Colin the Conqueror Read online

  “I’ll get you something else,” Colin said, reaching for her glass.

  She pulled it back from his grasp. “I’ll drink it. I was just pointing out another difference between us.”

  Colin draped one arm along the back of the couch. “You seem very articulate and animated this evening. Are we to debate our differences?”

  Her brows drew together. “Speak English.”

  Colin nodded, forgetting himself. It was still hard to turn off his ‘cultured lawyer’ persona. He often forgot that now, he was not only the legal representative for the Raven Clan but also a vampire hunter. Colin chuckled. “It is ingrained. Hazard of the job.”

  “You just have to remember where I come from. The streets of Chicago. I’m the one who used to get into the bar scene. That’s as sophisticated as I get.” She shifted closer to him. “Have you ever been in an underground bar?”

  “I can’t say that I have.” Coin was impressed by her mood. She was relaxed and talkative. Very different from when she had first arrived at Ravencrest. It had taken him days before he could get her to look him directly in the eye after they had brought her back here.

  “You’re smiling,” she said, tilting her head. “Why are you smiling?”

  “You. I’m smiling because of you.”

  She reached out and touched his arm that lay on the back of the couch. “I missed you these past weeks,” she said softly.

  “I missed you, too.”

  Heather placed her glass on the table. When she sat back again, she was closer to him.

  Colin could smell her perfume. It was heady, musky—alluring. He drew in a slow breath, trying not to let her notice how it affected him.

  Heather rested her hand lightly on his thigh. “I really missed you, Colin.” She shifted closer still, her shimmering dress sparkling in the light. “We’re different, you and I, but sometimes … differences make things … more interesting.” Her eyelashes fluttered down.

  Colin fisted the hand that was parked on the back of the couch. “Yes,” he said, his voice tight in his throat. “I have always found you very intriguing.”

  Her lips quirked up at the corners. “Intriguing. The word makes it sound like you might find me … attractive.” Her hand inched up his thigh.

  Colin’s muscles tensed. This was the closest she had ever been to him, other than a touch of the hand. He shifted on the couch, bringing his arm down from its perch. His hand brushed against her back. Colin sucked in a breath as his hand connected with her bare skin. He hadn’t realized that her dress was backless. As if by instinct, he splayed his hand across her back, smoothing it over her skin. She was so tiny at the waist. He ran his fingers from side to side, tracing the curve of it.

  “Do you find me attractive, Colin?” she asked, arching her back. Her hand on his thigh tightened.

  Colin cleared his throat. If she moved that small hand of hers one inch higher, she’d know just how attracted to her he was. “Heather, I think you are absolutely lovely.”

  One corner of her lips rose in a half smile. “You have no idea just how much I’ve missed you.” Heather wiggled one shapely leg, dropping her shoe to the floor. “I dreamed about you, I missed you that much.” The other shoe followed.

  Colin, still holding his wine glass, took a sip, his throat suddenly dry.

  Heather eyed him as he drank, her eyes flashing with interest. “The dreams I had were very … warm.” He noticed her watching him, as he lowered the glass from his lips. Her eyes followed his movement as he rested the glass on his other thigh.

  “I’m glad that you have warm thoughts about me,” Colin said. “I feel the same way toward you.”

  “You do?” Her eyes moved to his lips. “I wonder…” Her voice trailed off.

  Colin held his breath. In her eyes was the heat of passion, a swirling warmth that drew him in. His mind tried to warn him not to go too far, to remember what she had been through, but when she leaned forward and ran her tongue over his lips, slowly, sensuously like a cat, all thought left him.

  “Mmm,” she purred, “It does taste better on your lips.” She reached for his glass and brought it to his mouth. “Drink.”

  Colin took a sip, his eyes focused on her face. She held the sleepy look of satisfaction in her eyes, a smile playing on her parted lips.

  After he took the sip, she took the glass from him and stretched to place it on the table. Colin caught the barest glimpse of a rose hued nipple before she turned back to him.

