Always before he felt dark, sullied by his proximity and need for the darkness hovering over his prey's bodies. But with Adara, it was as if the lightness in her being absolved him of his actions, the pleasure she produced too d.a.m.n fine to regret.

And yet Trey regretted that he'd had to control her mind in order to control her body. He had told himself he would never do such a thing, not to a woman he genuinely found himself attracted to. But he couldn't help it. Had he not taken her tonight with gentle persuasion, he would have resorted to something uglier. Adara needed time to make up her mind about him. If he could only convince her to come to him of her own free will, that he was not a monster but a dark soul serving the light, then maybe he would have a chance.

Trey sighed. He couldn't get enough of her body to let her make that choice, at least, not yet. He felt sated but needy again. He knew he had taken too much of her blood and so let her rest when he would have taken her again, so soon after their lovemaking. But images of John and what he had done to Sue haunted him and Trey felt an overwhelming l.u.s.t return. He wanted to take Adara from behind forcefully, to plunge his teeth into her delicate neck just as she came around him.

He groaned at her ability to seduce him with mere memories of her body. How had this happened? A mortal woman had taken control of his desires, like an obsession. And now having had her, having felt her wet body milking him of his pa.s.sion, Trey would never be able to have another without thinking of her, without seeing or smelling Adara.

He sighed. Perhaps that was for the best then. He didn't like taking more than blood from his victims. It tainted him more than was good for his already dark soul. Adara, however, lightened him. He could feel a goodness seeping through him and knew it was because of her.

She scooted closer to him and her body brushed against his. He held his breath as she turned and mumbled against his neck. He didn't have much time before the sun rose, but knew he had to have her again.

"Adara, waken, love," he said as he nudged her slightly. She smiled in her sleep and curled closer to him. Trey grinned. He hadn't thought of this but it interested him.

He moved out from under her body and tossed back her covers. He stared down at her gloriously naked body, studying her long legs, the delicate curve of her b.u.t.tocks and her slim back bared as she slept on her stomach. He started caressing her at her ankles, kissing and touching them with reverence as he moved up her body.

She moaned lightly but didn't stir otherwise and he grinned, a full smile that lit his dark face. Then he closed his eyes and savored her body, tasting her honeyed skin against his smooth tongue, fighting the desire to bite her as he rose up her legs. He parted her thighs gently and continued to run his tongue along the inside of her legs.

He could smell his scent on her still and the knowledge turned him as hard as stone. He groaned and kissed her softly, angling to touch her ripe c.l.i.toris with his tongue. She moaned louder as he found her and he gently propped her up with his hands under her stomach as he fed on her sultry essence. He inserted a finger inside of her as he licked her, and soon her body began to move of its own accord.

Trey groaned, a rumble of sound that vibrated against her body, wringing a gasp from Adara.

"What are you doing?" she asked sleepily as her breath caught on another moan. Trey hadn't enthralled her this time but had caught her out of sleep. He could only hope she was too caught up in her desire, as he was, as he continued to fondle her.

"Oh, yes," she moaned and shifted her hips. "Don't stop, Trey," she said.

He ripped his mouth from her wet body, his eyes glittering as he watched her aroused face, her eyes closed in ecstasy, her mouth parted slightly, panting for him.

"I have to stop," he said breathing hard and moved to cover her. He propped her up on her knees and pressed solidly against her b.u.t.tocks, rubbing himself over her as she pressed back against him, groaning. "This will feel so good," he said thickly as his hands moved around to cup her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

His palms grazed her nipples even as his body pressed deeper against her. He needed her desperately, images of what he had fantasized about doing with her dotting his vision.

He quickly rose on his knees and positioned his erection into her honeyed wetness. Then he slowly thrust forward, entering her tight body, her corridor narrower due to this new position. He closed his eyes and groaned his pleasure even as she begged him to move in her.

"You feel so good," he said as he began thrusting in her, his hands clenched on her hips.

"Oh, yes, harder," she moaned and he increased his pace, slamming into her harder and harder as she moaned his name.

"I want you to come all around me," he panted as he continued to thrust. He moved a hand around her hip and gently touched her hard nub, stroking her.

She panted and moved against him, creating an erotic friction that quickly took them to another plane of desire.

