Grabbing a room key and towel, I locked the door and took the elevator down, walked along a dark hallway, and went into the Jacuzzi room. There was no one there. Intense and complete joy!
Laying my towel down, I settled into the hot water, luxuriating in the warmth flooding my senses. I laid my watch on the edge so I could keep an eye on the time and pinned up my hair so it wouldn’t get wet.
Closing my eyes, I laid my head back on the rim of the sauna. I stayed like that for the longest while, thinking of nothing, just letting the water soothe me. When I opened my eyes next, I looked up into a pair of familiar hazel ones above me.
The guy from the café! What is he doing here? I let out a scream, splashing water as I moved to the center of the Jacuzzi.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said seductively, moving closer.
My danger sense went through the roof. “Please leave,” I said, glaring at him. “I thought I’d made it clear I’m not interested.”
“I’m interested. That’s what matters.”
It was time to leave. I went to the other side of the Jacuzzi, but he moved to intercept me. I moved back to the center, anxious and unsure how to make my escape.
“Stay right there,” he said, making it an order. “We’ll have a nice time together—”
He was suddenly lifted from his feet by a hand wrapped around his neck.
“She told you to leave. Leave now.”
I froze in the water. That cold voice didn’t belong to Danial or Theo.
The man from the coffee shop dropped and stumbled to one knee. He regained his feet, grabbed his robe, and ran for the door without a backward look.
“I apologize for that male. His actions were deplorable.” My rescuer came out of the dark, his face in shadows. He was small for a man, only a little taller than I was, but stocky. He tossed his robe off, revealing swim trunks below a thickly muscled chest. As he walked closer, I was able to see him better. His hair was light brown and short, no longer than an inch. His blue eyes crinkled at the corners. Kind eyes.
I relaxed a little. “Thanks.”
He slowly walked into the tub. Reflexively, I moved away, cautious.
“Please,” he said, holding up a hand. “You don’t have to leave.” He bared his teeth, revealing vampire canines.
Definitely time to leave. I put my arms up on the edge to push myself out of the water.
“Why do you fear? I know what your choker means, as well as those scars you wear so beautifully. I won’t come any closer than I am right now.” The stranger tipped back his head and sat in the water. “You are safe with me. Be silent and calm.”
I watched him for another few moments before I relaxed, deciding he’d meant what he’d said. Minutes passed and we didn’t speak. There was a lot I wanted to ask, like who the hell he was, but his request for me to be silent made me think the less I knew, the better. It was wiser to wait a few minutes and then casually leave.
Ten minutes later, I pushed myself up and out of the tub, reluctantly leaving the hot water. I put my watch on, then my robe, draping the towel around my neck. “Thank you. Goodnight.”
He picked his head up, his blue eyes meeting mine. “You are heading back to your room, yes? You should not roam alone without an escort, Lady.”
I didn’t see where that was any of his business, but he’d saved me from the jerk from the coffee shop. “Yes,” I agreed. “Thank you again for your assistance.”
“It is good to see some of the old traditions still alive. Too many humans feel The Oath is not worth taking today, that wearing the choker demeans them. It warms this old heart to see that there are still some beautiful women who are not afraid to truly give themselves to a man.”
Danial had told me about The Oath; a promise that a human gave to a vampire to be with them for the rest of their lives. It was unbreakable once given, the sign of the pact a choker with the personal emblem of the vampire. Danial had asked me to give him that promise. I’d agreed to wear the choker with his symbol while I made up my mind.
“Go,” the stranger commanded. “My man will shadow you until you reach the lobby.”
* * * *
As I showered off in my room, I bitched at myself for impulsively going off alone when I should have stayed there. The suite was silent enough now.
I dressed in the red silk sheath, unpinned my hair, and lay down to wait. Danial came in a few moments later, exhausted. When he saw me waiting for him, he perked right up.
“Give me a few minutes to shower.”
