Nicole Peeler - [Jane True 01] (17 page)

That’s it, you know
, my libido yawned, thoroughly bored with
my second-thoughts and guilty deliberations.
You don’t have to lie to Ryu.
He already knows your biggest secret—the secret you couldn’t even tell
Jason—and to him it’s perfectly normal. To him
you
are perfectly normal.

Not for the first time since I’d met Ryu, I felt a flash of hope.
Maybe
things can be different, maybe
I
can be different…

To cover my confusion, I helped myself to some more fruit salad. I
finished it off in silence. Ryu leaned back on his elbows beside me and I knew
he was watching me.

When we finished the savory food—leaving dessert for later—we packed up
the empty containers and plates and set them to the side. I’d tried not to eat
too much, but it had been too tasty, and I was pretty full. I lay back, looking
up at the stars and wishing I could undo my pants.
Or that someone would
undo them for you,
I admitted to myself. I knew where this night was
headed—had known since the moment Ryu said the word “picnic.” And I knew I
wanted what he wanted, if for different reasons. Maybe this was just another
fling for someone like him, but it was
my
first chance to
have
a
fling.

And man do I wanna get flung.

Ryu wiped off one of the plates with his napkin, setting it down above
my head to place our freshly filled champagne glasses on it. Then he lay down
next to me and placed a hand on my belly.

“The food baby’s kicking,” I commented, nervously.

“Hmm?” he inquired. He had his head propped up on his hand, his weight
on his elbow, so that he hovered above me disconcertingly.
You shouldn’t
have lain down
, my brain scolded.
Oh yes, you should
, my lady bits
buzzed.

“My food baby. You know, when you eat too much…” My voice trailed off
when I saw the look in his eyes. Ryu didn’t want to hear about food babies. He
wanted to kiss me. Which he proceeded to do.

His lips were hot against mine, but not as hot as the hand that had
slipped under my thin knit sweater to stroke down my side. That hand gripped my
hip, pulling me toward him, and his kiss deepened. His tongue flicked over my
lips, seeking entry, and I felt a frisson as my own lips grazed a very sharp
fang.

I froze, suddenly overcome by anxiety. I’d only been with one man in my
life, and that had been years ago. Thinking of Jason, I felt my cold sliver
shift inside of me. I’d wanted the opportunity to move on for so long. But now,
confronted with a living, breathing—not to mention insanely hot—man who knew
about my life and didn’t run away, I felt my nerves as keenly as my lust. Not
least because Ryu wasn’t
actually
human; he was a vampire. Did vampires
have sex like we did? Would he bite me? Did we need a condom? Or three, if we
included his fangs?

Ryu’s golden eyes opened, and he looked deep into mine. His hand emerged
from underneath my sweater. He stroked it down to cover my belly and gave me
one more gentle kiss before he asked, “Jane, my lovely, what do you do to
relax?”

I stared at him for a moment, slightly startled. “I swim,” I answered
finally.

He sighed. “I thought you’d say that.” And then I knew what was coming.
That old chestnut—skinny-dipping.

Ryu stood and stripped off quickly. I caught a glimpse of solidly
muscled thighs and a high, tight derriere before he ran off down the beach,
hollering, “C’mon, Jane!” at the top of his lungs.

I knew that nudity on cold beaches led to gratuitous amounts of warming
afterward, but it was too tempting to resist. Besides, the sea was
my
domain.

I pulled off my green Converse and matching sweater, and then off came
the rest. Ryu was already splashing through the shallows when I caught up; then
I flashed past him and out into the arms of my sea.

We swam for what felt like hours, although it must only have been about
forty minutes. Not since my mother had left had I swum with another person the
way I did that night. The sea was achingly cold and fairly rough, but Ryu could
just about keep up with me. We splashed and played like otters: I’d let him
catch me and kiss me, before I’d slip away again. When he looked like he was
getting tired, I’d allow him to capture me for a little while longer,
surreptitiously supporting him a bit while he took a breather. “How can you
swim so well?” I hollered at him at one point, the waves loud in our ears.

