by C. L. Quinn
“Like hell! You’ll stay here. I have the most phenomenal shower. And there’s another benefit here too.”
“What’s that?”
“Your own personal wash attendant.”
Suddenly she was whipped up into his arms, vampire speeded into the bathroom, and under a pulsating shower head. David held a huge scrubby and slathered it with a scented body soap that smelled like him. He knelt on the smooth black tile and began to scrub her legs, then between them. Cherie was giggling. Giggling? She never giggled. She thought even the word was ridiculous. But with him down there and scrubbing earnestly, she gave herself the moment to feel amused, turned on, and happy. Reality would smack her back in the face in another hour, but right now, for this moment, they were lovers at play in a sexy waterfall shower, and nothing else mattered in the world. He worked his way up, the scrubby becoming way more than just a cleaning tool, and then he kissed her deeply, lifting her up into his arms, pressed and glued to him by warm soapy water. When he let her slide down, the sensuous skin contact made them serious again.
Cherise took his beautiful manhood in her hand and looked at him.
“I want to taste you,” she said, and took him into her mouth, tonguing the heavy penis, until he shot backward into thick handmade tile built for a vampire…and still shattered it. He reached for her immediately and kissed her again. He spoke, his voice deep with emotion.
“If you think I’m letting you out of my life, you’re fucking crazy. Let’s get this done. I want to you to see that I will never let you leave me. I’m in love with you, Cherise, and I can’t help but think it’s for the first time in my life.”
He couldn’t see the tears on her cheeks since they were mixed with water cascading over both of them. She kissed him back and thought how it wasn’t likely to happen. Fairy tales didn’t come true. But no one could take these moments away from her.
He carried her, dripping wet, out of the bathroom and laid her on his bed.
“David, let me up so I can get a towel,” she protested.
“You don’t need one. I’m going to lick you dry.”
And he did.
Cherise was finishing up her third shower of the day. Smiling the entire time as she ran the scrubby over parts of her body that had been thoroughly pleasured by the vampire she was in love with. When she’d entered the bathroom in her own rooms tonight, her reflection showed a woman who glowed. Really, really glowed. Her aura was as bright as she’d ever seen it. Which had made her smile deeper. That’s because she was as happy as she’d ever been. Nothing, not even the fact that it couldn’t last, could spoil her elation. If she never got to feel this again, it would still have all been worth it, even to be with him, just this one time. Let any other repercussions come…she was in love and it was worth any price.
The towels were extremely plush and huge. Her bath sheet wrapped around her twice, so she just cocooned herself in it and went back into her room to let herself dry naturally. Sitting on the leather divan, she laid her head back and tried to clear her mind for the coming session with David. It would be difficult for both of them and she hadn’t had a lot of time to prepare. A completely clear mind was an essential starting point, so she began to let herself sink into esprit vide. Empty mind.
A knock at the door interrupted and pulled her back out. Probably Leo. She pulled the ends of the towel closer and started toward the door, but stopped midway, her mind searching. It wasn’t Leo. She paused, then opened it.
“Hi,” she said. “Please come in.”
Katerine looked her up and down, noticing her state of undress. Her smile was slight.
“Expecting someone else?”
Cherise looked down at the towel. “No. No, Katerine. I just finished my shower.”
“I see. Do you think we should talk?”
It was hard to look her in the eye, but Cherise forced herself to. “I think so, yes.” She led her over to the divan, but didn’t take a seat.
“I’m going to…uh…grab a robe.”
“Good idea.”
Each guest room came with a supply of robes that were equally as plush as the towels. They were sized more for larger people, like the towels, so this one swallowed her up, too, but it felt more substantial than the towel. She came back and curled up on the divan across from Katerine.
Looking her up and down, Katerine leaned in. “You really are quite stunning. It isn’t any wonder he loves you.”
Cherise was speechless. Where did she start? She’d just let this woman’s man make love to her. And everyone in this household knew it. With a deep breath, she looked Katerine in the eyes. She deserved it.
“I am so sorry. This was never my intention. He just…I mean…I couldn’t…”
Katerine laughed. “Baby, calm down. He is a force of nature. You don’t say no to a thunderstorm. And it’s apparent in every way…you love him too. I could never turn down someone I loved like that. He took you. You didn’t take him.”
“I should have refused to let him.”
“You never could. He’s a beautiful man. How could you have him naked before you and not jump into his arms?” She paused. “Don’t feel guilty. Not because of me. I love David, I always have. But he’s been gone over thirty years.” She stared at Cherise for the statement to sink in.
It did. “You’ve taken another lover.”
“More than that. I’m in love with him. David and I have had good years. I will always love him, but it was never like this with him. Like it is with Gunnar.”
Katerine and the large blonde human. Human.
She smiled again…it was soft and beautiful, and full of wonder. She really was in love. And it really wasn’t with David. Those stupid tears threatened again.
“I know it’s ridiculous. He’s human. Weak. Short lifespan. Gets colds sometimes. But he brings sunshine into my life. And a fire that was never there with David. So we may have a dilemma that will help all of us.”
