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He could smell the blood even from the distance that he was. The moment the wind shifted it carried the allure of her scent with it. It wrapped around him like a warm blanket as he found himself rooted to where he stood. A low, guttural growl escaped him as he closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. The aroma was more intoxicating than any wine he had ever tasted and just as sweet.
“I know you’re out here, rabbit!” he screamed out into the darkness. Hunching his shoulders back, he leaned his body back as he sniffed the air once again. “I can smell you! There’s no point of trying to hide!”
Her heart was pounding in his chest. He could hear each heartbeat as it vibrated against his eardrums. Oh, how his fingers itched to touch that soft, pale skin of hers. To feel the heat of her flesh at his fingertips as he ran his fingers over her bare body.
That is when he heard the gasp. A smile creeping over his lips when he heard that gentle breath as she sucked in the cold air surrounding them. His smile grew as he wondered if she possibly could read his mind. To hear all the dirty thoughts he had about her. What he wanted to do to he when he finally caught her.
He was hungry. Not only for her blood but for her as well.
Licking his lips, he began to stalk his prey again. The everchanging wind was making it harder to hewn in on her scent. It seemed to be coming from everywhere around him. Even just the taste of the scent on his lips made his senses heighten, made him stronger.
“Come out, Emma!” he called out. “There’s no use in hiding any longer.”
A twig snapped, spinning him around. His eyes adjusting quickly to the void of light encompassing him. Wiping the back of his hand over his lips, he stared at her with a need that was so intense his skin was lit on fire. Burning with lust and hunger.
“I knew you wouldn’t hide from me long,” he growled.
Shaking her head, she tried to speak but no words came out. She was exhausted from running, from hiding from him. There was no doubt that she was one of his strongest preys that he had ever encountered for a human. That is what made the hunt more fulfilling.
Her body trembling as he drew closer to her. Emerald eyes staring at him with fear. Her chest heaving as she tried to fill oxygen starved lungs.
“Please…”
A brow lifted when he heard her finally put a voice to what she wanted to say. Was she begging him? he thought.
Like an animal surveying its target right before it attacks, he began to circle her as she stood there. His eyes focused on each movement of her body. The heaving of her chest as she tried to breath. The emerald eyes to followed him as he stalked around her. The bottom lip sucked in as she bit down on it. Arms wrapped around herself to shield her body from the cold and to try to hide her shaking hands.
The fear in her eyes was arousing. Someone who was quick with her quips and words dripping with sarcasm was now unable to speak except for that small whisper of a word.
Please…
“Say it,” he said as his warm, brown eyes that had turned red with thirst bore into her. His voice low, raspy. When she did not respond, he stepped behind her and brought himself up behind her closely. “SAY IT DAMNIT!”
Her body started, a yelp escaping her when he screamed at her. Tears streaking down her dirty face as she shivered.
“Please…” she repeated.
Clicking his tongue on top of his mouth, he wagged a finger at her as he began to circle her again. “Tsk, tsk, sweet rabbit. You know what I want.”
When he came up around her side once again, he found her emerald eyes meeting his as her head tilted back with newfound defiance. A wicked, toothy grin appeared on his face as he watched her force her body to still itself. Her hands lowering to her side to ball up in fists. Willing herself to steady her breath and slow her heartbeat.
“There it is…” he purred.
His fingers lifted to run across her matted, filthy hair as he rounded her once again. Plucking several stray leaves that had attached from her soft brown tendrils, he flicked them to the ground.
“Why do you keep fighting it? Hmm, Emma?” he asked as his hand lowered to run his index finger across her upper back as he circled her this time. He was proud to see her eyes darken with anger as she kept them on him with each pass he made. “You need to admit it. You’ve thought it but you’re too scared to admit it.”
“No,” she blurted out. “You’re not.”
He paused when he was directly in front of her. His hand lifted to run his finger down her bare arm, a whisper of a touch that she may not even feel but with his hypersensitivity it was like electric surging through his veins.
