home’s threshold to when he placed her gently on her bed. His eyes glowed with a brilliant blue hue that, for the first time, she thought of as beautiful and not frightening.
“I must have lost my mind along with a few layers of skin,” he said.
She sat up and captured his mouth, needing to taste him again. His hands slid under her T-shirt and unclasped her bra. And then his hands found their way unerringly to her breasts. Though he possessed incredible strength, he applied only enough pressure to make her gasp in yearning. Needing to feel him, she tugged off his long-sleeved tee and let her hands move wherever they wanted across his sculpted chest, his strong arms, his muscled back.
He was perfect.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said, his words reverent.
“So are you.”
He gave her a crooked smile. “Don’t ever say that in front of the guys, or I will never hear the end of it.”
Feeling more daring and needy than she ever had, she ran her hand down his chest to the top of his cargo pants. “I don’t plan on talking to anyone for many hours.”
With a growl that was supercharged with sexual promise, he pressed her back against the bed and kissed her nearly into oblivion. They paused for moments in between kisses to remove and toss clothing. And when he stretched his long body along hers, skin to skin, she nearly cried with need.
“I want you,” she whispered against his wet lips.
“You’re sure? Because once we do this, I can tell you I’m never going to want to let you go.”
She knew he meant it as a warning, but she accepted it as a promise. She placed her mouth next to his ear. “Good,” she whispered.
His mouth latched on to her breast, and for a moment the old fear surged into her despite her belief in him. What if his fangs descended? What if he couldn’t help himself?
Campbell looked up at her. “I won’t hurt you. I swear it.” There was such conviction in his words that she believed him totally.
And in the next second she lost the ability to think beyond registering pure sensation. Campbell kissed her all over, making her body tingle in the most delicious way. He drove her to a frenzy just with his mouth and hands.
“I can’t wait anymore,” she said.
When he entered her in one fluid motion, she cried out, not caring if the neighbors heard her.
He slid out, then back in again, exquisite pleasure and torture all at once. She grabbed his hips and pressed down as she surged her own upward. He growled and pulled her hard against his body, then started pumping. Her breath rasped out in ragged gasps, faster and faster, mimicking his strokes within her. She matched his rhythm, getting closer and closer to her pinnacle.
“Faster,” she said, and he complied.
They were beasts of frenetic motion, and with another powerful thrust she came apart. He continued to ride her—and that was what it was, a crazy, beautiful, hammering ride—until he reached his own release and cried out her name.
They collapsed in a tangle of arms and legs, their lungs heaving. Olivia snuggled close to him and marveled at the rise and fall of his chest.
“You’re breathing,” she said.
“Yeah. It’s not essential, but our bodies still remember and react. Running, climbing stairs, making love to a gorgeous woman.” He pulled her close and kissed the top of her head.
He held her so carefully that her heart opened up like a blooming flower. As improbable as it might seem, even to her, she loved him. She lifted herself so she could look in his eyes. “Can vampires love?”
He smiled. “I think I just answered that question.”
She twirled her finger along his chest. “Not make love. Love.”
His expression changed, growing more serious. “Evidently so.”
He kissed her with such feeling that her body started to hum again. This time they made love so torturously slow that she thought she might start begging for release before he got around to giving it to her.
In the lazy aftermath of their lovemaking, Campbell wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close to his side. “I’m sorry I have no warmth to offer you.”
“It’s okay. I think I’m warm enough for both of us at the moment.”
He chuckled and she liked the sound of him happy. She knew he had a strong sense of purpose, but she had no idea if this immortal life he was living held happiness. It seemed unreal that she, an everyday diner owner, could possibly be the person who could bring him that. Almost more unbelievable than the fact that the man bringing her happiness was a vampire.
She trailed her fingers over his chest, examining the muscles there.
“Be careful. You might get more than you bargain for,” he teased.
She lifted her head to look at him. “How do you know what I’m bargaining for?”
He lifted an eyebrow.
“Is that another of your vampire powers, to be able to make love all night long?”
A wicked grin stretched his lips. “Oh, no. That’s all me, one hundred percent Campbell Raines the man.”
She smiled back. “Mighty sure of yourself, aren’t you?”
“With good reason.”
She laughed as he rolled her onto her back and entered her again. Now she was definitely going to hire some help in the diner because she didn’t know if she was ever going to leave this bed again.
When Olivia fell asleep, Campbell lay next to her for a long time watching the slow rise and fall of her breath, the peaceful look on her face. When the vampire side of him tried to think about her blood, he forced himself out of her bed. He should leave, go to work, but he couldn’t make himself walk out the door. He stood and watched her sleep for several moments, marveling that she could rest so peacefully with a vampire next to her. That she had wanted to make love to him, to have him hold her.
She’d made him feel alive again.
God, he wanted that memory to go away. Hadn’t he had to relive that horrible night enough?
But he could so easily take Olivia’s life before he even thought about it. He’d almost done it before. The image of Bridget Jameson lying bleeding in his arms taunted him, whispering that it was only a matter of time before it was Olivia hanging from his grasp like a rag doll robbed of its stuffing.
He slipped his pants on and wandered into the living room. A check of the exterior out both her front window and the sliding glass door revealed quiet, vampire-free streets. When he turned away from the balcony door and headed back toward her small living area, he spotted a framed photo on a shelf full of books. He picked it up and looked at a beaming Olivia with her arms around a sandy-haired guy. They stood on a pier that jutted into the ocean, the sun bright overhead.
He’d never be able to give her that.
“That’s Jeremy,” she said as she crossed the room from her bedroom doorway.
“I’d assumed. You look happy.”
“We were. We’d gone to Florida on vacation, just a couple of months before the virus hit.”
He lifted the picture and looked at her. “I can’t give you this.”
“No, but you have other things to give.”
“What? I deal with death and crime and the dark underbelly of vampire society. There are no sunsets or sunrises or building sandcastles on the beach. I can’t even take you outside at night for fear I’d have to fight off other vampires. And I can’t go outside with you in the daylight. What could I possibly give you?” With each word, he felt as if he were ripping himself more raw inside.
