Cherry Stem Read online

  The synchronized bobbing of heads with precisely the same skeptical expressions was a funny sight, but it wasn’t the time to giggle. “I wiped the human…after.” I sounded convincing enough. “I don’t understand how Willoughby is still around, how he escaped when we all thought he was executed, but I think he’s out there killing or turning women, and—”

  “Thank you for bringing this to our notice, Cherry. We’ll look into it.” John smiled at me, eyes twinkling, and I felt the knot that had formed in my stomach since they’d all entered the room loosen up. I had at least one ally in a high place.

  “If there’s something to look into,” Gheorghios added, and Hui Zhong actually raised an eyebrow—the first expression I’d seen on her face so far. Benjamin was frowning. The lines of his face had deepened, and the result was disconcerting.

  I hesitated. Should I tell them about Dotty’s son getting a visit from the kidnapper? My instincts told me not to. As far as I knew, said kidnapper wasn’t aware his message had already been delivered, and that ought to keep Mark safe for a bit longer. “Could you—could you let me know if you find my neighbor? Her son needs her.” I knew I was asking for a lot, but I liked Dotty.

  “We’re done here. You can go now.” Ádísa, ever helpful, waved one hand toward the exit.

  I was about to object—beg, if I had to—when John said, “We’ll keep you posted.” It was more than I could have hoped for, although I was still planning on looking deeper into Dotty’s disappearance myself.

  Ádísa stressed her dismissal by folding an arm behind her head, arching her back, and yawning.

  I have never had any illusions concerning my appearance, nor have I had any complexes. Well, not lately. I am aware that I’m not a stunner, but I’m definitely pretty and can turn heads with just a little effort. And makeup. All in all, I have confidence in my looks even with my handful or two of extra pounds. When Ádísa stretched, that confidence wavered.

  Seeing her exhibit how much I was boring her should have been insulting; she’d probably meant it to be. The only thought that crossed my mind, however, was that I would probably cheat on me with her. Toned abs, high cheekbones, bee-stung lips, golden mane, and we’ve covered the boobs, right? Her curves looked preordered, and knowing they weren’t pissed me off to no end. I pinched the inside of Constantine’s bicep, just because he’d let her seduce him.

  Since I was pinching, I kept my hold on him as I rose to leave. Constantine stood next to me and gave the council a little bow. Placing his hand at the small of my back, he guided us toward the exit.

  “Not you, darling.” She even sounded gorgeous, damn it, her voice throaty and melodic.

  Constantine turned to her. “Pardon?”

  I took a couple of steps forward, fully aware ignoring her was impolite, yet not caring.

  Then she said, “I thought maybe you’d like to see me home,” and my feet suddenly ceased moving.

  To his credit, Constantine didn’t really jump at the suggestion. “It isn’t gentlemanly to let the lady I’m escorting return home alone.”

  “We’re not in the eighteen hundreds anymore.” She laughed. “I’m sure your little friend can find her way home.”

  Little friend? Grrr!

  “She can’t, Ádísa. She doesn’t know where we are, nor should she find out.” Nice! He just wanted to pretend he was protecting the council? He didn’t have the balls to tell her he didn’t want to go anywhere with her? Unless maybe he did.

  He must have sensed my irritation because he reached over the distance between us and put a hand on my shoulder. It had a calming effect; I realized he was protecting me by trying not to piss her off. I was happy my back was still to them; I doubted she’d appreciate my face-splitting grin. And it was face-splitting. My jaw hurt from it.

  “Rowland can drive her, then.” There was such finality in her tone that Constantine didn’t put up more argument.

  The human all but ran to my side. A peek over my shoulder showed me the others had left. The sneaky bastards hadn’t made a sound. Ádísa was holding out her arms for Constantine. Her gaze met mine, and she blew me a kiss.

  Bitch.

