21

The last thing he remembered was Nikolai slamming a ball of light into him to knock him out. Pain lanced Heath’s head as he came back into consciousness. His arms were pulled behind him, his legs stretched apart, and all four of his limbs were chained to heavy metal brackets secured to the wall.

Soft rays of light, flushed pink with the dawn, spilled in through the windows of the bedchamber. In an hour, or less, the light would fall on him, burning him to a crisp….

Roses.

The sweet scent of them drifted to Heath. Blearily he took in the sight of feminine bare feet. Black silk shimmered over those feet. The silk rustled and a woman’s body came into view as she crouched down to him. Soft hands cradled his jaw, smooth and velvety like flower petals. “What in heaven’s name did that monster do to you? Your entire face is a mess of bruises. And you are so weak.”

It was Vivi. He knew it. Even though his eyes were failing and he saw only a blurry form. “Vivienne, are you all right? What has he done to—?” The words died in his throat. “Hell, why are you here?”

The black silk robe slid off her right shoulder, revealing smooth, creamy skin. He glimpsed the deep, tempting valley between her breasts as she got up on her knees in front of him. His breath sucked in hard and sharp.

“He wants me to seduce you,” she said softly, in a voice guaranteed to seduce a stone gargoyle. “If I do not, he will kill Sarah.”

“Hell and the devil, I’ll rip that bastard apart.” With her daughter’s life in danger, Vivi would not want sex. To force her into a seduction was sadistic and cruel, especially since she had been forced to serve men for so long. He knew what Nikolai wanted and why the monster was using Sarah as a hostage. His sire knew Heath would do anything to save Sarah—including sleep with Vivienne and unleash the demon. And the anger burning inside him at Nikolai would explode when he transformed. It would turn him into the brutal, mindless killer his sire needed.

Black silk pooled around Vivi as she slumped to her bottom in front of him. “I have the key to unlock you. Nikolai believed it would be easier for us to make love if you were free.” Her soft-as-sin voice filled with bitterness. “He thought letting us use the bed would be more … conducive.”

The chains securing his arms rattled. These were not ordinary shackles; he could have easily broken regular iron cuffs. Vivienne fished the key, which hung on a chain between her breasts, and his cock stood up in his dirty trousers so fast, it slapped him in the gut. A soft click sounded, then the shackles dropped away. “I remember locking you up in my carriage, Vivi. Against your will. I’m sorry, love.”

She shook her head. “Don’t be sorry. I wouldn’t have thought to ask you to tie me up, if you hadn’t done that.”

He gave her a wry smile as he flexed his hand. Vivi was his sun. Hot, glowing, beautiful. He’d done what he’d hoped to do: opened her to her innate sexuality. He was so furious Nikolai was forcing her to do this, for making sex such a frightening, heartbreaking thing for her.

“I promise you, Vivienne, Sarah will be safe.”

“I don’t think he will hurt her as long as I do what he says. Or at least, until I do what he says. After that … I don’t know what he plans to do with Sarah and me. He truly is a monster, Heath. There is so much I must tell you.” She leaned over him to fit the key into the shackle on his other wrist. Her breasts brushed his chest, and her puckered nipple drew a line of sizzling awareness across his skin, even through his shirt.

She crouched and released his ankles. His boots were gone. The sunlight seemed to try to nip at her bottom as she bent. Once the cuffs fell free of his ankles he scooped her up and carried her to the bed.

“We’re really going to … do it?” she whispered.

“We have to. I’ll make it … easy for you.”

“You are going to sacrifice yourself, aren’t you? And I don’t want it easy.” She undid the belt at her waist. And the robe slithered off the crests of her breasts, to fall to her sides and frame her. She was displayed for him: rounded bosom, slim waist, a generous flare of hips. “You don’t have to give up. I believe you can break the curse.” She explained swiftly what Guidon had said.

“He said you’ve accepted the curse. I think …” She put her hand to her mouth, as though stopping words from breaking free. “Oh hell, I will be blunt with you, Heath. I think you have let the curse control you because it’s protected you from love. You are afraid to love again. You don’t feel you deserve love. Well, the truth is, Heath, you do not get to chose who loves you. It is what you do that makes people care about you. Sarah and I love you, whether you accept that love or not.”

