chapter NINE
Reed startled awake, not sure of what awakened him. His blood surged in his body and skyrocketed straight to his head and not the one resting on top of his shoulders. A fist circled his shaft and pumped up and down as glorious hot lips roamed his body.
Denver.
Denver’s mouth crushed Reed’s, stealing his breath. His hands had a mind of their own. He kneaded her back trying to pull her closer to him.
What the hell was going on? He didn’t know if she was awake or asleep. God he hoped she was awake.
“Denver, wait a minute.” Something in the far reaches of his mind told him he needed to stop, needed to stop her before it was too late. He shifted his weight to sit up.
Too late.
Denver released him and straddled his body in one smooth motion.
“Shut up, Reed, and let me have what I want.” She slammed his back down to the floor and moaned as she pushed her body down onto his shaft, filling her in one swift move. “What you’ve wanted since you first saw me.”
Her core enveloped him like a leather glove, hot, tight and soft. Her flesh hugged him, pulling a groan from his throat. Before he could catch his breath, Denver started moving. She gyrated her hips, pumped them up and down. The sensations were too magnificent to stop. He did the only thing he could, consequences be damned. Reed captured her hips in his hands and lifted and lowered her to the rhythm she’d begun. Skin slapping skin fractured the silence in the van. The mixture of sex, heat and sweat permeated his senses, surged through his body with need and want and desire. He knew what he was doing was not a good idea but the scent of her, the feel of her, the look in her eyes wouldn’t let him stop.
Reed sat up, not releasing her, wrapped his arms around her body. His body rocked back and forth as she pumped up and down. God, she felt so good. The sensations flooding his mind, his body was not like anything he’d ever felt before in his life, and he’d had a long life. He would die tomorrow if it meant he could never have her again.
“Oh, God, Denver. You’re killing me.”
She opened her eyes and stared into his gaze. They blazed like fire. Black fire. Reed crushed his mouth to hers, enjoying the sensations of capturing her moans and the electrical impulses building at her core. Gentle ripples milked along his cock, pulling a moan from his throat. He kissed a line along the curve of her neck, each touch tasting better than the last.
Denver cupped her hands along the side of his face, stilling his movements. She settled her gaze back on his face.
“I want… need you,” rumbled from her throat, “Had to have you. Couldn’t wait another second,” her voice raspy, raw.
“Take what you want. What you need.”
A soft curl of the lips greeted him a split second before Denver trailed a finger along Reed’s neck and then tilted his head to the side. Her lips kissed a line along his jaw, pausing where he knew his pulse beat. The sharp prick of pain was nothing compared to the explosions of erotic pleasure that erupted throughout his body. Every nerve ending ruptured. His body betrayed him. The sensations so wild his heart stopped, his breath stilled. Damn, life ceased as he’d known it. At least that’s how it felt. It was nothing less than an atomic bomb exploding in his body.
Tilting his head up he did the only thing that seemed natural, the only thing he could. He growled. He growled until all the air had left his lungs, until the sensations ebbed to distant rumbles. Opening his eyes he shifted his weight and lowered Denver to the floor of the van, cradling her head in the curve of his shoulder.
“That was… that was. Hell, I don’t know what that was.” He blew the words out on a breath of exhaled air. “Other than magnificent.”
“Yeah,” her voice sleepy, sated.
“Oh yeah.”
Denver opened her eyes and stared into Reed’s face as if searching for something. Anything. And then she said, “I’ve not fed off a human in decades… but you’re not human now are you, Reed.”
Reed lowered his gaze and stared into Denver’s eyes. He didn’t speak. Just looked, not knowing what to say to her proclamation.
“What?” Denver’s flattened hand smoothed across his chest, sending more impulses through his body.
“My entire life I hated being called human and you go and--”
Denver pushed up to get a better look into his eyes but he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her back to him.
“Why would you hate being called human?”
He knew it was a term she’d probably wished for, begged for her entire life. But he didn’t. His father was an alpha male. So were his grandfather and probably the fathers before them. But when twins are born there’s always the chance of one being human. But was he human? The beast was strong in him. He felt it every minute of every day. Even more so when he was angered or hurt. His beast roared inside like nothing he could describe.
Anger brought on his beast, need and sometimes passion. Nonetheless, he knew he’d never have what the others took for granted. His brother shifted as if it was second nature. Reed had always thought of the Arnold Swarzenegger movie, ‘Twins’, when he thought of himself. He was the throw away. It astonished him even now how these people were able to capture and kill his brother and he was able to survive.
He closed his eyes and envisioned his body in full shift. He’d done it at the age of twenty one. Not thirteen like the others. But he’d also mastered the ability to partially shift, something his brother wasn’t able to do. Anger taught him that. Now he wondered what else there was to learn? What new epiphanies will Denver bring to the fore front?
