Lust Immortal (Immortal Series Book 1) Read online

  Lust Immortal

  Carrie Kelly

  Copyright 2014 by Carrie Kelly

  Published by Carrie Kelly

  Cover Art:

  © Can Stock Photo Inc. /konradbak

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter One

  “Isabel!”

  She’d hardly had the chance to clean the dirt and sweat from her skin when she heard the familiar call. Rising from the water, Isabel grabbed her thin linen towel and dried off as quickly as possible before pulling on her chemise and robe. She didn’t have time to tie up her long, chestnut colored hair, so she left it hanging down her back, the wetness soaking through the material and clinging to her skin.

  “Master wants you,” Tabby said, a lit candle in her hand as she peaked in the room.

  “Have the rest of the bath,” Isabel said and hurried out. Her slippers slapped against the flagstone floors of the mansion. When she reached the door to the sitting room, she took a deep breath and stepped inside.

  The fire in the hearth provided the only light in the room, throwing shadows over everything. Master Charles and Master William both lounged in leather chairs. While Master William’s navy blue suit and cravat were both immaculate, Master Charles had untied his so it hung loose around his neck. Both men had the perfect bone structure and smooth, pale skin of their kind, although Charles had plain brown hair while William’s shone as black as a night without stars. Charles, she knew, was hungry as he eyed her stepping into the room. William’s eyes, green as an emerald, gave nothing away. They never had- not in the ten years she’d known him.

  “How may I help my Masters?” she asked and curtsied. Isabel knew what Charles wanted, but part of being a good servant involved asking.

  A smile twisted Charles’ perfect mouth. “I’m famished, but I believe my dear brother also has something to speak to you about.”

  William stared at the fire, not raising his eyes to hers.

  Isabel stepped closer, and her heart pounded in her chest. In all the years she’d known him, William hadn’t ever touched her- not once, even though his hunger led him to other servants in the house. To him she was simply an indentured servant working until she paid off her debt. They’d rescued her from a life of misery on the streets of London as a girl and taken her all the way to the New World, asking only for her service in return.

  “I wish to discuss that matter in private,” William said, annoyance coming through in his rich voice.

  Charles shrugged. “I’ll just have a sip before I leave,” he said and pulled Isabel on his lap with startling speed.

  She braced herself for the bite, the sudden pierce of the fangs entering her neck and drawing out her blood. Charles hands wrapped around Isabel’s waist, gripping onto the flat of her stomach and traveling up toward her adequate breasts.

  “No corset?” Charles whispered as his hands cupped her bosoms.

  Isabel bit her lip to keep from moaning. If she closed her eyes she could pretend the strong hands holding her belonged to William and not Charles, but at the moment she didn’t want to look away from the devastatingly handsome man in front of her- even if she was in such a shameful position.

  “You know how the council feels about such relationships,” William said, his voice neutral, but his eyes narrowed into dangerous slits.

  “Do you think I give a damn what the council thinks?”

  “If you like your life the way it is you would,” William said and sighed.

  Charles snorted and his soft lips pressed into the delicate skin on Isabel’s neck. “She smells divine. I can’t believe you’ve never even tasted her, dear brother.”

  William took a deep breath and brought his eyes to Isabel’s for the first time since she’d entered the room. She met his gaze, the intensity of his stare making the butterflies flutter in her stomach and the longing for him burned across her skin. Why did he avoid her? When she was a girl he’d been kind but always distant. Always just out of reach. Now that she’d grown and he’d stayed the same, like his kind was prone to do, she wondered what she’d done wrong to incite such disinterest.

  Slowly, Charles fangs sunk into her neck, and Isabel gasped as they entered her flesh. The bite had a painful twinge but only just. Once he started sucking the sensations evened out and heat pooled between her thighs. The beating of her heart sped up and her breathing increased to ragged gasps with each draw of blood from her body.

  “Enough!” William shouted and stood.

