by Devon, Cat
She was preparing to turn her laptop off for the night when the screen suddenly went blood red. Then a face appeared, followed by an eerie and scary Satan-sounding voice. “Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Miles Payne. I hope you’ll forgive this intrusion, but I need to speak with you.”
Shrieking at the top of her lungs, Daniella slammed the laptop shut.
Nick was instantly at her side, still wet from the shower, water dripping from his muscular body. “What’s wrong?”
“Miles.” She hated the fact that she gasped, but hell, seeing that face suddenly appear on her computer screen totally freaked her out. “He was here.”
“Where?” Nick looked around. “I don’t sense him here.”
“There.” She pointed to her laptop and leaned away. “He suddenly showed up on the screen and…”
“And what?”
“Introduced himself.”
“Tell me exactly what he said,” Nick ordered.
Nick’s naked body was so incredibly distracting, Daniella had to close her eyes. Otherwise she might just leap into his arms.
She cleared her throat. “Like I said, Miles introduced himself. Apologized for the intrusion, he called it. Then he said he needed to speak with me.”
“What did you tell him?”
“Nothing. I shrieked and slammed the laptop shut so hard I probably broke it. But there’s something I need to tell you.”
“Go ahead.”
Daniella opened her eyes and stared directly at Nick. At his eyes and not the rest of his very male and very impressive anatomy. “I’ve made my decision. Let’s do it,” she said. “Let’s have sex.”
Chapter Twenty-one
Nick responded with unexpected calmness, actually reaching for a throw from the edge of the couch to wrap around his waist, restricting her view of his naked body. “I thought you said you wanted some romance.”
“That was before Miles creeped me out. No, let’s just do it and get it over with.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “I know this is a wimpy question but I have to ask. Will it hurt?”
“Are you a virgin?”
“No.”
“Then it shouldn’t hurt. It’s not like I have fangs on my privates.”
Her eyes flew open. “You don’t have to get all crabby about it.”
“Let’s keep this simple,” he said.
She nodded vehemently, trying to dislodge the vision of Nick’s previously naked body from her mind. “By all means.”
“You lust after me. I lust after you. We have sex.”
“Does the lusting part include foreplay?” she asked. “Because frankly I’m going to need some foreplay.”
“That’s doable,” he said.
“So how exactly are we going to do this?” she asked.
“The usual way.”
“You’re a vampire and I am a hybrid. There is no usual way.”
“We’ll do it any way you want.”
“Okay, now you make it sound like I want you to do something exotic out of the Kama Sutra or something.”
“I could do that if you want me to.”
She nervously stood up, banging her elbow into the bowl of Skittles as she did so and sending the candies flying into the air. One landed down her shirtfront. She wasn’t about the dig it out now. She had more important things on her mind.
Instead she quickly tidied up the mess and dumped the rest of the Skittles in the trash.
She tilted her head toward her bedroom, indicating Nick should follow her there. “Miles might be able to see us in the living room,” she whispered. “What if he has the place bugged?” The possibility made her sink onto her perfectly made bed. Her legs were too shaky to hold her up at the moment.
“He’ll leave you alone once we’ve had sex. It’s only the first vampire to have sex with a hybrid who gains additional power.”
“You’re sure about that?”
Nick sat beside her on the bed. “As sure as anyone can be in this situation.”
“Just lie and tell me you’re sure,” she ordered.
“How about you? Are you sure about this?”
“As sure as anyone can be in this situation,” she retorted.
He smiled at her.
“You should do that more often,” she said.
“Do what?”
“Smile.” She lifted her hand to his mouth and traced his lips. “It looks good on you.” She traced her way down his jaw, his throat, to his chest and his abs. “Naked looks good on you, too.”
“I’m sure it will look great on you as well once we remove more of your clothes.”
“I am a little overdressed,” she agreed. “Comparatively speaking.”
“I can take care of that.” He slowly slid one of her shirt buttons out of its buttonhole.
She quickly undid the remainder.
He lifted a dark eyebrow. “In a hurry, are we?”
“Well, yeah. Miles may be planning something else.”
“Forget about Miles.”
“Easier said than done.”
“I can help with that.” He turned her to face him.
“Are you going to do some kind of vampire thing?”
“I was actually going to unfasten your bra. If that’s okay with you?”
“Sure.” She cleared her throat and tried to sound more confident. “That’s fine with me.”
“Good.” His fingers brushed against her breasts as he worked on the front fastener of her lingerie. The white bra was not one of her sexier pieces.
“I should have put on something more appropriate,” she said nervously. “I have a lacy black bra.”
“I’d just be taking it off.”
“Right.”
He finally undid her bra. He held her breasts together and bent his head before lifting it again to smile at her. “You store your extra Skittles in your cleavage?”
She snatched the candy away from him. “Of course not.” Her eyes slid away from his and focused on his left shoulder. “Wait, you’ve got a Skittles on you, too.” Instead of tossing it away, she leaned forward and licked the candy from his skin. He tasted unlike anything she’d ever experienced before. It was the best Skittles she’d ever had.
