He’s smiling with his full lips and hovering over me when he says, “No help, please.”

I relax into the new position, crossing my ankles behind his arse and resting my heels there. “The cheek.” I smirk.

“I don’t know what that means,” he whispers as he kisses my mouth, but I’m laughing so we don’t quite connect. My arms are wrapped around his shoulders. Now that he’s fully inside me, he relaxes his weight down, then guides my arms up until they’re stretched over my head. My elbows are bent slightly, but I feel elongated like this, somehow even more exposed. He slides his hands into my hands, and we entwine our fingers together. The minute I squeeze his palms, he pumps his body into me, one good, firm time.

I open my mouth to gasp and he leans down and licks into me. It’s happening again—an abundance of sensations. He’s kissing me, pulsing his cock into me and gripping my hands tightly all at once. It’s overwhelming. It feels amazing, but something about this… What he’s doing is making me crumble emotionally. My heart is too warm in my chest, and my stomach is swarming with butterflies.

He’s rocking against me, slowly and over and over. He pulls up from my mouth. Now he’s watching me with his onyx irises. His nose is brushing against my face, but he’s lazily catching my mouth too. Watching me. I can’t breathe.

“Let go for me, sunshine. Don’t fight it.” He shifts his hips harder into me, and I make a whimpering sound that I have never made before. That I’ve never, ever heard myself make. It’s like he’s hit something so deep within me, and it triggers my entire body. I didn’t think I needed to let anything go, but it suddenly feels as if I do. I groan as the heat races up my spine and to my brain, to my chest and out to my limbs.

Junichi’s heavy body trembles on top of me, and he firmly shifts his hips into me one last time. His body stiffens, and he’s leaning his forehead against me, breathing into me.

For some very odd reason, I really want him to bite me. Right now. I know what he is, and what he needs. I wish… It’s like my body wants to give it to him. Somewhere inside me. I never feel this way when I sleep with low-levelers. They just bite me because that’s what they do. I never really want it. But I want it with Junichi. I suddenly wish I could satisfy him innately—deep within his unique nature. That I could give him what he’s just given me.

When he’s come down from his climax, he’s lazily smiling and kissing me upside my face, my cheek and temple. I realize that this is making love. The physical act of showing deep affection and desire for another person. Expressing your emotions and fondness through the gift of intense pleasure.

Junichi showed me that tonight. He gave that to me. He made love to every inch of me, and I’m terrified that I might be ruined now because of it.

Seventeen

Junichi

I get up first the next morning and take a quick shower. When I come out, Jae is still asleep in my bed—perfectly cozy and lying on his side, like it’s where he belongs. Like he sleeps here all the time.

It’s 5:30 a.m. I don’t know what time his shift starts at the hospital (I think he works fairly normal hours, since he’s a specialist). But I imagine he’ll want to go home and get dressed for work. The train to Himeji from my house is just under an hour.

I walk over to my bed, lean across so that my hands are braced on either side of his body, then bend and kiss him in the concave of his neck. I whisper, “Doctor Davies? You need to get up.”

He stirs. When he first opens his warm brown eyes, it’s a dreamy, satiated daze. The expression quickly shifts to confusion, then something like humiliation as his gaze flickers and lands on me. Damn. A lot just happened in those seven seconds. “Good morning.”

He rubs one hand into his messy golden bedhead and slowly sits up. His shoulders are hunched, voice scratchy. “Morning.”

“What time is your shift today?”

“Shit—what time is it now?”

I flick my wrist up and check my watch. “Five thirty-five.”

He sighs. “Oh… Um—eight.”

“You have plenty of time. I don’t cook, but do you want coffee? Tea?”

“Tea, please…”

“Earl gray or green? I only have the two.”

“Earl gray, please?”

Nodding, I head toward the door. “You can take a shower here if you want. There’s a towel on the bathroom counter for you. Your choice.”

When I’m in the open space of my living room, I crack the sliding glass wall open. The morning air is crisp, hazy, and it looks like rain. Autumn. I grab my remote and click on my entertainment system, then quickly switch to the streaming music channel with classic jazz. Dave Brubeck’s “Take 5” is playing. Perfect.

I head to the kitchen and start the tea for Jae. Coffee for myself. I pause when I hear the rain shower head in my bathroom running, which is interesting because I never hear it from an outside perspective.

Making love to Jae was truly divine. He’s trusting, relaxed, playful and perfectly warm and delicious. He has a little brown mole to the right of his belly button, one just inside his left thigh and another on the concave of his neck. God… It’s like they’re targets that say, “Please bite here, here and here.”

I wanted to bite him. Badly. Which shocked the hell out of me. He smells so good, and I can’t understand why. I’m trying not to harp on it like Haruka is doing. If Jae says he’s human, he’s human. I like him, and things are going smoothly between us.

Plus, he doesn’t drink blood. No feeding at all. Regardless of everything else, that is what fundamentally defines us. So if he’s not doing that, he can’t be one of us.

It’s another fifteen minutes before Jae is peeking his damp head through the doorframe of the hallway. His golden hair looks especially dark since it’s wet, and his glasses are back on his face. He’d ditched them last night before our very sensual shower.

“Hey, there’s a mug and tea bag on the counter for you.”

“Thanks.” He moves slowly toward the counter, then sits himself atop a barstool. I grab the teapot, walk over and fill his mug with steaming water, careful not to spill on my countertop.

When I’m done, I flick my eyes up to him. “Is everything alright, Doctor?”

He tears the tea bag open and slowly dips it into the cup. He’s staring down into it, his face unreadable. “My baggage is clouding my view again.”

I breathe a laugh. Not because it’s funny, but because it’s forthright. “Can I help with this? I appreciate your honesty.”

He looks up at me, his lovely eyes serious. “Are we done?”

“Do you want to be done?”

“Well… not really.”

“Did you enjoy last night?”

“Yes. Did you?”

I smile. “Very much. I would like to do it again. Plus, you said you wanted two dinners.”

“I said as many as I can get.” He smiles for the first time. It’s a weak, hesitant smile, but it’s there.

“I remember.” I lean on the counter with my elbows directly across from him. “Because of who I am, and who you are, we can’t ever have anything very serious…”

The doctor nods. “I know.”

“But as long as we’re both enjoying, I think we should enjoy?”

“I would like that.” Jae smiles a little brighter, and I swear his eyes look like there’s light behind them. I shake my head.

“Alright,” I say. “Let’s seal the deal.”

Now, Jae is sporting his normal sincere grin. His perfectly straight white teeth are shining. He lifts from the stool and leans forward, tilting his head slightly as he presses his lips to mine.