Red Grow the Roses (24 page)

‘Oh, shit,' Cerri whispered.

‘I didn't tell anyone. It was a Sunday, and we didn't open on Sundays, so I locked the shop and ran away. I went back to Aunt Maria's but she was in hospital and Uncle Dave was with her, so I spent the day on my own. I was … bricking it, as we used to say in those days. But I thought I knew better than to tell the police or anyone. I didn't know what to do, and everything seemed so mixed up in my head I didn't even know whether it was real or I'd dreamed it or what. But I thought I had to be sure before Uncle Dave came in to open up on Monday morning and found a body. I had to clean up, I thought … the oil and stuff. So I went back that night. Just after it got dark. I walked past the shop front and it looked normal. I walked back … and he was coming out. The man. Straightening his shirt cuffs.

‘He looked fine. He'd been dead, and now he wasn't. And he'd opened a door I knew I'd locked. He just looked at me, and nodded, and walked away.' He fell silent.

‘Well,' said Cerri, ‘no wonder Reynauld asked me to help you out.'

‘Reynauld?' Doug blinked. ‘Your …?'

‘Tall, dark and handsome,' she said dryly. ‘Fangs. Nice suit. Might pass for Italian. That was him.'

‘Oh.'

‘Did he bite you?'

‘No. I guess my aunt had been feeding me too much garlic. He just … fucked me.' Doug scrubbed his fingers across his oily scalp, spiking his hair. ‘He messed me up, Cerri. He messed me up so bad. I got buggered by a dead man! I didn't know how to deal with that.'

‘Oh, Doug. Is that how you ended up in the Church?'

‘I thought that if anyone knew about these things, if anyone had the answers, it had to be them.'

Unable to comfort him, she leaned in and kissed his lips softly. She was surprised and gratified when he took her hand and guided it to his groin, back to his erect cock.

‘Cerri,' he mumbled, kissing her deeper. His hard-on jumped under her fingers, giving no sign of flagging, no sign that he'd already emptied all chambers. Uneasiness stirred in the back of her mind even as she ached to pull him into her. He'd stayed stiff as a pole all the way through his story.

The nasty suspicion, once formed, grew to monstrous proportions. Cerri pushed him back and bent for a closer look. And there it was: yes. On the underside of his cock, near the base: two dints in the flesh, one a little higher than the other. Puncture-marks. ‘Fuck,' she said hoarsely. ‘You've been bitten.'

‘What? No, I –'

‘You've been bitten already.' She stared into Doug's uncomprehending eyes, her voice rising. ‘He's already had a piece of you!'

‘But I haven't – I don't – when?'

‘This afternoon,' said a silky voice behind them. ‘Funnily enough, I don't usually feel hungry during the day, but you were just so fucking sweet and irresistible. And the look on your face …' Cerri scrambled round and saw the speaker, the vampire Naylor: beautiful, glittering and jagged as razor-wire. He was nested in the angle of the landing ceiling, arms spread like a blasphemous crucifix, clinging to the plaster by a network of dark tendrils that emerged from his flesh like cobweb, melding him with the shadows. ‘Rather like that look now,' he finished with a ghastly smirk.

She knew she hadn't seen him until that moment. She knew they'd been through every room of the house and if he'd been there he couldn't have remained hidden. Not if he were human, anyway. ‘You were in the house all the time,' she said, feeling sick. ‘We didn't seal you out. You were already here.'

‘Uh-huh. I've been here since last night. Not as clever as you think, are you, girly?' He slithered down from his impossible perch and landed on the carpet lightly, the shadow-tendrils hissing as they dissolved. Doug scrambled to his feet, yanked up his trousers and held them with one hand. The other one sketched a cross in the air.

‘In Jesus' name –'

‘Didn't work last time, won't work this. You've too many doubts, little God-botherer. Plus,' he added acidly, ‘I think the fact you've just hosed your scuzz all over your witch girlfriend's tits might count against you. Pretty impressive, by the way – the spunk-show, I mean. And,' he admitted with a long hard glance at Cerri, ‘the tits. I'd like to bite them off.'

‘Don't you touch her!' Doug barked. Cerri came up behind him and put her hand on the small of his back.

‘You should go, Naylor. You'll only be making trouble for yourself.'

