Congratulations to this week's finalist, Sylvia Day, author of A Taste of Sin!
This one's a scorcher! Whew! Enjoy.
Chapter One
He was here. Sable could smell the fear pouring from him in misty waves, even over the odors of stale beer and cigarettes. He knew she was coming for him—relentless, determined, and dangerous.
Her mouth curved in smile so feral the men who watched her with lusty eyes looked away, their interest doused instantly. Stepping further into the dimly lit bar in the Deep Space 12 concourse, her hand dipped automatically to the lasersword held in the holster on her thigh. It was illegal to use weapons in the concourse, it was illegal even to carry a weapon, but she had docked in the waste removal bay, affording her the opportunity to slip past security. As a bounty hunter, Sable would have been held up for hours if she’d arrived through expected means and Butch Castle would have gotten away from her again. With 100,000 credits resting on his capture, that was a circumstance she could not afford to let happen. Again.
She scowled and sniffed the air, checking on Butch but also searching for another scent, one so masculine and virile it drove her to madness. In fact, she could still smell it on her skin and it was keeping her hot and horny, distracting her when she needed to be the most focused. She forced herself to concentrate, tuning out the background music in the small bar and the paging of flight information echoing in the terminal behind her. Her focus narrowed, a huntress closing in for the kill.
Her shoulders relaxed when she confirmed that she was the only vampire in the room. Still, she knew she didn’t have long before Derek caught up with her. The handcuffs she’d used to shackle him to the bed would hold, but the bedposts wouldn’t. She’d be damned if she’d let him steal another fugitive from her, even if he was the best fuck she’d had in over a century.
She stepped further into the bar.
“You know,” purred a deep velvety voice in her right ear. “A guy could take it personally when his woman fucks him senseless and then leaves without even a kiss goodbye.”
Heat pooled instantly at the top of her spine and spiraled downward. Shocked, Sable spun around. “What the hell?”
Derek Atkinson stood barely an inch away, his strong hands gripping his narrow hips as he eyed her with his silver stare—a stare still molten with desire for her. “I wasn’t done with you yet. I was just taking a power nap before we started again.”
A shiver went through her body at his words. His raking glance stripped her of her clothing and left her naked to his view. He’d wanted more of her? After two days straight of mind-blowing sex? The man was an animal.
Her nostrils flared. Standing this close to him she could finally smell his delicious scent buried under the overwhelming smell of herself. No wonder she hadn’t detected him sooner.
His eyes danced with devilish amusement. “I thought I was in pretty good shape, but I guess I’m not, if I’m falling asleep and you still have the energy to get up and chase my fugitive.”
That arrogant comment snapped her out of her astonishment. “He’s not your fugitive!”
He cupped her cheek with a warm hand. Instantly her skin grew hot, her cunt wet, her nipples hard. Even after two days straight of Derek’s intoxicating carnal attentions she was still ready to do it again. Immediately. Her fangs slid downward in anticipation.
“Sable, sweet.” He smiled, his sensual lips curling upward to reveal pearly white fangs even longer and more deadly than her own.
His fangs were erect. She didn’t have to look down to know that the rest of him would be too. Her mouth dried instantly.
His voice dropped even lower and she knew he smelled her arousal. “You’re a talented hunter, baby, I’ll give you that. But your operation is small and you’re often ill equipped. If you just let me--”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Butch Castle edging toward the exit to the main concourse. Faster than the human eye could see her, she leapt over the tables between her and her prey. She tucked the man, easily twice her body weight, under her arm and left Derek without looking back. She heard him shout after her as she crawled along the wall to the traffic-free ceiling and ran to her ship. And then she couldn’t hear anything with Butch screaming in terror as they flew through the concourse upside down, his human eyes unable to see more than a blur.
Sable could sense Derek swiftly gaining ground on them and she cursed under her breath. She was no match for him physically, as he’d proven on several occasions in the past, and she was weighted down with the screaming human. She saw her turn coming up but maintained her lightning speed, feinting to the left at the last possible moment. Derek blazed past behind them. The ruse bought her only a few seconds, but it was long enough for her to enter her transport and shut the cargo bay. Just as the portal locked with a hiss of air, she felt a thud as Derek slammed into the door. He’d probably dented the damn thing.
