back of his hand. "After tonight, beloved, there will never be anyone else."
"Truly?"
"Truly." Jason buried his face in her shoulder, knowing he had no wish to go on existing without her.
Three hundred years he'd walked the earth, he thought, and only now, as he contemplated a future without her, did he realize the true meaning of loneliness.
Part 1 Chapter Eight
He had promised himself he would make love to her only once, and then let her go. But he found it was a promise he could not keep.
Monster that he was, he could not keep from sampling her sweetness again and again, and each time he possessed her only increased his appetite for more.
Holding Leanne in his arms, he wished he could keep the sun from rising in the morning, wished her face, her beautiful green eyes filled with love, could be the last thing he saw before he slept, the first thing he saw upon rising.
He had made love to her as tenderly as ever a man loved a woman. Each moment he had spent in her arms had brought him the most exquisite pleasure he had ever known, and the most excruciating pain.
The lust to possess her wholly, as only a vampire could possess a woman, pulsed through him, and only the love he had for her made it possible to keep his accursed blood lust at bay, to touch the living warmth of her skin, to kiss and caress her, and not bury his fangs in her neck and alleviate the awful thirst that plagued him.
Still buried deep within her sweetness, he held her close, listening as her breathing returned to normal. She whispered that she loved him and then, her eyelids fluttering down, she fell asleep in his arms.
So young, he thought. So trusting.
He felt his fangs lengthen as he gazed at the pulse throbbing in the hollow of her throat.
One bite, just one. Slowly he bent over her, his tongue stroking her neck, tasting the musky heat of her skin, the salt of her perspiration.
A growl rumbled in his throat. His whole body shook as he fought the need to dip his fangs into her flesh, to swallow a single drop of her blood. A single drop. She need never know that a monster had sipped her sweetness.
Hating himself for his weakness, he bent over her, his teeth gently pricking the tender skin in the side of her neck. Her blood was as warm and sweet as he'd imagined, and he hovered over her, torn by a driving need to take more, to stop fighting what he was and seize what he wanted. She was his for the taking; she would be his for all eternity?
She moaned softly as he bent over her once more, and then she whispered his name.
Filled with self-loathing for what he'd almost taken from her, he drew back, surprised to find that he was weeping.
"Sleep, Leanne," he whispered brokenly. "Dream your young girl's dreams. You're safe from the monster tonight."
* * *
Leanne dreamed of darkness, a vast, overpowering darkness. And in the darkness she saw a man with hair as black as ebony and eyes as blue as a midsummer sky. He was dressed all in black. A cloak the color of death billowed out behind him as he walked toward her, as graceful as a panther stalking its prey, but it was his gaze that captured her, mesmerizing, haunting, filled with the pain and suffering of three hundred years.
She should have been afraid of him, afraid of the power in his eyes. Instead, she reached out toward him.Let me help you.
He shook his head, and she saw that he was weeping, and his tears were the color of blood.No one can help me, he said, and the anguish in his voice was more than she could bear.
I'll do anything,she promised.Anything you ask, only let me ease your sorrow.
Anything?he asked.
Anything,she replied, and then he was upon her, wrapping her in the folds of his cloak. His dark eyes blazed with an unholy light as he lowered his head toward her. She closed her eyes as she felt his mouth cover hers in, a searing kiss, and then she felt his teeth at her neck, a sharp pain, a sudden sense of lethargy.
A scream rose in her throat, a scream that brought her awake with a start.
Heart pounding in her breast, she sat up, reaching for Jason, only to find herself alone in the bed. She gazed wildly around the room, but