“I’m on my way, Ariana. I’ll get Jonah and we’ll be there in a couple of minutes. You just hang tight.”
Ariana ended the call and went to Abe’s side. She forced herself to relax, then placed her hands on his chest and closed her eyes, bringing all the energy she had left in her to the surface, so she could heal him. She concentrated hard, but couldn’t seem to locate where, or even if, anything was wrong with him.
She sat back on her heels, thinking. Out in the hall, she heard Jonah’s loud mouth. She ran to unlock the door; any more dents and Abe would have to get a new door made.
Jonah was laughing and joking, Rainey and Becky right behind him.
“You two must have had some rockin’ sex for him to be this drained,” he chuckled.
Ariana gave him her best pissed off face. “We most certainly did not, not that it’s any of your business. He went dream walking with me and when we got back, he was like this,” she said, pointing to Abe on the floor.
Jonah walked over to Abe, bent down, picked him up like he weighed no more than a feather and placed him over his right shoulder. He then turned toward the door.
“Wait! What’s wrong with him and where are you taking him?” Ariana ran to catch up with Jonah.
“He needs to feed and I’m taking him to a meeker, unless you want to do it?”
Jonah stood in the door, smiling, with Abe’s limp body on his shoulder. Ariana’s face turned white as a sheet.
“I didn’t think so. He’ll be back, good as new, in thirty minutes or so. It might take us a while to get him awake enough to feed.” He turned away from her.
“Can I go with him?” Ariana asked.
“Yeah, you can go, but do you think you’re going to be able to watch him take another female’s vein without passing out? Or getting mad?”
“Why would I get mad?” Ariana asked, falling into step beside him. Though she’d probably pass out before anything else registered in her mind; Jonah knew her too well.
“Well… how do I put this? It’s arousing for both the meeker and us when we… uh, feed. You don’t have to worry about… the sex part… Abe wouldn’t bed one of those blood whores. But he can’t prevent getting… you know, when he feeds. You sure you can watch him do that, with someone else?”
Ariana suddenly felt sick to her stomach as Jonah opened the door to the feeding room. “I think I’ll just wait out here.”
“Wise choice. Hey, don’t be mad at him, Ariana, it’s not something he can help.”
“I’m not mad, but I don’t have to like it, either.”
Jonah smiled at her before entering the room. She watched the door close behind him, backed against the wall and slid to the floor, right there, in the hall.
“You alright?” Rainey asked as she sat down beside her, handed her a coke, then opened her own.
Ariana’s eyes were a little unfocused as she opened the can with shaky fingers and took a drink, hoping it would settle her uneasy stomach. It didn’t make any difference.
“Yeah,” she whispered. “I just wish I had the nerve to give him what he needed instead of him having to use one of them, in there.”
“You will, honey. Don’t upset yourself. You’ve come a long way already.”
Ariana really didn’t want to think about it, much less talk about it, so she changed the subject. “I noticed you didn’t comment earlier, when I asked if you or Becky had ever thought of being changed. Have you, ever?”
Rainey dropped her head. “His name was Armadéus. He wanted to see the world and so he left. He said he would come back… That was seven years ago. Of course, to a vampire, seven years feel like seven weeks. Anyway, I’ve moved on. When we go to California on Wednesday, we’re picking up Kade and bringing him back here to live on the island.”
“That’s great news, Rainey. And we have another stop, because Janie and Lance want to live here, too. Do you think we can stop in Arkansas? Janie needs a bridesmaid dress, so we can get fitted together.”
“No problem, honey. We’ll just have to leave a bit earlier, and maybe spend the night in Beverly Hills. It’s a long flight. Abe won’t like the extra delay, but he’ll get over it. I’m sure you can make it up to him in some way.” She winked.
Ariana looked away, embarrassed. “Lance didn’t take the news that well, but I think he understands.”
“Did you tell him everything?”
“Everything.”
“What about Janie?”
