Rafe sunk his fangs back into her throat and she cried out her orgasm. A hot wave of lava rushed through her blood and her thighs tingled. Her body convulsed around him and Rafe shuddered to a halt inside her, his cock pulsing with his release.
He moaned and collapsed against her, still suckling on her throat, his fingers still tightly gripping her shoulders. Shannon sighed out her breath and caressed his shoulders. Each pull he made her on blood felt like an echo of her orgasm, sending another sheet of fire flashing through her body. She mourned the loss of his mouth against her when he pulled back and licked her neck.
She smiled when he propped himself up on his elbows and she swept her thumb across his lower lip to clear the blood off it. Rafe looked away and rubbed his hand over his mouth. There was shame in his eyes. The sight of blood on his lips didn’t disgust her. Neither had the feel of his fangs in her throat. She had enjoyed it and she wanted to feel it again.
Shannon placed her hand against his cheek and brought his eyes back to hers. She caressed his cheek and the strong line of his jaw, her fingers light against him, and smiled into his eyes. His answering smile was hesitant and short lived. She ran her fingers into his hair, around the nape of his neck, and lured him back down for a kiss. She kept it slow and soft, a sweep of lips alone that teased her senses and tickled. Rafe leaned down again and slanted his head, his mouth covering hers with more force. He growled and then broke away and wrapped her in his arms, rolling onto his back so quickly that she felt disorientated. She blinked and looked down at him, her hands pressing into his firm chest.
He cocked his head to one side, smiled, and carefully brushed strands of her hair from her eyes, tucking it back behind her ear.
“You’re beautiful,” he breathed the words in a voice laden with sensuality and affection, and she blushed over them and the amount of tenderness in his dark brown eyes. They sparkled at her, warm and smiling as surely as his dusky lips were. “What happens now?”
His expression flickered to one of concern but he didn’t stop smiling. She sighed down at him. How many times had she masked her true feelings with a smile? She was doing it now, and so was he. They were both afraid of the next step and what was going to happen in the New Year, and it was a relief to know that he felt the same as she did.
“I’ll talk to the agency,” she whispered and pressed kisses to his chest, pouring her love over him. She worked her way up to his neck and gently bit. He groaned and shivered beneath her. She bit again, eliciting another deep rumbling moan from him, and then kissed along his jaw. She teased his earlobe with the tip of her tongue. “I’m not leaving you.”
He placed his hands in the small of her back and kissed her cheek. “What if they refuse?”
A chill shot through her. What if that did happen? She didn’t think it would. The agency were normally quite accommodating when she asked them for things, such as parting her from Rafe, although they had been reluctant to do it. Relief chased the cold inside her away when she remembered that they had been against parting them. They would probably be glad to hear that she had changed her mind.
“They won’t.” Shannon felt sure of that. She smiled down at him and stroked his cheek. He was so handsome. It was hard to believe that she had wanted to leave him, to run away rather than face her feelings. She didn’t want to imagine how miserable she would have been if she hadn’t found the courage to embrace her emotions and let herself go, and accept him in her heart and her home. He was here now, in her arms, just where she wanted him to be, and she wasn’t about to let him leave. “They think we’re great together.”
Rafe grinned, cocky and devilish. “I think we are great together too.”
He pulled her down for another kiss. She kept it short and broke away again, unable to ignore the guilt twisting her stomach. “It was my idea... to leave... I didn’t want to deal.”
His smile didn’t fade. In fact, he looked as though he had known that all along. He swept his fingers over her cheek and down to her neck. His fingertips lingered against her throat and the marks there ached. They didn’t feel as though they were bleeding. He must have sealed them with his saliva, helping them heal. She leaned on her other arm, careful not to press too much of her weight down on him, and found his fingers with hers. He shifted them and took hold of her hand, guiding her to the twin wounds on her neck. The holes were shallow, barely noticeable beneath her fingertips. He had been gentle with her, just as she had known he would be, and it had felt amazing. Her gaze met his and there was deep affection in his smile, love that shone in his dark eyes, laced with gratitude. She blushed and lowered her hand back to his chest, stroking patterns on it.
Rafe frowned, his expression turning distant. She was about to ask him what the matter was when he spoke.
“It is midnight.”
It was Christmas Day. On the very edge of her hearing, church bells were ringing. Shannon looked over her shoulder at the tree. The coloured lights and decorations twinkled, and the warmth of the sight brought a smile to her face. She turned back to Rafe and kissed him again. He pushed her back this time.
His dark gaze searched hers.
“What did you wish for?”
She frowned.
He stroked her back, running his fingers up and down her spine. “I do remember some things about Christmas. In the alley, you looked for the North Star. So, what did you wish for?”
Shannon smiled and caressed his hair, tangling her fingers in the longer dark spikes on top. She held his gaze and it warmed her from head to toe when she saw all the love he felt for her reflected in it. She had wished for something and, for once, it had come true.
