Blood Rites: (Royal Blood #3) Read online

  Her hands fisted into my hair, forcing me into her and she came suddenly, tightening around my fingers and thrusting against my face. She was so fucking wild.

  She said she wanted to be bad, but fucking hell…

  As her grip began slackening, I pulled away and climbed up her body, kissing a trail up her abdomen, across her stomach to her breasts. I licked a path around one nipple, before moving to the next, her breathing was labored and soft whimpers coming from her lips. Finally, I pressed my mouth against hers and her tongue darted out, tasting herself on my skin.

  Fuck, I needed to be in her. Pulling away, I opened the bedside drawer and took out a condom, her gaze following my movements. Sheathing myself, I moved between her legs, the head of my cock rubbing against her swollen pussy. Her hips moved against mine, inviting me inside.

  “You want that?” I asked, teasing her with a little more pressure.

  “Vaughn.”

  I sunk my cock into her, sliding through her slickness and didn’t stop until she’d taken it all. I circled my hips, rubbing against her clit and driving deeper still.

  “Vaughn,” Lorelei moaned again, her fingernails biting into my back.

  “No one but you,” I found myself murmuring as I pulled back. “The most exquisite pussy I’ve ever fucked… I only want yours…”

  I thrust hard, our bodies joining with a slap, our cries mingling. How could I describe the way Lorelei felt around my dick? How could I describe the way I ached to fuck her hard and bury my seed inside her? How could I describe the way my name sounded on her lips as she came? I couldn’t. It was beyond me and far beyond explanation.

  I reared back and thrust again, my gaze fixing on hers. I watched her expression as I began fucking her, I watched as the pleasure I was coaxing out of her played across her beautiful features, I watched as her lips parted in ecstasy. She was so fucking beautiful.

  My release was coming on hard and I could hardly hold back. I desperately wanted us to come together like we had in the back of the limo.

  “Come, Lorelei,” I moaned. “Come with me.”

  “Harder,” she replied. “Don’t stop…”

  She began to tighten, her eyes closing tight as her orgasm took her. My balls flared and I began to empty, sensation overwhelming coherent thought. I came so fucking hard, I wondered if I would ever tire of it. So much pent-up frustration… So much desire for one woman…and I emptied it all into her. She took it, milking me for all she was worth.

  Finally, I rolled off her, pulling myself away to discard the condom on the floor, too taken with her to move an inch further from the bed. I wanted to feel her lay against me before reality began creeping back in.

  I sighed, my breath seeming to go on for eons. What the fuck had she done to me? Lorelei Lansford well and truly had me by the balls.

  “Do you want me to leave?” she murmured, her eyes sparkling in the dim light. There was uncertainty in her gaze.

  “You haven’t done this before have you?” I asked with a chuckle. She was so innocent, what I was doing with her was borderline fucked up.

  She buried her face against the pillow, trying to hide her embarrassment.

  “You're embarrassed now?” I asked, pulling her closer. “After what we just did?”

  She sighed, running her hand across my waist, threading her legs around mine.

  “Stay,” I whispered. “Stay as long as you like.”

  Her lips pressed against my jaw and she settled back against the pillow, her eyes fluttering closed. I held her until her breathing began to even out, signaling she’d fallen asleep. She was peaceful, beautiful in her vulnerability and I found myself not wanting to let go. Fuck, I was a goner.

  She knew nothing of my dealings, the dangerous world I lived in after dark. She knew nothing of who I really was and the things that I was capable of. If she knew the truth, would she stay then? One thing was certain, I’d never lied outright to Lorelei. Not yet, anyway. I hadn't had to, but when the time came…could I?

  I ran my fingertips softly across her cheek, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear.

  I'd put off my meeting with Sykes for as long as I could mange. He was a thorn I didn't want to deal with, not now and not ever. If I were to choose between my underworld business and Lorelei, I’d pick her, even without knowing what the extent of this attraction was. I'd never slept in the same bed with another woman, I’d never wanted to hold on and I’d definitely never wanted more than a night.

