Final Days (9 page)

Koen groaned and held onto her waist, his hands spann
ing her loosely, giving her freedom of movement.  She moved up and down on him, fully upright, as the muscles in his thighs tightened.  He watched her breasts rise and fall in front of his eyes.  When she leaned forward to kiss him, her nipples brushed his chest and he surged up into her, grabbed her thighs and shot into her body, warm, wet, and fast. 

Afterward, he dropped and pulled her down to him.  His cock
still nestled inside her, he kissed her and had to control his natural urge to pull her lush hair back and bite into her neck to draw her blood into him to finish the sex act the way a vampire would.  Twisting her hair in his hands, he cradled her head.

“If you had tried to send me away, I don’t know if I could have left.”

“I don’t think I could have sent you away.  So you never had to make that choice.”

He nuzzled into her neck, nipping at the sensitive skin, his fangs wanting more.

“You didn’t come,” he whispered.

“I was concentrating on bring you to orgasm.  My turn will come.”

“You have no idea.”

Alisa
smiled, and rolled her head back to give him access to anything he wanted.

He continued, sliding his tongue over her shoulder down to the swell of her breast and finally to her nipple.  He nipped all around the area, which made her moan, but when his tongue circled the nipple quickly, then sucked it in
to his mouth, still twisting, she bucked.  She knew now how awful it would have been to go the rest of her life without feeling him again.

Glancing down, she watched his spectacularly built body, naked as it always should be, moving down her body, his tongue carving a path exactly to the spot now pleading for attention.  When he arrived, he looked up, his
green eyes in the partially darkened room bright.  Were they glowing? 
What…?
Then his tongue dived into her core and she lost all reasonable thought and gave herself completely to the sensation of orgasmic pleasure her body had been begging for every night since the one that she’d spent with him.

When she came, it was beyond satisfying.
  And she knew that even if she had ten decades of life left, she would never,
never
get enough of this man.

Was this selfish? 
God, yes
.  But they both wanted this and needed it.  The universe was just going to have to forgive her.

They were tangled around each other so tightly that when Alisa woke the next morning and looked at Koen beside her still asleep, she knew two things right away.  She’d missed that beautiful face more than she ever could have known.  And there was no way she wasn’t going to have to wake him to get up.   He was spread completely around her and on top of her.  One arm was thrown over her, the other wrapped around her.  She wasn’t sure where his legs ended and hers began.  It felt so delicious that, in spite of the fact that she really had to pee, she didn’t want to move for anything.

With his powerful body covering hers, she’d never felt safer.  Like nothing could touch her, including that damned ALS.
  And although it broke her heart to think about hurting him, she was so happy he found her and was here with her in these precious moments.  Well, they were all precious moments now.  

Yeah, she knew she should have sent him away the second she heard his voice, because walking away from him once was hard enough.  Twice?  Would it even be possible?

She threaded her hands into his hair again as she had done in Paris.  Soft, sensuous, just touching him like that turned her on. 
Everything
about him was sensuous. 

But damn, she really had to hit the bathroom.
  Pushing one heavy arm off her chest, she tried to slide out from under the other one that was wrapped around her.  But he just rolled towards her and pulled her in so tight she could barely breathe.  He was so strong, she couldn’t move at all now.

Her chest compressed,
Alisa struggled to sigh.  She was going to have to wake him. 

“Koen?” she said quietly and touched his cheek with a little slap.

He moaned and slid a hand down her chest to rest against her privates.

Now Alisa moaned as his fingers began to touch her, moving back and forth.  But the bathroom visit was not an option.

“Koen,” she said louder and pushed against him.  An eye finally popped open, just one ocean green orb looking at her.

“Hi, baby,” he whispered.

She melted. 
Just melted.
  How the hell was she going to send him away?

“Hi.  Um, I have to go to the bathroom, so can you let me up?”

It took him a moment to realize what she meant and he rolled away.

“Oh.  Sorry.  Yeah, guess I had you trapped.”

Leaning over, she kissed his chest…that gorgeous massive muscled chest.  Her eyes and fingertips lingered.

“It’s okay.  I wouldn’t have gotten up at all
if it weren’t imperative.”

Slipping out of the bed, she walked quickly toward her bathroom.   She felt his eyes on her the entire way and smiled as she shut the door. 

