An orange-gold glow, as sudden and unexpected as magic, blossomed in the corner of the crypt. A small, silver candelabra sat on a recessed marble shelf, casting fractals of shimmering light against the shiny walls and floor. She could make out the furnishings now—they were few and familiar. There was just enough space for a narrow bed luxuriously appointed with black silk coverings and velvet drapes and an ornate, antique bed stand at the bed’s end, inlaid with ebony and pearl. A solid silver basin and urn rested on the stand.
“You haven’t changed anything.”
He smiled. “No need to. And in case you’re wondering, yours are still the only eyes other than mine that have seen this.”
Oh God. That meant so much…
She expelled a low breath of anticipation when he pulled her against his body. As he embraced her for a long, silent moment, she pressed her cheek against the vee of skin between the lapels of his robe, listening to his heartbeat become slow, steady…and slower still.
“Mm, I want to make love to you.” His voice rumbled softly up from his chest, his hands rested heavily on her shoulders. “More than anything in this crazy, fucked-up world. But I…” She tipped her head so she could look into his eyes. His lids were drifting closed over deep green irises, the creases around his mouth slackening.
“But you need to sleep,” she whispered.
“Mm.” His muscles relaxed completely for a moment and then he jerked and gripped her in a sudden panic.
“It’s okay…I’ll be here with you.” His hold loosened. He moaned as if he were in pain.
She let him go long enough to pull the duvet from the bed. After pushing the robe from his shoulders, she eased him between the cool sheets. He was unconscious by the time she slipped off her clothes and slid in beside him. She nestled into her favorite spot, her head on his shoulder, her arm draped over his rib cage.
His skin was cooling rapidly now, his heartbeat slowing to once every few seconds. She watched the candle flames elongate and smoke, watched Alex’s flesh glow deathly pale. When she could no longer keep her eyes open, she slept.
* * * * *
Time passed slowly in the crypt. Or perhaps quickly. Seconds crawled. Minutes sped. Hours evaporated into days.
The black stillness was disorienting for a human, reviving for a vampire.
Caro woke to the sound of her own panicked breathing. She sat up, her fingers groping at utter darkness.
“Princess?”
The candelabra sizzled to life at the same moment she heard Alex’s voice.
He flashed a disarmingly cheerful smile before pulling her back down beside him. “Good morning, my brightest star.”
She pressed her face into his neck as she tried to get her bearings. Sleeping in the crypt turned her brain to sludge. And she’d forgotten that it made Alex as chipper as a fucking bluebird.
But it was worth it. His skin was warm again. His heart was beating full bore. And he smelled delicious.
Her skin quivered as he began to stroke her hair and her back. “Good morning.” Her voice sounded croaky.
His soft laughter hummed beneath her. “You know, I was just lying here thinking…”
“What?”
“About the last time we made love in your hotel room. I should have tied you to the bed right then and there—we never should have stopped. And my evening would have gone much better.”
“So you’re saying that fucking me would have been better than going to a weird party and then puking your guts out?”
He laughed. “Yeah, that’s what I’m saying.”
He tipped his head to kiss her lips and the sudden pleasure of it took her breath.
He deepened the kiss and she tasted of him deeply. He was so, so good. Rich and dark and sweet like chocolate. She rubbed the length of her body against his warm, silky skin, wishing she could absorb his essence so she’d never have to let him go.
He pulled his mouth away, breathing heavily. He rested his forehead against hers. “Is it okay to do this? I really want to make love to you…”
“Yes.”
Capturing her lips with his again, he began to explore her body with an enticingly light touch. His fingertips grazed the globes of her breasts, the ruched peaks surrounding her nipples. Feathery finger strokes traced her ribs and then flickered down her quivering belly. He played with her sex, flirting with her clit and then fiddling with the swiftly melting flesh of her pussy.
She gasped as he changed tempo, treating her neck and collarbone to hot, open-mouthed kisses before shifting downward to suck hard on a swollen and needy nipple. Two long fingers slid assertively inside her crease. Her breath snagged when his thumb brushed a sweet rhythm against her clit.
