Not If You Were the Last Vampire on Earth (11 page)

Chapter 28

Her

“Get over to the other side you little shit!” I yelled. “I swear to God, if you don’t start cooperating I’m going to pound you into next summer!”

The tennis ball I was screaming at ignored me as it bounced pitifully into the net.

“Game!” Alex called, grinning. He jogged to the center of the court to swig some water. He didn’t even need the water. For some reason, it was like adding insult to my loss. I grunted my dissatisfaction and joined him, gulping my own water and wiping my arm across my mouth to catch the drips.

“I’ve got the crappiest backhand ever,” I complained.

“I’d say it’s not half bad considering you had no backhand an hour ago.” He wiggled his eyebrows then gave me a quick kiss. “Again or are we done?”

I used my racket to point to the side of the court. “Those bleachers look awesome.”

He laughed. “Okay. Done, then.”

He followed me to the metal stair steps and lowered himself beside me after I picked a spot. I leaned back, letting my elbows rest on the seat behind me.

“My sister and I used to go for hours playing matches,” Alex said after a few moments of us watching the sun dip lower in the sky. Early evening light washed over the tennis courts in the upper scale neighborhood of River Oaks. “We’d hit the tennis court for anything. If one of us was mad and needed to physically work out our anger. If we needed to settle a dispute. Or just to get outside and move if we got house crazy.” He sighed at the memories and I smiled at him. I liked it when he shared these kinds of stories. “Thank you,” he said, nudging my thigh with his knee. “I’ve been wanting to play tennis again for so long.”

I twirled my racket in one hand, giving him my best no-nonsense look. “We’ll see if that’s still your sentiment after I master this game –
ow!”

I rubbed the side of my head in mock anger where Alex bounced the tennis ball off it. He smirked at me.

“Slipped.”

I went to punch him in the shoulder, but he was quicker than me. He caught my swinging fist and pulled me to him, mollifying my efforts at retaliation with a deep kiss. My swinging arm went limp, forgetting its purpose as I lost myself in it. When he pulled away, I studied his eyes for a moment.

“You know, if we were in The Before, we would never be together. People would look down on it,” I commented.

“Why, because you’re black and I’m Asian? Racist.”

“How about we go with because you’re a vamp and I’m a human and we’d both get killed over it?”

“Species-ist.”

I let out a small laugh that he cut off with another kiss. I pushed up off the bench and swung myself around so I was straddling him. I leaned forward, placing my head on his chest as he reclined on the bleachers. He kept one elbow on the step behind him and the other hand rubbed my back.

“Did you know of other human-vamp relationships?”

I felt Alex nod. “I came across one or two couples. Not too often. It’s hard coming out in the vamp community, so if there were more they kept it a secret.”

I popped up and looked at him quizzically. “You mean gay vamps?”

“Some were gay. But that doesn’t matter, vamps don’t care about that. But humans are another thing. Being with a human is looked down upon in our species also.” He laughed. “Coming out is a phrase vampires and vamps were using
way
before it caught on in the gay community.”

“Why do vamps look down on it?”

Alex crinkled his eyebrows. “Despite what humans think, all vamps don’t pine to be human. Some of us had our struggles,” he added and pain flicked across his face. “But the vampire community is a proud one. Interspecies dating was not widely accepted.”

“So have you been with a lot of vamps?”

“Four.”

I nodded. “And…have you…um, how many…” My face felt flushed as I tried to spit out my question. Alex smiled and brushed a strand of hair off of my forehead.

“One. I’ve been with one human,” he answered my unspoken question.

The sky was getting dark around us and my dogs were still back at the hospital (I knew without a doubt at least one of them would chase down the tennis ball and ruin our game if we brought them) so we collected our gear and headed for the truck.

“So did you find a house to paint in today?” he asked as we pulled away from the courts.

“Yeah, I did.”

“Where did you go this time?”

“Oh, just a little north of the city,” I answered vaguely. I actually spent many hours on the occupants I painted today. It was the longest and hardest project I’d done thus far. Alex didn’t know this, but while exploring his room out of boredom last week, I found a journal that belonged to his mother. The pages were faded a deep yellow and inside the cover was an address. I’ve been to that house every day for five days, soaking in his childhood and teenage years. Learning about his mom and sister and even, to some small extent, his father. His mother kept a handful of mementos of him.

Today I painted his mom and sister. Alex and his father are in there too, peripherally. But I focused on them because Alex focuses on them when he talks about The Before. His birthday is in five weeks and this is the present I have planned for him. I left it in the home like I would any other painting. I’m still debating on whether to retrieve it for his birthday or take him there. I’ll have to gauge that judgment when it draws closer. I don’t know if that house holds memories or pain for him.

“I really want to know that side of you,” he was saying as we drove. “One day I would love to see one of your paintings.”

“And you will. I will break my rule and return to a house I painted so you can see it. I promise.”

“Okay,” he said appeased and I smiled to myself.

Chapter 29

Him

Left, left, kick, turn, right. Arms, arms, turn, grab her hips and swipe right, swipe left, swipe right again, let go, turn
– “ow!”

Tasha’s elbow clocked me in the nose. I rubbed it half-angry, half-amused at the sheepish apology scrunching her face. “I thought it was turn, then arms again,” I accused with less force as the pain ebbed.

“You’re right, you’re right,” she agreed. “I got tripped up. Again?”

I nodded. “From the top.”

I walked over to the iPod. It sat on a chair in front of the mirror-covered wall we were using in the physical therapy room of the hospital to track our movements.  I pushed the back button to reset the song.

