Chapter Seven
When Eliza woke up again, she was exactly where she wanted to be. She knew he was close before she even opened her eyes. She could smell him, and she could smell the spicy orange scent of his linens, and the lavender sage of his body wash. This was what home smelled like. She should have never fought against it.
However, there was another smell that was less welcome. Blood. Not that the smell of blood was distasteful, far from it. It smelled better than all other scents of that room combined. It smelled like Christmas cookies, summer rain, melted chocolate, and fresh squeezed lemonade all at once. But she didn’t want to know why she smelled so much blood in Levi’s bedroom.
She opened her eyes carefully. The world looked different. Like when you’re near-sighted and put on your first pair of glasses, and see it crisp and clear for the first time. Levi smiled down on her tentatively. He looked different too. Better. Somehow, his hair and skin seemed less pale. It seemed to glow like he was an angel, not a demon. She knew that he hadn’t actually changed, she had.
A pinch in her arm showed her the source of the scent of blood. A tube filled with red was attached to her arm. She was being fed blood with an IV bag, and considering how many empty bags were in the bin—a lot of blood. She knew what this meant. She had been strangled, which wouldn’t have caused her to lose blood and need a transfusion. This meant that she had crossed to the other side and needed the blood for sustenance.
When Levi saw her eyeing the bag, his smile faded. He sat on the bed next to her and squeezed her hand.
“I’m so sorry,” he said.
Eliza released a shaky breath. “I’m dead,” she said.
“Yes, but also alive. I know this isn’t what you wanted. It’s not what anyone wants. But don’t give up hope, Eliza. As a vampire, you’ll get to see the world in ways that humans can’t even imagine. You’ll get to live to see a distant future. I know you have to sacrifice things you wanted, but you may not need to sacrifice all that you think. You can have all the things you once had. You can finish college. If you’re careful about it, you can still have a relationship with your sister and your father. And you can have the other things you wanted. You can certainly have love. Companionship. Even marriage if you want. And there are lots of children out there that need a mother. And no human mother could protect them as fiercely as you can.”
Tears spilled down Eliza’s cheeks. She grieved for her losses, but Levi’s words did give her hope. Her future would be absolutely nothing like she had once imagined it to be. Her life plan was completely shot. But maybe that was a good thing. The possibilities were endless…perhaps literally.
Eliza touched the needle in her arm. “Can I take this out now?”
“How do you feel?”
“Fine. Good, actually. I never realized I had so many aches and pains until they were gone.”
Levi gently removed the IV from Eliza’s arm. The small hole in her skin appeared to close almost immediately and it didn’t hurt.
Eliza sat up straight and began examining her body. She was paler than before, but hadn’t turned ghost-like. Or if she had, she couldn’t tell. Her skin seemed to shimmer like Levi’s did. She gently ran her fingers down her forearm and relished the sensation. It’s almost as if she could see her nerves reacting to the touch, sending tiny ripples down her skin. She also ran her fingers along her collarbone and then gently brushed her lips. The nerves in her lips seemed to twinkle as she touched them.
She looked at Levi and saw that he was watching her intently. With her half-dead senses, she could tell when he wanted her, and she loved that. But this was even better. She could feel the blood rushing in and hardening his cock as keenly as if she was him. They might have shared a body. And even still, he smiled at her so serenely, as if she didn’t know exactly what he was thinking. She could feel what he was thinking.
She wondered if he had always been so attuned to her too. When she began to feel warm and wet, did he feel it too? Did he always know? He had always been good at anticipating her needs, and perhaps that’s because he shared them.
Eliza grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him toward her, locking his lips in a kiss. She knew it would be amazing, but she never could have imagined how amazing. Pleasure rippled from her lips and through her body, singing along every nerve. She thought she could hear their heart’s beating in tandem.
She might as well have been a virgin again. These sensations were so new. Even as amazing as sex with Levi had been as a human, she had no idea how many other dimensions of pleasure were available to experience.
