She wondered whether he dreamed—and whether she figured in his dreams.
Her hand idly caressed his chest, traced the quickly healing wounds on his shoulder, and drifted downward to circle his taut belly. She had maybe one or two more nights with her vampire—not nearly enough time to pump him for information she needed to feed her research. Not nearly enough time for all the loving she wanted.
Her fingers nudged the sheet draping his hips.
Stick to the research! She wondered how vulnerable this deep sleep left a vampire and whether he would respond to external stimuli. She rose up on her knees. “Joe,” she whispered.
No response. Not a flutter of an eyelash. No change to his breathing pattern.
Lily extended a finger and tickled his ribs.
Again, no response.
Feeling bolder, she poked him hard with her finger. Still he didn’t move.
“Hmmm…” Lily slowly peeled down the sheet to expose his penis. It lay curved along his thigh. Sleeping, it hardly appeared the fearsome sword he’d wielded the night before.
She bit her lip and pondered the ethics of examining a man’s private parts while he slept. She traced his length with her fingernail and glanced up guiltily to see whether he’d moved.
Nothing.
She reached for her glasses in the top drawer of her nightstand and slid them over her nose.
Then she reached for his cock and straightened it along his thigh to measure it with her palm and fingertips. It was one hand plus the length of just her fingertips long when relaxed. She laid it gently on his belly and cupped his balls. They were heavy, about the size and weight of a couple of tangerines.
She gently squeezed and tugged his sac noting his cock expanded and lengthened. Could he be fully aroused in his present hibernating state? She wanted to know, although she didn’t have a clue where she could publish such a finding.
Stripping the sheet away to bare his legs and toes, she came to a quick decision. She had a duty to explore every attribute of her subject—in the name of science, of course.
On her knees, she stepped over his leg and gently pushed his thighs wider to make room for herself. She knelt between them and bent to take his balls into her mouth.
Joe fought his way through layers of dreams where monsters with golden eyes and savage fangs chased him through damp, dark, cobblestone streets. He ran on, the sound of his heart beating and the searing breaths squeezing from his lungs, louder than the impact of his booted heels.
His limbs grew more leaden the farther he ran. He’d been here before, knew what the outcome of this encounter would be, and knew he was powerless to change his course. The sounds from his pursuers were closer now. He didn’t dare take his gaze from the uneven road in front of him to look over his shoulder, but he could hear the scrape of their claws just behind his heels and smell their foul breath as they closed in on him.
This is a dream! No more. And yet he knew he’d lived these minutes. Every detail was too clear, the scents and sights too crisp for imagination.
With dread weighing down his shoulders he waited for them to pounce and tear at his flesh. He almost wished they’d go ahead and end it. For then he’d awaken—as he always did.
Instead, this time the sounds of the wolves grew faint and the damp, dark street faded. His sluggish heart beat faster. He was waking this time before they killed him.
Joe felt the pleasant tug of something warm and lusciously wet on his balls. His eyes opened only a slit to peer down at the woman mouthing his sac. Lily! She’d chased his nightmare away.
A shaft of light reflecting off the mirror above her bureau struck her hair, igniting the golden strands in her hair like a halo and glinting off the wire surrounding her glasses. The odd sight of her naked body bobbing above his groin and her glasses slowly fogging had him suppressing a smile.
She tugged again, her tongue swirling over first one ball then the other, and he noted that one hand rested lightly on the end of his dick. He wished for a stronger grip, but guessed she was gauging his growth by the way her hand squeezed first one side, then the other, and then her finger measured the distance from the tip of his dick to his belly button.
His professor certainly took her research seriously.
So did his cock. He felt the blood rushing to his loins, filling his staff with steely ardor.
Regrettably, she released his balls. “Oh my!” Lily slid her glasses down her nose to peer at him above her misty lenses.
Joe carefully regulated the rise and fall of his chest and kept his eyes slitted to see what she’d do next.
