Dying to Love Her Read online

  Her breath cracked with a laugh and she nodded. This must all be part of their revolutionary approach. Rook was being so nice to her, obviously trying to make a connection emotionally. It might be easier to exercise all day instead of breaking down in front of him like this though.

  “And this program—I’m curious. I’ve heard crazy rumors that women have dropped over one hundred pounds in four months with minimal exercise and dieting, their bodies toned like they were never overweight to begin with. All without the aid of drugs or weight-loss surgery. That seems impossible. How does your system work?”

  Rook’s slow smile paired with the twinkle in his eyes told her he was going to enjoy sharing the secret.

  “It’s actually a very old method of weight loss, even ancient.” He stood, grabbed her hand and pulled her from her seat. “Come with me. I’ll show you.”

  He led her across the room and stopped in front of a large silver-framed mirror hanging on the wall. She watched Rook’s reflection as he settled in behind her, shivered when he rested his hands on either side of her arms.

  Melanie shifted, feeling exposed. He must be able to see the yearning in her face as easily as she did.

  “When I smile tell me what you see,” Rook instructed. His lips slowly spread wide and his dazzling smile impressed. He had… She looked closer. What the…were those fangs?

  Adrenaline seized her body before her brain could come up with a rational explanation. Her initial thought was so fantastical she was embarrassed. Thankfully reason returned. He either had a weird sense of humor or needed some dental work, because Rook wasn’t a vampire.

  She chuckled. “What, are you literally going to suck the fat out of me?”

  Their gazes locked in the mirror and a pulsating energy passed between them so intense it paralyzed her.

  Rook’s smile eased but his gaze didn’t. He swept aside her hair and gently kissed her neck. “Not just sucking. There will be plenty of fucking too. It’s the combination of the two that will produce the best results but don’t tell anyone. Remember, you promised not to tell our secrets.”

  Melanie clenched her sweaty palms against her thighs. She didn’t know what had her reeling more—the insinuation that they’d be having sex, his non-denial of being something other than human or that kiss. This can’t be real. Uh-uh. Vampires aren’t real.

  But her body wouldn’t listen to reason. Her heart pounded violently and no matter how deep or fast she sucked air down her lungs couldn’t get enough.

  She was seconds away from needing a brown paper bag when a sweet-savory smell, almost like cloves, enveloped her. With each breath she became more lightheaded and relaxed. Melanie fell back against the hard wall that was Rook’s torso and quaked when he wrapped his arms around her chest, then waist.

  Fears slipped away. So did her inhibitions. Only her need for him remained.

  She could stay like this forever. Need like she never felt before made her throb inside and out. He slipped his hand between her legs and she pressed her thighs together as she moaned and writhed against him. So good, this felt so damn good.

  I shouldn’t be letting him do this to me. Melanie held on to some semblance of her common sense and morals. It’s inappropriate, maybe even dangerous. Her mind raced, giving her so many reasons to say no. But her body drowned out her doubts with a resounding scream of pleasure when his hand touched the right spots.

  The throbbing in her pussy was tight, intense. Release—she needed it badly. Rook teased the swollen flesh between her thighs with the promise of what he’d do if he slipped his hand underneath her skirt. Dear God, she hoped he would. She’d sort out the moral dilemma of it all later. Right now she needed him to take care of her physical dilemma.

  “Will it hurt?” she whispered, not caring. If losing the weight and being with Rook meant her path to pleasure had to be paved with pain so be it. Melanie tensed and braced for the force of his bite, only to melt with his words and penetrating stare.

  “I’d never hurt you, Melanie. You’ll understand that soon enough.” He left a long line of heated kisses on her neck while his skilled fingers traveled to her breasts and massaged her nipples until they burned and puckered.

  “This skin, pale and soft.” Rook kissed her again. “Your body so giving. I can’t wait to feast on every fucking inch of you.” He grazed her with his fangs and even her toes curled.

