Master for Tonight (23 page)

He swallowed her scream into his body as he
came inside her. She gripped him tightly and convulsed around him.
He leaned his forehead against hers before moving to the side of
her head and sucking her earlobe back into his mouth.

Releasing it, he whispered, “I want to stay
inside you until I’m ready to take you again. Will you let me?”

She smiled and ran her hands up and down his
back.

“That’s a ‘yes,’ yeah?”

“Yeah, it is. Kiss me again.”

His mouth was on hers immediately, devouring
her in passion until she turned her head away to breathe. He kissed
up and down her neck as he waited for her to turn to face him, and
he took her tongue again. She buried her fingers in his hair and
gripped it at his scalp.

Her clear desire for him awakened his cock,
and he was soon nudging against her walls. His movements were slow
and gentle.

“Look at me. This is me making love to you.
This is us together.”

Her eyes became watery and she wiped at
them, embarrassed.

“I’ll drink your tears of happiness for
eternity.” He bent to her eyes and licked them away. “Wrap your
legs around my waist.”

After she did, he sat up with his back
against the headboard, her in his lap, his cock still buried in her
deep. Her soft ass was on his thighs. Their arms went around each
other, his fingers at the base of her skull.

“Now, if tears fall, I’ll catch each one.”
He softly kissed her eyelids, and she buried her face at his neck
before he pulled her back, taking the tears just as he had said he
would. He took her hips in his hands to move her against him as he
shifted his hips back and front.

“Hold on to me. I won’t let you fall.”

She knew he meant that in more ways than
one, and she clung to him and let him move her—let him give them
both pleasure. He had told her he loved her, and as unconventional
as it was, she believed him. She had questions for him which must
be answered, but that night, she wanted him. To be with him in his
arms.

Her orgasm peaked when he slipped his
fingers between their bodies to roll over her clit with his middle
finger. It hit her even as tears came from her eyes, and he took
them into himself. He said he wouldn’t let her fall, but she was.
At breakneck speed, she was plummeting, but she wasn’t afraid.

He couldn’t help what he was, and she knew
he would never intentionally hurt her emotionally, and never
physically. She couldn’t yet say she loved him, but she knew it was
only a matter of time.

While she was in the hospital the day after
he healed her, she thought about everything—about him and their
predicament. She thought about choices. She relived all of her
memories of their night together. Heard the words he spoke to take
her anxieties away. She hadn’t had a panic attack since. She saw
his anguish at his attempt to make her forget him. Heard all the
things he said to her. He had opened that memory to her, as well.
She heard and saw the absolute agony he went through to protect
her. What he said was true. He loved her.

“Where are you, beauty?” Julian asked,
regarding her distracted state. After their last love-making
session, he had pulled her back against his shoulder, and she made
designs with her fingertips on his chest. She loved touching his
chest.

“I’m here. Just thinking.”

“Well, that’s obvious even to a total idiot
like me, love.” He smiled at her giggle. He had missed her sounds.
“What are you thinking about?”

“You and me.”

“Do I need to love you once more to convince
you, I’m the man for you?”

“No, you don’t.”

“What are you saying, then?”

“I’m saying I’ll go out with you.”

“Please don’t hassle Julian tonight,” Kate
implored. “I don’t want to have bad blood between the two of you. I
know you want to shank him, but he’d just heal, anyway.”

Mazzie snorted into the phone. “Perfect. I
can stab him ten or twelve times and not go to jail for
murder.”

“So you believe now? In vampires?”

“After what Reese showed me last night, I
have to.”

“What did he do?”

“Showed me his teeth. Pulled a tree out of
the ground and bench pressed it. He ran around me in circles so
fast, I got dizzy and fell down. Jerk was trying to impress me, I
think.”

“He really does like you.”

“How are you handling everything? Have you
two come up for air in the past three days?”

“Honestly, I don’t know what to think.
There’s nothing to be done. He is who he is. I can’t change it, and
I don’t know I would, even if I could. I’ve accepted his apologies
for what happened. He tried to protect me the best he knew.”

