"No, Almonzo." Her voice pleaded. "I need you."

He yanked her up to him. "Define need and then separate it from want." His hand stroked her hair and then his lips met hers with a gratifying exchange of lingering affection. First, he took the lead and then she stole it back. When she took charge, she kissed him deeply. When his mouth began to search, he wandered down her neck to sip on a nipple for what she only defined as a divine evaluation.

She tried to find the mattress by backing up against it. He wouldn't let her find a seat there. Finally, he sat down and pulled her to him. She started to sit on his lap, but he stopped her. "No, bend over."

"When h.e.l.l freezes over."

"It's ice now, baby. Global warming on earth..." he took her hand and wrapped it around his c.o.c.k, "and shivering down in h.e.l.l. I thought you knew."

"Funny." Her eyes narrowed and she glared at him. "Don't spank me. I don't like it." Darian smacked her a.s.s and she didn't want to think about the pleasure and the pain she found from his hand.

"You're going to love it. If you don't, I'll stop. Just say the word." He moved her over his lap and started to caress her bottom.

Smoothing the skin, he made sure his palms didn't find a favored spot, or so she imagined. He felt so d.a.m.n good. His hands just scanned and touched and moved a smoothing and gentle sensation throughout her body. Heaven on earth, she lived it. She felt like she floated among the angels whenever he touched her.

Smack! Smack! Smack!

"What the h.e.l.l?" Sweet mercy, her p.u.s.s.y tingled with the three love-pats he gave her. She felt the slap in her center. d.a.m.n it all, she liked it from the first strike.

"Gentle, baby, gentle." His hands went back to work smoothing out the sting. He worked in a sensual ma.s.sage with tender loving care.

Smack! Smack! Smack! They weren't easy slaps. He wanted them to burn. It was obvious in the way he prepared the skin before he struck his palm against it.

Her v.a.g.i.n.a responded again and she knew the evidence of her desire seeped onto his leg. Drenching need seeped from her body. Her p.u.s.s.y was on fire.

Hot and needy, his fingers went there to ascertain the damage. She harbored it. "Let me see how much you hate this." His hand separated her thighs and three fingers moved into her. "That's it, baby. Hate it some more." He leaned over and kissed her back and by the way his mouth sc.r.a.ped across her skin, he did it with a smile.

Smack! Smack! Smack!

"d.a.m.n you, Almonzo!" Her breathing picked up and her s.e.x seemed to grind into his thigh with a rotation of desire-filled patterns.

Stroking sensations began again. He rubbed and soothed her a.s.s before moving his fingers in behind her to reach for her damp p.u.s.s.y. This time, her walls were clenching tightly around his strokes. "Let me come."

"Not yet." He growled.

Sudden urgency hit them both. His hand covered her intimate s.p.a.ce in guarded protection but then flattened above her as he shifted her shoulders and moved her to stare up at him.

Still across his lap, she licked tiny circles in his skin as his fingers moved into her c.u.n.t. "Did you hate it?"

"It's torture." She pressed her mound into his hand once or twice. "I'm on fire, Almonzo...please."

Three fingers joined the first two and his jaw seemed to give a little with a moan following, no guiding, the movement. "How hot does it burn?" In and out, his fingers worked overtime and quickly earned their place there. "Tell me all about it."

Her hips rose and fell with the slow manual screw. "Searing...sweltering...please, Almonzo!"

Reluctantly, he stopped the finger f.u.c.king.

"Like this, though, don't you?" He withdrew his finger abruptly and moved his palm over the outside of her p.u.s.s.y. He pressed once with the ball of his hand and then he did it again-twice. h.e.l.l, she didn't know what he was doing to her but one thing was certain, no other lover could ever be this attentive. All she craved, measured in with a higher motivation for s.e.x than any woman should be permitted to experience with a new lover, even if he was one to keep forever.

She stopped breathing. She expected it to happen. She couldn't live with physical torture. Pleasure so wonderful often moved into the realm of pain and d.a.m.n it all, she hurt for it.

"Are you okay?" He must have sensed it and held onto his control again by inching a few fingers back in place.

"I need to...f.u.c.k." She quit grinding against his hand and stopped welding around his fingers.

"Well, why didn't you say so?"

She winked. "You're a bright man. You always figure out the important things."

He leaned back and brought her with him. If he thought for a second she was going to give him the opportunity to take a missionary position with her, he needed to reevaluate her situation. Proof dripped between her legs and she wasn't going to let him control this. No way in h.e.l.l.

He guided her over his hips. He adjusted the spread and moved up a bit before she shifted back and when she slid over him, she took him with her. Every single inch he had to give and before he asked, she took more and her body accommodated him well.

