by L. R. Potter
“God, you feel like hot-buttered silk,” he growled.
He plunged his tongue deep into her mouth as he pumped his body into her, over and over again. He could hear her heart pounding and her blood coursing through her body – the temptation to sink his teeth into her neck was almost too great. His body warred within him. The scent of her blood and the feel of her body wrapped around his were driving him nearly insane. He knew he could go ahead and drink from her then haze her, but he didn’t want her to forget this… not one single moment.
He rose up on his hands to get away from the one pleasure he was going to deny himself. Soon, he promised himself, soon, he would drink from her, but not now. Smoothly, he continued to glide into her scorching hotness.
She wrapped her hands around his biceps, loving the way they felt under her fingertips, all cold, hard steel. The feel of him moving within her and the beauty of his face and his body as he loomed over her, made her catch her breath. The feel of him was almost more than she could bear. Sensation ripped through her body and she whimpered, needing release - but not wanting it to end. She felt desperate and consumed… nearly mindless. She began to quiver beneath him and pawed at his chest. “Lynx,” she murmured incoherently, over and over again.
“Arabella,” he soothed. Without slowing his stride, he grasped first one hand, then the other, and intertwined their fingers before raising them to either side of her head. Knowing he’d regret being so close to her heated blood, he leaned down anyway and licked his way into her mouth. She moaned and writhed beneath him. She felt as if she were coming unglued and falling apart. Needing to hold onto to something, she wrapped her legs around his pumping hips. The change in position caused him to slide against a super-sensitive band of nerves. She began to pant and tightened the grip of both her hands and her legs. She bucked up into him then finally she crested the tidal-wave he’d had her on as she cried out his name.
The feel of her body writhing beneath him, then pulsating and clenching around him was going to be the death of him, he just knew it. He growled into her mouth and began to pound, seeking his own release. When it came, he reared back his head and roared his pleasure, his mouth watering, and the need to sink his teeth into her delicate flesh nearly overwhelming. But he once again denied himself. He continued to move slowly within her silky depths extending this pleasure. He looked down into her flushed face, a small, secret smile on her lips. He held her gaze as he lowered his head and kissed her gently, almost reverently.
When their bodies quieted, he still remained buried inside her, not wanting to break the connection. He released the hold he had on her hands and leaned down to hover over her, propped up by his forearms. He raised a hand and brushed his fingertips lightly over her face. She stared up at him so trustingly… so adoringly. “You are so beautiful,” he murmured.
She swallowed and a blush rose up over her face. “You’re supposed to use flattery before sex,” she said with an uncomfortable smile.
“Oh, Arabella. What am I going to do with you?” he said as he ran a finger across her bottom lip.
She swallowed at the intensity of his stare. “Lynx, I…” she began
“Mine,” he whispered as he kissed her again. “You’re mine now, Arabella. Mine until we get this out of our systems. Mine to touch,” he said as he clutched her breast in his hand. “Mine to taste,” he said as he sucked against her neck. “Mine to possess,” he whispered as he licked into her mouth for a lush, wet kiss.
His mixture of tenderness and demand were doing strange things to her equilibrium. She lifted her hands and buried them in his luxurious mane, tugging him closer, kissing him just as deeply, falling further into him. Slowly, he drew back and disengaged from her body, the feeling of withdrawal making her feel bereft.
He rolled onto his back, dragging her into his side, her head pillowed against his chest. He pressed his lips against her brow. Warmth flooded her at his almost absentminded touch. Following the warmth, fear and uncertainty trailed. She knew so very little about him, and here she was, entering into a relationship with him. No, not a relationship, he was very clear… clear except for, what this actually was.
Now that the fires of desire had begun to wane, she wondered if she could actually be involved in something that was this uncertain… unsafe… unsure. She shivered. If she were running from her previous life with Drew, she’d just won the race, as this couldn’t have been any further away from it. But on the other hand, she’d always thought Drew was safe and look where that’d gotten her. Her heart ached, her old life seeming farther and farther away. But she couldn’t stop herself from wanting to be here, with him. She knew she’d never be the one to end it… it would be him.
Lynx tugged her hand drawing her attention back to him. “What’s going on in that pretty head of yours?” he asked.
“I’m thinking we don’t really know each other very well.”
He stared off for a moment before saying, “We know enough.”
She nodded slowly and was silent for a while. “I don’t know what to do about Drew,” she said softly.
“That’s over!” he said roughly and possessively.
She sat up and threw her legs over the side of the bed, her back to him. She pushed her hair away from her face. “I know,” she replied softly.
“Then what’s the issue?” he asked.
Not wanting to discuss her scattered thoughts about Drew with him, she just murmured. “There’s no issue.”
Lynx sat up and moved her hair from her neck before pressing his lips to her nape. “Arabella, you need to know that I’m very possessive. I keep what’s mine. For now, you are mine. You agreed to that.”
She shivered at the touch of his lips against her skin. “Everything is just moving so fast,” she said softly.
“I’ve wanted you from the moment I saw you. So I don’t find this fast enough.”
