Vamprotica 2006 Part 2

"Enough! Up the stairs!"

"Aren't you at least going to count to ten before you send me to my room, Dad?" Eve asked as she licked the blood from the edges of her lips and flipped her blonde and purple streaked hair back over her shoulder in a gesture of defiance that irritated him almost as much as the ridiculous color of her hair. She was a natural blonde with a cla.s.sically beautiful face; why did she have to ruin what would have been an almost stunning beauty with 'Barney Number Five' or whatever the h.e.l.l color she applied on a weekly basis?

"I am not your dad, thank G.o.d. And that is not your room, at least not for very much longer," Leo said, crossing the floor to grab Eve by her defiant little elbow and lead her forcibly up the winding staircase.

Ernst was still slack-jawed from the effects of Eve's vampire's kiss and would remain so for at least the next half-hour. That left plenty of time for Leo to get Eve out of his life before he had to dispense an appropriate punishment for a disobedient servant or examine why he wanted to beat the look of l.u.s.t from Ernst's face. It didn't matter that he hadn't packed anyone's bags in over a century, he would figure out how to bundle up the annoying little package who struggled lightly in his grip. h.e.l.l, he'd cart her trunks to the train station on his own back if it were the only way to finally get her to leave him in peace.

"There's no reason to get so upset."

"Silence."

"Quit saying 'silence' and let go of me," Eve said, obviously displeased at being forced to scamper beside him since he was making no allowances for her shorter legs. Amazing how someone barely five foot two could create such a giant sized disturbance in his daily life.

"You're not giving the orders."

"I'm sorry I broke the rules, but-"

"Too little, too late. You've abused my hospitality and deliberately disobeyed the rules of this house. I want you out of here by tomorrow morning," he said, throwing open the door to her quarters and immediately freezing where he stood.

"Dear G.o.d in heaven, what have you done?" he gasped, fighting the urge to fall to his knees and sink his head into his hands.

Just when he'd thought it couldn't get any worse.

"Listen, Leo, I'll clean it up. There's nothing I've done that can't be undone," Eve said in her best nothing to be stressed about voice.

Leo had been sitting in the desk chair in the corner of the room for a good ten minutes, not saying a word, shushing her with a trembling hand every time she dared to break the silence. But this time, she would not be shushed. She had to make him see that she didn't mean to entirely freak him out. She just wanted to finally get a reaction from her undeniably delicious host, to break past that calm, collected sh.e.l.l to the pa.s.sionate man she sensed underneath.

This wasn't at all the response she had hoped for, however, when she overhauled her prim and proper little guestroom into a gothic lair with all the tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs. She had hoped that Leo might find the black satin sheets a tempting place to throw her down and ravish her or, at the very least, enrage him enough to make use of the restraints on the wall. Submission usually wasn't her bag, but Eve couldn't imagine anything more erotic than having Leo strap her hands and legs to the wall and spank her soundly.

Something low in her body tightened every time she fantasized about the flat of Leo's hand landing on her bare skin with enough force to sting, to redden her sensitive flesh. Alone in her bed at night, she'd played out the scenario more times than she could count. He'd spank her hard enough to hurt, but not hard enough to dull the throbbing between her legs. In her fantasies, she'd been squirming, moaning, arching her a.s.s into each measured slap, hungry for his domination, his sensual punishment. He'd driven her mad, made her wild with need, wild enough to beg for it before he pressed his nude length against her back, letting her a.s.s cradle his c.o.c.k in its crevice. Every night, she'd moaned aloud into her room as the dream Leo lifted and separated her stinging b.u.t.tocks and pressed the head of his thick shaft into her dripping channel, beginning to f.u.c.k her into a bliss only previously imagined.

"Leo? Please say something," Eve pleaded, forcing her thoughts away from her sweet fantasy punishment and back to the sad reality at hand. The poor man looked like she'd killed his best friend rather than redecorated the least desirable guest room in the entire castle.

When she first made plans to visit her maker's maker in Romania, she had been thrilled to the tips of her fangs with the chance to meet a three hundred year old vamp who lived in an actual castle. Her disappointment had been profound when she arrived to find the ancient keep anything but dark and brooding, and her host a neat freak with a Feng Shui fetish. A fairy tale princess castle nestled in picturesque autumn woods was the last place she wanted to spend her vacation. The fact that Leo had put her in the worst room in the castle-a cramped, windowless chamber where she sweated during the day and froze at night-only added insult to injury.