“We didn’t get the chance to visit her dream, and I’m glad we came back when we did, or Abe might not have made it at all. I didn’t even think about how dream walking might affect him.”
“All that playing with Jonah earlier drained him a lot, but I bet the magic in the dream walking didn’t help, either. You need to take me with you sometime.”
“We can visit Armadéus’ dream, if you like, so you can tell him not to bother coming back.”
Rainey laughed. “After all these years, I still love him. I haven’t heard from him at all. He may be dead, for all I know. He might have gotten tired of life by now; he was over six hundred years old. He was only thirty when he was changed, and he was so damn hot. Blond hair and blue eyes…”
“Why didn’t you go with him?”
“He was a lot like Jonah. He didn’t want to commit. When he thought he was getting attached, it was time for him to go. I would have changed for him, but I don’t think he wanted me to. So he left, without me.”
“I’m sorry, Rainey.”
“Don’t be. I’m happy. You never know, Kade might be my knight in shining armor.”
“I hope you’re right…”
Jonah opened the door. “He’s just finished feeding and he feels really bad for crashing in front of you, Ariana.”
“Like I haven’t fainted a hundred times in the last week. How long is he going to be?”
The door opened again and a very embarrassed and very nervous Abe walked out with his head down. Ariana ran to him and threw her arms around him. He hugged her back.
“I’m sorry, Ariana.”
“Don’t be silly. You don’t have anything to be sorry about. You just scared the hell out of me. I tried to heal you, but I couldn’t find anything wrong.”
Abe looked at her in shock. “You tried to heal me?”
“Well, yeah, only I didn’t know what was wrong. I didn’t know how the dream walking affected you. I guess we know now that you need to feed before you do it again.”
“I’ll make sure of it. I’d kiss you right now but… well…”
“Come on, let’s go back to your room, so you can brush your teeth and then finish that sentence.”
Abe laughed. “Now that I can handle.”
CHAPTER 48
Ariana skimmed through Abe’s collection of movies. The only other place she had seen with this many movies was the local Blockbuster. There had to be thousands, and they were all categorized into horror, drama, action and comedy, and then alphabetized by title. There were even a few Disney movies. She picked up Beauty and the Beast, smiling and wondering what it would be like to see Abe watch this one. Why on earth would he even want to? He was a big, bad vampire, for Pete’s sake.
Abe came out of the bathroom and walked up behind her. He noticed the movie she was holding. “I’m guessing that you are puzzled over my movie tastes.” He took the movie out of her hand. “It’s a beautiful love story. Just because I’ve never been in love before now doesn’t mean I hated the idea of love. I just figured I’d missed my chance. Plus… I’m sort of a beast. I’m happy to have found my Belle.” He put the movie back in place on the shelf and skimmed through the others until he found the one he was looking for. He picked up the box. “You said you would watch it with me.”
Ariana busted out with laughter as she looked at the DVD cover to see a teenage girl with a blue and white checked dress, her arms linked with a lion and a tin man, a scarecrow on the tin man’s other arm.
“You’re serious?”
“Absolutely.” Ariana grinned as she took the movie from him and walked across to the DVD player. She put the movie in the player and waited a moment, then hit play.
“I figured you would want to watch some kind of love story or a thriller to get me into your arms, not a movie about a girl who talks to lions, tin men, and scarecrows and gets chased around by a wicked green witch.”
He walked up behind her and placed both arms around her middle. He whispered softly in her ear. “I don’t need a movie to get you into my arms, Ariana, but we’ve decided to wait till Saturday night, so I’m trying hard to make it a little easier on us.”
He kissed her neck once, twice, and when she moaned he stopped suddenly. He couldn’t do this, he couldn’t be this close to her and not touch her. It wouldn’t have mattered if she had put Bambi on, which he also had in his collection.
“Abe…?” Ariana sighed with her eyes closed.
