by Amie Gibbons
The garage led into a mudroom with a washer and dryer, just like in my townhouse.
Bigger, but same idea.
Clothes hung on a rack in front of the machines, and detergent, fabric softener and dryer sheets sat on top of the dryer.
It was so normal.
“How is it possible I’ve never been to your place?” I asked. “We’ve been dating a month.”
He shrugged. “Usually it was easier for me to go to yours after you were off work and then leave when I needed to. But now that the club’s open again, and I’m betting you’ll be there more, I figured it was time.”
I smiled and held out my hand. “Tour?”
“Of course.”
He flipped on the lights and led me into a giant kitchen.
“Wow,” I said. “I don’t even cook and I want this kitchen.”
It was gorgeous.
The whole area was an open floorplan bigger than some houses. The kitchen was all cherry woods with white marble counters. It had a wide separating counter with bar stools with dark green cushions. They matched the chairs at the long table in the dining area next to the kitchen. And a giant desk was set up in the back corner with a red accent wall, tucked between the outer counter and the dining area.
The living room had thick cream colored carpet and an overstuffed red couch framed by royal blue recliners facing a giant flat screen and entertainment center. There was a stone fireplace in the corner next to the sliding door that opened onto what looked like a wraparound porch.
“Ariana?” Quil asked.
“I’m just takin’ it all it. It’s so pretty! But kinda bare, like where’s the knickknacks and books and DVDs and stuff?”
He shrugged. “I don’t like a lot of stuff. I read everything electronically, and have most movies on my computer.”
“You don’t like a lot of stuff? My place must drive you nuts.”
He grinned and pulled on my hand. “Nah, being a messy packrat suits you. But, to continue the tour, you haven’t even seen the bedroom yet.”
I stuck my tongue out at him. “I’ve seen this movie. It always ends the same way.”
He chuckled and kissed me.
We walked down the hall, past a few closed doors and into the master bedroom. It wasn’t just a bedroom. It was a suite.
The carpet was soft and silky underfoot and I was willing to bet good money it was a Persian. The king bed against a wall had an elaborate green and black comforter and was framed by dark wood nightstands and there was a dresser on the other side of the room.
It looked far too proper and nice for anyone to live in, let alone have sex in, but I’m kinda a slob.
“Do you have turndown service or something?” I asked, settin’ my purse down on the dresser.
Quil’s lips quivered for a moment before he laughed that deep belly laugh of his.
“No, I’m just not a cluttered, never bother to make my bed, mess like some people.”
“I like it.” I smiled at him. “How many people know how to get in here?”
“You make nine.”
I blinked. So he wasn’t kiddin’ when he said there were only a few.
“You trust me.” I giggled, running my hand down his chest and inching under his shirt to play with the line of blond hair on his abs.
“I’m not so sure that’s very smart,” I teased, twining those short hairs around my fingers. “After all,” I said, walking him backwards towards the bed, “I still owe you for surprising me in the middle of the night last month.”
“So you are promising vengeance?” he asked, voice that low pitch only sex can cause.
“Yup.” I nodded, pushing him down on the bed.
“I’ll just have to watch my back then,” he said with wide eyes. “But for now.” He grabbed me around the waist and tossed me on the comforter before you could say, “Ambush a vamp.”
He stripped faster than I liked since I enjoyed the show of him strippin’, but he’d been ready to go for a while so I couldn’t exactly say I blamed him.
“I’m naked, so you should be naked,” he said.
“Don’t rip it. I just got this dress.” I pointed a stern finger.
“Oh fine.” He sighed as though it was a huge burden to undo a zipper.
He trailed a long finger over the top of my breasts as his other hand pulled my zipper down, taking its dear sweet time about it.
I shrugged my arms out of the sleeves.
Quil lifted the dress off over my head in one smooth motion.
He paused, staring at the lacy white bustier and matching panties.
“You were planning this.” He chuckled as he dropped the dress to the floor.
“I just wanted to look nice,” I said, trying not to laugh.
“A woman does not wear matching lace undergarments unless she’s planning on someone seeing them,” Quil said, playin’ with the edge of the lace.
I wanted to say something sassy back, but he unclasped the front and the bustier fell to the bed, leaving me bare but panties, holster and heels.
He slid the holster off, kissing my thigh. He took the panties off and dropped them.
I sat up, reachin’ for the strap on my heel and he shook his head, pushing me back by my shoulders. “Leave them on.”
He lowered his face to my breast and lay a gentle kiss on it, then the other, and ran his fingers up my sides. He drew one breast in, sucking it hard, making me moan for him.
I let my hands fall down the strip of hair and stroked down it till I reached him.
I squeezed down his shaft, makin’ his eyes close.
He swiveled his hips and pinned my other hand to the bed. I moved him towards my opening and helped him slide in.
We moved together, going slow as either of us could bear, and he bent to kiss me, not letting me up for air for more than a second or two before his lips found mine again. Sweat broke out on my thighs, making them slick where they pressed into his hips.
