“I’ll go back with you, but Fane is wrong. I’m not Domino’s bride.”
CHAPTER 5
Joy rushed through Domino when Dakotah walked into the house of her own free will. The sight of her loosened the tight knot of rage and frustration that had been a leaden weight in his chest. The sight of her sent his cock jerking to attention in a rush of blood that left him dizzy—until he saw Fane’s mocking smile. “If you’re smart, you won’t say anything,” Domino said.
Fane’s smile widened. “What’s to be said? Other than, He who laughs last, laughs best.”
Domino hissed, flashing his fangs though he knew it would have no effect on Fane. He shifted his attention to Dakotah and his nostrils flared when he became aware of Cable’s scent on her arm. He wanted to rip her jacket off her, to get rid of the smell of another man, but her wary expression warned him against giving in to the primitive impulse.
Dakotah took the last step and closed the distance between them. Their bodies touched. Relief soaked in even without the feel of skin against skin. And still it wasn’t enough for Domino. He pulled her into his arms, covered her lips with his and thrust his tongue against hers.
She tasted of woman and darkness.
Of blood.
And courage.
And him.
He plundered her mouth and she responded by softening, her body molding itself to his as her tongue tangled and battled, rubbed and enticed in a greeting that made his heart race and his cock throb.
Anticipation rose. The Heat burning more intensely than The Hunger and Domino embraced its fiery flame. Envisioned taking her into the bedroom and fucking her as he should have done earlier instead of sending her away. Envisioned taking her as his bride and seeing the truth of it in her eyes.
But as quickly as he thought it, she stiffened and tried to pull away, and in the process stirred the need to dominate, to claim. To be what he was designed to be.
His fangs elongated and he forced himself to end the kiss. The Heat ruled for the moment, but The Hunger was a deadly presence just underneath the surface of his skin. One taste of her blood… He lifted his mouth from hers and stepped away, his eyes traveling over her, his gaze possessive and hot as realization dawned.
He still saw sleek lines and a body that made him want to cover it with his own. To rut like a wolf and make love like a man. But now he also saw her strength of will and found a courage he could admire. There was no fear in her despite the fact he’d very nearly killed her.
She was a woman he could easily imagine at his side, at his back in the centuries that lay ahead. She was what he’d never imagined he might have. Even if the wariness in her eyes warned him she didn’t truly understand or accept what they already were to each other, what they would soon be to one another.
“You need to feed,” Fane said, drawing Domino’s attention away from Dakotah, his words striking against The Hunger like a match and causing it to roar through Domino’s veins.
Domino couldn’t resist shooting a glance in Cable’s direction and then Kiziah’s, his eyes lingering over her blonde beauty in a way guaranteed to scrape over Fane’s nerve endings. “You’re offering your kadine? Your companion?”
This time it was Fane who hissed, flashing his fangs. “You know better.”
Dakotah caught the look of amusement Cable and Kiziah shared before Cable said, “Zia and I are going to go camp out in front of the fireplace.”
The rest of them followed, going deeper into the house. Dakotah acutely aware of the man walking behind her.
Without even touching, the lust was there. The need. Not just the wolf’s, but Dakotah’s own desire. Without a word the anticipation was building. As though the night could be spent in only one way. Sating a hunger that transcended the body. A hunger of the soul. The heart.
Cable and Kiziah settled on the thick carpeting in front of the fireplace, their attention fixed on one another. Dakotah took a seat at the end of the couch and Domino sat next to her, crowding against her so that they were once again touching.
Fane surprised her, sitting on Domino’s other side and unbuttoning the sleeve of his shirt then pulling it back. “You need blood, Domino, to fully sate The Hunger.” His eyes met Dakotah’s, dark and serious. “If you weren’t important to him, he would have killed you to sate the bloodlust that rides us with The Transformation. It’s almost impossible to stop. It’s a miracle that he did.”
“It was a close thing,” she said, remembering how she hadn’t even put up a fight, how good it had felt, even when she knew he was killing her.
There were men she’d been forced to service who required erotic asphyxiation—men willing to skate the edge of death for their sexual pleasure. She’d hated them, hated what they forced her to do to them. It revolted her. They revolted her.
She got to her feet and moved to stand behind the chair. Torn. Confused by her own reaction to Domino. The fact that she didn’t hate him, wasn’t even sickened by what had happened between them after his Transformation. He watched her through hooded eyes as he lifted Fane’s wrist to his mouth and fed.
Dakotah responded to the sight of it, her labia swelling, her breasts growing full and heavy. It was an act of communion, primitive and sacred at the same time. Sexual and yet not sexual.
Her womb fluttered and her nipples hardened. Desire moved through her. To be what Domino needed. To have him take her blood instead of Fane’s.
Domino released Fane’s wrist and stood, his focus on Dakotah. His eyes reflecting the heat that was burning through her.
Fane rose from the sofa and joined Cable and Kiziah on the rug in front of the fireplace, Kiziah’s soft, embarrassed laughter causing Dakotah to look away from Domino, to watch as Cable and Fane positioned Kiziah between them, their hands and mouths roaming over her body, turning her laughter into weak protests, and then into sighs and whimpers and muted pleas.
“Does it turn you on to watch them?” Domino asked, trapping Dakotah between his body and the back of the chair. His hands sliding around, cupping her breasts, tweaking her nipples through clothing that was suddenly too restrictive. Making her folds grow slippery with the feel of his erection pressed against her ass.
“I’ve seen shows like this before,” she said. I’ve been in them. And yet even as she said the words, thought them, she knew they weren’t completely true. If it was only sex, she would have turned away by now. But it was more than sex, more than pleasure. The love she saw on their faces was a seduction of her senses, a torment to her heart.
“Have you really?” he whispered against her neck. “Have you really seen this show before? Once we’ve formed a bond, it’s impossible for us to have sex outside of it. But among close friends and family, we sometimes share the pleasure that we take in those who have become our world. The kadines—or male companions—whose blood sates us, whose bodies succor us, whose existence gives deeper meaning to our own. It’s not a trap I thought to find myself in, but here I am.” His fingers tightened on her nipples, becoming almost painful as he warned, “Don’t fight me, Dakotah. You can’t win and neither of us can change what’s happened between us.”
Dakotah shivered as his words slid through her. In that moment she believed. In that moment she allowed herself to be caught up in the dream.
She didn’t protest when his fingers replicated Fane’s and Cable’s movements, stripping her of her jacket and shirt and bra as they were doing to Kiziah. She whimpered as Kiziah whimpered, longed to feel Domino’s mouth suckling at her breasts, hungrily eating her as Fane and Cable were doing to Kiziah.
“You’re aroused,” Domino said, smoothing over the tight crowns of her breasts, tugging at her nipples before moving lower, his hands hot against her belly, their nearness to her cunt making her suck in her breath, making her want to open her jeans so that he could cup her mound. “Admit it. Admit that you’re aroused.”