Rivals: Episode Two Read online

  And oh lord, was he a man. I could smell him through the salty air, making me want him even more.

  “Well, I do hope you like it. I wasn’t sure if you enjoyed the red or liked white better, so I have another option as well.” He motioned over to a very expensive-looking bottle of wine resting in a bed of perfectly shaped ice-cubes housed in a gleaming silver bucket.

  “Thanks,” I said, a little taken aback by how considerate he was. “This red is delicious though. I do normally drink more white wines, but this one has me seriously considering changing sides.” I smiled and placed my glass back down, keeping a light hand on the base to make sure it didn’t spill over with the gentle rocking of the ocean underneath us. “What’s your favorite?”

  “I enjoy red the most. It feels like a full encyclopedia of tastes, something that’s hard to replicate with anything else I’ve had.” He smirked. “Unless you include women under that category.”

  “Are you saying you’re a female connoisseur?” I asked, playing along.

  “Something like that.” His eyes seemed to bore through me. “Although I don’t think I’ve ever wanted a taste so badly before.” His eyes drifted from mine and hungrily consumed the rest of my body. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, fully aware of his passionate gaze and fully aware of the growing wetness between my thighs. It was such a conflicting range of emotions. I was becoming more turned on than I ever had been before and yet I still felt self-conscious at the way this incredible specimen of a man wanted me so bad. I just felt like it couldn’t be true.

  And yet here he was, undoubtedly craving me.

  “I’ve been staring at your lips the whole night,” Xavier said, his eyes coming up from my busty cleavage and settling back on the very lips he was talking about. “Does it scare you, Kimberly? Being desired by a vampire?”

  I shook my head but words couldn’t form. The heat inside of me was rising and sending the butterflies in my stomach into a flurry of activity.

  “I can hear your heartbeat. It’s racing.” He got up and came to sit next to me on the couch. “You have nothing to fear.” His hand came to rest of my thigh, immediately shooting a barrage of fireworks up my leg and straight to my core. I gently squeezed my legs together, secretly enjoying the feeling of my growing arousal.

  His hand glided higher. I looked at him, my breath hitching for a moment before my mouth opened to form words that had no substance. I didn’t know what was going on but I felt myself succumbing to it. Falling for the insanity of it all and letting myself be loved by this man. He wanted me, it was clear in the way he looked at me. So powerful. His lip twitched up into a smirk.

  “Do you trust me?” He leaned in closer.

  “Yes,” I said, my voice shaky.

  “I brought this,” he leaned over to the table and grabbed a scarlet red handkerchief. “I want you to put it on.” He handed it to me. I took the soft fabric and realized it wasn’t a handkerchief at all, it was a blindfold. My eyes went back up to his, searching him for a moment. He looked so alluring in the moonlight, so perfectly sculpted, welcoming yet electrifying at the same time. A man ready to make love like the world was on its way into the furnace. I took a deep breath and brought the blindfold up to my eyes, pressing the silk against my face and immediately blacking out my vision.

  “Let me.” His hands climbed up the sides of mine and took the blindfold from me. A tight knot secured the blindfold in place and in an instant I was incredibly vulnerable. I recognized the fact that I was acting like a girl that would suddenly go missing and found months later drained of blood and floating along the flotsam, but something inside of me said I was completely safe with Xavier. Maybe it was the linking thing after all, maybe humans did feel it, it just took some time to fully manifest.

  Whatever it was, I felt myself becoming less scared and more aroused. So aroused that I had become aware of how painfully hard my nipples had become.

  “Just don’t leave,” I whispered—almost whimpered—following a sudden pang of fear. I may have trusted him but that didn’t mean I was superwoman, immune to fear.

  “I would never.” He leaned in and brushed his lips against mine. Not seeing him made me initially move back. “Is there anything else that would make you feel uncomfortable?”

  “Not that I can think of,” I said, a little breathless already. I imagined we could figure it out as we went.

  “Good.” His lips found their way back to mine. His tongue teased my mouth open, sliding in and over my own. I moved up towards him, a hand instinctively going up to the back of his head and entwining in his hair. He pushed it off.

