In the welcoming darkness, I led her to a dark corner and took her into my arms. I had loosened my tie and undone the top two buttons on my shirt and she stared at my snowy skin, hesitantly drew her finger down the parts she could see, to the start of my cleavage. I willed myself to remain still under her gentle touch as I watched her, unable to tear my eyes away.
“You haven’t even worked up a sweat.” She felt the tip of her finger with her thumb and then made the fatal mistake of looking into my eyes.
I knew there was raw desire blazing in them, and I couldn’t hide it.
“It’s something you don’t want to see. I’m dead, after all.”
She smiled ruefully and put her palm on the side of my face. “No.
You’re alive.” She stared at me intently. “One night.” Her voice was a whisper.
My arms betrayed me as they tightened around her body, pulling her ever closer, head bowing almost against my will as I kissed her, long and deep.
I think it was shock that caused her hesitation in responding to my touch. When she did, it drove me wild, and I ran my hands over the bare skin of her back. She moaned softly as her hands reached up to tangle in my hair.
She was breathing hard, her face flushed, when we broke for air. I gazed at her, love shining bright in my eyes. “I really want to get out of here.”
“We never even found our table,” Bronwyn said.
“So? Do you really think either one of us truly gives a rat’s arse about trying to be nice to human adults?” I laughed. “Let’s go.”
Her whisper was so soft I almost missed it in the noise coming from the inside of the building. “I love you, Crowley.”
I tightened my arms around her. I kissed her hair and sighed, loving the clean scent, the slim body, the warmth and fire of her. “You ready?”
She kissed the exposed skin of my chest, tasting it, and nodded.
“Okay then, let’s go.” I pulled her in close and led her along the cobblestone path that encircled the building, dodging couples having some private time outside of the throng inside. The groups of adults also standing around tried not to notice them or us as we made our way toward the parking lot. We had parked all the way at the back because we were so late, and Bronwyn hung onto my arm as I led her between tightly packed cars to my sports car. As I unlocked the door she gazed at me, eyes unfocused. She pulled my head down for another hungry kiss, and I took advantage of the proximity to run my hands along her back, down to her hips. It was not enough for her, and she groaned as she got into the car.
“Take us home.”
I nodded, jogged around to my side, and slipped behind the wheel.
The ride home was pure torture. She could not keep her eyes or hands off me, and I did my best to reciprocate. Unlike my usual precautionary custom, I chose the most direct route back to our home. I couldn’t stand to have her so close to my fingertips and not able to touch her.
I’m sure we put on quite a respectable, immoral show for our fellow motorists, but I was beyond caring. All I cared about was Bronwyn and tasting more of her beautiful kisses in private.
An eternity later we finally pulled into our street. I shrieked into the driveway, the car scarcely under my control. I only just waited for the gates to open before I put us back in motion and took us into the darkened garage with smooth precision. We got out, and she was in my arms before I had a chance to blink. I smiled when she kissed me, and fell back against the car as her starving hands roamed my cool body.
“Slow . . . easy . . .” I stilled her hands and scooped her up into my arms before claiming her lips in another deep kiss. Her response left me struggling to co-ordinate myself properly. I carried her up the dark front path to the unlit front door. I took us through the unlit dining room into the kitchen, then downstairs to my basement hideaway. I did not bother to lock the door behind us. The idea was pointless, now that she knew I was a vampire and needed the darkness. I carried her down the rickety steps toward my room, and she closed her eyes, stroking my cheek, trusting me to keep us safe.
When we got to my room, I put her back on her feet, in front of my neatly made bed, and pulled away from her, but kept a gentle hold of her hands. “Are you really, really sure about this?” I certainly wasn’t sure about it, but I could not stop myself.
She smiled, eyes radiating passion and uncontrollable longing that mirrored my own. She slowly and deliberately pulled my jacket and pants off. I reciprocated by removing the annoying dress that hid her from my view. She moved her hands up my body, under my shirt, to cup my breasts.
Sighing, she undid the last buttons of my shirt and gazed at what had been teasing her so mercilessly. “My God, you’re so beautiful. So beautiful.”
