by Vivian Lane
All too soon, the doorbell rang. We parted, panting.
“I’ll get it,” we said. I chuckled, while she blushed.
“I’ll get it,” Catherine repeated. She walked out, then wheeled a cart into the bedroom, stopping in her tracks when she looked up. I’d shed my shirt and she liked what she saw. Her face said it all. She lifted the cover off the bigger plate and picked up the sandwich with both hands and took a big bite, humming with pleasure at the first taste. “Oh, this is good!”
I laughed. “And they say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”
“Oh, shut up,” she mumbled, her mouth partially full. She wolfed down the burger like she hadn’t eaten in days. I stood and leaned over to snag a couple of fries. She slapped my hand. “Hands off my food, buster! Get your own.” She pulled the cart behind her and tried to look stern, though the effect was somewhat dimmed by the fact that she was still chewing.
Grinning, I backed away to the bed. “You are so bloody adorable.” I propped a pillow behind my back and crossed one foot over the other, getting comfortable. “You can have a seat.”
“No more stealing my food,” she said, eyeing me warily, before taking a seat at the foot of the bed.
“Mm-hm. Give me your foot.”
“What for?”
Rolled my eyes. “You’ve been complainin’ about those shoes, and I have hands. Gimme a foot.”
“Okay, okay…” She shifted to put the footboard at her back so she could place her feet in my lap. The heels of her shoes came close to landing on sensitive property. She blinked innocently when I winced. Yeah. Right.
I unbuckled the sandals and dropped them on the floor, then took one of her feet in both hands and started kneading it.
“Ow! Ow. Ohhhh…” She melted as the tension suddenly disappeared. “How did you do that?”
“Told you—I have many talents. Relax and finish your grub.” My skilled hands worked over every inch of her foot, then I switched feet. She leaned back on her elbows, eyelids heavy, watching my hands. “Puttin’ you t’ sleep, love?”
“Hmm? Um, no…just very relaxed. I’ve never had a foot massage before. My ankle once, after I twisted it, but not my feet.”
“No generous boyfriends in high school?”
She shook her head. “I had boy friends, but not boyfriends. Everybody’s best friend.”
“A date for the dance, at least?”
“I went, but it was always a group outing. You saw me when I arrived. I wasn’t one of the popular kids. But I had several friends and we stuck together, made sure no one was alone. Could’ve been a lot worse. Were you ever picked on as a kid?”
“Couple o’ times, maybe…hard to remember that far back.” Not true, but some things I wouldn’t tell anyone, even her.
“I suppose. Kids are cruel in any time period, though, right? Popularity contests seem to be human nature.”
“They do, at that.” I pulled her closer by her ankles.
“Hey…”
Started massaging her calves. “Done with the feet.”
She smiled, shaking her head, looking at the canopy above.
My young companion was trying to appear nonplussed at my attentions, but I could read what was underneath her surface calm—the accelerated heartbeat, the rise in body temperature, the deliberately deeper breaths. I was at knee-level now. Any higher, and I had to slip under the hem of her robe or push it higher on her legs. My hands moved under her knees so I could work on the back of her legs. Such soft skin.
“Why don’t you roll over, love?”
“Why?”
“Catherine…”
“Okay, okay…” She flipped over.
I kneaded her thighs, skipped over her shapely behind, and started on her lower back through the robe. The thick terry kept sliding under my fingers, getting in the way. “This would work better on skin,” I said.
She waited so long to reply, I began to think she was going to ignore the comment, then she wriggled to pull her arms out of the robe and pushed it down to waist level, revealing the fastening of her black lace bra. I swallowed and put my hands on her back. They’d absorbed enough of her body heat by now to feel warm. She sighed as my thumbs dug into the muscle group at her waist.
“Nice?”
“Mmm-hmm.” She placed her forehead on her hands for a pillow.
I slowly and carefully kneaded every inch, all the way to the nape of her neck. Then brushed her hair up out of the way and pushed my fingers over the curve of the base of her skull and along her scalp. She sighed. I continued massaging her scalp in gentle circles. When I was finished, I sat back on my heels and lightly squeezed her shoulder.
“Love?” I brushed her hair off her face. “Catherine?” Oh, bloody hell…
I’d put the girl to sleep. Muttering chastisements, I got up and went to the other side of the bed, turning down the covers, then came back around to roll her over so I could pick her up.
What’re ya doing to me?
She whined a little at being moved, but didn’t stir. I set her down on the soft sheet and covered her up to the neck with the rest, then turned off most of the lights and got into bed next to her.
“It’s a sad day for you, mate, when you try to seduce a girl, and she falls asleep,” I muttered.
I settled in to wait while she napped.
Catherine’s eyes popped open, her body sensing she was being watched.
Our eyes met. Lips touched. She cupped my cheek with her hand as my arm slid under her back.
I was in no hurry, though the way she kissed me now was encouraging. I wanted this to play out with prefect timing, making her completely willing putty in me hands. She was already more responsive to my touch than my sire at the end. Whether that was a Catherine-thing or a human-thing, I didn’t know.
Right now, didn’t care. What mattered was that she was warm, soft in all the right places, and wanted me.
