"Maybe," she replied, as she quickly shed her coat. Her fingers were trembling from the cold and she had trouble unb.u.t.toning the shirt that she was wearing, my shirt.

"Here," I said, setting my coat aside. "Let me help you."

"You're really immortal?" she asked me again.

I finished unb.u.t.toning the shirt and slid it off her shoulders. She was wearing a black bra underneath.

"We've gone over this."

"Right," she said as I unzipped her boots and pulled them off, tossing them aside.

"Stake through the heart?"

"Wounds heal instantly. I'm impervious, Violet."

"How can that be?"

"You mean the science of it? I don't know."

I laid her damp shirt onto the rocks and then turned back and dropped to my knees

before her. "The shirt's not too bad. It's only gotten slightly wet in the front."

I unsnapped the top b.u.t.ton of her blue jeans and then pulled down the rasp of the zipper to reveal a pair of black cotton panties. Who knew that cotton could be so s.e.xy?

"And there are others like you?"

"Of course."

"How long?"

I slid the jeans past her hips and down the length of her stocking clad legs. I ran my

hand over the fishnet, trailing it up her calf, behind her knee, over the top of her thigh, and then up to cup the firm globe of her a.s.s. Then I looked up at her. "My entire life, three hundred and seventy-nine years. And in all that time... I've never seen anything quite so lovely as you."

Violet reached down and caressed the side of my face. "So you were... What do they call it, sired? You were sired in 1627?"

"You're good at math."

"That's nothing; you should see me do long division.""Step out of these. Yes, they call it sired. But they are idiots. The sired thing? It'scomplete nonsense."

She placed her hand on my shoulder and then slowly stepped out of her jeans. I tossed

them onto the rock that I had just been sitting on and stood up to retrieve my bedroll.

"I was born, Violet, just like you," I explained. I positioned the bedroll close to the fire.

"My father, Astor, was a vampire. My mother, Lillian, a human."

"Are they..."

"Dead."

"I'm sorry," she said.

I picked up the blanket I had brought. "Don't be. It's the natural order of things. Like with Fred and Grace. Fred was my sister, Violet. She, too, was a vampire."

"But, I don't understand. You said vampires are immortal."

I sat down on the pallet and patted the s.p.a.ce next to me. "Come."

She hesitated.

"Come, Violet. I'm not going to bite you," I teased.

"You're not?" she gulped.

"No. I'm not going to lie to you, Vi. The thought of tasting you is very tempting. But the blood of a human, it isn't something to take, something to steal."

"Right, only the warped vampires do that," she said matter-of-factly. "You're obviously not one of those."

"No," I laughed. "I'm only mildly neurotic."

She walked over, sat down beside me, and then stretched out, her body next to mine.

I wrapped my arm around her waist and then swiftly rolled. She was on top of me for an instant, then I had her positioned so that she was closest to the fire. Reflections from the orange glow of the flames danced across her face.

"Amazing," she whispered, searching my eyes.

"What?"

"You. We're not from two different worlds, Ren. We're from the same world. It's just that

until yesterday we didn't know it," she said, reaching up to trace the outline of my

mouth. "Well, you knew about me-"

"Violet, relationships between humans and vampires... Well, they aren't supposed to happen. Without meaning to... I've affected you, making you want me. I don't want you doing something that you'll later regret."

"Regret? No regrets, Ren," she whispered, rubbing her soft cheek against mine. "Tell me this doesn't feel right to you. Tell me you don't want me as much as I want you. Tell me this...my coming here...tell me it wasn't meant to be."

"You don't understand. You don't appreciate what it all means, trust me. You're not prepared to live with the consequences," I told her. But even as I said it, my hand

wandered to her breast. I cupped it in my palm, feeling the weight of it and wanting my mouth on it.

"I know one thing," she said as she leaned up, brushing her lips against mine. "I know I'm not prepared to just walk away from this, from you."

I reached my hand back behind her neck, pulling her towards me, crushing my lips to hers, unleashing the pa.s.sion that I felt, the pa.s.sion that I'd been holding back. She released a moan, opened her mouth and I slid my tongue inside. I reminded myself that she was wanting, willing and I slowed down, so that I could savor her.

