by L. L. Ash
While the two ate, Ariston took the hand of a serving girl and left the room as I watched Calix stare at the table, glaring at the tall glass in front of him.
Without looking up, he growled under his breath, “eat, Lily.”
I turned away and forked a bite into my mouth, tasting buttered root vegetables with a savory, salty steak. Peeking out of my peripheral vision, I watched Calix fuss with his glass. He lifted it a couple times before putting it back, then finally he brought it to his lips just for him to grimace and sigh in defeat, leaving the glass untouched the rest of the ‘meal’.
“Have you had enough, Lily?” Calix asked me eventually after I’d cleared my plate.
“Yes, thank you,” I told him, hoping my manners might keep away any punishment.
He nodded, then looked toward his father who had already finished and given the girl a drop of his blood from his finger.
“Sister?” he called over to Nyx and she groaned but peeled herself from the man’s neck, biting down on her lip until there was blood.
The man pulled her lip into his mouth, closed his eyes then took the rest of her mouth and kissed her eagerly.
“Ugh.” Calix scowled. “Please, remove yourself to another room.”
Nyx grinned and stood, took the man’s hand and left the room with him following closely behind, a grin on both of their faces.
Now it was just me, Calix and his father.
“Your new mate and I have bonded, son. I feel confident in this match, as long as you don’t mess it up.”
“You flatter me, father,” Calix said dryly.
“She deserves your best. Give it to her.”
“Sure.” Calix nodded. “Meanwhile, I am ready to retire.”
“Fine. But be careful. She carries your child.”
“I know,” Calix agreed quietly, looking at the wood grain in the table.
“Goodnight, son,” he said. “Goodnight, daughter,”
“Goodnight, father,” I murmured and they both looked up at me. “Or may I call you Papa?”
“Any name you wish will suffice, darling,” he told me before standing, smiling contentedly.
Calix stood as well and put out his hand silently. I took it and he led the way back to his room.
Once we arrived, I went toward the center of the room while Calix stood there, palm on the door in silence for a full minute.
“Why did you tell my father I raped you?” he asked finally, looking over his shoulder at me before dropping his palm and standing straight, turning toward me.
“Because you did.”
“I did not!”
“I told you I didn’t want to be here, that I didn’t want to have sex with you. You said I have no choice. You said you’d take it if I didn’t give it to you. You said that if I didn’t obey, you would make it unpleasant for me. How the hell is that not rape?”
Calix clenched his jaw, speaking through his teeth.
“You gave it to me willingly, Lily. I asked and you gave.”
“I didn’t want you to tear into me,” I spat out back at him. “And if I didn’t go along, are you telling me you’d have let me alone? You wouldn’t have forced yourself on me?”
“It’s irrelevant!”
“It’s not!” I shrieked, letting my stress and anger and fright bleed out of me in the two little words. “I didn’t choose you, Claix. I don’t choose you!”
“Yeah, well you are stuck with me,” he growled.
“Your father offered to take me back to Athens with him,” I said quietly, suddenly feeling calm at the prospect.
An out.
Calix whipped around.
“You wouldn’t...”
“And why shouldn’t I? It would be better than wondering when you will rape me again.”
He sneered.
“Ahhh, ante mou sto diaolo.” he growled though I didn’t understand him as he got closer. “You moaned for me, Lily Dahlia. You met me thrust for thrust and you enjoyed it.”
“Fuck you,” I breathed as his presence overwhelmed me all over again.
“Pidiksu,” he whispered back, the anger melting off his face.
Next thing I knew we were kissing again. His lips bruising mine as he assaulted my mouth with his. My only goal in life suddenly being to taste him, to feel him. I desperately needed him again.
“Do you give yourself freely, Antheia Mou?” he breathed against my lips and my breath caught.
“Yes. I give myself to you,” I nodded, willing to say anything to feel him inside me.
“Remember that,” he grunted, pushing me back onto the bed as he shed his jacket and shirt.
My fingers found the smooth, cool skin of his hard chest and this time around, I explored it.
I was bold. I was his mate and he owned me, but I owned him too, or so was my understanding of it all. Where my body was his whether I liked it or not, his was mine to pleasure myself with.
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” I admitted, fingering the clasp on his slacks.
“You will learn,” he said, pressing his fingers over mine to help me open the button and zipper.
I pulled at the black fabric and they dropped down his legs, leaving his black underwear in place over his slim hips. They did nothing to hide the large erection pressing against the fabric, though.
Calix stumbled for a second, holding onto the bedpost with one hand as he flicked off his shoes, showing a little bit of his humanity and a little less grace than I assumed he floated on every second of every day.
“Fucking stuck.” He grinned, dipping down to untie his rebellious right shoe before he looked up at me again.
“Just leave them on!” I sighed, growing impatient.
“Are you so eager to have me, mate?” He lifted an eyebrow and I frowned.
Yes I was, and the thought irritated me beyond belief.
“Move back,” he said gently, though his smile disappeared again.
It never stayed for long, anyway.
“Make it fast, Calix. I’m still mad at you.”
