Master for Tonight (26 page)

He had surprised her earlier by taking them
to the grocery store where they purchased all the ingredients for a
home-cooked meal. He chose a simple dish of antipasto and
spaghetti. After putting together the appetizer, he boiled the
spaghetti, only slightly overcooking the pasta. She munched on
green olives and watched him cook. A dishtowel was thrown over his
shoulder.

They spent the rest of the evening at the
dinner table in conversation until it was time for the movie to
start. She was asleep ten minutes after the beginning credits
rolled.

Easing her into his arms, he took her to
their bedroom.

“Julian,” she murmured.

“Yes, beauty.” He took one of her curls in
his fingers, twirling his index finger to loop it around from the
base to the tip. Her hair was in a ponytail on top of her head, but
some of it had come free from his meddling with it while she
slept.

Her eyes fluttered open. “Don’t leave me
again.” Her shoulders shook and her eyes watered. She whispered,
“I’m so scared for me, for you, for us. I feel so guilty about all
those women dying because of me. I haven’t said anything to you,
but I am. What if she comes here? I don’t want to lose you.”

He knelt on the floor beside the bed, and
she went to her side, facing him. He still held her curl as he
spoke. “If she comes here, it will be her last night above ground.
No one is separating us. Especially not Evangeline. Reese has given
me his blood many times now, and I am much stronger than I was when
you and I first met. The only person who can make me leave your
side is you. Are you going to break my heart and toss me away,
beauty?”

“No.” Kate took his hand in hers and kissed
the inside of his palm. She was so close to saying it. The three
words. He knew it, and waited patiently as he watched the wheels
turning in her head.

“Julian.” She licked her lips and sucked the
bottom one inside her mouth.

“Yes, Kate?”

When the doorbell rang, she smiled and
looked away.

“Hold that thought. Okay?” He tugged at his
necklace, breathing out a huff as he walked to the doorway. “Reese
is here. We need to discuss a few things, but you stay here and
rest. Go back to sleep.”

“Okay, baby,” she acquiesced, which Julian
questioned. He shifted from foot to foot, looking down at her as
she waved him off.

What has she got going on in there
now?
he thought as he went down the stairs, to the door.

Kate tossed over to lie on her back, looking
at the ceiling fan twirling over the bed, which was something it
seemed she was always doing lately. At that point, though, she
pondered the man fully ensconced in her life, rather than
absent.

He still wouldn’t tell her what Mazzie had
done to him in the bathroom, and neither would she. It was like
they had an infuriating, unspoken pledge to keep it from her. She
was sure Mazzie had stabbed him, and he’d allowed it, wanting to
let Mazzie get it out of her system. By his actions alone, he had
made it undeniably clear to her, he intended to be with her for
life. He had proven himself to her more than once.

Life. If she didn’t agree to be changed,
hers would be very short. Aside from Evangeline, so many other
things could end hers prematurely. Never mind, the horror of her
aging, her body falling apart while he remained the same as time
passed. No way, would she allow him to change her at an advanced
age. He would still want her to do it, no matter how old she
was.

She loved him, and she knew she had fallen
for him the night he arrived on her doorstep. Of course, she hadn’t
told him yet. It was fun, watching him squirm, for once, instead of
her. She’d almost told him just then, but was glad for the
interruption. Knowing it was one thing, but saying it, quite
another.

What should I do? Mazzie will kill me if
I do it. If I let Reese change me.
She snickered, realizing
Mazzie wouldn’t be able to do any such thing.
That would teach
her not to boss me around. Why does she always think she can do
that?

She chewed on her fingernail, mulling over
her relationship with her best friend, wondering about the power
shift in their friendship. Inhaling sharply, she put her hand over
her face and shook her head, realizing how tangent her thoughts had
gone. She’d wandered away from what she intended to work out and
hadn’t accomplished anything.

“What has you thinking so hard, beauty?”
Julian was leaning into the room, his arms over his head, holding
the trim which lined the doorway. His shirt was raised away from
his pants, exposing his lean stomach and the start of the muscled V
at his hips.

