Page 38 of Incandescence

And neither of us wanted foreplay. Without any formality, I aligned my cock between her folds and, holding her stare, I drove into her.

She gasped, tensing for a moment. But she was already wet enough to take my all, and I didn’t hold back. I kissed her again as I thrust inside, and she counter-thrust, her breasts jiggling with every motion, her lips parting to give my tongue full access.

When she drew back to inhale, I pumped all the harder, heat and electricity blowing through me like a furnace. I groaned and kissed my way down her throat, my tongue swiping across the little puncture wounds in her neck.

She stilled with a gasp, clearly startled by the intimate contact. She seemed even more startled by the climax that shuddered through her, and her inner muscles clamped hold of my dick even as my breath stalled, shockwaves of pleasure coursing through me.

I shouted out her name as my seed poured into her, along with my heart, my soul. But I didn’t care. If I lost her, I’d lose a giant part of myself anyway. I’d take every second of time I had with her and cherish it for all I was worth.

She unknotted her legs from around me, forcing disconnection. She slid to the ground with a little mewl of loss. But it wasn’t until she winced that I realized we might have overdone the sex.

Guilt stabbed at me. For crying out loud, she’d been a virgin before I taken advantage of her unchecked hormones yet again. I put a hand under her chin and tilted her stare back my way. “Are you okay?”

She gave me a reassuring smile. “Honestly, if it wasn’t for the fact a vampire wanted us more than anything else alive, I’d be the happiest woman in the world right now.”

I wanted to keep her that way and planned to do everything in my power to do exactly that. I kissed her with all the gentleness I hadn’t shown her against the wall, revealing my deep affection in the best way I knew how. When we finally pulled away, her eyes shone with wonder, with hope.

I trailed a hand down the side of her face, drinking in her shiver of awareness. “Just know that you’ve already made me the happiest man alive.”

We didn’t speak much after that. What more could be said? Instead, we dressed in silence, and as daylight turned to dusk, we grabbed some snacks, a bunch of blankets and pillows from the bed we’d shared, before we rounded up the cats and took them into the attic.

Jasper whined as he watched us disappear up the ladder and Charley turned to me. “He doesn’t want to be down there by himself. Do you think he’d let you carry him?”

“Only one way to find out.”

I stepped onto the ladder rungs. I was still stronger than I’d ever been, a strength that seemed to have actually intensified since leaving the nest. Not to mention the fact I hadn’t once had hunger cramps.

Night was already upon us when I dropped to the floor and bent for Jasper. About to pick him up, I froze at the bang of the front door and the wood that skidded across the faded linoleum.

Shit.

“Well, well, well, look who we finally found,” Rory drawled as he stepped into the hallway, a slight limp to his walk.

I straightened, my heart in my throat at seeing not just the younger brother follow Rory inside, but their brainwashed friends too. As they walked down the hallway, I pulled the cord above my head so that the ladder snapped back out of sight. “Don’t let anyone up there,” I shouted.

I didn’t have time to see if Charley was listening. The brothers moved fast. But I was faster. I distantly acknowledged the vampire blood had given me not just extra strength, but extra mental clarity too.

I turned sideward to make myself less of a target. Throwing a punch to the jaw of Rory, I then spun and kicked Daryl in the nutsack. Rory fell back and Daryl crumpled with a strangled scream, holding his groin.

Two more came at me at once, jostling past the brothers curled up on the floor to get to me. I squatted, then kicked the legs out from under one man, before surging up to punch into the gut of another, driving the wind out of his lungs.

The last man came at me with a knife, but adrenaline burned away any fear. I’d taken out the other men with relative ease and I didn’t doubt for a second I couldn’t do the same with this skinny teenager with lank hair, red eyes and a prominent Adam’s apple.

He raised the blade and it arced toward me. I caught his wrist and stayed his arm before I kneed him in the groin. The knife dropped to the floor and he followed it with a grunt. I kicked the blade out of sight even as Jasper growled.

I turned to the Rotty. “Now you’re the vicious guard dog?” I asked drily. But any and all sarcasm faded as the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and my senses prickled with foreboding.

“Alexander, behind you!”

I didn’t need Charley’s high-pitched warning to know who’d arrived. I spun around to the vampire’s slow clap of hands. My heart missed a beat at seeing his glowing red eyes that gave away his blood hunger.

The vampire didn’t attack. Instead, he somehow withheld his base need and he ambled forward, stopping with a curled lip at the first human writhing in agony on the floor.

He looked back at me. “Isn’t this a surprise,” he said with his modulated voice. “Not only have you conquered your blood hunger, you’ve managed to also hang on to some of my power.” He smiled, not bothering to hide his long, sharp fangs. “A pity you’ll never be as strong as me.”

I shook my head. “You’re wrong. You’re the weak one here. You need the blood of someone like me to survive. I. Don’t. Need. You.” I cocked an eyebrow. “Or your blood.”

The vampire’s face paled with barely suppressed rage. “You forget yourself, Alexander. Forget that I fed you and looked after you. Forget that I gave you a longevity most people only dream about.”

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