Gabriel's Mate (13 page)

***

Gabriel caught Maya’s confused look as he prepared his neck for her. He could let her feed off his wrist or forearm, but he wanted her closer, wanted to feel her body when she latched onto his vein and sucked the blood from him. Call him selfish, but he wanted to experience the pleasure of having her pressed against him when she took his blood inside her.

“Sink your fangs into me,” he ordered and pointed at the vein that he knew was clearly visible under his skin. “Here, I want you right here. And you won’t stop until you’re sated. If you even dare to stop before you’ve had enough, there’ll be hell to pay.”

“I don’t want to hurt you,” she mumbled.

He was astounded that, with the hunger he could clearly see in her eyes, she had any strength left to resist.

“You won’t. Now drink or I’ll make you.” He recognized his own voice as gruff and knew it was because he was already aroused by the mere knowledge that a part of him would soon be inside her.

Maya nudged closer, and finally she dropped her head to his neck. Her plump lips brushed against his skin. He couldn’t suppress the shiver that raced over his body, all the way from the spot where she touched him down to his big toes.

“Bite me, Maya, do it,” he urged her. He’d never wanted anything more than her teeth in his neck.

Gabriel felt her fangs graze his skin and run slowly over his vein, which was ready to burst. Then her mouth opened wider and the sharp tips of her fangs pierced his skin, drove deeper and settled in his neck. When she sucked the first drops of blood from him, he shuddered.

Never in his long life had he experienced anything like it. Yes, she’d fed from him before, but she’d been unconscious and he’d given her blood from his wrist. Her fangs had never lodged within him. There had never been any occasion for anybody to bite his neck—no lover who might have done so in the heat of passion as he knew was common among vampire couples, if not to feed, but to heighten their arousal.

He was completely unprepared for his body’s reaction to her bite.

Paradise. It was the only way he could describe it. Like an electric current, a tingling warmth spread to every cell in his body, coiled around his spine and settled in his groin. His entire being buzzed with awareness.

Despite the bathrobe she wore, he could feel her body as if she was naked on his lap. Sparks seemed to jump from her body to his, like little electrical charges dancing between them. But there was still too much space between their bodies.

“Straddle me,” he whispered into her ear. Without protest, she shifted, and he helped her move her legs to either side of his hips. For an instant, he wondered whether it was right to exploit the situation like he did, but it was too late: he wanted her as close as he could possibly get her. His body was craving hers.

With every ounce of blood she took from him, the euphoria in his mind increased. He’d never felt such freedom, such lightness, such bliss. Not a care in the world touched him. Loneliness was a word of the past. Pain might as well have been a Chinese word for he had no comprehension of the concept.

He buried his hand in her hair and held her to his neck, not wanting her to stop. His erection pressed against her, and she surely had to notice it, but she didn’t pull away. He slid his other hand to the base of her spine and fanned his fingers. The light pressure he exerted was enough for her to respond: she moved to align her core with his hard length and rubbed against him.

Gabriel couldn’t stop the loud moan from escaping his lips. He took a deep breath and inhaled her scent. Maya smelled of pure woman, ripe and aroused. He knew from his own feedings from humans—before he’d started on bottled blood—how sexually arousing it could be to drink directly from someone’s vein. If he were a gentleman, he would ignore her arousal, stop pressing her against him and not take advantage. But the last thing on his mind right now was behaving like a gentleman.

Hell, he desired her, had from the moment he’d first seen her. Could anybody blame him for taking this little slice of heaven and enjoying it for as long as she wouldn’t resist? For as long as she was too blood-drugged to care who was shamelessly rubbing his cock against her warm center?

The pressure in his balls built, and he knew he would have to stop holding her this tightly before he made a complete idiot out of himself and came in his boxer shorts. But not yet. He needed to feel her a little while longer before he would go back to his bed, alone, only with her scent still clinging to him, and the ghost of her soft body pressed to his. Then he would touch himself and imagine it was her soft hand stroking him, and not his own rough calloused one that squeezed him tightly until he would release his seed, pretending he flooded her warm sheath with it.

