A Forever Mate: Vampire Assassin League #18 (5 page)

Her legs tightened, bringing her closer. Her arms did the same about his neck. It was her movement that continued their joining, pulling a fraction from him, before easing back down. Again. And again. Each time sliding a little more along his rod. Her movements became a slow, steady rhythm that Sebastian supported. He didn’t match her. Not yet. He didn’t dare.

“Oh, Sebastian.”

Her voice didn’t sound pained. It sounded... young. Breathless. And infinitely sweet.

“Love?”

“Sebastian.”

Her movements got quicker. Harder. Matching the breaths she was taking. That’s when he tightened his hands on her, and started matching her lunges. Slamming into her with a fury that was beyond stopping.

“Sebastian!”

His name was a scream as she arched back from him, her body shimmying in all sorts of ways as she gyrated in place. Sebastian lost any hope of containing anything. Her pleasure thrilled, satisfied, and then it ignited. He had her atop a counter, splayed in perfection, and was pumping before her cry finished echoing.

His movements grew wilder. His strokes harder. Deeper. Wilder. Each one threatening to pull the marble slab from its base. Fiery sensations shot down his spine, engulfed his hips, hammered down his cock, and a moment later erupted. Sebastian slammed a final time into her, the force of it lifting her into his arms, while a cry ripped through his belly, tore at his throat, and throbbed into existence, surrounding them with sound.

He was shuddering and laughing, and, if he had to confess to it, he was sobbing.

And he barely missed being hit by the countertop as it fell.

Morning brought the sensation of satin sheets. A firm mattress. Hard, immensely warm pillows. She’d never felt better in her life. Ever. It was like an infusion of happiness and good health had been given to her intravenously. Jill stretched with a languid motion reserved for cats, bumped her head against the thick, hard, pillow at her back. And it shifted. Grunted.

Uh oh.

She cracked an eye open. It wasn’t morning. Or, if it was, she’d never know. They were in some sort of cavern. There were walls. No windows. Lots of furnishings. A high-back chair sat in the middle of the floor, illuminated by the light coming through the partly-open bathroom door. It was dim, but not enough. In the brief scan she took, she could see easily. But the motion gave her an instant headache. Something was seriously wrong with her vision. One eye was incredibly clear. Like she had a microscope affixed to it. The other view was more familiar. It was the same as when she tried on her glasses while wearing her contacts. It was over-correction to the nth degree.

She’d slept in the contact? And it wasn’t the right one? That was stupid. It wasn’t shaped for that eye. She might have it stuck to her cornea. She slid toward the edge, and an arm looped about her waist and hauled her right back.

“Where are you going?”

The voice was male. Deep. Shiver-inducing.
Oh yes
. Sebastian. And wild sex. More than once.

Wow.

Jill instantly warmed with the all-over flush. But he wasn’t getting away with this. She rolled onto her back. That was disastrous. He hadn’t lost an iota of handsomeness, a lock of hair was falling forward, hitting his eyelashes, and he had a slight quirk to his lips as he looked down at her.

“I... need to use the bathroom,” she replied.

He grunted. “Wait. I’ll carry you.”

Jill stiffened. That was stupid. It just seemed to smash lots of her against more of him. And everything on her body went on full alert or something.

“Wow. We need to get something straight, Mister Cole.”

His smile widened. He had perfectly white, straight teeth. A gorgeous smile.

“I don’t like possessive males. Actually, I don’t like possessive people, period. Besides which, I am perfectly capable of getting to a bathroom on my own.”

His head lowered, putting his nose very close to hers. The clear eye gave her a view of perfect face. The blurred one made him look like a wash of flesh-toned mountain.

“There is a lot of broken glass on the floor, sweet. And you are still half-human.”

She frowned, and closed the over-corrected eye. It didn’t do much. “Excuse me?”

“I am a vampire, love.”

Jill considered him for long moments while her heart ramped up, and her skin prickled with a series of goose-bumps. “Right. You know... I think I can get around broken glass.”

“Well, I won’t chance it.”

“Mister Cole—”

“Sebastian,” he replied, and he now was cheating. He ran his lips along hers.

“Sebastian,” she replied, although it was whispered in a low tone she didn’t know she owned.

“I notice you didn’t react to the other portion of my words.”

“What... portion?” It was very difficult to think with him so close!

“The vampire part.”

“Oh. Right. Well. I... heard it. I have chosen... to ignore it.”

“Truly?”

