Winter's Heart (22 page)

Laughing, he shook his head no, “Not even a little bit. But your personality is larger than life itself and it took the right hammer to break the thin walls down and release the beast within.”

Collapsing onto the bed next to her, he wrapped his fingers around her hand and murmured, “You’re bursting with life, Flynn. You have this intensity about you that intimidates mere mortals.”

Rolling onto her side so her chin was on his shoulder, she smirked at him, “And you’re immortal?”

“Well, I played one on T.V.,” he grinned at her, looking suddenly younger and more carefree and absolutely beautiful.

After a moment of silently grinning like a couple of idiots, she asked, “What became of your friend?”

“We’re still friends.” Winter laughed at some private joke before he told her, “He’s doing really well on the stage, at least well enough to make a decent living at it. Trevor Malone?”

Her eyes widened as she sat up and looked down at him in stunned amazement, “Trevor Malone’s your friend? My sister is obsessed with him, thinking he’s the reincarnation of Laurence Olivier. She’s going to shit bricks when I tell her he’s your friend.”

“So it takes a stage actor to really impress your sister?” he teased, drawing a finger along her clavicle.

“Well, it
is
impressive,” she returned, her heart rate picking up as he drew his finger along the edge of her bra. “I mean, he’s a
stage
actor.”

“Don’t get any funny ideas about him,” he growled, his eyes serious even as he continued to smile. Hooking his finger into the cup of her bra, he tugged it down until her nipple was exposed and she had to bite back an audible gasp. Sitting up, he wrapped an arm around her waist and jerked her against his body. Her naked nipple rubbed against the hard plane of his chest and jolts of pleasure shot down her spine. “Unlike me, he actually
is
a man whore.”

“And he has a smaller dick,” she breathed, arching her back to create more friction. When he gave her an odd look, she scraped her fingers along his skull until she was cradling the back of his head. “Wasn’t that your version of a pissing contest? Staking your claim? I thought I’d help out since I have no intention of ever looking beyond you.”

“You humble me,” he said thickly.

“I would like to meet him one day.”

Narrowing his eyes, he looked at her in suspicion, “Why?”

“To know more about what you were like in high school from someone who isn’t you.”

“Maybe,” he agreed, hesitation in his voice. “But I find I’m not eager to share you with anyone in my world. I’m afraid they’ll taint you or infect you with their poison.”

“You’ll find that I’m immune to a lot of infectious diseases,” she murmured in a straight voice, her eyes sparkling with laughter.

“This from a girl obsessed with STD’s.” He rolled his eyes at her, his smile taking the sting out of the words.

Staring at his handsome face, seeing the man beneath the mask, she was suddenly struck by some strong emotion. With her fingers still tangled in his hair, she asked, “When did this become real?”

“I think it’s always been real,” he answered in a voice just as hushed and reverent as hers. “But I was too afraid to admit it.

Bending her head, she kissed him softly, “I’m glad you’re no longer afraid.”

“I think I’ll always be afraid,” he breathed against her lips. “But now I’m more afraid of losing you than having you in my life.”

“You’ll never lose me.” Kissing him, she whispered. “Never.”

As she got ready, Flynn couldn’t stop the grin from splitting her face because she was going to see Winter in just a few hours. She was inordinately pleased with herself because over the past couple of weeks, she had managed to ferret out Winter’s favorite food (lobster), favorite color (chocolate brown), favorite place in the world (between her thighs), and a host of other little tidbits. She had compiled everything she knew about him and kept the information in a folder on her tablet titled
Winter Files
because she wanted to plan an awesome birthday party for him, even though his birthday wasn’t for almost three months. On January 19
th
, he’d be turning twenty-eight and exactly two months later, on March 19
th
, she’d be turning twenty-two.

In the month since admitting their relationship was real, Winter had spent most of his time on location filming his latest movie, an epic sci-fi fantasy involving aliens, prophecies, explosions and Winter. It sucked balls, especially since their phone conversations were so short because his schedule was insane. But he was going to be there in a few hours for their clandestine date. They were planning on attending a masquerade-themed Halloween party at the ultra-exclusive club,
Velvet Smoke
.

It was difficult being apart from him but it was even worse because Melissa and Storm were staying near him to keep up appearances and there were plenty of pictures of Winter and her together. The magazines all gushed over their
solid relationship, coming up with stories about their long-standing engagement or their secret wedding or the joyous news of their unexpected pregnancy, none of which were true and Winter always called the moment a story broke. When she saw the pictures, she could see the strain on both Melissa’s and Winter’s faces and she wondered how no one else noticed it, figuring people saw what they wanted to see. It explained how no one realized Storm was Winter’s biological son, even if there were no pictures in any of the publications of the little boy.

