Unleash (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 6) Page 13

  He wasn’t worthy of this beautiful creature. Not after everything he had put her through and everything he had done. He was wretched.

  Clouds hung heavily in the sky, blocking out the final light of the sun that was now below the horizon.

  Snow cautiously edged out onto the roof, not because of the danger sunlight posed to him, but because of the fact he was stepping beyond the walls of Vampirerotique for the first time in over a century.

  He blinked hard, unaccustomed to even the dim light, and braced himself as a million scents assaulted him and his senses sharpened. He tensed as the breeze caressed his bare flesh, unused to the feel of it now.

  Unfamiliar sounds buzzed in his ears, making him twitchy and cranking up his tension until he feared the slightest thing would trigger his bloodlust.

  A shrill noise came from overhead and Snow hunkered down, glaring up at the sky. A jet. He had seen pictures. Antoine took great pleasure in keeping him up to date about the world. Snow saw it as a sign of his brother’s unwavering faith in him and his need to cling to the hope that Snow would recover and gain enough control over his bloodlust to be allowed out into the world again.

  Snow did not like aircraft. He decided it as he watched it lazily move into the distance. They didn’t seem to move quickly enough to maintain flight and the noise they made ground in his ears.

  He glanced behind him at the dark stairwell, tempted to go back inside where the walls blocked out most of the noise and he didn’t feel so on edge.

  He couldn’t. If he did, Aurora would leave.

  He steeled himself and took another step forwards. The black tar was warm beneath his bare feet. He hadn’t felt the lingering heat of the sun in a very long time, even before his incarceration at Vampirerotique.

  Aurora whirled to face him, fear in her eyes. “Go back!”

  She was scared of him.

  Snow halted, her words cutting him to his bones and lashing at his heart.

  She hesitated, looking as though she was going to run again. Perhaps not. He had the craziest notion that she wasn’t intending to run, but was rather torn between standing still and stepping towards him.

  Her eyes swam with panic, their striking green-to-blue colour bright in the evening. “I don’t want the sun to harm you. Please, Snow… go back.”

  Not fear of him. She feared for him. He was glad that she was speaking to him again and concerned about him too. It was more than he could have hoped for and gave him the courage to take another step in her direction.

  “I am old enough to withstand it.” He continued slowly moving towards her so he didn’t startle her into running again.

  He drew in a deep breath and paused, savouring it. He hadn’t breathed fresh air in long decades, and although he could hardly call the grimy London air fresh, it was certainly better than the air inside the theatre.

  Snow ran his hand over his hair when another aircraft cut across the sky directly above. He hoped that they couldn’t see him from that height, standing on a roof in only his underwear. It wasn’t how he had pictured himself dressed in his first foray into the world in over a century.

  The light began to fade, the clouds darkening, and the scent of rain drifted on the breeze. The weather was about to turn abysmal.

  He hadn’t missed that.

  “Aurora,” he started and then wasn’t sure what to say. He had to do something to make her stay. The thought of her leaving hurt him, making his chest ache, and he would rather lay his heart on the line than let her go without a fight. “Do not leave me… I know I do not deserve you… and you probably think me a wretched monster that deserves only death.”

  She tensed at that, her shoulders going rigid, but said nothing.

  “Please, Aurora.” When was the last time he had pleaded with a woman? Probably around the time he had decided to give up desiring females too. Aurora had changed all that.

  He thought of her constantly, never able to get her out of his head, even in sleep. His dreams always went back to the night she had saved him, and then forwards to her arrival at Vampirerotique. He couldn’t think straight around her and couldn’t picture his life without her in it now.

  His hands shook so he curled them into fists, clenching them. He had never felt weak and vulnerable like this, uncertain, not in all his centuries of life, not even when faced with his bloodlust or chained to his bed.

  “Do not leave, Aurora. Come back to my room… stay with me… and I will find a way to show you that I am… I do not know what I am… but I know I don’t want you to leave.”

  “I am in trouble with my master again,” she whispered in a low voice laced with hurt and a touch of fear.

  “Because of me?” His shoulders sagged and his hands fell open, his hope draining away.

  She nodded and her eyes filled with sorrow. “Because of you.”

  He knew what she wouldn’t say. Her master, the man who had broken almost every bone in his body the night he had first met Aurora, despised him and thought him unworthy of her.

  Snow looked at her, forcing himself to recognise that she was an angel, and he was a devil.

  Her whole life had been ruined because she had chosen to save him.

  “You should have let me die,” he muttered and wished she would leave now. He wanted this over with already. She was going to leave him in the end, driven away by the darkness within him, and he would taint her if he touched her. It was pointless.

  Aurora’s eyes blazed. “You were an innocent! You didn’t deserve to die like that.”

  She still believed that?

  Snow heaved a sigh. “If I had died, my parents would be alive… Antoine wouldn’t bear physical and emotional scars that haunt him, and countless other souls would not have suffered at my hands or my fangs.”

  She moved a step closer, her anger washing over him, far more intense than he had anticipated. Her beautiful eyes were dark with it, her lips compressing into a mulish line. She squared her shoulders and narrowed her gaze.

