The Mammoth Book of Hot Romance Read online

  “I don’t understand.”

  Zell stood up from his chair and skirted around the table towards me gracefully, his every movement smooth and slow. I felt trapped but it was more a heady sensation than panicky. While part of me wanted to leap to my feet and escape out of the door, another part watched him with languid contentment. He held out his hand and mine lifted and took it without conscious thought. He pulled backwards and I rose to my feet until I was standing mere inches from his slowly moving chest. The fast flutter of my heather parback and every hair stood on end. “Then I will … teach you.” He leaned close enough that I could smell the soft cologne he’d splashed on his neck, along with the soap used to clean his clothes. His breath eased along my cheek into my ear and I shuddered deliciously. “Would you like that … Beth Malus?”

  My eyes closed as another shudder overtook me. “Yes.” It was a single word, innocently meant but his chuckle was low and satisfied in response.

  He tucked my hand in the crook of his arm and pulled me along at his side to the double doors at the end of the room. He released my arm and opened one door and waved me inside.

  The library was the size of a warehouse – thousands of books on hundreds of shelves. I looked up and around, to the ceiling at least two storeys up, to the ladders that attached to tracks and walkways between cases. My God. The sheer volume of knowledge here – I could be the most powerful witch in the world. I shook my head. “I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

  He picked up my hand and backed up, pulling me forwards with him. He navigated the aisles effortlessly without looking. His eyes were on mine and I had to trust where he was leading because I couldn’t pull my gaze away, no matter how hard I tried. When we stopped, I had no idea where we were. There were bookshelves everywhere and hallways leading off in all directions. He gestured to a shelf right at chest level. The books were elegantly bound in identical red leather, which matched the chairs in the sitting room. All bore a single number that increased from book to book but with no title. “Here are the books on witchcraft and sorcery. Witchcraft on the left; sorcery on the right. Which can you open?”

  I pulled the first one at the far left and opened it. It was an elementary text that I had on my own shelf. But I’d already looked there before I arrived, so I slipped it back into the proper numerical slot. Then I stepped slightly past him and removed the furthest right book. I could feel his eyes on me as I laid it on my arm and tried to lift the cover.

  But it wouldn’t open. I pulled and then yanked at both covers but it was as though they were glued shut. “Is this a joke book or something?”

  “Draw another one. Try again.” His voice was right in my ear and created tingles that made my knees go suddenly weak.

  I did. In fact, I tried all of the ones on the right side of the centre bar. But none would open. “What am I missing? If you’re right and these can only be opened by a sorceress, what do I have to do?”

  I turned around and looked up at him. But instead of backing up to a normal-speaking distance, he stepped forwards and pushed me back against the shelves until his body was against mine and I was trapped with nowhere to go. He leaned down, close enough to send shock waves through my body and breathed words into my mouth. “That is something you will have to discover. What is a sorceress and are you willing to become one? Are you willing to pay that price?”

  “You could tell me … teach me as you said you would.” Again my words came out breathy and I closed my eyes, not daring to look at what he might do. What was the price? Would he drink from my neck, strangle me, tear my body to pieces and then only tell me if I survived?

  Did I care?

  “Yesss. I could.” Now his breath was on my neck, so close. So very close and as soft as down against my skin. Every nerve was alive, needing, wanting. His long, cool fingers curled around my forearms and I sucked in air as though I could never fill my lungs enough. He pressed himself hard against me, fingers tightening, until I gasped.

  In that moment I wanted anything he would do to me. I was open, wet and hungry as never before. “Please.” The word was a whisper that destroyed every control I’d built in my life.

  “It’s morning,” he said in a similar whisper. “You will have to wait until dark. Until then … sleep. Dream.”

  I knew I’d fallen bonelessly to the floor but couldn’t seem to stop myself. Just like I knew he picked me up and carried me up a long flight of stairs. Then there was nothing for a long time, except the ache that wouldn’t go away, the craving that hadn’t been fulfilled. I squirmed under cool sheets. I wanted him inside me. His hands, his cock, his teeth. It didn’t matter.

