I didn’t know how long Abbott would be around, but I wasn’t going to give him a partial truth again, as he’d smelled it as a lie, before. “Yes and no. I’m relieved I didn’t have to endure it at exactly the same time I’m wishing my bottom was still hot with the memory of a sound spanking.”
“Next time I’ll incorporate a spanking without making it a consequence. I can’t wait to see your derriere bright red.”
“Next time? If there is to be a next time then you and I need to set aside some time for some serious discussion.”
“Never fear, my darling, we will have those discussions and I’ll know everything that turns you on and off before we begin our next scene. Will you trust it to be with us alone, or will you want there to be a spotter?”
“I, ummm, ask me again in a few days. Right now I want to say it will be okay with us alone, but I shouldn’t answer right now.”
“Do you have someone in mind? James?”
“No, not James. I’m friends with a Dom, he’s married, and it would probably work for the four of us to get together for a small play party, where he plays with his wife and you play with me. He has a fully equipped dungeon, so we could probably do it at his house. He’s seen others play with me before.” I paused and added, “He knows about werewolves and other shifters, but I don’t know if he’s aware of vampires.”
“If it’s necessary in order for you to relax for our first scene, I have no problems with it.”
“Thank you. We’ll do all of our negotiating and then we’ll talk about whether anyone will be there. It’s nice you’re being so patient with me. Thank you.”
I sat up and looked for my dress. I didn’t know how much more time we had until we landed, but I wanted to be wearing clothes for the occasion. He realized what I was looking for and reached to get it and handed it to me. I sat up and pulled it over my head. Abbott zipped the neck, and I adjusted my breasts into the built-in bra. He touched my nipple through the dress and then his lips touched mine in a gentle, relaxed, blissful kiss.
He pulled back, looked at me a few seconds, and said, “When a vampire is made, they get their magical energy from their maker until their first feeding. When I was made, the first feeding was often a first kill, as new vampires don’t have the control to keep from ripping their victim to shreds. We take blood from an artery, and if you don’t know what you’re doing…” He looked sad, but continued. “Things are different now, but the point is, new vampires get energy or magic or whatever from their maker, and then later, from their Master, until they learn to get it safely from humans. Gwen was right when she told you she can’t get what she needs from a bag. What I’m beginning to figure out, is that Kieran is taking it from Gwen when they have sex, so Gwen needs twice as much from her human companion. The blood banks are new, and we’re figuring out how best to incorporate them, so we can stay healthy.”
“You take energy from a number of humans. Your flock.”
He nodded. “Yes, but I also have access to the energy of every vampire who belongs to me. I can take from them, though I normally only do it in an emergency. When one is in trouble I can send energy from a distance.”
He was waiting for me to figure out where he was heading, but I refused to bring it up. Finally, he said, “Humans don’t normally have more magical energy than is needed to fuel their own soul. You have more, and someone is helping you increase your capacity.”
I didn’t want to talk about it, so I resorted to being a smart ass. “Your point is?”
He leaned back, looked me over a few seconds, and said, “I can’t imagine the pain involved. I would be in bed taking it easy if my chakras were in the shape yours are, but you barely seem affected. During your orgasm, your first and second chakra were quite active, and there’s no way you didn’t hurt from the extra activity in an already injured area.”
I shook my head. “I was a ballet dancer. I’m used to working out until I hurt, and then ignoring the pain and getting on with the rest of my day. I’m tender and a little raw, sure, but there’s no damage. I won’t hurt myself if I’m active, so there’s no reason not to be.”
“Vampires learn to ignore some kinds of pain, for a similar reason. We can heal damage, so in a fight we can ignore most of it.” He kissed my forehead. “However, if my chakras looked like yours, I’d have opted to stay home tonight. I’ve had them tender from overuse and it felt as if I had the flu, even though vampires aren’t susceptible. Yours look and feel much worse, and yet you seem fine. Is it possible humans don’t feel the damage in the same way?”
“It feels off, and you’re right about it feeling a little like the flu. However, with the flu you have no energy because your blood cells aren’t carrying oxygen to your muscles as they should. I have energy, and it’s being routed, it’s just that the energy isn’t quite right. I can deal with that.”
