by A. C. Mason
“The owner is a close friend.”
So that was how he’d found her. “Do you have many close friends?”
“Johann, Errol, Marty and Dominique. She’s Errol’s partner.”
One she’d met while they were dating. Three she’d met afterward. “Dominique is the young human woman with the eye patch who showed me around last night?”
“She was sixteen when an undead lured her, drugged and served her up to clients. One ate her eye while still attached. I can’t even imagine what that must have been like for her. After she was rescued, she stayed with Errol on the upper floor. He runs a semirehab home for the girls who aren’t welcome at home. He gives them time to get on their feet.”
How horrible. Good to know, though, that Vaihan’s friends weren’t the type to hurt others.
“There is clothing you can wear in the closet, if you want to dress,” he said, gesturing to the paneled doors beside her.
Why had he rescued her last night? “Thank you.” He shouldn’t have cared where she was.
“We can start on breakfast for you, when you come out.” With a smile, he turned and closed the door.
Chapter 46
Everything was a mess. Vaihan sat at the Erard grand piano with its ornate, amber delicate leafing decor and as he slid his hands across the keys, Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No.1 came to mind. His fingers began their choreographed movements. The slow, elusive beat of each grace note of the melancholy piece reflected the emptiness inside him.
As Leera rushed across the shiny oak floor, barefoot, he stopped, midkey.
She stood bathed in sun, curls caressing her face, still wrapped in the beige sheet. The silhouette of her form was visible beneath the thin material, as were her hard nipples. Pain strained the soft lines of her face.
He scooted aside on the bench and gestured with his head for her to join him.
She quickened her hesitant steps, lowered herself next to him with her back to the piano and rested her chin on his shoulder.
The rhythm of her exhaling breath brushed over the back on his neck, sending the hairs to attention. The last time such a sensation occurred, he’d yet to be undead.
“I’m sorry for all the pain and humiliation I’ve caused you,” she said. “I’m sorry that I betrayed your trust in me. I’m sorry that you had to take responsibility for my careless actions and were forced to publicly share what losing Elizabeth meant to you.” Pools of tears welled in her eyes. “I have no words in defense of my actions, of myself. Only further indictments of my actions. I thought of my need–of the void inside me being replaced with all that is you–of how your touch evoked emotions lost to me when Jean died–of how being with you replaced the emptiness corroding me from the inside out was being restored by your warmth. In those few moments when you touched me, I was your instrument–synthesizing–the composer’s, you, your feelings. I so desperately need you to love me. I so badly wanted to seal our bond...to link you to me, to force you to love me too. I was reckless and selfish. I’m so very sorry.”
“I know.” He cupped her face in his hand. “Do you trust me?”
She nodded.
He tilted her head up and angled her lips to his. Salty tears shimmered on the surface, and he licked her upper lip.
“Vaihan.” She put her hands to his chest and jerked back to the piano, causing the fall to cover the keys.
“I’m not going to hurt you, I promise.” The tension in her arms relaxed and he regained the distance between them. “You are far too good at self-inflicting wounds. I want to make you feel adored.” Vaihan crushed her mouth, forcing her lips to part. Her breath filled his mouth. How long had he wanted to taste her? To kiss her senseless? As his tongue met the heat of her, every inch of him filled with desire.
“I don’t understand. How is this possible?” She gasped. “But don’t stop.”
Warmth swirled inside him, like a twister stirring up his desperation–his longing, his joy. He tugged the overlapping sides of the sheet apart and trailed a path with his fingers to her breast, as with his other hand, he reached behind her thigh, lifting her.
She wrapped her leg around his waist. Savoring the peach flavor of her skin, he kissed along her jaw, neck and collarbone. As she arched her back, grinding her pelvis into his erection, her breasts bobbed. He circled one of her dark buds, suckled it, and when he grazed her skin with the edge of his teeth, she thrust her hips into him, rubbed her folds along the length of his erection.
No matter the urge to drive into her, he would savor this experience. He would not rush their encounter. A lifetime’s emotional need would be expressed and fulfilled in the next few hours, until he emptied himself into her.
He lifted her onto the top of the piano. Her legs dangled over the side and feet rested on the keys’ cover.
Her body making her now a fiend, craving the relief only the toxin could provide, she shook.
“Beaute, concentrate on my lips.” He brought her fingers to his mouth and traced the outer edge then slid her index finger in to meet his tongue. The light suckling of his mouth caused her legs to tense around him. He kissed the bruising on her inner thighs, working his way to her outer labia.
The slick coating on her folds tasted and smelled of the old him–the poison. He worked his tongue down to her opening, soaking up her juices.
She rolled her hips, angling her body for deeper exploration while spreading her legs. “Vaihan.” The raw sound of her voice delighted him.
He sailed back to her nub, flicking back and forth over the slippery bead and drank her excitement, drove into her opening with his tongue and pressed it to the edges.
She grabbed his head, forcing him into her, his hair brushed by her palm.
