by Amira Rain
The thought crossed my mind that maybe it was still possible that Nick was the monster I'd accused him the night before of being, or at least, maybe he had been a monster several years earlier. Maybe something had made him change. Maybe killing my coven had made him sick with himself and determined to change his ways.
I also realized it was possible that, as I'd suspected during my intoxicated paranoia fit of the night before, maybe he somehow knew who I was and what I was planning to do. So he was trying to hide his true self just to confuse me and throw me off track. Maybe he even had Dana "working" for him, planting more seeds of uncertainty and confusion in my mind. I had to admit, though, if all this were the case and if Nick knew about my revenge plans, it seemed like he would just kill me instead of taking the chance that I might kill him first.
I was sick of thinking. Dana soon changed the subject back to Stephanie, and I was grateful. I really needed a mental break and more light chatter.
To my relief, that was what I got for the rest of the day. Dana and I strolled around the city for a few hours, visited several boutiques, and then had a late lunch at a small restaurant. Then, we headed back to our building so that I could meet baby Stephanie, who'd been under the care of a smiling, elderly vampire named Amelie, who was her babysitter and obviously relished the role. Dana had told me that after hundreds of years without babies in the community, many vampire women were so thrilled with the new little ones that they'd beg the new mothers for a chance to babysit, even just for ten minutes.
Stephanie was an angel of a baby, with round, rosy cheeks, two teeth, and a halo of silky light red curls. Holding her, I imagined what it might feel like to hold a baby of my own, and my heart ached because I knew I probably wouldn’t be sticking around Everglen long enough to become pregnant with Nick.
I had no clue why this thought should cause a little pang in my heart when the very idea of even wanting to have a baby with Nick was completely absurd, on many levels, not least of which was that I needed to get to the bottom of whether or not he was a murderer before having any more similar thoughts.
When I left Dana's apartment around five, I was near-desperate to see Nick. Dana was right. I needed to talk to him more, needed to spend more time with him. I figured this alone would help me determine the truth about him.
However, not long after I'd gotten home to my own apartment, Clara came up and told me that Nick was dealing with a “Dormio problem” about ten miles from the city. "It's something having to do with more spies. Dozens of them. They're hiding deep in the forestland."
She went on to say that Nick had told her he probably wouldn't be home until the next day.
"Commander Alexander told me to tell you to remember that you can reach him on his cellular telephone, so you can call if you need to."
I didn't want to call him. I just wanted to see him.
It turned out that I didn't see Nick for three more days. Not until he showed up at my door one evening, asking to come in.
*
I told Nick to come in, and he stepped inside the foyer and shut the door behind him.
"I'm sorry I didn't call first. I hope this isn't a bad time to drop by."
I shook my head. "No. It's not."
It wasn't, except that after having had a late dinner, I'd just finished getting ready for bed, including putting on a pair of comfortable but fairly unattractive plain gray sweatpants and also pulling my hair up into a very sloppy and probably equally unattractive topknot. I didn't have a single stitch of makeup on, either, and I usually at least liked to have on a little mascara and lip gloss when I was around other people. However, I supposed the state I was in was still better than the one I'd been in the first day I'd met Nick, when I'd answered the door wearing only one sock.
He and I just looked at each other for a long moment. His deep gray eyes seemed to be drawing me into them, as if they possessed some supernatural power all their own. I was pretty sure this wasn't the case; with light gray flecks within the dark gray, and long, dark lashes that curled just slightly, his eyes were just so beautiful that I couldn't seem to look away. Not even to thoroughly rake my gaze over the length of his long, lean body.
However, after another long moment, I felt a little warmth rising to my cheeks and managed to glance away briefly, toward the living room. "Do you want to go sit down or something?"
"No. Not quite yet. I want to do something else first."
"What is it?"
In response, he pulled me into his arms, surprising me.
"What are you doing?"