A hitching cry of loss crossed her lips when he sat up and moved down on the bed. She shivered and he soothed her with his warm hands and husky voice. Her shiver turned to a shudder of anticipation when he pushed her knees up and sat between them. More candles flared to life—she couldn’t see them, but she could see Alex’s eyes glow emerald in the bolder light.
“You’re so pretty here. Let’s have a look at you.” He tugged her hands until her upper body lifted and she could see the glistening flesh between her legs. “See? Like a flower. The outsides of your petals are dark and then when I open to see inside, you bloom hot pink.” He stroked the folds of her labia and then spread them with his fingers, blowing a cool breath on the heated lips as he opened them wide. Her hips thrust forward involuntarily. “And up here, where the flower protects its little secret, I know just where to look.”
Eyes alight with sexy mischief, he pressed his thumb against the hood of her clitoris, exposing the hidden nub before giving it a gentle stroke. He thrust a finger deep inside her pussy, maneuvering easily against the greedily clenching walls. Caro moaned and let her head fall back, her hands fisting in the soft silk sheets. “And the sweet nectar you keep locked inside…it all comes down when you’re ready for visits from the birds and the bees…” He withdrew his fingers slowly, slicking her wetness up across her mons.
She looked up at him and he paused, rolling his eyes heavenward in a mocking pose of reflection. “Mmm, I think I’ll write a poem to your sweet flower of love.”
An unbidden giggle escaped her, making her body quaver and shake. “Oh God. Shut up and touch me some more.” She reached between her knees to grab for his hands. He laced his fingers through hers, moving them together to rest on her kneecaps.
“Not before I taste your sweet nectar of love.” He dipped his head down until his mouth was millimeters from her pussy, making her writhe helplessly as he teased her only with his warm, moist breath. When she began to whimper, he carefully parted the weeping crease with his tongue. When she begged, he stroked deeply. Over and over. When her hips began to thrust forward in slow rolls, he sought the nub of her clitoris with the point of his tongue.
Her hands clenched his convulsively as he broadened his strokes, taking her quickly past the screaming edge. She hovered, drifting on the first wafts of relief. Then he released her hands and thrust his long, strong fingers into her pussy, hooking up and back at the quivering entrance, still tenderly sucking her clit, prolonging the endlessly good peak.
“Alex!” She fell back and arched her head into the pillows as he nipped at the tender flesh of her thigh with his teeth, pressed the hard edge of his palm into her clit. She came again, the heavy velvet drapes absorbing her screams and his words of praise and encouragement. He slowly stroked her thighs and breasts with his other hand, soothing her as she bucked and held on to the last throes of pleasure.
He moved forward between her legs to kiss her mouth, bracing his hands on either side of her shoulders. She gripped his shoulders and back, reveling in his warmth, his hardness. She kissed him deeply, tasting the love on his lips. His cock was a tempting weight between their bodies, long and thick and ready.
He groaned against her lips and took a gulping breath. “Time for a condom. Unless you’ve changed your mind…”
; She shook her head. Oh God. Please, willpower…hold out.
Rolling off her to sit on the end of the bed, he picked up his robe and pulled out a strip of foil squares from the pocket. “There were still a few synapses firing before I crashed,” he said with a thankful smile.
As he fumbled with one of the packages, Caro knelt behind him, draping her arms across his shoulder. She loved to embrace him like this, loved the feel of her swollen nipples and ultra-sensitized skin against the hard muscles and boned ridges of his back. She began to kiss the back of his neck, moving her lips and tongue quickly up the tendon that led to his ear.
He shrugged his shoulder up against her tickling tongue and laughed. “Hey, I’m doing something important here.”
She teased his earlobe with her teeth and laughed when he grabbed her hand.
He turned her hand and placed a kiss on her tender inner forearm. She inhaled sharply. Her tattoo, slumbering and sated from the flow of her of sex-satisfied blood, flared to life.
He looked over his shoulder, catching her with his hungry eyes. He licked his lips.
Can I?
You promised. No feeding.
