He increased his speed and hammered into her wet flesh as she writhed, trying to move but held in place by his body and her pants. "I like you bound. We're going to have to try that more often," he said in her ear.

He loved her beyond redemption. Beyond reason. He would have done anything to have gotten her back. He realized and accepted that as her p.u.s.s.y sucked at him, pulling him back into her body's embrace.

He loved the way she smiled, her laugh, the fearless way she ran her business and stood up for herself. He'd been bowled over by the way she'd softened toward his brother and hadn't shown Alex any of her hesitation about having him with her in her house. He'd been afraid to admit it, but he couldn't deny it any longer. He couldn't hide behind love proxy words and phrases like he'd been falling for her or that he really enjoyed her. No. He loved her.

That realization, along with the way her p.u.s.s.y clutched at him, pushed him over the edge. He increased the pressure on her c.l.i.t and nipple as he felt his o.r.g.a.s.m build, rolling through his body from the tip of his toes to the top of his head. His scalp tingled, and he threw back his head, whispering her name as his pleasure unleashed and poured into her body.

After the waves had crashed over him and she'd come, he bent, laying his head on her shoulder. Breathing hard, he enjoyed the feel of her p.u.s.s.y muscles twitching and grabbing at him. Loved the heat of her skin against his cheek and the scent of her body, of clean sweat and coconut. The scent of their s.e.x mingled in the air.

Getting his breath back, he straightened and stood, tucking himself back into his jeans. Unable to resist, he pressed a kiss at the back of her neck.

Lissette bit her bottom lip to keep from crying out as her climax hit, not wanting to give him any more satisfaction at how much she wanted him. Eyes rolled up into her head, she held onto the bar as he came into her, deep and hard. His body tightened as her name came from him in a soft whisper.

She didn't want to feel the ache of his tenderness when he'd laid his head on her shoulder as he gently pulled out of her body. Didn't want to feel the pounding of his heart against her back and feel like she'd come home again. But she did. She did, and it scared her because if he wanted to hurt her, he very easily could. He had.

Taking the proffered towel he'd pulled from the stack on the bar, she sent him a grudging thank you. Pulling her clothes back on quickly, she laced her pants up without looking at him. She'd deliberately kept her gaze from him, knowing how the sight of him made her heart ache. At the same time, she missed that intensity of connection she always felt with him after they'd had s.e.x.

With a sigh, she grabbed her jacket and headed for the door but halted as he banded an arm around her waist, yanking her back to his body.

"Look at me." No one could issue a demand like Stryker.

She steeled herself as she turned and saw his face. The tenderness there-softening the arrogant, regal features, the way his eyes burned for her, the sweet upturn of lips-it pulled at her, and she couldn't stop herself from reaching out to touch his hair.

"Please don't hold yourself from me. I can't bear to see you so distant. We can work this out. Starting tonight. There are only a few hours before sunrise, so let's get cracking." He raised a brow. "I'm hungry."

Against her better judgment, she laughed. d.a.m.n the man, he was utterly charming. "I've got to make this deposit. You'll have to come with me to the house. You won't be able to get in without me."

He arched an eyebrow at her. "Why? You think Dominic would take your side over mine?" His snort of disbelief brought an echo as she arched her eyebrow in his direction.

"No. But I revoked your invitation."

"You did?" he asked, hurt on his face.

"Yes, Stryker. You're the one who started this whole thing! Why shouldn't I have revoked your invitation? Just a few hours ago I never wanted to see you again, d.a.m.n it!"

Even as she said it, she knew it was a lie. Knew she'd revoked his invitation to keep him out of her bed because if he'd come to her while she was drowsy, she never would have been able to resist her desire and love for him. She shoved a hand through her hair and made a loose knot that she quickly secured. "Oh, never mind. In any case, you need me to get in my house."

He gave her a look that meant he'd be taking up all of those issues later. "And to getto your house, as well. I caught a ride with Nick."

"G.o.d, you're so Machiavellian, it scares me sometimes. Come on, then. It is always nice to have superhuman back up to take so much money to the bank."

He grabbed her hand and wouldn't let her pull away as they walked to her car. * * * *

Admittedly, she did take delight in driving just a bit more recklessly when he was in the car with her. Served the smug b.a.s.t.a.r.d right! Anyway, she needed to concentrate on driving instead of thinking about him. About being in love with a man who was basically a playboy with fangs. The last thing she wanted to think about was the fact that he'd never even told her he loved her. Plus, the comfort of scaring the c.r.a.p out of him was an added bonus.

"Must you drive like you believe you're in a NASCAR race?"

"You're going to damage my door by ripping the leather! Let go. You're gripping it too tight. Wuss. And why do you have to talk that way? Like you're in a book and born a century ago instead of in the early 1960s?"

