Wished he could whisk her away, strip her, and make love to her until she swore to never leave him.
“Wow,” she whispered. “I can feel your desire.”
She licked her lips, and his body, abused as it was, fired up like the trusty engine in the old Land Rover he’d bought after graduating from Army basic training. “I can actually smell it. This vampire thing is . . . incredible.” A dark, crafty gleam sparked in her eyes a split second before she captured his mouth with hers.
A moan of pleasure and a frustrated growl that he couldn’t touch her mixed in his throat. He leaned into her as best he could, meeting her passionate kiss with equal enthusiasm. He danced the tip of his tongue over her fangs, testing the sharpness, fantasizing about how they’d feel as they sank into his neck.#p#分页标题#e#
He breathed her in, reveling in the new Nicole.
He’d sell his soul to be able to ravish her right here in the cell. Stretching his restraints to the limit, he kissed her harder, stroking his tongue up and down her fangs in a blatantly sexual tempo. He was rewarded with a groan that vibrated him all the way to his groin.
“Oh, my,” she gasped into his mouth. “Fangs are . . .”
“Sex,” he finished.
“I want—”
“I know.”
She shuddered and pulled back, panting as hard as he was. He wondered if arousal had turned his eyes blue the way hers had gone to glowing green. “They’re going to be back for me in a minute. I just wanted to see you before I started work.”
“Tell me what’s going on. What do you have that they want?”
“Babies.” She brushed her finger over a laceration on his cheek—given to him courtesy of Fane an hour ago. “I know how vampires get pregnant. I can help them conceive.”
Damn, that was huge. Now he understood why kars might deal. He’d been waiting twenty-five years to get his hands on Riker, so he could wait another twenty-five if he had to. Ensuring the survival of his clan and the entire vampire race was worth it.
But . . . “What’s the catch?”
“I have to stay here until five females are pregnant,” she said, as if it was no big deal to be held by
ShadowSpawn for God knew how long. “Tonight is the new moon, so if I can get the formula put together in the next six hours, it’s possible that we could know tomorrow. Pregnancy in vampires is detectable within hours after intercourse. “
“It’s too risky,” he said. “I can’t let you do this.”
“It’s definitely risky,” she said, and he wondered if she’d honed her brisk, businesslike tone in Daedalus boardrooms. “But I’m not sure what gave you the impression that you have any say in it.”
Fair enough. But this was too dangerous for someone who had been a vampire for hundreds of years, let alone for a brand-new vampire.
“Nicole, what if the conceptions don’t happen? You could be here for years.”
“It’ll happen,” she assured him. “As Hunter so kindly pointed out, I’m a baby in your world, but when it comes to this, I’m an expert. I know what I’m doing.
By this time tomorrow, if five females pop a positive,
I’ll be free.”
He leaned back against the wall, getting comfortable. “I’m not leaving until you do. I’m definitely not letting you feed from any of these Neanderthals.”
“Letting me?” She jabbed her finger into his sternum. “You gave up the right to have any input into my life when you chose a dead woman over me, so let’s stop with the he-man act. Besides, I don’t plan to feed from any of them. Vampires can skip a moon feeding or two.”
He shook his head. “It’s not good for you, especially during the first months after you turn.”
“This isn’t negotiable,” she said. “Think about Bastien. He needs you. You need to go home.”
“So do you.”
She smiled, a bitter upturn of her lips. “My home isn’t yours. You made that very clear.”
“Nicole—”
She poked him again. “Now isn’t the time for this.”
“Now is maybe the only time for this.”
The door slammed open, and Nicole, bless her heart, crouched in front of him like a fierce guard dog. Rasha stood in the entry, a deceptively attractive demon outlined by light. All she was missing was horns and hooves. Maybe the hooves were concealed by her knee-high boots.
“Time to go, female,” she said.
Nicole swung back around to him. “Don’t volunteer to stay. Let them take you to Hunter.”
All he could think about was Nicole, stuck here during moon fever, her new body craving male blood, and his inner he-man started pounding his chest.