  “And what of you?” she snapped. “Have you not suffered because of my actions? I saved you that night and set in motion a series of terrible events. I condemned you to a life of pain and misery… you have suffered endless agony because of me. By your reasoning, I should die for the things I have done.”

  Snow stepped back, unable to stop himself as the force of her words struck him like physical blows.

  “You never deserved to suffer because you took pity on a child.” He kept his voice soft, hoping to calm her. “It was an angelic thing to do.”

  She glared at him. “Even if my master had wanted me to watch you die that night?”

  He had? Snow didn’t like that. The bastard had tried to make her watch a little boy die. Why?

  Before he could say anything, she continued. “He desired to test me. I failed. I couldn’t stand by and watch as an innocent boy, a child like me, drowned in an icy lake. I saw only a child without a blemish on his soul.”

  “You couldn’t have known what you would unleash on the world,” Snow countered, wanting to alleviate the guilt he could feel in her. He drew in another deep breath to steady himself and the scent of rain grew stronger. In the distance, thunder growled through the clouds.

  “No. I didn’t. I saved you and then you asked me to stay with you, and I foolishly wanted that so much because I knew my master would punish me for what I had done… and this time it would be more severe than any I had endured before.” Tears lined her eyes and she dashed them away, her actions speaking of irritation that he sensed in her. She hated revealing any sign of weakness to him. She wanted him to see her as strong.

  It was there in the upward tilt of her chin and her battle to hide her emotions. All he could see was a woman who was breaking inside, the weight of all his sins crushing her soul to ashes.

  A female torn between duty and desire.

  “I accepted my punishment… and I dared to hope you would remember what had happened and what my master had said… and you woul
d remember me.”

  “I am sorry, Aurora.” Snow stepped towards her and the first drops of rain fell, dark spots on the black tar roof. Aurora stared at him, fighting to hold back her tears, and he ached to comfort her.

  She wrapped her arms around herself and turned her face away from him.

  “I should not have forgotten you…” He curled his fingers into fists to stop himself from reaching out, smoothing his palm across her cheek, and lifting her head so she was looking at him again. She would bolt if he touched her. Tainted her. “I had truly wanted you to live with me too, away from the mean angels who had upset you. You are here now. You do not have to leave. You could stay with me.”

  He didn’t dare hope that she would.

  God knew he deserved to have her throw everything in his face, his feelings included, and leave him forever.

  She shook her head.

  His heart broke. He actually felt the snap and the rip.

  “I cannot.” She lowered her head further, causing her long black hair to cover her face.

  “Why not?” Snow couldn’t hold the growl of frustration and hurt from his voice when his feelings were colliding within him, despair battling hope, cowardice fighting courage.

  He frowned and ground his molars, unsure what to do. His head said to give up and let her go. His heart said to reach out and grab hold of her, and never let her leave him. She couldn’t leave him. They were meant for each other. He was sure of it.

  “We do not belong together,” she whispered and he shut out the words of the song she had sung to him, the tale of two who didn’t belong together, two he was coming to see as he and Aurora, even when he wanted to go against the odds and win her heart forever. “My master is right.”

  Something in Snow snapped on hearing those words leave her lips. “Screw your master and what he thinks is right. What do you think is right? What feels right to you?”

  Aurora glanced at him. “I do not know.”

  Snow pieced his shattered heart back together, mentally picked himself up off the deck, and took another step towards her, determined not to back down until she had given in to him.

  “I know that you fear what is happening between us, Aurora… the Devil knows I do too… and that it is all new to you and may feel wrong, but if you would only give me a chance… I can show you how right we are for each other and that your passion is something to embrace, not deny.” He halted in front of her, his entire body shaking and his knees weak, and stared down into her beautiful eyes, catching the spark of warmth that now lit them. A spark that ignited hope within his aching heart.

  Snow breathed hard, struggling with himself and the words, trying to get them all to come out right in spite of his nerves. He longed to touch her but he couldn’t. He feared he would taint her. God, he wanted to taint her. He had never wanted anything so fiercely.

  She looked as though she was going to say something stupid about her master.

  Snow’s hands trembled, nerves threatening to get the better of him. He wouldn’t let her leave him. He lifted his hand, gently slid it along the length of her jaw, and raised her face to his. His gaze fell to her lips.

  He pressed his thumb to her jaw, captured her nape with his fingers, and tilted her head, slanting his at the same time.

  “I will ruin you.”

  He leaned in and placed his mouth on hers, cutting off her protest with a kiss. The heat and taste of her struck him hard, and the softness of her lips against his rocked him to his soul.

  Snow closed his eyes and gathered her against him with his free arm. The feel of her supple body pressing into his sent him out of his head and it was hard to keep the kiss chaste, giving her time to adjust to it.

  His whole body cried out to take things further and kiss her deeper, sliding his tongue between the seam of her lips, ruining her completely.

  He gently swept his lips across hers, the feel of her shaking in his arms keeping him grounded, awing him as she mimicked his actions, her soft mouth working against his. Her breath stuttered, moist and sweet on his face, and her palms settled on his bare chest. His heart beat hard against it, hurting his ribs as it attempted to break free of the cage of his body and get to her.