  The next thing Colin knew, Heather had swung one leg over his lap and straddled him, one of her hands on each side of his head on the back of the couch. “Heather…” Before he could say anything else, her mouth was on his, her kiss insistent, demanding. Colin groaned, his hands finding her waist, holding her.

  Heather moaned, her tongue probing his lips for entrance. He opened to her, reveling in the feel of her against him.

  She thrust her tongue into his mouth, tasting, testing. “Mmm,” she crooned, slanting her mouth over his.

  Finally she broke the kiss, her breath coming in short gasps. “Damn, Colin, you taste so good.”

  He looked up at her, her lips kiss-swollen, her cheeks flushed. “Heather, I…”

  She put a finger to his lips. “Shh.” She leaned back a bit, settling herself on his erection as she brought her hands to his face. She traced the corners of his eyes. Colin felt self-conscious all of a sudden, knowing that there, where her fingers gently touched, were the beginnings of the telling of his age. He’d seen them in the mirror, small crinkles at the corners of his eyes.

  He reached up and captured her hand.

  “Don’t,” she said. She looked him in the eye. “I’ve wanted you for so long,” she said, brushing her lips across his. “You are so sexy, so tender.” She moved, trailing kisses along his jaw toward his ear. “I’ve tried to wait. Wait for you to make the first move.”

  Colin was melting inside, his blood pumping through his veins like hot lava.

  “But I just can’t wait anymore,” she breathed in his ear. “I know you want me. I can feel how hard your cock is.” She rocked her hips against him. “Mmm,” she sighed. She moved again to his mouth, nipping his lower lip. “Take me, Colin. Show me what a man with experience can do.” She planted her hands on his shoulders and leaned back, her eyes on fire. “Take me. Now.”

  Colin lost all measure of control.

  With a low growl, he grasped the shoulders of her dress and pulled them down to her elbows.

  “Yes!” she cried, coming up on her knees, offering her bared breasts to him.

  Colin didn’t hesitate. He dipped his head, taking one rosy nipple into his mouth and sucked, rolling it with his tongue.

  Heather shuddered and caught the back of his head, pressing him closer, her fingers tangling in his hair.

  He had to have more of her. But not here.

  Colin released her from his mouth. “Heather, listen to me.”

  She looked down at him, her eyes half closed. “Yes?”

  “Are you sure this is what you want? That you really want to take our relationship to this level? Are you ready for this?”

  Heather slowly shook her head, making a tsking sound. She looked at him with a slightly exasperated expression.

  Colin felt his stomach clench. He knew it. She wasn’t ready. Wasn’t ready for this sort of intimacy.

  “Colin,” she said, his name rolling off her tongue in a warm caress. “Would you please just shut up and take me to your room and fuck me?”

  Colin blinked. His fingers dug into her waist. “Do you really mean that?” He’d never seen her like this. Well, not since she’d come to Ravencrest.

  She nodded then gave him a wink.

  With more strength than he knew he had, he stood, holding her to him. Laughing, Heather wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. Colin cupped her bottom, holding her against him. He sucked air through clenched teeth when his hands connected with her naked round ass. She wor
e nothing—absolutely nothing—beneath her slip of a dress. He knew then that she had come to him with sex on her mind.

  Colin turned and took a step.

  “Wait, wait,” Heather said.

  Colin froze. Jesus, she was killing him. “Now what?”

  “Hold onto me,” she said. Then she bent sideways at the waist and snatched the bottle of Merlot from the table. Shifting it to her other hand, she leaned lower and picked up his glass.

  Colin struggled to keep his balance while she wiggled in his grasp.

  “Ready,” she said, grinning, her arms back around his neck, holding the bottle and glass behind him. “Take me to your room.”

  As he walked, she spoke to him, her eyes roaming over his face.

  “I’ve thought about you—about us—for a long time,” she said. “About what it would feel to have your mouth against my skin. Your tongue tasting every part of me.”

  Colin clenched his jaw as she spoke, his slacks ready to burst with the hard as steel erection that was trapped inside them. As Heather seduced him with words, she shifted in his grasp, the muscles of her bottom flexing. Colin couldn’t help himself. She was so sexy, so naughty—he’d never had a woman come on to him this way. His fingers delved into the cleft of her round bottom.