Catherine rolled onto her side to face me, pressing her body closer. She ended up on top, grinding her pelvis on my cock and cradling my face in both hands. My hands were on her ass, encouraging her movements.
She broke the kiss to sit up. Had she changed her mind? She kept eye contact and reached behind her back and unhooked her bra, tossing it to the side and on the floor.
My gaze immediately dropped to her bare breasts, my hands coming up to feel them. Nothing softer in the world. Her head fell back as I gently squeezed and kneaded her tits. Glorious. I sat up to wrap my lips around one nipple while tweaking the other between two digits, my other hand on her back to hold her in place.
She moaned. Her hips rocked back and forth over the cock beneath her. “William…”
I lifted my head and grinned. “Need more, baby?”
She nodded eagerly, whimpering and wriggling in my arms.
The hand that’d been on her breast dropped to the tie of her knickers and pulled the bow loose, then slipped underneath to stroke her quim while I sucked hard on the other nipple. She squeaked and grabbed my face to bring my lips to hers; kissing me with intensity. The closer she got to orgasm, the harder she held on, digging her nails into the back of my neck.
The heat radiating into my fingers increased along with the whimpers and moans timed with the roll of her hips, as any second she was going to pop. She was taking what she needed, and I had no problem fulfilling that. Clinging to me like a life preserver as I swallowed her cries with my mouth.
Hottest thing I’d been a part of in a long damn time.
She panted post-climax, watching me suck her juices off my fingers. I winked. “Delicious.”
She blushed, and brushed her fingers tips over the grooves in my skin from her nails. “Sorry about that.”
I tipped her chin up. “Hey, don’t apologize. Don’t ever apologize for expressing your passion, sweetheart. Besides…” I Eskimo-kissed her nose. “I like it.”
She blushed again. “Oh.”
Our faces were still millimeters apart. Our l
ips met again, slower this time.
My hands were rarely still. I stroked her hair, her shoulders, breasts, waist, and hips…peppered her face and throat with kisses. All while my cock strained against my zipper. Her fingers got sneaky, slipping between us to pull the zipper down and give me some relief. I gasped when she caressed the soft skin with her thumb.
“Oh!” she yelped.
It took all of a second of touching me before I rolled and switched our positions. “Drivin’ me crazy, love.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?” Hell, yes.
I grinned and kissed her again, then pulled the other bow loose and stuffed her knickers in my back pocket, then thrust a finger inside her, and another. Her back arched and she moaned in surprise. I curled my fingers upward and stroked the soft, fleshy wall of her G-spot.
“Oh, god…” she whimpered.
“You want me, don’t you, pretty kitty?” I murmured next to her ear. “Want me to fill you up?”
She nodded, her eyelids fluttering closed as my fingers made her eyes roll back. They popped open when my touch abandoned her.
I was naked and poised above her. I grabbed her wrists and brought her arms above her head, pressing them into the pillow, then surged into her in one stroke. Her inner muscles clenched around the invasion.
“Sweetheart, you should have told me…”
“Huh? Oh…” Catherine shrugged. “Figured you knew.”
“Not for certain…in this day…are you alright?”
“Be a lot better if you started moving,” she said with a smile.
“You’re not in pain?”
“No pain.” She squeezed my cock with her inner muscles. I groaned. “Move already!”
I gently pulled out a fraction. “Bossy bint. I can leave you wanting if you’re not a little nicer.”
She wrapped her legs around my hips, locking her ankles together. The move seated me deeper again. “Really.” Her previous orgasm had left her soft and pliant.
I grinned and set a casual pace. “Knew I liked you for some reason.”
The rhythm didn’t stay slow for long. I couldn’t keep from touching her, letting one hand, then the other, go in my quest to tease and feel her. She wrapped her arms around my shoulders, neck, threading her fingers through my hair as I nipped at her breasts, her throat…
Sex with her was different to any other encounter I’d had in all my days. My sire always wanted excitement and pain. Other hook-ups had only been about getting off and getting out when celibacy got too hard to maintain. Not that there had been many one night stands. Meaningless sex wasn’t my style, even as I avoided making connections all these years alone.
But this innocent girl made me feel. Made me smile, laugh, want…I should be mocking her goodness. Draining her life, making her cry. If I’d still been the vampire I was before, the demon I was trained to be. She made me feel human for the first time in over one-hundred years.
It was an easy deception—her heart pounded against my chest, her heat made me warm, and she looked at me like I was only a man. Any old bloke she’d chosen to favor.
Catherine was mine now, whatever came after this. Her first, the one she would compare any other to for the rest of her life.
A clever swirl of my hips made her moan again. “William…”
“I’ve got you.”
Never said to be an inconsiderate lover, I slipped a hand between us and flicked her clit. Her muscles clenched around me again in response. Normally, I could prolong an encounter for hours, but with how she fit around me, the heat, the look in her eyes of being right here…well, just because I came, didn’t mean the night was over.
Catherine clung to me as she arched off the bed, caught in the throes of orgasm and triggering mine. I vamped out, but didn’t bite her.
It was the first time she’d seen my demon. She lifted a hand to glide her fingertips over my forehead, my eyes closing as they trailed over my cheek. I could still feel the warmth from her touch after it moved on.