A few minutes later to the dot, he was back, a towel wrapped around him, his dark wet hair falling to his shoulders. Then he was in my arms, his lips burning as he passionately kissed me. He molded my body to his, and I let out a moan, feeling him moving so insistently against me. He slid the straps of my sheath down as his fangs brushed my scars.
I wrapped my hand tightly around his erection, making him gasp. I stroked him, rubbing with my thumb, and he responded by taking my breast in his mouth. It was then my turn to stiffen and gasp. His hands caressed up and down my body.
He suddenly reached down and pushed up my sheath as he sat me on top of him. The silk whispered over my hips as he pulled my legs apart to straddle him.
“Tell me you want me,” he whispered. “Tell me I’m all you want.”
“Yes. Oh, yes...” I murmured throatily.
He entered as I moved my hips to meet him. He was so warm, I felt as if I were melting. We didn’t last long. I came first, screaming my pleasure. As it ebbed, he kissed me again, then rolled us over to resume thrusting. A moment later, the warm rush of him filled me as he cried out his release.
He rolled off and pulled me to him, spooning me. “You’re all I want, too,” he said lovingly. “Rest with me.”
I awoke some time later to find him kissing my face.
“Did you have a good time today?” he said affectionately.
“I had a great time.”
I began describing it, getting to the part about Hazel Eyes—the nickname I had labeled the jerk who had accosted me, since I had never gotten his name—when Danial stopped me. “I have something for you. I forgot when I saw you in bed, waiting for me.” He got up and came back with a small plastic bag. “Open it.”
“What’s this?”
“Open it,” he instructed with a wide smile.
I opened the small bag. Inside was a box—more precisely, a square velvet box. I knew what boxes this size and shape usually contained.
My heart racing, I drew the box out and carefully opened it. Inside was a diamond ring, a half carat set in white gold. Three strands of gold were woven over and under the diamond, as if magic held it in place.
“It’s a tension setting. I had it designed for you. I tried to choose something that wouldn’t hamper you, no matter what the activity. Do you like it?”
“I love it!” I said excitedly, giving him a big kiss.
He beamed and put it on my ring finger. I watched it wink in the light for a few minutes, stunned. I’d never expected to have another diamond ring on that hand.
“Why’d you give this to me?” I asked. “Are you asking me to marry you?”
“No, but you’ve been so accepting of my customs that I wanted to do this for you. You have friends and family that will want to know I’m serious about you. You can’t tell them about The Oath or what the choker means. They’ll understand this. When you Oath to me, I’ll give you a gold band to wear, if that’s what you want. And I’ll honor you under The Oath the way a married man honors his wife.”
Now was as good a time as any to ask him. It wasn’t going to get any easier. “Do you want me to keep my scars? I know they mean something more than bite marks.”
“Coupled with the choker, they are the sign of an Oathed human,” he said just as carefully. “If you want me to remove them, I will. I know we are not Oathed yet and—”
“I’ll keep them for you,” I said softly.
He looked a
t me for a moment, then said with heat and passion, “I love you, Sar.”
I opened my mouth to say it back, but he cut me off with a kiss. Then he was inside me again, but this time he was tender, gentle, as he hadn’t been before. He made love slowly to me and it went on until I thought I might go crazy with sensation. The length of him sliding inside my body, the muscles of his chest contracting, his lips kissing my neck, his hands cupping my breasts...The orgasm broke over us like a wave, my voice joining his in exhalant rapture. We held each other tightly as we both spasmed, shaking as he held onto one another.
As our breathing slowly returned to normal, I remembered Hazel Eyes. “I need to tell you something.”
For once, Danial didn’t seem wary of what I might say. “What is it, Dearheart?”
I told him everything. He was angry over what Hazel Eyes had said to me, but it wasn’t until I mentioned the vampire that he became worried. “What did he look like?”
“Stocky, short, brown hair and blue eyes, and a very formal way of speaking.”
Danial shook his head. “That description fits more than a dozen vampires I know. Did he say a name?”
