Darkened Days (23 page)

“Stay there,” she told him. “Do not move.  No matter what.”

Turning around, she slid her underwear off from beneath the skirt, which wasn’t anywhere nearly as short as the one from that night, but Jacob didn’t notice.

He was frozen where he stood, his breath ragged, his pants so tight he felt sorry for the cock that had no room to grow.

Bending over, she looked back at him, her long hair hanging loose around her head, her finger sliding between her legs.  His view of her clit was perfect, displayed exactly in front of his eyes as her finger moved back and forth along the slit that shined with moisture.  She was ready for him
. He started to move forward when he heard her whisper “no.”

Her position transported him back to that night when he knew he couldn’t touch her. 
When that oversexed young vampire deliberately turned him on to get a rise out of him.  Well, that sure the fuck worked. He was so full, he had no choice but to slide his zipper down and drop his pants.  Now, he stood in front of her, completely erect, as hard as he’d ever been, watching her slide her finger where he needed to be. 

Never taking her eyes off him, she lifted her head back up, turned again to face him and popped the front clasp of her bra, her breasts, round and glorious, the nipples as erect as his cock, thrust out as they did that night, begging for his teeth and tongue.  She did the same with her other hand, sliding it around each nipple while the first one stayed under her skirt.  Standing upright, he couldn’t see what she was doing now under that hem, but he knew.  He started forward again.  She said, louder this time, the same word.  “No.”

Jacob couldn’t take it.  His cock was about to explode and it was nowhere near where it needed to be.

Now, she lifted the hem with one hand so he could see her hand moving around in circles from one thi
gh to the other and up inside.  She was breathing as hard as he was now. 

“Is this what you wanted that night, old vampire?”

Nothing she said now would stop him.  He moved forward, led by his manhood, literally pointing the way.  His fingers slid around his cock reassuring it that it was going to get what it wanted.

She stood
, feet apart, her eyes blazing, touching her sex, as he reached her, at eye level, on the top of the dresser.  He lifted the skirt and stilled her hand, then pulled it away.   Starla buried her fingers in his hair as he put his mouth there.  Her legs nearly gave way as his tongue replaced her finger, drew her clit against his teeth, which, at the first touch, nearly pushed her over the edge.

“What
do you want to do to me, old man?  Do you have the courage?”

He lifted her off the dresser and carried her back to the bed.

“Now,” he growled, laid her full out, ripped the skirt away and crawled on top of her.  Starting with her breasts, he used hands and tongue to bring her near to orgasm, while his cock wept against her skin.

“Oh, hell, enough of this old vampire.  I can’t take it anymore!” she yelled and pulled him to her
. Holding his cock in her hand, she guided him where they both wanted him and bucked upward as he slid deep into her.

“Home,”
she whispered, as Jacob dropped suddenly, wrapped his arms around her and held her, buried all the way inside her, and just stayed there unmoving while his mouth moved against her throat.  She felt his fangs scrape, her eyes burned while hot moisture infused them as well.  Every part of her body was wet, ready. 

Gently
nipping and licking, he prepared his spot, felt her breath still, and he bit, her hot blood surged into him, then he moved slowly while he fed.

Starla had fed as a vampire, and had sex as a vampire, but never this intense combination.   Her orgasm
hit harder than anything she’d ever felt before, unexpectedly quick and intense, and drove him home, too.  She felt him stiffen and jerk as he fed and orgasmed while inside her.

Nothing could have prepared her for the connection that went way beyond sex.  She could feel hi
m, his life force, his spirit, reach inside hers as if they merged, and she realized Cherise was wrong.  The merge with Ahmose on a spiritual level couldn’t touch this combination of physical and spiritual merge at once. 

She knew her connection with Ahmose was deep.  This, with Jacob, was much deeper, and on every level.  This was the man
destiny chose for her.  No one else would fit her like he did.  He…
this
, that they were building, was home.  Exactly what she had been seeking when she left Alaska.

Destiny had drawn her here with him, this night, in this bed, and she was exactly where she needed to be.
  When he drew back after feeding moments later and nuzzled into her neck, then looked into her eyes, she knew he felt the same.

“Home,” she whispered to him.  “You are home.”

“Always,” he answered.  “These past weeks that is exactly how I felt, only I didn’t understand because I’d never felt this way before.   I knew I was looking for something in my life, but I didn’t know what it was.  Now I do.” 

