* * *
“Don’t move.”
Terese cracked her eyes open, and it took all of her strength just for that small movement. She was on a soft, cushy surface, probably some kind of bed, and in a blessedly dark, windowless room. A man was with her. She could just make out the blurry outline of his body.
Apollo.
She’d been with him, out in the light. The sunlight. The fire—
A terror-filled cry trembled on her lips.
“Shh…” His arms caught her shoulders and she realized that she’d jerked upright. “Take it easy. You’re safe now.”
Safe. It’d been so long since she felt safe. Since she hadn’t known that every moment, she was being hunted.
“Relax, Terese. Nothing’s going to happen to you.” His voice was so soothing, and she didn’t have the power to fight then. Her body sagged back against the mattress.
“I’m going to heal you, okay? Just lie still and let me take care of you.”
“Y-you…don’t…have to.” A heavy lethargy filled her. She didn’t know how much longer she’d be able to stay awake. When the sun rose, her strength fled. Since her change, she hadn’t been able to resist the powerful lure of the day sleep.
His fingers touched her arm in the lightest of caresses. “Love, you’re burned badly. I can help you. I can take the pain away.”
The pain was already fading. “Heal…myself.” She’d learned about that little talent the night she’d finally managed to escape from Eric. She’d jumped from a second story window and wound up with a broken leg and a shattered wrist. But after her day sleep, she’d awoken completely healed.
Her lashes were drooping, and no matter how hard she struggled, she couldn’t keep them open. There wasn’t much time left. Soon the need for sleep would overwhelm her.
She didn’t know where she was or how she’d gotten there. Terese only knew that Apollo had saved her. He’d taken her out of the deadly sunlight and carried her back to the safety of darkness.
“Apollo.” She swallowed, trying to force herself to stay focused just for a minute longer.
His fingers wrapped around hers. “Save your strength.”
“Th-thank you…for s-saving me.” No one had ever helped her before.
His grasp tightened.
And she sank into the drugging depths of the day sleep.
* * *
Terese slept during the day.
She burned in sunlight.
She had superhuman strength.
And she’d left a real unusual hickey on his neck.
Apollo leaned back in his chair and studied the woman who slept so peacefully in his bed. Terese Lafitte. He’d bet a load of ambrosia the woman was a vampire.
A vampire.
He’d met tons of nymphs, he’d chatted with gargoyles, and even been briefly smitten with a mermaid, but he’d never met a vampire before.
Terese had said that she could heal herself. He hadn’t waited around to see if she’d spoken the truth or not. The sight of her red, angry wounds had pained him, and he’d had to heal her with a little of his magic. Her injuries had been his fault. He’d held her down and let the sun burn her delicate flesh.
He wouldn’t make the same mistake again. He’d never hurt her again.
She was perfect now. Her pale skin completely unblemished.
The sun was setting. Terese had slept all day. During those hours, her chest had barely appeared to move with her breaths. He’d checked four times to make sure her heart still beat.
If he was right, if she really were a vampire, she’d be waking soon.
And when she woke, Terese would be his.
Chapter Three
She slept long past sunset. Apollo watched her, he waited, and he wanted.
He’d never wanted another the way he longed for her. What had the vampiress done to him?
He didn’t really care—he just wanted more.
Her eyes opened slowly. She blinked and said, “Apollo?” in a husky whisper that stroked right over his groin.
He climbed onto the bed beside her. “I’ve been watching you for the last…” Damn, how long had it been? He’d left her just to check in with Zeus, then raced right back to her side. “Oh, I’d say at least ten hours.”
Her gaze drifted over him. Her eyes widened when she saw the heavy erection pressing against his fly.
“And I’ve been wanting to f**k you that whole time.”
Her lips parted. “After what you saw…you still want—”
“I want you.” Needed her. But a god never looked desperate, and there were other things he wanted… “But before I take you, I’m going to taste you.” Because once hadn’t been enough for him. He just might be growing addicted to her.
Dangerous.
She sat up quickly and the sheet dropped, revealing her tight little ni**les. Ah, a perfect place to start that tasting.
But she tensed when he reached for her.
Apollo froze. “You don’t want me.” Had she just been feeding last night? Rage began to hum inside his body even as he prepared to withdraw.
But Terese shook her head and her hand reached for his. “I-I didn’t think you’d want me anymore.” Her confession was stark and the laugh that followed it was bitter as she said, “Apollo, I’m a monster.”
Now that rage did boil through. “The f**k you are.”
He caged her with his body. “You’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen.” And over the centuries, he’d certainly seen his share. “The fact that you have fangs doesn’t make you a monster. It just makes you…different.”
He bent and pressed a kiss to her throat. A growl built in his throat. Like that. Like her. “I happen to believe different is very, very good.” He licked his way to her breast. Sucked the tight nipple.
Her hands rose and wrapped around his shoulders. “I thought you’d hate me.” Her confession. “I drank your blood. I-I took without asking.”
He glanced up at her. “Drink from me anytime you want.” Because he’d liked the feel of her teeth on his body. The pleasure from her bite had been electric.
And it had pulsed right from his throat to his cock.
The c*ck that was currently swollen and eager to sink into her tight flesh.
But, first, that taste…
He pushed the sheet away and stared down at her body. Creamy. Beautiful.
No blisters. No scars. Only smooth skin. His fingers slid over her stomach. Eased into the dark curls that guarded her sex. “Open for me,” he whispered.
Eyes on him, she did. Her legs parted and it was a sweet sight.
He licked his lips, already tasting her. But on this, he wanted her to be clear. “There’s no going back now.” She wasn’t like any other, and he wouldn’t lose her.
Not yet. Not until he’d learned all of her secrets…
“I can never go back.” Her whisper. He got the feeling they weren’t talking about the same thing, but he’d deal with that, later.
