Eleven
The group watched as TJ hesitated, holding the cell phone to her ear. After a moment, she began to speak. “Elijah, this is TJ . . . O’Reilly,” she said, adding her last name as if there might be more than one TJ in Pike’s life. “We’ve had some developments here and we need your advice. Please call me back tomorrow.” She gave her cell phone number.
“He didn’t answer?” Matt asked.
TJ shook her head. “No. I got his voice mail. I guess he had his phone turned off.” She glanced at her wristwatch, noticing it was past midnight. “We don’t know where he is. Maybe he’s sleeping.”
With that, Shooter let go with a prodigious yawn and blinked his eyes, struggling to hide his irritation that TJ felt it necessary to involve Pike in all this. It was a personal affront to him that she thought they needed the help of her ex-lover, as if he wasn’t strong enough to protect her. “Jesus, sleep sounds good,” he said, feigning indifference at their inability to contact him. “How about we all hit the hay and continue this discussion over breakfast in the morning?”
The casualness of his attitude didn’t fool TJ. She could read him like a book and knew that he was still jealous of her previous relationship with Pike, but he had no idea of just how dangerous Morpheus was. She promised herself she would make it up to him, somehow.
Everyone agreed it was past time for sleep, and Shooter and TJ went through the connecting door into their room, shutting but not locking it behind them.
Matt got to his feet and stretched, yawning in sympathy with Shooter. “I’ve got to take a shower,” he said. “I feel like twenty miles of bad road.”
Sam looked at him, a small grin on her face in spite of the gravity of their situation. “Would you like some company?”
He stared back at her, his face blank. “No, I don’t think so,” he said slowly, “I’m feeling a little shy tonight.”
“Bullshit, you liar!” Sam said, laughing and pitching a throw pillow at his head.
He ducked and ran for the bedroom. “Well, why’d you ask such a stupid question, lady?” he called back over his shoulder as he began to strip off his clothes. “Have I ever turned you down?”
Sam ran after him, shrugging out of her blouse as she caught up to him. “I just wanted to be ladylike,” she said, sticking out a foot and tripping him while he was hopping on one foot trying to get his pants off. “Last one in has to wash the other one’s back first.”
He fell heavily to the floor. “That’s not fair,” he complained as she slipped her pants and underwear off and disappeared into the shower, shutting the glass door behind her.
Moments later, he was in the shower with her. She turned and handed him a washcloth and a bar of soap. “Like I said, loser in the shower race has to wash the winner’s back,” she proclaimed, turning her back to him.
He soaped the cloth and began to rub it against her naked back in slow circles. She stretched her neck and moved under his touch. “Oh, that feels so good,” she murmured, writhing sensuously as he rubbed her back.
Unable to stand it any longer, Matt moved up against her, pressing his erection against her buttocks and wrapping his arms around her, using the soap and washcloth on her breasts.
“Is that a knife in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me, big boy?” Sam asked in a fair imitation of Mae West’s voice.
“Uh, I don’t have any pockets,” Matt answered, pressing harder against her and cupping her breasts and rubbing her nipples with his fingers.
The nipples hardened and rose to meet his fingers and Sam moaned, turning in his arms. “My turn,” she whispered, taking the cloth and soap from his hands.
She leaned her face into his and kissed him deeply while her hands were busy between his legs.
Matt’s voice grew husky as his hands roamed over her hips and around to her belly. “I’ve had about all of this I can stand,” he growled. “Let’s get in bed.”
Sam said, “Just a minute,” and knelt before him. She took him in her mouth and dug her nails into his hips, pulling him against her as she worked on him.
Just before he exploded, Matt grabbed her and stood her up. “Now!” he urged, turning off the water and moving toward the bed, still dripping wet.
“Here,” Sam said, laughing and throwing him a towel. “We don’t want to sleep in a wet bed all night, dear.”
Matt hurriedly dried off, threw her the towel, then took two steps and leapt onto the bed, staring at Sam with hungry eyes while she toweled off in a leisurely manner.
“If you don’t hurry,” Matt said in a husky voice, “I’m gonna start without you.”
Sam smiled seductively, dropped the towel to the floor, and sauntered slowly toward the bed. “Oh, don’t do that, sweetheart, it’s much more fun with two.”
She slid into bed next to Matt and they embraced, kissing deeply, each moaning deep in their throats. Suddenly, Matt rolled over on top of her and straddled her. He cupped her breasts in his hands and moved his body down until he was lying between her thighs, his head even with her pubic region.