  * * * *

  Constantine would be safe and would probably enjoy himself immensely, if he wasn’t doing so already. I would be safe too. I was certain of that, despite having been blindfolded as soon as I’d stepped out of the building. Still, refraining from bitching took all the energy I had. The council hadn’t exactly shown interest in what I’d told them. I was tired, hungry, and my hot ex, with whom I had unresolved issues, had been practically vamp-napped by your stereotypical sexy femme fatale. The latter wasn’t my worry; it just annoyed me.

  The ride was quiet and uneventful. Rowland wasn’t the world’s best conversationalist—or talkative at all—but he was nice enough to offer me a reheated bottle of blood when I mentioned I hadn’t eaten in more than twenty-four hours. I needed to feed so badly that I thought it didn’t taste half bad for a packaged meal.

  When I entered the house, Alex was sprawled on the couch, his bare feet propped on the armrest. The lower half of his face was hidden by the folder he’d been working on when sleep had overtaken him, and he was snoring lightly. Seeing him made me forget all about Constantine as a wave of affection washed over me. Coming back to him was like coming home. My heart expanded at the thought of doing that on a daily basis, and I shook my head to get rid of that mental image. Neither the time nor the subject matter was right for daydreaming. I plucked the folder from his fingers and left it on the floor so I could lean over him to touch my lips to his.

  He smiled without opening his eyes. Just a quirk of the lips. He was still asleep; I could tell by his breathing. “Want to come to bed?” I whispered in his ear. My tongue trailing along it was just an accident, honestly.

  The response I got was an adorable furrowing of his brow and an even more adorable scrunching of his nose.

  “Alex?” I caressed his stomach, first over his shirt and then under it, loving the feel of his heat and smoothness. “Come to bed with me?”

  His lids fluttered, and he stirred a bit. Snaking an arm around my waist, he pulled me to him. “No,” he mumbled, burying his face at the crook of my neck.

  Being held bent over wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world, not even for an immortal, so I draped a leg across his hips and crawled on top of him. “I’ll carry you if you don’t get up.”

  Idle threat—I could pick him up and carry him but had no intention to—yet it worked. Alex blinked at me drowsily. “You’d better be joking.” His fingers found my waistband, bunched around the loop at the back, and gave it a playful yank.

  I giggled. “Only one way to find out.” I started to get off him, but his hold on me didn’t budge.

  His free hand caressed my cheek tenderly. “You okay?” His eyes were serious and completely awake when I looked up at him.

  I nodded, nuzzling his palm.

  “Will they help?” He pulled the hair band from my ponytail and ran his fingers through my hair again and again.

  “Uh-huh.” Too tired to elaborate on the meeting’s result, I let my head drop on his chest and melted into his touch. I’d fill in the blanks in the morning, since he didn’t have to go in. Whoever was keeping tabs on us would hopefully take that to mean Alex was off the case, and it would be enough to keep Dotty safe until we got her back.

  “Good.” His thumb trailed under my chin so he could lift my face to him. When his finger feathered over my mouth, I wrapped my lips around it and sucked it in, like I had the previous night.

  This time there was no omelet going cold and I’d let no doubts hold me back. One more night wasn’t forever, but it was one more night. For all I knew, it could be all we had.

  My jeans, sadly, weren’t accommodating for impromptu romps on the couch, especially with Alex obviously unwilling to move and me unwilling to lose touch with him long enough to stand and get rid of them. I had to work around them, somehow.

>   I squirmed in his lap, feeling him hard and thick between my legs. His slim hips drove against mine, making me wish it was his cock I was sucking instead of his thumb. His gaze was fixed on my lips, his tongue all but lolling out of his mouth. The desperate moan he let out, a sound that I’d heard men make before but which had never touched me so deeply in the past, made my mind up for me. Without a word, Alex had managed to convey such urgency that I decided to let his need come before mine.

  I let go of his thumb and placed a kiss on the inside of his palm. Then I took hold of his other wrist and raised both his hands over his head. “Hold on and don’t let go,” I said with a wink, closing his fingers around the armrest. “It will be a bumpy ride.”

  He bucked beneath me a couple of times. “This bumpy?”