“Nothing, baby. Just thinking. You know how
I am. Wondering when I’ll hear from the insurance company about my
car. Stuff like that. It was nice for Reese to loan us his, but
I’ll be glad to have mine back if it’s salvageable.” She sat up,
pushed her legs out to the side, bent them at her knees, and leaned
on her arm for support before countering his questioning with her
own. “How was Reese? Is there any news?”

“So that’s how it is now, is it?” He crossed
to her, and she sighed as his shirt fell, covering her eye
candy.

He climbed first onto the bed, and then onto
her, as she stretched out underneath him. She pulled the middle
sections of his hair on his sides behind his head.

“I have some elastic bands. This is a good
look for you, baby.”

He pulled her hands out of his hair, and
held them above her head in one of his.

“I’m not concerned with my hairstyle at the
moment.”

“Oh?” She pulled her hands against his grip
on her wrists, but they were locked in his strength. “I’m curious
about what you’re thinking right now.”

“Me? I’m an open book.” He kissed the tip of
her nose. “It’s you who hides away from me. For instance, right
now, I’m thinking about tying you up until you come clean with me
with all those things in your head.”

“But I’m not ready.” She looked past him, to
the ceiling.

“Oh, you’re ready.” Julian pressed his hand
against her mound on top of her pajama shorts. “What are you
imagining now, my lover. Fantasizing about me tying you with ropes
or binding you with chains?”

Her chest rose and fell in time with her
increased breaths.

“No, I’m not thinking about anything,
baby.”

“Are you telling me your mind is blank?”
Julian skimmed his fingertips lightly over her. “It’s an
impossibility.”

“Wha…?” she panted as his hand slid down
into her shorts and held her pussy under her panties. He pressed
his middle finger down against her, between her labia. A tortuous
pressure so close to her entrance, but not moving inside. Her clit
throbbed as her moisture bled from her.

“Are you imagining the things I could do to
you if I did tie you to our bed?” He breathed into her ear.
“Remember how I had you spread our first night together?”

“Mmm-hmm!” She knew he wanted her eyes open,
and she fought to keep them as he wished.

“It was a beautiful night, but I wasn’t able
to properly admire you, beauty.” She jerked against his hand. “I
could spread you completely open and inspect you thoroughly.”

She began to shake and moan. His hand still
caged hers against the mattress over her head.

“First with my eyes.” He smirked, knowing
his next words would take her close to the edge. “Then with my
tongue.”

She turned her head from side to side as his
voice entered her, causing her pussy to melt onto his hand. Her
walls throbbed with want of his cock.

“I could take your nipples with my teeth,
sucking each one into my mouth until they harden as I want, before
putting them into the clamps I picked out for you. Such delicious
pain you would suffer, as I tugged the chain between your breasts.”
He blew against her forehead, cooling the beads of sweat which had
broken out on her skin. “What a sight, you would be.”

“Ahhhhhhhh!” She moved restlessly beneath
him. Her hips rolled, raising his hand with her. His hand remained
motionless at her core.

“After teasing your breasts, you’d want me
to touch your pussy, wouldn’t you?”

“Mmmm-hmm…” She was lost in his voice. She
was going to come to it, and it alone, as she knew she could the
very first night he took her. She felt it building inside her,
bubbling to the surface.

He flicked his pointed tongue against the
center of her lips, on her open mouth.

“That’s what you’d want, isn’t it, beauty?
My tongue on you.”

“Yes, baby!” She cried out as he did it
again.

He rubbed his tongue against hers, giving it
the same treatment he would her clit, laughing under his breath as
she struggled against him. He pressed his finger further between
her lips.

Julian moved his face over hers. “You’d be
my little submissive. For as long as I chose to keep you bound for
my pleasure and yours. You’d obey me, wouldn’t you?”

“Ahhhhh!” She tilted her hips, lifting them
off the bed as she strained for a deeper touch of his finger.

“Is that a ‘yes’?”

“Yes, baby!”

“Show me where your legs would be.”

She slid her legs slowly apart. The wider
they opened, the further his finger sank against her. She panted
and groaned in frustration at how close his touch was.

