Eternal [HS]

Chapter Twenty-Eight

JO HAS BEEN POSING IN THE SAME half-relaxed position on the futon in his art studio for five hours.

The lights aren't as bright as they were when she fell asleep down here after interrogating and torturing Devin, but they're enough to illuminate her nude body for the vampire sitting, perched behind an easel a few feet away with a paintbrush raised to a nearly-finished painting.

She must admit, she was apprehensive when he first mentioned what he wanted from her on the drive home from Blume. Though he saw her naked countless times, this felt different to her. She couldn't shake the insecurity she knew she'd feel in undressing before him without the distraction of sexual arousal as a buffer.

The idea of him seeing her in full light without sex or anything to hide behind scared her, and he could sense that fear and apprehension as soon as she came downstairs with pin-curled hair bouncing around her shoulders and pulled the silk robe from her body with trembling hands. He hoped she could see what he felt at the sight of her when he stared. He hoped it helped the insecurity, even if it couldn't cure it.

She saw something there. Something that made some of the weight lift off of her, if only a little bit. It was a look of appreciation that reached his face when she revealed herself to him for the first time without it having to be sexual, and she didn't feel a smidge of judgment in his expression, just an honest sense of tenderness.

They've stopped for breaks once an hour for her to get up, stretch her legs, and get some food or water in for sustenance, but, for the most part, she has remained in the position she now lies in for most of the day. Her muscles and bones ache, especially the hip she lays against the carefully placed cushions on, and she knows she'll have to massage at it for days until it truly evades her. It's all worth the dull burn of her muscles for him, though. To see him in his element, doing what he loves, is to see him at his happiest—well, almost his happiest.

Last night, as they danced beneath the lights of the club with the bodies of ethereal creatures like him all around them, he told her how happy he was. It was as if he couldn't refrain from telling her another second, like he'd go out of his mind if she didn't know, and she couldn't stop thinking about it as they—she, actually, since all he does is lay awake beside her and savor the radiating warmth of her human body—fell asleep.

To see him so happy when all he did around her at first was brood and frown for reasons she had yet to understand is magical. That pretty little smile visited her in her dreams too, the lips surrounding it whispering sweet nothings in her ear and later trailing down the length of her body until she felt them there.

She jolted awake from her dream, on the brink of climax, to him laying beside her as if he was waiting and counting every second until she woke to make her dream a reality. He scented the arousal on her as soon as the scenario shifted from innocent conversation to a vivid depiction of his head between her thighs and decided to peek into her dream using an aspect of his power that he seldom does.

Dream manipulation and the ability to enter other people's dreams wasn't always a useful gift. It had rich opportunities when it came to spying on enemies, but only if they happened to be human since vampires do not need sleep and the gift itself is designed for the natural predator he's supposed to be. However, the opportunity presented itself as he looked up from where his face was buried in her neck all night long to see what was the matter, only to realize that her moans were not related to pain, but pleasure.

It wasn't long after that her thighs were pressed against either side of his head and his tongue spread her open for him, making him hum contentedly at the taste of her on his tongue. She didn't allow him to stay down there for as long as he wanted to, for as long as he did the first time he pleasured her this way, before standing on wobbly legs to get dolled up for a lazy day of being his nude muse.