“I don’t—”

He broke off as she wrapped her hand around his cock, which pointed hopefully toward her soft, golden nether curls.

“I’m sorry, love,” he admitted as she felt how rigid he was. “I know you must be terrified, and I have no right to be aroused. But you do that to me. With your every smile. And with every breath I take near you, every breath that smells of roses and silk and you.”

“I believe if you can want love enough, you can break Nikolai’s curse. You have to be willing to open your heart.” As she spoke, her hands pulled at his shirt.

“No, love. I can do this faster.” Given his shirt was in tatters, it proved easy to rip apart. He skimmed his trousers down as quickly. When would the transformation begin? He didn’t know. All he knew was he had run out of time.

He rolled over Vivi, bracing himself on his arms. It broke his heart to see how beautiful she was, her eyes shining with hope. He bent and nuzzled her breasts lightly.

“If I can’t break the curse,” he said huskily, “you have to destroy me.”

“Nikolai said you would be indestructible.”

“Not possible. Every demon has an Achilles’ heel. Ask Guidon and he will tell you mine.”

But she shook her head. “There is no need. We will break the curse.”

He wanted to. But how could it be possible to do so, just by accepting Vivi’s love? He wanted her love. Shouldn’t the curse be destroyed then? He licked her breasts. Exquisite, he growled in his thoughts, sending the word to her.

She smiled softly. Every night, I want you to do this. To kiss my breasts.

She wanted to speak of the future. He fought a spike of fear. He remembered how he used to find breasts, all women’s breasts, so tempting. But now only Vivi’s interested him. Her pert, soft tits were the most tempting of all. I promise to kiss your breasts, my queen. In fact, if I work very diligently, I think I can make you come, just by sucking your nipples.

Her blue eyes went saucer wide. I don’t think I could—

Relax then, Flower. And let me play.

He licked, laved, flicked, and stroked her nipples. He followed with tweaks, tugs, a teasing nip with his teeth. Then he became serious about his task. He sucked her right nipple and tweaked the nipple of her left. Then he used his vampiric speed to move from nipple to nipple, sucking hard.

She arched beneath him. She clutched at the sheets. Tugged. Ripped them free of the mattress. Bucked fiercely on the bed. And finally let out a wild scream.

Heat blossomed inside him, a fiery warmth that felt like flames licking at his heart. It could be love—or it could be the beginning of his transformation. For the first time in so very long, he might be feeling love, but he couldn’t be sure; he couldn’t savor it. And he damned Nikolai for stealing that from him.

Forget the curse, idiot, he told himself. Forget everything but Vivi. Forget everything but love.

Panting, she fell back, and she smiled at him, beaming at him like the sun.

Heath, she whispered in her thoughts, You did make me come. I shall never doubt you again.

But a voice rumbled up inside his head, a dark, bitter one from his past. A voice that always flayed him with accusations and cold, biting words. Careless. Irresponsible. Damn fool. These were the words his father had thrown at him when he was young because his proud, arrogant father had been infuriated by Heath’s interest in flora and fauna. It was damn unseemly for the heir to an earldom to go around digging up plants and making sketches in a journal. “What sort of fool of a boy chases butterflies around a meadow?” his father yelled. “What sort of boy presses flowers in a book? Goddamn, you will turn into a bloody sodomite.”

He had quivered in shame. Even when he’d become the earl, he’d been driven to escape the humiliation and hurt his father had heaped on him, by becoming famous for his books and his studies. He’d had a chip on his shoulder large enough to sink a sailing ship. And poor Ariadne and Meredith had suffered for his stubborn determination to prove his worth to a dead man.

Given all the mistakes he had made, how could he open his heart?

Just try, Vivienne murmured in his thoughts. As though she could read his mind. But he knew, from the faith still gleaming in her eyes, that she had not read his mind, she just knew what he was thinking.

