Anna looked at him. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What’s a responder?”
“The Family, as you’ve heard me call it, has a hierarchy. You heard me speaking with the President in the limo. Do you remember that?”
Anna nodded.
“The President is head of the Vampire Council. We have elected area Representatives. I’m a Representative...”
“Is Matt a Representative?”
“No. Matt doesn’t care for politics.”
“Go on.”
“We have a court system that interprets and enforces our laws. We have the responders who police our citizens, and there are other responders who are like Emergency Medical Technicians, like the woman who thralled you.”
“A woman…” Anna gazed upward and then snapped back to Rick. “Was the woman named Raquel?”
“Could have been. I was, for lack of a better word, in a coma when the squad got to the room. I remember tossing you my phone and telling you who to call, and that’s the last I remember. Once they stabilized me, thralling you was at my request. And I remember the responder who did it was a woman, but I honestly don’t remember her name. If it’s important to you, I can access that.”
“Yes, please.” She paused and considered the information. “You mentioned a biohazard cleanup at the house. Who does that?”
Rick nodded as he stretched in the reclining seat. “That’s a responder branch that handles the morgue and hazardous materials. There you have Responder 101.”
“If it took five minutes to thrall me, will it take five minutes to reverse it?”
Rick rolled on his side and stroked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Do you know what the thralling technique involves?”
“It’s probably nothing like the dumb vampire movies.”
Rick laughed. “Thank God, no. It’s a form of hypnosis. For vampires, it’s a survival mechanism. Our eyes, and attention on a mortal, if we chose to use them that way, induce a deep hypnotic trance, leaving them open to suggestion.”
“You mean, you could moonlight opening weight loss clinics?”
“Now that’s a revenue stream I’ve never considered.” He shook his head at her. “But yeah, I’d be great at it. It took them about an hour to make you forget about Sterling…obviously not very well. The technician may need an in-service. However, I don’t expect it would take longer than fifteen minutes or so to help you remember, since parts have come back to you so easily.”
Anna turned on her side and snuggled into him. “Could you un-thrall me?”
Rick recognized her raw need. “If it will bring you peace, I will.”
* * * *
In New York, after the jet was fueled and stocked, a uniformed Flight Attendant boarded, wheeling a Hartman tweed and leather suitcase behind her. She smiled. “I have a delivery for Ms. Curley?”
“Oh, how pretty! Thank you.”
“My name is Charlotte, I’ll be serving you this evening. The Captain informs me we’ll be taking off in about thirty minutes. Is there anything I can get you before we’re restricted to our seats?”
Rick reboarded the jet carrying a white cardboard pastry box tied with string. He stood like a proud twelve-year-old. “I’ve been told this is the finest New York Cheesecake in the city! I will have to defer to you dear, dear mortals to confirm it.” Rick winked at Charlotte and whispered in her ear.
He returned to his seat with a split of Dom Pérignon and two flutes. He dropped a fresh strawberry into Anna’s glass and poured the champagne.
“Oh, you’re so romantic, and I love cheesecake.”
Rick preened under her praise. “That’s good, cuz I couldn’t find a flan.”
Anna beckoned him with one teasing finger. “Drop ’em Fitz.”
“My trousers?” He played shocked. “Right here?”
“No. Your fangs.”
He looked disappointed. “Oh. It’s not like a light switch.”
She licked her lips and a sliver of her pink tongue curled up at him. “Yes, it is.”
“You know me too well.” In mock resignation he dropped his head and his vampire came out to play.
She extended one graceful finger and pierced the tip. Squeezing a generous drop, she turned her finger over his glass. One, two, three drops tinted his champagne, and then he caught her finger between his lips. His brown eyes twinkled at the taste of her.
Rick let her nosh, as one of his chefs described, on a tray of sliced meats and cheeses with the champagne. She was giddy. He suspected that was the result of the relief his un-thralling gave her. His soft, even words describing the actual events surrounding Sterling’s accidental death, freed her. He cemented his place in her life and then praised her level head when calling in the cavalry to save his undead life.