“Um. I... never address impossibilities. I spent a few too many weeks in the loony-bin. I heard all kinds of things. I learned. If you address absurdities, you simply encourage them and have to deal with even more of them. So. It’s a waste of effort.”

“Really?”

“Yes. You are not a vampire and I am certainly not a halfway to becoming one. That is implausible and impossible. Therefore, I choose to ignore it. I also ignore UFO sightings, alien visitation claims. Bigfoot stories. Werewolves. Time travel. You know. All the impossible things.”

He chuckled. But he did lift his head.

“I... have to use the sink now. It’s in the bathroom. I don’t need your help, really. But I have to put some water on my eye. I think my contact is stuck.”

“Ah. The plastic thing you spoke of.”

“Yes.”

“You need water for it?”

“Yes.”

“In that event... oh. Wait. I think... yes. Here it is.”

He reached upward, putting his jaw-dropping physique on display as the sheet slid down. She’d been right. He was the epitome of male perfection, and he’d be a joy to sculpt. That wasn’t the only thing he’d uncovered. She was on full view to her thighs. And naked.

Holy hell.

This was too much sensory stimulation, way too early in the morning, and way too soon in any relationship. And she was a novice. He was back. He held a bottle of spring water. Sealed. It was covered with water that dripped from the icy bath it had been in. The drops landed on her, making her jerk slightly each time. To disguise all of it, she started speaking.

“You have... bottled water? Just like that? At your fingertips?”

“Apparently, I have access to all sorts of things. Let me see... I’ve got lotions. Lubricants. Uh... this is odd. A tube of chocolate-flavored body jelly?”

He was reaching again, lunging up, and putting all sorts of stimuli against her. Jill tipped her head to watch. The headboard must be following the theme of the bathroom. It was chrome-edged and made of glass. But it wasn’t see-through. Their headboard was one gigantic mirror. It reflected her as a shadowy darkness against the white sheets. There was a basket of items atop the headboard. She watched as he shuffled around in it.

“Here’s a packet of roasted almonds. A tin of rose-scented wax. And a selection of these things.”

He held a sealed condom package. Jill almost giggled. It was better to stay busy. She sat up, pretending not to notice anyone’s lack of clothing, opened her water bottle, doused her eye, steadied the bottle between her thighs, stanched any blush over that sensation, and then flipped the contact out. She was on her way to putting it in her mouth when she realized something completely incredible.

She could see.

Perfectly.

It was better than she’d ever dreamed. No. Wait. It was beyond that. She had ultra-vision. Jill cried out and clapped her hands, and didn’t even care at that moment that she lost the lens.

“What is it? What happened?”

Sebastian was on his knees beside her instantly, lifting the bottle from her to glare at it. And then he turned a puzzled expression to her as she started laughing.

“I can see! Oh, Sebastian... I can see!”

He settled onto his buttocks, giving her a perfect view of perfect male, arrayed in absolutely nothing but air.
Oh. My
. This man? In that pose? The entire sculpting class would faint. And her new eyesight didn’t miss an inch.

“Oh, Jill. Jill. Get a grip, Girl. Even if this doesn’t change, you’ll need to get it verified. Checked. Good thing you have a spare pair of contacts at your hotel. And your glasses. Because this... is not... possible.”

He ran a finger up the inside of her arm. “You are talking to yourself again.”

“Yeah. I know. Supposedly that’s a side-effect of Aspergers.”

“Asp-what?”

“Aspergers. That’s why I was home-schooled. And that’s why I am now broke.”

“What?”

“I don’t have it. Okay? I’ve been tested and re-tested, and poked and prodded, and just because I exhibit behaviors that some people find odd, does not mean I have been misdiagnosed.”

“Mis... diagnosed?”

“I do not have Aspergers.” Jill said again. “Look. If you want the clinical description, supposedly it’s an autism spectrum disorder characterized by difficulty with social interaction, intense fascination with one thing – in my case, fine art and sculpting. Oh! And sometimes it leads to very high IQ ratings.”

“IQ ratings?”

“You haven’t heard of that, either? It stands for Intelligence Quotient. And it’s all so pointless. The medical community isn’t even specific on what Aspergers is... or even if it exists. My parents had me tested. Twice. Both times came back negative. I’m fine. A bit withdrawn and antisocial, but completely normal. My parents agreed. My guardians didn’t. They spent almost every dime I own trying to get a proper diagnosis so I could be cured. Or so, they told the court when I sued them.”