“We’re strong,” he shouted back, running a hand over my backside.
That’s
not resting
, I thought, and dove away.

Adding to the excitement of tonight’s swim was that I recognized, for
the first time, what I was doing when I was in the ocean. That slight tingle,
like static energy, I’d felt when the others had used their power was now
coming from me. And for every burst of energy I used to hold Ryu up or to
propel me away from him, the sea refilled it. I was drawing from her strength
the way a fetus draws from its mother. Yet, conversely, I’d never felt so
powerful, so in control, in my life.

When I could see that Ryu had had enough, I headed back toward the
beach. I started walking to the blanket, still illuminated by the soft pink
light, when I was picked up from behind. Ryu was carrying me,
like Rhett
carried Scarlett
, I thought.
Except that Rhett and Scarlett weren’t
dripping wet and naked
.

I looked up at his handsome face as he smiled down hungrily at me, his
fangs sparkling in the moonlight. I probably should have been freaked out by
them, yet I felt entirely safe in his arms. His fangs marked him as different,
making him closer to me somehow. We were both far from normal, and neither of
us cared. This sense of security, coupled with the excitement of the evening
and the feeling of power and authority I’d had swimming just now, wiped away
all my previous doubts.

“Are you cold?” he murmured, as he lowered me to the blanket.

“No,” I whispered, all trace of anxiety gone.

“Well, I am,” he said, pulling me on top of him and wrapping us both in
the blanket.

This time it was I who kissed him. I straddled his thighs, leaning down
into his lips as his arms wrapped around me. I went into the kiss slowly,
unsure of how to circumnavigate his prickly bits. But he was a good teacher,
and pretty soon I was French kissing a vampire as if I’d been doing it all my
life. Most of the basics seemed to translate. And when I sucked gently at his
tongue as it entered my mouth, I heard him groan, and my heart thrilled at the
sound. My lips trailed over his cheek, to his ear, where it explored a bit, and
then traced down his jaw to his neck. He tasted like my sea, and I licked his
skin ardently, loving the taste and texture of his salty clavicles under my
tongue.

I also took a second to take a gander at his body. It was everything
first impressions had promised. His shoulders were very broad and elegantly
muscled, his hairless chesticles crowned by the sweetest looking little
nipples.
Mmm, nipples
, my own body purred.

He moaned and tightened his arms around me as I worked my way down to
one of those pretty pink nubbins. I sucked, gently at first, but more roughly
as he responded by whispering my name. It all seemed a bit too much for him
when I started to make my way over to his other nipple, and he only let me
latch on for a split second before he buried his hands in my hair and pulled my
face up toward his.

He held me to him to kiss me aggressively, his very extended fangs
difficult to avoid, and I had a feeling my lips were going to be a bit sliced
and diced when this was all over. There was no discomfort, however. Only the
pleasure of his mouth on mine, transmitting to me his desire.

In the meantime, he’d had enough of being submissive. With preternatural
strength, Ryu gently flipped us over so that he was on top. I felt something
hot and hard against my thigh as he kissed me thoroughly, and I knew I’d had
one question answered. Then his hands, and then his mouth, were at my breasts.
His fingers massaged one while his lips locked on the other. I arched my back,
my turn to moan, as his hand wandered from my breast to my stomach and down
between my legs.

I spread my thighs as he shifted between them. I put one arm behind my
head as a pillow and used the other to run my fingers through his hair as he
began to kiss his way south, following the trail his hand had just blazed. I
wasn’t much good at map reading, but I knew when my own compass registered that
he’d hit home. I couldn’t help but press down on his head as his tongue lapped
hungrily at the center of my pleasure, and he responded by squeezing my hips
with his hands.

I nearly cried out with frustration when he moved back up my body to kiss
me, letting me taste myself on his lips. Then he knelt upright between my
thighs, holding onto my right hand. He put his thumb back on my sweet spot and
looked me in the eyes while he gently licked at my wrist, kissing and nipping
right where my pulse beat under my skin. Right over my old scars.

