Fractured (Vampire Awakenings, Book 6)

by Brenda K. Davies

  David closed the door to the small building, shutting out the wind though the walls still rattled. The delight on Mia’s face kept him fixated on her as she turned from one telescope to the next before going back to the first. She started to touch it before pulling her hands back. She clasped her hands against her chest and bounced on her toes as she tilted her head one way and then the other.

  Not since Hope was given her puppy, Dawg, had he seen anyone so thrilled, yet so uncertain of something before. Mia had always seemed to be an old soul to him, one who had seen and endured far too much pain and sadness in her short life. Now her joy lit her from the inside out, giving back to her the aura of youth that had been so cruelly ripped away.

  Something inside David began to shift and change as he watched Mia. Something new grew within him, making him stronger and better, for her. He cared for her, admired her strength and determination to piece herself back together after everything she’d been through over the years, but he realized he was also in love with her.

  His palms flattened against the door behind him as the realization rocked him back on his heels. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from her when she bent to examine the telescope more closely, but still didn’t touch it.

  “It’s yours, you know,” he said around the lump in his throat. “You can touch it.”

  Her head shot around to him, her mouth parted as she shook her head in fierce denial. “It’s too expensive. I can’t accept this.”

  “Too late. It’s been paid for, and I don’t know how to use it, so someone has to. Otherwise, it will sit here and rot.”

  Mia gawked at him as she tried to process his words. “It’s almost a ten-thousand-dollar telescope.”

  “I know.”

  “You can’t let that rot.”

  He laughed. “I can. You can’t.”

  “David—”

  “It’s yours, Mia. So are the other two, and if you would prefer a different one, I’ll buy that one for you too.”

  “No!” she blurted, her fingers fell to caress the telescope before her in a loving manner. “No. This one… this one has been a dream for a while,” she murmured as she turned back to it.

  “A dream, huh?”

  “Oh yes.” She walked around the telescope, examining every inch of it, but she didn’t take her fingers away from it again. “A very big dream.”

  David watched as she knelt next to it before moving to look through the eyehole at the stars beyond. She seemed to forget he was in the room as she adjusted this gadget and then that one. He was fine with that as it gave him a chance to relish the joy he’d been able to give her. Striding over to the bed, he kept his eyes on her as he sat on the edge of the mattress and bent to untie his boots. Putting his toes against the heel of each boot, he kicked them off and removed his socks.

  “Everything is so clear. It’s almost like I can touch the moon,” she breathed. When she was done fiddling with that telescope, she shed her coat before moving onto the second one. “Damn good taste in telescopes,” she muttered.

  “And women,” he replied, but she didn’t appear to hear him.

  “It’s Mercury!” she declared. “The Big Dipper and Orion.”

  He’d come to know the names of the constellations more since she’d entered his life, but he still found himself listening in fascination as she switched to the next telescope.

  “Cassiopeia!” she cried.

  David swung his legs onto the bed and leaned against the wall of the small structure he’d worked to build with Mike, Doug, and Jack the day before, while Mia had been with Sera. It was small enough that it only took them a couple hours to assemble and secure, but he planned to get a lot of hours of enjoyment out of it until the spring.

  Sera had given him the things to decorate the room with, which had been more pillows than he ever would have put on his bed and a deep gray comforter with matching sheets. The only other thing in the room was the kerosene heater in the corner and blinds that could be lowered over the glass wall facing the ocean.

  David propped his hands behind his head. He couldn’t help but smile as Mia prattled off more names of constellations and stars. She shed her scarf, boots, and sweater as she continued to move between each telescope. Her eyes shone a bright blue against the black turtleneck she wore, and her skin glowed with vitality as she skipped back to the first telescope. He’d have spent millions of dollars to bring this kind of happiness to her over and over again.

  “The Milky Way is right there! We have to bring all of these telescopes with us when we go to see the Northern Lights. Oh, and the Southern Cross! We definitely have to see the Southern Cross! We have to see the stars from everywhere!”

  He didn’t know if she was aware that she was talking about their future, but he was. His heart beat faster, his fangs elongated, and his dick swelled with his need for her. But he didn’t interrupt her as she bounced from one telescope to the next over and over again, exclaiming at each new star or constellation she found through the eyepiece of each.

  CHAPTER 15

  The stars were fading from the sky when Mia took a deep breath and finally stepped away from the telescopes to gaze out the window. He thought she might have just become aware of the ocean sprawled out before her when she tilted her head down to gaze at the waves. David stared at her reflection in the glass as she rested her fingers against it to peer down at the water below. From their new home, she would have her sky, and he would have his sea.

  Mia turned and smiled as she took in David’s spread-out form on the bed. Her eyes were drawn to his obvious erection, and her skin prickled with anticipation of what he craved. “You could have interrupted me,” she told him.

  “Your happiness is more important than mine.”

  Tears burned her throat and eyes as his words sank in. “I can’t ever thank you enough for this.”

  “Watching you enjoy them was more than thanks enough.”

  “Oh really?” she inquired mischievously. “You wouldn’t like something a little more satisfying than that?”

  “And what do you have in mind?”

