Cherishing Destiny (A Dangerous Destiny) Read online

  Her long slender legs looked endless with the heels she wore. If he concentrated, he could drown out all of the noise in the room and focus in on the sound her heels made as she moved across the floor. She glanced to her right briefly, and he caught sight of her perfect profile. She looked thoughtful and just a little melancholy.

  His brow creased slightly as always when he was concerned about something. He only wanted Aurora’s happiness, and he hoped that this vague sadness that she had been recently displaying was a passing mood.

  Alex turned back to the man he had been speaking with, Samuel Gates. Gates was a Vampire and an influential member of their council, just as Alex and Aurora were. Gates had followed Alex’ gaze during his momentary distraction, and Alex could see that he was not the only one appreciating his wife’s fascinating beauty. He was used to men and even some women, staring openly at his wife. There was just something about her that made everyone acutely aware of her presence. But, with Vampires, there was no hiding thoughts of lust and arousal. The pupils dilated, and a heat rose within, causing a red glow in the eyes. The same thing sometimes happened when hunting human prey, at least it had back in the time when hunting humans was still allowed.

  Gates watched Aurora with a hunger, a red glow deep in his pupils. The effect was like telling Alex out load that he intended to take his wife in every sense. Alex felt an ache in his upper jaw as his fangs wanted to descend in response to Gate’s insult.

  Gates snapped his stare back from Aurora when he felt the anger that shot off of Alex. He had the sense to lower his gaze. He suddenly became exceedingly interested in an invisible spot on his jacket. He rubbed at it with his thumb and made fussing noises as if upset that a spot would dare to appear on his jacket. When he raised his head, his eyes were normal, and he played it as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

  Alex was disgusted by the display, but he did not lose his temper easily. He felt his fangs receding before they ever fully erupted. He politely excused himself and walked away from Gates, following his wife to the terrace. It briefly occurred to him what this scene would have been like a thousand years ago. In spite of himself, he grinned when he thought of the blood and gore that would have ensued from such an insult. This was not then, and Vampires were different now. Yes, he thought, Vampires were nothing if not polite.

  Three

  When they entered their home, a sizable estate by any standard, Aurora let her wrap slide from her shoulders to be caught in the waiting arms of a human housekeeper. She did not even look to see if the woman was there before she let it fall. If the woman had not been there, the wrap would have fallen to the floor in a heap, awaiting someone to retrieve it. Aurora was not unkind to her household staff, but she rarely noticed them and did not choose to remember most of their names.

  She went straight to the cozy den that was her favorite room in the sixteen thousand square foot house where only she and Alex lived. There were half a dozen household staff that resided on the premises as well, but she never thought of them as actually living in the home. It seemed more to her that they were there to be available at all times should they be needed.

  She took a bottle of blood from a small refrigerator that was built into the cabinetry and disguised by the matching door panel.

  She placed the bottle in a warmer and sat down on the comfortably worn, over stuffed, leather chair, kicking off her shoes. Alex moved to the matching sofa and pulled at his bow tie until it was hanging loose around his neck and his collar was unbuttoned.

  Two staff members, a man and a woman came in and moved about the room silently performing their duties without being asked a thing by Aurora or Alex. The man carried in a small armload of wood, pine logs from the wonderful smell, and set about building a fire in the stone hearth.

  The woman took crystal glasses and a matching decanter from a cabinet near the refrigerator. She removed the warmed bottle of blood and poured the glasses as casually as if it were scotch she was pouring. If it bothered her that she was serving human blood, it didn’t show in her actions. She decanted the rest and brought both the glasses and the decanter on a small tray to the table nearest the Lakes. She left the room with the empty bottle never having said a word.

  The fire began to pop and crackle, and when he seemed satisfied that it was not going to go out, the man left the room just as silently. Alex and Aurora sipped the blood, and it brought a soft, warm glow with it. Even their skin tone seemed to warm a little, a touch of pink coming to Aurora’s smooth white cheeks.

  They did not speak but just looked at each other. So much in their lives was unspoken between them after so many centuries together. Sometimes it seemed that words were unnecessary. Alex moved to the foot stool in front of Aurora and lifted her feet into his lap. He began rubbing them one at a time, working his thumbs into the muscles. After a while, he lowered the foot that he had been massaging, placing it between his legs and on the spot where his dress pants were beginning to feel a little tight.

  Aurora smiled and wiggled her toes around the outline that was now showing against the fabric of his pants. He let out a soft groan, but dutifully began working on her other foot.

  She basked in his attention, and he rubbed her feet merely because he loved to touch every part of her. They both knew that her feet were not sore or tired. Had her heels caused her any pain, it would have been gone seconds after she removed them. Vampires healed almost instantly. Vampires, known for their extreme passion both in love and sex, were truly creatures of touch and sensations. Alex and Aurora were no exception. They loved each other deeply, and that had not changed in all of the time they had been together.

  Alex watched Aurora’s face as she leaned back in the chair with her eyes closed. If someone tried to guess her age, they would not think she was more than thirty. She had beautiful, smooth skin. Her mouth was perfectly shaped, lips just slightly on the generous side.

