The time they had together existed right here. Right now. It was too possible that tomorrow might never come.
“What is that you won’t tell me?” he asked quietly.
Alice hesitated. He’d given her an opening. An opportunity to bare all. To finally let someone else help her carry the burden of a mystery illness she worried over every single day.
“That I’m surprised I’m here with you. That I’m very glad that I am,” she lied, heart thumping madly. She wanted to tell him the truth, but to what point? They’d known each other only a few days, despite a level of intimacy that had gone beyond her wildest dreams. No matter how she felt, it wouldn’t have been right.
Sebastian studied her eyes and she noted the way light reflected off the darkness in his. Long lashes curled outward, lending a softness to his gaze that she’d come to adore. “Does it have to do with your brother?”
Startled, she shook her head. “No. It’s nothing, really.”
“I’m your friend, Alice. You can tell me any—”
Her mouth met his in a furious rush to stop whatever else he might say. Alice kissed him hard, her blood simmering at the realization that they were just friends. Anything more was asking for too much.
Unpleasant thoughts fell away as Sebastian’s mouth opened over hers. He moved with languid ease, taking control.
Sebastian elevated himself above her with the same casual ease, lending just enough of his weight that she could not forget a very virile, very male body draped over hers. His cock, so hot and so hard, pressed against her abdomen. She stretched her hand between them to grasp its length. And despite every bit of knowledge about him and his desire for her, grasping it sent a shiver of ultimate delight skipping down her spine. As if he couldn’t help himself, he began to slowly pump his hips, resulting in a cascade of warm velvety skin sliding against her palm.
“I don’t know what I want more,” he said, voice whiskey-rough. “To see myself spill into your hands or to feel your cunt wrapped around me.”
Alice squeezed him. “Why choose? Do both.”
His stomach jerked as he laughed. “Tempting.”
Instead though, Sebastian pulled back and she lost her hold. A bittersweet loss. There was much power to be had in holding a man so intimately.
But when Sebastian nudged her thighs apart, lowering himself so that his cock rested at the entrance to her body, she almost shuddered from the decadence of it.
She exhaled slowly as he pushed inside her, the delicious stretch a hedonistic twist of pleasure and pain, one she would gladly endure for him again and again. His head was down, focusing on where he impaled her, and Alice fought to keep her eyes open, to watch the wash of pleasure overcome his features. She soon lost though, too wrapped up in the way Sebastian felt as he filled her to completion.
A low moan rumbled from her throat, nothing on earth strong enough to hold it back. Her fingers seized the cushions beneath her, needing something to hold on to lest she lose herself to the blinding pleasure. Mouth dry, she panted out breaths as he moved so, so slowly. Still he kept filling her.
Alice’s hips tilted toward Sebastian, sexual instinct craving and demanding more. Her chest hurt from the way her heart kicked, a slave to the excitement of joining with him, her lover.
“Look at me,” he murmured.
Her eyes fluttered open, meeting his heated gaze. There was a tenderness in the way his attention stayed on her, no matter what she wanted to tell herself. Vampire or not, he wasn’t immune to the swell of emotions moving between them. She knew her heart. She knew his as well.
“Sebastian...” Her breath caught, sensation overwhelming her as he seated himself fully.
“Don’t stop me this time. Don’t run away from me. You and me...this. For whatever reason, we’re meant to be together, Alice, and I like it. I want it.”
Oh, God, so did she, but it didn’t matter, did it? This—all of it—was out of her control. Yet she couldn’t bring herself to tell him. Not now. “Me too,” she said instead.
“Good.” A new serenity spelled on his face, Sebastian lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her as tenderly as a butterfly’s touch.