by Amira Rain
"Okay, new friend. Time to spill. If you want to, that is, but just let me say that I've always believed that confession is good for the soul. And if one doesn't do it every so often...well, I always picture it something like leaves building up in a rain gutter.
“If you don't clean them out every so often, something's going to overflow or something's going to break. And maybe that wasn't the very best metaphor. I guess I just have leaves on the brain because I just cleaned about forty pounds of soggy, windblown leaves from my balcony planters this morning. But you get what I mean."
I took a little sip of coffee to wash down a large bite of sugar cookie, then set the mug down with a sigh. "I do get what you mean. And all right. Okay. I'll 'spill,' because I don't think I'm getting out of here alive if I don't. But just know that I'm still sorting some things out, some things that are just very complicated, so I'm just going to be brief. I've had...just, a lot of anxiety and uncertainty about certain things lately...things I really don't want to get into right now...and this is the first day since arriving here to town that I kind of feel okay, and I'm just feeling like I want to ride that good feeling while I can, I guess, before having to do any more thinking about...well, just, certain things."
I'd basically come to a point where I'd realized that Nick likely hadn't been behind the killing of my coven. That scenario didn't seem to fit. However, the smallest sliver of me still wondered if he had been and had just changed his ways since then. However, in my gut, I just didn't feel like this was the case.
Which left me completely clueless about who else could have possibly killed my family. Clueless and vaguely in shock because from the day it had happened, I'd been so sure that the vampire responsible was the leader of the Everglen Coven. Now, I had to rethink everything, feeling as if some rug had been pulled out from under my feet. But, as I'd told Dana, I just wanted a short break from thinking. Maybe a break just long enough to enjoy the rest of the day and then the evening with Nick.
In response to what I'd said, Dana nodded, licking a few crumbs off her thumb. "Well, you're certainly being cryptic, but I think I understand what you’re saying. And you don't have to tell me anything you don't want to, really. Just tell me whatever you're honestly comfortable with sharing. I really don't mean to be pushy."
"Oh, so I can just grab my sugar cookies, hop down off this bar stool, and trot right out the door, and you won't do anything to stop me?"
"Well, no. I'd definitely have to tackle you in that case. Then I'd drag you back in here and withhold all treats from you until you talk."
"All right. That's what I figured. I'll briefly share what I'm going to share, then. It's basically just that...well, part of my glow might be because things have...'progressed physically’ with Nick, I'll say. And things are going to continue to progress physically tonight. As far as emotionally...well, I think that area is kind of gaining speed, too."
Dana set her coffee mug down, smiling. "That's great...and pretty much what I expected you to say, but I guess I just wanted my suspicions confirmed. So, do you care to share what's brought all this about? Was it anything in particular? Or did things just kind of naturally and slowly progress?”
"Well...kind of. But I guess what really caused the progression is that I realized that I might have...." I trailed off with a sigh. "This is really hard to explain. In short, I realized that I might have been thinking something about Nick that isn’t really true."
"Like that he'd drain humans dry to kill them, or whatever it was that you said when we had breakfast at the cafe?"
Stalling while I planned my response, I took a sip of coffee, and then another, before finally setting the mug down. "I guess I'd just heard some crazy tales about vampires in general, and I was struggling to figure out exactly what was true and what wasn't. But...I think I've got it now. At least I hope I do. I've come to believe that Nick isn’t the type of vampire who'd kill humans. Although, unfortunately, this realization leaves me with many more questions."
With a shaft of sunlight falling on her curly auburn ponytail, giving her hair a bright reddish hue, Dana swallowed a bite of sugar cookie, frowning. "Well, questions about what? I don't understand what you mean."
I was really tempted to tell her everything. Like she did, I also believed that confession could be good for the soul. Especially since I hadn't been able to tell a single soul what I'd been going through since meeting Nick. Which had greatly intensified the sense of profound loneliness and emptiness I'd felt since being kidnapped by the government.
I knew I couldn't tell Dana everything, though. At least not right then. I liked her a lot, but that didn't mean that I trusted her a hundred percent yet, or even fifty percent. I'd always tended to be like that with friendships, and really, with relationships of any kind. A person had to really earn my trust before I would give it fully. Which made it strange that I was beginning to trust Nick already, when just a few days earlier, I'd been convinced that he'd murdered my coven in cold blood, or at least had had something to do with it.
In response to what Dana had said, I just gave her a little smile and picked up another cookie. "I'll fill you in on more another day. I promise. But right now, I want to get serious about eating another one of these cookies while they're still warm."
To my relief, Dana didn't argue, and for the rest of the day, while we did some serious shopping at the various little shops and boutiques within the city, she didn't press me for any more personal sharing or details.
When I got back to my apartment around six, I cooked and ate a quick dinner and then took a long, leisurely shower before dressing in the short magenta dress that I'd deemed too sexy the night of my ill-fated Easter dinner with Nick. Now, the dress struck me as just perfect, particularly the plunging neckline.
Adding to what I hoped would be an incredibly seductive look, I put on a pair of red high heels, too, with my mind wandering to the activities that might be happening in less than an hour. By the time I'd dried my hair and applied a little makeup, my mind wasn't so much wandering as it was fixating.
