"As you wish." Rising, Jason switched off the VCR. "Tell me, how does this Dracula meet his death?"
"On a ship. Doctor Van Helsing catches him on a big hook of some kind, and they hoist him into the sunlight." Leanne grimaced. "I think he ages and disintegrates, but I'm not really sure. I didn't watch that pan. All I remember is seeing his black cape drifting away. It made me want to cry."
"You have a tender heart, my sweet."
"Enough about vampires and unhappy endings," Leanne murmured, reaching for him. "Make love to me, Jason."
"You're weeping," he exclaimed softly. "Why?"
"I don't know. I feel? I don't know, as if something awful is going to happen."
He knelt on the floor and drew her down into his arms. "Nothing is going to happen, Leanne. You're going to have a long and happy life filled with sunshine and laughter."
"I didn't know you told fortunes," she said with a watery smile.
"Only yours. You're going to marry and have children and live happily ever after."
"Am I?"
"I promise."
"And will you be the father of my children, Jason?"
"I'd like nothing better," he replied evasively, and then, to stop her from asking any more questions he couldn't answer, he kissed her.
The touch of his lips on hers, the sweet invasion of his tongue, drove all thought from Leanne's mind. She forgot her mother's admonition, forgot her father's dark warning; she could only feel. Jason's lips danced across her skin, hotter than the flames that burned in the hearth, engulfing her until she felt as though she, too, were on fire. Perhaps the heat incinerated her clothing, for she was suddenly lying naked beside him while his lips and tongue drifted over her face and neck, exploring the hollow of her throat, her navel, the valley between her breasts, the sensitive skin of her inner thighs.
With a boldness she didn't know she possessed, she stripped him of his clothing, then let her hands wander over his hard-muscled flesh. He was a study in masculine perfection, from his broad shoulders and flat belly, to his long, powerful legs. She felt him shudder with pleasure at her touch, heard a low groan that sounded oddly like pain as she rained kisses along his neck and down his chest.
And then he was rising over her, his dark eyes blazing.
"Tell me to stop if you're not sure," he said, his voice low and rough. "Tell me to stop now, before it's too late."
"Don't stop." She wrapped her arms around his neck and drew him closer. "Don't ever stop."
With a strangled cry he buried himself in her softness. She whimpered softly as he breached her maidenhead, and he cursed himself for hurting her, but it was too late now.
Too late to stop. Too late to think. He was caught up in an inferno of desire, and there was no going back.
Leanne clutched at his shoulders, exhilarated by his mastery, frightened by the torrent of emotions that flooded through her. She felt as if she were drowning, being sucked into a vortex from which there was no return. A soft, gentle blackness engulfed her, and then she felt as if she were immersed in a warm red mist.
She moaned as she felt Jason moving deep within her. Her fingernails clawed at his back, drawing blood, and then she was reaching out, reaching for something that shimmered just beyond her grasp, something beautiful.
She cried as she found it, cried with the joy of discovery, of wonder, as her body convulsed beneath his.
For a long while they lay wrapped in each other's arms. She held him tighter when she felt him start to draw away. "Don't go."
"I must be heavy."
"You are, but I like it."
He shifted to the side a little so she wasn't bearing the full burden of his weight. "Did I hurt you?"
"No."
He drew back so he could see her face. How lovely she was, her beautiful green eyes still aglow with passion, her lips pink and swollen from his kisses, her hair spread in wild disarray over the pillow. He felt a ridiculous urge to thank her.
"What are you thinking?" Leanne asked. Reaching up, she brushed a lock of hair from his brow.
"How wonderful you are."
"Did I please you?"
"Foolish girl. No one has ever pleased me more."
"I wish you'd never known anyone but me."
He saw the hurt in her eyes, the sudden flare of jealousy, and silently berated himself because the thought of her being jealous pleased him beyond words.