He left my body and I reached for him, but he was too fast, down between my legs before I even moved my arm. He kissed my thigh, sucking on it, and I knew what he wanted.
I nodded.
His fangs slid out as he pushed two fingers inside me. I cried out. Couldn’t do much else as he started movin’ them. He kissed my thigh in rhythm with his fingers before fixing his mouth on and sucking, the hard fangs pressing against my skin.
As I hovered on the edge of that golden abyss, he moved his fingers faster and stretched his thumb up to play with my front.
He flicked fast and finally bit down.
Pleasure spilled right after the first prick of pain, sendin’ me over the edge.
I screamed as the orgasm took me, bucking up into him as I finally crested and slumped down.
He was inside me again before the first aftershock was even done and grabbed the headboard.
I stretched my legs out and grabbed my ankles.
He didn’t go slow this time. He pounded me, body losin’ all rhythm as he went faster and faster.
I curled up and bit his chest hard as I could.
Quil shouted, spasming inside me and thrustin’ in time to his moans a few times before falling on top of me.
He stayed inside me and I squeezed him, making him shudder again.
“I love the feeling of being inside you,” he whispered.
“Me too,” I said, inching my hand between us.
He pulled back and I shook my head.
“Stay there,” I said, looping my leg over his back.
I pressed into myself, rubbing fast and squeezing him hard.
I came fast and it made me toss my head back as I rode it out on my hand.
Quil slid out of me. “Can you go again?” he asked.
I nodded.
“Do that with me in your mouth?”
I grinned and grabbed him, pullin’ him gently. He inched up on his knees, grabbed the top of the headboard and looked down at me. I pushed up on the pillows and slid him into my mouth wit
h one hand.
His pushed back foreskin made more of a bump over the top than most guys had so I angled my head down, making sure to keep the teeth outta the way.
He made small, reckless noises in the back of his throat as he thrust and I grabbed the bottom of his shaft, pumping with him.
I put my hand down and played with myself as he went.
I came again, swollen enough that my body gave out orgasms with little prompting.
I grabbed him with both hands and pulled him out, lifting him up so I could get to the sensitive bits underneath.
I sucked one side, the ball popping into my mouth and Quil moaned. You had to be careful doin’ this. Some guys loved it, but for a lot, it was just painful to have their balls played with so roughly.
Quil was the first.
He pulsed against me as I went to the other side, sucking hard to get that one down and popping into my mouth.
I opened wide as I could, bringing them both in, but mouth not big enough to actually suck, so I just played with them with my lips before sucking one side again.
He panted and moaned till I finally pulled back and put him back in my mouth.
I took over movement, pushin’ my head back and forth to move my mouth on him as I pumped him at his base.
Hoarse sounds escaped from him as he pulsated his pelvis with me, thrusting him deeper into my mouth than I was sure I could take.
I leaned back against the headboard, letting him take over again. He thrust down my throat and I pumped his base faster, playing with his balls.
Quil screamed something unintelligible, and clutched the headboard so tightly I thought it might break as he spilled inside me, far enough back that it went down my throat without much need to move my mouth to swallow.
He slid out and lay next to me, pulling me over to lay my head on his chest.
My heart thundered through my body, goin’ even faster than its above normal rate, and I giggled.
“What?” Quil asked, voice barely loud enough to hear.
“I was just wondering if sex with you is good enough to give me a heart attack one of these days,” I said.
“That almost sounds like a challenge, sweets,” Quil said.
“Maybe it is.”
I stroked his chest and stomach, whatever I could reach.
“I love you,” he said.
Wow.
I sat up, staring down at him. “I think I said it first, but I was kinda high at the time. I love you too.”
I undid my shoes and kicked them off.
Way too uncomfortable to have on when it was time to sleep.
He held his arms out and I lay in them again, breathin’ in the salty spice of his sweat.
“You done for the night?” he asked. “Or would you like to go back to the party?”
“Right now, I just want to sleep. I haven’t been sleeping well.”
“Then sleep, sweets,” he whispered, pulling the covers over us.
“You have… go back?” I asked, tongue heavy.
“I cleared the evening for Len’s party,” he said, “so no work. At least not for a few hours.”
“Weird hours,” I said.
That was a thing.
He lived at night and I lived during the day.
I had a job that didn’t compromise on hours, so I had to be in the office at nine, and Quil had to do most of his business at night since that was when everyone else was up.
Our schedules didn’t mesh.
But still, not so different than most couples that worked. They had evenings together and were workin’ during the day and sleepin’ at night. That was pretty much us, but we worked and slept at opposite times.
But sleeping in the same bed, that was a big part of intimacy.
And Quil was gonna be twenty-six forever. I wasn’t.
Of course, there always was the obvious.
He could turn me.
But how would I do my job?
I snuggled into Quil like a pillow, took in his scent, and fell asleep.
Chapter eight
“That’s annoying,” came through a gold fog. “… trying to talk.”
Not Truck. Couldn’t be cuz of the dreamcatcher.
