Vampires of Eden (Alexander #2)

40. Daniel

CHAPTER 40

Daniel

A s I guide Alexander up the stairs and toward my bedroom, his hand tightly clasped in mine, I remind myself that this isn’t about me. Not entirely, anyway.

“I’ll tell you before I feed,” I say, glancing over my shoulder. “I won’t surprise you. I promise.”

“Thank you,” he says quietly.

In truth, I think I’ve asked a lot from this man. I’ve asked him to throw away his traditional ideals surrounding relationships to pursue an unknown path with me. I’ve asked him to give me consent to feed from his body.

Even now, as I physically lead him by the hand and into my private space, I realize that all along, he’s consented to follow me emotionally. Even though I’ve given him none of the expected assurances that he’s accustomed to. No formal contracts. No dowry, announcements or solemn promises. My eyes don’t even alight—the most primal and basic sign of a vampire’s true and profound affection.

He’s come so far for me. Showing me over and over again that he wants this. That he sincerely and deeply longs for me. For us.

I want to give him what he needs. Alexander may not even recognize it within himself, but I can see and sense it so strongly that it’s becoming painful.

I’m ready to do this with him. It’s time.

Consequences be damned.

Before I open the door to my room, I let go of his hand and turn to face him. “May I make a small request?”

“Sure?”

“Will you turn your phone off for a while? At least until tomorrow morning. Can we please have the night together without any interruptions? Just this once.”

It’s important.

He nods, casually slipping his phone from his back pocket. “I’ll text Raph and let him know.” I watch quietly as he taps his phone. He holds the device low so that the screen is tilted and within my view. He sends the message. Almost immediately, another message pops up.

[What!?]

[Why??]

Alexander rolls his eyes, closes the app and switches his phone off. “Done.” He glances up and must read something in my face because his eyebrows lift in concern. “Is everything okay?”

“Everything is perfect.” I lean forward and place a soft kiss on his mouth. “Thank you for doing that.”

“I can shut it off anytime. I just have to remember.”

I smile, then turn and push my door open. The air in the room is warm and sweet from the dewy rain earlier in the day, and the scene is exactly as I left it before I went down to let him inside.

Behind me, Alexander inhales a sharp breath. “Oh wow…”

The only light in the room is from that of the setting sun and the subtle glow of tea lights that I’ve placed all around the room in colorful glass containers. Like fireflies that I’ve painstakingly captured and sealed in jars, each one glimmers in shades of ruby, emerald, amber and violet. Indigo and crystal. All different sizes line the shelf above my bed—and there are more tucked between the potted plants on my window sills and beside the spines of my humble library.

My hope is that it’s enchanting. Magical, like an apothecary of light and color. This is the feeling Alexander gives me. Hope, wonder and healing. As if this heavy burden of life is lighter and much more palatable when I’m with him.

“This is beautiful,” he says, taking everything in. “Am I about to be sacrificed in some kind of mystic ritual?”

A laugh bubbles up from my chest. Well, that’s definitely one way to describe it. “Maybe?” I say, meeting him in the middle of the room. “Would that be so bad?”

He turns and something in him feels more at ease. He lifts his hands to hold my face and my heart flutters like I’m a teenager. Aside from holding my hand, he’s rarely self-assured enough to initiate affection toward me. I’m almost always the one to make the first move, but with his hands cupping my head, the slight height difference between us feels more pronounced and it makes my cock hard. Like I might melt and come just from this—this assertive confidence radiating in his beautiful eyes.

“It wouldn’t be bad,” he says, smiling and bringing our foreheads together. “Not if it’s with you. I do trust you, Danny. It’s just?—”

“I know,” I say, matching his hushed tone. “I shouldn’t have said that. I know you’re doing your best given this unfamiliar circumstance. I get it.” I raise my chin to catch his mouth and he returns the kiss, parting his lips so that the connection sinks deeper in our sensual and playful way.

With our mouths fused and his tongue licking and searching mine, my hands lift to his chest to unfasten the buttons of his shirt. I want him naked but I also want to take my time. I want to savor this night because I need it just as badly as he does.

When his shirt is unbuttoned and gripped in my fists, I pull away from the heady kiss and inhale a breath. “Rabbit, can I fuck you?”

Alexander does that thing where his eyes blink and his Adam’s apple dips heavily in his throat. It tells me that I’ve caught him off guard. “Um… yes.”

“Have you done this before?” I ask, sliding my hands up and around his neck. I kiss the corner of his mouth. “Had someone inside of you, I mean.”

He closes his eyes. I feel his chest rise and fall against mine as I hold him closely. “No.”

I nod, brushing our noses before I kiss him again. “We’ll go slowly. If you’re not comfortable, we can stop. Just talk to me?”

Another inhale. “Okay.”