Rick kissed the back of Anna’s fingers. “If you’ll allow me to start again, I’ll show you why no one will ever come between us,” he whispered, only half kidding. He nodded his head toward the back of the jet.
Anna rolled into his embrace and he rose, carrying her cave-man style. Rick enjoyed her playfully paddling his ass as he walked toward the bedroom. “I really like this view,” Anna giggled. “It’s your best side.”
Rick shook his shoulders to keep her giggling. “I’m gonna give you my best side!”
Inside the bedroom, he set her gently on her feet. She is more than the curve of her hips, the shine on her lips. He kissed her again; long drugging kisses that made her moan into his mouth and arch her hips up against him. She’s warm, like the summers of my youth. Their hands explored the familiar peaks and valleys of each other’s bodies and reignited the places where their play had united them.
“May I undress you?” Rick’s whisper tickled over the shell of her ear. She nodded silently, raising both arms for him to start with her bulky angora sweater. He held it up to his nose and scented her excitement and her devotion. “Cupcake, you gave me a dream. It’s been so long I thought I’d forgotten how to do that.” Her blush was innocent but her expression hungry, and questing. Opening the pearl button of her soft wool skirt allowed it to drop to the carpet as he took her hand and she stepped over the flurry of colorful fabric. “Will you leave your panties on for now?” He pressed close and wrapped his arms around her to unclip her brassiere. “Let me free these, they want to come out and play.” The beautiful buoyancy of her flesh bobbled with the jet’s movement.
Relief flooded him with a kind of wicked determination. He growled softly when she pressed impossibly close to him, his eyes paled with need and his fangs descended. He ran his tongue lightly against his fangs and felt the cut. He tasted his own blood. The graze was light and healed instantly. If his information was correct, it would be dilute enough to give Anna the effect without causing that pesky amnesia. He kissed her again, their tongues tangling, and it didn’t take her long to gasp as the unfamiliar sensations hit her. The high of vampire blood.
He quirked a grin watching her pupils dilate and hearing the tympani of her heart pound. Her body temperature rose incrementally with the rush of blood to her skin and nerves. Delight of delights, he thought, we’re both going to enjoy this! He licked and sucked and nibbled his way down her neck and to the valley between her breasts.
* * * *
Anna felt his tongue was edged with fire as he licked a slow and erotic path down her body. Time suspended, her world expanded into the cosmos as he deliberately licked and nibbled and tasted every millimeter of her breast, finally making it to her nipple. Tracing her way through a constellation, she was near tears with need.
“Bite me, Rick! Please! Bite me!” she begged, her dilated eyes pleading with him, and his lips closed around the soft rosy peak. She could feel her blood pulsing there—he paused, accentuating her need. In his silence, his eyes questioned her as he grazed his own tongue. Then he bit swiftly and delicately into her nipple. That miniscule amount of his blood mingled with hers as he suckled her. Her pleasure was worth any blood he would bleed.
“Oh God!�
� The effect of the bite and the vampire blood brought a scream of ecstasy to her throat. She threw her fist into her mouth to muffle it.
* * * *
He chuckled at her inhibition. “You’ll never have to be shy again, Cupcake.” Rick sniffed at the invitingly heady scent of Anna’s cum building within her. It sluiced inside her tight pussy and pooled in her silky panties. He sealed the mark on her nipple and ventured down her abdomen to her hot center. His hands at her hips tore away the delicate fabric obstructing his prize.
He stroked her soft calves and caressed the backs of her knees, lifting them to see the beauty of her sex. She lay completely open to him. Oh God! He groaned. She flooded for him. He spread her lips and her thick cream spilled out. He dove to drink her essence off her glistening lips and thighs.
Anna bucked and keened beneath him. Her heady musk hung over them, he had given her the sensation, and she’d returned the gift of rich perfume. It spurred him to take her higher. His strong hands held her where he wanted her. He grasped her hips and drew her up to his mouth, and she was totally his.