  I was walking a fine line between life and death and everything in between. Ruin and rule.

  Lorelei was worth it. I’d call Sykes in the morning and withdraw.

  Twelve

  Lorelei

  At first, I felt different. Almost listless.

  I woke slowly, my body stiff, but completely satisfied. Then slowly, the memory of Vaughn’s touch began to surface, the ghost of his mouth all over me, the incredible release he’d coaxed out of my body. The place between my legs ached, my flesh throbbing. I never thought my body was capable of having that kind of orgasm, let alone more than one in the same night.

  Rolling over, I opened my eyes and stilled when I was greeted with an empty bed. The satisfied grin faded from my face and was quickly replaced with a frown. He was gone. I sat up, clutching the sheet to my naked chest, listening.

  I didn’t have much time to feel inadequate because Vaughn’s voice was the first thing I heard. He was yelling at someone from somewhere down the hall. That must’ve been what had woken me.

  “I’m deadly serious,” he was saying.

  There was a pause.

  “I want out,” he snapped. “Deal’s off.”

  He must be on the phone to someone from his work. My heart instantly calmed and I sank back into bed, resting against the padded headboard. I hadn’t had much of a chance to take in my surroundings the night before and now that daylight flooded the room, I could take it all in.

  Vaughn’s bedroom was really nice. The king-sized bed was sleek and modern in design, the headboard behind me made from quality padded linen, steely gray in color. His furniture was dark chestnut, the side tables and dresser minimal and very masculine. In short, it was very…Vaughn.

  “Don’t threaten me,” he exclaimed, his voice booming down the hallway. “Do you value your life?”

  I frowned, not sure if this was something I should be listening to.

  “I am your one and only link to Lafayette…if I were to say something to him, then he will put you on his no-fly list.”

  Uh…that didn’t sound very good. A deal he was brokering must be going sour. I could still hear him arguing on the phone and didn’t have it in me to eavesdrop any more, so I did the next best thing. I opened his bedside drawer.

  My gaze collided with a gun and I gasped, closing the drawer with a dull thud. What the bloody hell? My heart thundered and I glanced at the open door, listening for Vaughn.

  A gun? What did he have a gun for? Were the rumors about him true? They said he was a playboy, but some people said he was bad. Like the bad guy in the movies bad. I’d seen nothing that had led me to believe any of that was true. He could just have it for personal security. I knew how rumors went in this life all too well. They started small, but soon twisted into total outlandish fabrications.

  I shifted closer to the side of the bed and opened the drawer again, this time a little more slowly, like its contents were going to jump out and bite me on the ass. The gun sat there, all innocent looking and my curiosity grew. I’d never seen a gun before. Not in real life. I pulled it out of the drawer and held it in my hands, the metal cool against my skin. Hmm…it was heavy.

  “Lorelei.”

  I gasped, and my gaze collided with Vaughn’s. He was standing in the doorway, naked from the waist up, and all he wore from the waist down were a pair of black fitted boxers. Damn it, he’d caught me snooping and I was staring at his cock.

  “That’s not a toy, Lorelei.” He crossed the room and took the gun from my hands,
sliding it back into the bedside drawer.

  I stared up at him, not sure what to say first. Color me intrigued.

  I tilted my head to the side, allowing the sheet to fall away from my naked breasts. Vaughn’s gaze instantly dropped, his shoulders tensing.

  “You’re not…” He trailed off, shocked that I wasn’t running for the hills.

  Things weren’t adding up, but when you were stuck in sexual thrall with a powerful man, things just…slipped through the cracks. Dangerous things.

  “I’m not scared,” I murmured. “I’m…curious.” His eyes narrowed and I could see his thoughts ticking over a mile a minute. “I heard you on the phone.”

  Vaughn seemed to pale some and climbed onto the bed. He pushed me back onto the pillows, covering my body with his, lowering his lips toward mine. “Then know that I won’t let anything happen to you, Lorelei.”

