by Opal Carew
Taking a deep breath that did little to calm me, I turned my head back to the road and shifted in my seat. She smiled triumphantly as she rested her face against my hand. She left me speechless and wondering what her expectations were for our weekend.
What I wanted and what I thought I deserved were two different things given my continued deception. While my mind shouted restraint, my body had been demanding more for weeks.
Finally, signs for Milwaukee appeared along the highway. “Okay,” Samantha said with a pointed look, “so, unless we’re going to Canada, which is pretty much the only thing north of here, I’m going to guess we’re doing something in Milwaukee.”
I smiled at her frustration, which was easy because her emotions were otherwise warmed with love for me. “Well, since you have done such a superb job of providing music for our trip, I guess I can finally reveal to you that, yes, Milwaukee is our destination.” I exited the highway and followed surface streets to our hotel. The valet looked like he’d won the lottery when I reluctantly handed him the keys to the Maserati and a hundred dollar bill to ensure the car was cared for.
I then ushered Samantha into the warm, sophisticated lobby of the InterContinental Milwaukee. After checking in, we took the elevator to our fifth-floor suite. We stepped inside, and I pressed the five button as the doors closed behind me.
Samantha’s slow seduction in the car still vibrating within me, I caught her off guard as I pinned her to the doors in a tight embrace. She laughed, then moaned when I ground myself against her.
“Sorry,” I whispered fiercely. “But that was too long to go without holding you. I hope you don’t mind.”
She wound her arms around me and mumbled a response as she kissed me eagerly.
“Nothing in the world feels better than your body against mine,” I murmured between kisses.
A soft ding encouraged me to release her so we didn’t fall out the doors when they opened. Samantha stepped out first, then we walked down the hall hand in hand in search of our room.
I inserted the card key into the slot on the door and pushed it open for Samantha. Like the lobby, the room was well appointed, decorated with modern lines and warm earth tones.
Samantha set her purse on a table and pulled out her phone. “I’m just going to check in at home.”
“Of course.”
Minutes later, while Samantha was still talking to Ollie, a knock at the door signaled the bellhop’s arrival with our bags. He placed them in the adjoining bedroom then departed. Samantha snapped her phone shut. “How are they doing?”
“Everything’s good. Dad sounded tired. I think Ollie is wearing him out. But they both said they were having a good time.” She pursed her lips.
“What is it?” I wrapped my arms around her waist and kissed her forehead.
She shrugged one shoulder. “Nothing, really, I’ve just never been away from Ollie overnight before.” She smiled thoughtfully.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes. It’s just weird.”
“Hmm. It’s okay for you to do things for yourself.”
“I know. Thanks.” She offered a quick kiss then pulled away. “Excuse me for a minute.”
I let her go and watched her walk across the suite to the bathroom. I went into the bedroom, kicked off my shoes, and stretched out on the bed.
Samantha emerged from the bathroom and joined me. “Much better.” She smiled as she crawled up into the crook of my arm and laid her head on my shoulder, just as I’d hoped she would. She stretched her arm across my stomach, and I wrapped my arm around her head and stroked at her hair. It was soft and fine. “So what is the plan?” she asked quietly.
“We’re having dinner at six. Did you finally decide on a dress, by the way?” I’d told her only that she should bring a nice dress for an evening out on the town.
“No,” she chuckled. “I still couldn’t decide so I brought them both. You can help me decide.”
“If you wish, I’d be happy to.” She yawned and I kissed her forehead. “Would you like to rest for a while? It’s only four now. You could sleep for an hour and have plenty of time to dress.”
“I don’t know why I’m so tired. You did all the driving…but, yeah, maybe I’ll close my eyes for a few minutes, so I’ll have plenty of energy for tonight.” She tilted her face up and planted a moist kiss on my neck.
I hugged my arm around her shoulders and pressed her into me. With my other hand, I interlocked my fingers with the hand she’d draped across my chest. “Sleep, dolcezza.”