“You know I am.”
“You’re not!”
His brows lifted as his eyes widened slightly. He could hear her heartbeat changing rhythms. The odor of fear was turning into something much more delicious to him. Cupping her chin firmly in his left hand, he held her gaze as he brought his eyes down to meet hers. Raising his right hand, he brushed the back of his hand softly across her bruised cheek.
“You know I am. You’ve thought it, I know you have. That inquisitive mind of yours, always thinking, studying. It was a matter of time before you would push the fairy tales and romantic nonsense out of your mind and find the cold hard facts staring right at you.” Releasing her chin, he ran his fingers along her neck to behind her head to twine his fingers in her hair. “You probably thought who would get you first.”
Her breath halted so quickly any normal person would never had noticed but he heard it, felt it in his touch. Smiling, he lowered her lips against her left ear.
“Was it Mason? Did the thought of him taking you some night in the throes of him driving into you as he fucked you relentlessly?”
Her eyes fluttered shut. “No…” she whispered.
Placing a soft kiss on her earlobe, he lifted his head to move it to the other ear. “Or maybe Felix. All soft, warm. Luring you with a tender hug?”
She tried to shake her head but could not move with the hold he had on her. “No…”
He placed another kiss on her ear before pulling away once again. He growled as he gripped her hair tighter in his fingers to tug it back.
“No…no…no,” he said as his rage filled eyes held her trapped in his gaze. “It’s him. Isn’t it?”
Her lips parted to protest again but he stopped her by placing his finger over her lips. His lips pursed as he shushed her.
“Don’t deny it, rabbit. Lying is so unbecoming of you.” He released his hold of her hair and smoothed it out gently. Wiping the tears from her cheeks, he smiled. “I’ve seen you look at him. The way you stare at him.”
He moved his hands down to her shoulders and spun her around to bring her back flush against his chest. Wrapping his right arm around her upper body, he held her tight against his body while his left hand lifted to stroke her hair. Bringing his lips down, he pressed a kiss against her temple.
“You must think I’m blind to not see how the two of you look at each other. How when he’s … training you … his hands are all over you. Touching you in ways that only I should,” he said, keeping his voice low and steady. His breath against the goosebump covered skin of her neck. “Or when you think you’re alone in the library, acting like you’re reading. The way your eyes stray over him with desire.”
His embrace tightened around her chest, pulling her back harder against his strong chest. A feral snarl coming from his throat.
“My library! With that sanctimonious, angst driven commander of ours. Adam.” Feeling her body shiver beneath him at his hold. “Shhhh…” Waiting for her to steady her ragged breath, he smiled. “You want him, I know. He’s strong, maybe stronger than I am. Why wouldn’t you want to have him toss you down and devour you. To illicit your cries as that guilt riddled prick holds you against him as he fucks you right there. Probably right on my desk, in my sanctuary.”
He ran his tongue lazily over her earlobe, smiling when she shivered. Her bottom rubbing against his groin as she did so. She shook her head to protest.
“No.”
“Don’t lie to me, Detective Kingston.”
She lifted her hands to place them on his wrist. He allowed her to pull his arm away from her where it was wrapped around her. She slowly turned around to face him. Nothing forcing her to do so, Emma lifted her eyes to look up at him.
“Never. Not Morgan. Not Felix. Not Adam.” Her hands lifted to place them on his scruffy cheeks. “Only you.”
“Me? You mean the monster that I am? The wrenched, gnarled version of me?”
It was like the fear, the pain that she held evaporated in her gaze. That softness that she showed him when they were alone. The tenderness that he hadn’t felt for centuries.
“Only you, Nathaniel.”
His eyelids closed slowly as he sucked in a deep breath. His head was throbbing, his skin prickled beneath her touch as she held his face in her hands. The gentle voice, the way she said his name. Just not his name but his full first name.
