CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

B en walked up behind Anna and wrapped his arms around her. One of his hands cupped her breast.

She slapped him.

“Stop it.” She giggled. “I am trying to focus on packing.”

He turned her. “We will be back in a week; you do not need all of that.” Ben stared down into the huge suitcase lying on their bed filled with clothing. “How many bodies do you have?”

“Ben, stop.” Anna laughed.

“And perhaps I’ve not made myself clear, but you will be naked most of the time anyway,” he teased, nuzzling her neck.

“Okay, that I am on board with,” she said, her voice hitching as it did whenever he touched her.

She turned around, and their lips met. Lazily, their mouths enjoyed each other as familiar lovers did. Ben reached under her skirt and tugged her panties off. He felt her smile against his lips, and he did the same.

Laughing, they parted, and he lifted her onto the bed, pushing the suitcase to the floor.

“Hey!”

“I’ll make it worth it, sweetheart,” Ben promised as he hitched her dress to her waist and parted her thighs.

Something like humph was said as his mouth connected with her gorgeous pink folds. Holding her legs apart, he worked his mouth over her, knowing her sensitive spots.

“Don’t come yet. I want to be inside you,” Ben said, sliding up her body, sucking on both her nipples as he did.

“Yes, hurry.”

She was always in a hurry for him, and he loved it. His slightly shy mate had become a little sex kitten. More than once she had climbed on his lap and reached into his pants, pulling him out and mounting him. Out of the blue. For no reason and with no warning.

His life was fucking fantastic.

Waking to find her with her mouth parted, safe in his arms? It couldn’t get any better.

Thrusting inside her, they both gasped and their eyes held. Yeah, he fucking loved this female.

Afterward, Ben slid his hand across Anna’s silky hip and sighed. He could stay here like this with her for a hundred years and be happy. But they had a plane to catch. A private jet, to be accurate. They were returning to the US with Ari.

Anna had met him as soon as he’d finished with the king, and the two of them had instantly gotten along. Over the past three days, they had shared a few meals, and Ari had shown them places around Italy that had been important to him over the centuries.

Anna didn’t know who he was, only that he was old. That in itself wasn’t unique; many vampires were. But not as old as he was.

“Ben,” Anna said as she lay on his bicep, staring back at him with that flush of a female who had just orgasmed.

“Yeah, babe.”

“I know there are things you aren’t sharing. You, Ari, the king. I trust there is a good reason for it, but I don’t want there to be secrets between us.”

Damn.

“There are things I cannot share. Things I shouldn’t even know, but I do,” he answered honestly. “All I can say, sweetheart, is that they are not my secrets. They don’t impact us. I love you, and my loyalty is to you.”

“Forever?”

He sat and leaned over her, his arms on either side of her head. “Absolutely forever.”

Anna’s eyes glistened back at him.

“We will have our own family one day, and when we are ready, we can build a home to raise our little vamps.”

Anna laughed. “Little Bens. Oh my God, I don’t think the world is ready for that.”

He smirked and dropped a kiss on her lips, ready to be inside her all over again.

They had the vision for their future. Now, he and the Moretti teams had to make sure all of them were safe enough to live that life on this planet alongside humans.