by Damon Kinney
Obviously, I was dubious about the origins of this thought, but it was a good one.
“Terrance, did you ever consider that maybe you were drawn to Diablo Falls by… me?”
I watched as the color slowly drained from his face.
Terrance
“Fuck.”
Sagan reached up and place a finger just under my bottom lip, then pushed upward to close my wide-open mouth.
“Didn’t think about that possibility, did you, smart guy?”
“Wait,” I said, “are you trying to tell me that you planned all this?”
She laughed out loud.
“No, baby. That’s not what I’m saying at all. But when did you start feeling like you needed to come to Diablo Falls?”
I thought it over. “I don’t remember, to be honest. It was a while ago. I remember hearing or reading the name somewhere, and when I googled it, I felt an instant pull. That was about a decade ago.”
“When I was twelve,” she said. “Does puberty play a role in vampire stuff?”
“It does. Holy shit.”
“What?” she asked.
“The older you got, the more intense that pull became. Last year I decided I would need to come check this place out, to see if I could better understand what this feeling was. Then this summer, I felt it so strongly that I was compelled to drop everything and get over here immediately.”
Sagan giggled. “I think that might have been my fault, too.”
“What do you mean? What happened over the summer?”
Her face turned crimson. “I came home from college and decided that maybe I was being silly, saving myself for the right man. The night Marcie and I moved into our apartment, I told her that it was time for me to get on with my life, that I was going to start looking for just a decent guy to deflower me.”
“When was that?” I insisted.
“August 1st.”
I climbed out of bed and ran across the room to my suitcase, digging through the outside pocket. I found what I was looking for: the flight information I’d printed out the day I bought my tickets. The date: August 1st.
My jaw dropped back open.
I stood there, totally naked, and stared at the equally naked goddess on the bed.
It was her.
My soulmate had reached out to me from across the planet, maybe even from across more than a millennium. I’d probably never know is Emeline’s spirit was involved in this, but maybe I should start believing in magic after all.
Regardless, this wasn’t about my long-deceased wife.
This was about the jaw-droppingly gorgeous creature right in front of me.
“You’re right. Something or someone had made certain that the two of us met.”
“Kinda makes sense, if you think about it. There are probably a hundred or more restaurants in Diablo Falls, but you decided to eat alone in the same one that Brian took me to that night. And Brian was kind enough to asshole his way out of my life so that you could introduce yourself.”
This woman, who knew nothing about vampires or supernaturals when she left work earlier today, was taking all this in stride. I was the one who was more freaked out about it.
But shocked as I might be, I knew better than to tempt fate. I’d been brought here for a reason, and that reason was smiling at me.
“I’m starving,” she said. “Is there anything to eat here?”
I stood silently looking at her and thinking about everything we’d been through in only a few days.
I didn’t want to speak until I was certain about my decision, but that moment came just seconds later.
“Sagan, will you marry me?”
Sagan
No, we didn’t get married. Not right away at least.
I was thrilled to accept Terrance’s impromptu proposal, but I told him we couldn’t rush it. There were plans to be made, and my parents would have to be involved. My mother would disown me if I showed up at her house to introduce her to my new husband. And I knew it would take both her and Dad some time to wrap their heads around the idea that their little girl was marrying a “thirty-seven-year old.”
Honestly, though, it would help that Terrance was so ridiculously wealthy. I’d known he was pretty well-off when he rented the Berringer place. I mean, what kind of guy rents a ten-thousand square foot mountain resort with eight bedrooms just for himself?
A billionaire, that’s who.
The man has a house in Paris. And Moscow. And Tokyo. And apartments in Manhattan, London, and Rome.
I’m glad I didn’t know about Terrance’s absurd wealth before I fell in love with him, because it’s so overwhelming it probably would have scared me away. I grew up in Satan Stumbles and have lived in this town all my life, except for college. I’ve never even been to Denver, and it’s only a few hundred miles away, for fuck’s sake.
No, I’m glad I found out afterwards or I would have felt inferior to such a man. Once we bonded, everything else became moot.
It had been a full week since my deflowering, and he and I had spent every night together since. My life had consisted of incredible sex with massive orgasms, then trying to focus on teaching youngsters about the Bolshevik Revolution. I had to give myself a pat on the back for pulling it off.
The wedding would come soon enough. Probably the claiming, too. Terrance was pushing more for the latter, since it was a stronger bond. Marriage was a fall-back option.
Either way, though, he made it clear that I was his and there was no question we would need to make it official, one way or the other. Or maybe both.
He didn’t have to worry; I knew from the time we stepped naked into the secret hot springs that I would spend the rest of my life with Terrance. Whether that means another seventy years or another seven thousand, I’m his now and wouldn’t have it any other way.
But I still liked to tease him, to make him wonder just a little.
