Colin the Conqueror Read online

  Kaitlyn, Rogue’s lover, had been turned but Lydia had come up with an antidote and cured her. Besides, the voice she had heard had definitely been male.

  “You surprised me this evening,” Colin said, his words jerking her out of her thoughts.

  Heather chuckled. “Did I? It wasn’t a bad thing, was it?”

  Colin rose up and propped his elbow on the bed, cradling his head in his hand. “No. Not bad. In fact, it was very good.”

  Heather smiled up at him. “I’m glad.” She sighed. “When I first came here, I felt like I had lost my mind. The vampires—they almost took me down with them into hell. Then you came and rescued me.” She reached up and touched his cheek.

  “I wasn’t the only one,” Colin said. “Holt and Rogue were there, too.”

  Heather nodded. “Yes. They were.” She traced his strong jaw with her fingertip. “But it was you who brought me back to the world. You drew me out of whatever spell I was under with soft words and a shoulder to lean on.” Heather blinked, feeling tears begin to press for release. “You were there for me when I needed someone and you never asked for anything in return.”

  His eyes softened, a smile forming on his lips. “I’ll always be here for you, Heather. Always.”

  Her insides began to quiver. She took a deep breath, touching a fingertip to his lower lip. “Something happened while you slowly eased me back into reality,” she said softly, watching the path of her finger as she slid it over his lip.

  “What?” he asked.

  Heather swallowed. She was scared. More scared than she’d ever been in her life. More scared than when the vampire Catharine had bitten her for the first time. What she was going to say now could change the course of everything.

  She looked up to meet his eyes.

  “While you were bringing me back from the depths, I … I fell in love with you.”

  For a moment, there was silence.

  Then he lowered his face to hers. Their lips met, his warm and still tasting of wine. Heather sighed into him, her arms going around his neck as he leaned into her.

  When their lips parted, Colin rose up and stroked her hair back from her face. His eyes met hers. “I have loved you from the moment I first laid eyes on you,” he said. “God, Heather—I love you.”

  Heather sucked in her breath, then blew it out in a rush. “Thank God,” she said, grinning.

  Colin mirrored her grin, his fangs flashing in the candlelight. Instant heat washed over her. She tousled his hair. “I like it when you look a little mussed up,” she said. Her heart was absolutely singing with joy. She was energized, ready to take on the world.

  Colin Moore loved her!

  “I like it when you’re not quite all put together, too,” Colin said, running his fingers through her tangled hair.

  “You can mess me up anytime you want,” Heather said.

  “How about now?” he asked, his voice lowering in tone.

  Heather gasped as his hand slid between her legs into her damp heat. “Mmm, yes. Mess me up,” she said, her body coming instantly alive.

  Colin dipped his head, capturing her mouth while his fingers parted the petals of her mound. Heather drew his tongue into her mouth, sucking. He tasted so good, the wine mellowing in his mouth, a flavor that she already craved. Heather parted her legs, raising one knee and bracing her foot on the bed.

  Colin took her hint, sliding two fingers into her wet sheath, then drawing the moisture out that pooled there, using it to slicken her folds. Heather moaned as he stroked her clit, rubbing the hard little bead. Each brush of his fingers sent crackling pleasure through her, tightening and building until her body literally vibrated.

  Heather tore her mouth from his, gasping for breath. She spread her legs wider, her hand grasping his forearm, urging his fingers to quicken the pace.

  “Look at you,” he said. “You are absolutely beautiful. Your face—you look as if you are in ecstasy.”

  She met his eyes, her breath coming in short gasps. She ran her tongue over

  her hot lips. “I’m so close, Colin. So … close.”

  He slowed his fingers. “Not yet.”

  Heather whimpered. “Please…”

  “Uh uh,” Colin said, shaking his head. “Lie back. Relax. This isn’t a race.”

  Heather tried to relax but it was hard to do when her thigh muscles were quivering.

