I reached up to place my hands at his temples.
He closed his eyes, and I let the magic flow from my fingers into him, past the redness in his eyes and throughout his body to stop any more discomfort before it started again.
“Thanks,” he said, opening his eyes when I was finished to reveal the startling blue color I loved about them.
“You’re welcome,” I said, leaning forward to kiss him lightly.
“Sounds like everyone is here already this morning,” he commented, glancing over to the door. “I guess we should get out of bed and go out there.”
“I don’t want to,” I said leaning in to kiss him, purposely trying to distract him. “I want to stay in here with you all day and pretend the whole world out there doesn’t exist.”
“That would be nice, wouldn’t it?” he replied, looking at my face while running his hand over the top of my head, across the length of my thick black hair and down my back.
We just stared at each other, communicating a whole host of thoughts and feelings without words.
He ran the back of his hand down the side of my cheek, before turning it over to cup my face.
I leaned into his palm, rubbing against it, enjoying the feel of his sweet caress against my skin.
“So beautiful,” he whispered, watching me.
He moved his hand down farther, placing it on mine where it rested against his chest, and began toying absently over the large rock that rested there on my small finger.
“Are you happy, Portia?” he asked me suddenly, looking up from the ring and into my face. “I mean, in spite of everything that’s going on?”
“I’m very happy, Vance. You don’t need to worry about that. You make my life feel wonderful,” I replied with a sincere smile.
I could see the doubt creep into his mind, threatening to shatter this moment, as thoughts from yesterday began to return.
“It’s just that I ….” He stopped, as I quickly placed my lips over his mouth.
“Shhhh,” I whispered against them. “Not right now.”
He understood, wrapping his arms around me and kissing me thoroughly. I could feel his teeth, as he softly nipped against my lower lip, before coaxing my mouth open with the tip of his tongue, and I parted my lips to let his slip inside.
He rolled me over then, onto my back, leaning over me as he continued his exploration of my mouth.
I closed my eyes and just enjoyed the feel of him being there, letting my tongue tangle with his, as we tasted each other.
He didn’t move away from my mouth this time, like he usually did, and I could tell he was keeping a rein on things, trying to not be too aggressive.
He finally pulled away from me, but he didn’t let go of me, and to my surprise his eyes didn’t have one hint of red in them.
“I love you,” he said softly as he stared at me. “I know I say it all the time. It probably is just gibberish to you by now.”
I shook my head as he spoke.
“Coming from your mouth, they’re my three favorite words in the whole world,” I replied honestly.
He kissed me again, this time much more passionately than the last time, and I reached up to pull him closer, tangling my fingers through his thick hair.
Someone knocked on the bedroom door, but we didn’t stop kissing, choosing to ignore them instead.
After a few seconds the knock came again, a little harder.
“You guys going to sleep in there all day?” my dad’s voice called through the barrier.
Vance pulled away from me slightly then, with an extremely exasperated look on his face.
“You ready to get up now?” he whispered to me in a low voice.
I shook my head.
“Me either,” he said with a grin, as he lowered his head and continued on with his worship of my mouth.
I heard Dad give a huff and walk away from the door.
I started giggling.
“We’re so bad,” I said against his mouth.
“Yes, but I’m not going to complain because this feels so good,” he replied, with a smile.
He kissed me for quite a while, and I began to notice that I was starting to get a little whisker burn from the overnight stubble he had growing on his chin. I didn’t really care about that, but he finally pulled away with a sigh and flopped back over onto his back next to me.
“I can’t think of one morning in my life where waking up was as fun as this morning has been,” he said, with a satisfied smile.
“It has been nice, hasn’t it?” I agreed, rolling over to place my arms over his chest and leaning my chin on the back of my hands.
He watched me for a few moments, with a slight grin turning up the corner of one side of his mouth, popping one of those beloved dimples to the surface.
“I love your hair when it spills across everything like this,” he said toying with a few strands.
“You mean when it looks like I just stepped out of a tornado?” I said with a laugh feeling a touch self conscious about how I must truly look at the moment.
“I was thinking more along the lines of bedroom hair, but a tornado works, too,” he replied with a widening smile.
“Why do you like it so much?” I asked, truly curious about it, since he was always playing with it.
“Partially because you just look so darn hot,” he replied honestly. “And it goes well with the swollen lips and the whisker burn, too,” he added with a lusty look at me that made my pulse leap up in tempo.
“Is it that obvious that we’ve been making out?” I asked, lifting a hand to run it over my face.
“Well, let me put it this way. When you walk into that room full of people a few minutes from now, they’ll all know that you’ve been thoroughly kissed this morning.” He laughed, not seeming a bit sorry about it.
“You’re enjoying this way too much.” I said, playfully taking a slap at his shoulder.
“Hey. You can’t blame a guy for wanting to put his mark on his woman,” he replied as he grabbed at my wrist, effectively stopping the blow from landing on its intended target.
“Is that what you’re doing?” I lifted an eyebrow. “Putting your mark on me?”
