He'd pushed me to the brink, but he wasn't done. In a flash I was on my back again, and the weight of his body was finaly atop mine. I gripped him fiercely, determined not to let him go again. Wiling God that I wouldn't have to let him go again, and tomorrow wouldn't be the end of both of us.
His long, nimble fingers found my core, and he took bare seconds before my body ignited. His name flew from my lips with abandon, as if my body were unable to contain its pleasure.
But we weren't alone in the House, and he muffled the sound with a sudden, fierce, and hungry kiss. I struggled for breath, shocked by the suddenness of my reaction, and - if possible - even needier than I'd been before.
He smiled, eyes stil closed, his expression changing to that thin line between pleasure and pain as I sought out his arousal. I let my hands explore his chest, his thighs, those diagonal muscles at the edges of his hips. I claimed him with hands and mouth, and watched his eyes flutter and body arch as he neared his own pleasure.
But he suddenly stiled me with a hand.
"It's your turn," he groaned, regret obvious in his voice.
"My turn?" Admittedly, my brain was stil fuzzy, but I was pretty sure I'd had my turn.
"You have been bitten," Ethan said. "But never like this."
"Does it matter?"
"You are a vampire," he growled out. "It matters as much as anything else, more than anything else."
Ethan climbed above me again, and I wrapped my legs around him, our bodies intertwined. He looked down at me, his eyes swirling silver, his needle-sharp fangs fuly descended.
His breath hot at my neck, my vampiric instincts kicking into overdrive. Images flashed through my mind. A harvest moon.
Gleaming fangs. The beating of wings. Footsteps in the dense undergrowth of an ancient forest. An animal's cal.
My instincts urged me forward, but this was stil new territory, for me undiscovered. He'd bitten me before, but not like this.
Would there be pain? Pleasure? Consequences? I was vampire, but stil recently human, and I was afraid.
"Ethan?"
But he wouldn't be swayed. He put a hand on my chest, across my heart. "This is for you," he whispered, "as vampire, as woman, and for us, and for me."
With two simultaneous thrusts, he bit - and thrust his body into mine.
I'm sure I screamed; I must have. The pain was immediate and intense, the sharp bite of needles piercing skin. But the pain was gone as quickly as it came, and then there was only pleasure. A euphoric spil unlike anything I'd ever experienced before. It burned like flame had been poured directly into my bloodstream, warming me from the inside out. Desire and heat raced through every artery and vein, forcing the sudden awareness of every molecule in my body.
But he was also there. I was simultaneously aware of every inch of him, and I wondered if he'd had the same experience when I'd bitten him, and how he didn't spend every waking moment of every night with his fangs in someone.
I'd long ago made my oaths to Cadogan House, sworn my fealty and promised my alegiance. But this was vampire. Truly, honestly vampire. Dasein vampire, as he'd once said.
Ethan suckled at my neck, his fingers digging into my hips, his body plunging into mine over and over and over again. Suddenly he puled back his fangs, his lips at my ear, and groaned out his pleasure. The sound was enough to push me over the edge. Fire contracted through my body, and I clawed at him as the sensation overtook me.
And then the world stiled again.
We lay there for a moment panting, my body suddenly heavy as the sun breached the horizon. And before consciousness left me, I smiled a little, thinking it was little wonder he'd wanted me to bite him twice before.
An hour later, the sun on the rise, he stroked a hand down my back.
"You've grown, while I was gone. Into your skin. Into your position. You'l forgive me if I'm not used to it."
"I couldn't be clumsy forever," I agreed. I had grown while he was gone, as much out of necessity as because of my own loyalties to the House. They needed me when he was gone, and I owed them my best. Besides, it was a lot more fun to be the capable vampire than the awkward one. I'd already had my stint as a weird, geeky teenager, thank you very much.
"I'm sorry I had to miss it. Granted, the reason I had to miss it was incredibly daring. Incredibly brave."
"Daring? Realy?"
"I saved your life, Sentinel. Even you said so."
I roled my eyes. "The statute of limitations is quickly expiring, Sulivan."
"The larger point stands." He touched my cheek, green eyes boring into me. "A moment of anger doesn't affect the feelings that I have for you, nor does the unrequested involvement of an immature witch. They are constant. They are immovable. But that's not to say that I don't have fear. That I don't worry I cannot protect that which is mine. My House. My vampires."
I put a hand on his cheek, my heart bursting at the sentiment, but my own emotions in check by the sudden rush of memories...and fear.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"We've had so many stops and starts. For two months, you were gone. I soldiered on, Ethan. I battled Malory back, and McKetrick, and Cabot, and I dreamt of you, and I cried, but I soldiered on." I looked back at him and let show the fear in my heart. "You came back, and you rejected me again. What if you change your mind again?"
"You were right," he said. "You were right and I was wrong. I reacted badly to her presence, and I pushed away the one person who understood, who fought beside me and chalenged me to fight her. I don't know what she can do to me. But one way or the other, we wil find a way to fix it together. I wil not leave you again, Merit. Not now, not ever. Granted, there wil come a time in which you're disappointed in me," he said. "Or angry."
"Or furious?"
He grinned wickedly. "I'm not sure I'm possible of infuriating you, Sentinel."
"Liar," I boldly said.
"The point is, I hardly think your feelings for me wil suddenly evaporate because you're angry." He wrapped his arms around me. "Fear, on occasion, rises up. As does anger. By me and by you. But they are the enemies. And as you might say, love battles them back."
How could a girl not succumb to words like that? So I basked in the warmth of him, in the crisp smel of his cologne.
"Stay the day," he said. "Stay with me today, and let me be stil."
How could I possibly refuse that request?
We prepared for bed. Brushing our teeth side by side in the bathroom seemed strangely intimate, and not just because I was spitting in front of him.