Destined (Vampire Awakenings) (37 page)

   Stefan watched in amusement as she r
a
n back into the room and jumped onto the large bed. “You like it?”

   She beamed at him as she swung her arms over her head and jumped up to hit the ceiling. “I love it! I absolutely love it! Did you do all of it!?”

   He smiled as he moved slowly toward her. She stopped jumping on the bed
,
watch
ing
breathlessly as he approached with a predatory gleam in his eyes. She smiled down at him, planting her hands on his hips as he stopped before her. “Your mom painted the bathroom. I don’t have the patience for that sponging thing.”

   She laughed happily as she bounced up and down. “And the bed?”

   “I couldn’t resist it.”

   “Really?” she asked with a raised
eye
brow and a bright gleam in her eyes.

   He smiled up at her as she moved slowly toward him. Her eyes were bright with happiness and laughter, the smile on her face
was
breathtaking. She was absolutely beautiful, and at that moment he would have given her the world if she had asked him too, just to see her this happy forever. He had made sure that the room was done the way she wanted it, so that he could see the smile that was on her face now. Of course, he had added a few little details of his own, especially the tub.

   “All I could do was
imagine
the things that I was going to do to you in this bed,” he said hoarsely.

   Heat suffused her from head to toe as her body grew taut with anticipation. “And who said you were going to be sharing it with me?” she inquired teasingly.

   Although he knew that she was teasing, her words caused something primal to surge forth. He seized hold of her waist, lifted her off the bed, and dropped her on it. She cried out in surprise as he braced his arms beside her head, and leaned over her. “I do,” he grated.

   She stared breathlessly up at him, momentarily shocked by the fierceness in his gaze. He looked very dark and dangerous as his eyes burned into hers, and his jaw clenched. She hadn’t meant to make him upset, but she obviously had, and she didn’t understand why. She smiled sweetly as she gently stroked his cheek, trying to soothe the savage look from his face. He softened at her touch, but there was still a predatory gleam in his eyes that she knew well.

   “Stefan,” she breathed.

   He brushed the hair gently off her neck, his eyes latch
ed
onto it as they flashed violently. A shiver of fear and desire tore through her as she struggled to breathe. “Do you know what we are Isabelle?” he demanded raggedly.

   Her lips parted as she scanned his face anxiously. She knew what they were, and how she felt about him, but she hadn’t been sure if he knew yet. She sure as hell didn’t know how he felt about her, and she wasn’t about to tell him anything if he didn’t feel the same way. His eyes came back to hers, hard and turbulent. Her hand began to tremble on his cheek as her heart seemed to swell to the point of bursting.

   “Do you?” she asked softly.

   His mouth quirked in a smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Yes, I do.” Her breath froze in her lungs as tears sprang instantly to her eyes. “You may have denied it in the beginning, you may even be trying to deny it still, but you will accept it
.
N
ow.”

   She would have laughed over his command, except the look in his eyes, and his words, had left her momentarily speechless. She swallowed heavily as her hand fell away from his face. “Do you realize what you’re saying?” she asked quietly.

   “Yes, I do,” he grated. “Do you understand what I’m telling you? You need to come to terms with this.”

   Isabelle laughed softly as emotions so fierce, and stunning, blazed forth. His eyes darkened and flashed dangerously. She realized that he didn’t understand that she wasn’t laughing at him, but because she was joyously happy. “I have,” she assured him quickly.

   He studied her for a moment, his face intense. Slowly the animosity in his body began to ease, and a soft smile curved his sensual mouth. “Good.”

   He kissed her softly, a butterfly caress that caused her heart to race, and her body to melt. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him lightly back, savoring in the feel of his hard mouth against hers. When he licked lightly at her lips she parted them willingly to accept his eager, hot invasion.

   Isabelle lost herself to the sensation of his mouth, and body, as he moved over her, tasting her, feeling her. Somewhere along the way, their clothes disappeared. She relished in the feel of his warm skin, and hard, taut muscles as he slid over her, caressing her. The course hair that covered his broad chest amazed her as she lightly ran her fingers through it, marveling in the differences between his body, and hers. She circled his nipples, nipping, and licking at them until they hardened beneath her ministrations.

   Stefan slid his hands slowly over satiny skin, mesmerizing every curve, every hollow. He left a trail of kisses down her neck, over her ribcage, before seizing on one of her quivering, hard nipples. Isabelle gasped softly, arching further into him as he drew her into his mouth, nibbling lightly on it as if it were the sweetest berry in the world, which to him, it was. Her hands tightened upon his back as glorious, erotic gasps escaped her.

   He slid steadily lower, dropping kisses over her flat stomach before dipping in to taste her tiny navel. She squirmed beneath him, her breath coming faster as her hips instinctively lifted to him, seeking his invasion, his possession. Stefan stood swiftly, Isabelle groaned at the loss of contact, but he seized hold of her hips and
pulled
her to the edge of the bed. She gasped in surprise as he knelt on the floor before her, using his hands to separate the thighs that she instinctively tried to close.

   “Stefan!”

   His smile was sly and sensual as he dropped soft kisses along her inner thigh, his tongue leaving a blazing trail that set her on fire, and melted any resistance she would have made. Hypnotized, she watched in breathless anticipation as his dark head be
nt between her legs. She gasped;
her hands curl
ed
tightly into the quilt as he parted her soft folds and began to taste her. The wickedness of what he was doing, and the delicious sensations that it arose, drove her nearly mad. She arched wildly against him as he drove his tongue deeper. 

