Misled (Carnal Thirst #1)(4)
Author: Sylvia Day

“Watch me take you,” he whispered, his free hand pressing her gently backward until she set her arms behind her to support her weight. He lifted her skirt to her waist, drawing her eyes to the glistening curls between her thighs and the ruddy c*ck that approached them.

Sable watched, mesmerized, as he entered her with exquisite slowness, the flared head breaching her, stretching her. Her eyelids grew heavy as Derek surged slowly inside, hot and hard, a silken instrument of sexual torment and ultimate relief.

She shivered and moaned as he slipped deeper, sliding through her cream, his impressive width and length like a warm inner massage. He buried himself to the hilt, his head falling back as a shudder shook the length of his body. He offered a soft smile, revealing wicked fangs and molten eyes made bright by the animal let loose inside him. He withdrew and then pressed forward again, his stomach rippling with muscle as he gave a long, deep plunge.

“So hot,” he said hoarsely. “So tight and wet.” He pulled out until only the tip remained inside her. “Look at all your cream on my cock. It’s the most erotic thing I’ve ever seen.”

She swallowed hard, her skin damp from the heat.

“Put your finger in my mouth,” he urged.

Leaning to one side, she freed one hand and did as he asked. His cheeks hollowed as he sucked, drawing on her with a steady suction, the tempo of which was echoed in the clasps of her p**sy on his cock. She gasped, so aroused she couldn’t think.

“That’s what you feel like to me. It makes me want to come, Sable. It makes my balls ache. Does it turn you on? Watching me f**k you? Feeling me stroke you?”

“Yes…” Sable stared, her n**ples so hard they ached, as he pumped his c*ck into her cunt, his rhythm so slow, his h*ps swirling and then lunging.

Nothing had ever felt as good as this. She’d never have enough of it, never stop craving it. The sex got better every time.

And more personal.

With a growl, Derek claimed her throat with his fangs as his thrusts picked up speed, propelling himself deeply into her with soft blows of his h*ps to hers. His thoughts entered her head with a clarity she was learning to treasure. I’ve missed this, baby. I missed you.

Sable wrapped her legs around his waist, adding her strength to his, making his c*ck strike deep, so deep. Derek wasn’t like other lovers she’d had. Everything he did, every move he made was planned for her pleasure. His greedy mouth tugged at her skin, building an ecstasy so intense she came, bathing him in a rush moisture. He slowed, savoring her orgasm, his touch gentle as if he knew her fears and longed to soothe them. She longed to let him.

“So good,” she moaned, her body on fire, and Derek growled his agreement as he drank. She gripped his flexing buttocks, urging him deeper when there was no deeper to go.

Sable felt him everywhere. He permeated everything with a merciless penetration that brought her as much pain as pleasure. Belatedly, she fought off his invasion, trying to shield herself from the devastation his loss would bring.

He reached a hand between them and stroked her cl*t in time with the thrusting of his hips. You can’t hold back. Stop trying.

As her body tightened with another orgasm, tears slipped free and dripped onto her cheek.

Don’t, he begged. Don’t cry. It’s okay. I’m here with you. You’re not alone.

“I’m always alone,” she cried softly. “It’s the nature of our beast.”

And her job.

He hunched over her, caging her to table, thrusting hard until she came with a scream. He released her neck and arched his back, a guttural cry torn from his throat as he spurted his seed deep inside her.

* * * * *

Derek stirred slowly, reluctant to lift his head from the pillow of Sable’s breast. He felt drained and yet omnipotent at the same time. His strength was steadily increasing as he spent more time inside her. Sable charged him in some way he hadn’t known existed, hadn’t known was possible.

Was that why he craved her?

No, that couldn’t be the reason. He’d wanted her before. The rush he experienced being with her was just an added enticement. It must be the virus. Perhaps together, he and Sable created a synergy. Even if he didn’t desire her so badly, that alone was worth exploring.

He turned his head and looked at the two-way mirror on the wall. He saw nothing but an empty room, their reflections absent from the silvered glass. Sable was right. It was the nature of their beast to be lonely, set apart from others not of their kind. But they’d found each other. Against the odds and all of the rules.

