Rising Son (The Juliana Lucio Series) (20 page)

“How’s it really going? Are you sure you want to go through with this?”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” I told him suddenly on the defensive. “If you only stayed back to try to talk me out of this again you are wasting your time
.”

“Trust me, I know there’s no talking you out of anything,” he murmured softly more to himself than anything.

I stayed where I was arms crossed over my chest
,
still feeling defensive. He finally turned to look at me, a longing in his eyes as they traveled up and down my body.

“When’s the last time you fed? We were interrupted the last time we went out together. Have you gone out since then?”
The longing in his eyes had started to turn to concern as he slowly began to walk toward me, moving with that ever confident masculine
grace
. I hated that he would see me as being weak, I turned away from him so he wouldn’t see the truth of it in my eyes.

“I’m fine, William. I really do need to get back to work though. I’m really close to finishing and I only have tonight to finish it.” Just as I started to head for the bathroom William captured my wrist in his hand, holding me gently
,
yet firmly in place. I kept my back to him not wanting him to see how much I really wanted to go to him. I didn’t want to be the one always running after him.

“You need to feed first, Jules. I can see it in the paleness of your skin, I can feel your hunger radiating out from you. Why haven’t you fed? You know you must--”

“I can’t feed without you alright,” I snapped at him a little harsher than I had intended, but I was mad that he was making me say it out loud. “Or at least I don’t want to.
” I started again more softly this time. “
I’m afraid to feed without you there, Will. I need you
,
something in you calms me--
keeps me grounded. The only thing that stopped me from killing a man when I fled
was
my thoughts of you.
I . . . I just need you, okay.
”

I turned my head slightly to try to gauge h
is response to my confession
, but as always he had his clamped down poker face on. He wasn’t revealing anything. He wasn’t letting go of me either.

“So, let’s go out now. We can feed quickly and be back in no time at all.”

“Forget it
, Will
,
I’m fine
,” I pulled my arm loose from his grasp and turned back to the bathroom again. Trying to cover up how his emotionless demeanor was affecting me. He had been distant for days and it was exhausting me.
The exhaustion could also be from the lack of blood, but I was sure it was mos
tly due to the roller coaster
of
emotions William put me through.

He turned from me and started for the door, not saying a word. No goodbye, see you later, nothing. I just stopped and closed my eyes tilting my head back and trying to stop the onslaught of tears I felt
brimming right below the surface. The unmistakable click of the lock being turned brought my attention quickly back to the door. I was shocked to find William standing there staring at me, his walls were down now
,
made evident by the pain showing th
r
ough his eyes and the tension in his brows.

“Let me feed you.” It came out in a strained sort of tension that was being pulled from him.

“What?”

I was confused. I didn’t know what he meant, why he was still here. He quickly made his way back to me takin
g both of my hands into his own
,
and I was momentaril
y distracted how the size of his
dwarfed my own.

He lifted his hand trailing his knuckles
gently
down the line of my cheek, “let me feed you, Jules. Let me ease your hunger.”

It was one of those rare moments when he let me look into his eyes and truly see him. I could see, just as much as feel, the pain and sorro
w and love radiating out of him;
and I knew this w
ould be
just as much for him as it would be for m
e
. That was what had me slowly nodding my
head
yes. Our eyes never lost contact with one another as he slowly brought my hand to his lips a
s
he kissed my
inner wrist
. He walked us backward to the bed where he sat on the edge still holding my eyes firmly with his. Our contact only broke for an instant when he let go of my hand to pull his shirt off over his head letting it fall to the floor by our feet.

“I know how messy you can be,” he said with a quirk to the
half-smile
he was so good at giving.

“I am not. Not anymore at least.” We were both laughing quietly
, but my eyes were traveling the expanse of his now naked chest and stomach, showing off the tight muscles that were earned not from hours in a gym, but from years of hard
labor
. He was incredibly sexy, but it wasn’t just
h
is muscular body and gorgeous face, it was him. It was all of him that I loved. That he was willing to sacrifice himself for me was the greatest gift I could ever be given. As if sensing my
thoughts
and my rising lust at seeing him half naked on my bed he spoke up.

“Come here, Jules
.
”

William grabbed my hand pulling me in to stand between his parted thighs. He looked up at me as he slid my loose tee-shirt up and over my head letting it fall to the floor next to his own.
Slowly sliding his hand up the bare expanse of my back and letting his
other
outstretched palm glide up my stomach he held me gently in place as if to keep me from disappearing.

He dropped his head letting it rest on
my sternum as he took a shaky
breath
, “I need you too, Juliana.”

“You need blood too?”

“No, I just need you. I have from the moment I laid
eyes
on you
.”