"Sweet Tabitha." He moaned as she surrounded him.

He closed his eyes and shielded her from the view. He didn't want her to see his eyes color and change, not from anger or even desire. Hunger like no other took him with a death grip on his c.o.c.k.

"Open your eyes, Almonzo. I want to see the lavender. I want to see you watch me." She whispered as she moved. Her lips covered his.

And she unleashed the beast inside. The animalistic pa.s.sion he held for her came to life and h.e.l.l's fury, she didn't need to see the urgency of madness. d.a.m.n! He'd forgotten how tight her p.u.s.s.y felt. Maybe he took her so fast the first time, he was oblivious to how snug a made-to-order selection felt, but it slid over him like a brand new mitten.

When he thrust inside the first time, he had to hurry but he wasn't going to rush now. He stroked her with fervor as his lungs released all types of distorted sound.

His mouth went to her ear. "I want you to know my place is not only beside of you but buried deep inside of your hot little p.u.s.s.y." He planned to stay awhile too.

She giggled. "Then prove it. Open your beautiful eyes, Almonzo." Her hips moved over him, with him, against and for him. She was on top for a reason.

He turned his head away from her. "I don't want you to see this. I can't deny myself or you but you can't see me like this."

She leaned down and slid him out of her p.u.s.s.y and he felt the loss. She moved closer to him. Her lips were right next to his. She slanted hers next to his. "Please look at me," she whispered. "I love your eyes when they change with pa.s.sion. I can't stop myself from wanting you when you look at me with sheer, rugged-raw need."

"d.a.m.n you, Tabitha." His tongue swiped her lips and he locked eyes with her then.

"That's it, Almonzo. Now, you can f.u.c.k me." She moved back over him and captured his c.o.c.k again in a show of permission granted and she revealed a true fact. She was drenched now with desire, her l.u.s.t-ridden face only softened as he watched her.

"I can? Why, thank you." He watched her to see if a frightened young woman emerged but she only looked happier, consumed by joy, and he had plenty he wanted to give her. He only wanted to see contentment and he easily discovered it. Not one inch of fear lingered there. No, what he found defined something else altogether, f.u.c.king bliss.

"Come to me, Tabitha. That's it, sweetheart. Work those sweet little hips for me." He reached up and cupped her neck. Slowly, ever so gently, he pulled her closer and lavished her mouth with a kiss of promise and adoration.

He then moved to her vein and nipped it. She didn't have much to give right then so he took what he needed to survive the return trip home. He sucked in what she offered and deliberately drained only a smidgen of plasma. He then left her with a simple lick.

"Bleed me, Almonzo. More, please take more." Her mouth opened in a breathless attempt to encourage him and she looked as hungry to give as he was to receive.

The little vixen liked his mouth sucking her blood and as soon as she made the request, a spurt of c.u.m jolted him forward and his body began to jerk with hers.

"That's it baby, keep moving with me." His hands clasped her wrists and he pulled her into a s.e.xy kiss emulating the very tempo their bodies slapped out together.

Her hips moved and her o.r.g.a.s.m shook them, proving she had enough energy to last for both of them. She didn't meet her release all on her own.

He met her with his own climax by the time she realized multiples existed for those women truly satisfied by their mates.

Chapter 10

"I will not ask her to do it!"

The sound of Almonzo's voice woke her. His anger scared the h.e.l.l out of her. It seemed to zoom throughout the room and the atmosphere must have unraveled with his obvious piercing pain.

"Almonzo?" She looked around for her clothes and when she didn't find them, remembered the terrycloth robe in the bathroom. She quickly went there to retrieve it. She opened the door to find Almonzo's eyes enraged with shades of colors she didn't find particularly appealing. He held his palm up toward her as if to stall her where she stood.

Tabitha wasn't a woman easily sent away. "What's this screaming about?"

His voice lowered before he turned his back to her. "I'll discuss this with Tabitha. She's awake now, no thanks to you. Tell Father this is unacceptable!" He closed the cell phone and stared outside. Large bay windows allowed for an un.o.bstructed view of the Las Vegas Strip.

Body language warned her to approach cautiously. She saw her hand reach for his back and noticed how it didn't seem to belong to her. "Almonzo? What's-"

He shrugged her off. "Don't touch me!" His arms quickly extended in front of his body with his palms forward as if he planned to push someone away.

She swallowed hard. "Okay, I won't." She stared at his back. She didn't know what to do and she d.a.m.n sure didn't like feeling helpless.

After a few minutes she turned away from him. "This is immature as h.e.l.l. This is nonsense! If you're mad at me or if I've done something, then tell me. Otherwise, you can come to terms with whatever you have to deal with on your own. I'm going back to Scotland and I'll go by traditional means if necessary."