Whether he’d intended it or not, he had fallen in love with Vivi. More than that, he had let her into his heart. He had already done what he had feared the most. When he’d bitten her, he was sure he’d finally pushed her away, lost her. But Vivi was too strong for him. Instead of leaving him, instead of hating and fearing him, she had pulled him back from his selfish grief. She’d offered her love.

“I love you, Vivi.” He said it out loud so he could hear it ring out in the bedroom. Even though they were alone on the bed, he’d shouted it out, to ensure the world could hear. “I love you, my angel, my goddess. My light.”

I love you, too, Heath. She wriggled against him. At once, he was even harder, and blood surged into his cock, making him rigid as a maypole.

Vivi’s trusting smile was like a source of flame, illuminating his past. He’d been afraid Ariadne would mock him as his father had done. He’d been afraid of failing her and Meredith. So he had run away, pretending he was doing it to prove himself. He would never run away again.

He lifted Vivi’s hand to his lips, kissed each of her long, slender fingers. She giggled softly.

And his heart—it cracked. It was like the shield he had built to keep out love was an iron door, and Vivi had kicked it down.

“Wait here, my love. There’s something I have to do.”

She blinked, confused. But she waited. Trusting him. He moved to the center of the room. He had one last throw of the dice, one last chance. One last hope … as long as Nikolai and the council proved to be as blindly arrogant as he had been all his life.

Sarah paced in her bedchamber. There were so many emotions boiling inside her, she wanted to keep a lid clamped down firmly on top of them. Fear. Love for her mother and Heath. Love for Julian, who was lost to her forever. Grief. That was the worst one. It seemed to be sucking away at her heart, pulling it apart piece by piece.

All her life, Mother had expected she would marry. Mother had wanted her to fall in love. But she had been afraid to—she knew her mother didn’t like men—so Sarah had always been terrified to give her heart to any male. But then Julian had come into her life. A rescuer. He was a vampire, but a gentle one, one who was so good and kind to her. And she had fallen into love so swiftly and so hard, she was surprised the entire world hadn’t heard the thud. But love was so awful. It made you hurt so much inside.

A rap sounded at her door. Sarah turned away, crossing her arms over her chest and shivering. She was a prisoner. If someone wanted in, they would come inside.

As she expected, the door swung open.

It was him. The vampire called Nikolai, the handsome man who was supposed to be her grandfather. But he was evil and hateful. He wanted to destroy Heath and use her mother to do it. He had locked her in this room. She backed away from him, but he glided toward her as though his feet did not even touch the ground.

Finally he stopped and bowed elegantly. “You lost your great love, little one. I am so very sorry for you.”

She recoiled. How could he have known she loved Julian? “I don’t want your pity. I want my freedom.”

“I came to speak to you, Sarah. You see, I sent the demons to Dimitri’s mansion. And I controlled everything they did.”

His words snapped something inside her. She lunged forward and grabbed the fireplace poker. With the weapon raised above her head, she felt powerful. For the first time in forever, she felt strong.

She swung it at the vampire’s head.

Nikolai grasped the poker and jerked it from her grasp. “I can feel the strength of your anger.” He smiled. It was hideous how handsome he was, when his heart must be a black mass of garbage inside him. “Finally, the most important part of you has come to life. My dear, Sarah, you are exactly like me.”

Her chest heaved with exertion, but not with fear. She hated too much to be afraid. “I am nothing like you. You want to unleash some kind of demon to destroy the world. You want to force my mother to do something terrible. And you killed Julian—”

“Shut up and listen, foolish girl,” he barked. Before her eyes, Nikolai appeared to grow taller. He glowered at her. “I told you about the demons to explain something to you. I have the power to give your Julian back to you. He is not dead or destroyed. The puff of dust—that was an amusing conceit, I admit. It made it look as though each vampire died. But they did not die. I merely transported them to a sort of prison, using the power of black magic.”

Black magic? Her wits whirled. This was the sort of thing in Minerva Press novels. But she had fallen in love with a vampire, and she believed magic truly did exist. “You could bring him back,” she repeated. She spoke the words flatly, not daring to hope. She knew what had happened to her mother, even though Vivienne had not been entirely honest with her. Dimitri had told her everything: the fact Nikolai had caused her illness, and about the medicine, and the price her mother had been forced to pay. She knew what sort of a monster this vampire truly was.

