Chapter 19 #2
I’m already shaking my head. “Audrey. My darling Audrey, I could never ask that of you.”
Small hands settle on my jaw and Audrey directs my gaze toward her earnest eyes, letting me see every emotion written there.
“Until now, everything in your entire existence has been temporary. Arran, going forward, I want to be the one permanent thing in your life. The one you can depend on. Someone to love and care for you and this community the way you love and care for them. I want you to be my laird, and I’ll be your lady. ”
“Audrey,” I repeat with utter disbelief, not fighting the tears running freely down my cheeks.
With steely determined eyes, Audrey lifts her chin. “I want you to bite me, Arran. Turn me. Let’s spend eternity together.”
For a moment, I can see it—our whole future together, right here in this castle.
It’s filled with light and laughter, with all kinds of creatures coming and going, community events, and dogs, and…
The vision fades as I think of the pain Audrey would go through to one day say goodbye to Tilly, her friends, their children, and all the others she loves as mortal lifetimes end around her.
I won’t subject her to the kind of hurt I’ve had to live through.
Especially not if she’s doing it for me.
Gently, I lift Audrey off my lap and resume the pacing I was doing earlier. I only manage two steps before I stop and whirl around again. “If I turned you into a monster like me, you’d resent me, Audrey. Eternity? Together? How could you offer me that kind of hope?”
Audrey jumps up from her seat and marches up to me.
She pokes me hard in the chest to punctuate her words.
“Because I love you, Arran. That’s why. I love Starry Hill.
The community you’ve built, the creatures, the vision and dream of the island.
I want to be a part of it. I want to help you, be by your side as we serve our clan. ”
Grabbing her shoulders, I try to make her see sense. “I don’t deserve that kind of love. I can’t give you the life, the future you deserve. I can’t give you a family, or children. I can’t protect you from the hurt of a thousand goodbyes. I can’t limit you to this island, to me.”
“Don’t be daft,” Audrey huffs, her eyes burning with angry tears.
“I don’t want children of my own. I had my tubes tied more than a decade ago.
Why do you think I let you cum inside of me?
And adventures? Who says we can’t have them?
I hate to break it to you, but there are other vampires out there living their best lives and traveling internationally, if they so wish.
The world has changed, Arran. Yes, there’s Starry Hill, and this community is special and needs to be treasured for the safe haven it is for so many creatures.
However, if you’d like to get on a boat or a plane, visit friends who used to live here, or see the world, nothing’s stopping you.
Nothing’s stopping us. We can have the future we want.
Together,” Audrey finishes, her voice wobbling and chest heaving.
“I—” Stepping back, I swipe at my tears with the back of my hand, and let her words sink in.
I didn’t realize the world had changed so much, that these options exist now. But still, would it be fair to condemn Audrey to eternity? To a life dependent on blood, a life fearing the sun?
And most importantly, would it be fair to limit her to a life with me?
“Arran,” Audrey whispers. “Do you love me?”
I press the heels of my hands to my eyes. “That’s not important. What is important is your life, your mortal life with your friends and family.”
“Do you love me?” Audrey repeats, steel returning to her voice.
“Audrey, that’s not the point. Being a vampire is difficult and—”
Voice rising, Audrey asks again, “Do you love me? Yes or no?”
“Of course I love you,” I shout, raising my arms in surrender.
“I’ve loved you since you sauntered into this castle and made it your home.
Since you took me out of the darkness and welcomed me into the light.
I never allowed myself to even dream of having a partner at my side, but then you came along like a star plucked right from the night sky and deposited straight into my gloom, brightening everything around you.
Audrey, not in my wildest imaginations, on my most desperate, lonely nights, would I have been able to wish for anyone as good as you. ”
Audrey’s voice hitches. “Do you want to spend the rest of eternity with me?”
“I can’t ask you—”
“Do you want—”
“Aye, yes,” I interrupt, striding back to Audrey and cradling her face in my hands. “The answer is yes, Audrey. It will always be yes for you. Whatever you ask. Yes, yes, yes.”
Our mouths crash together like we’ve been starved for oxygen and the other is our salvation.
I kiss Audrey with everything I have, everything I’ve not allowed myself to feel until now, and surrender my heart to her.
“I love you,” I say against her lips as I position her on the edge of the table.
“Took you long enough to say it,” Audrey admonishes as she undoes my kilt.
I shove her dress up her thighs and remove the tiny scrap of underwear. “Better get used to hearing it from now on.”
“Won’t tire of it,” Audrey says, wrapping her hand around my cock, gripping it just the way I like before lining me up at her entrance.
“Eternity,” I say as I push forward. “Together.”
Audrey’s cunt is warm and slick, welcoming me home as I drive my hips forward in one long thrust. When I’m fully seated, we take a moment to breathe each other in, the significance of everything we’ve just declared, decided, determined, enveloping us.
“I’m not turning you today,” I say as I pull out slowly. “But I’m going to feed from you. I want to feel your cunt clamp down on my cock as your blood fills my mouth and you scream my name.”
Audrey’s smile is small but filled with love and surety. “Better make it good then.”
I do. I fuck Audrey hard and slow, playing her body like my favorite instrument, driving her toward her climax before I tilt her head to the side and brush my lips over the rapid pulse in her neck.
“I love you,” Audrey whimpers. “I love you, Arran.”
With those words sounding like the most beautiful song in the history of the world, my teeth sink into Audrey’s skin and right into her jugular vein.
The taste of her pure bliss. It’s liquid starlight dancing over my tongue, whispering down my throat and buzzing through my veins. It kindles me from the inside and out, my climax igniting in its wake until my whole body burns with her goodness.
I make sure I don’t suck too hard or fast, wanting only the sensation to be the focus, this new connection something special, celebratory of the decisions we’ve made today.
“Arran, Arran, Arran,” comes a familiar refrain from Audrey as her cunt tightens around my cock, her nails digging into my back as she finds her own release.
My mouth leaves Audrey’s neck only long enough to cry her name too before my hips stutter and I explode, emptying myself into her pulsing cunt.
“You’re exquisite,” I say, laving at the closing wound in her neck.
I’ve gotten so used to drinking cold blood that I’ve forgotten how good it would taste to have it fresh, the warmth and sweetness so much better. But to have that trust between Audrey and me, that connection as we fall apart in each other’s arms—that is truly a gift.
“Fuck, Arran,” Audrey pants. “That was on a whole new level. Like, you’ve given me some pretty spectacular orgasms, but I think we have to try it this way again. Just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke or anything.”
“I plan on it,” I say as I wrap Audrey’s legs around my waist and carry her upstairs to do it all again.
And again.
And again.