust. A wicked enchantment wanted to pull him under
again.
Her
wicked
enchantment. Or maybe he did, and didn’t care. What junkie did care
about anything but their next fix?

Curse her for wanting to be his next fix,
for wondering what another bite would feel like. Wicked good. Like
an orgasm stretching inside her veins and endlessly shuddering from
head to toe. Could a faery become addicted to the bite?

Yes, she'd heard of those sidhe who sought
vampires for the pleasure of their bite. They left dust freaks in
their wake, and were shunned by their kind for working their cruel
enchantments to fulfill a twisted desire. And that was exactly why
vampires and faeries did not mix.

“
One more bite and I promise I’ll
leave,” Rev cooed against her ear.

His breath tickled her skin and pricked her
nerve endings. His smile revealed a gorgeous white fang, sharp and
promising exquisite pain.

Want
more
.

He slid up her skirt. His warm hand cupped
her derriere and glided over the dimples at the base of her spine,
testing their concave shape. “You’ve captured me again." He blinked
and shook his head, and found a moment of clarity. “Christ, this
shouldn’t be happening."

Yes, he was finding reality. And she should,
too.

Another blink spread the sexy grin across
his face and he cupped her chin firmly. "But if I’m going to fall,
what better person than with the only woman I desire. I want you,
Bree.”

Fall? This man was no angel, and neither was
she for allowing this to happen. Perhaps she could yet rescue him.
Steer his desires toward safer territory. It wouldn't be easy, and
would take all her strength, but if she could enchant him sexually
it would overwhelm the dust coursing through his system.

“
Make love to me?” she wondered
softly. “Yes, let’s make love. I have something better than ichor
to offer you, Rev.”

“
Nothing better than dust, pretty,
sparkly faery mine.” He nuzzled into her neck. The sharp slash of
teeth made her shiver.

She didn’t feel the intrusion of fang
through flesh, only realized when he sucked at her skin and the
ichor pulled within her.

This was wrong.

It felt too right. It had to be right. Why
else would he be her Intended?

Rev’s mouth seduced her body to melt against
his hard ridges and firm muscles as if a flower softening against
stone under the sun. She wanted to be under his touch, within his
embrace, mastered by his hold upon her.

This time the swoon attacked him first. The
powerful vampire shuddered against her body, his erection hard and
angry against her thigh. Yes, angry, for he was unwilling or unable
to join with her, for the ichor high was greater. It overwhelmed
all.

Slapping his palms against the wall above
her head, he groaned with pleasure, and tugged her into an embrace
with one arm. Bree’s feet left the floor. He held her to him,
rocking her, smothering her, bleeding her pores of dust and
thriving on the high of it all.

Don't let him fall. Save
him
.

“
No!” She kicked at him and managed a
heel to his thigh.

Dropping her, the vampire stumbled backward.
A growl flashed ichor-dripping fangs.

“
Think clearly, Rev.” Bree ran to the
door and opened it. A cool evening breeze gushed in, clearing her
head. “Leave, please. I’d never forgive myself if—"

“
So it’s all about you, then?” He
staggered forward, more a swagger, actually. Aggression tightened
his jaw. Bree remembered him saying the dust brought out his Hyde
as opposed to sinking him into oblivion. Would he hurt her? Trash
her place? “The faery gives and the faery takes away.”

He slapped his palms to the door frame,
standing over her. The wood frame cracked, giving credence to her
suspicion he’d take out his aggressions on her home.

Until he leaned down and licked her aside
the temple. Oh, sweet hot touch of her lover's tongue. Could she
really make him leave? She didn't want to leave him alone when this
was all her fault.

Rev growled at her. “Fine. You want to play
this game?”

“
No, Rev, I didn’t mean—"

“
Next time we meet, faery, you’d
better have some information for me. Or it won’t go well for you.”
He grabbed her wrist and before she could struggle, his fangs tore
along her vein. Rev licked her oozing ichor and smiled behind the
wicked act. “Love it when a woman pushes me away. Makes it a kick
to push back. And this time no chains to keep me off you. Heh. See
you later, Bree.”

He jumped over the stairway landing,
accomplishing the three-story drop with ease. Bree didn’t look.
Didn’t want to watch him slip away. Because he wasn’t gone. She’d
opened a connection tonight that shouldn’t have been unlocked.