He snorted but refused to take the bait. "You don't need this little car anyway, Lissie. Why not let me buy you a nice, big, safe SUV? Hmm? This tiny thing is a death trap, and humans are so fragile."

She held back a grin at his worry over her safety, but she couldn't stop her heart from beating faster at his concern. "Can an SUV go from zero to sixty in 0.4 seconds? I think not. Plus, this car is hot and s.e.xy. It gets me major action." She knew she was playing with fire but it was irresistible. It was a good way to keep her distance. And anyway, she was annoyed with him, and he was too fun to antagonize.

"Lissie, if you get any so called action from anyone but me, I'm afraid I'd be most upset. You're hot and s.e.xy enough as it is. The last thing you need is something to add to your allure. You don't know what it does to me to watch other men want you. I don't share. Not now, not ever. Because, Lissette Norris, you are my woman."

The giddy female that lived inside her jumped up and down, squealing at the words but, the other woman, the one who lived in her head, scowled. It made that woman nervous, vulnerable. His woman indeed! Oh, okay, so she liked hearing him say it. She was in love with the pig.

"Hmpf." She had to content herself with that because she didn't have anything else that wasn't embarra.s.sing or a total lie.

The bank run was quick, and she wasn't lying when she said she felt better when he was with her. Superhuman back-up was a big bonus to having a vampire for a boyfriend. Well, there were other bonuses, too. Heh.

"What are you laughing about?" he asked as they pulled into her driveway.

Like she was going to tell him and inflate his ego one bit more. "Nothing. Just thought of something funny. Come on, I need to re-invite you." She approached the front door, tamping down the urge to laugh at his grumbling over her revoking his ability to come into her house at will.

Walking inside she turned back to face him. She did wait an extra two or three seconds to tease him and finally uttered the words, "Xander Stryker, please enter my home."

Walking in through the door with a glare at her, he growled. "I can't believe you did that."

She held her tongue until they were safely inside her bedroom. Once she'd closed the door, she turnedto him with a glare of her own. "I can't believe you didn't have enough respect or feeling for me to cometo me in person andask if Alex could stay. And then you sent me flowers? Instead of coming over here toapologize in person?" Her voice threatened to break.

"I do respect you, Lissie. I sent Henry because I had a huge amount of work to do last night, and it needed to happen before Alex got to town. Christ, you know the tribe doesn't run itself. I had to deal with the new properties we've just acquired and signing off on payroll. And I didn't come over last night because I knew how angry you were, and I wanted to give you a bit of s.p.a.ce. Didn't you like the flowers?"

The look on her face was sour. "What? You think this can be fixed by some pretty posies? You think you can just buy me off? You only came today because of Alex!"

"Bulls.h.i.t! Don't you tell me what I think, Lissie. I came tonight because there was nothing else I could do. I wanted to see you. And yes, I wanted to bring Alex over personally. I would have been here earlier, but I had to stop to feed before I went." After he said it, he realized the stupidity of telling her such a thing.

Her eyes narrowed, and her back went ramrod straight. Where just moments before, the heat of her anger radiated from her, there was now ice.

Her jaw opened just wide enough to let out the words, but they sounded sharp and deadly. "Well, youcertainly can't leave yourdonors waiting. I suppose it's good to be reminded of my relative importance inyour life. After all, I'm just the human you're f.u.c.king."

He was standing before her gripping her upper arms in a firm but gentle hold, lips set in a tight line before she could blink. "Lissie, you're seriously p.i.s.sing me off." One of his hands pulled at the waist of her pants, bringing her body flush with his, and the laces popped open.

"d.a.m.n it! Those pants cost me three hundred dollars," she protested, trying to slap his hands away before he could do any more damage.

But that d.a.m.n vampire speed thwarted her as he pulled them from her body and tossed them aside. "I'll buy you new ones!" he said in a growl.

"That's not the point!"

"I know!" he yelled back, pulling her shirt up and over her head. Sighing, he held her, his hands on thesoft skin of her shoulders, lower body pinning her to the bed behind her. "Thepoint is that you are not'just the human I'm f.u.c.king,' Lissette. You're everything to me. Can't you see that?"

The words were like a physical blow to her gut. To her heart. She stopped struggling and looked into his face. His ice blue eyes were sincere. His hands on her skin were warm and skilled, even as they only held her. But more than that, his presence was a brand on her soul, on her heart. He only had to be there, and she wanted him. For more than the great s.e.x. She wanted him forever.

Heart pounding, she found her voice. "How can I see that, Stryker, when you send a lackey to call in a marker for something I thought you did for me out of affection? All you had to do wasask. " Without wanting or meaning to, she arched into him. Their bodies had a language all their own as he pressed into her, pulling an unwilling gasp from her lips. Desire, hot and heady, hung in the air between them like a spell.