“Good girl.”

The pad of his middle finger rested directly
on top of her.

“I can feel your heartbeat, beauty.”

“Baby!” she begged. “Please!”

“Please what?”

“Let me come!” she wailed, writhing
underneath him, pushing her breasts against his chest.

“No.” He stretched his body to mirror hers,
stopping her from closing her thighs.

“Who do you belong to?”

“You!”

“And who decides when and how you come?”

“You, baby!”

“Who will protect you?”

“You, Julian!”

“Are you certain I can protect you?”

“Yes!”

“Who loves you?”

“You do! You do!”

He looked into her fevered eyes before
moving to her ear and whispering, “Who do you love, Kate?”

She turned her head to face him. “You,
Julian! I love you!”

He released her wrists, and she grabbed his
head, pulling him to her.

“I love you.” She said repeatedly between
breaths and kisses.

He pressed his finger into her and pushed
her waist into the mattress, holding her still.

He rolled his head to face her and mouthed
to her anxious eyes, “Come.” She screamed out her orgasm, arching
her back and head against the pillow. She reacted exactly as he
knew she would, and he saw restraints in her future.

“Mmmm… The things I have to do to get the
truth out of you.” He rubbed his nose against hers. “I like
them.”

She trembled in his arms. “I meant it.”

He pulled her on top of him as she kissed
his face.

“I want you to take my blood.”

“What?” She was still in the afterglow, not
understanding his words.

“My blood healed you and my blood will
protect you. I want you to do this. No negotiation. If I have to
leave you to hunt Evangeline, you must have some form of
protection. I understand your hesitation to be changed, so until
you agree, you’ll take my blood inside you.”

“I don’t understand.” She got off of him and
the bed. “You can’t make me do this.”

He moved to sit on the edge of the mattress.
“I will protect you in whatever way I can, and you’re going to do
this.”

“What will it do to me?”

“Strengthen your body temporarily. If you
are attacked again, your injuries will not be as severe.”

“But you and Reese—”

“Plan to keep you out of harm’s way, but why
not take precautions?”

“Will it change anything between us?”

“What do you mean?”

“Will you be in my head? Know what I’m
thinking?”

He laughed. “No. That’s some vampire
folklore. Who knows who started the rumor.”

“Do you need to breathe? Do you need
oxygen?”

“No, it’s a habit I cling to and refuse to
let go. The repetition is comforting to me. Similar to your
mantras, yeah?”

He went to where she was pacing and stood in
front of her, taking her hands in his.

“You’re going to do this for us. Now.”

He locked his eyes with hers and brought his
wrist to his mouth. His skin crunched as he opened his vein. The
blood bubbled up onto his wrist.

“Quickly. Take me into you.”

She took his wrist in her hands and brought
it to her lips. His fangs were still extended as he watched her
mouth close over the wound.

The blood seeped into her mouth, and she
swallowed him down, hearing him moan in pleasure. It was thick and
rich, and her tongue tingled at the magical secret it contained.
Her eyes closed as she drank him deeper, sucking and lapping his
skin as whispering voices raced like ghosts though her mind. The
wound started to close, and she bit into him, reopening it to flow
again freely. She wanted to learn more.

“Ahhh! Yes. Take me into you.” He held the
back of her head to his wrist harder, knowing she was learning him
fully. His blood would tell all.

As she drank, his memories swam through her
mind as if they were her own. His blood told her the sweet and
sordid story of his life before his change and his tragic existence
after, until he found her. His tale was told in its entirety until
she saw her own mouth close over his wrist and shot to heights not
before known, stimulated by his fervor. She drank until she
stumbled away from him, tripping over her feet and falling limp on
the bed. Julian dropped beside her in a daze. Blood caked the
corners of her mouth. Her arms draped across her stomach and her
eyelashes fluttered at the speed of a hummingbird’s wings. Her lips
mouthed a loop of two words.

Julian drunkenly lifted his head and
swiveled to her. He read her silent circle of “love you” repeated
in rapid succession.