Undeniable (21 page)

Sebastian rolled over onto his stomach, then reached out and
hooked his arm around her tube before it could float away. “So tell me about
this dance. It must be pretty special to warrant a wish.”

“It’s just a dance.” She wondered how he’d react if he knew
she danced naked for wishes. When she shrugged, he laughed.

“What’s so funny?”

“I just thought of the kind of dance I’d grant wishes for.”
He tugged on the edge of her tube, spinning her until her head was even with
his. She hung her head back and stared up into eyes that never failed to
entrance her.

“If I were the moon,” he said, rising up on his elbows, “I’d
want you naked while you danced, then I could touch every inch of your skin and
bathe you in my light.”

He cradled her head in his hands and leaned down. Brushing
her lips with his as he spoke, he added, “And when the sun rose and sent me
back into hiding, I’d suffer every second of the day, knowing its rays now
caressed my goddess.”

Diana rose up and closed the minute gap between their
mouths. No one had ever spoken to her like this. Like she was truly a goddess,
an endearment he used in place of her name more and more often. Their lips met,
tenderly embraced. The passion that coiled in her body whenever she so much as
thought of him unfurled. She raised her arms, wrapped them around his neck and
moaned until his lips parted and his tongue gave her what she craved. Over the
past week, she’d grown addicted to his kisses and spent their time apart
counting the minutes until he wrapped her in his arms and crushed her trembling
lips with that miraculous mouth.

How could his kisses taste so sweet, gratify a need that
bordered on pain? She nibbled at his lower lip, then moaned when he slid it
into her mouth. When she sucked it in deeper, a rumble rose from his chest. Her
heart pounded. Every muscle clenched. She suddenly heard the animals, birds and
insects surrounding them, smelled the pine trees, wild flowers and earth along
the bank rushing past as the current picked up speed and seemed to hurl them
down river.

His hands left her face, skimmed down her neck, over her
shoulders, then cupped her breasts in a way she could only describe as
possessive. She thought she heard him saying her name, chanting it reverently,
knew it had to be her imagination since his lips never left hers. Liquid heat
slid between her nether lips, so hot she expected it to sizzle as it slid into
the cool water.

Silently she begged, pleaded and implored him to rip off the
bathing suit that had suddenly become too coarse against her sensitized skin
and make love to her out here beneath the gaze of her beloved moon.

Sebastian wrenched free of her grasp, slid off his tube and
disappeared below the water.

Diana cursed and clenched her fists. Still moving with the
current, she waited for him to surface. As long seconds passed with no sign of
him, her nails dug into her palms. “Sebastian!”

He shot up out of the water at least thirty feet away and
let out a roar that sent the birds in the surrounding trees shooting into the
sky. Although his roar and the sight of his black tee-shirt clinging to his
chest enflamed her desire to the point where she too considered submerging into
the river to extinguish the inferno engulfing her body, her stomach lurched. He
sounded a little too much like a wild animal.

She watched him disappear beneath the surface and fought to
contain the panic closing her throat. A second later, faster than anyone she
knew could have swam such a distance, he shot out of the water a foot away from
his tube.

“Will I ever see this dance,” he asked as he swiftly caught
up with his tube.

Still unsettled from his roar and the speed of his return,
she closed her eyes. “Maybe if you stay around long enough, I’ll show you.”

Sebastian settled back into the tube. “Oh, I’m not going
anywhere.”

He sounded so sure. She wished she could feel the same way,
should since her grandmother held no doubts that the man floating down the
river beside her was indeed her soul mate. But ever since she discovered the
truth about Luna and Colette, Diana found herself wondering about everyone she
met. Especially those she only saw after the sun set.

She had yet to see Sebastian during the day. His excuses
always made sense, but her doubts grew with each passing day. “I never knew
they had midnight tubing. It’s amazing how many things you’ve introduced me to.
Midnight horse trails, all night fairs. Restaurants that serve six course
dinners in the wee hours of the morning.”

Holding her hand under the water, Sebastian tugged and
brought her tube closer to his. “You just have to know where to go. Are you
enjoying this?”

