Page 48 of Up In Flames

Nina

Since Sampson has been given a week’s rest period after his injuries, he and his big pick-up truck are available to cart more than a few of my belongings to his condominium. I’m not taking everything. Not yet. In the clear light of day, it’s not that I’m having second thoughts, not exactly, but I do have a few moments where I wonder if we’re moving too fast.

But then I see him resting his forehead against the immense Oak in my front yard while he thinks I’m inside, packing the last of my shower products. In that uncensored moment, I see the weight of his discoveries about himself, and what they might mean. Because he’s so sweet, he wants to bear his burden alone, so he doesn’t overwhelm me.

Except, he’s not alone, not anymore. My heart hurts with his.

The summer before my junior year, when he was a lifeguard at the town pool, and I was entering the worst period of my life, I looked at him and saw someone strong, tall, capable, and sweet. I fell for everything he represented without ever exchanging a word with him. At that moment, I thought he might return my affection, because yes, I remember him staring at me, like I was the only thing interesting at the pool, but then I went back home to the mess my parents had made. I lost the ability to fight for anything as good as he was. Not three months later, I took up with two football players, Sampson walked in on the stupidest moment of my life, and the rest was history.

But it’s a different history now, or will be, if I can just make myself trust in him like I did for those few, brief, innocent moments that summer. Maybe he’s not human, but he has more humanity in his little finger than most people, myself included, have in their whole body. So, yeah, I’m going to fight my own worst instincts and support him. Fingers crossed. But I need him to fight his own worst instincts, too. Otherwise, we’ll never work.

Yesterday, he returned from the forest a lighter man. He told me he’d met Xy in the woods. Sampson smiled and laughed about the Nephilim’s claim that he couldn’t satisfy me with his ten-inch dick, followed quickly by him snapping his teeth, and then chasing me through my short-ceilinged rooms. When he caught me, he growled, the sound low, passionate, and capable of twisting my entire core in ways I’d never dreamed possible. And then his hands stroked passion into my very bones.

“Should I look into one of those ads that claim to be able to stretch dicks? Wouldn’t want to leave you hanging, Jelly Bean,” he joked, while we were still trying to catch our breaths afterward, our skins glistening with the best kind of sweat.

“Or maybe I could cut off an inch or two for you, so you don’t have to work so hard to make sure I’m wet before we fuck,” I joked back.

The next thing I knew, he decided to take my words as a personal challenge. He spent the next two hours bringing me to climax after climax. I was a flowing river by the time he slid right back into me and gave us both another orgasm, one that stretched, and stretched, before it shattered.

But today feels different. More serious again. Today, I think that he’s beginning to accept what seems so obviously true: he’s Nephilim, a true giant, not a pejorative term because he’s not completely human.

Maybe his non-humanness should matter to me, too, but I write dark vampire romance. I’m used to the weird, the “other.” He doesn’t have the same ability to accept the paranormal. His whole life has been about the regular normal. Sampson might embody bravery in his day job, but when it comes to facing a world he never dreamed existed, he’s faltering.

It hurts to see him struggling with his identity. I don’t know how to help him, except by being with him, of course. I think maybe only time will soften the blows he’s faced these last few days.

“That’s the last of it,” I say in a loud voice, even though Mari and Nicholas are right next to me. But Sampson needs a chance to collect himself before I “see” him. He has his masculine pride. “Bye, Nicholas. Bye, Mari. See you in a few days?” I hug my neighbors. Sampson’s already begun to organize a moving-in party for next Friday night. When we went into town for a late breakfast this morning, he invited everyone he saw.

Turns out, he’s quite popular, which I knew, but the intensity of his fanbase is still a surprise. I don’t understand how I managed to avoid him all these years, with the two of us living in the same town. He’s omnipresent. I guess it was by sheer will. Or fate… we weren’t meant to meet again until we were ready for each other.

“See you, Nina. Bye, Sampson.” Nicholas runs to give my giant a hug. He barely reaches above Sampson’s knee.

Tears spring to my eyes. Sampson Dean is turning my womb into marshmallows.

“You okay, Jelly Bean?” he asks, his huge hand enveloping my shoulder once I reach him. He looks down into my face, studying me, his brow furrowed.

“Yeah. Fine.” I start to tug away, but he twirls me back.

“We’re being honest, right?”

Apparently, we’re being honest with my emotions, not his. Even so, I can’t push him as he does me. His disquiet runs too deep, down to the very essence of who he is.

I’m just anxious that this will all go away. I’ll wake up next week and find I dreamed a relationship with my enemy, and he won’t really have turned out to be so damned sweet that I’m ready to be tested for diabetes.

“It’s just a lot, really fast, you know?” I hedge.

“It is.” He drags me up into his arms and presses me against his body, hugging me tight. My legs wrap around his waist. “Are you having second thoughts about living together?”

“Only the logical doubts that any sane person would have. I mean, we barely know each other.”

“I’ve known you forever.”

“You’ve known of me. I’ve known of you. But as a couple, we’re new.”

“So, what are you saying? Do I unpack the truck?”

Just the thought of it makes me want to cry. “No! I mean… I want to try this, Sampson. Try us. I’m just nervous.”

He lets out a huge breath, kisses my lips, and places me back on the ground. “Good. For a moment there, I thought I’d have to find a really tall mountain to jump off. Ugh. That’s a terrible joke. Sorry. Forget I said that.”