The Sacrifice (28 page)

Aiden’s hand on my hip is like steel. “You’re topping from the
bottom again, Emma. If you’re hoping for a punishment fuck, it’s not going to
happen. You’re too tender inside right now to be used roughly.”

I moan in frustration. “Master,
please
.”

“I will, however, come in you,” he murmurs, relenting a little.
“Get ready, Emma. I’m going to flood your pussy. Going to fill you up.”

The hot words, coupled with the feel of his fingers spreading and exploring
my slippery cunt, is suddenly too much. I can feel my pleasure growing, the
orgasm starting deep inside me and exploding outward, like a star going nova
around a fixed point in space.

“Aiden!” I gasp at the same time he groans my name. And then the
pleasure takes me. As it does, I feel the warm, wet jets of his cum, this time
spurting deep inside me, bathing the mouth of my womb and filling me up just as
he promised.

I feel like I’ll never stop coming. Long after the pleasure should
have ebbed, my pussy keeps clenching, pulling against the thick cock inside me,
as though milking Aiden for every last drop of his seed. He stays where he is,
rock solid inside me, filling me to the hilt—well, almost—as he finishes his
own orgasm.

When the tide of pleasure finally ebbs, I fully expect him to pull
out. But for some reason, he doesn’t. Instead, he pulls me more firmly into his
arms and kisses me gently on the back of my neck, murmuring my name.

The cramps are utterly and completely gone now and with them, all
the tension I was feeling earlier. I feel bonelessly relaxed and suddenly I’m
tired, so sleepy I can barely keep my eyes open. “Aiden,” I whisper, yawning.
“Master…”

“Go to sleep, darling,” he says softly. “Your body needs rest.”

“Like…like this?” I ask, indicating the way he’s still filling me,
as hard as though he’d never come at all.

“Why not—does it bother you?” He sounds amused.

“No,” I admit. “I…I like it. But I thought…thought you didn’t
sleep with anyone.”

“I’m making an exception.” He kisses the back of my neck. “Go to
sleep, Emma. We can talk more in the morning. We’re long overdue for it.”

His words bring a barrage of questions to my lips but my eyelids
are so heavy I can’t keep them open anymore. Lulled by the comforting feeling
of my master’s thickness still lodged deep within me and his strong arms around
me, I finally drift off to sleep.

Chapter Nineteen

“Wake up, Emma. You barely touched your dinner last night—you must
be famished.”

I wake up feeling rested and refreshed, and open my eyes to warm
golden sunlight pouring in through the windows. Aiden is already up and smiling
at me. He’s wearing a pair of faded jeans and nothing else—is he skipping the
office today? Usually he goes in rain or shine, weekday or weekend no matter
what. He’s definitely a workaholic. Not that I’m complaining, after last night
I’m more than eager to spend the morning with my shirtless vampire master. Just
look at all those muscles on display.
Yum.

“Barnes made us some breakfast.” Aiden nods at a silver tray
sitting on the dresser. Now that he mentions it, I can smell the tantalizing
aroma of scrambled eggs and toast drifting through the air. There’s also a
teapot with a wisp of steam rising from its spout. “Do you want to shower or
eat first?” Aiden asks.

I open my mouth to say 'eat' and then remember what a sticky mess
I am from the waist down. “I’ll shower,” I say quickly. “But don’t start
without me.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he says dryly. “Hurry up, then.”

I scoot out of bed, noticing a few dark red spots on the sheets as
I do. My period has already almost run its course but I’m still mortified about
the evidence it has left behind.

“Don’t worry about the sheets,” Aiden says gently, breaking my train
of thought. “They’re not important.”

It feels important to me but I don’t know what else to say.
Quickly, I disappear into the master bathroom and take the fastest shower I
can. When I come out, wrapped in towels, Aiden has changed the sheets and made
up the bed.

“Come. Sit.” He motions for me to sit back against the mountain of
pillows propped against the headboard. “We’ll have breakfast in bed this
morning.”

