Part 4 (1/2)

The pieces of the puzzle were falling into place. He roughly guessed it was nearing sunrise. And figured this was the only way to know for certain. ”D'ya trust me, Tori McAdams?” he asked, taking a s.h.i.+rt from the back of the door and b.u.t.toning her into it.

”Trust you?” ”Aye. Do you trust me?”

A tiny smile curved her mouth, sad and bittersweet, as she lifted her hands, palms up, asking, ”If I didn't trust you, why would I have come here? I knew that if I could get to you, you could help me. Would protect me.”

”I will. Come with me now. We've something we need to be doing,” he said, guiding her down the stairs and to the large eastern window.

She sensed what he was doing and she hesitated. ”I'm newly changed, Declan. She said the sun could kill the newly changed. And even if I'm not happy with my new diet, I'm not ready to die yet.”

Stroking a rea.s.suring hand down her back, he held her in place. ”It takes more than a few seconds, darlin' girl.

It takes being thrown out into the sunlight and chained in place while the sun chars the flesh from your bones over a period of time. If this hurts even a bit, I'll get you away.”

”Declan, what...”

He shushed her, pressing his lips to her mouth, and cuddling her against him. ”You're going to be fine.”

”You mean, you don't think the sun is going to hurt me?” she asked, fear in her voice. Her neat nails bit into his arm while she stared out the window into the lightening horizon.

”No,” he said honestly. ”Most vamps, even a Master, are in their lairs by now, weakened and needing rest. You don't look weakened, or in need of rest.”

”So no need to rush out and buy a coffin, huh?” she quipped. ”This doesn't make any sense. He bit me, and he made me drink. After that, my body felt like it was going to explode every time my heart beat. If Masters need to take their rest by now-whatever a Master is- then why am I still awake? Why don't I need to crawl into a pile of graveyard dirt and sleep?”

Resting his chin on her crown, Declan laughed. ”A myth. They don't need graveyard dirt, or a coffin. Just someplace safe from sunlight. And they can cross running water, and they have a reflection.”

”So I can still see what I look like on a bad hair day?

Oh, joy,” she said, laughing a little to herself. Nerves.

She was strung tightly now. Declan could feel the nerves singing in her body, feel the tension in her tautly coiled muscles.

Nuzzling said hair, Declan murmured, ”You always look beautiful. s.e.xy. Touchable.” He stroked his hand under the s.h.i.+rt to cup her b.r.e.a.s.t.s as he lowered his head to whisper, ”When the sun rises, I'm going to make love to you here, with the sun s.h.i.+ning down around us. I've wanted to see you like that, with the sun painting your skin gold. I want to taste you again, and suck on your tasty little c.l.i.t while you come for me.” Her nipples, hard and hot, stabbed into his palms as he rolled and pinched them. Her a.s.s was pressing back against Declan's c.o.c.k and her hips were rocking in a hungry, fevered motion.

She whimpered, hardly aware that the sun had started to make an appearance on the horizon. The lavender light slowly s.h.i.+fted to pink, the clouds going gold while he whispered about how it had felt with his c.o.c.k snug inside her body. Trailing one hand down to her center, Declan continued to eye the horizon while he started to slide his fingers in and out of her body. Her cream coated them as he pushed back inside her channel and sought the little notch that would make her come.

And the sun was indeed painting her skin gold. Urging her forward, he guided her hands to the broad windowsill and forced her to bend over, bracing her weight on her hands, with her pert a.s.s sticking up in the air. The shadowed cleft opened a little, revealing a tight, pink rosette, and lower, dark curls that surrounded her s.e.x, her lips pink and swollen and gleaming wet. Taking his c.o.c.k in hand, he guided it inside her tight, swollen pa.s.sage as he groaned with a mixture of relief and pleasure.

Pleasure that he was inside her again.

Relief that he wasn't going to lose her to the darkness.

And then he started to pump inside her, his hands gripping her hips and pulling her a.s.s back to meet him.