Lily measured him from root to tip, using both hands, palm to fingertip, palm to fingertip. When she finished, her lips pursed around a silent whistle.
“I suppose you’ll want to slip a scale beneath him next,” he murmured.
Lily screeched and rested her hand on her heaving chest. Color flooded her stricken cheeks. “You could have told me you were awake.”
“And cut short the investigation? I did promise to answer your questions.”
She scowled at him above her glasses. “Shouldn’t you be asleep?”
“Shouldn’t you be up and about?”
“I-I will be. I have plenty to keep me busy today—notes to take, measurements to document.”
Joe’s eyes narrowed. “You aren’t really thinking of measuring more vampires’ cocks, are you?”
“A single measurement does not a finding make,” she said with a haughty tilt of her chin.
“You know the only way you’ll get more statistics will be by bringing them here, to your bedroom. Would you really take that kind of risk?”
“I did with you.”
Joe shook his head, fighting fatigue. They needed to get a few points straight. Lily was heading down a road for disaster. “What if they want to take more than a bite from you? What if they kill you?”
She shrugged. “Then I’d be resurrected as a vampire and continue my research.”
“You don’t really want that, Lily. Besides, your vamp may not be interested in turning you. He could just leave you looking like hamburger.”
Lily grimaced, but her chin tilted higher. “Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”
“You woke me up—how do you expect me to go back to sleep with this hard-on?”
Lily licked her lips. “Since I’m responsible, I should take care of it.” Her nonchalant tone didn’t fool him for a minute. A vein at the base of her throat pulsed. “What would you like?” she asked as casually as she might ask him how he liked his steak.
Every red corpuscle roared toward his cock. He lifted his hand toward her, palm up. “Climb aboard.”
A shiver shook her breasts and her face tightened. Lily laid her hand inside his and crawled over his hips, her slick cleft leaving a trail of moisture along his rigid shaft.
“Are you sore?”
She blushed a fiery red. “I wish you’d quit asking me that.”
He ignored her embarrassment and reached down to slip a finger inside her, noting the heat of her swollen lips and inner tissues—and the liquid that drenched her channel. Lily had worked herself into a state of high arousal as she’d conducted her “investigation”.
He swirled his finger around, watching her face for signs of pain, but Lily closed her eyes and sighed. Her areolas dimpled. Her nipples constricted and elongated. Joe’s mouth watered. “I think you can take me,” he whispered.
“Damn right.” She rose on her knees and grasped his cock in her fist.
With his thumbs pressing her lips apart, Joe did his part to ensure her comfort, reducing the friction between his cock and her plump labia.
Lily centered her entrance over his fleshy head. Then she sank, taking him inches inside her. Her indrawn breath expanded her chest and his gaze zeroed in on her luscious, pouting nipples. She rose and sank deeper.
Her breath quickened and Lily leaned forward to brace her hands against his chest. With a determined cant of her chin, she lowered h
erself, taking nearly half his length inside.
His jaw hard as granite, he bit out, “Faster.” He released the folds of her cunt and glided his hands up to her breasts, squeezing them in his palms. “Faster, baby.”
Lily’s face was mottled red, her lips trembling—inches from her orgasm. She snuggled her knees closer to his hips and bounced tentatively on his cock, a moan breaking from throat.
The lenses of her glasses misted over and he pulled them from her nose, setting them on the nightstand. He leaned up to kiss her shoulder, and her back arched, bringing her breast to his lips. He latched onto one tight nipple and sucked hard.
She cried out, gliding her hot cunt all the way down his cock. Joe’s head nearly exploded. His hands circled her back and reached for her buttocks, gripping her hard, shoving her hips down, then sliding them forward and back to grind his short hairs against her clit.
“Joe! I can’t move. Can’t—” Her voice broke on a groan.
He bit her nipple gently, sucking the tender tip between his teeth then swirling his rough tongue to increase the pleasure.