As he kissed her, she tasted her own blood on his lips, coppery and smooth, and felt a deep sense of satisfaction to be bonded on this level to this man.  That her blood was mixed with his inside him, she realized she had no words to describe what it meant to her. 

Jacob pulled up a sheet and nestled in beside her.

“Our first sleepover,” she whispered.

“The last time you sleep alone,” he said.  After curling an arm around her waist and pulling her against him, he fell asleep almost immediately.

Starla stayed awake a little longer, her fingers twisted into his hair, her eyes
closed to listen to the beautiful sound of his breathing.  When she finally fell asleep, her last thought was that this was happiness.

Crystal knew where they were heading, on their way back to Koen’s house in southern France.  So she really didn’t have to worry about following them now.   She stayed behind to play with a huge man with very dark skin and classic African features.  He was getting a post work drink at a bar downtown Cairo, and when he saw her looking him up and down, he
came over to meet her.  She thought he looked delicious.

“May I buy a drink for you?” he asked with that lovely accent.

She shook her head.

“No.  But I would like you to come with me to my room and fuck me like there’s no tomorrow.  I would like those muscled arms wrapped around me while I wrap my legs around you.  Would that work for you?”

He tilted his head as he stared at her.  Cautiously, he nodded.

“It really would.”

“Follow me.” 

For all her joy, Starla had one more painful moment before she went home to meet Eillia.  Henri was leaving her.

“I’m going to Paris to meet up with one of the guys from the cadre.  He wants to travel, and I told him I’m free.  We’ll keep our promises, Star girl.  We won’t lose touch.  I love you.”

They hugged for long moments.

“I love you, too, you know that.  Be careful, Henri.  Let me know if you need me.  Call!”

“
Oui, Oui
, my dear little vampire.”

And he was gone.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

             
Nervous, Starla kept smoothing her hair before they entered the villa.  So much had happened since she’d seen Eillia and she wasn’t sure how their relationship would work now.

But as soon as Daniel led Eillia into the parlor where Starla waited with Jacob, they were in each other
’s arms.  As close as possible, rather, since Eillia was quite large with child at this point. 

Starla held on, though, because this was the thing she’d wanted most when she first left Alaska for France.  She’d wanted the kinship she’d felt almost from the first moment with this small stunning woman.  They finally pulled away to look at each other.

“Sweetheart,” Eillia said, “I’m so sorry all this has happened to you.  I wish I’d been here when you first came that night.”

“It has all been my own fault.  I didn’t let you know I was coming.   It was just a crazy impulse.  Although, look what my first truly impulsive act brought me.
  Nearly killed in a car accident, then turned into a creature of the night, arrested, abducted, and nearly forcibly impregnated.”

Her eyes went to Jacob, sitting nearby
watching the two women reconnect.

“But it’s all perfect now.  I wouldn’t change a thing if it meant I wouldn’t be here right now with Jacob and you.”

“Sweetie, you are always welcome here.   I made up a nice suite for you near mine on the fourth floor of this villa.”

“Wonderful.”  Starla paused, glanced back at Jacob then back to Eillia.  “Where does Jacob sleep?”

“I’m basement level,” he said from his chair.

“Oh.  Well, Eillia, that’s where I’ll be staying, so thank you for the suite upstairs, but I need to be with Jacob.”

Eillia was quiet, but she smiled.

“So it’s like that, is it?  You’re together?”

“Together,” Starla confirmed.

“Okay. 
Well, his rooms are very nice, too.”

Jacob stood up and came over to Starla.

“They are.  Why don’t you let me know when you’re ready and I’ll take you down?  I’m going to check in with Bas.”

He kissed her softly and started to leave, but Eillia stepped forward and kissed him on each cheek.

“Thank you for getting her safely home.”

He nodded curtly, then left.

Eillia raised her eyebrows.

“He’s a good man,” she said.

Starla nodded. 

“I know.  I love him more than I could ever explain.
”

“You don’t have to.  Love comes to us in ways we never expect and it doesn’t ask our permission.  Anyone looking at Daniel and me would have expected this could never have worked.  But we’re happier than we have any right to be.  This child is a miracle, as I know you’re aware.”

“Sadly, I am very aware.  I’m very excited for you.  When are you due?”

“I’m going to find out in a few moments after Cherise finishes visiting with Bas, Park, and Cairine.  Do you want to freshen up?”

