EVEN THE FIRST TEN minutes of the forty Alex needed to wait for Rafe to arrive seemed to crawl endlessly. It was the first time he could remember experiencing time subjectively since becoming a vampire.
Sitting in the cold room alone gave him far too much time to think about the battlefield that was his life at the moment. Crises and disasters scattered across it and he had no idea how everything had seemed to blow up so suddenly.
He kept returning to the kiss. Sydney’s kiss.
That was another catastrophe in the making. How had he let it happen? Normally, he was in control of things and events played out in an orderly, systematic way that helped with his research and kept his life flowing smoothly and uneventfully. He had grown accustomed to that graceful pace.
He had grown used to Sydney turning him down, even though his hope that she might one day change her mind lived in the back of his mind like a pilot light turned down low. Why had she chosen now, though? Why this day? It complicated matters in a way that he knew he would have to deal with, at least in his own head, when he had time to think somewhere far away from this place.
Had he let the kiss happen? She had moved fast, but not faster than his perceptions could track. He had watched her lean toward him and for a moment he’d genuinely wondered what she was doing. It had not occurred to him that she might kiss him. Sydney and kisses were something that lived chained in the same back room in his mind, to be brought out and examined when he was in the mood for self-torture (and that was more and more often lately, wasn’t it?).
When he had recognized that she was about to kiss him, he had been so surprised he hadn’t thought to halt it. Then he shook his head, swearing silently. Of course he could have halted it. He hadn’t wanted to.
The real kiss was far better than any he had rehearsed in his imagination. Responding had been instinctive, driven by the pleasure her kiss generated. And that was another problem. He should have pushed her gently away. Explained himself. Instead he had to look into her eyes and to find a way to remove the dawning hope and happiness in them.
He dropped his head into his hands and squeezed his temples. What a ruin this was!
The door opened and he looked up, grateful for any distraction that would take him away from his thoughts. Sydney leaned into the room and beckoned. “They’ve agreed you can wait in my office,” she said. “I’ve got more comfortable seats there.”
“I remember,” Alex said, standing up. “I don’t want to jeopardize your position in this matter, but at the same time, a cushion would be most welcome.”
“I’m the victim in this,” Sydney said flatly. “There’s nothing you could do that would screw that up any more than it was in the first place. C’mon.” She held the door open.
* * * * *
This was the first time Alex had been given unfettered access to Sydney’s office. During his first few visits, he had stayed on his feet near the door, so that she would not feel he was intruding. It had been very important then not to give even the slightest wrong impression.
But now, Sydney moved files off the loveseat in the back corner of the cramped little room and waved him toward it. “Do you drink tea?” she asked.
“Occasionally,” Alex lied. “But I’m fine for now, thank you.”
“I’m getting one. The coffee here is paint-stripper in disguise. I’ll be right back.”
Once she had left, Alex’s attention was caught by the books on the shelves behind her desk. There were a lot of well-thumbed police technical titles, but the upper shelves and the lower ones were the more interesting. Nearly everything was in hardcover and he ran his finger over the spines, reading them off. Criminology, law, police in history, psychology, criminal psychology, more history titles dealing with everything from Jack the Ripper, to Genghis Khan, to Special Forces biographies. Tucked away at the bottom corner was a leather bound set of the complete Sherlock Holmes stories.
Sydney returned when Alex had started to flip through the second book in the collection, remembering when the stories had first appeared and what a fuss the media and readers had made when Conan Doyle had tried to kill Sherlock Holmes off.
She put the cup of tea down on the desk and looked over his arm at the book. “They’re great inspiration,” she said. “I don’t think anyone could ever really pull off the feats of detection that Holmes does, but it’s a nice fantasy to aspire to.”
His body strummed. She was standing too close and he could smell her scent, which was light but sophisticated. Underneath that was her natural scent and that was even more powerful. Even if he had not known it already, her scent and her body temperature would have told him that sometime in the last hour or so she had been sexually aroused. It was hard to ignore.