“I don’t understand.” Quil’s voice flowed around the office, warm and thick as velvet.
I sighed. I loved his voice.
The golden tinge of the world was warm and beautiful, bathing the office in sunlight. Obviously pretend sunlight since Quil was standin’ next to my desk.
That only made sense.
“Track him,” Grant said, voice low and cold, a vacuum taking all the warmth outta the place.
He handed Quil a piece of cloth and the world sunk deeper into the hard gold.
“Can’t Ariana?” Quil asked.
The world closed off into a shell of gold as Grant answered, “No,” in a tone that made me shiver.
The gold peeled back, revealing The Room.
Elizabeth lay on the ground, eyes cold and hard as she stared straight at me.
“Where the hell are you?” she growled in Grant’s voice. “Save them.”
“You mean the ones he already killed?” I asked.
“No, too late for them, the future ones.” That high voice wasn’t Grant’s.
I pushed off the floor, looking around. It looked like it did when Melissa was here, decorated and cozy… for a hole in the ground.
Melissa wasn’t here though.
He’d killed her too soon.
Numbers ran through the room, too fast to grasp.
They flashed green and jumped into a screen on the wall.
Blood poured out of the screen, wisps of sparkly gray and periwinkle coming out of the sticky red waterfall only to be sucked into the screen.
Interesting.
The walls closed in, crunching the furniture into dust and I grabbed the trapdoor, pulling the stairs down before the walls could get any ideas about keeping me.
I walked upstairs into Quil’s bedroom and the trapdoor was nice enough to disappear so it didn’t ruin the décor.
She was lying alone in the bed on her back, one arm stretched out like she was looking for something.
Or someone.
The wall pulsated, the swirling madness bubbling up.
“Stop that,” the girl said without moving. “Breaking in’s just rude of y’all.”
She giggled in her sleep.
“Pretty unicorns,” she said, reaching towards the wall.
“No!” I shouted, slamming a wall over the cracking one. “Silly little thing. Don’t you know better by now?”
I took a calming breath. Wait, why was that smell familiar?
I walked to the nightstand and grabbed the girl’s purse, dumping it out.
The dreamcatcher glowed so bright I had to close my eyes.
My eyes popped open and I sat up in bed.
The gentle morning light peeked around the thick curtains and cast a glow over the dark figure at the dresser. I couldn’t place his features. He was naked as me and glowed with an inner light.
“You know, if you let me in, we could have a lot of fun,” he said.
“How do I know you?” I asked, holding the sheet up against my chest as I sat up.
“We’d never met before Thursday,” Collins said, walking towards me. “I’d remember you.”
“What was that wall? Was I seeing through your eyes? Is it a vision?”
He tossed his head back, laughing. “You tell me. It’s your head.”
“No, that was you. You stopped it. You know what it is.”
He sat on the edge of the bed and I stared at him. I could see him clear as my own hands, but his features wouldn’t stay, the memory slippin’ out of my head just as I fixed on one.
He grabbed the sheet, yanking it away too fast for me to stop him.
I folded my arms over my front and he smirked.
“Modesty? Now why does it feel like you’re just faking it?” he asked.
I didn�
�t answer him.
“Where are we?” he asked. “This has a different energy than before.”
“My boyfriend’s place. How are you in here if the dreamcatcher’s workin’?”
“It’s keeping me from invading your brain. I can get around it to talk to you in this half state, but I can’t touch you, not like I could if you’d let me in.”
The blood drained from my face and I leaned back, lightheaded. “Does that mean Truck can get around it?”
“Oh no.” He waved like he was brushing my worry from the air. “An amateur like that doesn’t stand a chance. And it is working. I know a way around it, but most wouldn’t have the power to do this.”
“Am I still projectin’?” I asked.
“No, you’ve stopped.”
“Do you know why?”
“Only you can answer that. We should meet in real life. I have a proposition for you. When are you available?”
“I have a boyfriend.”
“Not that kind. Though, I do love mixing business with pleasure, and you’d be one fuckable employee. You’ve got a great rack.”
I slapped his arm and my hand went right through him. “I don’t like that kind of language. And I have a job, thank you very much.”
If he cared my breasts were naked now, he didn’t show it.
“What, a cop?” he asked.
“FBI, actually.”
“Same thing. You’re wasting your talents.”
“No, I’m not. I use my gift to find and put away bad guys. And sometimes they have powers. The man who was here last night, he was real,” I said.
“I knew that.”
“I didn’t! I thought it was all just a dream. He said he needed the signal boost,” I said. “Did he use it for anything?”
“What do you think?”
“Do you know where it went?”
“If I did, why would I tell you?” he asked.
“Because he’s a bad guy.”
He chuckled and leaned in, eyes sharp as they bore into mine.
“So am I.”
I opened my eyes and sat up in bed, the room visible in the light coming through the curtains, much brighter than in the dream.
I pinched myself hard, flinching with the pain.
Okay, this was real. Good.
Quil was gone and I looked around as I stretched my arms and legs.
I hurt!