The pink rosette beckoned and he slid one hand around to coat his fingers with her cream, lubricating them before pressing the pad of his thumb against her a.n.u.s.

The tight ring of muscle resisted as he slowly worked it in, listening to her startled gasp, feeling the tightening in her sheath as he started to push a little inside her.

The tight little hole closed over him like silk and Declan shuddered, feeling Tori trembling under his hand, her b.u.t.t quivering against his thighs as he pushed back inside her. ”Do ya like that, now?”

Tori moaned in answer, feeling the flared head of his c.o.c.k as it pulsed deep inside her, as he pushed down and s.h.i.+fted so that it was rubbing against that spot inside her with every stroke. She clenched down around it and mewled, a hot hungry little sound. She quivered when Declan eased the tip of his thumb inside her virgin a.s.s, his own breaths leaving his body in ragged pants. The tight hot walls of her a.s.s closed around him like a silken glove and he groaned in pleasure as the sensation triggered an early o.r.g.a.s.m in her body.

Declan needed her too much, had needed her for too long. The feel of her going into spasms around his invading c.o.c.k was incredible and he thrust himself inside her in short, furious digs as he started to come.

She spasmed around his c.o.c.k, her entire v.a.g.i.n.a fluttering, clenching and quivering, as a hot wash of her cream flowed from her depths and Declan flooded her with the heavy, warm wash of his s.e.m.e.n.

They collapsed-Declan catching their weight and guiding them to the window seat-so they could catch their breath. And watch the sun rise. ”f.u.c.k me,” he said, winded. ”At some point, I'm going to be able to last more than five minutes inside you.”

She laughed weakly. ”I'm not sure I could take it. But I'm game if you are,” she said willingly.

”Not right now,” he chided her, smoothing her tumbled ringlets from her face. ”We've got some work to do.”

”Work?” she repeated.

”Hmm. Work,” he replied. ”To find who did this to you, and kill him- slowly, painfully, and with great pleasure.” He was growling by the time he finished.

”Sounds good. What else?” she said, lifting her face to study him.

Looking down at her, he smiled. ”Find out exactly what you are now, I'm thinking. But, for now we just need to watch the sun rise.”

So they did. ”Does it hurt at all?” he asked after five or ten minutes. By now, the sun was riding high in the sky and her cheeks were a little pink.

”No,” she said slowly. ”It...it itches. Like I've spent too much time in the sun, like sunburn feels after you've finally figured out you're burned.”

”I have a friend. He's a vampire-one who was changed against his will. Like you. He's more than three hundred years old. Now he can tolerate small amounts of the evening sun-enough to watch the sun set again after three centuries of darkness-and it makes him itch.

You already have the tolerance of a centuries old vampire.”

”This is a friend?” she said, stiffening.

”Yes. A good man, he is. He was friends with my grandfather, almost two hundred and fifty years ago.

s.h.i.+fters are a long-lived race. His name is Elijah Crawford. And I think you need to meet him. If anybody has answers, it's him.

”And I trust him. He's a friend, a good one. Eli has saved my life and my a.s.s a time or two. It will be all right, Tori, I promise.”

CHAPTER THREE.

A couple of hours later she was eyeing the ma.s.sive amount of food in front of her. ”Should I really try to eat all of this?”

He laughed. ”Half of it is mine. I spent too much energy last night s.h.i.+fting back and forth so quickly. And I require more than the average human. A s.h.i.+fter tends to have a high metabolism. Vamps have slowed metabolism. I imagine yours will be somewhere in between.

”Just eat what appeals to you. We don't have any answers yet. But your body already knows what it can and can't tolerate. And you said you wanted food.

Food-not blood.” Her cheeks flushed. Watching him move around the kitchen-relaxing the way you can only relax after good hard s.e.x with somebody you care about-she had started to forget. A little. And now she remembered. ”I wasn't trying to get you to feed me,” she said flatly. ”I didn't ask last night and wasn't asking now.”

”I know. But we need to know what your body needs to be at your strongest. If food will do the trick, which I doubt, it makes your existence easier.”