| |
Dacoda Chandler stood naked in the moonlit bedroom of a small but luxurious cabin nestled deep in a thick cluster of woods. Although she knew many men would not find her dark, full-figured body attractive, she took delight in the certainty that the nude male sprawled on the big brass bed in front of her did not share that view.
His eyes lingered on her full breasts. She tingled with anticipation as his gaze slid down her round belly to the dark triangle between her thighs. Watching his cock stir and harden, her nipples pebbled, and a pool of moisture filled her pussy.
That this handsome male, with mesmerizing blue eyes and a mocha complexion, should hunger for her was a source of delight. The huge, fully erect cock resting halfway down one muscular thigh beckoned her.
With her heart racing, she crossed the plush carpet to the bed.
He rolled onto his side and sat up. Placing his big hands against her waist, he drew her between his thighs. “What is it about you that continues to intrigue me, my sweet bitch?” He tenderly cupped her breasts.
She sucked in a breath, touched by his gentleness. And by his ability to make a word, she’d always considered vile sound like a prized endearment. She stroked her fingers through his soft, silky hair. “I’ve missed you so much, my honey boy.”
His dark, sinfully long lashes swept down, concealing the expression in his eyes. He silently glided his hands down her sore breasts to rest briefly against her belly before closing around her waist. “Even now...after all that’s happened between us, I can’t stay away from you.”
She stiffened. Andrei’s words provided a guilty reminder of the illicit nature of their liaison. Her eyes filled with tears. She placed her hands on his shoulders, her thighs trembling. “This is wrong, Andrei. We should—”
“We should do exactly what we’re about to do.” His hands tightened on her waist.
“It’s wrong,” she whispered.
“Ask me if I give a fuck about that.” His lids swept upward, and he curled back his lips. His glowing eyes and sharpened incisors were an unmistakable reminder that she was alone with a full-blood vampire. He would expect to suck her already sore breasts and feast on her blood as he repeatedly ravished her.
Instead of frightening her, the knowledge heightened her already inflamed passions. She took his hands from her waist to place them on her belly again. “Does this bother you?”
“You know it does.” He stared up into her eyes. “You shouldn’t be pregnant, or the baby you’re about to pop out should be mine.”
Detecting a hint of confusion and pain under the anger, she leaned down to brush her lips against his forehead. “You know I love you.”
He narrowed his gaze. “You’re having his baby!”
Slipping a hand over his six-pack abs, she cupped her hand over his shaft and whispered against the corner of his mouth. “I’ll always love you, my handsome honey boy.”
“Then why the fuck are you married to him instead of me?” he demanded.
The unexpected question sent a jolt through her. Sitting on his lap, she linked an arm around his neck. “He proposed,” she reminded him. “You never did.”
His eyes blazed at her. “You never gave me a chance.”
Staring at him, she shook her head. “You said love was a human emotion and—”
“I don’t need you tossing every reckless thing I said back at me when I’m least able to cope.”
His obvious pain tore at her emotions. Part of her knew she should be home with her husband. Another part wouldn’t be anywhere but where she was—with him. “Evan will expect me home soon.”
He uttered a vile oath at the mention of her husband’s name. Fearful he would threaten to kill Evan again, she sought to soothe him. She took his hand and placed it between her legs. “Are you going to waste the little time we have together, or are you going to fuck me with that big, gorgeous cock of yours and get high on my blood?”
He snatched his hand away. “I’m not just a big dick.”
She stifled a sigh. Why the hell was she cheating on a man who loved her as deeply as Evan? Andrei possessed an explosive temper and probably only wanted her because she now belonged to another man. When she’d offered him her heart, he’d tossed it back at her, uncaring for how much he hurt her.
“No, you’re not just a big dick, Andrei,” she said, gazing into his eyes. “You’re the male who owns my heart.”
“Then why the fuck—”
She pressed her fingers against his lips to silence him. “You’re the male who owns my heart,” she repeated. “What do you intend to do about it?”
He surprised her by laying his head against her sore breasts.
She suppressed the impulse to draw away and kissed his hair instead. “Love me, my honey boy.”
He lifted his head to look at her.
She shivered with anticipation at the hunger she saw in his blue gaze before placing his hand against her stomach. “Take me, but be gentle.”
“How can you expect me to accept this situation without making him pay?”
“Oh, Andrei. Don’t.”
He caressed her belly. “How could you let him get you pregnant?”
She pressed her cheek against his hair. “I don’t want to talk, Andrei. I just want you to love me. I need to feel you inside me loving me as only you can. And I’ll love you as only I can, my Andrei.”
“I will...if you promise to leave him and come live with me,” he replied.