  She prowled toward him, her hips swaying with each step she took. The past week had put more weight on her. The undernourished vampire they’d pulled from the warehouse had vanished, and in her place was a woman with rounded hips and breasts that would fit his hand perfectly when he was able to cup them.

  Her hands slid down the front of her turtleneck to grip the edge of it. With deliberate, sensuous movements, she slid it up her belly to her breasts before pulling it over her head. His breath sucked in when she revealed the lacy red bra that exposed more of her breasts than it covered. The barely there bra pushed her breasts invitingly high and revealed the hardened nubs of her nipples. He clearly recalled the bra from her purchases at the lingerie store, but he’d yet to see it on her.

  Slowly her hands slid down to her jeans. She undid the button and slipped them down her hips, her thighs, and then her calves before stepping out of them and kicking them aside. The matching red underwear had silken straps crisscrossing over her hips and around to her taut ass.

  His hands clenched behind his head as she strolled toward him, her hands sliding up to cup her breasts before her thumbs rubbed over her nipples. He growled when she knelt on the bed beside him and swung her leg over so she straddled both of his.

  “You like it when I touch myself in front of you, don’t you?” she inquired as she moved up his body so her breasts were mere inches away from him.

  “I do.”

  “Hmm,” she murmured as she gripped the edge of his sweater and tugged it up over his abs. He lifted his arms above his head so she could pull it off and toss it aside. Mia drank in the sight of his bare chest and chiseled abs. She’d come to know every detailed inch of him, yet each time she saw him, he took her breath away.

  Scooting back, she undid his button and slid his jeans down his muscular legs. The crisp blond hair on his legs tickled her fingers as she worked at undressing him. S
he tossed his jeans aside and took a minute to just gaze at his naked, masculine beauty and the proud shaft standing up from his body in eager anticipation of being buried within her.

  Slowly, her gaze came back to his. Behind his lips, she saw the outline of his extended fangs. She could feel how badly he needed her, yet he’d locked his hands behind his head again in order to keep from touching her.

  Rising to her feet, Mia slid her panties off and tossed them aside before unclasping her bra. There would be nothing between them, not tonight. She wouldn’t allow there to be. Climbing back onto the bed, she moved so she straddled his hips once more. The head of his cock rubbed against her aching center, but she didn’t take hold of him and guide him into her.

  She leaned forward until her breasts brushed his chest. His breath hissed in, and she nearly jumped out of her skin at the electrifying contact of his flesh against her sensitive nipples, but she didn’t pull away. Instead, she moved closer until they were skin to skin, from her breasts to the thighs she pressed against his legs.

  It was the most skin contact they’d ever had. His eyes searched hers as she inched closer to him until their breath intermingled. His eyes remained riveted on her. The muscles in his forearms bulged, beads of sweat dotted his forehead, and a muscle in his jaw twitched as he fought to keep from grabbing her.

  Her love for him grew as they stared at each other, his blue eyes burning into hers. Her breasts rubbed against his chest as she slid up to enclose her hands on his wrists. She gave them a tug, but he kept them locked together.

  “If I’m going to control myself, they stay where they are,” he said.

  “Don’t control yourself. I want you to touch me now.”

  His body became as still as stone beneath hers. They gazed at each other for a long minute. A minute in which every accelerated beat of his heart sounded loudly in her ears. In which she knew he did not breathe.

  “Mia?”

  “Make love to me, David,” she whispered and tugged at his wrists again.

  She felt whatever control he’d been retaining snap like an elastic band stretched too far. Bracing herself, she waited for him to pounce on her and take from her everything he’d been denying himself these past weeks. It would frighten her, but she would withstand that fear. She could do anything for him.

  He didn’t pounce though. Instead, his hands clasped hold of her cheeks, and he emitted a groan as he held her with a tenderness she’d never experienced from a man before. Especially not from a man who desired her as badly as David did.

  His eyes continued to hold hers when he bent his head and placed the gentlest of kisses against her lips. The tears she’d been holding back spilled down her cheeks as something primitive and true burst forth within her. She loved him. And that love burned hotter than the sun through her.

  “Don’t cry,” he whispered against her lips as he brushed away her tears with his thumb.

  “I can’t help it,” she choked out. “I… I love you.”

  His eyes sparkled as he gazed at her. “I love you too.”

  More tears slid free as she wrapped her arms around his neck. His hand clasped the back of her head before he claimed her mouth. His tongue slid over her lips and then slipped inside to take possession of her mouth in a kiss that claimed her as his. She mewled in pleasure and wiggled over him as she sought out his shaft. She wanted nothing more than to feel him inside of her.

  He held back from entering her while his other hand cupped one of her breasts. The sensation of his warm, strong hand kneading her flesh nearly caused her to climax right then. It had been years since she’d felt someone else’s hands on her in such a way, and her long-deprived body begged for more of his touch.

  She jerked in his grasp when his thumb rolled over her nipple before pinching it. He moved to fondle her other breast, his hips surging up so the rigid length of him rubbed teasingly over her clit, but he still didn’t sink himself into her.

  “Better than I ever dreamed,” he murmured against her mouth while his hands moved steadily lower over her body. His knuckles grazed her sides as he stroked her leisurely up and down.

