Nightfall (9 page)

“I could fuck you right here, on all fours.”

“Why don’t you?” she whispered, and there was something in her
blue gaze that challenged him.

His resolve faltered, something out of sync, but a surge of
testosterone shoved it away.

“Walk,” he ordered.

She smiled then and did just that, proceeding up the stairs
and working that denim molded over her buttocks to the point his dick could
have used a lot more breathing room. Or maybe not. He just wanted to sink it
into her tight, wet pussy.

As the door to the apartment closed behind them, he dropped
the whip and chaps on the floor, grabbed her waist and turned her so she faced
him. Wrapping his fingers around her wrists, he pressed her against the wall.
Her breath caressed his face as he lowered his head and captured her lips in a
hot, hungry kiss. He invaded her mouth with a hard thrust, the delicious taste
of her bursting on his tongue like heavenly elixir. He sucked, he glided, he
drank, the heady flavor going straight to his head and his groin.

When he had fed to excess, when he was at the point of
taking her up against the wall, he forced himself to step back. He lifted her
in his arms, realizing how much he’d wanted to do that again, though just like
last night he was surprised to find she was heavier than she looked. Nothing he
couldn’t handle, but what looked like maybe one hundred ten pounds had more
density to it. Like the woman herself.

Placing her on the bed, he closed his hand around the
fragile bones of her wrist, bemused. But he had more pressing things to do than
contemplate that. Trailing his mouth along the line of her jaw and down her
neck, he placed tiny nips on her skin here and there, soothing them with his
tongue.

Yeah, she liked that. Particularly when he was nipping at
her neck pulse, biting her. Those blue eyes honed in on him, and her lips
parted. For the first time he saw the tips of her fangs, rather than just
feeling them. Maybe they were filed teeth, whatever. He wasn’t into any of that
body modification stuff, but on her…hell, anything about her got him hot,
apparently.

Her skin was like the petals of a flower, but sweet as
vanilla to the tongue. He wanted to lick her all over, every inch of her.
Plunge his tongue into her cunt and lap every bit of her incredible juice.
Drive his cock into her, burying himself to the balls, feel the clasp of her
pussy around him like a wet vise.

He yanked at her t-shirt, tugging it upward so he could find
a breast and pinch the bud of her nipple between thumb and forefinger. He
wanted—

Jesus.
This was all wrong.

He wanted what they had the night before. As hot and aroused
as he was now, it was nothing compared to the peak of excitement he’d reached
then. It was like the first time he’d made love to a woman the way a man
should, versus breaking his cherry in the hormone rush of being a teenager,
quick and over in an instant. Yeah, he’d gotten off in both cases, but there
was no comparison to the quality, the lasting value of the one experience
versus the other.

As the thought stabbed into his barely functioning brain,
another followed. He was not in control here, not in the least.
Good Christ.
What made him think that was even a possibility? Selene was permitting him
to exert his power. Allowing him to do as he wished. Proving it, he realized he
was staring into her eyes, his chest rising and falling fast, but other than
that, he’d gone still as a stone. Waiting.

Last night, doing her bidding, he hadn’t felt trapped. When
he gave her the reins, she had made him feel as if he was giving her a precious
gift, as well as freeing himself.
That
was what had heated his blood and
made his cock swell to painful proportions.

He pushed himself back and sat on his haunches, his legs
still straddling hers as he studied her eyes. Watched her face. Waiting for
instructions?

Selene made no attempt to rearrange her clothing. He might
have thought none of this had affected her, except for the rapid beating of her
pulse at the base of her throat and the flush that suffused her pale skin.

“Are you through with your little charade yet?” A laugh
bubbled up from her throat, a sound that eased his sense of wrongness in an
instant, the trapped feeling. “Had as much fun as you want?”

His mouth was so dry he had to swallow twice before finding
enough moisture to speak. Male pride meant he wouldn’t answer the first
question, but he responded to the second one without hesitation.

“Not yet,” he said.

“Get up,” she ordered. “Strip off every bit of your
clothing. Now,” she added when he hesitated.