Her heart raced. That was probably as close as he would ever come to admitting any finer feelings for her. She had fallen into lust with him at first sight of his picture on his twin sister’s desk. After they’d met, her passion had quickly turned to love. For her. Not so much for him.
Although he’d been reluctant, Dacoda knew he’d allowed Tatiana to talk him into accompanying her to her family reunion. Even though she knew he wasn’t human and that he preferred slender blondes, she’d flirted with him—until he’d succumbed to her advances and made love to her.
But even after he’d admitted that he was sexually attracted to her, he’d made it plain that he had no desire for a lasting relationship. That hadn’t changed until he realized Evan had fallen in love with her.
Andrei would always be able to lay claim to most of her heart. But Evan owned the other part. Unlike Andrei, Evan had never wavered in his love—even when she’d been foolish enough to cheat on him with Andrei. Evan had forgiven her. He’d been a good husband, and she knew he’d be an excellent father to their child.
Although her treacherous heart longed for even the smallest crumb of Andrei’s attention, she wouldn’t repay Evan’s devotion by leaving him for Andrei. Nor would she risk subjecting their child to Andrei’s mercurial temper. While she didn’t fear him, she was uncertain how he’d react or respond to Evan’s child.
He brushed his lips against her cheek. “Be my bitch, Coda. Leave him and come live with me.”
She shook her head. “You know I’m tempted, but I can’t leave him, Andrei.”
“Why not?”
She hesitated and then sighed. There was no point trying to hide her feelings from a male who could read her mind. “I love you.”
“So you claim.”
“I love you,” she repeated. “But I love Evan too.”
“I could make you forget him.”
While aware that full-bloods could conceal their presence, Andrei had never been able to hide his from her. She wasn’t sure of the source of her certainty, but she doubted that he could compel her as effectively as he thought. “No. You couldn’t.”
“Don’t be so sure of that, Coda.”
“Even if you could, I have no wish to forget him.”
“You greedy bitch!” He lifted her from his lap and rose abruptly. “Be careful what you wish for.”
She blinked at him. “What do you mean?”
He stalked across the room to the window before he turned to stare at her. “You like the idea of having us vie for your affection,” he accused.
Even as she shook her head, her cheeks burned. She silently acknowledged the validity of his charge. After years of being treated as a confidant by all the males of her acquaintance, she found having two handsome males hungry for her love and her body thrilling.
Crossing the room to slide her arms around him, she pressed her cheek against his shoulder. “Okay, but I don’t want either of you hurt, and you know I love you both.”
He jerked away and glared down at her. “But you can’t have us both.”
She lifted her chin and met his blazing gaze. “Why can’t I?”
He bared his incisors and bent to hiss his answer at her. “Because I’ve had enough of your damned infidelity. Either leave him and come live with me, or I’ll kill him.”
She curled her right hand into a fist. Andrei’s threat highlighted a significant difference between the two men. Evan’s love moved him to propose and marry her. Andrei’s feelings weren’t strong enough to compel anything more lasting than a demand for her to live with him.
“I’m not leaving him, Andrei.”
“Then go back to him and enjoy your last fuck because you’ve signed his death warrant.” He stormed across the room towards the bedroom door.
“Andrei!” She rushed after him.
He swung around to face her. “What do you want?”
“You!” She pressed her naked body against his, linking her arms around his neck. “I want and need you, my handsome honey boy.” She lifted her face with her lips parted. “Love me as only you can. Please, my Andrei.”
He growled but put his arms around her.
In response, she stood on her toes. “Tell me you love me, Andrei,” she pleaded. “Please.”
“Love is a human emotion, and I’m not human,” he said in a cool voice.
She made a slight, gasping sound of despair.
He silenced her sob with his mouth, moving his lips over and against hers in a tender motion as he gently caressed her. Without words, he soothed her pain and made her feel like he was branding her as his.
“I love you so much,” she moaned.
She heard him make a slight, triumphant sound before he turned her so that her back rested against the bedroom door.
She gasped as her body quivered with anticipation, her thighs spilling open of their own accord. His demanding lips crashed against hers in a passionate kiss as he slowly inched his hips forward. His enormous shaft parted her slick slit, eliciting a low moan of pleasure.
Her eyes fluttered shut.
“No,” she heard him whisper between kisses, “I don’t want you pretending you’re with him. Open your eyes and look at me.”
She obeyed, gazing into his beautiful glowing blue eyes. “I always know when I’m with you, my honey boy,” she murmured. Then gasped in a mixture of expected pleasure and the intense love that always seemed to spark whenever he entered her and took control of her heart, soul, and body.
No matter how often she told herself this was wrong, every fiber of her being craved these precious, stolen moments with him. “I love you more than the air I breathe. I will always love you, my Andrei,” she vowed.