“These one-word answers are making me nervous,” I confess. “Are you sure?”

“We can try,” he says, offering me a sly grin. “That’s three words. Six. Seven.”

“Okay okay.” I laugh, nuzzling and kissing him again as his arms wrap tightly around my waist. “I have to warm you up first. Pre-heat you like an oven.”

“Sacrificial vampire bread.”

We snicker and kiss and I don’t know if I’ve ever felt this kind of pure, giddy delight with another vampire. It amazes me how he’s helped to take my very existence from bitter darkness to colorful, exuberant light.

Within our embrace, Alexander tugs at the belt of my robe. Sensing what he wants, I pull my hips away to let him untie the knot at my stomach. When it’s undone, he slips his fingers down the line from my rib cage and to my navel. The simple, sparkly warmth of his touch and fingertips on my naked skin makes me shudder and tilt my head back. He flattens his palm and caresses around my hip to hold my lower back and it’s like fire centered at the base of my spine.

“I love touching you,” he whispers, shifting his mouth toward my ear as his hand slips lower to cup the swell of my ass. “I love that you let me touch you. It feels like a miracle. Like a dream come true. ”

I grip his hair to pull his head up from my neck. When we’re eye-to-eye, I say, “You can do more than touch me. Get undressed?”

He huffs with a frisky glint in his alighted irises. “Yes, sir.”

After we had sex at Alexander’s estate, I specifically went to the local market to buy almond oil because I liked the feel of it so much. I loved the way it warmed to his skin and radiated this almond-orange citrusy haze as we made love. I’m fixated on that specific scent now and I can never go back. Almond oil equates delicious sex with Alexander. Regular lube just won’t do.

The sky beyond my window glows warmly in blueish-purple as Alexander lies flat on his back in my bed, naked and with his knees drawn up. Truly, he is like a sacrificial offering to my lustful heart.

“What should I do with my hands?” he asks, lifting his head from the pillow slightly and looking around, as if the question was directed to a non-existent live studio audience. Cue collective laughter.

Sitting between his knees, I shake my head. “You can touch yourself,” I suggest. “Your stomach—or play with your nipples. Or nothing. You don’t have to do anything.”

Alexander snorts in a laugh. “Oh God that sounds humiliating. No, thank you.”

I pinch his ass and he yelps and jumps, still chuckling.

“Will you be serious?”

“I am being serious,” he snaps. “Even the word ‘nipples’ is embarrassing. Let’s never say it again.”

This is beginning to feel like deflection on his part because he’s nervous. Which is understandable.

My right hand is already oiled, so I drag the fingers of my left hand up and down the inside of his thigh. “Like I said, you don’t have to do anything. Just lie here and relax. Enjoy. ”

He squirms from my touch. “If I relax too much this will be over very quickly.”

I lift and stretch up toward his face until I’m leaning on my palm and hovering over him. I’ve tied my hair back because I don’t want it getting in the way.

“I don’t mind, Rabbit—and besides, you rallied.”

He grins. “I did.”

“Exactly. If you have to do something, maybe… just watch?” I bend and press a slow, lush kiss to his mouth, then into the curve of his neck and along his collar bone.

When I reach his nipple, I lick it in a flat, hungry and unapologetic stroke—loving the hardness and texture of it underneath my tongue. Alexander trembles and I fight the urge to make a point about how satisfying nipple play can be.

His skin is teeming with heat as I shift and touch my lips to his stomach, then lower to his navel. My lips tingle with every kiss from the thrill of his internal energy and he smells heavenly.

This man… Alexander is paradise to my senses.

I linger at his navel, dipping my tongue inside and using my oiled fingers to tease the curve of his ass. To trace the shape of him and follow the line toward his opening. Aside from his discreet, labored breathing, he’s been totally silent since I told him to watch.

His cock is hard beneath my chin as I raise my head. When I do, his bright golden eyes stare right back at me.

“You once said,” I begin, still caressing the tip of my slick finger along the rim of his ass, “that you liked to watch me put things into my mouth.”

“Jesus Christ.” He tilts his head back against the pillow, lifting his chin to the ceiling as he fists the sheets at his sides. At least he’s figured out what to do with his hands? “Holy hell.”

“Rabbit.”

Alexander stills, then raises his head to meet my gaze once more. Silent.

“Watch.” Slowly, I shift down to make myself comfortable, then grip the hardness of him with my fingers. The moment I lick the tip of his cock, Alexander inhales sharply and his entire body hitches. Tenses and tightens up.

Simultaneously, the weight of his energy intensifies. Heavy, hot and glittery. It makes me realize how much he’s been restraining himself. Or at least trying to? Forcing his essence to be subdued. It’s flared out and obstinate now as if it has a mind of its own.

“Sweetheart, you can relax,” I say, lifting my head. “Are we alright?”