  “I want you to only focus on your mouth right now. Let that be the only sense you feel,” he said, his warm breath brushing across my lips. My hand dropped back to my side as his tongue slid underneath my upper lip. In seconds, I was solely focused on the sensations that surrounded my mouth, feeling like a fire was blooming out from around my face and growing to consume the rest of my body. The darkness provided by the blindfold was beginning to noticeably enhance my other senses. The salt in the wind became sharper, but so did Xavier’s cologne which managed to enhance his own natural smell instead of obscuring it. And the way his kiss felt was beyond anything I had experienced before. I felt the urge to grab the back of his head again. I wanted to thrust up and push my body against his.

  I ignored those urges and focused back onto the kiss. The one that was setting off an unlawful amount of fireworks.

  I took a sharp, sudden breath as I felt his teeth press down onto my lower lip. But the seedling of fear was pushed aside by a sudden rush of ecstasy as a moan replaced what otherwise could have been a yelp. He reciprocated the moan with a hand sliding up my back. I felt him twist a closed fist and wrap my hair around his knuckles. He yanked back and exposed my neck to the cold ocean air. I suddenly felt more exposed than if I were totally naked. My heart rate almost instantly doubled as fear once again started to bubble up, but Xavier—once again—quieted that fear with a tender kiss to my neck. He continued with his trail of light kisses down to my shoulders, where he pulled down the fabric of my shirt and ran his tongue across my bare skin. It sent a shiver down my back and straight to my soaked pussy. I started gyrating on the seat underneath me without even realizing it. I just needed to release this pressure that was building up inside of me.

  He pulled my hair back even harder. I felt his teeth nip at my chin and then travel back down my neck, eliciting another uncontrolled moan from my open mouth. I couldn’t believe how close I was to coming and I still had my panties on.

  “You’re fucking perfect,” he practically growled into my ear. His tongue traced the edges and flicked up at my earlobe. A tremor started its way from my neck and expanded throughout the rest of my body like a bomb had gone off.

  He wrapped his fingers around my hand and guided my touch to a spot radiating a warm heat. He pressed my hand down and I was greeted with a rock-hard bulge pushing up against my palm through Xavier’s slacks. It throbbed at my touch and practically made me start salivating. I couldn’t see it, but I could feel just how massive Xavier’s cock was. He pushed his hips up to grind his arousal into my hand, pushing his cock up and down as he continued to lick my neck, nibbling at my shoulder. I gasped as he moved a hand up to my heavy breast, lifting and massaging like he was sculpting a masterpiece. My gasp morphed into another deep moan as he focused his attention on my nipple, making me stroke him over his slacks even faster.

  I wanted this man. All the events of the past few days were forgotten and all I could think about was having him stretch my soft lips open with that massive rod. Never in a million years would I have pictured myself in this situation, but that didn’t matter. I wasn’t going to think about why or how, all I was thinking about was the right now.

  “Fuck,” he said in an exhale. “You’re so fucking beautiful. Control is going to be hard to keep around you.” He bit down harder now, sending tendrils of electricity through me.

  I couldn’t
see, but I could feel the cold zipper holding Xavier back. I fumbled for a second, lost in the dark lust, and finally pulled it down, pushing apart the fabric with my fingers and feeling the warm, hard flesh underneath. He must have not been wearing any underwear.

  Suddenly, I felt him stop touching my body. The way he shifted in the seat made me think he had leaned back.

  “I want you to taste me,” he said with a rocky lust coloring his voice.

  I licked my lips and leaned in, wrapping my lips around what I thought was the tip. I tasted his salty precome and knew I didn’t miss my mark. How could I when my target was this massive?

  I traced his head with my soft tongue, causing his hands to once again become intertwined in my hair. He massaged the back of my head as I slowly explored his cock with my tongue. The fact that I couldn’t see anything made the experience magnified by a thousand times. Every taste, every throb, every salty drop was pushing me closer and closer to a blissful edge the size of the Grand Canyon.

