Of Witches and Warlocks: The Demon Kiss (23 page)

“I’m sorry,” I said, as I looked at him with
my red swollen eyes, reaching out with one of my hands to wipe my
tears off his now damp chest.

“Don’t apologize,” he replied with a soft
glance. “You have nothing to be sorry for. I’m the one who should
be asking for your forgiveness.”

“For what?” I said, completely confused.

“For dragging you and your family into all
this mess,” he replied with a frustrated glance.

“It isn’t your fault.” I sighed as I looked
at him. “You had no idea what was happening either.”

“Maybe not, but it’s my flesh and blood which
seem to be causing all the psychotic problems in your life lately,”
he reminded me, looking truly sorry about it.

“If that’s what I have to deal with to be
with you, then so be it,” I replied, laying my head back against
his solid torso and wrapping my arm around his waist to give him a
little squeeze.

He didn’t say anything for a few moments,
instead just ran his fingers over the rubber tie that held my
braid. After a few seconds, I felt him pull the band off. He then
began to run his hands through my still partially damp hair until
it laid spread out across his body.

“You are so beautiful,” he said softly, as
his hand continued on, stroking over the strands in a manner I soon
found very relaxing. “Sometimes I still can’t believe that you want
me as much as I want you.”

“Well, believe it, because it’s true,” I
responded, lightly rubbing my hand over his exposed bicep, which
rippled handsomely with every little movement he made, sending
happy little shivers of attraction down my spine at the sight.

“What am I going to do about all this,
Portia?” he asked in muted exasperation. “I have no idea how to
stop him, but I can’t let this continue on either.”

“Don’t worry about it right now,” I replied,
trying to think of a way to calm him as he was calming me. “We’ll
talk things over in the morning with everyone else and see if we
can’t come up with something.”

“I do worry about it. We can’t have a real
future until I figure out a way to fix all this. I’ve been awake
all night long trying to outline some sort of plan. I’m at a
complete loss.”

“You’ve been awake all night?” I asked,
lifting my head to look at him, worried that he wasn’t getting any
rest.

He nodded.

“I was watching you sleep,” he said with a
half smile. “You make such sweet little faces when you’re
dreaming.”

“And when I’m having nightmares?” I asked
sarcastically.

“You start screaming,” he said looking at me
with concern. “So, I think it’s interesting to find out that my
father has been the horrible thing in the fog that you’ve been
running from all along,” he added, as he brushed some of my hair
back behind my ear.

I shrugged and laid my head back down on his
chest, not really wanting to think about it any more.

“Well, I don’t blame you. I’m thinking he’s a
pretty scary monster right now myself,” he said.

When I didn’t say anything, he nudged me a
little with his arm.

“Hey,” he said.

I looked up at him.

“Come here,” he added with a little jerk of
his chin.

I moved the rest of the way up his chest,
until my face was directly above his.

He reached up and placed both of his hands on
each side of my head, pulling me in so he could kiss me on the
lips.

“I love you,” he said, when he finally pulled
back, his gaze flickering over the features of my face.

I nodded my head looking back at him.

“I love you, too,” I replied, knowing I would
never get tired of hearing him say those words to me.

“Portia, I won’t let him hurt you; you know
that, right?” he said, as he searched my eyes, and I could see the
love and concern written plainly there.

I nodded my head again, laying it back onto
his chest, letting him just hold me until I fell into a deep sleep
once again.

When I finally woke up in the morning, he was
still sleeping. I was lying on my side, in the crook of his
shoulder, facing toward him. His arm was wrapped loosely around me,
with his hand lightly resting on my shoulder.

I didn’t move a muscle as I was reluctant to
wake him, and I didn’t want to do anything that might start his
withdrawal process.

Listening, I could hear the rest of the
family and coven out in the common area of the condo, making
breakfast it sounded like, while talking with one another, sporadic
laughter filling the air. I knew I should get up and go help out,
but it was so nice right here in this moment.