The ill-fated night of the drinks and my near-drunkenness, when I'd been sitting on Nick's lap, feeling his large erection beneath my seat, it had given me a unique and unexpected thrill to know that he was so large. Later, when we’d been having sex, this little thrill had turned into pure heaven to actually feel his large cock inside of me. Since then, I hadn't been able to stop thinking about the erotic thrill I'd gotten from the experience, and I'd decided that I wanted to experience it again, possibly in a different position this time. But this time, I wanted things to last a little longer. It had been my own fault that they hadn’t before.
When I heard a knock on my front door exactly at eight, I had to fight not to race over to answer it, possibly wiping out in my heels in the process. Instead, I simply walked at a brisk pace, despite a hundred butterflies in my stomach wanting me to run. Those butterflies suddenly seemed to turn into a thousand the moment I opened the door and saw Nick standing dressed in dark pants and a collared Oxford shirt, looking so incredibly handsome that the effect nearly took my breath away.
Trying not to grin like an idiot, I stepped aside so that he could enter the apartment. "Please, come in.”
Seeming like he was struggling not to grin like an idiot himself, Nick strolled inside and just looked at me for a brief moment before pulling me into his arms and speaking in a low voice near my ear. "I want you to tell me your deepest fantasy...what you want me to do, and what you want to do...and I want you to be very, very detailed."
CHAPTER TEN
Not ten minutes after Nick had entered my apartment, I was flat on my back in my bed, completely naked, and with my legs spread. Nick was also completely naked, with his lightly tanned skin glowing in the warm light of two lamps, which I'd specifically requested be left on.
Nick was between my legs, or his face was, anyway. He was flicking his tongue across my throbbing feminine bud, making me moan as I clutched at the bedsheets, perspiring
even though the room wasn't overly warm. He was clearly enjoying what he was doing, gripping the mattress with one hand so hard that his knuckles were white. As if this alone wasn't enough to show me that he was very interested and engaged in what he was doing, I’d seen when he’d briefly shifted positioning that his thick pole stood ramrod straight, so erect it looked like it was straining against thin air.
After a short while, I began tangling my fingers in his thick, dark hair, pulling him, and his rapidly stroking tongue, closer against my most sensitive spot. Seeming to appreciate my undisguised lust and greed, he groaned and began moving his tongue even faster. A quick glance down told me that he was now slowly stroking his rock-hard shaft with a fist, grunting. It was that image, combined with that very masculine sound, even more than the feel of what he was doing with his tongue, that sent me tumbling over the edge, crying out in complete rapture.
Not a second after the last spasm of my ecstasy had passed, Nick pulled me down to the edge of the bed, flipped me over, and then entered me from behind so fast and forcefully that I gasped, clutching a handful of bedsheets. What he'd done might have seemed a bit rude, to say the least, except that earlier, I'd specifically asked him to do this in a very detailed and very graphic sort of way.
Once he began thrusting, I glanced over my shoulder at him and moaned, actually trying to tease him a little and work him up further still. "Oh, Nick. Don't stop. You feel so good."
What I'd said hadn't been just to work him up further; what I’d said had been the truth. Nick did feel incredibly good. So incredibly good, in fact, that within just a few short minutes, I felt myself approaching another powerful climax. While it rolled over me in waves so intense that each one brought a cry from my lips, I glanced over my shoulder at Nick once again and found that he was now breathing as fast as if he were sprinting in a hundred-yard dash. Soon, he was clearly experiencing a powerful climax of his own, grunting out his release.
Before the evening's sexual activities were over, I'd had a total of three climaxes, each one more powerful than the last. While Nick had been bringing me to my third, my legs had begun shaking, something that had almost amused me, even while at the same time, I'd found it almost unspeakably erotic as well.
When the grandfather clock out in the living room struck eleven, the two of us were in bed resting together, with our arms and bodies entwined.
With his free hand, Nick toyed with a stray lock of my long brown hair. "So, so beautiful. Gorgeous, in fact. And not just your hair. All of you. Every single part, from the top of your head right down to the tips of your pretty little toes."
"Oh, you mean my stubby, short toes? I'm not quite so sure they're very pretty."
Nick snorted, smiling. "Well, you're wrong about that. The very first time I saw them, when you were sporting the very unusual look of one sock on, and one sock off, I thought they were the daintiest, prettiest feet I'd ever seen in my life."
Doing the same as he'd just done, I snorted, smiling. "Well, I'm glad you think so highly of them because I have to admit, I've never been a fan of them. But, hey...better than having no feet or feet so big I'd have to special order clown shoes, right? I have to count my blessings."
Nick smiled, still toying with my hair, and we both fell silent, just looking into each other's eyes. Several long yet comfortable moments went by before I spoke.
"I'm sorry that I made you think that you'd said something wrong the other night. Please know that it wasn't you. The whole Easter dinner thing was an incredibly sweet gesture, but I was just upset because of some personal memories. Well, that and maybe the three glasses of wine I pretty much slammed back. I'm not a very 'experienced' drinker, as if you probably couldn't already tell. But please, just know I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you, if I did."