“It would be nice.  Jacob?”

He was just around the corner speaking with Koen.

“I’ll take you to my rooms.  Like I said, I’m downstairs.”

The stairwell was wide and poured into a large basement area, clean and well-ordered, where supplies were stored.

Starla wondered why he wasn’t upstairs with everyone else.

He saw the query in her face as they passed the shelves filled with boxes and cans.

“I always prefer ground level.  And you’ll realize soon enough, I’m kind of a loner.  Always have been.  So this was the perfect room for me when I came here.  It’s nice, you’ll like it.”

“I’m pretty used to living in a basement, I guess.  It has to be a step up from Paris.”

Although she was still surprised he was in the basement of such a lovely house.   Eventually she figured they’d get their own place.  So it didn’t matter if his rooms were a disappointment.

But they weren’t.  Jacob opened a set of plain utilitarian metal double doors into a large room filled with light.  The back wall was a long series of floor to ceiling windows and French
patio doors.  Beyond that a small patio filled with flower pots and bright blooms, nicely illuminated with colored landscape lights.

“Oh, Jacob…”

“I told you.  I live in a basement, but it’s a walk-out, roomy, and nice.   Wait until you see the bedroom.”

He picked her up and
carried her to the back and into another large room, sparsely decorated, but had an enormous bed.

“Uh, look at that, didn’t have to wait at all.  Here’s the plan.  We close that door and don’t come out until tomorrow night.”

“I’d love to, but people are going to expect us at second meal.”

“No they won’t.”

She was on the bed, naked, and so was he, in minutes. 

“You need to feed.  I can’t wait until you take
my blood into you.  I want to feel you, to be inside you, while you drink.”

Her body flushed pink as her respiration
quickened. He stood before her, completely naked, muscled, his cock at attention, commanding hers.   Just the idea of him inside her made her body ready.  And the idea of drinking from him while he drove into her sent her past aroused to desperate. 

She grabbed him and threw him on the bed
. Before she straddled him, she pulled the clip from her hair and it cascaded down over her shoulders and hid her breasts.  Then she crawled onto the bed, moving a leg over his body to sit on him so slowly, he groaned.  The slow movement allowed an extended view of her privates as she swung the leg high.   His cock surged up as if seeking her and she dropped against his body with his cock behind her.  He groaned again because he expected to be imbedded inside her body by now.  But she lingered.

Her fangs were out, she buried her head against his neck, but she didn’t bite.  Traveling down his body, her hands woke nerve endings all along his torso, and just above his cock, which she could not reach from her position.  Her fingers just grazed above it while her tongue moved all along his neck as if searching for a place to bite.

“Little vampire.”  He whispered.  “You better get inside me now or I will take you.”

“Not. Yet.”  She whispered back.  Continuing the torturous exploration, she moved down past his neck, onto his chest, across hard muscles, downward until she was just above his groin.

Jacob growled now and dropped his head back to submit to her skills as he felt her fingers encase him, sliding up and down from shaft to head, and when her tongue landed at the tip, he grabbed the headboard of the bed to avoid bucking her off.  She explored his cock from top to bottom with her tongue, slowly, quickly, then just before he exploded, she dropped down over him and pushed up to bite his neck.  The puncture and blood draw seconds after her taking him fully into her made him shoot up, and he grabbed her so he wouldn’t spill her off as she sucked in his life-blood and he pumped his out into her body all at the same moment.   He sat upright on the bed, his arms pulling her tight against him, her butt cradled on his thighs while he was still buried inside her.  Every nerve in his body had fired, every muscle had tightened, and he was just now able to breathe again.

Moments later she pulled back and sealed the puncture.  Now, she sat on his lap, his penis nestled inside, his arms around her, fingers caressing her lower back, her arms around his neck.  Their eyes met.

“I’m in love with you,” she told him, volume low, almost a whisper, as if it were a secret.

He brought his hands up and brushed the hair away from her face a
s he kissed her.

“You better be.  Because I’m never letting you go. I realized I was already in love with you just moments before that crazy vampire froze me
in Paris.  All I knew was that I had to get to you.  You were mine.”

Starla closed her eyes and wondered if there could ever in a life be a moment more perfect than this one.  She decided there couldn’t be.

They slept the rest of the night and all the next day in each other’s arms.

Koen led Starla over to the buffet tables.

