by Liz Everly
I almost laughed. "Everybody knows how to do that…"
"Do they?" he said between nibbles and kisses at my collarbone. "But we vamps have a special skill. We are able to see into your deep, dark, lusty places and meet them, mold ourselves to meet your desires."
His hands wrapped around my waist and he pulled me underneath him. It happened so fast that I wasn't sure what was happening, but I knew what I wanted. A surge of desire swelled in me.
"Give in to it," he whispered. "Your passion is a gift."
Within minutes my skirt was wrapped around my waist and I don't know what happened to my panties. I just knew I had to arch against him as he entered me from behind. Just like that. It was as if his very presence was foreplay. I was ready for him, wanted him, ached for him. I knew for sure I wasn't dreaming then as he entered me. I felt every vein throb against my insides. He kept himself inside and stilled my hips.
"Luscious," he whispered.
The room stilled. My breath was hard to catch. He was almost too big for me, but my hips pressed harder against him and he began to rock in me so slowly, tantalizing me, while wrapping his hand around to work at me from the outside. When he touched my clit, it sent me further into an abyss—somewhere between passion and depravity. I lost all control of myself and became a mass of quivering energy. Exquisite pain and pleasure melded then erupted as I felt him coming at the same time. His seed deep in me… the thought of it made me want more.
"You will never get enough, now," he whispered. The truth of that statement hit me with a hard, cold, thud. Something in my universe had shifted. I felt him harden again. "Nor will I."
Suddenly, there was movement at my door and he disappeared. I sat up, tried to comport myself and picked up my cell phone—it burned my hand and sparked. I dropped it, just as my roommate walked in.
"Brenna? Hi, I'm Lexi. Man, I'm knackered," she said, and placed her suitcase on her bed.
"Hey," I managed to say. Wasn't it just a moment ago that he was inside me? Didn't I just have the most amazing orgasm ever? How was I even sitting up? Looking presentable?
"You okay?" Lexi said.
I laughed. "I think I had just bit too much to drink. I used to hold my liquor better. These days, I just don't know."
My cell phone alerted me to a text message.
Meet me tomorrow at 8 at Jeremy's Place, a bar just across the street from where you are.
It wasn't signed, but I knew who it was from. I bit my lip as I realized I hadn't even gotten his name.
***
The next day, the writer's conference dragged more than any other I'd attended. Were there more questions this time, or was I longing to see my "vampire" friend?
One question from the group freaked me out a bit.
"When writing vampire stories, some people claim writers are digging deep into the psyche and tapping into their own immortal longings. What do you think of that theory?"
Not your everyday question, and the man who asked it was not your everyday man. He was gorgeous, in exactly the opposite way to my "vampire" friend. He was light and tall, dressed in light brown slacks and a blue dress shirt—unusual for one of these conferences. His eyes were extraordinarily blue. I've never been attracted to a blonde before, especially one who obviously spent a lot of time at the gym.
After, he stood in line and asked for me to sign his books. His name was Micah. He had all five of my books. "Might I interest you in a drink?" he asked. Was this guy for real? Who talked like that?
"I'm sorry," I said. "I have plans."
"Oh, maybe tomorrow for breakfast?" He persisted.
"Okay," I smiled.
"Let's meet in the lobby at seven," he said.
I nodded.
"I just love the Red Scarf, but I think Red Ink might be my favorite," the next person in line said as she moved into the space in front of me.
I smiled, grateful that she was the last in line. Suddenly I was famished and grateful that I'd be meeting my mysterious friend at a place known for good food.
When I entered the bar, I was startled briefly. A variety of costumed vampires were sitting at the bar, eating in the restaurant. Then I remembered it was Halloween. Zombies, fairies, angels, and ballerinas were scattered everywhere and The Monster Mash played over the stereo system. Sheesh, how could I forget that it was Halloween? And what had I just stepped into, a huge Halloween party? I was exhausted and not up for that at all. I was thinking about leaving when I felt a warm tingle in my crotch. The next thing I knew, he was standing next to me.