Sable shoved Butch Castle into the brig. “Take a shower,” she ordered. “Wash the stench of fear off you. I’m hungry, so after we take off I’ll be back to feed.” She saw his eyes widen in dismay and smiled. “Don’t worry, you’ll enjoy it. Humans always do.”
She moved to the deck. As she sat in her captain’s chair and secured the five-point harness, she activated the exterior communication link. “Move away, Derek. I’m about to take off.”
“Damnit, Sable,” he growled. “You bitch! Didn’t the last two days mean anything to you?”
She swallowed hard. Mean anything? They’d meant everything. She glanced up and saw him standing in the loading bay, one hand plunging through his thick raven hair in frustration. Lord, he was gorgeous. Tall, broad-shouldered, and thickly muscled, he took up her entire view screen from the chest up. Her heart pounded against her ribcage and her chest grew tight. “Don’t play me, Derek,” she said in a voice that betrayed her with its hoarseness.
He glanced up sharply and bore his metallic gaze into hers through the video screen. He couldn’t see her, but his gaze still searched for answers. “It seems to me that I’m the one being played. Was I just a convenient fuck for you, baby? A couple dozen orgasms and I’ve outlived my usefulness?”
“Go to hell,” she bit out, even as the crotch of her bio-suit dampened at the memory. “You were going to do the same to me, I just beat you to the punch. Now back off!”
He backed away a few steps, affording her a clear view of the massive bulge of his cock straining his suit. His handsome face was set in harsh lines, his gaze piercing in his fury. “If you believe that, after all the time I spent inside you, filling you with my cum, you don’t know anything about me at all.”
Sable closed her eyes for a moment, willing away the burning behind her lids that would prevent her from seeing her way out of the narrow docking bay. If only things could be different.
“Goodbye, Derek,” she said softly and she terminated communication. When she opened her eyes and looked at the screen, he was gone.
And with a skilled tug on the controls, so was she.
#
Derek sat on the deck of his ship, The Viper, and watched Sable Taylor’s sleek new model Starwing burst into lightspeed and disappear. The ship was just what one would expect the luscious bounty hunter to pilot. She liked new toys, the faster and more powerful the better.
His lips twisted wryly. That was probably why she was so hot for him. She’d been burning up his bed the last 48 hours, singeing his entire body and causing his always-raring libido to burst into flames. He’d never experienced anything like it; his cock had been painfully hard almost the entire time. She satisfied him to the point where he was never satisfied, always wanting more and more of her.
He waited until it was clear for him to follow, set the controls for the jump, and then stood up to take a shower.
As he stepped under the spray of water, the unmistakable scent of hard sex rose from his skin to dissipate in the steam. He closed his eyes and rested his forehead against the cool metal of the shower stall. It wasn’t hard to picture Sable as she’d been only a few hours ago, imprinting her smell on him in a way he knew would never leave him. She was the fuck of the century, several centuries actually, and it would probably take several more before he burned her out of his blood.
He’d finally caught her while they’d both been chasing Castle—Sable working independently while he worked for the Interstellar Council Special Task Force. Their paths had crossed numerous times over the last two years as they chased the same fugitives, but always work kept them apart. When they’d first met, he’d been new to the force, a rookie, and he’d learned a lot by watching her in action. He’d see her in a flash, a brief moment of recognition before one of them (usually him) made off with their quarry, and every time he saw her she was more beautiful than he remembered. Lithe and slender, her body was honed by years of training and a diet of blood. Her hair was jet black, deeper in color than his own raven locks, and her eyes a rich blue so startling they always caught him off guard.
He’d lusted after her since the moment he’d first seen her. He’d smelled her and known she was one of his kind. The last two years of watching her work—admiring her skill, her daring, and her bravery—had only made him want her more. Now that he’d actually had her… well, he wasn’t sated yet. Not by half.