  “Please.” Her legs buckled with anticipation. It’d been so long since a man had looked at her with true passion in his eyes like Rook did. She couldn’t be patient. She needed release now. Melanie’s reflected gaze bored into his. “Just do it. I can’t—”

  “I’ve waited so long for this, wanted to draw your pleasure out for hours, but how can I deny you anything?” His protective embrace tightened and like silk slipping through fingers, his fangs glided into her flesh.

  Melanie welcomed the icy-hot invasion with a raw, body-wrenching groan. His mouth clamped onto her skin and dragged sizzling currents of excruciating bliss through her body.

  Deeper. Harder. She pushed against him, desperate to get closer. His erection dug into the swell of her ass and Melanie wanted to be bent over and taken roughly from behind. To feel him buried in her body from mouth to cock, taking her, using her. She held back the sordid plea before it escaped on a breathy moan.

  The throaty rumble of Rook’s gratification vibrated against her neck setting off the tight coil of heat deep within her flesh. She trembled. Orgasm after orgasm hit her, each one more intense then the next.

  The burn and quench of peak then release ripped through her body relentlessly. Melanie gasped for every breath. “Too much. It’s so good but I can’t…can’t take it anymore. Stop or…I’m going to die of pleasure,” she moaned, grasping his arms and digging her nails into his skin, trying to hold on before the dizzying darkness overtook her.

  Rook wrenched her body close one last time and then with a jagged moan slipped his fangs as effortlessly from her neck as he’d penetrated her. With a slick swipe of his tongue across the bite, the shudder of her body eased.

  “You’re wrong, Melanie.” Gently, he spun her around and she fought to keep her eyes from closing. “I’m going to die if I don’t stop and I couldn’t think of a sweeter way to go.”

  He was nothing to her but Rook became everything when she thought of losing him. Irrational panic constricted her chest. She cried out and her heavy eyelids flew open.

  “It’s okay. I’m not going anywhere. How could I leave you now that I’ve found you?” He cradled her in his arms, rubbing her hair with a light caress. “Not now, not ever. Breathe, baby. Breathe slow and deep.”

  The enticing aroma returned stronger than before. Melanie fought to stay alert, afraid that he would slip away from her, but the darkness that had threatened to take her before closed in.

  Chapter Two

  Alec Kosta threw open the door to his library seeking some diversion, anything to keep from getting behind the wheel and speeding into the city.

  Lifetimes of books filled the shelves and rested in piles on every flat surface. He picked up an old favorite and promptly returned it back to the table, too keyed up to read. Slowly he breathed in the scent of the room’s aging pages. The usually comforting smell didn’t do a damn thing to relax him.

  “It’s your own fault, dumbass,” he chided himself as he collapsed onto his aged-to-perfection leather couch. His eyes went straight for the chess set with the white ivory pieces still arranged in their losing configuration. “After all these years you should know Rook’s strategies.”

  Alec kicked his bare feet up onto the antique wooden trunk that served as a table. His poor play had cost him something more valuable than the terms they usually played for. Rook’s winning move had earned him their lifemate, Melanie. Not for keeps but for a few precious hours, Rook would be the one to introduce her to what they were and more importantly, to show her.

  He clenched his teeth and swallowed down his jealousy. It tasted like day
-old blood. Neither he nor Rook could afford such petty feelings if they were going to make a lifetime with Melanie work.

  Alec rested his head back against the cushion and shut his eyes.

  Yesterday Melanie had been just another woman having her blood drawn by an Empriva physician during the required physical exam. The sample had been sent to a Vampire Blood Bureau testing center known to humans as VBB Diagnostics. Not only did the facility test blood to evaluate a patient’s overall health, they also secretly searched for the rare virus some women carried that made them suitable lifemates for vampires.

  Only a lifemate’s blood could make a vampire human again. Melanie had tested positive as a carrier and the variant of her virus matched his and Rook’s blood type.

  Fate, luck—he didn’t give a fuck what you called it—but because Melanie had visited an Empriva Fitness doctor he and Rook had been called first. They’d been able to access her file and picture in seconds. One look at Melanie and they knew she was the lifemate they’d been waiting for.

