“I don’t know, Pete,” she said, burying her head into his shoulders. Her body shivered from the cool sea air, despite Pete’s closeness. Pete took his Armani jacket off to drape it around her bare shoulders.
“I told you that my father is involved with the Detroit mob,” she said, finally warming up with the silky material against her skin. “When I moved here I decided to put the mob behind me. But now I’m starting to think that it’s forever going to be a part of me. I thought it was something I had to escape. But you’re starting to make me think it’s something I should embrace.”
“I never knew that you felt that way, Darlene,” Pete stammered. “The last thing I ever imagined was dragging you into this life.”
“No, Pete, you don’t understand,” she whispered. “You’re not dragging me into anything. I knew what you did. Sure, you may have hidden the truth at first, but you did come clean. I respect that about you. You didn’t want to lie to me once you knew that you loved me.”
Pete couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “So you’re saying that you want to live like this?” he asked. Pulling his head away from her, he stared into her moonlit eyes. The gleam in her eyes was like the stars themselves reflecting back at him. “I’ll give you any kind of life you could imagine, Darlene. We can L.A, we can leave the country.”
Darlene laughed into Pete’s chest. The comfort of his warmth returned to her. Now the boat no longer seemed like something on which she was jettisoned. Darlene imagined the boat as their own private island. The lights of the city were so far off that she could barely make them out unless she squinted her eyes.
“That’s some proposition,” Darlene smiled.
“Darlene, if you want me to, I can run things here for Vic. It’s going to be a big responsibility. I have big shoes to fill. And I think what I’m telling you is that if I’m going to be a strong man, I’m going to need a strong woman around in my life. A woman like you.”
Darlene blushed, but was also dumbfounded. She wondered, is this some kind of marriage proposal? Until this point, Darlene never considered the idea that Pete wanted something long-term with her. There was no denying the attraction they shared, but in Darlene’s heart she feared to get attached to him.
“I can be the woman you need,” she said.
“I know you can.”
“I can be more than that, too.”
“I know you can.” His lips lingered inches away from hers. “But I’m not just proposing that you and I become an item.”
Pete lowered himself down to the ground, and balanced himself on one knee. He looked up at her, and smiled with his eyes wide. Darlene was now entranced in the way the moon shone in his eyes.
“I know we rushed into things, Darlene,” Pete laughed. “I know some people would call us fools for that. But if we’re going to live this life together, I promise you that I will take care of you and love you until I die. With you by my side I feel like I can run the world. I feel like I can be the best man I can be. I want to cherish you, Darlene. I want to spend every dollar and then some on you. Hell, I’ll move to Detroit and rob every bank in the Great Lakes area with your father, if that’s what you wanted.”
Darlene’s face grew hot, even in the cool, salty air. All of a sudden she felt the moisture rising behind her eyes, and the tears welled up like raindrops falling down her cheek.
“Darlene, I know that we just met,” Pete went on, “But I would love nothing more than to take your hand in marriage. Will you marry me, Darlene?”
Pete’s words echoed in the silence of the night, and forever after in Darlene’s ears. There had been men in her life who had confessed her love to her before, but none of them like this. None them ever officially got down on one knee and proposed to her. Darlene felt like she was stuck in that continuous dream. She was nearly convinced that she was still in Detroit, fast asleep or potentially in a coma, and that this gorgeous man kneeling below, and Los Angeles, and the boat, the money, and the dead guy in her apartment—all of it was a dream. How could it be real?
But it is real, she thought. This wasn’t exactly the life she imagined, but somehow it seemed like something better. It was the perfect synthesis of her old life and her new life. She realized that Pete was still kneeling, and that all of her thinking had left him hanging.
“Yes, Pete. I’ll marry you. I’ll be the woman in your life. And I want you to be the man in my life.”
