She murmured her assent against his mouth, afraid to say more. It had taken so much courage to admit she was in love. Cole seemed to understand and concentrated on her body, leaving her time to recover her emotions without further conversation.
His hand found its way to her breast, soft and abundant, her nipple already beginning to pebble just from his nearness. He released her lips and stared at the mound in his hand. “Perfect, so perfect,” he whispered. “Lush, like peaches, white and ripe. Delicious,” he murmured as he lowered his head and wrapped his tongue around the areola.
Her breath caught as he moaned against her skin, as sweet a sound as she’d ever heard. He suckled her, pulling her into his mouth, rolling her nipple between his teeth. He mimicked the motions of his tongue and teeth on her other breast with his fingers. Her hands tangled in his hair, rhythmic motions kneading his scalp. He switched to her other breast, humming. The vibration sank into her very bones, so that even the sounds he made became a part of her.
He began to move down her body, kissing, licking, murmuring, leaving a trail of endearments and love that marked her as surely any of the fang marks he had already left on her body. He moved past her navel, his hands traveling everywhere that his mouth didn’t. As he neared the clutch of hair covering her intimate aspects, it was the most natural, the most appropriate action in the world for her legs to open for him, for her to breathe encouragement and appreciation for what he was doing, for her to let him in. She would have no secrets from him. Body and mind, she would always be open to him.
He was right: this was what they were meant for. They had been created for loving each other. No other woman could ever enjoy his touch the way she did. She was blatant in her sheer need for his body, his skills, but more importantly, she was blatant in her need for his tenderness, his words of love, the physical expression of what his heart felt. His need was every bit as great, requiring her love to give him substance. Even now in answer to his requirements, she was whispering love and adoration to him.
His tongue delved between her private lips, licking delicately at the wetness already seeping from her. He explored her core, smiling when she arched upwards, reaching for more of him. He spread his hand across her lower stomach, steadying her, calming her, even as his tongue drove her closer to madness. He sought out her most sensitive spot, nudging and rubbing it with the stiff tip of his tongue before sucking on it, sending her falling into orgasm. As her shudders subsided, he climbed up her body, licking, caressing, until he reached her mouth and could kiss her again. He pulled back to look at her and smile. Her lips parted as she breathed heavily, eyes unfocused, as tremors still shook her. His face was full of desire.
“I want you,” he told her. “I want you so much.” Longing made his voice hoarse and his Irish accent deeper.
With eyes that were still glazed from the pleasure he had brought her, she tried to interpret the expression on his face. She realized he was asking permission. “Oh, Cole, yes. I want you, too,” she told him.
He hesitated still. “With all that’s happened, is it fair? Do I have the right to ask what I have of you? I don’t want to hurt you. I think I could very well love you, but I....”
She silenced him by pulling him down to her lips. “I’m willing to risk it. Love me, Cole. Just love me,” she ordered. She was tired of their constant waffling. Someone had to be decisive and she didn’t mind if she was the one to make the choice.
She reached for the buckle of his belt. He let her take the initiative in removing his pants, only separating himself from her long enough to remove his shoes and shuck his jeans onto the floor. He lay beside her, half on her, proof of his desire grinding into her hip as he began to touch her. He kissed her again, deeply, letting her feel all his longing. She responded with a need as great, and he moaned into her mouth.
He slid one long finger inside her, going quiet. His sudden stillness concerned her, and she said his name tentatively. He moved that one finger carefully and watched her face. She moaned slightly when he probed a bit deeper. “I love watching you enjoy what I do,” he said. “I love the way you feel around me and the way you feel inside my mind.” He nuzzled against her neck. “I want to feel your mind.”
Sam curled her arms over his silky dark hair as he licked the spot he wanted so badly. She wanted to feel his mind as much as he wanted to feel hers. “Yes. Bite,” she said breathlessly and gasped as needle-sharp teeth sank deeper into her body than they ever had before. Suddenly she was no longer alone. Cole was with her in a way that was impossible to explain. Cole was Sam and Sam was Cole.