  He wasn’t denying it. He was into something bad. Something dangerous…

  I gazed into his eyes and thought that I might see all his secrets etched in his irises. “Are the things they say about you true?”

  He frowned before lowering his lips to my breast. “If you were worried the rumors were all true, then you wouldn’t have come into the monster’s lair, would you now?” He sucked on my nipple, tugging gently with his teeth. “You take me as a smart girl, Lorelei. Am I right?” He latched onto my other nipple and repeated his slow torture.

  I gasped, wriggling underneath him, that ache in my core beginning to flare into life once more.

  “You do know,” I moaned, “that you can get a woman to agree to anything in our current position?”

  I felt his lips curve into a smile against my skin.

  “I’m good with words.” He kissed me between my breasts. “I have to be, in my line of work.”

  “I know that I feel something when I’m with you.” He stilled his movements at my words, his lips hovering over my heart. “I know that I like it, whatever ‘it’ is. I know that I want to keep doing it…”

  “Even knowing that I might be all kinds of wrong for you?” he asked, returning his gaze to mine.

  “You’re into something bad, aren’t you?”

  He didn’t reply, but I could feel the tension in his body. He was hiding something from me. Until now, he’d shown me the face the outside world wanted to see. The financier, the powerful mogul, the young man with aspirations to run a company…the playboy womanizer. There was more to Sebastian Vaughn than met the eye. There was something…dark about him.

  “This isn’t a game,” he said firmly. “You and I.”

  I nodded slowly, my lips parting in a sigh. “I’ve been good all my life,” I whispered, totally under his spell. “It’s time to be bad, Mr. Vaughn.”

  I pushed my hands down the back of his boxers, moving the material down and cupped his ass, digging my fingernails into his skin. His mouth met mine and he kissed me hard, our tongues stroking, twining, massaging in an erotic dance.

  My hands moved and he lifted off me slightly, giving me access and I took it. His length was in my palm and I began feeling every inch of him, from root to tip, exploring and pleasuring as I went. Vaughn moaned deeply into my mouth before tearing his lips away.

  “You’re such a surprise, Lorelei,” he murmured, his breathing quickening.

  “Am I?” I asked, circling my thumb across the head of his cock, massaging his pre-cum into his skin.

  He fumbled in his bedside drawer and produced a condom, before kneeling back and rolling it over his erection. He stared down at my nakedness as he stroked himself and sucked on his bottom lip. Fuck, he was so…carnal.

  Pushing my legs open with his palms he covered my body with his, guiding himself to my opening. As he sank into me, he let out a sigh, his body quivering against mine. “I’m never going to get enough of you.”

  He filled me so deeply and pressed against my sensitive clit so hard, that I almost came. “Vaughn.”

  “I feel it too,” he murmured. Then he pulled out and thrust hard, our bodies coming together in a blaze of heat.

  He took me hard and fast, whatever had gotten him so worked up on the phone forgotten. He was working his frustrations out on my body and it felt too good to be annoyed by it. After our interlude in the limo and subsequent fucking all night, after he took the rest of my willpower, he could touch me however he wanted, as long as I came.

  He never slowed his pace and soon I was cresting the wave and crashing, coming violently on his cock, my muscles tightening around his shaft. He was muttering my name as he pumped then stilled, joining me in my free-fall.

  Rolling off me, he pulled me near, his fingers exploring my body. He covered my breast with his palm, massaging the tender flesh and I felt my core spike yet again. What was that word? Insatiable.

  “We need to lay some ground rules,” he said, stretching his arms over his head.

  “Ground rules?” I scowled, wising he’d just keep his hands on me and never let go. “Since when?”

  “Since now.”

  I scowled harder at his aloofness. “Okay then, what are they?”

  “I don’t do relationships. Or exclusivity. I’m my own man.”

  I snorted. “You could’ve told me that before you stuck your dick in me.” Fuck, my mouth had done a total one-eighty and all it took was a little fuckery in the back of a limo.