He tilted his head, an odd smile dancing in his eyes. ‘I should be angry with you, witch-bitch. You get in my way. You've gone and spoiled my
dinner
.' His eyes, green as poison, narrowed as they flicked back to Doug. ‘But you know what? I'm not angry. You two just went and told me a lovely story. The most interesting story I've heard in years. And that's why I'm going to play Mr Nice.'

* * *

Cerri woke in Doug's bed, on torn sheets, as the line of sunlight crawling across the wall reached the pillows. She squirmed against the unfamiliar mass of Doug's arm, then blinked herself awake. Doug, flat on his back, didn't move, even when Cerri raised herself up from prone and slid out of the bed. She was muzzy-headed with dehydration, almost as if she had a hangover. The bedroom refused to come into focus. Naked, she stumbled slowly downstairs into the kitchen, sought the refrigerator and found, to her relief, a litre bottle of fruit-flavoured water.

Only when she'd quenched her parched throat did she remember what had brought her to the house and think to check the line of salt across the windowsill. It looked undisturbed.

‘Hmm,' she grunted, wiping the sleep from her eyes. Then she padded back up the stairs to the bedroom, the plastic bottle in her hand.

Doug lay much as she had left him, breathing slowly and only half-covered by the sheet, which had managed to get pushed down to his hips. Cerri climbed on to the bed, expecting him to stir, but he only took a deeper breath and slumbered on.

Damn, but the man was a heavy sleeper, she thought, smiling to herself. He looked pretty cute too, half-naked like that. The sparse hairs on his chest gleamed gold in the sunlight and his nipples were flat dimples that invited the brush of a tongue-tip. Oh, how she liked the sweet vulnerability of a sleeping man. And under that sheet – well, it looked like he had a morning hard-on, a ridge of solidity beneath the rucked cotton.

She found that just irresistible.

Stealing a hand out, she ran her palm over the hidden shaft, finding warmth beneath the cool cloth and a confirmation of her suspicions. He was thick and full and more than half-hard already. The brush of her hand, soft and slow, completed the job in moments. A thrill tickled down through her nerves all the way to her sex, which clenched unexpectedly, greedy for that good stiff length. Cerri shaped an O with her lips, slightly surprised but not at all displeased to find herself feeling so horny even after a night of hot action. ‘Come on, my beautiful boy,' she breathed, her fingertips measuring his cock and caressing its hardness.

Doug's eyes opened suddenly. ‘You're still here,' he said. ‘It wasn't all a dream.'

Cerri withdrew her hand a few inches. ‘Hello, lover. Sleep well?'

‘I …' He stopped abruptly and then looked all round the room, eyes wide. ‘Ah. Ah … I guess it worked. He didn't show.'

‘Yes.' Cerri frowned. Memories of the previous night were finally coming back to her, and she searched them carefully. She found no sign of any vampire. Sure, some of the scenes were a bit vague, but wasn't that the way with sex the first time with a new bloke? The high of arousal tended to smudge the details. And good grief, there had been a
lot
of it to commit to memory. They'd been at it half the night. ‘It worked,' she agreed, glancing over at the windowsill where the salt lay like a miniature levee against a flood. ‘That's good.'

‘Thanks.' Doug then looked abashed. ‘I mean, for helping. And …'

She grinned fondly. ‘That's all right. My pleasure.' She watched him blush and look away. ‘Want some water?'

‘Oh, yes, please.' He hitched himself up to sit back against the headboard, pulling the sheet up with him to preserve his modesty. But as he took his first swig from the bottle and his attention lapsed, Cerri seized her moment. Twitching the sheet away, she wrapped her fingers firmly about his erect member.

Doug nearly choked. The bottle lurched in his hand, splashing fruit-scented water over his bare chest. His wide eyes met hers.

‘Is this for me?' she asked, grinning.

‘It's – it's just because I've woken up, you know, Cerri? It's not a real, uh …'

‘It feels pretty real to me.' She threw one knee over his hips, straddling him. Pushing the swollen head of his cock into her wet slit, she slid it up and down and fed it to the mouth of the slick passage within. ‘Does this feel real to you?'

‘Oh, fuck,' he groaned. He dropped the open bottle over the side of the bed and clutched the sheets beneath him. His hips kicked beneath her, pushing his cock inside. Cerri felt the jolt of pleasure as she was stretched open. She began to work herself down over his shaft, biting her lips in concentration, sliding one hand up to cup her left breast and tug at the nipple.