"I'm really not up for—"
He grabbed me by the elbow and the maître de nodded. He led me into a snaking hallway that ended in old winding stairs. We walked up the stairs to a beautiful dining room that overlooked the festivities, but it was a quiet, private, and elegant space.
My favorite red wine awaited me, along with what looked like an Italian feast.
"I didn't want you to have to wait. I knew you'd be hungry," he said, as he placed a napkin on his lap and fiddled with his silver.
"You're going to join me?" I said, after sipping my wine. Fuck, he was so hot.
He chuckled. "Of course. We eat. In fact we enjoy food very much, but we just don't get much nutrition from it," he said. "That's just one of the fallacies about us."
The wine was extraordinary. I enjoyed every nuanced flavor it left behind in my mouth and I felt my body slowly relaxing.
"You vampires, that is?" I said, smirking. I couldn't help it.
His mouth twisted. "Still don't believe me?"
"Does it matter?" I asked
"What do you think I am, then?" he asked with an incredulous look on his face.
"I think you're some kind of trickster or magician," I replied.
"Interesting deduction," he said, cutting into a rather bloody steak. "And in truth, I'm a little of both." His nostrils flared a bit when he brought the piece of steak, dripping with blood, to his lips.
"So what do you want from me?" I said, eyeing up my lasagna.
"Besides the hot sex?" he asked, sending my insides churning. The word sex on his lips was like a magnet to my pulsing center.
I felt my face redden. "Yes, besides that." The crowd below us was a distant murmur but I could see them in all their regalia. Witches, fairies, and so many vampires, several red scarves. Blech.
"We need your help Brenna," he said, as I bit into my lasagna. "There a couple of things I need to ask of you."
Okay, I'd play along. I'd hear him out, even as I was thinking of him deep inside me.
"Vampires have become quite the hot commodity because of writers like yourself. As I mentioned earlier, it's more than red scarves and sparkles," he said.
"That sparkling thing? That's not me. That's—"
"I know who it is," he said with a look of disgust. "I hate her, worse than I do Anne Rice."
"Now, wait a minute," I said. Anne Rice was a good writer. I wasn't going to listen to this shit.
He held up his hand. "We are not here to discuss literary tastes, Brenna." There was a frightening edge to his voice. How could I be so turned on one minute and so scared the next?
Once again I was reminded that I was probably in the presence of a mad man who thought he was really a vampire. My heart thumped in my chest. Hard.
His head twitched and he sighed. "Honestly, Brenna, you try my patience."
"Humph," I said. "Would you just get to the fucking point?"
"As you noted in your travels, your fans will wear scarves and so on," he said with a flourish.
"Yes, it's flattering and maddening all at once," I said and bit into my chunk of Italian heaven.
"The thing is, we are being hunted," he said.
"Hunted?" I said, dropping my fork.
"Due to this surge in our popularity, people are hunting us. Oh, we are used to that. Generations ago, when people really believed in us, they tried to find us and kill us. We can handle those hunters," he said.
Despite mysel
f, I watched those beautiful lips glide over his teeth and longed for his kiss. He grinned, then looked away. Could he read my mind?
"This is very serious, Brenna," he said, and cleared his throat.
Maybe he could.
"These hunters are seeking us out. They want to become vampires and it must stop."
"You think I can help you?" I said.
"Yes. There's a group of young men who have actually attacked several young women, killed one and made it look like a vampire attack," he said.
A chill traveled up my spine. I'd actually heard of the young woman who was killed. I get Google alerts about vampires and that story had been on my radar.
"Of course, it was a sloppy killing, and any vampire or vampire scholar would have known…" he said.
"What can I do to help?" I said. Vampire or not, he had my attention now.
"I have evidence that points directly to the killer," he said. "And I want you to deliver it to a certain detective."
"Why can't you?"
Loud music was beginning downstairs and thick red velvet curtain fell between us and the balcony. It was suddenly quiet.