  Heather gasped, her eyes widening for a brief moment. Then she wriggled, sending his hand deeper between her legs. “Yes,” she murmured as he dipped his fingers inside her hot pussy. “Feel how wet I am, Colin. Damn, I want you inside me so badly.” Her tongue flicked out, lashing his bottom lip. “I want you so deep inside my pussy that I can taste your cock in my throat.”

  “Good God,” Colin groaned, kicking his bedroom door open. Heather was showing him a side of her that had been kept hidden since she’d arrived. Colin knew that Heather had a penchant for sex but since rescuing her from the yacht, she had kept it deep inside herself. Now, it seemed, she was setting herself free. And it was driving him insane. Colin slammed the door shut with his heel and strode to the bed.

  “You have to let go a moment,” he said, easing her down beside the bed. When her feet were firmly on the floor, he captured her mouth with his, forcing his tongue past her lips. Claiming her. She didn’t put up any resistance, opening to him as she crushed her breasts against his chest. She took his tongue deep into her mouth, sucking, making satisfied little moans deep in her throat.

  After a moment, Colin drew back, his breath rapid. “Sit,” he said, pulling out of her arms. She sat, her gaze hot, her breasts rising and falling rapidly as she breathed through lips that were still parted in invitation.

  Colin fumbled with the buttons on his shirt. Frustrated, he grabbed the edges and ripped it open. Buttons flew everywhere.

  “More,” Heather said, her eyes raking him. She poured some wine from the bottle she still held into the glass and sipped.

  Colin began to remove his pants, then something caught his attention.

  The window.

  The headboard of Colin’s bed was centered in front of an eight-foot wide bay window. It looked out over a small garden with a fountain in the center. At the edge of the garden, the forest began. Colin liked to wake to the sunlight streaming through the canopy of trees, the birds singing him awake.

  But now, night had fallen. With the light in the bedroom, someone outside could see them clearly. Colin moved to draw the drapes closed.

  “What are you doing?” Heather asked.

  “Closing out the night,” he said, reaching for the button on the wall beside the window casing that would draw the drapes closed on an automated track.

  “No. Don’t close the curtains.”

  Colin raised an eyebrow. “Someone could see us. With the light on…”

  Heather held up the wine bottle. “Idea here. Just wait.”

  She hopped from the bed and went to his wide, low dresser. Placing the bottle and glass on the dresser top, she lifted two long tapers in brass candleholders and carried them to the bay window. She leaned over the low wooden headboard and placed them on the ledge in the window. “Lighter?” she asked, looking over her shoulder, one hand stretched out.

  Colin undid his belt buckle. “There,” he said, nodding, “The drawer on the nightstand.”

  Heather retrieved the lighter from the drawer and lit the candles. Then she slithered off the bed. “Don’t you just love candlelight?” she asked, smoothing her hands down over her hips as she stood beside the bed. Her dress that had been draped around her waist slid down under the progress of her hands, falling to the floor in a shimmering pool at her feet.

  Colin drank her in. She looked fragile, made of the finest porcelain. But her eyes spoke of fire, dark pools of heat in her angelic face. Colin groaned and finished undressing in the blink of an eye.

  Heather’s eyes devoured him, traveling down his body until they came to rest on his prominent erection. She licked her lips, then met his gaze. “Turn off the lights and bring the wine,” she said, her voice how and husky. “Let’s really get to know each other better, Colin.”

  *

  Heather watched him move toward the door on his way to flip the light switch beside it. She trembled inside, aching with need. The chiseled muscles of his firm ass tempted her as he walked.

  God, he was such a piece of work. A gorgeous, virile man. Man. Most definitely a man.

  Heather climbed up on the king-size bed and knelt, sitting back on her heels. Waiting.

  Colin turned off the lights, then turned and lifted the wine bottle and glass from the dresser. He sipped from the glass as he came toward her, his eyes flashing above the rim.

  Heather bit her lip to keep from whining in frustration. A fresh flow of her cream wet the inside of her thighs. She sighed. Candlelight bathed him, accentuating every ripple of muscle as he moved, smooth as a panther, to the side of the bed.

