Sensual Saturday – Hot excerpt from Heart of Darkness (vampire romance novel)

 

Sensual Saturday is brought to you today by Heart of Darkness, one of my stand alone vampire romance novels which is currently a finalist in the paranormal romance category of the EPIC Ebook Awards 2013. Sensual Saturday’s always feature a hot excerpt from one of my paranormal romance books. Read on for this Saturday’s sensual snippet… it’s a bit of a long one today… less of a snippet, more of a chapter!

“Enter.”

The door opened a crack. Elise poked her head around, the dark rings under her beautiful aquamarine eyes a sign that she was disobeying his orders to rest by leaving her bed. Two days wasn’t enough for one so young to recover from such a strong poison. He hadn’t seen her in that time. A renewed sense of propriety had kept him away. There were rumours about them circulating in the mansion, rumours that he had unwittingly caused. He didn’t care about them himself, but she would, and she would be angry with him because of them.

When the door fully opened, he frowned. She was wearing her uniform. The black waist-length jacket and tight trousers were looser on her slender frame. She needed more blood. He had requested that a supply be given to her. Had it not been enough, or had she not received it?

“Have you recovered?” He crossed the room and halted at the end of the leather couch, barely stopping himself from striding right up to her and cupping her cheek against his palm.

Elise looked pale against the backdrop of dark red walls. The colour reminded him of her bed covers and the way she had looked beneath them, her beautiful body bare and tempting him. He hadn’t been the one to undress her, but he had snuck a glance at her, drawing the covers back enough that he had seen the delightful way she dipped in at the waist and swelled out into rounded hips. The sight of the curve of her left breast where it pressed into the mattress had been too much for him to bear and he’d covered her again, and made himself tend to her.

Elise took a couple of steps into the room, closing the door behind her, and cast a glance around, looking everywhere but at him.

She was beautiful when she was shy.

Aleksandr closed the gap between them and surrendered to his desire to cup her cheek. It was soft and hot beneath his fingers, a flush of colour darkening her skin. He brought her head around to face him. Her eyes lingered on his lips, as though she feared meeting his. Was she still afraid of him?

He stroked his fingers along the gentle slope of her jaw and then trailed them down her throat. He had never hidden his intention and he wasn’t going to start now. He wanted her to know that he was going to win her.

“Let me see,” he whispered and moved around her.

She stood rooted to the spot, staring ahead still, as though transfixed, and didn’t resist him.

Drawing a long deep breath, Aleksandr stepped up behind her. He watched his hands as he skimmed them over her arms and across her chest to the line of black buttons that ran down the middle of her jacket. When the first one gave beneath his fingers, he glanced at her throat and then looked at her face. Her eyes closed and her lips parted. He smiled and moved on to the next button.

Her compliance surprised him. He had expected her to push him away by now. Had something changed in her?

Aleksandr undid the last button by her waist and grazed her stomach with his thumbs as he drew her jacket open. He ran his hands up her arms to her throat and brushed it with his fingers as he slipped them into her collar. She shivered and sighed.

His heart beat harder.

So did hers.

It sounded in his ears, slightly out of sync with his own, creating a divine melody.

He drew her jacket down her arms and off her, tossing it over the back of the couch.

She didn’t move.

He was tempted to ask her what had happened to the feisty defiant side of her but didn’t want to break whatever spell she was under.

Easing his hands up her white shirt-covered back, he paused with his left over the point where the crossbow bolt had struck her. Aleksandr leaned forwards, so his chest brushed her back, and brought his mouth to her ear.

“Does it hurt?” he whispered into it.

Elise shook her head and her ear brushed his lips. She stilled again and then turned her face towards him as though seeking more contact with him.

He remained close to her, his cheek against her ear, as he undid the buttons on her white shirt. He could feel her trembling and hear her heart beating fast. The rise and fall of her chest with her soft quick breaths enticed him, luring him into touching her as he stopped undoing her shirt just below her breasts. He grazed them as he brought his hands up to her shirt collar and her breath stuttered.

When he drew her shirt up and over her shoulder, exposing the smooth milky skin, he groaned. She wasn’t wearing a bra. The memory of her firm round breasts sent a jolt through his body straight to his groin and he moved back so she wouldn’t feel the effect that she had on him.

Elise covered her breasts with her hands even though they weren’t in any danger of being exposed. No matter how much he wished they would be. The buttoned section of her white shirt concealed them.

Aleksandr carefully removed the sticking plaster that covered the wound on her left shoulder blade. The hole where the bolt had been was nothing more than a dark pink scar now but the tissue looked fragile. He ran a finger over it and she shivered.

What spell was she under tonight?

He couldn’t understand her. She had kept him at arm’s length, had told him to leave her alone and had refused him constantly, and suddenly she was letting him touch her. It didn’t make any sense.

What had changed her?

“You must be careful, Elise,” he whispered into her ear. “You are not healed yet. I cannot allow you to return to duty until you are ready.”

“But—”

“No,” he interjected softly. “I will not even entertain the thought. You must rest.”

“Are those your orders as my commander?” There was an edge to her words that warned him that he was beginning to tread on thin ice again.

“If you wish them to be… if that is the only way I can make you rest until you are well.” Aleksandr trailed his gaze up from her shoulder to her throat. He leaned forwards and pressed a kiss to the scar on her shoulder. “Although I would prefer you to take it as an order from your lover.”

She didn’t bolt. He had been sure that she would. Had he won? The thought that he might have left a strange sense of disappointment in his heart. He had wanted their hunt to continue a while longer, and had enjoyed having to fight for her. Her compliance tonight took something away from the sense of satisfaction he had from touching and kissing her.