His smile was crooked over his extended canines. How about a lick? I have more control in the crypt.
She closed her eyes. She wanted to feel the sensation again. So, so much. She nodded. A lick wouldn’t do too much damage, right? As long as he didn’t get carried away and suck…
His breath caressed her. Her gut clenched, as if her womb was about to cramp…but the edge of pain was like an awful, soul-deep pleasure. The anticipation made her moan. She couldn’t catch her breath.
He opened his mouth, extended his tongue and licked—one wet, hot stroke over the surface of the black-inked symbol.
She came. Violently. A pelvis-thrusting, fist-clenching, teeth-grinding, mind-wrenching orgasm. Almost scary in its hotspur intensity. Ohhh, God! How could she have forgotten what this was like?
Her body sagged against his back, his tight clasp on her wrists keeping her from sliding limply back onto the bed. He held her there, gently kissing all the spots he could reach while she moaned and tried to calm her spastic nerve endings.
He had the audacity to laugh.
“Not funny,” she whispered.
He offered her the condom and with an irresistibly sunny smile said, “Get me back.”
“You’re on.”
She pulled his shoulders down to the bed and knelt at his side. A fresh surge of arousal hit her as she surveyed his penis. Thickly distended veins pulsed on the purplish-red shaft. A clear drop of pre-cum slid from the slitted crown. She bent down and licked it off with a slow curl of her tongue. The hot, totally sexed-up skin seemed to melt against her tongue’s tip, so she dipped in more deeply, making Alex clutch at her hair and gasp.
“Damn. Don’t do that.”
“I love it when you’re this ready,” she murmured.
“Get that thing on there, princess, because I’m too ready. And I’ve been dreaming about coming inside you.”
She caressed the crinkled-velvet skin of his tightened scrotum, moving one finger back to find the ticklish pink skin of his perineum.
“Lord, Caro, I mean it…” Alex sat up and grabbed for the condom.
She brushed his hand away and quickly smoothed the latex circle down over his cock, swinging one knee over his waist to straddle his lap. She watched him try to maintain control and loved him for his struggle—loved the flash of silver in his eyes, loved the wicked gleam of his teeth, loved the throbbing pulse in his arched neck.
“Have mercy,” he whispered.
She smiled—powerfully, triumphantly—and guided him to her entrance with moist fingertips. Alex grabbed her hips roughly and buried himself with one swift, hard stroke.
She put her hands on his shoulders and began to ride him up and down, trying to take strokes that were smooth and easy, trying to pace herself to make this last forever. She felt him shift and brace his feet on the floor, anchoring them so he could reach up and play with her breasts. He held their weight in his palms, pinching and tugging at the hard nubs of her nipples.
She began to ride him harder, grinding down on him, desperately trying to take all of him, to fill the yawning emptiness of the years she’d spent without him. He filled her so completely…her body, her soul. She felt tears threaten and closed her eyes.
“God, you are so sexy, princess.” His voice was a satin rasp against her shoulder.
He nibbled and nipped at the sensitive slope until she moaned and arched her back. She tightened her grip on his shoulders, almost losing his hot, slippery cock. “Stay with me,” she whispered. “Never leave.”
“Never…I’ll take you to paradise…a place where lovers never have to part.” He reached between their bodies to find her clitoris. He whispered sweet words of encouragement as he rubbed her in the way she liked best. She pressed her knees to the sides of his hips and rode him to completion, his whispers an erotic accompaniment. “So sweet, so tight. Take me deeper now…harder.”
She squirmed as she slammed into the edge and then let go. Alex bucked beneath her with a shout. Pleasure opened up like a cloudburst and she reveled in the sublime submersion, wanting to live inside the storm forever. She cupped his gorgeous, passion-ravaged face and rained soft kisses across his cheeks.
He flopped down onto his back, taking her with him. She kissed him hotly on the mouth and then nuzzled her nose into the crook of his neck and wiggled her pelvis, still enjoying the sweet, slick connection of their bodies. He steadied her motion with his hands and when he made a move to shift out from under her, she clamped down on him with her thighs.