“I just got out of a relationship. I’m scared of this… of you,” she said.
He stilled at her words. “What are you scared of exactly.”
“That you’ll hurt me,” she said just above a whisper.
Pulling her back down, he crawled over her and nudged her legs apart as he wallowed his body between them. Slowly, he pushed her jersey up and over her head. With deliberate slowness, he pressed his lips against the skin between her breasts. He cupped them within his hands and stroked them gently. “I probably will,” he said as he licked across her chest.
She inhaled deeply and ran her fingers into his hair. It was becoming to be one of her favorite things to do.
“And when I do,” he continued, looking up to catch her eyes, “You’ll come to me and tell me, okay? Promise me that one thing – you’ll come to me. As long as we are together, you’ll come to me with your concerns.”
“I promise,” she said softly, wondering why this was so important to him. The thought of it though, flitted from her mind when he slipped back into her body, inch by glorious inch.
~X~
They’d finally managed to get out of the bed, but the shower had taken them longer than usual. She was deliciously sore in places. He was sitting with a towel wrapped around his waist. His bare-chest and well defined muscles did funny things to her stomach. Wanting to have him wrapped around her still, she’d slipped on his white dress-shirt, which hung sexily down to her mid-thigh. No panties, he’d told her. She squirmed a little at the remembered demand.
“Tell me about your family,” he said as he sipped coffee. The fork she was lifting paused in mid-air. “What do you want to know?” she asked cagily.
He tilted his head at her evasion of his question. “I’m trying to get to know you. This is how people do it. It has three parts: I ask questions; you answer; and I listen intently,” he said with a smile.
She placed her fork back down without eating the eggs on it. She blinked at him for several moments. She liked him not knowing things. She felt free for some reason. Besides, they weren’t in a ‘relationship’ and she didn
’t have to tell him anything. “There’s not really anything to tell.”
Rising from the table, she began to clear away their breakfast debris. Moving to the sink, she placed the dishpan in the sink, squirted detergent into it before turning on the water. She’d assumed, due to their limited faux-relationship, she didn’t need to tell him about things… about her mother’s visions, about her father… about her own glimpsing. No, she’d at least be spared that. She was so afraid once she told him things about her past, he’d think her certifiably crazy just like most others had when she’d ever disclosed to them about her glimpsings. Drew had been the only one who’d stuck by her. As the thought of Drew entered her head, she began to feel guilty, even though she knew she had no reason it be.
She heard his chair as it scraped back, then felt his hands on her hips.
Against her ear, he murmured, “Arabella, talk to me.”
She allowed the water to flow over her fingers. “It’s all in the past. What’s the use of dredging up ancient history?”
“It obviously still bothers you. Just tell me. What? Do you think I’ll judge you or something? I won’t, you know.”
“You can say that because you don’t know,” she replied.
Reaching over her, he shut the water off, and turned her to face him. “We can do this the hard way or the easy way. You decide,” he said firmly.
She stared up at him, begging him not to make her do this, but his gaze was gentle but unrelenting. Maybe it would be better to just tell him and get it over with. If he left her now, she’d be able to endure it. If whatever they were doing went on and she lost him later, she wasn’t so sure. Somehow she knew that losing Lynx would be much more excruciating than losing Drew. That thought stunned her. He’d been very clear… they were not in a relationship. This was just… this. Being this close to him, inhaling him into her senses confused her.
Needing space, she slid out from between him and the sink and sank back down into her chair. He followed and reclaimed his own seat. Picking up the salt shaker, she fiddled with it to give her hands something to do. Inhaling deeply, she raised her eyes to his briefly before turning her gaze to the sliding-glass doors. Finally, she decided, what did it really matter? He could find out anything he wanted about her from those in town. Wasn’t it better if he heard it from her side of things?
“As you know, my mother was a singer on the stage. She was very talented and had things been different, she might have gone far. But she met my father, got married, and once she got pregnant with me, he didn’t want to raise a child in the city, and so they bought this place. We were happy here in the beginning.”
“What happened to change that?” he asked.
She glanced down at the salt shaker before directing her gaze back to his. “My mother was a psychic.”
His brows furrowed. “Psychic? In what way?”
“She had visions of things. Sometimes it was of the past and sometimes of future events.”
He bowed his head and gave a small smile. “That wasn’t what I was expecting. I thought maybe she was an ax-murderer or something,” he said with a slight smile. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”
She gave a shrug of her shoulders. “In and of itself, it wasn’t. But people don’t really like what they don’t understand. And they certainly don’t like the ugly parts of their lives revealed,” she said softly.
“She had visions about other people?”
“Yes. Anyone she came into contact with. Of course, as a caterer, she came into contact with lots of people,” she said.
“And she would tell them about the visions, I’m assuming.”
“That’s what the altercation was about at the club?”
She nodded. “She was considered a freak by some and a lunatic by others. We were ostracized by most and harassed by many. We had bottle-rockets thrown through our window, crosses burned in our yard, death threats mailed to us, or sent via brick-mail through our windows. The neighbor kids weren’t allowed to play with me and Ian. It was… bad,” she finished quietly.