Pete stood up and looked toward his new fiancé’s beautiful, moonlit face. It took no time for their lips to find each other’s, and as Darlene opened her mouth to take in Pete’s tongue, the salt of her tears was shared between both of them. In the friction of their kiss, Darlene was blindsided by a surge of lust that came over her. Pete was now going to be her man for life. They were going to get married. The fact that he wanted her in such a way made Darlene pulsate with joy.
“I need you right now, Pete,” Darlene said. She had only been intimate with him the one time, and if that and a few days of romantic drama was enough for Pete to fall for her, then she’d have to consummate it right away. If she was going to marry this man, she needed to please him. She needed to feel him inside of her. She needed to taste him this time.
Since he had just knelt down on the one knee for her, she felt like it was her turn. With Pete standing up, it was Darlene’s turn to drop to her knees. She felt the cool wood of the boat under her knees. A wad of cash rested uncomfortably under her leg until she kicked it aside. It went overboard, and Darlene nearly choked.
“Don’t worry, baby,” Pete said. He put his hand on the back of her head. “I’m not worried about it. I’m more interested in what you’re about to do to me.”
Darlene smiled. That comment made her feel like more than the amount of money she just put into the ocean. The thought of the green paper becoming useless fled from her mind—her attention was back to Pete’s body. Reaching her hands forward she smoothed her hands along the backside of his Armani pants. Staring at where his dick rested behind the pants and underwear, Darlene sat there on her knees licking her lips. She wanted Pete to look at her. She wanted Pete to see how much she craved him in her mouth.
“I love you, Darlene,” Pete moaned.
“I love you too, baby,” Darlene said. She looked into his eyes and imagined the life of danger they would indulge in, licked her lips, and then gave him her mouth.
THE END
Bonus Story 17 of 50
Mated to the Vampires
Allison
“I can’t believe you’re doing this Ali, you really don’t have to move,” my best friend Rylen pouted and gave me her big blue puppy eyes. I sighed and then went over to give her a big hug.
“It’s time for a change, it’s something I have to do,” I said and she squeezed me tight before eventually letting go.
“Alright…I’m coming to visit once you’re settled in okay?” she gave me a pointed look and I laughed.
“Yes, I want you to come visit. Don’t worry, as soon as I get the guest room set up we’re getting you a ticket,” I told her and she nodded with a heavy sigh.
“Okay…face time me every day and don’t forget to give Maddy a call too from time to time. He’ll miss you,” Maddy was Rylen’s brother and we had all been friends for a long time. Though Maddy and I had grown apart some when he moved out of the city for work.
“I’ll keep in touch with everyone, don’t worry Ry. Now I really have to go before I miss my flight,” I told her and she sighed again.
“Okay… Call me when you land,” she said after hugging me once more. I grabbed the handle of my carry on and then finally took my first steps towards a new life. I was moving to Old Town, Maine from Jersey City. Yeah it was a big change, but I wanted the change, I felt as if my sanity counted on it. Once I was settled on the plane I got comfortable in my seat and pretty much zoned everything out until the beautiful landscape of Maine was below me. I felt like a little kid with my nose pressed against the window.
Th
e end of fall was probably the wrong time to move all the way to Maine, but I was sure the winters couldn’t be that much worse compared to Jersey. Plus, everything looked so… green.
Getting off the plane and catching a cab to my new house took a few hours. But once I was standing in the foyer I took a deep breath and felt like I had done the right thing. Thankfully, movers had gotten everything set up for the most part. All I had to do was empty a few boxes in each room and unpack the stuff in my suitcases. I walked leisurely through the house, it was pretty big, but I loved the charm of it. There were four bedrooms, three and a half baths, an updated kitchen with adjoining dining room. Then there was the downstairs living room, sun room, and out back a nice deck. Upstairs there was a family room and surrounding it a couple of bedrooms, the others were on the lower floor. The house was perfect. I could see myself there forever, maybe with a husband eventually and a couple of kids…
A heavy knock sounded on the door and I wondered who would be visiting me. I hurried down to answer it without checking first and discovered a huge… gorgeous guy standing on the porch.
