Cleopatra's Return: A Paranormal/Vampire Romance (9 page)

“That’s why he hates me
?” It wasn’t so much a question as a revelation. Much as Cleo wanted to despise Julius, hearing Michael’s abrupt account shifted her anger into pity. Pity for the degradation and pain a once proud and loving man had found himself subjected to. And while it didn’t excuse him for his words to her, she could at least now understand them.

“Julius doesn’t hate you. He hates himself. It’s just easier to take it out on others.”

“So how did he escape?” she asked, even though she suspected the answer.

“I killed the bitch
,” was his unrepentant reply. “I rammed her body, kicking and screaming, onto a stake I’d pounded into the ground and let the sun roast her to ashes.”

Cleo shivered.
For a being who’d once born the title archangel, he possessed a dark and bloodthirsty side—one she approved of. “I’m glad you made her suffer and thank you for telling me. But how does knowing this help? I mean where do we go from here?”

Michael tightened his arms around her and rested his chin on top of her head.
“If you really feel you cannot share the house with him, then I shall send him elsewhere.”

Stunned didn’t describe her reaction to his words.
“I thought he was your best friend.”

“
He is, but he also treated my paramour with great disrespect.”

“A lover you’ve had for only a day.”

“I meant what I said last night. I’ve waited a long time to find you. You mean too much to me already. If I must choose, then I choose you.”

Cleo opened her mouth to tell him throw Julius out on his ear.
To beat him within an inch of life. But, truly, it wasn’t Julius’ fault he was so bitter, and besides, she was a big girl. She could handle a little name calling, especially knowing where it originated from. “I can’t let you do that. He’s your friend, and he doesn’t deserve losing his home. He can stay. And I’ll stay too, but I won’t be held responsible for his demise if he insults me again.” She’d kick his balls so hard he’d cough them out. And then she would let Michael at him.

Michael seemed stunned at her capitulation. “
Truly? Tell you what, if he dares say one unpleasant thing to you again, I’ll pin him down so you can beat him.”

“I’ll hold you to that.” The tension broke
, and relief flooded her.
I don’t have to leave.

Restless
all of a sudden, she stood and turned to look at Michael. Then she looked some more at what he wore, or rather what he didn’t. In his rush to come to her rescue, he hadn’t dressed. Heat instantly flared to life between her legs because he had the tousled look of someone who’d jumped out of bed.

His hair was rumpled and sexy. His chest
taunted her with its eminently lickable bare expanse of skin, and when he stood to face her, his track pants hung indecently low on his hips.

She took the few steps that separated them to place her palms on his bare chest. Cool to the touch, his skin was smooth, hairless and much too tempting. She leaned forward and pressed her lips over his left breast where his heart thudded slowly.

He might be a vampire, but he’s not dead like legends say. He breathes, has a heartbeat, and he can get smoking hot.
It made her wonder if he’d taste like a man or if he’d have a unique flavor. No time like the present to find out.
Nothing like sex to make it all better.

She licked her way down his chest to the waistband of his trousers
, only to have him pull her back up.

“Much as I’d enjoy what I think you are about to do, could we go somewhere a little more
comfortable?”

“Spoilsport.”
She leaned up to kiss him, and he met her lips halfway, the intensity of his embrace stealing her breath.

She twined her arms around his neck and pressed herself against him
, feeling the hard prod of his cock against her lower belly, the thin material of his bottoms not holding it back at all. She slid a hand down and grabbed him through the material, smiling when he groaned.

“You’re going to kill me
, Cleo.”

“Not until you’ve pleasure
d me,” she sassed back, slipping her hand inside the waistband of his pants to stroke his turgid flesh. She didn’t play for long. He used his speed and strength to sling her over his shoulder. A heartbeat later, they were aloft and zipping through the night sky.

Apparently the lake didn’t lie far from the house
because, quicker than she could think, he’d landed in front of the house and walked through the front door. She waited for him to put her down, but he seemed content to carry her caveman style.

“Put me down. What will Chester think?”

“He’ll think I’m getting lucky,” he said with a chuckle, followed by a firm smack on her bottom.

Cleo
shrieked in mock outrage and flailed at his back. He replied with a hand up her skirt, his fingers pushing aside the flimsy material of her panties to her rub moist cleft. She moaned and squirmed against his hand, wanting more. And the damned vampire, the tease, instead of rushing to the nearest bed, walked at a normal mortal rate.

Not for long.
Two could play the teasing game. “Oh, Michael, I can’t wait to wrap my lips around your cock and suck it. I think I might even sit my pussy on your face while I blow you. Smother you with my sweet cunt. Did I tell you I like to bite? I think I might bite your cock, squeeze it—-”

She lost her breath and voice when
, in the blink of an eye, the hall disappeared. He dropped her on a bed, and not the one she’d slept in the previous eve. Before she’d even registered that fact, she was naked and so was Michael.
I’m really starting to like all these superpowers of his.

He covered her body with his own, skin to skin. She arched up against him
, delighting in the feel of him. But today she wanted a turn at being in charge.

“Get on your back,” she ordered.

“But I want to pleasure you,” he groaned against her lips.

She almost gave in. His words sent liquid heat to her sex along with an insatiable urge to seat him to the hilt inside her.
“Lie down now.” She pushed against his chest, enjoying the solid feel of his smooth flesh under her touch.

With a sigh of mock resignation, he flipped onto his back
, and she sat up. The previous eve, consumed with lust, she’d only faintly registered the magnificence of his body. Now he lay at her mercy, his vast chest and jutting cock laid out like a tempting meal, one she couldn’t wait to indulge in.

“Hands under your head, fingers laced,” she commanded. Only when he complied did she straddle his waist, the wet heat of her sex resting on his muscled stomach
, which clenched in response. Leaning forward, she kissed him lightly and moved back before he could capture her lips.

