by Eden Bradley
“For me, as well. I’ve been thinking about it. But I haven’t come to any conclusions. I think we’ll need to do that together.”
“Yes. And with Konstantine and Luka. We’ll need to know what they’ve decided. Because while Konstantine said they were ready to offer to both of us, that may have changed since…since we love each other. And, Calam, it’s not that I don’t love them too. But it’s different with you. ”
The tears brimming in her glorious blue eyes hurt to see. He slid his palm over her cheek, rubbed at the corner of her eye, felt the dampness on his thumb.
“Ilana, there are other things we must talk about first,” he said.
“Other things?”
“I’ve held certain aspects of my life from you. Well, from everyone. For so long it’s become habit. But before we go forward, and whatever we choose, I want you to know me. All of me. I haven’t always led an exemplary life.”
“I figured as much, with you living on the streets when you were younger. It doesn’t matter. But tell me what else, Calam.”
He closed his eyes, bringing to mind the abandoned house they’d lived in. It was dark, most of the time, unless someone could pinch enough candle wax to light the place, which didn’t happen often.
He remembered their faces, every one of them.
He winced.
“Calam?”
He nodded. “Let me tell you, Ilana, of my brothers and sisters of the streets. There were six of us when I joined, let go by my mother, as I was. The others had much the same stories. Orphaned, mostly. Given up by parents who couldn’t feed them. So we joined together, lived in an old warehouse. Gathered blankets, old furniture. Whatever we could find. Or steal.” He looked up at her then, but saw nothing but sympathy in her eyes. “That’s how we got by. I needed you to know that. I’m not proud of it.”
“We all do what we must in this world to survive. Do you think I’m any prouder of having my body sold?”
“But that wasn’t your choice, Ilana.”
“Neither was it yours to be left to fend for yourself on the streets as a ten-year-old child, Calam. None of those things change how I feel about you. Tell me the rest. I can see there’s more.”
“All right. There is more.” He stopped, drew in a long breath, relieved to be past that first hurdle. He should have known she’d never have judged him. “We grew, until there were eleven of us,” he went on. “And we cared for our own, any way we could. By the end, some of the kids were as young as six. My Toby, he was only six years old when we found him. He was red-haired, just like me.”
“Where is he now?” Ilana asked.
His chest tightened, his throat, so that he had to swallow past the hard lump there. “Gone, along with the rest of them.”
“Gone how?”
“It was my fault, you see.” It hurt to say it out loud. But he felt he had to. “I was nineteen by then. The oldest. I went out one night. Carousing as boys that age do. Drinking. Gambling a bit. I stumbled home early in the morning. And it was gone. And all of them with it.”
“Gone? What do you mean?” Ilana asked, leaning forward, her pale brows drawn in concern. Her hand was on his forearm, hanging on tight.
He steeled himself before saying the words. Words he’d never spoken to anyone.
“Dead. All of my…family. There was a bombing. Don’t know why. But the place was nothing but rubble. I dug for four days, just in case. But all I found was…some remains. Barely recognizable. Never a trace of my Toby.” He paused, drew a hand through his hair. “I shouldn’t have left them alone. I shouldn’t have left them.”
“Calam, if you’d been there, what could you have done?”
“I’ve often asked myself that. I’ll never know the answer though, will I?”
“This is why you came here, to the Midnight Playground?” she asked, her voice soft. “I understand it. I came here for the same reason. Because I had nothing else to hang on to.”
“Nothing left to lose,” he said. “But also… Gods, how to explain this? I feel as though I have to live, for each one of them. That one human lifespan isn’t enough. I have to have eternity to make up for what they’ve lost.”
She stared at him, her blue gaze on his. He could see that lovely blue even in the stark moonlight. There were unshed tears there. Tears of pure sympathy. He loved her all the more for it. He lifted a hand, stroked her cheek, asked her softly, “Ilana, if they still offer, what would you do? What would you have me do? And if they offer only to one of us…”
“Yes, I’ve thought of that, too. It terrifies me. I’m not used to being so uncertain.”
