Phoenix Rising (8 page)

“Why?”

Miles closed his eyes. After one long, slow moment, he opened them again and she was staring directly into his naked soul.

“Do you really have to ask?”

Yes
. She thought. Give me the words, goddamn you.

“Mon amour pour toi est éternel.
I love you, Kels Bells. I always have. I am so sor—”

“Hush.” Kelsey interrupted him, the love she absolutely wanted, an apology had never been needed. “You already wasted enough time, remember? Just shut the hell up and kiss me.”

He did, those velvet lips soft and firm, teasing a sigh from her before he pulled back with a bitter curse. She could feel the wire-taut tension of his body as Miles looked down at her.

“You’re dying, Kels Bells.” His voice broke.

“I am aware of that. So …save me already.” She smiled as his eyes widened, that endless summer blue in all this night.

“Are you sure?”

“There’s always a choice, Miles, right? And this is mine. Make me yours
forever
.”

And god help him, he did.

‘Time has been transformed, and we have changed; it has advanced and set us in motion; it has unveiled its face, inspiring us with bewilderment and exhilaration.’ ~
Khalil Gibran

In the end, Miles turned two people that night. Kelsey only found out later that he had turned Jules, too.

It wasn’t easy for either of them adjusting to being shades—and vamps at that—but at least she had consciously chosen her fate. Miles had evidently made the decision about Jules in a split second when her friend had started to code on that stretcher in front of Notre Dame. To say Jules was conflicted about the whole thing would be an understatement, not to mention more than a bit pissed. He had gone back to the States to oversee Phoenix Inc. in the interim, giving them all a little breathing room.

Kelsey didn’t know if Jules would ever forgive Miles for having Justin hold him while Miles forced his own blood down Jules’ throat. She had mixed feelings herself about the whole thing, but she couldn’t blame Miles for saving her life, and that of her best friend. Nor could she blame Jules for being angry.

But only time would tell how that story would end.

And time was something they all had an endless supply of now.

Among other, much more important things.

Kelsey turned her head from the window where the full moon bathed the Parisian skyline in its light. She was wrapped in Miles’ robe and nothing else, smiling at the familiar footsteps that had halted at the doorway to their bedroom.

Miles leaned there, as she had known he would. He loved to watch her, she caught him doing it all the time now. Since she was just as bad, she couldn’t give him too much grief about it. There were plenty of other things to tease him about, though.

She got to her feet. “I saw that my Degas is back.”

“
Your
Degas?” He raised his eyebrows, but she could tell he was holding back a laugh when his lips twitched. Those delicious lips…her stomach tightened even as she answered.

“What’s yours is mine, remember?”

“We aren’t married yet, Kels Bells.”

She came to a stop just out of reach, feeling a bit…wicked. The vamp really seemed to be bringing out that side of her. Or maybe it was just Miles. Either way….

“You're right. Damn, I guess I shouldn’t be wearing this then, huh?” She slipped the knot and shrugged his robe off. Kelsey saw him swallow once as the cloth pooled at her feet—leaving her clad in nothing but moonlight. Her nipples tightened as she watched his eyes darken. “I might get a little cold, though.”

“I can help you with that.” He pushed away from the doorframe, reaching back to grab the collar of his shirt just behind his neck and pulling it off with one hand, something Kelsey found so incredibly masculine and sexy, it never failed to make her heart stutter a little. Especially when it bared his upper half to her, that lithe, muscular torso, the golden skin dusted with darker gold hairs that darted down the chiseled V of his stomach before disappearing into the waistband of his black pants. Pants that he was already unfastening as he moved toward her, the predatory gleam in his eyes making her mouth go dry.

Kelsey danced back, pouting in mock consternation even as her heart started to race. “I fail to see how
you
getting naked is going to help
me
stay warm.”

He did laugh now, a low, delicious growl that made her wet in the time it takes to draw a breath.

“Oh, I would be glad to show you how it works.” She tried to back up again and her bare ass hit the silky paneled wall. Kelsey gasped in earnest at the sudden chill.

Miles laughed again as she jumped forward into his arms, she could feel the rumble of it from head to toe. He wrapped one arm just under the curve of that bare ass and lifted her against him.

Kelsey shivered as her nipples dragged over his chest.

“Merde
, maybe I am not doing this right.” Miles smiled into her eyes, the thick line of his cock nestled between her legs as he walked over to the bed.

“I…what?” Kelsey said, trying to breath as her insides threatened to melt at the feel of him throbbing against her.

He leaned in closer, his lips brushing the sensitive spot just below her ear. “You’re shivering. That’s not good.”

“It’s not?” She sighed, distracted as he began to nibble lightly down the line of her neck. Then she shook herself when he chuckled against her skin. “I mean…no…. No, it’s not! You are supposed to be warming me up, goddamn it!”

“Well, then,
mon cœur
,
if you insist
…”

Kelsey squealed as he abruptly dropped her. It was only a short free fall before she landed in the lush softness of his…of
their
bed, but her eyes blazed as she looked up at him and swatted the goose down duvet with both hands.

“Damnit, Miles!”

He kicked off his pants. Standing at the foot of the bed like some delicious fertility god, all gorgeous golden skin, rumpled streaky gold hair and gorgeous, gorgeous cock. Standing at rigid attention just for her.

Oh, now that was not
fair
.

Kelsey sucked in a breath, holding it as he grabbed a bedpost in each hand, and leaned forward, the powerful muscles in his shoulders and chest rippling as he grinned down at her. “Warm enough yet?”