The Sam part of them sighed in disappointment when the Cole part pulled away from the spot where he’d been sending jolts of pleasure through her. The tiny bit of blood he took was never enough; she wanted him to drink forever. Still, he insisted it was enough. She now felt everything he was feeling and his thoughts were hers.
Right now, as he looked into her smiling face, he was overcome with a sense of rightness. Laughter and love with her was why he was created, he had decided. This, not the blood and the violence, not the night and the darkness, nor the day and the light; this softness, this rain-gray tinted gentleness was why he had been born, why he had been turned immortal. Everything in his life had led to finding her, had led to this moment.
He latched his mouth onto hers, firmly intending to never release her lips again. His hands moved of their own volition over her, pleasing her, bringing her ever closer to ecstasy. Her moans and cries of bliss slid over his tongue, the food that his heart craved. Only when she was as close as he could bring her to utter bliss did he lower himself onto her, slowly pushing into her.
“Samantha,” he rasped, biting his lip in his efforts not to hurt her with his inhuman strength, though he wanted nothing more than to be deep inside her. Sam fed that desire, pushing just as desperately against him, wanting him inside her, wanting to be joined to him. She insisted he stop treating her like she’d never had a man before. His laughter rolled through their connected minds.
He knew that she wasn’t a virgin; that she was an experienced woman, well versed in the sexual act. But some part of him, some hidden romantic, felt that he was her first real lover. No man knew her mind and body the way he did. She smiled inside, lighting both their minds. His joy was hers and it pleased him immensely that he was the first man to touch her mind this way. In some subliminal way, this made her even more his. And it made this act even more special, more precious than mere sex. He was determined that each time be as perfect as he could make it.
As gently as he could, he pushed deeper inside her. He felt her moan against him, not in pain, but in pleasure. He pushed again, eliciting another pleased sound from her. He smiled and continued to rock into her until she begged him with word and thought to enter her completely and stop driving her crazy. With one smooth push, he sheathed himself in her.
“Oh, God, Cole. Oh, God.” Sam could feel every curve of him. He’d never filled her this way before. He felt so perfect. She melted as he began a slow, steady rhythm, nearly withdrawing from her completely before he pressed back into her, deeper each time. He shifted so that each thrust gave her the most pleasure. She wrapped her legs around his shoulders, his neck, opening herself as much as possible to him. The subtlest movements of his body sent waves of sensation through her. He was all that mattered. Nothing else existed, for either of them. There was only this joining, this becoming one.
He was so close to completion. She could feel his body tightening, coiling, as he felt the first flutters of her release building. But only when he felt her tightness squeezing him, only when she began to cry his name, did he allow himself to let go. Only when he knew she was achieving fulfillment, only then, driving as deeply into her as he could, did he spill himself into her, crying out his need for her.
Cole held her tightly, emotions and thoughts flowing freely between them.
Perhaps Heaven possessed some small measure of mercy; perhaps the universe was not ruled by a c
old and unfeeling deity; perhaps there was some degree of justice in the cosmos. In their moment of mutual rapture, as their minds were opened to one another as they had been when Cole tasted Samantha’s blood for the first time. They each felt not only the physical joy of their coupling, but experienced the emotions they had for one another. Cole found the love he thought dead inside him. With the greatest of joy he proclaimed his love for her with voice and thought.
As they lay quiet and sated, he kissed her gently and thanked her for giving him this new life and this chance to love again. Lying comfortably in each other’s arms, they were each flooded with the love the other felt. His elation was hers and her joy was his. There was no separation between them; they were one life and one soul, a single being. They were one and they knew the surety of the love they had found. They both felt that in all the world, there were no two people who were so lucky or so complete.
Chapter Six
The Hotel California was friendly, inviting, and comfortable. By the end of their first week in residence, Sam decided that if she had to live in LaLa Land, this would be the way to do it. Cole’s anxieties eased away as his fears that Falcon would pursue them diminished. Without the strain of worry and secure in Samantha’s love, his immortal face seemed more youthful and the energy that filled his body was free of tension that knotted his muscles.