“You can be mad at me,” he agreed. “But you cannot say no to me just as I cannot say no to you.”
“I own you,” I told him in as fierce a voice as I could manage, and he froze, pausing with his hands halfway up the skirt of my dress.
His eyes swung up to mine and we looked at each other. Just stayed there, motionless as we stared.
“I own you, Calix,” I told him again, though this time it was a promise.
Because if I owned him, he owned me, too.
“Yes,” he finally agreed in such a breathy voice, it went straight through me and pinged between my legs.
I didn’t wait for anything else. I threw myself back onto the bed and helped him get the gauzy skirt out of the way. His fingers found my wetness first, brushing along the seam before delving deeper. Thumb brushing my pearl, he settled his legs over mine to calm the bucking of my hips as they threatened to dislodge him.
“Soon I will discover your favorite things, Antheia Mou, and you will be helpless to me. I will not only own your body and every little moan and breath, I will own every orgasm, every throb and pulse...”
His fingers turned around inside me, causing everything to flutter before they rubbed at some little magic point, making me gasp and pant.
“I will own your pleasure and every time you come for me. You will remember that you are mine, and you are only mine. You will remember how it is you received my seed and created a life in your womb, because you will know it is my womb you carry our child in.”
I cried out as his movements got faster, his fingers relentless.
“I’ll remember,” I finally breathed.
I rolled my head around on the pillow for a moment in bliss before gathering my strength to make my point to him, too.
“And you will remember,” I gasped momentarily as he slipped in a third finger. “That if I am yours and only yours, you are only mine.”
His eyes narrowed and he increased
the pressure, almost causing a blackout in my brain.
“This…” I managed to grasp the organ between his legs gently in my palm, causing him to take in a surprised breath, “...is mine and only mine.”
“So be it,” he gasped again and with the quickest motion on earth, his underwear was down and he was sliding into me.
My eyes rolled to the back of my head and my back arched at the fullness. He kept moving at a quick pace, eyes hooded in lust, his lips open with his efforts.
I wiggled my hips, hoping to nudge that sensitive little pearl until he grasped one thigh to stop me.
“Enough,” he said in a rough voice. “Give me your pleasure, Mou Lily. Come for me.”
Just like that, my body obeyed. My hips rose up again and I cried out as the burning fire drove through my entire body, seizing every muscle, then releasing all at once.
“Good girl,” he grunted before pulling up a thigh, framing his hip with it and lifting himself a little higher, thrusting harder.
Only a few moments later he bent forward, pressing his forehead to my collarbone and ground out a groan that excited every molecule in my body.
“It pleases me that you know your place, Lily Dahlia,” he said once he’d gathered himself and sat back on his heels. “But if you have any more bones to pick with me, don’t involve my family in it. What happens here stays between us and only us. Do you understand?”
“No, I don’t.” I yanked at the skirt of my dress to cover myself again.
“You are my property, and my responsibility. Do not threaten to leave me again.”
“I’ll do whatever I damn well please.”
“You are impossible!” he groaned, but I detected a hint of a smile behind it.
“Are you hungry, Calix?” I asked him after a moment of silence. “You didn’t hardly eat at dinner.”
“I didn’t want to offend your delicate sensibilities with eating in front of you. And I can’t stomach cold blood. I never really have been able to.”
I sighed, feeling a little weird that I wanted him to drink from me again. I wanted his lips on my neck. I wanted to know I was nourishing him and no one else.
“Then take mine,” I whispered, unable to believe what I was saying. “I’d rather you had mine than someone else’s.”
“And you give it freely?” he asked, almost surprised.
“I do.” I gave a gentle nod before gathering any stray pieces of hair away from my neck.
He just sat there for a minute, watching me.
“You confuse me, Antheia Mou.”
“What does that even mean, Calix?”
“Antheia Mou?”
I nodded.
“Antheia was a goddess,” he said, extending his hand and pulling me up to sit. “The goddess of flowers and spring. Attendant to Aphrodite herself. You know who Aphrodite is, yes?”
“I’ve heard of here. She’s one of those big hoopla Greek goddesses, right?”
“Big hoopla?” He chuckled. “Aphrodite is the goddess of beauty...” he brushed his thumb over my cheek. “Love...” he pressed his fingertips against my heart above my left breast. “Fertility,” those fingers dove down to rest on my stomach. “And sexuality.”
His brushed up my thigh under my dress and a knuckle ran over my seam.
I was getting so wet again…
“Anyway, you remind me of her. Antheia. Because of your name, Lily Dahlia.”
“But not Aphrodite?”
“It would be an insult to compare you to a poutana like her.”
“A what?”
“You need to learn Greek.” He smiled at me, brushing at my cheek again, pushing away a stray hair that was tickling my skin.
“Where do you want me?” I asked finally, unsure of where or how to sit for him. “Is this ok?”
I shifted, stretching my neck toward him but tilting my chin away.
“No. It is all wrong.” He shook his head. “Stand for me.”
I shifted and half crawled off the bed in a display of anything besides grace, but I managed to get to my feet on the carpet-covered stone floor.