The scent and wonder of her curled the corner of his mouth as he traced her labia, sucked and nibbled his way to her clit. Back and forth, he rolled his tongue over the flavorful nub. He pushed two fingers inside her tight muscles, and they stretched to accommodate him. Fingers curved, pressed the tips to the upper side of her canal. In and out, he pumped his stimulation. The pulsating bead thumped against his tongue and the edge of her opening constricted around his fingers. Fluid gushed.
She cried out with a jerk that tensed every part of her. “Yes. Vaihan, yes.”
Under the assault of his tongue, her clit pounded, and he licked on.
“Have mercy, please.” Her erratic breathing slowed.
Every part of his body needed her. “I love you.” He gathered her to him.
“I don’t understand.” She gazed, wide-eyed, at him. Her pounding heartbeat echoed against his chest. “Kiss me.”
Vaihan smiled and pressed his lips to hers.
She pushed her tongue into his mouth. Tears slipped along her cheeks.
“Why the tears?” His voice came out hoarse.
“You don’t hate me, but I don’t deserve you. I betrayed you.”
“You don’t get to make that decision for me.” He squeezed her. “My heart is mine alone to give, even if yours isn’t mine to have. I want to show you just how deep my love runs for you at least once. Will you allow me?” He brushed her chin with his thumb and bit the adorable cleft there.
She sat on his lap naked, pressed to his erection, and he awaited her response.
“Control wasn’t a barrier for you,” she said at last. “It was a demonstration of affection. This was your way of showing me my wishes came before your needs. You blamed yourself for losing control and hurting me. I made you feel weak. I reopened the wound of your sister.”
Finally she understood his motives. “You couldn’t have known... It’s time for us to move past the pain.” With his forehead resting against hers, he held her near. “Please, Leera,” he pleaded.
She tucked her mouth into his ear. “Only if you promise me you’ll do so more than once.”
As her acceptance of him sank in, Vaihan kissed her swollen red nose. She would take him into her.
Puffy-eyed from crying, she fixed her ga
ze on his.
“As many times as you will accept me, beaute.” In a few days he would sit her down to explain about the night of the accident and what Jean said to him. This morning, though, she was his. And he belonged to her for eternity. She wasn’t the wife of the man he’d hit with his car or the lover of a dangerous man. Not even the plaything of his accomplice.
“Would you disrobe for me?” She leaned back against the covered keys and thrust forward, rotating her pelvis along the length of his arousal.
Her words nearly mirrored his own some weeks back on his bed. “If you’d like me to, I will.” He traced the line of her areola with the tip of his index finger.
“I would.” Her lips pressed together as she suppressed a moan.
Was this play, or a more vulnerable request on her part? “Will you sit and watch, or help?”
“I’d like to watch.”
With her body held to his waist, Vaihan set her on the bench, facing the kitchen, and stood in front of her. Daylight shone on his flesh, warming his skin. He lowered his pants and stepped out of the material.
“Is that hair near your navel and scrotum?” She narrowed her sharp eyes to razor edges.
The changes amazed and terrified him. “Yes.” Though his senses weren’t as acute as before, everything felt more attainable, within his grasp.
“May I touch?” She smiled like a thousand sunrises.
“Yes.” No need or want would go unanswered that he could fulfill.
Like a lioness, she stood and approached, and with her fingers to his chest, moved them down to his belly button, on to his erect cock and cradled his testes.
He groaned. More hunger filled him. Starvation had hollowed him and she was the first real nourishment to his soul and body in a thousand years.
As her silky touch trailed back up, she smiled. “Do you enjoy my touch there?”
Warmth fluttered in his core. “I do.” He swallowed to hold back the hunter and leaned into her body. Her taut nipples tickled his chest. “I need to be inside you.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck.
Vaihan reached around her thighs and lowered himself to the soft rug with her on top. “Guide me into you.” With a kiss to her forehead, he leaned back on his elbow.
She pressed her lips together. “You’re sure this is safe?”
“You know, I would have you no other way.” He rubbed her arms, and she took hold of his cock and angled herself above him.
Warmth cocooned the head then his shaft vanished into silkiness. His arms trembled from the delight. She rested against him.
“I promise if you don’t climax before I do, I will more than make up for it in subsequent rounds,” he said.
She giggled and her inner muscles squeezed his cock.
“I’m already two orgasms up on you.”
“Every time our bodies intertwine you should orgasm no less than twice to my one.” He smirked.
“You are so thick.” Her smooth labia reached the base and moved up. “I can feel you at the opening of my womb.”
He kissed her breast, working his way to a beaded nipple. “You mustn’t take me so deep if it isn’t comfortable.” Using his tongue, he circled the milk-chocolate flesh.
“I love it.”
“Good.” He brought her gaze to his. “I will rock up as you go down for a slower build up of sensation. That way we will both have more explosive climaxes.”
“I like those.”
“As do I, beaute.”
Up and down, she pumped his length. He matched her rhythm, invading her with his cock. Her wet folds made slick sounds, heightening his pleasure. The woman he loved rode him. Sensual fragrances danced in the air around them. For the first time since their encounter, he felt alive, a worthy partner to his beaute.
“Vaihan, I’m getting so close.” She leaned back, breasts pushed forward.