“You made me sick,” she accused. “You wanted me to die.”

He shook his head solemnly. “No, my dear. I would never have truly harmed you. What was draining you was your own stubborn fight against your true nature. The medicine was intended to bring out your vampiric qualities, the ones you inherited from me. But you were afraid of your awakening physical desires, your yearning for adventure, your fascination with the night. I saw into your thoughts. I saw you hide all those things, try to restrain them to please your mother. She wanted you to be a good girl, a proper lady.”

Sarah froze. It must be true. How else could he have known? “Do you mean I am a vampire even though I have never been bitten?”

“Let us be direct, shall we?” Her grandfather smiled. The serpent that offered apples to Eve—surely that snake had looked just like Nikolai now. “I will bring Julian back to you, if you let me turn you.”

“Turn me? You mean bite me!”

“I mean I will exchange some of your blood with mine and make you a full vampire.”

“And that is the price for bringing Julian back….?”

“Price? It is a gift. Agree, and you can have love, power, freedom. Everything your mother wanted for you. Everything you secretly dreamed of.”

Perched on the edge of the enormous bed, Vivienne watched Heath close his eyes, bow his head.

She held her breath. What was he doing? What should she do? Urge him to come to the bed? The large, four-poster bed was out of reach of the sunlight, but they didn’t have long before light filled the room. There were no curtains on the windows to keep it out.

His lips moved, but she couldn’t read the silent words. And he said nothing to her in her thoughts. Then he shuddered as though he was going to change, and he snapped his head back to stare up at the ceiling.

She slipped off the bed to go to him. But she took one step and slammed into something warm, hard, yet smooth as velvet: his chest. He’d moved to her so swiftly, she hadn’t seen it.

When she had spoken to Guidon through her thoughts, he had explained how she could get Heath to open his heart—in stumbling, halting words. One way to do it was by making love. It might be the only way she could break through the shield around his heart, the only way she could banish his guilt, his belief he couldn’t look to the future. Sex would make him vulnerable and then she could try to change him.

Something she’d never tried with any man.

She had to be daring. And saucy and wild. Wearing a wicked smile, she bent forward and took his nipple into her mouth. He groaned, then growled as she gave his erect nipple a light bite.

She’d never been quite this daring. Never would she have dreamed of biting.

But his reaction—the way his cock bucked and reared against his belly—gave her confidence. She bit his other nipple gently, and she grasped his cock in one hand and his ballocks in the other and roughly stroked and played.

“God, Vivi, you are going to bring me to my knees,” he rasped.

“That,” she promised huskily, “is exactly my intention, my lord.”

Then, just as in the dream she had about Heath in Hyde Park, she kissed her way down his cobbled abdomen and lowered to her knees. She was staring at the head of his curving cock. Slowly, she stuck out her tongue. And she licked up the bubbling juices.

Sour. Tart. Wonderful.

His cock told her exactly how much he liked it, by swelling and growing astonishingly larger.

Really, she had no idea how big he actually was, but his erection jutted out and must be far longer than six inches, which was supposed to be average. She had never seen anything so enormous. She loved sucking his cock, but could barely fit half into her mouth. Her lips only coasted partway down, where the shaft grew wide and thick.

She let him out and ran her tongue along the length. Then she whipped his ballocks with her tongue.

His knees buckled.

She stopped flicking, worried he’d fall, but he caught hold of one of the bed’s fluted columns. “Your clever mouth is sucking the strength out of me. You are very, very good at this. But I won’t last Vivi, if you keep doing this. And I want my orgasm to be deep inside you. After you’ve come many, many times, of course.”

He reached down to lift her, but she darted from his grasp and got to her feet. “You lie down on the bed, Heath. Once again I want you to obey my commands. And trust me.”