“No. He told me to be silent. I left as soon as I could.”
“What did he do? Tell me everything again, word for word.”
I repeated my story.
“He must have been old, at least as old as me,” he said thoughtfully. “But I don’t know anyone that old fitting his description that would be here now.” He hugged me to him “I’m glad you weren’t harmed by that jerk and for his intercession on your behalf, but no more leaving the room alone while we’re traveling—”
“I won’t.”
“Good.”
* * * *
When Danial and I woke, it was time to go. We checked out without incident, and Theo drove us to the airport.
As Danial and I boarded the plane, I looked back to see Tawny and Theo saying good-bye. He hugged her, and a tear on her cheek shined in the nearby hanger lights. It was clearly more than good sex to her. Maybe that was why he refused to go out west when Danial had asked him to go. I wanted to ask her why she didn’t come back to the States with us, but I knew enough to mind my own business. Theo would not appreciate any more of my questions, and it was more than likely Tawny wouldn’t either.
* * * *
The next weeks passed quickly. With a lot of effort, Danial and I made it work. Yet there were a couple of setbacks.
One came when he bit me the first time since I’d moved in with him. We’d begun to kiss and then suddenly, there was pain as his eyeteeth cut me. With a cry, I jerked back, hitting my head on the wall.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, concerned.
“It hurt,” I replied uneasily, scared.
“It shouldn’t,” he said nervously. “I made only a little cut.”
His nervousness frightened me further. “Try biting me instead?”
We resumed our love play. When I relaxed enough, he bit my throat shallowly. I shrieked, and he immediately withdrew his fangs, holding his mouth over the wound. I knew by the pain going away that he’d given me blood to heal the wounds.
I began to cry. Giving him my blood was important to both of us. If he couldn’t do it without pain, he wouldn’t enjoy it—and neither would I.
“Shh, don’t cry,” he said, hugging me. “We have one more thing we can try.”
He made love to me. When I came, he bit shallowly again. There was some pain, but it was hardly noticeable in the deliciousness of the orgasm.
“I’ll only take your blood like this from now on. I don’t want you to be hurt sharing blood with me.”
“Why is this happening?” I asked. “Why now?”
“It happens sometimes,” he explained, holding me. “If a vampire bites the same person repeatedly, that person can develop a resistance to the numbing component in vampire saliva. But the blood always works. I’ll always be able to heal you and take the pain away. Don’t worry, okay?”
The weeks went past and Danial refused to bite me again, saying he wanted to wait until Doctor Camlyn pronounced me healthy. I knew he loved me and was concerned, but I suspected that he was worried I’d leave him now that his bite was no longer pleasurable.
The second and more insidious problem in living with Danial was my indolence.
The first few weeks were heaven, and I basked in my free time: reading for hours, baking complex desserts or watching the entire trilogy of the Lord of the Rings in one sitting. However, I soon began to feel like a true concubine must have felt; tasked with only one real duty. When something broke, I didn’t have to fix it. Nor did I have to worry about anything serious, because now that was Danial’s job. I’d always been self-reliant. Relying on someone else for everything that mattered felt alien. Was this really how I wanted to spend the rest of my life? Was this all I wanted to achieve?
I avoided thinking about that, telling myself I didn’t have to decide anytime soon. Danial had said I could take my time to give myself to him as long as I chose to show the world that I was his. It was a given that he expected my Oath eventually. He was very proud, and I knew it pricked him that I wasn’t truly his yet.
Then there were the women, his donors. They were never in our bed and I didn’t usually see them. Angelica was the one I wanted to avoid the most. Unfortunately, she didn’t feel that same way towards me.
I was reading in the great room one December night. Engrossed in my book, I didn’t hear her ascend from the basement stairs until she was in front of me.
“Hello, Sarelle.” Her voice was sexy and threaded with lust.
I looked up. Like the last time, she held a gauze pad to her neck and wore a low-cut dress and spike heels. I can’t expect her to wear a fleece sweatshirt, can I? No, that would only be appropriate for cold weather, like the snowstorm raging outside.