“I’m never letting you go,” she murmured into his neck.
“Mm. That’s my dream.” He drew hearts on her back with his fingertips. “But at some point I’ve got to get rid of this soggy condom.”
She rolled off him and lay on her back. “You’re so romantic.”
After taking care of the spent latex, he settled in next to her again. He propped himself up on an elbow and began to draw little hearts over her belly. “Shall I recite my poem to your pussy again? Now that’s pure romance.”
Caro giggled. “Don’t you dare.”
“I’ll just have to keep practicing. I’m quite new to erotic poetry. But with you as my inspiration…”
She sighed as he ran his fingertips down the sensitive flesh of her inner arm. “I guess you’ll have to find other inspiration soon. I need to go back to Cleveland. Maybe a poem to Jack’s prick? Or Sherene’s lips? You usually have your choice of inspirational material.”
Alex stopped the motion of his hand. Closed his eyes.
“Alex?”
No answer.
“Did I say something wrong?”
“No. No, not really.” He opened his eyes and she saw a very human blend of gray and green in those beautiful irises. “I think I was caught up in some alternate reality. One where you and I could go on like this forever and Jack and Sherene and everybody else… They were just…I don’t know…not in the picture. You reminded me that wasn’t the case.”
She reached up and traced the muscled wedge of his left pec, seeking and then finding his heartbeat.
“You know, Alex,” she said slowly, “when we were a couple, that was my favorite dream. I would steal you away from all the people in your life. Easily. Painlessly. Just somehow erase everyone else from the picture. But your life has so many dimensions, so many levels of involvement. Family, politics, vampires, immortals, humans, friends, lovers, businesses… You have an amazingly full and rich life. I could never keep you for myself.” He closed his eyes. She traced his silky brows with her fingertips then pushed a thick swath of hair behind his ear.
He cupped her hand to his cheek and rolled over to his back. “An amazingly full and rich life full of amazingly fucked-up and empty relationships.” He said it lightly but there was regret in his eyes.
Caro started to say something but stopped when h
e continued.
“You know, up until I saw you at that cocktail party on Thursday night, I was convinced that I’d begun to think about relationships differently. And that’s the key word I guess—think.” He rubbed her knuckles along the high ridge of his cheekbone. “I’ve always loved the freedom of acting on impulse, doing whatever I wanted and then worrying about the consequences later. Call it whatever you want—vamp tradition, ego, being totally spoiled, I’m an asshole. All of the above. I don’t know. But I got tired of it.”
Looking down at her hand as he held it in his, he began to stroke her palm with his thumb.
“And then I saw you walk into that party at Stoked and all I wanted to do was fuck you. Right then, right there.” He grinned. “And all the stuff that I’d thought about for the last five years, all the lessons I thought I’d learned and everything I wanted to say to you if I ever had a chance again…just flew right out of my lust-addled brain. And basically the only thing I’ve thought about for the last two days when I haven’t been fucking you is how I’m going to manage to fuck you again.” He traced a wide circle around her tattoo. “Yeah, and don’t forget suck you again.”
“Oh Alex.” Caro pulled her hand away and sat up. “I never know what the hell I’m doing with you.” She inhaled slowly and she wondered what magic kept the air in the crypt so fresh and clean smelling.
“Seeing you again knocked me for a loop too.” She rested her head on her knees and watched one of the candles gutter and flicker out. “I’ve spent the last few years diligently working you out of my system. Working hard to be smart in business, in relationships. And I’ve been successful at it all. I thought I’d built up a really healthy amount of self-discipline, thought I could resist anyone. Including my bloodmate. What a bunch of vampire hogwash, I thought.” She turned and smiled at him. “Then, within two hours of seeing you again, I was sucking you off in a bathroom.”
He laughed. “Well, you worked hard and were successful at that venture too.”
“But when we did all the fun and games stuff at your place with Jack, I was well on my way to having a major identity crisis. Because making love to you was never a game for me. And I’ve mixed sex with business before but…it was different this time. I just got overwhelmed. I still am, I guess.”
Party Vamps Page 15