Before she escaped back into the bedroom, he grabbed her arm and spun her around to face him. His eyes were a softer color than before but they were definitely pink with rage. "Sit down." He gritted his teeth and then turned away from her again. "I have to regain some strength here before we talk about this and I have to do it quickly. Before the elders arrive."

"The elders? Here? Why are they coming here?"

Almonzo's shoulders squared off and he stood taller. The silence divided them and instantly, she understood. She felt it in the pit of her gut. Why act shocked? She realized this day loomed and it threatened to tear them apart, even before Darian pushed his way into her body, he was in her life for eternity. He had something far more valuable than an intimate invasion.

She'd hoped someone, somewhere would intervene. She thought the Spensers were able to change her twisted fate when Almonzo decided to mark her as his own. She'd fought against her emotions and her desires for over three months. The Spensers had plenty of time to find out about all of her secrets and if they didn't, then they certainly had the power to stop whatever Darian put it motion now. Didn't they?

A bitterness she'd never heard in him before broke down her defenses. "Why don't you tell me what I need to know about you and Darian Sabbat."

The choking sensation she felt when she first entered the Dark Castle of the Desert quickly returned to claim her. She tried to gain her composure, prepare herself for the pain she would inevitably see in Almonzo's face once he focused on what was in front of him all along. She couldn't find the inner strength she desperately lacked right then.

"I'm asking you a question. Please understand. I have little patience left right now." He sat down in a chair across from her and his legs made a fanlike rotation. He rested his hands on each knee. He waited for her to begin.

She stood up and made her announcement. "I'm going home."

His blank expression lived on through horrifying glares. "I imagine you don't know where your home is now, do you?"

"I know my home is with you."

"The h.e.l.l it is." He watched her for a reaction.

"Almonzo, I'm sorry. I didn't..."

"You didn't what? You didn't bother to tell me that you were his already? It didn't occur to you that I might be interested in all of the torrid details of your promiscuous past. What exactly are you apologizing for, Tabitha?"

Tabitha let the promiscuous statement slide. It wasn't true so why justify it with a reply when there were unavoidable issues at hand. "I'm not his woman. I'm not his mate and I have never-" She cut her own words off when she saw him look away from her and she moved quickly to stand in front of him, "Listen to me!" She continued to defend herself. "I have never felt anything like this for him!"

"It was only l.u.s.t, right?" His eyes narrowed.

Tabitha swallowed against the word he dared to say to her. She did, for a short period of time, feel l.u.s.t for Darian, and maybe even love but it never compared to what she experienced with Almonzo. It only lasted for a few months because she quickly saw the vampire behind the man and his existence was by far the most ruthless she'd ever known. She wasn't going to confirm or deny Almonzo's suspicions because she wasn't going to revisit her past for anyone.

"How dare you!"

"I guess I have my answer." He stood up and crossed the room. "Get dressed. I'll be back when the elders arrive."

She rushed to stop him but before she reached him, he was gone. The slamming of the door seemed to shake the walls of the room. More importantly, they wracked her body with heartache. Her fists pounded against the door he closed in her face. "I never cared for him or anyone else like this, d.a.m.n it! I never wanted Darian or any other man for keeps! Never!" Shouting the words didn't make them true because her inconceivable l.u.s.t for Darian, no matter how short-lived, set a lot of events in motion. She realized it before she ever joined with Almonzo-this day would come-and so it arrived without any remorse.

She was slumped down in a drained tub when he walked into the bathroom. Fully dressed, her head rested easily in the bent nook of her elbow.

She felt him there watching her. She didn't care. Let him rot in his own h.e.l.l.

"They're here." He closed the door and she made the mistake of thinking he stood on the other side.

She thought she called out behind him, to an empty room, perhaps. "I don't give a rat's a.s.s if they're here or not. They're his elders. They don't mean anything to me!"

A loud slam rang out in the tiny bathroom. His palm supported him against the granite countertop.

Her head snapped to an upright position.

Dark eyes glared at her. "Perhaps if you had a measure of respect for your elders, you'd have some fraction of it for yourself."

"f.u.c.k you, Almonzo."

"You did, remember? Oh, that's right, it's probably a forgettable experience since Darian took his turn too."

"You b.a.s.t.a.r.d." The words were softly spoken but the impact of what he said to her and the disgust in each word shattered her heart.

"No, I know who my father is but unfortunately, at this point, if you are with child, you won't be so lucky now, will you?"

His venomous words sliced her chest in half and she wasn't sure there was a way to repair it. "So the games are over now, huh?" She shook her head as she revisited the night before. "You were the one who wanted to deny what you saw. I went along because I thought it was what you wanted."