Still, she extended her stay not once but twice, and there was only one reason for that. She was completely obsessed, had a major l.u.s.t jones for a stuffy old vampire who had spent three hours lecturing her about closing the bathroom door so vital energy didn't flow down the toilet. It was crazy, but she couldn't seem to help herself, couldn't quit fantasizing about his full lips pressed against hers as she ran her hands over his body, doing her best to rumple his usually scrupulously ordered person.

"You have violated my home, completely destroyed the flow of energy I have worked on for decades," Leo said, his tone as cold as his ice blue eyes.

Still, even the sound of his I'm really p.i.s.sed at you now voice was enough to make her nipples pebble against her black sweater, make her p.u.s.s.y throb inside her black leather pants. He was the most gorgeous man she'd ever seen, all masculine angles and firm muscle stretched over six feet of pure studly vampire. His eyes were the exact color of a wolf they had seen during one of their daily walks in the woods and the dark brown of his hair made them shine with even more cold brilliance.

From the second she set eyes on the man, she'd wanted him, but it was only after hearing his voice that she really lost her mind with l.u.s.t. His voice was a thing of such velvety deepness that Eve was certain she would be able to feel it on her skin if he were to rumble sweet nothings against her flesh as he kissed his way down her body. She had wanted to roll in that voice, rub herself against it like a cat since the second he asked her if she had "really brought this much baggage for a two week stay."

Sigh.

But it seemed they were never to be. He wanted to kick her to the curb for snacking on the butler after he'd denied her any real food since the day she had arrived. She was only ten years dead, for G.o.d's sakes, and had never tried to survive on animal blood alone for more than three days at a time. The fact that she'd lasted nearly a month before trying to sneak a little something to help a.s.suage the viscous hunger driving her mad, almost as mad as her l.u.s.t for Leo, was unbelievable. She should be getting a medal, or at least a cookie, or maybe a kiss or two. Certainly not the old heave ho.

"Not the flow of energy stuff again, Leo. I'm telling you, that's all new age mumbo jumbo," Eve said, slowly walking across the room, approaching her host as carefully as she would any angered predator. He was a nice vampire, a very nice vampire for his age, but he was still an ancient bloodsucker and her maker had warned her to treat him with respect.

Oh G.o.d, how I wish he'd force me to treat him with respect.

"I don't need to be advised by someone still in their first half century," Leo snapped, his eyes still locked on the room before him, even when she stood only inches from his chair.

A strange energy sizzled between them, an electricity undeniably s.e.xual in nature, and Eve wondered if Leo felt it too. Is that why he had held himself apart from her since the day she arrived? Is that why he wouldn't join her on any nighttime outings beyond the castle walls or even allow her to open a bottle of wine for their dinner? Did he need to work to keep from touching her, tasting her?

She had tried to make it clear that Stephen, her maker, wasn't interested in her as a potential mate. They had agreed to be friends and nothing more, and she was free to look elsewhere for companionship. But sometimes older vampires didn't understand the free agent concept. In the past, all the vampires changed by a master vampire were their property, their people for the rest of their undead existence unless they themselves gained enough power to become a master. Could Leo be pushing her away simply because he thought she belonged to someone else?

There was only one way to find out.

"You're right," Eve said, trying to keep her breath from speeding as she gathered all her courage and stepped even closer to Leo's chair, close enough that his thigh touched her knee and her skin cried out with pleasure from being allowed just that small contact.

"I know your master has taught you better. To touch another vampire or their human servants without consent is a challengeable act. Do not challenge me, Eve, or you will force me to teach you a lesson that I would rather avoid."

"But I want you to teach me a lesson," Eve whispered, refusing to listen to the fear that beat at the back of her throat as she slowly lifted her leg and let it slide down the outside of Leo's thigh until she ever so gently, ever so slowly, lowered herself down to his lap.

Her heart immediately beat faster as she felt his sharp exhalation against her lips and her body grew accustomed to the feel of his strong thighs beneath her b.u.t.tocks, his hips between her spread thighs, and his s.e.x only inches away from her own. She forced herself to hold still, to refrain from looping her arms around his neck and her ankles around the back of the chair to pull him close, no matter how desperately she wanted to mash every inch of him against every inch of her.