Kissing the tip of her nose, he moved to pull off his shirt, and kick off his pants and shoes. He was back beside her, naked and hard in a matter of moments. She could have her hair in curlers and wearing a paper bag, and he'd want her. She was magic to him.

"I'm sorry. I was a coward not to ask you myself. I knew you'd be p.i.s.sed, and I didn't want to face it. But it wasn't because I don't respect you. Never that, Lissie." He traced lazy circles around her nipple with a fingertip as he spoke.

She bit her lip as the circles of pleasure broke over her skin. Steadying herself to speak, she took a deep breath. No matter how much she wanted him inside her body right then, the issue of those b.i.t.c.hes needed to be dealt with. "But you-once again-choose those donor b.i.t.c.hes over me."

The women who were his donors were a sore subject between them. It wasn't just territory they'd gone over and over, it was scorched earth.

"Sweetheart, we've gone over this before. I didn't choose them over you. I fed. You know I'm not f.u.c.king any of them. I haven't since you and I began to see each other. There's beenno one but you since the first day I touched you. And I can't feed from you every day. You'd develop anemia, and you know how much I hate bottled blood." He simply was not going to allow her to use anger to keep him out anymore. He'd gentle around her defenses, seduce her out of her sh.e.l.l.

Putting her hand over her eyes, she exhaled with palpable sadness. "I don't want to have this discussion again, Stryker. It makes me hate you, makes me hate myself," she mumbled.

He gently pulled her hand away and looked at her with a soft smile. "You don't hate me, Lissie."

"You are so d.a.m.ned arrogant. It drives me crazy." Sitting up with a growl of annoyance, she pushed him off and jumped off the bed. She stalked into her bathroom, slamming the door. After turning on the taps and checking the temperature of the water, she stepped under the spray and wished the day was over. However, she wasn't surprised when he came into the bathroom and got into the shower behind her. She knew it couldn't be that easy. He'd never give up.

"Lissie, my sweet, why are you so determined to be mad at me?" He paused for a moment, soaping up her back and neck. "I thought I made you happy."

She was silent for a moment, trying to gather her words. "You do. Most of the time." Despite his recent admission, it still ate at her that she felt so much more for him than he appeared to feel for her. It wasn't that he was inattentive or neglectful. Most of the time he was very sweet and attuned to her.

But she loved him. She loved him, and he was a f.u.c.king vampire king who had a harem of ten women that writhed all over him every night when he woke up. It wasn't so much that they gave him blood. h.e.l.l, it wasn't even that they got off from his feeding from them. It was that they all wanted to have s.e.x with him and repeatedly threw themselves at him. It was enough to give even the most self confident of women a complex! She didn't do vulnerable well, and this man made her feel it with a sting.

Oh, and his bats.h.i.t crazy mother. The one who wanted to break them up and wanted to kill a twelve year old boy. Oh, and probably her now that she'd taken him in.

And she couldn't get the sight of him with Cherry at her bar out of her head either.

There were, she realized with a start, a lot of things making her feel unhappy about their relationship. Love wasn't everything and certainly not enough to live with feeling insecure all the time. But she had no idea what to do about it. Try as she might, she couldn't imagine her life without Stryker in it. Even the last day without him was h.e.l.l.

"You're thinking. Tell me. You can trust me, you know." He ma.s.saged the shampoo into her scalp. She was so p.r.i.c.kly, and so dear to him. She was also p.r.o.ne to over thinking each and every thing that came up. He had no idea what was going on inside that gorgeous head of hers, but he knew enough to understand it was his job to fix it.

"I thought you were going to feed from me." She stepped back, bringing her body into full contact with his. Tilting her head, she bared her neck to him, exposing the flesh for him to bite.

He knew it for the stalling tactic that it was, and he tsked under his breath. "Mmmm hmm. I will. Later." He pulled her out of the tub and quickly toweled off, turning to watch her. Impatient as she dried her shower flushed skin-bare and dewy-he grabbed the towel from her hands and tossed it on the counter. Taking her hand, he pulled her into the bedroom and pushed her gently onto the bed, moving to stand beside it.

She looked up at him, into his face as he loomed over her, blocking out the light. All she could see was him-his face with those high cheekbones, those ice blue eyes, the cruel but carnal lips, the rakish blond hair that grazed his shoulders. She loved that face. Loved the way he moved, the ripple of muscle under his skin. She let it happen, pushed away everything else for the time being to appreciate him.

Her eyes traveled down and over broad shoulders with flat hard muscle, a tight stomach, lightly furred with the same golden arrow of hair trailing southward. Long legs, powerful thighs, andoh the c.o.c.k . She looked her fill and got a wicked smile as it hardened at her perusal. She'd never felt anything as good as him inside of her. He was meaty and thick, capable of filling her up to just about too much.

