Ever After Series: Paranormal Romance Box Set (Steamy Vampire Romance)

by A. C. James

  Arie grinned. “You do realize we have an eternity to go exploring.”

  “Mmmm, maybe we should buy a globe and I’ll close my eyes and spin it. Wherever my finger lands when it stops is where we should go.”

  “That’s very charming. And what if fate picks a place you don’t want to go and we end up traveling someplace with a grass hut instead of a hotel and vampire mosquitoes to keep us company?”

  I laughed. “Then maybe it’s karma.”

  “You amaze me.” Arie rolled onto his back and I rested my head on his chest.

  His fingers tangled in my waves, and it wasn’t long before he started squirming. Finally he edged out from under me and swung his legs over the edge of the bed.

  “Where are you going? I was comfortable,” I teased.

  “Hungry. Seems like making love to you made me work up an appetite.”

  He winked over his shoulder as he headed toward the kitchen. Food was an extraordinary experience with the taste sensations that danced across our oversensitive palates, but we didn’t need it for sustenance. No, I knew that when he said he’d worked up an appetite that what he really meant was that he needed some Puncture.

  “Want anything from the kitchen?” he asked.

  He was already halfway down the stairs.

  “No, I’m good.”

  I rolled across the bed and looked at the red digital display. We still had several hours before Luna’s shift started at HFC. The tips of my fangs tingled. I was hungry, but for something else entirely.

  * * *

  My eyes drifted in that semi-sleepy post-coital bliss that always followed making love to Arie. I’d never known that feeling until he showed me what it meant to be desired. I heard footfalls on the stairs as he returned from the kitchen. His weight on the edge of the bed shifted it. I opened my eyes to find him sitting on the edge of the bed, looking at me intently, both fear and love twisting his features into a perplexed and vulnerable mess.

  “What?”

  “You don’t want me to look at you,” he said. “You’re beautiful. I can’t help looking at you and I don’t ever want to stop.”

  Thank the heavens I didn’t need oxygen because I stopped breathing right then and there. Arie grabbed my hands, pulling me up. I thought he was trying to pull me into his arms, but I was wrong. He grasped both sides of my thighs and drew me to the edge of the bed, swinging my legs over the side. He searched my eyes as if pleading for an answer, and I hoped that it would be one he wanted to hear.

  Arie bent forward and kissed my knee, his eyes never leaving mine. He took my hand, and somehow I knew what he was going to say before the words were even out of his mouth. “Will you marry me?”

  I didn’t know what to say or how to respond. I hadn’t expected him to propose to me. He’d given me the promise ring, and that was enough. Was it enough? I’d wanted more, but I was fine with it because that wasn’t in the cards for us. And I’d accepted a promise because at the time it was all he had to give. But now? How could I say ‘yes’ if he might not remember asking me, let alone remember my answer? Maybe my answer doesn’t matter, then…

  “I say…yes.”

  Without saying anything he slid the promise ring off my finger. Then he gripped my hand and opened his other palm. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t believe, and certainly couldn’t speak, but then he was sliding a gorgeous princess-shaped diamond ring onto my finger.

  “Do you like it?” he asked.

  “Like it? I love it. It’s beautiful beyond words.”

  “It’s not as beautiful as you.”

  I blushed. “When did you get it?”

  Arie gave me a wry smile. “I’ve had since the night of the gala. I knew since the first time I saw you that you would be mine. I just wasn’t ready to admit it.”

  His admission was puzzling. I looked down at the ring. “Then why give me the promise ring instead?”

  “Holly, you have to remember how hold I am. Courtships take time, and I didn’t want to scare you off by asking you the moment I fell in love with you.”

  “And when was that exactly?” I teased.

  “The night your cat broke the vase in your apartment was the night that I knew I could never stay away from you even if I wanted to.” His voice was completely serious.

  It had been the night that he’d revealed that he was a vampire, and at the time we’d barely known one another. And yet he was kneeling at my feet, telling me that even then he’d loved me. Oh, and he’d tried to push me away. Once I found out his past with Katarina was the cause, I could understand his need to keep me at a distance. My throat felt tight. His powerful admission made all the times he’d tried to hold back worth it.

