I took him into my hands and my own need redoubled. I was already so wet. I wanted to explore him, to map every contour of him, but I wanted him inside me more. It had been a long time since I felt the heat of a man inside me.

Gripping my breasts, he squeezed lightly, thumbs rubbing my nipples. He leaned forward, kissing each breast, alternately sucking and using his teeth to graze each tip.

I moaned.

Taking that as a sign, he ripped one side of my panties, then the other. The fabric dropped away. "Take me, Red." His fingers stroked between my legs, spreading my wetness. My thighs quivered at his touch. "Fuck me," he whispered. His head fell back against the couch and he groaned. "Please, fuck me. Now."

Easing down, I felt him slide into me, so hard. His hands held my ass, fingers spread, and I could feel waere strength and need trembling all through him. He could have pulled me onto him savagely, but he didn't. He just kept his hands on me, firmly.

"Don't want to hurt you," he whispered. "You do it. Take me. Ride me."

He feared his own waere strength.

My knees spread farther apart and slowly I slid completely onto Johnny's cock. I jerked my hips up, then thrust down.

"More," I said, breathless. Johnny rose to meet my thrust. "Yes."

Grinding hard against him, over and over, felt so good. I threw my head back, captivated by how complete each stroke felt, how if I rolled my pelvis a little right then, right there, that sweet heat flickered through me. The muscles of his thighs bunched then flexed with each thrust. His eagerness fed mine.

Wanting to gauge his reaction to this moment, I studied his face. Last night, the candlelight warmed the color of his skin, made his eyes like shadows. Now, with only stray light pressing at the windows, the dimness was cold, the darkness more complete. But it was perfect for him. Although he seemed to watch from the depths of a cave like a predator hiding, his beast was ready to roar in triumph.

His lips parted. "I know what you want," he said. Suddenly employing his waere strength, placing his arms around me, he leaned into me and I felt his thighs flex as he pushed up to stand on his feet. My arms encircled his shoulders, my legs wrapping around his waist. Hands cupping my ass, he lifted me on and off of him, slowly, so I was aware of every inch. It left me shaking with desperate need. My senses flooded with hyperawareness, as in a moment of danger when time slows. I heard each gasp of breath like a slow breeze. I felt each touch, each pulsing sensation, a hundred times over. My need rose up like a fierce creature of desire. I began working my body vigorously, swiveling my hips, feeling strong and impatient as I rode him until I couldn't breathe.

Clenching him with every muscle, I would have screamed if my lungs had air. My body throbbed, reverberating with pleasure so intense I went utterly still, while Johnny continued to pound into me.

My orgasm was so ruthlessly concentrated, each time he lifted me, it seemed another started, though the previous had not fully receded before the next began. I gasped quick, shallow breaths, only to moan them away.

Suddenly, Johnny thrust into me and held me, his face buried against my neck, teeth clamping onto me, pressing but not biting. A growl burst from his throat, a deep guttural, rumbling growl of release matching the new heat erupting inside of me.

He lifted me again, thrusting hard, once. Twice. My orgasm started anew. My legs squeezed around him and I cried out. He panted into my neck and started again, pounding himself relentlessly into my deepest self.

Johnny sat on the couch again, but this time my legs around his waist kept him from sinking into the cushions. We caught our breaths, still embracing, still intimately entwined, enervated, and wrapped in afterglow that could have lit up the night.

Johnny rubbed my back, hands so warm. "Wow," he whispered.

I didn't move. I couldn't. It wasn't just the physical exertion, the sublime sex. It was fear.

I felt lost and scared and as if I were teetering on the edge of a razor. If I moved, the next moment would start… and I didn't know what kind of moment it was going to be.

Was the magnificent sex due to the stain? A vampire's stain never made anything better unless you paid dearly for it. Sex like this could be addictive. Was the stain sinking its barbs further into me, controlling, changing, devouring me?

Or was this real? Was the man holding me, cuddling me—shit! Cuddling me! — was he everything he seemed to be?

Either way, nothing in my life would ever be the same. I'd just gone and completely altered my world again in a whole new way.

Johnny started playing with my hair. He craned his neck, trying to see my face; I didn't want him to. I needed another moment to build my resolve to master myself and be ready for whatever came next.

Johnny's hands firmly maneuvered me until I was sitting up on his lap and his fingers strayed over my breasts again. He sighed with tired satisfaction. "So beautiful in the dark."

I smiled, ambiguously. A compliment.

Wearing a lopsided grin, he tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear. "I could hold you on this couch all night."

"But Nana and Beverley will be down early!"

His grin faded and his expression went blank. "You're right. Why don't you go on up to your room and sleep." He caressed my cheek. "I'll go to mine."

Separation. Breathing room. Good. Time to gather my thoughts. I hoped my mind blossomed with so many thoughts I could bouquet a varied selection of wildflower ideas. Right now, my mind felt like barren desert sands.

Grateful, and fearful, I made myself meet his eyes.

He caressed my cheek. "The beach is always there, Red. High tide. Low tide."

So we were both thinking about sand. Mine was arid and lifeless; his was the transition from one fertile world to another.

I didn't need Freud to point out what that revealed.

I leaned in to give him a quick kiss, but his hand slipped behind my neck and held me there for a long one. His lips were so soft, yet firm. Even his kisses were earnest. When it ended, I eased off him and gathered my clothes and torn undies. Legs shaking and unsteady, I fled, without so much as a good night to him.

Distracted by my vacillating mind, I forgot to set my clock to alarm. I overslept.

I rushed down the steps. My feet stopped short at the bottom. Johnny was cleaning something off on the couch. "Morning, Red. I spilled coffee" — he coughed—"on your couch here." He gave me a wink. "Sorry."

We'd spotted the couch. I hadn't even thought of that.

"If this laundry soap mix doesn't get it out, I'll try something else, okay?" He peeked into the kitchen, then came at me as if he would steal a hug or a kiss.

I backpedaled.

He stopped.

"That's okay," I stammered. "It's a slipcover anyway. It can be washed."

"You all right?" he whispered, obviously puzzled.

"I–I don't want Nana to know," I whispered back. "She'll be merciless in her teasing."

"Are you up now, Seph?" Nana's voice croaked from the kitchen.

"Yeah," I said.

Despite his clear disappointment, Johnny gave me a "go on" nod. I hurried down the hall. Beverley was pushing her unicorn lunchbox into her bookbag. Remembering how she'd cradled that lunchbox in her arms when we got her things from the apartment, my heart went out to her. She'd told me that Lorrie always made her lunch, and always clipped a cartoon from the newspaper to put in with it. I wondered if her lunchbox seemed emptier without it.

"Sleepyhead," she said.

"Yeah. Sorry."

"I made her lunch." Nana's cigarette smoldered on the edge of a round ashtray on the far side of the counter. "Brush your teeth," she added to Beverley.