Julian came up behind her and gathered her
hair into his hands, lifting it over her shoulder to kiss her neck.
She leaned back against his chest, taking his hand in hers.

“She wants to stab me with a really big
knife, yeah?” He chuckled before mulling it over. “If it will
satisfy her anger and allow us to move forward as friends, I’ll
allow it. As long as it isn’t silver,” he amended with a
shudder.

“See, he’s in,” Maz said. “I’ll bring my
butcher knife, and we’ll do it outside. No blood stains.”

“No! No one is stabbing anyone. I won’t have
it. Mazzie Dowe, you’re just going to have to move past this.
You’re both going to be in my life, and you’re going to have to get
along.” Julian squeezed her, hearing her words.

She wants me in her life. Even after
everything. She wants me.

He took the phone from Kate.

“Mazzie, although I’ve agreed to your
bloodthirsty terms, it’s upsetting Kate. So we’ll need to sort this
out a different way. Perhaps by talking to each other?”

“You didn’t see her. Zombie Kate. She almost
died because of you!”

“I know. I did everything possible to
protect her.”

“Yeah, Reese told me.”

“He really does care for you, Mazzie.”

“Don’t change the subject.”

“Ms. Dowe, we will discuss this later
tonight, in addition to a few other things.” He held the weight of
Kate’s left breast in his hand. When her nipple pebbled, he tweaked
it, earning himself a rub of her ass against his crotch. She was
wet again. He knew it. “Right now, I’m going to take advantage of
your friend’s good graces towards me.”

“Ugh,” she replied, and hung up.

He set Kate on the kitchen counter.

“Show me your teeth again.” She ran her
fingers over his lips.

“I’d rather show you something else.” He
moved her hand to his cock.

She put her hands in her lap.

He allowed his fangs to lengthen and extend
fully.

“You bit me with these.” She reached up to
his mouth and touched them. “You healed me with these.”

He pulled them back in before replying,
“Yes, I did.”

“Do you want my blood again?”

He put his forehead against hers. “Why are
you asking me this? You know I desire you in every way possible.
Will I take your blood with you unwilling or unknowing again? No.
Where are you going with this line of questioning?”

“You had sex with your Maker, didn’t you?
While we were apart?”

He stepped away from her and went to stand
on the opposite side of the room. He ran his fingers through his
hair while he considered his answer.

How do you admit to the woman you love, you
fucked another?

“You don’t have to say anything. Your
reaction tells me you did.” She hopped off the counter and
approached him. “She was very insistent that you belong to her and
not me. Deadly insistent. The things she said to me. She said she
was going to feed me to you. She thought it was incredibly
funny.”

His body tensed against her words, horrified
at what would have transpired, had Reese not saved her. He would
have been forced to drink his murdered love’s blood from her
murderer.

“Yes, I had sex with her. I had to.”

Kate backed away and glared at him. Her
hands were fisted at her sides. “But you were thinking of me when
you were doing it, right? Is that what you’re going to say?”

“Whether you believe me or not, I did. You
should know that.”

“
I should know that
? Really, Julian?”
She huffed out a breath, and put her hands on her hips. “You love
me so much, you fucked another woman!”

“It wasn’t like what you’re imagining.
Please calm down.”

“Calm down? Really? You profess your love to
me, and—”

“And I do love you! I’m here with you, not
her!” He reached out, but she backed away farther from him.

“Then what happened? What was it like? Were
you even planning on telling me?”

“No. It isn’t important. It’s over, and I’m
free of her. Either Reese or I will find her, destroy her, and she
will be no more.”

He took her by her shoulders and held her
out away from him.

“She will never hurt you or me again. Do you
understand?” His eyes searched hers, trying to determine where her
thoughts were.

“That isn’t true! I’m hurting right now
because of her.” She held a fist against her heart. “And because of
you.”

“Kate! I didn’t do it to hurt you, and
that’s why I wasn’t going to tell you about it.”