“I’m loving it.” Something soft bumped against her butt.
“It’s a little scary, though, when you can’t see what’s under the water.” She
rolled onto her stomach, rested her cheek on the tube, and glanced over her arm
at Sebastian. He flung his head back, dunking his hair into the water, then
turned. His eyes met hers.

She drew in a sharp breath at the desire burning in his
gaze. He always wanted her. Never hid his desire.

Never went further than foreplay. She yelped when something
slid under her stomach.

“You have nothing to fear, Diana. I’m here.”

He didn’t say it in a boastful way or like a man flexing his
muscles; he said it as calmly as if he were commenting on the weather.

“You know, there’s bears up in them there hills,” she
mumbled with an exaggerated twang, “and they’s mighty big.”

“Not big enough to get past me.” He rolled over, wrapped his
arm across her back and brought her tube closer. “If you’re really scared, we
could always bring our tubes to that pond at your house.”

Diana laughed at the lecherous look he cast her way. “Is
this an elaborate plan to get me naked in the shower again?”

“I have a photographic memory,” he said, his voice growing
deeper with every word. “I merely have to look at you to remember every detail
of that night.”

Heat enveloped her wherever his burning gaze lit. She rolled
onto her back, needing to feel it travel over her breasts, down her bare
stomach to the spot where the river rose up to cool the fire in her pussy.

“Anyway, that bikini really doesn’t leave much to the
imagination. You’re shivering. I told you to keep your clothes on.”

Diana humphed. “I’m shivering because I thought you
drowned.”

Sebastian glanced at the scratch on her neck. He’d sipped
her blood each night over the past week, only enough to satisfy his hunger
during the daylight hours and relieve the throbbing that seemed to annoy her
more and more. If he continued, she would notice that the scratch never fully
healed. He reached out and brushed his knuckles over it. “You’ve been at this
again. That twitch is still bothering you?”

“It’s not so bad. Well, most of the time.”

He wondered how long it would take before she noticed that
his presence aggravated her twitch until his mouth gently sucking on the open
sore appeased her body’s need to merge completely with his. No one had ever
tampered with the timing of the bonding ritual. He and Diana were only a week
into the first stage…one night merging their bodies and blood followed by a
month of denial. He needed three more weeks.

As soon as he’d discovered that Diana was his soul mate,
he’d gone to Tobias, requested and received approval to pass minor amounts of
blood to appease her. Luckily, for him, his elder had a knack for being vague.
Sebastian found a loophole and used it to rationalize sating his own hunger.
Tobias, more likely than not, meant feeding the hunger that could destroy
Diana’s mind and body. While the pulsing vein in her neck annoyed her, it
wouldn’t harm her body or mind.

But Tobias had only said to appease her and sucking on her
neck certainly seemed to do just that.

Sebastian!
His mother’s enraged voice sliced through
his thoughts.

Ignoring her, he pulled Diana’s tube closer, lifted her out
and, dragging her under the water, drowned himself in her kiss. His mother
could wait. There were too many hours left to enjoy with Diana before dawn
broke over the mountains. When he felt her hands slip into his pants and cup
him, he decided he’d spend every second of every night with this goddess before
giving her up to the damned sun.

As the weeks passed, his mother’s voice summoning him became
more and more insistent and rattled his thoughts.

* * * * *

“I’ve been calling you for weeks. How dare you ignore me? I
can’t believe I had to resort to using this human gadget to speak to my own
son.”

Sebastian gripped the phone. “You know I’ve been busy. I
have to watch Diana constantly during the night hours, just in case she’s
helping her father.”

“You’ve been out with that slut every night for a month and
you still haven’t decided what to do?”

Sebastian winced and held the phone away from his ear. The
distance prevented Olympia’s angry voice from piercing his ears, but did not
stop her rage from slamming into his head. “I’m supposed to find Nostrum’s
weapon, aren’t I?” he coolly asked.

“Yes, but you were only given a week. Let me send Diego.
He’s itching to get his hands on her.”

