Page 7 of Big Enough to Bite (Harmony Glen #3)

Chapter Seven

Mari

W hen Sam drives us back to his house after a day of driving and exploring the Finger Lakes, I don’t argue. He was right about the views. It reminded me of simpler times in Eastern Europe.

We shower together, and nothing could be more perfect.

He’s everything a vampire or a woman could want.

The scent of his blood, even through his thick skin, is like ambrosia.

Even after feeding only last night, I could get drunk on him.

Controlling my urges in favor of thoughts of bygone days, I let free a long sigh.

“What’s wrong?” he asks as he wraps me in one of his huge towels. The constant concern for my well-being is foreign to me. No one worries about a vampire.

I hang the towel on the hook in the bathroom and walk to the bedroom. Lying on the bed, I close my eyes. “I’m not used to all of this.”

The bed shifts with his weight. His body rests against my side. “What are you referring to?”

I can’t help loving the way he feels, so warm and attentive.

“I was born in a small village in Romania. My people were wanderers. They didn’t stay anywhere long, but they always remained in the villages until someone made us leave.

I suppose that kind of upbringing should have prepared me for my life as a vampire. ”

“No one is going to make you leave Harmony Glen.” He says it as if it’s a fact.

Letting my hand trace the ripple in his abs, I wish he were right.

“People always find reasons to rid themselves of an unwanted neighbor. A dog will go missing, or heaven forbid, a child. Someone will suggest that it would be easy for me to be the murderer. After all, vampires are killers. Since they won’t be able to kill me, they’ll run me off.

I’ll go before that, of course. No one wants to be dragged out in the public square. ”

His hand is so big that when he caresses my cheek, he cups my entire face and head.

“That will not happen here. This place is different. Look at what happened today. You made friends with those two little girls and their mother. Lori works at the police station. Do you think she’d put her twins in danger? ”

“I won’t let any harm come to those girls.” I didn’t mean to say that out loud. There’s something about my giant that makes me want to share everything.

“No. You’d protect them. They know that.”

“How can they know?” I roll to face him.

He gently pulls the knot on the bandanna holding my hair. My curls tumble to the mattress and over my shoulder. “It’s instinct to know when someone or something will protect you.”

“Instinct should tell them vampires are dangerous.”

Pulling me tight to him, he rolls so that I’m sprawled on top of him. “If a dangerous vampire came to town, they would be afraid. You might be strong and capable, but you don’t harm humans or monsters. At least, not without reason.”

I press my mouth to his nipple and suck the tender tip before letting my fang nick the skin. The sweet taste of his blood sends a rush of excitement and desire through me. His low moan fills the room. I lick my way to his navel and tease it with my tongue. “Then you admit, I can be dangerous.”

Holding my hip with one hand, he grips my ass. His fingers graze my pussy. “You are good, but that doesn't mean you wouldn’t kill to protect those you care about. There’s something feral about you, Mari. A wildness that’s pure aphrodisiac to me.”

I leave light red marks on his abdomen as I scrape my nails against his skin and lower myself to straddle his thick thighs. His magnificent cock stands tall, perpendicular to his hips. I lick the bead of precum from the tip.

Sam sucks the finger that was teasing me into his mouth. On a low moan, he closes his eyes. “So good.”

Too big to take all the way inside my mouth, I lick my way from base to crown and suck the head again and again while caressing him with both hands.

I’m on fire with desire, and the scent of my arousal is making me as wild as Sam’s moans of pleasure.

Rising to my feet, I grip the post of the bed and lower my torso so that my ass is high.

I spread my legs wide and hope my pussy glistening makes him as crazy as he makes me.

The growl that emerges from him is pure animal.

He rolls to his hands and knees as I watch over my shoulder.

His long tongue runs along his lips as if the best meal has been set before him.

Crawling close, he presses his face between my legs and devours me.

His tongue slides inside, then circles and teases.

The noises he makes vibrate against my sensitive flesh, and I thrust back, needing more.

I want to make it last, but I come in a rush and scream my pleasure while Sam laps up every drop. Gripping the wooden post, my nails dig into small crevices.

Rising to his knees, he grabs my hip in his beefy hand and, with the other, wraps my hair in his fist.

The gentle tug brings my desire back to the forefront. “Sam. I need you.”

“I am yours.” He stretches me as he presses forward one glorious inch at a time.

I lower my head and let my shoulder rest against the post, which brings him deeper. “More. Harder. Fuck.” I come in a torrent of pleasure and emotions. Tears pour from me as I realize that this giant is all I will ever need.

Still as a statue, he reaches out a finger and brushes a tear from my cheek. “Mari?”

“Don’t stop. I’m fine. God, don’t stop.” I jerk back and reach between my legs to caress his tight balls.

He roars and pulls back before slamming into me. Again and again, he fills me better than anyone ever could. He’s perfect in every way.

Clinging to the bedpost as if for my life, my pleasure builds. Screams fall from my lips, and I’m helpless to control them.

