Eternal Ever After (35 page)

As much as I loved our week together it would be fun to hang out at the Goth club downstairs at HFC. Tonight a Euro-Goth band called
Defiance
promised to bring out vampires—both the wannabes, or fang-fakers as Victoria liked to call them, and the actual undead. Tessa had surprised me by not making demands of me this week. Still, a change of scenery would be nice since we hadn’t left the loft.

Not that I could complain about the scenery. Arie’s tongue explored my mouth with a hunger that seemed insatiable, and the air filled with a charge of awareness. In an almost dreamlike state, I pulled him closer. Anticipation made my skin tingle. I could seriously get used to waking up like this. We’d never be the normal couple that went to picnics, movies, and hikes in the woods, growing old as we held hands and kissed. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

We’ll never have children, either. Or grandchildren that I can spoil rotten. I only started living with him when my life was at stake. It’s all too fast.

I pushed the thoughts aside as I met his tongue with mine. The possessive yet gentle meeting of our lips left me breathless and reeling. He thrust his muscular thigh between mine. His hands dropped to my lower back and he pulled me toward his knee, rocking his leg against me. The pressure felt incredible, and I knew without a doubt that if he kept it up I could come like this. Easy. Or tear his clothes off and forget all about meeting up with Victoria and Luna at the club.

Maybe I should. The pleasure streaking through my core overwhelmed me, and I arched into him without him pulling me forward. I took what I wanted, rocking against…

Arie pulled his knee away.

He broke off the kiss and threw me a smile, that cocky curve that lifted his mouth in a way that made me want to either kiss him again or smack him. Or maybe both.

“Shouldn’t you start getting ready if we’re going to the club?”

Unquenched desire and irritation at both his cockiness and my own weakness tangled into a conflicted knot at my core.

“Arie! I know what you’re trying to do, and it won’t work.”

I threw off the sheet and swung my legs over the edge of the bed. “No matter how sexy you think you are, you can’t seduce me into staying in bed with you. We’re going to the club—I mean it.”

Arie sighed and reached for my underwear. He managed to grasp the string side of my bikini, pulling me back into bed and into his arms. I tumbled into them less reluctantly than I let on.

“You don’t mean that,” he said, taking my hand and bringing it to his lips, where he nipped the pad of my finger. “But I want to give you something to think about…for later.”

I jerked my hand away playfully. “Fiend!”

Definitely the wrong thing to say—the erotic light in his eyes became hotter and more intense. He looked like he might pull my underwear down and plunge into me with one stroke. The sheer fabric of my bikini happened to be the only layer of clothing between the both of us. I’d discovered that Arie preferred to sleep naked most of the time. But his preference kept us from doing a whole lot of sleeping. The way he looked at me now could have burned a hole through the material, and there wasn’t much to my underwear to begin with. He stared at me the way a lion might look at an antelope right before the chase. And my first thought was that, like the antelope, I should run for my life. My second thought was that I really wanted to get caught.

“Only when it comes to you—you’re mine, Holly,” he said, his husky voice a penetrating caress.

“Yes, yours.” It was a promise I intended to keep.

His chest was smooth, the thick pads of muscle rolling beneath pale skin. And his abs, dear Lord, those ripped eight-pack abs could be cut from granite.
Oh god.
Arie’s gaze trailed to my naked breasts. I could feel warmth spread to my chest as my nipples tingled and hardened under his gaze. I tried to cover up but Arie grasped my wrists, raising them above my head.

“Never hide your body. I want to look at you.” He brushed his lips across mine, kissing a trail down my neck. “You’re so beautiful, Holly.”

I trembled under the assault to my senses. Bare and open to his hungry gaze, I felt a mixture of vulnerability and desire that shot to my thighs. I could already feel wetness pool in the folds that lay between them. His mouth left a trail of fire that burned into my ultra-sensitive nerve endings—one of the perks of being a vampire.

“I’m going to suck on those,” he whispered as he looked at the hardened pebbles of my nipples that betrayed my need to feel him inside of me. “Touch, taste, nibble, and bite…”

“Yes. Please, yes.” I writhed beneath him, needing him to do what he was describing.

