Alone (21 page)

He lay down beside her and dipped his head
to hers. Their lips touched; a gentle, tentative question. Serenity
responded, pressing her body up against his, fitting him into her
curves. Sebastian gave a low moan, deep in his throat, and kissed
her more passionately. His tongue searched her mouth, lightly
touching her teeth, her lips. They tugged at each other’s clothing,
desperate to expose skin, to feel flesh upon flesh.

A
ll she wanted was Sebastian, to taste him
and touch him. She wanted to take him in her mouth, envelope him in
her arms, be consumed by him. He filled her heart and she wanted
him to take over her soul.

Nothing bad could happen to her while
she was in his arms.

His fingers traced her flat stomach,
pulling her t-shirt up and over her head. She could barely breathe
in anticipation. He bent down and kissed her stomach, his lips
tweaking her skin in tiny nips.

“
You are so beautiful,” he
breathed against her skin. Sebastian moved upward, slipping her bra
straps from her shoulders and freeing the pale swells of her
breasts. His cold mouth engulfed one nipple, pulling it into a
tight nub and worshipping it with his tongue, before moving on to
the next.

The vampire moved back down her
body and s
he
shivered as he knelt between her legs. His cool lips pressed
against her hot flesh, sending fire racing through her molten
core.

Serenity reached down to his head. Locking
her fingers in his hair, she arched her hips up to meet his mouth.
His tongue teased her, kissing the inside of her thighs. He moved
higher, tasting every fold, breathing in her scent.

A moan escaped her lips and he raised
his head, but she shook her head frantically and pushed him back
down between her thighs.

She was close, so close, but he pulled
away and crept up her body. He raised himself over her, his cool
chest pressing against her breasts, her nipples hardening almost to
the point of pain.

He lowered his face to hers, kissing her
lips. She tasted herself on him, a faintly strange, but not
unpleasant hint of musk and sex.

R
eaching down, he slipped his fingers
inside of her, using her wetness to ease his passage. Sebastian
shifted slightly, positioning himself at her entrance. He pushed
and she felt an amazing moment of resistance before he filled
her.

Pleasure soared through Serenity’s
body as he pushed deep and held still, joining them, one entity,
one being. He began to move inside, a slow, deep motion, designed
to send bliss in ripples through her core.

How could there be anything more
than this?
The two of them were together and nothing else
mattered.

“
I love you, I love you, I love
you,” he murmured against her neck. She clung to him, wrapping her
limbs around him, pulling him deeper.

Sebastian
moved inside her, his mouth at
her throat. In the heat of passion, he nipped at the delicate skin
of her throat. He nicked the skin, the metallic scent of blood
filling the air.

She pressed his head against her
neck.

“
Do it,” she moaned as she
teetered on the edge, her whole body tight with the crest of
pleasure about to wash over her. “I want you to!”

Sebastian
roared as he came, thrusting
deep and hard, filling her.

He leaped from her. Naked and spent, he
stood on the other side of the room staring at her, his eyes
wide.

“
It’s okay,” she said,
reaching out to him again. “Please, Sebastian, it’s what I
want.”

He shook his head, his face in
his hands. “It’s
not
okay.” His voice was harder than she had ever heard and the
sound frightened her. She hadn’t meant to make him angry with
her.

“
Please come back to bed,” she
said.

“
I can’t be in the same room
as you right now,” he said, grabbing his pants from the floor and
heading toward the bedroom door.

“
Sebastian?” she called out
after him, but he walked out of the room and shut the door behind
him.

She drew her knees up to her chest and
listened for the sound of the door leading to the corridor. Would
he leave her now? Would he decide she was too much of a risk and
cut his losses? The expected slamming door didn’t come. Of course,
that didn’t mean anything. Sebastian moved as silently as a
ghost.

T
ears threatened again but this time she
fought them.

You’re willing to let him turn
you into a monster?
came the voice she was rapidly starting to hate.

This was different. She didn’t just want
to be with Sebastian; she wanted his strength, his power. She
didn’t want to be afraid any more, she wanted to be the one to
instill fear. Years of living in terror had finally made her
realize—to stop being afraid you had to make the choice not to be.
She had made her choice when she stuck the knife into Jackson’s
throat. That had been the beginning of her journey. She hadn’t
realized then, of course, but to become the same as Sebastian would
spell the end.

Serenity couldn’t go back to a normal
life, not now. She had seen another world and embraced it. All she
had to do was convince Sebastian.

Furious,
Sebastian left the
hotel.

Serenity
’s vulnerability meant she didn’t
know what she asked of him, but he’d allowed himself to make love
to her. He was supposed to be the strong one, the one in control,
and he had taken advantage.

The feel of her skin haunted him; the
faint taste of her blood on his lips. He would never harm her yet
he’d been so close to biting her. So terrifyingly close. He tried
to push the memory away, but his jaw ached with longing.

Sebastian needed to stay busy.

Not being with her was torture. Every part
of him longed for her, but if he truly loved Serenity, he would do
what was best for her. True love should be self-less. How he felt
didn’t matter. What mattered was Serenity should be allowed to live
her life as a normal human being.

T
wo things stood in the way of that
happening; himself and Madeline. Ultimately, everything came down
to him. He’d brought Madeline into Serenity’s life, and he needed
to make things right again.

