Black Sunshine: A Dark Vampire Romance

Then he lowers his head with a low, shuddering groan, and presses his chest against mine, our skin leaping at the contact, and he buries his mouth in my neck. Biting but not drawing blood. Just holding on.

I am so in love with him I never realized how wonderfully terrifying that is until now. To know that I have him, that I could lose him, lose us.

But his movements steal my fears, bring me back around and then he’s moving faster, knees planting on either side of me, his large, strong body looming over mine.

I feel safe.

Loved.

Wanted.

Not alone.

And then he’s moving faster and I’m holding back, wanting to come with him at the same time. I’m whispering to him in my head, Please. Now.

And he’s responding with another groan, this one sounding from the depths of him, and then his fist is in my hair and he’s holding tight, breath trembling, mouth open as he stares at me, thrusting in and out, shaking the bed.

What he means is not now, but soon.

So I dig my nails into his back, holding on, holding back as he fucks me slowly, and then fast, and everything in between, and I’m feeling everything at once, all my sense overwhelmed, drowning in him.

“I’m coming,” he rasps, staring at me with so much intensity I think I might come just from his eye contact alone, but it’s too much for him, and he’s throwing his head back, neck arched, letting out a rumbling cry as he comes, his muscles straining as he holds himself together above me.

And I, I let myself go, the crescendo at the peak, the music inside me coming to a pitch, and then I’m shaking, screaming, crying, feeling it all, moving with it all, in synchronicity, like we once did across a dance floor, but this time it’s different, this time it seals us to each other in ways maybe we’ll never really understand.

I open my eyes, gasping, seeing the golden stars falling from the ceiling, landing on our skin, melting before they disappear.

I let out a giddy laugh, half-drunk with my love for him, half dazed because of the orgasm, and I wonder if I’m hallucinating.

But I realize it doesn’t matter.

Because what this is between us, that’s what’s real.

I feel it in my blood.

* * *

I spend a few more days at Solon’s house high above Shelter Cove as we get me settled, which means a lot of daily phone calls with my parents letting them know I’m okay. My dad has healed fast, probably because my mother smothered him in herbal poultices as soon as he got home. He was lucky.

I’m lucky too. I’m trying not to dwell on that too much.

I’m trying to live in the present.

It’s beautiful here.

Solon’s estate is large, many acres, spread across the undulating cliffs, part of it reaching all the way down to a private beach you can only reach by a creaky staircase. We go down there each evening to watch the sunset, sit on the beach as the strong waves pound the shore, his dog Odin running up and down through the sand. Solon throws him a stick constantly and the dog never tires out, happy to be with him again.

We’re here right now, sitting on a plaid blanket, a couple of bottles of red wine between us. Odin is finally tuckered out, lying in the sand, his tongue hanging out, watching his master with a loyal gaze.

The beach itself is only accessible via Solon’s property, giving us complete privacy, the short stretch bracketed by cliffs dropping down into the waves. Anyone else would be cold, the mist rolling in off the Pacific, but luckily we’re vampires.

I sigh and lean back into Solon’s arms, never wanting to leave this place.

“I don’t even know how you live in the city,” I tell him in a dreamy voice. “I would spend all my time here.”

“I do come here often,” Solon says, running his thumb over my bare arm in light circles. “But then I miss the city. You’d think after so many centuries I’d be over people, but I’m not. I like the hustle and bustle. The smells. The sounds. If it’s too quiet for too long, then I start looking for problems, usually within myself.”

“I’m going to guess that you have properties all over the world,” I tell him.

“I do.”

“Are you planning on taking me to all of them?” I ask, tilting my head back to look at him.

“If you wish,” he says with a soft smile, kissing the top of my head. “I’ll take you wherever you want to go.”

I think that over. I’ve traveled quite a bit already, but right now, with eternity stretched out in front of us, I feel like the world is our oyster.

“I know this sounds silly after everything that’s happened,” I begin. “But I still want to finish my degree. I still want to do the things I had planned.”