He lifted a brow. But a heartbeat later he was stretched out on top of the white sheets, waiting for her. His legs were slightly parted, his ballocks hanging heavily between his muscular thighs. His cock rose from its nest of dark auburn hair and stood proud. He put his fist at the base, holding the enormous length straight up into the air.

The sight took her breath away. She wasn’t going to lose him. Somehow, someway, she would keep him.

She walked to the bed, aware of the sway of her hips, the jiggle of her bosom. Never had she felt so sensuous. Love made every moment of this breathtaking and beautiful.

“You look like a houri, moving toward me,” he murmured. His hand tightened around his thick shaft. Heavens, even his fingers barely touched around the base of it.

Her nerves tingled as she climbed onto the bed. She’d never seen his erection look so large. Could love be making him swell like that? Or was it because he was transforming into a demon?

Obviously he wanted her on top. He’d pillowed one hand beneath his head. He looked far too casual, a dimpled grin playing on his mouth.

Vivi, I feel I’ve waited a lifetime for this. For you.

Those words … she’d heard many pretty words. But his were so special. Real and true and honest. She swung her legs over his thighs and straddled him just below the magnificent prick that would soon be inside her.

But first … temptation.

Her quim felt it was steaming with heat. But she planted her palms on his chest, brushed her nether lips lightly along the length of his shaft. Her breasts swung wildly over his face.

His eyes glowed like the moon, silver and bright.

Take me inside. I need this. No matter what happens I know I can’t live without making love to you. Even if this is my last day, I want it to be spent in bed with you.

Her heart stuttered, but she forced a smile. This is going to be our first night, she insisted. There are too many things I’ve never dared to do. And I want to do each one with you.

She clasped her hand around his at the base of his cock. Holding her breath, she brushed the head against her clit. The contact of his firm head to her throbbing, aching nub made her quiver. And her juices flowed so she could play and draw circles and stroke and tease.

She couldn’t wait any longer. She knew she should. She must make this last. To save him, she had to use his desire to make him more vulnerable. And every teasing, agonizing second of foreplay they shared was another moment together.

But this was too good. Her quim pulsed, wanting to hold his shaft and never let it go. Her heart felt so tight. Her ribs were like iron bands. Desire seemed to be making her expand and she couldn’t hold in her yearning. They had done so many delicious, erotic things together, but her favorite was having him inside her.

She held him right to the slick entrance of her quim. He surged his hips up and easily slid inside her a good three inches.

Oh God. He was so thick, it was almost too much, yet not enough.

She took a deep breath. And lowered. Her tight quim resisted at first, but her juices flowed, and he slid into her. Down, down, down she went. Engulfing him. She had to close her eyes. It was irresistible, delectable agony.

Her moans floated up to the sunlight, to the shafts of sparkling light that fell on the floor by the foot of the bed.

Deeper, please, Flower.

She took him to the hilt, until her quim brushed his nether curls. Her bottom settled on the bulge of his ballocks.

Ride me, Vivi. Tame me.

Tame him? She didn’t know what he meant. But she rose and lowered. The shock of his cock nudging her womb made her stop. Made her gasp for breath. She could feel every inch of his erection. Surely it was even larger than the last time it had filled her, stretched her, pushed against her hot, sensitive walls.

She rose, lifting on him until she kept only the head inside her. Then she surged down again until her bottom struck his ballocks and she had to sob with pleasure.

Again and again she did it. Heath smiled, watching her. Enjoying the sight. But he wasn’t vulnerable. She needed to do more….

But she was so hot. So tense. So close, she didn’t want to stop.

She had to try something else.… She had to make him open his heart before he came … but she was going to come and she couldn’t stop.

He reached out and pressed his thumb to her nether lips as she bounced on him. He shifted his hand, his thumb slid over her clit, and she screamed up to the bed canopy. Stunning sensation blossomed into a delight that rushed through every inch of her body.

He stroked again. Circled, flicked, rubbed, teased, then gave one last hard brush of his thumb that sent her over the edge.

The orgasm slammed over her with a fierce wave of pleasure. Her whole body melted, as though her heart and soul had burst into flames over this man. She collapsed on his chest, coated with sweat, her limbs trembling.