  Her eyes were the impossibly bold colors of all Vampire eyes. In her case that color was blue, an electric blue so shockingly brilliant that it was difficult for Alex, even though he was Vampire, to resist being mesmerized by her eyes. It was the reason that people looked after her wistfully when she walked away, even if they could not tell you why they only wanted to please her.

  His own eyes were a shimmering gold that matched well with his tawny hair. In centuries past, when it was fashionable for a man to be bearded and to wear his hair very long, Aurora had called him her lion. He had laughed at her and tickled her face with his “mane.”

  His feelings for her were tender, but their passion for each other was anything but. Thinking back on it, he thought she might have been right in comparing him to the predator cat. In those years, they were still hunters. Prey was not to be pitied or casually released. They had been fierce. They had been killers, and the humans were their prey.

  Everything had eventually changed. Vampires no longer concealed themselves from humans. Humans were no longer hunted and killed, but the Vampires still needed human blood to survive. As Vampires and humans began to cohabit in the population centers, laws were passed in both the human governments and the Vampire council to protect both species from harm.

  The Vampires were primarily wealthy and powerful, and willing donors for bottled blood were not in short supply. The Vampires also fed on living humans in non-lethal amounts as long as it was voluntary. In this, there was also no shortage of willing participants. The bite of the Vampire was a true aphrodisiac. Many of the Vampires had relations with humans, feeding on them before or during their passionate trysts.

  Over the last two hundred years of this arrangement, clubs that specialized in Vampire/ human interaction, that included feeding, had been quick to appear. The majority of humans seemed to be fascinated or enraptured with the Vampires. The detractors had little power and the Vampires enjoyed two hundred years of wealth, influence and control without the need to conceal their nature. It had all become extremely cordial. As Alex had noted earlier, the Vampires we
re nothing if not polite.

  Alex realized that he had lost track of how long he had been gazing into Aurora’s sparkling blue eyes. He was still rubbing her foot and she was looking deep into his eyes with a little smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

  Her other foot was still between his legs, moving rhythmically over the length of him which was now straining against the cloth of his pants. He saw the red glow building in her widening pupils. He felt the heat rising in himself and knew that she was seeing the same light in his own eyes.

  They had returned early from the party, and it would be several hours before dawn came and they would feel the urge to sleep. Alex wanted to spend every minute of this time pleasing Aurora. He loved to see her happy, aroused and passionate. She had seemed so detached and disconnected from her life lately. It was only when she was alone with him that the vibrant woman he knew so well made an appearance.

  He did not know how long they sat silently, together, with just that small physical contact between them, but mentally and emotionally they were entwined already. He barely noticed when the housekeeper returned to collect the tray with the empty glasses. Aurora never even blinked while still looking deeply into his eyes. He felt his fangs emerging in reaction to his growing arousal.

  As the housekeeper was leaving, without looking away from Aurora, he said to her, “Draw a bath.” His voice was low and husky in the moment.

  The woman acknowledged the order without making a sound, just a nod of her head, before leaving the room. Alex didn’t need to hear her speak to know that he would be immediately obeyed.

  He gently lifted Aurora’s feet from his lap and slid from beneath them, carefully placing them on the cushion he vacated. He unfolded himself, releasing some of the pressure that his erection was causing. He rose to his full height, arching his back a little in a stretch.

  Aurora was tall for a woman, he often noted while admiring her long, slender legs, but he stood about half a head taller at 6’4. He placed kisses on her forehead when she stood in front of him because the smooth skin was just there for his lips.

  He moved around her chair until he stood behind her, breaking the gaze that they had been holding. He instinctively felt the loss of that connection. She must have felt the disconnection, as well. Her head dropped forward slightly, shifting her focus down to her own lap. She closed her eyes when his fingers gently brushed her neck. He pulled a single long hair pin from the careless pile of burgundy curls on her head. The whole mass of her dark, shiny hair fell, cascading over her shoulders and down her arms brushing the top of her thighs. He put his hands in the fall of silky locks and arranged them over her shoulders while running the strands through his fingers.

  He remembered that her hair had been more of an auburn shade before she became a Vampire. Something in the change altered the one transformed. “You will be just a little more” he told her then. “You will look the same but also different. It is you but amplified.”

  Aurora had been tall for a woman of her time to begin with, but after the change she was 5’10”, towering above men and women of that century. Her dark auburn hair became a deep, luscious burgundy, a slightly unreal shade that women of the present time paid a lot of money to achieve. As with all Vampires, her eyes were a brilliant version of what they had been.

  Alex’ own eyes had been a light caramel brown in his life, but transformation had given him the shimmery golden hue that Aurora loved so well. His body had altered itself similarly. He knew he was taller than he had been. His shoulders had broadened, and his already hard muscles had turned to chiseled perfection.

  He leaned over the back of the chair and buried his face in her hair, taking in her scent. His voice was slightly muffled against her when he said, “I want to bathe you, tonight.”

  She lifted her face toward him. “That would be wonderful,” she said in a breathy whisper.

