Under a Vampire Moon (16 page)

Carolyn moaned as his tongue slid past her lips, kissing her with the same passion she recalled from the night before when he’d seen her to the door. It drew the same shattering response from her body now, causing a small explosion of passion and need that poured over her like the sparks from fireworks. Moaning again deep in her throat, she twisted in his arms, her breasts slipping from his hands as she turned over.

Christian’s mouth clung to hers and the second she was on her back, sliding her arms around his neck, his hands found her breasts again. His fingers closed over the tender flesh, squeezing and kneading, drawing gasps and moans from her in turn as his tongue thrust repeatedly into her mouth.

Carolyn had never experienced such passion. It seemed to be riding through her in waves that matched the rhythm of the ocean waves pounding on the shore, rushing over her one after the other, as tireless as the sea itself.

She moaned his name when his mouth left hers, then gasped when it dropped to her breast. He drew on the nipple, grazing it with his teeth and she groaned and writhed on the lounger. When his hand slid down and slipped between her legs, Carolyn cried out, her fingers clenching in his hair.

“
Bella cara,
moan for me,” he whispered against her breast as his fingers began to caress her through the thin cloth . . . and Carolyn did moan, her entire body shuddering at the touch.

Lifting his head, Christian claimed her mouth once more, his lips moving over hers as his fingers stirred her passions. This time when his tongue thrust into her mouth, she let her own tongue move tentatively to join in the dance. When his mouth broke from hers again, she cried out in protest, but his fingers continued to stir her passions and he chuckled then nipped her ear, whispering, “Touch me.”

Carolyn immediately pulled one hand from his head to obey, her fingers gliding down his chest, and then dropping to seek him out through his swimming trunks. She found him hard and—

Carolyn stilled, her eyes popping open with surprise.

Christian paused and raised his head with concern. “What is it,
cara
?”

“I . . . er . . . you’re so big,” she said with embarrassment.

He looked confused and shook his head. “No I’m not.”

Carolyn stared at him with disbelief. “But Robert—”

“I am not Robert,” he said solemnly, “and I assure you I am only on the high end of average, so if I seem so much bigger than he is, he must have had
un pene molto molto piccolo
.”

Carolyn didn’t ask him to translate. She suspected he’d just said something along the lines of Robert having had a piccolo for a penis or something, but frankly she didn’t much care. Christian had suddenly removed his hand from between her legs. She was struggling to hide her disappointment, and regretting she’d said anything when she felt a sudden tug on the bathing suit tie at her hip.

Even as Carolyn glanced down, Christian was reaching to tug on the other tie. Her eyes shot back to his face and his mouth covered hers again, and then she felt his hand brushing aside the scrap of cloth that her bottoms had become and replacing it with his hand.

Carolyn cried out into his mouth as his fingers dipped between her legs, finding and gliding over her warm, slick flesh. For a moment she was all sensation, and little in the way of thought, and one hand clenched desperately in his hair while the other tightened around his erection.

When she was rewarded with a groan from Christian and his caresses and kisses became more demanding, she immediately released him to find the bottom of his roomy trunks. She slid her hand up one leg to find him again without the cloth in the way and his flesh was hot, and even harder than it had been a moment ago. Carolyn began to move her fingers over him, eager to increase his pleasure.

Christian’s response was most gratifying; he stilled for the count of a heartbeat, and then growled into her mouth, his tongue lashing her almost in punishment. But he also changed his caress, leaving his thumb to circle the nub of her excitement as he slid a finger inside her.

Carolyn’s hips bucked and she arched on the lounger, crying his name as their kiss was broken. Christian continued what he was doing, but shifted his mouth to her nipple then, drawing it into his mouth and suckling hard until she released his erection and removed her hand to tug fretfully at his swim trunks. Much to her relief, he responded at once, his hands leaving her so that he could stand and quickly shed himself of his swimsuit. In the next moment, he was climbing on top of her, his knees urging hers apart.