He realized he was staring at her and not at the book. But Sydney just looked calmly back. She didn’t move away. She didn’t blush. But her pulse elevated. He could hear her heart pick up pace. And damn it, he still couldn’t look away.
There was a sharp rap on the door and Sydney whirled, just as the door thrust open. “Lieutenant Stevens, the desk clerk said…” Rafe said, speaking as he stepped inside. He was here and fifteen minutes early.
Alex smiled at him, grateful that he had made such good time. But Sydney cleared her throat. She was blushing.
Alex watched Rafe’s gaze flicker over her. Even from six feet away and just inside the door, he would have no trouble at all detecting her arousal. Her blush alone would look damning.
Rafe’s expression tightened and his eyes grew flinty. He straightened up, his hand falling away from the door knob. “Lieutenant Stevens?” he asked formally.
“Yes,” Sydney said. “You’re Alex’s lawyer?”
After a year of calling him Doctor Karim, she had finally used his first name.
Alex’s chest tightened as Rafe stared at her, absorbing everything. It didn’t need Sherlock Holmes to figure it out, but Alex knew Rafe would choose the most damning interpretation. So he bent and returned the book to its slot on the shelf and straightened up again.
“Rayner De Leon,” Rafe said. “Have charges been laid?” He looked at Alex directly, and his face was just as flinty as when he looked at Sydney.
“No, none,” Sydney said. “Excuse me for the direct question, but aren’t you the appellate judge from the Second Appellate Court?”
“Yes, but I’m also Alex’s lawyer right now. Is there a private room we can use? I want to talk to my client.”
* * * * *
He could barely wait for the door to shut. He dumped his briefcase on the battered table and turned to Alex. “That’s her, isn’t it?” he demanded. “The one you said was a possibility.”
Alex pushed his hand through his hair. “Was a possibility,” he said calmly.
“So you’re lovers now,” Rafe pushed. The words made him feel sick.
Alex’s eyes narrowed. “Is that really a matter for you to worry about?” he asked softly.
There was a warning in that tone. Alex was a private man. Rafe had figured that out already, but he ignored the warning anyway. “I thought that….” He blew out his breath. “I thought I deserved that consideration, yes.”
“I warned you,” Alex said, “right from the start.”
“I didn’t think you’d jump straight from my bed to hers!” Rafe shouted, throwing out his hand in a roused gesture.
Alex just looked at him. “Why are you so upset?” he asked quietly.
Why was he so upset? Rafe whirled away, to the corner of the room where he didn’t have to look at him. Where he could think. What was happening here? He had seduced…well, he had chosen to cooperate in Alex’s seduction and at the beginning it had been a pleasant way to pass the time.
But Alex had not been the wispy distraction he had thought he would be. The way he had kissed him in his own kitchen, his pleasure when Rafe had brought him off that very first time, his lovemaking, which was innocent and sophisticated at the same time—it had intrigued Rafe.
The things Alex said kept popping up in his mind later, unexpectedly strumming and resonating. He was far younger, but he seemed to have spent his time thinking far more profoundly than Rafe had ever bothered to do.
There were depths to Alex that beckoned. He had by-passed the status of distraction long before he had arrived for dinner and charmed every last one of Rafe’s family at the table. Was Rafe the idiot here?
He recalled the moment he had walked into the Lieutenant’s office. He had been struck, first, by the thought that he knew her, somehow. But she was a stranger to him. She had never been in his court. Appeal courts were the domain of senior lawyers, not detectives and he would remember someone so gloriously beautiful.
It had taken a moment to notice the signs and symptoms in her, to hear her racing heart and sample her scent. The woman had been roused and ready. Rafe wondered how Alex had pulled that off with a heavy book in his hands, but her state was unmistakable.
And he didn’t like it. Not at all.
Alex’s hand fell on his shoulder and squeezed. “Whatever you’re thinking, you’re wrong.”
“Am I?” Rafe asked bitterly, turning to face him again. “It wasn’t just her that was aroused, back there. Tell me you weren’t the tiniest bit tempted, Alex. Tell me and make me believe it.”
Alex shook his head. “I can’t tell you that. I wish I could. I wish I could lie and fix this, but I can’t, Rafe. I won’t, not with you.”
