She squeezed her eyes shut. “You killed her?”
He shook his head. “Nay, I merely took enough for a meal this morning. Blood does not last long, and there was no point in draining her since most would waste.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. Nicholas had always been honest with her, and she knew he usually killed his victims. As much as she loved him, she didn’t know how she could sustain herself with the life of others. She was resolved to never kill, though he had bluntly told her it was almost impossible to overcome the compulsion, especially the first few years following the change.
He leaned forward and took her hand. “Be sure you can share my life, Erin,” he said gruffly. “If you cannot, I will return you to your father.”
Tears slid down her cheeks. “You would do that?”
He hesitated. “I would try,” he finally said. “I would try to do what is best, but I have waited so long to have you with me again.” He tightened his hold. “I do not want to lose you this time. I cannot bear to watch you grow old and die when I can prevent it. You must be certain, my beloved.”
She bit her lip as her light green eyes explored his. Could she walk away from him, loving him as she did? How would she live with the emptiness in her soul if they parted? Somehow, she would find a way to overcome her revulsion to taking blood. Perhaps the change would assist her by dulling her conscience with insatiable hunger. “I am certain, my love.” She tilted her head and removed the bow that now hung haphazardly in her hair. Erin pushed the hair away to expose her neck. “Take me.”
He smiled, and his eyes were gentle. “Not yet. We will wait until we arrive at Vallsade Manor.” His eyes darkened with passion, and he reached for her, pulling her onto his lap. “However, there is another passion we can indulge.”
She melted into his embrace, eager to belong to him completely. Soon, she would be his wife in every sense of the word. She experienced no hesitation when his mouth slanted over hers. Erin parted her lips to allow his tongue inside her mouth, shyly touching it with her own. Her body tingled with warmth, and a pit of lava burned in her stomach, sending heat spiraling through her body. Her thighs quivered when Nicholas rested his hands on them, anticipating him seeking out her pussy.
He stroked the woolen material of her arisaid, fashioned from her clan’s tartan, gradually pushing it up her legs, until her calves were revealed. Erin undid the buttons of his damask vest, running her fingers along the smooth satin. When it hung open, she went to work on the shirt, until it was opened to his waist, where the hem disappeared into his trousers. She had touched him like this many times, but never below the waist. He hadn’t pushed her to make love before their marriage, although she would have been more than willing.
Her fingers remained steady when she unfastened his trousers and reached inside to stroke his cock through his drawers. She met his gaze, wetting her lips when she saw the heat in his eyes. Erin leaned forward, still palming his cock, to kiss him, exploring his lips with her tongue, before easing through them to explore his mouth, darting her tongue across his, prior to retreating.
Nicholas’s hands trembled slightly when he unfastened the brass brooch at her breast to let the arisaid fall to her waist. His hands were warm through the thin cotton of her yellow blouse, and she arched her back, offering him more. He dipped his head to suckle one of her nipples through the cotton, abrading the tender peak in a manner that had her close to screaming at the gratifying sensation.
When he lifted his head, he rubbed the wet material against her nipple, further agitating the bud, making Erin bite her lip. Their hideaway was secure enough for the day, but she couldn’t scream her pleasure for risk of a MacDonald soldier hearing her. “Stop teasing me.”
He grinned at her, letting his hand drop to her belt with sensuous slowness. “Very well, beloved.” He made quick work of undoing the belt and tossing it over his shoulder. Without the support of the brooch and belt, the arisaid pooled around her legs, revealing her blouse and petticoat. “What shall I do next?”
She frowned at him. It wasn’t like Nicholas to be so playful, especially since he must have realized how she was yearning to complete the lessons she had learned in his arms during their stolen meetings. “Make me your wife.”
His grin faded, and he pulled her more snugly onto his lap. “You already are, Erin. You have been since I first laid eyes on you in 1212, at the age of fourteen.”