His voice comes out high pitched. “Yeah, kind of? Mostly?” He isn’t watching me anymore, but I notice that his fists are gripping the sheets so tightly, it looks like he might tear them apart.

“Whatever you're thinking,” I say calmly. “Whatever is happening in your head, let it go. You have to relax.”

He doesn’t respond. There are no words, but I feel his body unclench. I see his chest rise in a deep breath, then fall as he exhales. Calming himself.

After giving him a moment, I ask, “May I keep going?”

Alexander lifts one hand from the bed and plasters it to his face, covering his eyes. “Yes, please.”

I settle back down and gently kiss his knee and along the inside of his thigh.

Calm, focused, I grip his shaft once more. This time, I wrap my lips around his tip and slide the length of him into my mouth and against my tongue. Alexander’s back arches as he gasps loudly, but he doesn’t clench or draw away. He stays open to me as I lick and taste his texture and citrusy flavor.

With my finger, I gently push into his flesh while my mouth works. He tenses at the initial intrusion, but then his muscles unclench. Allowing my finger to pulse deeper into the taut heat of his body.

“ Danny , I-I can’t—” He says my name on a heavy exhale and the desperate sound of it makes me devour him more. His hips writhe against the bed as if instinctively, he wants to pump up and into the pleasure that my mouth is offering, but he’s fighting the urge. Just as I’m about to lift up and invite him to chase me, I feel and taste him spilling over in ecstasy.

Alexander’s body trembles and his nature flashes brightly with his exquisite release. He comes and I breathe as I take in every last drop of him because he’s even more delicious than I had imagined. Superior to any late-night debauched fantasy I’d conjured alone in this bed.

As his body shifts from rigid to languid and supple, I press another finger inside his ass. This one slips in easier because he’s officially warmed up now. Pre-heated.

When I’m certain he’s finished, I pull up from his cock and lazily lick his head clean. Like a delectable popsicle that I can’t get enough of. “Are you with me?” I ask, sitting up straighter but keeping my fingers twisted inside of him. Pulsing and stretching.

He stares up at the ceiling with his naked chest rising and falling. “I couldn’t hold on?—”

“You didn’t need to.” I shift to my knees to kiss his belly again. Slowly, I remove my fingers, then crawl up to hover over his face. “How do you feel?”

“Ah… pretty nice?”

“Good. Can I have you? Are you ready?”

He meets my eyes and nods. “Yes.”

The simple thought of finally dipping my cock into him makes me shiver. After all these weeks of desperately wanting to touch and feel him. To connect with him not only emotionally—which we’ve achieved, time and time again—but to have him viscerally. His tight, golden body wrapped around my shaft. His summer-twilight essence caressing my naked skin.

I reach and grab the extra pillow beside his head. “Lift your hips.” He does and I secure it beneath his ass so that he’s raised and angled to me. I settle my cock against the warmth of his body, feeling as if I might lose it from this moment alone. The sheer anticipation.

Gently, I shift my tip into his inner heat. Alexander’s hands shoot up to my waist as he inhales a sharp breath. His body constricts.

“Does it hurt?” I ask, breathless but focused. “Talk to me.”

“No, it doesn’t hurt,” he says, his throat bobbing as he inhales. I feel him adjust and unclench himself. “I’m alright. It’s just—you made this look easy when we had sex in my room.”

I smile and gently push forward a little more. He breathes but doesn’t resist. “I enjoyed the sensation of you inside of me. It felt good, yielding to you.”

“Really?” He stretches his spine as I slowly shift further inside, biting my lip from how hot and tight he feels. His scent hovers over us like a cloud and his firm body steadily complies. Melting for me like warm citrus honey.

“Yes, really,” I sigh, almost completely enveloped by his flesh. I shift so that my elbows rest on either side of his head against the pillow. So that the tips of our noses brush. “Do you know why I willingly submit to you, Alexander? Why I love you?”

His breath puffs from between parted lips. We’re so close that he can’t look away from my hooded gaze. He has to face me now, head on. “I don’t,” he says quietly, still holding my waist.

Gently, testing, I rock my hips so that I pulse deeper inside. Alexander huffs. He clenches my cock with his inner muscles and his fingers dimple my skin, but only for a moment before he melts again. It is fucking fantastic. “I yield to you, because you yield to me.” I tilt my head to lick and suck at his bottom lip in a frisky kiss—pulling at the fullness of his flesh before I raise my head. “Because you’re thoughtful and you listen. You grow before my eyes and it’s sexy as hell.” I dip, kissing him once more. “You always treat me with dignity and respect, and it makes me want to make you feel good. I want to be the one who gives you love and pleasure. Only me.”

I adjust and rock my hips, pushing deeper within his body and trying another angle. When I’m in as far as I can go, a sexy grunt of surprise escapes his throat and his eyes widen.