  He slowly thrust his hips upwards, sliding his cock deeper down my throat. I gagged on his size, only getting what felt like half of it down my throat before I had to pull back up for a thirsty breath of air. The saliva made his shaft slippery, letting me glide my hand up and down the length of him. I massaged his tight balls in my hand as I took him back into my mouth.

  “God, you feel so fucking good sucking my cock like that. Your mouth is all I’ve ever needed.” His voice was raspy as he began pushing deeper down my throat. The yacht swayed gently underneath me as I slurped at his dick, unabashedly making the loudest noises as I gobbled him in.

  My pussy was practically quivering by this point. I could feel the mess between my thighs as my juices were flowing nonstop. I continued to gyrate even though I was only rubbing up against air. But it didn’t matter, I just needed to move, to press my mound against something before I climbed on top of this man without any restraint.

  “I want you inside me,” I said, holding his cock in both hands, my warm breath circling it.

  “If I fuck you right now, I will tear you apart.” He sat back, moving his cock out of my grip. “I need to become accustomed to your body, to your scent, to your sex.” He placed a hand around my neck and guided me back up from the floor and onto the seat. His hands moved to my desperately wet center and pushed my thighs apart. He pressed a palm to my soaked mound over my pants, pushing against it and almost making me cum right there and then.

  “I need you,” I moaned hungrily.

  “And you will have me. All of me.” He unbuttoned my pants and pulled them off of me. My thighs were greeted by the cold ocean air. Xavier’s fingers pressed into my upper thighs as his grip started tightening. I felt a tug at my panties and heard something tear as he ripped them off like they were paper.

  “You’re so wet,” he said, sounding like he was admiring my puffy mound. “So pink.” I felt a finger run along my lips, driving me absolutely crazy. I couldn’t see him so I couldn’t anticipate where I would feel his touch next. It kept me surprised and incredibly horny as he ran his finger up and down my slit. A thumb brushed against my clit, making my thighs convulse in pleasure. I threw my head back and let out another moan as his thumb worked circles around my sensitive clit. Another finger teased my entrance, spreading my lips apart and poking at my tight hole. I spread my thighs wider and welcomed him, wanting to feel him enter me. If not with that massive cock, then with his fingers.

  He didn’t give me what I wanted. Instead he ran a thumb up my pussy and brought his head down between my thighs. I could feel the hot kiss of his breath caress my lips, setting off a series of explosive tingles run up and through my body from the very center of my being.

  “I want you to tell me how much you like this,” he said into the center of my thighs. I felt my pussy quiver as my inner walls tightened, yearning for Xavier to fill me.

  “I love it,” I said breathlessly and gasped as his tongue met my engorged clit. I thrust my hips upward and squeezed my thighs. I could feel his head cushioned between my legs as his powerful tongue spread my wet lips apart. He lapped me up like he was dying of thirst. His arms came up to encircle my thick thighs, his fingers pressing down into the meaty flesh as I grinded onto his circling tongue. “You taste so fucking good,” he said, the vibrations of his voice setting me off.

  He continued to probe me with his tongue, flicking at my slit and making my head feel light.

  “Fuck, I want to fuck you so bad.” He moved from my pussy and back up to my neck. He kissed my sensitive skin as I felt his rock hard cock push up against my mound. I moaned as he slid his rod up and down, spreading me open without actually going in. It was a tease that almost made me angry, but his solid body and his huge cock were too much for me to handle. As his cock rubbed on my clit, I felt my body give way to an orgasmic explosion. My muscles immediately turned to uncontrollable, twitching jello-like limbs as my whole body was flooded with ecstasy. I almost couldn’t hear Xavier start groaning above me as I felt him come on top of me, his load falling on my chest.

  “Wow,” I managed to say. Xavier laughed above me. I felt him move from on top of me to the seat next to me. His finger pressed gently on my chin and directed me to turn. Before I knew it, his lips were on mine again and we kissed for what felt like an eternity. It was an experience unlike any I could have imagined. He not only was a perfect man and an incredible lover, but he was caring and protective and acted as though there was no other girl in the world good enough to steal his attention away from me. There was a danger to him, of course, but that danger did nothing to erase the fact that I was falling for him.