It was all he could do, to answer her, without letting her feel the battle he was having to fight to subdue his mutinous emotions. He cleared his throat. “Yes?”
“Tell me again… why do we have to wait until Saturday night?”
Aw, crap! This was too much. He thought he had enough control to make it till then, struggling through every hour one minute at a time, but there was no way in Hades he would be able to find enough control for them both.
“Abe, are you going to answer me or do I need to read your mind?”
Oh, sweet Jesus! He couldn’t stand it any longer. She had pressed her body firmly against his and she knew, full well, what he was thinking. His girl was such a tease!
His buddy beneath his tuxedo slacks was speaking loud and clear to her. After a few labored breaths, Abe managed to speak for himself, as well, but his voice came out strangled. “You are making this really hard, I mean difficult… difficult for me to control.”
Ariana smiled. “Who said you were in control in the first place?”
She turned and faced him, locking her arms around his torso. The look on his face was priceless. She’d never seen so much anguish on his face before, not even when she’d threatened to leave the island. He was determined to hold out a whole week for her sake, to control his raging desire. She knew she couldn’t do it, and it was clear he was in agony, literally, just thinking about control. It was almost worth the wait, watching him like this, quite comical, really.
“Tell me again why we have to wait a whole week, Abe,” she goaded him once more.
Abe’s breathing had turned to gasps and he was staring at the ceiling. He couldn’t gaze into those green eyes of hers without losing it, without giving in to her. Her next words did it and the brick wall came tumbling down. Nothing could hold him back from taking what he wanted now.
“Make me yours tonight, Abe. I love you,” Ariana finally put him out of his misery.
His eyes found hers then, and all he knew at that moment was that he would do anything for her. He’d wanted to wait until their wedding night, but who was he kidding? It just wasn’t meant to be.
Abe framed her face with his hands. “I love you more than anything in the whole world and nothing will ever take you away from me. You are mine and I am yours, Ariana.”
He kissed her lips, slowly at first, but soon the hunger for each other had their hands racing to peel off the clothes they were wearing. Ariana could have sworn there were a hundred buttons on Abe’s shirt; she lost patience and ripped them free. She put her hands on his abs and sighed as he slowed the pace by placing a hundred little kisses from her chin to her collarbone. Abe tickled the skin down her back with one hand as he unzipped her dress with the other, leaving a blazing trail of desire behind his touch, then held her gaze as he slid the dress off her shoulders and let it fall to the floor.
He took her hands and helped her step out and over the pile of redundant fabric, staring at her body in awe. She was perfect in every way imaginable. He ran his fingers up her neck into her flowing hair and tangled his fingers there, tugging gently so her head would fall back, exposing the column of her neck to him. He placed a trail of tiny butterfly kisses from her jaw line to her earlobe. Seeing that the new jewelry looked good on her, but was clearly going to be in the way, he used his vampire speed to rapidly remove the earrings and necklace and laid them on his night stand.
The Wizard of Oz was still playing in the background, so Ariana shut the television off with her mind as Abe picked her up and carried her to the bed. He’d wanted to fill the room with hundreds of fragrant tea lights and rare tropical blossoms and spread red silk sheets on the bed, and set two Champagne flutes on the table next to a bowl of juicy fresh strawberries and a pot of sweet cream, and warm chocolate sauce he could drizzle… But there was no time for all that now, vampire speed or not.
He laid her gently on the bed and hovered over, their bodies touching, but holding most of his weight carefully off her. Ariana wrapped her legs around his middle, pulling him closer, which drew a low moan from his throat.
Abe noted her matching set of bra and panties, satin and lace in the same colour as the dress – man, did his favorite color look good on her – and began his trail of kisses down her neck again. He hadn’t ever been this aroused before and wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold himself back, but he had to slow down or he was going to disappoint her for sure. God, she was killing him with those sighs and moans. The nails in his back weren’t helping the matter, either.
