by Luxie Ryder
Clive rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know why… or how… but for some reason you guys seem to have come back to life.” He turned to Ethan, gesturing over his shoulder to the young couple standing in shock on the other side of the room. “I guess we’re gonna need to help them.”
“Give me a minute to talk to Hallie and I’ll be with you, okay?” Ethan gazed down at her and Hallie’s heart leapt at the fire sparkling in his eyes. “Can you find us a hotel room while we go sort this out?”
“Go with her, Ethan. I can handle this. It’s gonna take more than a couple of hours to explain what has happened to them anyway. You look about ready to drop.”
Thirty minutes later, Hallie pulled Ethan into the bedroom of a cheap motel just outside of town. The shabby bungalow apartments offered nothing much except privacy…which was all they needed for now.
“Ugh! I need a shower.” She turned to walk away but a strong arm stopped her, pulling her back against a hard wall of muscle.
“I’m sorry, baby, but I just can’t let you out of my sight for a while. Besides, you smell great to me.”
She laughed, thrilled at Ethan’s unwavering desire for her but concerned he was pushing himself too far. “On the way over here you said you were hungry. Let me order something from room service. How long has it been since you’ve eaten a meal?”
“Weeks. God, I’ve almost forgotten what food tastes like.”
Hallie wriggled out of his arms and flipped through the menu she’d found on the night stand. “They don’t have much. How about a burger?”
He nodded in agreement but still reached for her again. Hallie sidestepped with a giggle and tried to phone through the order. Ethan took the opportunity to slide his body behind hers, pressing his erection against her ass, nibbling at her neck as she tried to speak.
She fought the urge to laugh, her hand covering the mouthpiece of the phone. “Stop it.” Suddenly, the line went dead and she looked down to find Ethan had put his thumb into the cradle, cutting the call short.
She gave up on the food and turned in his arms, allowing Ethan to kiss her the way she wanted him to. His tongue begged for entrance, sliding between her lips and she gasped from the desire curling in her belly. Ethan groaned, slipping his hands down her body and grasped her thighs, roughly lifting her against him. She wrapped her legs around his waist and clung on to his neck as his hands moved again, tearing the shirt from her and undoing her bra.
Hallie pulled his t-shirt over his head and threaded her hands into his hair as he possessed her with another hot kiss. They worked their way to the bed, desperately clinging to each other, never wanting to be apart again, and then he placed her gently on the bed. Soon her jeans and panties joined the pile of clothes on the floor and she stretched languidly, boldly watching him kick off his pants, her nerves tingling in greedy anticipation of having his beautiful body dominate hers.
Ethan crawled up from the bottom of the bed, kissing every inch of her flesh along the way. His lips and tongue grazed the arch of her foot to the bend in her knee and her inner thighs… until finally, he reached her pussy. His tongue delved between her parted lips and her body went rigid at the first electrifying flick across her sensitive clit.
His hands clasped her hips, preventing her from moving away when the exquisite agony of his mouth became almost too much to bear. Her fingers wound into his hair and her pelvis ground against his mouth as wave after wave of a devastating orgasm coursed through her. Ethan groaned, aroused it seemed by her reaction to him. He slid a thick finger inside, intensifying his efforts, coaxing another orgasm from her hungry body.
Dazed and utterly numb with satisfaction, it took a moment before she could think straight. Hallie reached for him, guiding Ethan up over her body and parted her legs wide to take him in. Ethan’s mouth locked with hers and she bit gently on his lip as he penetrated her body. He began to move inside her with skillful precision, his breath ragged as he buried his head into her neck and drove his hard cock into her again and again.
Hallie grabbed his face so she could watch the man she knew and loved take her for what seemed like the first time. He was different. Any thought that being a vampire made him more desirable seemed almost laughable now. Tears welled in her eyes and he paused for a moment to stare back at her.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart?”
She smiled to show him he had no need to be concerned. “I love you so much. So very, very much,” she said, her voice breaking at the weight of emotion in her words.
“I love you more.” Ethan’s lips met hers and he pushed into her again, deep and slow as if to savor the perfect moment. His hands drifted to her hips to lift her from the bed and increase her pleasure, sliding his cock to that sensitive place that drove her wild.
They came together—Ethan with his head thrown back as a loud groan tore from his throat, and Hallie clutching his ass, her legs locked around his waist, the breath stolen from her.
As curious as she was about what had happened, Hallie couldn’t begrudge Ethan the sleep he needed. His gentle snores filled the room mere minutes after he’d collapsed beside her. She stroked the hair from his brow and placed a kiss on his head. A shower, her questions, and food could wait until morning. She fell asleep, excited at the prospect of getting to know Ethan all over again.
When she woke, he wasn’t beside her. Fear clutched at Hallie’s heart, chasing away the smile she had when she opened her eyes and turned to look for him.
“Ethan?”
Hallie sat up and checked around for him but the room was empty and the bathroom door open. Sunlight streamed in through the windows, painfully bright and hot. Oh God…maybe he still needed to sleep during the day?
She squinted at her watch and leapt from the bed, surprised she’d slept until noon, and then decided to have a shower. Unfortunately, it did nothing to calm her nerves. Where the hell did Ethan go? She stepped out of the steamy room with a towel wrapped around her body and went to retrieve her clothes from the floor.
