The moment the door to the lake house shut behind then, Elijah dropped their bags to the floor and pressed his chest against her back, wrapping his hand lightly around her throat. Elena closed her eyes and tilted her head back as he pressed opened mouthed kisses to her neck. When his tongue brushed against her skin, a wave of warmth flooded her, going straight to her core.
Oh, how she loved this man, this vampire, her safe harbor in the storm her life had become, and now, here she was, finally alone with him, with no rules in the way of her joining with him in every way, of giving herself wholly to him.
"Happy birthday, Elena," Elijah murmured against her skin.
"Elijah," Elena sighed, reaching up behind her to to dig her fingers into his hair.
At the sound of his name on her lips, he spun her around and kissed her softly on the lips. After a long moment, Elijah pulled away from her slowly, to look at her from under his lashes, his tongue darting out to sweep across his lower lip.
"This way," Elena whispered.
Catching his hand, she led him towards her bedroom, trading little kisses along the way. When they reached the doorway, Elena paused, looking up at the man she'd grown to love so deeply since she'd met him in the graveyard and her heart skipped a beat at the adoration in his eyes. Biting her lower lip, she linked her fingers with his and tugged him into the room, using magic to shut the door behind them.
With gentle hands, he guided her to spin back around, he unzipped the white dress she wore and it pooled around her feet, leaving her in only her royal blue bra and panties.
Elena turned back around to face him, tracing his throat to his lips with her fingertips and he smiled against them as he brushed her hair out of her face. Leaning down, he kissed her hungrily, his tongue brushing against her lips. Deepening the kiss, he slid one hand down her arm, then caught her elbow and backed her towards the bed. As they walked, Elena unbuttoned his shirt and shoved down his arms.
Scooping her into his arms, Elijah laid her on the bed, then knelt between her legs. Once she was settled, he leaned over, kissing the valley between her breasts, then unhooked her bra and tossed it over the side of the bed.
When he drew one of her nipples into his mouth, Elena moaned, clutching his head to her breast. Beneath his touch, she felt worshiped, adored, treasured.
As Elijah continued to pay homage to her breasts, he reached down and undid his belt and zipper. When Elena realized that he'd undone his pants, she used her foot to shove them down his side and together they removed them.
Once he was free of his outer clothing, Elena cradled his cheek and brought his mouth to hers. Now, with so little in the way of clothing between then, Elena wrapped her legs around his waist, bringing him so close to where she ached for him to be. The slide of her skin against his sent a wave of warmth through her and a tiny whimper escaped her throat on her next exhale.
"Elena," he sighed against her lips.
His kisses turned more ardent after that, enticing her to respond in kind. Each brush of his tongue against hers, every caress, both soothed her and beckoned the flames his touch ignited to burn brighter, drawing moans from deep within her.
Leaning back on his heels, he tugged her panties down her legs. When she was fully bare beneath him, he gazed down at her, the awed expression on his face making her feel powerful, like a woman. A wicked idea crossed her mind and she bit her lip, then she flicked her fingers, using magic to strip him as naked as she was.
The slight chill against his skin jolted him out of his daze and Elijah smirked, sliding his fingers inside her as he kissed her. With his thumb against her bundle of nerves and his fingers stroking that place deep within her, he soon had her arching, mewling sounds that may have been his name falling from her lips.
"I love you, Elena," Elijah whispered against her lips.
As the coil in her lower belly tightened, all Elena could focus on was Elijah, on his fingers inside her and his words of love ghosting across her skin.
"Please," Elena gasped. "Please, I'm so close."
"I know. I can feel it."
He sped up his movements and Elena trashed and rocked beneath her lover, as she neared her climax. After a few more moments of tortuously sweet pleasure, the coil snapped and Elena cried out.
All that tension that built up since before she'd first acknowledged that she had feelings for Elijah finally released and she experienced an orgasm far more intense than she'd thought possible from so simple an act.
"I love you, Elena," Elijah murmured, leaning over to pay homage to her neck.
"I love you too. So much." Elena tilted her head back as he kissed his way up her chest to her neck.
When his mouth met hers, he kissed her tenderly, cradling her against his chest. As their lips moved against each other, Elena explored him with her fingertips. Oh, how she loved the feel of his bare body sliding against hers, the powerful muscles of a body used to hard work before he'd become immortal shifting beneath her hand.
He braced himself on his hand, examining her face from under his lashes, then rose up on his knees.
Before she could ask what he was doing, his head was between her legs, his breath warm against her.
"Elijah," she whispered, arching beneath him.
He kissed her softly, before flicking his tongue against her.
Still sensitive from her earlier climax, Elena moaned and dug her fingers into his hair in an effort to hold him where he was and he obliged her. He alternated between licking and suckling on her, drawing desperate cries from her.
"I love you, Elijah. Oh, damn. I love you!"
She rocked beneath him, attempting to urge him to move harder, but Elijah didn't comply. Instead, he had to audacity to slow down, softening his ministrations against her.
"Elijah. Please!" Elena begged.
When he refused to do as she wanted, she thrashed in an effort to relieve the tension his teasing incited within her.
"Please. Please. Please!"
It was then that he did what she wanted, his name falling from her lips in a scream and it wasn't long before she found her release.
"So beautiful," Elijah murmured against her thigh, placing an opened mouthed kiss there. "You are so beautiful."
Once he kissed his way back up her body, Elijah slid her leg higher around his waist, lining himself up with her entrance. Kissing her slowly, he thrust into her slowly taking her as deeply as he could and drawing a cry from Elena.