  I reached up to touch my nipples, so hard and aching that I couldn’t think straight. I plunged my own fingers between my legs, rubbing myself, thrusting my hips up – searching, straining. But it wouldn’t relieve the tension. It only added to it.

  I tossed and turned and could finally stand it no more. I got out of the massive four-poster bed and walked out into the hallway. “Ethan?” I’d always lusted after him and right now, I needed hands touching me, a hard cock inside me. If I waited until night, I’d go insane.

  He didn’t answer. I knew he lived here, was a round-the-clock servant but I couldn’t find him.

  I wandered the halls, the sumptuous furnishings and expensive artwork unappreciated in my need for something to ease the aching desire. Every door was opened, with Ethan’s name being called louder and louder to no avail.

  Finally I reached the last door, an elegantly carved oak artwork that would have taken a dozen men to install … or one vampire. I opened it cautiously. On a pedestal in the centre of the room was a black four-poster single bed.

  Not a coffin.

  Anton Zell was lying on the bed, face up, his breathing slow and steady, his hands by his sides. I’d thought vampires were dead in the day. Do they merely sleep? What would he do to me if I woke him?

  I approached the bed without a sense of fear. I knew I should be afraid. There were too many stories of women who had met their end in the room with a waking vampire.

  But he looked so peaceful, so beautifully pale and quiet. I put my palm on his chest, feeling the rise and fall of his chest. He didn’t wake. I touched his hand then, the one that had captured me, held me motionless. It was as cool as the water I’d drunk. I raised the hand, feeling the limp weight of his arm try to steal it away. I kissed the hand as he’d kissed mine, with my whole mouth. Licked the skin, tasted him.

  He’d removed his coat and tie and undone the first two pearl buttons. I let my painted fingernail trace down the smooth white cheek, then down the neck and into the open “V” of his shirt. My body was burning alive, throbbing to feel hands holding me down, roughly taking what they wanted from me.

  I undid another button and then more until soon his whole chest was bare. I blew warm air on his nipples and watched them react, tighten. He let out a small sound and I froze, suddenly realizing what I was doing and how it would be seen. He’d never given any indication he wanted sex with me. What if all he’d wanted was blood, or nothing at all?

  I leaned back from the bed, thinking to leave and find some other way to ease the ache. But then I looked down. The tailored fabric of his pants was taut against an erection. I hadn’t anticipated that he might be able to … well, I just hadn’t considered it. I tentatively touched the fabric and pressed. He moaned and his head flopped to the side with obvious pleasure.

  He’d spoken of sleeping, of dreaming. Did vampires dream? Specifically, did they have wet dreams?

  My brain tried to convince my hands it was wrong, that I shouldn’t unbuckle his belt, unzip his pants. That I shouldn’t stare with hungry awe as his cock sprang out and up proudly. But my hands wouldn’t liste. They stroked along the cool length, feeling each ridge and vein throb with similar hunger. They gently caressed the heavy ball sacs inside the pants while he moaned and twisted on the bed.

  What does a vampire taste like?

  Once t
he question was in my mind, there was no stopping myself. I slowly lowered my face to the fragrant, musky thickness and slowly licked up the length of it. The moan became a growl of need that urged me on. I dropped my mouth on to his cock and let it slide in, cool and thick until it hit the back of my throat. I rested there, just feeling the delicious texture and taste of clean skin. Then I started to suck, slowly at first and then with more force, feeling the head respond, leak salty fluid.

  “Bethany!” A horrified whisper pulled me straight up. I turned to see Ethan standing in the doorway with wide eyes. His mouth moved but didn’t actually say anything until, “Oh my God!”

  But he wasn’t just horrified. I could see a growing erection as he watched me slowly stroking his employer’s rigid cock. “Close the door, Ethan.” His hand tensed on the knob, his eyes wide at my command. And it was a command. “Come in and close the door.”

  He did, with jerky movements that told of both fear and … something else. It was the something else that made his pants tent out even further. “He’ll kill us.”