  Charles chuckled as he pulled out his fangs and licked at the tiny puncture wounds. “I didn’t take much.”

  “Get out. I need her sensible.”

  “Whatever you say, dear brother,” Charles said got up after lifting Isabel from his lap. “I do hope Tabitha’s still awake.”

  Once Charles shut the door and his footsteps faded deeper into the house, William handed Isabel a handkerchief from his pocket. Reaching out, she took it from him, hoping one of his long fingers would brush against hers, but he withdrew them too quickly.

  “Sit down,” he said.

  “Master?”

  “I said sit down, Isabel.”

  She lifted the handkerchief to her neck, although she knew the marks were too small to bleed much, and sat on the edge of the chair. Sitting back felt wrong.

  “Did we interrupt you?” he asked as his eyes traveled over her damp, unkempt state.

  The heat rose to Isabel’s cheeks and she hoped the dim light of the fire would conceal her blush. “I was in the bath.”

  “Well, I hope you forgive the disturbance.”

  “Of course, Master,” Isabel said and shifted in her seat. Her hair still clung to her back and she felt a mess sitting across from William in his fine eveningwear.

  “Do you know why I wished to speak with you?” he asked, his eyes burning into hers.

  Isabel’s breath caught in her throat as she nodded. She’d counted down the days, crossed them off her little hand drawn calendar for years. At first she couldn’t wait until the far off time when she’d be free. Now that the prospect loomed in front of her, she wasn’t sure what to do with it. Yes, she could pursue her dreams, but she’d also be apart from William. Not that he probably cared about the latter. She was young and pretty. Perhaps she’d find a husband and build a modest home with him. That would be acceptable.

  He kept his eyes on the fire. The shadows danced across his straight nose and high cheekbones, making him look more dangerous than beautiful. “Your servitude will be up in a week’s time. As the contract states, we will provide you with a tidy sum, I believe we agreed on twenty pounds but we’ll have to give you pieces of eight instead. Does that sound fair?”

  The thought of twenty silver coins, more money than Isabel had ever seen, made her eyes widen. “That much?”

  “Your service these past ten years has been worth it,” William said, and the shadow of a smile spread across his lips.

  With that much money she’d be able to find room and board with no problem. She could even travel to a different city, like New York or Boston, and start her new life. “Thank you.”

  William nodded and cleared his throat. “What do you plan to do with your freedom?”

  Isabel looked at her small, slender hands. She was a good seamstress- she’d even made the suit William wore at the moment. Perhaps she could do something along those lines. “Work in a dress shop, perhaps.”

  “In Philadelphia?” he asked and looked at her. A flicker of sadness crossed his eyes.

  “If I can find work.”

  William nodded and looked
away suddenly, taking a deep breath. “How does your neck feel?”

  Isabel touched it. The familiar soreness spread from the wound, but it would be gone by morning. “It’s fine, Master.”

  William’s hands dug into the chair’s smooth leather and set his jaw. “You can also stay on as a servant in our care, if you desire. You’ll no longer be indentured, Isabel, so you’ll receive a salary and more freedom than you now know- such as the ability to marry, if you choose.”

  The offer took her off guard, and she stared at him for a long time before she spoke. She could stay and serve him, the man she’d longed after for years- or she could go out on her own and find a new life. The choice seemed so obvious, so why did it feel like it wasn’t? No matter how much she wanted William, he had no desire for her. That much was clear. Leaving him would hurt at first, but she’d be able to meet someone new. A man who cared about her like he never had. Perhaps she could even be happy.

  “I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Master.”

  William sat still for a long moment before turning to look at her. “Why not? Have we not accommodated you? Been kind to you? Most of my brethren are not so.”

  Isabel stared at him, the gentle curve of his ears, the way his dark hair came loose from the ribbon holding it back, and sighed. “Yes. Both you and Master Charles have been kind. But I’m not sure I can find happiness here.”

  William moved back, as if he’d been physically struck. “You’ve been unhappy?”

