“Will…” Thea swallowed and asked a different question as we started up another flight of stairs. “Where are we going?”
“Somewhere quiet,” I said. I wouldn’t leave her to fend off advances at the party, and after her blunt introduction to vampire society, she needed to catch her breath. She needed somewhere that wasn’t choked with the fumes of blood and sex. By now, she had to be rethinking our arrangement.
When we reached the roof, even I breathed easier. The heated pool reflected the stars overhead and streaks of city lights from a distance. Up here, it was quiet, except for the sound of falling water from two fountains mounted near the end of the pool. Most of the summer furniture had been taken inside, but a few loungers had been left clustered around a gas fireplace. But it was the view that caught her attention. She took one step toward the railing that ran along the perimeter of the roof and gasped.
Low fog rolled like smoke across the bay which stretched as far as even I could see. The bridge was illuminated against the night, its lights sparkling on the hazy water below like stars. Thea shivered, wrapping her arms around herself as she drank in the view.
“Here.” I showed her to one of the loungers and found a blanket in a nearby basket. “This should help, but let me start this.”
I walked to the fireplace and turned it on. After a few seconds, the heat began to radiate around us.
“Thank you.” Thea snuggled into the blanket around her shoulders. She might have looked cute, but she was biting her lip, which sent my mind to a decidedly different place.
“You’re welcome,” I purred, kneeling in front of her. Every ounce of my being wanted to stay here with her, slowly erasing all the things she’d seen downstairs with my hands and lips and tongue. My desire must have been obvious, because Thea lowered the blanket enough to slip an arm free. She wrapped it around my neck and brought her mouth to mine, her fingers tangling in my hair.
Or maybe she was having the same thoughts.
It took effort to break away from her, but the second I managed to, she lunged forward and stole another kiss. I seized forward, cradling her body as I maneuvered us onto the lounge. Her skirt pooled open, and Thea lifted her legs to frame my body.
“Pet.” I nibbled her jawline as my palm slid to cup her ass. “I need to go.”
“Don’t,” she moaned, reaching to draw me back to her siren lips.
“If I don’t go, someone will be sent to find me, and then we’ll be interrupted.” I continued down, trailing kisses along her throat. I paused to linger over a bluish vein where her scent was so strong I could almost taste her blood on my tongue. “And I have a hard enough time keeping control of myself as it is.”
“Screw self-control.” Her eyes were wild, and I laughed softly.
“Believe me, I want to,” I grunted, brushing my mouth lower until it swept over the velvet peak of her bust. Thea gasped and the air filled with new earthy scents that promised I would find her wet between her legs. Could she make this any fucking harder? Or make me any fucking harder, for that matter? But there was one thought that swept through the dark desires shadowing my mind. “I won’t have my first taste of you like this,” I whispered against her skin. “I need to take my time. I need to be alone with you where I can worship your body as it deserves to be worshipped. You’ve been patient, Thea. Not much longer, and I will give you exactly what you deserve, pet.”
Her hips stopped rocking against me, and she stared up at me, panting heavily before she finally managed a nod. The arm around my neck slackened and fell to her side, and I bolted to my feet before I lost control again. I wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and dared a kiss on her forehead before I strode away.
I didn’t dare look back until I’d reached the door leading to the stairs. When I did, I found her watching me with eyes that sparkled as brightly as the lights on the water.
“Julian?” There was no tremble or hesitation in her voice as she called into the night. “Don’t make me wait.”
I swallowed the urge to return to her now and screw self-control as she’d suggested. Instead, I opened the door and sprinted down the stairs.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
THEA
Even without Julian here, heat lingered on my skin. I’d felt it since he kissed me in the atrium. I’d barely heard a word Sabine had said downstairs. Even now, I couldn’t pin down a single thought. I threw off the blanket he’d given me and let the night’s breeze cool me.
I could only think in sensations. How it felt when his lips grazed along my jaw, the shuddering pleasure as they brushed over my breasts, the warm glow of his palm resting on my ass.
I wanted more.
No, I needed more.
With each second that passed, I felt his absence more acutely until it became hard to even breathe. Every gasp of air I took flooded me with new sensations that surged down until they rooted between my legs and began to grow. And grow.
And grow.
I stood on trembling legs and tried to shake myself free, but the swelling desire only intensified. My foot caught the leg of the lounge chair and I nearly wound up in the pool. But I straightened and pressed forward. I needed to find Julian. Now. I didn’t care if I had to pass a thousand hungry vampires. I couldn’t wait for a second longer.
I’d only made it a few more steps toward the door that led back into the house when it swung open, and two figures stumbled onto the roof. I froze, waiting to be discovered. But the couple wasn’t interested in me. My heart pounded in my chest as I watched the man lift the woman off the ground. His hands pushed her skirt to her hips as he slammed her against the door they’d just come through. I opened my mouth to call out, but my warning died at the sound of her first moan.
I had nowhere to go. I darted a bit closer to the pool, where a slab of stone was fashioned into a spectacular fountain. I couldn’t hide behind it without winding up in the water, but from this angle it was harder to see them. That meant they might not see me. But there was another problem.
It started in my stomach. Hunger seized control of my body. I felt hollowed out. Empty. Every inch of me was desperate to find relief. Without thinking, I took a step away from the fountain toward the couple. Then another. Before I realized what I was doing, I was standing a few feet from them. There was nothing to hide behind now.
But they were too preoccupied to notice. Not that I could blame them. I’d gotten a few glimpses downstairs, but this was entirely different. I’d been too embarrassed to look then. Now I couldn’t tear myself away. It was like watching a play on my own private stage. The man’s hands slid up the woman’s bare thighs as she wrapped one long, perfect leg around his waist. He was buried inside her, blocking any view I might have of the action. It was too dark to tell if they were both vampires. Every familiar I had seen while waiting had been beautiful and polished to the point of being nearly indistinguishable from their hosts. These two were no exception.
The tick between my legs morphed into a throb that refused to be ignored. In this dress, there was nothing I could do about it. I wasn’t even certain where to start. Julian was right. There was no longer any question in my mind. I’d never experienced anything like the desire coursing through my veins now. All I cared about was finding a way to relieve the tension I felt. I closed my eyes, hoping that I could break whatever spell had taken hold of me. Something was wrong. This wasn’t normal. I hadn’t spent my entire life barely interested in sex to suddenly become some type of crazed animal.
“Well, well,” the woman called out, and my eyes snapped open to find her looking directly at me. “It appears we have an audience.”
“I’m sorry,” I squeaked as the man’s head swiveled to look at me over his shoulder. Something dark dripped from the corner of his mouth and there wasn’t a hint of white left in his eyes. They’d gone completely black.
Yeah, he was definitely a vampire, and I’d interrupted his feeding.
That should scare me. Somewhere deep down there was fear. I was certain of it. The trouble was I couldn’t scrounge up enough of it to trip my survival instincts.
His nostrils flared as he breathed in the air. “A human. Interesting. Are you a guest or an appetizer?”
I swallowed. “A guest.”
“What a shame,” he said thoughtfully. “Do you need us to move from the door? Or would you rather join our party?”