I let my gaze wander over the sleeping face
that I loved so much. He was relaxed and peaceful right now, giving
his look a tender quality I hadn’t seen since many days gone
by.

I loved his thick dark lashes that lay gently
against his cheeks. I loved looking at him period, never tiring of
seeing him at any time, in any situation. He was a master at
stealing my breath away, and I wondered if he were aware of that
fact at all.

My line of sight continued down to his
perfectly shaped nose and over his luscious full lips that I
delighted in kissing so much and having them kiss me so
passionately in return.

I traveled lower, over his strong chin with
its ever-so-slight cleft in the middle, and down his neck where I
could see his pulse beating steadily.

Continuing my perusal of him, my eyes
traveled down to where my hand rested lightly on his smooth tanned
chest, in between his perfectly toned and shaped pectoral
muscles.

The blankets were scrunched up at his waist,
covering most of the six pack abs that I already knew were
underneath, so I let my vision trail a path down where his hips
were hidden beneath the linens, and over the outlines of his long,
strong, legs down to where his feet rested, with one foot kicked
carelessly out from underneath the quilt that covered both of
us.

He was such a perfect creature. He was all
male, sinew, muscle, magic, looks and power wrapped into one
incredibly amazing package.

I closed my eyes and wondered what it was
about me that had possibly attracted him.

“Apparently you’ve never noticed me looking
at you like that before,” his voice whispered into my head.

My eyes popped open to look at him.

His eyes were open slightly, and he was
looking over at me with a soft smile spreading across his lips.

“Good morning,” he said out loud in a quiet
voice.

“How long have you been awake?” I asked,
looking into the red eyes that watched me intently.

“Long enough to enjoy the thoughts in that
pretty little head of yours,” he replied, and I noticed the first
pangs of his morning withdrawal as it shot through his body,
causing him to clench involuntarily.

I reached up to place my hands at his
temples.

He closed his eyes, and I let the magic flow
from my fingers into him, past the redness in his eyes and
throughout his body to stop any more discomfort before it started
again.

“Thanks,” he said, opening his eyes when I
was finished to reveal the startling blue color I loved about
them.

“You’re welcome,” I said, leaning forward to
kiss him lightly.

“Sounds like everyone is here already this
morning,” he commented, glancing over to the door. “I guess we
should get out of bed and go out there.”

“I don’t want to,” I said leaning in to kiss
him, purposely trying to distract him. “I want to stay in here with
you all day and pretend the whole world out there doesn’t
exist.”

“That would be nice, wouldn’t it?” he
replied, looking at my face while running his hand over the top of
my head, across the length of my thick black hair and down my
back.

We just stared at each other, communicating a
whole host of thoughts and feelings without words.

He ran the back of his hand down the side of
my cheek, before turning it over to cup my face.

I leaned into his palm, rubbing against it,
enjoying the feel of his sweet caress against my skin.

“So beautiful,” he whispered, watching
me.

He moved his hand down farther, placing it on
mine where it rested against his chest, and began toying absently
over the large rock that rested there on my small finger.

“Are you happy, Portia?” he asked me
suddenly, looking up from the ring and into my face. “I mean, in
spite of everything that’s going on?”

“I’m very happy, Vance. You don’t need to
worry about that. You make my life feel wonderful,” I replied with
a sincere smile.

I could see the doubt creep into his mind,
threatening to shatter this moment, as thoughts from yesterday
began to return.

“It’s just that I ….” He stopped, as I
quickly placed my lips over his mouth.

“Shhhh,” I whispered against them. “Not right
now.”

He understood, wrapping his arms around me
and kissing me thoroughly. I could feel his teeth, as he softly
nipped against my lower lip, before coaxing my mouth open with the
tip of his tongue, and I parted my lips to let his slip inside.

He rolled me over then, onto my back, leaning
over me as he continued his exploration of my mouth.

I closed my eyes and just enjoyed the feel of
him being there, letting my tongue tangle with his, as we tasted
each other.