Alisa caught her image in the large mirror that covered one wall of her modest bathroom.  A pretty rose blush infused her cheeks.  Was this that elusive thing…a moment of pure perfection? 

What more could a dying woman want?

Suddenly, she frowned at the woman in the mirror.
No
.  No, if she was going to do this with him, if she was going to let him stay with her for a little while, there would be no more reminders of her impending fate.  She would just be a lucky woman with the sexiest man alive and fully enjoy him.

But what a ride it would be!

After she finished, Alisa came back and jumped into the bed, landing on Koen, who grabbed her and rolled her beneath him.

“I cannot believe I am finally here in bed with you.  I had six teams looking for you for three months.”

“What?  Koen, that’s ridiculous. I told you that I couldn’t stay with you.  There was a very good reason for that.”

“I still don’t know what it was.  Or is.”

Alisa didn’t know what to say.  She still wouldn’t tell him.  Not if she was considering letting him stay with her for a few days.

“Uh,
I…”

Koen cut her off.  “Here’s where I tell you I don’t care.  It doesn’t matter what the reason was.  Or is.  I’m here, I’m not leaving, and you’re going to let me make love to you as much as I
want any time I want.  Are you okay with that plan?”

Alisa shoved against him but it was like shoving a mountain.  Finally, he let her roll him over on his back and she crawled on top of him. 
She’d found she really liked it there. 

Sitting tall in the shaft of light that illuminated her from the bathroom, part of her body
was in shadow and part glowed from the light.

The image
was so erotic, Koen’s cock responded, pushing up to cradle her buttocks as she rested against his thick thighs.

“All right,” she said finally.  “But listen here, big man.  Just because you think you’re going to fuck me often doesn’t mean you can let the quality slide.  You have to bring it.  Every time.  You get that?”

“Ma’am, I aim to please.  And I have
very
good aim.”  His hands curled around her thighs and slipped underneath her.  When his fingers moved against

her slit, she lifted up.   He turned her over and moved down her body.  So he set about pleasing her right then.  Thoroughly.  Twice.

ELEVEN

It was morning, the sun would be up and spilling over the busy city of Chicago.  One of the first things he’d paid attention to when he entered her room last night was that it was windowless.  Koen wondered how best to explain he wouldn’t be going anywhere with her until the sun dropped away from this part of the world and he could safely venture out to take his lady on a real date.  Well, the old tried and true…but he hated lying to her.

Yet it was too soon to reveal what he was.  She needed to know she was in love with him before he risked such a life-altering revelation.  It could be overwhelming.

Right now, though, he lounged in her bed.  Way too small for a first blood vampire, but they certainly had no problem making do last night.  He knew he was grinning like a teenage boy after sex, but all of this felt amazing and new.  No, not sex.  Making love. 
Lovemaking
.  A connection that went past the physical directly into the life- force.  Even Alisa felt it, he knew that, and she was fully human.  One hundred percent human.  

As the shower turned off, he glanced toward the bathroom.  It didn’t matter.  She would be vampire soon enough.

The small door opened to release a column of moist air and a vision appeared as Alisa moved through it to stand before him, her hair wet and slicked back, her body still shiny from the shower. 

“It’s yours now.  I was going to…” she stopped and watched him staring at her.  “What?”

Koen hesitated a moment longer, crawled across the bed and yanked her forward and beneath him.  One thickly muscled arm curled around her and lifted her so he could graze her throat with his tongue and teeth.

“I apologize, but I think I’m going to get you dirty again.”
  He flipped her over and lifted her hair to begin on her neck. 
God, he wanted to taste her!  It wouldn’t be long
now before he needed to so badly it would become painful.
  He knew now, too, that he was bonded to her the way his friend Cherise often explained as an unbreakable link between two lifeforces that were meant to be together.

Alisa laid still as he moved down her.  She was already addicted to the feel of his body moving over hers.

He paused to look down at her.  Alisa.  Spread out naked beneath him.  Nowhere else he wanted to be right now than exactly here. 
Right now?  Ever again.

He nipped and tongued, kissed and caressed, every square inch of her back, the curve along the side of her waist, her buttocks, the backs of her thighs, until she cried out that she couldn’t take it anymore.