  The techno-beat of his ringtone jarred him from his thoughts, but he’d never been so happy to receive a call in his life. He sat upright and ripped the phone from his pocket. “Is she with you?”

  “Well hello to you too,” Rook said in that chipper tone that always grated on his nerves. “And how are we doing tonight?”

  Not as fucking good as you, obviously.

  Alec slumped forward and braced his elbows on his knees. “The only we right now is you and Melanie. I’m all by myself.” His stomach clenched. He hated feeling like a bystander. “How do you think I am? I’m anxious.”

  “Don’t be. She’s right here in my lap, asleep, and she’s not going anywhere. We won’t let her. Melanie will be ours soon enough.”

  He’d never known Rook to speak so possessively. Of a car maybe but not a woman. It made this all the more real.

  “How can you be so sure she’ll accept us?” Alec countered as he shot to his feet and paced the room. “She might be a match but that doesn’t mean she wants to be.” In one swift motion, he ran his hand through his hair, down his neck and squeezed. “We need her. She doesn’t need us.”

  “If she feels half of what I already feel for her, she’ll need us. Trust me.” Rook’s deep breaths carried over the phone. “You should smell her. I’ve had my face buried in her neck the entire time. I can’t pull away.”

  Alec licked his lips remembering her photograph. Melanie’s natural beauty, so suited for him, had tugged on his lust immediately. Her smell, taste, the touch of her skin that looked so smooth, he’d have to wait to discover those intoxicating bits until they finally met.

  Resigned, he let go of a ragged breath. “What does she smell like?”

  “Like forever.”

  He’s a romantic now too. Alec jammed his hand into his pocket, shook his head up toward the vaulted ceiling. “That’s not a scent.”

  “The fuck it isn’t,” Rook whispered harshly. “Just wait. You’ll see what I mean.”

  “Well hurry up and get here so you can prove me wrong.” He walked over to the window that gave him a perfect view of his estate’s tree-lined driveway and rested his head against the cool glass.

  This was insane, wanting Melanie so badly before ever having met her. Like an idiot he actually tried to imagine what forever smelled like.

  “It won’t be much longer,” Rook said. “We left the city thirty minutes ago. My driver should have us there within the hour.”

  He turned to look at his mother’s brass carriage clock on the fireplace mantel. Time had held little sway over him since his genetic mutation had kicked in and he’d transitioned from a human to a vampire around his thirtieth birthday. Now he obsessed over minutes. “I’ll be waiting. And Rook—”

  “What?”

  “We both know how amorous a woman is after experiencing a vampire bite.” Lust ignited through his body just thinking about what he had to look forward to. The beginnings of an erection caused him to adjust his stance. “Don’t wake her.”

  “And if she wakes all on her own?” Rook asked. “What do you want me to do then?”

  “Tell your driver to haul ass.”

  Alec tossed his phone onto a nearby chair and stayed by the window until he saw the set of headlights cut through the dark. His usually quiet heartbeat thumped. He bolted through his house and steadied himself as he opened the front door. With as much composure as he could muster he stepped outside.

  Rook’s limo careened around the circular driveway sending pea gravel dust in every direction.

  He flew down the steps and yanked the door open.

  Back ramrod straight, his best friend sat motionless against the seat while Melanie, on the verge of waking, writhed and whimpered in his lap. “My limits have been tested,” Rook said, in a tone as stressed as his posture. “Get her off me before I do something you’ll make me regret.”

  Melanie’s eyes opened, heavy-lidded with spent passion and lingering sleepiness. Immediately, they widened when she saw him.

  Body-wrenching desire seized Alec. The need to possess, to protect erupted within him. Rook’s first moments with Melanie didn’t matter anymore, just this deep connection forged with one lingering look. Undeniable. Did she feel it too?

  “You’re Mr. Magnificent,” she said dreamily.

  Alec stood a little straighter and puffed out his chest. “No need for formalities. You can call me Alec.” He shot Rook a triumphant smile, liking the direction of this conversation already.

