behold, pale and thin, his body marked with tattoos and ancient scars he must have received on the battlefield before he died. He sat down next to me.
“Dar-lin,” he said, his twang more pronounced tonight. “Are you ready? ‘Cause this is the point of no return.”
“Which point?” I asked playfully. “The trespassing on state property, or the part where you make love to me?”
“Both,” he said, smiling as he slipped inside me, “Both.”
Our first time together was slow and languorous.
“This is why you belong in a castle,” he whispered. “Good things happen to you.”
The second time, after he had fed me strawberries and Champagne, was different, rougher. William approached me from behind, and ran his hands down my back and bent me over at the waist as a ballet dancer would with his partner. I could feel his sharp nails, the ones he used to play guitar, as he ran them along my spine to the top of my neck. Then he ran his sharpened teeth along the same path, reaching the top of my neck and grazing my skin at my nape, a place that would be covered by my hair in the morning. The rest of his body followed as he penetrated me. My senses were overloaded, overcome by his sensual nature and my own lust and desire pouring through my body. Sex had never been this good, or this intense, before and I wondered for a moment if it was because I allowed myself to feel so greatly now, or because I was with someone who made me feel so much.
When we were finished, I slumped over onto the pool floor. “My God,” I said, deciding to leave it at just that. I looked over at William and knew he was thinking the same thing. We had truly given ourselves to each other tonight. Our emotions had been as exposed as our bodies, but neither of us had any regrets. I could feel it.
We dressed and walked hand in hand back to the car. My body began to ache as soon as I slid into the seat. I was sore in places I knew many women would never be. I smiled, amazed at what I had done with William and how badly I wanted to do it again.
“You tasted my blood,” I said, as he pulled his car back onto Highway 1.
“I promised myself I wouldn’t,” he said, his voice drifting off a bit. “In the end, I had to take a small taste. Did I hurt you?”
I yawned, overcome with fatigue before I said, “I’m fine,” I said. “It was magnificent, but I have to tell you I don’t think I can stay awake much longer.”
“Go to sleep then,” he said. “I’ll wake you when we’re home.”
As I drifted off, I wondered which home he meant.
It was disorienting to wake up in bed and feel another body next to mine. It wasn’t something I’d done very often, and at first my mind could not reconcile the facts. A moment of panic set in as I tried to retrace my steps from the night before. A horrible image of JP jumped into view for a moment. Then, slowly, my body began to register the sensation of the cool mass beside me. A tumble of memories came flooding in, causing me to blush, and I realized that it was William next to me.
What confused me at first, too, was the bed, which had not existed in his house when I’d first visited. Made of a dark wood, the queen-sized frame sat in the middle of his bedroom against one of the walls. I knew instantly that he had made the bed for us. I was touched at his thoughtfulness, but also chagrined at his expectation of success.
I sat up to get a better sense of things. As I placed my hands down on the sheets to push up, I became aware of something else that was new and unexpected: the trio of copper bands with the sapphires I had admired at the jewelry gallery was sitting on my ring finger. I examined my hand, not sure what to do next. An image from a vintage horror movie popped into my head: the scene where the innocent, impoverished girl is lured from the village to a fate worse than death…to be the bride of a vampire.
But I knew that wasn’t my story. I had walked into the castle as a willing participant. I was curious to know what significance