I pulled her closer to me, our bodies pressed up against each other.
God, how I wanted to kiss her. I leaned in closer, shortening the space between. Our lips barely inches apart.
Chapter Three
Maya
Holy crap!
He was so close, so enticingly close, that I could barely think.
My body ached to be closer to him as I moved with the music that penetrated my senses from all angles. My brain knew there were dozens of dancing bodies surrounding us, but I couldn’t see them, so caught up in my need for Tristan. My fantasy of a similar situation popped into my mind. Funny how my fantasy didn’t prepare me for how you could want someone so much that you didn’t give a flying fuck who was around you.
Tristan’s hands moved down to my lower back, hesitating. I pressed my body against him, egging him on. When I felt his erection press against me, I gasped softly. His need for me was just as clear. He ran his hands down over my ass and pulled me in even closer.
I ran a hand through his dark, tousled hair while my other ran down his back. As our hands explored each other’s bodies, I thought he might pick me up any second. I’d probably wrap my legs around him, if the dress allowed. I had all but forgotten that we were in a public place, the dance floor for his club, actually, so enraptured by my want for him. Tristan came to his senses before I did.
He pulled back and looked in my eyes. “Damn, I want you, Maya, but—not yet.”
I slowly opened my eyes from their half-hooded state and tried to locate the part of my brain that controlled speech.
“What is it?” I asked.
“There are other matters involved.”
“Matters?” I raised an eyebrow. “Involved?”
“Come with me,” he said and grabbed my hand abruptly, leading me to the exit. Then he stopped, let go of my hand and turned back. “I mean, will you please come with me somewhere?”
One part of me scolded me not to go someplace alone with a man I didn’t know well. Another part of me, one that lacked all common sense at the moment and operated only on primal needs, nodded.
He took my hand, more gently this time, and led me out a back door of the club. “It’s hard to speak in there over the music. And what I want to talk to you about is not something you want to shout out in a loud club.”
We walked away from the warehouses and down toward the waterfront. I wondered where we were headed, but we didn’t speak as we walked hand in hand.
Tristan turned to me and grinned like a schoolboy. “I’m very glad you came with me.”
I couldn’t help but smile back, and then turned away, running my finger over my bottom lip. “Sure. Where are we going?”
“Hold on. We’re almost there.” He led us to an old cemetery enclosed by a black iron fence.
“A graveyard?” I asked with incredulity. “Why on earth are you taking me here?”
He walked over to a back corner where there was an opening in the fence and crawled through.
“I want to see something. And I want to see what you feel,” he said. “Wait here a minute.”
He walked into the middle of the cemetery and looked around him. The look on his face was difficult to read. A little sad, a little scared, and maybe a little repulsed. A troubled look returned and I was reminded of the first time I saw him, with haunted eyes on an angelic face.
After a few moments, he walked back over to me. He reached his arm out for me to climb in with him.
I hesitated. Why was he taking me into a cemetery at night and what the heck was he talking about? What I feel? What does that mean?
“What are you doing?” I asked. But I gave him my hand anyway.
I crawled through the opening, which was no easy feat considering how tight my dress was, and followed him into the graveyard.
“Shh,” he said. “I need to concentrate.”
He looked at me. He looked around me. He turned a complete 360, and then he looked all around the area surrounding me again.
“Interesting,” he said.
“What’s interesting?”
He didn’t answer me, but under his breath, he muttered, “I wonder.”
“You wonder what?” I asked.
Realizing he had spoken aloud, he looked at me. “I’m trying to figure out why it happens. What are you?”
“What am I? I’m a woman. A very confused woman right now. What else would I be?”
“No. You’re not an ordinary woman. You’re different.”
“You’re not going to give me a line that I’m special or something, are you?” I said. “Because I think after that dance, we should be well beyond pick-up lines.”
“I didn’t say special and it’s not a pick-up line. I said different.”
“Oh yeah. That’s right,” I said with a wave. “I know. We’re different from the general public. We’re freaks. We hang out in a nightclub wearing weird outfits because we fit in with the other freaks.”
“That’s not what I mean, Maya. I know why I’m different. But I don’t know why you are.”
“You’re not making sense.”
“Just follow me.”
He brought me into the middle of the old cemetery to a concrete bench for visitors. I scanned tombstones dating back to the late sixteen hundreds, carved with skulls or other objects as well as names. Most were slanted or decrepit. Who knows how much longer they would last before they disintegrated?
“Close your eyes.”
I did.
“What do you feel?”
“Utterly confused.”
“No, Maya. Focus. What do you feel?”
I took in a few deep breaths and concentrated. “I feel a little nervous. I mean it does feel kind of scary to close your eyes at night in the middle of the cemetery. And a little forbidden. As if we’re teenagers running around in the shadows. And to tell you the truth—and maybe this is easier to say because my eyes are closed and I can’t see your intense eyes—but I’m also a little turned-on.”
“This turns you on?” he asked.
I opened my eyes. “A little bit.” Then I sighed. “There you go again, looking at me with those eyes.”
