Darkness In The Flames (17 page)

She filled her mouth with him once again, hearing a slight gasp as she suckled him more strongly, taking as much as she could across her tongue without gagging.

Once—twice—she slid up and down, pulling the soft silken velvet over the tensile steel beneath. It took no more than that for the throbbing pulsation of his muscles to tell her Adrian’s orgasm was about to erupt.

The thought flashed through her mind that she could stay this way and have him come in her mouth, but her curiosity overrode that consideration. She wanted to
see
, to watch him as he came, to hold his orgasm in her hands and experience his release with him.

So she did. At the last moment she slipped her mouth free and cradled his cock with her palms, stroking him still and amazed at the ferocity of the explosion building deep within the rigid tissue.

He cried out as she held him, hips thrusting upwards, and she moved to hold on, riding his bucking orgasm with him. The tiny slit at the end of his cock twitched and then spurts of his seed emerged, glittering and shiny in the low light of their room. Soft and cool, the semen dappled Katherine’s hands like dewdrops, and she gasped as Adrian emptied himself into her care.

It was over all too soon, the miracle of climax leaving Adrian a limp and sated mass of exhaustion quivering beneath her.

She sighed and reached for a nearby cloth to tidy herself. “
Astounding
, Adrian.” There was wonder in her voice, she knew. Tonight she’d experienced something she’d never imagined could be experienced in such a way, and it obliterated all other memories and terrors.

The joy of holding her man as he came was unsurpassed and it was with a delighted grin that Katherine willingly snuggled into Adrian’s welcoming arms.

“You’re pretty astounding yourself.” Adrian’s voice sounded tired but content.

“Not really. I think that together we are greater than the sum of our parts.” It was a somewhat pedantic way to express the emotions she was feeling, but Adrian seemed to understand.

“No doubt about it.” He yawned.

“Adrian, will we dream?” Katherine’s concern crept into her tone. “I don’t know if I could face more horrors this night.”

“Not this time, sweetheart. She’s not foolish enough to exhaust either herself or us. One visitation in a night is all I’ve ever experienced with her.” He pulled the covers over both of them. “Sleep now. We both need our strength.”

Katherine nodded, her eyelids lowering. “Yes, Adrian.”

She could have sworn that before she fell into unconsciousness she heard him whisper something.

Something that sounded suspiciously like “I love you”.

But perhaps that was wishful thinking.

Chapter Fourteen

Adrian awoke that evening refreshed and with the unusual sensation of fragrance in his nostrils.

The fragrance of his Kat.

He breathed her in, taking her deep into his lungs, smiling at the delightful sensation of being able to simply
smell
her. There was a quiet pleasure in the reawakening of yet another sense denied him for so long.

He opened his eyes, aware that he was alone in the bed, something that did not make him a happy man.

She was sitting by the fireplace, wrapped in a blanket, gazing silently into the fire, a pot of tea on a tray by her side. She looked up as Adrian rose, and smiled.

“Good morning.” She blinked. “Or should that be good evening?”

“Either will do.” He strode naked across the room and seized her, leaning in for a kiss that left them both breathless. “You are not in bed with me. How can it be a good anything?”

She drew back regretfully. “Adrian, I…well, I…er…” She floundered.

“What?” He frowned, all his instincts leaning towards Katherine and sniffing like a whole pack of hounds. He wanted her, desired her, needed her, whatever else he could think of—and wasn’t in the mood to wait.

Not now. Not when he’d found the woman who was truly his mate.

“Well, when I awoke, I felt a little
odd
.”

“Are you ill?” Adrian’s hand flew to her forehead in a gesture as old as time. “You don’t have a fever—”

She chuckled. “No, silly. I’m not
ill
. I’m…”

“You’re
what
?” Exasperated, Adrian stood with his hands on his hips, heedless of his nudity. All his senses were focused on the woman curled up in front of him.

Her scent was very strong, a mixture of woman, and heat—and blood—a blend that reached inside Adrian and gripped his organs from balls to heart to throat.

He blinked, suddenly realizing what she was trying to tell him.  “You have your woman’s courses.”

