Cherry Stem Read online

  He pinched my clit, spicing my pleasure with just enough pain to make me moan. I lay back, my arms no longer able to support my weight.

  “I want to be the only one tasting you.” He knelt in front of me and pushed my legs up and farther apart before using his thumbs to spread me open. The moment his tongue entered me, I bucked my hips. His mouth was warm, and he used it to map every inch of my pussy, sucking on my clitoris, fucking me with his tongue, grazing his teeth over my inner thigh and labia. All my senses were in overdrive. I could smell the night air, see the stars even when I let my eyelids drift shut, feel the tiny speckles of dust beneath my fingertips. Most of all, though, I could feel the heat in my pussy, each touch of Alex’s tongue and teeth adding to the pressure inside me.

  I brought my legs up and draped them over his shoulders. When he pressed the tip of a finger coated in my juices against my second entrance, I’m pretty sure I dug a stiletto heel into his upper back. I’d always been kind of protective of my ass, but at that moment, with Alex eating me out the way he was, I didn’t resist the intrusion. A second finger found its way past the outer circle of muscle, adding to the burning sensation consuming my lower body. Just when I thought it was all too much, he replaced his tongue with his free hand.

  I gathered up every ounce of strength I could and lifted my head to look down the length of my body. Alex was fucking me with both hands and looking at my splayed body with reverence, the likes of which I’d never seen before.

  “I want you.” My lips and throat felt dry. “Only you. Make love to me.” I no longer cared we could be giving the neighbors a show, even though it was the middle of the night.

  He crawled up my body without my having to ask twice. I tried to help him undo his jeans, needing him inside me as soon as possible, but my hands felt lax. He was faster; he popped his buttons and freed his cock.

  He entered me slowly, ignoring my clutching his buttocks and urging him on. I didn’t want it slow, but not because I couldn’t deal with the feelings I associated with it. I was just so close I thought I’d burst if he didn’t make me come. “Please.”

  He wouldn’t be rushed in taking his pleasure or giving me mine. His cock slid in and out of my pussy languidly. My whole body tingled. I mewled and panted and begged, and he still didn’t change his rhythm.

  The tension inside me had reached a plateau. I needed something to let it all out. I rocked my hips faster and tried to wedge one hand between our bodies to rub my clit. Alex stopped me, pinning my wrist to the hood of the car. I groaned in frustration.

  “I want you to bite me,” he said, draping one of my legs over his arm so he could spread me even wider.

  His cock sank deeper than before, rubbing the bundle of nerves inside me with every downstroke, and I no longer cared about right and wrong. I tangled my fingers in his hair and buried my fangs in his throat, coming the instant his blood touched my tongue. The flavors erupting on my taste buds combined with Alex’s cock thrusting in my pussy to flood my pleasure centers with pure bliss. It felt like I was rolling on a cloud of euphoric sensations that never ceased. And I didn’t want them to cease. My body pulsed with more life than I’d felt since before my turning. I wanted Alex to keep fucking me forever while I drank him in.

  I had to force myself to let go after a few sips, afraid I’d rip Alex’s flesh, the way I was bucking and quivering. He still kept thrusting, faster and harder, until he suddenly pulled out, and I felt warm, thick liquid coat my lower belly and inner thighs.

  I didn’t know why he’d done that until he said, “I want you to smell like me.” He kissed me, probably to silence any protests.

  It was petty and childish after what we’d shared, but I didn’t mind. Because I loved him, and that meant loving his pettiness and childishness too.

  Yes, I loved him. It might seem silly, given the few days I had known him, but love can flash like lightning, striking you down in a split second. All of tonight had managed to wipe out my noble intentions of sacrificing my happiness for his normalcy. If all we had left together was one day, it was still worth an eternity of memories. Up to then, I’d been trying to convince myself that leaving him was the safest bet, but my heart would be broken without him one way or another. Perhaps I should take what he gave me and be with him for as long as we could make it work, or as long as he lived. And perhaps now was time for him to know how I felt.