“Bite me! Do it!” she beseeched through clenched teeth, writhing beneath him. “Please, let me come again! Bite me, Rick, please!”
Rick could not bear to inflict lasting damage or pain on Anna, but knew the terrific sensitivity in the tender flesh on each side of her clitoris. He grazed her lightly, making sure the scratches were shallow and small. Again, he tapped his own tongue and let his blood mingle with hers as he lapped at her again and again. She exploded against him, screaming his name. She bucked so hard he had to draw back quickly to keep her from impaling herself on his fangs. And that was all the control he could muster.
As her body spasmed wildly beneath him, he flipped her on her knees and pressed her forward onto her hands. He entered her with one long, hard thrust. She threw her head back with a feral growl, hunkered down on her forearms, and drove her lovely, firm ass back into him. He spread his hands and caressed the curves where her cheeks became her thighs. He adored possessing her. Giving and taking, they exchanged passion with equal fervor. Rick lost his mind inside her, driving them both to ecstasy as he drilled into her over and over. The blood that stained his fingers scented the air as he worked her clit, driving them both into a frenzy. Anna, shining with sweat, shook when Rick’s fangs sank into the delicate intersection of her neck and shoulder. Her sweet blood triggered his explosion. He emptied himself into her fisting pussy with a feral growl that echoed within the cabin and was drowned by the engine’s drone. Pressed tightly against her back, he laved his bite marks, reigniting her climax as she moaned out the last of her energy.
Is she ready for more? Can she take it?
He wasn’t done yet. He flipped her on her back again, drew her legs roughly apart, and went for a spot he’d never touched before, her femoral artery, located in the juncture between her legs and pelvis. It was precarious, but Rick had the expertise. He was the master of this bite, and she was his world. As his long fangs broke the skin, Anna’s world tilted and spun. He drew against her strongly, not out of control, but more passionately than ever before. She gasped, moaned, and he reveled in the sounds she made. A potent orgasm rocketed through her. She shook with the rapture of it, her heart pounding, her breath coming in deep gasps, and Rick still lapped at her.
He stroked his hardening cock with her cream and pressed into her slowly. As he scooped her up, her breasts to his chest, he sat back down on the bed and felt her legs encircle his hips. He would never release her, he would bargain with the Devil to hold her like this forever. He listened for the calming of her heart and breathing as she rode his length. His splayed hands held her sweet ass as he found his marks and he gently bit again. He shuddered inside her. She’d said she wanted him to feed from her. He’d actually taken very little, but the sensation of it all overwhelmed her. The look in her eyes told him Anna would remember this coupling.
He pulled the covers over them and reclined against the wall of pillows with her in his arms. Her eyes opened as he felt his cock relax and he beamed at her languid attempt to focus.
They exchanged “love yous” with their eyes as their bodies summed up the experience with sighs and moans. He murmured huskily. “I didn’t mean to be so rough. Are you okay?”
Her smile peeked out at him, green eyes warm with love and consummation. She reached a soft palm out to cup his cheek. “I’m fine. That was…oh, Fitz… I don’t want to lose this feeling. I love you too...”
He turned his face to kiss her palm and held her close against him. “See what happens when you make me crawl across the floor?”
Her smiling eyes narrowed playfully. “Was that you begging me to take you back?
You're mine, Anna, he thought possessively. Mine.
* * * *
She fell into that airy place between awareness and sleep, the place where every golden moment is saved and replayed at will, her words were breathy. “You were always mine, Fitz.”
* * * *
“Heya, Mom, Dad, and Wyatt!
The time difference is brutal, so I’m sending this video letter. This is Erne Castle, the original home of the Fitzjarrald Dukedom. We’re turning it into a luxury resort. This Castle is hysterical. (No, I don’t mean historical.) See this fireplace behind me? We have one houseboy who spends his entire day chopping wood and keeping the fires in every room roaring. I am still freezing, wrapped up in layers, and we just completed a million dollars-worth of HVAC work! I don’t know how the Fitzjarrald’s survived it. I’m seriously considering becoming a historical reenactor just so I can wear their seven layers of wool clothing!”