Koen did not relent.  When she tried to turn over, he laid his body full against hers, his front to her back.  Alisa felt his erect cock pressing between her buttocks.  She lifted up and he entered her from behind pushing in deep as she arched up into him.  This angle brought him deeper and she groaned at the tightness inside her.  He was large, but he fit her so well.

She was grateful he couldn’t see the tears forming in her eyes.  Oh, how she wished they still had half their lifetimes to do this over and over until they were old and wrinkled and worn out f
rom all the years of lovemaking.

As they finished, he rolled over and pulled he
r to him so she lay against his side.   He kissed her cheek.

“That was beautiful, baby.  Sorry about the timing.”

“There couldn’t be a bad one, Koen.”

She lifted up and faced him.
  “Are you hungry?”

God, was he! 

“I could eat,” he said. 
Ten large steaks, a bucket of potatoes, three pounds of coleslaw, six pies…

“There’s a little breakfast café half a block from here.  Why don’t we shower and go get something?  Have you ever been to Chicago before?”

Eighty years ago.
  He shook his head.  And he was distracted because her nipples were still hard and staring at him.

“Well, we’ll eat and I’ll show you my city.  I’ve never actually had a guest I could do that with.  I’m always somewhere else and I’m the one getting the tours.”

Koen tore his eyes away from her nipples.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Breakfast,” she said with a grin.  “And a tour of Chicago.”

He didn’t say anything at first and Alisa wondered what
he was thinking.  Then he cleared his throat.

“I can’t go out in daylight. I have a condition.  It’s an extreme sensitivity to ultraviolet light.  I burn very easily.”

“Oh,” Alisa said quietly.  That was unexpected.  He was such a large, tanned, healthy looking man.  She realized she sounded disappointed when she responded.

“I’m sorry.  I mean I’m sorry to hear that.  You look like you get a lot
of sun.  I would have guessed you to be a big outdoorsman.”

“I am.  At night.  And I have a lot of Greek in my family, so luckily my natural skin tone isn’t too pasty.”

“Well, why don’t I go get breakfast and bring it back here.  We can eat near the terrace.”

Whoa, this vampire thing was really tough to explain.

“I can’t go out of this room.  I can’t risk any exposure at all.  Let me ask, do you have to work today?”

“I…”  She hesitated, too long.  “I’m on extended leave.”

He knew she wasn’t.  He’d checked online to read some of her articles, and she’d posted one in yesterday’s edition.  He was getting the same sense he had the night they’d spent in Paris.  Something was going on.  He knew she was an honest woman, so whatever it was, she
really
didn’t want to tell him.   He had plenty of time to find out.

This woman was his.  Period.  Whatever her secrets, whatever made her think they couldn’t be together, he was powerful enough to make sure the problem was
not
a problem.   First bloods controlled nearly everything around them, and he would do so in this case as well.  Because when he returned to France, she would be going home with him to become vampire and his mate.  In all of his thousand years, she would be the first.  And only.

Alisa was shocked by how much food Koen ordered.  She’d insisted she could go pick it up, but he had insisted they could deliver.  When she called and they said they didn’t deliver, he had called back and arranged it.

“This way, I can keep you all to myself.”  He’d slipped on his boxers, but otherwise he was undressed.

In just the boxers, Alisa thought he was even sexier.

“How did you get them to deliver?  They made it clear they didn’t offer that service when I called them.”

“It’s remarkable what a 200 dollar tip will do for you.” 

He drew her into his lap.  “You’re too far away.”

“What?”  She put her arms around his neck.  “Two hundred dollars?”

“Sure.  I wanted to have breakfast here with you in this room. I made it happen.  Cost is not a problem.”

“Well, I guess not.  Everyone does have their price.”

“So if I give you five hundred dollars, will you stay here in this bed with me all day?”

Alisa tilted her head and just looked at this gorgeous man, her arms casually clasped around his muscled shoulders, her eyes almost level with his since she was perched on top of his legs.

“Umm,” she moaned.  “I don’t know if that amount will suffice.  I’ll do it for…um…five pennies.  After all, you’re feeding me.  A girl has to be fair.”

“I warn you, I plan to get my five cents worth.”

She pulled him closer and slipped her tongue into his mouth.

“I can do that.”

Rolling her over, he got on top of her, the boxers flying onto the floor, along with her thin robe.  Koen was ready, his erection pushing against her.   But he knew he was large and she
was
human.  He didn’t want to hurt her.