  Mia moaned when his fingers slid between her thighs. She pushed her hips forward, rubbing against him as he stroked her, but didn’t penetrate. Touch had been a thing of dread for so long that she hadn’t believed it possible for someone to make her feel so courageous and aroused by it again, but David did.

  Her body begged for release from this delicious torment as he slipped a finger into her. Mia rose onto her knees when he began to move his hand back and forth within her, rubbing her clit with each deliberate thrust of his palm.

  His mouth fell to her breast at the same time he slipped another finger within her. The sensations were almost too much to bear as his fingers moved within her while his tongue laved her nipple. Her head fell back as she rode his hand.

  The scent of Mia’s arousal engulfed him, driving him to higher heights of passion, yet he couldn’t stop caressing her, tasting her. He’d been denied too long; he needed more of her flesh against him, beneath him, around him. Her wet heat enveloped him as her cries sounded in his ears.

  His control frayed when her head fell back, and her hands rested on his shoulders. “I can’t…. I have to….”

  Unable to get words out anymore, he pulled his hand away from her and flipped her over on the bed. Mia’s eyes flew open when he drove himself into her. For a second, he was completely lost to the powder blue of her eyes. Her hand flattened against his cheek as they gazed at each other before he pulled back and slid into her again.

  Her hips rose to meet his as he buried himself inside her. The weight of his body and the sensation of his skin on hers engulfed her until she couldn’t tell where he ended and she started. She was lost to him as they were joined together, and she welcomed it. Her fingers curled into his back, pulling him closer. She didn’t consider panicking at having someone else touching her so completely. Instead, she couldn’t get enough of feeling him all over.

  His muscles flexed and bunched beneath her hands. She reveled in his body moving over hers as he pushed her closer and closer to the brink. She locked her legs around his waist as she rode out the storm of his body’s possession of hers. Turning her head, she bit into his neck and welcomed the hot wash of his blood filling her mouth.

  David locked his arm around Mia’s waist and lifted her against him as he drove relentlessly into her. His fangs throbbed to feast on her, to finally know what it would be like to taste her. Unable to hold back anymore, he sank his fangs into her shoulder. Her fingers dug into his flesh, but she didn’t try to pull away from him or tell him to stop as her potent, purebred blood filled him.

  The rightness of her blood poured into his cells as her power flooded him. Against his neck, Mia cried out as her body came undone beneath his. He thrust into her again and gave himself over to the exquisite sensation of her sheath clenching around his cock. His body shuddered as his release poured into her while her blood continued to fill him. Never in his life had he tasted something as sweet or as strengthening as her.

  Mia couldn’t get enough of the emotions battering her. She was swept away by the amount of love he had for her as the pathways between their minds opened, the bond between them solidifying into something she felt she could almost reach out and touch.

  Mated. She felt it all the way to the center of her soul, to the very core of her being. She suddenly understood her parents’ intense bond. She’d always believed she understood it before, but now she truly did. She belonged to him, and he belonged to her.

  David reveled in feeling her mind as it entwined with his, and they became joined for all eternity. Her love spilled over him, warming him more than the sun on a hot July day. Leaning back, David lifted her off the bed. She kept her legs around his waist as he cradled her against him. Her tears spilled down to wet his skin, but he knew they were tears of joy as the emotion poured from her and into him.

  David lost himself to her as she mov
ed over him again.

  ***

  The sun was pouring through the glass window and creeping toward the bed when Mia lifted her head from David’s chest. She ran her fingers over his face before tracing the bridge of his nose and the bump there. “How did you get this?”

  He smiled at her as he caught her fingers and pressed a kiss against them. “When Jack and I were twelve we were walking home from school after detention. A group of high school kids started harassing us and we ended up getting into a fight with them. There were five of them and just the two of us. We both ended up with broken noses, black eyes, and a whole lot of scrapes and bruises, but we also inflicted enough damage on them that they never bothered us again.”

  She couldn’t help but chuckle over the pride in his voice and on his face. “So it was worth the hurt then?”

  “It was.”

  Turning from him, she finally took the time to examine the small building. “Whose place is this?”

  “Ours, for now,” David replied as he traced the delicate curve of her spine with his fingers. Now that he could touch her, he couldn’t get enough of feeling her silken skin and warm body.

  “Ours?”

  “Yep. It’s our new home.”

  “I’ve definitely had far worse accommodations over the years.”

  David kissed her forehead and nuzzled her hair. “Well, it’s the site of the new home I’ll build for us in the spring. Until then, we can retreat here when we want to get away from the house.”

  “Really? You plan to build us a home?”

  “Yes, with a lot of help. All of us went in on buying this land together. There’s over a hundred acres here, and I’ve claimed this piece of it for us.”

  Her eyes lit up nearly as much as they had when she’d seen the telescopes. He almost laughed out loud when he realized where her priorities were. Stars, number one; home, number two.

  “A home,” she breathed. “It’s been so long.”

  “A home. And I’m thinking we can make the wall facing the ocean all windows. Tinted of course, so we can see out, but no one can see in. I have plans to make the windows almost like mirrors where I can watch you all the time.”