It was true, and I genuinely was sorry. Which was something I'd never in a million years thought I’d feel in regards to the leader of the coven that I thought had killed my family.
With his dark gray eyes filling with pain, Nick let my lock of hair slip through his fingers. "Please, don't be sorry. I completely understood what was happening, and I understood that you were probably truly upset about something that you didn't want to talk about right then. If anyone should be apologizing, it's me.
“I wasn't really thinking when I kept refilling your wineglass time and again, without realizing that you hadn't even yet had dinner. That wasn't very thoughtful or chivalrous of me, and I'm sorry for that. I want to let you know that I'm going to be more considerate of your needs in the future."
Just then, my stomach growled loudly enough to leave me absolutely mortified.
Nick just smiled. "Did I just hear a need?"
I smiled in spite of my extreme embarrassment. "I'm afraid you did. I'd be lying if I said that a big sandwich wouldn't hit the spot right about now. I can go get it myself, though. I'll just go make it and bring it right back to bed here."
"No, not a chance. Let me go make it and bring it to you. What kind of a sandwich would you like?”
"A turkey-and-Swiss on whole wheat, please. With lettuce and tomato slices, and just a little bit of mustard. Oh, and now you made me want something else along with it, too."
"Just name it."
"Could you bring me a bowl of cereal and milk with a spoonful of honey and a spoonful of plain yogurt each on top? I know that might be a weird way to eat cereal, but I just like it.”
Nick smiled. “Coming right up.” He pressed a kiss to my forehead before getting out of bed. "I'll be back with your sandwich and your weird cereal concoction as fast as I can. Keep your pretty little toes nice and toasty warm under the blankets until I return. I might want to nibble on them later."
With his full lips twitching, he leaned over and gave me another kiss, this one on the mouth, before pulling on his boxer-briefs and leaving the room.
A while later, after I’d finished my large snack, we rested in embrace once again. At first, we were comfortably quiet, but then Nick stunned me when he suddenly spoke.
"I think I'm falling in love with you."
With my breath suddenly stuck in my throat, I didn't answer right away. "What?"
"I think I actually started falling on love with you the moment I saw you in the government prison. You pulled open the door with a fire in your eyes that instantly seemed to melt some layer of ice around my heart that I didn't even know was there. Then a few nights ago...when you cried when you were upset about your Easter meal...as irritated as I was by some of the things you were saying, all I truly wanted to do when I saw that single tear roll down your cheek was to take you in my arms and tell you that everything was going to be all right. Then when we made love the other day, and then again tonight...Tiffany, it's been a very long time since I've felt this way. I'm falling in love with you."
With some last fragment of ice around my own heart feeling as if it were melting, creating a lump in my throat, I couldn't respond.
After a few seconds, Nick pulled me closer to his chest and looked at me with his expression pleading. "Do you feel the same? Is there any part of you, even a very small one, that feels like you might be falling in love with me, too?"
Eyes misty, I extricated myself from his embrace and slowly sat up in bed, making a decision. "I have to tell you something…something very important. Before we can go any further, I have to be completely honest with you about some things."
Suddenly frowning, he sat up in bed, too. “I think I know what you’re going to say…and just know that you don’t have to.”
"But I do have to. I have to come clean about something. I misjudged you about something, or you've changed from who you once were several years ago, and I have to tell you that-"
"I know. I already know everything you're going to say."
Thoroughly confused, I wiped my misty eyes with the back of my hand. "No, you can't possibly know. What I'm going to say is something that is going to shock you, and probably even make you angry that I could even think such a th
ing about you, but-"
"Tiffany, please believe me. I already know everything you're going to say. I know. Please, just trust me about this."
I wiped another tear away with a strange, growing sense of urgency, feeling as if I had to continue now that I'd started. "Then, if you already know everything...if you really know the secrets I've been hiding...then, please just say that you forgive me.”
Nick frowned. “I’m the one who should be asking for forgiveness…because I’ve been keeping a few secrets from you, too.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Even though I was stunned into near-silence by what Nick had just said, I still managed to utter a single word, which was what, and clearly enough that I knew he could understand me.
Frowning even harder, he repeated himself. “I’m the one who should be asking for forgiveness…because I’ve been keeping a few secrets from you.”
I looked into Nick's deep gray eyes, startled by their intensity, almost as much as I'd been startled by what he'd just said it when he’d first said it. "What have you been hiding from me, Nick? Please, just tell me.”
With clear tenderness in his eyes, he spoke in a hushed tone barely above a whisper. "All you need to know, Tiffany, is that I know everything about you. Your past, why you're here...everything. I know that your coven was killed by the Dormios--”
“What?”
“But that you think it was me and my people. It wasn’t, though. We would never do such a thing. I think you know that now.”
I did, but I was still stunned by what he’d said about the Dormios, and I found I couldn’t speak.
With his expression still one of tenderness, Nick continued. “My sources have told me that the only reason the Dormios had your coven family killed was just so they could pin it on me and start some kind of a war, while using you to take me out and get revenge.
