He denied me, moving off the bed, and smiled when I attempted to growl in annoyance. "Pazienza, mia cocca," he purred reassuringly.
When he grasped his belt, slowly removing it, I felt my face flush with heat, my lips parting as I realized through my desire that I was about to see my mate completely nude for the first time. A part of my mind briefly wondered if I was ready for this or not, but as his fingers undid the button of his jeans, I knew that I was most definitely ready. He was my mate, completely incapable of causing me harm and only able to bring me happiness and pleasure.
I could almost feel my pupils dilate at the staggering sight of him. Beautiful could not even begin describe the sheer magnificence of him and, before I could stop myself, I had moved off of the bed to stand directly in front of him. I whispered his name in awe, timidly raising my hand to touch his face, slowly caressing from his cheek to his jaw, before standing on tip-toe to press a chaste and adoring kiss to his soft lips.
He patiently allowed me to explore his body, only shifting his head so he could follow my movements and watch me, as I moved both hands down the planes of his neck and over those broad shoulders that I loved so much. The lean muscles of his arms tensed and flexed involuntarily as I smoothed my palms over them, before raising my hands to his chest. I stepped forward and pressed a tiny kiss over the place where his heart rested in deathly silence inside his chest. "It doesn't have to beat," I whispered, turning my brown eyes up to meet his own, "because you have mine, and it beats only for you."
He pushed my hair back from my face. "And when yours ceases to beat?"
I smiled tenderly. "Then you will know that the last beat was yours, so you'll forever be frozen there. My love for you locked inside me, eternal and unbreakable."
He ran a slowly thumb over my cheek. "I love you, Sofia Capriola."
"I love you, too," I murmured.
I stared at him for a few moments more, letting him absorb the words and emotions of what I had finally said before I let my hands continue their eager journey, my fingers fanning out and tracing the lines of his abs. I smiled internally when that muscled plain contracted and relaxed beneath my touch as I explored. I heard him draw in a sharp hiss of breath when my warm fingers wrapped around his erection, and just as I was starting to appreciate the length I held, my mind immediately recognizing that my fingertips were not touching due to his thick girth.
I wondered if such generous attributes were part of all of the vampiric species, or just the sexual ones. Although, it didn’t matter at the moment, I supposed, because virgin or no, I was certainly bound for an intense first time with my new lover.
He sensed my concern and pressed a kiss to my temple. "I will never rush you, Sofia mia. I could never hurt you."
I gazed up at him with heavy-lidded eyes. "Do you have any idea just how stunning you are, Simon Treviso?"
He swept me up into his arms and laid me down in the center of the bed, stretching himself over me. "A gorgeous goddess that I am well acquainted with keeps informing me of this, but I know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the claimed beauty of my body and soul pales significantly in contrast to hers."
He pressed a kiss to my forehead then kissed beneath each of my lower lids, licking away the tears; he kissed my lips with such tenderness that I lost my breath for a moment, before he trailed his lips to my throat, licking the vein on each side. He worked slowly down my body, suckling one nipple first and flicking his tongue over the tip, before giving the other nipple the same delicious attention.
He paused in his journey to dip his tongue into my navel, and I squirmed feverishly under his administrations. He tormented me until I thought that I would scream in frustration, and when his mouth moved lower, I knew that I could not possibly survive the near-excruciating pleasure that shot through my core. His fingers parted my moist lips as he blew a strong, cool breath on my sensitive clit, grasping my hips and pinning them to the bed as my body instinctively thrashed. "Easy, mi diletta," he purred calmly, before dragging his tongue over my soaked slit, lapping up my juices greedily.
"Simon… Oh God." I whimpered helplessly, not knowing how much more I could stand when his tongue pushed deep inside my wet heat. "Simon!"
When he stopped, I thought that he was showing mercy, but realized my mistake when he pulled the swollen bundle of nerves between his teeth carefully, while slowly sliding three fingers into my dripping pussy. He thrust his cool digits in and out of me, slowly at first, then he sped up his pace as my passage fluttered around his hand, suckling the bead of flesh hard, his tongue flicking back and forth with inhuman speed. He pumped me hard and fast, and within moments, I was clenching around him and screaming out in rapture.