“Uncertain about us? About how we feel? Or about what you might do?”
“I…”
Behind them the door opened, and they both started. He knew—they both did—that Konstantine and Luka could hear their thoughts, no matter where they were. That they must have been listening to their conversation. He didn’t mind. It made it easier to approach the subject with them.
The vampires moved across the room until they settled into the high-backed, silk-covered chairs flanking the tall window. Konstantine was the first to speak.
“We hear you both. We hear your love for each other. Your thoughts for us and what we may ask of you. We hear your worry. Your fears.”
“We don’t want you to be afraid,” Luka said. “We have come to know you. We have great love for you both. We want you with us.”
He felt Ilana tense beside him, heard her sharp intake of breath. He reached for her hand, and her fingers gripped his.
“We understand,” Konstantine continued, “what you feel for us. That given different circumstances, either of you would come to us willingly. To be bonded to us, Turned by us. The question is, would you now?”
“Ilana.” Luka turned to her. “Tell us what you feel. What you want.”
He was so beautiful, this young vampire. Sweet. Kind, in a way that was rare in a vampire. Calam’s chest surged with love for him. And for the older Konstantine, even for his very hardness, knowing it hid a pain he couldn’t comprehend.
“I…am trying to figure it out,” Ilana answered. “I feel so much for you both. I’m overcome to be offered this gift. Truly I am. But I’m confused. And didn’t expect to be when it came to this.”
“But we love each other,” Calam said. He wanted to say it out loud to them. To let it be known in his own words. Saying it made him feel stronger somehow.
Konstantine smiled, his weary, ancient face brilliant in a way he’d never seen it before. “Love, we know. Love, we understand. Yet I sense the doubt in you. I know what you have just told Ilana about your great loss. Calam, you must understand now through loving her that love is of the ultimate importance. You cannot make up for those lost lives. Living is enough, if you have love. Do you understand?”
“Yes. Yes. Finally.” He felt as if his chest would burst as the idea of love and what it meant, of living a lifespan with the woman he loved, drove home. He turned to look at Ilana, her eyes shining with unshed tears. She was so strong. She loved him. And he loved her. “I love her, Konstantine. In a way I never knew was possible.”
“And so, in saying this, are you telling us what you choose, Calam?” the old vampire asked. “That if we were to offer you both the Turning Kiss, you would decline, in order to be with her?”
Was there a small threat in his tone? Or maybe it was simply the hammering of his heart. The knowledge that what he said at that moment could change everything, irrevocably.
Ilana’s hand tightened in his. He squeezed back. “That is what I’m saying, Konstantine, although I can hardly believe it myself. But yes. I want only Ilana. And…to remain mortal. To have that chance to live out a lifetime together. It seems…a gift in itself to me now. Life.”
Ilana’s heart surged, melted, filled with love. For her darling Calam. For the two vampires who wanted them both, but were willing to let them love each other, rather than have them for themselves.
She
wanted to cry again. But there had been too many tears already.
She sat up straighter, holding tight to Calam’s big hand for strength. “I love you both, as Calam does. And I love him as he loves me. I have to be with him. For us to be together on our own terms. It’s changed. But knowing Calam, knowing love, has made me feel how precious human life is. How important. I never felt it before. But I feel it now. Deeply. And… I understand now what Ever meant when he came to talk to me earlier tonight. He meant that…it was okay to remain mortal. To feel the pain of loss and physical discomfort, and all the things that are part of being human. Because it’s all part of it. Love is part of it too. And I treasure it all the more for feeling the hardness of life. And so, yes. I choose to be with Calam. To remain as I am. Human.”
Konstantine bowed his head. She thought she saw a shadow cross his face, his hard features going dark, but it was gone as fast as it had appeared.
“Then we will rejoice in your love for each other. We accept your decision.”