  Colin rose from the bed and started to walk toward a door that Heather assumed was the bathroom. The candlelight, now a bare flicker with the candles burning low, highlighted the chiseled muscles of his backside like a lover. She bit her lip to keep from telling him to hurry. He disappeared through the door for a brief moment then reentered the bedroom, two thick towels over his arm. He walked to the other side of the bed and folded the towels into a thick rectangle.

  Then he looked at her. She could see his eyes sparkling even in this dim light. “Bring that delicious ass of yours over here,” he said, patting the towels.

  A crack of lightening shot through her at his words. Colin never talked like that.

  Heather rose up on her hands and knees and crawled across the bed toward him, looking up at him innocently through her lashes. “Whatever you say, Mr. Moore,” she said sweetly.

  She tried to hide her smile when she saw him flex his fingers and his nostrils flared.

  He must like the ‘little girl’ attitude too, she thought. Well, I’m willing to play it like he wants it.

  When she reached the edge of the bed and the towels, she sat back on her heels and clasped her hands demurely in front of her legs, hiding her pussy from him. Tilting her head, she widened her eyes and arched her back so that her breasts sat high in his line of sight, then in her sweetest small voice, she asked, “What would you like me to do, Mr. Moore?”

  “I want your ass on those towels with you lying back on the bed,” he ground out, his voice firm and full of authority.

  “Yes, sir.” Heather moved sensuously, feeling his eyes burning over her skin as she got in position. Lying on her back, her bottom was held up at least four inches off the bed, her legs over the side. She placed her hands on her tummy and batted her eyelashes.

  Damn, this little game is really getting to me, she thought, her juices dampening the inside of her thighs. “What now, Mr. Moore?”

  She almost lost her breath when he lowered himself to his knees at the side of the bed. She could only see his face and shoulders now. His face was stern and oh-so-sexy.

  Heather felt a light tap on each knee.

  “Open your legs,” he said.

  Heather eased her knees apart tentatively, as if she’d never done this before. “What are you going to do?” She didn’t have to fake the quiver in her voice. Her whole body was electrified with the prospect of Colin and what he might do.

  “Not wide enough, Heather. Open them.” He took her ankles and spread her legs wide, placing her heels on the rail that ran along the bottom of the bed. He leaned forward and blew a hot breath over her open folds.

  Heather’s eyes rolled and she shuddered.

  She heard him chuckle. “You’re so wet, Heather. So ripe.”

  She glanced back down at him, lacing her fingers together, clenching them. He met her eyes, his own burning with a devilish fire.

  “I think you need to be a bit wetter,” he said. He reached for the bottle of wine that was still on the nightstand.

  “Heather,” he said, resting his forearm on her knee, the bottle in his hands.

  “Y-yes?”

  “Give me yours hands, Heather.”

  Heather sucked in a breath and reached down. He caught one wrist in his free hand and gently guided her hand to her pussy. When her fingers touched her own velvety hot flesh, she gasped and tried to pull her hand away.

  “No,” he said firmly. “Don’t pull away.” He took her hand in his, using her fingers to draw a slow circle around her clit.

  “Ohhh,” she breathed, not able to stay silent. His seduction was total and com
plete.

  “Isn’t that nice?” he asked, making her fingers slide over her slick flesh. “Does that feel good, baby?”

  “Uh-uh huh,” she managed.

  “I’ll bet it does. But I’d still like to see that pretty peach of yours wetter.” He guided her hand over to the side. “Bring your other hand down and use them both to hold the petals of your flower open for Mr. Moore.”

  Heather reached down and spread her nether lips with her fingers. Colin’s breath wafting over her needy clit caused her voice to shake. “Like this?” she asked.

  “That’s my girl. Now hold still.” He brought the bottle of wine to her center and angled it across her leg where it met her hip. She jerked, the glass chilly against her flesh. “Don’t move,” he said again.

  Heather watched in fascination as Colin lowered his mouth to her hot flesh. Then she felt a trickle of liquid, lukewarm, flow over her clit.

  Then, Colin began to lap the wine from her pussy, his tongue flicking and circling the hard little bud in the center.

