Caleb pulled up outside their home and turned off the car engine. For a moment he just sat there, listening to the silence, and then he turned his head to look at the woman at his side.
Rhianna’s eyes were closed, her face relaxed in sleep. It had been a particularly long day for both of them though he oddly felt wide-awake. Staring at his beautiful mate, he was loath to wake her up, so he slid soundlessly from the car, moving around to the passenger side. She stirred a little when he scooped her out of the car, and then she settled against his wide chest.
He was often staggered by the trust she had in him. She always had, even when there had been times he’d given her reason to doubt him. He had always thought he had appreciated just what she brought to his life, but it had only been when they were apart that he had realised just how lost he would be without her.
His Annie was all that was good about him. She was the lighter side of his soul that often tempered the darkness. He couldn’t love her any more than he did. She was the reason his heart beat, the single most important thing in his life.
“You think too much,” she murmured sleepily, rubbing her cheek against his chest as he carried her into the house.
“Have you taken up mind reading, oh wise one,” he chuckled, kicking the door closed behind them and heading up the ornate staircase to their room.
“Don’t need to. Your heart picks up a beat when you’re thinking deeply about something. I can hear it thudding in my ear.”
Caleb dropped a kiss on top of her head, gently laying her down on their bed. “I can’t keep any secrets from you, can I?” he laughed, his golden brown eyes glowing with love as he stared down at her.
“Would you want to?” Her lavender eyes fluttered open sleepily, a hint of curiousness shining in their depths.
His hand reached out to brush her tangled curls from her cheek, lingering there to touch the softness of her skin. “No, I do not wish to have any secrets from you, my love.”
For a long moment she peered up at him and then she smiled, tangling her fingers in his hair. “Right answer,” she laughed, pulling his head down until their lips were mere inches apart. “That deserves some kind of reward. What do you think would be a suitable one?”
“You are such a wench at times, my heart. There is only ever one reward that I ever want from you.” It was hard not to laugh at the smug expression on her exquisite face, and he settled on kissing her soundly to forestall any further conversation.
Kissing his woman was always like the very first time. It didn’t matter how many times he sipped at the sweetness of her lips, he drank as if he were starved. Love, lust, and passion, collided in an instant spark between them, need clawing at his gut to be satisfied.
Everything about his Annie filled him with an unquenchable thirst and he knew he would never tire of laying with her like this. “I love you,” he breathed into her mouth, kissing her answering words as they escaped her lips. “You are my reason for being, my sweet Annie. You are the very air that I breathe. Tell me it will always be this way. Being apart from you almost crushed me. I was so afraid you wouldn’t come home.”
She moved quickly, pushing him back as she sat up, climbing astride him, and wrapping her arms around his neck. Resting her forehead against his, her serious lavender eyes demanded his full attention. “There is nowhere else I would rather be, Caleb. Home is wherever you are and I willalways come home to you. Please don’t ever doubt that. Nothing will ever take my love from you.”
“Annie…” The wealth of love that travelled their mate bond enhanced her words; filling his heart with so much affection that the very last of his concern that he would lose her melted away in an instant. Capturing her mouth once more, he kissed her hard and bore her back against the bed, his hands peeling her clothes adeptly from her body.
He wanted to be gentle, he wanted to take his time, but his need to join with his beautiful mate was more than he could stand. Sliding deep inside her velvet warmth, Caleb rocked his hips slowly, sliding in and out of her body to the slow thudding of their heartbeats.
“Loving you like this is a moment of perfection, Annie. Nothing transcends being with you, nothing is more perfect than making love to you.”
A soft moan escaped her, her hips rising to meet his downward thrusts. “I don’t ever want you to stop loving me like this, Caleb. I want to spend eternity with you; joined together, feeling our hearts beat in tandem. I love you, my beautiful vampire, now and forever.”
They danced together in the ancient rhythm of love, Caleb’s lips travelled every inch of her soft skin with a feather light touch. He tempted and teased his love with long, slow caresses, inciting her passion, slowly building her up to that perfect moment of union that was just outside her reach.
How he loved every moment with her. He teased her mercilessly until she demanded more, and then he picked up the tempo, taking her with long, hard, deep strokes until her body arched up and she cried out her pleasure. Her body rippled around his, and it was enough to shatter his self-control and send him tumbling over the edge.
“Annie!” Her name was ripped from his throat as his own pleasure peaked, and he was soaring on a wave of ecstasy so intense his entire body shook with the effort it took to hold himself up.