Rafe could feel his eyes widen at the same time it felt like someone had kicked him in the chest. He stalked back to the table and picked up his briefcase. “I get you out of this mess and home without rousing their ire, then we’re done.”
* * * * *
Sydney pressed the buzzer and shifted on her feet, not with nerves, but with a combination of anticipation and pure lust. She had spent the last two days unable to think of anything else but Alex and that damn kiss. And the near kiss that followed. Her dreams had been shot with images of him taking her in a range of ways that shifted from the purely romantic all the way up to the purely pornographic.
She had tried working and been distracted and irritable all day. So she had done something she had never done before—she’d looked up Alex’s address in the police database.
The scrap of paper with the address had sat on her desk for the rest of the afternoon, teasing her. Beckoning.
She’d booked off at four, unable to stand the tension any longer. She had driven straight out here, to Beverly Hills, trying not to be impressed about the address. Now she was here and had no idea what she should do or say when he finally stood in front of her.
It took several minutes for the door to open, long minutes that had her heart racing and her blood surging in a way she could feel in her ears and her temples. When she finally heard the lock turning, she gasped out loud in relief.
Alex pushed the door aside and looked at her. “You shouldn’t be here,” he said.
“What happened?” she asked, alarmed. All her arousal and her need evaporated as she took in his appearance. He was wearing worn and faded jeans and a cotton shirt that looked like he had been wearing it for days. The wrinkles were ironed into the sleeves and the front. It was untucked. His feet were bare. It was so unlike Alex to look so disheveled that fear leapt into her chest. “What’s wrong?”
Alex turned away from the door, leaving it open. “Now is not a good time, Sydney.”
She moved inside and shut the door. “Just tell me what has happened,” she begged. “You’re scaring the shit out of me.”
Alex stopped moving. He looked over his shoulder at her. “It doesn’t matter,” he said listlessly and turned to lean against the white wall, his head down.
“Is it being stuck at home?” she asked, moving toward him. “Because I have good news about that. Brody and Taylor and…and…”
“Veris,” Alex supplied.
“Yes. They did more than corroborate your alibi, Alex. They had a home video of the birthday party. A neighbor across the street saw your Jaguar on the street in front of the house until after midnight. So you’re clear. It wasn’t you, just like you’ve been saying all along.”
Alex glanced at her. “Very well,” he said listlessly.
“Do you want to know something strange?” she asked, taking another step closer to him. “Someone got into the evidence box and took all the security and traffic cam videos. They’re gone.”
Alex’s head lifted. For the first time she saw something other than dead neutrality in his eyes. “Everything is gone?” he asked.
“Everything,” Sydney said firmly, happily omitting the one tiny exception, if it meant Alex would cheer up. “So even if you didn’t have an alibi, the missing evidence means they have to drop that angle of the investigation. They never seriously thought you were the driver, anyway.”
“Glad to hear it,” Alex said dryly. “As I wasn’t anywhere near there. How did the evidence go missing?”
“Does it matter?” she asked gently. “It’s gone and that means you’re free and clear.”
“It does matter,” Alex said slowly. “There’s something odd about it just abruptly going missing, like that. You keep your evidence under lock and key. Did someone break in?”
“They’re still trying to figure that out,” Sydney told him. “It’s my case, so it’s not my problem. I can’t get involved.”
Alex’s eyes narrowed. “You seem very cavalier about a breach of security and the possible contamination of evidence against whoever tried to kill you.”
Sydney smiled. “I don’t care,” she said honestly. “I’m actually even a little pleased.”
“Pleased?”
“Nothing about the accident makes any sense at all, to me or to the detectives on the case, from what they’ve told me. It got confusing when we saw the videos. Now the videos are gone it’s less confusing from a legal perspective and that’s fine by me.”
He studied her. “You don’t believe me.”
Sydney sighed. “Maybe we should talk about this later. You’re clearly not in the right mood.”
“I’m fine,” he said flatly. “Although I’m wondering why you don’t trust me.”
