PARANORMAL ROMANCE: Shapeshifter Romance: The Vampire's Stolen Bride (BBW Fantasy Alpha Male Romance Books) (New Adult Vampire Fun Mature Young Adult Billionaire Steamy Love and Romance Novella) (39 page)

Chapter 6

In all their time together, they had never actually said those three words to each other. There were a few times when they had come close, and Amelia was sure that she had felt it inside, but it had never been expressed until now. She was stunned. He ran his hand through his hair and exhaled deeply.

“You love me?” she asked, dumbfounded, not believing that after all this time that could be the case.

“Of course I do. Don't get me wrong—I've tried to move on, but even with all this money I can't forget you. I hate the way we left things. I always felt like there should have been more than what we said to each other, and we should have made more of an effort to see each other. I just… that summer was weird. I don't know what happened to us after we spent the night together but it's been on my mind ever since.”

“It's been on mine too. I guess that's why I haven't had a lasting relationship since you. It's always felt like we've had unfinished business,” she said in a small voice. “Maybe that's why my life has been stalled as well. But you've done so much without me, you're so successful. At this point I'd only hold you back.”

“Amelia, my life is great, but I'm not. I'm not happy. It all feels so meaningless and no matter what I do, do you know what my first thought is? I'm always thinking, 'I wish Amelia was here to share this with me.
’
Because I was never happier than when I was with you.”

“You could have called...”

“I wanted to, so many times. But what was I going to say? There was so much distance between us, and I remembered what you said when we said goodbye, and I couldn't bring myself to go through that pain again.”

“What I said?” she asked, looking puzzled as she searched her mind for the things she said.

“You don't remember?” he said, laughing hollowly in disbelief. Amelia still had a blank expression on her face.

“You said that it was the perfect way to end things between us, that going off to college was a new chapter in our lives, and that if we never saw each other again then we'd always live knowing that somewhere we were out there, thinking about each other. You said that we'd change and come out of college as different people, and maybe our friendship was just meant to last up until that point. Do you know how much that hurt me? All I wanted to do was tell you how much I loved you but you seemed content to leave things where they were. So I followed your lead, and I tried to keep things going. I sent e-mails, tried to video chat, but it never worked out. In the end, I just didn't have the strength to go on anymore.” His voice was filled with raw emotion and she couldn't believe that she'd said such a thing. It had been such a long time ago...

“Jack...” she said. He turned away from her, and she felt anguish stabbing at her heart. “I don't remember that… god, I'm sorry. If I did say that then I'm an idiot. Everything was so weird that summer. It felt like everything was changing and I guess I was scared. But I love you too. I always have. I've been trying to pretend like I don’t, that my life is what I wanted it to be, but it's not. I feel so lost. Jack… I love you too,” she said. As the words left her lips, he stared directly into her eyes and she could feel the attraction between them simmering. The silvery moon shone down on them, and the sounds of the party could be heard in the background, but the world melted away. Jack walked forward.

“Say it again,” he ordered.

“I love you,” she repeated, smiling widely, standing there, waiting for him. He came up to her and wrapped his arms around her, one palm pressed into the small of her back, pulling her into him, while the other cupped her cheek and moved around to the back of her neck, gently tugging at her hair. Their sweet breath mingled and their lips met, and a fire erupted within Amelia's heart. After it was over they gazed at each other, breathless.

“Come on,” Jack said, taking her by the hand and leading her back through the house. Everyone attempted to grab his attention as they walked back through but he ignored them all. Out of the corner of Amelia’s eye, she saw Lisa, who gave her a thumbs up. She knew that she'd have a lot of explaining to do to her friend later, but as she walked out of the front door, all of her attention was on Jack.

Chapter 7

When the door to his hotel room closed behind them, Amelia found herself slammed against his. His eager hands clawed at her dress and they curled around her waist, lifting her up onto the tips of her toes. A firm kissed threatened to bruise her lips, but she kissed back with equal fierceness. It was easy to fall into him again despite the years that had passed between them. Whatever had been between them was as strong as it had ever been and a wide smile broke out on Amelia's face as she enjoyed the pleasurable sensations.

Her arms came up around his neck and slid down his back, feeling the broad muscles underneath his suit. As they kissed, Jack pulled her away and they moved to the bed. He flung her down and stood in front of her. She watched with wide, hungry eyes as Jack slowly took off his jacket, set his cuff links on the bedside table, and unbuttoned his shirt, revealing an immaculate, toned physique. The taut muscles tensed as she ran her hands across his flat stomach.