She shook her head. “No, make me your wife in every sense of the word.” Erin stroked his face. “I want you in this life, not in some past life I barely remember.”
With tender urgency, Nicholas stripped off her blouse and chemise. “Lean forward.” Bracing her hands on his shoulders, Erin lifted her bottom into the air to allow him to strip off the petticoat. When she sat on his lap again, her bare buttocks rested on the wool of his trousers. A laugh escaped her when she looked down to see she still wore her brogues, and nothing else. With a flip of each ankle, she kicked them off, before clamping her thighs around his waist. “You wear too many clothes, husband.”
He grunted. “Aye, but I have no wish to part from you to remove them.”
“Allow my assistance.” Erin pushed off his vest before tugging his shirt from his opened trousers to undo the last button and slide it off as well. She nibbled on her tongue, considering the logistics of removing his trousers with him seated and her sitting atop him.
Nicholas took over, sliding her from his lap so he could remove his boots and strip off the trousers and drawers. When he was nude, he beckoned her close again, and she settled back onto his lap. Heat flooded her pussy when his cock brushed against it. Sitting on him without the barrier of clothing was much more intimate and invoked a trace of fear. Not of him, but of the unknown that was coming.
She gasped when Nicholas leaned forward, laying her on the ground in one smooth movement. Erin clutched his shoulders as he shifted to kneel between her thighs, and his face nestled against her stomach. She loosened her grasp and moved one hand to his head, to stroke his short locks. “What are you doing?” she asked, when he kissed her stomach.
“Tasting you.” Her stomach quivered under the teasing touch of his lips as he kissed her again, gradually moving lower.
She caught her breath when his tongue swept around her bellybutton, moving south. Releasing his hair, fingernails digging into her hands, she had to rein in the impulse to stop him. Part of her said what he planned couldn’t be proper, but the rest of her didn’t care. Her pussy convulsed with anticipation as his tongue probed the curls shielding it. When his tongue swiped down her slit, she couldn’t entirely hold back a cry of shock and pleasure that emerged as a squeak.
“Be calm, love. I will never hurt you.” His breath whispered against her slit as he spoke his assurances, inflaming the swollen flesh further.
“I know,” she managed to whisper. Her mouth was dry, and her stomach clenched with nervous expectation just as his tongue delved inside her, to taste her clit. She dug her nails deeper into her palms to hold back another cry when his appendage swept down her slit to probe her opening. Her body was one quivering mass, and she couldn’t focus on a single thought, too lost in sensation. “Nicholas.”
He ignored her crying his name, continuing to lick every inch of her, inciting pleasure beyond anything she had ever imagined. Erin thrust her hips against his face, wanting more of his tongue, as he slipped it inside her. Tears streamed from her eyes, brought on by the frustration of being unable to give voice to her delight.
The convulsions increased in strength, seemingly radiating from her pussy throughout her body. Her thighs clenched around Nicholas’s head, and a gasping sob escaped Erin as an orgasm swept through her. She continued to tremble under the onslaught for several moments, unaware of anything until she felt a small stabbing sensation in her inner thigh.
She rose up to see Nicholas, eyes wide when she saw he was feeding from the vein in her thigh. The pain had faded quickly, replaced by incredible bliss that flooded through her in warm waves. She laid down again, losing herself in the soft sounds of his sucking, the faint copper odor of blood mingled with the mossy smell of the cave and her arousal, and the beating of her heart lulling her into a semi-trance as it slowed.
When he lifted his head a few minutes later, a trickle of her blood marred his chin, but there was little else to prove he had been supping from her. Erin held out her arms, too content to speak, and he came to her.
He kissed her lips, merely brushing his against hers, but Erin lifted a hand to hold him against her while she deepened the kiss. The first taste of her essence, mixed with blood, was unpleasant, but she kept kissing him, sweeping her tongue around his mouth, determined to show she accepted him for what he was. When she finally chose to break the kiss, she said, “Make love to me now, my love.”
