who wouldn’t want you, the way you were dressed tonight.”
I grabbed his hand where it rested on my breast and brought his thumb to my lips. “You fool,” I said, as I slipped his finger into my mouth and gently bit it. “I’m not interested in any man alive. I’m in love with you. Only you. But if you want me to stay, you’re going to have to accept me for who I am… my work… my ideas, all of it…or this night will be nothing but a waste of time.”
William brought me into his arms and held me. We stood there for some time, until finally he lifted his head and began to speak.
“It’s been more than a decade since I’ve had a mate,” he said. “In fact, for almost all my nearly two hundred years I have lived my life alone. Then one day, you walked into that tunnel, throwing all my plans to the wind.”
I smiled, squeezing his hand.
“What I’m trying to say is, yes. I agree,” he said. “I will change. I will learn to be more flexible.”
I kissed him then, thinking it was the most economical way to express my thoughts. It was hopelessly impractical to bind myself to a vampire, but I was in love for the first time in my life, and had no wish to sacrifice my happiness for practical purposes. I had been that person who jettisoned her emotions in exchange for a well-ordered life, and it had nearly killed me. I was ready for a change, damn the complications. I wanted a lover who understood me, maybe better than I understood myself. So I kissed him again, and threw my fate into the hands of the supernatural, just as my ancestors had done.
We undressed and climbed into the pool, bringing our bodies together. I kissed his face, his eyelids. He pressed his lips into the small of my neck and nibbled on my earlobe. We floated in the warm pool for some time before he spoke.
“Would you have slept with that reporter?”
I shifted in his arms so I could look at him more directly. “No,” I said. “In fact, I’d been dreading the date since the moment I’d agreed to it. If you hadn’t kidnapped me, I’m certain the evening would have ended badly.”
“I didn’t really kidnap you,” William said smiling. “I knew you’d come with me.”
“How can you be so sure of yourself?”
“I’m not sure of myself, far from it,” William said. “But, I’m sure about us. I know we’re meant to be together.”
“I don’t know if I would have come for you,” I admitted. “I was convinced you’d never be comfortable with my work with the Council.”
William nodded, pulling me closer. “Darlin, I’m certain you and I are destined to get under each other’s skin. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be together.”
Before I could reply, William kissed me again. Our kisses quickly turned heated, as we pressed our bodies together in the warm, salt water. Finally, he picked me up and sat me on the edge of the pool, parted my legs and asked me to lie back, leaving me exposed to him. He started at my ankle, placing feathery kisses along my leg. Eventually he reached my center, kissing me deeply at my core. Then he moved his lips back to the tender skin on the inside of my thigh, where without warning, he bit me. At the same moment his teeth pierced my skin, he used his fingers to the same effect. This is what being hit with a Taser must feel like, I thought, as my body bucked and rocked against his mouth. I screamed at the shock of the pain and the pleasure.
Hard to believe, but I had forgotten for a moment that I was making love with a vampire. Your imagination only goes so far when it comes to day dreams of moments like these. Imagining being bit is nothing like the real thing. It’s shocking, but perhaps not as scary as one might think. This wasn’t an attack, at least not the lethal kind. He was a gentle lover and true to his word that night at his house, seemed to take only a sip before he raised his head to gauge my reaction. I sat up and smiled, beckoning him to join me. William climbed out of the pool, standing above me, his long red hair matted against his shoulders, glistening from the water. He was beautiful and menacing to