Her voice cracked.
Stupid girl
. What was the matter with her? She’d had the most amazing experience with the most unbelievable guy, and now she’d gained perfect sight! What a crazy time to bring up nonsense like this.

“That is in your past, Jill.”

“Yeah. I know. Thanks for the reminder.”

“It’s not a reminder. It’s fact. You are my mate. We’ve shared blood. Physical ailments will never happen to you again.”

“And there you go again, right into the psychotic arena. Sebastian. Listen. I think you’re... a-a-amazing. For my first ex-experience with... um... s-sex...”
Crap.
She was stuttering
and
blushing.

“This better have a good ending,” he replied.

“That’s just it. The ending stuff. Sometimes relationships work out. E-e-even those based on really great s-s-sex. Like... um... ours.”

He growled. That didn’t sound like a good sign.

“I’m not complaining... really. I’m more... overawed. Okay? I’m just, uh... working it out aloud here.”

“You are my mate, Jill.”

The bed shook beneath them. A picture fell off the wall behind him. She watched it from over his shoulder.
Man!
He had a great voice. She swallowed.

“Wow. Sebastian. We really need to do something about that possessive streak of yours if we want a relationship. Okay? You can’t just up and claim me. This is not the Middle Ages. Men no longer have the right to own women. Got it?”

He smiled at her, as if she’d said something amusing.

“You mistake me, my love. It’s more than that. You see, it isn’t possession. It’s reality. And it works both ways. You are not just my mate. I am yours, as well.”

“Well. That certainly has possibilities.”

She was teasing. He wasn’t.

“It was a surprise to me, as well.”

“You see? Even you realize how bizarre this is.”

“You mistake me again. It was a surprise because I was not expecting it. I had a wife. I loved her. I did not think it possible to love another. And to actually have and find my true mate? I thought it a fairytale. I was a naïve fool. I know that now. It has happened to me... despite everything.”

“Wait a minute. You’re
married
?”

“No. No, sweetheart. I am a widower.”

“Was she very beautiful?” And why on earth did she have to ask that?

“There is no comparison to you,” he replied.

“You see? Even you realize how incongruous we are.”

He gave worse than a growl this time. It was a deep throb of noise that punctuated the stillness.

“You mistake me again! I say there is no comparison, because it is true. My time with Isabelle was sweet. Now? It is but a memory. A mere blink in the span of eternity. She was not my mate. I know that now. You are. And make no mistake, Jill. You are perfection, itself. Finding you is a prize I am unworthy to even grasp, let alone receive. And yet here you are. Do you understand yet?”

“We can’t possibly be mates, Sebastian. I mean, honestly. Look at us. Just look.”

She gestured to the headboard mirror and watched her movement coming from a weirdly indistinct and shadowy form. Sebastian wasn’t anywhere in the mirror.

“Um. Sebastian?”

Her reflection reached for him. She connected with a lightning shock that went right down her arm and into her chest, where it muted and then surrounded her heart with warmth. That sensation wasn’t probable. It certainly wasn’t physically verifiable. It still happened. And while that was distinct and real – her fingers told her how real – she watched as her reflection touched absolutely nothing.

“Yes?”

He was there. The word not only rumbled in the air, but she felt it reverberate through his chest where she was still touching.

“You’re not in the mirror.”

Her voice quavered. It was far shy of the reaction just starting somewhere deep within her, coming up from the dark corner where she’d once gone when her parents first died. The place that might actually be insane.

“I know,” he replied. “I have no reflection. I haven’t for centuries.”

“Why not?”

“I told you. I am a vampire.”

Jill blinked several times. Narrowed her eyes. Nothing in the mirror changed. She was still there, shadowy but provable. He wasn’t. She turned and looked at him. Back to the mirror. Back to him.

“This is not possible.”

He choked. He was probably amused. She wasn’t. She was busily assimilating facts. Reality. Emotions. None of this fit into any of her mental compartments, even if she tossed out the word impossible.

He’s a vampire?

From the bathroom area, a strange chirping noise started. It was barely audible. They both turned their heads toward it.

“I appear to have a call,” Sebastian said. “You won’t move while I fetch my cell?”

“I might faint.”

“In that case, I’ll just take you with me.”

A moment later, she was atop a shoulder, surveying all sorts of damage in what had been a luxurious bathroom. She’d never moved that rapidly in her life. Ever. She watched her reflection in a shard of glass, hanging from a broken frame. She looked like she hovered in mid-air.

Strange.

She didn’t feel insane.

Despite the proof before her eyes.