“In any way shape or form that I can,” he replied seriously as he watched me. “Do you know how absolutely fetching you are this morning?” he added tenderly.
“No,” I replied, wondering all of a sudden if he might be legally blind. “But I’m willing to lay here for the rest of the day and let you tell me all about it.”
“I wish I could. But we have people waiting on us,” he said, glancing toward the door.
“Do we have to get up now?” I asked, with a dejected sigh, really wanting to just lay here like this with him for the rest of the day.
“We have to go out there and face reality sometime,” he said seriously, dashing my hopes of keeping him here in bed with me.
“I don’t like reality any more,” I said with a pout. “Let’s just live in here for forever.”
“I wish we could, baby,” he said, giving me a light kiss on the lips, before he rolled over, pulling me up and out of the bed after him. “Come on, Portia. I’ve been blessed with a bout of amazing restraint this morning. Let’s not try to push our luck any farther.”
“All right,” I grumbled, knowing it was the right thing to do and not wanting to tempt him beyond what he could stand.
He hugged me one more time, before placing a chaste kiss on my forehead.
“Let’s get some breakfast,” he said as he grabbed my hand, leading us both out the door in our completely disheveled state.
Chapter 17
I stepped gingerly out of the bedroom, knowing we were going to get many shocked stares, looking like we did.
It didn’t seem to bother Vance one bit. He strode straight into the dining room, not caring that he was only wearing a baggy pair of sweat pants, without a shirt or shoes, sporting his sleep tousled bed head.
It also didn’t seem to bother him th
at he was towing me behind him, feeling half dressed in my white tank top and plaid boxer shorts. My hair was twisting out in every direction possible, and I knew my lips were obviously swollen from our previous kissing session.
“Morning, everyone!” Vance said cheerfully, as if nothing were amiss, pulling me over to where the food was laid out on the buffet.
The chatter in the room went to complete silence as people looked up at us, taking in our appearance.
I couldn’t even make eye contact with anyone, afraid of what the stares were saying, so I let my thick hair fall forward around the sides of my face, trying to hide the humiliation that might be showing there.
But Vance was in a mood this morning, and he was intent on flaunting it for all who were present.
“See anything you want to eat for breakfast, baby?” he said with a smile as he pulled me close up to him, pushing my hair back from my face with one hand as he molded me against his body with the other, and proceeded to French kiss me in front of everyone.
He threaded his fingers into my hair, basically keeping my face pushed up against his, so I couldn’t pull away from him at all. Not that I really wanted to; I had to admit, he was the best kisser in the world, and after a moment I forgot where I was, and my arms moved involuntarily as they threaded their way around his neck, bringing him even closer to me.
I felt my face flush with color as he finally let me go, and I remembered where we were.
He, however, was grinning from ear to ear at the response he a gotten from me, and I could tell he was feeling totally pleased with himself.
“Breakfast?” he asked again, lifting one of his eyebrows in question as he looked at me.
“Uh … the French kiss … um, I mean, the French toast looks good,” I stammered, as I tried to grasp my thoughts, as I looked over at the buffet.
“French toast it is!” he said, still grinning triumphantly, while proceeding to place some on a plate for me and drowning it with maple syrup.
He took the plate over to the table and sat it down, then pulled a chair out for me, guiding me into it like I was the Queen of England or something.
He had to bend over and peck my lips again, once he had me settled into my place.
“Mmm,” he said as he winked seductively at me. “You’re sweeter than syrup this morning, Portia.”
I couldn’t hold it in any longer, and I burst out laughing, partially because he was funny but mostly from the nervous reaction he was causing in me.
“What are you doing?” I asked quietly, my eyes widening in confusion as I looked up at him.
“I want everyone to know exactly how happy I am this morning,” he replied with a smile.
“Well, I think you’re scaring them.” I whispered, as I finally braved looking up at everyone else and finding them all watching our little display with extremely avid interest.
He turned to face them all then.
Everyone was watching him with quizzical glances, as if he had gone completely off his rocker. I realized most of the people present had probably never witnessed this side of Vance or anything even remotely close to it before. He had always played the role of the aloof, tortured individual before this point as far as all of them had ever been concerned.
“Now I know you all have seen two people who are crazy in love before. Shut your traps and move along.” He gestured, shooing them away with the back of his hands as if he were addressing a group of unruly children instead of some very educated, not to mention powerful, adults.
No one moved, and they continued to stare at him. It was quiet only for a moment though, and then Brad spoke up, breaking the tension.
“We can’t move yet,” he replied sarcastically. “We all need a cold shower after your little display.”
Everyone started laughing at his comment.
“I just have one thing to say to everyone in this room,” Vance replied, grinning over at Brad before turning somewhat serious, as they all looked at him. “You never know what life is going to throw at you, so grab the one thing that makes you happier than anything else and run with it.”
“Amen,” someone toward the back of the room replied.