“Since we’ve already met, I wanted to be polite,” she went on. “How are you?”
I tried not to be petty. Sure, she was a bitch, but most decorous women were to women unlike themselves. She was only there for an hour a month when Danial needed her blood. I held my tongue, closed my book with a snap, and made sure the light caught my ring sparkling on my finger. “Hello, Angelica.”
“I hope you don't mind sharing your man with me,” she said lightly. Her smile slipped a little, revealing the envy underneath.
“I’m thankful for what you and the others give him,” I said, trying to keep my smile in place.
“I’m surprised you’re so understanding. I might not be.”
“Don’t worry about it. I understand you completely,” I retorted coldly. “So does Danial.”
He called out for her from downstairs. With a smirk, she went back down. One of the SUVs started out back.
Danial came upstairs. “I’m sorry she said that. I don’t have to see her again if—”
I put my book down. “Don’t be sorry. What she said was true for her. What I told her was true for me.”
“You aren’t upset?” he said in obvious disbelief.
I wasn’t really upset, just irked. “This is part of being with you. You were open about it. I trust you.”
“Frankly, I thought you’d ask me before now to switch to animal or packaged blood. I was sure we’d have our first fight over that. I’ve been worried about it all month.”
I laughed a little, which only seem to confuse him. “I wouldn’t want to eat only cake made from fat-free chocolate substitute or drink only water instead of sometimes wine,” I explained. “This is your life and you only get to eat one thing, so you should get the best. You told me fresh blood tastes best. I just prefer not to watch or meet your donors.”
He took my hand. “I know you’re still worried about the potions. I’ve told you, I only have enough of both for the rest of this month—”
Danial had been experimenting with potions, which made his normally cool body warm as a human’s. While I enjoyed that side effect, I worried what other effect they mig
ht be having, and why he’d really gone on them in the first place.
“—then we’ll decide whether to get more. You’re the one I’m worried about.”
“Why? My doctor’s appointment went well. My blood levels were okay. Camlyn said if I kept taking the vitamins, I’d be fine. I’m just sorry you’re no closer to your goal.”
“What goal?” he asked uneasily.
“Making vampires, or understanding why you can’t and Devlin can. That’s the reason for the potion, right?”
“It’s more of a hobby than a goal,” he said with a shrug. “Speaking of Devlin, that was him on the phone.” He paused. “Ryan is dead. Devlin killed him tonight. There will be no more curses cast on you.”
I would rather hear that Devlin had been killed. The curses—which has caused me to have terrible nightmares, and would have eventually killed me via a heart attack in dreams—had been his doing really, not Ryan’s. “That’s thoughtful of him. He’s not planning on visiting, is he?”
“No. He’s forbidden from coming here. But forget about Devlin. Why don’t we go out tonight? See a movie or go dancing?”
“Was there anything you had in mind?”
“Not really. But we haven’t gone out for a while, and you haven’t come with me on any more trips. I enjoy taking you out.”
“Whatever you’d like, I’m up for a movie or dancing.”
“I vote for dancing. Say the Haunt?”
“Give me a half hour. I have a surprise for you,” I said sexily.
We had a great time that night. Tatiana, the owner, was overjoyed to see us, giving each of us a hug before escorting us to the table we’d sat at a month and a half ago. We danced and talked, sharing how self-conscious we’d been the night of our first date.
“So you liked my surprise?” I teased.
“I love the dress,” he said warmly, getting to his feet and extending his hand. “Red becomes you. Dance with me.”
The strains of Lady in Red began. Blushing, I joined him on the floor. As we danced, he sang some of the words to me. At the end of the song, he held me close to whisper, “My lady in red, I love you.”
Driving home that night, I almost told him that I was ready to give him my Oath, but I wanted it to be special, not tell him as we were driving home. So I just told him I loved him and he told me the same.
The Oath Page 2