Sam spread her legs and he buried his face in her sex, reveling in the musky scent of her as he kissed her most inner being.
Sam arched her back and threw her head back, groaning and then grunting with pleasure as he brought her to her first climax.
He moved up next to her and they kissed. She tasted herself on his lips as their tongues danced together and their hands roamed over each other’s bodies.
After a moment, Matt leaned back and looked deep into her eyes. “I’ve been thinking, sweetheart,” he said, his voice deep with desire.
“Oh, is that what you’ve been doing?” Sam asked, giving his penis a squeeze, a mischievous glint in her eyes.
Matt didn’t smile back but kept his expression serious. “No, listen,” he said. “Remember in New Orleans, when we were first threatened by Morpheus and his friends?”
Sam nodded, the smile fading from her face as she listened to him.
“Well, I think this is the same situation. I believe you should stop the treatments against the vampyre bug and let your body grow strong again, like you did then. There’s no telling when Morpheus will strike, and when he does, I want you to be ready for him. Your only chance against him will be if you can transform into a being as strong and dangerous as he is.”
Sam’s eyes clouded. “So, you think the threat is that serious?”
“Yes, I do, and so does Shooter.”
“But earlier you said you were worried that the treatments weren’t strong enough.”
“That was before Morpheus entered the picture,” Matt said. “We can always try to make the treatments more effective after Morpheus has been dealt with, but for now, I want you at your full strength.”
She reached up and caressed his face with her hand. “But, you know what it means if I stop the treatments, don’t you? The Hunger will return and I’ll need to feed.”
Matt smiled grimly. “I’m well aware of that, darling.”
He lay back and pulled her on top of him, raising his chin and offering his neck to her.
Sam’s eyes flashed as she felt the familiar stirring of the Hunger deep in her body. Though the treatments enabled her to resist the urges when they came, she still occasionally felt the desire for human blood. At the thought of giving in to the Hunger, she felt her teeth begin to grow and her mouth watered. With a sigh of contentment tinged with no small amount of shame, she raised her head to his neck.
A tiny nip brought the sweet, salty taste of her lover’s blood to her lips, along with the deep sexual desire that always accompanied feeding for the vampyres.
Her lust was transmitted through her saliva to Matt and he grabbed her hips and impaled her on him, pumping and grinding against her as she suckled on his neck and growled deep in her throat.
She matched him, thrust for thrust, rubbing her breasts against his chest as if she wanted to meld their bodies together into one.
Moments later she had to clamp her bloody lips shut to keep from howling in glorious orgasm as they exploded and came together.
* * *
In the next room, Shooter and TJ lay naked, their bodies pressed close, as TJ gently fingered the small puncture wounds on Shooter’s neck.
Tears formed in her eyes. “I’m sorry about this, Shooter,” she said. “I thought it was all a dream. I never realized I was actually feeding on you.”
Shooter smiled at her and ran his hand lightly over her breast as he kissed her lips. “That’s okay, sweetheart,” he said. “I never knew it was happening either, but what’s a little blood between friends anyway?” he asked, making light of the whole thing.
“But, I was really hoping the treatments were working.”
“They are, sweetie,” Shooter said gently. “This is just a little setback, nothing to get upset about. I’m sure Dr. Wingate and Matt will figure something out.”
TJ felt the first twinges of the Hunger, as her nipples grew hard under Shooter’s gentle touch.
“Then, you don’t mind?” she asked shyly, her eyes bright and her mouth watering as the Hunger and her lust began to build.
Shooter, seeing the changes in her, felt himself grow even harder as her hand moved down his belly to his erection.
“No,” he answered, his voice thick with desire. “In fact, I kinda like it.”
TJ swung her leg over him and fitted herself to him as she straddled him in the bed.
As she felt him enter her and his hands came up to fondle her breasts, she lost all semblance of control. She leaned forward and buried her face in his neck as he began to move inside her.
Shooter felt a small sting and then a burst of ever increasing passion as TJ’s lust was transmitted from her mind to his.
He felt himself grow larger as he pumped against her and could feel her nipples grow hard as rocks against his hands.
She groaned and growled and he answered her with his own grunts as she moved her head from his neck and clamped her lips on his while they came together in joyful abandon, the taste of his own blood on her lips strangely exciting to him.