tonight."
I realized what he meant. "What time is it?" I demanded.
"I'm pretty sure you can guess," Raymond told me, making it sound obvious.
My circle intended to complete the ritual tonight. A burst of magic channeled properly could corrupt the air for every vampire within fifty miles. But this spell required tremendous amount of energy and had to be cast at the right moment.
"I may not have an impressive circle of which is to call upon, but I don't need that money. All I require," he said with a caress from my temple down to my collarbone, "is one beautiful caster." His touch made me feel electrified even as I started to piece together exactly what he intended.
Sex magic. The empires were seldom known for their spell casting abilities. Why bother when they were so strong and powerful already? But a few of them dabbled, and Raymond must've been one of them because he understood the power of raw eroticism. My allies would conjure incredible powers tonight by working together. Raymond would counter their attack with just a little bit of help. He would amplify the powers of my soul through the lens of my own sexuality.
I wanted to respond, to insist that I would make sure he failed. Yet before I could other a single syllable, his mouth locked down onto mine. He started kissing me with a new kind of frenzied intensity.
An outside observer might have assumed I couldn’t just fall back into his passionate embrace. After all, I had slept and eaten. But no, he made it happen. Desire and arousal rushed back through me. It felt like a deluge. A flood of yearning filled me. I tried to hold it back, and I failed completely.
Despite every one of my best intentions, I molded my body against his. I let out those little moans and groans he enjoyed so much. I could feel his desire. He was so big and so hard. It amplified my hunger for this to happen.
Every shred of my rational self fell away. I became a creature of sensation, desire, and longing. I couldn’t care about the conflict between my people and his. I couldn’t even worry about the fact that he was technically using me right then. He wanted me, and I wanted him. Nothing else had to be important.
Raymond pinned me again, his palms over mine, our fingers intertwined. He held me down and broke away from my mouth. I suppressed an animalistic whimper because I didn’t want to give up the soft strength of his lips on mine. But then his eyes sparkled with passionate desire, and I moved lower. He licked at my nipples again, and this time, I couldn’t stop it.
My back arched and I bucked my hips against his. He didn’t mind though. If anything, he must have been entertained by the feisty girl beneath him. Perhaps he even imagined himself as the cowboy eager to tame the wild beast.
Somehow, the vampire turned me into the animal. And it was true. I couldn’t think beyond what I felt. I didn’t want to.
His tongue moved around my right nipple, then my left. He seemed to work so fast and yet with delicious deliberation. Raymond could read my body like no one else. He could tell when to start and went to stop and when to make me whimper.
Each time, he glanced back at my face. I found affection in his gaze. He wanted me as much as I wanted him. This may have started as a countermove in some elaborate game between supernatural powers, but it had evolved into something else. Instinct or intuition made it clear to me.
But then it didn’t matter because he leaned up and started to knead my breasts. Despite the coolness of his touch, I savored the impulses running through my nervous system. He worked my body like his own personal plaything. He molded me as I wiggled beneath his touch, intensifying every movement.
“Do you want me?”
I nodded quickly, furiously.
“Good,” he said and started to strip off his clothing. He unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it aside to reveal his pectorals. He was muscled perfectly. He didn’t look huge like some overworked bodybuilder.