Still wrapped in towels, I settle myself on the bed and look at
him warily. He seems like a completely different man than he was last night.
He’s relaxed and smiling and seemingly not mad at me at all. Is this all
because of the sex (or almost sex) we had last night? Or has he just decided to
forgive me for breaking the rules?

“What is it, Emma?” Aiden says, settling on the bed beside me with
the tray in his hands. “I can see your mind going a hundred miles a minute. You
might as well tell me what you’re thinking.”

“I’m just wondering…thank you.” I take the cup of tea from him.
“Wondering why you’re not mad at me anymore?”

“Oh, I’m still upset by your flagrant disregard for my
rules—especially your removal of the harness,” he says, giving me a stern look.
“And don’t worry, darling—you
will
be punished for that. But…” He sighs
and takes a sip of tea. “You have a right to be angry with me as well. I’ve
been on my own so long I tend to keep my own counsel. I don’t…share things
easily.”

I give a soft snort of laughter. “Now,
that’s
an
understatement. But thank you…” I put a hand on his leg. “For admitting you
were wrong, too.”

He raises an eyebrow at me. “I don’t concede that I’m
wrong
exactly—there
are still some things about me and the situation we are in together that you’re
not ready to know. But I understand your frustration and…” He sighs again. “I’ll
make a concerted effort to be more open with you in the future.”

“So…I can ask you questions and you’ll tell me what I want to
know?” I look at him hopefully.

“Within reason,” Aiden says, frowning. “But yes, ask away.”

Questions rise to my lips so fast they almost choke me but what
comes out first is, “Tell me about Katherine.”

A look of intense pain passes over Aiden’s chiseled features and
he closes his eyes briefly. “Ah, you would ask me that. Not that I blame
you—doubtless you’ve heard of her untimely demise.”

“Not really,” I say honestly. “I mean, I heard that she was a
witch and that she died but not…not exactly how.”

Aiden sighs. “Very well. But in order to explain her death, I’ll
need to tell you about her life. She was an extraordinary woman and I loved her
with all that was in me.” He hands me a plate with scrambled eggs and toast
just the way I like it—no butter but plenty of strawberry jam. “You’d best eat.
This is a long tale and your food will be cold if you wait until I’m done.”

Obediently, I pick up a piece of toast and begin to nibble. Aiden
puts the tray to one side and takes a sip from his tea mug, gathering his
thoughts. His gray eyes go silver, as though remembering something from long,
long ago—something buried in the past. And then he begins.

“I found Katherine in the woods to the north of here over a
hundred years ago. In those days Tampa was little more than an overgrown town.
Florida was the least populous state in the union for years, you know. It was
too hot and swampy here for most people. As a vampire, the heat and humidity
didn’t bother me, especially since I was, at that time, confined to the night
as most of my kind are.”

Hmm, interesting. So he hadn’t had the ability to walk in sunlight
back then. I eye the heavy gold and onyx ring on his hand again but say
nothing. Aiden takes another sip of tea and continues.

“When I came upon Katherine, she was being assaulted.”

I frown. “Assaulted…how?”

“Raped.” A look of pain passes over his face again. “She was being
raped.”

“What?” I spill my tea on my leg in agitation and have to wipe it
up hastily with a linen napkin. “I mean, really?”

“Really.” He nods grimly. “I was out hunting in the woods and I
heard her screams. A group of human men had her—they had discovered she was a
witch and decided that was reason enough to brutalize her.”

“Oh, no.” I put a hand to my mouth. “Could you…did you stop them?”

Aiden closes his eyes briefly. “Regrettably, by the time I got
there considerable damage had already been done. I pulled them off her and dispatched
them—”

“Dispatched?” I ask softly.

“I killed them.” Aiden bares his fangs in a display I’m glad isn’t
meant for me. “I ripped their throats out and drank their blood. There were
five of them and I was alone but all the same, it only took a matter of
minutes.”

