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.
Chapter 17
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.
“You.” She took the photo from him and placed it back in its spot on the shelf. “I’m going to always love Jeremy. He was my first true love. But even though it felt like it at the time, I didn’t die with him. I still have a life to live, however long it might be. And I want you in it.”
He shook his head. “I still don’t understand why.”
“Because you’re a good man, Campbell Raines. You are honorable, kind, self-sacrificing, caring.”
She wouldn’t think so highly of him if she knew everything. He should tell her, push her away for good, but he couldn’t. She moved closer.
“Not to mention sexy as hell,” she said.
That last part made him smile despite dark thoughts of the past and tug her close. “Sexy, eh?”
“Mouthwateringly so.”
He examined every inch of her face and slowly shook his head. Would he ever get enough of this woman? “I could say the same about you.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“In fact, I think you’ve slept enough.” He lowered his mouth and captured hers in a hungry kiss. When she answered in kind, he’d swear his body heated from one end to the other.
She unzipped his pants. “You have on entirely too many clothes.”
He stood mesmerized as she unbuttoned them and let them drop off his hips. He slid his hands under the long T-shirt she’d put on and lifted it over her head, leaving them both naked. They didn’t make it to the bed this time. He lifted her and sat her bottom on the back of the couch. When she wrapped her legs around him and slid her tongue over his left nipple, he made a sound of painful pleasure and buried himself in her to the hilt.
“I can’t go slow.”
This time she licked his ear. “I don’t want to go slow. In fact, I want to see just how fast you can go.”
And so he showed her, holding her close and pumping so hard and fast that she gasped and let her head fall back, giving him glorious access to her breast. He sucked and pumped until he thought they might both fly apart, and then he did it some more. He felt her interior muscles tighten around him, and that sent him over the edge. She cried out with her release, and the sound of her pleasure caused his to swell as he slid in and out even faster until he too finally found release.
His legs unsteady, he rolled her backward onto the couch and draped his leg over her. There was no doubt about it anymore. Wise or not, he loved this woman, loved her with all his heart.
* * *
Olivia woke up in her bed, though she had no memory of how she got there. Before she opened her eyes, she let herself drift on the memories that came back with a heated clarity. A bird chirped somewhere nearby, heralding the dawn. She smiled in her half sleep at the beautiful sound.
And then she sat up so fast her head swam.
She ran her hand down the other side of the bed, now empty. The rest of her bedroom proved just as lacking in his presence. The fact that she was naked told her that she hadn’t just dreamed last night.
“Campbell?”
No answer.
She kicked off the covers and checked the bathroom, then the rest of her small apartment. After wrapping herself in a robe, she checked out the windows but he wasn’t anywhere visible outside either. When she turned away from the window, that was when she noticed the note propped against the vase of roses.
“You’re beautiful when you’re sleeping. I wish I could see you with the sunlight on your face.”
She covered the giddy smile that formed on her lips. No matter what they’d shared the night before, she’d never expected such lovely words from a guy like him, a man’s man. She giggled at the idea that these were words he’d also never want the other guys on his team to hear.
That was okay. She wanted them all to herself.
It was hard to think about working, but she needed to get ready before Mindy arrived. She wondered how long she’d be able to keep how she’d spent her night from her best friend.