  “Why now? I mean…I was okay with a promise. There’s no one else for me, and there never could be.”

  “Time hasn’t mattered to me because I have plenty of it.” He squeezed my hand. “I don’t know if that’s true anymore. At the diner…”

  “Shhhh.” I stood and pulled him to his feet. “It’s okay. You don’t have to explain. I know.”

  His eyes searched mine again, pleading. His kiss was a slow, reverent, silky caress and his tongue explored my mouth as if trying to memorize that part of my body too. We just stood there kissing one another; agonizingly slow, gentle kisses. We got lost there for a while, his hands in my hair, and my arms around his neck. With each kiss, my body responded to his sweeping tongue, and I knew we’d soon tumble back into bed. And I fully anticipated yet another body-shivering, earth-moving explosion.

  Chapter 7

  Arie was kissing the slope of my neck, my shoulders, and then he guided me onto the bed. We were kneeling, facing each other, and his hands were cupping my face. His kiss was tender and somehow scorching-hot bundled at the same time. His hands dropped to my hips. A fiery trail of butterfly kisses down my jaw left me breathless, as his palms were slid up my outer thighs and around my back to cup my ass, kneading the meaty flesh. My hands traveled up the rugged terrain of his chest, over his biceps, and wound around his neck. I let my fingers toy with his dark curls, lingering in their softness. As he spread my knees further apart, his groin bumped against my mound.

  Torturous delight.

  All the times he’d ever held back came barreling down on me with every touch, as though a dam had broken. With his hands on my ass, he ground his pelvis into mine. I moaned into his shoulder, my hair falling forward as I leaned into him. Arie released me. He leaned back on his heels and then sat on the bed, legs crossed Indian-style, before he tugged me onto his lap. I laughed as I tumbled forward quite ungracefully, almost tipping us backward. But Arie’s strength supported my lack of coordination.

  “I want to remember the way you look right now. Smiling. Laughing. Radiant.” He reached up and brushed a hair away from my face. “I don’t want anything to come between us.”

  I’d waited my whole life for a man that made me feel like a woman.

  “Nothing can come between us,” I whispered. “I swear I won’t let it.”

  Everything made sense in my world with Arie in it. The desperation in his words and the way he looked at me made me feel like I had to cherish every moment we had like it might be the last. If he hadn’t admitted that he’d wanted to propose much sooner, I would have feared his only reason was that he was afraid of losing me. I didn’t even want to think about that possibility, but I couldn’t help wondering if he might be right.

  “You don’t have to swear it. I will always fight for us,” Arie said.

  “Shhh.” I pressed my lips to his and whispered against them, “don’t talk anymore.”

  I slid my hand back down his chest, following the rippled trail of muscles, until I gripped his shaft. He’d sucked his stomach in, a reflex of anticipation, and a satisfied smile spread across my lips. Sliding my hand up and down its length, I felt him elongate under my palm. I kissed him on the mouth slowly and deliberately as I continued moving up and down his rigid shaft. He’d leaked a dot of moisture at his
tip. His heartbeat thumped against my other palm, which remained across his chest for balance, my legs straddling his lap. I jerked his cock to its rhythm and his heartbeat quickened. I was sliding my hands on him faster and faster, his muscles flexed in effort to hold back.

  Arie’s hands were at my waist, trying to persuade me to lower onto his cock, which throbbed in my hand.

  He groaned. “Oh, God. If you don’t let me—”

  “You better not.” I laughed. “I want you to come inside of me.”

  “Good. I want to be inside you, right now. Please, Holly.”

  He gasped past clenched teeth as I lowered myself onto his straining member. His hands were on my ass, bringing me forward with each excruciatingly slow thrust. Bringing me deeper, as if trying to make sure he reached the depths of something infinitely more powerful. I felt another piece of myself dissolve. I loved Arie beyond reason, beyond logic. Our eyes locked and I knew he felt it too.

  “You feel so good,” he whispered against my lips as he dipped forward to kiss me.

  “Don’t hold back. I need you. Hard.”