With a hungry look in his eyes, he began lowering his mouth to mine. "I’m doing what I've wanted to do since the second I laid eyes on you."
The moment I felt his lips brush against mine, I seemed to melt in his arms, sighing with pleasure. He kissed me gently, tenderly at first, seeming to savor the taste of my lips, and making a few soft noises of pleasure himself. It wasn't long, though, before he intensified the kiss, or I did; I wasn't really even sure. I didn't even care. All I knew was that what was happening between Nick and me felt right, and I didn't want it to end. I only wanted it to continue and progress further. Hopefully all the way into my bedroom.
Wrapping my arms around his neck, I pressed my body into the length of his, reveling in the feel of his muscles, which felt something like a brick wall against my body. His muscles weren't the only hardness I was feeling, though. After only just a minute or two of kissing me, he was already rock-hard in another area, and he pressed this area even closer against my stomach, moving his hands from the small of my back to my rear at the same time.
I wanted Nick badly. I wanted him to pick me up and take me into my bedroom, then make love to me with the same passion he was showing me with his kissing.
After just a little while longer, I broke our kiss, deciding to just be bold and come right out and tell him what I wanted. "Will you take me into my bedroom now, Nick? Please?"
With a low growl, he began kneading my rear, squeezing each rounded globe with just enough pressure to feel pleasurable but not painful. At least, not in a way I didn't like.
"Hmm...take you to your bedroom, you say? And I even got a please. I have to say that you sure have changed from the woman I encountered over drinks just a few nights ago."
I cringed inwardly, recalling how embarrassingly buzzed I'd become. "Yeah...about that. I'm really sorry I became a bit hostile."
Nick shrugged, still continuing to knead my rear. "I'm a grown man, and I can handle a bit of hostility. It's your outright sassiness that I still feel inclined to punish you for."
"What do you mean? How do you want to 'punish' me?"
I couldn't imagine, but part of me wanted to find out.
Immediately, while looking into my eyes, Nick lifted a hand from my rear, then returned it in the form of a swift, sharp swat. "That's how I want to punish you."
Though the action had been enough to surprise me, and enough to make me gasp even, it hadn't exactly hurt, similar to his squeezing of my rear cheeks. Or at least, the same as the squeezing, it hadn't hurt in a way that I didn't like.
Somewhat breathless, and with a rush of heat rising to my face, I looked up at his. "I believe I was very sassy to you more than once."
Not needing any further encouragement, Nick immediately delivered another stinging swat to my right cheek, and then another, and then two to my left, with his hand firm enough to make me bury my face in his chest, wincing.
However, once I realized that he was done 'punishing' me, I lifted my face, realizing that I wasn't now just aroused, but desperate. "Take me to my bedroom now. Rip my clothes off. Then, I don't want you to be gentle or slow. I want you to be hard, and fast, and rough." With another rush of heat rising to my face, I swallowed, realizing that I'd never before in my life been so bold about a sexual request. "Please."
Nick had already begin scooping me up even before I'd finished the word.
Once in my bedroom, he flicked on my light, and then clo
thes started almost literally flying off our bodies. Within seconds, we were both completely naked, but Nick didn't even give me time to appreciate his nude form. As if I were light as air, he tossed me on my bed, then immediately spread my legs and mounted me with a growl.
His slide into my depths was a sensation of such intense pleasure that the guttural moan I made didn't even sound human to my own ears. Once he'd filled me completely with every last inch of his considerable, rock-hard length, he immediately began thrusting, making me moan again. Soon, he paused, but just briefly, just long enough to hike my legs up on his shoulders, allowing him to penetrate me deeply with every rapturous stroke.
Like I'd asked him to be, he was hard, fast, and rough, and within just a minute or two, I was already heading toward a climax, I could tell. From what I was feeling, I could tell it was likely going to be the mind-blowing kind I'd always dreamed about having. However, within moments of me having this thought, Nick paused in his rough thrusting to speak in a low, incredibly husky voice near my ear.