With another glorious roar, Sam fills me, jerking forward again and again while my body pulses around his thick shaft.

His heavy breath warms my neck, and he kisses my shoulder. Wrapping his arm around my waist, he eases us both to the mattress like spoons in the drawer. The tip of his cock still nestled inside me as if it was always meant to join us.

My tears continue to fall unbidden.

“Why are you crying, sweetheart?” He thumbs my tears from my cheek and brushes my hair from my eyes.

Part of me wants to keep these thoughts to myself. I’ve hidden from the world and the past for so long; what good can come of sharing anything? Nothing positive can be gained by caring. But I do care. It’s painful to think about a life without Sam Reus. “I’m happy, Sam.”

“And that makes you cry?” His hand rests on my hip as if he’ll always be with me.

It’s a dream. I’m not a dreamer. “The last time I was happy, I was a twenty-year-old human girl living in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains.”

Unable to stop myself, I snuggle in so that my back is flush to his front.

On a soft groan, which I share, he slips his cock free. After several long breaths, he says, “What happened? Why did you leave your family?”

“For the stage. An opera company came through on the train. They stopped due to a breakdown. The composer heard me sing. He paid my father more money than he’d ever seen for the right to take me to Paris.”

“Your father sold you?” His grip on my hip tightens.

“I wanted to go. The money was needed. My singing was how the family earned money. My father played, and I sang. Without me, they would struggle. I was the eldest of six. Still, if I hadn’t wanted to go, my father would have run the opera man off.

” I love that Sam was ready to defend me against a man who’s been dead for a century.

His grip eases. “I see. So, you went to Paris and met Pierre?”

Closing my eyes, I can see the theater as it was the first moment I stepped inside.

Gold and crimson fabric covered everything.

It was a dream to think I would become famous there, in the lap of luxury.

“I worked hard to learn how to sing correctly. It was long days and nights of work before I was ready to make my stage debut. I sang a minor part for a year. It’s no brag, but my voice was too good, and soon I earned the lead role.

I was young, and the attention was overwhelming.

Pierre came to the opera, he saw me, he came backstage, and told me he was in love with me. ”

When I don’t continue, he whispers, “What happened?”

I bite my bottom lip and push down fears that should have been dismissed years ago.

“Pierre came every night. He courted me as if I were a lady. He bought me gifts and introduced me to his friends at elegant parties. One night, he asked me to marry him. I was twenty-one. I thought it was the most incredible night of my life. When he bit me, I was confused. There was pain and pleasure. I’d never known anything like it.

At some point, he stopped drinking my blood, but I was too weak to speak or move.

He told me that I was going to die and if I wanted to live, I had to drink his blood and live as he lives.

“Death was so close. My mind couldn’t process what was happening. Although I clearly remembered a story my grandmother told, about creatures that lived forever by stalking the blood of the living. Until I was nearly dead, I’d believed that was an old myth passed along by an old woman.”

Cradling me, Sam rolls me in his arms and holds me. “He tricked you.”

“He did what he does. He loved me in his way, but that meant that I belonged to him to do with as he pleased. If I’d been wise, I would have told him to let me die.” I dash away my tears and look into Sam’s pure, green eyes. “I said I wanted to live and drank his blood.”

“What happened afterward?” His voice is soft and soothing, as if he’s speaking to a wild animal that needs calming. He’s not far off.

“I turned into an animal. Pierre brought me dazed humans of little worth, and I fed on them until they were dead. After a time, I learned to control my appetite. I remembered who I was, and I rebelled by refusing to feed on humans. Pierre was furious. He kept me prisoner in his house. It was a gilded cage, but a cage nonetheless.” Old anger rushes through me.

Sam kisses my forehead, my hair, my cheek. “How did you escape?”

I’ve come this far, I may as well tell the rest. I draw a long breath.

“Pierre wasn’t satisfied with making me sing for him and his friends.

I had become petulant when asked to perform.

Perhaps he believed that making me go back on stage would anger me.

I acted as if it were an imposition, but I saw it as a means to an end.

I loved opera. I loved the drama of it and the applause.

I loved the music and the closeness of the troop.

“I told a few old friends I was being held against my will, and they helped me one night after the show. They sneaked me out of the theater and into a carriage. From there, I boarded a ship to London. I have managed to stay out of the limelight, and Pierre hasn’t found me. Perhaps he gave up long ago.”

“I’m glad you were so strong.” He holds me as if I’m a piece of china he might break. Considering the rough nature of our lovemaking, it’s at once funny and endearing. “Did you marry Pierre before you escaped?”

I shake my head. “Never. He only used that as a means to get me alone and vulnerable.”

Caressing my back and neck, he lets out a long breath. “I’m sorry for all you went through, but I’m glad you didn’t marry that monster.”

Pushing him onto his back, I lie on his chest and comb my fingers through his soft hair. “You are going to be a problem for me.”

He cocks his head. “How so?”

“I’d sworn to never care about anyone.” I press my lips to his in a long, slow kiss that makes my toes curl. I’m in so much trouble.