All three of them stared at her. “You’re a hot mess tonight,” Carmella said.
“I can’t help it. I told you not to let me have rum.”
“Okay, I’m going over there.
Do not leave.
”
Destiny wiped her sweaty palms down the hips of her jeans as she tried to walk with a little sway to her step and not trip at the same time. When she found the man’s table, he was sitting with his arm resting on the back of the chair, fist to his cheek, and smiling at her. Destiny fought the urge to look to see if he was playing some sort of joke on her.
“Please sit down,” he said.
She swallowed and slid into the booth. There definitely had to be something extremely wrong with him. No one was that good-looking and nice, too. Or…“Are you married?”
He laughed at her question. “No. I’m not married.”
“Divorced?” She didn’t even know his name, and she was interrogating him.
“No.”
“Gay?”
“No.”
“Homeless?”
“No.”
There had to be a catch here. Destiny frowned. He was probably hiding a baby toe between his legs.
“Let me help you out. I’m Amish.”
“Amish? Then what are you doing in a bar?”
“I came to find you.”
She rolled her eyes. “Okay, nice talking to you.” She stood.
“Wait,” he said, and she stilled. He stood as well and took her hands in his. She tried not to let how good her hands felt in his persuade her. She didn’t date guys who tried to use lines on her.
He stepped close to her and as much as she didn’t want to be affected by him, she couldn’t deny that he affected her. He was beautiful. A warm wave of hope filled her that made no sense whatsoever.
“Your name is Destiny Santos. You’re a reporter for
Channel Six
news and you love your job, but deep down you would trade it all in for a family if you found the right man. He can’t be just any man. He has to know how to love a woman like you. You want to be respected, adored, valued, and needed. You’re addicted to dirty romance novels and are captivated by something called an iPad. You must have your phone on you at all times.
“You love animals and are captivated by opportunities to try new things. In the winter you wear hideous boots that you call UGGs. Your hair is really curly, but you insist on wearing it straight. You have three scars on your back and have no idea how they got there. Your brother has a weird obsession with pie and science fiction. You—”
“Stop!” She pulled her hands out of his grip and looked to make sure her friends were still there. “How do you know all that? Did you go through my trash or something?”
“I know it because I love you.”
Destiny took a hasty step back. “Who are you?”
“My name’s Cain Hartzler.”
“Look, Cain Hartzler, I’m not sure where you came from or how you learned all that stuff about me, but if you don’t leave me alone I’m going to call—”
He looked her in the eyes.
Pressing his lips to her ear, she shivered as he softly whispered, “
Lembre-se de mim.
”
Remember me.
Destiny sucked in a breath, prepared to tell him where he could go when all of the sudden a thousand images flooded her mind like magic. The woods. A monster. Cain saving her. The cabin. The farm. The bishop kissing the nun who wasn’t a nun at all. Gracie feeding Vito pie. Cain kissing her, making love to her, holding her, loving her. That terrible moment where she told him good-bye. The bishop coming to take away her memories and her looking at Cain one last time and then only seeing a stranger for a split second and waking up the next day alone in her bed with only the memory of having the flu.
Her hands trembled, and tears stung her eyes. She needed to sit down, but couldn’t move. She looked at him and shook her head. “I remember you,” she somehow managed to rasp.
He shut his eyes and smiled as he breathed a sigh. He took her hands in his and softly said, “I have something to tell you, Destiny.”
“What?”
“I have a mate.”
Her smile faltered. She recalled the girl named Annalise. “Anna.”
“No, Anna isn’t my destiny. You are.”
“But…I’m not like you.”
“You may be more like me than you realize, but even if you are just Destiny, I have decided that you are mine.”
“I don’t understand.” Her heart hurt. So much suddenly made sense, but it would be impossible to ever explain this to her friends. All she knew was that she never wanted to forget him again. Her body shook with an overload of emotion. He was what had been missing. Cain. “But I…” she mumbled, looking around for people eavesdropping on their conversation. “I mean…I’m just a regular person.”
“You are so much more than regular.” He stepped close, and her body reacted immediately. Her belly tightened, and her pulse fluttered. Her mind may not have recognized him right away, but her body had a very long memory. “Are you sure?”
“I have never been surer of anything before in my entire life.”
Destiny threw herself at him, and he scooped her into his arms. She wrapped her legs around his hips. He kissed her thoroughly, and she kissed him back with all the love and passion she had.
He carried her to the door, and she spotted her three friends shoving at each other to get out of the booth, practically falling on top of one another.
“Destiny, wait! Where are you going?”
Her cheeks stretched as she grinned. “Girls, this is Cain. He’s Amish and madly in love with me. I’m going home to have lots and lots of sex with him, and then we’re getting married.”
Cain licked at the side of her neck, purred, and she giggled as they left the three girls standing there clutching their purses with their jaws open wide.
They didn’t make it very far. Cain staggered around the side of the bar and pressed her into the brick wall. His hands gripped her ass, and their mouths twisted over the others. “God, I have missed you,” Cain said over her lips.
“I feel like I just left you, but the whole time I knew something was missing. It’s the weirdest feeling to miss something and not know what it is.” Her fingers pulled at the buttons of her shirt. “You have too many clothes on!”
“We need to find a bed,” he practically growled, and his large hand fit in the back pocket of her jeans.
“My house?”
“Yes. Where?”
“We need to take my car,” she said as he bit at her neck. Her nipples punched through the thin fabric of her shirt. She wanted him to bite her. They needed privacy. “It’s the little silver one.”
