Never Have A Vampire's Baby (6 page)

              She felt like she’d been plunged into a pool full of ice. “I....I’m sorry. I didn’t think.” And it was true – she’d almost forgotten vampires drank blood at all, because they tended to do it in the privacy of their own homes, or from discrete stainless steel flasks and water bottles when they were in public. Shame rushed in to mingle with her shock.
Stupid, rash, impulsive idiot.

             
Kim pulled her arm away from him and walked back into the living room, trying not to let the prickle of tears build any more. She sat on the couch and stared at the floor, carefully avoiding eye contact as Luke came back into the room.

              “You can go,” she said softly. “Thank you for bringing my car.”

              Luke stood still, watching her for what seemed like half an hour. Then he sighed and walked toward the door, every step feeling like a punch in Kim’s gut.

             
Why does he make me feel this way? Why do I feel everything so intensely?”

             
She felt weight drop next to her on the couch. She looked to the left to find Luke beside her, grey eyes swimming with regret.

              “I’m...not myself around you,” he began. “When I came here, I was planning on being more detached… and then I actually saw you, and it was like some wall started to crumble inside me. It’s scary and uncomfortable...and it’s uncomfortable partly because it’s
not
as scary as it should be.”

              Kim frowned. “What?”

              Luke laughed and put his hands over his eyes, his voice a little manic. “God. What I mean is this: there’s fear, but there’s also exhilaration and affection and desire. Those are all looming a lot larger in my mind. They’re more important.”

              He turned to her, voice full of contention. “I was angry at first because of the blood thing. For the first two seconds, that’s all I was thinking about. Then I touched you, and everything shifted inside me. I still wanted you.
Needed
you, even. But it has nothing to do with your blood.”

              His grey eyes were teeming with emotion, and the weight of his gaze sent a slow shiver down her spine.

              “I was angry because this has never happened to me before. I’ve bonded before – with humans and a vampire--but it was never like this. I don’t ever feel like this, for anyone, especially when I also want blood. Vampires are still primal in that way...food first, everything else second. But…” he grappled for words, “this isn’t me. Not the me I’m used to.” He looked at her, more lost than she’d ever seen him. “Why am I this way?”

              Kim’s heart was racing, and the answer was on the tip of her tongue, but she didn’t dare speak it.
This is love. This is a love bond, idiot. You’re in love with me. That’s what you’re feeling.

              She couldn’t bring herself to say it – maybe because of the same fear he was having.               “Maybe it has something to do with the baby,” she said finally. “It all started with the baby, didn’t it?”

              Luke looked a little suspicious as he spoke. “I guess,” he said slowly.

              Wow, can he read dishonesty in my aura? Does dishonesty have a flavor, or a sensation?

              “Look,” she said, not wanting to add to his stress. “I’m having a lot of the same issues. I’ve never felt this way about anyone, either. And I’m not the type to pursue
anyone,
for
any
reason, let alone romantic ones. You know how out of character it was for me to demand you give this a chance?”

              Luke chuckled. “Really? You seem pretty accustomed to strong-arming people. My friends thought so, too. Especially Anton. He’s a tough bastard, you know.” He paused. “Awfully nice, of course. But he had a point; you were a little abrasive when he first met you.”

              Kim ignored the blush she felt coloring her cheeks and continued. “Well, yeah. I don’t like when people tell me what to do. Or when I'm kept in the dark. Or when I don't seem to have a say in something...but it really comes down to wanting to control everything, and destroying things when I can't. That’s why relationships don’t work for me,” she admitted, a bitter taste in her mouth. “Each one lasted no more than eight months, and half of them ended because of disasters I set in motion. Because I got flustered and tired of trying. The entire concept of a relationship is ridiculous. Getting to know people is often so painful and messy that it hardly seems worth it.” She realized something at the same moment she said it. “It’s why I do one night stands – not because I’m some enlightened next-generation woman in charge of her sexuality. It’s because things are hard, and people are dangerous.”

              Luke’s expression had changed. “But not vampires?”

              Kim smiled. “Well, not
all
vampires. But I don’t think I had a choice this time. Neither of us did.”

              He was still gazing at her with an odd mix of emotions. “I feel happy that you convinced me to give this a chance. But is it the bond? Am I enjoying this, or is it all a side effect?”

              Kim shook her head as he spoke. “No philosophy,” she warned. “You woke me up from a deep sleep, and I’m still not sure I’m all here. Let’s just deal with the present.” Kim snuggled closer to him and was pleased to find that his aura had relaxed; it was still warm, but not scorching – a bubble bath instead of a fire.

              Luke slipped an arm around her, his eyes finally shining with happiness again. “Okay. Let’s put that away for now.”

              Kim pressed her face into the curve of his neck and kissed him gently. “Mmhmm.”

              It seemed that the more she touched him, the more relaxed her body became; she couldn’t even bring herself to protest as he tilted her chin upward and pressed his lips to hers. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t brushed her teeth or combed her hair or showered yet – all Kim cared about was running her hands over his body and wrapping her legs around his waist as he made love to her.

              Luke unbelted her robe and pulled it from her shoulders, planting soft kisses on her collarbone as he pulled it off her body completely. Kim threw her head back as he shifted the fabric of her tank top and lowered his mouth to her nipple, sending bolts of pleasure racing through her body as he teased her erect nipple with the tip of his tongue. His other hand pushed her to recline on the couch, and Kim shimmied out of her shorts before spreading her legs for him.

