chapter Four
I wonder if it’s a crime to kill the undead,” Noelle said aloud, then immediately qualified that thought. “Not that Dark Ones are undead. And Gray is very much alive.” She spent a few minutes reliving the taste of him as he kissed her, the feel of him so hard and hot beneath her hands as she stroked his chest and back. “Very alive. But an idiot nonetheless.” She shook her head and got to her feet.
Men were much more complicated creatures than she’d been led to believe. As she picked her way through the tangled and overgrown garden to the lower level, she tried to pin down just what it was about Grayson that attracted her. He was certainly sexy as hell, with that chin and those eyes and a classically handsome face. Her hands itched to touch his flesh, to stroke the long lines of his back down to his tempting behind, to feel the hard muscles of his thighs, to sculpt the swells and curves of his chest and abdomen. But it was more than his body that had her feeling that she was caught up in a whirlpool of emotions. He held so much darkness within him, such pain, bound together in a noble belief that he was destruction to anyone allowed near him.
“He has no faith,” she told herself as she caught sight of Teresa and Raleigh filming Miles before the marble statue of a woman being wooed by a swan. “The problem is whether I can change that or not, and whether… oh, dear. That can’t be good.”
She stopped just outside the range of Raleigh’s camera, watching with a slight pucker between her brows as the ghostly Nostredame, waggling his eyebrows at Teresa, allowed himself to be interviewed by Miles.
“—said there was a treasure here at the Abbey. Is this a treasure that you left when you were amongst the living?” Miles asked the ghost.
“I left many things behind,” Nosty said with a look of smug maleness. “Both boys and girls.”
Noelle rolled her eyes as she moved to stand next to Teresa, who asked her in an undertone, “Are you all right?”
“Of course.”
“You two were going at it pretty hot and heavy,” Teresa pointed out. “I’m assuming that is the man you said kidnapped you earlier? The one you just met?”
“Yes, that’s him. Isn’t he gorgeous?”
“His appearance isn’t what was worrying me, although yes, he was pretty handsome. I’ve known you forever, Noelle, and you’ve never been the ‘jump at a man you’ve just met’ sort of girl.”
Noelle smiled to herself. “Gray is different.”
Theresa rolled her eyes. “That’s what they all say.”
“I know, but you have to trust me about this. When I say different, I mean really different.”
Teresa said nothing more but gave her a knowing look that Noelle dismissed. Her attention turned to the scene in front of her, watching the ghost with a nagging worried feeling. What was it about Nosty that had Gray so upset? Was it the mention of a treasure? No, he’d tensed up when Nosty had first mentioned the history of the house, particularly Gray’s family. Perhaps, in the interest of finding out what had happened to leave Gray vitiated, she would have to do a little investigating.
“Then who did hide the treasure in the Abbey?” Miles asked, trying manfully to keep the ghost’s attention on himself. “Was it one of your ancestors who lived here?”
“I’ve told you, I don’t know who left it. I was a visiting monk when this was an abbey, so I didn’t really live here. The family who did live here later used to talk about the treasure and how someday they’d find it. No one ever did.” Nosty shrugged. “I never looked for it myself. There were so many other things to interest me.”
“How utterly fascinating,” Miles said. “Now, tell us about yourself, how you died for love, and what happened to the nun you seduced.”
Noelle tuned out the story that followed, certain that it would contain little actual truth and, most likely, a whole lot of fiction. Instead, she pondered the mystery that was Gray, what could have happened to him to leave him the victim of a demon lord’s wrath, and how she was going to bring the infuriatingly obstinate man around to see reason.
Those thoughts were still with her two hours later, when Nosty had run out of both energy to remain visible and patience with Miles’s endless questions about what life was like “beyond the misty veil.” She lay in her sleeping bag in the communal music room, staring up at the patterns of shifting light cast from Miles’s shaded camp lantern, wondering what Gray was doing at that moment. Gentle snores from both Raleigh’s and Teresa’s respective sleeping bags lulled her into a semisleeping state but still conscious enough to catch the whispered sound of cloth moving against cloth.