The way she looked at him always did him in. No one in the world ever looked at him with that combination of yearning, desire and adoration. She saw pretty deeply into him, and it used to scare him. Now he wanted to be sure she saw all the way, right into the place in his heart where she lived.

"I love the way you look at me," he said softly, kneeling beside the bed. He pulled her b.u.t.t to the edge of the mattress and smoothed his palms up the inside of her thighs. Pushing them apart, he looked at her, p.u.s.s.y spread open to his gaze. "And I love this. Your p.u.s.s.y so pretty and glistening with honey. Swollen and slick-ready for me. Me and only me. I love how you're always ready for me." Holding her open with his thumbs, he leaned in and took a long lick, giving her aching c.l.i.t a flick with the tip that made her gasp.

She slid her hands over her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, cupping their weight in her hands. His eyes darkened to a deep gray-blue as he watched her touching herself. She watched him watch her hands, his teeth gently grazing over her c.l.i.t, tongue spearing into her. They both moaned as she pinched her nipples and then tugged on the ring. His hands were holding her up to his mouth, as if he were serving her p.u.s.s.y to himself, fingers digging deep into the flesh of her a.s.s.

He sucked her c.l.i.t in between his lips, bringing a squeal of delight from her as she arched into his mouth.

Pressing two fingers slowly into her, he hooked them, making a come here motion. He found her sweet

spot, and stroked over it the way he knew she liked.

"Oh G.o.d, Xander, that's so good."

The murmur of his first name on her lips instead of her usual insistence on calling him Stryker, sent more blood rushing to his c.o.c.k. That deepening of intimacy hardened him to the point of near pain. He could taste her desire, hear her yearning for him.

Flicking his tongue over her c.l.i.t, he reached out, his strong hands pulled her even closer to his mouth as that sensitive flesh came into contact with the edge of his teeth. His fingers f.u.c.ked into her and then over that sweet spot in a continuous movement of into and across wet flesh.

He watched her hands as she touched herself, his eyes sliding up to hers, half lidded and liquid with desire. He'd never seen anything so beautiful in his life, never wanted anyone more desperately.

He knew by the quicksilver change in her taste, her climax was there. Her back bowed off the bed just moments later as her thighs clamped over his ears. Lost in her own flood of pleasure, she pressed herself into his face, and he took every bit that she was offering and more until her thighs fell open and she sighed, satiated.

He arched up and laved the vein on her inner thigh, taking a moment to revel in the feel of her pulse beat under his tongue. Incisors, hard and waiting to strike, slid across her skin, opening her, pulling her rich, velvety blood into his body. The essence of her life exploded through his system like nothing else ever had.

"Oh G.o.d." She groaned, clutching his head as he drank from her. Endorhpins rushed through her system as climax claimed her again. The interaction of the chemicals in his saliva and her blood created an explosion of pleasure that was the byproduct of a vampire feeding on a human. But between them it was far more. It was a twinning of their lives again, a stronger statement than mere words could make about how each felt about the other.

He took her in, knowing her more intimately than he deserved to. This woman was someone so special, so strong and s.e.xy. Sharing her blood was like a sacrament. She filled him up in ways he was afraid to ponder too deeply but could no longer avoid.

Drawing his tongue over the bite, he moved up her body and rolled, pulling her on top of him. Her hair was a glorious cloak of flame around her shoulders, her lips swollen from his kisses, skin flushed from pleasure. She rose up on her knees, positioned his c.o.c.k and sank down onto him, bringing a deep moan from them both.

"I love you, Lissette," he murmured, eyes locked with hers. He saw the surprise and the rush of emotion she couldn't hide.

She put a finger over his lips. "Don't. Don't say it if you don't mean it, Stryker. I have no plans to kick you out of my bed, so if you're just saying it because you think it's what I need to hear, it'll only end up hurting."

Seeing the fear in her eyes, he kissed her finger before he pulled it away from his lips. "You're such a wounded bird, love." He stared at her body, at the swell of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, the graceful line of her neck, her beautiful blue eyes, the heart shaped face with the rosebud lips, and the smattering of freckles across her nose. He loved every bit of her.

"I don't just say things-especially not to you. I love you, Lissie. I've loved you for a while now. I suppose it took the thought of losing you to make me admit it to myself and say it out loud."

She arched, taking him deeper into her body. "I love you, too. Desperately. And it throws me off balance, scares me." The words exploded from her of their own volition.

"You love me?" He grinned.

"Yes, you arrogant b.a.s.t.a.r.d, I love you. I'm easy apparently. All it took was that shipment of bottled blood." Her eyes got sad as she finished, and the memory of his using that as a chip to get her to take Alex in hung in the air between them.