“So, I’ll ask again… Do you want to come in?”
Anatoly growled, shifting nearer as he answered in a husky voice. “If I do, it will be to make you mine…”
“I’m already yours, Anatoly,” she whispered back, finally pressing herself against his chest again. His reassuring touch was enough to make her shiver in excitement. “All you have to do is take me.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Maggie’s words were like a hammer shattering his chains, setting him free of his own indecision. He was done putting it off, done stalling. The impulse to tackle her back against the door came over him, but he had just enough control to at least focus on getting them inside before jumping her.
“I will stay,” he declared, taking her by the hand and leading her through the door once she had unlocked it. Silence then hung between them, ripe with anticipation and growing sexual tension as they crossed the threshold into the privacy of her apartment.
While Maggie slipped out of her coat and hung it back in the closet, Anatoly sealed them inside and tried not to talk himself out of what they were about to do. He was nervous, but Maggie seemed more eager than anything and he wasn’t sure what to make of that.
Awkwardly, he progressed further into the living room, his eyes roaming the scant decor and taking note of Gremlin lounging in the oversized recliner.
When he heard the closet door close, he turned back to face Maggie and a sigh escaped him. She was still so beautiful, the dress hugging her figure, and he couldn’t help but want to see it strewn on the floor instead.
“What is it?” she asked, her smile nervous. “You’re giving me a weird look.”
Anatoly shook his head, reaching his hand out to her. “Nothing is wrong. You are simply most enchanting woman…”
A deep blush colored her cheeks as she let him pull her into his embrace, but there was a smile on her painted lips, too.
Only when she was in his arms again, the warmth of her seeping into him, did Anatoly’s nervousness abate. Just her touch reassured him that this was right, that being together with her was the next step in their relationship. On some level he felt destined to be with her; he only wished that Father Abrams hadn’t died in order for them to come together.
“Maggie, I love you with whole heart and soul,” he whispered, then repeated the phrase in Russian. It was the only way he could completely express himself given English was not his native tongue. He caressed her cheek, his fingers then tracing the hard line of her jaw.
As he had come to expect, she melted against him, her tender body heating his dead one in a way only she could. Unable to hold back any longer, he leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to her mouth, then her cheek, and down the curve of her neck. A low groan escaped him as she shivered in his arms.
“Are you cold?” he asked, the thrum of her blood calling to him.
“Not at all,” Maggie replied breathily. “Quite the opposite.”
His fingers played with the thin strap of her dress while he continued to kiss and nibble the delicate skin of her neck. He remembered the taste of her blood, the way she had shuddered and moaned as he drank of her life essence, but Anatoly resisted the temptation to feed from her just yet. That would come later.
As they continued to kiss and explore each other, Anatoly felt Maggie guiding him closer and closer to the bedroom. It was the one place in the house where he had not spent much time, at least until now, and a pang of uncertainty shot through him.
He wanted to ask if she was sure, if she really wanted to be with him this way, but when he pulled back to speak, he saw the fire of passion in her dark honey eyes.
Soothed once again, the vampire drew her into a hot, demanding kiss that would have taken his breath away had he needed to breathe.
Until that moment, Maggie’s hands had roamed his shoulders and chest, but he felt them move away and their loss made him pause in distress. He pulled back just in time to see her reach for the straps and easily flick them off her own shoulders.
His eyes were drawn down, following the airy fabric as it started to slip down her figure. All it took was a little wiggle of her hips and in the next instant the dress was a puddle around her feet.
Anatoly’s mouth went dry and his pants became uncomfortably tight as he beheld her mostly naked form. Only a pair of panties hid what God had given her.
“Maggie…” He breathed her name, his eyes snapping back to her face as she settled into his arms again.
“Sorry, did you want to unwrap me?” she asked with a devious grin, her lips brushing against his beard in a way that made him groan with longing.
He had no idea how to answer that and wasn’t sure it even needed a response, so he kept his mouth firmly shut. Then he felt her unbuttoning his shirt, starting at the collar and working her way slowly down, and it was all he could do, not to pick her up and carry her into the bedroom.
Instead of giving in to his base urges, Anatoly took her errant hands in his and guided her the last few feet into the darkness of the other room. He could still see her very well given his vampiric nature and even bathed in shadows, she was exquisitely beautiful.
As they began to kiss in earnest, Anatoly shrugged out of his shirt, groaning into her mouth when her perky breasts pressed against his naked skin. Maggie was hot to the touch, a sharp contrast to the coolness of his own body. Her fingers played their way down his torso, nails dragging over his undead flesh until they came to the buckle of his belt.
Once, he would have stopped her from going any further, but now, he simply braced for what was to come. Nervousness squirmed in the pit of his stomach as she undid his belt, then started unfastening his pants. He froze in place, gulping as her hands worked deftly to free his throbbing erection from their confinement.