“You can finish the rest,” he said, and she was all too eager to do so. She slipped his leather belt out of its buckle and unfastened his pants, watching them drop to the floor. A thick outline bulged against his tight boxers. Her mouth hung open and she bit her lower lip as she slid her fingers around the edge and peeled them away, slowing revealing him, inch by inch, until it sprung out and stood before her, strong and rigid. She ran her hands along and enjoyed hearing him gasp and moan, especially when she took the smooth tip in between her lips and sucked gently, leaving a layer of saliva upon it so that it glistened. She played with him and teased him, watching his face contort with pleasure. Since they had been together they had learned new things, but they both remembered what each other liked,  and they used this knowledge to its fullest extent.

Amelia slid her tongue around his hard erection and wrapped her lips around it tightly, sucking deeply. With her hand she caressed his sensitive skin and felt his flesh bristle with arousal. It had been so long since she had experienced lust such as this that it flooded her system and cracked her mind, possessing her with its powerful, primal urges.

“You look hot,” he said, pulling her head away. He leaned down and ran his hands over her body, fondling her huge breasts and running over her curves.

“I've missed you so much,” he growled into her ear his hot breath washing over her exposed skin. He stripped her of her top and lifted it over her head, and then he unclasped her bra and watched her breasts pour out. Amelia leaned back and let him explore her body. The heat simmered on her skin as she watched him kiss and nibble her flesh. Pain blurred with pleasure in exquisite delight as he fell to his knees and buried himself in her cleavage, taking her hard nipples in between his teeth, causing sharp sensations to shoot through her body. Gasping, her hands came around his head and ran through his hair. Now that she was topless, he covered her body in kisses and then moved back up, kissing the nape of her neck, making tingles ripple through her body.

Just as she was descending into the murky depths of lust, he pulled away and walked over to the other side of the room, abandoning her. Groggily, she looked at his naked form as he reached into the wine bucket and pulled out a few cubes of ice.

“Time for you to cool down,” he said wickedly. Amelia shook her head and backed away, but there was no escape and before she knew it he rubbed the ice cubes over her neck, proving a sharp contrast to her burning skin. She gasped loudly and her eyelids fluttered as she was sent to new realms of delight. Amelia tried to fight him away but he was too strong. The pleasure was torturous and she didn't know how much she would be able to withstand. Her burning skin melted the ice and the cool drops soon trickled down her skin, soaking her and making her wet.

He ran them all over her breasts and soon her entire body was glistening with the ice cold water, and then she had a plan. She nuzzled her face into his hands and kissed him, sucking on the end of his fingers, before she lapped up a cube of ice with her tongue and placed it into the warm cavern of her mouth. Then, before he knew what was happening, she plunged his erection into her mouth and started sucking enthusiastically, enjoying the feeling of giving him a taste of his own medicine. The rumbling, guttural moans that rose up through his throat made her knees tremble and only served to turn her on even more.

With the heat that now resided in her mouth it wasn't long before the ice cube melted entirely, and a stream of cold water came flooding out of her lips, splashing on the floor. Jack then took her by the shoulders and pushed her down on the bed so that she was laying flat on her back. He tore away the small belt and, with a deep hunger in his eyes, pulled her skirt away, falling to his knees as he slid the skirt down her legs. He took her leg in his hands and moved up, sliding his hands around it and kissing her smooth skin. When he reached her inner thigh he dug his nails into her, making her body arch with pleasure. She looked down. He was so close to her burning wetness that he could feel it. She bit her lower lip again as he brushed his hand against her most intimate, most sensitive area.

Amelia twitched and trembled as the pleasure surged through her. Jack took the edge of her panties in between his teeth. She felt his breath washing over her as he pulled them down, growling like a wild animal as he did so, and then buried himself in between her legs, which parted for him. His hands came up and groped at her curves as his tongue twisted like a tornado. Sweat prickled on Amelia's body. Her eyelids squeezed shut as she tried to process all the passion that was overloading her senses. Her soul was vibrant and vivid, and all the years melted away, slipped into an ethereal haze. They were still the same people that had grown up together, making electric love with each other. It felt like a hundred hands were coursing over Amelia's skin and she convulsed as the pleasure became too much.

Still hungry for more, Jack slid up her body, kissing her all the way until their lips met again. They kissed frantically and fervently. He teased her by holding his head mere inches from her face, pulling away whenever she grew near, making her body arch as she reached for him. She countered by catching his lower lip between hers and biting down hard, although that only served to send him wild and they became even more crazed with desire. He pinned her wrists above her head and continued to kiss her as he adjusted his body and plunged himself inside her. She twisted her head away as she tried to endure the feeling of him entering her, but he left her breathless as he began to thrust powerfully, using his strength to dominate her. Amelia's body shuddered and writhed underneath his. Covered in his heat she succumbed to him, and let the waves of pleasure sweep through her.

