by C. L. Quinn
Koen nodded as they released their double handshake. Eillia and Daniel nodded, and they all headed back to Xavier’s to their SUV to head back downtown.
When they arrived at Eillia’s loft, Daniel suggested they eat out.
“I’ve never been to Paris. What is the best restaurant?”
Koen and Eillia consulted and wholeheartedly agreed on a single favorite. It was a Saturday night, the streets full of tourists and locals out to party away the weekend.
As usual, they were seated right away and settled in to enjoy an excellent meal, all their cell phones on the table awaiting Xavier’s call.
Jacob’s head felt like someone parted his hair with an ax. He could finally open his eyes and while it hurt to do so, he forced himself so he could assess where the hell he was now. It was a dirt basement, unfinished, damp and musty. Thin air. Little light from a hatch over his head near the other side. He knew he couldn’t have been there too long. Sedatives ran through a vampire’s quick metabolism faster than alcohol. He held his hands up. He wasn’t bound. Damn! With a burst of speed he was upstairs and halfway through a rustic room when he froze. Fuck. So close again.
Only this time, when he looked to the side, it wasn’t Crystal. It was the huge vampire he’d seen in the basement of the warehouse the night they’d been taken.
The first blood walked up to him and looked him over.
“Jacob, right?” Deep voice. A little frightening. No wonder Crystal was concerned.
“Yeah,” Jacob answered, hoping like hell he hadn’t jumped out of the frying pan into the fucking flames.
“I’m Xavier. Do you know where Crystal is?”
“Doesn’t tell me her schedule. Being as I have been her prisoner for weeks.”
“It was not the intention. It was not sanctioned. Your people were here for you. I’m going to unfreeze you, but don’t blow out of here. I’ll drive you to Paris myself as soon as I find my fucking lieutenant.”
Xavier waved a hand and Jacob could actually move again. Xavier disappeared.
Rolling his head around to loosen tight muscles, Jacob looked through the room. He was still naked and wanted to find something to slip on to recover some sense of control and dignity. Something told him he didn’t want to compare his manhood to the giant first blood.
An adjacent bedroom was his best bet, but his choices were pretty limited. He slipped on a pair of lightweight knit sweatpants with a drawstring. In lavender. It would have to do. They fit tightly around the hips, the length ending high on his calves. At this point, he was grateful.
He was back in the front room when Xavier returned in a flash.
“She isn’t nearby. Checked the perimeter. She’s gone. It’s okay, I assure you I will find her.”
“Are you going to kill her?”
“Close to. She’ll never be near any of us again, I promise that. Come on. I’ll get you to the city.”
On his way out the door, Jacob grabbed a family size bag of chocolate chip cookies off a counter.
Eillia and Koen were showing some of the charm of Paris to Daniel. They walked through a popular avenue open only to pedestrian traffic as it was filled with nightclubs, open air cafes, street artists, and artisans selling their wares to tourists and late-night partiers. It had been a long time since either Koen or Eillia had been to this city they loved.
Koen’s eyes kept moving as he watched the crazy mix of revelers from all over the world. And he was smiling.
Eillia caught up to him and took his hand.
“Koen, you’re like a kid watching everything and everyone with such interest. You’re a different man than you have been for the past fifty years.”
“I am. I have a renewed interest in the world. I love watching people again, where they’re going, what they’re doing in their brief little lives. I’m grateful to have this moment and for all the years that have led me here. I love having you back in my life. I missed you. And the first blood community is strong, making history, making children. Making the future. It’s exhilarating.”
Eillia laughed and curled her arm in his.
“It takes so little to make us happy if we just let ourselves be. It’s beautiful to see one of the most powerful men I’ve ever known humbled by the beauty of a child. Koen, I’m glad you’ll be there for our son. It’s spectacular that we have two first blood babies after millennia with none. No, three, with Park. It almost seems prophetic.”
“I agree. You know just before I found Park, I was ready to finish my life. It had just been so long, and I couldn’t see any joy trudging through day after day. She was the greatest moment of my life and I’d lost her. I was ready to go.”
“I’m so glad you didn’t. This world needs you, my friend.”
A chime interrupted their conversation and Koen reached for his cell phone. He listened, smiled and closed it.
“He has him. Jacob’s fine. He’s bringing him into the city tonight.”
Eillia released a long held breath. Thank god. Now if they could just find Starla and bring them all home. One miracle at a time.
Koen slipped his arm away from Eillia’s.
“Speaking of celebrating. There’s a lovely little redhead over in that corner that needs my attention. Just my type. I think I’ll go celebrate myself on her right now.”
“Celebrate away. I think I’ll take my husband on our first proper date. I’ll meet you back at the loft when you’re ‘finished.’”
“Ha! That might take a while. I’ve got a lot of ‘finishing’ to do. It’s been a while.”
Daniel grunted, happy to get his wife back, and slipped his arm around her as Koen pulled out his charm for a pretty titian-haired girl just ahead of them.
Flashing his sexiest smile, Koen walked up to the brilliantly dressed redhead who caught his eye from the street. It was obvious he’d caught hers, too, as she tilted her head and gave him the prettiest smile. He recognized the tone of the look. He’d give it twenty minutes before she would willingly follow him to a nearby artist’s loft that belonged to a vampire he knew was out of town.
