Mr. Right Now, page 10
Danni lost it and started cracking up laughing, but buried her face in a pillow to make it look like she was crying.
Cat dropped her shopping bag, and pulled out an automatic weapon which looked like an Uzi or something. Had Cat lost her mind?
Then I relaxed because I could see from across the room that the thing was plastic. But Darryl looked like he was going to puke.
Cat was being plain evil. One thing about that girl, she didn’t just get mad, she got even.
“You are going to pay for every second I wasted with your sorry hind-end,” she hollered, accompanied by the classic neck swivel.
Cat raised the gun and squinted at Darryl. “Get on your knees, motherfucker, and prepare to face your maker.”
“Noooo, no, no, no,” Darryl started blubbering and bawling. Then he actually pissed himself.
“What the fuck?” Danni yelled, as she leapt out of the bed to avoid being splashed with pee.
But Cat didn’t relent. Girlfriend had some serious anger pent up.
“On your fucking knees or I’m going to blow your head off,” she screamed at Darryl again.
“Cat? Don’t—” Danni started to say.
“Shut up, white girl,” Cat thundered. Danni shut up.
“Now, say you’re sorry,” she said to Darryl.
“I didn’t intend to sleep with her,” he said, tears running down his cheeks.
“Didn’t intend to sleep with me?” Danni said, frowning and tightening the blanket around her.
Cat eased up ’cause I could tell she didn’t want Darryl’s big mouth to screw up her arrangements.
“I don’t give a damn who you screw, motherfucker. Start apologizing for all the shit you put me through for the past six years. Start with how you made me feel like shit, asshole! Then follow up with every time you disrespected me, you punk bitch. And you can finish with every goddamn time you sat on your ass and expected me to clean up for you, motherfucker.” She opened fire at his face, shaking with fury.
Darryl screamed like a little girl before he realized that a stream of water was hitting his face.
“And I put ice in it, you no-good fucking dog!” She directed the spray toward his genitals, but I doubt it was possible to shrivel them more.
“Get your clothes on and get out of here so I can get the hell on. Get out of here and don’t come back or I’ll swear I’ll shoot you for real.”
She turned the water pistol on Danni. “You too, white girl. Get out and take your piece of shit with you!”
Danni was practically already dressed and Darryl scrambled. “Wipe yourself off first, fool,” Cat yelled at him. He grabbed the sheet with shaking hands and wiped himself off. He dressed with shaking hands, and Danni hurried him out the door. She looked back at me over her shoulder and gave me thumbs up. I’d never see a woman look so pleased.
After the door shut behind them, Cat started giggling.
I shook my head. Danni and Cat were some mean bitches.
But it was some funny shit, I had to admit.
CHAPTER 12
Return, return, O Shu’-lam-ite; return, return ...
—Song of Songs, 6:13
LUKE
I’m a colossal jerk. I didn’t control myself from tasting her. I said the V-word, vampire. I scared Luby away.
Stupid, stupid. I didn’t think I’d come to this backwater town and find the woman that I had to have—and keep. When I saw her in the elevator that day, the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen in my life, exotic, feminine and glowing violet, scarlet and golden, blazing with power. I couldn’t believe it.
With my luck, it figured that she didn’t have a clue about what I was and who she was. There was no way I could resist drawing Luby in and making love to her and then finally, making her mine despite the distraction of Alyssa’s constant onslaughts.
I was still tangled in one relationship and did the equivalent of marrying Luby without her consent on extremely short acquaintance. I must be mad.
I even suspected Luby of tricking me, of being fully aware of her power and casting an obsession spell that I couldn’t detect. I’d drawn a seer’s mirror and seen that there were no such influences over me. Luby’s spell was of the natural sort, embedded in her sexy body, beautiful face, appealing quick-witted personality, and loving heart. She’d caught me on her line and drawn me in to the point where I was flipping and gasping for air.