  I nodded with a glance at the vampire’s face. “Probably. But I’m not stopping until it’s done. Take off your pants.”

  Another twitch moved his belt. “Excuse me?”

  I took my hand off Anton long enough to pull my shirt up over my head in one fluid movement. My breasts were hot, heavy and aching for hands on them. I stood and walked towards Ethan while his eyes went wide and his pants twitched. I knelt in front of him and undid his belt. He tried to push my hands away, but I pulled his hands down until one breast was in each one. I had to strain a little to get the angles right. The shock of the sensation of my hard nipples in his palms froze him like a statue. My hands returned to my work and in seconds his pants were around his ankles and my mouth was on his cock.

  He moaned and nearly lost his footing, stumbling until he fell back against the wall. I leaned forwards and released his swollen member from my mouth’s suction. “Tease me, Ethan. Pinch my nipples. Make me crazy.”

  His body overrode his brain and he did as instructed. He began to push himself into my mouth with desperation. Nobody ever visited the castle and I wondered how long it had been since he’d touched a woman. He worked his length in and out of my mouth while he squeezed and flicked my nipples just like I’d wanted Zell to do. “I want to fuck you, Beth.”

  I released his cock and smiled. “I know you do. And you will.”

  I stood up and led him by the hand towards the bed. He tried to pull away but I was insistent. Anton’s cock had wilted a little but when I leaned over and put it again in my mouth it quickly regained its earlier hardness.

  I repositioned myself so I was leaning over the bed and wiggled my butt at Ethan.

  Would he? Would he drop my pants and shove himself inside me? It was what I wanted, needed.

  He obeyed with a speed and near viciousness that almost pulled my mouth from Anton’s length. In moments I had to steady myself on the bed from his frantic thrusts inside my desperately swollen folds. He grabbed my hips and slammed himself inside me until I could feel his balls slapping against my clit.

  I wanted to climax. So badly it hurt. But the higher he took me, the more elusive it became. Finally he could stand it no more and, despite the fact I hadn’t found relief, he moaned and pulled himself out. I felt him twitch against my lower back, spurting wetness to shiver my spine while I continued to stroke and tease the cool cock between my lips. It wasn’t warming, despite the heat in my mouth. That interested me.

  Ethan ran his fingers through my hair and leaned heavily on me with a whisper. “God, that was good, Beth.”

  “I need more.” The words were fierce, from deep in my chest, and I felt the very beginnings of magic rumble in my stomach. I’d never had that happen before without a ritual. I kicked my way out of my pants and, despite Ethan’s frantic hands trying to pull me back, I climbed on to the bed and straddled Anton’s hips. I turned my head and stared at Ethan before commanding, “Kiss me. Kiss me hard.” I adjusted myself and lowered on to the vampire’s erection. The temperature difference was such a shock to my system that every muscle in my body spasmed and magic flared.

  Ethan stared at the roiling magic around me with apprehension but watching me begin to slide up and down his master’s dick was too much for him. He put one knee on the bed and pulled my face to his. The kiss was deep and powerful, hard thrusts of his tongue that matched the movements of my hips. His jaw worked against mine while his fingers tangled in my hair, keeping me tight against him.

  The other hand went to my breast and pulled and rolled the nipple. Something started building inside me and I moaned. Ethan took that as a sign to continue to do the same thing, but even more. His hand tweaked and pulled at my breast while his mouth worked at me. But it was the chilled, twitching thickness inside me that was making me crazy.

  Then the hips moved. Thrust upwards when I went down. I pulled away from Ethan’s mouth to find Anton’s eyes open, staring … watching.

  Ethan let out a squeak and froze. So did I. Zell made a lazy motion of his hand for Ethan to back up. He did, with stumbling, scrambling quickness. He picked up his pants and fled.

  The door slammed and then I was alone with the vampire. His cock was stuffed inside me and he was … what? His hips moved just a bit and I gasped. I was so close to climax I could barely think. My breathing was coming in short gasps and my blood pressure was making my head throb. After a long moment, he laced his fingers together on his chest. “Pray continue.”