  He set down the bottle then offered her the glass.

  She took it, draining the last of the wine then handed it back.

  He placed it beside the bottle.

  Heather rose up and moved to the edge of the bed on her knees until she could touch him. Placing both hands on his chest, she smoothed her palms over the hard muscles. When she came to his nipples, she pinched them. A tremor vibrated through him.

  “Take me, Colin,” she said, the fire in her belly almost eating her alive. “I’ve waited so long.” She wrapped her hand around his cock, pleased with the thickness of it. “Take me like a lion would take his lioness.”

  Colin growled deep in his throat. Taking her by the shoulders he pressed her back on the bed.

  “Yes,” she said when he caught her wrists and pinned them above her head, his body pressing her down onto the bed. Heather had known after spending only a few days with Colin that there was a streak of wildness running through the outwardly cultured Colin Moore. It was evident in the way he liked to joke with Rogue and the fangs, the false fangs that when he smiled widely, gave him such a sensuous, predatory look. Heather knew that she could draw the wildness out and set it free. She just wasn’t sure how far he would unleash the beast inside.

  Colin dipped his head and circled one of her peaked nipples with his tongue.

  Heather moaned, thrusting up toward his mouth, sparks thrilling through her.

  Colin nipped her, sending a bolt of lightning all the way to her toes. Heather gasped.

  “You prefer things a bit rough,” he said, his eyes burning into hers. “Is that what you want?”

  The candlelight reflected in Colin’s green eyes. Heather caught her breath. There. The animal was just beneath the surface, pacing behind the deep green pools. “Show me,” she whispered. “Show me what’s it’s like to be completely under your control.”

  Heather saw his nostrils flare just before he let her wrists loose and reared up above her. He grasped her by the waist and flipped her over onto her stomach with such ease it was as if she weighed no more than a feather. Her stomach fluttered. Colin grasped her hips and lifted, pulling the two pillows f
rom under her head and shoving them beneath her, propping her bottom up.

  “Put your hands on the headboard,” he commanded, moving in between her legs, spreading them wider.

  Heather bit her lip and did as she was told, bracing her hands on the low headboard. The vision in front of her nearly stopped her heart. The candles on the windowsill turned the glass of the bay window into a blackened, shadowy mirror. She could see their reflection clearly; the night beyond the glass was no longer visible.

  Her breathing became deep. In the reflection, she was positioned on all fours, her hands braced on the headboard holding her upper body slightly higher. She could see her own breasts sitting high, the nipples hard little stones. Then she caught the visage of Colin behind her.

  He rose up behind her, pure male, ready to claim her as his. His chestnut hair was tousled and wild, his eyes burning into hers as he met her gaze in their reflection. His jaw was clenched, his face a study in pure passion.

  “This is what you want,” he said, his voice deep and coarse. He moved in closer, the head of his cock grazing her dripping pussy. “This is what you’ll get.”

  In one solid thrust, Colin entered her to the hilt.

  Heather shuddered, almost losing her grip as she cried out. “Oh … Colin…”

  Chapter Two

  Nicolas Reicher had spent only two nights gleaning the information that he required from Ramsey.

  The human had been telling the truth concerning his immunity to the venom. Patricia, insatiable thing that she was, had drank from Ramsey five times and he had not suffered any symptoms of the turning. Nicolas had laughed when Patricia had asked permission to keep Ramsey as her own personal pet. He readily granted permission but with one condition: Patricia was not under any circumstances to drain the human fountain of information dry.

  Nicolas needed Ramsey.

  For the moment.

  The location of the nest of Ravens pinpointed, Nicolas had gathered his Clutch around him and set out for southern Ohio. They traveled by private plane, all eight of his fanged ones plus himself, flying through the cursed day light while sequestered comfortably in his perfectly sealed jet, accompanied by their human entourage—a crew of five—whose mission was to keep them safe and provide sustenance when needed. Nicolas had recently added the tight little brunette named Debbie to his collection, using her freely to distract himself from the larger issue at hand.