Anna walked the halls of the grey stone castle pointing her phone at tapestries and leaded glass windows, explaining the history behind them. She opened the study door that temporarily housed Rick’s office, and waved at him, Matt and Adam. She could tell they’d heard her coming by the way they posed and waved, three angelic schoolboys, backs straight, hands folded neatly in front of them on the table.
“Two weeks after we arrived, Rick’s partner, Matt, arrived with his wife, Catherine. Adam is our resident bachelor. He says it’s my job to find him a wife.” Anna closed the door and lowered her voice. “With his looks it shouldn’t be hard, right Mom?”
Heading in the direction of the parlor, she stopped before a jumble of furniture. “This will be the foyer—you have to imagine it without five rooms of furniture stacked in it. There’s Cat, Matt’s wife. Dad, isn’t she pretty? The most perfect complexion I’ve ever seen.” Cat gave the camera an embarrassed, crinkled-nosed, smile and waved. “Cat is working on some stories for international travel magazines, she’s a writer.”
Anna made her way to the library. “You are gonna choke when you see this. Have you ever seen a carved emerald? This is part of the collection I’m curating. It’s the Fitzjarrald dirk (or dagger). It’s been in the family since the 15th century and was the personal close-quarters weapon carried by the Duke, the head of the family. It was lost in the late 1700s and has only recently been returned.” Anna videoed the dirk from every possible angle. “Mom, those are real diamonds and emeralds. Awesome, right?” She tightened in on the carved emerald. “This emerald alone is 82 karats. I still can’t get over why anyone would carve an emerald, but it is beautiful, isn’t it? You see the night bird on top? The carving is the Fitzjarrald family crest, and there’s a great story about the night bird. In their early history, a night bird woke the Fitzjarralds’ nursemaid and saved them from a fire, and that’s how the night bird got to be part of the family crest.”
She climbed the remaining floors to the top of the crenellated castle and shot a panoramic image of the orange and purple sky at sunset. “These crenellations…” She pointed at the square indentations. “…were the openings for guns and cannons, but we’re having binoculars mounted on them, so people can get up close with the magnificent view.”
She finished by turning the lens on herself. For her good-bye, she showed them her best, fresh
-washed face with her biggest smile.
“Give Player a big hug from us, Okay? I love you all. Our grand opening date isn’t firm, but Rick will send a jet to bring you over when it’s ready. So make sure your passports are up to date. And Daddy—the jet is bigger than your barn!
Love,
Your Pumpkin.”
* * * *
Adam chuckled as the study door closed on Anna. “Isn’t she cute when she’s busy?”
Matt gave him an incredulous look. “She hasn’t been busy by herself.” His remark earned him raised eyebrows from Rick. “The old man here, stormed the castle, won the maiden, bedded her, blooded her, and mated with her.” Matt stretched back in the club chair and extended his long legs. He readjusted himself and shot Rick a wry glance. “After all these years of being around us, Adam, this might be the first time you’ve seen a newly mated mortal. Cat was never like this. Anna’s a walking testimony to the allure of fang on flesh. She makes every vamp around her want to pull up tough.” Matt sat up suddenly, shifted forward in his chair, spread his knees and held an imaginary woman before him.
Rick watched Matt make his ‘come face’ and shook his head. “I am a lucky vampire.”
Matt reclined and rubbed at the back of his neck as he drew his tongue over his lips. “I’d like a little romancing with Cat. Is there any corner of this castle that doesn’t echo at the slightest moan? I don’t want to assault your sensitive vamp ears.”
Rick moved pens and paperclips around his desk top, his expression meek as a Sunday school teacher. “There’s a lovely room on the fourth floor. It should be conducive to your ‘well and good’ intentions.
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