I stepped into the shower, needing to wash the previous night’s sex off my body before facing my kids in school. Terrance entered a second later, his ever-present hard-on preceding him. As we soaped each other up, I thought yet again about his spectacular skill as a lover.
“Terrance, how many women have you slept with?”
He laughed. “Are we actually going to have this conversation?”
“It’s only fair,” I protested. “You know how many I’ve slept with: one. How many women have you fucked?”
“I honestly don’t know.”
“Ballpark.”
He sighed. “Ballpark? Definitely more than a thousand.”
The number should have shocked me but was only mildly surprising. I’d already thought about it and knew if he only slept with one woman every year, it would be more than that. And as a single guy for the last millennium, I’m sure he averaged more than one partner a year.
Small wonder he was so incredible in bed.
“More than a thousand, eh? Looks like I’ve got some catching up to do.”
He stopped lathering me and glared, his face suddenly serious.
I couldn’t repress my smile and burst into laughter.
“You little brat!” Terrance said, grabbing my wrists and pinning them behind my back. He pushed me against the glass shower wall and put his face a couple of inches from mine, edging his mouth closer and closer.
The kiss that followed was as intense and passionate, and the sex that followed was the first time I’d been pounded in the shower. It would be far from the last time, though.
As we toweled off, I stepped in front of him again.
“Give me another kiss,” I demanded, “as good as that last one.”
My man delivered, as he always did.
“I think we need to visit my parents this weekend. They should meet you.”
Terrance raised an eyebrow. “Less than a week ago you said you wanted time to talk to them first, get them used to the idea that you were dating an older man.”
I smiled at him. “Yeah, but that was before
.”
“Before what?”
“Before the baby. I’m pregnant, Terrance.”
I could have knocked him over with a feather as he tried to process those words.
“That’s not possible. Vampires can only procreate under exceedingly rare circumstances.”
I laughed softly, “Yeah, well I’m not supposed to feel anything for weeks, either.”
“How…?” He was flabbergasted.
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s the same force that brought us together. Maybe there’s something in the water pouring over the falls in this town.”
“Are you sure? Don’t you need to have a doctor confirm it?”
“A doctor will call me crazy if I ask her to confirm a pregnancy less than a week after insemination. But I know, Terrance. I felt something after the very first time we had sex, and the feeling gets stronger every day.”
He was still stunned. I could see part of him wanted to believe, but that part was battling against everything he’d been told. Male Vampires couldn’t father children.
“You put a baby in me, my love. And we will raise that baby together, whether it turns out to be vampire or human.”
“Or both,” he said, finally embracing me. “This is so unexpected, so mind-blowing.”
“We have so many decisions to make,” I said. “It’s pretty scary.”
“Not if we make them together,” he reassured me.
His skin felt delicious against mine. I knew I’d never, ever tire of being naked with this man. As I looked into his eyes, I considered that maybe I should go ahead and let him claim me. I already knew that seven or eight more decades with Terrance wouldn’t be enough.
Not even close.
I wanted him forever, to watch the centuries pass us by and know that we’d always have that special bond to keep us together.
Then I was jolted by a thought.
“Baby, can you still claim me if I’m pregnant?”
It jolted my husband-to-be as well. “I have no idea.”
I smiled and squeezed his body against mine as tightly as I could.
“Well, my love, I think we’re going to need to find out.”
TO BE CONTINUED IN BOOK TWO…
First Class is the debut novel from paranormal romance and dark romance author Damon Kinny.
14
Sagan
“I need to claim you.”
Terrance’s words gently brought me back from a blissful state that rivaled the one I’d experienced when he fed from me.
That’s what four intense orgasms will do to a woman. It’s hard to remain earthbound when you’ve just had the holy hell fucked out of you, especially by a vampire with centuries of experience guiding his every move.
I rolled on my side. Terrance was also on his side, propping his head on his elbow, his fingers toying with my hair.
“Don’t look at me, baby,” I said. “I’m bound to be a total a mess. I don’t want to scare you away.”
“I’ve never seen a more beautiful sight in my life,” he said.
Oh my god, could this really be happening to me?
“I need to claim you, Sagan.”
I remembered him talking about that the previous night, about vampires claiming someone.
“How does that work exactly?” I asked. I was exhausted from the sex and my poor pussy was sore as all fuck, but this concept of claiming still intrigued me. “What happens to someone who’s claimed?”
“The vampire bites them, only this time the vampire’s own blood is also injected into their system. It forms a lifetime bond. It’s not something to be taken lightly.”
Something in Terrance’s voice, a slightly hesitation or reluctance, tells me there’s more to it than that.
“What else?”
“The one who gets claimed is turned.”
“Into a vampire?” I asked, though I was pretty sure that’s what he meant.
“Yes.”
“Just like that? Like magic?”