His answer was a shiver and a tight grip around her hips as he slowly inched inside her. She tensed up, expecting to feel his sultry thrusts any second, but he surprised her with a soft and tender lovemaking session that made her soul quiver and sigh with pleasure. As he softly kissed her neck, whispering of an eternity of sole devotion to her, she felt an immense pleasure swell up within her that made tears well up in her eyes as she shivered with sheer bliss and cried out his name.
He held her tightly in his arms until the last shudder had left her body before easing himself out of her, leaving her feeling empty. Scooping her in his arms, he carried her to the bed, where he lay spooning her, engulfing her in a warm cocoon of love and blissful satisfaction.
It was only as she was about to surrender to sleep that she realized that not only had he restrained from ingesting her blood, but he hadn’t fucked her hard or long enough to come.
He had pleasured her with no thought to his release. “You didn’t come,” she said, struggling to find the energy to part her thighs for him again to give him pleasure.
“It’s all right,” he said, kissing her forehead. “Sleep, my lovely, adorable bitch.”
Lovely? Adorable? He must be in love.
He drew away from her and stared down at her.
Her heart raced, wondering if he would finally admit that he loved her too. He was! She could see it in his glowing eyes.
She leaned forward. “Say it, Andrei,” she whispered. “Please. I need to hear it.”
“I—I—” he began.
* * *
“WHAT THE HELL!”
The violent exhalation roused Dacoda from a deep sleep. Heart racing, she sat up in bed, blinking rapidly to clear the sleep-induced confusion from her mind. She was in the bedroom she shared with Evan. He sat up in the bed beside her, a frown marring his handsome face. She wore a nightgown. He wore pajama bottoms.
“What’s wrong?” She asked.
“What’s wrong?” He rolled onto his side and off the bed. “How much shit do you think I can take, Dacoda?”
She shook her head, frowning. “I don’t understand. What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong? You’ve been fantasizing about him fucking you again!”
“What? I haven’t!” She denied feeling her cheeks burn.
“Yes, you have, and I’m sick of lying beside you at night and hearing you moaning his name instead of mine! That’s what’s wrong!”
Oh, no! Her heart racing with fear, she stretched out a hand to him. “I can’t control my dreams, Evan.” She didn’t dare admit she’d dreamed of her last clandestine meeting with Andrei.
He ignored her hand. “I don’t think they are dreams, Dacoda! They’re fantasies, which makes them worse than dreams!”
She climbed out of bed. “Evan—”
He shook his head and stepped away from her. “You can’t sweet talk me out of this, Dacoda. I’ve taken all I intend to take. Do you want to leave me for him?”
“No!”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll be damned if I’ll continue to share you with him.”
“You’re not sharing me,” she said. “I haven’t seen him since—”
“You fantasize about him nearly every night! I call that sharing you with him.” He took off his pajama bottoms and pulled on a pair of jeans before sitting to put on his socks and shoes.
She vainly struggled to come up with some argument that would calm him.
When fully dressed, he stormed across their bedroom to the door.
She followed him. “Where are you going?”
He swung around to stare down at her. “To see your other lover and warn him to stay the fuck away from you or else.”
Her heart raced with fear as she thought of Andrei’s reaction to such a confrontation. She clutched his arm. “No! You can’t do that, Evan.”
“Why the hell not?”
She hesitated. Evan didn’t realize Andrei’s true nature or what he was capable of. “He’s...he has a terrible temper. He...”
“You think I’m afraid of him?”
“I know you’re not afraid of him.” But God knew he should be. “He...he won’t react kindly to an ultimatum from you.”
“I really don’t give a fuck how he reacts as long as he stays the fuck away from you and gets his own woman.” He pulled away from her and jerked the bedroom door open.
“No, Evan! Please do not confront him.” She grabbed his arm again.
He turned to glare at her. “What are you afraid of, Dacoda? That he’ll get hurt?”
“It’s not him I’m worried about, Evan! It’s you. He’s...you don’t realize how dangerous he can be.”
“I can also be dangerous when some fucker’s trying to take my wife from me.”
She gave him a helpless look. “Please don’t go. He’ll...if you anger him, he’ll kill you.”
“Not if I kill him first!” He turned and quickly left the room.
She ran after him. “Evan! Don’t confront him! Please.”
He ignored her and left their apartment.
She hurried back to the bedroom to dress. When she had, she picked up her purse and car keys and rushed down to the apartment complex. Her hands shook as she slipped into her car, noting the absence of Evan’s vehicle beside hers.
After she started her car, she sat still. As far as she knew, Evan didn’t know where Andrei lived. If he couldn’t find him, there would be no confrontation. Relieved, she sucked in a breath before stiffening. While there was little chance of Evan triggering a fight, Andrei still resented Evan and had threatened him more than once.