Except…
“David may still be in love with you. If he is, it will break his heart when he remembers.”
“I don’t believe it, my little empath. I believe he will find that it is you, and only you, in his heart. It will work out for the best. I always believe this. So, Cherise, I am not angry with you for following your heart.”
“I tried so hard not to. But when I see him, all I can think of is to climb inside him. I’m sick, aren’t I?”
“Well, then, I have the same illness, because I feel the same way around Gunnar. So, let’s get David well so you two can be together. And I can come straight with him about Gunnar. He needs to know we did not betray him.”
“I’m sure he will understand. Thirty years is a very long time. Even to vampires. And you guys are so extremely sexual.”
Katherine lifted her eyebrows. “Yes. Yes, we are.” The statement purred with pleasure. “But I think so are you.”
“I’ve never been. Not until now when I can’t think straight without him wrapped around me. Love really is a sort of madness.”
“Anyone who has ever been madly in love would not disagree. So. My new friend. Get some clothes on and see if you can shake David’s tree.”
Cherise nodded and got up to slide on slacks and a turtleneck sweater she’d laid out before the shower. They had been chosen because they covered every part of her, and she wanted no distractions when she began her work. When she was ready, Katerine lifted up off the divan and stretched.
“I hope this works out. I would love another woman here and I think you and I could be great friends. You just better keep your hands off Gunnar.”
Cherise laughed. “I can only handle one psychotic love affair at a time.” She hesitated and then continued. “Actually, Katerine. I want to tell you this. I am bonded with David through my empathic abilities. I will never be able to move on from him. So, if he is still in love with you, and doesn’t want me, then I’ll return home to pick up the shattered pieces of my heart alone. But he’ll always be the one that I
love.”
“Then let’s get cracking. You have a mind to break into. Get dressed, Cherise. Strax!!” Cherise remembered the term. Icelandic for immediately.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Gunnar had taken care of all security concerns for his boss’s stronghold. He’d redesigned and tightened everything since the slaughter in Canada last year where two vampires, including a first blood, had been killed. And he had a lot to protect here. This had been his home for forty years. He cared about everyone who lived here. And there was the woman who’d changed his life, the woman he would give his life for.
Luckily, David did not know him right now…so he wouldn’t suspect anything. He didn’t look much older than he had when David Patric disappeared over thirty years ago. That’s because when a human drinks the blood of a first vampire, they not only stop aging, but their own body changes. He was nearly the size of a vampire, even though he was still fully human. She hadn’t brought him over, made him vampire, because there were cases when people did not survive the process. They were too in love to risk it yet, but someday, he knew they would.
Until then, he hoped like hell he would still be able to be with her. He’d never expected to be in love like this, ever, in his lifetime. Gunnar had been orphaned by age fifteen…and gratefully so. His father and mother had fought viciously, physically, for the first ten years of his life. After his mother left then, his father had several girlfriends who had sexually assaulted Gunnar, and then he had been beaten by his father for “stealing” his women with his young firm body. Then dad died by the hand of one of those women. No. He’d never expected to ever be in love.
He thought it was right to say that she made the sun rise in the morning and the moon grace the night sky. For him, it was love at a level so deep, he thought he might not survive if he lost her. Well, it’s just that she was his everything.
The household knew they were together, except for the visiting vampire, David’s friend Bryn. No one would tell David, they were all equally loyal to Gunnar and Katerine.
Gunnar placed his semi-auto rifle on the table top as he checked diagnostics to verify all vid cameras were up and running. Check. When he reached back for it, he smelled the most heavenly scent. Katerine had to be nearby. He started out of the room to look for her when he was smashed hard against the back wall. She’d vampire-shoved him so hard the wall panel exploded.
“Ow. You’re going to have to change me if you want to play that rough, doll.”
“That’ll come. Right now, I want you to ravish me. Take me like it’s the last time.”
He pushed her back gently. “What?” His eyes were shining now with unshed tears. “Has something happened? Did he find out?”
Katerine took his face in her hands and pushed his long bangs back away from his green eyes. How had this human enchanted her so?
“God, Gunnar, you’re such a girl.”
He grimaced. “I won’t disagree. When it comes to you, no promises. I love you too much to be complacent about this. Katerine, I won’t give you up. I hoped he might want the empath now…that he would be okay with us.”
While he was talking to her, she was dropping her clothes.
“You’re not giving me up. I wouldn’t let you. He does love her. So, if you still want me, I’m free to a good home.”
Now he crushed her against the same broken wall.
He felt her hands on his belt and his pants dropped, gravity assisted, so he kicked them away. He had his tongue buried in her mouth as he pulled her skirt loose and kicked it away, too, then lifted her up and mounted her. She gasped and threw her head back against the cracked plaster. There was a pipe running across the top of the wall and she wrapped her hands around it to support herself as he lifted her up and down against him. Gunnar was now almost as big as a vampire, and he filled her completely. Everything in her body was sexually engaged when they were together, and when their orgasms hit moments later, he grabbed her and they fell together onto the heavy carpeting beneath them. He rolled over to avoid crushing her. Even though he was human and she was a first blood vampire, she was smaller than he was by a hundred pounds. He wouldn’t hurt her for anything in this world. They stayed wrapped together, legs and arms entangled for another five or so minutes. When he pulled back and looked in her eyes, he tilted his head and touched her forehead with his.