  Heather whined, thrashing her head. His mouth made wet licking noises, the wine caressing her, his tongue flashing over her in hot flicks.

  “God, you taste wonderful,” Colin said, dropping the now empty wine bottle to the floor. He took her hands from their position and moved them away. “Do you want more, little Heather?”

  “Yes, please,” she whispered, struggling to keep up the pretense of innocence when she wanted to grab him, bring his mouth to her.

  His fingers massaged the insides of her thighs, driving her closer to the edge.

  “Well then, if you want more, you have to do something for me. You have to let me hear how good it feels.” He swiped his tongue over her heated center.

  Heather moaned, her fingers digging into the sheets.

  “I can’t hear you, Heather. Louder.”

  Heather obliged him. With every luscious lick of his tongue, she cried out. He toyed with her, keeping her so close to the edge of the cliff that she was ready to jump off, then letting her hover there until she began to beg for him not to stop—please don’t stop.

  Finally, Colin gave into her pleas and centered his greedy mouth over her swollen bud.

  Heather screamed, bucking as she dove into a cataclysmic orgasm, shards of light flashing behind her eyelids as a wave of the purest pleasure engulfed her, drowning her in a sea of sensation.

  Then he was inside her, filling her with his hard member, his hands clasping her thighs.

  Heather gasped for breath as he brought her higher, the waves crashing over her, unending.

  Colin cried out his own release, spilling his seed into her womb. Heather was flying, in her heart, her body and her soul.

  *

  After their marathon bout of lovemaking, Heather and Colin took a long, hot shower. They washed each other with loving, appreciative hands but both of them were too exhausted to carry it any further.

  Now, they lay in bed, Heather cuddled up against him in the crook of his arm, her head on his shoulder.

  Colin smiled in the darkness, the candles put out. He had never felt more complete.

  Heather sighed softly.

  “Tired?” he asked, squeezing her with his arm.

  “Mmhmm. Tired but happy,” she answered.

  He felt her hand slide over his chest, then rest there, just above his heart. He kissed her hair, the silky feel of it soft against his lips. “Go to sleep,” he whispered.

  Within minutes, her body relaxed, her breathing taking on the slow shallow rhythm of sleep.

  Colin closed his eyes but he wasn’t quite ready to sleep. His thoughts whirred with the events of the evening. He felt skitters of electricity rush through him when he remembered the way she had straddled him on the couch. She had been powerful and seductive.

  Not like when they had first brought her to Ravencrest.

  He remembered every detail of his first glimpse of Heather Green onboard the yacht Bloody Hell…

  They had been on assignment. Colin, Holt Raven and Rogue Shanley. They had been bound for the Michigan shore of Lake Michigan to find a yacht that carried a clutch of vampires. Along the way, they encountered a mouthy sprite of a woman named Ivy Green.

  Colin remembered the immediate sparks between the silent Holt and the runaway mouth Ivy. Before long, they found out that Ivy had a reason to find the yacht, too. The vampires were holding her sister, Heather, onboard.

  Colin had still been new at this game of slaying vampires but he was learning fast. He hadn’t been prepared for the sight of Heather being seduced into becoming a vampire.

  As soon as the battle began and Ivy had broken through the trace the vampires had Heather under, she became vulnerable.

  After the vampires had been slain, Colin’s heart had wrenched at the fragility and tainted innocence that surrounded Heather. She had clung to Ivy at first, but then accepted him as he began to sooth her with soft, kind words. As Heather healed the wounds, physical and psychological, of her experience with the undead, Colin had been there. He never pressured her and right after they had said she could roam Ravencrest freely—sufficiently healed—she had been Colin’s constant companion.

  Every walk they took together through the sloping forest grounds of Ravencrest, every late night movie they watched together, every quiet talk over breakfast in the early morning light—all of these things had deepened the feelings that Colin had for the beautiful young woman. Once while they were out walking one of the paths on a sun-dappled afternoon, a deer had walked out of the brush in front of them. They had stopped, not wanting to alert the deer to their presence. Their only movement was when Heather had reached for his hand. The deer’s ears twitched, its head coming up, but after a moment it settled. It began to nibble something that grew on the ground, its movements graceful and tentative.