She threw a pillow at him as he jumped on the bed, making her squeal again.

Miles had never been this playful, not even before …well,
everything.

Kelsey figured that is what happened when you finally let go of your fears; happiness rushed in and filled all those shadowy, empty places. Kelsey loved this side of him. Hell, she loved all the sides of him, even the dark one he called ‘monster’. But she had a monster of her own now, so they would just have to learn to contend with their demons together.

Miles slid on top of her, slowly, deliberately…skin on skin, taking her mouth as he pushed her arms over her head. Their tongues tangled together, champagne and wild honey. She arched up, wanting to feel him against her, but Miles shifted so the long hard length of him pressed into her inner thigh. Kelsey felt his smile against her lips as she growled in frustration.

“My, my,” He whispered, pinning her arms in place with one hand. ‘Such impatience.”

In response she nipped his lower lip, catching it with the razor edge of her new fangs, a bright red drop of his blood welling up instantly. Kelsey whimpered at the sudden pang that ripped through her, this new hunger that both deeply unsettled and exhilarated her. Looking up at Miles, she took a deep breath, focusing the dark energy as he had taught her. He watched her struggle quietly, not saying a word until she was back in control.

“Mon cœur
, you need not hold back with me, you know.” His voice was low, his eyes intent on her face.

“I know, but it still scares me a bit.”

“God willing, it always will, but…” he leaned down, his breath skimming over her flushed skin, teasing the aching peaks of her nipples and making her heart flutter. “Here with me, there is no need to be afraid.”

Kelsey drew in a breath as his lips hovered just above one taut tip. “Not afraid,” she gasped as he continued to watch her without moving. “Impatient, remember?
Very
.”

Miles smiled, that long slow smile that made her toes curl into the bed. He drew her nipple into his mouth with a taunting deliberateness, his tongue flicking back and forth until she struggled in his grip, desperate to have her hands free. He refused to release her, moving instead with agonizing slowness to her other breast, the light draw of his mouth seeming to pull straight from her nipples to between her legs. It was maddening to feel the length of him throbbing against her inner thigh, so tantalizing close to where she needed him. Kelsey squirmed, trying to coax him over and he lifted his head and laughed again, a deep rumble that made her skin break out in goose bumps.

“You are certainly enjoying yourself,” she growled.

“Oh, Kels Bells, you have no idea.” Miles kissed a tickling, teasing line down her ribs, then worked his way back up to her neck. Nipping her skin, his chest crushing her full breasts, his grip on her wrists holding her prisoner as he tormented her. When he finally slid himself between her legs, her head fell back, twisting against the pillows as he worked his hard cock between the slick swollen lips of her sex. Not entering her, only sliding up and down, the thick veiny length of him teasing her soaked core until she closed her eyes and begged in a voice raw with need.

“Open your eyes,
mon cœur
.” Miles’ voice was ragged now and when she obeyed him, it was to see him above her, his eyes a dark midnight blue. “Do you know how you look to me, Kelsey? Right now?”

Mutely, she shook her head.

“You’re the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Ever. Your skin is flushed, all sweet pink and gold. Your nipples so dark…and tight,” as he spoke, his free hand trailed over her body, brushing one quivering breast and then the other as she bit her lips and turned her head away, the power of his gaze and his touch too much. But his fingers curved around her jaw and brought her face back to his.

“You’re trembling all over and you’re so wet…” Miles groaned as he angled his hips, pushing his fat tip right against her entrance, almost stopping her racing heart. He flicked his fingers over her face, gathering the dark tangled mass of her hair in his hand, pulling her head back.

“Tell me again that you love me, Kelsey.”

She stared up at him, poised above her, the long taut line of his magnificent body, the firelight licking over his skin as if it desired him as much as she did. Kelsey could barely breathe for wanting him, but she managed to whisper the words he craved.

“I love you, Miles. I always will.”

His fingers tightened in her hair as he eased inside her inch by inch, spreading her wide until she gasped for air, his eyes never leaving her face as he took her words and her body and gave her back his own.

“I loved you then, Kels Bells, I love you now…and I will love you
forever
.” His voice caught as he buried himself deep inside her, over and over again, harder and faster, until the bed shook under them. Until her inner muscles seized him and pulled him under with her.

Kelsey screamed out her release, her body bowing up as her hot juices drenched him. The pleasure so fierce and unending he thought he would die of it. But with Kelsey there was always more, and now it never had to end.

Miles caught his breath in the sweet dampness of her hair, his heart thudding against his chest as they came down together. He could feel Kelsey smile as she twisted her hands out of his grip and wrapped them around his neck.

He had never believed once lost trust could be rebuilt. Never been able to see a way back from that gaping darkness. And even though he realized now that trust had never really been broken—not in the way he had feared—Miles knew that he had badly underestimated love.

If you gave it free rein, its' power was infinite.

He lifted his head and smiled back into those wild honey eyes he never planned on losing again.

Love couldn’t really be conquered; not by death, not by distance and not by time.  Love would always rise again, just like the myth of the Phoenix that Kelsey had believed in so much she named her company after it.

There was always a second chance, you just had to reach out and grab it before it passed you by.

Miles leaned down and kissed Kelsey; a long, hot tangle of lips and teasing tongue until she sighed under him again. He grinned when she flipped him over and slid on top of him, her eyes bright gold in her newfound strength. She reached up to pin him as he had pinned her, a teasing smile on her lips, and he couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

Oh yes, he definitely believed in second chances now …and third ones and fourth ones….

And forever ones.