almost crying from the pleasure.
“
Denise slanted her mouth across Spade’s, licking his lips, tasting their coppery tang, and then running her tongue inside to tangle with his. He made a rough noise of need and slid forward, his hips opening her legs wider, free hand yanking down his pants.
The hard stroke inside her was so sudden, deep, and forceful that Denise bit Spade’s tongue in uncontrollable reflex. He groaned, thrusting again just as powerfully, sending a shudder of pleasure through her.
“So hot…
His growl in her ear made her shiver with its vehemence. She arched her hips in anticipation of his next thrust—and felt his tongue flicking between her legs instead.
Her eyes flew open in shock that Spade had slid down her body before she’d even noticed. Now her thighs cradled his head instead of his hips, his black hair covering his face as he laved her with firm, impossibly fast strokes.
“I don’t know what’s more addictive, your blood or your honey here,” his rough voice mused before another deep lick had her twisting in ecstasy.
Then a long, hard thrust made her cry out in the next heartbeat, Spade filling her so deeply, she choked back a sob. Another spine-bending stroke, then another, and then—
His mouth captured her below again, tongue lashing her flesh with the same hungry, sweet frenzy. Before she could cry out her passion, his hard flesh replaced his tongue, making her shudder at the powerful thrusts cleaving inside her.
Denise realized Spade had let go of her hands only when she found herself not knowing from one moment to the next if she’d be clutching his head or his hips. He moved in a blink, seamlessly alternating between taking her with his mouth or with those deep, mind-blowing thrusts. Her breasts throbbed while her loins twisted with the varying sensations bombarding them.
Spade reared up onto his knees, pulling her with him, hands closing over her hips to hold her upright as he began to thrust so fast, so forcefully, that tears spilled out of her eyes. Still, Denise wanted more. She couldn’t get enough of the wildness in him, how tightly he held her, or how his moans grew louder and more urgent. Her breasts bounced against his chest with every fervent, rapid stroke, nipples flaming from the friction of his shirt on the punctures. She was so close to coming. So close…
Fangs sank into her neck in the next instant. Before she could even be afraid, heat burst within her loins like a bomb going off, rocking her in wave after wave of ecstasy. Those spasms controlled her, made her oblivious to everything but the squeezing, throbbing sensations cascading from her center, filling her body with ripple after ripple of bliss. She didn’t know if Spade still drank from her, and she didn’t care.
Chapter Thirty-two
Spade chanted it in his mind each time he bit Denise, stemming her bleeding from the shallow punctures with a pinch of his fingers. The pressure forced the juice from his fangs deeper into her, increasing the pleasurable heat, until she was unaware of him wiping her blood off his mouth instead of swallowing it.
Even still, his first ingestion when she cut her lip left him feeling drunk, causing him to take her harder than he had previously—and how she responded further shredded his control. He’d never been so aroused by a woman, never lost himself so much as he did when he was inside Denise. She took away his will and replaced it with raging need, turning him from a controlled sexual connoisseur into a feverish greenhorn who could barely hold his seed. Spade climaxed right after she did, with a roar of satisfaction.
He rolled over to lie on his back, Denise half draped across his chest. She was gasping, her beautiful body flushed, fingers almost absently stroking her nipple. Midway through their lovemaking, her hands had changed back, smooth skin and bitten nails replacing those talons and sharp claws.
“Now, tell me about your compromise,” he said, knowing he’d agree no matter what it was.
“Give me a minute,” Denise replied, still out of breath.
Spade let out a short laugh. “Take your time. I’m not going anywhere.” And he wasn’t. No matter how it might hurt later.
Her soft, warm hands touched his chest. “What do you—hey! My hands are back to normal. Lucky you; I’d probably have ripped up your back otherwise.”
He took one of her hands and kissed it. “It would have been worth it.”
She smiled, then her expression became serious. “When you walked out before, it
He could answer her question, but Spade knew another way to make Denise understand.
“I was in love in the eighteen hundreds. Giselda loved me, too, but she didn’t want to become a vampire. I thought with time, she’d change her mind. A year into our relationship, my sire needed me and I had to leave. But when the time drew near for my return, Giselda sent a message that she’d meet me at my home. On her way, she was stranded with her driver. They weren’t there long before the deserters came.”
Spade paused, that old grief and rage still rippling through him at the memory. Denise curled her hand around his.
“Tell me the rest, Spade.”
He pulled her to him, steadied by her nearness. “Giselda ran, trying to lose them in the forest, but they were faster. All five of them beat, raped, and sodomized her. Despite such a brutal assault, Giselda kept her wits about her. She pretended to be dead until she thought they’d gone. Then she dragged herself up and began to walk in the direction of my home. But the former captain came back to retrieve the sword he’d forgotten before in his haste to remove his trousers. He followed the trail of blood in the snow, and when he found Giselda, he cut her throat so deeply, he almost took her head off. Then he threw her body down a ravine. That’s where I found her. She was so covered in blood, I didn’t even recognize her at first glance.”
Denise took in a slow breath. “And just yesterday, Web held a knife to my throat. Oh God, the memories that must have been caused you—”
“Yes,” Spade said tightly.
Her hands were warm balms on his shoulders. “You’ve leaving something out. Giselda wouldn’t have been alive to tell you those kinds of details.”
Spade’s gaze didn’t waver from hers. “We learned them after Crispin and I captured the bastards and forced them to describe everything they’d done to her.”
Giselda had been avenged to the fullest, but as Denise would know all too well, revenge didn’t take away the pain.
Spade touched her face. If this was his chance to make her understand, he wouldn’t hold anything back.
“I managed to get through Giselda’s death, but I wouldn’t make it if I had to suffer through yours.”
Her eyes brightened with tears. “As I said, I don’t want to lose you, either. What if…I stayed human, but I didn’t age and I was harder to kill?”
Only one thing could be responsible for such a state, but he had to be sure. “You’d be willing to drink my blood?”
His voice was calm, belying his raging emotions. Denise nodded, reaching out to touch his neck with a light stroke.
“Yes.”
Spade couldn’t help it—he clutched her to him, relief pouring through his veins in an almost tangible sensation. If Denise drank from him every day, even a small amount, it would be enough to extend her life
