Page 8 of Cuddling Sucks in Coffins
“You’ll keep trying to get enough of me, though, right?”
He laughed, which triggered one from me, too, but mine quickly morphed into a squeal when he surged to his feet. I wrapped my arms around him to hold him tight, my fingers splayed over the scars on his back that only made him more beautiful to me. He plopped me down on the table, our bodies still connected while I wrapped my legs around him to hold on for dear life as he drilled into me. He consumed my lips, my senses, and soon a violent heat pulsed between my thighs. I came hard, crying out his name and trembling around him from head to toe. He followed me into bliss with fangs bared and a loud growl. His hips still thrusting his release, he buried his teeth into my neck on the other side of Sawyer’s bite. He lapped up my blood as I clung to him, panting, still riding that high. Right as I started to see spots, he retracted his fangs and held me to him, pressing kisses to my skin.
With a sigh of contentment, I gently traced the scars on his back while studying the increased distance from the table I sat on to the kitchen doorway. “Did the kitchen just get bigger, or did I shrink?”
“We moved the table.” He glanced over my shoulder. “And broke it.”
I turned to look, and sure enough, the table had been shoved into the cupboards so hard that a long crack ran along the middle. “Oops.”
“A little destruction is good for the body.” He grinned with a lascivious twist to his mouth. “And the ego.”
I pressed my smile to his chin. “You need a warning label.”
“Damn right, I do.” He laughed and started to pull out when a great boom from the living room froze us in place.
My jaw dropped. Jacek and I stared at each other for that brief, shocked lull it took before our bodies and brains reacted. Finally, we sprang apart, scrambling for our clothes, our gazes peeled in the direction of the living room. Nothing appeared to be wrong from my angle. Still, icy needles pricked down my spine and my inner alarms rang loud.
Once we’d thrown on our clothes, Jacek stepped in front of me, but I snatched the waistband of his pants and dragged him behind me. I shot him a look that said not to argue, then stepped out into the living room, my Pebbles stake in front of me.
The front door stood wide open, rocking back and forth slightly. Behind it was a hole in the wall, the same shape and size as the doorknob. So what had slammed it open? The wind? I had no idea, but it sure as hell didn’t feel right.
Jacek blurred past, checking behind the door, checking every corner of the room, then flashed to the rest of the house. Had someone come inside? Someone like Paul?
Swallowing thickly, I stepped closer to the door, feeling the promise of winter invade from outside. It had always been in the back of my mind that he’d come here, or to my apartment or The Bean Dream, but I didn’t want to stop living my life because someone was trying to kill me. There was no way I could survive without my job anyway. Besides, locking myself in my apartment for the rest of my days would mean giving up.
But it was a different story altogether if he hurt anyone. Anyoneelse. He’d already murdered Tim, the cemetery grounds man. I was sure of it. I could definitely see Paul doing that just to strike fear in me. And it had 100 percent worked.
As I stepped into the doorway, I peered into the night. Lights flicked on in the houses across the street. Their doors were open too. All of them.
I dragged in a shaky breath. That was too much of a coincidence.
People wearing bathrobes and slippers stepped warily onto their porches, some of which still sported jack-o-lanterns and other Halloween decorations. The overhead lights emphasized the people’s wide, terrified eyes. Some carried baseball bats. Others held guns. All of us looked up and down the empty, now quiet street. Even the graveyard next to the empty lot beside this house appeared serene, as it should be.
A cool burst of strength touched my back, my three vamps moving soundlessly behind me. I walked away from them, outside.
“Sunshine...” Eddie’s voice roughened with his low warning.
But I ignored it and started down the porch steps. “Stay right there.”
I hated seeing the fear in these people’s eyes. Fear that was indirectly because of me. Not to think the world revolved around me or anything, but this was totally about me. And Paul. It reeked of him, even though all I could smell was the wind-whipped air icing my nose and cheeks.
Gradually, everyone grew bored with the unseen threat that had blown open their doors, and they disappeared inside and sealed up their houses firmly behind them.
I turned to do the same and then stopped short. My insides cemented together, weighting down my next step. A shudder clattered through my stiff bones.
Paul. Paul was here. Right in front of me.