“I do trust you, Alex. I absolutely believe you when you say you weren’t there. But I was there and although I didn’t remember it until I saw the photos, you were there, too. You spoke to me and you called me by name.”
“You only remembered it when you saw the photos?
“I remembered that and I remembered what you said in the hospital, about not telling anyone.” She moved closer. “Here’s the thing, Alex. If I accept your assertion that you were not there, and I do accept it because you’re not a liar, and if I accept that I wasn’t imagining things, because I know I wasn’t, then nothing about this makes any sort of sense.”
Alex gave her a small smile. “You’re in a pickle then, aren’t you? It’s a good thing you’re not the investigator for this one.”
“That’s why I’m pleased about the evidence going missing. It makes the case very straight forward now. It just leaves you and I to wonder in our idle hours about what really happened.”
Alex tilted his head. “Is that why you’re here? To tell me about the missing evidence?”
“No, I….” Sydney began, then stopped herself from blurting out the frank truth. Alex’s mood was incomprehensible to her right now because he wasn’t opening up at all. He wouldn’t welcome lusty confessions. So she settled for a partial truth. “We were going to talk, you said. I couldn’t wait any longer.”
Alex took in a deep breath that lifted his chest. “We do need to talk,” he agreed softly. “But if we talk now, Sydney, I’m not going to be fair with you. I’ve…had some bad news. I’m feeling very bitter.”
Bad news? Sydney reassessed his appearance and his mood when he had answered the door and put it together with an almost audible click in her mind. “Did you get dumped?”
Alex reacted like she had bitten him. He almost side-stepped away from her. “You knew I was seeing someone?”
“I guessed,” Sydney said. “Criminals don’t always lie, but what they don’t say is where the truth is found.”
Alex’s jaw rippled. “I’m not a criminal.”
“Which means you know how to lie with even less expertise than they do.” She stepped much closer. “You stopped touching me, Alex. That’s what told me that the conclusion all the other hints were pointing at was true.”
He let out a gusty sigh. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to hurt you. I didn’t account for your investigative instincts.”
She reached up and cupped his cheek. “It was very messy?”
“Messy enough.” For the first time since she had stepped in the door, he looked at her directly, his gaze steady. “I told them about you.”
Oh. Something in her chest tightened, stealing some of her breath. “Told them what?” Her voice had no strength.
His gaze wasn’t wavering by an inch. “You know what. You’ve known for more than a year.”
She swallowed. “You’ve hounded me for a date…but…”
“Did you think my interest only a casual thing? That I would campaign for two years because I was marginally intrigued by the color of your eyes or the curve of your breast?”
Her heart jumped. “Truth, Alex? I didn’t once think about why you were doing what you were doing. Not once. I have avoided such thinking for over ten years and it was easier not to ask myself why and open up all the complications that came with it. I didn’t want to know your motives.” She drew in a breath that shuddered. “Until you kissed me.”
“I believe that you were the one who climbed over the console,” Alex pointed out dryly.
She took one last step and now she was so close to him she had to look up and lean back a little to see his face properly. If she swayed forward even a little bit their bodies would touch. Her nerves all came on-line, tingling at the possibilities. “I may have started it,” she said, and her voice betrayed her arousal. “But you finished it and more thoroughly than I had intended. You opened up a Pandora’s Box, Alex. I can’t close it now.”
His breath was faster, too, as his gaze flickered over her face.
“Kiss me,” she demanded.
His jaw flexed. “If I do…if you insist on this, I’ll cooperate, but it will be for all the wrong reasons.”
Sydney licked her lips. “If you want to get over your rejection with some revenge sex, that’s fine by me.”
He moved faster than she thought possible. His arms came around her, she was turned rapidly, then her back was against wall. Alex pressed up against her, his long length pinning her. Hard. They stayed like that, looking at each other.
She let out another shuddering breath, adrenaline mixing with the anticipation. “Kiss me,” she demanded and this time her voice emerged as a whisper.
