She put a finger gently beneath each eye and caught her tears, but she also realized that a year ago, she would have dropped to the floor sobbing all over again at what she’d lost.
Maybe the fifth year had finally softened the pain.
Maybe.
When she heard singing coming from way down the hall, she laughed. Samuel so could not carry a tune.
By the time the cheese had melted and the crust was grilled to a perfect golden color, Samuel walked into the kitchen. “You don’t know how good that smells. Oh, your hair looks nice like that.
Pulled back.” She turned with two plates in her hands and looked him up and down. He wore jeans and an olive green t-shirt, snug across his muscled shoulders and chest.
He looked gorgeous, even down to his bare feet. She blinked a couple of times, then said, “Guess which one is yours.” She’d cut all three sandwiches in half, placed a half on her plate, and stacked the rest on his.
He reached out his hands and relieved her of the heavier plate, planted his butt on the closest stool, and started to eat.
His eyes kept rolling back in his head. “You’re a genius.” He repeated the compliment more than once.
Vela brought him his beer shaking her head. He looked like he hadn’t eaten in years, which reminded her not just of what he’d been through in the past decade but that he hadn’t had a woman in his life in a long time. Unless a man liked to cook, his fridge usually looked like Merl’s and take-out was the order of the day.
By the time he finished, he turned to her. “I’m sorry. I wolfed that down. It was just so good. But my God you can cook.” She started to laugh and couldn’t seem to stop.
“What’s so funny?” Between chuckles, she somehow managed to say, “I grilled you a couple of sandwiches. That’s all.” He smiled as well. “What can I say. I usually order pizza.”
“That’s what I thought. Your pal, Merl, does the same.” He glanced around at the plates.
“What do you mean? There’s bread and a couple of tomatoes—”
“Oh, no. This stuff I folded from my house.” He met her gaze, one elbow on the counter, the kitchen lights soft on his features. “Thank you. I haven’t had such a nice, home-cooked meal in a long time.” She met his gaze, his smoky gray eyes, and in a slow wave, what had begun at the workout center moved through her, catching up her breath then letting it fall.
His pupils dilated and his lips parted. His scent, almost absent while he ate, now flooded the space between them.
She could feel his thoughts like a caress on her skin. Her gaze drifted to his throat and her earlier desire returned. She trembled.
“How long has it been since you’ve taken the vein?” his deep voice had grown deeper, a sound that reached inside her chest and squeezed the air from her lungs.
Five years. “Too long.” She felt paralyzed, though. She wanted to do this with him, but she was frightened of feeling too much for a man whose occupation terrified her.
“We don’t have to do this,” he said softly, but his entire body had tensed up.
Her gaze shifted to his face, his eyes, the tight line of his lips. He swiveled away from her, facing the counter. “I understand if you don’t want to do this. I get it.” But his scent worked over every inch of her body so that something very low in her abdomen began to vibrate strangely, from front to back, a soft humming sensation she could almost hear. Need crawled through her, need for him, for sex, and for his blood. She put her hand at the small of her back and rubbed.
“What is it?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I feel achy right here.” She rubbed the muscles near her tail bone.
He whipped toward her and planted his hand in the same location. “Let me do that for you.” She caught sight of the ridges along his forehead. He thought she was hurting.
Maybe more than even his beautiful scent, or how built he was, that small expression of concern did her in.
His hand low on her back, rubbing her, also had a sudden effect as her spine arched and her body bloomed like never before.
“Oh, that feels so good.” She ached across her pelvis, deep into her well.
He massaged her. “Is that better?”
“Better?” She didn’t understand the question. It felt wonderful. “Oh, my God.
What is that? Don’t stop. I feel— Oh.” And just like that, as though it had been building for hours, an intense orgasm ripped through her so that she called out a long, lusty cry, holding onto the counter for support as he kept pressing his hand rhythmically into her lower back.
When the sensation passed, she grew very still, staring up at the ceiling, her body flooded with the most beautiful sensation. That same vibration lingered, teasing her, so that she knew it would take very little to do that all over again.
“You can stop now,” she murmured.
He drew his hand back frowning at her. “What’s wrong? What the hell just happened? Are you all right? Jesus, Vela.
Tell me you’re all right.” She remained seated for a long, long moment, trying to figure out exactly how to say to Samuel, who she’d met only a few hours ago, that just by rubbing her back, he’d brought her to an amazing climax.
She turned toward him and slipped off the stool to stand close to him, but all she could do was blink.
“Vela, what the hell is going on?”
“I don’t know how to tell you this, but I just ... that is, you … I mean—” She couldn’t get the words out.
He thumbed her lips and slid his arm around her waist. “I think I get it because your fragrance smells just a little different, deeper, richer. “You just came, didn’t you?”
“Yes, but I don’t know how. This has never happened before, not like that.” She drew back, but only far enough to take both his hands and start guiding him in the direction of the guest suite. “Come with me.”
“Vela, are you sure?”
“I don’t know what this is between us, but yeah, we’re doing this. All I know is that I need you inside me and I want your blood and I want both now.”
Chapter Five
Samuel’s biceps flexed and his lower jaw trembled. His mouth flooded with saliva at the thought of taking Vela’s blood. Would it taste like the soft floral fragrance that enveloped him, sweetened by her recent orgasm; woman and flowers and sex? He needed to know.
Whatever rational ability he possessed dropped deep into the ocean of all this sensation. He was hard for her and ready to do whatever she needed him to do and he could feel her need like fire against his skin.