  Tears filled her eyes unbidden. She hadn’t realized until she spoke the words aloud how lonely she’d been. Yes, she had Tabby and John the stable hand, but she didn’t have love. She hadn’t had love since the sickness claimed both her mother and father. And although her heart filled with passion for him- William didn’t believe humans and vampires should intermingle. He’d said so himself that very evening.

  “Isabel,” William said, his voice softening like it hadn’t in years.

  Wiping away the tears, she looked at him. “No. I’ve been alone for the past ten years. I have no companionship and no love, Master, although that’s all I want. I- I’m not sure why you dislike me so. Have I ever wronged you? Is my work unacceptable?”

  “Of course not!”

  Isabel stood, her slender frame trembling as the words she’d bottled up for years tumbled out of her mouth. “As I child I idolized you, and as I grew into a woman I wished you would notice me, but you never have. Do you realize you’ve never once touched me? Not even on my hand? I’m your servant, yet you’ve never once tried to drink of my blood! Tabby and Sarah and all the girls that came and went must have satisfied you in a way I never could.”

  William looked at the fire again, his skin taut against his bones and paler than moonlight. “I have good reasons.”

  Isabel stood her ground and went on. Caution was for girls, and she was a woman. “Reasons enough to let your friends feast on me as they see fit while you watch on? I would rather die than have Mr. Moorish touch me again. I would rather die than watch you drink from other woman, wrap your arms around them in an embrace I’ll never have. If you want me to stay, you’ve given me no reason!”

  William said nothing, and the silence stretched between them broken only by the crackling of the fire. Tears fell down Isabel’s cheeks, but she didn’t bother to wipe them away. Absently, she wondered if she’d get lashed for speaking out. Servants in other households had.

  “Is that all you have to say?” William finally asked.

  The words pierced Isabel’s heart like a knife, but they also gave her a new resolve. She stepped in front of him, the heat of the fire warming her back, and bent down.

  “Isabel, what are you doing?” William breathed, his green eyes wide and almost fearful.

  Strange. He never seemed to be afraid of anything. She took his hand and brought it to her cheek. “I wish you loved me the way I love you.”

  William’s fingers trembled as they made contact with the smoothness of her skin, the dampness of her fresh tears, but he didn’t move away.

  Slowly, she let him go and turned to leave, but his hand gripped on to her wrist. Her heart sped up as his fingers dug into her flesh. Without a word, he stood up and pressed his body against her back- his coolness seeping warmth from her. Isabel didn’t dare breath for fear he might stop- might step away and never touch her again.

  Without a word, he wrapped his hands around her waist and untied the robe, pulling it down over her shoulders and letting it fall into a lifeless heap on the floor. Underneath the sheer cotton of the chemise, she trembled, knowing he could full well make out the outline of her naked body beneath it.

  “Are you scared of me, Isabel?” he asked, his breath brushing her ear.

  “No,” she whispered.

  “Perhaps you should be.”

  He ran his cool fingers over her shoulders and down the front of her chemise, rubbing his fingers over the pink nipples until they stood erect in his hands. “You respond to my touch so well.”

  “Yes,” she whispered, and leaned back into him.

  His lips met the undamaged side of her neck and spread into a slow smile.

  Each touch, each caress left Isabel wanting more. Her mind fogged with a mixture of disbelief and passion as his hands explored her. They traveled out of her chemise and over the flimsy material to grip her small waist and stroke the roundness of her hips. Heat rushed between her legs as her beasts heaved. The cotton scraped against her flesh, guided by his knowing hands. The chill of his touch left her skin burning as his fingers trailed away.

  Suddenly, he spun her around to face him and the absence of his body pressed against hers left Isabel disoriented for a moment. Had he decided to stop? No, his eyes trailed from the flush of pink on her nipples to the dark mound between her legs with a look of hunger she’d never seen before. In the dim light, his eyes seemed to glow.