Careful not to move her body, she cracked open one eye and lifted her head, catching just the momentary flash of Miles’s hand as he closed the door behind himself. That was odd. Miles didn’t care for the dark and seemed to have an aversion to wandering the house by himself. Hmm. With a glance toward the other two sleepers, she slid out of her sleeping bag and silently made her way out of the room, pausing in the long, dark hallway to consider which way Miles would have gone. She didn’t think it was likely that he’d go into another of the rooms that opened off the corridor, which left the main hall.
With a stealthy tread, she crept toward the hall, but it was as black as midnight. Frowning, she retraced her steps to the corridor, wishing she’d thought to bring her flashlight. She didn’t want to risk waking up either Teresa or Raleigh with the noise of rustling through her bag for one, however, so she simply moved from door to door, alert for any sounds of movement as she opened each a crack.
It wasn’t until she was on the second floor that she glimpsed a flicker of light under one of the doors. “Found you, Miles,” she said softly as she opened the door, prepared to fire off a number of questions about just what he was doing creeping around the house.
The words froze on her lips as the sight of a naked derriere filled her vision. A wet, naked derriere, one belonging to an equally wet, naked Dark One. As her eyes grew round with the glory that was Gray, he spun around. Judging by the little wisps of steam coming from an adjoining room and a rumpled towel on the floor, he’d just had a shower.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he demanded.
Her gaze dropped to his genitals, her mouth going suddenly dry as she let her eyes wander from his endowments to the strong line of his legs, back up to his stomach and chest, and then back to his groin. To her amazement, he was becoming aroused, an effect that left her staring with even more fascination. “Um… hmm?”
Hands on his adorable hips, he glared at her, saying, “Stop doing that!”
“Stop what?” she asked, unable to tear her gaze from him. “Staring at your privates?”
“Yes. Stop it. It’s annoying me.”
She entered the room and closed the door behind her, her eyes still on his growing length. “Actually, I think it’s arousing you, unless you can be annoyed and aroused at the same time. Gray?”
“What?” he snapped, not moving to cover himself, a fact that Noelle highly appreciated. She was aware that Johannes was curled up on the bed, watching them, but she had eyes only for the tortured, delicious vampire before her.
“I’m not going to give up on you,” she managed to say, which was a miracle considering that her tongue was glued to the roof of her mouth. “I know you’re trying to drive me away, but I’m not going to let you do that. You need me. I can help you. I’m a Guardian, and your Beloved, whether you want to admit it or not, and you can either be miserable and irritating and unhappy and refuse to let me help you—which won’t matter, because I’ll help you anyway—or you can realize that you’ve been blessed and get down on your knees and thank me daily for making your life worth living again.”
He looked for a moment as if he was going to explode.
“Was the knees bit too much?” she asked, worried for a moment that he might do himself some sort of damage if he kept all that anger bound inside.
“Yes,” he said in a choked voice. To her surprise, however, he didn’t scream and yell or deny any of what she said. He simply marched over to the bed, picked up the cat, and put him into the adjoining room before closing the door. He strode toward her, his eyes glittering, and before Noelle could ask him if he was really very annoyed with her, he scooped her up and tossed her onto the bed, following her down onto the mattress.
“Gracious me, what… oh, Gray!” Her eyes rolled backward as he pulled her sleep shirt over her head, leaving her clad in nothing but a scanty pair of satin underwear. His mouth descended upon one suddenly heavy, wanting breast, while his fingers stroked and teased the other one. She clutched at his head, her back arching up.
So soft. He groaned as his tongue tormented her breast, making it ache with a need she had never before known. So warm.
You’re hungry again. She was amazed that she could form words in the face of such wonderful sensations. It was as if his hands and mouth were made of fire, sending tendrils of heat radiating out of her chest and down her belly to deep, secret places.
I’m always hungry when I’m near you. The voice of his thoughts in her mind was as rough as sandpaper, his breath growing ragged as he switched breasts, his hand stroking downward, feeling her belly before sliding even lower to tease the source of her heat.
You may want to drink my blood, but I want to bite you all over, she answered, squirming when his fingers moved beneath her underwear to find sensitive flesh.
He lifted his head from her breast, an odd look in his lovely green eyes. “No one has ever bitten me.”
She grinned and pushed at his shoulders until he obliged and rolled over onto his back, a quizzical frown between his brows. She got to her knees, quickly divesting herself of her underwear before leaning over his chest, taking a moment to swirl her tongue over his pert little nipples. He sucked in his breath. “Christos, woman!”