Women loved me so readily, I thought my own heart was immune. I knew that down deep I was glad that I was as capable as the next guy of wanting a woman for my own.
But now I had to wait. I needed to be patient until she came to me out of love and not fear. There was no way that I was going to let her go, but to force her with fear could destroy the hope I had of her truly loving me.
Not only lusting for my body, but loving the soul of me too. I wondered if I’d ever experienced that from any woman outside of my family. I doubted it.
The waiting was necessary, but too painful.
I reached out with my mouse and checked my e-mail to distract myself. Five e-mails from Alyssa. I deleted them all without reading them.
The last three years have been hell. The novelty of irresistibly attracting women wears off soon, let me tell you. I couldn’t work out in the world as I used to anymore, traveling to ranches within a fairly large territory, looking after the animals. Women sniffed me out like mosquitoes sensing blood. I had to move back in with my family and become a virtual recluse. I’d actually looked forward to marriage, thinking it would relieve my loneliness.
I promised to mate with Alyssa, a pledge bond between her family and my family. When she came to the ranch to meet me, she fell for me in the shallow way women often do.
When she begged me for sex, I obliged, hoping to rid her of the unseemly habit of staring at me, following me around, and hanging on to my every word like she was a dog and I was eating steak.
My decision to appease her was a terrible mistake, because it turned her superficial crush into an obsession. Most men may think that having a wife who thinks they are God’s gift wasn’t a bad thing, and at first, I also supposed it could be worse.
It did get worse, far worse. Love me, love me was her incessant cry, not having the sense to know the heart can’t be ordered into compliance. I know that I treated her with respect and tried to be friendly, but gods, I couldn’t take a breath without her tearfully accusing me of not loving her. What was I to do? Lie? I wonder if that would have satisfied her and shut her up. I doubt it.
Eventually, she allowed herself to be deceived by the demons and became their tool in a misguided attempt to force me to love her by magical means.
She wouldn’t return to her home, but stayed in our family home moping and having tantrums. At the end, I told her it was over and left my home, heading for the airport and buying a ticket for the first city I got a flight to.
My sister, Elaine, gave me books on magical arts to figure out and repel the spells and demonic attacks that she thought Alyssa would pursue me with. I disregarded her concern and figured that with my absence, Alyssa would get over me and move on.
I was wrong. Elaine’s books were worth their weight in gold. My ex-fiancée completely lost her mind. I tried to reason with her, tell her that my attraction is an effect of magical pheromones that I have no control over.
I tried to explain to her that without the glamour, I’d be an ordinary man, no better than any other.
She wouldn’t believe me. She thought if she could force me to love her, she’d be happy. When I told her if she isn’t happy within herself, my love wouldn’t matter in the least, she looked at me as if I was insane and burst into tears. She swore an oath that she’d get me to love her.
Did I mention that she was out of her mind? I’m sure I did. Gods, I wish that woman would get a life.
In the midst of this mess, I saw Luby and lost my heart for the first time in my thirty years.
The wards I’d set for protection against magical intrusions shrieked. Alyssa sent another demon.
“You busy?” the demon asked, putting down a cigar. It was the lizard-looking demon Alyssa usually sent. The demons and I were becoming too well acquainted.
“Sort of,” I said uncomfortably. “I was getting ready to shower and go to bed.” You can understand why I dislike pissing demons off, but it was getting more and more unavoidable.
“This won’t take long,” he said. He unrolled a scroll that trailed the floor. “She wants me to read this poem she wrote.” He looked pained. “I’m sorry man, but she won’t unbind me until I do it.”
“It’s that bad, huh?” I said.
“Excruciating.” He cleared his throat. “How do I love thee? One. You are a rain-washed flower bloom in May. Two. You are a fragrant and soft green meadow of hay. Three. You are the sunshine that lights up my every day. Fo—”
“How many are there of these?”
“Almost a hundred,” he said apologetically.