“Hello, my name is Blayne,” he said in a deep, friendly voice. He was definitely upwards of six feet and built to go along with it. Though it was chilly—forty degrees—he wore a short-sleeved black shirt and khaki shorts. From the look of his thick, defined arms he definitely worked out a lot.
“Uh… Hi, I’m Allison,” I smiled at him politely and he merely smirked in return. There was something about his frosty blue eyes, the way they focused on me, that was vaguely unsettling. Otherwise he was gorgeous, he looked like he stepped out of an Armani ad. He had that chiseled jaw and chin, perfect cheekbones, not too high or defined. He had thick lashes around his eyes and a razor straight nose. His eyebrows weren’t too thick or too feminine looking. Also he had that perfect five o’clock shadow accented by curly shoulder length hair that was loose around his shoulders.
“I live just next door and I saw that someone was moving in, now here you are,” he smiled at me and I chuckled, a bit nervously.
“Yeah, I uh, I’m coming from new Jersey, so my things got moved in before I did,” I said and he nodded slowly, his eyes looking around over my shoulder.
“I used to know the couple who lived here before you, they moved south for fairer weather,” he said conversationally and then his eyes locked onto mine… again with that strange unsettling focus. “Anyhow, I just wanted to welcome you into the neighborhood. We are a pretty close knit community here… sometimes people don’t take too kindly to outsiders. But I’m sure you’ll fit in,” he said and took a step back, as if to leave.
“Wait, what do you mean people don’t take too kindly to outsiders?” I asked him, that was definitely a weird thing of him to say.
“Like I said… it’s a close knit community,” was all he replied and then with one last wave, he turned around and left. I closed the door and locked it behind him… That was definitely weird. I tried not to let his words bother me, hopefully I wouldn't have trouble with him. I really liked the house and I thought Maine was a beautiful place. Whatever, I wouldn’t let him scare me, that was for sure.
*****
Blayne
“Dammit,” I muttered to myself as I all but ran from Allison’s porch. I had one job and one I was good at. To turn away outsiders, human or otherwise, get them to leave, or run them out of town if I had to. Yet one look at her aquamarine eyes and I couldn’t even deliver my script correctly. Instead of instilling a real caution or fear in her, I probably only made myself seem like a weirdo.
Then her scent seemed to follow me off of the porch, it was like some mixture of fruit and heat that had my brain misfiring. We usually hardly drank directly from humans anymore, but dammit if I hadn’t had about seven different fantasies of taking her vein right there on the porch. This was a problem, this was definitely a problem… and I needed to get a grip.
“Blayne!” the familiar voice of my buddy Alec, and also the future leader of our coven, beckoned me from the front door of my house.
“What are you doing here?” the question came out a lot more brusquely than I had intended and part of me knew it was due to instinct, a territorial urge, because on some baser level he was close to Allison and I wanted her…though I shouldn’t.
“Whoa, I’m not welcome at your home?” he asked me and I took a deep breath.
“Sorry, I’m distracted. What’s up?” I asked as I stepped inside after him.
“Well there’s another house that’s been built in our territory and we think it’s another human moving into town.” Alec sighed and ran his hand through his blond hair, it was always cut short and perfectly combed back on his head.
“I’m already on that first assignment, can’t Luke handle this one?” I asked, Luke was another fighter of my kind, we were bred to be cunning and stealthy. When the coven wasn’t in times of war, we were utilized to keep the territory clean of unwanted squatters… as we called them.
“I figured you’d be done dispatching that one already. Isn’t the house right next to here?” Alec walked over to the window in the living room and looked out at Allison’s house.
“I fell behind. I was supposed to get rid of her stuff before she got here…but—well now things have changed,” I said and Alec looked at me with a quirked eyebrow.
“It’s a she now?” he asked and I rolled my eyes.