  I took a deep breath, filling my lungs with air that I knew was useless but felt invigorating nonetheless. “I—”

  “It’s getting chilly out here. Want to move this inside?”

  His question drowned the words I’d meant to say. I could still say them, of course, yet somehow they were too huge to be said as an afterthought and too small to be allowed to get in the way of our investigation.

  Sometimes there’s only one specific moment, one opening. If you lose it, you may lose everything. I knew that; still I chose not to tell Alex I loved him.

  “Yeah, I’m sleepy.” I yawned. “Dawn is approaching.”

  He rose and held one hand out to me. I took it and smiled to myself when he wrapped his long fingers around mine. My palm looked small and pale, fragile, inside his darker, larger one, and for the first time since the night we’d met, I sensed that wasn’t just an illusion. Alex’s power wasn’t physical, but it was there, and he held a ton of it over me.

  * * * *

  It felt as if my eyelids had just drifted shut when an earsplitting ringing assailed my eardrums. It tore me violently from the blissfully hazy space between wakefulness and slumber. The wonderfully relaxed state I was in had lulled me into loosening my control over my senses, and Alex’s cell phone receiving a call an entire floor above us sounded like it was inside my head and trying to get out.

  Half rolling off his prone form, I shook his shoulder gently. “Your phone.”

  I was really sick and tired of getting woken up by phones, by the way. Next time we turned in, I’d personally make sure all the telephones in the house had the ringers switched off.

  Alex’s reply was a mumbled grumble.

  “I can’t bring it to you. It’s upstairs. The sunshine-filled upstairs. Get up.” My nudging, not very gentle this second time, had the desired effect of at least getting him to open his eyes. Whoever was calling was persistent, because the ringing continued while Alex took his time getting to his feet and climbing the stairs.

  I could pretend to have learned my lesson and say I chose the high road, but I admit that the only reason I didn’t listen in on his conversation had nothing to do with ethics. I was simply too sleepy to pay attention to it. I made myself as comfortable as possible and dozed off again.

  When Alex returned to the basement, I awoke long enough to hold my arms up to him, thinking I’d have to get up too. Instead he joined me in bed once more. “Roebuck warned me to stay away from his investigation,” he said without preamble. “Either that or cover my tracks better. If he hears about me looking into it again, he’ll sic Internal Affairs on me.”

  “Can he do that?” Sleep was weighing heavily on me, making it hard to remain alert. The possibility of Alex being investigated by Internal Affairs, however, was too important for me to give in to my drowsiness. “What will he say?”

  He gave me what looked like the facial expression equivalent of a shrug. “That I’m acting outside the law. Pursuing my own interests. He doesn’t have to make it stick, just have them up my ass.”

  I could feel my brow furrow and consciously relaxed it. Vampires don’t get wrinkles, but we do get tension headaches. “Doesn’t he owe you?”

  “Says he’s doing it for me, that I’m in over my head working this alone.” He turned me so my back was to him and enfolded me in his arms. The hairs on his forearm tickled my chin. I found that oddly comforting.

  “Maybe you should lie low for a while to get him off your back,” I said. “I can take it from here.” Not that I knew what there was for me to take; we’d more or less been running in circles and chasing
our tails so far. Sure, we had figured out that at least one of the council members was corrupt and plotting nefarious schemes, but unless we found out more, there was nothing we could do.

  “We’ve already covered that,” he said. “The answer is no. Now sleep. I want to catch some shut-eye.” He kissed the back of my head and tightened the sheets around us.

  I pushed one of my feet between his shins. “Yes, sir.”

  I’d really screwed up his sleeping pattern, turned his night into day, and vice versa. That would be bad when the case was over and we didn’t absolutely have to spend day and night together.

  That last thought was depressing enough to keep me up the rest of the day.

  Chapter Fifteen

  I doubt Alex would have taken as long to prepare for a date as he did to receive Constantine.