I swore and headed for the bathroom. I decided I needed a shower.
The demon stood outside the door and droned away. I didn’t turn off the water until after his voice ceased and I was sure he’d faded away. The woman must be resorting to torture.
I craved the heat so I turned down the AC and put on soft silk pajama bottoms and left my shirt off.
I settled back down at the computer and clicked over to my favorite gaming site with the idea of killing a couple of hours in mind.
There was a light tap at the door and I knew instantly that it had to be her. My mouth dried. How could one small woman make me so nervous? I hurried to the door.
She stood on the threshold, looking anxious, harried and utterly desirable, I had to stifle my urge to gather her small body into my arms.
I stood aside and motioned that she enter. “I wondered if you had any leftovers?” she asked.
“No, but I can whip up a sandwich,” I said.
“That would be delightful.”
She followed me to the kitchen and sat at the breakfast bar, perched on one of the stools I’d recently purchased. “Want a beer?” I asked, trying to take my cue from her and keep it light and casual.
“Thanks.”
She raised the beer to her lips and I opened the refrigerator, determined to make her the best sandwich known to man. “Do you like mushrooms?” I asked.
“I love them.”
“How does Portobello mushrooms, rare roast beef, and Swiss on sourdough sound?”
She giggled, her pearly teeth flashing white. “It sounds like food fit for angels right now.” She relaxed. “I spent all afternoon and evening helping Cat move Darryl’s stuff out of their apartment.”
“They’re separating?” I asked, pouring olive oil in the pan to sauté the large mushroom cap. Luby and I had a lot to address, but I liked to indulge in small talk in the intimacy of my kitchen. I appreciated how Luby instinctively realized that we needed a space to reconnect before we tackled the issues ahead. Alyssa was certainly not capable of such subtlety.
“Yes. And you won’t believe what happened. Cat decided she wanted to give Darryl to Danni and she set it up to catch them in bed and threw him out.”
I raised an eyebrow. The activities of mundane humans seemed to be as dangerous and bizarre as any magicks. But I decided not to question her on the matter further because I was far more interested in her activities than those of her friends.
She cleared her throat as I was cutting a Bermuda onion into the thinnest possible slices.
“Can I ask a favor of you, Jake?”
“Anything.”
“Do you mind putting on a shirt? You’re somewhat distracting.”
I quelled a grin. I didn’t relish turning on random women anymore, but I loved turning her on. I set the knife aside and washed my hands. “I’ll be right back,” I said.
I debated changing my bottoms because I wasn’t wearing briefs and was aware that the outline of my manhood was clear in addition to the slightest sign of my arousal being extremely evident. I decided against it. With Luby, I needed all the help I could get.
She’d gotten a second beer out of the refrigerator when I returned and was looking tense again. I quickly finished putting her sandwich together and presented it to her.
She bit into it and appeared to melt. “Mmmmm, this is so good.”
Gods, she turned me on. I couldn’t take my eyes from her mouth. She ate like she made love, with free enjoyment and gusto. She demolished the sandwich in a few minutes.
“Yummy,” she said, and I had to hold my hands behind me to keep from grabbing and kissing her.
She took the plate to the sink and rinsed it.
“You want to listen to some music or watch television?” I asked. I didn’t care what we did, as long as she didn’t leave.
She wiped her hands with a paper towel. “I’d like to talk, actually.”
I nodded and let her lead the way to the living room couch.
“Grandma talked to me yesterday. What she had to say was more than unsettling.”
I waited, suspecting the revelation she’d been given.
“She talked about faith, about magic, a little about my father and about you, Jake.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“She ... she said there is no such thing as vampires.”
“I agree,” I said.
“But you said you were a vampire. And you bit my neck!”
I felt bad about that. There was really no excuse. “I said I was like a vampire. I—my family, we have an affinity toward the blood of certain people.”