“A vampire for Christmas.”
He pulled her down and kissed her hard, stealing her breath and her heart at the same time. She smiled when he rolled her over, nestling between her thighs, and kissed her.
As soon as she could reach them, she would tell the agency that she had changed her mind. There was only one man that she wanted as her partner, and as her lover. She wasn’t sure what would happen now but she was going to stay with Rafe and they would see where this new path took them. One step at a time.
And her steps wouldn’t falter because she loved him and she knew that he loved her.
They would walk the path together.
Even if it led into forever.
The End
###
About the Author:
Felicity Heaton is a romance author writing as both Felicity Heaton and F E Heaton. She is passionate about penning paranormal tales full of vampires, witches, werewolves, angels and shape-shifters, and has been interested in all things preternatural and fantastical since she was just a child. Her other passion is science-fiction and she likes nothing more than to immerse herself in a whole new universe and the amazing species therein. She used to while away days at school and college dreaming of vampires, werewolves and witches, or being lost in space, and used to while away evenings watching movies about them or reading gothic horror stories, science-fiction and romances.
Having tried her hand at various romance genres, it was only natural for her to turn her focus back to the paranormal, fantasy and science-fiction worlds she enjoys so much. She loves to write seductive, sexy and strong vampires, werewolves, witches, angels and alien species. The worlds she often dreams up for them are vicious, dark and dangerous, reflecting aspects of the heroines and heroes, but her characters also love deeply, laugh, cry and feel every emotion as keenly as anyone does. She makes no excuses for the darkness surrounding them, especially the paranormal creatures, and says that this is their world. She’s just honoured to write down their adventures.
To see her other novels, visit: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk
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Other stories by this author:
Her Fallen Angel
Annelie fell for Lukas the moment he walked into her pub three years ago. He’s stunning, his vivid green eyes lending to his otherworldly beauty, but he’s seriously out of her league. When he tells her that she’s beautiful and confesses that he wants her, she can’t resist him and his passionate kiss. She unleashes her desire and seizes the moment and Lukas with both hands. But Lukas has a secret, one that will test Annelie’s love for him and threaten to tear them apart.
He’s an angel.
Annelie can’t believe it when Lukas says that their feelings for each other aren’t a sin, but she can believe his pain when he tells her the reason he’s on Earth. He is fallen, cast out of Heaven as punishment for a crime he didn’t commit. Lukas isn’t about to give up and accept his fate though. He’s determined to prove both his innocence and his love for Annelie, and to show her that the intense passion they share is real.
When Lukas and Apollyon discover who framed him, will he be able to stop them from going after Serenity and Annelie? Will he be able to protect the woman he loves and fly away with her into their forever after?
A Promise of Passion
A dark, sensual story of two hearts, united in their passion and desire, but divided by their blood, A Promise of Passion is guaranteed to get your heart racing.
Alicia is a vampire hunter, unable to find a man strong enough to love and accept her for who she is. When Kassian, a tall and seductively handsome vampire walks into her life and vows to protect her, she doesn’t know what to think or feel. His eyes make promises that his searing touch backs up, but she can’t get past the fact that he’s a vampire and the fact that he thinks she’s someone else.
Kassian is certain from the moment he sets eyes on Alicia that she’s the reincarnation of his lost love and sire, and he’ll stop at nothing to convince her and make her his again. A taste of her blood makes him realise his mistake but doesn’t change his feelings or his resolve to have her.
Their mutual attraction is impossible to resist but a moment of passion places Alicia in the path of danger when Seth, the vampire responsible for murdering Kassian’s sire, sets his sights on her. When Alicia is dragged into a game of human sport, how far will Kassian go to protect his love? Can he save her or will history repeat itself?
Love vampires and werewolves? Try the Vampires Realm series by F E Heaton:
Prophecy: Child of Light [book 1]
A girl unlike any other girl, a vampire unlike any other vampire, Prophecy lives life in the dark until the night she breaks the rules. Leaving the family mansion to hunt for the first time, she encounters Valentine, a vampire from her family's enemy and a man who will change her life forever.
Suddenly at the centre of a prophecy, she is kidnapped by Valentine, the man who should have been her executioner, and forced to run with him in order to save herself. Required to work together, the tension between them builds as a dark evil threatens to destroy the world, their families and the Law Keepers attempt hunt them down, and Prophecy discovers that her feelings for Valentine control her new found power.
When the truth about her is revealed, will Prophecy be strong enough? Will they discover a way to save the world from Hell? And will they finally see past the hatred bred into them by their families and surrender to their love?
The first of the Vampires Realm novels being written by five star author F E Heaton, Prophecy: Child of Light, is part one in an epic tale of love and war that is sure to capture your heart and leave you craving more.
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