“No magic at all. Magic is bullshit, all hocus-pocus nonsense. This is all science; particles in the blood that gets transferred cause rapid changes to the DNA of the claimed person. The entire process is completed in a single 24-hour span.”
Why this didn’t sound absolutely terrifying was beyond me. It should have scared any normal human out of their wits? Why was I so comfortable talking about it?
I looked into Terrance’s eyes. “You said you needed to claim me? Why? Because you love me?”
“I do love you, with all my heart. But this beyond even love. I need to claim you because you’re my soulmate, Sagan.”
His words took my breath away.
“I thought Emeline was your soulmate.”
“She was. It’s not impossible for a vampire to have two soulmates in one lifetime, but it’s rare as fuck. In your case, I’m certain it’s because you share her bloodline.”
“Am I anything like her?” I ask.
“Only in that your so fucking beautiful. And sexually aggressive, though that was more surprising in the 9th Century.”
I felt a bond with Emeline. We were family and sharing Terrance with her a thousand years apart didn’t bother me in the least.
“Why do you think I’m your soulmate?”
Terrance smirked. “Sagan, it took over a thousand years for me to find you again, and the blood of my previous soulmate courses through your veins, calling to me.”
“Okay, dumb question. I feel the same way about it. But me turning into a vampire is so… final. It can’t be undone. Is it absolutely necessary?”
“If you’re uncomfortable with the idea, it can wait.”
I smiled.
“But not very long,” he added.
My eyes trailed down his naked body. I laughed inside when I realized this was the very first time I’d ever seen him without an erection for more than a brief glimpse. Fully hard, his cock was intimidating. Flaccid and resting against his thigh, though. it was gorgeous, a thing of beauty. I never considered myself a girl who cared much about the aesthetics of dick, but it was impossible not to fall in love with one this utterly perfect. I was tempted to take it in my hand but didn’t want to wake it from its slumber.
As I was gawking at Terrance’s lovely dick, a thought entered my mind. More accurately, it seemed like it had been shoved there from outside, like some unseen being or force reached into my brain and planted an idea that I would hopefully think was my own.
Obviously, I was dubious about the origins of this thought, but it was a good one.
“Terrance, did you ever consider that maybe you were drawn to Diablo Falls by… me?”
I watched as the color slowly drained from his face.
15
Terrance
“Fuck.”
Sagan reached up and place a finger just under my bottom lip, then pushed upward to close my wide-open mouth.
“Didn’t think about that possibility, did you, smart guy?”
“Wait,” I said, “are you trying to tell me that you planned all this?”
She laughed out loud.
“No, baby. That’s not what I’m saying at all. But when did you start feeling like you needed to come to Diablo Falls?”
I thought it over. “I don’t remember, to be honest. It was a while ago. I remember hearing or reading the name somewhere, and when I googled it, I felt an instant pull. That was about a decade ago.”
“When I was twelve,” she said. “Does puberty play a role in vampire stuff?”
“It does. Holy shit.”
“What?” she asked.
“The older you got, the more intense that pull became. Last year I decided I would need to come check this place out, to see if I could better understand what this feeling was. Then this summer, I felt it so strongly that I was compelled to drop everything and get over here immediately.”
Sagan giggled. “I think that might have been my fault, too.”
“What do you mean? What happened over the
summer?”
Her face turned crimson. “I came home from college and decided that maybe I was being silly, saving myself for the right man. The night Marcie and I moved into our apartment, I told her that it was time for me to get on with my life, that I was going to start looking for just a decent guy to deflower me.”
“When was that?” I insisted.
“August 1st.”
I climbed out of bed and ran across the room to my suitcase, digging through the outside pocket. I found what I was looking for: the flight information I’d printed out the day I bought my tickets. The date: August 1st.
My jaw dropped back open.
I stood there, totally naked, and stared at the equally naked goddess on the bed.
It was her.
My soulmate had reached out to me from across the planet, maybe even from across more than a millennium. I’d probably never know is Emeline’s spirit was involved in this, but maybe I should start believing in magic after all.
Regardless, this wasn’t about my long-deceased wife.
This was about the jaw-droppingly gorgeous creature right in front of me.
“You’re right. Something or someone had made certain that the two of us met.”
“Kinda makes sense, if you think about it. There are probably a hundred or more restaurants in Diablo Falls, but you decided to eat alone in the same one that Brian took me to that night. And Brian was kind enough to asshole his way out of my life so that you could introduce yourself.”
This woman, who knew nothing about vampires or supernaturals when she left work earlier today, was taking all this in stride. I was the one who was more freaked out about it.
But shocked as I might be, I knew better than to tempt fate. I’d been brought here for a reason, and that reason was smiling at me.
“I’m starving,” she said. “Is there anything to eat here?”
I stood silently looking at her and thinking about everything we’d been through in only a few days.