“It has been too long.” His hand slipped between their bodies to guide his cock to her pussy, hovering at the entrance. “I do not want to hurt you…”
Erin touched a finger to his lips. “Do not fret.” She braced herself for pain when he surged inside her, finding it uncomfortable, but not intolerable. Soon, his thrusts incited more pleasure than pain, and her hips rose to meet each one. Their rhythm was easy to find, as if they had established it long ago. They had lifetimes ago, she reminded herself, before the ability to form coherent thought left her.
Her body geared up for release, shaking with the strength of her impending orgasm. Nicholas filled her with his satisfaction seconds before another orgasm overwhelmed her, more intense than the last. Convulsions swept from deep inside her, radiating outward, contracting her pussy around his cock. Erin bit hard on her tongue to restrain a cry, somehow managing to breathe as her world fell apart and reformed in the space of a few minutes.
Afterward, they lay together in contentment for a long time, with Nicholas careful not to brace his full weight upon her. Erin rested her head on his shoulder, breathing in his scent, and contemplating how complete she was. How had she lived eighteen years without him? Her mind couldn’t comprehend how Nicholas had managed to survive six hundred years without her, except for all-too-brief incarnations.
She pulled away to stare into his eyes, as her fingers played with the hair at his temples. “I love you.”
“I would die for you,” he said with utmost seriousness.
Tears blurred her vision, and she smiled at him. “I want to die for you. Make me yours forever, Nicholas.”
He hesitated. “I cannot. The journey—”
She put her finger to his lips and brushed her thumb across one of his fangs. “Do it now. Please.”
“Erin—”
She sighed. “You have my permission. I know how important that is to you, after what happened with Emma.”
He looked startled. “How did you…?”
“I have dreamed of the past. I know you did not change me again, after the first time. Each time, I was lost to you.” She caressed his cheek. “Ensure nothing can take me from you again. Change me,” she begged with quiet desperation. She doubted the change would alter the future, but dared to hope.
With a groan, he moved his mouth to her neck. His teeth slid into the skin of her neck, as his cock pressed against her thigh. She felt a flash of pain, and then desire surged through her once more. She clutched Nicholas’s shoulders and pulled him closer. As weakness overcame her, she managed to whisper, “If anything happens to me, promise you will find me again and make me yours.”
He pulled away long enough to stare into her eyes, looking haggard. Her blood colored his lips. “I will not lose you again, love.”
“We were not meant to live apart. Promise me.” Her head spun, and blood trickled down her neck.
He hesitated before nodding. “I will always find you.”
“Change me immediately next time. Do not take any chances.”
Nicholas shook his head. “Do not speak of this. Nothing will happen to you again, Erin. Soon you will change, and I will not let harm come to you.”
She smiled. “Then finish it, my beloved.” As his head returned to the bend of her neck, she tried to ignore a twinge of sadness, knowing Nicholas would have to find her again. Shadowy dreams of the future occasionally came to her when she had the headaches. Like the other visions, they had haunted her all her life. Even before Nicholas found her, she had seen the visions. They weren’t clear like the others she experienced, but she knew they were just as real. In each of those mental flashes, she was herself, but didn’t look like herself at all. She was a different person, although she was also the same on a fundamental level.
Erin held tightly to him as her strength ebbed under the onslaught of his fangs, wishing she could impart strength with her blood, knowing Nicholas would need it. He would be devastated when he lost her again. If the change didn’t sharpen her gift enough to reveal her own fate, she hoped it would blind her third-eye. Her grandmother had been proud Erin was born with the Gift, but Erin was more inclined to agree with her father, who alternated between ignoring and denouncing it. Her flashes of the future were a curse, because nothing she’d ever tried had changed what was supposed to happen.
The time she dreamed her baby brother would drown, she had convinced her mother not to let him from the house. They had watched him constantly, but in the end, the nanny had fallen asleep while bathing him, and he drowned in three inches of water.