She was torn between wanting him to kiss every single inch her body so she could feel each individual skin cell shimmer, and ripping into his jeans and taking him right then and there. The long days and nights of wanting him had built up inside her. She felt pleasantly swollen and ready to finally release all of that pent up tension.
But if you’re immortal, what’s the point of skipping foreplay? It’s not like you don’t have the time. They lay next to each other and kissed deeply, slowly removing each other’s clothes. She ran her fingers lightly down his back and abdomen, and teased him on the rim of his cock. He did the same to her, taking his time to remove each piece of clothing. He ran his fingers delicately across her nipples and butt, and rubbed her from over her underwear, also teasing. She moaned and tensed her body into him, amazed at how much sensation she felt even through the silk of her panties.
“We need to take it slow,” he said. “It can be a bit overwhelming when it’s all new.”
He had urgency to his voice that told Eliza that he didn’t really want to take it slow. He wanted to pull off her panties and begin thrusting into her right now. She could sense him throbbing, perhaps also pent up from the time spent apart.
“Mmmmm,” she replied, kissing him again.
As primed as she was, she didn’t feel impatient. As a human, she felt like she had to run toward her orgasms as soon as she started to feel them coming. She thought she might lose them if she didn’t grasp them right away. Her own body a complicated, unpredictable machine.
She felt in control now. The idea of “losing” an orgasm or not chasing it fast enough seemed absurd. In fact, she didn’t want to rush. She wanted the feeling to build.
They were both naked except for the thin layer of Eliza’s panties between them. He rolled on top of her, and pressed against her urgently. Eliza thought he might contradict himself and enter her right then, unable to wait any longer.
However, just when she thought he might slip himself inside her, he pulled away, gently removing her panties. She gasped in expectation, thinking he was about to go down on her, but he made her wait again. He kissed her from her ankle all the way down to the inside of her thigh. Right when he reached the edge of her bikini line, he pulled away again, now kissing her down the other leg.
Then he moved just north of her throbbing region kissing her stomach as he fondled her breasts. She moaned in delicious exasperation.
Finally, he gently dragged his tongue from her belly button to her clit, and then stayed there, massaging her in rhythmic pulses. She couldn’t stop herself from crying out. Just like the kiss had radiated through her body, these sensations did as well, but a hundred times stronger. The pleasure in that one special spot between her legs didn’t stay localized, it travelled along her nerves like an electric current. Then, the sensation was so glorious that she didn’t even want to cry out. She didn’t want to moan or do anything else that might distract her from drinking in each moment. She just arched her back and closed her eyes, rhythmically pressing herself into him ever so slightly. She noticed that she didn’t even need to stop to breathe. Nothing would disrupt the beautiful perfect rhythm of his tongue. Her body lay still and in motion simultaneously. Each cell seemed to pulse along with the rhythm, a movement imperceptible to humans. She felt like she was emitting sparks.
She felt a rush toward orgasm and broke her silence with a loud moan of pleasure. He seem
ed satisfied that he’d brought her to her edge, but no further, and stopped the rhythm. Her stomach fluttered with delightful anticipation. She knew he was about to be inside her. Finally. It’s all she had wanted for so long.
Before he eased himself inside her, he stopped to kiss her again, as if the kiss was just as desirable as the main attraction. They had obviously kissed plenty of times before, but they had never kissed as much while making love as they did this time. Something had shifted in their relationship. It had become less about lust, and had moved toward love.
He groaned into her ear as he slowly entered her. He had been right, the feeling was almost too wonderful. She cried out again and grasped at the sheets, not knowing what to do with herself. He went slow, letting his thrusts radiate the pleasure through her gently. As always, he found just the right spot. An angle that rubbed her in all the right ways. She tensed her butt to press herself against him more decisively. As a human, she had known sex with Levi was amazing, but she had been missing so many sensations. She had been in such a hurry, and so alarmingly unobservant.
