18. Maria
Chapter eighteen
Maria
I’m drawn to him. Kneeling between his muscular legs, I run my hands over them, bracing myself, eye to eye with…Mr. Happy.
The downstairs breeze loosened stray strands from my braid, and he smooths the hair back from my face.
His gaze smolders. “Lick him. The underside and tip are the most sensitive.”
I run my tongue around his tip. He tastes divine and feels silky.
Then I get bolder and lap the full length.
Some of the romance books my mother squirreled away talked about men having enormous penises.
But Chris is just right. Not too thick, not too long.
Gabriel was a thick boy, and it sometimes felt like my nerves went numb from the pressure when he was inside me.
Chris groans. “Enough teasing. Take me in your mouth. But keep your fangs retracted.”
I spread my lips and slide down his length, running my tongue along the seam.
“Oh, that’s perfect. Do it again.”
I move back, and he presses a hand to my head, encouraging me to go faster.
He groans again, and I follow his lead, his hips thrusting as his hand urges me to keep up.
My core is slick with arousal and clenches on air, waiting to be filled.
I can hear his pulse race, and I glance up in time to see him unravel.
The rapture in his expression—the joy I give him—thrums my heart.
“Oh my God, I’m gonna come.”
A salty taste floods my mouth, and I drink him down. Having him fill my mouth satisfies a hunger I didn’t know I had.
I keep sucking until he strokes my head.
“You were fantastic.”
I feel blissed out and ready for more. Chris knows things my husbands didn’t. Are there other forms of pleasure I’ve missed out on?
He grips my arms and tugs me to my feet. He wraps his fingers through my hair, bringing me close for a kiss, and presses his lips to mine.
I open on a gasp, stirred by the way his tongue tangles with mine.
He groans. “You taste divine.” He leaves me no time to consider that he likes the taste of himself on my lips. “Onto the bed.”
After guiding me into the position, he piles pillows against the headboard and sits with his legs spread, then pats the satin sheet between his legs. “Sit here, facing away, and lean back. I have a surprise to show you.”
So far, I’ve enjoyed everything we’ve tried, so I follow his instructions. I’m so aroused, it won’t take much. His fingers play with my nipples, then he slides one hand down to my clit, rubbing gentle circles.
“Oh, Chris. That feels fantastic.”
His other hand leaves my breast. He places his wrist against my mouth. “When I say go, bite down.”
Just sniffing the bright, clean scent of his skin—essences of mint and sage—triggers my fangs to descend, and I feel his lips on my neck.
“Three…two…one. Go!”
I bite, he bites, and his fingers don’t stop their massage as I go off like a rocket. “Chris!”
He moans against my neck, sending shivers skipping down my spine, fighting the heat pumping through my veins.
His erection grows instantly hard against my back. He gently tugs his wrist from my mouth and, in one swift motion, lifts me, spearing my center with his cock. Then his fingers are rubbing my clit again and he’s moving his hips up and down.
The searing heat of his fang serum continues to light every nerve on fire, and I build toward a second climax.
“You feel so good, so tight,” he moans.
“I won’t last long.”
His fingers move faster, as if my words were a challenge.
I pant harder, then scream his name.
“That’s two,” he says. “Shall we try for three?”
I lean back against his chest. “I don’t know if I can.”
“Well, there’s only one way to find out, if you’re willing?”
I nod.
He runs his hands down my thighs as far as he can reach, then back up. His touch is light, and all I can do is ride his penis and let the early tingles wash through me. He pumps faster, then uses a finger on each hand to find my clit and trace circles until I explode with a moan.
I squeeze his cock over and over as I ride up and down with his help, and then he slides all the way in me and I feel his cock spasm.
“Maria… Sunshine… Oh my God.”
I enjoy the feeling, the power of milking every drop from him as the pleasure slowly fades, leaving me glowing.
He kisses the bite, then lifts me off him and moves to curl around me, the bliss still lingering.
When I glimpse his face, I laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
“I’ve never made love to a clown before.”
He grimaces. “Why do you think I turned you away from me?”
I stroke his cheek. “I would have loved it even if I faced you.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t want to take the risk Zinnia’s drawings would distract you.”
“Good point.” At the mention of her name, guilt spikes my pulse. “As much as I want to lie here in your arms, we need to get home to make sure she’s okay.”
“True.” He kisses my neck. “Did you like exchanging bites?”
“You know I did.”
“I wanted to make sure. We can do it again. Anytime you want.”