  It belonged to her now, no matter what happened between them. In return, he wanted her to belong to him. It was only fair.

  He risked it and stroked her lips with his tongue and she clutched his pectorals, her fingertips pressing into his flesh, and her heartbeat went wild.

  Snow hadn’t kissed in too many centuries, but she had probably never been kissed. He didn’t want to overwhelm or scare her, not even when he ached to feel her tongue caressing his, hot against cool.

  He reluctantly drew back, releasing her mouth, and looked down at her. She stayed on her toes, her entire body leaning against his and her hands burning into his chest. She looked beautiful with her eyes still closed, head still slanted, and lips parted and rosy from his kiss.

  Rain fell softly on her face, drops glistening on her cheeks and brow. A single drop landed on her lower lip, quivering there. He wanted to capture that drop in another kiss.

  Her eyes slowly opened. A deep blush crept onto her cheeks.

  “Give me a chance,” Snow whispered, voice thick and hoarse, tight with the feelings filling his heart and his desire.

  She swiped her tongue across her lower lip, catching the raindrop, almost doing him in. He groaned internally, his hunger for her rising, burning away all restraint and goading him into kissing her again, and not relenting until she was completely his.

  “I can only give you three days,” she said quietly.

  It was more than he had dared to hope for and he would be a fool not to take it.

  “Snow?” His name trembled on her lips.

  He took his hand from her jaw and teased the strands of her damp black hair from her face, clearing it for his heated gaze to devour.

  She swallowed and her eyes flickered between his and his lips.

  “Kiss me again.”

  CHAPTER 12

  Snow captured Aurora’s jaw and drew her back to him, lowering his head at the same time.

  He swept his lips across hers, earning a breathy sigh that verged on a moan, and gathered her body closer to his, settling his free hand in the small of her back and then sliding it around to clutch her hip.

  The feel of her soft flesh giving beneath his fingers was divine, stoking his desire up another degree. He wanted to run his hands over every supple delicious inch of her but feared it would frighten her away or she would reject him if he tried to slake his need to touch her.

  She tasted sweet and addictive, and he knew he would crave her forever.

  Aurora responded quicker this time, her small hands sliding up his damp bare chest, teasing him with the warmth of her palms. She clutched his shoulders, fingertips pressing into his flesh in the same hungry way his grasped her side, and tilted her head and kissed him, her actions choppy and a little clumsy, but enchanting all the same.

  Rain began to fall in earnest, fat drops that were cold against his bare skin, but he didn’t feel them. Didn’t notice anything while his lips danced with Aurora’s, his heart on fire and his soul filling with light.

  He trembled, nerves threatening to get the better of him even when he was battling them, trying to shut them down so Aurora didn’t notice them. He didn’t want her to think him a weak and inexperienced male, even when he felt like one as he kissed her, drowning in her taste and her heat, afraid he would do something to make her pull away and leave him.

  Snow struggled to keep the kiss soft, a tender exploration of her lips and a gentle easing into her first experience. He grew more confident as she kissed him, her mouth working against his, growing bolder with each sweep of her lips.

  Her fingertips pressed into his shoulders, clutching him tightly, and she leaned into him, mashing her breasts against his chest. Her heart thundered against his, a frantic rhythm that called to his base hungers, telling him that she want
ed more. His body responded in the only way it knew, growing hard for her. Painfully so.

  He ached to take things further and he wasn’t sure how long he would be able to deny that need, even when he knew he should.

  She loosed her first moan and tensed, as though the sound of pleasure emanating from her throat and heart had startled her. He smiled against her lips and deepened the kiss, stroking his tongue over her lips so they parted for him. He teased another moan from her when their tongues touched, causing his to tingle and a shiver to tumble down his spine. He needed more.

  Aurora was way ahead of him.

  She delved her tongue into his mouth and groaned low in her throat, the sound conveying pure unadulterated bliss. Snow groaned with her and tackled her tongue, taking control of the kiss again, showing her that two could play at her game. She upped the stakes.

  Aurora clutched his shoulders, tiptoed and moulded her hot body against his front, her belly pressing into his hard cock and tearing another moan from him. She ran one hand up his neck to his hair and her fingers tangled in it, nails scraping his scalp, driving him out of his mind.

  Rain poured down on them and thunder rolled menacingly overhead.

  Snow planted his hands against her lower back, gathered her flush against him and leaned over her, kissing her harder and losing himself in sensations that felt foreign to him. It had been that long since he had held a woman like this and kissed one.

  He shook that thought away. He had never held a woman like this, clinging to her as though his world would end if she escaped his grasp, and had never kissed like this either, his passion pouring out of him because it was overflowing and he couldn’t contain it. A dam had burst and he was powerless to resist the violent flow that swept him along, pulling him under at times until he felt as though he was drowning.

  Gasping for more.

  Lightning cracked above them, the flash registering even with his eyes closed, and the hairs on the back of his neck prickled. His senses blared a warning he was too far gone to heed.

  The electricity in the air was nothing compared with the intense energy that blazed between him and Aurora.