“Your family drinks people’s blood?” She sounded a little alarmed, but not as alarmed as I would have in her situation.
“No. There’s an affinity for the blood of people we love. It’s not that we drink it. You could say we’re drawn to taste it.”
She looked like I’d hit her in the stomach. I hurried to explain further. “When your blood is hot and rushing under me in the midst of our lovemaking, you smell like the sweetest floral nectar possible. It’s like a drug, the way you feel and taste, and I lost control.” I studied my bare feet, not knowing what else to say. “I’m sorry,” I added.
“You said you ... ” she said, so softly I could barely hear her, still looking stricken.
“Excuse me?”
“You said you loved me.”
I looked away from her questioning eyes. I wanted this revelation to happen at a different moment, one with roses and music and romance, not the present uncertain moment of our relationship. But it happened now and I couldn’t take the words back. “I do,” I said.
Her lip trembled. “You love me?” she whispered again with something like wonder in her voice.
“Always.” And I threw caution to the wind and stilled her lips under mine. She wound her fingers through my hair, while I kissed the tracks of tears running down her cheeks. I picked her up and carried her to my bed, because anything else had ceased to matter.
CHAPTER 13
Thou hast ravished my heart ...
—Song of Songs, 4:9
I lay Luby gently on my bed and unbuttoned her blouse and let it fall open, tracing circles over her hot, fragrant skin with my tongue.
She shivered. “Jake, yes.”
I stilled her lips with my own, reveling in the sensation of her petal-soft lips. I tasted longing, need, and a touch of fear. Did she fear love? Was she afraid of me? She mustn’t fear me, not ever.
“You must know how beautiful I think you are,” I whispered in her ear. My breathing was ragged, uneven. I brought myself under control. I wanted to worship the temple of her body, her precious gift to me.
I twisted my fingers through her cloud soft hair. We whispered nonsensical love words to each other, promising eternity.
I made love to her mouth, feeling her tongue sensuously moving against mine. She moved against me restlessly, seeking, wanting ... rubbing her softness against my hard straining cock that wanted nothing more than for me to pull her bit of panty aside and sink into her to the hilt. My desire ached to break free and flood her.
Her hands traced the length of my cock through my pants and I gritted my teeth to maintain control.
“I want your dick inside me,” she said, her voice husky with sex.
I drew in a quick breath. “Baby, we’ve only begun.”
I trailed kisses down her neck as I unhooked her bra and slid her blouse off her shoulders.
Her nipples rubbed against the soft material of my T-shirt and she tugged at it, craving skin against skin as much as I did.
I pulled the shirt over my chest and groaned as she rubbed her hard nipples against mine.
Her breasts were beyond perfect, full, high and tender, the nipples budlike and sweet. I bent to suckle them, eager to feel their softness against my tongue. I teased them into hard brown peaks with my lips, flicking her sensitive nipples with my tongue until she moaned and moved under me.
“Ohhhhh, that feels so good,” she whispered.
I eased her denim skirt and panties over her hips and she reached under the waistband of my pants and grasped my aching rod. Her small hand could barely reach around it and my body stiffened as she circled her thumb over the moistness seeping from my opening.
“You set me on fire, woman,” I said, tossing her shirt and panties over the side of the bed. I ran my fingers through her soft cottony curls, claiming her secret places for my own. I couldn’t wait to feel her sweetness quake and convulse under my mouth.
I kissed the swell of her soft belly and entwined my fingers further in her trimmed triangle of curls, my mouth and lips working lower as I held her straining knees open.
“I need to taste you.” I dipped my tongue into her moist slit. Tremors of pleasure shook her body as I fastened my mouth on her tiny bead of pleasure and sucked gently, rhythmically.
She writhed and bucked, her hands grasping my hair. “Yes, yes, yes,” she moaned. She went wild against my mouth, her hips riding the wave. Her sighs and moans intensified to sharp gasps, and I felt the waves of pleasure convulse her body. I moved up and watched her face, beyond beautiful in ecstasy.
