by Kate Wendley
Of course, he’d never feel like she truly knew him until she saw his home and what things were like with his family. He longed for her to accept every part of him, and she seemed happy to have him in her life, but in the back of his mind he felt like once he brought her into the midst of his family, things would change. But he liked to daydream of her seeing past the petty nonsense at home and insisting she was actually madly in love with him.
“Kaia, where’s your family? Where are your parents?” Anthony held her in his arms as they sat on her patio, gazing at the stars. The night was humid, but with Kaia pressed against him and the soft sound of music drifting out of her apartment, the night seemed magical.
She bluntly said, “They’re gone.”
He looked at her profile as she kept her eyes on the sky. “What do you mean gone?”
“They died in a house fire a long time ago.”
He jerked back. “I’m sorry to hear that. I didn’t know.” He watched her intently and noticed the oddest thing. He didn’t hear her heart speed up. It was like this didn’t matter to her.
She shrugged. “I don’t remember them, actually. I was too young.”
She didn’t move or even look at him as she talked.
“Who raised you then?”
“My aunt and uncle, at least until my aunt died. Then my uncle.”
She shifted in his arms and he patiently waited while she turned to face him.
“I think I need to bring my car in for an oil change. I can do it at lunch tomorrow.”
“What?”
“I’m overdue. And I can run through the carwash on my way home. I haven’t washed it in ages! I should get some groceries, too. Do you want me to just call you when I get home?”
“Uh, sure.”
“Ok. And I need to get a gift for a coworker’s new baby. Would you mind going shopping with me? She’s registered at this place across town.”
He smiled at her. They were a couple, a real live couple. “I’d love to.” He hugged her and she got comfortable in his arms again like she was meant to be there.
**
On Anthony’s way home he realized Kaia was purposely avoiding opening up to him. But why? He felt hurt that she’d distracted him from getting to know her better by talking about meaningless things tonight.
And in the next few nights, every time he dared to bring it up again, she would never go into details. His question would either get turned around to talking about what his life was like almost three hundred years ago, or she’d outright distract him by kissing and petting him and just all around loving him. And who was he to turn that down? He’d been starved for far too long for the kind of affection she so freely gave him, so he never pushed her.
He tried to shrug off his worries, but the more he thought about it, the more he wondered if she didn’t actually care enough about him to share the personal things in her life. That thought hurt, and he wasn’t sure he actually believed it, but he was out of his depth in this relationship and he knew it.
And it bothered him more than a little that she kept everything about her life so private from the time before she met Ethan and moved to Wild Woods. He’d never thought of himself as a jealous man, but he seemed to be getting more and more jealous of Ethan, and in turn, more and more suspicious of Kaia.
Despite that, his time with her in the here and now was the best of his life. He frequently forgot all about his stresses at home when he was with her, something he’d never figured out how to do before. So he tried to give her time and space to open up to him. Even so, his jealousy and suspicions continued to build as each night went by that she kept her past secret from him. At the same time, he knew he’d be devastated if he ever lost her.
But he could never forget he was vampire and she wasn’t, and lately a nagging feeling had been bothering him about the supposed Vampire Mother. Even though Zach and Sebastian hadn’t noticed anything different when they had his blood recently, Anthony was now positive something inside him was changing. He couldn’t put his finger on what it was, but he could no longer pretend he’d imagined the creature’s gift to him.
For now he tried not to think too hard on it because it was impossible to pinpoint what he felt. It was too subtle, a feeling of being more alert than usual, more in tune to the energies around him, but was it enough to be abnormal? He wasn’t sure, and it was maddening to try and figure out what he felt, so he stopped trying.
Instead he focused on Kaia, guiltily hoping that whatever was changing for him didn’t end up hurting her. He could walk away right now to make sure she stayed safe, but his heart wouldn’t let him do it. For the first time in his long life he had a woman he felt a true connection with. He refused to give that up just because they were so physically different.
And each night he was with her brought new experiences while she treated him as if he was the only one for her. She taught him all kinds of things, some intimate, but mostly about how to be himself with her. It was scary at first, his inexperience feeling awkward and childish, but he never felt judged by her.
He was at Kaia’s again tonight while they decided what they wanted to do. He sat on her sofa watching her pour herself a glass of juice in the kitchen. He loved looking at her, everything about her seeming wonderful and perfect. She was kind and loving, smart and beautiful, and, so far, the best thing that’d ever happened to him.
She had a tempting smirk on her face as she rejoined him. After putting her juice on the end table, she straddled across his lap, her body so incredibly warm against his.
“Hey baby.” She kissed his nose and he smiled as his hands roamed over her luscious rear end, pulling her willing body closer. She laid gentle butterfly kisses all over his face, then buried her hands in his hair, massaging him in that sensual way she was so good at. He closed his eyes and quietly moaned.
She whispered, “You’re so handsome, baby.”