Lily’s hips jerked and her thighs shuddered over his hips. He could sense her orgasm building sweet tension in her body. With his hands gripping her round bottom he raised her, then slammed her down as he thrust his hips upward, stabbing deep into her core.
She screamed. Her fingernails dug crescents into his shoulders. Her eyes closed and a wash of fiery color spread over her breasts and cheeks.
Joe felt his own climax rising from his thighs, slamming though his balls and dick to shoot a geyser of cum inside her body.
He held her hips flush to his for several long moments, circling her body on his cock, prolonging her orgasm until the convulsions milking his sex grew fainter. Finally, Lily collapsed over his chest, nuzzling her face into the corner of his shoulder.
Joe caressed her back, soothing her while her jagged breaths grew even and her racing heart calmed. Finally, his own heart slowed and he receded below the layers of his dreams. This time he watched through misted glass as a girl with whiskey-colored hair pleasured herself.
Lily sang while she showered, confident the vamp wouldn’t wake again to hear her off-key warbling. Her fingers itched to start putting some of what she’d learned into her computer, but first things first.
She had to make an appointment with Madame Leveque and shop for a dinner suitable for a vampire. He’d asked her not to go out alone, but it was still daylight. Weren’t werewolves nocturnal creatures as well?
As she stood before her mirror, she suffered long moments of indecision. Hair, up or down? Makeup, her usual careless swipe of pale pink lipstick or a full face?
She wrinkled her nose at her reflection and decided not to take special pains with her appearance. Who was she kidding? Femme fatale, she wasn’t. She quickly wound her hair into a knot and secured it with pins, but she glazed her lips with a deep rose.
Hurrying to the kitchen counter, she found her planner and flipped to the address section. She punched the numbers into her cordless handset and tucked it between her shoulder and ear while she gathered her planner and keys and dropped them in her purse. She was quickly running out of daylight.
“Madame Leveque’s.”
“Cissy? This is Lily Carlson.”
“Professor, you manage to slip past that weirdo last night?” Cissy asked, wry humor in her tone.
Lily felt a blush rise all the way from her toes. “Not exactly.”
“He give you any trouble?”
“Ah no.” She quickly steered the conversation back. “Look, I’m calling because I need to see your grandmother tonight.”
“Oooh, I don’t know. Grandmere’s been here since early this mornin’.. She may be too tired. Can you come this afternoon?”
“No. That wouldn’t be possible.” Lily hated imposing on her friendship, but this might be her only shot at finding an answer to Joe’s dilemma. “Would you ask her? It’s very important I see her tonight.”
“Sure.” Cissy’s voice reflected curiosity, but she didn’t press for a reason. “I be right back.”
Lily didn’t have long to wait. “Professor, Grandmere says she’s been expectin’ your call. Come after dark, she said.”
“Tell Madame, I’ll be bringing a friend.”
Relieved she’d accomplished one thing on her list, she let herself out of her apartment. At the front steps she met Mimi Comeaux, the superintendent’s wife. She wielded a deck brush, applying it vigorously to the concrete steps—and she was humming, an unusual occurrence for the normally pinch-faced woman.
“Good afternoon, Mimi,” Lily said as she passed her.
“Mornin’,” the woman trilled.
Lily gave her a second glance. “You seem chipper this morning.”
The woman actually blushed. “It’s a pretty day.”
Lily eyed the overcast sky and raised an eyebrow. “Do you mind my asking what you are doing?”
“Some poor dog left bloody paw prints all over the front steps. I’m tryin’ to bleach them out.”
Lily looked at the smeared prints the woman hadn’t yet reached with her brush. They were enormous. “You’re sure those belong to a dog?”
“Sure. A very big dog. He must have cut a foot.”
Lily remembered Joe’s account of the werewolf and wondered if the woman was washing away paw prints from a primordial creature. Despite the heat, she felt a shiver creep up her spine. Joe would have my ass if he found out I left the house. But werewolves were said to be nocturnal creatures, she repeated to herself. Lily shrugged, bid Madame Comeaux adieu, and headed for her car.