Perfect .

Nose-to-nose, I kiss him again. Sumptuous and hungry before I grind my shaft forward, hitting the same spot. He sobs but the heady sound vibrates, trapped between our mouths. When I release him from the kiss, he sucks in a breath and opens his alighted eyes.

“Does this feel okay?” I ask. “Are you comfortable?”

He sighs and nods. Beautiful and vulnerable. “Yes.”

“Take my hair down,” I whisper.

His eyes search me, but then his hands glide from my waist and up to my head. Within seconds, the weight of my hair comes tumbling down past my cheeks.

“Put your hands in it,” I tell him. “Touch me while I fuck you. I want you to come while I’m inside you and with your hands on me. Feel me.”

Obediently, he drives his fingers into my hair, pulling it back from my face as he holds my scalp. I shift my hips, rocking at a slow but steady pace and he’s with me. Watching and panting quietly. Writhing his hips against the rhythm of my motion.

We kiss and move together in the gauzy candlelit silence. Focused on this magnetic feeling that’s been brewing between us. The laughter, banter and tears. The push and pull. Highs and lows. All of it is here, knitted together in every touch and stroke like a dense, steadfast material for the love we’re making.

This time, the passion builds slowly. We move, entwined and indulging for a long stretch before his breath finally hitches and the height of pleasure becomes apparent in his expression. I arch and close my eyes, letting the climax take me from head to toe—succumbing to his scent and persuasion. His fingers threaded in my hair, holding me tightly.

The orgasm is soft. No headboard banging or dramatic crying out. It brushes over us like an ocean wave gently breaking ashore. Like the satisfying warmth that radiates from an open fire on a cold night.

Alexander’s body trembles and I love the feel of his sticky release between our bellies. I love the sensation of spilling over inside of him and this utterly satisfying connection. My spine and groin tingle as I open my eyes. I’ve been leaning on my elbows for too long and it’s getting painful, so I gently rest down atop his body to catch my breath.

His hands untangle from my hair and stroke down my spine to my lower back. He embraces me tightly. Almost coiled, like a snake ensnaring its prey. But the sentiment doesn’t feel sinister at all. Not possessive. More… yearning. I feel the ache of it in his flared aura as he catches his breath. His biological and ancient need to have me. Profoundly and irrefutably.

I open my eyes and I’m lying in the curve of his neck. Everything within me screams yes . Everything within me wants this. “May I feed now?” I whisper.

Alexander shifts his head slightly. “Yes, you can. If you’re sure?”

Shifting forward, my words brush the skin of his neck, “I’m sure.” I lift just enough to lick and taste the sweet heat of his skin. My fangs smoothly elongate and the moment I bite down, his blood and essence overwhelm my senses. Alexander’s shoulder tenses for a moment, but slowly, as I pull, he relaxes.

With my eyes closed, I lovingly pour all the things I’ve said—all the things I couldn’t say—into his being. That I love him for who he is and not because of who he could be. His selfless kindness, sensitivity and attentiveness. His bright aura and energy and how he makes me laugh. How he delights me, even though I was certain that I was no longer capable of feeling true joy.

I want him.

I want his hurts, pains and insecurities. And I want him to know mine, too. For us to belong to each other. Beautifully and intricately interwoven. The light intwined harmoniously with the dark.

A spark of heat flashes behind my lids as I pull, shocking me into opening my eyes. When I do, they’re alighted. The fire of it ripples all through me and Alexander’s body tenses beneath my weight. His hands grip my hips tighter. Something inside of him is unraveling from my effort. Something significant and old and powerful.

It calls to me. Begging me to release it.

“D-Danny— ah ?—”

I pull even harder and it rushes up to the surface and from deep within his being. Like a dam breaking, it plunges toward me and doesn’t stop. It spills outward, coursing and unbridled. It surrounds us in a brilliant array of gold—like the massive wings of a fallen angel.

His aura pulls at me, and as I lift from Alexander’s neck, I inhale sharply because the force of it is unyielding, hot and good . A desert wind flowing all over my icy skin and drawing my own nature out of me. Alluring and yet comforting like nothing I’ve ever known.

A pale purple light glitters and swirls amidst the gold, like two mythological entities flirting and engaging in a sultry dance. The golden haze stills as if waiting—a hand being offered for a waltz. The lilac light concedes and melds into the brighter haze. Before my eyes the two become one, fusing into a new, beautiful and calmer creature. Still powerful but different.

The light dims and my mouth is agape as it gently falls over us like twilight snow. Except, when it touches my flesh, it’s warm as it sinks in and melts. It fills me with the same beauty, comfort and contentment that I felt as it hovered above us.

An undeniable assurance and power runs all through me and somehow, I know that this is Alexander. His energy, essence and love coursing inside of me.