She knew Leo well enough by now to realize he was not the type of man that would fold in the face of a s.e.xually aggressive female. She would have to be a little subtler, make an offering of herself that he couldn't refuse.

"I'm not interested in your games," Leo said, his eyes still cold but the jump of his pulse against his throat told a different story. Eve longed to rock her hips forward and see what tale his c.o.c.k had to tell, but managed to keep her control and her eye contact.

"I'm not playing games," Eve said, willing her eyes to tell the truth, to show him how much she longed for him, "I want you. Any way you'll have me."

"I don't engage in that sort of activity with children."

"I'm not a child. I've lived thirty-two years, ten of them undead."

"You're a brat," Leo said with a vehemence that would have been funny if Eve wasn't beginning to worry that maybe he really didn't like her after all.

"I was only pulling your pigtails," Eve said.

"Excuse me?"

"Being bratty because I like you."

"That's ridiculous."

"Sometimes I'm ridiculous," Eve smiled.

"So I've noticed."

"But I can be good, Leo," she whispered, leaning closer until the tips of their noses were about to touch. "Let me show you how good I can be."

"I'm..." he began, the words trailing away as she ran the tip of her tongue across her lips and he held his indrawn breath.

"You're what?"

"I'm not interested."

"Are you sure about that?" Eve asked, sliding her cheek softly against his in an intimate little caress, until her neck was perfectly positioned, completely vulnerable to him. She shivered as she imagined what it would feel like to finally have his mouth on her throat, his teeth piercing her skin as his strong hands gripped her hips, pulling her into the intimate contact she craved.

"You're offering yourself to me?" Leo asked, his husky voice genuinely surprised as well as more than a little interested.

"Yes." Eve moaned lightly as his breath puffed against her exposed neck and then the tip of his tongue traced a gentle trail over the place where her racing heart beat closest to the surface of her skin. He was touching her, finally touching her, and the pleasure of even that small caress was almost more than she could take.

"You know what that means, don't you?" he asked, opening his mouth and raking the tips of his teeth over the sensitive flesh of her throat hard enough to draw a gasp from her parted lips, but soft enough to leave the skin completely intact.

"Oh yes, Leo, yes," Eve whispered, wrapping her arms around his neck and arching forward until her b.r.e.a.s.t.s flattened against the strong muscles of his chest. Her breath came faster now, her pulse thundering in her ears, her p.u.s.s.y throbbing, aching for him to fill her, taste her, take her, to ease this need that had been building between them since the day she arrived.

"It means I could rip out your throat, bleed you until death, and no one, not even your master, would have any reason to fault me. You've done a very stupid thing, Eve. If I were any other three hundred year old vampire, it would mean your death," he said, his teeth pressing just a little harder into her neck as his hands finally came to her hips. Too bad she was a little too nervous to fully enjoy the sensation at this point.

"You wouldn't hurt me, Leo," she said, trying to sound confident, but knowing he could smell her fear, taste the second her arousal had been soured by the hint of something different All vampires shared a thirst for blood, but some were more bloodthirsty than others. She had never seen that taste for violence in Leo. However, she had never dreamed he would take the offering of her throat so literally, but maybe he was more old-fashioned than she realized. She suddenly wished she had paid closer attention to the pre-industrial age vampire etiquette lecture Stephen had insisted on giving her before she made the trip to Romania.

"You just bet your life on that a.s.sumption," Leo said, his teeth pressing even harder into her skin, almost hard enough to bruise, making her breath catch and her eyes close as she prayed that she hadn't been wrong about this man, hadn't overestimated his gentleness or underestimated her ability to make him deathly angry.

Time slowed to a crawl, the air completely quiet except for the pounding of her pulse inside Leo's mouth until, finally, his jaws loosened and his hands smoothed down over her b.u.t.tocks. Immediately a rush of wet heat flowed between her legs. She'd never imagined having a man's hands on her a.s.s could feel so violently erotic, but it was as if that hint of fear made the bliss of the much longed for s.e.xual contact that much sweeter.