“
Here I go, here I go, here I go again, girls what’s my weakness? –MEN! – Okay, then. Chillin’, chillin’, mindin’ my business. Yo, Salt I looked around and I couldn’t believe it.”

We went through the moves again, this time turning like we’re supposed to after the third swipe. During the running man, I snuck a look at her. Her face was beaming as she executed our third rate choreography to Salt ‘n Peppa’s
Shoop
.

Simultaneous Lawnmover, duck, punch, pop up, kick, sidewinder, turn, catch her as she falls backwards into me, pop her back up, last turn, and FREEZE!

“Alex!” She came out of her freeze pose and jumped up and down. “We did it!”

I laughed. “Yeah, only thirteen tries,” I said jogging over to stop the video app on the phone propped up on a chair. I held it up. “And we have proof.”

She mopped at her forehead with the back of her sleeve. “That was awesome. I mean, you would think since we made the dance up it would’ve been easier to execute, but damn, that was hard. What are you doing?”

She finally caught on that I was only half listening. I was now bent over my iPod, scrolling through the playlist. Now. Now would be the perfect time. I found what I needed and pressed play.

“
I’ve had the time of my life. And I’ve never felt this way before. Yes I have. It’s the truth. And I owe it all to you.”

She eyed me warily. “What are you doing? I’m not jumping into a lift.”

I laughed softly as I walked to her and drew my arms around her waist. “No need. I just want you to dance with me.”

“We just did.”

“No. I want to feel you while you dance with me.”

I pulled her closer until her breasts were pushing up against my chest and I had her in a tight hug. She melted against me and sighed as I began to sway us and sing the sappy lyrics under my breath. When that song ended, the next one played and I felt her go still.

What a Wonderful World.

She recovered after a moment and started swaying again, but it felt different. I could sense her skin popping with nerves. Her movements were shaky. We got about halfway through the song before I felt her lips press against my neck.

“You remembered,” she breathed.

“I did.”

“This is so much better than how it would have originally gone down.”

“Brock was a dick.”

“We’re not supposed to speak ill of the dead.”

“I wasn’t speaking ill. I was stating a fact.”

She pulled away slightly to lean back her head and look at me. I loved that we were almost the same height. I grinned. She grinned back.

“This whole afternoon goes into my top five afternoons of all time, Before and After.”

“Ditto, T-bone.”

Her lips found mine and she sighed happily into my mouth. My level of desire turned up several notches and my hands moved from her lower back to cup her ass. Luckily her
Shoop
costume for our dance consisted of a black tank top and a short teal skirt that lifted when she turned quickly, making it easy on my roaming hands.

We tumbled onto blue plastic foam pads with the bars patients used to use to help them learn to walk running parallel above us. Every piece of clothing I removed from her body revealed more of her dark skin that I ran my lips over. I only broke away to shed my own white t-shirt and hideous neon green running shorts she found for me to wear for our performance.

I put her on her back and kissed my way down, eager to taste her, but she stopped me midway.

“I want you inside me.”

“I didn’t bring anything, Tasha. I’ll go down on you, or I’ll do that thing with my hand. I love making you come.”

I moved my palm downwards over her spot and she bucked into my hand, groaning and biting her lip. My pulse quickened. I swear I could finish right now just watching her.

“No, Alex.” Her smile was devilish. “I’ve been taking birth control for a week now.”

“You…birth control? What?”

My hand paused as I struggled to process her words. I needed blood back in my other head. I narrowed my eyes in confusion.

She nodded. Her hand started stroking me. “No barrier. Just you. Okay?”

My answer was to pull her underwear the rest of the way down and push inside her. This woman was going to be the end of me. The delicious, wonderful, toe-curling end of me. It was one of those times when we couldn’t break away from each other. Our bodies were close. My movements inside her were solid and deep. They were accompanied by long, drawn-out kisses and mingled breaths and foreheads pressed together. I felt my climax building, taking over. I started to slow down, but she shook her head and kissed me.

“No. Don’t stop,” she pleaded.

“Tasha-”

“Keep going, love.”

My heart thrummed. My fangs lengthened. I sped up. Faster and faster and deeper until I came undone and my pelvis shoved the whole weight of my thrust behind my release. But she wasn’t finished. As I lay next to her tingling with the receding orgasm, she ran her fingers over my face. Over my arms. Down my thighs. She kissed my neck, my shoulders, down the middle of my chest.

She maneuvered so I was on my back and she was over me, planting kisses in spots I didn’t know could be sensitive. I closed my eyes and let the affection wash over me.

I reached for her – it was her turn – but she batted my hand away and kept working her mouth over my body. After several minutes, she began to kiss the more sensitive areas. My nipples. My thighs. Short tongue strokes over my most sensitive area, bring it around again. She moved up to my mouth and pushed herself against me, rubbing the area with her own.

I gripped her upper arms. “Again,” I gasped and she nodded, sliding down onto me.

It didn’t take long for her to come. She rode me deep and angled forward in long steady movements until her eyes closed and her fingers dug into my chest and her raspy breaths choked out a stuttered squeal. I squeezed her hips as she came, moving myself up into her to fill her up completely as the orgasm reached its height. Then I let myself release a second time.

She was sloppy spent, falling forward onto my chest and letting herself drape over me. I kissed the top of her head and brought my arms around her to hold her there. It took several minutes of laying there like that before our breathing evened out.

“Could you fall even more in love with me?” I asked jokingly into her hair.

“Not if you were the last vampire on earth,” came her muffled reply.

I smiled. “Liar.”

She turned her head to look up at me, her chin jutting into my chest. Her dark eyes turned serious, drinking me in with an intensity that socked me in the gut. I had to hold my breath as she said it.  It was quiet and thick with emotion: “You got me.”