  “Don’t let it go to your head,” Rook muttered. “She’s still coming down.”

  Melanie licked her lips and let out a sigh while she continued to stare at him. “You’re the one from the picture, the one with the amazing eyes.”

  He’d been thinking the very same thing of her. Earthy green with glints of gold and blue dancing out from the center, her eyes were surrounded by thick, dark lashes that fluttered innocently. He’d never seen anything more seductive.

  “And you’re Melanie.” Just saying her name sent a shiver down his spine. “The one.”

  Rook lifted her off his lap, easing her toward the door. He grumbled so low only Alec, with his sensitive hearing, picked it up. “And I’m Rook, the one with the hard-on.”

  Alec ignored him. He held out his hand to guide Melanie, desperate to have her in his arms.

  “The one?” She tilted her head, blinked and grabbed on to him. “The one what?”

  Her touch called to him like the radiant North Star called to a lost sailor at sea. He’d always know it, seek it out. It would guide him home to her. Alec grasped tighter. “Just the one. Isn’t that enough?”

  Unsteadily she stepped out of the limo. Melanie brushed against his rigid frame and he nearly shook from the forcefulness of his need to pull her close and crush every feminine turn of her body against his.

  She was curvy, too curvy by today’s standards, but his tastes didn’t run very modern when it came to women’s physiques. Luminosity penetrated from the depths of her straight shoulder-length hair, even in the dark of evening. A strand stuck to the corner of her perfect mouth and he used it as an excuse to explore. Alec smoothed it away and it slipped through his fingers like a whisper.

  He’d submit himself to the sun just to see the daylight play off her rich auburn tresses.

  “So what happens now?” She looked to Rook, then to him. Her daze from being bitten seemed to be lifting. Melanie held her head to the side and timidly brushed her fingertips across the throbbing pulse in her neck. “Are you going to bite me too, Alec?”

  He and Rook groaned in unison and Rook climbed out of the limo.

  The slight bruising where Rook had fed made Alec’s gums ache. He wanted to begin the claiming just like Rook had. He wanted to know that he was one step closer to becoming the man Melanie hopefully would agree to spend the rest of her life with. But that would have to wait.

  “He shouldn’t, baby,” Rook said. “Twice in one night might be too much an
d I think Alec has other plans for you. Remember what I said? Suck then fuck, that’s how the program works.”

  “Right…the program.” She glanced at Alec but the minute their gazes collided she averted her eyes. Rosy patches of color awoke under her skin. “How could I forget?” Her tone suggested otherwise.

  He narrowed his eyes and shot Rook a hard look.

  “What?” Rook stared back, his forehead wrinkled with confusion.

  Sometimes Rook had no tact. Alec squared his shoulders. There were countless ways to explain things to Melanie and he went with suck and fuck. He was buying him a thesaurus for Christmas. “I think Melanie and I need some time alone to get to know each other better. Melanie will decide what that entails.”

  Without regard to Alec, Rook wrapped his hands in Melanie’s hair and touched her with the confidence that she was already his. “Don’t take too long,” he said. “I still need to get better acquainted myself. And I don’t think Melanie will mind if I decide what that entails.” Rook lowered his mouth to hers, indulged in one long, lasting kiss.

  The only thing that kept Alec’s annoyance in check was the way Melanie still gripped his hand even as Rook pulled her deeper into his embrace. It gave him hope that she could make room for both of them in her life.

  Rook drew away and settled into the limo. “I’ll have my driver take me home to get my things and I’ll be back later tonight. You won’t forget about me while I’m gone, will you?”

  “I don’t know about her but I’m going to do my damndest to try,” Alec said flatly.

  Melanie smirked and he wanted to give her a thousand more reasons to smile.

  Rook laughed too but it fell short of his usual gut-busting enthusiasm. He nodded to Alec, shut the door and left.

  Judging by the speed with which the vehicle departed Rook would return soon. Alec pulled Melanie’s hand to his mouth and kissed each of her knuckles, determined to leave no part of her untouched before he did.