“How are you?  Are you
sore?”

“Delightfully so,” she answered.  

Which meant she was.  He got off of her and knelt beside her on the bed.

“Maybe we should wait.  I don’t want to hurt you.  Or frighten you.”

Alisa sat up on her knees, her face serious, and pushed his hair back with both hands before she brought them down to caress his face.

“Nothing about you frightens me, Koen.  I’ve been inside you.
In more ways than one.  I know you.  I trust you completely. I believe our souls touched when we made love in Paris. Which is why I didn’t want you to come after me.”

She smiled again.  “Although I’m glad you did.”

“You’re going to tell me why someday, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know.  Maybe.  Just know I’m protecting you.”

“That isn’t your job.  It’s mine to protect
you
.  You matter, Alisa.  More than I can believe.”

“So do you.  It’s odd.  I feel as if I’ve known you for centuries.  Like that’s possible
.  But I do.  So it’s going to be hard to say goodbye.  But I need you to understand that I’m leaving the country again in three days, and we will have to step back from each other.  If you’re okay with that, I would love to spend the next three days making love with you.  It doesn’t matter if I’m sore.  It just matters if you fill me.”

“Alright,” he agreed, after a few moments.  Like hell!  If she tried to leave, he’d be on her like a guided missile.

“Now,” Koen said, sliding down lower on the bed.  He really needed to get them into a decent vampire-sized bed so he could have more room to move.

“I think I need to let your body rest a little, and anyway, I still need some practice with this method of stimulation.”

Alisa laughed.

“Hardly!  If you were any more skilled, I’d have to shoot all of the women in Chicago just to keep them away from this room.”

“Nonetheless.  Ma’am, please lay back and prepare for takeoff.”

Forcing her onto her back, he pulled her legs straight to the end of the bed, dropped on his knees and slipped his hands under her buttocks.  He lifted her and began long strokes with his tongue, travelling upward from her knees painfully slowly until her reached her center.  His tongue darted back down and the
n started on the other leg.  By then, Alisa was begging him to go back up.

“Koen, please, you have me on the edge.”

“I’m sorry, ma’am.  This flight has yet to achieve lift-off.  All the seats are not yet in their upright and locked position.”

He returned to her leg and she suddenly sat up and pushed herself closer to his mouth.  He looked up from the area he was working.

“Wheels up and leaving the runway.”

“Return to your post,
captain,” she said, and he growled, pulled back up fully on the bed, spread her out, and took her straight to lift-off.

Alisa had never been a screamer, but this time, as she hit orgasm, she screamed, then covered her face afterward.

“Oh, God, I’ve never done that before.”

“Glad to hear it.  I’ve done my job.  Later, you’re going to have to let me check the oil before take-off.”

“Captain, your dipstick is welcome anytime.  We follow safety protocol here, sir.”

Koen gathered her in his arms, kissed her again, and wondered how the hell he’d fallen in love with this woman in just two days.

The doorbell chimed, Alisa rolled out of the bed, grabbing some sweatpants and a sweatshirt that had been abandoned on a chair earlier.

Koen leaned out, grabbed his wallet, and handed her four one-hundred dollar bills.

She shook her head at him.

“It’s all right,” he said.  “Just give them all of it.”

The wreck of their breakfast covered almost every corner of Alisa’s little bedroom.

“Ugh. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to look at French toast again.”

“But it
was
good.  Your little café does a fine job.”

“It was, wasn’t it?  I guess that’s all that matters in the end.  Other than the bloated tummy.  I think I need another nap.”

“Come over here.  Sleep in my arms again.  I find I am already addicted to that.”

Shoving a small mountain of cartons aside, she crawled up next to him.

They fell asleep almost immediately, entangled.

When the sun fell below the horizon in Chicago, Koen woke suddenly.  Lifting his
head, he searched around him, cautious and alert.  It only took moments to realize where he was, but the warm body pressed against him felt like it had always been there.  

He was in Chicago.  With Alisa.  Finally,
she was well and truly made love to and safe beside him. 
Could life
get any better?  Not in this world.

It was dark.  Thank
God.  He would take her somewhere nice and show her what I was like to be with him.  To prepare her for the rest of her life with him.  If she didn’t love him yet, he knew it would come.  Because, like she’d said of him earlier, he’d been inside her.  He knew her and her heart.  They were meant to be together.