He remembered looking into those blue eyes just two days ago and seeing the surprised desire there when he’d placed his arm around her shoulders and claimed her as his own. The opportunity he’d been waiting years for had finally presented itself and he had seized it with only a moment’s hesitation. She’d torn through the City Hall of Windemere Court just like she’d done a few moments ago in the concourse. Only Windemere had a law against vamps using their superhuman abilities in public buildings. Sable had been on her way to jail when Derek had flashed his badge and taken her with him to his ship.
“What the hell are you doing, Atkinson?” she’d growled under her breath as he prodded her into his earlier model Starwing.
“Saving you from a month in jail.”
“You’ve done that. Now let me go!”
He laughed. “That’s all the gratitude I get for saving that sweet ass of yours?” His gaze dropped to her seductively swaying hips and he was lost. Totally and completely consumed by lust. He hit the lock and the ramp lifted behind him.
Sable’s eyes narrowed as he unzipped his bio-suit. Her fangs descended as she hissed at him. “I’m grateful, but I’m not that grateful. Stay away from me!”
Her frame was stiff, her glare unwelcoming, but the scent of her arousal permeated the air. Sweet and ripe like cherries, he smelled the lust pooling between her thighs. Lust for him. He hardened instantly and painfully.
Derek let his suit drop over his hips to pool on the floor. He watched with satisfaction as her eyes darkened at the sight of his rampant erection. “Come on now, baby. Be honest. Staying away is the last thing you want me to do.”
She backed away warily. “You may be thinking with your dick, but I’m thinking with my wallet. And right now it’s in need of a credit infusion.” She tried to fly around him, but he’d anticipated the move and easily blocked her exit. “I need to get Castle,” she snapped. “I don’t have time for this.”
He reached out and yanked down the zipper of her suit, growling his approval as the lush valley of her cleavage was revealed to him. “We’ll get our man, baby,” he assured her in a voice made husky with desire. “Castle left a half hour ago for Deep Space 12 where he’ll switch transports. We’ll catch up with him then. In the meantime, we have two days to kill.”
“My ship…” she protested half-heartedly.
“I’m towing it.”
“You planned this!” she yelled accusingly.
“Now how could I know that you’d break the law in Windemere?” he pointed out innocently. “Don’t blame me for being prepared.”
He stepped closer and withheld a smile as she held her ground. She was staying put because she wanted to, not because he was making her. He’d tried in the past to use his calling on her, he was much older than she was and therefore more powerful, but always she was able to throw him off with ease. He didn’t mind, it meant she was seduced by him and not the vampire within him.
He, in turn, was seduced by everything about her.
Sable was too much of novice to know how to use her calling, but she had it just the same. Swirling around her like a thick fog, she radiated sex and desire. As he stepped closer, he was pulled into it, pulled into her, until he could think of nothing else. Wanted nothing else.
He reached between the opening of her suit, slipping his hands over her shoulders and pushing the bio-suit down her arms. The touch of her skin burned his palms. She bit her lower lip, her fangs piercing the ripe curve causing tiny droplets of blood to appear.
The scent of her blood, innocent and fresh like ripe berries, drove him to madness. The rest of her suit came off in shreds as his mouth lowered to hers and he tasted her sweetness.
She quickly became consumed by the same frenzy, gripping his shoulders and rubbing the slick heat of her sex along the erect length of his cock. The heat of her body, the sultry scent of her arousal, the sweetness of her blood, all combined to make restraint impossible. He gripped her torso and leapt, pinning her with brutal force against the bulkhead, their feet dangling as he speared his cock deep into her creamy pussy and sank his fangs deep into her throat.
“Derek!” she screamed in surprised pleasure and pain, bucking against him in a way that made rational thought impossible. Her cunt wrapped around his aching erection, warm and welcoming. Her legs wrapped around his hips, pulling him deeper inside. She felt so much better than he had imagined and she tasted liked heaven.
She’d never called him by his first name before and somehow the simple familiarity touched him in a way he hadn’t experienced in centuries. Raw need coursed through his veins as her blood gushed down his throat, settling heavy and insistent between his legs. He slid out of her, his cock slicked with her cream, and slammed home again. Her moan reverberated through the metal confines of his ship and he lost his thin thread of control.