Katherine’s blush confirmed his conclusion before she could open her mouth. “I’m sorry. Yes. When I awoke…” She gestured downwards at her body. “It was my time.”

Adrian sighed. “Don’t be sorry. It’s natural and not your fault.”

“I know. But still…the timing is appalling.” Katherine bit her lip as she confessed her desires with that one simple phrase.

Adrian knelt beside her chair and took her hand in his. “We have time, Kat. Time to explore things and learn things and be together. I have waited ten long years for you to find me and for me to find you. Do you doubt I can wait a few more days?”

She reached for him, stroking his hair away from his eyes. “I don’t want to wait. I’m greedy. And I have waited longer than ten years.”

Adrian wanted to question that, to find out what she meant, but to his horror he felt his gums shift as his fangs emerged.  “Mmmff.” He shut his mouth hard.

Katherine stared. “It’s the scent of me, isn’t it? The…the smell of my body at this time? My blood?”

Adrian jerked away from her and crossed the room, grabbing a robe to cover his nakedness. The effort of moving from her side was almost a physical pain. He hungered worse than he’d ever hungered before.

“Perhaps.” He could not look at her for a few moments, and when he finally gained sufficient control to turn, his fangs were still slightly extended. “I do not know, Kat, I swear. This has never happened before.”

She stood. “I should leave. Go back to my own rooms.”

He shook his head. “’Twould not help. I would find you even there.”

“I don’t care.” She raised her head and looked him straight in the eye.

“I do.” Adrian stared back. “I will not risk hurting you.”

“You will never hurt me.”

“I might. I won’t chance it.” He spun on his heel and started pulling clothing from drawers. “I have some unfinished explorations in the Chyne. I will be there for the next few days if you need me.”

He paused as he heard her sniffle. “Very well.”

He closed his eyes, a shirt crumpling in his grasp as he clenched his hands. “Kat, I do not go willingly. Please understand that.” He drew a ragged breath. “I cannot trust myself around you right now. I will not risk hurting you, and there is so much we do not yet understand about the way things are between us. I won’t jeopardize any of it by failing to control my own foul lusts.”

“Don’t be an idiot.” Katherine’s voice was harsh. “Or a martyr. I’m not impressed with either.”

Adrian’s head jerked up and he turned to look at her. She stood proud, wrapped in the comforter, her eyes wide, her lips firm. “You are the best thing to ever happen to me, Adrian Chesswell. We have something strange and unique together. Whatever we do to and with each other will be done from the heart.”

A lump rose in Adrian’s throat as he absorbed her words and the sight of her.

“We may well end up sharing more than a bed. If we do, it is something I shall welcome, because it will be you taking from me, and me giving to you. I shall get much in return, I know. It’s what people do who—who—
care
about each other.” She lifted her chin defiantly. “I understand what you are trying to say. You are wrong, but I respect you for it anyway. Go to your caves. I will stay here and wait for you to return.” She dropped her gaze. “My time runs about four or five days. Then I shall be…ready.”

“I will know.” Adrian’s fangs had retracted, but he swore he could feel something odd in the area of his heart. A beat perhaps, or just the simple sensation of being cared for. Whatever it was, it strengthened his resolve. “And when I return, my Kat, there will be much to settle between us.”

Katherine smiled tremulously. “I certainly hope so.”

A bundle of clothes tucked beneath his arm, Adrian once again risked nearing her, reaching for the back of her head and bringing her lips close. Her scent made him dizzy with need, but he fought it, simply dropping a kiss on her mouth.  “Depend upon it.”

Wrenching himself away, Adrian left his Kat, heading for the darkness and relative quiet of the Chyne. He would be alone, but he cared naught for that. He’d been alone before, and for so long it had become second nature to him.

But this would be the first time a woman waited for him to return. The first time he would be
eager
to return. The first time he could ever remember feeling this way. Perhaps his father had been right.

Perhaps he was actually falling in love.

Then a fleeting thought of Thérèse crossed his mind. He wasn’t sure if falling in love was a risk he could afford to take.

