“I guess.” Shrugging my shoulders, I thought I had found that once, but he turned out to be just another of the long line of men my mom paraded through our house. I hadn’t known it at the time, but she had arranged the whole thing with Brian. He wanted nothing more to do with me than giving away a few hundred dollars for a promise my mom made him for a pure virgin and the status he got from the sale of my mother’s only daughter.
“Hmm. Give me one night and I can promise you that you’ll believe me.”
“Why? Why me? I’m nobody.”
“No,” he barked as he flew out of the chair and landed in front of me like he had magically grown wings. He was standing an inch from my face with my chin cupped in his hand before I could blink. “That, my darling, is where you are so wrong. You are everything.”
“Who are you?” I tried to pull away from him, but his grip was strong and grew tighter the harder I fought. Giving in, I dropped my eyes to the floor and waited for him to see who and what I really was.
“I’m the one who will free you and love you forever.”
His lips softly landed on mine and I couldn’t fight him off. I didn’t want to. It might have been dumb, but I felt all of him touching me when his lips hit mine. Wave after wave of heat ran from my head to my toes as his lips lingered on mine. His hand never left the back of my head, but I felt him all over me.
My heart thumped so hard against my ribs, I was waiting for them to break and for it to jump out and land on the floor at his feet. I wanted to give in to him and give him all of me. Not knowing anything about him, and remembering how my mom was, made me want to resist him. The rest of me wanted nothing more than to give in and give him whatever he wanted.
“Stop fighting me. You won’t win, Alyssa.”
“How did you know my name? I never told you...”
“I told you,” he interrupted. “I know everything about you. You’re my mate and soon, you will see that too.”
His kisses became deeper, harder, and needier. I wanted to fight back, but he was right. There was no point in it. I wanted to be his as much as he wanted me to be. Feeling it all slip away, I started to give in.
“That’s my girl,” he whispered in my ear right before his lips landed on the side of my neck. I felt his tongue race up and down it leaving behind a trail of moisture. “This will only sting for a second. I need you to trust me.”
I felt something pierce my tender flesh and my hand instinctively went to where I felt the pain. I couldn’t get to it though. He was still on me and had my neck in between his teeth. The pressure increased along with the pain and I started to scream. Feeling weak, I started to collapse to the floor. I never made it far though, and his arms were around my waist. A few more seconds, that felt like years, and his mouth came away from me. I looked up and saw my blood dripping off his chin before he wiped it away with the back of his hand.
“You will be mine forever now,” he said as he licked the last drop of blood from the corner of his mouth.
“What did you do?” I asked. I tried to steady myself, but the room spun, and I fought back the urge to vomit.
“I made you mine forever. This feeling will only last for a moment and then you will see what gift I have just given you. My bride to be.”
“Bride? Gift? What are you...”
“Shh. Let me hold you until it passes.”
I felt his arm under me as he scooped me up like I weighed nothing and carried me down the hall. He moved straight to my bedroom like he had been in my house before other than just in my kitchen. Leaving the lights off, he laid me on the bed. I felt him climb in after me as his weight made the old, worn out mattress shift.
“Feeling better?” he asked as he started to untie my dress.
“A little.”
“Good. Let me make you feel all the way better.”
He had my clothes off in no time and when I felt him next to me again, I could tell his were off too. His body was cool to the touch, but it didn’t feel that way for long. Soon, his temp was the same as mine.
Nervously, I reached out my hand, placing it on his chest. I felt all the muscles he had as I traced their outline with the tips of my fingers. Moving from them to his arm, I could easily feel how it had been so effortless for him to carry me. He hid his muscles well under his puffy sleeved shirt. My hand traveled to his stomach and when it landed there, I gasped. He had more than a six pack. Muscles landed on top of muscles and when he flexed, his ridges in between them turned into valleys.
“It’s all for you, Alyssa. Everything I have done for the past hundred plus years has been for you.”
“A hundred years,” I laughed. “I must be drunk somehow. There is no chance you are that old. If you are, then I must be too.”
“Not yet. But you know the gift I gave you?”
“The bite?” My hand went again to my neck. It no longer hurt, and I could hardly feel the marks any longer.
“Yes. The bite. That was my gift of immortality to you. You will stay young and beautiful like you are right now, forever. You will never age another day even if we make it to five hundred. I chose you to be my mate for life. You are the one I have saved my love for.”
“But how?”
“I was bitten over a hundred years ago by a woman I thought loved me. I was young and dumb, but she taught me all I needed to know about living the best life I could. She gave me what I gave you, only, I didn’t get the joy of having her as my mate. I didn’t love her like I love you.”
“How can you love me? You don’t even know me.”
“But I do know you. I have known you for a long time. It just took me a while to find you.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I know. You will, though. It takes time and that I have for you.”
His lips were on mine again and when his hands found my body, it responded in a way I had never experienced before. It was like it knew his touch even though it was the first time. It responded to his every command. If I had wanted to resist him, it wouldn’t have let me.
Relaxing, I gave into him and let him take me on a journey I had only dreamt about as a dumb girl. There was fire and passion floating between us. The longer we indulged in each other, the more in love with him I became. By the time we were both done, there was nothing left to do but hold each other.
“Alyssa, I know you don’t understand it all yet, but you will. I need you to trust me though when I tell you I love you.”
“What are you?” I asked again. I hoped after our love making he would take down his tough act and let me in a little like he was asking me to do for him.
“We,” he stressed, “are vampires.”
“Vampires? Like in the children’s stories about the creatures of the night that go around biting and sucking the blood out of people? Those kinds of vampires?”
“Yes, but it is so much more than that. I will teach you all of it and always be here for you. I won’t do to you what some have done. I waited for you, and I will always show you the right way.”
“Why me?”
“Have you ever looked at someone and could tell if they were good or bad?”
“Yes, I guess.”
“I can smell that in people. You will be able to also once you learn that skill. I could smell your goodness from the edge of town. You drew me into you and once I saw you, I knew you had to be mine. But there is more to it too. I’ve dreamt about you for years. I knew what you would look like and what you would taste like long before I came into this nothing town. You’re the reason I’m here. I let my senses find you and I was smart enough to follow them.”