“Yes the human who moved in next door is a woman. Don’t worry, I just have to scare her enough and she’s gone,” Alec nodded, he didn’t seem at all concerned that I had dropped the ball and was even referring to an outsider as she. Usually we spoke of them in the vaguest terms, not putting any sort of persona to them.
“Alright then, I’ll go to Luke with the other case. Don’t forget the council meeting tonight,” he said and then disappeared. All vampires now of days had evolved that little sensitivity to the sun out of our genes. Though it did pop up from time to time and it was seen as a disorder. Along with all the heightened natural abilities and senses, we could disperse our cells, dematerialize, and inherently ghost away. It was a faster way to travel and track prey. Though in modern times the most hunting we did was break into blood banks and steal some bags for the added nutrition we needed. Humans would have been surprised though, there were just about as many of us on Earth as humans. Their census was all out of whack, the correct number of humans on Earth was about half of what modern governments thought. Though to keep the peace, we vampires simply blended in and lived intermingled with the humans. Though we had our own underground governments and ways of life.
As I paced my living room, I kept glancing out the window, wondering what Allison was doing, if she was unpacking or wondering about what I said. If I showed up at her door again she’d probably call the cops or something.
“Hey Blayne,” Alec materialized in the room not five minutes after he had left. “Luke wants to set a fire in that construction site where the new house is being built. But he needs your help,” Alec said and I gestured to him.
“Why can’t you help him?”
“Because I’m lazy, you know this, and my father wants me to shadow him on a meeting with a neighboring coven leader,” Alec answered and I waved him away and nodded.
“Alright, I’ll meet with Luke,” with that Alec was gone once more. I used the same method of transportation, willing myself apart and away to get to Luke’s home.
“There you are, I was going to call you, but Alec said something about wanting to waste time…” Luke said and I shook my head and chuckled. Alec enjoyed stressing his father for some unfathomable reason.
“Alec is a strange one, but when has he not been? So are we committing arson today?” Luke chuckled and rubbed his hands together in anticipation. He was a burly guy with strong masculine features that drew females left and right. But Luke was normally a gentle soul, apart from when he did his job of course.
“Yes, though it will waste whoever’s money it is. At least I don’t have to go
about harassing the outsider. I hope I’m not taking you away from your assignment?” he asked me and I shrugged.
“This one will take a bit of time, but it is nothing to worry over,” I said dismissively and Luke nodded.
“Alright, so this is what I was thinking. The house is nearly complete and it appears as if the electric systems are being currently installed. We could easily sabotage a bit of wiring, then flip a switch and…” Luke made a blowing up gesture with his hands, his eyes gone wide in youthful excitement and I chuckled.
“Very well, are there any personnel on the site right now?” I asked him and he shook his head.
“It’s Sunday, no work has taken place today so we can go right now and get things set up,” he said and gestured me to follow him to the site. It was strange that I could feel a physical pull towards Allison the farther from her that I got.
*****
Alec
“So you’re saying the humans are onto members of your coven because of their sloppiness in stealing from the blood banks in your territory,” I broke the silence that ensued after Victor, the head of our neighboring coven in Newport, gave his speech. He wanted access to our blood banks until suspicions surrounding the ones in his territory died down. “So now you want to use the banks in our territory…” Victor seemed annoyed, but attempted to hide it. He couldn’t afford not to keep things peaceful with my father and I. Our territory and our coven was larger and more powerful than Victor's.
“Of course we would not step on any toes. If we collaborate on schedules I’m sure we can figure out a system to share for only a matter of a couple months,” Victor said and my father, Orin, shook his head.
“Pardon my son’s harsh tongue. But you must admit Victor, this plan, even before conception, is not a good one. The runners of your coven seem sloppy and rushed, greedy even. If I allowed you to make runs on the banks here then I’d be putting my own coven in the same situation yours is in,” my father spoke in measured tones and exuded confidence and power. Some would say that I still had much to learn from him. Yeah I was less patient than he, but I was just as smart as he. Victor took a great long sigh and pressed his lips together.
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