I sat up on the bed, looking at him, trying to imagine what life would be like with him. I’d get old, he wouldn’t. No kids, no holidays in the sun, no normal, comfortable, stable life. Actually, the kids thing wasn’t a problem. I had four nieces and nephews and was only too relieved to hand them back after a visit. I wasn’t one of life’s natural mothers. And holidays in the sun I could always take without him. But what about him? He’d see me getting older, less attractive, and eventually die. If he hadn’t already disappeared with someone else. It hardly took being a vampire for that to happen.
‘How long have we got together?’ I asked him.
‘Until what?’
‘Until you leave me.’
‘Until you die.’
He looked so serious, but still I laughed, even though it was rather hollow. ‘I don’t believe you.’
‘I daresay you didn’t believe in vampires, werewolves and ghosts this time last year.’
‘True. But you’ll move on when I’m old and wrinkled. Can I still eat garlic?’
‘What?’
‘Look, I’m basing my knowledge of vampires on reading Dracula and watching old horror movies. So far, you’re not being very compliant. You go out in daylight, you don’t drink blood, George’s Star of David doesn’t faze you, you don’t sleep in a coffin, you don’t wear a cape and you’ve not once turned into a bat.’
‘Sorry.’
‘What for? Being a dull vampire?’
He laughed. ‘Yes. And yes, you can eat garlic.’
‘Thank God. I’m quite prepared to give up kids and beaches, but there’s no way I’m foregoing garlic bread and chicken Kiev.’
‘Kids and beaches?’ I blushed and he pulled me closer to him. ‘Does that mean you’re willing to give us a try? After all, you already saved one vampire. Perhaps you could try again with this one.’
‘I could be Susie the Vampire Saver. It would be easy compared with what you, Annie and George have done.’
‘It’s just what any other vampire, ghost and werewolf would have done.’
I laughed, the tension dissipating from my body, and I relaxed against him, his arm protectively around my shoulder.
‘OK?’ he asked, softly stroking my skin. It felt so good.
‘Getting there. It’s still a bit . . . new.’
‘Yeah, well, I suppose I’ve had a lot longer to get used to it. But we can get through this together.’ He started to kiss me. Softly. Gently. Beautifully. I couldn’t resist him. Maybe it wouldn’t last, but at this precise moment there was nowhere else I wanted to be other than in his arms, his lips moulding against mine, the taste and smell of him at once familiar and erotic. His fingers tightened on my arms, holding me closer against him, drawing me tight against him so I could feel the strength of his muscles.
This time we really did take it slowly, because he deliberately stopped me upping the pace, building up my trust in him, getting to know him as John Mitchell, the vampire. My vampire. He delicately slipped my bra straps from my shoulders, kissing down my neck and along my collar bone before his fingers stroked over my breasts and my body arched up towards him. The gentle stroking of his fingers became firmer as he traversed the contours of my body, my nerves tingling with anticipation of his touch.
He started to caress my breasts and then his mouth followed his fingers and I could feel my breathing deepen. He stroked down my body, parting my legs with his fingers, finding my warmth, my wetness, drawing it from me and using it to rub across my clitoris. It felt heavenly as he stroked and strafed me, triggering the uncoiling of my orgasm which wound through my body causing me to cling to him as I moaned my release, pressing myself hard against his fingers. And then slowly, exquisitely slowly, he withdrew his fingers from me and entered me, pulsing to my rhythm as I began to up the pace, feeling him moving within me, triggering the start of my next orgasm. As he moved his body against mine, he whispered my name and it felt so right that I was there with him. I wrapped my arms tight around him as he held me and my orgasm flooded through me with the intensity of an ocean wave, making my body shudder with sheer ecstasy.
I was gasping his name, clinging to his lithe, firm body, wanting to feel his skin against mine. No heartbeat, I knew that, but perhaps for a moment, he shared my existence. He’d be alive a lot longer than me, but I wasn’t scared of death, only of life without Mitchell. He needed me, needed human contact, needed love.
I warmed him with the heat of my body, love and lust flowing between us. Perhaps I could never be enough for him, but I would try.
‘Mitchell,’ I whispered as he held me close. ‘I never realised it would be so tough.’
‘What, Susie? Whatever it is, we can work it out together.’
‘Just . . . being human.’