I’ve seen how fast he can move and I know how strong he is so this
comes as no surprise. I have to shiver anyway, though. This is the first time
Aiden has ever talked about hunting and killing humans around me.

“Was she all right?” I whisper, and then realize what a stupid
question that is. “I mean, was she badly hurt?”

“She had some bruises and contusions—some inner trauma.” He
glances between my legs and I cross them hastily, understanding his meaning.
“But her mind was more broken than her body.” Aiden sighs deeply. “
When
I came to her she
tried to fight me off at first. Not because I was a vampire but because I was
male. I didn’t blame her, of course.” He runs a hand through his hair. “When I
finally made her believe that I had no intention of continuing the brutality
the human bastards had been inflicting on her, she begged me to kill her.”

“Oh, no.” I put a hand to my mouth, my breakfast forgotten.

He nods. “Yes. She…wanted to die after what had been done to her.
Virginity was much more important back then, even among witches, and hers had
been taken from her in the most brutal way possible. There wasn’t as much
freedom to do as you pleased and marry or not as you chose. Most women, even
witches, found a husband. There was no other way to fit into the human
community.”

I nod thoughtfully. “And of course, she would have a hard time
finding one after…that.”

“I swore to her that no one else had seen—that I had killed all
the men who hurt her,” Aiden says softly. “But she told me there were others—two
who had left before I got there.” His eyes burn silver for an instant. “I took
care of them later. But at that moment, my whole focus was on Katherine. There
was something about her that drew me. As a vampire—a predator—I should have
wanted nothing more than to finish her off. She was wounded prey—my natural
instinct should have been to kill.”

“But you couldn’t, could you?” I whisper.

“No.” He shakes his head. “I don’t know if it was her magic or
some of my old human instincts coming back. I was still a fairly new vampire,
having just recently left she-who-made-me. All of my training before my vampire
life began had instilled in me the necessity of being careful and gentle with
the fairer sex. My human mother, especially, emphasized self-control and gentlemanly
conduct. So consideration for ladies was ever uppermost in my mind.” He laughs
softly. “She’s been dead well over a hundred years but the things I learned at
her knee are still some of the only parts of my human past I recall vividly.”

“She’d be proud of you, I’m sure,” I say softly.

“Would she?” Aiden looks at me steadily. “After seeing what I have
become? I doubt it, my darling. But I do have few fleeting moments in my past I
can look back on without shame. My treatment of Katherine is one of those.”

“What did you do with her?” I ask, fascinated by the story of my
master’s long lost love.

“I took her back with me to my house. It was a much smaller,
wooden structure but it was built right here, on this site.” He indicates the
house around us. “This land has belonged to my family for generations—it’s
where I go to ground. Where I feel most comfortable.”

I can’t help looking around me, imaging what it must have been
like. I can almost picture Aiden carrying the injured, weeping girl in his arms
and laying her gently on the bed. Comforting her as he comforted me last night.
“What happened then?” I ask.

“I put her in a sleep trance,” he says. “It’s not magic—we can’t
do magic, as you know. It’s more like the technique a cobra uses to fascinate a
mouse. We usually use it for hunting and capturing prey. In Katherine’s case, I
did it to give her time to heal.”

“And did she?”

“In time.” He frowns. “Her body was young and strong but her
mind…” He shakes his head. “I’m afraid she was never completely free of what
had been done to her. It made her sexual tastes…peculiar, when they finally
emerged.”

I raise an eyebrow at him. “Peculiar?”

He laughs briefly. “Well, no more peculiar than what you and I
have been doing for the past month, I suppose. But back then, the erotic
practice of Domination and submission wasn’t nearly so well known or
widespread.”

“I imagine not. But…” I hesitate, trying to think how to phrase my
question delicately. “I don’t understand how Katherine could want to be…to be
dominated after what she’d been through.”

“Oh she didn’t,” Aiden says blandly. “It was she who did the
dominating.
I
submitted to
her.”