Heat prickled down my spine. I cried and moaned, quickly feeling my orgasm build…
And then disappeared.
“Fuck,” I snarled, snatched away from the edge so fast that my head spun. I pried my eyes open to find him standing at the top of the drop-down door, a smug grin on his lips.
I panted, “You’re going to make me beg?”
His grin widened into a full smile. One that—the moment I caught my breath—I was going to fuck right off of his mouth. “Not yet.” He shrugged. “I promised you food first.”
I blinked, and he was gone. After centering myself, I zipped my jeans back up and got to my feet, only for a dizzy spell from the venom to hit unexpectedly. I wobbled and crashed into a stack of boxes, sending albums spilling across the ground. Groaning, I knelt to pick them up. Most looked identical to the ones James had been flipping through, but as I cleaned up the mess, an album near the bottom caught my eye.
The cover was black, hand-bound in worn leather that cracked near the seams. I turned it over, my fingers brushing the etched pattern in the front. It was so faded that I couldn’t quite tell what it was. I started to flip the cover open, but no sooner had it cracked apart then a shiver overtook me and the album snapped shut.
I stared at the book in shock. The hell was all that about? I considered reopening it, but my spine still tingled from the unnatural shudder.
As much as the book freaked me out, it intrigued me too. I dropped it into the pile of stuff to take home and took the box downstairs. Leaving the box on the couch, I grabbed my jacket and shrugged it on, stepping onto the porch.
The frigid cold slipped beneath my clothes and chilled me to the bone, but the second I laid eyes on the water, it didn’t matter anymore. I rested my elbows on the railing, gazing out at the horizon. Green waves crashed to the shore, dissolving into white foam. In the distance, a wall of rain swept over the ocean. The wind picked up, and I pulled my jacket tighter around me.I couldn’t help but let my mind flash back to just a few months ago, when I stood on that same shoreline, gusts whipping around me and rain soaking through my clothes. I was miserable that night—and not just because I’d been cold and wet.
Looking back, I realized that I did it because I wanted the outside to match the inside. I’d been torn up about everything with James.
I hung my head, ashamed of the way I’d behaved.
It was so cold outside that I hardly felt the shiver down my spine that preceded James’s arrival. Warm arms wrapped around me, hot breath on my neck.
“Stop beating yourself up, love,” he said. “It’s okay.”
Instead of arguing, I took one of his warm hands and shoved it south. “Took you long enough,” I groused. “You need to finish what you started.”
Not giving him a chance to protest, I turned my head to bring our mouths together. Groaning, I bucked into his hand, which began to massage my erection. Yes, this was much better.
His free hand snuck up my chest, thumb and forefinger curling around my throat. He squeezed, and I broke the kiss apart to gasp, “I love you.”
Something resembling a growl clawed up from James’s chest. “I love you too,” he said against my lips, squeezing my cock harder. “Get inside so I can show you how much.”
My vampire was fast, but at that moment, I was faster. I snapped my hand down to blanket his and hold it in place. “Don’t you dare stop.” I dropped my grip, but only once I was sure that he wouldn’t stop stroking me. I fucked his palm, falling forward to brace my hands on the railing in front of me.
“Right here, vampire,” I demanded. “Like this. Just like that first time in our kitchen.”
James curled his hands around my hips. “Are you getting sentimental on me, love?”
“Sue me,” I huffed, refusing to admit how much his tone—and pet name for me—got under my defenses.
“You’ll freeze out here, human.” He spoke directly into my ear, his husky voice raising goosebumps across my skin.
“You’d better keep me warm then, shouldn’t you?”
I decided we’d done enough talking. There were better things we could be doing with our mouths. Swiveling my head, I brought our lips together once more. James hummed, immediately opening for me. I slipped my tongue between his lips, scraping against the tips of his fangs. He brushed the marks on my neck. I shivered, and it had nothing to do with the weather. James, not realizing that my shudder wasn’t because of the cold, warmed himself until his body heat encompassed us both.
Using the railing as leverage, I rocked my hips backward, delighted to feel the hard ridge of his cock grinding into my ass.
I broke off the kiss, moaning. “Fuck, that feels good.”
James nudged my jacket out of the way, latching onto my neck and sucking the skin. I bucked against him, urging him on as he worked my jeans open. I was so hard that my zipper practically fell down on its own, making room for James to shove his hand behind my waistband and wrap his warm fist around my aching cock. I closed my eyes in bliss.
The wind caught at our loose clothes, and the saltwater tingeing the air threatened to sting my skin. Neither were a match for James’s abilities. My eyes opened to find the foamy waves crashing against the shore. James wiggled my jeans down my hips. My underwear followed, and scorching fingertips danced across my bare ass cheeks.
I should’ve been freezing. Winter in Boston? Most people wouldn’t be caught dead outside. The roiling ocean beat against the shore, pale and dull in the overcast light. Clouds as gray asthe waves zoomed past overhead, the wind promising a coming storm.
