But the gloomy setting in front of me did little to quell the fire burning inside. My eyes fluttered shut, bursts of red and orange pulsing behind my eyelids. James clicked open a bottle of lube, and I quivered in excitement. Everything about the man was electric, and I kicked past-Ryder for thinking that life could be better without him.
Slick fingers slid between my cheeks, and I couldn’t help but smile. There was something intimate about being able to predict your partner’s next move before it was made. For a long time, I took that for granted. Now, I held my breath in anticipation for the warm fingertip that teased my eager hole. James wasted no time, rimming my muscle briefly before easing through. I exhaled with a low groan, taking his finger all the way to the knuckle before begging for more.
Two fingers, and I tightened my grip on the railing, arching my ass toward him. He read me like a book, crooking his fingers until he bumped against that soft spot that drew a cry from me.
James moaned behind me, and the following snick of his belt and hum of his zipper made the loss of his hand worth it.
“Give me your hand,” he commanded.
I did, palm up, and he drizzled lube into it. “Get yourself there for me, love.”
I didn’t need to be told twice. James sighed as he slicked himself up, and it was all I could do not to come right then and there. I wrapped my hand around my shaft, stroking myself to James’s rhythm behind me. My spine tingled, my orgasm simmering below the surface, but I wasn’t ready yet. Not until…
“Oh, fuck!” I cried.
James’s thick cockhead rammed into me, splitting me apart. My left hand clenched the railing—wood biting into my skin—and my right hand squeezed my cock. Clearly desperate, Jamesgave me no room to breathe. He rocked his hips, sinking deeper and deeper into me. The overwhelming burn coursed through my body, knocking the wind right out of my lungs—and I loved it.
I was riding the edge. I forced myself to find the will to breathe, to draw the feeling out until I couldn’t stand it anymore.
James bottomed out. I squirmed, wriggling even more when his hot tongue drew a path up my neck, tugging my earlobe between his teeth. His fangs gently pricked the skin.
“You take me so well, love,” he said, freshening up his fingerprints on my hips.
James pulled back and snapped his hips forward, and it banished any attempt on my part to cling to the praise he’d given me. I was too far gone. My body finally adjusted, and I released the railing to curl my hand behind his neck and latch it into his hair.
“Fuck me, vampire.”
His enthusiasm at my words nearly triggered my orgasm before I could think twice about it. I squeezed the base of my cock, willing myself to hold out just a little longer.
But with one expert thrust and a swivel of his hips, my fiancé sent me crashing over the edge as fiercely as the waves in front of me. My knees buckled, but James was right there, holding me up by an arm around my waist. He moaned, his cock swelling and pulsing his hot release deep inside of me. My own jerked in my grip, sticky jets of come spilling through my fingers and to the deck. James fucked me through our orgasms, leaving me trembling in his arms.
My heart pounded in my ears. My lungs burned, desperate for oxygen. As I came down from the high, I expected the cold to creep in. It had begun to drizzle, tiny needle-like drops falling to my face—but I didn’t feel their sting. With James’s arms around me, all I felt was… warmth.
Despite the mess, I blanketed my hand with his. He tucked his face into my neck. His touch made me feel…safe. I let my eyes slide shut again. James stood there, holding me and stamping tender kisses along my neck. Every now and then, he’d scrape his fangs along the skin, sending a wave of pleasure down my spine.
“You all right?” he finally asked, his soft voice loud in the quiet space. In the distance, thunder rumbled.
I looked down at our entwined hands, spinning his tungsten band around his finger. “Yeah,” I responded, nuzzling into him. “I just can’t wait to marry you.”
Chapter 9
I’d been looking forwardto tonight all week.
Since Kian hadn’t been cleared to drive yet, Hannah and I saw each other quite a bit when she picked him up from the bar, but we hadn’t gotten much time to talk. Now that she was on a term break and I had a day off, we had time to catch up with each other.
Preparing myself for the cold, I braced myself before getting out of my car and locking it. As I strode toward Liz’s front door, I shoved my hands in my pockets and pulled my leather jacket tighter around me, hoping it would ward off the chill. It didn’t do much. Winter in New England was brutal, and when a few drops of snow fell onto my boots, I hastened my steps.
The warmth inside the bar was a welcome sensation. I paused in the entryway, attempting to shake off the cold. James stood behind the bar, observing Kian mix a cocktail. Briefly glancing up, he offered me a grin before returning to his task. Warmed from the inside out, I approached Hannah’s booth from behind.
“Hey, kiddo,” I said, ruffling her hair.
After more than a year, she’d stopped protesting when I called her that. “Hey!”
I slid into the seat across from her as she combed wild strands of hair back into place. Then, clearly deciding that it was too much to manage, she gathered it into a ponytail and produced a hair tie from her wrist, twisting the long, dirty-blond strands into a knot on top of her head. My mind flashed back to when I’d first met her in Vegas, and she’d done the same thing before I taught her to mix cocktails. God, that seemed like forever ago. Even in such a short time, so much had changed.
Ineversaw myself as the settling down type until Hannah came along. All it took was one look at her to decide to abandon my party lifestyle and move home to Salem to do the parent thing.
When Hannah walked into The Devil’s Hopyard, she looked like nothing more than a scared little girl. That quickly faded. As pissed as I was at Erin for keeping her from me—and then trying to take her away again—I had to admire the amazing young woman she and Ben had raised.
