The Cougar and Her Vampire

Excerpt

STORY EXCERPT

“Maybe,” he said, wondering over the nervousness he sensed in her. “Why don't you tell me more about yourself? I want to know the real Payton. What makes you laugh? What makes you cry? What makes you happy?”
“You know I'd have to think about that for a bit. No one has ever asked me in quite that way before.”
“Really? Are you happy being with me right now?” he asked.
She looked up at him. “You sly devil. You made me fall right into your little trap. Yes, I am actually. This is a happy moment, while it lasts anyway.”
“You don't think you can be happy with me forever?”
“C.J., you know I have reservations about us because of our age difference. You‟ve shown me how the geographical distances could be overcome.” She smiled coyly at him, and then continued, “The age difference is still a problem.”
“Not for me, Payton.”
“Of course, you can say that. Except for me, age is a problem. I have to live with the difference staring back at me every day from the mirror.” She paused, took a deep breath, and continued. “I've been married three times, and all three of them left me for younger women. The most recent divorce is still raw, which is one of the reasons I'm here in Elounda. He left me for a twenty-something bimbo. I can't compete with younger women anymore. They left me! How am I supposed to recover from that?”
Her revelation dumbfounded him. For a moment his lips moved but no words came out. She didn‟t wait for him to answer as tears welled up. Turning away, she ran into the villa, the tears flowing freely.
Following her, he grabbed her by the upper arm.
“Payton, stop. I'm sorry. I didn't know. I'm sorry.” He embraced her tightly, his arms around her shoulders and waist. Could he be wrong about doubting her intentions? Reading her mind came more difficult the more emotionally attached he became. He sensed her sincerity, which confused him more. “C'mon back and let's talk.” He ushered her back to the chaise lounges situated around the pool. They sat down and silence weighed heavy in the air for a few moments.
“I'm here to listen, if you want to talk. No judgments. I told you the first day I met you, I would listen, and I sincerely meant what I said.”
A few more silent moments passed.
“I'm sorry. I'm such an emotional wreck lately. I came to this resort to clear my head about my recent divorce and other things going on in my life. Then, I met you and got sidetracked. Everything has happened so fast, I'm having a little trouble processing what's happening between us right now. I told you I have baggage, and you didn't need to get involved with me.”
“You don't have more baggage than I do. Trust me, I think we all have problems, but in different degrees. So what if you were married to three idiots masquerading as decent men. I'd be willing to bet that each one of your ex-husbands were narcissistic pretty boys—they were into themselves and what they wanted and didn't give a rat's arse what you wanted in life. They didn't care what made you happy. I bet they didn't want children, either, did they?”
Payton's head snapped back slightly from his question. “How'd you know? No, they didn't. They all said we had to enjoy each other before we could bring another life into the world. Except I did want a child. By the time I married Demetrius, he decided he was too old to have children and had a vasectomy before we got married. I should have known something wasn't right when he had the procedure done without discussing anything with me. By doing that, I see now I couldn't trust him, but I was in denial, I suppose.”
“Payton, I would never treat you like that. I find you to be a smart, beautiful, intriguing woman, and no younger woman could come close to comparing to you. Yer life experience alone is sexy as hell to me. You've seen all the young women here at the resort. I'm attracted to you, no one else, now or ever.”
“How can you make a statement like that? You are so young, and you have your whole life ahead of you. When I‟m old and gray, you'll still be an attractive, handsome, virile man wanting to have sex, and not with a wrinkly, dried-up cranky old woman. How are you going to feel then?”
“Payton, if I love you, nothing else matters. We will find a way to make this work. I can guarantee you, I won't be boring, and I promise I'll be gentle.” He gave her a smile and moved closer to her.
“Gentle, like last night, right?”
“Aye, you caught me humor?”
“Yes, are you trying to tell me to stop being so serious about this?”
He brushed back a few tendrils of her hair that had fallen out of her ponytail while he told her, “Aye, my beautiful goddess, life is too short to fret over this age difference between us. Be honest with me, Payton, be honest with yourself. If you want our relationship to work, you have to let go of the hurts from yer past. They're holding you back.”
“You're right, I do have to let go. I can't let the men of my past ruin the men of my future.” She lifted her chin and made a gesture toward him.
“What do you mean by men? I hope to be the only man in your future.” He dropped his voice to a low, rich pitch, filled with a seductive promise for more than casual talk.
“How can you talk about loving me after only knowing me a couple of days? I'm nothing special, especially for someone like you.”
“Do you believe in love at first sight?”
“No, not anymore. I told you three marriages kind of ruined that 'let's live happily ever after' fairy tale for me.”
“I do believe. I knew the moment I saw you.”