“No. I want to know what happened. I have a
right to know. You said you are mine. Not hers.”

At the vehemence in her voice, he pulled her
against him again. “Please don’t hate me for what I had—”

“Just tell me. All of it. Start at the
beginning. When you met her.” Her voice was muffled against his
chest.

Julian held true to his promise of honesty
with her and held nothing back. As he spoke, she curled her hair
behind her ears, and then stilled in his arms. When he spoke of
initiating sex with Evangeline, and why, he heard her sniffle and
felt moisture on his shirt. Soon, she couldn’t hide her grief at
what she was hearing, and her tears and wails fell both on him and
his ears. He hoped she wasn’t crying at a perceived betrayal of
her. He made sure to detail how many times he washed his prick
after being inside Evangeline, and how he pleasured himself with
visions of Kate in his head.

As her fists hit his chest and tears poured
across her cheeks, she screamed, “How could do that to me? Telling
me you love me, and then you turn around and fuck her? And more
than once!”

Without physically defending against Kate’s
attack, Julian said, “I know I have hurt you deeply. Hit me as much
as you want. Do anything you feel necessary, if it will help lessen
your pain. I’ll allow it all. Allow anything. But know that I love
you with all my heart, and I took no pleasure in anything I did
with her. I suffered more than you can imagine, and it was all done
for one purpose—to protect you. You are my one and only love, Kate.
You’re the only one. You must believe me.”

She melted against him, and Julian held her
close, wishing he could take the pain away from her, and hoping she
believed him.

“I don’t know what to believe.”

“Yes, you do know what to believe. In your
heart, you know I’m speaking the truth to you. I hated it. I hate
her with as much passion as I love you. I did what I had to do for
us. I can’t ask your forgiveness for something I don’t regret
doing.”

He didn’t try to stop her when she drew away
from him and went to stand at the other side of the kitchen, at the
counter, where he had set her earlier. Facing away from him, she
placed her hands on the countertop. Her shoulders shook, and he
wanted to go to her to comfort her, but he stayed still, waiting
for her to say or do something he could work with, as he tugged at
his necklace nervously. Her right leg bounced up and down quickly
on the ball of her foot.

“Okay, then.” She straightened and walked
back over to where he stood. “Thank you for being honest. Lying is
a deal breaker for me.” Her face showed no emotion and her eyes
were averted. She crossed her arms and put her forehead against his
chest. He didn’t know what to do, but thought it had to be a good
thing that she was touching him.

Hesitantly, he raised his arms and folded
them around her. She didn’t react either positively or negatively,
simply remaining as she was. He knew she was still running it all
through her head.

She sighed, moved away from him, and rubbed
her forehead with her hand.

“I feel dirty after listening to all of
that. I need to shower and scrub the stench of her off of me before
Maz and Reese show up.” She took his hand as she turned to leave
the kitchen. “You need one, too. Come on. I’m cleaning you up
myself. It’s going to be up close and personal, lover. Will you
carry me upstairs?”

He picked her up and threw her over his
shoulder, smacking her ass for making him worry. She yelped and
rubbed her stinging cheek.

“You liked it.”

Julian went up the stairs, into Kate’s
bathroom. He set her on the lip of the bathtub as he picked up the
mattress off the floor and put it back onto her bed. They had slept
together there ever since Julian’s return. Waking each sunset, they
would talk about going to the lumber yard to get supplies to board
up her bedroom windows, but never made it out of the house, except
for the times Julian needed to feed. He took Kate with him as he
ran through the woods, locating an animal to drink from. Kate
always looked away before his fangs punched out. He couldn’t hide
what he was, and she needed to see what being a vampire meant
before he laid out his proposition.

“Not the tub this time, beauty? The shower?
You’re sure?”

She was still a bit wobbly on her feet,
blaming it on her change in schedule to nights, as well as his
advances. She could make those excuses as much she wanted. He knew
it was the memories of their time together there that haunted her.
He’d caught her staring into it during the night more than a few
times. When he asked her, she just closed her eyes and said
nothing.