He fucked her like the animal he was, pounding into her tight, moist pussy with such force he shoved her up the bulkhead and onto the ceiling. The sensations were too much, coming on too fast—her erect nipples stabbing into his chest, her blood pouring down his throat, her cunt milking his cock rhythmically. She gasped and moaned his name in a primal chant of mindless pleasure. He tore his mouth from her throat with a curse, his buttocks clenching and releasing in lightning fast rhythm as he pinned her to the ceiling with his thrusts.
“Feed,” he growled, offering his neck to her. His eyes slid shut as her fangs pierced his skin. “Sorry, baby,” he grunted. “I can’t wait for you… not this time… next time…”
He reached out to her with his calling, establishing a mental connection. Normally he kept his thoughts to himself when his orgasm was upon him. He considered it a personal moment, not something he shared more than his outward appearance of pleasure. Sometimes he eavesdropped on his partner’s thoughts, just to make certain he was pleasuring them as much as possible, but his release was his own.
But this joining was different. He was so profoundly satiated by the act of fucking Sable that he felt almost… grateful. And he hated that he was so aroused, his balls rock hard, his swollen cock aching, that he wasn’t going to sate her in return. In seven centuries, he’d never finished before his partner. Never. So he decided to share his pleasure with her, hoping she would find some satisfaction simply from giving so much of it to him. He also wanted to know her, to see into her thoughts and ascertain the pureness of her motives, because suddenly he didn’t want to be just another fuck to her.
She was writhing over him, pinned between him and the ceiling, purring like a wildcat as she fed from him. He gripped her thighs and spread them flat; piercing so deep inside her he could felt the tip of his cock ram into her womb. Feverishly pumping his hips, he stroked himself inside her, his back arching as the pleasure of her body completely overwhelmed him. Sex wasn’t meant to be like this, making a man mindless with need and out of control. This was deadly, ensnaring, he’d never get free.
Her silken pussy gripped his shaft in decadent ripples and he came, howling in a rapture so intense it was painful. He spurted endlessly inside of her, his cum and her cream dripping from them to splatter on the ground below. He poured the excess of sensation into her mind, showing her the dazzling blindness of his orgasm until she stiffened against him and burst into her own release, one so powerful her body gripped his cock like a vise, holding him inside of her as if she never wanted to let him go.
They both must have passed out because they woke up sometime later, still joined, laying on the floor. He’d picked her up and carried her to his bedroom where she’d marveled at the sight of the centuries-old four-poster bed. He’d tied her up in that bed, draped her over the edge it, fucked her on the floor beside it, taken her standing up against the posts at the foot of it. He knew he would never look at that bed again without thinking of her. And wishing she were in it.
Derek sighed as he finished washing his hair and stepped out of the shower, his mind weary and heart heavy simply because Sable was no longer with him. She’d become a complication in a way that he should have seen coming.
That damned impossible woman. She was going to get herself killed. She was too reckless, thumbing her nose at the law and being too impatient to study the rules of the lands she invaded in search of her prey. He’d tried over the last couple of days to talk to her, to offer his assistance, but every time he’d brought it up she’d silenced him with her body, wearing him into exhaustion. When he’d woken up this afternoon, it was to find that he’d been handcuffed to the bedposts and her ship no longer trailing behind his. Apparently, she didn’t know how powerful a Master as old as he was could become. He’d dissipated into mist and followed her easily. She’d looked so astonished to find him behind her in the concourse bar. Astonished and instantly aroused. Whatever her reasons were for leaving, it wasn’t because she didn’t want him.
He knew where she was going now—back to Gamma Quadrant to turn in Castle and collect her bounty. She’d also collect the updated list of fugitives from headquarters, settle on the one worth the most credits and immediately take flight again, hoping to avoid him when he pulled in for the same reason. She was running from him, but he was not fool enough to take it personally. He hadn’t missed the regret in her voice when she’d said goodbye or the emotion in her gaze the last time they’d made love. Despite her fierceness, she was a tender and giving lover, and she’d worshiped his body in a way that had to mean something to her. It sure as hell had meant something to him.
But he knew she wouldn’t let her personal feelings get in the way of her plans. She was good; he’d have to be better if he hoped to catch her.
The hunt was on.
And Sable was his prey.