He bent his head and kissed her, and it was everything she had wanted it to be. The pressure of his lips against hers was just right. His tongue thrusting into her mouth brought a groan from her. Even the way he was holding her up against the wall, virtually immobile, generated pleasure. Sydney’s arms were locked down. All she could do was reach around him. She cupped his ass and delighted in the hard, rounded muscle she felt there. She pulled him against her, encouraging him. His hips pressed harder, almost grinding into her. His cock was a solid mass between them, teasing her as it brushed her pelvis. The whole time he kissed her, not letting her go for a second.
Sydney slid her hands upward, following the delightful curve of his ass and the small of his back. Because his shirt was hanging loose, her fingers slipped beneath it, and above the band of his jeans she found soft flesh. It was cool to her touch, but the softness was a delight, especially as she could feel hard muscles beneath, flexing and stretching as he moved. She swept up as high as she could reach, then trailed her fingertips back down again and stroked under the loose denim band.
Alex released her mouth, but didn’t pause. He kissed her jaw and her throat, trailing around to her ear and down the side of her neck. Sydney closed her eyes and let her head roll to the side, to give him better access. She was trembling and barely standing on her own feet. Alex was propping her up.
Then for a moment, he wasn’t. He leaned away from her, his hips maintaining contact and hooked his fingers in the top of her shirt. He tugged. It didn’t look like he put effort into it, but every single button popped and scattered across the tiles at their feet and the shirt fluttered open.
Sydney spread her hands over the wall behind her, for support. She was breathing heavily and her body pulsed.
Alex reached for her bra, his fingers curling over the middle of it, the knuckles brushing her breasts. He didn’t look at her. He pulled and the bra tore with a low ripping noise and fell away, but before it reached the ground, his hand slipped over the front of her trousers. He glanced at her and she knew she could stop him with a single word. She stayed silent. She wasn’t sure if she could speak, anyway.
The trousers split at the side seams and she felt the tug as the wool brushed between her thighs. Alex tossed the ruined garment aside and grabbed her hips, bending to run his mouth over her chest, with a small growl that sounded hungry and made her shiver with delight. His beard brushed her flesh, a secondary delight. As he trailed down the slope of her breast, she was lifted off her feet. He was bringing her up to a convenient height for him, and he made a rough noise that sounded like one of satisfaction. Then he sucked in the tip of her breast and his teeth closed around the nipple.
Sydney cried out at the pure pleasure that bolted through her. Her clit wasn’t just throbbing, it was pulsing in heavy waves. There seemed to be a direct connection between her nipples and her clit, cycling the pleasure even higher. He toyed with her breasts for endless long minutes and Sydney thought she would go mad with need. Her hands thrummed against the wall, her hips were thrusting into his hands. Her panties, the only garment she was wearing apart from her low-heeled stilettos, were damp with her moisture.
Alex pulled her hips away from the wall, so that only her back was supporting her. The movement pushed her legs against him and Alex lifted her knees, one after another, so that her thighs were spread around him. His hands were under her ass, and one hand tugged at the back of her panties, pulling them away with a whisper of tearing lace. Then she felt his arm working under her and heard the soft sound of a zipper.
Her heart leapt hard. He was going to take her right here. Right now!
He was watching her, measuring her reaction.
She swallowed. “Hurry,” she whispered and her voice was strangled down to a whisper by frantic desire.
His hands returned to her ass, this time with no lace barrier between them. He lowered her a few inches and his cock pressed up against her. Sydney held her breath, as he slid inside her. He felt thick and very hard, and as he filled the length of her channel, she groaned.
So did Alex. He paused, his cock fully inside.
Their gazes met.
Sydney could barely speak. She was jittering apart around him.
Alex kissed her, a brief brush of his lips. Then he began to thrust. It was a slow movement at first. She could feel every inch of him sliding into her and withdrawing. But then he began to thrust in earnest and she could see by the fierce concentration on his face that he was controlling himself, making it last.
Then she couldn’t watch anymore. Her climax was building, which was beyond belief, for in her past experience, vaginal climaxes weren’t something she thought she was capable of. But the same excitement was building from the pit of her belly, swelling in waves, making her breath hitch and her body to tighten up. “Harder!” she begged as she clawed her way toward the peak.