She felt everything now. His stomach brushing against hers. The feeling of his body against the insides of her legs. And of course, his kisses. Although now they were getting so close that they couldn’t kiss each other for long without having to stop to moan. Although he still thrust slowly, she could tell that it was taking more willpower for him. He breathed long, slow breaths to keep himself in check.
She pressed herself against him again hungrily. Her legs and core were so strong now. Even though he was on top, it was easy for her to raise her hips to guide the thrusting herself. She relished in speeding up the pace, making him work even harder to keep it together.
She turned him over and mounted him in one easy movement. Being a vampire really did have its advantages. As strong as he was, she was strong now too. She perched on top of him, enjoying the control, ready to move as fast or as slow as she wanted…and now she wanted fast. She was ready.
In an easy motion with her powerful core, she thrust firmly and in perfect rhythm, finding the right angle so the motion rubbed against her clit. She tossed her head back and fondled her own breasts. He groaned deeply, apparently pleased with the view.
She gradually quickened the motion, moaning desperately. As much self-control as she had felt earlier, she now felt like she had been in the desert for days and finally got a drink. And she wanted to drink every drop, as fast as she could swallow.
She could sense him beginning to come too, an almost imperceptible hardening inside her. As she thought she couldn’t bring the wave any higher, she just kept going, surfing along the crest, savoring the pinnacle of that pleasure.
Then finally she came. The sensation vibrated through her body. The tips of her fingers seemed to feel the pleasure as keenly as her clit. Every part of her body joined in the delicious crash.
She collapsed on top of him and after she caught her breath, she snuggled next to him and lay her head on his chest, enjoying the feeling of it rising and falling. The release in her body had been so visceral this time, she could still feel the last bits of energy tingling and working their way out, like a shadow of the initial orgasm. Or maybe an aftershock.
He pulled her head over to him so he could kiss her deeply again. Now both satisfied, they had the patience to enjoy that closeness for even longer. They kissed and gently stroked each other’s bodies, not to any specific end, but to just enjoy the feeling of their naked bodies so close together.
She didn’t know if she’d ever get used to what she had become. A monster. A predator. A repulsive creature. But lying next to him, she didn’t feel like any of those things. She felt like a powerful, beautiful woman—a woman with an eternity in front of her.
THE END
Italian Billionaire Romance
If You Love Me
Book One
Rose Haven
Italian Billionaire Romance: If You Love Me
Chapter One - Alberto Graziani
It has been an eventful day. Finally, I got my partners and investors to agree to my business model. If everything goes according to the plans, Graziani Corporation would soon be one of the leading companies of the world! I smile to myself thinking how proud mama would have been today. It was a pity that she died before seeing me at the pinnacle of success. Her good for nothing boy had become a business tycoon- one of the richest men in Florence and soon, in the whole of Italy.
That was a huge achievement for a boy who was born on the wrong side of the tracks. My entire childhood was spent in a small one bedroom shack in one of the dirtiest localities of Florence, that is, if you could call that filthy place a locality at all! I had never seen my father. He had married my mother, impregnated her and then one fine day, he just left. Nobody knows where he went. Some say he died in a road accident, some say he fled to some foreign land as the responsibility of a wife and a child were too much for him. Anyways, my mother never saw him again.
She brought me up the best way she could with her meager income. She used to sweep floors and wash utensils in the homes of people who were a little more fortunate than us. She worked very hard to ensure that I would never have to sleep on an empty stomach. She even sent me to school hoping that one day, I would become ‘grande uomo’ (a big man!). If only she could see today that her dream had come true!
I had been a brilliant student, right from the beginning. As I grew up, I started earning scholarships and soon after graduating, I started my own consulting company. Very soon, it became a success and with the money I earned, I ventured into real estate. Today, Graziani Corporation is the leading real estate company in Florence with a net worth of over $1 billion.