“Damn! I hoped I would be back in time to take a shower with you,” a voice said from behind her.
“Ethan! Oh, thank God!” She threw herself into his embrace, crying with relief.
“Hey, don’t be upset. I’m here.”
She punched him in the arm. “Where did you go? When I woke up and found you gone I didn’t know what to think.” He didn’t answer, his attention no longer on her face, instead lingering on the rivulets of water running from her hair down into the gap between her breasts. “Ethan?”
“Sorry…but damn you look good wet.”
Hallie smiled through her tears, her anger dissolving. It was going to take time getting used to the change in him all over again. “Seriously, where were you?”
He stepped away, excitement lighting up his handsome face. “I had a lot to do. I got Clive to drive me back to Fairborne so I could pick up the Aston and make sure the house and store were secure. I grabbed a few of your clothes, too.” He gestured to the suitcases piled up behind the door.
“Suitcases? Are we taking a trip?”
He smiled. “I want to show you my family home where I grew up.”
“Where is it?”
“Just outside of the city limits. I didn’t want to go back until I was sure this was over…until I was sure that I wasn’t going to wake up this morning and find nothing had changed and I was still a vampire.”
Hallie shook her head again, still unable to make any sense out of the events of the previous night. However it happened, she’d be eternally grateful Ethan survived. “It wouldn’t have mattered to me, Ethan. I love you, no matter what you are.”
He pulled her into his arms again, kissing her passionately. “That’s the one thing I was sure of. God alone knows what I ever did to deserve you, but I know you love me almost as much as I love you.” Unshed tears made his eyes sparkle and he blinked them away, seeming embarrassed by the depth of his feelings. He turned and grabbed her clothes from the floor. “C
ome on, I can’t wait to take you home.”
They drove through winding country lanes, in the haze of a steamy Louisiana afternoon, before Ethan announced they’d arrived. Hallie checked her watch, surprised to find they’d driven for so long. The miles flew by unnoticed to Hallie, her attention riveted on the gorgeous man whose hands she longed to feel on her again, anticipation building with every turn in the road.
The car glided to a halt at the edge of a copse of live oaks draped in Spanish moss, nestled at the foot of a hill. Hallie slid out of the passenger seat of the Aston Martin, mentally berating herself for not insisting earlier that he take her for a ride in the beautiful machine. Ethan grabbed her hand and gestured to the crest of the hill rising before them.
“It’s my favorite view in the world,” he said, tugging her to the plateau. His gaze never left her face as they reached the top and she saw what he’d been so excited about. “This is the Butler Estate.”
Hallie gasped.
Below her, a lush green valley stretched on for miles, up to a horizon fringed with cypress trees. In the center of the meadow lay a large, white French Colonial style plantation house. The two story property had a row of pillars supporting the veranda running around the top floor, leading to a long sweeping staircase that descended down to the lawn. Hallie thought it looked like the perfect setting for a civil war romance.
Ethan dropped to his knees, fishing in his pocket for something. A faint blush crawled over his cheeks and Hallie’s breath caught in her throat. Oh my God – is that a ring?
A stunning sapphire sparkled in the midday sun, the exact color of Ethan’s eyes. The princess cut stone had a smaller but no less breathtaking diamond on either side of the gem and sat on a gallery of warm, yellow gold.
He cleared his throat. “It’s my mother’s ring. I always take it wherever I go, along with my father’s watch.” His hands shook as he reached for hers. “I want you to marry me, Hallie. I know this seems fast but I don’t need to wait any longer to know that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I couldn’t allow myself to love you before and I fought it for months, but now there’s nothing standing in our way. If our love was strong enough to bring us through the madness of the last few weeks, I know it’s strong enough to last a lifetime.” His eyes shone with love, respect and admiration for her and he smiled shyly, looking self conscious and vulnerable when she didn’t answer him straight away. “Will you? Will you marry me, Hallie?”
She couldn’t trust her voice so she simply nodded and the tears welling in her eyes slipped down her cheeks. His face lit up, mirroring the joy she felt in her heart, and he slipped the ring onto her finger, kissing the place it now rested.
Hallie pulled him to his feet and giggled as he chose not to bend to kiss her this time, instead, lifting her up so her face was level with his. “I love you, Ethan,” she told him as his lips found hers. His kiss stole her breath and heat crawled over Hallie’s skin, her love and lust for him combined because the man who held her heart owned her body too.
Ethan pulled back, leaving Hallie clinging to his shoulders, weak with longing. He smiled and raised his eyebrows, as if waiting for her to speak. She laughed when she remembered that she hadn’t yet given him an answer. “Yes, I want to marry you…in case I didn’t make it clear.”
He kissed her again, with a passion matched only by the love burning in her heart for him, and then put her back on her feet, arms still wrapped around her. “I’ll make you happy, Hallie, I swear.”
“Just the knowledge you’re alive and here with me makes me happy already.”
Ethan laughed, elation making him even more handsome than ever. “If anyone had told me six months ago that I’d have to die twice to find the love of my life, I would’ve told them they were crazy.”
Hallie hugged him as a wave of love for Ethan left her breathless. She’d never be able to equal a vampire’s sacrifice but she’d spend her life proving he’d been right to make it.
The End
Evernight Publishing
www.evernightpublishing.com