“Don’t move,” she said, her breath already coming faster. She traced the edge of his jaw with her lips making her way over to his ear. She grabbed the lobe with her teeth, a gentle bite which made him suck in a breath.
She toyed with his sensitive flesh, sucking it and biting it again. Done with his ear, she moved down his neck, licking it and then nipping the skin followed by a hard suck. His body tensed up beneath hers, and she could see the muscles in his arms straining to stay where she’d ordered them.

She leaned up and smiled down at him. He looked at her with smoky eyes that glowed with his desire. She was tempted to kiss him, but instead she settled for sliding her hands up and down his chest, enjoying the ribbed feel of it, the skin taut, not an ounce of fat marring his sculpted perfection. Her fingers stroked over his nipples
, which, already tight, puckered even more. She caught the tips with her nails and pinched them. She almost flew off the bed as he bucked. Squeezing her thighs tight around his waist, she pinched again and followed up with flicks of her tongue that alternated between his nubs.

“Cleo,” he warned.

She shushed him. “Behave or I will pleasure myself and force you to watch.”              

“You are an evil goddess,” he said with a strained chuckle as she took one of his nipples in her mouth and sucked at him.

She laughed, a seductive sound that sent a tremble through his body. “I’ll show you evil.” Enflamed by his words and evidence of his ardor, she pushed the limits of his control even further by turning around on his body and sliding up his chest, placing her pussy inches from his mouth.

Then she pushed
his limits some more and took his cock into her mouth in one swift inhalation.

Prepared for his reaction, she didn’t fly off when his body arched up off the bed. She held on tight with her thighs and clamped her mouth around his shaft.

“Cleo,” he bellowed her name, but even amidst her sexual torture, he kept his hands off her. But she hadn’t said anything about his face, and as she sucked his long rod, he tilted his head forward as far as he could, and while he couldn’t taste her, he blew on her sex, hot moist air that made her quiver. It also made her wet.

But Cleo had a mission. He’d fed on her cream already
, and now she wanted to taste him. One of her hands found his balls and fondled them while her other hand worked his cock up and down. Velvet covered steel, his rod pulsed in her mouth as she bobbed up and down on it.

The usually eloquently spoken
Michael was incoherent behind her, his gasps and groans while his body trembled the sweetest sounds she’d ever heard. As his cock swelled more and more, she finally relented a bit and slid her body back the last few inches needed to butt her sex up against his mouth.

He latched onto her with a ferocity that made her cry out around the
rod in her mouth. He tongued her and caressed her, bringing her already simmering desire to a boiling point.

She lost her rhythm on his cock as he pleasured her pussy expertly. She moaned, on the brink of orgasm.

“Tell me to fuck you,” he panted, pausing only a moment in his oral onslaught.

Cleo tried to find her cadence again on his
shaft, but he flicked her clit with his tongue, and she gave up. She rolled off him, panting, only to flip around and straddle him again, the tip of his cock nudging her plump lower lips. His hands remained laced under his head, and he looked flushed—and so very sexy.

She lowered herself slowly onto his shaft, gasping as his thick length filled her up, deeper and deeper until he nudged her sweet spot. She paused for a moment fully seated on his shaft and rocked slightly, each motion sending a jolt of pure bliss throughout her whole body.

“Let me touch you,” he begged.

Instead of replying, she leaned forward and grabbed his wrists with her hands, stretching her body over his. Braced, she slid back and forth on his pelvis, grinding her clit against him while driving him deep. Her muscles clenched around his shaft
, which pulsed inside her. Faster she gyrated, trying to hold on, wanting to prolong the rapture. She lost it when he thrust his hips upward, hitting her G-spot hard.

With a scream to break glass, she shattered, her orgasm ripping through her with r
ipple after ripple of pleasure. She sagged against him helplessly, her muscles turned to putty.

But Michael wasn’t done.

In a moment, she found herself on her back, her legs up over his shoulders, his cock plowing into her, so deep. He stoked her fading orgasm back to a feverish pitch and threw her over the edge again. Her body shuddered under waves of bliss.

She gasped, keened
, and panted until she thought she would die again.

His body tightened
, and she prepared for the gushing heat inside her, but once again he surprised her. He withdrew and quickly straddled her upper chest and thrust his cock between her parted lips. She had only a moment to taste her honey on his shaft before he came in her mouth, filling it with cream. She swallowed eagerly, his flavor surprisingly sweet especially considering his diet. She drained him, sucking at his wilting cock until he finally pried his rod free with a choked, “Enough.”

Cleo smiled back and licked her lips. “Delicious.”

Michael chuckled as he lay back beside her and snuggled her against him. “You are indeed a goddess. My goddess.”

“And you
are my dark knight,” she replied, burrowing closer to him, enjoying the intimacy. Being with him felt so right. And much as she’d vowed never to depend on a man again, there was something about Michael that made her say screw it.
What I feel for Michael is more than lust.
She had a feeling she’d lost her heart to him, or most of it anyway. Much as it galled her to admit, especially after Julius’ hateful words, she would always retain a small piece for the man she once knew and loved.

Julius wanted to get drunk so bad
ly, but his vampire blood processed the alcohol almost as fast as he drank it. But he needed something to help him block out Cleo’s accusation, which kept repeating itself over and over in his mind.

“You did this to me.”

For so long he’d felt angry toward her, an unreasonable anger perhaps, but one he couldn’t stem. A part of him realized it was stupid of him to expect her to remain celibate and unattached after his death, or undeath in this case. Yet when the vampiress who’d turned him had cruelly thrown in his face the undisputable truth of Cleo’s involvement with Marc Antony, a pig and brute of a man, he’d become furious.