I was still floating on a cloud of intense pleasure when he appeared over me, his lips, coated in my juices, claiming mine. He used the combination of my afterglow and the distraction of the kiss to slide the head of his cock inside, my stretched passage clamping around the cool thickness like a vice, and I felt my cheeks heat up in embarrassment when I felt a pressure deep inside.
My eyes must have showed my panicked surprise, because he lowered his face to my ear, nuzzling and purring. "La mia," he cooed, "you need not worry. You have said it has been quite some time since you last had a lover, so it will take a few minutes for your body to stretch to accommodate me." He licked the shell of my ear, still purring softly as he slipped a hand between us, using his speed to rub my clit.
After several minutes of being teased, my body relaxed and accepted him more quickly, and I was alight with exquisite pleasure from him pumping steadily inside of me. I writhed under him, my fingers fisting in his silky hair as I met him thrust for thrust. "Simon! Oh sweet fucking God. Simon…" My breath came out in uneven pants as he pounded in and out of me, over and over, faster and harder. "Simon… Now!" I hissed. "Fuck! Please…”
It seemed that was all the invitation he needed, and I felt his sharp teeth bite low on my neck, sinking quickly through the flesh to the vein beneath. The sting from it made me gasp in pain, but it was gone almost instantly as he took a long pull of my blood. My body responded immediately to the intimate act, shuddering almost violently as I approached my peak, and when he took a second strong draw of blood, I squeezed my eyes shut and came hard, screaming and thrashing in the throes of divine ecstasy, as my pussy constricted around his cock. Even through the heavy blanket of pleasure, I could feel him explode deep inside me, my clenching passage steadily milking him of every drop of his come.
I laid there panting and sighed contentedly as one hand rose to cup my cheek. When I felt his lips brush over mine lovingly, I opened my eyes and immediately raised my hands to his face, my thumbs caressing the delicate skin below his eyes, and I frowned when he bowed his head. I slid a hand over his jaw and lifted his face, whispering his name so he would open his eyes and look at me. When he finally did, I gazed adoringly at him. "Simon Treviso, you… are… absolutely… beautiful."
At my words, a small smile curled the corner of his lips. "Amore mio. T'amo. T’amo tanto."
For the first since meeting the stunning vampire, I saw something that I had never seen in his eyes before: pride. Pride in himself, pride for what he truly was. It was mixed so clearly in the adoration and love that glowed in his now bright red eyes.
FIVE
I was unsure of how long we had laid there, tangled together on the covers, but after what seemed like an eternity, I moved so I could gaze up at his face and gasped in astonishment when I saw his irises.
"What is the matter, cara mia?" he asked, concern evident on his face and in his voice.
"Your-your eyes aren't red anymore," I said as I leaned in closer to look. "Well, not bright red like before. They're more of a dusty-rose color."
He looked supremely unsurprised, which in turn surprised me more. "I was quite certain the effects would not last long—not initially, anyway—given that I did not take that much of your blood. Plus, my body was able to quickly metabolize your blood due to
your emotions and, to an extent, our connection."
I was not quite sure what he meant, and it apparently showed because he blurred away, grabbing an extra blanket and wrapping me up in it when he flashed back before he explained. "Fear and love are two of the strongest emotions known to almost all creatures, but they act in completely different ways. Fear is an emotion that bears resistance, the urge to fight, to defend… whereas love, true love, is an emotion that bears only compassion and acceptance. Our bodies metabolize blood by both the physical components of it as well as the emotions.”
He stroked his hands down my arms before rolling me over onto my back, gazing down at me with a look of worship that practically stole my breath. "Emotions," he whispered as he licked the shell of my ear, "are what help, or in most cases hinder, the rate at which the blood is metabolized. Most creatures, mia amore, are not like you and are not too keen on us draining their life force from them."
