Brittany frowned and lifted her hair up over her head, revealing cheeks and a chest still flushed pink from her orgasm. “You have an actual sentence?”
“Yes. Forty-five years I must remain in Las Vegas, visible to the government. I have served forty, with five remaining.”
Her fingers still rested on his belt and he felt the sudden urge to shove them away. It was a mirage, his relationship with her. He was not entitled to happiness, as his wristwatch reminded him. Living as a normal mortal man was not his destiny, and he knew better than to think it ever could be.
“Because you killed a woman?”
Corbin flinched. “Yes. I did not realize she was emotionally unstable when I selected her to draw a blood sample from, and to bite to infect with the virus. In those days I was focusing on how the virus was transmitted. But she was unaffected by my glamour, and remembered what I had done. She followed me, offered herself up to me, and when I refused, I thought it was the end of it.” Now was not the time to discuss this, but he knew, could read on her face, that Brittany was not going to let it rest. She was carrying his child, intending to be intimate with him yet again, and he knew she was entitled to the whole truth. “I did not realize she would cut herself open to entice me to feed, did not realize she would beg for the gift of eternity. I did not give it to her. Could not give it to her. So she died.”
He swallowed thickly and looked over at Brittany’s dresser, where she had framed pictures of her and her sister, Alexis. It was foolish to think he belonged here, that he could live a normal life. Not when he could still see that young woman’s face, the desperation in her eyes as she begged him to make her whole, to make her a vampire, to drink her blood, all of it, even as he smelled and sensed she was pumped full of illegal drugs and antidepressants. He had been unable to turn her, had recoiled at the very thought, but she had gone wild, stabbing and slicing herself, her lifeblood bleeding out.
“I let her bleed to death, then I collected blood samples. It was a heartless, cruel thing to do.” At the time, he had been so shocked by her behavior, that he had taken the blood almost automatically, as he had trained himself to do. But afterward, when he was in his apartment, her dead body left in the street, and he had called an ambulance anonymously, he had been appalled at how he had handled the situation.
Corbin had turned himself in to the Nation, disgusted with his useless, aimless life, knowing without a purpose he would go mad, slowly and certainly. Knowing that being vampire and watching so many mortal deaths had changed him, made him immune to the horror of suffering, the tragedy of death. He had even suspected he had grown cold to death because he himself yearned for it, had grown to despise his lonely and futile life. So he had committed himself to going beyond vampire viral transmission to actually finding a cure. The quest for mortality for the dozens of vampires tired of endless life.
And in his new purpose he had come to a new place of peace with himself, a tacit truce with his own eternity.
“I had removed myself so entirely from society that I forgot my humanity.” The irony of his agreement with the tribunal was that he was allowed to continue his research, but he was not entitled to participate in vampire society. So he spent all his time moving among mortals, using charm and persuasion to collect blood samples from women when it was occasionally needed, never allowing himself to get emotionally involved. Until Brittany.
She wasn’t looking at him with disgust, but understanding. “So you decided to pursue the cure to vampirism, didn’t you?”
He nodded, surprised she had reached that conclusion.
Shifting her grip from his waist to his own hand, she squeezed. “I’m sorry. I can’t imagine having to make that kind of decision, that choice, with no time to weigh the consequences. I think it was wrong of them to punish you. From a legal standpoint, you didn’t do anything wrong, in my opinion. But I can see how it must have devastated you... I would have felt the same way. Someone can’t possibly understand what they’re asking for when they request eternity. It’s not a decision you make lightly.”
That was not the reaction he had expected. He’d thought Brittany would have argued that he wasn’t responsible, that he was brooding for nothing. He had certainly heard that from fellow vampires. Then there were those, like the Committee for Fair Feeding Practices, who had condemned him for choosing his victim poorly, for his lack of a controlling glamour, and his poor handling of the situation. They had maintained that he should have wiped her mind completely clean so as not to jeopardize vampire security. Or if that was unsuccessful, turning her to vampire. Letting mortals die hysterical deaths was not something they could advocate without looking draconian.
He hadn’t advocated it either. But Brittany was the first to understand why he hadn’t been able to turn someone so obviously unstable to a vampire. He had felt a horror at the very thought, like the woman had no idea what it meant to walk the earth undead forever, nor had he thought she would be capable of following the rules of the Nation, given her behavior.
“It was not an easy decision, and it all happened so quickly. I just reacted. But that doesn’t mean I’m not responsible for my own actions. I am. I initiated contact with her, and I did in fact infect her with the virus, and take her blood. That was not ethical.”
“Yes, but if you had to live through the situation again, same circumstances, with forty years to reflect, what would you do?”
Corbin didn’t really need to consider. He hadn’t had a choice. The other options had been more abominable than the decision to refuse her his lifeblood. “I would do the same thing, though I would disarm her of the knife more quickly and call for medical help sooner. But even more to the point, I wouldn’t have approached her in the first place.” But that wasn’t entirely the truth and he knew it. He still sought out unwilling donors to provide him with genetic material for his research, and he used both glamours and charm to achieve that. That was in fact precisely why he had originally approached Brittany—for her blood. The work was more important than worrying about taking one little vial of blood from someone, and he had to remember that, had to focus on the big picture. But the guilt ate at him.