Cat dropped her shopping bag, and pulled out an automatic weapon which looked like an Uzi or something. Had Cat lost her mind?
Then I relaxed because I could see from across the room that the thing was plastic. But Darryl looked like he was going to puke.
Cat was being plain evil. One thing about that girl, she didn’t just get mad, she got even.
“You are going to pay for every second I wasted with your sorry hind-end,” she hollered, accompanied by the classic neck swivel.
Cat raised the gun and squinted at Darryl. “Get on your knees, motherfucker, and prepare to face your maker.”
“Noooo, no, no, no,” Darryl started blubbering and bawling. Then he actually pissed himself.
“What the fuck?” Danni yelled, as she leapt out of the bed to avoid being splashed with pee.
But Cat didn’t relent. Girlfriend had some serious anger pent up.
“On your fucking knees or I’m going to blow your head off,” she screamed at Darryl again.
“Cat? Don’t—” Danni started to say.
“Shut up, white girl,” Cat thundered. Danni shut up.
“Now, say you’re sorry,” she said to Darryl.
“I didn’t intend to sleep with her,” he said, tears running down his cheeks.
“Didn’t intend to sleep with me?” Danni said, frowning and tightening the blanket around her.
Cat eased up ’cause I could tell she didn’t want Darryl’s big mouth to screw up her arrangements.
“I don’t give a damn who you screw, motherfucker. Start apologizing for all the shit you put me through for the past six years. Start with how you made me feel like shit, asshole! Then follow up with every time you disrespected me, you punk bitch. And you can finish with every goddamn time you sat on your ass and expected me to clean up for you, motherfucker.” She opened fire at his face, shaking with fury.
Darryl screamed like a little girl before he realized that a stream of water was hitting his face.
“And I put ice in it, you no-good fucking dog!” She directed the spray toward his genitals, but I doubt it was possible to shrivel them more.
“Get your clothes on and get out of here so I can get the hell on. Get out of here and don’t come back or I’ll swear I’ll shoot you for real.”
She turned the water pistol on Danni. “You too, white girl. Get out and take your piece of shit with you!”
Danni was practically already dressed and Darryl scrambled. “Wipe yourself off first, fool,” Cat yelled at him. He grabbed the sheet with shaking hands and wiped himself off. He dressed with shaking hands, and Danni hurried him out the door. She looked back at me over her shoulder and gave me thumbs up. I’d never see a woman look so pleased.
After the door shut behind them, Cat started giggling.
I shook my head. Danni and Cat were some mean bitches.
But it was some funny shit, I had to admit.
CHAPTER 12
Return, return, O Shu’-lam-ite; return, return ...
—Song of Songs, 6:13
LUKE
I’m a colossal jerk. I didn’t control myself from tasting her. I said the V-word, vampire. I scared Luby away.
Stupid, stupid. I didn’t think I’d come to this backwater town and find the woman that I had to have—and keep. When I saw her in the elevator that day, the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen in my life, exotic, feminine and glowing violet, scarlet and golden, blazing with power. I couldn’t believe it.
With my luck, it figured that she didn’t have a clue about what I was and who she was. There was no way I could resist drawing Luby in and making love to her and then finally, making her mine despite the distraction of Alyssa’s constant onslaughts.
I was still tangled in one relationship and did the equivalent of marrying Luby without her consent on extremely short acquaintance. I must be mad.
I even suspected Luby of tricking me, of being fully aware of her power and casting an obsession spell that I couldn’t detect. I’d drawn a seer’s mirror and seen that there were no such influences over me. Luby’s spell was of the natural sort, embedded in her sexy body, beautiful face, appealing quick-witted personality, and loving heart. She’d caught me on her line and drawn me in to the point where I was flipping and gasping for air.
Women loved me so readily, I thought my own heart was immune. I knew that down deep I was glad that I was as capable as the next guy of wanting a woman for my own.
