“This is the other part of my gift,” he said quietly. “I asked Delores if she knew where wild flowers grew. I wanted you to make them dance.”
She lifted her mouth up to his for a kiss. “You were pretty sure of yourself, weren’t you?”
“Why Miss Parsons, whatever do you mean? I distinctly remember you saying you weren’t sorry to share my room.”
“To share your room. I didn’t say anything about your bed.”
“Hope springs eternal…” he laughed. Images of love making flashed from his mind to hers. He leaned forward to kiss her again, but she pushed him away and threw herself at him so that he overbalanced on his heels and fell back. She laughed as she crawled up his body.
“Yes, I do.” She straddled his waist and ran her hands up the buttons of his shirt. Something about him changed. Her smile disappeared and her face became serious. It took her a moment to realize what had happened.
“You’re hiding something from me. You wanted to tell me the other morning. You thought that in the… ah…, heat of the moment, I wouldn’t notice, but I did. Just now, you wanted to tell me or show me again and then you cut the connection. You can turn it on and off just like I can.” She tapped his temple with her finger, then traced a line over his cheek to his lips. “What is it, Nico? What is it you don’t want to tell me?”
Nico sat up in one swift movement. Hope slid back to sit on the ground between his spread thighs. He raised his hand to touch her face, but with a frown, let it fall between them.
“I should have told you before I ever touched you. I should have given you the chance to turn away before… I thought… It doesn’t matter what I thought. It was wrong. At the restaurant, when we were talking about Burgas, it was the perfect opening and then we were interrupted and after that it didn’t feel right. I’d planned to tell you, to show you tonight, here by the fire. I wanted tell you my story first.”
He looked so lost and afraid, this man who feared nothing. She wanted to touch him, hold him, kiss away the haunted look in his eyes, but she sensed that now was not the time. So using her practical, sensible teacher’s voice, she took his hand.
“Then let’s go sit by the fire and you can tell me your tale, but know this, Nico ad Nimeni, you are my heart’s desire and there is nothing you can say that will turn me away.”
Chapter 25
He wanted her to sit across the fire from him, but Hope refused and instead, insisted upon sitting next to him. He simply didn’t understand. She’d given him her body, yes, but more importantly, she’d given him her heart. It was all she had to give and once given, she couldn’t take it back. She reached for his hand, but he pulled it back, so she folded her own neatly in her lap.
“Don’t touch me,” he said stiffly. “Wait until you’ve heard what I have to say.”
She settled herself as comfortably as she could and folded her hands in her lap. “I’m listening.”
Nico sighed and closed his eyes, forming the words in his head before he spoke.
“You call me Nico. I’ve used many derivations of that name in my life, changing it as I change my language or my House of Guardians, but I have always kept the surname of ad Nimeni. You’ll find no other Paenitentia who carries it. My name means Nothing, son of No One. Human’s use a variety of terms to describe my birth; out of wedlock, the wrong side of the blanket, bastard. These terms have no meaning to members of the Race. They’re genetically programmed to care for their young. You’ve seen Grace’s red rose, yes?”
Hope nodded. “It means Grace and Canaan are bound to each other forever. She told me the rose was originally white as a symbol of their mating, like a marriage. Canaan has one, too.”
“Yes and did she also tell you that Paenitentia are sterile until that rose appears? All members of the Race can trace their lineage back hundreds, even thousands of years. The Guardians of the Race, great record keepers that they are, have the longest and most defined lineage. One of my parents came from that line, but no one knows who he or she was. As a human, it’s something you wouldn’t understand.”
“I think I do, Nico,” Hope whispered softly, “Among the Community of Saints such children are known as children of sin and the stain is on the child as well as on the mother. There were none in our little church, but I heard it preached against since I was old enough to sit in a pew. But out here, in what I’ve come to think of as the real world, people don’t think that much about it. It’s commonplace.”