"I want you," she gasped, breaking off the kiss and reaching for the buckle of my belt.

"Violet-" I began. She silenced me, placing a finger over my lips.

"Shh. I'm a big girl, Ren. I know what I'm doing. I want you so much. Make love to me, Ren. Make love to me."

I heard it as she pulled down the zipper of my trousers and then I felt her hand as it wrapped around my c.o.c.k. Her hand may have been cold, but her touch warmed me like no other. She squeezed me slightly and then stroked me confidently up and down my shaft. It made me impossibly harder. My resistance was crumbling and I no longer cared. I wanted her, this, plain and simple.

"This isn't just s.e.x, Violet."

"Oh, Ren," she moaned, taking my hand and leading it inside her panties, guiding my fingers to her moistened curls. "Feel that? Feel what you do to me? Feel how much I want you."

I sat up and pulled my sweater off over my head, then tossed it carelessly onto the dusty floor of the cave along with my fears and doubts, along with the prejudiced judgments that I had lived with for centuries.

Violet reached out for me and I fell back into her waiting arms. I kissed a path from behind her ear down the length of her neck, enjoying the cool feel of her skin beneath my warm mouth. I could hear the blood rushing in her veins and the promise of even a drop of it was almost overwhelming. The low rumble began to build, unbidden, in my chest. I steadily moved down her body, intent on devouring her, tasting every inch of her.

She was magnificent, spread out beneath me, breathing heavily. Violet's chest was rising and falling as I lowered the cups of her bra fully revealing her exquisite b.r.e.a.s.t.s to me. I palmed one, rolling its already pebbled nipple between my thumb and forefinger before bending down and giving freely into my yearning need to latch onto it.

"Christ! Oh! Oh, Ren!" she gasped as she reached down and threaded her fingers through my hair.

The head of my c.o.c.k was rubbing up and down along the outside of her panties. I could feel her dampness through the thin barrier. "I want to be inside of you," I admitted, releasing her breast and looking deep into her eyes.

Violet reached down and rubbed her hand across the head of my c.o.c.k, spreading the moisture that she discovered there.

"I want that, too," she whispered.

"I don't have any protection. I- I've never needed it before. Vampire women, they can't have children. I-"

"I've got that covered, Ren," she said as she slid her panties aside and guided me.

My eyes locked on hers. The head of my c.o.c.k brushed up against her soft curls and she gasped, then smiled and nodded her encouragement. I tilted my hips forward, wanting only to be closer, to be in her, to feel her wet heat surround me. I slid between her lips, separating her folds, slipping past her swollen c.l.i.t. She was slick with desire, desire for me, a vampire.

Her tongue darted out to wet her lips and she closed her eyes.

"No, look at me," I begged as I entered her. "See me, who, what I am. I need to know that... I need to know that you realize..."

And she did. Violet opened her eyes, her gaze meeting mine.

"I see you, Byron Renfied," she said, pulling me deep inside, her legs wrapping around my hips.

She reached up and licked the outside sh.e.l.l of my ear and then pulled my earlobe into her lush mouth, sucking on it rhythmically.

"I see you," she murmured again.

I pulled back slightly for a moment, wondered if this could really be happening. "Do you?" I asked her.

"Yes."

I leaned down and rested my forehead against hers. I closed my eyes and inhaled, slowly. I could smell the rain outside and the burning wood. I could smell my shampoo in her hair and the lingering scent of my soap on her face. The sound of the wind and rain outside, the crackling of the fire, those little sounds she was making. I intended to remember all of it. Always. Forever.

I kept the pace controlled and steady, wanting to bring her slowly to climax, wanting to make this first time last forever, wanting it to be perfect.

"So good," she moaned, arching up, her body taut.

I slipped my hand under her waist and lifted her slightly. The base of my c.o.c.k dragged across her swollen c.l.i.t with each thrust, heightening her pleasure.

She moved her hands to my shoulders and held on. Her head was thrown back, her neck stretched out before me. It was an unwitting invitation, I knew. But it moved me nonetheless.

"I wish I could spend eternity like this. Inside of you, just like this," I confessed.

"Oh, Ren!" she cried out.