"So fear makes it harder for your body to absorb the blood," I repeated. I was intrigued and wanted to learn as much about my mate as possible, and considering I would be becoming a succubus in a few years, it did not hurt to have a heads up. "So I'm guessing it has to do with the exact hormones in the bloodstream?"
"Yes," he said with a smile. "It's a very long and complicated explanation, but…"
I smirked as something suddenly occurred to me. "The Great Simon Treviso doesn't know!"
He nuzzled his nose against my ear. "I just do not see any relevance with boring you with the tedious and wholly unexciting details."
He started purring happily. Or perhaps to distract me. Either way, I burst out into giggles. "You don't know!" He growled playfully and began sucking on my earlobe before kissing his way down my neck to latch onto a familiar patch of skin, and I gasped. "If you keep doing that, it's never going to go away." When he chuckled ‘I know’, I huffed. "Everyone is going to start noticing if I wear a scarf every day of the year!"
Suddenly, our positions changed, and he was leaning against the headboard with me sitting between his strong thighs, his arms wrapped tightly around my mine, with my back against his chest. He rested his chin on my head and sighed. "This is a small town, cara mia, so I fear that it will not be too long before the whole of it knows of the change in our relationship."
"Oh God!" I moaned. "I still haven’t introduced you to my father."
Simon nuzzled against my ear. “Oh, perhaps I exaggerate somewhat, and your secret dalliance will not be made town gossip. The university, though, I’m quite sure, will soon be abuzz with the news. Your father we were going to tell anyway.”
I nibbled on my lower lip as the glaringly obvious question bounced around my brain. "Simon, I don't want to offend you, but where are the others now?"
“They fled to the woods before we mated, but now, they are returning from only a few miles off.” He growled softly and his grip tightened. "Before they departed, Kendal said they would remain on the veranda until I was reacquainted with their presence. Once I am comfortable with them being that close, they will open the front door to allow more of their scent into the house. From there, they will move into the kitchen and wait for us to come downstairs to them." He slowly climbed from the bed pulling me with him and urging me to get dressed, and when we were both clothed, he pulled me back on the bed to sit with him. “Hopefully, we can all take precautions to avoid too many incidents over the next few years.”
I blinked in confusion as I scooted closer to him. "Next few years? Surely, that can’t be right?”
He sighed and bowed his head, and I could tell that he was embarrassed at the moment since he hid his face in his hands. When he looked up, I noticed that his eyes seemed to be an even lighter shade of pink. "Mia diletta, unfortunately the entire mating process does not end with the physical act of mating, nor does it end when a human mate is changed. Due to the nature of vampires, most have exceptionally dominant personalities—not violent or cruel, just very assertive and dependent. The males, obviously, are far more dominant; however, unmated and recently turned females are a rather aggressive force, so when an unmated female finds her mate, it generally takes about a year or two for her to completely submit to the male's dominance. The same amount of time applies to a recently turned female."
He lifted me into his lap and tucked me closely against his chest. "It is within the male's nature to want to protect his mate, and a newly mated female still has her instincts to fight for herself in situations where she does not need to. As dated as it sounds to a human, a female should not be fighting for or protecting the male unless they are overwhelmed by others or the male is severely injured and unable to protect his mate any longer. It is the male's responsibility to protect both himself and his mate against danger, and as I said, it takes a year or so for a female to fully submit to her male."
I was shocked by this information and was not completely sure of what to make of it. "So… for the next few years, we're going to be… um… I mean, really?"
"I am sorry, mia cocca," he cooed, his eyes full of emotion. "I am not completely certain of the intensity we will feel during our mating. You must remember that I have nearly completely suppressed all of my instincts until I admitted our bond to you. Any emotions that I have felt until now, I have felt at a human level. After nearly a hundred years, I really did not even have to try to suppress them, and experiencing life as a human came naturally. So I unfortunately have nearly four hundred years of—" he licked the side of my neck, whispering— "tension built up."