He was all hot and hard and deep inside her, and their hot breath mingled. Their moans created a cacophony of orgasmic delight that bellowed around their ears. Eventually he released her wrists and she clung onto his back, digging her sharp nails into his flesh to intensify the sensations. His hips thrust powerfully and pounded her hard. Their bodies were connected deeply and Amelia couldn't tell where she ended and he began. Their limbs were entwined together and their  bodies were singing in perfect harmony. Ecstatic feelings surged through their bodies as they made up for years of lost passion, and it felt like they were both being each others' firsts again.

“I love you,” he gasped as he cradled her body. She echoed his words as she felt his muscular body tense all over and braced herself for the onrushing flood of orgasm. Her heart and soul were seized as Jack buried his head in her neck and released everything he had inside, and they drowned in the feeling of bliss that enveloped them.

As they two of them lay there together they lamented all the years they had lost, but they knew that now they had found each other again they wouldn't repeat the mistakes they had made, and as Amelia draped her arm around his glistening chest, she knew she had found the place where she belonged. Funnily enough it had been in the most obvious place all this time.

THE END

Game for Two

Chapter 1

              “Just sign this, and it’s all yours.”

              The landlady, Carmen, slid the papers across the table to Crystal, smiling that thin smile of hers. Crystal wondered if it was impatience, or maybe it was a bitterness for her job as a real estate agent. Either way, this would be their last meeting—until rent was due, of course. Then they would have a brief interaction, but never something as painful as this.

              “It’s the twenty-seventh,” Adam tapped the paper, watching as Crystal hesitated to fill in the date. “Zero-nine,” he added, for the month. Crystal scribbled it in across from her signature.

              “Here,” she said, passing it to Adam.

              “Rent is due on the first of every month,” Carmen told them, clasping her fingers together as she leaned on the table. “Utilities are included, as we discussed. I assume you’ve already acquired your liquor license?”

              Crystal nodded, taking the contract from Adam and passing it off to Carmen, who accepted it with pursed lips. “We’ve got everything ready,” she said happily.

              Adam rolled his eyes with a sarcastic laugh. “That’s one way of putting it,” he said, tapping his pen. “We’ve got everything, but it’s all in boxes at the house.”

              “My house,” Crystal nudged him. “You’ve only got the beer taps at your apartment.”

              “And
how
many drafts are we serving again?” he asked with a smirk. “Oh, that’s right! A hundred,” he said flatly.

              “Oh, come on! Eight boxes compared to my—”

              “Thank you,” Carmen interrupted them, shuffling the papers together. “Here are your keys,” she pulled a ring of two silver keys from her bag. “We don’t do replacements, not without a thirty-five dollar fee. And if you get locked out, I hear there’s a great locksmith you can call.”

              “Uh,” Crystal watched as she stood up. “Thanks.”

              “No problem,” Carmen sniffed, slipping her designer purse onto her shoulder. “You have my number.” With that, she turned, and walked out the door, her high heels clicking on the hardwood. Crystal and Adam watched her go, momentarily blinded by the sunlight she let in when she flung the door open. It cut off quickly enough as the door swung shut behind her with a resounding click, and they were left in the grimy darkness once again.

              “She was a pleasure, as always,” Adam muttered.

              “You know, this lighting is perfect,” Crystal changed the topic, leaning back in her seat.

              “Oh yeah,” Adam smiled. “Perfect for a spooky bar scene. Oh, sorry,” he said, seeing the look Crystal was giving him. “
Fun
bar scene. Huge emphasis on fun.”

              “Just imagine it,” Crystal ignored him, glancing at the room around them.

              The place was huge. When they’d first created their business plan a year ago, they knew they would have to find someplace big. Somewhere where a hundred kids could get together and party—and by party, Crystal and Adam meant game.

              “We’ll have all the big arcade machines over there, against the wall. We’ll make two rows, so it’ll be like its own little area. And behind it, we’ll put the table tops.” The tabletop games were their big draw, so she wanted them to have a big area.

              “Yeah, yeah,” Adam said. “But the electronic games—
those
are going to be a big deal.” They’d purchased every model they could get their hands on: PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox. Every console except for the newest, most expensive models. They did have the budget, after all.

              “They’ll go upstairs,” Crystal pointed to the small hallway behind the bar. “That way, we can do that whole pass thing you talked about.” Adam had been the first to realize that they would probably need some sort of system to keep huge groups of people from inevitably crowding the consoles.

              “Oh, yeah!” Adam agreed. “We’ll block access if they don’t have a pass from us. We can keep the waitlist at the bar.”

              “Perfect!” Crystal picked up the keys and slipped one off the ring, handing it over to her new business partner. “Adam, this is going to work out great.”

