Oh, shit, Samantha.
He released, a series of powerful thrusts bringing her again. She screamed her final orgasm, watching him as his back arched, as his body writhed, as pleasure overtook his face. He growled and groaned, his h*ps slowing down yet wringing the last bit of ecstasy from the shared experience, with several deep, hard thrusts.
She breathed heavily as he fell on her chest, worn out and satisfied. She wrapped him up in her arms, or at least as much of the vampire as she could reach, savoring his muscled, warrior’s body and letting herself enjoy the extraordinary thing that had just happened.
She smiled up at the craggy rise of rock that led to a slit in the earth above. She could see a star or two winking. She winked back, so deeply satisfied, she didn’t want to move. Ever.
Her vampire had gone caveman and she’d loved it.
And here was something she’d definitely never get to experience in the human world, this level of lovemaking combined with power and an internal, inexplicable fae-vampire frequency exchange. Shreveport looked farther and farther away.
She stroked his hair with her hand. The strands were thick, wet and tangled. He had incredible hair, curly in parts, wavy in others, brown overall but with long golden tendrils and curls that gave him a super-sexy appearance.
Words she shouldn’t speak came to mind after such an intense coupling: She loved him.
But that was impossible, wasn’t it? She hardly knew him. They’d never even sat and exchanged histories or food preferences or whether he liked foreign films or not, although she suspected not. She even smiled. No, Ethan was not a foreign film kind of guy.
He lifted up off her, his lids at half-mast. “I felt you chuckling.”
“So which do you prefer, French films or Danish?”
“What? Do either of those countries make serious CGI films?”
She smiled. “Just as I thought. I’ll have to find a fae-friend to go to the movies with me, or at least to share a Netflix evening.”
“Where’d that come from?”
“Oh, I don’t know, that I’m feeling so much right now, but don’t really have a basis for all the tenderness and good will pouring out of me.”
He planted an elbow on the bench, and still buried inside her he rested his head on his fist so he could see her. “I don’t know anything about you, but I love being inside you here,” he touched her low, gliding a finger down his c**k and onto her mons. “But also here.” He touched her sternum with the heel of his palm.
“Yes, that’s where we’re also connected. You forced me deep into my faeness.”
His smile was crooked. “You resisted on purpose, just to work me up, didn’t you?”
She breathed and sighed. “I did. It was so much fun.”
He frowned. “I was so f**king out of control.”
“That was partly my fault. As soon as I saw Quinlan, and felt his blood-starvation, I moved toward him because that was my job.”
“Don’t remind me.” He groaned and rubbed a hand possessively over both br**sts. He then leaned down and plucked at each nipple with his lips. After a moment, he said, “You’ve grown solemn. Why?”
“Where is this going? I feel like I’m on a runaway train but the track is all over the place.”
“That’s a pretty accurate description but let’s take this one night at a time. We’ve just been through two astonishing things, first beneath the minaret crystal and now this.”
She smoothed her hand slowly down his cheek. “I want to share your bed again. I mean, I know that I could easily return to the guest suite, but I want to stick close, at least for now. I know that what’s happened, just as you said, is pretty astonishing, but I also know that we each have issues to resolve, heavy ones. Like, I have no idea if I should make my home here.
“And as for you, I’m the daughter of the woman you hold responsible for the deaths of your mother, father and sister. Do you honestly believe we could chart a path together?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I feel lost from one minute to the next. But I do know we should be getting back. I’ll need to apologize to Quinlan.”
“Then we should go.”
She caressed his face again, which led to his lips finding hers. He kissed her for a long time and she let him. She didn’t protest or suggest he had obligations to fulfill. He already knew that.
But she felt his desire to stay just as she didn’t want to leave, because once they returned to his home, to Quinlan and the ongoing war, to Vojalie and her expectations, this moment would slip into the past. The amazing sensations she’d experienced would be forgotten, sliding away bit by bit, replaced by duties, decisions, and new obstacles to overcome.
So she let him kiss her until once more he was firm inside her and he took her to the pinnacle all over again.
*** *** ***
Ethan watched Samantha dry her hair. She’d gotten dressed, as had he, but he stared at her as though never seeing her before. Trying to mesh his recent Neanderthal behavior with a woman using his blow dryer in a secret grotto cave he’d built for security purposes, proved a hard exercise for his vampire mind.
He didn’t like complications and he especially disliked the disruption of his routine, which for fifty years of his life had meant keeping Bergisson Realm safe from the depredations of the Invictus.
And how the hell was he going to face Quinlan, who he’d asked to come to his realm because of Samantha’s vision?
Sweet Goddess, he wasn’t sure he could make a bigger mess of his life than what existed right now, in this moment.
Worst of all, his deep mating frequency, the one he’d never allowed another woman to touch, had come alive with Samantha and still vibrated with his recent invasion of her faeness. Peel back one more layer, and all he could really think about was getting inside her again, anyway he could.
He turned away, tightening the woven clasp that held his hair back.
“I’m ready.” He felt her approach, then her hand on the back of his arm. “You’re so serious right now? What’s going on?”
“Reality.” He walked briskly back toward the front door. He moved fast so that she had to hurry to keep up.
“You’re being rude.”
“I’m being practical. This shouldn’t have happened.”
“Ethan, give it a rest, will you? We’re not married.” She even laughed.
He turned on her. “How can you make light of this? Everything that just happened changes the future, don’t you see that?”