  He didn’t shower, and his scowl when I mentioned I’d like to freshen up deterred me from doing so myself, but he took his time applying gel to his hair, only to muss it up to what he considered perfection. I thought his hair looked adorable—and exactly the same—both before and after he’d painstakingly separated and positioned the curls in a way that showed he’d just gotten out of bed, but I was too busy biting back my comments about what a girl he was being to say anything about it.

  The best part was when time came for him to put a shirt on, and he realized he’d have to do his hair all over again, because the neckline of the tight white t-shirt he’d chosen—with comfort and not muscle definition in mind, I’m sure—dared touch the top of his head. That was when I decided the sight was too much for me. I hopped off the toilet lid where I’d been sitting and watching him and put on a pair of skintight jeans and a sleeveless top that wasn’t revealing enough for Alex to think I was putting extra effort into looking enticing for my ex’s sake. I did put on some lipstick and used one of the makeup-removing pads I never left home without to erase the smudges of eyeliner and eye shadow from the previous night that had formed around my eyes, though. Not trying too hard didn’t mean I had to look like a clown.

  Alex’s deodorant suffused my nostrils. If his refusing to shower had been so that Constantine could smell me on him, the deodorant would dull that effect significantly, since vampires don’t have intense body scent to begin with. Still, I knew Constantine would smell Alex on me. I hoped that wasn’t a bad thing.

  The doorbell rang once. My former lover had always been a gentleman—when he wasn’t banging a two-bit, ancient whore.

  I looked at Alex. I could be at the door before the spray can that was still in his hand had touched the shelf above the sink, but the alpha dog in him would no doubt find that insulting, to say the least.

  He placed his palm at the small of my back, like he’d done that first day we’d met. “Let’s not keep our guest waiting.” His smirk was scary.

  I spun so I could face him and said, “Promise me you won’t do anything stupid.”

  His gray eyes looked almost black as he stared at me for a split second before the hardness melted from the corners of his mouth and his lips parted in a boyish grin. “I promise not to do anything stupid first.”

  It would have to do.

  Upon reaching the stairs, I stepped aside for him to lead the way, and my gaze fell to the back pocket of his jeans.

  There was something there I thought had been left behind in the car.

  The stake I’d made for Willoughby.

  * * * *

  I missed Alex’s reaction when he opened the door because I was too busy doing a double take at the vampire on the doorstep.

  It was Constantine all right, but the version of him smiling at us was one I hadn’t encountered so far. His hair, loose, cascaded over his shoulders, which were bare except for the straps of his tank top, and his arms hung relaxed at his sides, thumbs in the belt loops of his faded jeans. Tan cowboy boots completed the ensemble. I hadn’t even known he owned a pair of those, or any kind of shoe that wasn’t patent leather and polished until you could see your image in it.

  He stood underneath the porch light, the halo forming around him carving his shape out of the night behind him in stark relief. I bet he was fully aware of how the luminescence added to his natural gorgeousness.

  “What’s with the disguise?” I asked. Focusing on how out of character he appeared was better than focusing on how hot that out of characterness looked. And it looked sizzling!

  He was looking at me as if I were naked, and for a moment I felt just that: naked and exposed to his shameless charm, with no defense but the human beside me.

  Alex, more polite on his worst day than I could be on my best behavior, held out his right hand. I knew he’d rather it be clenched in a fist, but he managed to keep his tension out of both his posture and his voice. “Alex Marsden.” I guess he could afford to be polite; his saliva wasn’t threatening to spill down his chin.

  Constantine’s eyes widened in surprise for an instant before he shook the proffered hand. “Constantine,” he said. He didn’t offer his last name, and Alex didn’t ask for it.

  When neither of them had broken the handshake or said something as dishonest as nice to meet you after a couple of very long seconds, I realized the greeting was, in fact, a macho territorial thing. Good thing neither of them was literally Alpha Dog, or I’d have had a pissing contest to deal with. I hoped Alex wasn’t trying to establish dominance by squeezing Constantine’s palm too hard because if Constantine squeezed back, Alex’s hand would soon look like raw burger. I listened. Nope, there was no sound of crunching bone.