His cock twitched inside her, building to his own release. Her dark-tipped outer labia slid up his shiny shaft and back down. Juices coated his balls. He cupped her breast and ass to firmly bury his cock deeper, and his scrotum tightened.
“Don’t stop!” she cried out. “I’m coming.”
Her inner muscles constricted around his length. Fluid spilled from the tip. “As am I.” He cradled to her chest as he pumped his seed deep inside her. With his face pressed to her heart, the pounding thumping against his ear, he emptied the last of his release into her.
Chapter 47
Leera lay on his chest, her flesh sticky from their lovemaking, with him still inside her. The smell of him entered her with each breath.
“You are heaven on earth.” Vaihan descended to the rug, holding her to his chest. He caressed her back with his fingertips in an up-and-down motion.
“The tone of your skin no longer holds a blue hue.” Was he becoming human, as she’d overheard? How was that even possible? “You have hair. A shadow of color has appeared at your irises. And you are no longer toxic.”
“There are things going on with me I cannot explain to you. As soon as I am able, I will tell you everything.” He kissed the top of her head.
Maybe it was better if she didn’t know. The more she knew, the more danger she posed to him. Every piece of information, she may need to give to Barton if asked.
She withdrew his cock from her, sat up and pulled the sheet around her.
“I’ve already seen you naked.” He chuckled.
She smiled. “But the teenagers out on the lake haven’t.”
“I’m sure the males won’t mind. Some of the lake’s north shore teens come down this way to skate, as the ice is denser.”
“Do you have skates?”
He nodded his head. “When I bought the southern shore some years ago, I vowed to learn. I’ve yet to have the time.” He slid his cotton pants back on.
“I can teach you. But first a shower and breakfast?”
“As long as we can bathe together, for water conservation.” Heat sparked in his gaze.
“You’re a fiend, but I sure hope you don’t tire of satisfying me.” She headed for the bathroom.
“Never.”
* * * *
Leera pushed off the snow bank by the edge of the lake, then turned around.
“You’re pretty agile on those blades of death.” Vaihan stood up. “I’m not sure I was meant to be in these.”
“Stop being a baby and take my hand.” She extended her arm for him to take.
Vaihan stood on his skates as he moved further out on the ice, his ankles turned inward.
With a push, she grabbed him and tugged him along.
“The area doesn’t seem even, so I’m not sure we should be going this fast.” He gripped her tight.
“What are you so worried about?” She slowed them to a stop.
Vaihan pulled her to him. “If something were to happen to you, I’m not sure how I would get you help.”
From his reaction, maybe he was human and worried he couldn’t protect her. And if so, why didn’t he want to tell her? What if it was temporary, and he turned back into an Ancient? Everything they shared today would just fade away.
“Nothing will happen to me.” She spun, placing his hands on her hips and tugged him along. Big snowflakes cascaded from the dark clouds.
“Do you remember the first snow was on our first date?” He lowered his voice.
“You’re up for it again?”
“I don’t think there will ever be a time I won’t be ‘up’ for you.”
“You say that now, but what about when I’m in my eighties?”
“I’ll be crypt robber.”
“Don’t repeat that.” She slowed, heading toward the snow bank. “See? That wasn’t so bad now, was it?”
“You were gentle with me.” He kissed her cheek. His lips were cool from the cold.
She rotated toward him. “I love you.”
His eyes widened, and he let go of her. He crashed back onto the ice with a grunt.
“Why did you
let go?”
“I wasn’t about to take you down with me,” he said, groaning with pain.
She held out her hand and waited for him to accept her offer of help to his feet.
“I’m fine.” He sat up.
Blood stained the ice beneath where his head had been. “I’m not sure,” she replied. “Let me have look.”
Vaihan took her hands into his. “Leave this be, please.”
She angled herself to have a peek at his head.
“Leera, I’m fine.” He stood in the snow.
Blood. Did that mean he could die?
Chapter 48
Rowley pushed back in his seat. Devin’s eyes met his, as he scanned over to the black man.
“I’ve asked little of our collaborative efforts, Mr. DeGruis, but I have one item I asked for that you have yet to deliver.”
“I guess that would be the name of the driver who killed the husband of a ‘friend’ of yours.” DeGruis reached into his inside pocket and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. “I can’t say it was an easy task, as the name was classified. When you read, you’ll understand why.”
Rowley took the sheet and unfolded the paper. Police report. First officer on the scene. 9-11 call placed by Vaihan Louchian. He reread it. Vaihan Louchian.
Devin stood next to him and read over his shoulder. “And you are sure of this?”
“Quite.” Mr. DeGruis nodded.
They couldn’t have planned this better if they had tried. Not that this was impossible. Since more accidents happen close to home, and it lived a few blocks away.
Devin had just earned his way out of the doghouse. Not that he’d know who’d been driving the car he’d pushed Jean in front of, but he could kiss him all the same.
“I understand that your friend has had some involvement with the undead in question.” Barton’s stare gleamed with interest.
“Indeed, the creature has a fascination for her.” But what man didn’t want to rescue a woman unable to feel? She was like a flame, and they were all moths. “I think we can safely say that this document will put an end to that.”