I shook off the fangy look and softly kissed her. “You alright?”
“Better than.” She stretched beneath me. “Are you…?”
A shallow thrust confirmed her discovery. “Part of the vampire package.” I rolled us, putting her on top. “Not done with you, yet.”
“Oh!” She swayed on my lap. Hands on her waist, I steadied her ‘til she had her bearings. “Don’t do that when I’m still woozy.”
I grinned. “Blood flowing elsewhere than your brain, love?”
She tried to scowl, though it came out looking more like a pout. “’S your fault. What am I…?” She gestured to the new position.
“Anything you like, baby, that’s the point…you’re in control.”
She blushed. “Oh.”
I gripped her hips and lifted her a fraction off my cock, then let her slide down again. Her eyes widened as it stroked her internally at this new angle.
“Oh, god…” She caught on and moved on her own.
My hands coasted up her sides to mold around her breasts now she didn’t need my help. I couldn’t resist leaning up to taste them again. Perfect…
But the girl was fast racing to ride me at a gallop, so I slowed the pace, sitting up to wrap my arms around her and rock us to a slow boil.
She opened her eyes, coming back to where she was, to me, and her brow furrowed with the unspoken question. I just tilted my head and captured her lips, kissing all thought away…
She came to on her side in time to feel me enter her pussy from behind.
“OH, my god…William…”
I placed a tender kiss on her neck. “Love how you say my name like that,” I said with a measure of pride. “You like this.”
She whimpered as I pushed in again. “How’d…we get…?”
I’d always liked this position. There wasn’t a part of her I couldn’t touch. “You passed out for a minute. Personal best for me.”
“Smug bastard.”
I laughed and pinched her nipple. “My parents were married, thank you.”
“You keep this up; I’m not going to be able to walk.”
“Not seeing the problem, love.”
Chapter Fourteen
Nov. 1st
I awakened slowly, my consciousness pushing through the groggy haze of sleep, and rubbed my eyes, then looked at the clock. 7:00? Extending my senses, I felt it was night again. Had I really slept all day? My stomach growled with hunger.
“Catherine?”
No answer to my call. The suite was silent.
“Catherine?”
I spotted the folded piece of paper next to me.
William,
Thanks for making an ordinary girl feel like a princess for a night. I won’t forget it.
Catherine
“Bloody hell…”
Twelve hours. She could be anywhere by now. Getting complacent in your old age, mate, when a slip of a girl outwits you. She’d used the best weapon a woman had in her arsenal and I’d trusted her completely, the furthest thought in my mind when I fell asleep that she would run off post-coital.
It’d been amazing sex. I was tempted to not bathe before leaving just to keep the scent of her fresh in memory. Not that I’d forget one second of her taste or the way she moved. The sounds, the sight…the feel of how she touched me. We’d made exquisite poetry. Picturing it made me rock hard all over again.
Shaking off sentimental thoughts, I stood and headed for the shower.
Coming out of the bathroom, I noticed the girl had cleaned up while I was asleep, hanging up the clothes I’d tossed the night before. My tie was missing, though. Had to have a souvenir, huh, love? Well, I had my own in the form of the knickers still stuffed in my trouser pocket. I left the collar of my shirt unbuttoned and slipped into my coat.
Her dress and cloak were hanging in the closet. I thought about leaving them there, but Alicia would probably flay me alive…or undead.
Whatever.
The situation was a bi
t of a pisser in that I’d have to deal with Tallis sooner or later, but I couldn’t find it in me to be mad at Catherine. I admired how she managed to pull off the getaway. We had no attachments to each other, and she had made me promise to not turn her over. Anything I might suffer now was my own fault.
At least there were memories…
Alicia met me at the door, grinning triumphantly. “Hi, boss.” I rolled my eyes and continued upstairs to my room. She followed like an eager puppy. “Where’s Catherine?” she asked.
“No clue.”
“You lost her?”
“I didn’t lose her, like something that fell out of my pocket. She left.”
“She left. Just like that?”
I nodded. “Scampered off while I was asleep.”
“Aren’t you going to look for her?” she pressed.
“Nope.”
“Why the hell not?”
I stopped on the riser and turned to face her. “Because I promised I wouldn’t give her to Tallis, alright?” I continued trudging up the stairs.
“Oh my god, you did it. You really did it. You fell for a human!”
“Shhh! Keep your bloody voice down! I didn’t ‘fall’ for anyone.”
“Then why’d you let her go, hmm?”
“Goodnight, Alicia.” I slammed the door to my bedroom in her face.
Bloody hell…
I waited a week before telling Tallis the girl disappeared, and hung up on him in mid-rant about retribution, blah, blah, blah.
Started packing a bag. I was merely going to find Catherine to warn her and make sure she was alright.
The friendly thing to do.
Epilogue
Six months later…
Demons kept a low profile nowadays since the Shadow Knights had doubled their efforts. Anything wanting to keep its head kept an ear to the ground and hightailed it out of town the second another bunch of hunters stepped foot within city limits. I was better off than most, having the funds to move around quickly and easily as well as pay for information.