“I’m just looking at you. Listening to you.”
“It’s the way you look at me.”
“Does it bother you?”
“No. It disarms me. Makes me forget what I was thinking, like I lose all rational thought. Hold on, I’m thinking of the right word. Titillated might be the right word for what I feel right now. Is that weird?”
“Not to me,” he said. He leaned closer. “To tell you the truth, I’m just as titillated right now. And it has nothing to do with the cemetery. It’s because I’m with you. And because of that dance. Do you always drive men so insane when you dance with them?”
I shook my head. “Definitely not.” In all my time going to Vamps and all the guys I’d danced with, I’d never danced with anyone like that.And I’d never felt such a connection to someone I’d danced with before. Whether it was just erotic or more, I didn’t know.
What kind of spell was Tristan putting on me?
“Thank you for coming here. It means a lot to me.”
“Did I help answer your question?” I asked.
“Some of it. There are many questions still to be answered. But right now, that’s not what I’m thinking about.”
“What are you thinking about?”
“You,” he said breathily. “I take it back. Being here with you right now is just as hot as being on the dance floor, but in a completely different way. Can I show you what I’m thinking of?”
I gulped. Unable to respond, I nodded.
Tristan ran his hand along my thigh and my breathing escalated. He leaned forward and I felt his warm breath on my neck. Excitement shot through my body and I was keenly aware of the moistness between my thighs. I instinctively tilted my head back to invite him in and was rewarded by the feel of his sensuous lips grazing my skin.
Yes. Oh yes.
&nb
sp; I closed my eyes to revel in the sensation of his lips on me.
Then he abruptly stopped. “Sorry, Maya, I don’t mean to blow hot and cold. I brought you here for a reason. And not to seduce you in a graveyard. Even though that’s what I want to do more than anything else right now.”
It took me a minute to slow down my breathing and control my frustration after realizing he wanted to talk.As much as I like to talk, that was the last thing I wanted to do at the moment.
“Everything is getting so confused. What’s happening? The way I feel for you. It’s all happening at once.”
My frustration turned to thrill when he said how he felt about me. Was it possible I had the same effect on him that he had on me?
“I need to tell you something about me.”
Oh no, these conversations never went well. “Damn it,” I said, turning away. “I knew this was too good to be for real. You’re married.”
“No.”
“Kids.”
“No.”
“Oh God. Let me think,” I said, standing up to pace. “You’re dark and mysterious and all. You’re ridiculously good-looking. You’re a solitary soul, you hide away from people. You wear a cape.” I stopped pacing and turned to face him. “Holy fuck—you’re a vampire!”
“Good God, Maya. Once again, no,” he said, putting his hand on his forehead. “A vampire? For someone so enticing, you can also be pretty damn exasperating.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but then shrugged. No sense arguing the truth—well, for the exasperating part at least.
“Will you be quiet for two consecutive seconds so I can tell you?” he asked.
“I’m sorry. It’s just—you know.”
“No, I don’t know. But I know what I’m trying to tell you is difficult. It’s something I haven’t told another human before. And you’re not making it any easier.”
Human?
I sat back down wondering why he used that term. Don’t most people say, well, people? As in I haven’t told another person before.
Stop overanalyzing, Maya. Big deal, he used a different term.
“Okay, I’ll shut up now. See—zipping my lips.” I motioned my fingers across my lips.
“About time, my mouthy little vixen. Although there are many things I’d like to do with those lips, right now I want you to keep those pouty things under control.”
I opened my mouth to protest once again, but remembering my vow of lip zip, closed it again and smiled sweetly instead.
He took in a deep breath and closed his eyes for a second. Then he reopened them and put a hand on my knee. “What I was trying to say earlier is that I’m different, Maya. And I think you are too.”
I raised my hand.
“What are you doing?”
“Raising my hand to see if I can speak.”
“You. Have. Issues.”
“I. Do. Not.” I mouthed it back in the same staccato as him. “I was just going to agree with you. If you mean different in the lovable misfits kind of way. Cuz if that’s what you mean, I get it.”
“That’s not what I mean.” He turned away and muttered under his breath. “How can I describe it?” He turned back to me and asked, “Maya, do you sense anything?”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “Like spirits or things like that? No. I don’t. Come on. Why would I? I don’t believe in that stuff.”
He looked taken aback.
“Because when I first saw you, I saw something with you I’ve never seen in another person before.”
I leaned forward. “Really? Like what?” I said it more sharply than I intended, probably due to a combination of sexual frustration and curiosity, both of which were at an all-time high at the moment.
“A light. When I first saw you on the dance floor, I saw you surrounded by light.”
I raised my eyebrows. “What do you mean? Was a spotlight on me or something?”
He shook his head. “No, not at all. I see things, Maya. Shadows, darkness. Around people. I can see their sadness, their grief.”
I blinked my eyes rapidly. “What are you talking about?
“For me, it’s not just a feeling. It’s something I can see. A visible presence around people. And it’s draining.”
“You see feelings?”
“Kind of. But not really. It’s more like a presence.”