"Reach between your legs and touch yourself. Please. I want to feel you doing it."
All too happy to comply with his command, I moved a hand between my legs and began rapidly stroking my most sensitive spot, which was drenched with slickness. Groaning, Nick began thrusting again, now even a bit more forcefully than before.
I didn't even last ten seconds. With a loud cry, I threw my head back onto the satin pillows, gripping one of Nick's strong shoulders with the fingers of one hand while continuing to stroke myself with the fingers of the other. Pinpricks of silvery white light exploded behind my closed eyelids. Rhythmically, every muscle in my body seemed to contract and release over and over, each tightening more powerful than the last.
At the tail end of my glorious, lengthy climax, Nick also found his, driving his thick cock deep inside of me fast and hard with a prolonged groan loud enough to nearly hurt my ears. I felt him release his masculine essence inside of me, which was a warm, pleasurable sensation that added a few more waves of pleasure to what had already been the most intense orgasm of my life. By far. So far that I wasn't even sure if the orgasms I'd experienced before had really, truly, even been orgasms. Whatever they'd been, they hadn't been one thousandth as powerful or as pleasurable as what I'd just experienced.
A short while later, I rested in Nick's arms with my head against his chest. His scent was something earthy and woodsy, with faint hints of leather, spice, and soap, and I inhaled it, sure that I'd never smelled anything more heavenly in my life. I'd never been more comfortable or more satisfied than I was at present, either.
I could have punched a wall when Nick’s cellular telephone went off after we'd been relaxing together for only a few minutes. I knew he'd answer it, and I was right.
Apologizing, he released me from his embrace and slid out of bed. "Just one second. I’m sorry, but I have to get this."
Pulling the covers over me, I rolled over, sure he'd be leaving me soon.
I wasn't wrong. After answering the call and talking with whomever it was just briefly, he ended the call, and then I felt him place a hand on my shoulder from behind me.
"Tiffany, I'm sorry, but I have to go. I kind of made a break to get away while one of my elite coven members was leading a group of our fighters on a patrol west of the city, and now he's wondering where I am."
I rolled over, seeing that Nick had already managed to put his boxers and jeans back on just in the short amount of time he'd been on the phone. "Just one more minute, Nick. Please. Just one more minute with your arms around me before you go."
With his lips curving in a smile, he climbed in beside me and took me in his arms once again. "Believe it or not, I came here today because I just wanted to talk to you."
"About what?"
"The other night. I just wanted to tell you that I had the chef prepare Easter food for you because I wanted to make you feel welcome and cared for in your new home, here. I wanted you to know that I view you as a whole person, and not just as a plaything in the bedroom or a baby-making machine. At any rate, I certainly didn't mean to upset you or cause you pain. I'm not a monster, Tiffany."
I looked into Nick’s eyes for a moment or two with an emotion I couldn't quite identify welling in my chest. "I know. I know that for sure now. I can feel it."
After looking into my own eyes for a moment or two, he brushed a tender, lingering kiss against my lips. "Good. But please promise me you'll continue to feel what you're feeling about me right now, even after I leave. At least promise me you'll try. I just want you to give me the benefit of the doubt that I'm not a monster until I actually do something to deserve you thinking that way about me. Which I will never do. I promise you that, on my honor. Okay?"
"Okay."
He gave me another kiss, just as tender as the last, before speaking again. "I have to go. I’ll plan on coming to visit you again tomorrow evening. If that's something you still want."
His last comment nearly made me laugh. After the pleasure I’d just experienced, I definitely wanted to take Nick into my bed again, and I told him that. He smiled, but before we could talk further, his phone began ringing again. He soon left, saying that he'd be back the following evening at eight. With a shiver of excitement rippling through me, I told him I could hardly wait.
CHAPTER NINE
After Nick left, I took a long bath, letting my mind freely wander, specifically to what was going to happen the following evening at eight. I had a feeling that the next twenty-four hours weren't going to go by as fast as I might have liked.