  He glanced at me, his eyes full of amusement. “Would you have listened?”

  He had me there. “No.”

  “Then stop complaining.”

  “If we aren’t exclusive,” I said, air quoting ‘exclusive’, “then you can’t boss me around.”

  “Only when I want to get off on it,” he retorted and I found myself liking the playful side of Vaughn, very much. “Know that there are some things that I will never be able to tell you,” he said, gazing up at the ceiling. “But know that you will always be safe with me.”

  Maybe I should’ve been a little more worried about this ‘deal’ of his, but where matters of the heart were concerned…love, or lust, made people do stupid things. Very stupid things. It was a drug that took all sense and logic and threw it out the bloody window.

  “I understand,” I murmured.

  “You’re precious to me,” he said and I began to melt. “From now on, there’s only you.”

  “But you said no relationship…” I complained.

  “No, but I’m sexually monogamous, Lorelei. I don’t sleep with other women while I’m with someone. I would hope you’d do the same.”

  There was no problem with that. I sighed. “Of course. I’m not like that.”

  Vaughn hesitated, running his hand over his face. “I have business to attend to this afternoon, but if you’d like to remain and have breakfast with me…”

  I smiled at his uncertainty and was amazed at how accepting of all this I was. “Sounds great.”

  He smiled his trademark perfect smile. “Perfect.”

  I couldn’t help the warmth that began to spread through my veins and smiled in return. “Perfect.”

  Thirteen

  Vaughn

  I sat across from Lorelei at the dining room table and watched as she cut her pancakes up into delicate little squares.

  She glanced up at me, her eyes sparkling. “What?”

  I smiled and shook my head. “Nothing.”

  When I walked into the kitchen and asked for breakfast for two, the look on the housekeeper’s face was priceless. It had everything to do with the fact that there were never two, only one, unless I had a business meeting at the house. When Lorelei had walked into the dining room, the surprise had grown.

  Strangely, I liked seeing a woman in my shower, I liked seeing a woman in my bed, I liked seeing a woman in my house…and I really liked that it was Lorelei.

  “Do you enjoy working at the gallery?” I asked, smiling at her movements. She really was very…orderly with her food.

  “Yes,” she replied, oblivious to my thoughts. “I mean, I don’t
need to work, but I love it.”

  “Your family allows it?”

  “My father just wants me to be happy,” she said with a shrug. “Working at the gallery gets me off, so he encourages it.”

  “Art gets you off?” I asked with a smirk. “I’ll have to remember that.”

  Lorelei laughed and speared a slice of pancake on her fork.

  “Your father hasn’t pressed you to marry?”

  “No. He married for love, so he doesn’t see marriage like most. We don’t have a title or anything worth preserving like that. My mother, on the other hand.” She rolled her eyes.

  I frowned. “She wants you to marry?”

  She nodded. “She’s obsessed with social climbing is all. She’s just a little overzealous.”

  “And you don’t want to?”

  She shook her head, her gaze locked on mine. “I’m like my father,” she said, her voice becoming a little husky. “I’d like to marry for love, one day.”

  I swallowed hard. I’d never thought about falling in love or marrying up until now, so I wasn’t sure the correct way to reply.

  “A reasonable dream,” I finally murmured, and her gaze fell away.

  So, if this were to continue between us and go public, her parents might have a few interesting things to say. If we kept it secret, then her mother would no doubt find out in record time the moment she tried to set Lorelei up with some tightly strung eligible Lord.

  I knew I said casual, no relationship, but I wasn’t sure that was such a good plan any more. The more time she was in my presence, the more I felt like latching onto her and never letting go. Was that love or merely lust?

  “Lorelei…” I hesitated, not knowing what to say. That was a fucking first for a man who could bullshit his way out of a tight corner.

  She cocked her head to the side, waiting for me to continue.

  “Do you like heights?” I asked, quickly back peddling.

  “Heights?” She looked confused. “They don’t bother me, if that’s what you mean.”