With his gaze still on her, he left the bed, toed off his
boots and pulled off his clothing, tossing it to the floor.

“Put on the chaps.” Her voice stayed low, but there was no
mistaking the power in it.

Quinn eased the leather onto his body, making sure he didn’t
catch any of his pubic hair in the edges or trap his cock in an uncomfortable
position. When he fastened the single button at the top he let his arms fall to
his sides and waited for what came next.

Selene slipped from the bed and walked around him, her eyes
darkening as they coursed over his almost naked body. She trailed her fingers
against the taut muscles of his buttocks, letting the tips trace the crevice
separating the cheeks. When he clenched his ass to hold her there, she pulled
her hand away and gave him a light slap.

“Do you want my fingers in there, cowboy?” she teased.
“Touching that tender skin? Probing the darkest opening of your body?”

“Yes.” The word escaped from his mouth as if on its own.

“Perhaps if you are a very good boy I might give you a
treat.” She bent, holding her hair back with one hand to press her lips to
first one cheek then the other. “But you must be very, very good.”

When she was standing in front of him again he saw that she
had the single-tail whip in one hand, caressing the leather of the handle with
the other. The tip of her tongue touched her pink lower lip, moistening it in a
way that made him think of her pussy. Her eyes took in every bit of his body as
if she was devouring him, resting for long moments on his penis protruding
thick and heavy from the chaps.

“The whip handled properly is a valuable instrument of
pleasure.” She made the statement as if she were telling him how fine a
particular liquor would taste. “Turn around and place your hands on the wall.”

His heart rate accelerated, and his feet seemed stuck to the
floor. Selene’s smile this time was hungry. “Do you trust me, Quinn?”

Did he? Fucking damn, he must to get himself in this
position so willingly.

“I’ll take your silence as a yes. So do as I say. Hands
against the wall.”

His palms were sweating as he pressed them against the wood.
His pulse pounded so hard he could hear the roar of blood in his ears.

“No safeword discussion?” he ventured.

“There’s nothing safe about playing with a vampire.”

He heard the hiss and crack of the whip. His whole body
tensed against the strike, jolting to register pain.

But nothing had touched him.

“The sound itself is quite arousing,” Selene said. “When you
hear it, the tail is only contacting air. When you use the whip on your cattle
do you always hear that crisp noise?”

He shook his head. “No.”

“Right. Because most often it’s the whip splitting the air
that catches their attention and urges them to do your bidding. So remember,
the sharper the sound, the farther away from your body it lands.”

Quinn drew in a deep breath and let it out. His testicles
throbbed in cadence with his pulse and he knew pre-cum was dripping from his
cock. Anticipation had never been so arousing, especially for something he had
never experienced before.

Twice more she split the air with the whip, but then he felt
a sting on one of his buttocks like a small pinch. His muscles tightened and
heat roared through his body. Again he felt the kiss of the whip, applied with
the same intensity. Any pain was immediately replaced by a rush of endorphins
that fed his burgeoning lust.

He anticipated the next bite but when nothing came a groan
rumbled up from his throat.

“There.” He could hear her smile in her voice. “See that,
cowboy? Just a tiny taste and already you want more.” She ran her fingers over
the spots where the whip had landed. “Small kisses bring small pain. We don’t
want to rush things, do we?”

Yes. Yes, we do.

He ground his teeth together, shocked at the explosion of
desire both his situation and the whip itself provoked.

“I see you disagree. Let’s move it along a little, shall
we?”

Before he could prepare himself, the lash bit into him
again, harder this time, the sting greater, the burn hotter. Selene was silent
as she gave him a series of four strikes. Adrenaline surged through him,
mingling with the rush of endorphins. The surroundings faded away until all he
was aware of was the needle bite of the whip and the insane pleasure it
brought. When she stopped, the pain was so stimulating he wanted to beg her to
keep going, unbelievable need consuming him.

“The pain gets overridden by intense pleasure, doesn’t it?
My cruelty unlocks things inside you. Things you need, Quinn. I love watching
it happen. Turn around, cowboy. See what I’m talking about.”

No more whip?

