17. Chance
Chance
Ilooked at Rena on the bed, her hair spread out around her, legs bent, arms behind her head, and for a split second, I was afraid that I’d forgotten all my moves.
The important ones. The ones that made women want to sleep with me again. The ones that got them off so hard that I felt them pulsing around me. The ones that made them call out to God, and me, and swear like sailors on shore leave.
“Are you just going to stand there?” Rena asked, her voice vibrating with laughter. “I don’t think that’s how this works.”
“I’m the expert here,” I shot back.
She laughed. “Oh, expert, is it?”
“I just want to look at you.”
“Oh,” she said, her gaze softening. “My view is pretty great too.”
And just like that, my anxiety disappeared.
“Did you know,” I asked, climbing onto the bed next to her. “That once a Vampire meets his mate, he can find her anywhere?”
“I didn’t know that.”
“It’s like a beacon, calling us home,” I told her, leaning forward to press my lips against her jaw.
“I like that,” she whispered back, arching her neck.
I kissed down her throat, reveling in the taste of her skin as the heat in my body started to boil.
“Hot,” she moaned, as the same happened to her.
Now that the decision was made, it seemed as if the heat was no longer content to let us choose. It rolled over me in waves as I bent to kiss the notch in her collarbone. Moving to her breasts, I tugged on the nipple with my teeth before sucking it into my mouth.
Rena writhed and pulled me toward her until she could wrap one leg around my back. Her hips lifted as she guided me to her other breast, her hands tangling in my hair. I licked and sucked, alternating between the two until she pulled me up to kiss her again.
Once again, I felt that free-fall sensation.
Dragging myself away from her mouth was nearly impossible, but when her nails dug into my back and she got her legs around my waist, I knew if I didn’t move, things were going to end far sooner than I wanted them to.
I moved down her body again, stopping only briefly to run my tongue over her nipples before sliding my mouth along the undersides of her breasts, along the bones of her ribcage, and the divot of her navel.
The skin below her waist was silky from the oil she’d used in the bath as I licked along the creases in her thighs, pushing her thighs wide.
“So pretty,” I murmured, stopping to stare for a moment.
When I finally licked over the damp flesh, her hips rose from the bed, struggling against my hold.
One of her hands gripped my hair again, while the other fisted in the sheets.
I wanted to explore, to find and taste every secret her body held, but when I pushed my tongue inside her, she clenched around it desperately.
Pulling away, I licked upward until I found the little button of nerves and started a steady rhythm with my tongue, adapting as I figured out exactly what drove her higher.
My cock ached. I pressed it against the mattress, desperate for some friction.
Rena was gasping and desperately straining toward my mouth.
When I slid a finger inside her, she mewled.
When I added another, she came hard. Her walls gripped my fingers, grasping, grasping, grasping, as her orgasm dripped over my hand and chin.
I waited until her body sank boneless onto the bed, then kissed her thigh and moved back up her body. By the time my hips were notched between her thighs, Rena was clear-eyed, her arms wrapped around my neck.
“May I have you?” I asked, staring into her warm brown eyes as the old words tripped easily off my tongue.
“This is when it starts?” Nervousness and determination warred in her expression.
“This is when it starts,” I confirmed.
“Yes.”
Canting my hips, I slid inside her easily.
We paused for a moment, staring at each other in something like wonder. It was unlike anything else I’d ever experienced. Instead of flying through the air without a parachute, I was suddenly floating through space.
I pulled out and pressed back in, testing our connection. It felt as if my heart might give out, it was pounding so hard in my chest.
Then we were both moving. As I thrust forward, Rena arched to meet me. Again and again. Her hands cupped my cheeks, slid down the sides of my neck, her fingernails dug into my shoulders, then my back. I kissed her like it would be the last time. Like it was the first time.
Sliding my hand under her back, I lifted her slightly off the bed.
“Yes?” I whispered, meeting her eyes.
She nodded. Tilting her head back, she offered me her neck.
Rena’s blood tasted like the rest of her. Like salt and musk and something vaguely fruity. It was ambrosia. Valhalla.
She shuddered as I continued to move, tightening around my cock in little ripples that nearly shoved me over the edge. Pulling my mouth away, I licked over the tiny puncture marks, kissing them softly before I raised my head again.
Rena’s pupils were huge and her jaw tight as she strove for the orgasm that was just out of reach.
Lifting my hand, I shoved the pads of the first two fingers into my mouth and used my incisor to create small cuts.
“Open,” I ordered gently, brushing them along her lips.
As soon as she’d sucked my fingers into her mouth, she came with a gush that soaked us both.