Finally. Finally! He was where she ached for him to be and she dug her her nails into his back. The weight of him on top of her and the feel of her body stretching around him inside her had her arching beneath him.
Instead of doing what she wanted, Elijah braced himself on his hand and set a slow rhythm, torturing her, drawing out their pleasure, instead of trying to climax a quickly as they could. Surrendering to the sort of lovemaking he wanted, Elena rolled her hips up, meeting him thrust for thrust.
Each stroke reached that place deep inside her and she cried out, arching beneath him.
"I want to taste your blood, Elena."
"Yes, Elijah, yes. Drink from me." Carding her fingers into his hair, she guided his mouth to her jugular vein.
Something about him taking her blood, sharing her life force with the man who'd saved her, seemed right in that moment and the combination of his fangs in her throat while he moved within her, pain mixing with pleasure, heightening it, had Elena writhing.
Spurred on both by her reactions and by the taste of her blood on his tongue, Elijah pinned one hand above her head, then hooked one of her legs over his other elbow so he could reach more deeply inside her. When he lifted his head from her neck, he pressed his thumb against her lip and Elena licked it, tasting blood, and the rush of her body responding to the high of his blood replenishing what he'd taken had her climaxing.
Instead of letting himself find release when she did, he continued to make love to her, prolonging her orgasm, though his pace picked up, pounding into her now.
"Oh, damn, Elena," Elijah moaned, his face twisting as he fought against the urge to climax
Cupping his cheek, Elena kissed him, then whispered, "Let go. I want you to let go. Cum inside me."
That was all it took for his rhythm to falter, then he buried his face in her hair and spilled inside her with a strangled groan. As he spilled inside her, Elena caressed his back and hair while pressing soft kisses to his shoulder and neck.
"I love you, Elena." He rolled onto his side, taking her with him.
"I love you." Elena pressed soft kisses to his chest.
After a year of waiting, finally, they'd been able to make love and though her need for him was sated for the moment, Elena knew that it wouldn't be long before she'd want to make love again, but for the moment, she enjoyed the feel of his skin against hers. This peace she felt in his arms was the best she'd experienced since waking up and she wished it could last longer than this weekend with him.
They lay together, catching their breath, with Elijah combing his fingers through her chin length hair and pressing soft kisses to her lips every so often
"I've um, I've been thinking about something," Elena murmured, nuzzling his chest as she spoke.
"What about?"
"Once I graduate high school, again, I want to look into in vitro fertilization."
Elijah rolled onto his side, his dark eyes suspiciously shiny, and he combed his fingers through her hair as he said, "You want to give me children."
"Yes."
"Name the day you want to go to the clinic." Elijah's mouth curled into a surprisingly boyish grin. "I'll be there. I'll go with you to every appointment if you want to. Because having a family with you is what I want. Yes, Ryan is a good son and I love him, but there's something special about watching a child grow and for them to never know another father, I never thought I'd have that."
"You, me, Ryan, and whatever children result from a visit to the clinic. That sounds like a dream come true."
Maybe she'd get her children from her other life back, her sweet girl and her wonderful boy, God knew she ached for them, longed to have them growing within her womb once more, to give birth to them, and raise them. And for them to have Ryan as an older brother this time around? It would be even better than her last life with them.
Elijah kissed her again, his lips curling into a smile as he rolled her beneath him.
"It would be a dream I gave up on a long time ago, seeing you pregnant with children who would know me as their father."
"It won't be for a while and we have to make sure Ryan knows that we're not replacing him." Elena's head fell back against the pillows as Elijah kissed her throat.
"I'll get him a car as soon as we get back."
"Oh," Elena sighed in response to his fingers on her nipples. "I think it will take more than a car to assure him of that."
"I know. Still, a gift like that would go a long way to him assure that we do love him and he's not a burden."
"We love him as though he was actually born to us and these children wouldn't be replacing him."
"They will only be adding to the family, not taking his place. He's our first child and he'll always be our first child," Elijah promised. Then, his expression shifted, his eyes darkening with lust. "I can't wait to make love to you once you're pregnant. Your belly swelling with a child who will call me father."
"I'll be horny as hell." Elena trailed off in a moan when Elijah twisted her nipples harder than he had before.
"Good, because the idea of you, trying to crawl up my body to get me to make love to you is hotter than anything else I can imagine."
"I love you."
"I love you, Elena. You've made me believe that soulmates might be a real thing. Not in two souls perfectly made for each other before they've ever met, but in two souls who've come together at exactly the right moment."
"You think we're soulmates." Elena brushed her fingers across his chest, circling one of his nipples with her thumb.
"The life you've lived and the life I have have led us to the moment when we fit each other perfectly."
"You did come back into my life at just the right moment," Elena whispered, tears filling her eyes. God, she promised herself she wouldn't cry the first time she and Elijah made love, but here she was, nearly crying.
"Shh, sweetheart. I love you and I could never regret meeting you. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me: a warrior queen, come to save me and we fell in love along the way."
Elijah kissed her again, sliding his hands down her legs, parting them. Elena spread her legs wider, arching her back as she met his gaze.
"You're not leaving this bed unless you absolutely have to, Elena, I promise you that."
"Good."
Elena caught her lower lip between her teeth and grinned. How the hell was it even possible for her to be seen so thoroughly, to be loved so fully, to be accepted so completely? But somehow, Elijah seemed to know her in a way that made her feel completely known without feeling exposed, like a caress against her soul.
As if sensing what Elena was thinking, Elijah's touch softened and he kissed her slowly while rolling onto his back and guiding her to lie on top of him.
"I'm yours, lovely Elena. Do with me what you will."