His hand slid up to my chest taking the heavy weight of my breast into his hand rubbing my nipple back and forth with
the
bottom of his thumb.
He turned his mouth giving my other breast his attention as he continued
massaging
the first
. Becoming
surer
of himself as my moans escaped me
,
he pressed me more firmly against him as he pulled harder at
my
nipple.
I let my head fall back enjoying the feel of my hair brushing along my back
combined
with the sureness of his fingers as they burned a path up and down my spine.
Wi
nd
ing
my fingers into William
’
s perpetually messy hair,
I
enjoy
ed
the contradicting softness of it compared to the hardness of the man it belonged to. He began lavishing my chest and neck with gentle kisses as his hand
s
found the clasp on
the
pants I still wore from the night before. He slowly slid them down my smooth legs, along with my barely there panties
,
lifting his eyes once again to meet my own.

What I saw look
ing
back
at me was lust, awe
and love. Mostly love.

“Will . . .” My voice was huskier than I had ever heard it
, full of a need that ran deeper than the blood I was desperately lacking.

I stood there before him, naked, willing to give myself over to him in any way that he
would have me
. His eyes took me in, seemed to soak me up so they would have something to save for later
,
as he slowly pulled off the
black work out pants
he had
o
n. The proud length of his maleness stood straight and hard leaving no doubt to how much he did in fact want me--need me.

Every time we had been intimate together William had been rough and demanding, but already I could tell this time was different. There was
a
tenderness
about him I hadn’t yet seen before.
He slowly drew my mouth down to his and kissed me deeply, searchingly as his mouth probed my own
, and his hands tangled in my hair
. I wound my arms around his neck moving as
close to him as I could manage placing
my knees on either side of him on the
bed
straddling him.
The hardness of his sex was pushed tightly between us as we grabbed hold of one another. We couldn’t get close eno
ugh no matter how hard he pulled
my chest into his own, nor how beseechingly he searched my mouth with his.
I
pulled away and
tilted my head back once again as William lightly ran his fangs down
the length of my neck drawing out
a low moan of pleasure
from me
at the
mere
thought of him sinking his fangs into the tender flesh.

“Let me feed you, Jules.
Please
let me be the one that helps ease you.”

There was a
desperation to his voice I had never heard
before;
it pained me to hear it.

“I thought we couldn’t feed
off
each other that we had to use humans.”

“Long term we do, but for now my blood will strengthen you. I can help you.”

My eyes trailed to the corded muscles in his neck and pulsing vein that lied in between. I leaned in to him taking in his scent; it was full of a dark spice that sang of lust and something sweeter. Love. M
y entire being was filled with
a
joy at being with him that I only wanted
to be closer to him. S
o I slowly lifted up on my knees and brought my lips close
to his throat
.
T
he same moment I
slid my fangs into his neck I lowered myself onto the length of his manhood feeling him all the way to my core.

William yelled out in a cry of ecstasy that only helped to drive me further. I began taking deep pulls of his blood as his hands found their way to my hips guiding m
e
up and
down the length of him.
When I wanted to move faster, harder, William slowed me
by
pulling me closer to him
,
and whispering something I couldn’t understand under his breath, but
still
sounded so loving.

I was afraid of taking too much blood from him and began to pull away when I felt his hand on the back
of my
head holding me to him.

“No. I can still feel your hunger. Take more, Love, you won’t hurt me.”

I
hesitated for just a moment the
n began a slow pull on his neck again, letting the sweet richness of his blood fill me. William
stilled my hips and
took over
as he
started pushing himself
into me, thrusting at a more regular rhythm that I hadn’t been able to manage while drinking from him.
Each thrust
was
wedging him further in my heart
, just as it was propelling me closer to the edge of my release. I could no longer focus on what I was doing at his neck
so I pulled away seal
ing
the bite closed with a lick. Not that it wouldn’t heal in an instant on its own anyway.
I held tightly to William
’
s shoulders
,
his thrusts becoming
stronger he looked up into my eyes and then stopped his movements.

“Wh-what’s wrong?” I asked him a little dazed.

The next thing I knew he had us flat on the bed with me underneath him.
He held him
self up with the strength of his
arms and guided himself back
to me. His movements were slower than they had been before, but still he pushed the full length of himself into me and pulled almost completely out again. The entire time he made love to me he was looking into my eyes, running his fingers across my lips--no doubt looking at my fangs. I couldn’t stop staring at him either. He was so strong, so beautiful.

“You are so beautiful,” he told me while driving himself harder into me causing me to arch my back and push myself into him.
His thrusting was becoming irregular and I could tell he was holding himself back.

“William.”

“Yes, Jules?” There was a tension radiating off of him.

“William.” He didn’t say anything this time and I could see that it was taking all of his concentration not to let loose.