She suspected that Andrei was never far away. Hell, he might even know Evan was on the prowl for him and use that as an excuse to hurt the man he hated. She closed her eyes, reaching out to him. Andrei. Don’t you hurt him. I swear if you do, I’ll never forgive you. Never.
Although he didn’t respond, she felt sure he’d heard her plea. Did Andrei care enough to be swayed by her appeal? She wasn’t certain. Still, she had to do what she could to protect the man she loved from the other man she loved.
She glanced at the dashboard clock. 12:38 am. She took her cell phone from her purse and called Andrei’s cell phone. She got his voicemail. “Andrei, this is Dacoda. Evan is upset, and he’s looking for you. You won’t hurt him if you have real feelings for me. I won’t forgive you if you do.”
Dacoda feared the declaration of her love for Evan would piss Andrei off but hoped it would also give him pause if Evan somehow found him.
She ended the call to Andrei to call Evan. He didn’t answer. She left him a message. “I know you’re hurt and upset, but please believe that I can’t control my dreams. Please don’t hold that against me. You’re the father of our child, and we’ll both need you. Please come home, Evan. I love you, and I need you. Despite the dreams, I’d never leave you to go to him. Never. Please come home and let me show you how much I love and need you.”
After ending the message to Evan, she made another call.
“Coda? What’s wrong?”
She sighed in relief when she heard the voice of her friend, Tatiana, Andrei’s twin sister. “Tat, it’s Evan. He’s gone looking for Andrei, and I’m afraid Andrei will hurt him or worse.”
“Drei isn’t going to hurt him, Coda,” Tatiana assured her.
“How can you be sure? He’s threatened him repeatedly. And he’s actually knocked him out, Tat!”
“Those things happened at a time when Drei wasn’t in complete control of himself. He—”
“He wants to kill Evan, Tatiana, as I’m sure you know,” Dacoda said, interrupting what she knew would be yet another excuse for Andrei’s temperamental behavior.
Tatiana sighed. “Okay, maybe Drei does want to kill him.”
“Then what’s to stop him?!”
“His feelings for you. He knows you love Evan, Coda. He might batter him a little if Evan is foolish enough to confront him, but he won’t kill him—for your sake. If you believe nothing else good about him, believe he has real feelings for you.”
“I know he does, which is why I’m so afraid for Evan.”
“Drei knows that if he killed him, it would hurt you, and he won’t knowingly do anything to hurt you.”
“I’m afraid, Tat, for both of them.”
“Where are you?”
“In my car. I thought I’d go to Midnight Shadows to talk to Andrei,” she said of one of the nightclubs Andrei owned.
“No!” Tatiana spoke in a sharp voice. “Drei has experienced bouncers on duty, but neither Midnight Shadows nor Eternity is a safe place for a human woman—especially one who’s pregnant. Go home. I’ll go find Drei and ensure he doesn’t batter Evan.”
Thinking of Tatiana’s upcoming wedding, Dacoda sighed. “I’m sorry to bother you. I know you have a lot on your mind—”
“It’s no bother because I can multitask. You know full-bloods don’t do friendships, so you’re very important to me, Coda. And despite what you might think, you’re also important to Andrei.”
“Thank you.”
“Are you sure about him?”
Dacoda frowned. “Am I sure about who?”
“Evan.”
“Am I sure he’s gone in search of Andrei?”
“No. Are you sure you love him as much as you think you do?”
Dacoda blinked. “I do love him, Tat.”
She sighed. “I know you do, but you love Drei too.”
“What’s your point?”
“I’m only asking if you’re sure you don’t want to consider Drei.”
“For what?”
“You know.”
“Are you asking me if I want to leave Evan for Andrei?”
“Yes.”
“No!” She shook her head. “How can you ask me that? Evan has never been anything but supportive, kind, and loving. He’s always made sure I knew he loved me for me. Andrei? Not so much, as you must know.”
“I know Drei hasn’t always been the ideal suitor, Coda, but—”
“That’s overly generous. He’s called me a bitch more times than I can remember. Not to mention the times he’s told me I was behaving like an alley cat in heat. He’s even made me feel as if I were flattering myself, thinking he’s interested in me. So I know what he wants, and it’s not motivated by any love for me.”
“I know some aspects of his behavior have been painful for you, but you have to remember that we are full-bloods and aren’t governed by human emotions,” Tatiana pointed out, sounding annoyed in her defense of her brother. “And, as you must know, he has his reasons, Coda.”
“And I have mine for assuring you that I’ll never leave Evan for him.”
“Understood. Go home and rest. Leave this with me. I promise he won’t hurt Evan.”
“Thank you.”