But now I had to wait. I needed to be patient until she came to me out of love and not fear. There was no way that I was going to let her go, but to force her with fear could destroy the hope I had of her truly loving me.
Not only lusting for my body, but loving the soul of me too. I wondered if I’d ever experienced that from any woman outside of my family. I doubted it.
The waiting was necessary, but too painful.
I reached out with my mouse and checked my e-mail to distract myself. Five e-mails from Alyssa. I deleted them all without reading them.
The last three years have been hell. The novelty of irresistibly attracting women wears off soon, let me tell you. I couldn’t work out in the world as I used to anymore, traveling to ranches within a fairly large territory, looking after the animals. Women sniffed me out like mosquitoes sensing blood. I had to move back in with my family and become a virtual recluse. I’d actually looked forward to marriage, thinking it would relieve my loneliness.
I promised to mate with Alyssa, a pledge bond between her family and my family. When she came to the ranch to meet me, she fell for me in the shallow way women often do.
When she begged me for sex, I obliged, hoping to rid her of the unseemly habit of staring at me, following me around, and hanging on to my every word like she was a dog and I was eating steak.
My decision to appease her was a terrible mistake, because it turned her superficial crush into an obsession. Most men may think that having a wife who thinks they are God’s gift wasn’t a bad thing, and at first, I also supposed it could be worse.
It did get worse, far worse. Love me, love me was her incessant cry, not having the sense to know the heart can’t be ordered into compliance. I know that I treated her with respect and tried to be friendly, but gods, I couldn’t take a breath without her tearfully accusing me of not loving her. What was I to do? Lie? I wonder if that would have satisfied her and shut her up. I doubt it.
Eventually, she allowed herself to be deceived by the demons and became their tool in a misguided attempt to force me to love her by magical means.
She wouldn’t return to her home, but stayed in our family home moping and having tantrums. At the end, I told her it was over and left my home, heading for the airport and buying a ticket for the first city I got a flight to.
My sister, Elaine, gave me books on magical arts to figure out and repel the spells and demonic attacks that she thought Alyssa would pursue me with. I disregarded her concern and figured that with my absence, Alyssa would get over me and move on.
I was wrong. Elaine’s books were worth their weight in gold. My ex-fiancée completely lost her mind. I tried to reason with her, tell her that my attraction is an effect of magical pheromones that I have no control over.
I tried to explain to her that without the glamour, I’d be an ordinary man, no better than any other.
She wouldn’t believe me. She thought if she could force me to love her, she’d be happy. When I told her if she isn’t happy within herself, my love wouldn’t matter in the least, she looked at me as if I was insane and burst into tears. She swore an oath that she’d get me to love her.
Did I mention that she was out of her mind? I’m sure I did. Gods, I wish that woman would get a life.
In the midst of this mess, I saw Luby and lost my heart for the first time in my thirty years.
The wards I’d set for protection against magical intrusions shrieked. Alyssa sent another demon.
“You busy?” the demon asked, putting down a cigar. It was the lizard-looking demon Alyssa usually sent. The demons and I were becoming too well acquainted.
“Sort of,” I said uncomfortably. “I was getting ready to shower and go to bed.” You can understand why I dislike pissing demons off, but it was getting more and more unavoidable.
“This won’t take long,” he said. He unrolled a scroll that trailed the floor. “She wants me to read this poem she wrote.” He looked pained. “I’m sorry man, but she won’t unbind me until I do it.”
“It’s that bad, huh?” I said.
“Excruciating.” He cleared his throat. “How do I love thee? One. You are a rain-washed flower bloom in May. Two. You are a fragrant and soft green meadow of hay. Three. You are the sunshine that lights up my every day. Fo—”
“How many are there of these?”
“Almost a hundred,” he said apologetically.
I swore and headed for the bathroom. I decided I needed a shower.