He didn’t move away from my mouth this time,
like he usually did, and I could tell he was keeping a rein on
things, trying to not be too aggressive.

He finally pulled away from me, but he didn’t
let go of me, and to my surprise his eyes didn’t have one hint of
red in them.

“I love you,” he said softly as he stared at
me. “I know I say it all the time. It probably is just gibberish to
you by now.”

I shook my head as he spoke.

“Coming from your mouth, they’re my three
favorite words in the whole world,” I replied honestly.

He kissed me again, this time much more
passionately than the last time, and I reached up to pull him
closer, tangling my fingers through his thick hair.

Someone knocked on the bedroom door, but we
didn’t stop kissing, choosing to ignore them instead.

After a few seconds the knock came again, a
little harder.

“You guys going to sleep in there all day?”
my dad’s voice called through the barrier.

Vance pulled away from me slightly then, with
an extremely exasperated look on his face.

“You ready to get up now?” he whispered to me
in a low voice.

I shook my head.

“Me either,” he said with a grin, as he
lowered his head and continued on with his worship of my mouth.

I heard Dad give a huff and walk away from
the door.

I started giggling.

“We’re so bad,” I said against his mouth.

“Yes, but I’m not going to complain because
this feels so good,” he replied, with a smile.

He kissed me for quite a while, and I began
to notice that I was starting to get a little whisker burn from the
overnight stubble he had growing on his chin. I didn’t really care
about that, but he finally pulled away with a sigh and flopped back
over onto his back next to me.

“I can’t think of one morning in my life
where waking up was as fun as this morning has been,” he said, with
a satisfied smile.

“It has been nice, hasn’t it?” I agreed,
rolling over to place my arms over his chest and leaning my chin on
the back of my hands.

He watched me for a few moments, with a
slight grin turning up the corner of one side of his mouth, popping
one of those beloved dimples to the surface.

“I love your hair when it spills across
everything like this,” he said toying with a few strands.

“You mean when it looks like I just stepped
out of a tornado?” I said with a laugh feeling a touch self
conscious about how I must truly look at the moment.

“I was thinking more along the lines of
bedroom hair, but a tornado works, too,” he replied with a widening
smile.

“Why do you like it so much?” I asked, truly
curious about it, since he was always playing with it.

“Partially because you just look so darn
hot,” he replied honestly. “And it goes well with the swollen lips
and the whisker burn, too,” he added with a lusty look at me that
made my pulse leap up in tempo.

“Is it that obvious that we’ve been making
out?” I asked, lifting a hand to run it over my face.

“Well, let me put it this way. When you walk
into that room full of people a few minutes from now, they’ll all
know that you’ve been thoroughly kissed this morning.” He laughed,
not seeming a bit sorry about it.

“You’re enjoying this way too much.” I said,
playfully taking a slap at his shoulder.

“Hey. You can’t blame a guy for wanting to
put his mark on his woman,” he replied as he grabbed at my wrist,
effectively stopping the blow from landing on its intended
target.

“Is that what you’re doing?” I lifted an
eyebrow. “Putting your mark on me?”

“In any way shape or form that I can,” he
replied seriously as he watched me. “Do you know how absolutely
fetching you are this morning?” he added tenderly.

“No,” I replied, wondering all of a sudden if
he might be legally blind. “But I’m willing to lay here for the
rest of the day and let you tell me all about it.”

“I wish I could. But we have people waiting
on us,” he said, glancing toward the door.

“Do we have to get up now?” I asked, with a
dejected sigh, really wanting to just lay here like this with him
for the rest of the day.

“We have to go out there and face reality
sometime,” he said seriously, dashing my hopes of keeping him here
in bed with me.

“I don’t like reality any more,” I said with
a pout. “Let’s just live in here for forever.”

“I wish we could, baby,” he said, giving me a
light kiss on the lips, before he rolled over, pulling me up and
out of the bed after him. “Come on, Portia. I’ve been blessed with
a bout of amazing restraint this morning. Let’s not try to push our
luck any farther.”