He pulled me to him, his lips touching mine in a gentle, affectionate kiss this time, with the promise of more. When the kiss naturally ended he stood to put his shirt back on, and then picked up a phone by the bed that must have gone straight to the attendant, because he said, “Steve, let Paul know we’re good to land. He should let us know when we need to take our seats.”
Did that mean what I
thought
it meant?
“Wait, you told him to fly us around until you gave the all clear we were ready to land?”
“Of course. It would’ve been bad to have you all tied up and minutes from an orgasm and be told to prepare for landing, wouldn’t it?”
“Well, yeah, but, I thought we had a finite amount of time until we landed, I had no idea you’d stretched it out so we had as much time as we wanted.”
“And this is a problem?”
“It just feels, manipulative, I guess. It bugs me.” I shrugged and tried to explain. “I made decisions about how quickly things could go based on the idea the pilot could end things at any second. We could have enjoyed each other a little more if I hadn’t been rushing myself, letting you get me horny fast, letting my orgasm come on fast. I know you gave permission for it, but you waited until I was there, and that happened faster because I thought we only had so much time.”
For the first time, I could
see
him analyzing me. He didn’t noticeably smell the air, but I watched as he took in my scents, facial expressions, and body language. Finally, he said, “Okay, in the future, unless there is reason not to for a scene, I’ll let you in on these kinds of things, okay?”
I glared at him a second, but relented and rolled my eyes with a bit of a smile. “Sure.” I wished I knew what he’d gotten from his analysis, but it looked like he saw my frustration and irritation, and decided to relent and not be the silent Dom about such things. Maybe.
“Tell me some of your hard limits, things you won’t do, ever.” It was more order than request but I decided to answer anyway. It would be silly to refuse because he was bossy about it.
“Scat, knives and needles, anything that draws blood on purpose.” I paused and added, “Ouch, that sounds different saying it to you than it has saying it to other Doms. I’m still not sure how I feel about the fact you want to bite me. I think we have to handle that as you and I, though, and not as part of our D/s relationship.”
“I was honest when I told you I wonder how you taste, but I don’t want to put any pressure on those words. I’ll be fine if I never taste you, it isn’t necessary for any kind of relationship we may have.” His voice was kind and gentle, and I thought we were back to him not wanting to spook the horse. I wasn’t sure I liked being treated like an animal who would easily scare, but there was no way for me to talk to him about it. Not now, anyway.
“Thanks, but it sounds like, while it may not be necessary, you consider it part of intimacy, and we need to at least talk about it so I understand what I’m saying no to.”
Paul came over the speakers to tell us we should prepare for landing, so I stood, adjusted my dress over my hips, and we went out to the main cabin to take our seats. Steve sat in the row behind us and strapped in as well, and ten minutes later we were taxiing to the hangar.
I texted Lauren we were on the ground, and suddenly I was so tired I couldn’t wait to go home and sleep. I may have been fine to handle the date, but it’d been a long day and my body wanted sleep.
Abbott and I kept the conversation away from deep subjects on the way home, talking mostly about the costumes and makeup from the play we’d seen, and how it must be nice to have what must be a huge budget for that kind of thing. Our theater in Chattanooga did okay, but wasn’t even close to that kind of production.
Once home, he walked me to my door, gave me another panty-melting kiss, and wished me sweet dreams. He told me he’d be emailing me something to fill out that should be in my inbox when I awakened tomorrow, and he mentioned he’d be sleeping at the golf course coterie house, and if I finished the questions by then it would be nice to come see him so we could talk about them before my session with Mordecai.
I let Smokey in, and he went to Lauren’s bedroom and gave me a forlorn look with his dark, glassy eyes. He went back to the hall and plopped his two hundred and twenty pound black, furry body down at the top of the steps with a grumble designed to let me know his displeasure. He wanted everyone home at night, and he would thoroughly sniff Lauren and Xiaolan tomorrow when they came home, wanting to know everywhere they’d been and to make certain they were okay.
“You’re a good boy, wanna come snuggle?”