  He moved so fast that she hardly saw it, but suddenly he was in front of her again grasping her hands and pulling her to her feet and into his arms. He nuzzled her throat, pushing her chin higher as he moved up her long, slender neck. She could feel the sharp tips of his teeth behind his lips, minutely grazing her skin as he kissed her. Her own teeth descended so quickly in response that she could taste a little of her own blood where they had punched through.

  He moved to her lips, licking and sucking the tiny smear of her blood. She felt his heat on her face, and when she opened her eyes, she saw the red fire in his eyes. The tiny taste of her blood inflamed him, and he wanted more. The passionate bite of a Vampire was exhilarating for Vampires and pleasurable for humans, creating a mild euphoria. And, while Alex might not be able to live on Aurora’s blood, it was part of the passion between them and brought them closer.

  He slid his hands to her waist, nearly encircling her with his strong fingers. His eyes went to the ample swell of her bosom, pushing above the bodice of her gown. He bent to her breast and sank his teeth into the inviting flesh. Her blood burst into his mouth, and he released his bite to lick it from his lips and her milky white skin. The punctures had healed almost as fast as he’d made them.

  He missed a droplet of blood, and it dripped down onto her spectacular gown.

  “I’m so sorry, my love. I hope it’s not stained. You were so beautiful in it this evening.” He clearly felt badly about it.

  “It is only a dress, love.” She did not even bother to look at the stain. She just undid the clasp behind her neck and let the whole thing slide to the floor. She gave him a little smile that was calculated to look just a bit shy and a little naughty at the same time. He almost laughed aloud. He loved her playful side, but as she stepped out of the dress, closer to him, and started exploring his body with her hands, he knew she was feeling more than playful.

  She pressed her lips to his throat at the base where it joined his perfectly muscled shoulder and breathed deeply of his masculine scents. She smelled the musky odor of his arousal underneath the smell of clean skin and soap. She had always thought that his skin faintly reminded her of fresh water, like a glacial spring or a high mountain lake.

  She traced her tongue lightly along the vein in his neck until her lips met his chiseled jaw. She followed the line of it for a moment, feeling the heat coming off of him. He did not seem at all glacial at the moment. His inner fire was feeding her own arousal, and her hands found the opening where he had unbuttoned his collar earlier. She tore the shirt in two, pulling the pieces down his corded arms and flinging them to the floor on either side of him. She heard buttons, or maybe his cufflinks, skittering across the floor.

  Her hands found the smooth planes of his chest, and she dragged her nails lightly down his skin to his rippled abs. Her eyes closed as she groaned softly into the space beneath his chin. She did not need to see him to know him. Every inch of his perfect body was etched in complete detail in her memories. They shared more than a millennium of passion that had never dwindled.

  One benefit of all the long years together was the way that she undid his pants, one-handed, with practiced ease. They fell from his narrow hips and pooled around his ankles. He was not wearing anything underneath, and her finger traced a faint line of downy hair from his navel down to the small patch of tawny curls that surrounded his, truly impressive, manhood.

  Her hand brushed against the velvety softness stretched taut over the steel of his erection. It seemed to move of its own volition, seeking more of her attention and after reaching down to gently cup the tightly drawn up package below, she wrapped her fingers firmly around the base of his seeking cock. She explored the length of him and began to seek his rhythm, still licking and sucking gently at the skin of his throat. Her fangs found his vein, and she could not help but draw his blood, just a taste. He was intoxicating, and as she withdrew her fangs and his punctures closed, she used her tongue to gather every last droplet.

  When Alex felt his wife sink her teeth into his flesh, he nearly lost the hold he was maintaining on his arousal. His erection had beco
me a thick staff in her soft hand, almost painfully hard, but he was not ready to let go just yet.

  When she released her bite on his neck, he plunged his face to meet hers and found her soft lips with his blood still wet on them. He parted them with his tongue, gently at first, then harder as she responded to him with her own need. He plundered her gorgeous mouth. Their tongues entwined, lips seeking, biting, sucking, lost in each other.

  He had to move her hand from his throbbing hard-on before he lost control. His own hands moved to her hips and pulled her against him. He felt a mild roughness from the bit of lace she had chosen for her only undergarment that evening, and it was less than a second before he parted them from her. He pressed himself solidly against her smooth abdomen as she pushed back at him. He squeezed her firm buttocks just a little roughly, then he slid his hands over her silky skin until he found the soft mounds of her breasts, kneading them more gently. He felt the weight of them in the palms of his hands, brushing his thumbs over her nipples that hardened into pebbles under his touch. Her breasts were milky white, not overly large, but certainly ample. They were soft but firm, a benefit of eternal youth, and the tips were colored a dusty rose. He rolled those little rosebuds between his thumb and forefingers and she released his mouth to gasp her pleasure.

  He took the opportunity to move his lips down her slender neck to the spot just between the breasts he was fondling. He nuzzled the flesh that was pressing against his cheeks from both sides. His hands moved to encircle her breasts as he took first one and then the other little bud into his mouth. He sucked each of them softly for just a brief moment, just long enough to make them push out even further. Then he moved his lips and tongue on down her taut belly to his ultimate goal. Before his hands moved away, he gave each nipple a tiny pinch. Aurora’s head was back, and she moaned softly.