He should have been more circumspect before taking her to his ship and f**king her for days. He should have known the lust riding him so hard meant more than he was willing to admit. If he hadn’t been so blind, he could have courted her, wooed her, instead of getting his way with his cock. But that was not the way it went down and despite his chagrin, Derek couldn’t regret it. Sable was in his arms and he was deep inside her, soaked in their cream. They had the sexual part of a romantic relationship worked out to perfection. The rest would fall into place eventually.

He pulled himself upright, but remained a part of her. Sable couldn’t deny their connection when they were so intimately joined. Reaching down, he brushed the silky stands of her hair away from her forehead. His touch was reverent and adoring, as was the stroking of her right hand against his hip. Closing her eyes, her breathing slowed to a soft pant.

“What are you doing to me?” she whispered brokenly.

His thumbs drifted along the impossibly long length of her lashes, brushing away the tears that clung there. “What are you afraid of, baby?”

“I’m not afraid.” She sat up. To his surprise, she wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head upon his chest. “But this can’t keep happening. It has to stop.”

“Why?” He pulled back to search her face. The sadness in her eyes arrested his gaze. He’d felt it during their mental connection and was frustrated by the wall she’d erected in her mind. She only let him see a tiny portion of who she was, keeping the greater part of herself tucked away.

What wasn’t she sharing with him?

“There’s more than lust going on here, Sable. I know you feel it too. You wouldn’t be crying otherwise.”

“There are things you don’t know about me.”

“I don’t care what they are.” He was startled to realize he spoke the truth. He was a curious man, which made him good at his job. “I can wait until you’re ready to tell me. All I care about is us—you and me and the way I feel when I’m inside you. The way you make me feel when you look at me like you’re doing right now.”

Sable glanced away and he gripped her chin, pulling her gaze back to his.

“Don’t turn away from me, baby.”

“Don’t push, Derek. Okay?”

Derek released her and ran a hand through his hair. “I’ve spent six hundred years looking for this. I’m not about to let it go now that I’ve found it.”

“Do you love me?” she asked bluntly, her sapphire gaze probing, invasive.

He choked at her directness and the questions it made him ask of himself.

“I thought so,” she murmured without inflection. She shoved him backward, forcing his semi-erect c*ck from the shelter of her p**sy, leaving him feeling bereft and rejected. She smoothed her short skirt over her thighs and slid off the table, pausing a moment to retrieve her thong. The wall between them was a tangible thing and it frightened him. And pissed him off.

“Damn it!” Derek tugged on his uniform, glaring at her. “Give me a chance to think.”

“Forget it.” Sable flew to the door before he could move. She paused on the threshold, her mouth thinned with determination. “Stay out of my life, Atkinson. Find another way to pass the time.”

* * * * *

Sable sat in the cockpit of her Starwing and reminded herself that she was a strong woman who could handle anything. Rubbing her eyes, she leaned back in the captain’s chair and wished she had roots somewhere, something that was hers, a place to call home. She’d taken possession of the highly desired ship compliments of a smuggler who’d been caught by Interstellar Customs. Almost everything she owned was confiscated goods from the impounds of half a dozen different law enforcement agencies. She had to have the best of everything to maintain the appearance of a money-hungry bounty hunter. Unfortunately, it also meant that Sable Taylor had nothing of her own.

She looked out the cockpit window at the half dozen ships docked around her. They branched out on spokes from the slowly spinning center that was the Task Force field office for this part of the universe. Derek’s ship was easy to spot. He drove a Starwing not much older than her own, but his ship was definitely more luxuriously outfitted.

Derek Atkinson had money—lots of it. Judicious investments made over several centuries would make anyone rich beyond measure. It was a testimony to Derek’s character that he chose to work for the STF rather than spend his days idly, surrounded by willing women. His imperviousness to bribery made him the least likely of her suspects. She was certain that no amount of money could entice Derek to whore himself to the Federation.