“Nathaniel.” She lifted herself up on her toes. Placing a kiss on his forehead, she urged him to rest his forehead against hers. “It has always been you.”
He jumped with a start, gasping for air. His heart pounding in his chest as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, trying to regain his senses.
He was in his bedroom. At the warehouse.
A soft, gentle hand ran slowly across his sweat soaked spine. It wasn’t until he heard his name called out to him in the darkness.
“Nate…”
He couldn’t bring himself to speak. All he could do was pull away from the hand reaching out to him as he shook his head.
“Nate…” Emma said as she moved closer to him. She fought against his hands that tried to push her away, taking them into her own hands and held them tightly. “Nathaniel. Look at me.”
His head shook, his eyes. “I’m a monster. A killer,” he said as she continued to attempt to push her away.
“Stop,” Emma said as she crawled up onto his lap.
Nate was sitting in the center of the bed as she climbed up to straddle his legs. Her hands come up to cover his cheeks as she leaned closer to try kiss him only to have him pull away.
“Please,” she whispered as she stared at him, worry filling her emerald eyes. “Nate…please.”
His eyelids slowly opened but he couldn’t bring himself to look at her. Emma was not going to allow it. She moved her head to the side to make him look at her.
“Damnit, Nate. Look at me,” she said, her voice demanding as if she was trying to give orders to one of the officers she worked with or a person she met in the field. She exhaled heavily. “Please, look at me.”
Eyes shifting, he turned to face her as she requested. His warm brown eyes meeting hers to see worry in them.
“It was just a nightmare. That’s all it was.”
“But it wasn’t, Emma,” he protested. “It was real. I was hunting you down like an animal. All I could think about was biting you. I wanted to – “ He stopped himself, not able to continue his confession to her. Embarrassed by his words, his shame that he could even think it. “Why would you want to be with me?”
Cocking her head to the side, she smiled at him. “Because I love you.”
His eyes widened hearing her words. Lips parting to tell her she shouldn’t, he was stopped. Her lips came down over his. Soft, gentle, caring as she moved closer to him to him. When she pulled away slightly, he found himself starving for air as if she took his last breath from him.
“You’re a vampire. I know that. It’s weird,” she said, smiling when she saw the look he gave her. “Nothing has changed. I trust you with my life or I wouldn’t be here. I would have asked my mother to lock me away where no one would find me.”
“How can you, Emma?” he asked, his hands slowly moving up her knees that rested against his hips. Moving them slowly to her waist, he held her. “You don’t know what I can do? How I hunger for you in a way that should make you want Rebecca to protect you.”
She shook her head before kissing his forehead. “Because no one can protect me like you can.” She placed a kiss on his left temple. “Or give me a headache when you’re being stubborn about me doing my job.” Moving her head, she kissed him on the right temple. “Or make me wild with desire like you can.” She pulled away slightly and then kissed him once again on the lips. “Only you. No one else. Just you.”
He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her tightly against his body as he kissed her. Her body pressed against his as his hands ran up her back to hold her close to him. He was afraid to let her go, holding her as if he was holding a life preserver in a raging storm.
Emma pulled away slightly and held his gaze. “We all have nightmares, Nate. Ones that haunt us when we don’t want them to. Make us fear what we are or what we can become.” Shaking her head, she stopped him from speaking. “Whatever happened in your dream, you don’t have to tell me. Not until you want to. You should know that over the last several months I’ve not been the easiest to sleep with because of my own nightmares.”
His head slowly nodded. “I love you, Emma Kingston. I don’t tell you that enough.”
Smiling at him, she lowered her hands from his cheeks to his shoulders. “Well then tell me it again.”
Pulling her against him, he kissed her. “I love you.” He kissed her again before hugging her tightly. “Thank you.” He paused and smiled. “For…everything.”
“Anytime,” she said. She kissed him one more time. “Now, take me out for breakfast.”