Her job kept her busy as she continued working on Storm’s party on top of her regular duties at Gilded Dreams. She discovered she was actually pretty good at planning a party, especially once she figured out she got to do decorations. Oh, she knew she’d probably never reach the level of Gwyn or Siobhan or Jennifer, who were able to make fantasy into reality, but she was really good at planning children’s birthday parties. In fact, she was thinking about letting Diane know she’d be willing to take on children’s events but she didn’t want to be presumptuous. She’d see how Storm’s party went first before she mentioned anything. Well, if she and Fallon were going to stay in L.A.

Plans for the party were moving ahead and she didn’t have to deal with Melissa at all and Winter said she could do whatever she wanted. She and Harry had come up with an amazing menu, she hired a band that played kid friendly tunes but in a way that adults enjoyed, and she handled a hundred other details. Her dad and his crew had started and nearly completed the work on the pirate ship but they were still three hours away. When she had gone to visit, it had felt weird being at Winter’s home without him there, though that didn’t stop her from sleeping in his bed. Naked. He had nearly had a coronary when she told him that, threatening to punish her for teasing him while there was nothing he could do about it.

She got her Winter fix by watching all four seasons of
Midnight Kiss
, starting with the very first episode. She had forgotten that the series originally revolved around a different character entirely, the one played by the thief of Winter’s virginity and the breaker of his tender heart, Gina St. John. Winter hadn’t even appeared until the last five minutes of the second episode as Gina’s Maker. Even at that young age he had a presence, demanding the world’s attention, and he had stolen the show, literally. While the first season still focused mainly on Gina’s whiny character, it slowly shifted focus to Winter’s dark and tragic Vitali Marcos.

By the second season, it was Winter’s show entirely, focusing on his long life as a vampire. In fact, Gina’s character was killed in the second season finale, leaving
Vitali to go on a quest of redemption. In the last two seasons, the series took a much darker turn, delving deeper into his tortured psyche, showing his life before he became a vampire and the varied lives he had lived afterwards since he always had to reinvent himself every thirty or forty years.

The production was unlike anything that had come before or since, though there had been several attempts to copy the successful formula, and the costume budget had been astronomical but it was Winter who had carried the entire show. When he faced the sun in the final episode, Flynn had bawled for a week straight because she had been fourteen years old and madly in love with a five hundred year old vampire. Watching the last episode now, with tears in her eyes because she knew Winter the man and felt it even deeper when that sun rose over the horizon, she was amazed to realize he had been the same age then as she was now. He had always seemed so much older, closer to the age of the five hundred year old vampire he played rather than the twenty-one year old kid who had been plucked from obscurity just a few years prior and thrust into the limelight.

She tried to share her love of
Midnight Kiss
with Harry, but he watched the first episode with a mystified expression on his face the entire time. At the end, he had looked at her and her sister and said, “I don’t get it.”

He was promptly showered with popcorn from two directions. After that, Fallon would catch whichever episode Flynn was on but otherwise hung out with Harry wherever they hung out.

The only benefit to having Winter gone was he hadn’t been able to prepare her body for her ultimate submission. Anal. She felt dirty even thinking the word. Anticipation made her feel like a bundle of exposed nerves so she had offered to train on her own to get it over with and he had growled, telling her that no one was going to touch her ass except for him. She dreaded the thought that when he got home, he’d stuff her with some long, squishy practice toy and make her walk around in public with it in her butt.

Looking over her shoulder at the foundation garments laying on her bed, she smiled to herself. The pale yellow corset had cost her an arm and a leg but she hoped Winter would do that hungry, possessive growl thing and that would make it totally worth it. It plumped up her breasts, making her look twice as large as she was, and she was a pleasantly-sized C cup. Little straps hung down so she could attach the shimmery, silk thigh highs she bought and she had a matching pair of barely there panties. The frail material would shred beneath Winter’s fingers and even knowing that, she’d paid thirty dollars for them.

All of that was going to be hidden by the sleek, form fitting faux leather, yellow dress she bought that fell to mid-thigh. It zipped up the side so she’d have an easier time getting it on and Winter would have an easier time taking it off. When she walked, the top of her thigh highs peeked out, which was kind of trashy but Fallon assured her that when adults dressed up for Halloween, the trashier the costume the better. Well, the tight dress was definitely not something she would wear every day. The dress was so tight that if she didn’t wear the corset beneath, she was pretty sure everyone would be able to see her belly button.