That night, I probably slept the hardest I had in maybe my whole life. Out like a light by ten, I slept for a full twelve hours, not waking even once until a little after ten in the morning. It was the first day I hadn't seen the sun come up since I’d arrived in Everglen.
After lunch, I took the elevator down ten floors to visit Dana, and she answered the door with a smile, telling me to come on in. I did, and after closing the door, she paused, her smile fading, and just seemed to study me for a moment or two.
"You know...I know I haven't known you that long, but something's a bit different about you today. You look really...." She trailed off, seeming to be studying me intently again. "You look really well-rested, I think. And not that you looked worn down or anything before, because you didn't, but...you just look really bright-eyed and refreshed today. And it's something else, too. Something I can't put my finger on. You just look even more beautiful than usual. You look like you’re glowing."
Blushing, I was sure, I gave my head a little shake. "Well, I did sleep really well last night. But as for the 'something else'...well, I really have no idea what it could be. If I'm 'glowing,' maybe it's just from using facial exfoliating scrub in the shower today, something I don't normally use. That's the only thing I think it could be."
"You little liar."
I sputtered, feigning ignorance. "Well, other than the facial scrub, I can't think of anything in particular that might have given me a glow. Except for maybe the little bit of bronzer I used today, just because in the late fall and winter months, I seem to get a bit pale, so I-"
"What a terrible, terrible little liar you are." Dana shook her head at me, with her pink-glossed lips twitching with amusement. "Honestly...I have other friends who are pretty bad liars, but, Tiffany, you really suck."
I began to protest, but she grabbed my hand, chuckling, and began leading me out of the foyer in the direction of a short hallway that led to her kitchen.
"Come on. Stephanie's down for a nap, so it's coffee and chatting time for us. And you don't have to tell me what exactly gave you your glow today other than your bronzer, which, nice try about trying to pass that off as the only thing, but if you do want to tell me, the least I can do is give you the opportunity."
Despite her saying I didn't have to tell her, I had a feeling I was going to have to come clean, at least partially. I wasn't so sure she was going to let me leave her apartment otherwise.
/> Her kitchen, which was large and airy and painted a vivid, sunny yellow, smelled like brewing coffee and vanilla. And even though I'd had a fairly substantial lunch not an hour before, my stomach instantly growled.
Maybe having heard it, Dana smiled and told me to have a seat on one of the bar stools around a large island in the middle of the kitchen. "Just one sec, and we'll have piping hot sugar cookies fresh out of the oven to go with our coffee. I don't know why, but I was just in the mood for something a little sweet with lunch today.
“Specifically, something very sugary. I guess just because the enormous slice of strawberry cake I had for a midnight snack last night didn't completely satisfy my sweet tooth. Or, as Noah says, my sweet teeth, plural. He claims I must have several considering the way I eat sugar."
Like me, Dana also seemed able to indulge in treats frequently while still keeping her trim figure. In fact, unlike mine, her slender body could have been described as downright willowy. She had a gap of several inches between her toned thighs, and even though she'd given birth not a year before, and to a nine-pound baby no less, her waist was teeny-tiny, and almost literally flat as a board.
In contrast, Aurelia had always eaten fairly birdlike portions, and of mostly healthy, unprocessed foods, and yet she'd been on the heavier side her whole life, as she'd told me once, with a very round middle that she just couldn't get rid of. Once she'd even tried to use magic to try to whittle her stomach down to the size she wanted. It hadn't worked.
Aurelia. I really didn't want to think about her right then. Being that my ever-anxious mind had only recently seen fit to give me a little peace and rest for the first time since I'd arrived in Everglen, I just couldn't handle it.
Once Dana and I were both seated up to the island with a plate heaped with sugar cookies and mugs of fragrant coffee with cream and sugar, she gave me a little look, and I knew pretty much what she was going to say before she even said it.