Soon her respirations were slow and deep. Her heart thumped softly against me. It was an absolute miracle she was here, with me, like this.
I needed rest as well. I hadn’t gotten as much lately, because I was with Samantha so frequently. I usually didn’t permit myself to become entranced when I shared her bed, both because I enjoyed watching and feeling her while she slept and also because I feared what I looked like or did while I slept.
At that moment, however, with Samantha asleep on me, I couldn’t relax because I was thinking. I was thinking relationships were built on trust. And I had yet to be completely truthful with Samantha. I had tried to bring up the Conversation several times. Mostly I couldn’t force myself to say the words. Other times, Samantha would cut me off with reassurances.
I spent the hour Samantha slept internally debating the pros and cons of telling her during our trip. My hesitancy irritated me because it was evidence of cowardice. Surely Samantha deserved better than that.
Annoyed at myself, I slipped out from underneath her and went to shower. The hot water was particularly noticeable against my skin, which had cooled from a long stretch without feeding. I planned to feed as soon as we returned from the trip.
Thankfully, the bloodlust was no longer much of a problem, although I thirsted more when I let myself go for longer periods as I had been doing. But abstaining made me feel weaker and, for some reason, that didn’t seem like such a good idea. I needed to be strong for my girls.
My girls.
I swallowed the guilt that came with that phrase, a phrase I had once used frequently. But Samantha and Ollie were not replacements; they were simply evidence that life goes on. And damn if it hadn’t taken me too many lifetimes to figure that one out.
I stepped out of the shower and dried off, then flushed the toilet for the show of it. When soft knocks landed on the bathroom door, I secured the towel around my waist and opened it.
Samantha leaned on the jamb, her eyes widening as they locked on my bare torso. She reached up and caught a droplet of water running from my hair down my shoulder. Then she placed her hands on my chest, and the fingers on her right hand caught another stray droplet. When she brushed my Blood Mark, I sucked in a breath. Her lips fell open as she watched a third droplet slide around the base of my neck to my chest.
She leaned forward and kissed my skin over the stray droplet and let her tongue just meet my flesh as she drank the water into her mouth. I closed my eyes at the sensation. Her drinking off me was too fucking close to the fantasy of her drinking from me, and all at once the blood turned molten in my veins.
Oblivious to the seismic activity building under my skin, she continued to kiss across my chest. I wrapped an arm around her waist, the heat of her lust searing me. I burned from the inside and the out.
Ah, Cristo. I wanted her so damn bad.
Between kisses, she taunted, “So, I was just wondering if I could get you to growl again.”
I gripped her more firmly against me, wanted her to feel exactly what she was doing to me. I ground the thick column between my legs into the soft flesh of her belly. She moaned appreciatively. Her heart thundered between our chests. And then she was successful in her quest.
She bit me.
She flicked her tongue out against my nipple and sucked it into her mouth. Then her teeth closed around the taut peak in a series of playful nips. And I growled.
She couldn’t know the significance of her actions�
��for vampires, biting was very much a part of sex. And she also couldn’t know how wild her bites made me feel.
Instinctively, I grabbed her roughly with both arms and spun her around so her back pressed against the wall next to the bathroom door. She gasped, but I distracted her with my mouth on her lips, jaw, ear, neck. I pinned her hands next to her on the wall. Her chest heaved against me. The scent of her arousal was thick and sweet in the air, making me want her worse than I already did.
She rubbed her thighs together as I ran wet open-mouthed kisses down into the V-neck of her shirt. I rolled my hips into her. She moaned. My teeth tingled, and I had just enough awareness to keep my fangs retracted. But I wanted to sink myself into her—my fangs and my sex—more than I’d wanted almost anything ever before.
“Lucien.”
My name on her lips was an incredible invitation, so filled with need and longing. “God, I want to touch you.”
“Please.”