“We suspected as much,” Luka said, reaching across the small table between them to grasp the older vampire’s hand. “But we wanted to make our offer official. And as Konstantine said, we know love. The power of it.”
“What happens now?” Calam asked.
“We had already spoken with Ever about this, should it have come to pass,” Luka answered. “He has asked you both to stay on here. To work for the club. Not as you have been, Calam. You are no sex slave any longer. Not even to your own urges. Not for any but Ilana.” The vampire smiled, and once more his features lit up. “And, Ilana, Ever would like for you to work for him as well. The club could use a consultant.”
“A consultant? What could I possibly know that he doesn’t?”
“You know what it is to be human,” Konstantine said. “It has been too long for him. He is looking for a liaison, of sorts. Someone to instruct the new members. I must admit it was at my suggestion. Ever seems different to me these days. Restless. He needs your empathy, Ilana. I believe he needs more time to think. Perhaps he needs to travel. I don’t have the answers for him. I only know he needs some sort of change, and this will free him to some extent. He agreed with me, if grudgingly,” Konstantine said with a small crook at one corner of his hard mouth. “He said to tell you that you need not answer yet. To spend some days here, considering your answers.”
“You’re very kind. Both of you. And Ever,” Calam said.
“It is not often a human who comes to the club rejects the gifts being offered. When it does happen, it is always with good reason,” Konstantine said.
“You have the best of reasons.” Luka smiled. “We will miss you both.”
“We’ll miss being with you,” Ilana told them, a small part of her heart breaking.
“We will see you here again, if you stay on to work with Ever. I hope you will think about it. He needs you. We will leave you now.” Konstantine stood, and Luka joined him.
They stepped forward and Luka leaned down to kiss them, one by one, then Konstantine did the same.
“We will see you again before we leave London. They have just opened a Midnight Playground in New York, the first in the U.S. We go in a few days’ time. Meanwhile, stay here. Talk. Sleep. Be together.”
Luka smiled, his face lovely with its gleaming golden skin, the exotic eyes. Next to him, Konstantine stood ramrod straight, the strong planes of his features harshly beautiful. She still ached simply looking at them, desire strong. But it was Calam she truly wanted.
The vampires left them alone, and the room echoed with their absence. Calam turned to her.
“Are you certain about this?” he asked.
“As certain as I’ve been of anything in my life. More so. As long as you love me.”
“I do. I love you, my girl.” He lifted her hand, kissed it softly. “What would you have us do? Do you want to stay on here? Or do you want to leave this place, to have a normal human life?”
“I’m not sure either of us are exactly capable of that.”
He shrugged, grinning, his dimple flashing in his cheek. She was as charmed by it as always. “Perhaps not.”
“Does it have to matter right now, Calam? I mean this very moment? We have some time to decide. And I need you.”
“Ah, that’s exactly what I wanted to hear you say.”
He slipped out of his robe and reached for her, yanking the sheet down, covering her body with his. He was hard already, his cock thick and lovely and only for her.
It was some sort of epiphany, how love changed even the landscape of sex, of their bodies coming together. He arched his hips, his strong legs settling between hers, and he slipped inside her, easy as silk. She was wet, ready for him, opening her thighs to take him deeper.
“Ah, Calam…”
Pleasure was a soft, undulating wave that washed over her. Over and over as he thrust inside her. As he kissed her throat. It was all a gentle, lovely arching of hips, their bodies joining, desire rising like heat in the still night air. There was no pain, no hard play. Just the two of them coming together. In love.
She had to tell him, suddenly.
“Calam…”
“What is it?” he murmured, pleasure heavy in his low tone. His accent was stronger than ever.
“I love you. So much.”
“Ah, my girl. You are mine. Mine. I love you more than I ever knew I could.”
“Be with me, Calam,” she begged, her heart filling to bursting as pleasure drew her to dizzying heights. The pleasure of his body moving inside hers. The pleasure of knowing his love.