“I want to bite you, here, on your wrist,” he said, his voice husky with
passion. “I promise it won’t hurt; that you’ll enjoy it. Do you trust me,
Jane?”

My stomach tensed as his clever fingers drove me toward orgasm and then
stopped, backing off just enough to let me come down slightly before driving me
forward again. Which was patently unfair, under such circumstances, since I
would have agreed to just about anything he asked. That said, I also wanted him
as
a vampire. His swimming with me, like he did, had convinced me I
wanted all of him, including those fangs. I nodded, incapable of speech, as I
moaned my assent. He smiled, kissed my palm, and then went back to gently
licking the rough skin of my wrist.

I could feel my pleasure building, and I put my fingers over his own to
adjust the pace of his thumb. “Ryu,” I warned, “I’m coming,” just as I came. I
cried out, arching my back, but his eyes never left mine.

And then he bit down, hard.

There was the slightest suggestion of pain, but it was quickly
overwhelmed by both my powerful orgasm and a secondary sensation of pleasure
coming from my wrist. It felt like my own climax, but somehow both fainter and
edgier, and it pulsed with each powerful draw of his mouth. His teeth were only
locked on my flesh for a minute before he let go, licking gently at the wound
as the pain faded utterly.

“Wow,” I said, pulling my wrist down to look at it as he bent over to
nuzzle my breasts. I inspected his handiwork; while my skin was still
crisscrossed with ragged scars, they were nothing new. Ryu had completely
healed me of his bite.

“Told you you’d be saying that often,” Ryu reminded my cleavage, before
he kissed up my body to my mouth. His eyes bore into mine as his hands shifted
my hips for better access.

I must have looked concerned, because he smiled. “Don’t worry,” he
murmured. “We don’t need protection. My kind can’t carry disease and neither
can we procreate without intention. And procreation is
not
one of my
many intentions for you tonight,” he explained, between kisses.

“Ummm, Ryu?” I retorted, intelligently, as he kissed down toward my
cleavage again. It’s just that I’d seen that made-for-TV movie, and I knew
better than to believe a man who said, “Trust me, baby, my penis is harmless!”

“Hmmm?” he replied, nuzzling away at my boobs like a contented puppy.
But when he saw that I still looked concerned, he smiled resignedly. “I’ve got
protection, if it makes you feel better,” he said. I nodded and he sighed,
reaching for his trousers.

I knew he was probably telling me the truth and we didn’t need the
condom. Not to mention, I’d just handily violated every aspect of my
blood-borne-pathogen training by letting him bite me. But I wasn’t about to end
up sitting in the free clinic, knocked up or with vampire crabs, so I gave
Ryu’s slightly martyred mug my best “tough titty, McVitty” smile.

After he’d found a condom, I tried to mitigate his obvious
disappointment by illustrating how applying latex could be fun for both parties,
if approached with enthusiasm. And a little oral sex. Then, with one last
parting caress to his undercarriage that left him cross-eyed, I lay back and
opened myself to him. He followed me back down to the blanket, where, in one
long, slow motion, he slid into me, leaving me gasping.
It’s been too long
,
I thought, reveling selfishly in my own pleasure. He moved inside of me, gently
at first, letting me adjust to him as his lips toyed with mine. Then his kisses
deepened, as did his thrusts, and soon we were going at it like two teenagers
who had just discovered their apparently mismatched parts were actually
wonderfully harmonized. I moved my hand between our bellies, placing my finger
on my clit to help move things along, and he raised himself up on his hands to
watch me touch myself.

“Oh, Jane,” he moaned, his hips starting to move erratically. My own
pleasure was building fast, and seeing the lust on his face propelled
everything even quicker. Calling my name, and burying his face in my neck, I
felt him come just as my own orgasm washed over me, annihilating all conscious
thought.

We lay there, kissing and cuddling for a few minutes, to catch our
breath. I hadn’t felt this good in a really long time. I knew there’d be hell
to pay with my guilt the next day, but for right now I pushed everything out of
my mind and just enjoyed the feel of Ryu’s body pressed against mine.