“You think that’s good? Let’s try this…” Her teeth closed gently around one nipple. Grayson almost came off the bed, his mind filled with a desperate need that was echoed in her own head.
“You’re trying to kill me, aren’t you?” Gray growled as he grabbed her by her hips and pulled her over his body. “Ride me!”
“I beg your pardon?” Noelle moaned and closed her eyes as the length of his arousal pressed along parts that were suddenly sensitized beyond human belief. Goodness, Gray!
He reached between them, shifting her upward and placing himself in position. “Ride me!”
She wanted to; oh, how she wanted to. There was nothing more she wanted at that moment than to sink down on the hard length of him, to taste him, to give herself up to the passion that only he seemed to be able to stir in her. But she had to be sure he wanted her, really wanted her.
“Yes!” he shouted, urging her hips downward even as he thrust up. “I want you, you delicious, seductive woman. I’ll curl into a ball and dry up into dust, blowing away into nothing, if you don’t take me into you right this second. Open for me, sweet. Let me into your warmth. Fill me with your light.”
The images he was projecting into her head were too much. She sank down on him, her body welcoming the hard invader, muscles rippling around him in a way that had both of them moaning with ecstasy. And then he pulled her forward, down onto his chest, his mouth hot on her neck for a second before white-hot pain burst into a feeling so erotic that it pushed her over the edge into an orgasm.
She collapsed onto him, her body boneless, her mind so overwhelmed with their shared emotions that she could do little but attempt to breathe when he gave a hoarse cry of completion. She did manage to lift her head enough to press a kiss on his damp chest, but even that act seemed too much, because it took her a long, long time to recover.
Slowly, and with muscles that trembled from the unexpected activity, she sat up, her eyes immediately widening. “Dear Lord, you’re still inside me.”
“Don’t… move…” Gray growled, clutching the sheets beneath him. “If you move, I’m going to make love to you again, and you’ve drained every last bit of strength from me. I am as weak as a newborn kitten, as soft as a bowl of jelly. I can’t even make my brain work.”
Noelle shifted her hips, just a little, just to see if she was going to be even the teensiest bit tender after holding him so deep inside her. But her muscles, slowly relaxing from the death grip upon him, sent up a little cheer of happiness and expressed willingness to regroup. “Goodness,” she whispered, rocking forward, her eyes closed as she focused on the sensation of him.
Gray lurched beneath her, and suddenly, she was on her back.
“No,” he said, pulling her legs over his shoulders as he thrust into her. “No, we are not doing this again. It is impossible to contemplate. Stop trying to seduce me, you vixen.”
At the feel of him moving against her, her body tightened again, the pressure building quickly into another moment of rapture. “I’ve never been multi-orgasmic,” she panted as his hips flexed with short, hard little movements that had her eyes crossing. “Oh, dear Lord, yes, do that again.”
“I will not.” He moaned, making the little swivel that hit all sorts of sensitive spots inside her. “I am going to sleep now. You have worn me out with your lusty demands.”
“Glrn,” she babbled, aware that she wasn’t making any sense but unable to do anything about it. Her body spiraled into another orgasm that shook her to her toes, making her shout when Gray turned his head and bit the leg that lay over his shoulder. “I’ve got to… I have to… Gray, we have to Join. Now.” Her voice trailed off into another moan of pleasure, the sensation of his own climax while he fed from her simply too much.
I can’t do that to you.
You don’t have a choice, she answered, grabbing his head when he let her legs slide off his shoulders, twining her tongue around his before nipping the end of it.
He jerked back, his eyes wide as she sucked the tip of his tongue, savoring the spicy, sweet taste of his blood. Christ, woman, do you know what you’ve done?
Yes. We’ve done all the steps of Joining except the sacrifice, and I’ll do that just as soon as I figure out what sort of sacrifice I’ll need to make.
She could feel the conflicted emotions within him—fear, anger, and a grudging admission that the attraction he felt for her was something more than mere lust. She drifted into a haze of sleepy satisfaction, pleasured to the tips of her toes, and was only half aware when Gray pulled the blankets of the massive bed over them, one arm around her waist as she lay limply against him.
He had accepted her. She just knew he had. Life was going to be wonderful now.