I shuddered at the innuendo and had just pressed my lips to his when he jumped back against the headboard, still cradling me in his arms.
He snarled viciously then spasmed slightly, bowing his head as shame etched the lines of his face. "They're here. On the porch." He shook his head. "I hate this, la mia. I hate that I am feeling this way toward those that I consider to be my family."
"Simon," I said patiently, "I know them well enough to know that they do not blame you for anything. They will not be upset with you in the slightest. Kendal and Maymuna have even experienced the same thing.”
My mate nodded slowly, as if not wanting to admit that it was okay for his clan but not for himself. “Yes."
I smirked. "So it's okay for them to act like this, but not you?"
He sighed and turned his eyes to me. "That is not what I meant. I am just a bit overwhelmed." He tilted his head, apparently thinking. "I can tell you exactly what will happen between us, what will happen to me, about my instincts and reactions, but I have never experience anything of this magnitude and it is quite disconcerting to me. Logically, I know that you have been threatened, and I am just protecting you, but emotionally I cannot comprehend why I would feel that my family is, too, a threat."
I hugged him as tightly as I could without hurting myself. "I am sorry Simon. I wish there was something that I could say or do to make this easier on you."
The smile in his voice was obvious. "Cara mia, your love and your support alone make a world of difference." He instantly stiffened and hissed. "They're opening the door."
Not sure of what to do or say, I did the first thing that popped into my head and let my tongue dart out to lap behind his earlobe, the hiss immediately turning into a purr. I just held him and nuzzled the side of his face with my mine, reassuring him with soft murmurs that I was safe and that I was his; and it apparently worked, because when he pulled back, his eyes were fading to their normally purple color and he was smiling softly at me.
"You, la mia, are truly the delight of my life," he said kissing the tip of my nose, chuckling when I blushed. "I would be entirely unable to survive this change if it were not for your wisdom, grace and love, bella mia." He placed a tender kiss and my lips and rose slowly, as if unsure if he wanted to move or not. "Come, m'amore… I do believe that I have an apology to make.” He forced a quip. “Before my clan decides to feed me to the dragons.”
I looked at him in surprise. “Dragons are real?”
He chuckl
ed. “Oh yes, mia cocca. All sorts of beings walk this earth. It is not likely that any vampires would actually be fed to them, however. The saying arose a couple centuries ago after some particularly virulent dragon clans made a bid for power.”
I blinked. “You’ll have to tell me about that.” I slipped my hand into his. “Later.”
We walked slowly down the stairs even for human speed, and I was sure that it was due to him adjusting to allowing me near his family, but I did not mind. I would give him all the time he needed if it meant he was comfortable, or as comfortable as he could be giving the circumstances. The moment we walked into the kitchen, I could sense the tension, so I was not surprised when my mate grabbed me and moved us back into the far corner of the room.
Kendal and Maymuna seemed to be fine, the former not bearing any signs of Simon’s attack, both of their clothes straightened and proper. But my eyes, and Simon’s, were drawn to Grace. The look on her face was heartbreaking, and I couldn’t help but reach out to her by voice if not by touch.
“Grace? What’s wrong?”
She shook her head, and looked almost perplexed as she answered me. “Sofia, I met your father today. It wasn’t… I mean, I wasn’t trying to… We were both at the grocery store and…”
I was starting to get worried. This was unlike her, and my father— “Is he okay?” I asked. “Did something happen?”
When she bowed her head, a shudder ripping through her willowy frame, I felt my mate's grasp loosen a tad and a heavy breath rush out of him. "She has found her mate."
I blinked in confusion for a few moments before the full brunt of what he said hit me like a truck. "Her mate is my father?"
A Note from Velvet
Hello, lovelies!
I hope you have enjoyed the second installment in the Feral serial. The third book will be available on Amazon on December 11, 2014 – but don’t take the chance of missing out! If you sign up for my newsletter here, I’ll let you know when it’s up and promise not to spam you with loads of things you don’t want to hear about. (I’m also available on Blogspot.)
Feral: Book Two Page 6