   Stefan was certain that he had never tasted anything as sweet as her. She was like molten lava, and honey, rolled into one. Her hands released the sheets to curl into his hair, pulling him tighter against her. A feeling of utter triumph came over him as she yielded everything to him. He began to urge her faster, plummeting deeply in and out as her gasps became more frantic, and she began to whither with unbridled abandon upon the bed. He reached up to knead her breasts as he used his thumb to gently stroke the quivering bud between her thighs that was begging for his attention.

   She bucked against him, a savage cry escaping her as her hands tightened painfully in his hair. He ignored it as he savored in the taste of her. Ignored it as he absorbed the tremors that rocked and seized her.

   He pulled away from her, smiling with smug satisfaction as he looked down at her. She was slicked with sweat, and breathless as her passion clouded eyes met his. She managed a tremulous smile as he lifted himself over, seizing hold of her luscious mouth as he drove himself into her. Isabelle cried out, her fingers digging into his back as another wave of ecstasy crashed over her.

***

   Isabelle tossed her sweater into a box, humming happily under her breath as she danced across the room. She hadn’t known that it was possible to be this happy, this complete. She literally felt as if her heart was going to burst with joy. She knew that she was acting like a silly fool, one that was in love. A soft smile curved her mouth as she tossed another sweater into the box. The knowledge didn’t frighten her at all anymore.

  She knew that she was in love with Stefan, that without him she would wither away and die, but she no longer cared about that consequence. She wanted him, and only him. She hadn’t told him that she loved him yet, simply because a part of her was still scared that he didn’t feel the same way. She kept trying to tell herself that he did love
her;
after all he knew they were meant to be together, but that didn’t necessarily mean that he loved her.

   Well, maybe it did. She wasn’t entirely sure, but she thought that if people were destined to be soul mates, than love would have to be a factor, wouldn’t it? Her brow furrowed as she tossed another sweater into the box. Her mother and father loved each other dearly, but they had been in love before her mother had known what her father was, before either of them had ever known anything about soul mates. That hadn’t happened with her and Stefan, and she wasn’t sure if maybe that was the way that it was supposed to work. Maybe they were all supposed to fall in love first, and then find out about it later.

   She slid onto her old bed, a sweater clutched tightly in her hand, as she stared at the woods through the window. If she was truly honest with herself, she would admit that a part of her had loved him from the start. She had just been t
o
o stubborn to admit it, or acknowledge it. She wished that she hadn’t fought against him so hard, against the way that she had felt. She should have run to him with open arms and embraced her future instead of hiding from it, but she had an eternity to make up for her mistake. An eternity to spend with him.

   Isabelle hopped off the bed, determined to start making it up to him as soon as possible. She was smiling wickedly, and humming again, when she realized that she was no longer alone. She spun quickly, her hands tighten
ed
upon her sweater. Jess stood in the doorway, her eye
s dark and hooded, hatred oozed
from every pore of her body.
Jess’s hair was dripping wet, and her bathing suit clung tightly to her long, lean body.
Isabelle swallowed heavily as
Jess’s
hatred blazed against her. She had made sure that Jess wasn’t around when she c
a
me in, but obviously she had returned from her swim sometime after Isabelle had left Kyle’s side.

   “I’ll be out in a minute,” Isabelle managed to tell her through the lump that suddenly constricted her throat.

   Jess snorted as she moved further into the room. “Take your
time;
it is your room after all.”

   “Not anymore.” Isabelle tossed the sweater into the box and turned to grab the remaining sweaters from the drawer. Her hands were trembling as she gathered them up. The hate that poured from Jess encompassed the room, shaking her to the soul as it radiated throughout her. S
he had never been hated so much.
H
ad never known it was possible.

   “Th
e
n again, what’s mine i
s yours, right Isabelle?”
   Isabelle
forced herself to take a deep breath and turn to face her. Jess had every right to hate her, and if it had been the other way around she would
have
fel
t
the same way, but she had to try and say something, to do something, to ease it. “I am sorry Jess,” she whispered.

   “Why is it that I don’t believe a word you say?”

   Jess
moved further into the room, her eyes narrowed with loathing. Isabelle sighed wearily, obviously Jess was determined to have it out with her, and there wasn’t much she could do to stop her. “You don’t have to believe me Jess,
but
it
i
s the truth. I didn’t want for this to happen. It just did. I’m sorry that you got hurt in the process, but there is nothing that I can do about it now.”

   Isabelle tossed the sweaters into the box and closed the lid. She wanted out of this room in the worst possible way. Hoisting the box into her arms she
hurried
around the bed. Jess instantly moved to intercept her. Isabelle sighed wearily as she met her malevolent gaze. “Jess...”

   “You think you’re so special? You think you’re so great? You’re just a little slut, and he’ll use you, and toss you aside like the whore that you are!” she hissed.

   Isabelle’s eyes narrowed as her guilt vanished and anger welled up to replace it. “I told you that I was
sorry;
there is nothing else that I can say. If you don’t accept it,
then
that’s fine. Now get out of my way!”

   “I hate you!” Jess screeched.

   Isabelle closed her eyes as a tremor seized her body. The malevolence that poured from Jess was enough to knock her blossoming anger away. “Jess...”

   She never saw the slap coming, but the force of it staggered her backward as the sound of it resounded throughout the room. Isabelle gaped in surprise as the box fell from her suddenly limp hands and tears of pain instantly sprang to her eyes. Blood filled her mouth, and her cheek stung from the force of the blow. Her hand flew to her cheek, and split lip, as she gazed at Jess in shock.
Jess
was shaking with fury, her hands clenched in fists at her sides as she took a step forward.