Temptation's Kiss Ch. 01

Opening her eyes, she could only perceive a midnight black mist surrounding her like a shroud, burning red eyes glowing softly above her. She gazed around her in awe as again, he congealed from his vaporous form into the handsome creature that had seduced her there. Crouching before her like a cat, and now quite naked, his grin was feral, his eyes wild. “How’s that for power, eh, mio tesoro?”

“That was incredible!” she breathed.

He slid his body sensuously over hers, and she ran her hands over his smooth hairless chest, meeting his lips with a kiss.

Suddenly, she was pinned beneath him again, and he was pushing his hot length into her without hesitation. She had not thought that she could take him again so soon, but found herself clutching him to her, crying out, raising her hips to meet his thrust. Solid, now, she could feel the play of his muscles beneath his flesh, the drive of his lean hips, and it was far more primal, less ethereal. His growls in her ear brought her down to earth, to the here, and now, and she ran her own nails across his back seductively. He hissed in reaction, arching his back, and looked down at her through his slitted eyes with a devilish gleam.

With preternatural speed he grabbed her wrists and bound them over her head, holding her down as he leaned on them, his arms straight, lending her a delicious view of the way the muscles flexed across his chest and shoulders as he thrust into her. The sensations became almost too much, and she struggled, but he forced another orgasm from her, and she howled her release.

Unfinished with her, without a word, he grabbed her up as easily as one would a rag doll, flipped her over onto her stomach, pulled her up to her knees, and entered her again amid cries of “Oh no! Stop!! No, please, stop!” He growled, deeper in his throat, one hand gripping her hip, the other tangled in her hair, holding her head up and back as he pounded into her from behind. Her hands clawed at the air as he pulled her head so far back she was meeting his glowing red gaze over her own back.

She gasped and froze as she saw his thick mane of black hair extend down his chest and shoulders, his sharp features contorting into a wolf’s muzzle, his ears becoming long, and pointed, his nails lengthening into vicious claws. Her heart beat so hard and fast she thought it would surely burst in her heaving chest. “Oh gods, no,” she breathed, panting. The shaggy black head lowered down to her ear and he growled low and deep, his tongue snaking out to lick the sensitive hollow behind her ear. She shuddered.

He spoke, and his smoky voice lisped past rows of wickedly sharp teeth. “I am the shadow’s best kept secret. Not man, nor beast, yet all of the power and mystery of both. Did you think you would love such a being in all your wildest dreams?”

“No,” she panted, “please!”

Her body trembled as a frisson of horror followed by another shattering orgasm ripped through her, and she screamed her throat raw. Betrayal and pain battled on her features as she fought to maintain control of herself, though her thighs shook violently with the effort of staying up for fear he should claw her to ribbons should she fail to please him. The vampire’s claws dug bloody furrows in her back and sides as he howled his release into her, his back arching, his head thrown back in ecstasy, and she collapsed beneath him.

The fur and claws receded, and the vampire curled behind her, skin to skin in softly intimate contact the length of her body, as though his rough claiming of her had never happened. He cradled her as she sobbed into the blankets, stroking her hair and nuzzling the back of her neck comfortingly. When she tried to shy away from his contact, he held her against him until the shakes passed.

“You knew I was not human when you came to me, mio bellezza,” he crooned, stroking her cheek, “Don’t look so surprised. You wanted to know what I was capable of, and I showed it to you, the good and the bad. I was nothing but honest with you. And there is more, so much more I can do.”

She nodded wearily in agreement, but something didn’t feel quite right. Branwen shivered, realizing suddenly that his body was cold where it pressed against her.

“You’re growing cold,” she whispered.

He moved over her, pinning her down again, his expression not so gentle, his skin so pale it was nearly translucent. His eyes had retained their feral edge, and cold fear coiled in Branwen’s belly again. “There is a reason for that,” he growled, his lips twisting back to expose his fangs. She fought to steady her breathing, keeping eye contact with him, praying that some shred of humanity remained in him that would stay his bite from killing her.

The bite was inevitable. She had given him her body, utterly, now he would take her life! He bent down over her neck, his silken hair veiling them, his breath coming in anticipatory hitches, his long tongue flicking over her exposed, pulsing vein.

She held as still as she could despite the trembling, and whispered softly.

“Adrian? Please…”

He paused, his breath catching, then he repositioned himself over her, brushing her hair away from his target and lowered his head.

“Adrian?”

She lifted her hand and stroked his cheek. He paused again.

“You promised you would not kill me… said you were a man of your word…”

He lifted his head again, meeting her steady gaze with burning eyes, his lips curled in a sadistic snarl exposing his fangs. “I will not kill you, innamorato,” he lisped, his voice husky, “I need you. The price for such knowledge is great, the price for the power itself is greater. It is my price to pay, as well. I will not lie to you: I need blood to sustain me.”