Nico smiled wryly. “Among humans, not among the Paenitentia. I’m a freak, Hope, an abomination. No decent woman would mate with a creature like me.”
Hope laughed a little, though it hurt. “I’ll let the decent woman comment pass, but not the mating. Dov and Col went out of their way to let me know about your reputation with the ladies.”
“That’s different. Unlike your Community of Saints, the Paenitentia have nothing against sex between consenting, unmated adults. And while it’s frowned upon, even the white rose doesn’t prohibit sex with another. It only prevents conception. Among certain women of my Race, my name and circumstance gives me a kind of mystique, the illusion of danger.”
“Ah,” Hope nodded knowingly. “You’re like that actor, James Dean.” She shrugged at his startled look. “I watched Rebel Without A Cause with the twins. They explained it. You’re the bad boy, forbidden fruit.” She leaned back and eyed him from head to toe. “I don’t see it, but go on. You didn’t pop up fully formed. Who raised you?”
Nico sighed and shook his head. Hope simply didn’t understand the seriousness of what he was telling her. How could she?
“I was raised as a Rom. A Gypsy,” he clarified when she looked askance at the term. “Years ago, the Rom had a reputation for stealing children. It wasn’t deserved. When a baby in a family with too many children ‘disappeared’, it was easy to blame the traveling Rom. Unwed mothers sometimes dropped their babies off. I was found in a traveller’s hut by the side of the road. Someone left me there to die. I always knew, but to me it made no difference. I was a child of the tribe and the woman who took me in loved me. She couldn’t have children of her own and she put all her care and love into me. She was my mother and I wanted no other.”
This was so hard for him. His voice had grown soft with emotion. Hope held her end of the mental link between them open, but his was closed. He couldn’t see the images she sent him. He stared at the fire, seeing nothing but the past. This time when she reached for his hand he let her and she entwined her fingers with his. She was holding his hand, but she wasn’t sure if Nico was holding hers. She thought he might be clinging to someone from the past.
They sat together silently, watching the fire burn low. Finally Nico straightened and stretched his back. Without a word he added wood to the fire until the blaze was restored. He remained standing.
“I was born with a little red teardrop on my chest. Magda, my foster mother, thought it was a blessing from God. Children of the Paenitentia grow and develop much like humans, so I grew the same way as the other children of the tribe. The Rom didn’t keep track of dates and times. They lived by the seasons and their travels on the road, so I’m not sure how old I was, fifteen or there about. My fangs developed. I couldn’t control it. Almost overnight I went from a child of the Rom to a monster.”
“I don’t know what the Paenitentia did in Eastern Europe, but the belief in vampires still exists. Decapitation of the dead is still practiced in some areas and burying the dead with garlic is common. The Rom were both religious and superstitious and I shared their beliefs.”
“They thought you were a vampire,” Hope whispered, “Dear God in Heaven, no.”
“No, not vampire. Damphyr; the child of a mortal woman and a man bitten but not fully turned. A monster just the same. I was sentenced to death by stoning.”
“Oh Nico, how horrible. How…”
“Don’t,” he snapped, “Don’t say a word. Let me finish and be done with it.” Nico took two deep breaths and continued,
“The day of the stoning, the men and women formed a circle around me as was the custom. My foster father threw the first stone. It hit me in the head, stunning me, and I fell to the ground. The others joined in. At some point I heard a scream. Magda had entered the circle and threw her body across mine to shield me from the blows. She loved me, you see and I was all she had. She, too, was struck in the head.” Nico rubbed the spot on his temple, remembering. “It wasn’t intentional, it all happened so quickly. One strike and she was dead.”
“I fought them when they tried to take her from me. I fought them, but I was a boy and no match for grown men. They took her from me and buried her and because of her my death sentence was commuted. But they weren’t finished with me. The old wise woman, Serafina, brought out what she called the devil’s tooth. They tied me down and scored my body with it as a warning to others about what I was. They left me as they found me, lying on the side of the road. Their final act was to sprinkle my body with holy water. The smoke rising from the wounds where the droplets touched was proof of my evil.”
