The Red Lily (Vampire Blood #2)(41)

"Why are you crying?"

She hadn't even realized she was. All of her emotions from the night had rolled together-the fear, the danger, the exhaustion, the relief-and had finally welled up and spilled over.

On a sob, she said, "I don't know."

He whipped back the covers and climbed in bed beside her. When she tried to scoot over to give him room, he gripped her waist and pulled her against his chest.

"You're overwhelmed," he said, pressing his lips to the crown of her head. "And rightly so."

She finally let go, the tears falling fast.

"Shhh," he calmed her, trailing a hand up and down her spine as she lay on her side facing him. "It's all right now."

The heat of his body was an iron brand, with nothing but her shift between them. Slowly, her sobs subsided, but her body still shook. She lay quiet against him, her emotions shifting from fear and despair to something else entirely, but just as raw and desperate.

Continuing his soothing path down her back, he whispered against her temple. "Are you cold?"

"No."

"You're still trembling."

"Yes."

He rolled up so that she was partially beneath him, his otherworldly eyes shining in the dark. "Tell me why." The roughness of his voice was a hard command.

"You know why," she said, unable to say it aloud.

He rolled above her, then softly speared his hand into her hair and loosened the strands across the pillow, his gaze following the movement. Then he brushed the tips of his fingers over her lips, applying slight pressure till she opened her mouth. He leaned forward and sucked her lower lip into his mouth, nicking with a sharp pinprick of one fang. Only a drop of elixir, but it spread liquid euphoria through her blood, dulling her anxiety. He licked over the spot with his tongue slowly, so slowly, then lifted away and stared down, a fierce expression marring his face.

"Tell me why," he repeated, more growl than words.

She feathered her hands up his chest, the rock-solid muscle tight and flexed. "I want you, Nikolai," she confessed into the dark. "I tremble because I'm terrified of how you make me feel, of how you make me yearn, of how badly I want to know what it would be like to have you inside me." 

He swept away another errant tear that slipped down her cheek. "No more tears." He shifted on top of her, the weight a delicious relief. "Tonight, you will think of nothing and feel nothing but the pleasure I give you. Do you understand?"

She nodded woodenly.

When he leaned down for what she'd been yearning for since their first kiss, she blurted out, "I am still a virgin."

He stopped, hovering so close. "Do you tell me that because you want me to stop? Or because you're nervous at having no experience?"

Breathless from anticipation, she admitted, "The latter."

"Good." He pressed his mouth to hers, lining the seam of her lips with his tongue, then said, "Tonight is about your pleasure, sweetheart. And yours alone. I would not take you when you are so overwhelmed by what happened at Lobdell." He pressed a brief kiss to her lips, then pulled away again. A tease that made her whimper. "I am glad you are a virgin. Because when I do take you, there will be no question in that brilliant brain of yours that you"-he flattened his palm just above her breasts, fingers splayed wide-"belong to me."

Slanting his mouth over hers, he licked inside with a sensual stroke. He skimmed one hand down her side, grazing her hip, then under her thigh. With a firm grip, he crooked her leg and seated himself between. Pushing up on his arms, he broke the kiss, his rippled abs flexing in the moonlight when he straightened his arms and rocked his hard shaft against her sex. She hitched in a breath, latched both hands onto his tight biceps, and squeezed.

"Nikolai."

He rolled his spine and gave her the same beautiful friction. She crooked her other leg, opening wider for him. His eyes glinted silver. She tried to pull him down, wanting his lips on hers, but he didn't budge. He remained above, grinding his hard body against her core. Closing her eyes tight, she begged.

"Please, Nikolai."

Finally he lowered his torso and nuzzled her neck with a sharp nip of fangs, just enough to break the skin and give her a teasing taste of elixir. He laved his tongue over the shallow puncture, then skated his mouth lower.

Breasts heaving, the transparent shift nothing more than a thin veil, he opened his mouth on her nipple and sucked hard through the fabric. Sienna cried out, arching her spine and pressing closer, her hands scraping down his back. He flicked wickedly with his tongue, her nipple pressing against the wet fabric.

"More, Nikolai."

Then he was on his knees, towering above her, her knees crooked and spread wide. He hiked the hem of her muslin up, the fabric gathering beneath her breasts and set to placing open-mouthed kisses, hot and wet, from her ribcage down across her belly to her pelvic bone where Sienna gasped. Her hips thrust up in reaction to his rough nips on her hip. Then he lowered to her thigh and nuzzled the sensitive flesh on the inside. Sienna squirmed as his lips and warm breath grazed her inner thigh and the hyper-sensitive cleft above, his touch sending waves of trembling need between her legs. She could hardly bear it, his warm mouth so close to her sex, even as she yearned for him with maddening need to kiss her there.