He quietly scoffed. No matter how many times she said it, he still had a hard time believing she actually meant it. Perhaps it was the years upon years that his father had insisted he keep his mask in place once Anthony became vampire and learned how to use that power. Any single time he’d become distracted and let it slip over the years, even at home where there were no humans around, his father demanded he put it back on again. Anthony didn’t believe his father meant to be mean about it. He’d just wanted Anthony to fit in and find someone for himself, and he felt the only way he could would be to hide what he really looked like. The fact that no one in the house ever contradicted his father when he brought it up helped cement the fact that his face was better left covered.
He’d long ago quit wearing the mask, but not because he decided he looked fine without it. It just took too much effort to keep it in place, which made him tense and unable to relax around others for fear it would slip. And by that point his reputation for being stiff and unfriendly was mostly who he was, for better or worse, whether he was wearing his mask or not. If his father were here, though, he’d surely take him to task for not even trying to look civilized anymore.
He let those thoughts and memories go and focused on Kaia instead. She finger combed his hair back and laid a tender kiss on his forehead, making him happily sigh. He loved her soft touches.
She kissed his right cheek, then slowly made her way with kisses all over his face. He went completely still when he realized she was pointedly kissing his scar. His entire world was focused on her touching his hideousness. She very gently laid kiss after kiss all along it as it ripped up towards his eye, then back down and off the side of his cheek, ending under his ear. He couldn’t move and felt completely frozen as she touched him.
When her tongue gently flicked across the hardened skin, something inside him broke. His eyes teared up while he clenched his jaw and tensed even more than before. He sat as still as he could while she licked, kissed and tickled his scar.
**
Kaia startled when she thought she saw blood on Anthony’s face. His eyes wer
e closed and it looked like…
It looked like he’d shed a tear of blood. Between that and his tense posture, she realized she must’ve hit a raw nerve. She felt terrible for touching his scar so intimately and sat for a brief instant wondering what to do. If he were shedding regular tears she’d wipe them away, but they looked like watered down blood. Snapping to, she gingerly reached for a tissue on the table beside the sofa as Anthony lowered his head and turned away from her. She dabbed at his cheeks and guiltily asked, “Did I do something wrong baby?”
**
Anthony couldn’t speak. He was too choked up, and mad at himself for crying. Real men didn’t cry. He shook his head and felt Kaia get closer to him again, but he didn’t want to open his eyes. If he did, she’d see all the still unshed tears.
She whispered, “Do you want me to stop?” He kept his eyes shut tight and stiffly shook his head, feeling like a fool. He was pouting and crying like a child in the home of a beautiful woman. Who was he to think he should even be here? She was too good for him. She deserved someone beautiful and whole, just like her, but when she touched his cheek and tried to turn him back towards her, he let himself be bare for her. He faced her, though he still couldn’t look at her.
When she finger combed his hair back out of his face again, he felt like he’d been punched in the stomach. It reminded him vividly of the time Bethany, an extremely beautiful vampire, had been not so subtly hitting on him. She wanted to be a Queen, assuming he was the King after his father left to travel and passed leadership of the family on to him.
He’d asked Bethany if a beauty such as her could love a man that looked like he did. She’d laughed and said there was no such thing as love. Then she finger combed his hair over his left eye to cover his scar and told him he should use his power to cover his face.
She thought he was hideous, just like everyone else. But here was Kaia, telling him he was handsome while brushing the hair out of his face and kissing his scar. Kaia didn’t find him repulsive, and it felt like a punch in the gut. A wonderful, gut wrenching punch that he hoped to feel many more times.
She kissed him again, but only his scar this time. Up and down she went, kissing, touching and licking every inch, every disfigured and discolored hill and valley, and he couldn’t stop his tears. He distantly realized she wasn’t upset about them, she wasn’t even trying to wipe them away anymore. She just kept kissing him.
His mind was a mess, but he didn’t feel like a monster with her. With her he was just a normal man, and just like that, the weight of years of merely being tolerated, yet never accepted by anyone was suddenly gone. At least with Kaia. She made him feel whole.
He took a heavy, cleansing breath, then hugged her close, never wanting to let her go. He’d never felt like this with a woman before, never bared his soul like this. She’d found his weakness and kissed it away, at least for the night. He felt raw and exposed…
And free and loved.
**
Anthony pulled back. His expression was blank except for his dark, unreadable eyes, so Kaia wasn’t sure about his mood. Except that his muscles weren’t stiff. She’d learned that much about him over the last few weeks. His face didn’t usually give much away, but his tense muscles did.
Right now his muscles felt relaxed, though the air felt heavy between them. Another thing she’d been getting used to. He’d told her he always kept his magical power tightly controlled, but she’d figured out that when he was being privately emotional, the air right around him felt thick and charged.
He didn’t talk much about how he felt, and when he did, it seemed hard for him to want to speak the words out loud, so she’d learned to focus on his body language instead. And right now, he was being intense, but something else, too. Not anxious and upset, but she wasn’t sure how to read this mood yet.
So she slowly leaned in and kissed his jawline, nuzzling her way to his neck. His strong hands and sureness of touch felt possessive as he held her and urged her on. It never took much to get her excited about his body, but this didn’t feel like them feeding their usual frantic lust for each other. This felt like so much more, like she belonged to him and that he was finally deciding on what that meant for him.