Calix moved too, his lean, naked body displayed shamelessly as he moved toward me then behind me. I was disappointed. I wanted to explore him a little more.
His fingers slid down my back before dragging away the gauzy white fabric, releasing the wide sleeves from my shoulders and pushing the rest down to my hips.
“Have you always been beautiful, Antheia Mou?” he asked into the top of my head.
“I’m not beautiful.” I shrugged, trying not to let him know I was barely keeping up with my rapid breathing and heart rate.
“You are,” he said casually, matter-of-factly.
“You said I wasn’t anything special when we were in that room together.”
“I meant you didn’t have anything I haven’t seen an uncountable number of times before.”
“Wow, flattering.”
“That doesn’t make you any less enjoyable, To Korítsi Mou. Receive a compliment when it’s given you.”
“Thank you.” I shrugged again and let him snake the rest of the dress off my hips where it fell to the floor.
“Exquisite,” he breathed into the flesh of my shoulder.
His lips lightly brushed over my skin and his hand slipped down my arm. My back was to his chest, and I felt him pressed gently into me as we stood there, his hands moving down to my hands, then onto my stomach.
“You conceived quickly, Lily. It will be a boy for sure.”
“I still can’t believe you got me pregnant. I am not ready to be a mom, Calix.”
“It is still many months away. In a couple years, maybe you will have changed your mind on the subject.”
“A couple years?”
“Vampires age very slowly. It takes approximately three years to gestate one.”
“Holy hell,” I breathed, and not just from his hand cupping my breast. “And how long are they babies for?”
“The growth rate is about one to three of humans. A little less, actually. But worry not, there are servants and nannies for such a thing. And he will not remain a baby forever.”
“And now that I’m pregnant? What are you going to do with me?”
“I’ll keep you with me,” he murmured as his lips touched my neck.
“What for? What am I going to do here?”
“You’ll feed me.” He smiled against my neck, chuckling and nipping at the skin.
I grinned. Mr. Serious just made a joke.
“And if you are up to it, my mate, we will fuck every morning and evening and maybe a time or two between. As often as you’d like.”
“It’s up to me?” I asked, my breath catching in my throat as his hand brushed over my breast and grasped my throat.
Moving my head just slightly to the side, his tongue brushed between the tendons on the side of my neck.
“Have you forgotten already?” He turned me, staying at my back as he pressed me forward into the mattress. “You own me, Antheia Mou.”
His arm slipped around my waist and pressed me to his chest as he crawled up the bed with me close to him, me helping where I could until we were at the pillows, and his lips were at mine again.
“I can never have enough of you,” he admitted, digging his fingers into my hair, wiggling it loose.
“Never,” I agreed as his lips moved down to my neck again, my hair everywhere now.
“To your side, agápi mou,” he breathed into my hair and helped me roll onto my side, facing away from him.
His fingers dragged through my hair at the scalp and he brushed it all away from my neck, leaving the dark locks splayed all over the pillows. It filled the air around us with the scent of rose and lavender.
Calix hummed appreciatively before running his hand down my side gently and slowly, propping himself on his elbow behind me, looking down at me.
I stretched my arm out under my head and rested the other across my side as I waited. Calix’s body came flush to
mine, his knee slipping between mine and his palm resting on my outer thigh. His lips were at my neck again and I felt the brush of lips, a lick of his tongue, then the bite and sting before he was partaking of me again. This time, however, he didn’t stay perfectly still. Calix’s hand on my thigh urged my leg over his, thrown over his thigh and hip behind me before I felt the head of his erection at my entrance again. He slipped in so slowly, I thought I would go mad at the show of care he was taking. But soon enough he was seated to the hilt and his hand moved up and cupped my breast again, kneading the flesh and teasing the nipple.
Minutes it went just like that. Nothing changed and the only movement was his gentle thrust and the tickle of his tongue on my neck as he ate.
Then suddenly everything changed. His hand left my breast and slipped between my thighs where my bud sat nestled comfortably until his fingers nudged and played with it, sending more heat and electricity through me. My hips bucked into his hands and I felt the pressure from inside but also the outside stimulation, and in one swift cry I was flying off the cliff of reality into the beautiful imaginings of perfect pleasure that I was beginning to get used to.
As the throbbing eased he took his hand back and removed his mouth from my neck to bite onto his wrist. He put it to my mouth and I sucked and nibbled on him just as I had before, letting his hand go only when his wound had closed and he had released inside me, warmth throbbing inside me as we hummed a chorus of moans.
“You are a wonder,” he breathed into my ear as his arm moved back around me, holding me soundly to his chest.
We laid silent from that moment, still connected and still holding tightly to each other, my back to his chest.
I fell asleep that way, feeling strangely safe, loved and wanted for the first time in my life.
Chapter Four
I woke to the sound of gentle knocks on the door and moved around in the bed, feeling the silky sheets, cool against my bare skin.
“Mistress,” a soft voice called in.
Janie’s voice.
“Come in,” I sighed, then choked on the air in my throat.
Mumbling expletives, I pulled up the sheets to cover my bare body and felt my cheeks heat in a childish blush as Janie came in and put a tray on the small table in the corner.