Flummoxed by the truth of her words, he wanted to protest
them, but his mouth couldn’t seem to form the words. Facing her, the
combination of hunger and pleasure in her eyes nearly did him in. Without
touching her, he had aroused her to a need almost as great as his own.

She had removed her own clothing and stood naked before him,
her nipples darkened to the color of an heirloom rose. She held the whip curled
loosely in one hand and with the other she ran her fingers between the lips of
her cunt. When she lifted them they were glistening with her juices. She moved
forward and painted his lips with the liquid.

“See how you affect me when you do my bidding?”

His nostrils flared as the scent drifted up to him.

“Lick your lips, bronc. Taste me. If you are very, very good
I will let you fuck me with your tongue.” She took a step closer, her next
words whispered. “And your cock. But only after I show you how intense the
pleasure of the whip can be. I want to drive you to the point where you’re
entirely under my control.” Pressing a hand against his chest, she held him
place as she dipped her head, licked one of his nipples, causing him to
shudder. Her hand slipped up, collared his throat, squeezed. “Let’s see how
high a level we can take you.” She licked the other nipple. “Trust me to know
just how far to go this first time. Tell me you understand.”

“Yeah. Yes. God, yes.”

She lifted her head, her hair brushing his flesh. “Did you
make yourself come since you saw me last?”

“Couldn’t help it. Woke up with a hard-on so bad I couldn’t
have ridden my horse without scaring him.”

Her lips curved. “Far be it from me to traumatize your
horse. But we’re going to set a few rules going forward. You want to masturbate
when you’re not with me, you have to call me. I want to listen to you do it. If
I don’t answer, you do it for my voicemail. I want to hear every dirty thought
going through your head as you’re doing it.” Her voice dropped to a whisper as
she rose on her toes, nuzzled his throat, pricked him with one of those filed
teeth of hers. Funny, though, they hadn’t seemed so prominent when she was
working the bar, flashing that mesmerizing smile of hers. “So I can listen to
your voice later when
I’m
masturbating,” she said.

“What if I want you to call me when you do that?”

“Tough. You can just imagine it, until we’re together. When
you’re good, I might occasionally let you watch. You understand me, Quinn? If
you need to jerk off ten times a day, you’ll call me ten times a day. But if
you call and I say no, you’ll just have to figure out how to help your horse
cope. Your climax belongs to me, every drop.”

He swallowed as those fangs pricked him again. “You’re
hungry,” he muttered, cupping the back of her head. “Do what you gotta do.”

He couldn’t explain what the hell he was doing, playing into
whatever delusion she had about that, but he had a burning need for her to
nourish herself from him. She stilled at his comment, her fingers spreading
across his chest, lingering there before she pushed away.

“Maybe later. You’re not a marked servant, and I want you to
conserve your energy. For now, I have other hungers to satisfy.”

He blinked, not sure what to say to that, but she wasn’t in
the mood to explain herself.

“Stay just like that.” She paced back again, slid the whip
through her fingers. “Another night, I’ll tie you up tight, and make you watch
the lash come at your front. Let it kiss your thighs, your ball sac, your nipples.
You’ll come from the pain and my command alone. Would you like that?”

“Yes.”

She cupped her breast, ran the whip handle down her body and
then, mother of God, it disappeared inside her. She hummed, dropped her head
back on her shoulders, rotated her hips with the movement, her thumb sliding
over her swollen clit.

“I can do that for you,” he said hoarsely.

She cracked open an eye, a lock of blonde hair falling over
her blue eye. “Better than the handle?”

“Hell yes.”

“Hell yes, what?”

“Yes…ma’am.”

“Nice. I don’t always need that, but I do love the way you
say it, cowboy.” She drew the handle out, touched her lips to it. “I expect
you’ll have to oil and clean that now, but you’ll remember where it’s been.”
She set it aside and sauntered toward him. He fisted his hands at his sides.

“On your knees, wonderful man.”

He sank there, his head tilted up to watch her approach. As
she stepped in front of him, she reached out, stroked his hair back. He closed
his eyes and didn’t think he’d ever felt so aroused…or at peace, under that
oddly soothing touch.