Carolyn reached eagerly for him, her hands pulling his head down to hers once more as he settled between her thighs. He didn’t enter her right away. While he claimed her lips and thrust his tongue into her mouth, he merely ground himself against her, his hardness rubbing firmly across the center of her excitement.

Carolyn moaned and wrapped her legs around him in response, her kiss becoming more desperate. Her hands dropped to clutch his behind, digging in with a demand that wouldn’t be satisfied by such half-measures. Still, Christian held back, his mouth devouring hers briefly before he suddenly thrust himself into her.

Carolyn tore her mouth away on a cry as he filled her, and then arched, little gasps coming from her lips as her body fought to accept an invasion it wasn’t used to.

“
Cara?
” he asked uncertainly, not moving, and she blinked her eyes open. Seeing the concern on his face, she pulled his head back down. As she reclaimed his lips, her hips instinctively moved to urge him on and then he was moving again, his body withdrawing and then thrusting back into hers. His mouth caught her moans and cries as he drove them both to the edge of a precipice and then the ringing of a phone intruded, making her frown against his mouth.

“Ignore it,” Christian gasped, thrusting into her again, but a second ring made Carolyn blink her eyes open and peer uncertainly around at what at first seemed an alien scene.

She was on her lounger on the beach as expected, but still in the shade. The beach was alive with laughing and chatting couples. Her T-shirt and shorts were back in place over her swimsuit, her book lay flat on her stomach where it had apparently fallen when she’d dozed off, and Christian was reclining on the sand beside her chair. Even as she noted that, his eyes popped open and he lunged to his feet. In the next moment, he was running for the surf, apparently eager for a dip.

Carolyn stared after him, her brain slowly calming from its agitated state and accepting that it had all been a dream. Of course, it had been a dream. Only in her dreams would Christian be straight and interested in her.

The ring of the phone sounded again, and Carolyn glanced to her purse lying in the sand. Giving her head a shake to try to clear it, she leaned to the side, snagged the strap and dragged the purse closer. She then pulled it onto her lap and quickly dug inside to find her phone. It rang for the last time just before Carolyn hit the talk button, and then she pressed it to her ear to say, “Hello?”

“Caro?” Bethany said.

“Yes.” She sat up, sending her book toppling to the sand. “Are you feeling better? Are you coming down to the beach?”

“No. I just wanted to check on you. I feel so bad about leaving you on your own.”

“Don’t worry about me,” Carolyn said on a sigh. “I’ll be fine. You’re the sick one.”

“Yes, well I do worry about you. I insisted on dragging you to St. Lucia and then, basically, abandoned you. I feel awful.”

“Don’t. You’re sick. There’s nothing you can do about that. But you’ll be better in a couple of days and we’ll still have loads of time to have fun.”

“Right,” Bethany murmured. “That band kid’s not hanging around bothering you, is he?”

“I—no. He’s nowhere near me,” Carolyn said, her eyes finding Christian as he swam steadily out to sea. It wasn’t a lie, she told herself. Christian was nowhere near her at the moment.

“Good,” Beth said firmly. “If he shows up, tell him to take a hike. You don’t need to waste your vacation playing beard for another Brent.”

No, because sitting around on her own in honeymoon hell was so much better, Carolyn thought, but merely murmured noncommittally. “Is there anything you want me to bring you when I come back?”

“Umm . . . well . . . if you wouldn’t mind, could you stop at that little store across from the main building and see if they have any ginger ale?” Bethany asked. “And maybe some crackers? It will help settle my stomach.”

“Of course,” Carolyn said. “I’ll bring them right up.”

“No. Go ahead and have your lunch first. I can wait until you’ve eaten.”

“All right,” Carolyn murmured, recalling that Christian had said something about looking over pamphlets during lunch.

“And Carolyn?”

“Yeah?” She watched Christian turn and head inland again.