Their days were spent sleeping peacefully with the windows open, allowing in the cool ocean breezes. Afternoons were time for love or cuddling on the couch before they ventured out to watch the antics of the population down on Muscle Beach. With the declining sun shining down, Cole would don his dark glasses and they’d walk along Ocean Front Walk until they saw something interesting enough to move them to find a bench and sit for a while. It might be the gymnasts or the body builders on Muscle Beach, or the players in the Chess Park.
Once a group of college types convinced Cole to act as the white knight in a game of chess played on the life-sized board. Sam had laughed until she could barely stand at the dismay on his face at being considered the white knight. In the face of her amusement, he couldn’t help but shrug deprecatingly and let her lead him onto the appropriate big square of the board. As he began to enter into the spirit of the game, he forgot to be embarrassed and laughed along with Sam and the other players. Before long, he was leading the silliness and the entire group was howling at his antics. But he’d sobered and kissed Sam as if she were the only woman he’d ever seen when he found she wanted to save the drink straw he had brandished as a sword when he’d defeated the black queen.
Evenings found them on the pier. Cole liked to ride the big Ferris wheel and look over at the lights below or to sit on a carriage seat and go round and round on the antique Victorian carousel. Sam liked both equally well. Sitting comfortably with Cole’s arm around her shoulders while he talked about whatever struck his fancy was good enough for her. One night he won a silver ring at one of the carny booths and presented it to her with all the solemnity he could muster. She let him slide it on her finger. He kissed her ring finger and tucked her hand under his arm before carrying her off to the Hotel California to love the rest of the night away. To his everlasting joy, she hadn’t taken the ring off since he’d put it there.
As they explored the bits of Modesto that were in walking distance, one week turned into two and then into three. Halcyon and somewhat unreal, the days and nights flowed by without any hindrance or upset to the perfect world they found themselves in.
* * * *
Sam’s smile grew as she shifted her hips against Cole and watched pleasure flit across his handsome face. Over the past month, she had discovered that driving Cole completely to distraction was immensely fulfilling. She had never imagined that possessing Cole, taking the initiative, could feel so good. Watching him building a new life for himself was immensely gratifying. Knowing how hard it was for him to recover from the wounds Falcon had inflicted only increased her admiration for him.
He deserved so much more than life had dealt him so far. Without any other distractions, Sam decided to fulfill the impulsive oath she’d made after reading of his death. As she did back in Odessa, she now swore her existence to seeing that Cole was happy again. Cole had become Sam’s reason for being.
Cole knew, of course. Each time they exchanged blood or found themselves deep in the delights of sex, their thoughts became one. She couldn’t hide her intentions from him. And upon receiving his burst of elation as he read her thoughts, she couldn’t be sorry he knew.
In return, giving Sam pleasure had become Cole’s priority. Seeing to her needs and wants now filled his days and nights, just as the reverse had become true for Sam. And over and over Cole insisted Sam was necessary for his recovery. He needed her very real feelings for him. She knew that vampires fed on two things—blood and emotion. He insisted Sam’s care for him was enough to sustain that mystical part of him. He needed little more than the bit of blood she gave him and her devotion. He felt no need to hunt the night for blood.
Sam opened her eyes and took in his smiling face. She still couldn’t believe he was really there. She’d been his lover for over a month now but there was a still a dreamlike quality to it all. No work-a-day job to hurry off to, no friends and relatives to deal with, no real responsibilities. There was only Sam and Cole. Nothing else really mattered anymore. She felt as though she was on a perpetual vacation.
“Or a honeymoon.” Cole kissed her suddenly rosy breast.
She couldn’t control the flush that stole across her chest and up to color her face.
“I’ve often wondered what a honeymoon would feel like,” he said solemnly. “I believe you Texans may have the right idea. Simply saying I’m your husband should be sufficient to make it legally so.”