The demon stood outside the door and droned away. I didn’t turn off the water until after his voice ceased and I was sure he’d faded away. The woman must be resorting to torture.
I craved the heat so I turned down the AC and put on soft silk pajama bottoms and left my shirt off.
I settled back down at the computer and clicked over to my favorite gaming site with the idea of killing a couple of hours in mind.
There was a light tap at the door and I knew instantly that it had to be her. My mouth dried. How could one small woman make me so nervous? I hurried to the door.
She stood on the threshold, looking anxious, harried and utterly desirable, I had to stifle my urge to gather her small body into my arms.
I stood aside and motioned that she enter. “I wondered if you had any leftovers?” she asked.
“No, but I can whip up a sandwich,” I said.
“That would be delightful.”
She followed me to the kitchen and sat at the breakfast bar, perched on one of the stools I’d recently purchased. “Want a beer?” I asked, trying to take my cue from her and keep it light and casual.
“Thanks.”
She raised the beer to her lips and I opened the refrigerator, determined to make her the best sandwich known to man. “Do you like mushrooms?” I asked.
“I love them.”
“How does Portobello mushrooms, rare roast beef, and Swiss on sourdough sound?”
She giggled, her pearly teeth flashing white. “It sounds like food fit for angels right now.” She relaxed. “I spent all afternoon and evening helping Cat move Darryl’s stuff out of their apartment.”
“They’re separating?” I asked, pouring olive oil in the pan to sauté the large mushroom cap. Luby and I had a lot to address, but I liked to indulge in small talk in the intimacy of my kitchen. I appreciated how Luby instinctively realized that we needed a space to reconnect before we tackled the issues ahead. Alyssa was certainly not capable of such subtlety.
“Yes. And you won’t believe what happened. Cat decided she wanted to give Darryl to Danni and she set it up to catch them in bed and threw him out.”
I raised an eyebrow. The activities of mundane humans seemed to be as dangerous and bizarre as any magicks. But I decided not to question her on the matter further because I was far more interested in her activities than those of her friends.
She cleared her throat as I was cutting a Bermuda onion into the thinnest possible slices.
“Can I ask a favor of you, Jake?”
“Anything.”
“Do you mind putting on a shirt? You’re somewhat distracting.”
I quelled a grin. I didn’t relish turning on random women anymore, but I loved turning her on. I set the knife aside and washed my hands. “I’ll be right back,” I said.
I debated changing my bottoms because I wasn’t wearing briefs and was aware that the outline of my manhood was clear in addition to the slightest sign of my arousal being extremely evident. I decided against it. With Luby, I needed all the help I could get.
She’d gotten a second beer out of the refrigerator when I returned and was looking tense again. I quickly finished putting her sandwich together and presented it to her.
She bit into it and appeared to melt. “Mmmmm, this is so good.”
Gods, she turned me on. I couldn’t take my eyes from her mouth. She ate like she made love, with free enjoyment and gusto. She demolished the sandwich in a few minutes.
“Yummy,” she said, and I had to hold my hands behind me to keep from grabbing and kissing her.
She took the plate to the sink and rinsed it.
“You want to listen to some music or watch television?” I asked. I didn’t care what we did, as long as she didn’t leave.
She wiped her hands with a paper towel. “I’d like to talk, actually.”
I nodded and let her lead the way to the living room couch.
“Grandma talked to me yesterday. What she had to say was more than unsettling.”
I waited, suspecting the revelation she’d been given.
“She talked about faith, about magic, a little about my father and about you, Jake.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“She ... she said there is no such thing as vampires.”
“I agree,” I said.
“But you said you were a vampire. And you bit my neck!”
I felt bad about that. There was really no excuse. “I said I was like a vampire. I—my family, we have an affinity toward the blood of certain people.”
“Your family drinks people’s blood?” She sounded a little alarmed, but not as alarmed as I would have in her situation.