“Like an aura?”
“Don’t I wish.” He shook his head. “That might be kind of enlightening. But I don’t see colors, only shadows.”
“Don’t you see good things too? Like happiness?”I asked.
“No. It’s not like that. I wish it was. I think I must have been cursed. I’ve only seen darkness around other people and felt their sadness my whole life. Until I saw you.”
Whether that was true or the smoothest line I’d ever heard, I didn’t know or care. My insides were turning to jelly from pure want. No, need.
“Tristan, I don’t even know how to process what you’re telling me right now. All this stuff about light and darkness. I don’t know if it’s real or some really twisted shit to see how gullible I am and how much crap I’ll believe.”
“This is not something I’d joke about.”
“Okay, if it’s true, what you’re telling me, it isn’t a part of my world. And to tell you the truth, I need some time to try to understand it. But for the love of God, if you don’t kiss me soon, I might just downright explode into a thousand frustrated little pieces.”
His eyes moved from my eyes down to my lips. He ran a finger along my lower lip and I squirmed on the concrete bench, wanting and waiting for more.
And then, thank God, he leaned toward me. And finally, finally, his sweet lips were on mine.
His lips were so soft at first, gently testing, caressing. Then, he as began to explore my lips more, our kiss grew bolder, more intense. I put my arms around his neck and leaned into him, sinking into his arms. All the wondering and pining of the last two weeks came pouring out of me as I responded eagerly and melted into this kiss.
I felt his hand run down my side and back up again, venturing up to one of my breasts. As he caressed it, I moaned softly, wanting more.
When his lips left mine, a part of me sighed. Why did he have to stop? But when he placed his lips on my neck, I moaned softly. He planted soft kisses along my neck, and then sucked on the flesh there as I writhed under the touch of his lips.
He continued kissing down my neck, down to my chest, while he caressed my breast with one hand. When he kissed the top of my breasts, which were pushed up to great advantage in this sexy dress, I let my head fall back.
Oh, so good.
Within moments, I had leaned farther back on the stone bench. Somehow we made it onto the ground. He lay on top of me on the cemetery ground, kissing and fondling my breasts while I tossed my head to one side on the dirt. I didn’t care about how much time I spent on my hair and outfit right now. The intended effect had worked. I had the man I wanted so badly making me feel like the sexiest woman alive.
I opened my eyes and caught a glimpse of the moon overhead. Full, bright and so close to the Earth right now.
“Look at the moon,” I said. “It’s so beautiful tonight.”
Tristan looked up. “Bella,” he said. “Almost magical. But not as beautiful as you.”
He kissed my breasts, lightly nibbling on them through my dress.
“Ohhh,” I moaned as he kissed from my breasts to my midriff. “That feels so good.”
“I know, baby,” he murmured. He placed one hand on my knee. Then he moved his hand up to caress my thigh.
“Your lips, your breasts, your thighs,” he said. “I wish I had more hands so I could touch all of you at once.”
I relished the idea of his hands, his lips all over me. “Good thing you don’t. I might not be able to take it.”
“I’d like to give it a try.”
I spread my arms out to each side. “Then I’m not stopping you.”
Then I closed my eye
s to savor the sensation of his hands running over my body, his lips on my skin. When his touch descended on different parts of my body, my skin tingled, no, ignited. Commanding the fire within me.
“You feel so good,” he murmured.
Something about being out in the open the way we were heightened my senses. The salty scent of the Atlantic Ocean. The soft, sensual touch on my skin. And the awareness we could get caught at any moment. It was so forbidden, which made it all the more erotic.
My senses were interrupted by the sound of people approaching. “Someone’s coming,” I said, sitting up. The reality of people catching us hooking up in a cemetery pushed away the erotic aspects I felt moments before. Their voices carried the loud cadence of people who’ve had a few too many drinks and had forgotten about volume control.
“Shit,” Tristan said. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
I tried to readjust my clothing as I stood up.
He took my hand and led me back toward the opening in the fence where we had crawled in. Seconds after we made it out onto the sidewalk, we saw the motley band of revelers pass in front of the cemetery gates. Three men all in black and two scantily clad women. They were probably coming from Vamps.
Yep, they would have easily have seen us had we stayed where we were.
Tristan nodded at them nonchalantly as they passed us.
From sexy to smooth. My kind of guy.
Tristan took my hand and led me toward the ocean. We walked hand in hand, lost in our own thoughts.
I broke the silence. “From the Pacific to the Atlantic. One coast to another.”
“I’m glad you chose this one.”
“Me too,” I agreed. “I love Cat’s Cove.” Caterina’s Cove on the coast north of Boston had the charm and feel of many of the towns on the North Shore. The warehouse district where Vamps was situated was surrounded by residential areas filled with seaside cottages and small homes. Families had lived here for decades and it wasn’t yet discovered by tourists. While the beaches of Gloucester and the artist’s colony on Bearskin Neck in Rockport were filled with throngs of tourists each summer, Cat’s Cove remained relatively peaceful.
“How did you end up here?”
Fiery Nights Page 4