With a delicate shudder, she turned her head to offer her neck to him, closing her eyes trustingly. She expected the bite to be a violent act; another claiming, but it was gentle, sensuous. He held her in an embrace, softly licking the spot where he would bite, and his fangs slipped into her skin like needles. The pain was brief, then she felt a delicious warmth wash over her body as he began to suckle the blood from the wound, gently, at first. He repositioned himself so he was kneeling, clutching her body close as he drank deeply from her, one hand buried in her hair, the other cradling her back. She sighed, returning the embrace, her fingers digging into his warming flesh as the wave of sensation washed over them both.

His breath came in little sobs against her neck. He almost didn’t stop himself from taking her life; her heartbeat was so alluring, so strong, so full of life that he craved the very essence of it. With a huge amount of will and a great gasp he pulled his teeth away from her neck and fell back onto the bed beside her, panting with effort.

He opened his eyes and looked over her still form. She had fallen unconscious from the effort and shock, and lay, exhausted and barely breathing beside him, her neck and shoulder covered in blood. He knew she was close to death, knew she had but one chance for survival. He nipped her ear to wake her and curled up close to her again, whispering.

“Branwen, listen to me now.”

A slight fluttering of her pale eyelids and an almost inaudible sigh were the only indications he had that she had heard him.

“You are going to die, Branwen, if you don’t listen to me. I have drained you to the point of death. You have two options left. You can either succumb to the darkness of the grave… or… drink from me, and have the power over life and death, itself. I have given you a taste of my world; I have kept my promise. I have whole other worlds to show you. What will it be?”

Branwen was lost in a comfortable white haze. There was no pain anymore, no fear, no darkness, no other life but her own, and that was fading fast. She felt, if she could just relax into this soft white cloud she was lost in, then everything would be okay. Comfortable though she was, she felt alone; completely alone, and it made her inexplicably sad. She felt the nip to her ear as a jerk to her perceptions, a laser red dot in the misty white, and the vampire’s voice was like smoke in the haze. She could barely hear him through the rushing in her ears, but his voice carried as though over water.

What will it be? He now offered his gift, and it was hers to take and experience the world like no other human could know, or succumb to the sleep that called to her. Return to his world? Where even the sweetness had the taste of blood? Back to his kisses and his cruelty? What decided it was his eyes; his beautiful deep blood red jewels, the mirrors to a soul untouchable. An endless playground of the spirit. Her pale lips parted, her breath so shallow a human could never have heard what she said.

“Please?”

With a grin she never saw, the vampire used his razor sharp claw to cut a slit in his wrist, and held it over Branwen’s parted lips. Let the first drop be the one she reaches for. It hit her tongue like liquid fire and ran down her throat, spreading heat like a shot of well-aged whisky through her belly.

Her eyes flew open, and she extended her tongue for another drop, curling it animal-like to take it down. Her hands reached up and took his arm; bringing it to her lips to clamp onto the life-giving liquid heat, let it revive her. Her heart pounded so loud in her ears she could not hear his throaty chuckle… until the rabbit fast beat slowed and stalled out altogether. Her chest clenched around the dead organs within it, and she panicked, sucking harder at the vampire’s wrist until he snatched it away with a snarl. Her breath came in harsh gasps, and she crawled up to crouch, predator like before him, her cool green eyes heating to ember red as she fought for control over the screaming hunger that overtook her. She focused on his face only to see a satisfied, toothy grin on his handsome face. “You want more, don’t you, little one?” he chuckled.

“Yesss-s-s-s,” she hissed through her growing canines, narrowing in on his long, graceful neck. She hadn’t noticed how sexy his throat was before…

His backhanded slap took her by surprise, and she tumbled to the stone floor with a yelp of dismay. “You mind who your Master is, little fledgling,” he cooed from the bed, and slipped off to the floor beside her gracefully. “That is the hunger you feel, and I will teach you how to sate it. But tonight is ours. Come to me, and I can help you…”

Entranced by the sensations around her, even the pain of his strike, she crawled obediently to him on her hands and knees and begged him with her eyes for relief. He reached out and guided her face gently to his own throat, showing her where the best vein could be found with subtle manipulations of his long fingers on her jaw. When she had settled her needlelike fangs into his neck with a sigh, he bent his head around and sank his own teeth into hers, forming a bond of preternatural depth. The Blood Bond. They remained in this deep embrace for hours, each taking from the other, soaking one another’s pale skin with blood that stained their lips like wine. They shared climax after climax, shuddering in each other’s arms, their fingers alternately intertwining with each other, and stroking the other’s body in tender caresses.

Finally, they parted, and stared into each other’s eyes; red on red.

The learning was only just beginning…