Too soon, he felt her pull away and remove her fangs from his neck. He wanted to hold her back, tell her to continue, but he knew he couldn’t. When he looked into her eyes as she faced him, he knew she was sated. Her face looked fuller, her skin glowed, and her eyes had a brilliant sheen to them. She’d never looked more beautiful to him.

“Thank you,” she whispered and dropped her gaze as if she was ashamed of what she’d done.

“My pleasure,” he answered and meant it. “You’ll have to feed from me daily.”

She raised her eyes to look straight at him. “But I … I mean you can’t—”

“Your body clearly needs it. We all feed daily,” he insisted. It was the truth, but nevertheless, he felt like a thief—knowing he’d steal this pleasure from her every day.

“I can’t just take from you without giving anything in return. It’s not right,” she claimed, proving to him that she had more integrity than he could ever muster.

“If it’s the only thing you can drink, then that’s what it’s going to be. You’ll feed from me. And you don’t owe me anything.” She’d already given him more than she could ever imagine. Just knowing that he would get to hold her every day when she fed from him was more than he could ever wish for.

“But I want to give you something in exchange; I can’t just eat for free. It would just be like paying for dinner.”

He smiled at her comparison. He had more money than he knew what to do with. There was nothing he wanted. Except maybe …

“A kiss,” he blurted before he could stop himself. When he saw her reaction, he instantly wanted to take it back. Her eyes widened in surprise, and her lips parted as if she wanted to make a snide remark. Then her gaze zeroed in on the right side of his face where his scar marred his skin.

He swallowed hard and turned his disfigured face away from her. He’d screwed up the most perfect moment of his life because he’d let his desire rule him for an instant. It was stupid. Now, not only would she not kiss him, she would most likely fight the idea of having to feed from him again. “It’s fine,” he said, keeping his voice emotionless, “you don’t have to. I, uh—”

He felt her hand grip his chin and tilt his face back to her until he was forced to look into her eyes.

“One kiss for each feeding?” she asked, then nodded slowly.

Each feeding? He’d only meant one kiss for all future feedings, but he couldn’t bring himself to protest. He wasn’t noble enough to admit that all he wanted was one single kiss. She’d misunderstood him, but he wouldn’t correct her; instead, he just nodded.

“I think it’s only fair. You want me to pay now?”

Suddenly he felt cocky. “How was dinner?”

“Delicious.”

The knowledge that Maya liked his blood was more of a turn-on than he could have ever imagined. “Then I guess it’s time to settle the bill.”

Gabriel watched her as she slowly moved herself closer to him. Her position was perfect: she was still straddling him. He couldn’t imagine a better position for a kiss, except maybe if she was lying beneath him. But he was getting ahead of himself.

Like a cat, she shifted closer until her mouth hovered above his. Her lips were slightly parted, and he could scent her breath. Her breathing was suddenly more uneven than before, and he wondered if she was afraid of what he would do. Would she regret her decision and pull back at the last minute?

“I can keep my hands on the couch, if you prefer,” he offered and placed his hands palm down onto the cushions beside her thighs. He didn’t want her to fear him and think he would take advantage of the situation, as much as he wanted to do just that. But knowing that this wouldn’t be the last kiss she would grant him, he could tamp down his greed and only take what she was willing to give him, without crossing the boundaries of the kiss.

He could learn to savor this. Every day, he would have something to look forward to. But he had to play it cool, not overwhelm her with the passion he felt inside, not scare her away or she might cancel their deal. No, his response to her would have to be muted, so she wouldn’t know the extent of his desire for her and be frightened by its magnitude. And every day he could allow himself to take a little more, make her more comfortable with him. Maybe she would start to feel the same attraction for him that he felt for her.

Maya’s lips brushed against his, and Gabriel knew he would have a hell of a time keeping this kiss sweet and innocent.

***

His masculine scent was all around her. Maya couldn’t believe her luck. After feeding on his blood she felt rejuvenated, stronger than she ever had, and hornier than she’d ever been as a human! And now what he wanted in exchange was a kiss? Could things be more perfect?

