His hands fisted in her hair, tumbling it loose from the clips, and she pulled him into her throat with no trouble at all, pleasantly surprised to find that sex really was like riding a bicycle. But her growing hunger could not be denied much longer—any longer—so finally she pulled back, licked his thigh, then sank her fangs into his femoral artery. Salty sweetness flooded her mouth and she nearly rolled to the floor with the goodness of it, the rightness of it.
He groaned again, his hands still restless in her hair, and she fed, immediately contented. She could feel his penis, hot against her cheek, almost jerking as she took her pleasure from him, as he took pleasure in return.
Once she had enough—it never took much, thank goodness the movies were wrong about that, among other things—she could politely return to the festivities, so she sat up and straddled him.
“Oh, Jesus,” he said, and she flinched. “Oh, shit!”
She laughed.
“Don’t worry about it.” He reached up and cupped her breasts in his hands. Sophie wriggled with delight as Liam stroked her dark nipples with his thumbs. She positioned herself more carefully and between one moment and the next, he was sliding inside her, filling her as she had wanted to be filled for too many years. His eyes, that vivid blue she had always admired, slipped closed.
Liam groaned again and shifted his hands to her hips, helping her find a rhythm they both liked. She bent forward and bit him at the neck; she couldn’t help it. He shivered and moved against her faster and she met his thrusts with her own urgency. Oh, glory, it was wonderful to be with someone again, to have that connection, to feed, to be fucked. Liam was giving her everything she had longed for, all at once. It was almost too much; for a moment she was nearly delirious with happiness. Then she realized she had mistaken her orgasm for delirium.
She pulled away from his neck, almost laughing, and said aloud, “These things happen. Did you…?”
“I’m gonna die now,” he announced, answering her question. “That pretty much killed me.”
“You look pretty lively to me,” she teased. She started to climb off him but he tightened his grip in wordless denial, so she merely shifted and lay beside him.
“Have I mentioned I’m so damned glad you didn’t go out tonight?”
“Well, no. I am, too.”
“So, okay,” he sighed, stroking her shoulders. “I guess this is where we do the pillow-talk, but I’m so friggin’ tired…”
“It’s been a long night,” she told him. “For both of us. Go to sleep.”
“You first,” he yawned, but she didn’t, of course, and finally he quit fighting it and she watched him sleep. For a long time.
7
“DO you think you should check with Jerry?”
“Huh?” He scraped off another inch of shaving cream and met her eyes in the mirror. “How come? Hey, you’ve got a reflection!”
“Of course I do,” she said impatiently. “Did you make arrangements for your pets before we left?”
“Yeah, I dropped the Gladiator off with Tommy…kid’s crazy for dogs and his mom said it was okay. Him and Rusher can eat garbage together.”
“I hope you’re talking about Gladiator and Rusher,” she said, smirking. She stretched up and kissed him between the shoulder blades. He shivered, then scraped off more shaving cream.
“You keep that up,” he said, “you’ll have your hands full.”
“Perish the thought.” She kissed him again, to tease, then asked, “What about the cats?”
“The cats?”
Odd. He was a smart man, but he seemed to have trouble following the conversation this evening. “Yes, Liam, your cats.”
“Right. They’re, uh, not really…I mean, they show up, and I feed them…” He caught her expression in the mirror. “I’ll just double-check with Jerry,” he added hurriedly, then wiped his face with the towel. She followed him into the other room and watched as he dialed a phone number.
“It’s much cheaper to use my cell phone,” she commented.
“Eh, you got the bucks.”
“Just because I have it, doesn’t mean I wish to waste it.”
“Cripes, are all vampires such nags?”