His mouth moved further down my throat and I shuddered at the scrape of his teeth over my skin. Slowly, his mouth descended, nipping and licking as it trailed lower. The scorching desire that flamed in my breasts and between my legs only eased when he finally took one nipple between his teeth. But my relief was only temporary. His tongue flicked over the hard nub while his hand massaged my other breast and pinched my taut nipple. I gasped for air as I wriggled beneath him, needing to feel him touch my pussy.

God, I want this man.

I clutched his shoulders, digging my nails into his skin as I let out an animalistic growl that I almost didn’t recognize. His mouth trailed lower, between the valley of my breasts, over my ribcage, across my navel…

Then he stopped just above the mound of curls between my legs.

“Are you sure you want to go to the club? We could stay here, have some fun, order carry-out.” When he spoke I could feel his breath tickle the coarse hair at the apex of my thighs.

I laughed and groaned almost at the same time. “No more pizza. No more Chinese.”

“We could order Indian.”

“You’re impossible.”

He grinned. “And you’re wet.”

I could feel my cheeks heat under his erotic but not inaccurate taunting. Arie was skilled. Devious. And I wanted it all and then some. I tried not to squirm, because then he’d know for sure that what he said was true.

“Maybe,” I said licking my lips. “You might care to find out for yourself and then we can get ready to go to the club.”

Arie groaned before rolling onto his back. “Not a chance. You want to go out, then you get me later.”

The power struggle rippled between us, sexy and hot as hell.

And I decided a little payback was in order. My lips parted as I straddled his waist. His intake of breath, an audible hiss, made me feel triumphant as I lowered my breasts until they pressed against his chest. Tracing the shell of his ear with the tip of my tongue, I stopped at the lobe, tugging on it with my teeth. I could feel him harden against the crotch of my underwear. Kissing his neck, his collarbone, his chest—I dropped to his nipple and flicked my tongue across it.

“Are you sure you don’t want to spare ten or twenty minutes before a shower?” I asked in the sexiest voice I could manage, looking up at him through my lashes.

“Holly, if you don’t stop now I’m going to pound you into the bed from now until closing and you can forget about going to the club.”

I leaned up and planted a kiss on his forehead then used my newfound supernatural speed, or time-bending as Arie called it, to spring off of him before he could grab me.

“Suit yourself. If you change your mind you can join me in the shower.” I had a feeling he was going to need a cold one.

He kicked the rumpled sheets to the foot of the bed. -
You’re going to regret that later.-

I smiled at his telepathic threat, which was more of a teasing endearment, even if it was a sexually frustrated one. I laughed.
-Do you promise?-

Vaguely, I heard him mutter a curse. Before I could make it to the shower he had wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me toward him and backward until we were both on top of the bed. When I landed on him, he rolled me onto my back and pinned me to the bed.

“You know, I really wish Tessa would have taught you a little bit more discipline.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help myself. I never knew until I’d met Arie that a touch of bondage and a smack of discipline could do wonders for the soul. It was the only thing that kept my visions at bay during sex and allowed me to orgasm.

Although Arie didn’t believe that—he believed that like attracted like, and supernatural beings shared a stronger bond. After all, I’d been supernatural my whole life, since I had the Sight. But I didn’t mind the idea of being bonded to Arie one bit. In truth, I didn’t mind the semi-dozing post-coital state with the taste of come in my mouth and his body wrapped around me like a blanket. And from the look in his eyes I had a feeling that was exactly where we were headed.

“Well why don’t you show me some discipline?”

“That wasn’t on the menu. I was planning to go easy on you since your ass took quite a pounding last night.”

I blushed. I couldn’t help it.

-But I want you to spank me.-

I gasped.

It wasn’t my intention to blurt what I wanted telepathically, and it felt frustrating not to be able to control my new supernatural powers. Arie didn’t laugh at me when I looked away. Instead, he leapt from the bed and began rooting around underneath of it.

I bit my lower lip. “What are you doing?”

“Fulfilling your request.”