“This is how we do it, very much like Ahmose’s set-up.  We have two meals daily, breakfast and second meal, buffet style, lots of food.  Except you’ll recognize everything here.  I
do
have excellent chefs.   My daughter and her family usually join us for our first meal.  You will get to meet Cairine, my granddaughter.  An extraordinary first blood child.”

At that second
, almost as if cued, the door swung open and a gorgeous redhead came in preceded by a hurrying toddler with long shiny strawberry blonde hair.  The third person to come through the door was a large male vampire, dark skinned, very handsome.  He reminded Starla of Ahmose.  He pressed a kiss to the redhead’s neck as he pulled her hair back.

“Ah,” Koen said.  “Starla, this is Cairine.” 

The little girl arrived first, stopping in front of Starla with enormous green eyes.  She put her hands up, making it clear she wanted Starla to pick her up. 

Starla just looked down at the beautiful child.  She had no experience with children and wasn’t even sure she was comfortable with picking up this
one.  But the girl wasn’t accepting that.  She whined and put her little hands against Starla’s legs.

“You may as well pick her up, dear,” The redhead said.  “Hi, I’m Park, mother of this little monkey and I’ll let you in on the secret with her.  Do what she wants
and everything goes easier.  She’s actually a really sweet girl, but she
can
be demanding.”

With a smile, Starla reached down and picked up Cairine, who put her arms around her neck and smiled up into her eyes.  She put one pudgy little hand on Starla’s face and looked at her
suddenly with a serious expression.  Then she looked back at her mother.

Park nodded and the toddler looked back at Starla and smiled again.

A moment later when Eillia arrived with Daniel, who led her to a chair at Koen’s table, the little girl gave Starla a kiss on her cheek and then pushed away.  When Starla put her on the floor, she ran to Eillia and laid her head against her rounded belly.

“Kids,” Eillia said, with her hand on Cairine’s pale curls.

“She’s truly lovely.” Starla said.

Park took her arm and led her to the large table and pulled a chair out.

“Here, sit next to me and Bas.  Jacob and Bas have been close forever.  He wants to get to know the lady who took his heart.”

Bas stepped around his wife and came to Starla.

“My turn.  Hi, pretty lady.  Jacob isn’t an easy man to get to know.  That’s how I know you’re extraordinary.  Welcome to the family.”  He hugged her, and pulled back to give her a kiss on the cheek very like the one his daughter gave her.

“Okay, family, eat.”  Koen announced.  “I have a call to make.  Be right back.”

After filling their plates, Starla stalled her fork before the first bite and looked at Park.

“So your daughter’s a first blood vampire?  She drinks blood?”

“No, no.  A first blood child is very much a human child until full maturity.  They grow and develop quite normally until then.  At a certain point, the spirit amulet engages and helps the vampire genome take precedence.  And a first blood is fully mature.   It’s an amazing transformation.  I went through it myself.”

Starla was silent.  She completed the bite of scrambled egg and ate a curly French fry.

Suddenly she said, “So my children would be normal.  They would grow up like normal children.”

Bas nodded, and answered carefully.  “Starla, your children would be glorious, like all children.  Are you reconsidering your choice?”

“No. No.  I made the right choice.  The only choice.  Jacob is my mate
, I know that.  I couldn’t live my life without him now.”  She paused again.  “It’s just that…”  Again, she stopped and looked down at her plate.  Quietly, she finished.

“It’s just that I can’t stop thinking about them.  I feel like I betrayed them.”

Park put her hand on Starla’s in understanding.

Eillia came over and touched
both women.

“Starla, honey, it’s really going to be okay.  Hey, would you like to hear my news?  Cherise came by before she and David left.  Our son will arrive in
ten days.”

Congratulations filled the room for the next several minutes.  
Although Starla smiled, she was quiet.

Outside the breakfast room in the corridor, Koen was upset as he paused in his conversation, his cell held too tightly in his hand in frustration.

“Nothing?  Son of a bitch!  Okay
. Well, failure isn’t an option, Johnson.  Keep looking.  A woman can’t just disappear.  There has to be someone who knows her.  Some camera that caught her somewhere in the airport.  No stone unturned, you understand?  Okay, I appreciate your efforts so far.  Call me if you get anything at all.”   He closed the phone and stared at the wall.  He
would
find Alisa.  And this time, he would never let her go.