“That’s it,” I praised, trying to push her higher.
I barely held out long enough for her to come back down before I came so hard that my eyes nearly rolled back in my head. The only thing that kept them steady was the sight of Rena’s flushed face, her cheeks hollowed out around my fingers.
We lay there for a moment in stunned silence.
“So it turns out you were right,” she griped. “You are an expert.”
The entire bed shook as I laughed. I fell to my side and dragged her with me.
“Is it always like that?” she asked curiously, rolling onto her belly so she could lean up on her elbows.
“It’s never been like that.”
“I mean, for mates.”
“I have no idea,” I admitted. “I think so.”
“No wonder none of these mates want to leave their Vampire’s side,” she said dryly. “They’ve got the goods.”
I grinned. “You may be on to something.”
“Thank you,” she said, her expression softening.
“For what?”
“For all of it. For checking in. For making sure that I was with you the whole time. For not acting like I was a big fraidy-cat.”
“I’d never act like you were a big fraidy-cat,” I told her seriously.
She frowned at me.
“I’ll always make sure you’re with me,” I promised, kissing her shoulder.
She smiled and lowered herself down until her cheek was resting on her hands, her arms tucked like little wings against her sides. I rubbed her back lightly, watching as her eyes drifted closed.
Once she was asleep, I turned off the light and covered her in the throw blanket that I’d used for five minutes the first night we’d met. Then, I lay down beside her and fell into a dreamless sleep.
“It is almost seven o’clock,” Rena announced later, at full volume, about an inch from my ear.
My eyes popped open, and she let out a squeak of surprise. “Why do you do that?”
“What? Open my eyes when you wake me up?” I asked, turning to look at her. “No idea.”
“They pop open like one of those creepy ventriloquist dolls.”
“Such a flatterer,” I joked, sitting up. “It’s almost seven? How long have you been awake?”
“Long enough to shower,” she replied, pulling her hair into a high ponytail. “Adira was really sweet for letting me use theirs all week, but I wanted to actually shave my legs.”
“Why?” I asked curiously as I got out of bed.
“Uh…because?”
“You hadn’t shaved them all week?”
“Shampoo? Okay. Body wash? In a pinch. But I wasn’t about to use someone else’s razor.”
“I didn’t even notice,” I said with a shrug, walking over to my dresser. “Let it all grow, baby.”
“I’ll take that under advisement,” she said with a laugh.
I pulled on some jeans and a T-shirt, but left my feet bare since we wouldn’t be leaving the house, then turned and found Rena watching me.
“How are you?” I asked, reaching for her.
“Are those bell-bottoms?” she asked, her mouth dropping open as she shifted out of my reach.
“What?” I looked down at my jeans. “I don’t know. I guess?”
“Those are vintage.”
“I’m over a hundred years old. Everything I own is vintage.”
“Spin around,” she ordered, making the little gesture with her finger. “Let me see the whole thing.”
“I’m feeling very objectified right now,” I grumbled, turning in a slow circle.
“If anything, I’m objectifying the jeans,” she retorted.
“You want them?” I reached for the button fly. Within seconds, I’d pulled them off and held them out to her.
“I cannot believe you just did that.”
“Why not? They might be a little big, but you can try them.”
“Are you serious?”
“They’re jeans,” I said, shaking them a little. “And you seem to like them way more than I do.”
“They probably won’t even fit.” She bit her bottom lip and held them against her.
“Wear a belt.”
She blinked at me in confusion.
“If they’re too big, you can just wear a belt.”
“Oh,” she said softly, her lips twitching. “You sweet summer child.”
“It’s almost seven,” I reminded her. “Tick tock.”
I grabbed another pair of jeans and pulled them on. By the time I turned back around, Rena had ditched the trousers she was wearing and was buttoning my old jeans.
They fit her like a godsdamn second skin.
“Those look much better on you,” I announced.
“They’re like the Matehood of the Traveling Pants,” she whispered excitedly, her eyes wide.
“I don’t know what that means.”
She waved me off, turning this way and that as she looked down at the jeans.
I had never wanted to bite anyone’s ass as badly as I wanted to bite hers in that moment. I filed the idea away for later.
“They’re too long, though.”
“Wear them with high heels.”
“You just have an answer for everything, don’t you?”
“My mom could also hem them. She made all of our clothes when we were kids.”
“I’d ruin the bell!”
“Baby, it’s now”—I looked at the clock—“7:03. You like the jeans?”
“I love them.”
“They’re yours,” I said firmly, reaching for her. “Let’s go.”