The Reluctant Vampire(41)

Harper came to a halt in the small pantry, turned to catch her by the waist, and lifted her onto the counter in front of the window overlooking the backyard.

"What-?"

"You heard her. We have ten minutes," Harper muttered, catching the hem of her T-shirt and tugging it upward to reveal another of her new bras, this one a pale pink that stood out against her olive skin. Pausing, he breathed, "Damn, I think I have a new favorite."

"Harper," Drina protested on a laugh, grabbing for his hands as he tugged one cup aside to free a breast. "Stop, we can't."

"Ten minutes," he reminded her, bending forward to latch onto the nipple he'd just bared.

"But we'll pass out, and she'll find us naked on the pantry floor," Drina groaned, releasing his hands to grab his head instead. Unfortunately, while her mind was being sensible-at least a tiny part of it was-her body wasn't like-minded, and instead of forcing his head away, she laced her fingers through his hair, silently urging him on.

"Damn," Harper breathed, letting her nipple slip from his mouth. He remained still for a moment, and then straightened and slipped her breast back into her bra.

Drina nearly groaned aloud when he then tugged her shirt back down, but she knew it was for the best.

"We'll just have to manage it with our clothes on."

She blinked with confusion. "What?"

"We'll stay dressed," Harper announced, and then stepped between her open, jeans-clad thighs and kissed her.

Drina didn't have a clue what he was up to, but his tongue was now in her mouth, his hands finding and caressing her br**sts through her T-shirt and bra, and she found it hard to think about anything but the sensations now flooding through her.

When he moved closer and ground his hardness against her through her jeans, Drina groaned and dug her nails into his T-shirt, dragging it upward. Harper immediately broke their kiss, and muttered, "Clothes on," as he trailed kisses across her cheek to her ear.

"Clothes," she echoed without comprehension, and released his T-shirt, only to move her hands around to reach for his belt buckle.

Harper immediately released her br**sts and stepped back to lift her off the counter. That snapped Drina out of it a bit, and she opened her mouth to protest, but then bit her lip in surprise when he suddenly turned her so her back was to him, and growled, "Hands on the counter."

"What?" she asked with surprise.

"Hands on the countertop," Harper ordered, his own hands moving around her waist and up to cup her br**sts again through her clothes. It immediately reminded her of his apartment and his doing this in front of the mirrored closet doors. The erotic memory of their reflection filled her head and ratcheted her mounting excitement by several degrees.

Drina ground her teeth and leaned on the counter, her head bowing as one of his hands slid down between her legs, both caressing her through her jeans and pressing her bottom back against his hips and the hardness growing there.

When Harper suddenly used his hand at her breast to pull her upright and back against his chest, Drina leaned her head back on his shoulder. Closing her eyes, she covered his hands with hers and moaned as he nearly lifted her off the floor with the hand between her legs in his effort to affect her through her thick jeans.

"Eight minutes," he breathed, nipping at her ear.

A breathless laugh slipping from her lips, Drina opened her eyes, and then blinked as she spotted movement in the backyard. She squinted against the bright sunlight pouring through the window, trying to make out what she'd seen, then gasped and stiffened as Harper stopped cupping her between the legs and shifted his hand to slide it down her pants. Slipping under the waistline of both jeans and panties, his fingers dove unerringly between her legs, intensifying everything for them both.

"Oh God," Harper muttered against her neck, his caress becoming frantic as their mingled pleasure and excitement bounced between them in growing waves.

"Yes," Drina gasped, eyes closing and hips rotating to his touch, so that she ground back against him with each movement. She was clawing at his hands now with excitement, her only thought reaching that peak they were racing toward, and then he slid two fingers inside her and sank his fangs into her neck at the same time, and Drina screamed as pleasure exploded over them.

"So tell me again about that mouse Drina saw that made her scream and faint?"

Drina turned in the front passenger seat of Harper's BMW to make a face at Stephanie in the backseat. "All right, smarty-pants. You can read our minds and know there was no mouse. Get over it."

"Well, even if I couldn't read your minds, you don't really think I would have bought that whole mouse story, do you?" Stephanie asked with amusement. "I mean, seriously, a hunter who faints at the sight of a tiny mouse?"

Drina shook her head and turned to face forward again. As usual, Harper had woken from their postcoital faint before her. He'd been trying to rouse her when Stephanie had found them on the pantry floor. She had no idea why he'd even bothered to make up the mouse story when the girl could read them so easily, but he had. As one would expect, it hadn't gone over.

"It wasn't exactly a postcoital faint, was it," Stephanie said dryly. "I mean coitus is-"

"Stephanie!" she barked, swinging on her with horror.

"Well, it wasn't," Stephanie said defensively. "Harper didn't actually insert part A into part B. Well, I suppose there was some insertion, but of part F not-"