His face pressed into her breasts. She could come just from that. She was so overwhelmed at the moment. Cain growled, and she grabbed him by the ears and wrenched his face from her cleavage. His eyes were crazy looking, bright and feline like. Definitely time to go.
“Cain, focus! We need to go to my place. Come on, my car’s that way.” She slid out of his arms and they ran across the lot. She stilled halfway there and looked up. “What the hell?” They were under a meteor shower.
Stars rained across the sky. Wind blew in the trees, and her hair twirled wildly around her head. Something was going on. She thought about Eric, who believed the world was going to end.
People stopped to look up. She had never seen anything like it before. Destiny turned to Cain who was…purring? Yes, purring and completely unaffected by the change in weather. He looked at her as though he wanted to devour her.
Yes please!
Screw the stars. She grabbed his hand and tugged him to her car. The ride home was an accomplishment in crime. She sped the entire way and blew nearly every light. Her little stick shift was wheezing by the time she pulled into her driveway.
Cain was on her before she even slipped the key in the door. Her feet left the ground, and her back was suddenly on the arm of her couch. Cain fumbled with her zipper. “You and your damn male clothing. Dresses, Destiny, I want you in dresses!”
“Here,” she said, turning and yanking down her jeans. Her breasts hung over the arm of the couch, and he pressed into her from behind in one hard thrust. They both cried out. He filled her like no one ever had.
Cain retreated and slammed back inside of her. His thrusts were so hard the couch skipped across the wood floor with each stroke. It only took a few and she was coming. He held her hips and plowed into her, nailing her to the upholstery. When he came he roared.
Once the edge was taken off, they caught their breath. Destiny turned. Her front door was wide open. She laughed. When they found their bearings, they disentangled their limbs.
Cain shut the front door and stared at her hard. A jolt of excitement skittered up her spine. They were far from finished.
She had questions, but they could wait. Slowly, but without hesitation, Destiny peeled off her clothes. Cain stared intently as every bit of flesh was exposed. His eyes were so blue they glowed.
Once she stood before him completely naked, he growled, “Bed.”
She pointed to the door of her bedroom, and he growled again, this time coming at her like a linebacker. He ducked low and grabbed her by the hips, banding his strong arm around her bare thighs and hoisting her over his shoulder.
The world flipped upside-down, and then she was being tossed onto her mattress. He removed his clothing. There was the brief sound of fabric tearing, and then he gripped her by the ankles and tugged her to the edge of the bed. His mouth latched onto her sex, and he began the most extreme attack on her senses she had ever experienced.
Fingers probed between her folds. His lips bit at her clit. She thrashed beneath him as her pleasure rose to uncontainable heights. Every so often, he nipped at her thigh, and she again wished he would bite her. Destiny had entertained some serious vampyre fantasies in the past. The idea of Cain sinking his fangs in her was the hottest one yet.
Her orgasm took her by surprise. Her back arched off the bed as he strummed her sex and forced it on, never letting the pleasure fade. She was out of breath and panting when he finally released her.
He climbed over her, but didn’t stop at her sex. Straddling her ribs, he cupped her large breasts and pinched down on her nipples. Destiny cried out in pleasure, and he smiled. He played with her breasts for a while, twirling and pinching the tips. Then he slid his cock into her cleavage and held her breasts tight, forming a snug little pocket in which he thrust in and out.
Her arousal never waned. Watching Cain take his pleasure was erotic as hell. She was beyond happy to be the woman he took it from. He leaned forward and, as if he read her mind, she opened her mouth, and he slid his cock past her lips. She sucked him deep as his hips thrust over her.
He moaned when she dug her nails into the firm flesh of his ass. She took him over and over again to the back of her throat until she felt him twitch over her tongue. When she tried to hold him there he growled and pulled himself out of her mouth with a pop. She frowned at him.
“Not there,” he said, scooting back down her body. “Here.” He lined himself up with her sex and thrust deep. “I want to give you children, Destiny. Lots and lots of children, and I will enjoy making every single one with you.”
Their sex was again uncontained and rough, but Destiny would have it no other way. He bent her and held her in ways other women would shy away from, but not her. She loved it. She loved him.
She loved how fiercely he took her as if his survival depended on it. She loved the way he pinned her to the bed and gripped her shoulders, wrists, ankles, and hair. Every slap he landed on her ass sent a thrill of excitement through her blood and a surge of arousal to her pussy. This was the way sex was supposed to be.
When they finished, they did so together. Cain called out her name and declared his love once more. It was the most intense sex she had ever had, yet somehow it also felt like making love.
Afterward they slept for a bit. When she awakened her body was cool and sticky. Cain slept with a grin.
Quietly, she slipped out of bed and grabbed the towel hanging on the back of her door.
When she returned from the shower, he was still sleeping. She climbed back under the covers, and he stirred.
“Did you bathe?”
“Yes. I needed to after that last time.”
He smiled and nuzzled closer, slipping a kiss onto her shoulder.
“Cain?”
“Ah, and here come the questions,” he teased.
His hand moved over her and he pinched her nipple.
She jumped and smacked him away. “Sorry, but I need to know. What changed?”
“Nothing changed, Destiny. I love you. The past year has been the most miserable year of my life. It took me a while, but I finally got it.”
“Got it?”
“Mm-hmm.” He pulled her more into the curve of his body. “I thought just knowing you were happy would be enough, but turns out I am a very self-centered male.”
She gasped. “No!”
“Yes,” he said dryly. “Don’t tell the others.” They laughed.