As in his fantasies, Trey waited until Adara neared the precipice of her climax before he leaned down to pierce her soft flesh. The feel of his teeth and his p.e.n.i.s embedded deeply in her, his fingers moving magically over her body, sent her into a hard o.r.g.a.s.m. Trey could hear it in her cry and could feel it as she drenched him with her spicy scent. His p.e.n.i.s slid smoothly in and out of her as he swallowed her lifesblood. And then he removed his mouth, not wanting to hurt her as the force of his climax consumed him.

He thrust inside of her and continued to move, his body pumping as he slid through her silken wetness. He gasped and withdrew but his body hadn't finished, and he placed his p.e.n.i.s on her back between her b.u.t.tocks and watched as his milky white desire flowed over her.

He moaned and gripped her tightly, sliding his sensitive shaft through his seed over her back.

"That was incredible," Adara said breathlessly. She looked over her back as he slid over her, her eyes impossibly dark and watchful as she studied his agonized face, still consumed with his o.r.g.a.s.m.

Adara felt another heat wave move through her as she watched him moving on her. How could this be, she wondered? Now that her body had been sated, memories of Trey's actions the night prior invaded her mind. She could smell him on her, could feel the sticky evidence of their actions between her thighs and on her back. And though that made her more aroused and aware of him, it also scared her.

Trey had done something awful last night. He had killed a woman. And then he had overtaken her will and body and given her incredible pleasure even as he came in her body. And his lips, she shuddered, now remembering that he'd plunged his long fangs into her neck and drank her blood, a thought that invoked heated pa.s.sion rather than the disgust she thought she should feel.

As if aware of her disturbing thoughts, Trey eased off of her body and stood beside her bed. Heedless of his nudity, he stood before her proudly.

"I know you need to think about things," Trey said quietly. "And I shouldn't have forced you last night, but I couldn't help it. I was helpless to deny myself your pleasure. And though it was wrong, I cannot be sorry for it," he said softly.

Adara sat up and watched his face carefully as he confessed to her. Much as her thoughts swirled in confusion, she couldn't deny that he'd given her more pleasure than he could possibly know. He hadn't been selfish but had fulfilled her needs as well. Just thinking about what he'd done made her shiver again with need.

"I'll go now, but you know where you can find me. There are things we should talk about and more we have yet to discover," he said softly and stared at her through narrowed lids, a sated male less dangerous but still a definite threat. "And Adara," Trey said softly, his eyes burning with intensity, "don't make me wait too long."

Chapter Seven.

Adara thought long and hard about what to do after Trey left. When the first morning sun shone through her windows, she arose and stepped into her shower to wash away the aftereffects of their pa.s.sion. She sighed and closed her eyes as she rubbed his still warm seed off of her back, felt it drip down her legs. Traces of Trey lingered and made her forget herself, awash in sensuality as she remembered every exquisite detail of his lovemaking.

Adara washed herself clean, unable to get his scent out of her mind. She had been more intimate with Trey in the past few days than she'd been with anyone in her entire life. And he'd treated her body like a temple, worshipping her with his hands, his eyes, his mouth.

She sighed and continued to stand under the warm water running over her. How could she equate the tempting lover of last night with the demon that killed those women? As she wondered about that, she recalled that the woman Trey had killed had been in a jail cell after killing a room full of people. What had Trey said? Something about the darkness of his 'prey' calling to him? He'd wrapped his hand gently around her crucifix, not in the slightest afraid of it or what it meant. And he'd mentioned that he worked for 'Him'. Trey implied that he worked to rid the world of evil, that he fought for light. And yet, at what price, Adara wondered? She turned off her shower and dried off, changing quickly into jeans and a sweater. She thought about Trey throughout the day, wondering about his life and his work.

He owned and operated a very successful nightclub dedicated to serving pleasure to its clientele. She knew he was a very sensuous man, one steeped heavily in the ability to please a woman. And yet, she felt she had had an answering effect on Trey, recalling the stunned look on his face that first day in his office.

She blushed as she remembered it. He said that she had an aura different from those he was used to. She couldn't imagine the hungers that burned through him from day to day. Did he need to feed all the time? Was he really a bad guy, or were all of his victims, like the woman from her vision, evil? Adara had so many questions she wanted to ask him. And yet he had clearly put the next move in her lap.

Adara knew Trey felt bad about taking her will from her last night. But she couldn't hold onto her fear or anger, she thought with a wry grin. Her writer's imagination took over, along with a healthy dose of pa.s.sionate intrigue.

