Lara was panting by the time he kissed his way to her breasts. Licking, suckling, tweaking, pinching. She let out a long moan and wrapped her legs around him. His erection pressed against her hip.
She felt hot and wet and aching with need. "Oh God, Jack, let me have it."
He chuckled, his breath tickling her damp, tight nipples. "Are you begging, cara mia?."
"I'm demanding!" She slapped his rump.
He lifted his head to look at her. "What was that?"
"I-it wasn't very hard. Sorta… playful, you know?"
His mouth twitched. "Now you've asked for it."
"Well, duh, yes. I have been asking—" She squealed when he suddenly dove between her legs. "Oh, oh!" All that licking, suckling, tweaking, and pinching had moved to a new location. She made a mental note to slap his rump more often.
"Jack, Jack," she breathed. Pleasure spiked and spiraled, growing more and more tense. She strained, lifting her hips to meet his mouth. He grabbed her bottom and pressed her against him. With another squeal, she climaxed, and he groaned with satisfaction.
She struggled to catch her breath. "Oh, Jack, that was—" He dragged his tongue over her with one long slow lick, and aftershocks rocked her body.
He rose to his knees, leaning over her. "Cara mia."
"Pimm?" She blinked a few times to bring him into focus. The blunt tip of his erection nudged against her highly sensitized skin. More moisture seeped from her.
His eyes gleamed, still red. "I'm going to enter you now."
Like she wouldn't have noticed? She gasped when he drove into her with one swift stroke. And he kept coming. "Wow." He was big. Her inner muscles spasmed with another aftershock.
He winced. "I won't last long with that kind of torment."
Was he actually worried about his performance? "I'm not keeping time. We have our whole lives together."
He kissed her brow. "I love you, Lara."
"I love you, too. Just the way you are."
He smiled. "Then I'm home."
He started slow, but soon they lost all semblance of control. It was as if he couldn't get close enough. He rose onto his knees and grasped her hips, grinding himself against her. She screamed as another climax jolted through her. He let out a long groan, then suddenly threw his head back as his fangs popped out.
Lara screamed again.
He released her and collapsed on the bed. "Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you." He grimaced. "Merda."
She sat up. He looked like he was in pain. "Are you all right? Are you… hungry?"
He shook his head. The fangs were already starting to recede. "I drank plenty before coming here. I–I just lost control. I'm sorry I scared you."
"It was just a bit dramatic, that's all." She decided not to let the fangs bother her. He couldn't help having fangs. He actually had good control, since he hadn't made any attempt to bite her. And he couldn't help being a vampire. She loved him the way he was.
She smoothed a hand over his chest and down his belly. He was a beautiful man. Well-defined muscles. She trailed her fingers down the line of hair that led to his groin.
"You're magnificent." She stroked the length of his manhood. Even relaxed, it was long and thick. She traced a vein. "How did it happen?"
"What?" He lifted his head to look, then dropped his head back onto the bed. "I was born with that."
She snorted. "I meant, how did you become a vampire?" She moved her hand down and cupped his balls.
"I'd rather not talk about it."
"Oh come on." She squeezed his balls gently.
His mouth curled up. "Are you threatening me?"
"No, of course not." She tickled him. "I'm just trying to persuade you to talk."
"Playing with a man's balls does not lead to conversation."
She stretched out beside him and rested her head on his shoulder. "I want to know all about you. Please."
"I'm a bastard."
"That's a given."
He snorted. "My father was a terrible womanizer." He stroked her hair. "I'm not anything like him."
"One woman is enough for you?"
"Definitely." He smiled at her, and his eyes had returned to their warm golden brown color.
"Tell me more."
His smile faded. "I inherited my father's personal papers. Things that he didn't want included in his memoirs. Imagine a twelve-year-old boy reading about his father's struggle with the pox and his search for a cure."
"Eeuw." Lara wrinkled her nose.
"Exactly. Now you know why I don't like to speak of it. My father was in Paris when an attempt was made on the French king's life, and he met the man responsible for saving the king. There were some rumors about Jean-Luc Echarpe. Rumors that he had super strength and was invincible. My father asked him what his secret was, hoping to find a cure for his syphilis, but Jean-Luc refused him."
"This Jean-Luc was a vampire?" Lara asked.
"Yes. My father didn't give up. He suspected Jean-Luc knew a way to defeat old age and disease. Eventually, my father's investigations led him to Transylvania. He took a job nearby at the Castle Dux in Bohemia. That's where he seduced my mother. I never knew her, but I heard she died years later in an insane asylum."
"Oh, Jack, I'm so sorry."
"So was I.I feared my mother had died from syphilis, given to her by my father. And I feared I could have it, too. I was determined not to pass it on, so I decided to become a monk. My uncle persuaded me to go the University of Padua first. Then, when I was twenty-four, something terrible happened."
Lara sat up. "You were attacked?"
He smiled. "I fell in love."
She swatted his arm. "That's not terrible."
"It is if you think you have a disease that could kill. I wanted to keep Beatrice safe, so I used my father's notes to try to find a cure. A year later, my travels took me to Transylvania. I was riding toward a small village as the sun set. Three beautiful women appeared on the road."
"And they were vampires?" Lara asked.
Jack nodded. "I introduced myself, and when they heard the name Casanova, they jumped me. The next thing I knew I was in an old castle with the women biting me. I tried to fight back, but… they were very strong, and I grew weaker as they drained every drop of blood from my veins."
"That must have been terrifying."
"I woke up in a dungeon with a horrific hunger." He grimaced. "I wanted blood. I didn't know what had happened to me. I didn't realize I could simply teleport away. They encouraged me to bite their wrists. I did, but there was always a price for survival. They thought I would be a skilled lover like my father. You can imagine their disappointment to find out I barely knew the basics."
Lara winced. She had been right. Jack didn't realize he was a wonderful lover.
"After a few months, they threw me out in disgust. Said I would never live up to the Casanova name." Jack sighed. "I've never used the name since then."
"Well, they were idiots. If you were any better in bed, I would have had a heart attack."
He smiled. "They would have thought our lovemaking too tame. No swinging upside down from a chandelier or dangling over the parapet of a castle tower."
Lara laughed. "You've got to be kidding." When Jack shook his head, she gasped. "They really did that stuff?"
"Yes. They attacked a circus after I left, and they were much happier with a trapeze artist."
Lara snorted.
"I nearly died again, trying to make my way across Europe to Paris. I found Jean-Luc there, and he taught me how to be a vampire. Then finally, I went back to Venezia, hoping that Beatrice could still love me."
"What happened?"
Jack sighed. "She had died a month earlier during an outbreak of typhoid fever. I have always feared that she died believing I abandoned her."