Smokey thinks he’s a lap dog, but he’s only allowed on furniture when invited. I have steps leading up to my bed so he can snuggle with me, though when we’re through he’ll go take up his post at the top of the steps. When I’m not home, he sleeps by Lauren’s bed, but when I’m in my bed he takes his sentry post at the top of the steps, between our bedrooms. Xiaolan’s room is just past Lauren’s, so I guess he figures he can keep anyone from getting past him to her, as well.
I put warm flannel pj’s on, invited him up in bed, and we snuggled as I rolled everything over and over in my brain, my fingers rubbing and stroking Smokey’s fur. I should put a stop to whatever Abbott and I were getting started. I had no business falling for a vampire, but it was becoming clear I’d never manage to spend time with him and not fall for him. I didn’t want to be a vampire, and it seemed unless that was my end goal, anything Abbott and I did could only end in heartache.
However, I’d also made a decision long ago to never run from love because I was afraid of something. If I ran from Abbott, wouldn’t it be because I was afraid? Or, would the decision be based on logic since it just seems to be a bad idea for a human to fall for a vampire?
I fell asleep snuggling with Smokey.
Chapter Seventeen
Sunday morning I slept in, and both girls arrived home shortly after I awoke around eleven.
We spent most of the afternoon doing housework. Xiaolan is good at keeping the bathrooms clean, everything dusted, and the floors mopped and vacuumed, but we still needed to change the sheets on all the beds, do laundry, clean the refrigerator out, wipe down the kitchen cabinets… There was much to be done, but it was possible I just didn’t want to check my email and see the list Abbott sent me, so we cleaned.
Eventually, the house was spotless and there were no more excuses. The list Abbott sent was very thorough and would take hours to work through. I sent him an email telling him this wasn’t really something I could do with Lauren around, and I didn’t think I’d get anything done on it today. However, if he wanted to call me when he awakened then I’d be happy to come see him this evening and we could talk about some of it.
I also emailed James to let him know how my date with Abbott had gone — minus the vampire parts, of course.
Aaron wouldn’t want to know details, though I’d texted him the night before to let him know when I was home safely. Our code right now is some form of, “X is in for the night.” If I’m okay then I name a domestic animal on a farm, so the cows are in for the night, or the pigs are in for the night. If I’m not okay then I name a wild animal, so the bears are in for the night, or the raccoons are in for the night. Most of the time I think those codes are silly, but Aaron wants to make sure I’m safe, so I humor him.
I told Lauren and Xiaolan I’d probably have plans that afternoon and pointed out they would both need to go over their schoolwork so things would be fresh the next morning. There’s no need to tell Xiaolan this, of course, she’s one of the most conscientious students I’ve ever met. But she’s used to having parents stay on her about schoolwork, and likes it when I include her in the reminders I give Lauren, so I do. Though most American college kids would bristle at being told they need to spend some time studying.
We made taco salads for lunch and then started another jigsaw puzzle on the dining room table. This one was a thousand pieces and was of mountains and a waterfall. It would be here a while.
My phone rang shortly after three o’clock and it was Abbott letting me know he was up and wondered if I’d like to come visit.
I did the math and realized there were six and a half hours until I had to meet Mordecai. Did I really want to spend so much time with Abbott? I told him I’d come over for a few hours, kissed Lauren and hugged Xiaolan, and ran upstairs to grab my hiking boots. I was wearing jeans and a sweater, so I grabbed a light jacket on my way out the door. I had Crocs on for now, and if I didn’t make it home before meeting Mordecai I’d be dressed okay once I swapped the Crocs for hiking boots. When it comes to shoes, I generally go for comfort.
I arrived at the house and parked around back as Abbott had requested. A shapeshifter I hadn’t met let me in, gave me a creepy-assed stare, and then walked through the kitchen without saying anything. I stood still, unsure of what I should do, and he unlocked and opened a door and said, “Well, come on then.”
He motioned me into what would probably have been the pantry had this been a house full of humans. My heart skipped a beat as the door closed behind me, and I looked at another shapeshifter with uncertainty as he just stared at me a few seconds with no greeting. He finally looked to his phone, and I got the impression he was comparing me to a picture I couldn’t see.