He laughed. “I know.” Her jaw clenched, and he slowly developed a suspicion of what this was about. “Do you think skinny is the only thing that’s beautiful?”
“Fat is ugly.”
He scowled at her. “Destiny, you’re not fat.”
“Yes—”
“No,” he snapped. “You are not. You’re beautiful. Whoever made you believe you’re anything but beautiful should be strung up by their thumbs.”
“Cain, I know what I am. I haven’t been a size—”
“What does size have to do with anything?” He was appalled she actually felt anything other than pride for her body. Didn’t she see what he saw when she looked at herself?
She scoffed. “Well, where sex is involved, I’m pretty sure size accounts for a lot.”
He had to admire her spunk. “Yes, well, where it counts, between the two of us, I believe we have it covered. Your body’s perfect just the way it is. I look at you and want to spend days buried in those warm thighs and between your big breasts.”
“Fine, maybe some guys like big boobs, but my ass—”
He groaned and tipped his head back. “I could spend days there, too.”
Her mouth opened and she frowned at him. “But most men—”
“Let me explain something to you, Destiny. When you’re in my bed, you only need worry about one man, and that man is me. I’m not going to go through this every time I want to look at you or touch you, which while you’re here, will probably be a lot, so listen carefully. You’re beautiful. Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes, and I happen to prefer yours. I like my women built like women. If I wanted a lover with tiny cupcake breasts I would take one, but at the moment, that isn’t at all what I desire. At the moment I find myself wanting to sink inside a gorgeous, full-figured, Portuguese woman who, for some reason, is making me work extra hard for my pleasure this morning when all I want to do is make her scream my name again. Now, have I made myself clear or must I map out every curve of your body and list all the ways I find it delectable?”
He waited for her reply. She looked up at him, a dozen different emotions playing across her gentle face. She was obviously having a difficult time taking his words as truth, which was exactly what they were. There was nothing unattractive about her. Couple her beauty with her responsiveness, and one had himself a fine morning. She slowly shook her head, her large eyes turning glassy, and then she suddenly sprang at him.
Her arms wrapped around his neck, and her mouth slanted over his. He pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her as he toppled her to the bed. This was the woman he was hoping to wake up next to!
She kissed him with a ferocity that he took great pleasure in meeting. Their bodies rubbed and glided over one another as they each moaned and gripped the other’s flesh.
He rolled her to her back, and his mouth went to her breasts. They were still bruised and tender from the night before. He first suckled her gently and then nipped at the tips with his teeth. She cried out his name as he plucked hard at her other nipple.
Her thighs opened, and his cock glided over her soft wet folds. So smooth, so different from the other women he had bedded. His hand slid down her belly and between her legs. His thumb slid into her heated folds and back up to flick her clit. She jerked beneath him and tried to reach for his cock. He immediately backed away and pinched her sensitive bud.
“Arms on the headboard.” She did as he said, and his mouth formed a tight grin, careful not to expose his fangs. He wanted so badly to sink his teeth into her tender flesh, but not being able to get into her mind made it too risky. “Spread your legs for me.”
She hesitated only a moment and then did as he asked. Utterly breathtaking. Her surrender was such an incredible gift. Cain took his length in his hand and stroked himself slowly. He was already close. He needed to get inside of her.
He leaned forward and lined his cock up to the mouth of her sex. It was going to have to be hard and fast. Just as he was about to sink into her heat, she said, “Wait!” He froze, his control nearly breaking. “Do you have a condom?”
How could he have been so careless? Getting a female pregnant was one thing, but seeding immortal offspring was an entire other mess, especially when the female was mortal. He had contraceptives in his bag as he had often made use of English females while off of the farm, but his bag was in the other room.
“Are you not on some form of English medication to deter conception?” She looked at him, confusion crinkling her brow, and he tried to rephrase. “Birth control. Are you not on birth control? What women refer to as the pill?”
“I get a shot, but we still need a condom.”
His muscles shook. He groaned. “Why?”
“Because there are things beside pregnancy we need to worry about.”
“Illness? Is this what you’re worried over?”
“Yes.”
“Destiny, I’m perfectly healthy, I assure you.”
“Cain, I’m sorry, but I hardly know you. I really—”
Enough was enough. He jumped off the bed and growled. “Don’t move.” He quickly went to the door and yanked it open.
“You’re naked!”
“I am aware!” he shouted back.
Cain found his bag in the kitchen, quickly pulled out a foil packet, and sheathed himself as he returned to the room. Destiny hadn’t moved, but was smirking with tears of mirth in her eyes. “Oh, you think this is amusing, do you?”
“I cannot believe you just ran through the house naked,” she laughed.
He grumbled as he climbed back onto the bed and fitted himself between her thighs. She was now suffering a severe case of the giggles, so he decided to change tactics and quickly flipped her to her stomach and hitched her hips up to his, gifting her soft hindquarters with a pink print of his hand.
The slap broke the stream of giggles coming from her. She yipped, and he growled. Cain pressed his palm from the tip of her tail bone, tracing every ridge, all the way to the top of her spine. Her laughter faded into a moan as he slowly entered her halfway and held her in place.