“I think--” Denver’s voice purred in his ear, bringing him back to the present, her fingers inching down his stomach. He grabbed her wrist and halted her movements. “I think… you just hadn’t found a good enough reason to shift early.” She said it as if she read his mind.
“And what exactly would that have been?” He grabbed her hand and placed it back on her stomach, then sat up. Pushing up from the floor, he stepped over to the shaded window and peeked outside, making sure not to let any of the residual sunlight in. “It’ll be sunset in about an hour. We can leave then.”
“Why won’t you talk about it? Why does it frighten you?”
“I’m not frightened, God damn it!” he cursed over his shoulder. “Let it alone.”
“I’ll let it go if you come back over here, with me.”
He turned and stared at her for a long humming minute. “Don’t you think what we just did was unusual, Unnatural.”
“No. I think what we just did was toe curling.” She stood and walked over to him. “It’s not been like that before.” He raised an eyebrow. “It hasn’t.” She touched his arm and her warmth wrapped around him and revved his heart.
“Don’t you get it?” She slid her hand around his neck and pulled his head closer to her mouth as if she was going to kiss him. “There’s only one reason why we mix so well. Why your blood healed me so easily.” She let go of him and pulled her top over her head.
The same top those hours ago he was fearful of removing thinking if he disturbed it her skin would peel off along with it. She slid her hands across her chest, across the nape of her neck and down to her stomach, each move as sensual as the one before.
Denver’s head lulled back as she closed her eyes and caressed her top lip with her tongue. All he could do was close his eyes. If he didn’t, just the sight of her was going to have him tossing her back to the floor and taking her again. He wouldn’t care if she bled him dry. Opening his eyes a few seconds later, he trailed his gaze down the line of her body.
He’d been so mixed up with the emotions slamming through his brain he’d forgotten about her sunburned skin, the blisters that were near to bursting, her ragged breath leaving her lungs when he laid her dying body on the floor.
Now… now her skin was smooth, unblemished, reminiscent of hot chocolate with a heady dollop of whipped cream. It looked the way it did the first time he saw her, as smooth at the finest Egyptian cotton and as rich as the best African chocolate. Slowly his gaze slid down the planes of her body, only stopping briefly at her eyes before pausing at her breasts and pebbled nipples. He remembered her nipples as he tugged them between his teeth, flicked his tongue across the stiff peaks. No, he couldn’t allow her or this smoldering fire burning near his core distract him.
“What is it about this--” she fanned her hand in the air and at her body “—that frightens you?” She smiled and showed the tiniest bit of fang.
“I’m not frightened.” The words hissed out and sounded harsh even to him. He took a step closer to her and leaned down, placing his face an inch from hers. “You don’t frighten me.”
Denver patted his cheek. “Good.” She pushed up on her toes as if to kiss him, her hand sliding down the muscles of his chest.
Reed captured her wrist, held it tightly in his grip. “Don’t.”
“I thought you weren’t frightened.”
“I’m not.” He blew out a breath, sucked in another. “One taste of you and my mind is fogged over with images of what I want to do to you… with you. If I start, and trust me, I want to, I won’t stop.” He stepped over to the window. “And we will continue what we’ve started.” He turned and again peeked beyond the makeshift shading. “We’ll leave at sunset.” He again glanced at her, curved the corner of his mouth. “And stop looking at me like that. You’re drunk.”
He stepped around her, grabbed his pants and tugged them on, the whirr of the zipper the only sound in the van, the only sound other than the pulse of his heart in his ears.
* * *
Was she drunk? That could very well be true. Denver’s gaze followed Reed as he moved from the place where they’d been sitting on the floor to where he stood at the window. Yes, it had been a long time since she’d fed on human blood and it did to her mind what his blood did to her body. She didn’t understand it and wasn’t sure if she even wanted to try. What she did know, his blood healed her like nothing she’d ever encountered. From the first taste when they were at the house to when she bit him in the van, all she could do was think about it and when she could have more.
More?
There was danger in his blood. Danger lurked in his veins like a forbidden drug, one that had addicted her from the first taste. And that’s how she felt, addicted. Her heart pounded just thinking about it. Heat pooled at her core and dampened the juncture between her thighs when she licked her lips hoping for a small remnant of a taste of his coppery ambrosia.
She knew she was going to have to be careful. If she didn’t, not having him would make her go mad with need, want, and desire.
Wondering what went through his mind, she closed her eyes and concentrated, hoping to pick up on his thoughts, his aura.
Nothing.
For the first time in her life she was angered with herself. In the beginning she was strong and powerful and could have anything she wanted and more. Now, because of her frivolous thoughts of humanity, everything she wanted she would have to fight for. Maggie was right. She had grown weak. For this she would never forgive herself. She stole another glance at Reed. Would she fight for him? How much? And to what extent?