Alex rammed into her, just the way she needed. With a sound she had never heard herself make before, she was tipped over into an orgasm. It ripped through her, in wave after long wave, making her shudder. Her pussy was clamping in pleasure with each wave, her clit pulsing hard. The climax gripped her for what seemed like minutes on end.
Despite the rolling, endless pleasure that made her almost blind to anything, Sydney was still able to feel Alex stiffen and his hips jerk. He groaned loudly as he came, his fingers digging into her hips.
They came to a rest once more, both of them breathing heavily. Sydney gave a quivering sigh.
Alex lifted his head to look at her. “That sounded like you just made up for ten years of celibacy.” There was a small smile lifting the corner of his mouth.
“Barely,” Sydney said. “I’m going to need a lot of that to square the books.”
“As you wish.” He shifted and straightened up, bringing her with him. His cock was still inside her, still heavy and thick, and now it seemed heated, glowing against the walls of her pussy.
He turned and started to walk down the passage and Sydney threw her arms around his shoulders, moaning against his neck, for with each stride, his cock thrust a little deeper inside her.
Then he stopped where the passage opened out into the airy foyer at the front door and shook his head. “No, I cannot wait.” He muttered something in another language and put her on the floor, his cock sliding from her.
“But—” she began, disappointment and alarm touching her.
“Shh…” He shucked off his jeans and treated his shirt the same way as hers—he tore it off, regardless of the buttons. Then he was naked in front of her. His cock rose straight up, as firm as it had been before he had slid it into her. Sydney’s heart beat a little harder as she took in his physique and the very real muscles that his clothing never showed. He was lean and ripped…and his thighs were thick with rider’s muscles.
Before she could enjoy the view any more, he turned her, his hands on her shoulders. She was facing the narrow table against the wall, next to the front door. There was a big oval mirror over the top of it.
“Bend over,” Alex said. He was watching her in the mirror. “Hold onto the table.”
Pleasure touched her. She bent and placed her hands on the edge of the table, and raised her head to look in the mirror. Alex was studying her ass and as she watched, he reached and slid his fingers through her cleft, from her ass to her clit. She hissed and pushed backward with her hips.
But he didn’t take the invitation. Instead, he stroked along her cleft once more, only this time, his fingers separated around her clit, then closed on it and tugged. Sydney jerked in surprise and cried out.
“Mm…” Alex murmured and did it again. Then he began to stroke her clit in firm, short touches and Sydney had to close her eyes, for the pleasure was overwhelming. She was going to come again. She began to shake, her breath coming in ragged gasps.
At the last minute, he stopped and she choked out a cry of protest. As she lifted her head to look at him, he stepped behind her. His cock slid into her, deeper and deeper until his pelvis was pushed up against her ass. His hands claimed her hips again and this time he did not start with a slow, deathly pace. He thrust into her hard and fast, his fingers gripping tightly.
The pleasure swirled again and Sydney caught her breath and held on, her body clamping around him with every thrust.
Then he dropped a hand and curled it around her hip and reached between her thighs. His rhythm didn’t pause as his fingers claimed her clit once more and began to stroke in time with his thrust.
Sydney rolled her head back and cried out as her climax shattered through her body, leaving spots dancing in her eyes and her breath more ragged than before. She thought she might pass out.
Alex slammed into her, his thrusts shortening and speeding up and she watched in the mirror as his climax took him, making the tendons in his neck stand out. Then he averted his head, away from the mirror and stepped away from her, his cock withdrawing.
She straightened and turned, puzzled, as he kept his face away from her. His mouth worked and it seemed that he was probing under his lips with his tongue. Then his shoulders relaxed and he looked at her once more. His gaze travelled over her. Then he gave her a small smile. “Your heels should be higher.”
“I’d be taller than you, if they were.”
“That’s a disadvantage I can work with,” he assured her. “Besides, everyone is the same height, lying down.”
She laughed.
Alex picked up her hand. “Come with me. You can leave the shoes if you want.”
She kicked off her shoes and followed him through the house. It was white and cool and airy, despite the chronically hot day.