She was too docile and doll-like. The brief moments in which she had responded to his touch had thrilled him but they weren’t enough. He wanted her alive with desire, yearning for him as he did for her. He didn’t want her like this.

He pressed his lips to her shoulder and then her throat. She trembled again and turned her face towards him.

Aleksandr drew back and looked at her, into her round beguiling eyes that spoke to him of passion and hunger. She held his gaze, her soft breath fanning his face and her body brushing his. She tilted her head towards him and he couldn’t resist the invitation in her eyes as they dropped to his lips.

His mouth claimed hers, his left hand cradling her right cheek, keeping her in place so she couldn’t escape him again. She didn’t respond at first, but then she turned in his arms, pressed her hands to his chest, and kissed him. He closed his eyes, slanted his head, and ran his tongue along her lip. She moaned and opened to him, her own tongue coming out to tangle with his, the taste of her divine.

Her passion overwhelmed him as she stroked her tongue along his and seized control of the kiss. She leaned into him, the length of her soft body pressing against his, and he burned wherever she touched. The feel of her short nails digging into his chest through his shirt, as though she wanted to keep him close to her, thrilled him and enticed him into taking things further. He captured her cheek again with his palm, his fingertips grazing her ear, and she sighed into his mouth, her lips sweeping over his. He slid his hand around to grasp the nape of her neck and deepened the kiss, reclaiming control as he wrapped his other arm around her waist, bringing her into his embrace. She belonged there. His salvation.

She caught him off guard when she broke away and slapped him hard across the cheek. The entire side of his head buzzed with it, his ear ringing, and it drove the lustful haze from his mind.

By the time he had figured out what was happening, Elise had buttoned her shirt and grabbed her jacket.

She turned on him.

“You think you can just make love to me… possess me like any other woman… well you can’t!” She looked as though she was going to hit him again and then stepped back, towards the door. A strange mixture of pain and anger shone in her blue eyes. “I don’t know who you think you are, Aleksandr Nemov, or who you think I am… but I don’t want a man like you. Not now, not ever, and that is never going to change.”

He flinched when the door slammed and then touched his cheek.

It hadn’t quite gone how he’d thought it would.

He stared at the door, her words ringing in his ears.

It had been going well, and it wasn’t as though he had forced himself on her. She had invited the kiss and had responded to him. She had liked it and wanted it.

His cheek tingled, a reminder that she hadn’t liked something.

Aleksandr ran a hand down his face and flopped backwards over the arm of the couch, laying with his legs hooked over the edge. He rested his right forearm across his eyes and let his left arm dangle over the edge of the couch seat so his fingers grazed the rug in front of the fireplace. It had been going well until she had hit him and given him a piece of her mind.

It was more like the Elise he knew, but he had wanted her to remain kissing him then, showing him that she wanted him too. He had no doubt that she was attracted to him now, but her words had left him with something to think about.

A lesser man would deny the truth in them, would say that he didn’t want to possess her or didn’t think that he could just make love to her. He did though, on both counts. He was hunting her and, for a brief moment, had tangled with his prey, and it had been heavenly.

He sighed and considered what to do next. She would be angry with him for a while and he needed to give her some space if he wasn’t going to drive her away completely.

Now that he’d tasted her, he wanted more, and would stop at nothing to get it.

Did you enjoy today’s hot sensual snippet?

 

Caris Roane is also posting a Sensual Saturday snippet from one of her paranormal romance books, so be sure to check out her blog and read it! http://carisroane.com/?p=2947

 

Heart of Darkness
Felicity Heaton
A vampire prince on a four hundred year old mission to avenge his murdered sister…

Aleksandr Nemov won’t stop until the last of the vampire hunter’s progeny is wiped from the Earth. Each kill has stolen a piece of his humanity, pushing him towards the black abyss all vampires hold within their hearts. Now he is teetering on the edge, close to devolving into a beast, and time is running out as he tracks the last hunter to Prague. There he finds a beautiful woman who could be his one chance for salvation, but is it already too late for him?

A vampire guard who will do whatever it takes to protect those she loves…

Elise is dedicated to her duty. It’s the only thing she has left. All that changes when she meets Aleksandr in Prague and her master grants him permission to stay at her bloodline’s mansion. She knows all about Aleksandr but none of it prepares her for how she feels when the legendary prince’s hunt becomes one for her heart. Elise battles him with all of her strength but can she stop herself from falling for the handsome hunter? When he reveals the depth of the corruption in his soul, will she have the strength to face the pain in her past and do whatever it takes to save him?

Available in e-book from:
Author’s website

Amazon Kindle | Amazon Kindle UK | Amazon Kindle Germany | Amazon Kindle France

Apple iBookstore USA | Apple iBookstore UK | Apple iBookstore Australia | Apple iBookstore Canada

Barnes and Noble | Kobo Books | Smashwords | All Romance eBooks

 

Available in paperback from:
Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Barnes and Noble

 

 

About Felicity Heaton

I'm a NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY best-selling author writing passionate paranormal romance books as Felicity Heaton and F E Heaton. In my books I create detailed worlds, twisting plots, mind-blowing action, intense emotion and heart-stopping romances with leading men that vary from dark deadly vampires to sexy shape-shifters and wicked werewolves, to sinful angels and hot demons! If you're a fan of paranormal romance authors Lara Adrian, Larissa Ione, Kresley Cole, J R Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gena Showalter and Christine Feehan then you will love my books too.

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