“Everything’s going to be all right. If worse comes to worst we could always become lesbian lovers and grow old together. Who needs men anyway, right?”

“Right,” Carolyn muttered, not finding their old joke remotely funny.

“Have fun. And don’t rush back. Just enjoy the sand and surf. There’s no hurry for the ginger ale and crackers. I’m going to lie down and sleep awhile anyway.”

“All right.” Carolyn hung up, her gaze on Christian as he swam the last ten feet to shore. He was a very good swimmer, she noted absently, but if he was allergic to the sun, she didn’t think he should probably be out there in the water.

She sank back on the lounge chair, thinking that Bethany’s efforts to encourage her had had the opposite effect and she was now depressed. Or perhaps it was the fact that she had apparently taken to having wet dreams about her poor gay companion that was depressing her, Carolyn thought grimly. She almost felt like she should apologize to the poor man for dream-raping him.

Grimacing, she pushed her sunglasses more firmly up her nose, and watched Christian walk, dripping, out of the surf. He was a beautiful young man . . . and she couldn’t help her dreams, she told herself. Besides, that dream sex had been hotter than anything she’d experienced in real life. It was also the most fun she’d had so far on this damned trip. And she was the only one who knew about it, so no one had been hurt by it. She just had to remind herself, firmly, that all it had been was a dream and that it would never happen in real life. Christian was gay, and that was that. He would never want her. Ever.

Eight

“S
o Bethany booked you for the shopping tour and the day sail to Soufriere,” Christian murmured, looking over the pamphlets.

“I’m pretty sure she mentioned those two. She might have booked others, but if so, I don’t recall her telling me.”

Christian nodded. “Well, it looks like we’re out of luck this afternoon. Most of the tours start in the morning.”

“Probably because it’s cooler then.” She leaned closer to read the description of the Jeep jungle tour. That sounded interesting, they stopped at a banana plantation and there were some falls and stuff on that tour too. The zip-line adventure looked interesting as well, zipping along through the trees 150 feet above the ground to see the forest from such an unusual angle. They would have a bird’s-eye view, even of the birds. At least that’s what the pamphlet claimed.

“Hmm.” Christian frowned, and pointed out, “That leaves only the shopping shuttles this afternoon though.”

Carolyn chuckled at his expression. “You look so thrilled.”

“Yeah.” He smiled crookedly. “Not keen on the shopping thing.”

“Well, we don’t have to do anything this afternoon,” she pointed out with amusement. “I have to take some ginger ale and crackers up to Beth and check on her. Then we could lounge around on the beach for a bit. I mean, it’s already after one and our food hasn’t even come yet. By the time I get back from checking on Beth it will probably be two or three, we could lie around and read or talk, then get ready for dinner and . . .” She shrugged. “The rest of the night is pretty much spoken for.”

“Yeah.” He raised his eyebrows. “Would you mind?”

“No. Bethany and I planned to just chill for the first day or two anyway,” she assured him and it was true, they’d planned to just relax and recuperate from the cares of the world. She supposed if Beth had to get sick, she’d picked the best time to do it. Surely she would be recovered by the time their tours came up.

“Okay, but I really think we should do the zip-line adventure or the Jeep tour tomorrow,” he suggested.

“Sounds like a plan,” she agreed, pleased that his interests seemed to coincide with her own. She then sat back as the waitress arrived with their food. Carolyn sighed with pleasure as the burger was set before her. She knew she shouldn’t have it, she’d been trying to watch her weight since leaving Robert, but she was on vacation, what better time to have one? And Christian had ordered the same thing.

“Mmm, this is good,” he announced around a mouthful of burger.

Carolyn shook her head with amusement. “Don’t tell me they don’t have burgers in Italy?”

“I’m sure they do, but I’ve never had one,” he said, picking up a fry and popping it in his mouth.

“Never?” she asked with surprise and then smiled. “I suppose you eat a lot of pasta over there. It seems to be what Italy is known for.”