  Leaning forward, she untied his cravat with ease and her fingers fumbled with the buttons on his shirt as he threw off his waistcoat and unlaced his britches. She knew it took him a good twenty minutes to get dressed, and was amazed at how quickly the layers of fine silk and cotton came off. Standing in nothing but his thin white undergarments, William eyed her like a cat would a mouse, and for the first time Isabel felt exposed. Should she be frightened? He could kill her, and he wouldn’t be punished for it. But she knew him. She knew he wouldn’t let himself go that far.

  His pale chest shone in the dim light like that of an alabaster statue perfectly carved, and the symbol of his pleasure stood at rapt attention. As he stepped up to her, Isabel’s breath caught in her throat. She’d saved herself for this moment, although she never dreamed it would actually come true.

  William grabbed her roughly and pressed his lips to hers, his mouth chilling hers as she opened it for him. Together, their tongues and lips found a perfect rhyme, and she moaned into him, gripping onto the smooth flesh of his back. She wasn’t sure how they ended up on the floor, the warmth of the hearthstones pressing into her skin and making her feel feverish. William’s body hovered over hers, his hands pushing up the chemise to reveal her naked form. His lips left a soft trail of kisses down her chest, taking extra time to suckle at each nipple before moving lower.

  Isabel’s world narrowed to the brisk touch of William’s fingers and lips as they traversed down her body. She wanted more of him, the length of him to fill her up like no man ever had, but at the same moment she didn’t want it to end. Didn’t want his lips to ever stop kissing her, his hands to ever stop exploring her form.

  Pushing her legs open, William’s fingers probed into the wetness between them, and Isabel moaned as a new world of pleasure opened up to her. The tingling delight it sent through her body seemed to travel to her very soul, making her ache for more.

  “Have you ever been touched like this?” William asked as his fingers tickled the velvety lips of her crevice.

  “No,” Isabel breathed, and stared at his impossibly handsome face as it softened for t
he first time since she’d touched him.

  Lowering his face between her thighs, Isabel gasped as the wet tip of his tongue traveled over the most sensitive of her flesh. She gasped as each lick quivered over her and moved her hips in time with his talented tongue. Suddenly, the long coolness of his finger pressed into her depths and she moaned even louder as he eased it in and out in a steady rhythm with her hips. Each pleasure built upon each other until she was sure she could feel no more.

  Then, as suddenly as he started, William backed up and slipped his finger out, licking his lips as he moved over her panting form. “Look at you,” he purred into her neck as he pinned her narrow wrists above her head.

  “William,” she whispered, her voice little more than a breath.

  “Yes, Isabel,” he said as he lowered his face into her neck.

  She wasn’t sure what entered her first, as the confusion of teeth and manhood melted together. The familiar pinch of pain pricked her neck just as his length found its way inside, her warmth pulsing around his sizable hardness. He didn’t move for a moment, and Isabel’s whole body trembled in anticipation for him to do something as she relaxed around his size.

  Slowly, he pulled out and eased it back in, his teeth still buried in her neck. Isabel gasped, partly out of pain and partly because the pain ebbed away into an aching pleasure she’d never experienced. He throbbed inside of her. The draw of blood filled the desperate need that pooled in Isabel’s groin, and she moved her hips in time with each thrust as achingly slow as the sustenance he drew from her body.

  When he pulled back from her neck, the paleness of his flesh lessened and his skin suddenly held the same scorching heat as her own. Leaning forward, Isabel caught his full lips on hers, the coppery taste of her own blood exciting her taste buds as their tongues mingled together. William’s fingers trailed off her wrists, and she wrapped her arms around his neck as he lifted her back from the heat of the hearthstones.

  Her whole life narrowed to that one moment, the only moment she’d ever been blissfully happy. The thundering friction inside her grew with each plunge, and William’s eyes met hers, the green depths shining in the dim light as the pool of her pleasure overflowed. Her body trembled as William’s seed flooded her.