*~*~*~*

The next few days were long and lonely for Katherine. She missed Adrian fiercely, his absence an almost physical pain. She caught herself watching the doors of rooms to see if he entered, and at night she reached for him even in her deepest sleep.

But he did not come. Neither did the dreams. No terrible visions, no Thérèse, no horrors visited Katherine. She was simply alone.

She eagerly sought Sir Sidney’s company and found to her delight that they had much in common.

Both enjoyed reading, although Sidney’s library was on a scale much larger than any Katherine had previously encountered. They enjoyed discussing their favorite books, and when Sidney discovered that Katherine had a natural inquisitive bent, he was ecstatic and immediately started discussing his scientific investigations with her.

Much went over her head, but she loved to listen to his enthusiasm. One evening he told her of St. Chesswell.

“You’ve heard the tale, I’m sure. A brave and holy man defying the Devil himself.” His lips curved into a grin. “And being sanctified for it.”

Katherine poured herself more tea. “Yes indeed. Quite a local hero, I’m told.”

“Well, I think the locals made him into more of a hero than he actually was.” Sidney looked thoughtful. “I found a very old manuscript recently and the contents were fascinating and—“ He glanced pointedly at Katherine, “—more than a little disturbing.”

“About St. Chesswell?”

Sidney nodded. “Yes. It was an account of his removal from the Priory and his banishment, if you will, to the Chyne.”

“Was it not his interest in the darker arts that got him moved away from his order?” Katherine watched Sidney’s face over the rim of her cup.

“That definitely had something to do with it. But apparently he was also rumored to have succumbed to the lures of a woman.”

“Oh dear.”

“Quite.” Sidney blinked. “A red-haired woman.”

It was Katherine’s turn to blink, and her hand went involuntarily to a stray curl. “Good Lord. That’s an amazing coincidence.” She stilled for a moment. “Perhaps that accounts for the whole myth of the Chesswell redheads. Mrs. Tooting told me a story about that—how red haired women are said to change the course of Chesswell history or something?”

“Maybe.” Sidney remained thoughtful. “Many times coincidence is responsible for legend. I place little credence in most of it. But this tale—well, if our St. Chesswell refused the advances of this woman, or even if he didn’t, there seems enough evidence to suggest he was indeed
involved
with her in some way.”

There was something in his tone that caught Katherine’s attention and she turned the subject over in her mind, arriving at an unpleasant assumption. “You aren’t suggesting—“

“That it might have been Thérèse? Who knows?”

“But Sir Sidney—St. Chesswell lived hundreds of years ago, didn’t he?” Katherine’s jaw dropped. “You can’t possibly ask me to believe she’s
that
old?”

Sidney shook his head. “I don’t know, my dear. And that’s the truth. She shouldn’t exist at all, logically, so who’s to say how long these creatures can survive?” He tapped his fingers against his lips. “Evil has no time limits. It doesn’t expire as we humans do. Perhaps when a body wears out, as it inevitably must, the evil within moves on to another. I cannot even begin to guess how.”

Katherine’s skin chilled. “What you are suggesting—it could have the most terrible ramifications.”

“I know.” Sidney was somber. “Any sort of connection between this—this
thing
and St. Chesswell bodes very ill for Adrian.”

“I cannot believe it.”

“I’m having a hard time believing it myself. However, I cannot simply ignore it.” Sidney stood. “Would you be interested in seeing my laboratory? I have an experiment about to conclude and should be there. I’d be glad of the company and perhaps we could continue our discussion.”

Katherine rapidly rose to her feet setting her now-cold tea aside. “I would be most interested, Sir Sidney.”

It was the truth. Katherine had always been fascinated by science, by nature and by life in general. Even her experiences as wife to the somber Matthew Byerly hadn’t completely squashed that interest.

Now she was glad of it. She’d need every ounce of intelligence just to stay abreast of Sir Sidney’s simplest explanations and experiments. She doubted her ability to understand the more complex nuances of his work.

But it affected Adrian. That was more than enough for her.

*~*~*~*

Sidney was amazed at Katherine’s comprehension. She seemed to grasp so much of what he was telling her about the constituents of blood, the differences in chemistry that he’d observed, and how he was working to counteract them.