  I grinned. “You don’t know the half of it!” I caressed his cheek. His stubble pricked at my fingertips. I used both hands to trace the sides of his face and continue down his neck to his smooth chest. I wanted to bury my face in the crook of his neck and inhale his deep, masculine scent until I got light-headed. Instead I bunched his T-shirt in both hands. “How attached are you to this?”

  He barely had time to say, “Not very,” before I pulled. The fabric shredded with a ripping sound and exposed his toned abs. He sucked in a breath, the muscles of his stomach clenching and becoming even more lickable. He was straining not to move, his biceps bulging inside the short sleeves. He was looking at me under hooded eyelids—all male, and all mine.

  Maybe I could take my jeans off really, really fast?

  Nah. I leaned forward and trailed my tongue down his throat. His skin was a bit salty. A clean taste that made me want to savor more of him. He shivered and craned his neck to the side, spurring me to close my teeth over his jugular and nip lightly.

  Alex groaned and rocked his hips. Finding and pinching his nipple gently, I pressed down on him, the seam of my jeans at just the right spot to make the friction pleasurable. We both hissed—okay, maybe I was louder than he was—and I moved back a little so I could lick his stomach without spraining my neck.

  I blew air over the wet trail my mouth had left. The change in his breathing and heart rate would have made even snapping my neck worth it. His chest rose and fell rapidly, and I realized I’d been instinctively matching his intakes of air. By the time I undid his buttons and kissed below his navel, he was trembling. I looked up at him. His eyes were narrowed with concentration, and veins popped in his arms. I knew his knuckles would be white.

  I’d had men want me before, despite never having been the epitome of beauty. As a human, I’d been in those circles where getting ahead meant giving head, and as a vampire, I’d had my share of conquests. Men had tried to charm, con, blackmail, or buy their way into my panties, but none of them had wanted me as badly as I could feel Alex did at that very moment. Not even Constantine, who’d been an experienced and considerate lover, and who I knew had loved me.

  I shooed my former lover’s memory out of my head, something easy to do with Alex’s cock, long and hard, so close to my mouth. I wanted to wrap my lips around him and feel his silkiness on my tongue, feel his pulse right there, throbbing in my mouth. I wanted to taste him when he lost control.

  But I wanted him to beg first.

  Alex had been the one doing the…exploring during the few days we’d been together, and I thoroughly loved seeing how he responded to my touches now that it was my turn to play. I crawled between his legs and pulled his jeans down as far as they could go. It wasn’t enough to expose all of him. I nibbled at the soft, smooth spot above his hip bone. He mumbled something that sounded like fuck. I liked that, so I treated his other hip bone the same way, taking the opportunity to inhale his distinctive Alex scent under that of his shower gel.

  He swayed his hips, and his cock nudged my cheek. Ignoring him, I placed an openmouthed kiss right next to where his shaft lay partially constricted on his lower abdomen. I trailed my fingernails over his length, and he tried to push against my palm. I was faster, withdrawing it.

  “Cherry…come on.” He panted, his voice raspy. He raised his legs, bending them at the knees, and pressed his feet to the cushion.

  “What?” I flicked his erection once with the tip of my tongue.

  “You know what.” His lower body jerked up from the couch when I did it again, and he said, “Evil!”

  Stroking his inner thigh over the denim, I nodded. “I so am.” His muscles were tense, stretching the fabric and making me want to rip his pants off too.

  He amazed me by not releasing his grip on the couch—not even when I licked along his cock. Though he did threaten me with revenge unless I sucked him off immediately.

  “I didn’t hear the magic word.” I sat back on my haunches, a silly giddiness overtaking me. “Without the magic word, you don’t get a thing.” I smirked, very pleased with myself, and scratched his stomach lightly with my nails. “Say the magic word!”

  “Now?” He growled, trying to move his legs.

  I held on to them. “That’s not the magic word.” Since I was being childish anyway, I tickled his side when he stopped thrashing.

  His eyes were the darkest gray I’d seen them so far, but he seemed as amused as I was. “Then what is?”

  “Please,” I said smugly. That was my mistake.

  “Well, since you’re asking for it nicely.” His hand flew to my hair and fisted in it. He used his grip to press my face to his cock.