“No. There’s an affinity for the blood of people we love. It’s not that we drink it. You could say we’re drawn to taste it.”
She looked like I’d hit her in the stomach. I hurried to explain further. “When your blood is hot and rushing under me in the midst of our lovemaking, you smell like the sweetest floral nectar possible. It’s like a drug, the way you feel and taste, and I lost control.” I studied my bare feet, not knowing what else to say. “I’m sorry,” I added.
“You said you ... ” she said, so softly I could barely hear her, still looking stricken.
“Excuse me?”
“You said you loved me.”
I looked away from her questioning eyes. I wanted this revelation to happen at a different moment, one with roses and music and romance, not the present uncertain moment of our relationship. But it happened now and I couldn’t take the words back. “I do,” I said.
Her lip trembled. “You love me?” she whispered again with something like wonder in her voice.
“Always.” And I threw caution to the wind and stilled her lips under mine. She wound her fingers through my hair, while I kissed the tracks of tears running down her cheeks. I picked her up and carried her to my bed, because anything else had ceased to matter.
CHAPTER 13
Thou hast ravished my heart ...
—Song of Songs, 4:9
I lay Luby gently on my bed and unbuttoned her blouse and let it fall open, tracing circles over her hot, fragrant skin with my tongue.
She shivered. “Jake, yes.”
I stilled her lips with my own, reveling in the sensation of her petal-soft lips. I tasted longing, need, and a touch of fear. Did she fear love? Was she afraid of me? She mustn’t fear me, not ever.
“You must know how beautiful I think you are,” I whispered in her ear. My breathing was ragged, uneven. I brought myself under control. I wanted to worship the temple of her body, her precious gift to me.
I twisted my fingers through her cloud soft hair. We whispered nonsensical love words to each other, promising eternity.
I made love to her mouth, feeling her tongue sensuously moving against mine. She moved against me restlessly, seeking, wanting ... rubbing her softness against my hard straining cock that wanted nothing more than for me to pull her bit of panty aside and sink into her to the hilt. My desire ached to break free and flood her.
Her hands traced the length of my cock through my pants and I gritted my teeth to maintain control.
“I want your dick inside me,” she said, her voice husky with sex.
I drew in a quick breath. “Baby, we’ve only begun.”
I trailed kisses down her neck as I unhooked her bra and slid her blouse off her shoulders.
Her nipples rubbed against the soft material of my T-shirt and she tugged at it, craving skin against skin as much as I did.
I pulled the shirt over my chest and groaned as she rubbed her hard nipples against mine.
Her breasts were beyond perfect, full, high and tender, the nipples budlike and sweet. I bent to suckle them, eager to feel their softness against my tongue. I teased them into hard brown peaks with my lips, flicking her sensitive nipples with my tongue until she moaned and moved under me.
“Ohhhhh, that feels so good,” she whispered.
I eased her denim skirt and panties over her hips and she reached under the waistband of my pants and grasped my aching rod. Her small hand could barely reach around it and my body stiffened as she circled her thumb over the moistness seeping from my opening.
“You set me on fire, woman,” I said, tossing her shirt and panties over the side of the bed. I ran my fingers through her soft cottony curls, claiming her secret places for my own. I couldn’t wait to feel her sweetness quake and convulse under my mouth.
I kissed the swell of her soft belly and entwined my fingers further in her trimmed triangle of curls, my mouth and lips working lower as I held her straining knees open.
“I need to taste you.” I dipped my tongue into her moist slit. Tremors of pleasure shook her body as I fastened my mouth on her tiny bead of pleasure and sucked gently, rhythmically.
She writhed and bucked, her hands grasping my hair. “Yes, yes, yes,” she moaned. She went wild against my mouth, her hips riding the wave. Her sighs and moans intensified to sharp gasps, and I felt the waves of pleasure convulse her body. I moved up and watched her face, beyond beautiful in ecstasy.
