Ravenous

'Alessandro…'

'Yes?'

'Can we be together without it going all wrong? Just once?'

Holly was not sure what she expected him to do or say. He sat still and silent, as motionless as only the Undead could be. Then he drew her close, his body hard against hers.

'Once.' He said it like a prayer, as if he bargained with his soul for that single chance.

His lips touched hers, the sensation melting all the way down the back of her legs. Holly's fingers slid down to caress the tight leather encasing his thighs, winding the fringe around her fists. She used it as leverage to pull closer to him, arching her torso against his chest.

Holly took his mouth greedily, his teeth sharp against her tongue. She shivered, imagining their pressure against her skin. She was testing their self-control in dangerous ways, but she had run out of the stamina it took to resist. 'I've wanted to do this since I first saw you,' she breathed.

'Where is your bed?' It came out as a demand, rough and deep.

He picked her up and she grabbed his shoulders, the electricity that ran between them humming in her belly, up her spine, tingling in her fingers' ends. A faint sheen touched Alessandro's cheekbones. He was feeling it as much as she was.

'Upstairs,' she replied, not sure how she convinced her mouth to form the word.

Sure-footed, he found his way up the dark staircase. As he shouldered through the half-open door to her bedchamber, she used her magic to light the candle on her bedside table. She needed to see the look of wild tenderness on his face, to savor it in her memory.

He set her down on the bedcovers like a jeweler laying out his finest piece. He sat on the bed beside her, fanning out the long, dark tendrils of her hair, smoothing them from her forehead.

'I love you,' he said. 'Never forget that.'

The words liberated her, giving her a certainty she had been afraid to want. Holly touched his lips, her own mouth gone dry with need. 'My memory isn't that faulty.'

He pulled off the mesh shirt, the long, lean muscles of his chest and stomach exposed to view.

'And I'll certainly remember that,' she added.

That surprised a laugh from him. She held up her arms, and Alessandro came to her at last, sinking to her side. His skin was cool, smooth as silk.

'I need to feel you,' he said, running his hands under the hem of her sweater.

He was growing warmer as they touched, his heart thudding slowly, erratically. It's like bringing him to life by making love. Like being a goddess.

The sweater came off, followed by the rest of their clothes. She buried her hands in the wealth of his hair, wrapping herself around his lean, long body. He was all sinew, muscles working in ivory perfection. He was also impressively male, long and thick enough to make her insides coil with need and hesitation. No wonder Kalil and his clan had wanted Alessandro preserved forever.

Hard kisses left her lips feeling flushed and raw, the force of his demands a rush all on their own. His hands shook, and he plunged them into the bedclothes, twisting the blankets into his fists. The muscles of his neck and forearms strained taut as ropes. He's controlling himself.

That was wrong. She didn't want that. She wanted him to be as free as she felt. Holly began to stroke him harder, seeking out the places where he felt the most pleasure, but he caught her hands. 'No, I don't dare. Let me take care of you. It's much safer that way.'

'But—'

His face was tight. 'Trust me. Let me. I know where I can lead this dance.'

Holly allowed him to pin her arms and take control, but she felt cheated.

He didn't let her feel that way long. Alessandro tasted her skin from earlobes to collarbone, circling over her nipples, leaving only the faintest rake of fangs in his wake. It was a tease, a dangerous game, but, oh, so thrilling.

Holly squirmed and twisted under his touch. Now he was raising the temperature degree by degree. By the time his lips reached her stomach, she ached for more direct satisfaction. The silky hardness of his shaft was ready to be put to good use, but he had other ideas. Immortals had forever to explore the possibilities of delayed gratification.

Or perhaps he was just clinging to sanity. He looked up, his eyes bright with a smoldering hunger. Holly caught her breath, half fear, half anticipation. The hunter was dancing just beneath the surface of his gaze, roused by feral lust.

That look alone nearly pushed her over the edge, but Alessandro held her in his relentless control.

With featherlight brushes of hair and lips, he continued his way over her flesh with deliberate precision. His path crept ever downward, but bypassed the most sensitive areas. That was fine—he found erogenous zones where none had previously existed. Her ribs. Her hip. The inside of her wrist. He stopped only when he reached the inside of her thigh, the soft stretch where blood and nerves lay under translucent skin.

He was sweating, trembling under her touch.

'Are you all right?' Holly asked.

His eyes were mere slits. 'Don't talk now,' he said. 'If you love me at all, don't distract me.'

With inhuman strength, he held her down with one hand splayed across her ribs and closed his mouth over that hot, fine flesh of the thigh where the artery coursed downward from the heart. She thrilled, cold and hot and electric with arousal. She could feel his teeth against her skin, intimate and deadly. Her body yearned to writhe in craving, and yet she dared not breathe. She could feel the strength in his jaws, her pulse straining against the hard, sharp fangs.

Her skin pinched with every throb of her heart.

He was going to bite her.

He was aching, shaking, fighting not to.

The sensation, so near her sex, was erotic and terrifying. Every pulse grew in intensity, pushing, filling her with the rush of her own blood.

Alessandro slid one hand up her thigh, pressing himself closer against her flesh. Her life dangled by the thread of his control, an unraveling weave of reason and appetite. Her fear made the moment exquisite. The universe was nothing but her heartbeat and the moment he would take that rush of life for his own.

Holly came in sharp, helpless, excruciating need.

Alessandro released her with a gasp like a swimmer breaching the surface. He kissed the swollen, tender flesh between her legs, releasing her from the frozen trance. She grabbed his hair, pulling his mouth to hers. She was shredded by the sheer intensity, her own control ripped up by the roots.

He groaned, surrendering to her. Then he plunged inside, giving himself with hard, urgent thrusts. Holly was slick and wet, more than ready.

When he climaxed, his hands tore into the sheets as if they were paper.

Chapter 21

Alessandro had split in two. He felt as though he had been standing in the desert sun. Parched. Drained. Bewildered. Denied.

At the same moment his soul unfolded like a shriveled plant finally given rain. He felt the touch of living warmth, a pure and generous pleasure he had been denied for over half a millennium.

His perception splintered. His body and soul felt the languor of satisfaction, and yet his guts raged, unslaked, unfed, empty. Primitive terror vibrated below the smoothness of his skin, an animal's panic that food was nowhere to be found.

He knew why. The vampire in him had never before been denied. Over the centuries, he had tried to make love without feeding, but he had never been strong enough to tear himself apart like this, to divide himself between from his hunger.

About halfway through lovemaking, sheer panic had fueled his control. The parts of his brain that governed