I released her arms, and my hands flew to her body. She reached down and grabbed the hem of her shirt, then pulled it over her head and threw it to the floor. My hands met the swells of her breasts, and I groaned. I pushed a satiny cup out of the way, freeing a breast to my exploration. She arched into me. I caught her nipple between my thumb and forefinger. She whimpered as I teased her peaked flesh, then I replaced my fingers with my mouth, loving the way she tasted and freeing my hands to undo her shorts.
“Oh, please.”
“Anything, Sam,” I rasped as my hand slid under the silkiness of her panties. Fucking hell. She was hot and wet and slick and needful. I stroked my fingers against her sensitive flesh. She grasped my arms and sagged a little against the wall.
“Oh, my God. Please don’t stop.”
“Not until you’re screaming my name, dolcezza.”
She moaned and rocked her hips harder and faster against my fingers, which alternated between long probing strokes through her wet folds and intense circular pressure against the nerves at the top of her sex. We settled into a rhythm and, though my erection was straining against the flimsy fabric of the towel, she so enthralled my senses I could almost ignore it.
When her breaths came in short gasps against my chest, I intensified my efforts. The nails on her right hand dug into my biceps, and I growled as the pain and her orgasm hit at the same time.
“God, Lucien!”
I kept my fingers moving until she was entirely played out and groaned as the heat and intensity of her ecstatic pleasure flooded my senses. Then I pulled my hand free and clutched her to me, relishing the feel of her against me and the sound of my name falling from her satisfied lips.
A moment later, I grunted as her hand found my erection and squeezed. I stilled her and she questioned me, but I cut her off, my voice low and rough. “Dinner is in”—I glanced over my shoulder to the bedside table—”forty-five minutes, my love. You need to get dressed.” I stepped back from her and smiled as she held her position against the wall.
Her breathing was labored. Her face and neck were flushed, clothing disheveled. Her gaze dropped below my waist. “Dinner feels…optional right now, to me.”
I had to avert my eyes. If she continued to look at me that way, we would indeed miss dinner. And tempting as that was, I didn’t want her to miss what I had planned. I grabbed her shoulders and turned her body in the direction of the open bathroom door. “Get thee into the bathroom.” I swatted her rear as she started moving.
“Hey! That doesn’t help the situation here,” she called over her shoulder as she grabbed her garment bag.
I shook my head in silent agreement and laughed as she closed the door, then sucked my wet fingers into my mouth with a satisfied groan as soon as it clicked shut. I closed my eyes at the exquisite flavor of her and exhaled a huge breath as I ran my hands through my hair.
Cazzo! Cazzo! Cazzo!
I palmed my erection and willed it to sleep, then with effort focused my mind on the task at hand: getting dressed. I towel dried my hair, then unzipped my garment bag. Within minutes, I was dressed in a beautifully tailored black suit over a white shirt and a silver tie.
After a while, the bathroom door cracked open. “Okay. Here’s the first dress. Are you ready?”
I walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge. “Absolutely. Let’s see it.” My breath caught in my throat when she stepped out.
The teal dress was knee length with a flowing layered skirt and a tight V-neck bodice fitted over the waist and hips. Sparkling rhinestones adorned the neckline and wide straps. She’d styled her long hair in loose curls that hung down the middle of her back, which the low cut of the dress left bare.
I stood up. “I can’t imagine how the other dress could begin to compete. You look exquisite.” I kissed the back of her hand, then stepped back to admire her again, this time noticing how long and lean her legs looked in her silver heels.
“So you like it?”
“You look mouthwatering in that dress, Samantha.” It was so true.
“You look pretty good yourself,” she offered as she ran her hands across my shoulders and smoothed my tie.
“Shall we go?” I asked, trying to ignore my body’s dire need of her.
She nodded and grabbed her purse, and I led her down through the hotel to the first surprise I’d planned for a woman in over a century.
***
Downstairs in the hotel’s trendy four-star restaurant, the maître d’ led us to a secluded table. I held Samantha’s chair for her. She noticed the small blue box perched on the table at her place and looked up at me astonished. “Is this from you?” She picked the blue box up and turned it in her hands.
I shrugged innocently as I sat. “I don’t know. I suppose you should open it.”