Eve barely had time to catch her breath before Leo dipped one hand even lower, sliding down under her body, brushing past her aching center until he found her c.l.i.t through her leather pants. The seam of the pants, combined with the rough pressure he began to apply was almost enough to hurt if she hadn't been as turned on as she had ever been in her life. If she hadn't been distracted by that moment of uncertainty, his demanding fingers between her thighs would have been enough to make her come, without f.u.c.king, without feeding, with all of her clothes still on and not so much as a kiss exchanged between them.

He was magnificent, as magnificent as she'd imagined, and she couldn't believe she was finally going to have him, that he wanted her despite all the mixed signals.

"Leo," she sighed, her entire body trembling against him though she couldn't really move, not with what felt like the death grip of his fangs on her throat.

"Never bet your life on another vampire's kindness."

"Quit trying to scare me."

"I'm not trying, I'm succeeding. I can taste it, and it tastes wonderful. If I were a different sort of man, it might be enough to convince me to end this tedious acquaintance."

"You're the tedious one," Eve said, finding that her hips had begun to roll against his hand, a part of her loving arguing with him while his fingers worked her so expertly toward climax.

"You don't even know what tedious means," he said, his own voice more breathy than she'd ever heard it and the fingers of his free hand digging into the flesh of her hip.

"Boring. Long and boring."

"I'm impressed."

"What's impressive is that you can talk so clearly with your mouth filled with my neck."

"Shut up." But he didn't sound mad; he sounded amused. She had heard him laugh only a few times, but it certainly sounded like his irritation was giving way to something more playful, or as playful as a grouchy three hundred-year-old vampire could get.

"What else can you do?" she teased, tightening her arms around his neck and pushing her b.r.e.a.s.t.s into even closer contact with his chest. She locked her legs around his back and squeezed, driving her hips forward and trapping Leo's hand in between her body and his own obvious arousal. d.a.m.n. He was rock hard, long and thick and aching-for her. The realization was almost enough to make her dizzy." Well, well. That's impressive too."

"Flattery doesn't do it for me," he groaned as she began to roll her hips up and down his length.

"What does do it for you, Leo? How about if you felt how wet you make me, would that do it? If you knew how much I want you to f.u.c.k me? What if I got down on my knees right now, took your c.o.c.k in my mouth, and showed you how hot it would make me for you to lose control down my throat?" Eve increased her rhythm until she was seconds from release, driven to the edge by his fingers digging into her hips, his breath hot and fast against her throat, and the throbbing thickness between her legs.

"Enough," he said, shoving her away so fast she slid off the end of his knees and landed tail bone first on the floor.

"Ow!"

"Have your bags packed within the half hour. I'll find someone to drive you to the train station," he said as he quickly stood and walked toward the door.

"Leo-"

"I don't have time for this. I have my home and my life arranged as I like them and you have violated the order of both."

"Listen, I'm sorry I messed up your house and munched on your butler," Eve called after him, feeling tears p.r.i.c.k at the backs of her eyes that she quickly willed away.

She wouldn't cry over this cranky old a.s.shole. Who cared what he thought anyway? It was only her feminine pride that was hurt; her libido frustrated to the point of tears simply from being denied satisfaction. She didn't really fancy she was falling for the most annoying man she'd ever met in her life, human or vampire, did she?

"You now have twenty-eight minutes," Leo said with horrible finality before slamming the door to her room with more force than was absolutely necessary.

"That went well," Eve whispered to herself, the d.a.m.ned tears threatening once again. G.o.d she hated that man, on so many levels.

He was the worst host, the finickiest vampire, and the most obnoxious, pompous know-it-all in the entire world. Even the way he played card games was irritating, always making those precise little tallies of figures and sipping at his coffee long after she knew for a fact it had grown cold. People who drank cold coffee were creepy and any man who would treat her like an unappetizing piece of a.s.s was downright evil.

"Evil creep," Eve muttered, picking up the delicate little whip she had fantasized being used on her bottom and throwing it across the room. Suddenly she really wasn't in the mood to be punished, especially not by a cold blooded jerk who thought she was too irritating to warrant a nice, friendly, no strings attached roll in the hay. No, she was more in the mood to dish out a little punishment, thank you very much.

Eve began to hum under her breath as a plan formed in her ever-fertile mind. She was suddenly glad Leo was paranoid enough to make sure each of his guest rooms had an escape route in case rogue immortal slayers breached his defenses. As if any immortal slayer would bother with him. He didn't even drink human blood, for G.o.d's sake. Even if one managed to 'penetrate his keep,' they would probably die of boredom before they managed to do Leo any harm.