It didn’t surprise her when he opened a door and led her into what was clearly his bedroom. The bed was made, but clothes were scattered on it. He swept them up and tossed them onto a chair in the corner. The cover on the bed was luxurious, with satin and braid and brocade, in golds and maroons, but he stripped that off, too, and the top sheet of the bed, leaving it with only the white bottom sheet and the pillows.
“Are you hungry?” Alex asked her.
“Not in the slightest.”
He picked her up. “Good.” He placed her on the bed and climbed onto the mattress beside her, then turned her around, so he was facing her knees. He spread her legs and already, she could see his cock was twitching and lengthening again.
Alex took his time settling down between her thighs, enough time so that Sydney was shaking with anticipation again. He looked at her over the top of her pussy. “You can tell me when you’ve had enough.” He lowered his mouth to her clit and his tongue and teeth began to stroke it.
He was inexhaustible. Every time she came, or he climaxed, he would pause to look at her, as if he was measuring something in her face or her expression, then he would turn her, or lift her and begin again. He spent more time pleasuring her and bringing her to climax than he did concentrating on his own satisfaction, but he seemed to get as much out of bringing her to a screaming, shaking peak as she did.
Sometime after it had grown dark and he had turned on the bedside lamps, he slid his hand over her hip, from her waist to her thigh. She was resting on her side, her body momentarily quiet. But she was far from tired. Alex had woken in her a sleeping monster. She had thought all these years that because celibacy had been so convenient for her while she concentrated on her career, that she was malformed, perhaps asexual. She didn’t miss it, for she was too busy. But now she found she was greedy for everything Alex did to her and with her. It was all good, it was all glorious and she wanted more of it. She felt just as she had told him—it would take much to make up for the wasted years.
Alex was lying behind her and now as his hand smoothed its way over her hip he kissed her shoulder. His fingers curled over one of her ass cheeks, and the small finger slipped between them and fluttered over her anus, making her hips twitch. “Have you ever indulged in…?” he murmured, and this time his fingers stroked very deliberately over the aperture.
His light touch made her draw in her breath. It was an interesting sensation…and pleasurable. She rolled onto her shoulders, keeping her hips still, and looked at him. “I’m the celibate spinster, remember.”
“That would be no, then.” He sat up on one elbow. “Would you like to?”
She hesitated. “Doesn’t it hurt?”
“Not if the man knows what he is doing and I do happen to know what I’m doing.”
“I’m not even the slightest bit surprised at that,” she told him and he smiled, his pale-colored eyes dancing with merriment. She considered him for a moment. “Touch me again, like you just did.”
His fingers stroked between her cheeks, then one pressed gently against her anus. Her nerves twitched and jumped and she drew in a sharp breath. “Yes,” she said, breathing out. “I want to try it.”
Alex kissed her again, then rolled onto his back and reached for the drawer in the bedside table. He brought out a small tube that Sydney recognized as lubricant and squeezed some into his hand.
“What should I…?” she began.
“Stay where you are,” Alex told her. “You’re in the perfect position for what I want to do to you.”
She shivered. There was such promise in his voice. Then he pushed her knee, the top one, forward on the mattress. His hand slid through her cleft again, only this time he pressed his fingers up against her anus, rimming it. Nerves sparkled and sizzled in reaction and Sydney moaned.
Then he pushed a finger inside, spreading her and she caught her breath once more. “Oh…” she breathed.
“It gets better,” he assured her.
She swallowed and gripped the sheet.
He inserted a second finger, both of them sliding inside easily thanks to the lubricant, and she realized that he was spreading the lubricant the same time he was teasing her. His two fingers were stretching her, working the muscle. Preparing her.
But it was still a pleasurable sensation and very different from having a cock in her pussy. Different nerves were responding. But her clit was also starting to throb.
By the time he had three fingers inside her, moving them back and forth, Sydney knew she liked it. She wanted to press her hips back, to encourage him, but was anchored on the mattress, helpless to do anything but accept what he did to her.
Then his fingers were gone. She turned her head to look at him.