So who was the traitor?

She’d pondered that question a hundred times over. Starting the engines, she glanced down at the readout on the console. Jeffrey Leroy was next on her list of agents to investigate. He was in the Delta Sector tracking down a smuggler, so that was her next destination. Disengaging from the docking bay, Sable pulled the required distance away from the field office before programming the jump to lightspeed. Then she stood, stretching muscles made deliciously languid from two fabulous orgasms.

Taking a quick shower, she tried not to think about what had happened at headquarters and failed miserably. How could she not think about it? She’d ignored every protocol of her job by getting involved with an agent. And she was definitely involved, no doubt about that. It would be so much easier to blame it on loneliness eased by physical pleasure, but that wouldn’t be true and she had to be honest with herself. Otherwise, she’d do something stupid, like f**k him some more, which was exactly what had gotten her in this mess to begin with.

Sable shut off the spray and toweled her skin dry.

And what the hell had gotten into Derek? He’d almost made it sound like what they had was more than just sex for him too, but she knew better than that. His terrified expression when she’d said the word “love” had proven that point. Yeah, the sex was great, fabulous even, but it wasn’t a good thing when one partner was coming undone and the other one just wanted to come.

With a weary sigh, she threw herself on her bed and glared at the ceiling.

She’d been a fool to fall for Derek Atkinson—a full Master vampire with a sensual call that turned every woman into a mewling sex slave. She would bet a million credits he’d never been in love in his life. He’d lived centuries as a bachelor and seemed to enjoy it immensely, if rumors held true. He left broken hearts in his wake.

Just like hers.

She closed her eyes and without even trying, she could smell him, the scent of his skin infinitely alluring. Her br**sts grew taut and heavy as she pictured his hot gaze and luscious mouth. Reaching up, she squeezed the swollen flesh to ease the ache and wished she weren’t alone.

“I miss you, Derek,” she whispered into the still air.

I know.

Sable’s fists clenched as Derek’s voice sifted like smoke through her mind. “Get out of my head!” she growled to the room at large. With deep concentration, she shoved him firmly from her thoughts.

“You know, baby,” he murmured. “We need to figure out how you throw off my call so easily.”

Her wide-eyed gaze shot to the doorway, shocked to find Derek lounging there with casual arrogance. Her traitorous heart leapt, happy to see him.

“Damn you, Derek.”

Chapter Three

Derek watched with rapt attention as Sable rose nak*d from the small bed and moved to the wardrobe. With the long fall of her dark hair and gently swaying hips, she was temptation incarnate. It took everything he had to maintain his casual appearance when the animal inside him longed to leap the distance between them and f**k her senseless. He couldn’t help but wonder if he’d ever get enough of her. He wanted her as badly as if he hadn’t just come his last drop a short while ago.

Tugging a short, sleeveless wrap off a hanger, she covered her lithe form and he bit back a groan of disappointment. When she turned to face him, her lovely face was studiously impassive, belying the rapid pounding of her pulse and the moisture he could smell pooling between her thighs. She was happy to see him, although she was trying hard to hide that fact. He hid a smile. She’d said she missed him.

“What are you doing stowing away on my ship?” she asked, walking past him.

“You can’t run from me, Sable.”

“I wasn’t running.” She growled in frustration as she realized they’d already made the jump to lightspeed. “Shit. What the hell am I going to do with you now?”

“I have a few suggestions,” he offered helpfully. “Clothing optional.”

She shot him an exasperated glance.

He strolled over to the captain’s chair and made himself at home. He’d checked out the rest of the Starwing while she’d been in the shower. The entire ship had been stripped of every comfort. Obviously luxury was something she could live without. Or was forced to live without.

“How much trouble are you in?” he asked quietly.

She shot him a startled glance. “What?”

Derek waved his hand around the sparse deck in an all-encompassing gesture. “You’re obviously in financial trouble. How deep are you under?”

“Why do you care?” Sable ripped the towel off her head and headed back into the bedroom.

“Who said I cared? Maybe I’m just trying to lighten my bank account.”