‘You,' said Doug in a thick voice, ‘are really bad at taking no for an answer.'

‘Am I?' She felt shivery all over, as horny as a nun who'd just discovered a dirty magazine. ‘Are you saying, “No”, Doug?' She lifted herself up, her thighs tense, until she held only the tip of his glans within her; threatening to withdraw the hot embrace of her sex from the stiff cock between her legs. ‘Are you?'

‘Oh, God.'

‘I don't think you should be saying that, Doug.' She licked her lips, sliding down on him once more, then up again. ‘You're a vicar. I. Am. Fucking. A. Vicar.'

He didn't answer that, except with another groan. He just grabbed her hips with his hands, his thumbs sinking into her pubic mound, and jammed her down right to the hilt on his cock. The shock knocked the breath out of her. Then, setting his heels in the mattress, he slammed rapidly into her, over and over, lifting her right up on his pelvis and making her breasts bounce wildly. Cerri cried out, her voice vibrating. By the time he paused they were both gasping. She looked down at his tense face with its parted lips and its half-grin. Even now, he looked incredulous. He was still finding it hard to believe this was happening to him, she thought. And feeling guilty.

Well, bollocks to his stupid guilt.

‘Tell you what,' she smirked, shaking out her braids. ‘I'll make it easy for you, shall I?' She pushed his hands away and slid off him, sideways. ‘Just say, “No”, Doug. You can do that, can't you? I'll even turn my back.' She rolled away on to hands and knees, presenting her curvy ass-cheeks and open split to him with a wiggle, and looked back over her shoulder to wink broadly. ‘You can say, “No”, hey, Doug?'

She barely had time to get the words out before he was on her from behind, grasping her hips and ramming his cock deep inside her. She barely had time to wonder what had gotten into them both, making them act like a couple of crazed teenagers, before he knocked all philosophising out of her with a thrusting action that sent shocks all the way up her spine to the deepest darkest pleasure centres of her brain and took her breath away.

‘Doesn't look like it,' he said through gritted teeth. ‘Oh. Yes.'

Yes, she thought: yes yes yes. Very soon after that there was no thought in her head at all but the sensation of his riding her, no words on her lips but only her escalating groans and squeals of excitement. She dropped her shoulder and cheek to the bedclothes and thrust her hand back between her spread thighs. She could feel the heavy pouch of his balls slapping against her with every thrust. She brushed it with her fingertips, then found the wetness leaking from about his pistoning shaft and used it to slick her clit.

That was when Doug chose to wet his thumbs in his mouth – first the right one, then the left one – and work them one after another into the whorl of her asshole. That was way too much for her to bear. She had to bury her face in the sheets to muffle her screams as she came, loud and long. She was still coming as Doug pounded to his own climax and unloaded deep inside her.

Then he fell forward over her, his sweating chest pressed to her back. ‘Oh, Cerri,' he groaned, nuzzling his lips against her lips and ear. ‘Are you OK?'

A giggle bubbled up in her breast. He was just too sweet. ‘I'm good, lover.' She slid her knees down the bed, relaxing beneath him. He eased carefully to the side so as not to crush her.

‘You're beautiful. So beautiful.'

‘You think?' She hitched round to plant an appreciative kiss on his lips, and smiled at him. For a moment they looked into each other's eyes, and then he rolled away on to his back and stared at the ceiling.

Funny, she thought, sobering. That moment just before she'd come – when he stuck his digits into her ass – she'd had the sudden sensation that she was about to remember something. Something important. Then her climax had overwhelmed everything else, and now she had no idea what that memory could be. It was gone from her head without leaving so much as a footprint.

Hey, it couldn't be that important then. She reached out and stroked the softening length of his cock fondly, and Doug sighed.

‘The tabloid headlines would have been right then,' he murmured, scratching at his chest. ‘“Vicar In Pagan Sex Romp With Witch Shock”.'

‘“Romp”?' she wondered. ‘It was more like a Rut, I reckon. You were impressively enthusiastic.'

He laughed, embarrassed.

‘And an incredibly good fuck, lover,' she added. He was going to hear it, even if he refused to listen.

‘Right. That'll be a help as I start looking for a new career.'