The curse could only be broken if he became vulnerable, if he opened his heart to love. She felt vulnerable, but he was chuckling, still in control. Still rigid and thick inside her.

What could she do?

A golden glow poured through the window. The room felt filled with steam, and smelled of lush, rich scents—the sweat of colliding bodies, the juices that slicked their thrusts. Then she saw them.… There were no curtains, but the tasseled cords were still there.

She had to make him vulnerable. And now she knew how.

Heath groaned as Vivi lifted off him. Her cunny slid off him, his cock fell out and slapped his belly. She walked swiftly to the window, her lush bottom jiggling. She yanked hard on the curtain ties and tore them down.

He swallowed hard as she approached the bed. He’d loved tying her up. He would love to do it again. But it wasn’t to be.

Petal, I can’t. I don’t know when I might change; I want you to be free to run.

She sucked the end of her finger with feigned innocence. I’m not going to be tied up. You are.

Arousal hit him like a brick, at the same instant he balked and sat up sharply on the bed. But Vivienne ran the rest of the way to him and scrambled on top of the mattress, anticipation shining in her eyes. She grasped his wrists.

He’d never let any woman tie him up, but he had to admit, the feel of the cords against his skin was erotic. And hell, he’d asked her to do it for him so she could explore her sensuality. Maybe he needed to as well, and if it was the last thing he did before he died, he couldn’t complain.

While he’d been considering, Vivi had tied his wrists together with one cord and had run it around a bedpost. She pulled on it, and his arms stretched out behind him. As she leaned over to tie the silken rope to the bedpost, her breasts dangled over his face. He strained up to suck, but soon learned the torture of being tied up. Wanting something, but not being able to get it.

He expected her to bind his ankles with the other cord. Instead, she wriggled down to his hips, and wove the rope around his right thigh. Then the little vixen wrapped it around his balls, securing them in a loop, before she wound the rope around his left thigh and tied a firm knot.

His cock jerked in excitement, and it grew thicker, harder, and throbbed like the devil. He’d never guessed having his ballocks bound would feel so good.

It took everything inside him to fight his orgasm as Vivi sat on top of him and took him deep inside her cunny again. He wanted to hold her hips, he wanted to pump her up and down, but his arms were tied. And each bounce of her curvaceous little derriere tightened the rope around his balls. Pleasure and pain; he hissed through his teeth as he experienced them both. Vivi had found new territory for him, and he was like an innocent, learning how thrilling it must have been for her to explore.

He had to arch his head back as the ropes pulled tight. God, he really was her captive. She could tug on that cord around his balls and hurt him in an instant. The risk made this damned arousing. He had to do exactly what he’d asked of her. He had to trust her.

And she was being wicked on him. She moved her hips up and down so slowly it was sheer agony, then bounced hard and fast and took his breath away. She was so sweet and tight and he was drowning in the hot silkiness of her. He gritted his teeth, willing himself not to come. He wanted this to last forever.

The moment he climaxed he was lost.

She was trying to drive him mad. She put her arm beneath her breasts, which plumped them into large, full globes. With each bounce on his cock, her bosom bounced against her arm. Her nipples bobbed.

His face must have revealed how mesmerized he was. She cupped her breasts, her bounty spilling over her hands. He fought not to spill himself.

Then she got off his cock and scrambled up. His heart raced. She moved along his body, her richly scented cunny coming closer and closer to his mouth. Then she was there, her glistening pink nether lips just out of reach. He strained up to lick her, suckle her, eat her, but she swung her leg over him. Escaping.

Suddenly she tugged at the knots she’d tied, struggling to undo them.

Flower, I was enjoying that.

She winked saucily. “So was I. But for what I want to do now, you must be free.”

What could it be? He growled in lusty anticipation. He jerked his arms apart swiftly and the cord snapped. Then he undid the one around his balls.

Vivi rolled onto her tummy, so her rounded derriere stuck up in the air. I want you to … to go inside my bottom.

Even in his thoughts, her voice was shy.

You really want me to do that? he asked softly. We played before with the dildos….

And I liked it. But this time I want it to be your cock deep inside me.