Chapter 8
“Why are all of these censored?”
I looked up from the box of old school projects I’d been picking through.
We’d found the cufflinks already, along with a thousand other things we decided to take home.
To James’s delight, he’d stumbled upon my baby pictures fairly quickly.
I decided to distract myself from that embarrassment by looking through my middle school science experiments.
“I knew my mom’s tactics,” I answered. “I did that the night before I brought Erin home.”
James snickered.
I remembered that night fondly. I was fifteen, and chugged coffee like a lifeline to stay awake.
After my parents had finally gone to bed, I snuck downstairs and covered the embarrassing parts of the pictures with gold star stickers.
Now that I was older, I found myself wondering why the hell there were so many.
I stretched out my sore back. James had been doing everything he could, but the venom was still trying its best to banish James’s healing almost as fast as he could perform it. I didn’t understand: If it was going to put me through all of this discomfort, why wasn’t I turning?
James’s warm hand between my shoulder blades relaxed me, and the pain faded away for what must have been the hundredth time that day.
“Thank you.”
“We didn’t have to do this today,” James said, sitting behind me and stretching long legs to either side of me.
“I know.” What I wasn’t going to admit was that the conversation with my mother had given me butterflies as well. I was as anxious as he was to start making it happen. “But we’re here.”
“You know…” James’s strong hands kneaded into my sore muscles. He kissed the cleft of my ear and nipped at the lobe. “Shiloh’s got the bar covered until tomorrow afternoon.”
“What are you suggesting, vamp—oh.” I moaned as James hit just the right spot.
Amused by my reaction, he kissed my ear again.
“Let’s stay. I’ll go out and get dinner, and we can eat it naked in bed.
” This time, James’s hand snaked around to dance down my stomach.
His fingers curled around the growing bulge in my jeans, drawing another low sound from deep in my chest. “I’ll spend the night doing all the things that I know pull that noise out of you. ”
I squirmed. My cock clearly loved the idea, hardening beneath James’s touch.
My head dropped back to his shoulder, my hips rocking into his hand.
James didn’t stop me, so I eased into a rhythm.
Lips on my neck, his nimble fingers worked my belt open, flipping the button on my jeans and shoving the zipper down.
James sank his hand into my pants, massaging my erection with nothing more than the fabric of my boxer briefs separating my bare skin from his.
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 as the waves zoomed past overhead, the wind promising a coming storm.
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, James gave 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.”