He’d ached for her all day. He’d take her now.
Apollo positioned his body between her legs. He stroked her sex. Opening her. Readying her. Then he bent and put his mouth on her flesh. He licked the center of her need. Once, twice, then he thrust his tongue deep inside her tight core.
“Apollo!” Her hands clamped onto his shoulders even as her h*ps arched against him.
He took his time. Licking. Kissing. Learning every inch of her…and wanting more. Addictive.
“Oh, God, Apollo…that’s…ah…” Her body stiffened. “So…good…”
And he was going to make it even better.
With one last swirl of his tongue, he pulled back. His hands jerked open his jeans. His c*ck sprang free. Dark red and fully erect.
He grabbed her knees and lifted them, forcing her legs over his shoulders and opening her sex completely to him.
He looked up at her, seeing her parted lips, seeing the briefest hint of her fangs.
He drove into her in one long, hard stroke.
She moaned, a high, desperate sound, and her fangs lengthened.
Apollo caught her hands and pushed them back against the mattress. Then he thrust, driving into her again and again. “You…feel…so…tight.”
She shuddered and turned her head away from him.
Won’t do. “Terese, look at me.”
Terese shook her head. Her sex squeezed him.
He pushed into her, burying his c*ck as far as he could go. He wanted to stare into her eyes when she came.
“No.” A hoarse whisper. Her h*ps lifted and pushed hungrily against his.
“Look at me.”
She shook her head. “I-I can’t…You’ll see—”
What? He only saw a gorgeous, sexy woman. But then he remembered her words. I didn’t think you’d want me. He freed her right wrist and caught her chin, forcing her to face him. Her blue eyes glowed eerily bright and her fangs pressed against her lips.
“You want to bite me, don’t you?” he asked, his voice soft.
Her head moved in a jerky nod.
“Do it.” He pulled back, thrust deep. His orgasm was close. He wasn’t going to be able to last long.
Her tongue licked across her blood-red lips.
He turned his head to the side and offered his neck. He wanted to feel her teeth on him, in him, as he came inside her. “Terese, bite me.”
Her teeth sank into him. The bite was a burning pleasure that blasted through his entire body.
He came then. His h*ps bucked against her as he exploded inside her clinging depths and he held onto her as tight as he could.
An instant later, Apollo felt Terese cl**ax as her sex tightened around his cock. Her nails sank into his flesh.
All the while, her mouth moved on him, taking his blood and maddening him with painful pleasure.
When she finally stopped, he groaned a protest. She licked his neck with a soft swipe of her tongue.
More.
Apollo fought to slow his racing heart. Who would have thought a vampire’s bite could feel so f**king good?
***
The sex had been incredible. Fantastic. Freaking mind-blowing. Even now, Terese’s body still hummed with pleasure.
But there was a fear nagging at her, and she couldn’t keep quiet any longer. “You’re not human, are you, Apollo?” Terese gazed down at the blond hunk in the bed, the guy who’d given her the best orgasm of her life.
He couldn’t be human. She’d drank his blood, his sweet, rich blood, but he hadn’t weakened. Not even for a moment.
Back at the bar, she’d thought he’d weakened. But then the guy had chased her through Hades and held her effortlessly even when she fought with her enhanced strength. No, nothing weak there.
He’d gotten them out of that parking lot, gotten them to this safe house, and damn if she could remember how he’d done it.
Some vampires, very old vampires, could teleport. They could disperse their bodies into the atmosphere and reappear in another location. Eric had told her about those guys, “elders” as he’d called them. He’d said she should stay away from them because they were walking nightmares.
Of course, to her, Eric was the nightmare.
But he thought he was her one true love.
The sick sonofabitch.
Instead of answering her, his fingers skimmed down her stomach and he asked, “Why did you turn from me?”
I asked first. But, fine, she’d tell him this. After she dressed. Terese climbed from the bed. Her gaze scanned the sparsely furnished room, searching for her dress.
“Terese…”
Push, push, push. “I didn’t want you to see my face, okay? I know what I look like when I get the blood hunger.” Because the whole spiel about vampires not being able to see their reflections was totally bullshit. Once she’d escaped from Eric, the first mistake she’d made had been ducking into a women’s restroom. She’d gotten a nice, horrifying visual of herself in the fifteen mirrors that stared back at her. “I know my eyes change, that my teeth get huge.” And that she looked seriously scary. “I-I didn’t want you to see me like that.” Talk about a mood killer.
He watched her with unblinking sky blue eyes. “I liked seeing you that way. You looked sexy.”
Her mouth dropped open. Was the guy crazy? “Big teeth and glowing eyes are so not sexy.”
His lips curved into a slow smile. Those come-get-me dimples flashed. “They are on you.”
A little bubble of happiness filled her at his words. “Um, thanks, I-I think.”
One golden brow lifted. “You’re welcome.” He cocked his head to the side, studying her as she nosed around the room, ducking her head under chairs and into his closet. “How long have you been a vampire, Terese?”
“I don’t know—what day is it?” Where the hell was her dress?
“How old are you?” he asked curiously.
She put her hands on her hips. “Thirty-one. How old are you?”
Apollo snorted. “Older. A lot older.”
He couldn’t be that much older. The guy didn’t have so much as a line on his face. His skin was so golden, so bright and healthy. No, he couldn’t me much older, unless—
Terese crept toward the bed, eyeing him cautiously as alarm filled her. He’d never answered her question. She’d asked if he was human, but he hadn’t told her, hadn’t said—
“My, my, what big eyes you have.” He leaned back against the headboard, crossing his arms over his chest. “What new worry are you obsessing over now?”
“Apollo…how did we get here?” She waved her hand to indicate the bedroom.