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The orgasm came out of the blue, and his was right there with mine. Colors and sounds, sensations that have no name because they’re otherworldly and impossible to label. We were who we are without a body, outside of ourselves. Ryan touched parts of me I’d walled away so well, I didn’t even remember they were there, and my entire being — body and soul — quivered and tremored from the detonation of our orgasm, from the release of power we’d built up, the joining of our souls.
I screamed, and I’m pretty sure he yelled or growled along with me. Pleasure arrowed through my body, my psyche, my being. Heat. A literal energetic explosion, with pieces of us flying through the room and landing back inside of what was left of us, mixing with each other’s auras.
When I was almost wrung out, near the end of what I thought I could take, Ryan froze over me and emptied himself into me, his face the picture of bliss, his energy that of ecstasy.
And when it was over, we lay tangled together, soaking in the aftereffects of pure hedonism. Indulgence. Decadence.
Vampires don’t get out of breath, and yet I felt the need to breathe despite the fact I had nothing to say just yet. Even Ryan was a little out of breath, when I didn’t think Slayers needed oxygen in the same way normal humans do.
“I feel you,” he said. “Your soul. Your essence. I don’t believe I’ve ever felt this close to someone before.”
I felt him inside, too, and I wasn’t inclined to kick him out. “You seem to have unlocked a wall I don’t remember erecting.” He was lying partly on me, and I ran a hand down his back. “But you let me in, too. I’m not of a mind to kick you out, because I like being inside you. It’s mutual.” Not one-sided, which wouldn’t have worked for me. He gave me as much as I gave him. He risked as much as me. His energy was wild and hot and full of both the sun and the moon, and I felt more alive than I could ever remember feeling.
“I feel as if I’m on completely uncharted territory.” Ryan’s lips vibrated against the skin where my neck and shoulder meet, his heart a staccato beat that made mine want to match it. “I wanted you. I want you. I want this.” He nuzzled my neck, kissed my shoulder, and rested his head on my chest so I could feel his breath on my nipple. “Fuck, I don’t want to say the wrong thing, but I feel as if I have to talk about it. Can we do this? Can we have this?”
I laughed, and felt his joy along with mine. He was happy; I was happy. Fuck, but how did the two of us — master torturer without a conscience and sociopathic slayer — get to this place? Somehow, we had. I slid my hand down to his ass and let my palm and fingers relax over the curve of it. “We’re doing it. I think if we both want it, we can do whatever the fuck we want.”
“You say that because Marco gave us his blessing. You have to know there’ll be plenty of others who won’t.”
Maybe. Probably. I held back a sigh. “Let’s hold off on that, okay? I want you again, but slower this time. I want to enjoy you. Savor you.”
* * * *
Ryan
I drank my coffee and focused on the road. It was three in the morning, and I’d lost track of how many orgasms I’d pulled from the vampire sitting beside me. She’d managed to get four out of me, but she’d had at least six times as many.
She’d offered to call someone to drive her home, but I was fine. I don’t need much sleep — Slayers are built for the night, when most of the monsters come out to feed and play.
“You’re being quiet,” I noted. We’d both toned our power signatures down so we could go out in public without being a huge neon sign to every supernatural we encountered, but she still felt a bit like a powder keg beside me, all TNT and cinnamon and some of those super-hot ghost peppers all mixed together.
Where the fuck had that come from?
“A lot to process,” she said from beside me. “We’ve both admitted we’re out of our depth and we don’t give a flying fuck. What happens next?”
“Taking things slow is no longer an option, but I’m not sure what happens next. How does one even date a vampire? It isn’t like I can take you out to eat.” I suppressed a sigh. “And we both have jobs.” And mine kept me so busy, I had no idea how I’d fit a relationship in, but I was going to figure it out. Blade had managed it; so could I.
“Your job is, in part, to watch me, right?”
Best not to answer that question. “How does a typical day go for you?”
She shrugged. “I’m not sure I have typical days right now. I’ve been meeting with the leaders of other groups in the metro area, plus I have duties within the coterie. I haven’t needed free time.” She sounded wistful, or maybe I picked it up in her energy. “It shouldn’t be an issue, but since I arrived in America, my only free time has basically been when I’ve fed.”
“How tied up is sex with your feedings? You drink blood and absorb fear, right? Two ways to feed, but how does that work with sex?”
“I think that’s a conversation for later.” She’d pulled her hair into a ponytail, and now she released it and fiddled with it around her face. “I have back-to-back appointments from sundown to practically sunup tomorrow night, but I have a few hours free the following night. Maybe we can meet somewhere then?”
“I can make it easy on you and come to TBR. I assume you know how to play pool?”
“I do.”
I stopped at a red light and looked at her, and everything went inside out and sideways. Vampires can’t control Slayers with their gaze, usually, but Etta’s talents were the exception, and she once again pulled me under — but my power fought back this time, and within a microsecond we were battling for dominance, for control, and I had to either fight or lose. My instinct was to punch her in the face to try to make her lose concentration enough I could get my proverbial hooks into her power signature, but I squeezed the steering wheel to keep from doing it.
“I don’t want this,” she said, her voice strained.
“Me either.” I could barely put the two words together and get them out, but I managed. Our power filled the car. Suffocating. Devastating. Overwhelming. If I stopped fighting, I’d go under, and that couldn’t happen.
And then there was only me. Nothing else. Just my power. Etta was gone.