ADULT EXCERPT

He delved deeper into her with each rhythmic push. She let out a scream of hot, wet abandonment with the fourth climax, which crested more intensely than the first three. He let out his own deep groan as his passion crested, and his fangs came down, his eyes blood red.
Payton sucked in a deep breath at seeing him in vampire form.
He grimaced, pulled out and fell down beside her. His fangs receded. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you.”
Immediately, she sat up and scooted back on the bed away from him. “Are you okay? You look…a little hungry?”
He shook his head. “I'm fine. I…I got a little carried away with yer sexy, responsive body. It's so sensual. I'm sorry I scared you, love. I won't hurt you.”
“That's okay. I've never seen you as a vampire before, except for the night you told me. You know how to put on quite a show, mister.” She decided not to let his display of his true self, the fangs and glowing, blood red eyes, bother her. He was who and what he was and couldn't change if he wanted too. She had to accept him because the alternative, living without him, would be unbearable. He actually hadn't lost control and bitten her, which made for a good thing. He'd shown restraint. She could trust him.
Moving closer, she took in the magnificent sight of him. Her young man from Elounda made her quiver, and she yearned for his body like no other man before. Her hand glided over his strong chest and down his taut, well-defined abdomen. She stopped at the area where he had been cut by the gang member.
“Did this hurt? Where that kid cut you the other night?”
“Nay, not really. After three hundred years, you become desensitized to the pain we go through as vampires. I've been cut, sliced, hung, burned, but the worst is going without blood for too long.”
“It's that painful?”
“Like dying all over again. You're enraged and would do anything, and I'm ashamed to say I have. When I first turned, I didn't know how to hunt properly without being caught. I lived in fear and didn't manage my prey very well. I went days, sometimes weeks, without feeding properly. Deprivation of blood is an excruciating hell to live in, one I never wish to repeat. Ian didn't fare much better to our circumstances, since we were turned at the same time. We learned to hunt together, and we survived for many years hunting prey in tandem. That's why our on-going conflict is hard for me. Why doing what I have to do is difficult for me.”
“You mean kill him? How do you kill a vampire, anyway?” Her hands continued to aimlessly wander over his body as he spoke.
“Aye. The most efficient way is to cut off their head or run them through the heart.” Then he added with a tone of regret, “Ian used to be my friend.”
She ran her fingers down a trail leading to the V of fine curly raven black hair above his groin. “Now I see why you carry swords instead of guns.”
Chuckling, he said, “A clean cut is surer than putting random holes in an enemy.”
She paused, and changing the subject, asking, “Do you become desensitized to the joys of pleasure over the years, as well?” She stroked his cock the full length, and even semi-flaccid, he was thick and long. She grinned as he flexed muscles causing a twitch.
“Nay, the joys of pleasure, especially by you, could never desensitize any man.” He groaned as he closed his eyes.
“My, God, you take my breath away.” She continued stroking him, tracing the pronounced vein pulsing on the surface. “How did it happen?”
“What? This? I was born with a big cock, lass. Made to please the women in my life.” He fell back on the bed pillow. “Don't stop what you're doing, love.”
She snorted. “Oh, you think you're clever.” She squeezed him gently. “I meant what happened to ruin your friendship.”
“Do not toy with a man like that if all you want to do is talk instead of indulging in carnal pleasures.”
“I just want to get to know more about you. What carnal pleasures would you like to indulge in, Mr. MacKenzie?” She tickled him along his inner thighs and up under his balls, and then stretched out beside him, cradling her head on his shoulder.
“Love, I'll give you all night to stop torturing me like that.”
“As long as you give me what I want in return.” She went back to stroking his growing erection. He may be over three hundred years old, but he can perform and recover like no normal twenty-seven year old I ever knew.
“I have to admit Ian was right about one thing. Ye'r a tough negotiator, Miss Fleming. Anything, anything you want is yers.” He turned to the side, propping up on his elbow.
“I told you what I want. Talk to me. Tell me about Ian.”
“He's evil. Bad news. You need to stay away from him. End of story. Now let's get back to the carnal pleasures.” He ran his fingers through her hair, pulling her close enough to kiss. “By the way, I haven't told you yet. I like yer hair this way. It definitely suits you.”
“Thanks, but no changing the subject. Why aren't you friends anymore? He couldn't have been evil when you were friends, unless you were evil too?” She hesitated with the last part of her question. Maybe evil ruled him when he first transformed. He'd hinted as much earlier. He may have changed for the better while Ian never changed.
“Ye'r not going to let this go are you?”
“No and just to let you know I'm a woman used to getting what she wants once I set my mind to it.”