“Mmm,” she murmured, licking her way over his collarbone.
Her moans of pleasure increased as he made good use of his hands, caressing her breasts. He brushed his thumbs over her nipples, creating shards of pleasure deep within her core.
Tightening her hands on his body, she shifted her tongue-teasing to his male nipples.
Growling deep in his throat, he lowered her to the bed and yanked the throw from around his waist. She stared up at his bare body. Wow. He was even more impressive close-up.
And he was big. Would he even fit? Would their merging be physically possible?
She hated being suppressed by her fears. She wanted to let go. She needed to let go.
She studied him closely. Okay, he was big but not humongous. This should work. This was going to be good. Really good.
When he undid her jeans, she lifted her hips so he could yank them off and throw them onto the floor. Her underwear followed.
Now she was as naked as he was. She wished she’d thought to turn off the light first. Yes, she was afraid of the dark, but the night-light would go on automatically and somehow make her look skinnier? Sexier?
Those thoughts flew out of her mind when Nick gripped her hips with both hands, brushing the ball of his thumb against her. He was so close to the part of her that cried out for his touch. He took his time until she was wild with anticipation. Then she was wild with pleasure as he caressed her clitoris. She threw her head back and raised her knees on either side of his body.
He watched her as she came. Then he lowered his head and did incredible things to her down there with his wicked mouth. Hot suction and tantalizing tongue touches. She curled her fingers into his hair as she was overcome by another set of even stronger sexual surges ripped through her again and again.
Eventually Nick kissed his way back up her body. She could taste her essence on his mouth, “Now,” she whispered, shifting hungrily against him.
“Was that enough foreplay for you?”
“Yes!” she practically screamed as his hands worked on her again.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes!” She curled her hand around his penis and guided him in. She took all of him. His powerful thrusts created rapture. Pure rapture. Insanely wild rapture.
The walls of her vagina clenched with the force of their joining as her orgasm began to take over. They were meant to be together. This was meant to happen. And it was about to happen big-time. Her spasms grew from a sensual ebb and flow to a mind-blowing force that propelled her from this world to some other plane of infinitely raw and reckless ecstasy.
She gripped the metal uprights of her headboard in her fists and held on for dear life as her pleasure kept growing and erotically exploding and then growing yet again. Her vision was getting blurred but she still saw the expression on Nick’s face of dark desire before she was nearly overcome. The bliss was almost more than she could bear.
He arched his back and came, lodged deep within her.
Daniella had no idea how much time had passed before she was able to form words. But she couldn’t decide what to say because there was no way to accurately describe what had just happened to her. To them both.
“Bloody hell, that was exceptional,” Nick said, his English accent suddenly apparent.
Daniella grinned as she felt what else was apparent—him hardening inside her once more where they were still joined together. “Vampire rejuvenation?”
Nick grinned back. “Allow me to demonstrate.”
And he did.
* * *
Daniella got little sleep that night, but she wasn’t complaining. She opened her eyes the next morning before the alarm went off. Nick was still asleep. He had his back to her. For the first time she saw his tattoo, at the base of his neck. His dark hair normally would cover it. She recognized the fleur-de-lis design, but the dagger at a forty-five-degree angle through the center was unique.
Reaching out, she barely brushed her fingers over it. A millisecond later he had her pinned to the bed. His eyes had a strange glow she’d never seen before.
Gulping, she said, “It’s me. You don’t like anyone touching your tattoo. Sorry. I won’t do it again.”
His eyes returned to a more familiar smoky gray as he gently cupped her cheek with his hand. “No, I’m sorry. I’m just not accustomed to waking up with anyone in bed with me.”
“Did you sleep in the same bed with Magdalene?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“It was complicated,” he said.
“So are you and I.”
“True.” He tenderly slid a tendril of her hair behind her ear. “Are you okay?”
“I’m better than okay. I feel energized despite the fact that I didn’t get much sleep last night. But then I’ve never needed lots of sleep. A good thing given that I have to get up so early to make the cupcakes.”
“Hmmm.” He was nuzzling her ear.
“Or maybe it has something to do with the naked vampire in my bed.”
“I’d like to think so,” he said with false modesty.
She glanced at the bedside clock. “We still have some time before I have to get up.”
“I’m already up.” He moved against her.
“Yes, you are.” She reached for him, running her fingers up and down his tumescent length. “Show me again how well you fit inside me … Yes, yes, yes!” she chanted over and over again as he thrust into her. The feeling of him filling her up was just as excruciatingly exciting and sexually hyper-satisfying as it had been the first time. And the second and third times. No, this was even better because now he knew exactly where to touch her to lift her climax to the stratosphere.
Her orgasm was fast and furious and left her saturated with satisfaction yet more energized than ever. Afterward, she hopped out of bed and wrapped a robe around herself. Then she turned to Nick, where he lounged in her bed and watched her. Her floral sheet pooled low on his hips in a way that was ridiculously sexy. “I have to ask you something,” she said.