“You’re crying, too,” he whispered.
“I just…I couldn’t give you up, either. God, I hope this works out. I don’t want to hurt David, but I won’t go through my life without you. It isn’t possible.”
He moved back and then kissed her deeply, letting her know how much he loved her. As if she didn’t know. She was right, he was a lot like a girl…he’d made it clear every time they made love how much she meant to him.
Gunnar pulled her up and reached for her skirt, then helped her step back into it. He fed it up her long gorgeous legs and then dragged his hands across her buttocks as he turned her to snap it. The finest ass he had ever seen. Once it was in place, he slipped his hands back under it and fingered the place between her legs, massaging the highly sensitive lips. He kissed her as he brought her to another orgasm.
“I could do this all night,” she gasped.
“I’d like to apply for the position,” he whispered. “For now, though, I need to get to a security meeting.”
She sighed deeply, wrapped her arms around him.
“Baby, be careful. Cherise has me spooked. I would ordinarily not be worried, but this possible attack is by the people who took and kept a first blood for three decades. Please don’t be a hero. If there are any problems, send for me.”
“Yes, because I really want to be rescued by my petite lover.”
“Don’t be stupid, baby. You know I’m more powerful than you are and a hell of a lot more durable. So, promise you’ll call me.”
“Sure. I have to go,” he said, and she knew he probably wouldn’t. Because he would think he was protecting her. Damn humans! Just so fragile!
As she watched him go, she knew what she had to do. As soon as this threat was over, and things were finally settled with David, she would have to bring him over. Her blood made him bigger, healthier, stronger, than normal humans, but as vampire, her blood would take him very nearly to the power of an original vampire. As long as things went well, and he survived the change (and he must!) they could be together forever.
Katerine finished dressing, letting her fingers linger on her thighs, her thoughts linger on their lovemaking, and then headed towards David’s chambers to see if Cherise needed anything from her to help David’s session. He had to be well, and soon, so that everyone could begin their lives again.
The surveillance team was in place, and he was already receiving video back from them. Armel shot out of his chair after he saw the first images. Cherise was here. With him. And while it pissed him off enormously, it also presented him with his only good option.
He’d considered everything from every angle on the flight over here. There was only one way he was going to get David Patric back under his control without being slaughtered instantly by the vampire… who did have a very good reason to kill him.
It all depended on two things…did Patric love Cherise enough to come for her, and was Patric noble enough to risk his own safety to save her? Because abducting the beautiful empath was the only way to get what he wanted…Patric’s head at least twelve inches from his body. Armel knew he couldn’t take Patric again with two hundred men, but he could with one woman.
So, his strategy at this point…patience and opportunity. He knew the stronghold was expecting an attack. His asshole boss, Didier, had texted him that Cherise knew everything. That meant everyone in that building did, too. That meant they were waiting for him. And he would be stupid to try it. So. Wait. See. Do, when no one expected it. He didn’t care how long it took.
Home base was a small local house they’d rented under a name no one would ever recognize. There was room for all of his team and
any equipment they needed for an extended stay. He’d kept a private room underground as the holding cell when they got her. No one would be allowed there but himself. God, he was tired of playing second to an inhuman monster for the woman he wanted more than any other woman he’d ever known. Whatever happened, he would get what he wanted from her. Even if he had to risk death himself.
He killed the rest of a bottle of whisky. Liquid courage. This was going to be the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life. Because, before it was over, she would have to die, too. It broke his heart a little to take the life of such a lovely woman, because if things had been different, they might have had a life together. He would have to kill their possible destiny. Well. Life gets messy. Most of the time, its fucking chaos. That was his real destiny.
Little cock-up! Like Didier didn’t have eyes on him every moment. Like he didn’t know what the asshole was planning. Armel wasn’t half as clever as he thought he was. When Didier hired him to manage the catalog and research project for his supernatuals, he’d been a good choice. Things had changed.
However, he would make good bait! Didier did agree that the vampire had to die. No one in the project would ever be safe if he recovered his memories and came for them. And he would recover his memories. Because his fucking sister was on site. And she was the best in the world at reaching her subjects. And she was in love with the fucking vampire! That gave them a connection that was unbreakable. Also, if Cherise had bonded with him…all bets were off. No telling what her abilities would do to him. Plus, there was the other thing…
He’d begun to suspect a few decades ago. Just never had any solid evidence it was true. One of the things he’d wanted a chance to study. But…he thought that Cherise had the ability to bond with vampires more than sexually…he thought she could bond with their power…further expanding her own. It would give her empathic connections deeper than anything anyone had ever known in his world. She was human. But infused with such strong supernatural power he couldn’t help but think of her as…other. He loved his sister, god knew he did, but it made it easier to disconnect himself from someone who left the family, and who was sleeping with a vampire.