But as he reached her, he hesitated. She was a gorgeous girl, no doubt. But for some reason he really couldn’t put his finger on, he knew she wasn’t someone he wanted. He was really horny, he wasn’t lying when he told Eillia it had been a while. He just knew, suddenly, he didn’t want to be with this girl. Maybe it was because her hair was a similar shade to his daughters. That was probably it, but for whatever reason, she wasn’t what he wanted. So he smiled and turned away. As he turned he saw her lose her smile. Well, she wasn’t the only one disappointed.
He turned so quickly, he crashed into someone else passing at that moment. Smaller than him by a lot. Female, and now crumpled up on the brick street at his feet. God, he could really have hurt her.
Koen squatted down to help her up, a curtain of shiny streaked hair covered her face, then she flipped it back and he saw her face fully.
He froze, his hands out to help her, poised to ask if she was okay. But words didn’t come. Blue eyes that lit the world smiled up at him and touched his soul instantly. In the same way he knew the other girl had nothing for him, he seemed to know this was the one that would bring fire to his life.
She smiled and took his outstretched hands to pull herself up.
“Talk about sweeping a girl off her feet. You could have avoided the literal.”
Koen snapped out of it. Shook his head and focused on her.
“I’m sorry. My fault entirely. Are you all right?”
Nodding, she looked down at her hands still trapped in his. Yet she didn’t pull away.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. I wasn’t really paying attention either. Trying to decide where I wanted to eat. So many choices. So, let’s just say we have equal culpability for the collision.”
He couldn’t stop staring. Koen had lived long enough to understand that sometimes things have no explanation. He soaked her in. Curved cheeks, brilliant blue eyes that had already captured hi
m, slim figure with full breasts wrapped in a sleek tee that didn’t meet the top of her tight jeans. A huge hobo bag that threatened to topple her on its own. Lips that…well, he already knew what he wanted to do with those. Her smile…aw, he was trapped. This was why he couldn’t be with the other woman. Somehow his spirit knew he was waiting for her.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Alisa was uneasy. The huge man that bowled into her kept staring. She wanted to do the same herself. Never in her life had she met a man that made her want to know what he would feel like…inside her. Just on sight. Until now. This man…Olympian gods would be jealous. What was that scent? He smelled like sex. Not like he’d just had it, not that, but like pheromones or something. Whatever it was, it made her want to act on instinct alone and pull him into one of the long dark alleys.
He was still watching her with those deep green eyes that she swore saw into her soul. Was he feeling the same intense reaction to her that she felt to him? He still held her hands and unexpectedly, she did something crazy. Something the old Alisa would never have done. Something the new Alisa was searching for in the moments left in her now abbreviated life. Experiences to build a lifetime of memories in the few months she had left as a functioning woman. She wanted this man. Now. Wanted to know what he would feel like inside her. Why not? This journey she’d taken had been to live until she couldn’t.
So she curled her fingers into his and pulled him closer.
“What kind of cologne are you wearing? It’s incredible.”
Without thinking about it at all, Koen responded to her fingers by interweaving his with hers.
“No cologne. It’s just my scent. Yours is incredible too.”
Their eyes connected and in that instant they both knew where this chance collision would end up.
His right hand moved to her hair, sliding down its satin strands to her cheek. He felt her shoulders lift as she drew a deep breath.
“You’re hungry. Let me feed you,” he said.
“I would like that.”
Without taking his eyes off her, he moved slightly closer and whispered. “I really need to apologize to you for running you over.”
Blue eyes searched green.
“I really think I need that apology.”
There wasn’t any doubt in either of their minds what form the apology would take.
Eillia watched the two after the collision. Daniel had stopped to look at something on an artist’s table and she’d glanced back at Koen just as the incident occurred. She felt something in him. Something intense. Her eyes moved to the woman he touched. The same intensity waved off her, too. Interesting. Well, he was a big boy. He could handle whatever it was.
Daniel turned back to his wife and took her hand. As they walked away, she found herself looking back again. There was something else. Something odd about the woman. Something… She couldn’t touch it. She shook her head and gave her husband all of her attention.
Koen took the woman to a small diner just around the corner from where they’d met. It was dark and sultry, the smell of smoked meat and fresh flowers infused the air. He had the host show them to the back of the restaurant where they were nearly alone.
“Does this suit you?”
The woman nodded, her eyes hooded. She seemed uncomfortable with him now.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
With a slight shake of her head, those deep blue eyes found his again.
“Yes.” She said this too quietly to be convincing. And then, louder and more forcefully, “I am. I just don’t usually do things like this. But I didn’t want to walk away from you back on the street.”
“I’m glad you didn’t. I didn’t want you to either. Why don’t we have a nice meal and see how we feel afterward?”
She stared at him again, and nodded in agreement.