As she unlocked the door, she heard an engine fire and glanced down the street. Nothing out the usual. She was just jumpy. Nevertheless, she locked the doors as soon as she slipped inside.
The local grocer was only a block away. She parked next to the door and quickly made her way inside the store. Heading straight for the meat section, she wondered how she’d word her request. Bluntly: Do you carry pig’s blood? What else could a vampire consume? All she knew was what she’d gleaned from TV and movies—human blood and flesh as the main entrée, rats and pig blood in a pinch.
The butcher smiled as she approached.
“How are you, professor? Would you like shrimp fresh from the Gulf this morning?”
“Um, by chance do you carry pig’s blood? I’m thinking of making…an old family recipe…for uh…gravy.”
The portly butcher eyed her quizzically. “I’m sorry. If you would like to special order—”
Never comfortable telling a lie, Lily demurred. “No that’s okay. Do you have something especially…juicy?” She knew her cheeks burned a fiery red.
Both eyebrows rose, like black beetles perched on his brow. “I have inch and half steaks—plenty fresh and dripping with blood, if that’s what you really want.”
Why hadn’t she thought to go to another shop? He knew her preference for white meats and seafood. Her sudden taste for blood-soaked red meat had to be raising a question in his mind.
“Professor,” he grinned broadly. “Are you by chance enceinte?”
That was one plausible explanation she hadn’t considered. Lily felt her already hot face burn. “The steaks will be fine. Two of them please.”
“Two?” His beetle-eyebrows waggled. “I won’t be a moment,” he said, and disappeared into a back room.
Lily took a deep breath and looked around, ticking off the other items she would need when she noted a tall, broadly built man just down the aisle from her. He was turned away, but she had the sneaking suspicion he had been watching her. Somehow, he looked out of place standing in front of a rack full of baby diapers.
Any other day and she would have given him a second and third considering look. He was handsome—his features spare, harshly etched. Manly. If Joe hadn’t already awakened her appreciation for dangerously sensual men, she might have lingered to discover whether he really had been checking her out.
; Instead, a shiver of unease raised the hair on the back of her neck. His build radiated power. His dark slacks molded thickly muscled thighs. His loosely fitted cotton shirt didn’t disguise the sinew of his back and shoulders. How easily he could overpower a woman if that were his intent.
He reached for a package from the row of diapers and she noted a white bandage wrapped around his palm. He looked over his shoulder and his gaze met hers. The intensity in his light-colored eyes and the hard, chiseled features caused her heart to trip. Some instinct she would have said she didn’t possess told her that yes, he had been watching her.
“Professor, your steaks?”
Lily blinked and turned to the butcher, smiling her thanks automatically. She was done shopping. She needed to get home quickly.
Lily paid for her package and walked swiftly to her car.
“Miss! Your change!”
He’d followed her out of the store. She didn’t dare pause to answer. She opened her door with the remote, tossed the package on the passenger seat, and slid the key into the ignition with a shaking hand.
A shadow fell across her and she knew he stood outside her door. She shifted into reverse and hit the gas. As she pulled away, she finally looked at him. A feral smile stretched the man’s hard mouth.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Joe heard the scrape of a key turning in the lock, then the clank of keys dropping to the tiled floor, followed by a mumbled oath. He let go of the worry he’d experienced over the past hour when he’d risen beyond his dreams to find Lily had gone.
Now anger swept through him, fast and blinding. He opened the door ready to tear into Lily for her carelessness, but the look on her face pulled him up short.
“Oh my God!” She launched herself into his arms.
All his anger and worry disappeared in an instant as he held her trembling body. He glanced up and down the hallway. Seeing no menace lurking in the shadows, he pulled her into the apartment and shut the door, turning the bolt to lock them inside. He leaned back against it, pulling her body flush with his and waited for Lily’s explanation.
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