My skin had always been pale, despite my jet-black hair, and death had given it an almost eerie, snowy shade. I had taken care of myself in life, and all the muscle I’d built up over the years stood out in gentle relief beneath my smooth woman’s skin. The dark hair, full breasts, and sculpted, classic features were courtesy of my long dead mother’s genes, and I thanked them nightly for making it so easy to find prey.
My blue eyes that had once been bright, now burned flame blue, and snow-white teeth were gifts of my father.
“So are you,” I breathed.
I looked at Bronwyn’s mortal, living perfection. Although I had never admitted it to myself, the creamy skin, green eyes, shining blonde hair, gentle swell of her breasts and pervasive femininity had always driven me wild. Sometimes I’d wanted more, but swiftly denied and stifled those impulses.
She moved to me, and I felt her lips on my nipple. With a soft sigh I gently pulled up her head, cupped her face, and claimed her beautiful lips once more. “Oh no, young one, me first.”
I pushed her into the bed and worked my way down her body, nibbling and kissing every inch of exposed skin I could find. I paused with a grin to tease her womanhood with a feather-light kiss, while she moaned and begged me to end the torture.
I used every tool in my arsenal to tease her: skin, lips, teeth, tongue, hands, body. I had her every way I could dream up. She rode me savagely, and I tasted long and deep of her as she called my name into the benevolent night; she begged, demanded, and forced her releases from me. As we lay tangled together, temporarily sated, she uttered gentle admissions of love.
We lay in the bed, and I idly ran my fingers through her pubic hair, teasing her as she stiffened with the aftershocks of her most recent orgasm.
Breathing heavily, she nibbled my lips, tasting herself on me.
“Why? Why now?”
I smiled, the anguish in my eyes causing her to pull back slightly.
“I can’t help myself. I’m tired of fighting.”
She sighed. “You were right. I don’t want to be a vampire.”
I could not stop the single sticky tear that trickled down my face.
“An eye blink.”
She brushed my tear away with gentle fingers. “We have to work this out. You know perfectly well that if we split up, neither one of us will be able to live with it. Besides, who’s to say you’re not going to get sick of me in a couple of years?”
I hadn’t thought about that. The problem was, what I felt for her was different from what I’d ever felt for anyone else. I wouldn’t get sick of her in a couple of years, just like she wouldn’t get sick of me.
Somehow this was much deeper than any school girl crush or vampire’s flight of fancy. “I’m making you the same promise I should have made to another—as long as you live, Bronnie. As long as you live.”
For the first time I was completely honest with her, and those simple words promised so much more than I had done for Rose. I had always been passionately in love with Rose, but the era we had come from was so different to the way things were now. We could not acknowledge the love that we had guilt free, so we had not been able to explore it fully. I had remained for decades on the fringes of Rose’s life, ready to step in and take care of her when she had gotten old. It had not been something we had planned; it had been something I had fallen into.
It had been a horrible shock to see her hair turn gray, then white, and the gradual slide of her youth into harsh age. The last time I had seen her moving around on her own, I had known that if I had had any kind of respect for her I would have ended it, but it was the same respect that stopped me from doing it. She knew I was a vampire, but did not want to sample any of the gifts I could offer her. In her eyes I went against the natural order of things, pure and simple.
Bronwyn was a totally different creature. She was from a more open age, and her reasoning for wanting what she wanted was different. Yet I knew she too was going to get old and die, and that thought brought such pain my mind shut down from the prospect of it.
With tears in her eyes, she cupped my face with a hand. “Ask me about immortality in a few more years. I can’t bear to be without you.
I love you.”
Could I adjust to the time I was in? Could I do this, guilt free?
What good were the lies I told her and myself about my lack of feelings for her? What did they accomplish, other than misery and pain? I closed my eyes and leant into her touch. When I peeked at her, she was watching me with a tender and gentle expression. I smiled and met her eyes. “I love you too, Bronwyn Hunter.”
The pure joy in her eyes was incredible, and she rolled over to kiss me—not designed to ignite, but to share love. When she pulled back, the grin became feral. “Now it’s my turn.”