  Shifting my gaze from their clasped hands to Constantine’s face, I saw he was sizing Alex up. They were the same height, give or take a quarter of an inch, but Constantine had cocked his head back and slightly to the side, so he was looking down at Alex. One glance at Alex revealed he was more or less appraising the competition as well. Fun, fun, fun!

  I was about to pipe up and ask what the urgency of the meeting was all about or just tickle their sides—anything to break the stalemate—when Constantine raised one corner of his upper lip enough to show a long white fang. “Aren’t you going to invite me inside, Mr. Marsden?” He was using his mesmerizing voice.

  Fuck! I hadn’t expected him to pull that crap on Alex. Why hadn’t I seen that coming? Why hadn’t I warned Alex not to hold his gaze? Because to me Constantine was not the enemy. What was more, since I wasn’t considering Alex my prey, I had overlooked the fact that he was prey to Constantine.

  Before I could try to snap Alex out of the mind hold my ex had imposed on him, Alex said, “Come in, Constantine.”

  Which, of course, the bastard did, sneering when Alex got out of his way and motioned for me to do the same. “You will remember I made you invite me inside but believe that this is the last I will mess with your free will.” He glanced my way. “No matter what Cherry tells you.”

  Way to cover his bases. Would it have been my fault if I grabbed the stake from Alex’s pants and went for a certain overconfident vampire’s heart? I settled for glaring at him instead, but with the same lethal intention.

  Alex nodded. When he spoke next, his voice was clear. “Just so you know, I believe you, but I have a stake in my pocket.” My man and I were in sync.

  Constantine, who’d just made himself comfortable in the armchair, stared at the front of Alex’s pants, and I saw that as the perfect opening to get back at him for having been a jerk moments earlier. “Stake’s in the back pocket. That’s all him.”

  I could feel both men’s stunned stares on my back as I made my way to the kitchen. “Can’t do this without a beer,” I said over my shoulder. “Too weird. Anyone else want something?”

  Alex asked for a beer too, and Constantine said he’d have a scotch if I didn’t have any blood. Scotch it would be, and I’d be naughty enough to water it, just because I could.

  “I’ll be right back. Meantime, play nice.” Not that I trusted them to do so, which was why I tried to hear everything they said while I was gone.

 
Unfortunately, keeping the beer from fizzing out of the glass took up enough of my concentration that I missed whatever it was that made Constantine laugh. Hearing his laughter, however, was enough to worry me. Had he decapitated Alex and was he now showering in his blood, like I bet used to be his customary dance of triumph once upon a time?

  Balancing all three glasses on a tray, I pushed the kitchen door open with my foot and returned to the living room as fast as I could without becoming a blur to the human eye or spilling the drinks.

  The danger of spillage was more imminent when I stopped than it had been while I’d been in motion; the sight that greeted me was enough to make me think the world was spinning backward. I mean, I’d asked the men to play nice but hadn’t honestly expected the level of nice I came upon.

  Constantine was sprawled in the armchair, looking at the ceiling and shaking his head in disbelief, while Alex half sat on the armrest of the couch and nodded vigorously. “That’s what I thought she was, man. It was an honest mistake! You’d have thought the same.”

  Hearing me approach, my former lover raised his head in a motion so fast that it reminded me of a serpent ready to attack its prey. Did that make me a helpless little mouse? Nah—a bird. Better be a bird. “Maybe our lessons in sophistication didn’t do as much good as I’d thought,” he said, his eyes narrowed, but not enough that I couldn’t see the glint of mirth in their irises.

  “Your lessons in landing my mark worked like a charm, though,” I said, not skipping a beat. For once I was extremely grateful I had no circulation and was spared the embarrassment of blushing from either the memory of the misunderstanding between Alex and me during our first encounter, or that of Constantine’s…lessons. I placed the tray on the coffee table, handed Constantine his liquor, and passed Alex his beer. Then I took my own and sat on the couch next to my current boyfriend, my arm draped over his thigh.