  And so there, blindfolded and floating in the middle of the ocean with a vampire, is where I felt love for the first time.

  CHAPTER NINE

  GAIGE

  Rick stood next to me, looking over the suitcase that rested on the table in front of me. It was a sleek black case reserved for movie scenes that required a drop off of some kind with a man wearing an impeccable suit. But tonight was no movie. There was no script and no director calling the shot behind a field of cameras. Instead, there was just a shady meeting spot and a angry vampire waiting for me.

  I was shocked when Vladimir, one of Xavier’s messenger pigeons, showed up at Rick’s door, just when Rick and I were about to leave and start our search for Kimberly. The vampire wanted to tell us that Xavier was requesting a meeting in three days and that he wanted it to be just me and him. Two men squaring off. Two immense powers coming together to hopefully find some sort of resolution to this whole fucking mess.

  I clicked the locks shut on the suitcase and picked it up. It swung with the momentum and felt weighty in my grip.

  “Are you sure you want to do this alone?” Rick asked, looking up from the suitcase to me.

  “If you show up, I have no doubt that Xavier would fight to kill. Vampires are scum but they also stick to their word. If he’s threatening action then I have no doubt he’ll go through with that threat. It’s better you stay here and I’ll just end this, once and for all.”

  He motioned to the suitcase. “And you think that’s going to fix everything.”

  “It has to.” I pulled out my phone and checked the time. There was only a half an hour until our scheduled meeting. “Alright, time to go get this over with.”

  “Gaige, if this is a trap—”

  “I’ll handle myself, Rick.” I stuck a hand out and Rick took it. He pulled me in for a goodbye, hitting my shoulder with a resounding slap. “I’ll let you know how things go.”

  “Alright,” he said, stepping to the side as I opened the door. “And don’t lose that girl, either, kid. It sounds like you’ve got a good one.”

  “Yeah,” I said, thinking of that stunning woman, “I think I’ve got a good one too.”

  The meeting was set in an abandoned apartment complex resting on a shaky foundation at the outskirts of Downtown Miami. It was a haven for coke-addicts and money-hungry prostitutes. Graffiti lined the wall
s in colorful, blocky displays and marked the different gang territories, setting boundaries that only the completely crazy and delusional would cross. Unless they were purposefully looking to insight a gang war.

  There were some supers taking residence in the area too. Mostly shifters that were displaced from homes or just never assimilated with society. I could smell the wolves, the cougars, even the scent of a tiger carried in through my open car window. But all that was pushed away by the scent of Xavier. Vampires always had a rotten smell to them, akin to a bucket of copper pennies stinging at your nostrils. Humans couldn’t smell them but shifters could. And so I wasn’t surprised to see Xavier standing next to a lamp-post, his head bowed down to his feet. He looked up when he heard my car pull up. I locked our gaze, assessing the threat and trying to decipher if I was just walking into some huge trap. I couldn’t smell any other vampires in the area but those bastards were sneaky and known to use hunting equipment to cloak their stench.

  I stepped out of the car, muscles tensed for action. I scanned the area with a quick once over, making sure I didn’t spot anyone lurking in the shadows.

  “We’re alone,” Xavier said, watching me with a weird intensity I couldn’t quite place.

  “Good. Let’s get this over with.” I walked towards him. The suitcase felt even heavier now, like the contents were quickly cementing into a solid structure and weighing me down. This moment was going to determine the way the rest of my life would play out. I could either end things once and for all and go claim Kimberly for myself, allowing us both to live in ecstasy for the rest of our days, or Xavier could lash out and continue the war between shifters and vampires that was bubbling over and reaching a tipping point.

  “You honestly think you can just come here and finish things, that simply? After what you did?” Xavier’s tone was controlled but there was no hiding the predator that was hiding just underneath the surface. He looked the part too, wearing a dark black jacket with jet black pants and those intense eyes that bore through anything in front of him like a surgical drill.