He also knew that the real reason he wore the wristwatch and was banished from polite vampire society was because his research scared the powers that be. They had used the woman’s death, and his clear remorse, as a convenient excuse to keep him in Las Vegas, to have him visible at all times. They didn’t want him finding his cure or making any other genetic discovery, then taking it to the wrong vampire.
“You know what you believe is right, Corbin, and don’t let them tell you otherwise.
I
think you did the right thing.”
Looking down at her, seeing the conviction in her eyes, he believed her. Brittany and he had a lot in common, given that she was misunderstood the same way he was. Hadn’t he heard her sister telling Brittany she was too trusting, too naïve? That wasn’t the way Corbin saw it at all. What he saw was an intelligent, compassionate woman who stood behind her convictions. Convictions that were remarkably similar to his own.
He bent over, kissed her forehead. “Thank you. You are an amazing woman.” Stroking her hair, he added, “Perhaps I should leave you, let you sleep.” This may be his last chance to be inside Brittany for months, but he had ruined the moment with his confession, and she was fatigued anyway from the pregnancy.
Her eyebrow shot up. “Are you stupid? I don’t think so! Take your pants off and let’s do this thing.”
“Do this thing?” He almost laughed.
“Yes. Do
me
.”
Corbin felt his ardor immediately rise. He appreciated that she knew what she wanted, and just dove into it with her eyes open and heart on her sleeve. “Excellent suggestion. I will do this thing to you again and again until you are begging me to never stop.”
Her eyes darkened. “Don’t stop,” she said, raising her hips, a smile playing on her lips.
Corbin scoffed. “That’s not begging.” He disposed of his pants and pushed himself inside her without warning, sinking his teeth into her shoulders.
She enclosed him, sending ecstasy sliding through his body, while simultaneously her blood sluiced over his fangs and rolled back into his throat. It felt amazing, delicious, but he forced himself to let go, to pull back out of her entirely, on both counts.
Brittany groaned. “Don’t stop!”
“Closer,” Corbin said, his own voice sounding tight, a sweat breaking out between his shoulder blades. “But not quite begging.”
See, this was why Brittany had slept with Corbin the first time. He was a very polite, though brooding, vampire with mysterious green eyes. And when he touched her, he managed to obliterate any signs of rational behavior whatsoever. He was dominating and skilled, and both times within five minutes he’d had her at that point of no return, where she would willingly go just about anywhere sexually with him. Inhibitions? She had nada with Corbin.
“Please, put it back,” she said, reaching down and grabbing hold of him, stroking his hard, slick flesh.
“That’s not begging either. That’s wheedling. That’s flirting. That’s you trying to get your way with your big beautiful brown eyes and your plump pouty lips.” He bit the bottom lip she had admittedly shoved out.
Brittany closed her eyes, enjoyed that tingling, that tugging sensation of him pulling on her blood, drawing it into his mouth. It didn’t hurt. It felt sexual, like having her finger sucked during passionate foreplay. She stroked him faster, trying to maneuver him between her legs.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, even though she did. She was used to pouting with her sister to get her way, even though she was a grown woman. It usually worked, so she kept doing it. But Corbin wasn’t going for it, damn him.
Without warning he rammed his cock into her again, knocking her hand away. She barely had time to gasp at the full sensation, barely had time to enjoy the eye-rolling stretching of her inner muscles, when he left again, making her groan in frustration. “Stop doing that.”
“Stop altogether?” he asked playfully, not seeming to be at the same point of desperation she was.
He was just suckling her nipple calmly, with no apparent hurry, while she was squirming and dying and tense. And she’d already come once. His control was to be admired.
Later.
Right now she wanted him to knock it off.
Locking her legs around his thighs, she tried to flip him on his back. He didn’t even budge a millimeter. Damn undead strength.
Lifting his head, he gave her a very naughty smile. “Did you need something, my dear?” he said, sliding into her once more.
Trying to hold him inside her was futile. He was gone before she could dig her nails into his back. “Stop it.”
“I believe the phrase is
don’t stop
.” He kissed her neck, her shoulder, her breasts, his fingers playing between her thighs, slipping and sliding, but missing the point for the most part.
Brittany gave up to the agony, every inch of her body screaming for satisfaction. “Don’t stop, Corbin, please.” She wiggled, trying to force his fingers inside her, but he eluded her again.
“Not quite right yet, but I’m feeling generous.” He thrust deep inside her and rested there for a minute.
“Yes... ” Gripping his biceps, she moved her hips, pleasure coursing through her.
He moved fast, hard, and pushed up into her over and over while Brittany panted and tried to keep up, ultimately giving up, collapsing back and letting him pound into her with delicious ferocity.
“Don’t stop,” she said, her voice warbling. “Don’t stop.”
And when she was going to come, when everything in her stilled and ripped up, when her mind was empty and pleasure painful, when she felt a breathtaking pause right before she burst over him, she said with everything inside her, “Do. Not. Stop.”
Corbin locked eyes with her, and she watched his change to a deep forest green. “Never,” he said.
She let go, and clung to him as they exploded together.