Trey Blackthorne was a woman's finest fantasy come to life. He had made her body buck and seethe with pa.s.sion, had given her such pleasure that she thought she would die. And even though he had tasted her blood, Adara felt a curious heat fill her loins, unable to dredge up even a tinge of disgust for the act.

Adara waited all day, needing answers as much as she needed to feel his hands on her body again. She frowned and wondered if perhaps he had marked her somehow, made her an addict for his touch. Thoughts of what he had done to that woman in the prison cell made her slightly jealous. She didn't like the thought of Trey touching another woman intimately. And his admission that his l.u.s.t had grown, that he could only slake his thirst in a woman's body as well as by drinking her blood angered her further.

"What right do I have over him?" she asked herself. "And do I even want any control over his actions?"

She shook her head, deliberating what to do.

At eleven that evening, she finally gave in to her urges and changed into black jeans and a black pullover. She found herself at the entrance of his club a short time later. One of the bouncers saw her and moved directly to her.

"Mr. Blackthorne is expecting you." He smiled and moved her gently through the doors, refusing to accept any money from her for entering the club. He walked her inside and left her in John's hands.

"Well, welcome back," John said with a broad grin. "I'm so glad to see you again," he said and looked around her.

"Sorry," Adara smiled. "I didn't bring Sue with me. But the last time I talked to her she told me she was looking forward to your next date." Adara had enough sense to note the s.e.xual hunger that flared in his bright blue gaze, oddly enough mirroring Trey's hunger.

Adara stared at John in thoughtful contemplation. Could he also be one of them? But John gave her little time to speculate. Instead, he moved her, not towards Trey's office, but back towards the sophisticated corridor housing private rooms. John guided her around the corridor towards a room at the very end of the hallway.

"Enjoy." He smiled and left her in front of the door.

Adara swallowed audibly and knocked. The door opened immediately before her and she walked in slowly, not able to see much in the black room. The door closed behind her and she jumped.

"Don't be nervous, Adara," she heard Trey murmur to her right before he lit a candle. She stared at his shadowed face with hunger, aware that she couldn't help herself as she touched his face with a soft hand.

He breathed lightly but stepped away from her, lighting the rest of the room in candles on dressers and tables around them.

A large king-sized bed stood along the back wall of the large room and Adara could only stare at it, her body already warming to the idea of sharing it with Trey. She shook her head and sat down in a chair across from Trey, conscious to keep a table separating them.

"I have some questions," she said nervously.

He nodded somberly and sat across from her not speaking.

"I know that you're a vampire. But Trey, do you have to kill to, uh, feed?"

He shook his head. "No. Adara, I only kill those that I am called to kill. I don't like it, but I do it because I have to."

"The black auras," she said and he nodded. "So you see yourself as a messenger, for the light?"

"Yes," he said and sighed. "But since you came into my life, I no longer feel the need for s.e.xual gratification from my victims. I only need drink their blood, those women that must pa.s.s the judgment in a higher court. Adara, it's you that satisfies me now."

Adara stared at him, saw the earnest expression lighting his eyes in the flickering candlelight. "I don't understand this," she said. "But I don't think you're evil."

He sighed. "Thank G.o.d. Adara, I don't understand this any more than you. For some reason you complete me, your light calls to my darkness. You make me happy," he said quietly. "And it's more than your body, though that thrills me." He grinned.

Adara stared at him, not having seen him smile before. It lit up his entire face, made him seem, lighter, more carefree.

"It's you, Adara. I," he paused. "I know it's too soon and I'm not someone you may ever like, but I love you."

Adara stared at him in shock. "You love me?"

He nodded. "I can't explain it. But I know your soul. It's pure and good. And you, Adara, you're good. You could have immediately set the police on me, or worse exposed me. Yet you came here first to get my side of the story."

"I needed to know," she said thoughtfully. His words of love made her heart sing. She felt an answering call deep within her but didn't know if she had the strength to see it through. Loving Trey would be entering a whole new world.

"Adara," he said and moved the table out of his way. He knelt in front of her and lifted her hand to his lips. "Know that I can never harm you, not the woman I love. And no matter what you decide to do about me or yourself, whether you expose me or turn me over to your justice, I will always love you."

Adara stared down at his fervent pledge, her hand warming under his touch.

"But if, well, let's say I stay with you," she said. "You would still have to kill people, right?" Trey nodded sadly. "It's my job, Adara. My true purpose for living. I have to take the guilty away from this world. I'm sorry. I would give you anything I possess to keep you with me, but that is one thing I cannot do."