              “You’re telling me,” he laughed, taking the key. “It helps that we’ll also be the only gaming bar around.”

              Crystal and Adam had been talking about owning their own business for years, long before Adam had flunked out as a Computer Science major and she’d gone on to change her major three times before deciding on the soul-sucking bachelor degree that is Business Management. It’d gotten her an entry-level supervisor job at the local Waffle Biscuit House, a job that’d kept her optimistic for all of a week.

              “It sucks,” she’d cried to Adam at his job as a bartender. He may have failed college algebra, but the online test to earn a Responsible Vending card had been a piece of cake for him. “I’m management, so no one trusts me, but I’m also on the bottom of the totem pole, so the other supervisors boss me around. I hate it.”

              Adam gave her a sad face, indulging her with shakes of his head and by chiming in with plenty of questions (“Really”; “No way”). In the end, he’d given her some half-thought out advice. “Why don’t you just open up your own store then? I mean, sure, it won’t be some giant firm like we’d always talked about, but you can do something. And you could call it ‘Crystal’s Crumpets’ or something.” But Crystal, tipsy at that point, had just shaken her head.

              “Ew, no,” she’d argued. “If I had a store, it wouldn’t be a restaurant. Gross. It’d be something cool, and fun. Something—”

              “What? Like a bar?” Adam interrupted, picking up someone’s check. “’Cause let me tell you, they ain’t exactly all fun and games.” He had frowned when he’d looked at it. “Tsk, no tip,” he sighed.

              “
Mine
would be fun,” Crystal insisted. “Everyone would love it, even you.”

              Adam only scoffed. “Throw in some video games and I’d have a ball.”

              “Yes!” Crystal had leaned over the bar, trying to grab him by the shoulder but overshot and ended up grabbing his black half apron instead. “A video game bar! With old arcade games!”

              Adam had frowned, detangling her from his outfit. “Uh, earth to Crystal, I said
video games
. Like, not old things that take up half a room.”

              Crystal just shook her head. “We’d have a big room. Big enough to have lots of them!”

              “And video games?” Adam asked, setting a glass of water down in front of her.

              She frowned, but shrugged. “Sure.”

              And thus, their idea was born.

              It was something neither had forgotten, a dream that they could laugh about and do shots on without anything to taint it. But then Crystal had gotten a promotion at her job, and everything had gone to hell in a hand basket.

              “They hate me!” she’d said, her face flushed as she sipped on her pear cider.

              “They can’t hate you, Crystal,” Adam had said, trying to be the voice of reason. “You’ve told me about them, and we both know they don’t have enough spirit in them to care about anything at this point. Waffle Biscuit House is a soul sucker, right?” He was trying to make her laugh, but it only made her more depressed.

              “And I work there,” she agreed miserably. “Where they suck souls and hate me.”

              “Well,” Adam had laughed, “They won’t hate you at the Cloak and Dagger.” It was the name they’d come up with for their imaginary game bar. 

              Crystal snorted. “Of course not. I’ll be the boss. Hating me is against the rules.”

              “There you go,” Adam had smiled. “We’ll have a list above the bar, and anyone who breaks any of our rules will be banished! Or, you know, cut off for the rest of the night, or whatever. And the rule to not hate you will be at the top of the list.”

              Crystal had smiled then, resting her head in her hands. “Awesome.”

              Thinking back, she was sure that Adam hadn’t expected her to come in the following day, slam her purse down on his bar and yell, “Adam!”

              He had been in the middle of serving a woman her drink, and he held up a finger, not even glancing at her. Crystal waited.

              “What?” he said, finally coming over to her.

              “Let’s build it.”

              That made Adam pause. He looked at her then, really sizing her up, then shrugged. “Sure, you got it, Crystal. You and me, with our bare hands—”

              “No,” Crystal frowned, taking a seat. “I mean, rent a place and
build
the Cloak and Dagger. Order the pieces and decorate it. Take out an ad in the paper, and tell the world, you know.”

              “…And you know that it’ll be very expensive.”

              “The most,” Crystal nodded.

              “Crystal—”

              “Adam,” she stopped him there. “If you don’t build your dreams, someone else will hire you to build theirs. And I’m tired of building fucking Waffle Biscuit House.”

              Adam raised his eyebrows. “Fair enough.”

              From there, they came up with a real plan. Adam, with his rusty yet workable computer science skills, created a website and a Kickstarter fund. Crystal put in her two weeks and made flyers to post at the local college. She also created business cards and left them anywhere she could think of—with a tip at dinner, in the library book she returned, in a locker at the bus station.

              And now, finally, they’d put down the money and rented a space.

              Standing up in the empty space, Crystal and Adam looked around at the endless possibilities. “Let’s get started,” she grinned.