  I laughed. I’d never laughed during sex before I met Alex. I was usually too busy being the sultry seductress or the eager student. The latter had been with Constantine, who had always been teaching me both in and out of bed. With Alex, it was different. He felt…lighter, for lack of a better word.

  He laughed too, stopping only when I finally closed my lips around the head of his dick and licked a single, salty drop of precum from its tip.

  Not needing to breathe is a major asset when it comes to going down on a man. Nevertheless I couldn’t do much with his jeans in the way. I made a valiant effort to take all of his cock in my mouth, but the angle was wrong. Just when I was getting frustrated, Alex whispered, “Not very attached to those, either.” I tugged on them sharply, and they were out of the way, framing his thighs with their front torn.

  I took his cock down my throat and sucked. His balls were heavy. I cupped and rolled them in my palm. Both his hands were in my hair now, fingers tangled and tugging. I loved the illusion that I couldn’t break free from his grasp. He used his feet to propel his thrusts in and out of my mouth. He didn’t hold back, but then, he didn’t need to. I welcomed his frenzy. The sounds he made while his dick, slick with my saliva, slid forcefully between my lips again and again filled me with a sense of power that had nothing to do with physical strength. That man, that strong, assertive man, was reduced to meaningless cries of ecstasy because of what I was doing to him. Holding him still, I sucked harder, withdrawing slowly so I could circle his cockhead with my tongue.

  His grasp on my hair intensified, and I thought he meant to push back in, but he didn’t. Instead he pulled me up harshly and gave me a fierce kiss. “Turn around,” he said.

  I was so lost in enjoying his pleasure that I didn’t understand what he was talking about.

  “On your knees. Face the other way.”

  Ah! I turned and braced myself on the opposite arm of the couch with one hand, undoing my fly in a split second with the other.

  He yanked my waistband halfway down my thighs and in a single thrust buried his cock inside my pussy. He hadn’t bothered pausing to check if I was ready, like he didn’t pause when I cried out at the suddenness of his intrusion—not that I wanted him to. He started fucking me with almost punishing force, my position making the friction between us more intense, despite how wet my pussy was. He gripped the back of my neck and pressed my face down against the cushion.

  The change in angle of penetration added to the pressure building in my lower belly. The couch’s fabric scratched against
my skin but only heightened my pleasure, as did Alex’s roughness. I reached down to stroke my clit. Each move of his hips, each touch of his fingertips, each thrust of his cock was making a claim over my body. I was his to take, his to fuck, his to please, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

  I loved this dominating side of Alex as much as I loved his easygoing one. And I wouldn’t linger on the love part.

  “Who’s fucking you, Cherry? Who are you going to come for?”

  “You, only y—oh God!” A crushing wave of pleasure bowed my back and made my head light. Inside me the tension finally broke. It felt like a vial of adrenaline was poured in my veins. Without warning my senses became more acute, all hold I’d had on them gone. Alex’s scent filled my nostrils, and the drumming of his heart thundered in my ears. I could make out the slightest change in pressure where his fingers dug into the back of my neck. The hairs on his legs tickled the oversensitized skin of my thighs. My pussy pulsated. My stomach tightened. The force of my orgasm made my whole body shake. I tried to look at Alex over my shoulder, but all strength had been sapped out of me. My vision blurred. I squeezed my eyes shut and bit the cushion, trying to stay grounded. It didn’t work. I expanded and expanded until I was nothing but light and color. I flew and I fell, my limbs light as feathers and made of lead.

  Alex’s hips slammed against me once, twice, three times, and then he spilled himself in me, hot cum dripping down my inner thighs.

  We slumped down and stayed there, until he had his breathing under control and I could feel my legs again. He then wrapped an arm around my waist, gathered me to him, and lay back, peppering kisses on my shoulder. I wanted to roll over and face him, but his hold wouldn’t budge even after his cock had softened and slipped out of me. He hadn’t been at his chattiest after sex so far, but there was now a tension in him that could mean something was wrong. He spoke before I could ask if that was the case.