“I’m right here, my love. Always.”
Always had a different ring to it now. The always that was the two of them loving each other. It didn’t have to be forever as the vampires knew it. It was love, pure and simple. And love itself was eternal.
“Always,” she whispered as pleasure crested, and she tumbled over, taking Calam with her, both of them crying out.
Later, as they lay in each other’s arms, and she balanced on the edge of sleep, he wrapped her in his arms. Held her close. And she knew that finally, she had what she’d always wanted. She hadn’t even known this was what she craved, what she needed. But this was it. Love.
Calam.
Forever.
About the Author
The author of a number of novels, novellas and short stories, Eden Bradley writes dark, edgy erotic fiction. Her work has been called “elegant, intelligent and sensual”. One erotic novel was recently profiled in Cosmopolitan.
Eden appears regularly on Playboy Radio’s Night Calls and conducts workshops on writing sex. When she’s not writing, you can find her wandering museums, shopping for shoes and reading everything she can get her hands on. A California native, Eden currently lives in Los Angeles. You can visit her website: www.edenbradley.com
Look for these titles by Eden Bradley
Now Available:
Tempt Me Twice
Midnight Playground
The Seeking Kiss
Bloodsong
Celestial Seductions
Winter Solstice
Spring Equinox
Summer Solstice
Wasteland
The Breeder
Love with a beautiful stranger isn’t so strange—if you believe in destiny.
Winter Solstice
© 2009 Eden Bradley
Clinical psychologist Destiny Walker considers herself far too logical for any of that “soul mate” nonsense. Even if her beloved, dearly departed Nana insisted she was going to meet hers someday. When a sudden downpour sends her ducking into a psychic reader’s storefront—and the woman confirms everything her grandmother said—doubt begins to sneak into the corners of her mind.
A chance meeting—more like a collision—with Superman look-alike Reece Kellan sets off a sexual chemistry reaction the likes of which she’s never felt. She isn’t prone to falling into bed with strangers, but he does things to her body that leave her breathless…and unsu
re where her pleasure ends and his begins.
And that’s the part that scares the hell out of her…
Enjoy the following excerpt for Winter Solstice:
He leaned in, closer, until his mouth closed over hers. His lips were warm, so warm and sweet. And when he parted them and drove his tongue into her mouth, pleasure drove in with it, lancing deep into her body. A long shudder went through her, and her legs went weak. But he held her tight, crushed against him. She could feel every taut muscle in his body, his heart hammering in his chest, pounding against her breasts, making her nipples harden.
He deepened the kiss, and she closed her eyes. Again that flood of images in her mind: the bed, the softly diffused golden light, and somehow she knew his bedroom would look just like that.
But his hands roaming her body distracted her. He was kissing her hard, their mouths fused together, tongues twining. Primal. Animalistic. He gave her no time to think about it as he pushed her up hard against the door.
She could feel the planes of his chest, and God, his erection pressing into her thigh, big, warm, pulsing. She’d never wanted anything so desperately in her life.
He tore his mouth from hers, bent over her neck and left a trail of kisses, burning her flesh.
“Reece, I have to…let me…” She was panting as she fumbled to undo the buttons of his shirt.
“Here, darlin’.” In moments he slipped his shirt from his shoulders and she took in the smooth expanse of his wide, muscled chest.
Yes, Superman indeed.
His skin was a light gold, as though he’d recently been in the sun. His nipples were brown and hard, with a bit of dark hair sprinkled between and around them.
When she ran her fingers over the tips, he groaned.
He pulled her sweater off in an instant and then very quickly her bra. He stood back for a moment, watching her, exploring her bare flesh with his eyes. Her nipples went harder beneath his searching gaze.
“Ah, beautiful,” he murmured, his accent thicker, his tone reverent. “You look like… I don’t know. But I know your body, as though I’ve touched you before. Maybe I have, if only in my dreams. Ah, but this is no dream.”