  My knees sank into the mattress as I drove my hips into his. Riding on top of him, I felt powerful, and surprisingly I enjoyed the switch. My gentle kiss turned fierce as he crushed my lips, thrusting his tongue into my mouth. At the same time, he rocked his hips, hard. I clawed his back, gripping him as we rocked into each other. I imagined there wasn’t anything graceful at all with the way I was bouncing up and down on his lap, but at the moment I couldn’t care less.

  I broke the kiss and put both hands on his shoulders for leverage. I rolled my hips in a circular motion, grinding down on him. Then I pulled up until only his tip remained in my silky depths and slid back down, deep and hard. Again. And again. He’d reached between us, and his thumb circled my nub, taking me higher.

  “Yes, Arie. Harder, faster.”

  He let out a primal sound—something between a roar and growl—that rumbled deep in his throat as he bucked his hips wildly. Now I was clutching his shoulders, digging my nails into the tense muscle, just trying to hold on. Even on his lap it seemed he’d taken control of the pace, his hands on my hips, driving me up with each thrust. Yes, harder. Faster. I lifted higher on the next drive forcing me up, and sunk back down harder. My heart was thumping wildly in my chest, like the sound of a galloping race horse. And we were running down the track, heading for the finish line.

  I couldn’t stop the rhythm, and wasn’t sure which one of us was setting the pace. I fell onto him, clasping my arms around him, as our hips moved to the same tempo. Bucking in abandon, my hair fell over his shoulder, down his back. Our bodies were slick from the frenzied heat that danced between us. I could hear my pulse now, like the rush of waves that crashed into the shore, as we crashed into each other. I rode him over that edge and pulsed around him. Still soaring, riding the wave of the orgasm that rolled through me, he clung to me as he came. All we could do was cling to each other as the bucking of our hips slowed until we were both still. The orgasm shattered me. Arie shattered me. My body was draped over his, limp as a dishrag and completely sated.

  I managed to come back down to earth, because surely we’d left it and journeyed to a place where time and space seemed to disappear completely. I rolled to the side, flopping onto the bed, and pillowed my arm beneath my head. Warmth encompassed my body as Arie wrapped around me. It would be nice to close my eyes and doze in his arms, for just a little while. Then we’d find Luna, and surely since she was Daeveena’s sister she’d have something that we could use for the locator spell. I closed my eyes, my thoughts wandered, and I turned onto my side to snuggle into Arie. Everything would be okay.

  * * *

  Nothing would ever be okay ever again. It had been foolish to believe that. Hands were wrapped around my neck, squeezing my throat. I felt a moment of panic before I remembered that it didn’t matter because it couldn’t kill me—I was already dead. But all I could see were gray starbursts that danced in front of my eyes, blocking my vision. Who was choking me? And why? I wondered vaguely what would happen if the hands wrapped so tight continued to squeeze until my head popped straight off. That outlandish thought flitting through my foggy brain didn’t seem so crazy at the moment. Those strong hands were pressing down on me, down on my neck…

  I felt like I was floating, adrift at sea. There was a storm and I was drowning. Through the gray clouds, I saw Arie’s face hovering above me. Except it seemed like he was asleep and having some sort of nightmare.

  It was no use. I couldn’t speak with his hands crushing my throat. –Arie, it’s me. You have to wake up. Stop.- He didn’t stop. His eyes were glassy, just like they’d been both times when he wasn’t himself, when he couldn’t remember who I was. I couldn’t make sense of it while his hands were tightening around my windpipe. Still, if he thought I was Katarina, I didn’t understand why he’d be choking me. After all, he’d loved her, and Arie would never hurt me. –Please, Arie.- But he was hurting me.

  I pushed against his chest, but my efforts were futile against the dense wall of muscle. Instead I grabbed his wrists to try to get him to release my neck. His strength outmatched me, and the heavy weight of his body pinned me to the bed. Arie thrashed like someone having a seizure. Everything felt floaty. Those gray semi-translucent spots were coming back. I stopped struggling to get free when I finally realized how ineffectual my efforts really were. My hands dropped to my sides.