His hand curved over the swell of her bottom, and he gripped her there, massaging her heated flesh. She tried to back herself up, take more of him, but he quickly slapped the other cheek of her rear, leaving twin prints. He liked seeing her marked by his touch. She stilled. His hand soothed the stung flesh, and she moaned. The scent of her arousal intensified. Beautiful. Her upper body lowered as she bowed before him, presenting herself to him, surrendering to his lead.
Cain pressed himself another inch deeper, and she moaned louder. His hips swiveled, and he ground himself into her heat one shallow dip at a time until he filled her to the hilt. He then grabbed hold of her tender hips and pulled back only to slam forward again.
Destiny sobbed words of pleasure tinged in Portuguese as he thrust himself deep inside of her. Her hands knotted in the sheets as he retreated and plowed forward once again. Slow and steady he continued to plunge into her with long hard thrusts.
He hated that he couldn’t feel her without the obstruction of a condom wrapping tightly around him, flesh upon flesh. He considered pulling out of her and removing the barrier between them, but that was wrong, and he couldn’t do that to her, even if he was certain she had nothing to worry about. As an immortal he was quite sure he suffered no disease. Damn modern women and their rules.
His speed increased, and soon she was begging for release. He was close himself, but refused to finish before she received the pleasure she had so greatly earned. He was a gentleman after all.
He reached between her thighs and found her most sensitive spot. He pressed as deep inside of her as possible and strummed her clit, rubbing in quick little strokes. Destiny’s sex clenched and his spine trembled as she fluttered into an intense release.
His climax was wrung out of him by her gripping little channel. The spasms of her body worked his cock as his climax pumped out of him with such force his knees buckled. He stroked her soft
ly as she came back to earth, and as he collapsed next to her, he pulled her to him. The only thought he had as he kissed her shoulders and held her close was that she couldn’t leave. Not today at least.
Chapter 17
Destiny entered the kitchen where Vito, who was again sitting at the table eating from a large plate of sausage and eggs, looked up at her and burst out laughing. Destiny frowned. Vito took a sip from his drink, wiped his eyes, and again cracked up.
“Well, hello Sister Destiny!” he cheered, pointing at the clothes Cain had found for her.
She was wearing a long blue skirt, her UGGs, and one of Cain’s shirts. She scowled at her brother who was wearing jeans and a Philadelphia Flyers sweatshirt. “Where did you get extra clothes?” she demanded.
“I always keep extras in my car. Never know when you’ll end up stranded or on an Amish farm. By the way, my battery’s dead. Unless there’s some kind of robotic horse out here, we’re gonna have to call someone to get a jump.”
Destiny hid her excitement that they couldn’t leave just yet. She wanted to stay and see what happened with Cain. When she had fallen asleep last night, the last thing she expected was for him to wake her up like that. Her body thrummed with excitement and burned in places that had been dormant far too long. She wasn’t letting herself think about the fact that he was Amish and she wasn’t.
For once in her life she told herself she would just enjoy the moment. She had been husband hunting at her mother’s prompting pretty much since she graduated college. Well, her mother and father were living in Portugal now, and she was here on an Amish farm with a sex god. Who cared if he could never offer her marriage? He was the bearer of orgasms.
Cain sat down at the table and took a small bite of eggs. Destiny thought it odd that after a night and morning of Olympic gold medalist sex he didn’t have more of an appetite. She supposed she would only have a cup of tea or something. She didn’t want to look like a glutton no matter how delicious Gracie’s cooking smelled.
“Cain, why don’t you run out to the barn and check on the animals,” Gracie said with a pointed look volleying with something between censure and concern.
“I can wait,” he said. He looked kind of tired all of a sudden.
“It’s annoying,” Gracie said quietly through gritted teeth. “Go now.”
Cain sighed. “Fine.” He turned to Destiny and informed her he would be right back.
Destiny was grateful for the small reprieve. Cain may not have had much of an appetite, but she was starving. She quickly scooped some eggs onto her plate and two links of sausage.
“Here, Destiny, have some bread and jam. I made the bread this morning.”
Destiny took a wide slice from the small loaf and used a spoon set in a small blue jar filled with jam and smeared the sweetened fruit spread across the fresh bread. As she bit into the soft, sweet combination, she thought she had died and gone to heaven. Para o amor de Deus! These Amish could cook!
Her mother would die if she saw her eating this way. Everything was smothered and baked in big vats of butter and there apparently was no such thing as cholesterol to these folks. How was it she had yet to see a fat person on this farm? As a matter of fact, everyone Destiny had seen so far appeared in great shape.
As she ate Destiny imagined what it would be like to live on a farm like this. No television, no music, no cars, or computers, or blow dryers. No wonder they all wore bonnets. Although her family’s farm in Portugal was rustic, they had a generator and the basic technologies like television and electricity.
There was something appealing about this type of living. Destiny loved that the roles of men and women were so prominently defined. It reminded her a bit of how it was in her homeland. For as much as she was a modern woman who surpassed her predecessors that were only permitted to serve coffee and twitter cutely while reporting the weather, there was a very real part of Destiny that wished things were still as they were before the sixties. She supposed no matter how Americanized she became with citizenship, she would never lose sight of her old-world ways, the ways of her aunts and cousins that still lived back in Reiros on their families’ farms.