  I started to lean forwards, to rest myself on his cool chest but he pushed me back to an upright position. “Just like that.” The voice was heated with desire but he gave nothing away in his face. “Put your arms up and lift your hair.”

  I did, staring up at the ceiling with my chest thrust out. I could barely catch my breath as the knowledge of his gaze on me, his cold thickness inside me, drove me even higher.

  “Now ride me. Take your pleasure.”

  My thighs tightened and I rose up slowly and then lowered back down. Right at the end, he gave an extra thrust and made me cry out. I opened my eyes but he reached up and closed them again with a smile that showed fangs. I jumped when his hands finally found my breasts and his fingers began to roll the nipples just as I’d needed. He teased around my crotch while I moved but wouldn’t touch what needed to be touched. My desperate movements increased, with him changing the angle or the speed at will. I heard him whispering to me, urging me on. “Don’t wait to have it given. Take what you need.”

  Fine then. I leaned forwards and he let me. I put one hand on Anton’s broad, pale shoulders and continued to slam myself up and down on his cock. I toyed with my own clit, moving it this way and that while he stared with folded hands and let himself be used for my pleasure. I kissed him hard, opening his mouth as Ethan had done to me. The fangs were just teeth, not sharp enough to cut but I licked them and tangled my tongue with his.

  I felt energy, heat build inside me, and I was suddenly apart from myself, letting the waves of pleasure wash over me as I kissed and fucked and finally eased the need.

  My mouth moved away from his as my body tensed. At last. At long last. My cries caused him to grab my hips. He took back the reins and drove himself into me, further and faster than I could do myself. A second orgasm blossomed over the first and I was weightless, breathless and screaming his name. Power soared around us in an electric arc that stole my last ounce of resistance. I heard him moan and felt cool fingers dig into my skin as he thrust up one last time. I was so tight around him that I felt every twitching expansion as he released cool liquid into me.

  “Do you ever warm?” It seemed an odd question, even to me, during a climax. But I had to know.

  “I’m not dead. Just permanently near-dead. This is my normal temperature. I warm only when I’ve fed.”

  The thought should have panicked me but there was little left that could right now. I felt lazy, content and willing to make him feel the same.
“Do you need to? Feed, that is?” I lifted my tangled hair and turned my head to bare my neck. I paused, a little worried he would, and terrified he wouldn’t.

  That fanged smile once more. “Perhaps some day. But I don’t need to feed daily as the stories say. What’s more important right now is to finish what you’ve started.”

  I was sated so I shook my head. “I’m done. Exhausted.”

  He raised his brows and lifted me off him. His clothing was a wreck but he didn’t seem to mind. He simply stripped off his pants and shirt and I finally got to see him fully nude.

  Anton was breathtaking, chiselled and slender with abs that men in the village struggled to achieve in a gym, but never did. He held out his hand. “You’re not nearly done. Come.”

  I took the slender fingers, even though I didn’t understand. “Where are we going?”

  He led me to a wardrobe on the other side of the room. “Look and tell me what you see.” The mirror showed an adequate body but nothing to write home about. My breasts were heavy and the nipples bright red from the teasing. My hips were a little … hippy, but I could still fit in clothes from high school. Still, I did look content and that was something.

  “I look like I just had really good sex with an amazing lover. Have I thanked you?”

  He frowned abruptly and it made me feel strange inside. “You should never feel the need to. Have you not yet learned the lesson?”

  Apparently not. My brows furrowed and he sighed. He opened the wardrobe and pulled out a robe. Or at least I thought it was a robe. But it was completely transparent and pearlescent with a high stiff collar, wide sleeves and only a tie at the neck to hold it together. He took it off the hanger and held it out for me to put on. It seemed a little silly to put on a robe that covered nothing but I did it, to please him.

  “It’s … interesting.” I looked in the mirror after he closed the door. I had to admit it made me look different. There was a wildness in my hair that the robe turned from just a tangled mess to something exotic and intentional.