Adara stroked his hair, soft and silky under her fingertips. "But they really are evil," she said. He nodded. "Trey," she asked. "If you take more of my blood, will that make me like you?"

"No," he said firmly. "That is something that I can do only if you truly desire it. And even then it is a process that does not always take. Adara, my kind has always been likened to evil, but we are a far cry from that. Yes, I live in the darkness. But I don't needlessly seek violence. If you must know the truth, I feared I was getting in too deep with each occurrence. But with you, Adara, my light shines brighter than ever."

Adara smiled down at him, her decision made. "Trey, I love you," she said and watched as his smile lit up his whole face. "I admit this is all new, and I'm still a bit frightened of what you are and what you can do, but I trust you." Trey lifted her into his arms and stood, hugging her to him and swinging her around. "Oh, Adara, you don't know how I've longed to hear you say that. You won't be sorry," he said. He set her down on her feet and kissed her breathless. "And I have so much to share with you," he said as he stared down into her eyes.

"We have only touched upon the wondrous pleasures of my kind," he said and lowered his mouth to bite at his hand. He released it and Adara watched as two dark dots of blood began to fill. "Adara, if you can accept me, I mean really accept me, I offer you my lifesblood. With this gift, we will be connected, always," he said softly.

Adara stared at him, could almost see his dark aura taking on a shimmer of light as she stared at him. She blinked but the image didn't fade. With her heart in her eyes, she smiled and leaned towards him, kissing the soft trail of blood on his hand.

He sighed in pleasure, more so when her mouth moved over the pinp.r.i.c.ks of pain. Adara found to her surprise that his blood called to her, made her desire him immediately.

Adara removed her mouth, a drop of blood on her lips. Trey stared down at her and lowered his mouth to lick the dark red spot. His tongue burned her lip and Adara dragged his mouth to hers, holding him as she ravaged his mouth. She felt a burning hunger to have him, more than she'd ever felt before.

"Adara, come with me." He directed her towards the large bed before she could further arouse him past the point of no return. "I know how much you want this."

Adara looked at him curiously and suddenly found herself staring at his naked body. She gasped only to realize she too stood naked before him.

"I love your body," he said huskily, his hands moving softly over her heaving b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "Come," he said and pulled her down on the bed. "There is something you've been fantasizing," he said with a smile.

"You can read my thoughts?" Adara asked in surprise.

"No. But when we are together, your s.e.xual fantasies call out to me. And you broadcast your wants and needs quite loudly." He smiled, his eyes dark and l.u.s.tful as he stared down at her. "Now let me make you more comfortable," he said smoothly.

Trey lay down on the bed and positioned her on top of him. Adara couldn't think clearly enough to know what fantasy he referred to. She blushed slightly thinking that there had been so many. She knelt over him and bent her head to kiss him when he shook his head mysteriously. She watched in confusion as he nudged her body with his hands to turn around. Then realization dawned on her as she found herself looking down at his throbbing erection.

She closed her eyes in bliss as she felt his warm breath over her c.l.i.toris, his hands dragging her loins down to cover his mouth. As his tongue began stroking her, she heard herself groan and watched as his p.e.n.i.s twitched, growing before her eyes. Awash in sensation, she nevertheless remembered her first encounter with Trey, recalling how her mouth had almost brought him to his knees.

She smiled and leaned down to absorb his scent. Carefully she licked him, her hands caressing his tight shaft and smooth velvet sack with care. She heard him groan against her, could feel the rumble of pleasure course through her body. She lowered her mouth over him and began to tease him. He lunged up into her mouth even as his tongue and lips intensified on her excited body.

His enthusiasm for her touch showed in his attention to her body and soon Adara was fighting to hold on, not wanting to come until she'd brought him to o.r.g.a.s.m. She sucked him further inside of her, tasting and teasing his thick shaft with her tongue until he shuddered and moaned loudly.

And then Adara could take no more. Her climax hit her with stunning force and she sucked harder on his p.e.n.i.s, shattering him as well. She heard him groan and tremble as his body exploded, his hot seed spurting in her mouth. Still awash in her own climax, she greedily swallowed him, their bodies pulsing with the same heartbeat as pa.s.sion reluctantly released them.

Trey exhaled deeply and turned her around, bringing her head down to his chest. "Oh, Adara," he groaned and hugged her tightly. "With you I feel so much lightness. You are truly my heart," he said and kissed her tenderly on the head.