Although she hadn’t been born pre-women’s lib, there was something appealing about the era, an appeal that many less advanced continents still maintained. As those places survived on many simpler traditions, the tales of an older America seemed like such an uncomplicated time. Men worked, and women tended to the family and home. Destiny wouldn’t mind living that way.
Her friends would be appalled if she ever confessed something like that out loud, but that was how many of her relatives lived in Portugal. There was woman’s work and men’s work. It didn’t mean she wasn’t capable of using a lawn mower or making over a hundred thousand a year. It just meant she preferred to live a more domestic life.
She would have no problem throwing all the excitement of her career away to raise a family. She would take pride in keeping house and tending to her husband’s needs. And it would be nice to have a man who shared her values and did other things that faded with the times.
Women’s lib wasn’t something to disregard. The freedoms American women enjoyed were nothing to make light of. Years of suffrage had accomplished a lot, but somehow it had oversimplified things and, while women moved ahead, chivalry was left behind.
Where had all the real men disappeared to? No one held doors for women anymore. Destiny always held doors, sometimes even for men, and those dumb bastards weren’t even polite enough to say thank you, when what they should have done is apologized for not getting the door for a lady! No one directed girls away from puddles or helped them on with their coats. There was no romance left because everyone was so concerned with being equal.
Well, maybe Destiny didn’t want to be the same! Yes, she wanted the right to vote and have equal opportunities in the job market and such, but not everything should be a direct result of the rat race. She was a woman! She wanted a man who treated her as such. They were the gentler sex. And as far as all this girlie manscaping and inner feelings bullshit, yes, she wanted a man to know how to communicate, but she didn’t want to sit up all night holding his hand and passing him tissues as he cried over the injustice of some repressed memory from his past. She wanted a man who knew how to be sensitive to others’ emotions and was in control of his own.
She feared her ideal man was a work of fiction concocted from the best of both worlds, a male who wasn’t emotionally stunted and at the same time was compassionate and empathetic enough to grasp the various layers of a female’s psyche. Basically she was hoping for a sexy, understanding, strong, caring…oh, who was she kidding? She mentally sneered at herself. Hold onto those unobtainable standards and you will die alone, girl.
Men like that only existed on the pages of romance novels. Destiny looked at her brother. Vito was a good guy. He was handsome, burly, kind, extremely respectful of women. She supposed if there were one thing to criticize about her brother, it would be his lack of ambition.
Working as a bouncer at a strip club wasn’t exactly setting the world on fire. Still, Vito had something that most men didn’t. He treated women as delicate creatures. He knew women were resilient, strong, and many times smarter than most men, but he still treated them gently. In Destiny’s mind, that was right. Vito protected and cared greatly for the women who danced at the club, same as he did for all the women he knew.
She would bet he thought along the same lines as her and wanted a woman who would put family before career. Maybe it was something to do with their heritage. Or maybe it was just that Destiny envied the sense of balance and peace here on the farm. Seeing such old-fashioned values at work made the outside world seem all the more exhausting. While the Amish were busy getting things done, the modern world seemed to be all racing to the top, moving their legs in a million directions and at the same time getting nowhere.
Cain returned from the barn just as Destiny finished the last bite of her eggs. His color looked better, an
d he was smiling. He must have had some coffee or something because there was a pep to his step that wasn’t there when he left.
“Are you handy with an ax, Vito?”
Her brother looked up at Cain, and the expression on his face was almost comical. Maybe Vito wasn’t quite like her. Where she could move to the country to raise a family, Vito was city folk through and through.
Destiny laughed. “You say ax, and Vito thinks of a brand of soap.” Cain didn’t appear to get the joke, but Vito did and narrowed his eyes at her.
“I can use an ax,” he told Cain.
Cain smiled. “Good. I’m taking out a tree stump today on the other end of the property. I could use some company.”
A sad feeling of being left out filled Destiny, but then Gracie said, “Destiny, would you like to learn how to milk a cow and bottle feed a calf?”
Excitement bloomed in her chest. “Yes.”
“Good. I just need to go check on Anna and then I’ll take you to the barn.”
“What’s wrong with Anna that you need to check on her?” Cain asked, concern straining his normally merry features.
Gracie wouldn’t look at him. She busied herself by cleaning up the cook surface while she answered, “Annalise is fine. Her back has been paining her, and the babe has dropped. She’s a little early, but she’s getting close to her time. I’m sure it is just her nerves.”
Destiny looked at Cain who appeared to want to say something, but worked very hard at keeping his thoughts to himself. Finally he said, “It’s too early.”
“Not really.” Gracie commented. “You know how our…family tends to go early. The baby will come when he’s ready.”
Destiny frowned. She had thought for some reason that Anna was an in-law, but according to Gracie’s words she must have misunderstood. “She’s having a boy? Do Amish use modern technologies when a woman’s pregnant?” Gracie squinted at her so she clarified. “She would’ve had to have had an ultrasound to know the gender of the baby.”