Kissing him was no sacrifice for her. When she touched his lips with hers, she enjoyed their perfect mixture of softness and firmness. She hadn’t noticed until now how full his lips were. But now that she sucked his upper lip into her mouth and licked over it with her tongue, she was fully aware of their perfection.

Maya slanted her mouth over his, and under light pressure of her tongue, his lips parted. Greedily, she slipped inside and explored him. He tasted just as amazing as his blood. She knew that her reaction to him was purely chemical. The pheromones he was emitting ignited desire in her. Like an age-old instinct, her body recognized his as the perfect match. She’d read the clinical studies on the chemical process that produced lust and desire and knew this was happening to her. Surely this was all it was, pure lust. There couldn’t be anything else involved. She barely knew anything about Gabriel. No emotions could have developed in such a short time.

She continued kissing him, stroking her tongue against his, but his reaction wasn’t what she’d expected. Like any dominant man, she would have expected him to take charge, to make the kiss more demanding, but he didn’t. He only responded with a stroke of his tongue against hers when she coaxed him long enough. When she tried to pull his tongue into her mouth, he resisted.

Frustrated, Maya broke away. She looked into his startled face. “Didn’t you like it?”

His face turned from startled to confused. “Of course, I did,” he claimed.

She dropped her gaze, not able to look at him when she asked him her next question. “Then why don’t you kiss me back?”

His answer came as a surprise. “If I kiss you back, I won’t be able to keep my hands to myself.”

Defiantly, she looked into his eyes. “Nobody’s asking you to.”

All of a sudden she felt his arm come up and wrap around her body. “You don’t know what you’re doing to me.”

No, she had no idea, but she knew what Gabriel was doing to her. He was driving her insane and would continue to do so if he didn’t kiss her properly. “Kiss me, Gabriel. Kiss me now, or I swear I will—”

“Or what?” he bit out. “Deny me? I earned this kiss, and I’m damn well going to get it the way I want it.”

Without giving her a chance to reply to him, he sank his lips onto hers and took her mouth in a fierce kiss. Maya melted into him. Now he was talking. Not wanting him to change his mind about the kiss, she sank her hands into his hair and stroked the sensitive area on the back of his neck. She felt him shiver under her touch.

As his mouth ravished her, his hands roamed her back, stroking along her sides, pressing her ever so much closer to her. She could clearly feel his erection moving against her with every breath he took. She tried to get closer.

As if he knew what she wanted, he tugged at the belt of her robe and opened it. A moment later, his hand went inside her robe and touched her through the thin fabric of her gown. She moaned into his mouth the moment she felt his fingertips graze her breast. Warmth flooded her and ran from her breast down her belly to her core, setting her clit on fire.

She arched into his touch. At the same time, she pressed her pussy against his hard-on, dragging her sensitive flesh against his rock-hard rod. She was soaked through the nightgown where it clung between her pussy and his erection, which was hidden behind his silk robe. She’d never become this wet just from a kiss. Was this a side-effect of being a vampire, or had Gabriel done this to her?

Maya twined her tongue with his. With delight, she realized that he’d given up all restraints and kissed her with the reckless abandon of a starving man. When she pulled her tongue back slightly, he went after her, growling deeply. The sound went through her body, touching every cell, caressing her flesh.

With a swift movement, he flipped her over, and she suddenly found herself with her back on the cushions, trapped under his strong body. His mouth hadn’t released hers for even a second, and now his hips ground against her, the erection behind his robe dragging against her center. With every move, the hard ridge of it rode over her clit. It was more than a mere tease, it was torture. Torture she was only too happy to undergo.

Her heart beat faster the longer he ground against her. Her nipples were hard points rubbing against his chest. Gabriel’s mouth trailed down to her neck, and he dragged his teeth against her sensitive skin. She shuddered.

When he touched his hand to her breast and took the nipple between his thumb and forefinger, she let out a cry. “Oh, God, yes!” She wanted him, needed him now. Had to have him inside her, no matter what.

Maya slipped her hands inside his robe to caress his muscular shoulders. His skin was hot and soft, softer than she had expected. But she didn’t get a chance to concentrate on him and his body, because he lavished her breasts with attention she couldn’t ignore.