I roll over and kiss him, then I crawl out of bed. Not only do I have a wonderful lover, I no longer worry if Zinnia will starve or die. It’s enough to let me relax, even though we’ve left her alone at the ark longer than I’d like.
I tug on my panties and jeans, finish dressing, and plop on the duvet to tie my shoes.
He pulls the t-shirt over his head. Sitting here, I realize the image on the shirt is a picture of him and other people. “What’s that?”
He steps into his jeans, then tugs on his boots. “Just now noticing?”
“Yeah. You and—”
“My bandmates.” He grabs his backpack. “First one downstairs gets the freshest donor blood from our haul.”
Then he whooshes past me. Cheater. I jump to my feet and chase after him, but he’s already stacked crates of salvaged goods and is heading to the garage. I grab two crates and race after him.
He opens the kitchen door. “Ladies first.”
I should have known. He always lets me feed and shower first. Opening the door would be no different.
I scoot past him and add the crates to the truck bed, grabbing the circus plate from the top of the pile.
My worry grows, gnawing at me for leaving Zinnia alone for so long. We could have waited until we returned home to make love. I slip the plate into the backpack he wears, and we make a second pass to collect the remaining boxes from the kitchen counter and load them in the truck.
He closes the tonneau cover and locks it.
I stop by the passenger door. “What now?”
“Get in, buckle up, and stay there no matter what happens.” He tosses the backpack onto the seat between us.
“Watch what I do, just in case you have to do it on your own. Exiting a garage is always nerve-racking. No electricity—no automatic door opener. All it’ll take is a renegade crew driving by to put us both in danger.
Which is why I backed the truck in, ready to peel out. ”
He switches on the invisibility crystals protecting the truck, starts the motors, then jumps out and raises the door manually. Leaning past the edge of the garage wall, he disappears. Where did he go?
When he hops back into the cab, I can see him again.
“We’re good,” he says.
Then it hits me. The daylight bracelet. He must have triggered it before checking if it was safe to leave.
He eases the truck onto the driveway pad, then jumps out again and whooshes to close the garage door. Finished, he whooshes back to the driver’s seat, shoves the vehicle into drive, and guns the motors.
What the heck? “Why’d you take the risk of closing the garage door?”
“More goodies remain inside that house, and we can return another night. Leaving the door open might signal to the renegades that we’ve been here and might return.”
“Oh.” Once we’re on the road, I reach out for his hand. “It’s been a beautiful night.”
“It has.” He raises my fingers to his lips and kisses them. “And you’re hot in bed.”
“You’re not so bad yourself.”
“Not so bad? That’s how you’d describe me?”
I smirk at him but say nothing.
“Hey.” He narrows his eyes, but there’s a slight smile on his lips. “I’ll have you know that when I was a rock star, women and men flocked to me.”
I tilt my head and wrinkle my brow. “What’s a rock star?”
He laughs and navigates us out of the residential area and onto a major street. “How do I explain something that went extinct ninety years ago?”
“Start at the beginning?”
“You know all those musical instruments we moved to the warehouse when we created Zinnia’s bedroom?”
“Yeah…”
“Rock is a genre of music with a strong beat and an electric-guitar-driven sound. The five of us play different instruments and sing. I have recordings back at the ark you can listen to.”
“I’d like that.”
“Our group used to fill an amphitheater holding ten thousand people.”
My head feels like it’s about to explode. I’ve never seen more than twenty people together—and that was when I was a child and we all lived crowded in the compound. “I can’t even picture that.”
“Well, it happened back then. We’d tour, move from town to town, performing for enormous crowds.
” He taps the image on his t-shirt. “At concerts, we sold t-shirts to fans. I wear a different one each night. Reminds me of my goal.” He leans over to kiss me, managing to keep us on the road as he does.
“Someday, if I’m lucky enough, Wine Dark Night—my band—will play concerts again.
It’s why I have this job. To earn enough to get us back on the road. ”
“Oh.” Fear grabs my gut. How do Zinnia and I fit in with those plans? “And you had sex with strangers when you toured?”
“I did. A lot of women and men wanted to sleep with a rock star. But…I’ll admit it got boring after a while.”
“Performing?”
“No, all the nameless, faceless people… I wouldn’t even recognize them again when I saw them in a different town. I was always eager to move on to the next new thing.” He squeezes my hand. “I…I don’t feel that way about you. I don’t want to move on.”
I’m still taking in his confession, trying to discern what he means, when we enter the freeway on-ramp.