Lure of Forever (17 page)

"Are you sure? You're not too
sore?"

She pulled him down for another
kiss, which pitched his arousal again as she wrapped her tongue around his
fangs. He almost didn't hear her whispered suggestion in his ear and she
blushed furiously when he pulled back to look at her, not quite believing he'd
heard her right.
 
The scent of her
arousal in the air left him in no doubt that she wanted him and she rolled on
her tummy, exposing the soft globes of her ass. He had to taste her. He licked
his way down her spine, making her squirm, and murmured his approval at the
wetness he found between her legs. He coated his fingers with her juices and
spread her cheeks further. She moaned into the sheets, her hands fisting the
cotton when he inserted one, then two fingers into her forbidden passage,
preparing her for his invasion.

Her hips rose off the bed when his
other hand found her clit and circled the tight bud.

"Get on your knees for
me."
 
He whispered the words into
her shoulders, alternating them with open-mouthed kisses on her soft skin and
she obeyed immediately, bringing her delightful ass to just the right height.
Her feminine moan of protest when he gently withdrew his fingers shot straight
to his cock and he gritted his teeth against the sensation of pushing through
her tight ring of muscles.
Coralie
tensed for a
second, before she pushed against him and he slid all the way in until his
balls hit her pussy. One hand on her breast, the other on her hip, he began to
move, her anus gripping him and stroking along every nerve of his cock.

"
Poutre
,
so good, so tight.
I'm not going to last long. Touch yourself for me,
Chere
."
The sight of
Coralie
fingering her clit, whilst his
cock tunneled in and out of her butt, raised the monster slumbering within and
Lucas lost all control. He pounded into her. The sounds of their flesh slapping
together, mixed in with the banging of the headboard against the wall and their
combined groans and moans increased his urgency.
 
Lucas sank his teeth into
Coralie's
shoulder as he exploded deep inside her tight flesh and her screams of
completion rang in his ear as he collapsed on top of her.

Lucas withdrew and licked her
shoulders, causing another deep-throated moan from the woman underneath him,
and he rolled her over. The satisfied smile she gave him settled deep in his
ancient heart.

"You're incredible,
Coralie
."

Her face lit up in a tired smile.

"You're not too bad yourself,
for a man your age."

Lucas laughed out loud in genuine
amusement and tucked her back into his shoulder.

"Next you'll be saying I need
my beauty sleep."

"Well, don't you?"

"I could do this all night, but
I do want you to be able to walk tomorrow, so
you
need some sleep, young
lady."

He sensed the change in her, even
before she spoke. It was there in the way she clung to him and he had to strain
to hear her next words.

"You'll stay with me, won't
you?
When I'm asleep.
I don't want to be on my
own."

He propped himself up on one elbow
better to see her face, and the fear he saw in her expression tore at his
heart.

"
Oui
,
mon
chere
.
I won't leave until I absolutely have to, and even then, I'll only be two
floors down. I'll keep you safe, I promise."

She nodded, her expressive eyes
filling with tears, and he answered her unspoken question.

"Jerry
and her daughter, too.
I'll die before I let anything
happen to either of them.
Jacomo
will not win this
time."

"But how can you be so sure? If
Suz
really is his daughter, then he won't stop until
he gets her. Lucas, she's just a child."

"
Oui
,
but she is well protected. And I don't believe she is as helpless as you
believe her to be. She will have powers, powers that
Jacomo
will want to harness, but that ultimately may destroy him. Now, sleep." He
smiled at her and traced the outline of her luscious lips with one finger.
"We'll discuss this in detail when you're not half-asleep. I do appear to
have worn you out."

He grinned at the halfhearted slap
aimed at his chest and an answering ghost of a smile kicked up her lips
briefly, before she yawned and snuggled closer to him.

"Look who's talking, old
man."

Lucas watched over her until the
first rays of the sun forced him to leave her alone in her bed. But not before
he let Ion into the house.

"You look like hell, Lucas. Get
some sleep. You won't be any good to her if you don't.

"I know that, Ion." Lucas
snarled his response, but his old friend just chuckled in response.

"Save it for those who are
impressed with that show. Now sleep." And with that he all but shoved
Lucas
down
the rickety old wooden stairs to the
cellar.

****

Coralie
woke up to the aroma of brewing coffee and the low hum of noises. Who was in
her house?
 
She turned over and inhaled
deeply. The sheets still held Lucas's scent and she smiled, recalling last night.
He had been so passionate and tender, she had felt cherished and safe enough to
engage in sexual acts she would never have dreamed of doing before. She
embraced the soreness in unfamiliar places. It served as a welcome reminder
that she was still alive and she gingerly walked to the bathroom to run herself
a bath.

Half an hour later, she padded down
the stairs and followed the muted sounds of conversation to the kitchen.
Marnie
and Ion were at her kitchen table tucking into a
huge breakfast and
Coralie's
stomach grumbled loudly,
reminding her how hungry she was. Ion smiled at her and winked, his gaze
running over her body, as if to check she was okay.
 
Marnie
jumped up
and pushed her into the chair she had just vacated.

"Here, sit down, before you
fall down, and I’ll make you some breakfast. Knowing Lucas you'll need the
sustenance this morning."

Heat rose in
Coralie's
cheeks at the implied suggestion and Ion laughed.