He reached over and covered her hand with his own. “I can’t even imagine. You must have been so scared.”
“It was hardest on my father. He couldn’t keep a job, so he felt he was a failure as a provider and a protector. In the end, he just couldn’t endure it. He shot himself. That was… awful!”
Lynx reached over and pulled her over into his lap and wrapped his arms around her. He nuzzled her hair. “Oh, my girl,” he whispered. He stopped himself from examining too closely the overwhelming need he had to comfort her again.
“It’s ironic, really, about my mother’s death. Over time, she’d stopped discussing her visions no matter what, and slowly people forgot about it… about her. After all that we had endured and the threats we’d suffered – she’d suffered, she was mugged and killed for the money in her purse.”
He continued to rub his face against her hair. “I wonder why she didn’t see it coming,” he said thoughtfully.
“I think she did. She was acting really weird prior to her death. But she never would tell me what she saw. I think she thought she was protecting us or something.”
“That’s tragic. How long ago was that?” he asked, as he began to run his nose up and down her neck.
“Almost a year.” She stretched her neck to give him better access. “That’s why I struggle about Drew,” she felt him tense underneath her. She turned toward him and grabbed his face. “He was the only one who knew the truth and stuck with us anyway. It… it means something.”
He stared into her eyes as if he were trying to see into her very soul. Without breaking her gaze, he picked her up effortlessly and spun her until she straddled him. He reached down and un-tucked his towel, letting it fall aside. With slow hands, he unbuttoned the shirt she wore and parted it. He ran his hands over her body underneath. She leaned into him and kissed him lightly as her breathing grew more rapid. It amazed her that she could go from calm to sizzling-hot in the span of seconds. It was like he had some kind of power over her body.
He broke the kiss, his breathing just as ragged as hers. Against her ear, he whispered, “You are an amazing person and I want all of you.”
Lifting her, he placed her over his engorged shaft and lowered her down. She groaned at the exquisite fullness of it. With his hands on her hips, he lifted her up and slid her back down. He leaned forward and placed a wet kiss against her nipple, suckling it deep within his mouth. She arched into him as pleasure spiraled out of control within her. She tangled her fingers into his silky strands and tilted her hips when he shifted her down. Her body was quivering and even after only minimal contact, she was on fire. She’d never experienced sex like this before.
He lifted his head and gazed steadily into her eyes. And while her body was still on fire, she seemed numb to everything else outside of this moment. As he continued to lift and move her, he said softly, “I’m going to do something and I don’t want you to be afraid. You will be fine, it will only sting for an instant. Okay?” he asked, even though he knew she’d not be able to deny him through the gazing. Slowly, she nodded her head as she panted.
He held her eyes for as long as he could before lowering his lips to the throbbing vein in her neck. He placed a gentle kiss against her soft flesh and his excitement at the feel of his body plunging into her moist softness and the scent of her pulsating blood made him feel like a savage. It took all his years of leaned restraint not to tear into her neck. Instead, he felt with his tongue until he found the marks left by the other vamp. He lashed over that spot with his tongue, secreting enough venom to deaden the area. He sensed the change in her as she whimpered in her need, close to her release. Her blood was heated within her body and he inhaled its scent. His body trembled as he fought to maintain his control, but all the external elements – her scent, and his shaft buried deep in her – made it nearly impossible.
Not able to bear another moment, he sank his teeth in her flesh and inhaled her. God! He�
��d never tasted anything so sweet in his entire existence. He pulled hard against her neck and gulped the delicious juices flowing into his mouth. He rolled his body within her, his desires seeming to coalesce into one. She jerked against him and he felt the change– her fear beginning to overshadow her desire.
Selfishly, wanting to enjoy this, he thrust up into her and held her tight as she struggled to get away from him as he drank her life’s nectar. Her heart began to pound wildly in fear and it only heightened his animalistic need to conquer. She began to really struggle now, but he held her tightly as he sucked from her neck. He continued until he felt her struggles begin to wane. He could have drunk from her for hours, but didn’t want to hurt her. Before he was really ready, he unlatched his teeth and pulled back. The feeding had his own sexual need welling up in him and he wanted to slam brutally into her over and over. But, again selfishly, he wanted her with him. He wanted her hazed before they finished so she would remember at least that part of it - be a part of this most luscious partaking in that way.
He looked into her wild, terrified eyes, tears streaking down her beautiful face. He’d seen this same looks hundreds of times in his existence, and usually it satisfied something in the beast buried within him. His chest burned with unfamiliar shame as he looked into her eyes and saw the terror and revulsion. He also saw betrayal there. He sat still for a long moment. He hated seeing that look in her eyes. Gone was the loving, heated gaze, replaced with horror and fear. He found for the first time, he didn’t like it. Even though he knew she’d never remember it… he knew he’d never forget it.
He quickly grabbed her head between his hands and pressed his thumbs against her temples as he leveled his gaze on hers. She shuddered and whimpered and tried in vain to jerk away. In seconds, he had her hazed. She’d never remember anything from the point where he pressed his lips against her neck till now.