“I haven’t abandoned you,” he assured her. “That would not be honorable.”
Then she felt his cock press up against her, thicker than his fingers and she caught her breath, this time in fear.
“Relax, Sydney,” Alex told her, breathing into her ear. “I won’t hurt you. And you’ll like this so much.”
She let out her breath steadily, trying to relax like he said. He pressed into her and it did seem like he was too big, but then she felt herself open up and he slid deeper, then halted, barely inside her.
He brushed her hair back from her face. “Do you like, so far?” he murmured.
“Yes.” And she did.
His fingers moved down to her breasts and he squeezed the nipples, and scraped his nails over them. She arched, as her clit pulsed in response, and that was when he pushed deeper into her. She caught her breath, because his teasing of her nipples had made her relax just as he had wanted her to.
She felt very full.
Alex ran his hand over her hips again, and down her thigh to her knee, the one thrust out onto the mattress. “This time, the pleasure is all yours. You have to get used to me being in you, and there’s no better way than climaxing around me.”
She caught her breath. “How…?”
He bought his other hand to her cleft, and it was slick with more lubricant. He pressed his finger into her, this time into her pussy. It was a tight fit. His cock in her ass took up most of the room. The feeling of fullness increased as he eased them deeper. She couldn’t tell how many of them. She could barely think, for her excitement was bubbling over and she began to pant.
“Mmm…” he crooned. “Now you begin to understand.”
He thrust his fingers in and out of her, faster than any cock might go, and the rough protrusions of his knuckles scraped against the walls of her pussy. The nerve endings around the opening shrieked with pleasure and clamped in response, squeezing her clit and squeezing around Alex’s cock. She cried out as her orgasm built. The power of it was frightening.
She gripped the sheet convulsively, as the climax built higher and higher. Alex didn’t relent. He didn’t slow down. He didn’t stop.
Her climax hit with the power of a thunderclap. She strained and her scream seemed to tear at the back of her throat. The pleasure gripped her for long moments as she vibrated tautly.
Alex gripped her hip and she felt him shift inside her, a small thrust. He gave a choked sound and his head pressed against her shoulder. He had climaxed just from being inside her.
They came to rest again and he made no move to withdraw from her. Sydney listened to her heart beat slowly while he stroked the flesh just under her breast, making shredded nerves twitch. Then he kissed her, this time just under her ear. “I think I lied to you, Sydney.” His voice was very low.
“You did? When?”
“This isn’t revenge sex. Not any more, if it ever was.”
Her heart lifted. “I don’t think it’s just sex.”
His response was slow coming, and it was low and heartfelt. “No, it’s not.”
* * * * *
When he came out of the en suite, Sydney was asleep on the bed, her wet hair lying tangled on the sheet. She was gloriously naked. His dressing gown was lying over the arm of the chair in the corner, and the sheet was on the floor at the foot of the bed, but she had chosen neither of them. Even in sleep, her nipples were sharply defined. Beckoning.
And reddened.
Frowning, Alex stepped closer and leaned down to look at them. The same roughened, chapped skin appeared on her face, especially around her full lips.
He straightened up with a snap, bringing his hand to his face and feeling the coarse bristles under his fingers. That sort of abuse could be easily remedied.
He turned and went back into the en suite. There was a hand razor and cream in the far back of the cabinet that he had used when he was first growing out the beard. Once the beard had been full and properly trimmed, he had been able to shut down his heart, which supplied the faux metabolism vampires needed to grow out hair or fingernails. He had also been able to halt the incessant feedings needed to keep such a metabolism burning.
Now he hauled the razor out, wet his beard, covered it in the cream and set to work shaving it all away. He didn’t regret the loss in the slightest, not if it spared Sydney’s delicate skin.
He had finished and was wiping away the last traces of the cream, studying his newly bared face in the mirror when the realization struck him with enough force to make him gasp and lower the towel.
His beard was gone. Just like in the photos of Sydney’s accident.
And the accident was now in the past.
Did he somehow…in some way he was still to discover…did he go back to the past?
Had he been at the accident after all?