She smirked at my words but pulled the ribbon off the Tiffany box and set it aside. She lifted the lid. “Oh, Lucien! It’s gorgeous. This is too much.” She delicately ran her fingers over the aquamarines and diamonds of the drop pendant necklace.
“Nothing is too much for you, dolcezza. May I put it on?”
“Please.” She looked up at me. I was touched to see her eyes glassy with unshed tears.
I rose from my seat and came around behind her. She handed the necklace up to me. I secured the clasp behind her neck, then knelt down, admiring how it looked against her skin. “It’s lovely.”
I kissed her cheek and returned to my seat. “I’ve been looking for something resembling the brilliance and beauty of your eyes. I’ve just never seen anything quite like them. That necklace comes close, but your eyes remain the more remarkable by comparison.”
“I don’t know what to say.” She fingered the stones against her chest. “It’s so beautiful. This whole weekend. This is so magical being here, with you.” She reached across the table and took my hand. “Lucien, I love you so much.”
“That, my love, is the most magical thing of all.”
The way she felt about me, the way she looked, was indeed wondrous. It made it easy to tolerate the hardships the weekend imposed on me, the biggest of which was how much human food I was going to have to ingest. But there was no way to avoid it and, at any rate, she was so happy there was no way I was going to behave in any manner that might diminish her enjoyment. So I ate.
After dinner, I led her out through the hotel lobby to the street. “Wow, look at that building.” Across the street sat, unbeknownst to her, our destination, the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, which a changing light show illuminated at night. Currently the building glowed blue and purple.
I offered her my arm, and she hooked hers through it. We crossed the street and the plaza next to the Marcus Center. When we entered the lobby, a poster on the wall revealed what we were doing.
“Oh, my God!” She looked at me wide-eyed.
I grinned at her pleasure, at having pulled off the surprise. “You said it was your favorite.”
“You brought me to see Phantom?”
“I did.”
She thr
ew her arms around my neck, oblivious to the stares of passersby. It was clear from the emotions of some of the passing men they were less interested in her public display of affection than in her body. I scowled in response and put my arm protectively around her waist, then led her to the large elegant hall where the musical would be performed. We found our seats toward the front of the orchestra section, just right of center. Samantha sat down and grabbed my hand, which she brought to her mouth and kissed repeatedly.
“I am so excited!” She pressed the back of my hand to her cheek. Her brow furrowed. “You’re so cold, Lucien.”
I gently pulled my hand away and handed her a program. “It’s nothing. I’ve just been nervous about pulling all of this off without you finding out.” We smiled, and she began paging through the program.
The result of having consumed multiple human meals had caught up to me. I probably appeared more pale than usual as well, although, if so, the dim lighting in the theater masked my pallor.
Moments later, the house lights dimmed. Samantha became engrossed in the show. Seeing it again in person, I sympathized with the Phantom’s loneliness, understood the rash methods he used to woo Christine. Samantha focused so intently on the show, she didn’t seem to feel my eyes on her. Her reactions and emotions were much more engaging than the show itself, which was among my favorites.
During several of the songs she especially loved, she moved her lips to the music and sang silently. Somehow, though she knew it would happen, she still startled when the chandelier fell. Her whole reaction to the musical was endearing. When the house lights came up after it was over, she wiped the tears from her eyes with both hands.
“Oh, that was wonderful. I love that musical so much.”
“I’m glad you enjoyed it. I would do anything to make you as happy as you look right now.” I kissed her on the cheek as we moved through the crowded theater. I concentrated hard on Samantha, my current state of undernourishment making it particularly difficult to rein in all of my instincts. I stopped breathing, which eased the situation until I locked eyes with a woman standing just ahead of me. Her heart rate spiked, and she blushed as her own instincts reacted. My hunger roared. I glanced away and forced myself to ignore the sound of her pulsing blood, then ushered Samantha through the straightest path I could discern to an exit. Once we were outside the theater, I sucked in a deep breath.