  One last-ditch effort, if I had the mental capacity left to manage it and if he wasn’t too far away. –Toren.- No answer. Perhaps he was out of telepathic range, or maybe he was still irritated at me and Arie for being amorous. Clearly seeing Tessa got under his skin and dredged up a history that neither of them was willing to deal with at the moment. Still, I had to try, because I couldn’t get Arie to stop. –Toren. Please, I need your help.- My telepathic plea sounded panicked in my mind. That was my last coherent thought; after that I couldn’t think of anything. I was floating again.

  We were on a boat looking out at the endless blue horizon, floating across an ocean, but I didn’t know where we were going. Starting over, a new beginning, in a new land, and Arie wouldn’t tell me a thing about it. I hadn’t been a vampire for very long, but my station in life had improved and it was far better than working as a washerwoman. My thoughts were jumbled, not my own. When I looked down at the fashionable bodice with its extremely low, rounded neckline and short wings at the collar, I knew that I had drifted into a vision—this one was of the past. I could tell that it was a time when Katarina and Arie were still lovers.

  I looked up at Arie, who wore a broad hat with a brim and a shirt with voluminous sleeves. He looked incredibly happy, and I was happy too. I frowned. No, I wasn’t happy…I was miserable, trapped in her body, an unwilling passenger in this vision. Always stuck for however long the Sight lasted. Odd that it would be more painful to see them together rather than the terrifying visions of her after she’d gone stark raving mad.

  “Look, over there.” Katarina pointed across the water as the boat bobbed up and down, crashing through the waves. She smiled. Not a cruel, twisted smile, but a genuine one that lit up her entire face. She seemed almost small and fragile. Childlike. “Do you see the dolphins? They’re truly remarkable.”

  Arie smiled at her and clasped her hand. “You’re truly remarkable, my love.”

  My love.

  I squeezed his hand in my much smaller one and looked up into eyes which at the moment appeared more blue-gray than gray, reminding me of the ocean.

  “Why won’t you tell me where we’re going?”

  “Isn’t it more intriguing not to know?

  Her expression shifted ever so slightly, like a dark cloud had passed over it. There will be no new beginning, because no matter where you’re going you take yourself with you. I wasn’t entirely sure whether that thought had come from her or from me, but then the cloud lifted and I was smiling up at Arie once more.

  Yes, it would have
been better not to see how they had been together, to see that they had been in love. She would always be a part of his past, but knowing and seeing are two very different things. It killed me to see her fingers wrapped around his hand, to feel the joy in her heart that in that moment felt equal to my love for him. My throat constricted at his words. Then the weight pressing down on my throat was being released. I coughed and sputtered.

  “I’m here now. Don’t sit up right away.”

  The image faded. I don’t know why I’d hoped to see Arie’s eyes, somber as winter, hovering above me reflecting recognition and regret. After all, I’d called for Toren.

  “Toren. You came.” My voice croaked out.

  His green eyes were filled with concern. –I wasn’t far, but even if I was I would come for you.-

  Something about that touched me, and I realized that no matter how angry or irritated he had been he hadn’t strayed too far, and he wouldn’t. He couldn’t trust leaving me with his brother in his current condition. Not until we figured out what was wrong with him and how to fix him. I wouldn’t allow myself to think of this as something permanent. I wrapped the sheet around my naked body. We’d been blissfully dozing after making love and I still wasn’t wearing any clothes. But at the moment my main concern was Arie.

  “Arie…”

  I pushed myself up on my elbows. Arie lounged against the far wall across from the bed, a confused and horrified look on his face.

  “She was trying to stake me in my sleep. I swear it,” Arie shouted.

  “You were having a nightmare,” Toren said. “And you could have killed Holly. She’s immortal, but there’s still plenty of ways this could have ended very badly if I didn’t get here in time. She’s not invincible, you know.”

  “That’s Kat,” Arie said, jerking a hand in my direction.

  It felt like the air had just been ripped from my lungs. He wasn’t snapping out of it. Oh God. I didn’t think I could take this. I looked down at the ring encircling my finger and folded my hands into my lap.