The vampire
headed out into the night. As he
crossed the street, he shoved his hands deep into the pockets of
his overcoat. A chill touched the air, but Sebastian couldn’t feel
the cold. He had reached into his pockets to assure himself his
gloves still nestled in the bottom. Sebastian planned to get
Serenity’s necklace back. Just the thought of Madeline having
something belonging to Serenity made him frantic. The vampire
didn’t deserve to touch any of Serenity’s possessions—she wasn’t
good enough to exist in the same air Serenity breathed.

He needed the gloves to get the necklace
back. Vampires couldn’t touch silver; the metal caused an extreme
allergic reaction. Sebastian didn’t know if he would even find the
necklace, but he wasn’t going to risk touching the silver if he
did.

Using his speed and grace, he crossed
streets and highways, unseen and, for the most part
unfelt.

He headed out to Angeles National
Forest.

Madeline would know Sebastian took
Jackson’s body to the forest. It was the largest in the area, a
perfect burial ground, with little chance of the body ever being
found. Jackson hadn’t been killed by a vampire so the usual
precautions hadn’t needed to be taken.

Madeline
made Sebastian; she taught him
everything. She would have predicted what Sebastian did before he
knew himself. Madeline would have followed the scent of fresh blood
or even Sebastian’s scent, and easily found the body.

Sebastian headed deep into the forest. He
passed through the trees like a breath of wind, comforted by the
sounds of the night. As he approached the site, Sebastian
frowned.

Something was wrong.

His pace slowed to human speed. Sebastian
had left the ground as flat and solid as any of the surrounding
area, but now the dirt had been disturbed, churned as though
ploughed.

He stood still, frozen, trying to get an
idea of what lay beneath the earth. He sensed nothing.

Falling to his knees, Sebastian clawed
at the ground, pulling out clods of earth, throwing soil behind
him.

Slowly, he got to his feet. In front
of him, the make-shift grave was empty.

Had Madeline taken the body? Sebastian’s
eyes narrowed. She had probably moved the corpse for some reason,
another part of whatever insane plan she’d concocted to control
him.

Something glinted in the moonlight,
distracting him. With relief, he realized it was Serenity’s
necklace. Madeline had done what she had threatened and planted the
necklace, but then why had she moved the body? Sebastian grew
uneasy.

The chain lay half buried in the dirt.
Whatever Madeline planned, at least he could return the necklace to
Serenity.

Sebastian pulled on his gloves and
bent to retrieve the chain.

Chapter Seventeen

Serenity woke
up, sick
with
worry.
She deeply regretted pushing Sebastian to bite her, especially at
such an intimate time. Her insistence had marred the whole moment
but she clung to one thought,
he said he loved me
.

Serenity
used the bathroom, splashing cold
water on her face and running her fingers through her hair. She had
looked better, but she would do.

With
a cautious smile on her face, she
opened the adjoining door, ready to be conciliatory. It didn’t take
her long to realize the room was empty.

She swung the door fully open and put
her hand on her hips.

“
Damn it.”

Why did he always disappear like
that?

Then she saw the shafts of light creeping
through the thick drapes and realized it was daytime. One thing
they hadn’t discussed—if she became a vampire, she would have to
say goodbye to the light. By Sebastian’s departure, she guessed
that part of the myth was true. She had never seen Sebastian in the
light.

Where he had gone? Had he found himself a
coffin somewhere and hidden for the day? She didn’t like the idea
of him lying in a casket with his hands crossed over his chest. The
image didn’t sit right; not at all Sebastian’s style. More likely,
he had a bedroom somewhere with blackout blinds. Sebastian dressed
too well to be lying in coffins.

It made her think: how would she feel
about saying goodbye to the light?

Serenity had never been a sun worshiper,
her skin burned far too easily, but to never experience the sun’s
rays on her face again? Maybe the same pleasure could be had in the
moon? Perhaps she would come to appreciate the beauty of the sun’s
nighttime counterpart instead.

The coffee pot sat on the desk which also
held the television. Automatically, she switched on the machine,
needing the caffeine to get her going.

Her stomach gurgled. Food, she needed
food.

Did she dare put in a room service order?
The prospect made her uncomfortable but she had money in her purse,
she didn’t expect Sebastian to pay for everything.

Craving orange juice and croissants,
she placed a call to room service.

“
I’ll pay in cash,” she told
the woman on the phone.

“
We’ve already been instructed to
put everything on the room,” the voice replied.

Serenity hesitated

“
Has the room been paid for?” she
asked. Suddenly, she worried about being kicked out at midday and
expected to pick up a bill she couldn’t afford.

“
Sure,” said the friendly voice.
“Mr. Lorenzo has pre-paid for three nights and told us to charge
everything else to his card.”

Lorenzo?

Sebastian must be using a fake
name. Then again, she couldn’t imagine ge
tting a credit card would prove too
easy when your birth certificate said you were hundreds of years
old. Her shoulders sagged with relief. Though she needed to go back
to the house today and make sure the police weren’t snooping
around, at least she wouldn’t have to stay.

By nightfall, Sebastian would be back,
waiting for her.

A knock on the door signaled the
arrival of her breakfast. She tried to hand a tip to the waiter,
but he shook his head, “Service is already added to the
bill.”

“
Oh, thanks,” she said, blood
rushing to her face. Even a waiter had the ability to make her feel
awkward and out of her depth.

Serenity ate her breakfast, all the time
worrying over the previous night. A thrill raced through her as she
remembered the things they had done. She squeezed her thighs
together, experiencing the same rush of pleasure. She’d never
experienced anything like that before; her whole adult life she’d
never known sex could be so incredible. If only she hadn’t ruined
it. Why had she tried to push him?