He grinned as he pulled an oddly shaped object from under the bed. It looked like it had a rattan handle, and reminded me of a fly swatter, but the end had a woven design that almost looked Celtic. I regarded the object with a wary look as he palmed it in one hand while holding the handle in the other.

He brought it away from his hand and brought it down again to thud in his palm. As I heard air whistle through it with my heightened senses, desire shot down my spine. I could almost feel the tingling warmth on my ass as I imagined how it would feel smacking against my heart-shaped derriere.

“What is that?” I asked.

“It’s a carpet beater. Quite the appropriate name for it, don’t you think?”

My underwear became damp just thinking about it.

“Cute.”

I knew better than to ask what the hell a rug beater was doing under the bed when the loft didn’t have any carpets. He kept plenty of creative things in the bedside table and HFC hosted an array of toys to satisfy just about any fetish or fantasy.

“No, I’d say useful. The Dutch liked to use it when their children were being naughty. Such a shame it had to be replaced by the carpet sweeper. But I can think of better things to do with it than beat rugs.”

I couldn’t resist the opening and walked right into it with a smile playing at the corners of my mouth. “Such as?”

“Stand beside the bed, bend over, and I’ll show you.”

He didn’t have to tell me twice. I pushed off the bed and bent over it, holding myself up with my arms to brace for what I knew would come next. Arie slid my underwear down my legs, where they bunched around my ankles.

“Spread your legs.”

I obeyed his gruff command but could only spread them as far as my underwear would stretch. I waited, but it was hard to be patient as he drew out the anticipation, which was almost hotter than what was coming next. I flinched when I heard the whoosh of the carpet beater, but when its rattan head met my ass in a resounding smack, I let out a yelp. At ten strokes I lost count as the hefty thwacks kept coming. But the woven design wouldn’t leave an imprint for more than a minute with my newfound healing ability.

Then he stopped. His hand spanned the warmth that flooded my ass as he massaged and cupped me. Arie’s hand dipped lower.

He slid two fingers inside my pussy. “You’re drenched.”

The erotic motion of his fingers sliding in and out of me was almost more than I could take. I needed him, wanted him—had to have him inside of me. The spanking would be enough to keep the visions away long enough to climax. Skin to skin contact usually brought them on, and whether it was submitting to Arie or our supernatural bond that kept them away, he was the first person who had ever made me orgasm. Well, besides orgasms that I had given myself. I moaned as his thumb circled my clit. He knew every inch of my body and what turned me on. These past few months felt surreal.

Without warning his cock was inside of me, stroking me, urging me with its length. His fingers gripped my shoulder while his other hand dug into my hip as he hammered into me.

Yes.

This was what I needed, and I needed him in every way imaginable. Sex was just the icing on the cake. His thrusts rode deep and hard with me bent over the bed. Arie’s hand left my shoulder and he reached around me to stroke my swollen clit. The circling pressure on my clit and his long, hard thrusts drove me over the edge.

I let out a scream as I came and my muscles clenched around him. He followed me over that edge, and I could feel him come inside of me. We collapsed on top of the bed, his face buried in my neck, our breathing heavy. It would be hard to stick to my original plan of going out and paying everyone at the club a visit, but everyone had been so worried about me.

And I had a decision to make.

I didn’t have to be a vampire—not if I didn’t want to be.

Wait! Turn the page for more from the author…

About the Author

A.C. James is a book blogger and writer, living in Northeastern Pennsylvania with her loving husband and her children. Nothing makes her day more than curling up with a glass of wine, a blanket, and getting lost in a good book.

If you want to get an automatic email when A.C.’s next book is released, sign up
here
. Your email address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Word-of-mouth is essential for any author to succeed. If you enjoyed this story, please consider leaving a review at Amazon, even if it’s only a line or two it would make all the difference and would be very much appreciated.

Say Hello!

A.C. talks about contemporary romance, paranormal romance, and erotica with bdsm elements on her blog which is on her website. She would love it if you dropped by to say hello. You can visit her website at
www.acjames.com
. You can also pop by
Google +
or follow her on
Twitter
where she interacts with fans. Then there’s her
Facebook fan page
. Alternatively, you can send her an email at [email protected]. She loves to hear from readers!