My only regret in life is not having had the opportunity to look after my mama the way she did when I needed her the most. She lost her life fighting cancer when she was just 49 and I was merely 19. We didn’t have enough money for all those expensive treatments….otherwise perhaps she would have been still alive.
This tragedy strengthened my resolve to earn so much money centuries to come. And today, I have succeeded in doing just that!
Lost in my own thoughts while driving, I do not realize that I have been speeding. I want to reach my luxury penthouse as soon as possible and have a nice, warm shower. Then maybe I would head out for some fun. A few drinks and a hot chick in bed would be a wonderful way to end this super awesome day. And finding a willing beauty to warm my bed has never been a task for me!
In fact, there are loads of women out there who would give anything to spend their night with Alberto Graziani! They are all in love with the name; the man inside, no one cares about. At times I do feel lonely. Sometimes, I desperately want to share my successes, my failures, my secrets and my desires with someone special. Someone who would love me for the person I am, and not for what I would be able to do for them. But apart from Mrs. Antoni, I have yet to meet such a woman.
Chapter Two
Mrs. Antoni had been our neighbor since I was born. She had been of immense help to mama during pregnancy and childbirth. And when I was born, she took care of me while mama worked. A widow with no kids, she had been my mama’s pillar of strength throughout. I asked her to stay with me when I had become wealthy enough to afford a decent home. And she had been staying with me ever since. I always see a reflection of my mama in Mrs. Antoni.
I will be at the penthouse in another fifteen minutes or so. My mind is already zeroing in on the nightclubs I want to visit tonight. The nightlife in Florence is not as happening as in Rome, but still it is pretty decent for a party lover like me.
Suddenly, I see a young girl running towards my car with an extremely frightened look on her face. I just catch a glimpse of her as I apply brakes with full force and my Lamborghini comes to a screeching halt…..but not before hitting her. Her little frame crashes on my windscreen and a second later, she falls on the road.
I immediately get out of my car, horrified. I just hope that the girl is still alive. She is
lying on the road with blood oozing out of her forehead. But thank God, she is still breathing. Her face is as white as that of a ghost, yet she somehow manages to look pretty.
I immediately pick her up and settle her in the front seat of my car. Blast these sports cars! They charge you a bomb and yet can hardly accommodate two people. Should I take her to the hospital? No, the nearest hospital was another half an hour away. She could die by then! I decide to take her to the penthouse instead. I immediately call Dr. Bellini who lives nearby and would be able to reach the penthouse with first aid in a matter of few minutes.
“Hello, Dr. Bellini? Alberto this side. Listen doctor, this is an emergency. I have accidentally hit a girl with my car and she is now unconscious and bleeding from the forehead…………………No, I can’t take her to the hospital. It’ll take another 30 minutes from here…………………Yes, yes I am bringing her home and can you please try to get there as soon as possible, OK?”
I keep on praying to God to save her, whoever she is. I drive like a maniac and am at the penthouse before I know it. Once we reach it, I rush out of the car and carry the girl upstairs. I don’t even wait for the elevator. Taking two stairs at a time, I reach my apartment in record time and ring the bell. The door opens almost immediately and thankfully, I see an anxious faced Mrs. Antoni and Dr. Bellini waiting for me.
“Dio Mio (Oh my God)! Is she still alive?” asks Mrs. Antoni.
“Yes, she is breathing. Doctor, please see if she’s OK?” I am out of breath. I take her to my room and lay her on the bed gently. She looks so small in my giant bed.
Dr. Bellini starts examining her. He cleans her forehead and she cringes ever so slightly. After a few more minutes of checkup, he informs us that the girl would live. She had a bad wound on the forehead but apparently, no other bones had been broken.
BILLIONAIRE ROMANCE: The Unforgettable Billionaires: The Complete Collection Boxed Set 1-12 (Young Adult Rich Alpha Male Billionaire Romance) (Alpha Bad Boy Billionaire Romance) Page 84