              Luke knelt between her legs, eyes burning with desire as he unbuckled his own belt and pushed his jeans down. His cock sprang free, already hardened and slick with precum, and he tore off his t-shirt almost as an afterthought. Kim shivered as his eyes moved over her nude body, and she realized for the first time that none of the insecurities that normally preoccupied her mattered to her right then; she didn’t care that her thighs were thick, or that one breast was slightly bigger than the other, or even that her stomach wasn’t perfectly flat. She was used to being compared to others and coming up unfavorably-- sometimes in real life, sometimes in her own mind. Because she had the habit of dating the wrong men, she was also used to being used and thrown away like trash. Luke’s expression told her that none of this mattered to him. His eyes told her that she was a treasure--one that he’d gladly give up anything else for.

             
Is it the bond? Does it make me more appealing to him?

             
Before her mind could form an answer, Luke lowered himself over her body and pressed the head of his cock against her dripping opening.

              Kim didn’t wait for him to make the first move. She wrapped her thighs around his waist and tilted her pelvis up, pulling him inside her in one swift motion.

              “Oh!” Luke sighed against her neck. “Oh, my God.”

              Kim slowly ground her hips against him, savoring his thickness as it pulsed inside her. His hips started to rock in rhythm with hers, sliding out a little further each time, until he was pulling almost all the way out and rushing back inside her slick walls. He watched her face as he stroked, the gold sparkling in his grey eyes as they moved over her features.

              “How did you get more beautiful than yesterday?” he asked softly. The words should have sounded forced and cheesy, but they were raw and genuine as he spoke them. He ran a thumb over her bottom lip and pushed himself inside her a little harder to punctuate his sentence. “Maybe you do have a little magic in you, hm?”

              Kim couldn’t find the words to answer him, so she responded by opening her mouth to draw his thumb inside; she was delighted to feel him shiver in response to the sensation of her tongue rolling around his finger. Her hips were moving in sync with his as he dove so deeply into her that he brushed lightly against her cervix, and it was all she could do to keep her eyes open as wave after wave of pleasure crashed over her body.

              Luke’s skin was almost glowing, it seemed.
Is it the bond? Am I glowing, too?

              Then his strokes quickened, his lips dropped to her nipple again, and the sensation of his rock hard shaft massaging her moist walls drove all thought from her mind.

              “Oh, Luke,
yes
!”

              Kim’s eyes closed as she threw her head back again, thrusting her breasts upward against his mouth. Her body was quivering with the need for release, and she could feel herself tightening around his delicious thickness. Luke’s moans made his lips vibrate around her nipple, and her pleasure intensified so suddenly she almost came right then. Her fingernails raked down his back, and Luke cried out and pounded his hips against hers furiously, unable to maintain his rhythm under the crush of his impending orgasm.

              She opened her eyes just as they both reached their peak, and she was astounded to find his grey eyes glowing-- brightly, like a flame being sheltered from the rain. The weight of his body pressed against her clit as he buried himself in her again and again, his moans ragged and wild. Kim felt like she was being pulled toward the center of a star-system, hurtling toward the warmth of massive a sun that would destroy her even though it had been lovingly keeping her alive.

              They both climaxed at the same time. Their bodies were moving in ecstatic unison, lips locked together as they burst to the peak of their joy. Kim almost screamed as her orgasm ripped through her body-- it was like a wall of fire was sweeping through her bones, managing to sate her at the same time. Luke was pulling her hair as he moaned and thrusted, and the slight pain only heightened her pleasure; Kim thought Luke said something to her, but she was so entrenched in ecstasy that she couldn't make it out. Finally, his hips stopped moving, and he lowered his head to her chest, gasping and covered in a thin sheen of sweat.

              Neither of them moved for a while. Kim sighed contentedly, her body buzzing with happiness.
I could stay like this forever,
she thought dreamily.

              At once, Luke pulled out of her and stood. He laughed at the disappointed look on Kim’s face.

              “We can’t stay like that forever, even if we really want to,” he said, echoing her thoughts. “We might get stuck.”

              Holy crap, maybe he can read my mind.
Kim wrinkled her nose at him and sat up, reaching for her robe. “Fine. Make yourself at home, okay? I should shower anyway.”

              Luke made an expression of mock outrage. “So I made you dirty?”

              Kim smiled and looked him squarely in his eye. “Not dirty enough.”

              When she got out of the shower ten minutes later, she almost ran straight into Luke, who had been waiting at the door.

              “Hey!” She yelped. “What are you doing?”

              “Your arm,” he said tersely. “Let me see it.”

              A moment passed before Kim remembered what he was talking about. She shook the sleeve of her robe away from her forearm to show him her cut--

              --but it wasn’t there.

              “It’s gone,” she said wonderingly. “It’s just gone.”

              “You’re healing almost like a vampire,” Luke said. “I don’t know how this is happening.”

              “Is it the bond?” Kim asked numbly. “Or maybe being near you?”

              “Maybe,” Luke said. Doubt was clear in his voice. “But like I said, I can’t be sure, because the kind of bonds that give humans power like this are the ones that need bites to be sealed. And the other ones are normally a sign that the human is...different. A natural magnifier, kind of. But those are almost unheard of, and they almost always mean some kind of trouble.”

              Kim laughed nervously. “So, what? Am I some kind of freak?”

              “You’re not a freak,” Luke said sternly. “You’re different. Keep in mind that we don’t know everything about human and vampire bonds.”

              Kim nodded, trying to force her heart out of her mouth and back down into her chest.

              Luke put one hand on her waist and cupped her chin with the other. “Hey, I mean it. It’s fine.” He glanced at the clock on the wall. “Shit. I gotta go meet up with the Vampire Fight Club, but look –
it’s going to be fine.
This is probably nothing to worry about.” He pulled her close to him, and she pressed her ear to his chest, oddly comforted by his incredibly slow heartbeat.