“Send him and I’ll return him to you with a broken neck. I
have the elders’ approval to take as long as I need, Mother. If you go behind
my back or do anything to hinder me from uncovering more information, I swear I
will personally bring you before the elders for usurping their orders.”

He strode into his kitchen and glanced out the window.
Tonight Diana had plans that didn’t include him, plans she’d refused to discuss.
Jealousy had kept him awake all day. By the time the sun’s last ray shining
over the mountain ridge above his home had blinked out, he was already dressed
and heading out the door. The thought of someone else kissing her lips,
touching her body enraged him.

But what he couldn’t handle, what nearly sent him over the
edge was imagining someone else feeling her body quiver as she laughed at his
jokes, someone else listening to her wish upon a star or speak to the moon as
if it were her dearest friend, someone else wiping the tears she shed from some
scene in a movie.

Someone else watching her eyes darken with desire.

The emptiness and despair that overwhelmed him when he so
much as thought of never again sharing those times with her shook him. The
moment the UV sensors on his roof had chimed, he’d bolted out his door,
slamming it so hard behind him the hinges had cracked. The sound of the phone
ringing and the possibility that she’d changed her mind had sent him running
back into the house like some lovesick fool.

When he’d heard his mother’s voice, a new, more terrifying
fear took root. Without him, Diana would be helpless against Olympia or any
vampire she sent her way. All month Diana had survived accidents that could
have turned deadly. “One more attempt on her life, Mother, and you’ll have to
face me.”

“Now, Sebastian,” his mother said, her voice taking on the
tone of a doting parent, “you know I would never do that.”

He went to the front door, opened it and stared out into the
darkness, probing for some clue of Diana’s whereabouts.

“You have to watch out for that witch, Sebastian. Mark my
words, she’s the weapon! You’re all the proof I need.”

His mother’s voice drew him away just as he imagined he
caught Diana’s scent on a breeze. He frowned at how strong it seemed, as if she
were just over the ridge separating his home from Marek’s.

“Me? What the hell are you talking about?” He raked his hand
through his hair. He had to get off this phone. It no longer mattered where
Diana had gone tonight, he had to find her. He hadn’t tasted her blood the last
few nights, his guilt over manipulating Tobias’ words getting the best of him.

His hunger drove him mad. Nothing soothed it except Diana
kissing him, Diana wrapping him in her warmth, Diana relieving some of the pressure
by feeding off the gash he opened in his mouth just before bringing it down to
meet hers.

Just last night, he’d even chanced leaving before dusk to
find her. Luckily, the sun’s rays were too weak to do any harm. Drawing in a
deep breath, he shook his head. Could she be so close? It didn’t matter.
Wherever she was, he’d soon find her. Nothing mattered but seeing her, feeling
her. “I’m fine.”

“Are you? Are you sure you’re not delaying the punishment
because she’s worked her wicked spells on you? Are you sure she doesn’t already
have you so twisted that you’ll follow her anywhere?”

Sebastian’s heart stilled. Anywhere?

His nostrils flared as another gentler breeze surrounded him
with her scent.

“Sebastian!”

Sebastian clenched his hand until the phone shattered.
Slamming the door behind him, he set out to follow that scent
anywhere
it led until he found his mate.

“Are the torches for me,” Diana asked Colette as she picked
up the salad bowl from the picnic table.

Colette stopped clearing the table and gazed at the torches
encircling the yard. Her eyes shone. “I always light them. Marek bought them.
He bought the tree lights too.”

Diana gazed at the multitude of tiny white lights sparkling
in the Weeping Cherry trees lining a wide path to the lake. “They’re beautiful.
Did Marek have a problem with his night vision?”

“Night vision?” Colette shot a worried look across the yard
at her daughter.

Luna skimmed her feet along the ground, abruptly halting her
swing, and stared intently into her mother’s eyes. After a moment she shook her
head. Another moment passed. Luna brought her finger up to her chest and drew
an X.

Watching the scene between mother and child, Diana wondered
if they somehow spoke to each other.

Colette turned her attention back to clearing the table, her
brows furrowed, her hands shaking.