As he spoke, he unbuttoned and removed his woolen shirt. Now, he gripped the edges of the turtleneck and pulled it over his head. Keeping his hands in the air, he turned a full circle.
“The devil’s tooth was a demon claw. This is the result.”
Hope stared in horror at the mass of scars covering his torso. Deep welts crisscrossed his back. They rose from below his beltline in angry purple and red. The deeper scores were blackened. His shoulders and upper arms were marked as well. His chest and abdomen had fared worse. A man in her church had suffered deep burns as a child, destroying the skin of his cheek and neck. The damage to Nico was as terrible. His front hadn’t been scored, he’d been flayed.
The only skin that remained untouched was a small patch over his heart where amidst the lilies, a black skull shed blood red tears. It was there Hope placed her right hand. She couldn’t speak. Tears poured from her eyes.
Nico tensed. His skull and lilies burned under the warmth of her hand. He’d taken something precious from her and rewarded her sacrifice with this. He was, indeed, a monster and the look of anger in Hope’s eyes was a punishment he deserved. He watched her struggle to control it.
“Say what you’re thinking, Hope. You have right to be angry with me, to hate me. I took your innocence knowing that when you saw the truth…”
Hope’s head snapped up and she stepped back. Her green eyes blazed brighter than the fire. “Enough with my virginity! Why is everyone so concerned about what was mine to give! I’m not a child. You didn’t take it. I gave it to you freely, willingly.”
“I took it without showing you the monster you were giving it to.”
“There is no monster here, Nico, only a man who was tortured in his youth. My tears aren’t for me or for you, the man. They’re for the boy that once was. My anger isn’t toward you but toward the people who did this to you.”
She wiped her face with the palms of her hands and placed them on the scarring of his chest. “I see you, Nico. From the very beginning, I saw you. Not your clothes, not your face, not your body. I see you. Open your mind and your heart to me, Nico. See me.”
He relaxed his guard and opened the channel between them. The images she sent him flooded his mind. There she was, sitting in the dirt at the side of a road, holding a boy whose body was bloody and torn. She rocked him in her arms, kissed his eyes and stroked his hair back from his forehead. He could see her love and compassion. The image changed. His own scenes flashed back at him, all the ways he wanted to make love to her. Only now he no longer had the perfect body he preferred to keep in his mind. This one was scarred and hideous, yet she responded not with horror, but with joy. She wanted him now, as he was, without pretense and without reservation.
He didn’t know he was crying until he felt her wipe the tears from his cheeks with her thumbs.
“Let me love you, Nico. Please.”
Her lips touched his and her arms went around him. Her hands rubbed and skimmed and lightly played over places that hadn’t felt another’s touch since he was a child. He crushed her to him, devouring her mouth, drinking her in like a man dying of thirst who has found the water of life. He paused only long enough to lift the sweatshirt over her head and he kissed her again.
The feel of her breasts, warm and full, against his chest almost did him in. The feel of her skin against his was overwhelming. She was beautiful in ways no other woman could be. She reached for his belt buckle, as she had the other day, and this time he didn’t interfere. She unbuttoned the clasp, the zipper came down and her hand slipped inside to hold him. She stroked and caressed him. Her lips clung to his, her breasts to his chest, leaving only enough room between them for her hand to maneuver. He groaned with pleasure.
Hope smiled against his lips and stepped back. He tried to follow but she put her hands to his chest and lightly pushed him away. Taking another step back, she kicked off her shoes, unbuttoned her jeans and in one swift motion, slid out of her jeans, panties and socks. She removed her hair tie and loosened her braid to free her hair from its confines, then ran her fingers through its length, spreading the waves over her shoulders and breasts. She lifted her hands to the sky with her head thrown back. Moonlight glinted off her hair and shimmered across her skin in a golden whisper. She was beautiful, a Celtic goddess worshipping the moon. Nico could only stare in wonder at this mesmerizing creature who loved him.
