Dark Attraction

Chapter 8 - Negotiations

I wasted no time in hurrying past him and back into his apartment.

"If we're going to do this," Gage said, slowly, shutting the door. "We need to lay some ground rules."

"Fine with me," I said. "Very sensible, in fact."

He curled his lip and let out a brief 'huh' noise.

"I have some questions, too," I said. I swallowed, because my resolve was failing me a little, and I wanted him to tell me the truth. I wanted the truth, but I was at all sure if I wanted his answer to be that he was just a pushy dom, or that he was a vampire. I wanted... I don't know what I wanted. "And you have to be honest with me. Or I'll leave."

His eyes narrowed and he folded his arms. "Honesty is, I agree, an important part of a proper BDSM relationship. Fine. What are your questions?"

My mouth went dry and I couldn't just ignore the arousal I had in his presence. He'd given me the go ahead to ask though. My heart was pounding, loud and fast. I wondered if he could hear it.

"Are you a...is there- is there, uh, a reason that you talked about biting last night, but you didn't do it? I wouldn't have minded, but you didn't bite me?"

He was on me in a moment. His hands on my arms pushing me back against the wall. I felt the impact on my back and it slightly winded me. My heart went even faster.

"You were going to ask something else and then you changed your sentence." He snarled it into my face, not a question, a statement of fact. "What were you going to ask?"

His presence was Doing Things to me. I felt light-headed and aroused. How was he doing this? What was it about him that affected me so deeply?

Briefly, a crazed part of my brain suggested the words: maybe you're soul mates?

I shook my head. My hair fell in my eyes and I left it, since his hands were still gripping my arms and I didn't think I could shake him free to fix it.

"Honesty, pup," he said. His voice was a low growl and I felt it through every inch of my body. "You have to ask me honestly, what you want to know. Otherwise this is all for nothing."

"Why didn't you bite me?" I grated it out from between clenched teeth. It was taking all my willpower not to kiss him and just give in, forget all my questions and let him do whatever he wanted. I held his gaze, although it almost felt like it was burning me to do it.

"Because." He breathed out slowly, deliberately. "I was afraid of what it would be like. I was sure that if I tasted you, I'd never be able to let you go."

"What do you mean, tasted," I replied. My voice was barely over a whisper now, fear and arousal warring with each other, although the fear wasn't so much of Gage himself, as of the world changing when he answered me. I was sure of what he'd say now, the mention of tasting had been too much.

"You know." His snarl quirked into a smile. "You started to ask me, pet. Ask it all the way now. Ask me, and I'll tell you truthfully."

Fucking Gage and his insisting on saying it all out loud. Admitting I'd been tied up while dressed as Peter Pan seemed like it'd been easy now. But he'd given me permission. In fact, he'd commanded me to do it. I closed my eyes, finally breaking eye contact with him and blurted it out.

"Are you a vampire?"

I opened my eyes a crack to see what his reaction was. He was smiling. The smile of a wolf who'd scented blood or a shark perhaps, but a smile all the same. "Clever puppy."

"You are?"

He let go of me then, and took a step back. "Yes. If you want to flee, now's your time. I won't judge you. It's monstrous, after all."

I relaxed a little against the wall. Contrary to his suggestion that I might want to flee, I felt curiously relaxed. I didn't want to run, his admission had relaxed me somehow. I had known, after all, and I guess I'd been expecting him to deny it, or scare me, or order me out again. Instead he was admitting he was a monster and giving me the chance to leave forever.

"I don't want to leave." I folded my arms, which were trembling a little.

He smiled a little softer then. "No?"

"Can I see your fangs?" I asked. He licked his teeth, tilted his head to the side.

"You don't believe me?"

"I'm pretty sure I believe you," I said. "Unless this is some kind of elaborate and highly sexualised prank show with special effects and things... no. I'd like to see them because I think it's going to be ridiculously sexy."

He grinned, and in front of my eyes his canines grew into long, sharp fangs. The sight of them sent heat directly to my dick and my breath sped up. I was breathing shallow, in my chest. "Holy fuck."

He moved a little closer again. "Sure you don't want to run away?" His voice was a little distorted by the fangs, as if he were talking with some food in his mouth.

I shook my head. "I'm sure I want to feel your fangs in me."

"All right," he chuckled and shook his head. "Let's talk about what that means, then. I want you to submit to me, I want you to be mine and only mine. There can be no one else. You don't sit on any girl's laps at parties and you don't follow anyone else home." His eyes blazed with an intensity that probably should have scared me but actually made me feel hot, wanted. Needed, even.

"Monogamy, sure, I can do that. No worries."

"And submitting to me?" He arched one perfect eyebrow.

"Uh, sounds like, exactly what I want," I said. "Honestly."

"We'll use a traffic light system," he said. "If you say red, then I'll stop. There's no shame in it. Green means go, of course."

I nodded. "Yeah, okay. And amber means slow down or give me a second?" He grinned.

"Such a clever puppy, learning so quickly." His hand cupped me through my jeans and he rubbed his palm back and forth. I groaned. "So biting is on the table?" I nodded.

"Please."

"Is there anything you absolutely don't want to do?"

"No," I said. Then I thought a little harder. "Uh, nothing with bathroom stuff. I mean, no golden showers or shit."

"Fine with me." Gage's lip curled in an elegant sneer. "Never saw the appeal when blood is right there, waiting..."

"Right." I felt my cheeks flame. "And I like you calling me puppy, and I'm down with collars and even leashes, but that's as far as I want to go with the animal stuff."

He nodded. "Agreed."

"Other than that," I breathed out. "I like bondage a lot, and pain stuff, impact, and biting, those are my favorites."

"We'll need to talk about punishments as well," Gage said. His smile had turned sly and predatory again. "But perhaps, for now, we'll just play. How does that sound? No punishments if you disobey."

"I don't think I'm going to want to disobey," I said. My voice had gone soft again, vulnerable. Not weak exactly, but weaker than it had been.

"Good boy."

Gage kissed me, hard. I pushed my tongue into his mouth, feeling for the fangs and moaning as I found the sharp points.

He was really a vampire. A real life vampire. A monster, and one who wanted to own me. And although perhaps I should have been afraid, I just felt at home.

Complete.

As if all these years, after all those parties and hook ups and disappointments, this was everything I had been searching for.