There were emotions attached to those words that confused and slightly panicked Sam. They added to the unreality she so often felt. In her dreams, she had wanted this for so long, for someone to love her this way. Sharing the little apartment with Cole, acknowledged as Cole’s lover, spending each night in his company and each day in his bed, was all Sam had wished it could be. She was often afraid to go to sleep, fearful that she would awaken to discover it was, in truth, an illusion. And now he was saying he wanted it to stay this way forever.
She shifted forward and kissed him with everything she felt. His smile remained in place when Sam withdrew from his lips and lay back on the pillows. The glow in those purple eyes was worth more than the most expensive whatnot in that palatial hotel she’d first landed in. It was worth more than the whole of the Regent Beverly Wiltshire and everything in it. Its worth was greater than the diamonds she now habitually carried in her pocket.
Cole pulled Sam’s hand to his mouth, kissing it gently before releasing it. The pure love that flowed from him was sweeter than anything she had ever felt. She wanted to return that love. And as much as she tried to rationalize it, there was no other word for the emotion that flowed between them. She couldn’t deny that what Cole felt for her, and what she felt for him was pure love.
There were still issues for them both. Sam felt that everything around her was a chimera, likely to evaporate at any moment. And she feared that even if there was an aspect of reality to it, Cole merely loved her because she gave him what Falcon never had. She wasn’t sure that her support and caring for him was enough to sustain a long-term love affair. She was certain that at some point he would find her too plebian and boring for him. He insisted she was completely wrong.
So they capitulated. Sam agreed to live her illusion for however long it lasted, and Cole promised he’d view her in an utterly realistic light. Right now, their mental link glowed with his emotions. He wanted Sam to know how he felt. He wanted her to feel his love. And he wanted her to love him.
With a smile, she reached down and wrapped her hand around him, her fingers sliding easily over his flesh. Cole sighed in bliss, opening his mind as fully as he could to her. She felt his joy in her actions. It felt good to not have to make al
l the decisions, to not be the one responsible for everything, to be the one who was cared for, for a change. He surrendered himself to her and gloried in allowing his lover control. It didn’t matter that she was lying beneath him; Sam was in complete control of his body at the moment. He shivered at her touch. That one hand, so small and delicate that Cole could crush it with little more than flexing his finger, now ruled his existence. His world had narrowed to the feel of her beneath him and that one hand bringing him such ecstasy. He bit his lip as she continued to manipulate him, making him tremble and pant.
Sam gently guided him further back, positioning and pressing him against her heat, and watched his eye begin to glow and fill with violet fire. She smiled tenderly at her lover and lifted her hips insistently, pressing against him. “Push, Cole,” she whispered. “Now. Please.” She brought her hand up and caressed his cheek, sending him the love he needed so desperately from her. “Push.”
Continued wonder at the miracle of connection that physicality brought them filled Cole’s mind and spilled into hers. With that wonder lighting his face, he complied, easing into his beloved Samantha until they were completely joined. He stilled, simply resting, locked in his lover’s body, overcome by the feel of her around him.
He’d never been allowed this with Falcon. He was expected to see to her pleasure and though she’d seen that he enjoyed their encounters he saw now that she’d used that as part of her manipulation. Good sex wasn’t a decent surrogate for love. Sam kissed him deeply and held him close. He had long ago given up any hope of ever sharing this sort of oneness with anyone. Now they were both besieged by sensation and overwhelmed by emotion. She could only stare up at his beauty as her heart filled her chest to near bursting.
Cole stroked her face with his thumb as he said, “You were right when you told me that what happened to me was wrong, and that it wasn’t the way it should be.” His smile was as loving as any she had ever seen on his face. “You said if this happened with someone who really cared, if it happened with love, it could be better than anything I’d ever had.” He took her hand again and kissed it. Violet-blue eyes inundated her senses and a whisper-soft voice filled her being. “You were right. It is. Make all of my life that way for me, Sam. Never leave me.”
Vampire Encounters - Second Chances Page 11