Chapter Twenty-Seven

Hunter had never been so hard in his life—not even as a randy teenager. Every muscle in his body was tense, and his cock was a steel bar in his pants, but every ounce of frustration was worth it to see and feel Alice come apart in his arms.

She was so beautifully responsive, not shy or awkward or hesitant. She’d even threatened him if he tried to get away. And now she was warm and wet and very relaxed, her eyes half closed, and his immediate plan was to take her up and over the edge again.

And again and again and again, as many times and for as long as she would let him. He never wanted to leave her side or her bed, and he didn’t have the slightest idea how he’d come to need her so very much in such a short time.

He didn’t care, either. Logic had no place here. Only touch and desire; only emotion and sensation.

She blinked, her lovely green eyes filled with wonder. “Is it always like that? How do people ever leave their beds?”

He laughed, again—he’d never laughed so much in bed. Life and love with her would be filled with joy.

Love?

Love?

Could it be possible that love had waited to find him until he’d died and come back transformed into a being he didn’t always recognize? Could she love him as he was now?

“It’s definitely not always like that. But for us? It’s going to get even better.”

A beautiful, sated smile spread across her delicate face. “You’re the expert.”

She reached for him and pulled him close, and he groaned when her hip bumped his erection.

“I’m sorry! Did I hurt you?” She tried to scoot away from him, but he only tightened his arms around her.

“No, sweetheart, it’s fine. My body is just very excited about getting to know yours.”

She hesitantly reached down and touched the tip of his cock, and he was so hard he was afraid he might go off in her hand like a teenager in the back of a car.

She was just so damn perfect. Her skin was that beautiful pale ivory that only redheads ever had, and her clouds of curls felt like silk on his skin. The way she’d flushed a delicate rose pink from her chest up through her neck and face when she came had made him want to throw her over his shoulder and carry her off to a castle, where he could treat her like the princess she so clearly was.

How did a woman who’d been through so much find the way to live with such joy? With so much kindness and compassion that even demons fell in love with her?

What chance did he have of resisting?

And why would he want to?

“I need you,” he blurted out.

“Yes,” she said, her body quivering—with excitement, he hoped.

“I need you, Alice. Will you let me love you again? Take me into your body?”

Her emerald eyes darkened, and he could smell her arousal. Hear her heartbeat speed up.

“Yes. Yes, Hunter, yes and yes and yes. Please.”

He pulled her to him and took her mouth, nibbling at her lips, letting his tongue play with hers until she got used to the sensation and then changing the tone of the kiss. Claiming her, his head angled to allow him to go deep, past her defenses. Into her heart, maybe.

Into her memories, certainly. He wanted to be sure she never forgot him; he knew he’d never forget her, even if she left him tomorrow and he lived for centuries.

Denial seared through him at the thought, and he leaned back so he could look into her eyes. “Don’t leave me, Alice. No matter what happens with the Chamber, with the evil of your past—talk to me about it. Let me try to find a way that we can battle through it together.”

She kissed him, her hands moving down his sides, touching his abdomen, and brushing against his erection again.

“I promise,” she told him, finally, when she stopped kissing him. “But we have a bigger problem. So to speak.”

“We do?”

She glanced down at his cock, and her cheeks flamed a hot pink. “There is no way that you are going to fit inside me.”

Hunter threw back his head and laughed, then hugged her. “You are amazingly good for my ego, sweetheart.”

She looked dubious. “It’s not about ego. It’s about basic physics. Or some kind of science. You’re—” She waved her hand at him. “And I’m—” She gestured at her slender hips, or maybe at the red curls between her legs. He wasn’t quite sure, but he wasn’t going to interrupt her by asking, because he was far too entertained.

When it seemed clear she was done trying to explain the problem, he smiled at her. “We will fit very well. I promise you.”

“But—”

“You know how wet you were when I was touching you?”

She blushed again but nodded.

“Let’s try to do that again, but even more.”

“Even more? But how can we do even more?”