The kisses trailed between her breasts, wispy sheer lace with black satin covering the most vital parts, tempting him to search and discover. He reached behind her back and flicked the clasp with two fingers and a thumb. The loosened satin disappeared suddenly and landed on the floor. How could she even concentrate on magic at a time like this? He must do better, Abe vowed and he smiled, taking the hardened peak between his lips, rolling it over his tongue, biting gently and suckling first one, and then the other, until she reached her fist release, which almost made him lose it, too. He stopped briefly to renew his control and listen to her panting breaths slow, then he picked up the end of the trail of kisses and continued his journey downward.
Ariana was in pure bliss. No man had made her feel this way before with just his lips. He was driving her crazy with the nipping and she was growing anxious to return the favor. She let go of his waist and brought all her emotions to the surface, lifting him off her body with her mind.
“Ariana! Whoa, what are you doing?” Abe’s small chuckle held a nervous edge as he hovered several feet above her.
She laughed and lowered him to the mattress, still on his stomach. Abe started to turn over.
“Oh, no, you don’t. It’s my turn to drive you crazy.”
“You already are…”
His voice trailed off as her hands and lips touched the skin on his broad shoulders. She kissed softly along his neck and captured his earlobe between her teeth.
Abe moaned. “I can’t take it much longer, Ariana. If you want to have any pleasure at all, you’re going to have to stop doing…”
She’d been kissing along his jaw line and had just reached his lips when he turned over fast and captured her in his arms.
He kissed her softly. “I think I will hold on to you this time, in case you decide to spring another flying lesson on me; you will have no choice but to come along for the ride.”
Ariana smiled up at him. “I’ll go with you next time, I promise.” Her eyes shone with an inner glow. “I want you, Abe. Now.”
That was all she had to say. He hooked his thumbs in his waistband, but his slacks and boxers just disappeared, to land on the floor, next to her lacy bra. A second later her panties fluttered through the air and settled on top.
He froze, stunned by the view. She was so beautiful, laying there, just waiting for him. He couldn’t unscramble his brain, much less move his body
.
“Come here, Abe Cambridge. Make love to me.”
His hands were shaking as he took her in his arms and kissed her with a passion that might just fuse the two of them together. She was his, she was really his. He wanted to take his time and enjoy the euphoria in his thoughts but she had already deepened their kiss. He knew he was two seconds away from losing his mind.”
“Now, Abe, please,” Ariana whispered, her breath tickling his wet lips.
All thought of resistance dissipated as he found the sweet darkness between her legs. She was so ready for him and he’d longed to feel her warmth for so long. He sank himself slowly, deeply into her soft heat and knew that there would never be anyone else for him. He was lost to her for all eternity, and another eternity after that.
He held her gaze, watching as her desire turned to bliss and her eyes turned glossy with pleasure and lust. She started moving underneath him, taking him deeper, pressing herself into him.
He started moving slowly, to keep from hurting her, but his pace wasn’t fast enough for Ariana. Her hands reached around his back and she dug her nails in, guiding his movement and speeding it up. Quickly catching on to what she wanted, he crushed his mouth to hers and let her have all of him with the speed behind it. Damn, she felt good. Little shivers quaked her body and he could tell she was about to climax – good thing, too, because so was he.
What he heard from her next floored him.
“Take my vein, Abe. Don’t hesitate, just do it before I change my mind. Hurry.”
His fangs shot out and struck her jugular as painlessly as possible. He heard her sigh and the grip of her hands on his back slackened. He slowed his body movement, to prevent an imminent explosion; he wouldn’t let that happen until he was certain she was satisfied.
Ariana was moving beneath him slowly and kneading his shoulders with her fingers. From the sounds she was making, it was clear that the feeding was arousing her. She let out first a whimper and then a soft scream as her supple heat pulsated around his shaft. Abe let himself release as well, riding the waves of her high and also his own.
Eternal Island (Book 1 in the Eternal Series) Page 26