I felt a stab of pain and couldn’t hide the sorrow in my eyes. “Not breathing is just where the fun of being a vampire begins.”
Her eyes widened. “You mean you can’t—”
I shook my head and smiled ruefully. “No, I can’t.”
“Are you sure?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Oh, you’re most welcome to try.” I gestured elegantly and lay back with my fingers entwined on my stomach, teasing grin on my lips.
She kissed her way down my body and pulled my nipples into her mouth causing me to arch my back, tangle my fingers in her blonde hair and sigh at the almost forgotten sensation. She continued down my body with slow deliberation and then stopped.
She gazed up at me. “You’re not—”
I shook my head with a rueful grin. “No, I’m not. I can’t do it anymore.” This one thing had eventually destroyed my relationship with Rose.
“The problem is, I still want to taste you.” The feral grin was back as she made good on her words.
I laughed and growled as she suddenly found herself flat on her back, my face a bare inch above hers. “You mean like this?”
I tasted her thoroughly, and as she came she cried out and collapsed back onto the sheets, heart hammering. I lay next to her, cupping a breast and idly playing with a pink nipple, head resting on my free hand.
“This is why this is so much worse for me. It’s all about emotion since sex doesn’t really enter into the equation anymore.” Vampire relationships were founded on emotion, and I personally thought it was the one reason we fought so much. We had nothing, really, on a physical plane that separated us, or allowed us to come closer together.
She gently chided me. “Hello, Crowley? Hello? It works the same for me. I’m so desperately in love with you that it almost scares me.
You were always my knight in shining armor, and I guess in some ways you still are, but I know what you’re really like now. You like teasing people with that beautiful body of yours. How do I know you’re not going to do that to anyone else?”
I was stung. “Hey, I’m a vampire. It goes with the territory. But I’m not that shallow and I’m also not that easy to get rid of. What about you? You’ve taken every opportunity you can to go into the city for a quick tumble with strangers. How do I know you’re not going to do that anymore? I hate to tell you this, but I’m the jealous type and I won’t take kindly to sharing you.”
She glared at me. “God, you’re such an idiot. The reason I took off from my parents’ place so much was because I was looking for you.
When I finally found you, I thought you didn’t want me, so I tried to get on with the rest of my life. I tried to make you jealous, but it didn’t work.” Her voice thickened as her eyes filled with tears. “It didn’t work.”
I pulled her close, and she fought me. I kissed her hair as her struggles ceased. “Yes, I’m a complete idiot, but no, I’m not stupid or blind. I hate to tell you this, but it did work. It used to drive me nuts but I would never admit it.” I pulled her face up so she was forced to meet my eyes. “You own me body and nonexistent soul. I’m not going anywhere. And I think we’ve just proven I’m not expecting you to be a nun—just don’t do it with anyone else apart from me.”
Despite herself, she grinned. “Idiot. As if I would want to.”
She kissed me until her breathing went ragged.
We lay back in my bed, and my body began to feel it was almost dawn. “Bronnie, it’s almost dawn. I’m going to sleep.”
“I want to see you sleep.”
Sleeping was the one thing I’d never shared with anyone, not even Rose. Humans that knew of my nature only had an intellectual grasp of the difference between life and death. Sleep changed most people who saw it. If Bronwyn loved me as much as I loved her, that it was no crush, then she had to witness this facet of me.
I winced and sighed. “Please remember I’m really and truly dead.
You don’t want to see this, believe me. Above all, don’t freak out on me.”
She cupped my face in her hands and kissed me. “Oh ye of little faith. Actually, lover, I do want to see this. Trust me. I want to know you.
All
of you.”
I cursed under my breath as sleep took hold of me. My last thoughts were sorrowful. I really didn’t think she could handle this. I only hoped I didn’t accidentally kill her while I slept. If she did anything that my sleeping form interpreted as harmful to me, she would suffer the consequences. I would literally pick up the pieces. My last thought before I sank into oblivion was that it really didn’t matter, and that I couldn’t stop her. It was done.
The surface I was lying on moved gently up and down, and I wondered for a second what the hell was going on.