"Do as you're told. When she
gets like that it's not worth arguing. She barged in here about an hour ago,
insisting on cooking breakfast to keep your strength up." He leaned
forward and flicked
Coralie's
hair off her neck with
a low whistle. "And looking at those, she was right, as usual."

Coralie
pulled her hair back over the tiny wounds and then thought better of it. She
wasn't ashamed of Lucas's marks on her body and she twisted her hair up with
the hair band on her wrist.
 
Ion's smile
deepened at her actions, his eyes once again resting on her neck and she stared
him down. What was his problem?

She jumped when a huge plate, filled
to the brim with eggs, bacon, sausages and toast appeared in front of her.
Marnie's
warm hand caressed her shoulder as she urged
Coralie
to eat.

"Go on. I want to see all of
that gone and I'm not leaving until you've eaten it all. You may want to stock
up on iron, too. It'll take you less time to recover that way."

"What?"
Coralie
squeaked her response and her hand went to her neck
involuntarily. "I'm fine, really. He didn't do anything I didn't want him
to."

Ion's smirk in response to her
protests earned him a slap upside the head from
Marnie
.
His wolf growled in response, but he smiled at his wife and envy poked
Coralie
with a red-hot stab out of nowhere. The look of
love the couple exchanged—she wanted that so badly her insides twisted in on
themselves. She raised her coffee cup to her lips with unsteady hands and
glanced towards the door leading to the cellar. The sunlight streaming into her
kitchen just confirmed the futility of her thoughts. He was a vampire, and an
ancient one at that. He would soon grow bored and move on, and even if he
didn't—he didn't age—she would. Every day she grew older and one day he would
wake up to an old woman and then…

She screwed her eyes shut, disgusted
with herself and her rambling thoughts. It wasn't as though he'd declared his
everlasting love to her. Circumstances had thrown them together and he felt
honor-bound to protect her. And he was a man— of course he'd take the sex on
offer. It was her own stupid mistake that she'd fallen in love with him. He'd
never made any false promises to her. She swiped away the tear running down her
cheek with an impatient wave of her hand and opened her eyes to find
Marnie
and Ion both watching her.

"Really, I'm okay. He didn't
hurt me."

Ion simply raised an eyebrow at her.
Marnie's
eyes darted to
Coralie's
neck and she smiled, before she looked away, seemingly lost in thought. Ion
took her hand and murmured something that
Coralie
couldn't quite catch and
Marnie
cupped Ion's cheek
tenderly, before addressing
Coralie
with a smile.

"Of course he didn't. Lucas is
in love with you, any fool can see that."

Ion choked on the swig of coffee
he'd just taken and
Coralie
wasn't at all sure she
wasn't staring openmouthed at
Marnie
. She couldn't be
serious.

"Forgive
Marnie
.
She sees romance in the air everywhere." Ion's amused tones filled the
kitchen, but his wife simply pulled a face at him.

"Don't listen to him. He's a
typical male—can't see anything unless you hit him over the head with it."
She dismissed Ion's warning growl with a wave of her hand and leaned forward to
emphasize her point. "Is the great Lucas not
slumming
it right now in your basement?" She clapped her hand at
Coralie's
reluctant nod. "Well, then. Don't you think
he could have stayed in any number of places, should he have wished it? Why do
you think he's so insistent to stay close to you? The pack could handle your
protection detail just fine."
Marnie
flicked a
strand of her hair off her face with an impatient shake of her head and fixed
her chocolate eyes firmly on
Coralie
. "No, this
is personal and I couldn't be more delighted. It's about time he settled
down."

"Settled down?"
Coralie
didn't seem able to project her voice with any
conviction over the blood rushing in her ears.
Marnie
had to be imagining things. "He doesn't seem the settling down type."

"Of course he is. Just takes
the right woman to make these stubborn males see sense."

"Watch who you're calling
stubborn, little one," Ion interrupted his wife and
Coralie
mumbled her excuses, whilst Ion kissed his wife senseless. She couldn't stay
and witness this anymore. It was too painful.

The kitchen door closed behind her
with a soft click and
Coralie
stopped in front of her
mother's portrait in the hallway. If only she could ask her for advice.
 
The how-to’s of dating a
vampire whilst being hunted by a murderous demon hadn't come up in their many
talks about men.

"Tell me what to do,
Mummy,"
Coralie
whispered. The slightest touch
of cool air skittered across
Coralie's
bare arms and she
wrapped them around herself, hearing her mother's voice inside her head.

"All good things are worth
fighting for,
Coralie
. Trust what you find in your
heart…"

Chapter
Eighteen

Coralie
stared out the window, not paying attention to her surroundings. She had
thought being back at work would help, but all she could think about was Lucas,
sleeping in her cellar.
 
What on earth
was she going to do?

"Shit!"
Coralie
bit her lip and flinched as the knife slid into her
thumb. Bright crimson stained the chopping board and she watched in fascination
as the cut closed in front of her eyes.
Holy shit, what does that mean?
She
looked around nervously in case anyone else had seen, but Bianca, the new lady
she had been introduced to that morning was busy at the other end of the
kitchen. Heart hammering in her ears,
Coralie
quickly
held the offending knife under the tap and watched the blood gurgle down the
sink drain.

Shit, shit, shit, what is happening
to me?
She hadn't turned, she knew it. Bright sunlight streamed through
the window and warmed her clammy skin. Where was Lucas when she needed him,
damn it?