“Go ahead.” He whipped the sheet completely off. “I’m an open book.”
She tried not to drool as she also tried to remember what the hell her question was. Oh yeah. It was about her best friend. “Did you send a vampire to compel Suz to stay in Italy?”
“No.”
“Did you or one of your vampire clan compel her via Skype or something on YouTube?”
“No. Why are you asking me these dumb questions?”
“They aren’t dumb and I’m asking them because it’s not like Suz to change her plans because of a guy she just met,” she said. “First my dad gets engaged to someone he hasn’t known very long and now Suz is staying longer in Rome to be with Enrico. What’s next?”
“You falling for me?”
“That would be a really dumb thing for me to do,” she muttered, turning away.
He was in front of her in the blink of an eye. “Why is that?”
“Because you wouldn’t have looked at me twice if you’d been able to compel me not to open my shop that first day we met. And you certainly wouldn’t have wanted to have sex with me if I wasn’t a hybrid.”
“I wanted you right away when you wore that prim sweater the first time I met you. I wanted you even when your stubbornness was driving me crazy.” Seeing her face, he added, “Why do you find that so hard to believe?”
“Because I’m not the kind of woman that men like you notice. You may have been curious about the fact that you couldn’t compel me but that’s all it was.”
“Why do you belittle yourself so?” He sounded like he’d just stepped out of the pages of one of her historical romances.
“I’m just being realistic.”
“Our reality is different from anyone else’s,” he said.
“I realize that.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.” She waved a hand at the badly rumpled bed. “I’ve never experienced anything like that before.”
“Neither have I.”
She didn’t want to dissect their relationship. It was too early. And she had to take a shower and get dressed. By the time she did that Nick was waiting for her, wearing his customary black.
“Do you feel any different this morning?” she asked him. “I mean, your powers were supposed to increase after we … uh … did the deed.”
“I don’t think it’s an immediate thing.”
“Oh.” It had been for her. He only had to look at her the way he was doing now and she wanted to jump back into bed with him. “Um, was something supposed to change with me once I had sex with you?”
“Why? Do you feel different this morning?”
“Hell yes.”
He grinned at her. “Yeah, me too.”
“Do you think this merging between us somehow made us addicted to having sex with each other?”
“I sure hope so.”
“Me too.” She grinned back at him. “That doesn’t mean I’m going to fall for you.”
“You really should.”
“Maybe you should fall for me.”
“Maybe I already have,” he said.
Her heart actually skipped a beat or two. “Do not give me that look.”
“What look?”
“That let’s have sex look,” she said. “We are not going back to bed.”
Nick leaned close to whisper in her ear. “We could do it against the wall.”
“Or we could go downstairs and bake cupcakes. I have to open the shop.”
“I’m going with you,” he said.
“Why? Shouldn’t I be safe from Miles now?”
“I hope so,” he said. “But I’m not taking any chances.”
Daniella had been taking plenty of chances lately. Boatloads of them, in fact. First by o
pening her shop. Then by opening herself to Nick.
That realization was scary, so she focused on the rituals of her baking routine the minute she stepped into the shop. Xandra joined them a short while later. The sun had yet to rise but it was time to make the cupcakes.
Baking was therapeutic for Daniella. She didn’t remember exactly when she’d had that aha moment. Maybe she’d always known it.
Her mother, of course, had considered the baked goods she’d made as comfort for those in need of it. So while mixing the butter and sugar and flour was work, it was also a labor of love. Loving cupcakes was one thing. Loving Nick was something else entirely.
He was a vampire who lived forever. She was a hybrid who didn’t know what she was doing or who she was. It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours since her father had handed over her mother’s letter and yet so much had changed.
Nick remained focused on his smartphone as he had most mornings this past week when he was with her in the shop. She did sense a new tension emanating from him, however. Xandra headed to the front to ready the display case of cupcakes for the shop’s opening.
“What are you doing?’ Daniella asked Nick as he abandoned his phone in favor of getting close to her.
He paused, leaning even closer. She thought he was going to kiss her. Instead he devoured the red velvet cupcake she’d just started to ice. And he did so with super speed. He closed his eyes in apparent ecstasy … or maybe pain?
“Should you be doing that?” she whispered.
“I can eat,” he said in disbelief. “I can eat food.” He licked his lips. “Neville said it might be possible. Oh my God, I can eat. Steak. I want steak. And a pizza. Fish-and-chips. Ale and whiskey. Mexican food. I’ve never had Mexican food. Or a hot dog. Or a hamburger.”
Daniella stared at him. “The first food you could eat in two hundred years and you picked one of my cupcakes.” She blinked away tears. “That’s so sweet of you.” She paused as she realized he’d just devoured another five cupcakes in a second flat. “Hey, take it easy! All things in moderation.”
“That’s not what you said last night.”
She kissed the cream cheese icing from his mouth. She just had to. She couldn’t help herself.