By this point, he was actually shaking from wanting her so much, so he didn’t try to explain. He just moved down her body, stroked her gently, and then parted her curls.

“I’m going to taste you now,” he murmured, watching her face carefully for any sign of distress or that he was going too far. But she only looked fascinated—and wildly excited—so he bent his head and put his tongue on her.

Her body bucked beneath him, an involuntary reaction, and he wrapped his hands around her thighs and held her in place while he licked into her and around her clit and then, finally, when she was shaking and crying out “more, more, more,” he fastened his lips around her and sucked hard.

Right where she needed him, he knew, because in seconds she was screaming his name, her hands gripping his head, her sweet honey in his mouth.

When the tremors racking her body calmed down, he moved to lie next to her again. “Alice, please let me inside you now.”

She was still gasping for breath, but she opened her eyes and nodded. “Yes. Yes. I don’t know how we’ll fit, but yes.”

He slid a finger through her wetness and showed it to her. “This is what your body was made to do. It will probably hurt a little, this first time, but I promise to do everything I can to make it better.”

She winced at the word “hurt” but nodded. “I know. I trust you.”

She touched his face and smiled up at him with such unreserved trust that he was almost afraid to continue. He knew the first time was painful for women, but he’d never been with a virgin, so he wasn’t exactly sure how bad it would be. It wasn’t the kind of thing he and his buddies had ever discussed. He could only go slowly and carefully and try his best not to hurt her too much.

His body screamed at him to hurry up, but his mind and heart were shouting at him to go slow, and he was suddenly unbelievably grateful that he’d consumed so many bags of blood, because combining this much physical need with the thirst would have been a very bad thing.

When he positioned his body between her legs, her muscles tensed for a moment, but then she closed her eyes and exhaled deeply, relaxing. He kissed her—long, slow kisses—and then he finally entered her, slowly and carefully. When he felt resistance, he paused.

“Sweetheart, this is when it’s going to hurt. Are you sure you—”

“Let’s get past it, then.” She dug her heels into the bed and pushed herself up, driving his cock home, and he groaned, fighting his urge to thrust into her hard and fast.

“Oh,” she said faintly. “That…pinched.”

In a move more heroic than any he’d performed in years of firefighting, he clenched his eyes shut and froze. “Do you want me to stop?”

“Are you kidding? Now that we got the tough part over, keep going!”

His eyes snapped open, and he studied her face. “Are you sure?”

“Yes!” She wrapped her legs around him, taking him even deeper, and he finally believed that there’d be no turning back.

He took her mouth, and then, when she clutched his shoulders, he took her body in a hard, driving rhythm, thrusting deep. Claiming her.

She shifted around a bit, finding the best angle, and then she slammed her head back into the pillow, an expression of startled desire on her face.

“Oh, Hunter! That— It doesn’t hurt anymore. It feels… It feels—” She cried out. “Again? How is this happening to me again?”

Her cries and moans spurred him on, and her fingers digging into his shoulders pushed him that last little bit over the edge. He hung on to enough control to be sure he wasn’t hurting her, but when he saw the waves of her orgasm crash over her, he drove his body into hers as deep as he could and let the explosion take him.

He’d never come so hard, and he wondered briefly if it was because of Alice or because he was a vampire—or both—and then he stopped thinking of anything at all, because his brain was melting out of his ears and he collapsed, panting, on the bed next to Alice.

When he could manage to speak again, he turned to look at her. “Are you okay?”

She laughed and raised her hand and then let it fall back down on the bed. “I am so far beyond okay. If okay is a drop of rain, I’m an entire hurricane past okay.”

“Good.” Contentment washed through him, pulling him back toward sleep, but this time the sleep of satisfaction.

“Hunter?”

“Hmm?”

“You were right. We did fit.”

“Always,” he told her, and then he curved his body around hers, unwilling to stop touching her even in his sleep, and they both drifted off into a nap. He dreamed of sunshine and Dalmatians and Alice, always Alice, and he didn’t wake up until maybe a half hour later, when his ass started buzzing.