He was reminded of another time, when losing options like that had ruined his relationship with a woman he truly loved.
He looked down at Katie, who lay with her eyes closed, and her honey-colored hair tangled around her on the mattress. A slight smile curved her pretty pink lips.
She didn’t look upset. In fact, she looked quite content but that was probably because the reality of her situation and all the changes that would cause in her life hadn’t sunk in yet.
He hated the idea that bitterness and regret might overshadow her cheerful nature. But he didn’t see how it couldn’t. Becoming a vampire hadn’t been her choice. That would anger her eventually. He’d seen it happen. It had destroyed his first wife. And in the process, it had destroyed him. He’d vowed then to never let something like this happen again. But now it had.
“What’s got you looking so serious?”
Cort realized he was still staring down at Katie, although in the moment, he hadn’t been seeing her.
Katie smiled up at him, then caressed his cheek. Her gentle, affectionate touch thrilled him, but it also stirred more feelings of guilt inside him as well.
“I’m just blown away by how amazing that was,” he told her, which wasn’t a lie. Not in the least. It was the best sex he’d ever had. And for someone who had lived as long as he had, that was saying a whole lot. He’d even believed at one time he’d once been married to his soul mate, but the crazy events of last night had him questioning that, too.
He was starting to believe Katie Lambert—wait, she was Katie Cortez now—was his soul mate.
Oh yeah, totally crazy. Totally crazy. Sure he’d known her a long time, but really? Could the events of one night really prove this woman was his destiny?
And let’s not forget that he didn’t even remember the events. Yeah, he couldn’t make an assumption like that.
But with their bodies still touching, his c**k still nestled between her thighs. Her hands stroking him so sweetly . . .
He looked down into her eyes, so blue he felt as if he could drown in them. And drowning in those beautiful eyes, there was no doubt in his mind that she was supposed to be with him.
He knew that, but did she? Did Katie feel the same way? Because he’d believed once before the woman he wanted to spend eternity with felt the same way. But he’d been wrong. Deadly wrong.
He couldn’t risk that kind of assumption again. And he couldn’t try to force his feelings on this woman. She seemed to be taking her vampirism amazingly well, but he was pretty sure that was because it hadn’t fully sunk in. How could it?
“Are you sure you are okay?” she asked again, her fingers twining through the unruly waves of his hair.
He nodded, then lowered his head to kiss her lingeringly.
“I’m better than okay,” he murmured against her lips.
He felt her smile, and joy—joy he knew he probably didn’t deserve—warmed his chest, making him feel almost human again.
He realized in kissing this woman that he was in love with her, and had been from afar for a long time. Which explained so many things that he hadn’t been willing to look at before now.
Like the fact he hadn’t really dated since he’d met her. Three years without dating. Okay, three years to a vampire wasn’t even a blip on the radar, but it was also unusual for a male vampire to abstain—or any male, really. And since he didn’t bite to feed, and he hadn’t gotten laid on a regular basis for years, he was sort of the king of self-denial.
But he hadn’t been interested in sex with anyone but Katie. And now that he thought about it, the only time he had found any contentment was when he was around her. And he’d found reasons to go into work early, just to catch her playing. He also found reasons to convince her to stay to watch them. Which, now that he thought about it, he never really had to twist her arm to convince her.
So what the hell had stopped him from making this move long ago?
He looked back down at her, mussed and sated. She was beautiful, as always, but her beauty was slightly different now. Her skin glowed paler, almost pearlescent, and her full lips were a deeper pink, rosy and ripe. Her looks were changing, even this soon. Vampirism enhanced the vampires’ looks, making them more alluring, more appealing. Cort supposed it was nature’s way of making them more effective hunters, another way of drawing their prey to them like some lovely and very deadly flower.
He knew the changes would happen, and he was just as susceptible to her increased beauty, but those changes upset him, too. They reminded him that she truly never would be the same Katie she’d been yesterday. And he’d changed her.
Would she really be alright? Would she eventually resent him?
He met her eyes, noticing under her content, lowered lashes, they looked different, too. More pupil than iris, more black than cheerful blue.
Katie raised her head then, and kissed him. Her movements were hungry and aggressive, and his body instantly reacted, his cock, still nestled between her thighs, stirred and quickly hardened. Now that was one definite upside to being a vampire—little to no recovery time.
“I want you again,” she murmured against his lips, her hands roaming over him, as demanding as her lips.
He could tell, and he wanted her, too. Desperately.
For a moment, his concerns were overshadowed by desire. He couldn’t think of anything but her body writhing underneath him, her fingers digging into the flesh and muscle of his back.
Her lips strayed from his mouth to kiss the length of his jawline and sensitive underside, moving downward toward his neck.
He found himself angling his head, finding her open-mouthed kisses as exciting and sensual as everything else about her.
Damn, everything she did drove him wild. He ground his hips against her, his c**k prodding the entrance of her sex. She parted her legs more, inviting him inside. Back inside her, where he belonged.
Just as he positioned himself, the head of his penis just sliding inside her, he felt it.
Pure ecstasy. He gasped, then groaned, the sound broken and breathy.
She’d bitten him. Her fangs punctured his skin in that perfect place along his neck, just above his collarbone.
Oh. Dear. God. This had to be what heaven was like.
His eyes drifted shut, and he submitted to her, and just when he would have orgasmed from the sheer ecstasy of her bite, a moment of reality hit him.
She was a fledgling. She wouldn’t know when to stop. She could literally suck him dry. And for another brief moment, he wondered if he even cared. It simply felt too wonderful right this moment.