  Heather squeezed his hand and Colin had the first inkling of what it would feel like to be so completely in love with someone that words were not needed.

  She had looked so young, with such wide-eyed innocence, that day. Golden, as if nothing evil had ever dared to touch her.

  But there had been other times … times when it seemed her innocence had been tarnished so darkly that it would never shine golden again. Those times, Heather had cried.

  One evening, during dinner with a few members of the Raven family, Heather had looked at him across the table, gazing steadily for the longest time. Then a tear had slipped from her eyes and slowly trailed down her cheek to the corner of her mouth. Colin had felt as if his breath had been crushed out of his lungs, seeing that lonely tear glistening on her face. Slowly, he rose from the table and went to her. She took his hand without a word. The others watched them leave the room, questioning looks on their faces.

  Colin slipped his arm around her waist, feeling the slight tremble in her body, and led her to the library where they could have a bit of privacy. He turned her to face him, wiping the tear from her cheek with his handkerchief.

  Heather looked up at him with her big, brown eyes. “I’m poisoned, you know,” she had said. “Poisoned by the vampires. All the things they did to me…” She sucked in a deep breath. Her next words gushed out on a whisper, her voice shaking. “Some of the things—I liked, Colin.”

  He cupped her chin in his had, wanting to crush her in his arms and make the pain go away but afraid that it would be too much too soon. “It wasn’t your fault. There are some things that happen to us in life that will inevitably make us feel guilty, even when it’s only our body’s response to certain stimulation. Enjoying some of the things, the sexual things, would be normal under regular circumstances. All of us have some sort of guilty secrets waiting to be revealed. You, my dear, have absolutely nothing to feel guilty about. After all, you were under a vampire’s influence.”

  Her lips firmed into an angry line. She blinked, forcing back any other tear that dared to fall. “You don’t understand, Colin.” There was no the tremor of anger underlying her tone. “It’s not t
hat I feel so awfully guilty. It’s not the fact that I liked the way some of the things they did made me feel. What hurts is the fact that I will never be able to be like them.”

  “Them?” Colin didn’t understand. Did she mean the vampires? A cold hand clutched his heart.

  Heather looked away for a moment. When she looked back, fresh tears glistened in her eyes again. “I’ll never be a part of something like John and Madison have. Like Eric and Lydia. Dirk and Casey.” Her hand flew in the air then dropped back down. “Don’t you see? I’ll never have a relationship like that. Not now. No one will ever love me like that when they find out what I’ve been through.”

  Colin’s throat had closed so tightly with pain that he couldn’t speak. He had gathered her in his arms and held her while she cried.

  *

  Now, she was in his arms again, but this time there were no tears. Colin tightened his hold on her and drew the blanket up over her shoulder. She sighed contentedly and snuggled closer.

  This was how it should be for her, safe in the arms of the man who loves her, Colin thought.

  As sleep began to overtake him, one last thought entered his mind before he drifted off.

  No one would ever hurt Heather again.

  Chapter Four

  Colin awoke, the sun dappling his face as it filtered through the trees and shone through the window. He didn’t want to move. This was just too precious. Heather was tucked up against him, her back to him, his arm around her waist. Colin was filled with a sense of awe. Spooning together in the warmth of his bed with the woman he loved. It was something he had briefly thought about during his life but had only begun to take more seriously when Heather had come into the picture. He still couldn’t believe everything had actually come together so perfectly.

  The sun danced over them in bright spots and rectangles. Colin breathed in the scent of her hair. It was a fresh herbal scent. Carefully, he shifted the position of the arm around her waist, moving his hand up over the swell of her bosom and resting his open palm on the skin over her heart. Closing his eyes, he lost himself in the beat of her heart and the sound of her breathing.