"You lost your chance to penetrate this keep, buddy," Eve said, trying not to think about how very not so bored she had been a few minutes ago as she wiggled out the narrow window of her room and landed with a soft thud at the top of the steps that curved around the outside of the tower.

Eve took the narrow steps two at a time, not the least bit phased by the fact that they were several centuries old or that there was absolutely nothing to keep her from a five-story fall if she were to lose her footing. She was a vampire, and mostly indestructible. Even if she weren't, Eve had never been a 'hold onto the guardrail' type of girl. If she had been, she wouldn't have come to this castle in the first place and she certainly wouldn't be going out of her way to put a bee in the bonnet of one of the most powerful vampires in the world.

But then, love can make a girl a little crazy.

"l.u.s.t, you mean l.u.s.t," Eve reminded her subconscious before she stepped off the final flight of steps and disappeared into the woods.

"Find her!!" Leo screamed into the pale and terrified faces of the sixteen servants he managed to acquire over the centuries. They were all brilliant, faithful, committed people who he paid well and usually treated better, giving them not only the gift of immortality but his loyalty and protection as well. He hadn't yelled at a single one of them in at least fifty years, let alone the entire lot at once. But he was not in a good mood, to put it mildly, and Ernst in particular had already more than earned his way onto the s.h.i.t list.

He watched his staff scatter then turned to storm out the back entrance to the keep, through the sculpture garden, past the gardener's quarters, back to the edge of the grounds where a fifty foot wall of solid stone protected his privacy and in earlier times, his life. Leo scaled the wall easily, not even bothering to remove his shoes. Matilda could polish the d.a.m.n things if they became scuffed; it would serve her right. She had been all for Eve extending her visit and even tried to convince him to move the young vampire's quarters closer to his own to facilitate some sort of midnight rendezvous.

Caroline and Theresa were also traitors and he made a mental note to find exceedingly unpleasant tasks for them as soon as he retrieved his missing houseguest and shipped her out on the first train. Why all the women in his life seemed to think an outrageously annoying girl with purple streaks in her hair would be good for him was beyond his capacity for understanding. Eve wasn't remotely his type, not only because of her looks. Her lack of feminine grace, rough language, and horrendous taste in music were all good reasons for him to find her completely unappealing.

Unfortunately, no matter how many good reasons he could find to loathe the girl, he couldn't seem to keep from thinking about her, dreaming about her, imagining what it would feel like to peel those skin tight leather pants off her curvy body and kiss his way up the inside of her thighs. He had been so close to losing control in her room it had shocked him. The very coa.r.s.e language he couldn't stand to hear coming out of her pretty little mouth nearly drove him to rip off their clothes and do exactly the things she was suggesting. He longed to slide his fingers deep inside her wet center, to feel her lips closing around the head of his c.o.c.k before he threw her onto the bed and drove himself mindlessly inside her until he felt her body tighten in ecstasy around his own.

Leo shuddered as he landed on the opposite side of the rock wall, the memory of how much he had desired Eve enough to send a fresh wave of nearly painful need straight down to his unruly member. He hadn't had a woman in years, far too many years-that was the only reason he craved Eve so badly. It wasn't that she was the first person to make him laugh out loud in a century, it wasn't that he enjoyed the unpredictability she introduced into his life, and it surely wasn't that his heart was softening towards her.

He didn't have a heart to soften, had firmly locked that part of himself away a hundred years ago when Stephen became a master vampire and left his protection, taking Leo's love of over a century with him. Marian had been everything to him, his greatest comfort, his love, his treasure, the reason that he looked forward to living another day. She had been his mate in every way except that final formal ceremony--- that near death exchange of blood to bind them forever.

But Marian had never been willing to take that final step and Leo hadn't pressed her, more than happy with their life together just as it was. Then one evening, he awakened to find her and his oldest friend gone and nothing but a note saying they were in love and starting a new life together in America to explain what went so terribly wrong. And now, a hundred years later, Stephen sent this girl to torment him, Eve with her angel face that reminded him so much of Marian, and her American ways that were the complete opposite of his gracious, refined first love.

Refined and unfaithful, graciously cutting your heart from your chest.