"It's too dangerous for us to socialize much with mortals, particularly very smart detectives," he said.
That made a certain sense.
"If you are so certain who this man is, why don't you go after him yourself?" I said, realizing I'd just taken a last drink of my wine.
"This particular man has very strong guardians in place," he said.
"You mean bodyguards?"
"No. I mean guardians. Maybe you should think of them like guardian angels," he said.
I suddenly laughed. "Really? Not only are there vampires, but there are also guardian angels?"
He shot me a look that nearly froze me.
"Brenna, if only you knew what creatures there are in this world you mortals call your own," he said. He was deadly serious and deadly sexy. Why couldn't I keep my mind off sex? "So, you will take the evidence to the detective?"
"Of course, I will," I said. This had all just gotten more interesting. Maybe he was a poser, not a vampire, and he knew something I didn't about this murderer. "That's no problem. Can I ask you why me?"
"That's a very good question," he said. "Several reasons, actually. First, you are Brenna Bang, the upstart vampire romance novelist. The police will buy that a fan sent the information to you or put it in your hands at a book signing or something, yes?"
"I think so," I said.
"Also, you have some strong but reasonable guardians. They will protect you, if need be," he said. "As will I."
“I have guardians like the suspect has guardians?” I was confused. Guardians?
He nodded, impatiently. “All humans have them. Some guardians are stronger than others. Yours are strong.”
"Good to know, I guess. But protect me?" I said. "From what? I'm just turning in some evidence."
"What will you do if this disturbed young man finds out who you are?"
My stomach twisted. Was I going to lose all the delicious food I'd just eaten? I hadn't thought about that.
"Humph," I said. So articulate.
"Brenna," he said, with such a comforting note that my fear vanished. "You are stronger than you think. You come from a long line of strength and passion. You will do fine."
Strength and passion? Me? My family? My mom and dad? I didn't think so—or at least what I could remember of them. They both died in a boating accident when I was about ten.
"How did you do that?" I asked. "Calm me like that?"
He shrugged. "I'm not sure how I do half of what I do. I don't pretend to know. None of us do."
"Us? How many of you are there?"
"I have no way of knowing," he said. "There's about eight hundred of us in New York City. Two hundred of those have banded together and formed a tribe, so to speak. We run a computer gaming software company, which is how we learned to use the Wi-Fi signals to travel. Quite ingenious, really."
"So there's a group of vampires who run a software company here in the city?"
He nodded. "We've taken to the new technology in remarkable ways. And our company is doing very well. Would you care for dessert?"
"Frankly," I said. "I need to get going. I have another long day tomorrow."
"You'll be fine, believe me. You need to stay with me longer tonight. I have a surprise for you," he said and lifted one dark eyebrow, which made me tingle.
Up until now, we had been on my turf. My house. My room. Was he talking about going to his place? I shuddered.
"There's a party I want to take to you to. It's Halloween, you know…"
I shrugged. What the hell?
***
With each step I took that night it felt more and more like a dream. And when I look back, I wonder if there was something in my drink, or if I simply drank more than I realized. Or maybe what he told me that night was true: that I have only begun to explore my true nature, that my dark, sexy writing was just the tip of my longings, my fantasies.
As we walked down another flight of twisty stairs, I felt a surge of sexiness.
"The only reason you can't find a human man is because you scare them. They don't know what to think of a woman like you," he whispered behind me.
I wanted to believe that.
And that night I did believe it.
When I walked into the club, where bongos were playing and semi-clad women and men were dancing, I was mesmerized. It smelled of cinnamon and alcohol and something even sweeter. He led me into the back room, where candles were lit among the red velvet couches and beds and bodies were writhing against each other. I bit my lip. It was so naughty. But I stood and watched with his arms around me. I could have reached out and touched them as they slid around on the beds.
I should have been disgusted but instead I was incredibly turned on. He knew it and kissed me—kissed me into oblivion. When his lips met mine that night, among the grunts and groans of pleasure, the smacking of flesh against flesh all around us, I gave in to my darker nature and knew I was his. I would comply with whatever he wanted from me.