He pulled back and shimmied her shirt off, and he was so focused on his task she wouldn’t dare tell him no. Not that she wanted to. Her bra was next on his list of seeming irritants, quickly removed and tossed aside. His sure hands pressed her back, firmly guiding her to lay down in front of him. Her heart beat harshly in her chest as he watched her, his expression still unreadable, though his increasingly heavy breaths and brightening flecks in his dark eyes gave away his desire.
She ran her hands over her bare skin, and when she cupped her breasts, his mouth fell open in craving, though no sound came out. Her own breaths became heavy when a magical force unfastened the line of buttons all the way down Anthony’s shirtfront. The sight of his incredibly sexy bare chest as the soft fabric fell open easily distracted from her awe at his supernatural abilities that he only occasionally used around her.
His gaze felt heavy when he huskily said, “You like looking at me?”
She could only nod as she stared into his brightening eyes, his fangs already peeking out just barely within view.
He dropped his shirt on the ground, then leaned over and passionately kissed her. She whimpered at his need as his tongue danced with hers, tasting and quickly devouring her growing desire. His long, silky hair fell against her bare skin and tickled her while his firm chest grazed her pert nipples. Every brush of skin felt electric at this point.
He pulled back and tossed his long hair over his shoulder while he trailed kisses down her body, making her tremble at a brief nibble to her nipple before turning his intense attention on getting her out of her jeans.
He was quieter than usual as he watched her, his expression purposeful and steady, and traces of blood tearstains on his face making him seem foreign and dangerous. His hands quickly returned to her bare flesh, purposefully caressing and teasing her everywhere until she was writhing uncontrollably for him.
He began unfastening his pants and she decided she had to have him. She sat up to help him, but he immediately pressed her back down again. He gave her an intense look and she felt locked in his gaze, still wondering about his mood, so she stayed put as her hips rocked up and down. He tortured her by watching her intently as he neither rushed nor took his time in disrobing himself.
It was the most excruciating few moments of her life. She needed his hands on her and his incredibly hard body pressed against her.
He waited to come to her, though. He watched her as he sat naked in front of her and lazily caressed one of her thighs, driving her insane because he was still giving her that intense look that she wasn’t sure what to make of it. She slowly went mad wondering when he’d kiss her again, when he would put his strong, possessive hands on her, and when he’d claim her as his.
She stared at his mouth as she imagined his bite. He bit her every time they made love. Every time his hard, solid body was in her arms, thrusting in and out of her wetness, his determination to make her his own with every intense movement until finally, finally when he moved just the right way, finally when she felt his body tighten up even more than it already was, finally when his movements became just a little more out of control, when both their breaths were heavy and their whimpers overwhelmed any other sounds…
He teased her thighs a moment longer, then spread her legs and took his time tasting her. She moaned in need because she wanted more than just his tongue in her. She ached to have him inside her, and when she looked down at him, he was watching her. He knew how crazy he was making her. After a maddening amount of time, he finally crawled up her body and teased her nipple with his tongue. She felt so frantic by this point that she wanted to tackle him and force herself on him.
It never came to that. She whimpered piteously when he slid slowly inside her, and his silence was finally broken with his quiet gas
ps as he thrust in and out of her wetness. She never knew she could be so wet for someone, but her need for him was more incredible than anything she’d ever felt before.
He gave her more intense looks, but he couldn’t hold his gaze steady on her as his lean hips rocked back and forth, every single one of his muscles flexing as his attention drifted to her neck. She trembled and frantically urged him on, her body so sensitive and frantic for him that she couldn’t think straight. She pressed his head closer, wanting his electric bite worse than anything in the world.
He wickedly held back while her body became fever pitched with desperation for him. When he finally kissed, nibbled, then bit down on her neck, the intensity inside her exploded. He hungrily rode her through her orgasm, and at some point during her bliss, he came as well. They rocked in each other’s arms as they came down from their incredible highs, then finally just held each other as their tremors slowly subsided.
Anthony pulled her on top of himself and wrapped his arms possessively around her and Kaia prayed he’d never let her go.
Chapter 26
If Kaia had worried things were going a little too well with Anthony in the last few awesome weeks they’d been seeing each other, the one thing that reminded her that everything wasn’t exactly perfect was that he hadn’t invited her to his home yet.
Until tonight.
He’d be here to pick her up in about half an hour, and she was nervous. This felt like a really big deal, even after all the weird stuff she’d learned since they’d first met. And since she still had to pull it out of him if she wanted to know how he felt about things, for him to finally invite her to his home made her think he’d decided things were definitely serious between them.
Which of course scared her. He’d told her so much about himself, even if she had to prompt him for the info, but she hadn’t shared everything about herself with him, and it made her feel bad. It wasn’t even that she didn’t want to, it was that she couldn’t get the words out. Every time she even thought about her past, her head began to swim, her heart raced and she got sick to her stomach all at the same time.