A moment later she leaned across the table slowly. She had to stand and then put one knee up on the table top to reach him. Her kiss began tentatively, then she deepened it. Koen’s body took over, a sudden need driving him. He swept her off the table and into his arms. They kissed so passionately, the waiter turned and left as soon as he saw them. Alisa worked her hand beneath Koen’s shirt to feel the smooth tight muscles of his chest. He moaned and slowly lowered her back to the floor to set her away from him. His voice was coarse.
“If we keep that up, dinner won’t happen. There will be no other choice. I’ll have you in a bed in minutes.” He drew a deep breath, watched her do the same. Their eyes met again. “Is that what you want? Because I am one hundred percent okay with that choice.”
Alisa stumbled as she stepped back, with a hand on her chest to calm her racing heart. Talk about out of your comfort zone. He was asking her if she wanted to go somewhere and have sex with a perfect stranger. She looked back up at him again as he waited for her to answer him. That odd drive she’d felt at the first moment was stronger than ever. She needed to feel that spectacular man beneath her and inside her.
She was dying. A degenerative muscle condition that would leave her bed bound and unable to move before she finally passed on, probably within the next three years. This trip to places she’d loved in her life would be her last journey before she would settle at home in Chicago and accept the course her life had taken. So, no room for hesitation. She wanted this man.
He could see it in her face. Koen watched as she ran her tongue around her lips before she spoke.
“Let’s eat afterward. Please. Where’s the nearest room we can rent?”
Koen hesitated only a moment to be sure she really meant it. He could see that she did.
“Thank god,” he whispered, because he was already fully erect, trapped in his tight jeans.
Taking her hand, he led her out of the restaurant and around the corner up a flight of wooden stairs to a third floor apartment that belonged to an old friend spending the summer in America. He opened the door easily, flipped on a light switch and looked around. It was exactly as he remembered the last time he was there.
“Would you like the lights left on?”
“Are there candles?”
“This belongs to an artist friend. I guarantee it.” Koen found a corner filled with candle holders and candles. She smiled and helped him move several into the bedroom, lit them and set them all around the large bed in the corner of the room. As was typical in these artist abodes, it was just a huge mattress on the floor, but Koen thought it was the perfect place for him to make love to this woman. Leaning across the bed to place a candle on the other side, he turned to her.
She stood still in the center of the room, then lifted her tee from the hem and dropped it on the floor. Koen stayed on the bed and watched. She kept her eyes on him, heard his breathing get heavier as she unsnapped the jeans to slowly peel them down.
Alisa stood there, more vulnerable than she’d ever been in her life because for some weird cosmic reason she really wanted this man to want her. She held her hands out.
“Still interested?” she asked.
Koen watched this woman who came out of nowhere into his life nearly naked before him. Asking him if he wanted her. Her beautiful breasts spilled over the satin bra as he knew they would since the thin tee had barely hidden their fullness. She wore sensible panties, satin but cut high on her long legs. He didn’t care, he just wanted to tear them off her.
“What is your name?” he asked softly.
She took a deep breath. “Oh, of course. Alisa. It’s Alisa.”
Koen came forward, forcing himself not to hyper speed her to the bed and beneath him.
“Well, Alisa. My name is Koen. And I do not have words strong enough to tell you how unbelievably interested I am. You need to know you aren’t leaving here until I have made intense thorough love to you.”
Alisa let out the breath she was holding in and walked toward him.
“I don’t do this. Ever. I want you to know that. I don’t have any diseases.”
“I wouldn’t have thought you would. It doesn�
�t matter. For you, though, I don’t either.”
“It doesn’t matter for me. Just, give me a moment. It’s actually been a while since I was with someone.”
“Oh, you’ll be ready,” he said, and lifted her in his arms.
They were on the bed and she was naked before she realized. So was he. One second he’d scooped her up and the next he was kneeling on the bed, the candlelight illuminating a body as perfect as possible. Her eyes dropped lower. Fully erect, enormous, he was ready for her. Alisa wondered if he would fit, but she didn’t care. This man was going to be inside her tonight.
He stretched out beside her and played with a long thick strand of hair that covered a nipple.
“I’ve seen a lot of women over a lot of years. None of them have ever made me want them as badly as you have on sight. What magic do you weave, Alisa?”
“No magic. I just saw you and wanted you. That hasn’t ever happened to me either. You’re damn perfect, you know that?”
“Hardly. But I think you are. Here, let me see.”
His lips curled around the nipple he’d uncovered, the strand abandoned beside it. His tongue moved ridiculously sensuously, slowly, around and around until Alisa knew this man was extraordinarily skilled. This night would be the memory she would hold onto until her last breath.
A tear slipped out and she lifted a hand to wipe it away, then dropped the hand into his hair. Thick, soft, sexy as hell. She’d always loved the bad boy look. His was just on the edge. She pulled the band that kept his long hair back and laced her fingers through it.
He groaned and rolled closer to move to the other breast. His hands were moving down, sliding across skin heightened with sensitivity. Alisa knew she would come before he even got inside her.
Continuing down across her belly, the insides of her thighs, he moved back and forth between each side, nipping and licking. He ignored the center, the slit waiting for him twitched, spasms moving through her lower body. She was so hot now, so in need, she lifted up and grabbed his hair in her hands and pulled hard.