But he let me know it wasn't about him. It was about me—exploring the depth of my desire.
He pulled me into a private room, where a masked man stood with a huge erection and handed him a mask, as well. Then he helped my vampire to undress. I noticed the furtive looks between them, but next their focus turned to me.
What was happening here, I asked myself. But only once, because I was too caught up to know or worry what came next. I just knew I was a raging fire and didn't care who entered me to put it out.
I wasn't tentative or unsure. I surprised myself. Maybe I was sexier than I thought, sexier than Josh thought. The two men surrounded me with their legs and arms and bodies, undressing me.
One of them lay on the bed. I thought it was the original masked man, though I couldn't be sure. The lights were dimmed. The men chuckled as I slipped into the bed. One behind me and one in front. Their bodies so similar that I couldn't feel the difference, both hard already. I sighed between them.
"Yes…" I said as one cupped my breasts from behind, the other sliding his fingers between my slippery folds, sending waves of pleasure through me. The one behind was gently kissing my neck, my shoulders, my back, his hot breath against my skin, while the other slid his tongue in my mouth and fingered my juicy mound.
"Let go, Brenna," one whispered. Not necessary, I was already gone.
Deep, heavy breathing and groans—almost guttural, almost animalistic— filled the air as I reached for one cock and rubbed it gently, and the other crept in between my ass cheeks. I pressed them together, squeezing it between them. The one in the front of me brought his cock to my mouth as the one behind moved to the bottom of the bed, spread me wide, and began to lick me just as I took the hard cock in my mouth. It sputtered salty juice into my throat as I came undone, bucking hard against the chin of one of my masked lovers.
This wasn't hard at all. It surpris
ed me. I had always wondered how it would work. It was very Zen, once you gave in and let your body take over.
The cock was pulled from my mouth and he held my legs high and wide as the other man mounted me, filled me, pulsed within me, rocking and rocking, his hips grinding against mine.
The other man breathed hotly as he watched the pummeling until we came in crashing waves, with him spilling himself onto my stomach. One masked man cleaned the puddle from me as the other collapsed next to me. Soon, I was sandwiched between the two hard bodies, both sighing, cooing, one stroking my back, one my breasts. I couldn't tell them apart yet.
But one was ready for me again and pulled me to face him. He lifted my leg, holding it there, and slid into me. He entered me with a sharp pang. The other man was soon next to us and rubbed my mound. Feeling the large cock deep inside and a gentle finger stroking me on the outside, I felt poised on the cusp of eternity.
Was this the desire he told me about? The desire for more? Always more?
I was pulled on top as the man sucked in air, watching me grasp the other as he writhed beneath me. He came up behind me, draping himself along my back and jabbing his manhood between my ass cheeks. Everything was a wet, hot lather and soon he entered my ass. I gasped.
The man beneath me rolled over to the side, my legs were wrapped around his neck, his cock never leaving me. The other took his place on the other side of me and moved slowly, deep inside my ass.
"Relax," he whispered.
I felt as if I was being exquisitely torn apart, swallowed. We were nothing more than our body parts and an easy, natural rhythm between us. One in my center, the other in my ass. I shivered, then waves of sharp intense pleasure overcame me and I was Brenna Bang no more but an animal, bucking, heaving, pulsing, sweating, moaning, exploding.
When I awoke sometime in the middle of the night, one of my masked lovers was awake and watching me. He kissed me tenderly and rolled on top of me. He slowly, tenderly entered me and I felt every vein in his throbbing cock. Our rhythm started slow and quiet. His cheeks twitching with passion, sweat beads on what I saw of his face. I met his hips with a slow grinding movement, his eyes never leaving mine, and I felt love, not just passion… even as my other masked man reached for me, kissed me, his tongue reaching far into my mouth, swirling deep as my other lover squirted hot juice deep inside.