The conversation went back to normal at this point, and Vance went over to the buffet and dished himself a plate also, coming to sit next to me when he was done.
He reached out and held one of my hands during the entire time we were eating, his thumb rubbing lazy circles against the back of my hand.
“So how did you sleep last night?” my dad asked, as he casually walked up to join us, pulling out a chair next to Vance and sitting down.
Vance looked over at him quizzically, his eyes narrowing slightly, before he spoke up, answering his question.
“Well, let’s see,” he began, leaning back into his chair and releasing my hand so he could cross his arms over his chest. “Portia had nightmares, and I spent most of the night watching her sleep, while trying to solve the puzzle to all of my life’s problems, before I finally gave up and fell asleep myself,” Vance replied. “Then I woke up to this beautiful angel in my bed, who magically took away the pain of withdrawal which has made me miserable every single morning lately, so I grabbed her to me and made out with her for close to an hour, loving every second that I was able to forget about the world around me, while I did my best to thank her properly.”
I coughed and almost choked on my food, as I turned to look at Vance incredulously, while Dad sat there looking stunned next to me.
“Did that answer the question you were really asking?” Vance asked, with a quirked eyebrow, as he reached for his orange juice and took a large swallow before placing the glass back down with a loud clank.
Dad just sat there for a moment, as if he were searching for his voice, before he answered.
“I believe it did,” he said, with a slightly confused smile, though he nodded his head.
“Sean. You can trust me,” Vance said seriously, not caring who could hear him. “Her virtue is safe with me. I give you my word.”
Dad just got up and walked past us, though he patted Vance on the shoulder as he moved by him.
“Hey,” I whispered, my eyes wide in disbelief, as I kneed him under the table. “Do you think you could dial it down a notch this morning?”
“Why?” he asked, as he looked over at me, leaning forward to pick up his fork to stab it into his last piece of sausage.
“Because I can’t tell if you are happy or angry,” I replied, as I wondered what in the heck was going on in that handsome head of his.
He stopped and dropped his fork to his plate as he leaned back into the chair once again.
“I’m a little of both actually,” he replied, the frustration becoming apparent on his face.
“What do you mean?” I questioned him, not quite following his mood swings this morning.
“I mean that I have everything I want right here at my fingertips.” He reached out to rub his fingers over my hand before he continued. “And everything out there in the world is threatening to take it all away from me.”
“Not everything,” I reminded him. “Just one thing.”
“I’d fight to the death for you before I let that happen,” he said leaning in close to me.
“Then we don’t have anything to worry about, do we? Because I’d do the same for you,” I replied with a smile, and he leaned in the rest of the way to kiss me again.
I let him kiss me for as long as he wanted to this time, knowing that things were rough for him right now.
“I love you, Portia,” he said when he pulled back. “Thank you for everything you do for me.”
“You don’t have to thank me for anything. It’s my pleasure.” I smiled back at him. “Are you done with your plate?” I asked, changing the subject.
He nodded, and I picked it up with mine to carry to the sink.
“Morning, Mom,” I said, as I entered the adjoining kitchen area. “Breakfast was delicious. Sorry I wasn’t up to help you.”
&
nbsp; “That’s okay. I figured you needed your rest this morning after everything that happened last night. Besides, Shelly, Milly, and Sarit helped me get things ready for everybody,” she said.
“So how is Sarit?” I asked, looking across the room to where she was seated in the middle of a group of coven members.
“She’s doing all right, considering everything she’s been through,” Mom said, casting a sympathetic look her direction. “I’m sure her friends and family are crazy with worry over her right now.”
“We need to get her home,” I replied, nodding my head in agreement with her. “I’m sure Vance would purchase an airline ticket back to India for her.”
“Actually, he gave your dad the money for it last night while you were still in the shower.”
“Oh,” I said feeling a little surprised at that new bit of information. “He didn’t tell me.”
“Yeah. He wanted to make sure we got her a first class ticket. He said it was an abomination that she had to come here in a box; the least he could do was send her back home in comfort.”
“I think he feels responsible for his father’s actions. Though I don’t know why he does,” I said looking over at him.
He was just sitting at the table, his eyes following my every move. I was sure he had been listening to everything we were saying.
“He shouldn’t feel that way at all,” my mom said, unaware that he was eavesdropping on our conversation. “He’s nothing like that monster.”
“I know that,” I said, as I continued to make eye contact with him, hoping he was getting the message. “I just don’t think he does.”
He stood up then and came into the kitchen.
“I’m going to go get cleaned up for the day,” he said, before giving me a peck on the cheek.
“Okay,” I answered, smiling at him, before he turned to walk away from me. “See you in a little bit.”
Dad called the group to attention a few minutes later. He told everyone that Sarit was going home today and she wanted to say a few words.
Sarit stood up in front of everyone and thanked them for the hospitality they had shown her. She said that while she was already missing her magic greatly, she was very thankful to still have her life and was anxious to get back to her family.
Of Witches and Warlocks: The Demon Kiss Page 18