Her hair was already piled on top of her head in a messy bun and she was just finishing up her makeup when there was a knock at the door. Tying the robe closed so she didn’t expose herself to a stranger in case it wasn’t Winter, she went to answer the door.

A hulking beast was standing on the other side, his blond mane of hair wild and unkempt, his yellow cat eyes flashing demonically, his protruding nostrils flaring madly, his mouth full of wicked looking teeth. His entire face was far too animalistic and amazing. Reaching up with a hairy paw, Winter took the teeth out of his mouth and growled, “You shouldn’t answer the door without first finding out who’s on the other side.”

“Beast,” she purred, grabbing the front of his shirt and dragging him into the apartment, making sure to close the door this time. “Just the creature I was hoping would be there.”

“Flynn,” he rumbled in a low voice dripping with warning. “This isn’t the safest neighborhood and you’re wearing practically nothing.”

Untying the knot, she let the robe fall to the floor and corrected him, “I
am
wearing nothing. Because I have been waiting for my Beast all week since the last time he blew into town and he left me so sore I couldn’t walk properly for three days.”

At his look of hungry contrition, she laughed, spinning around and shaking her ass at him as she disappeared into her room. When he tried to follow, she closed the door, calling out, “I want my outfit to be a surprise for you!”

“Don’t tease me like this!” he called back, but she could hear the laughter in his voice. A thump sounded against the door and she could picture him leaning against it, waiting impatiently. “I am so fucking horny I just want to blow off the party and fuck you all night long.”

“But I want to go to the party,” she said, sliding into her panties and then her corset, which conveniently zipped up the front. “And I want to build up the anticipation so you fairly explode when you fuck me tonight.”

“Oh, there’s no worry about that,” he huffed. “I’ll be walking around with an erection big enough to scare all of the children away.”

“Luckily there won’t be any children at the party tonight.” Sitting on the edge of the bed, she slipped the thigh highs on, loving the feel of silk on her smooth legs. Clipping first one and then the other, she stood in front of the full length mirror and smiled, pleased with how she looked, even if she thought she looked like a sexy banana.

“Hey, do you mind if I check my email?” he called out. “I’ve been without internet access all week.”

“Sure,” she adjusted her breasts to make sure they looked their absolute best. “My tablet is on the desk.”

Spritzing a little bit of perfume between the mounds of flesh and then between her thighs, she finally put the tight, yellow dress on. As much as she loved Beauty and the Beast, she felt it was a little unfair that only Beauty got to dress slutty. With Winter’s body, he should be wearing only a loin cloth and the scary latex facial makeup. Surely the world wouldn’t recognize him without seeing those killer blue eyes and that heart stopping smile? Well, no, she’d recognize him anywhere and she knew that there were some crazy fan girls out there who would recognize him if all they saw was a small section of his back.

They wouldn’t recognize his penis, though, because he had never shared that with the world, despite some pretty provocative love scenes in some of his movies. Now, people would recognize his butt since the hard, dimpled flesh appeared in several movies. He must tan nude to have that even, all over color. She’d have to ask him the next time she remembered she had a brain when he was in the same room as her.

Stepping into the dress, she tugged it up her body, watching as it transformed her from a sexy banana to a sexy, albeit slutty, Beauty. Her breasts were on prominent display, the light gold dusting drawing even more attention to the pale flesh. Her waist looked positively tiny thanks to the corset rearranging her body parts. Finishing up the hourglass figure she had going on was the flare of her hips, making her look like a fertile goddess. If Winter didn’t swallow his tongue when he saw her she did something seriously wrong because she looked hot.

Slipping on her heels and grabbing the final item that would complete her outfit, she tied the gold and cream filigreed mask on. The delicate mask formed to her cheeks and forehead, covering the top half of her face, sparkling with rhinestones and glitter and giving her an air of mystery.

“What’s this?” Winter called out. “You have a folder called
Winter Files
.”

Opening the door and seeing him absorbed in what he was doing on the tablet, she sauntered over to him and purred, “It’s where I keep all of the information I’ve gathered about you. Don’t worry, Winter, it’s password protected so no one but me can access the info, and that includes you.”

“So it’s not the same password as your online account?” he asked with a smile, turning his head and seeing her for the first time. His lips parted and his entire body stilled as he drank in the sight of her. Breathing heavily, he reached down and adjusted his erection, hissing as his hand brushed against the sensitive flesh. “Are you sure we have to go out?”