Hands still raised, she smiled at him, not shyly, but slyly with a woman’s age old power shining from her eyes. She knelt before him and as he’d done for her, so she did for him. Slowly, reverently, she removed the remainder of his clothing. His cock sprang free, long and hard with need. She ran the tip of her nail along its length from base to tip. Her laugh was low and sultry when it jumped in response. Nico moaned and swallowed hard.
She leaned in closer and touched the slit with the tip of her tongue, then closed her eyes to savor the bead of moisture she’d captured. The next time she touched her tongue to him, it was to measure the length of him from sac to tip, stopping along the way to memorize every ridge and vein. She marveled at the softness of his skin covering the rigidity of his cock, like silk over steel. She took him fully into her mouth.
The bridge between them was still open and she quickly learned what pace, what motion of her tongue gave him the most pleasure. He wound his fingers in her hair as he pumped more deeply into the moist, warm cavern of her mouth. His pleasure became hers and she felt a rush of wetness between her thighs. The pace increased along with his fullness until he let out an agonizing groan and tried to push her away.
His voice was thick with need. “My precious, you need to stop, now. I can’t hold back much longer.”
She released him long enough to look up at him with heavy lidded eyes and smiled. “I don’t want you hold back from me. Not ever.”
She drew him into her mouth again and resumed her ministrations. In moments, she felt him stiffen and her mouth was filled with milky sweetness.
When he came, he shouted his release in exultation. It filled the wild flower clearing and echoed off the surrounding trees. It was the sound of love and beauty and redemption and her heart was filled with the glory of it. She’d never heard the word used in such a way.
“Hope!”
Chapter 26
Later, they made love again, this time cocooned in the warmth of the sleeping bags that Nico had zipped together to form one unit. They took their time, slowly exploring and savoring the wonder of each other. And when they were done and Hope returned to earth from the spiraling heights his hands and lips and body had sent her, she snuggled up against him, fitting her body along the length of his. His finger drew lazy circles over her breast.
“What’s this I see in my head?” Nico asked lazily. “Who is this handsome fellow with the wings?” He felt her smile in the darkness.
“That’s my guardian angel. It’s how I always picture him.”
“The only Guardian
you should be picturing is me.”
“Jealous of a figment of my imagination?” She lifted his hand from her breast and kissed the tips of his fingers. “There’s no need. I was just thinking that if he showed up at this very minute and said that the cost of this one night would be eternity in my old life, in my father’s house, I’d gladly pay the price. Oh Nico, these flowers, these stars, this moon and you making love… I’ve had a glimpse of Heaven and I’m happy.”
Nico pulled her tightly to him. “You’re not going anywhere. You’re mine and I’m keeping you here, with me. If you’re haloed friend were to take you, I’d march into Hell to bring you back. You’d better tell him so.”
She giggled a little. “He knows. It was my thought, not his. After all, he must have been the one who sent you to that awful bar to rescue me. Otherwise, we’d never have met.”
“And here I thought I owed my thanks to the twins. Would you like some more to eat or drink?”
Delores, it seemed, had thought of everything. They’d laughed when they found the screw-top bottle of wine and the packages of cheese and crackers rolled up in one of the bags.
“I think I would,” she said. “I think I like this Boones whatever-you-call-it better than any wine I’ve tasted. Maybe it’s just the company and atmosphere.”
“Maybe it’s just poor taste in wine and men.”
She kissed his nose. “I have very good taste in men as you well know. Stop fishing for compliments and pour the wine.”
“Ordering me about already, are you?” He laughed as he pulled himself from the bag.
“Yes. And hurry up.” She snuggled beneath her covers. “Your warm spot’s getting cold.”
He leered at her in warning. “You’d better be careful, woman. A naughty vixen deserves to be punished.”
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