Waking, it had only been a few moments, he thought, he held her to him as he kissed his way down her back.She was going to be bruised for sure, but he found that he liked the thought of her wearing his marks.Turning her over, he was frightened when she was so limp.But he could hear her heart beating and feel her breaths.He’d hurt her, he thought, and would never forgive himself if she never wanted to have sex with him again.
“That was fantastic.”He looked into her eyes to see if she was all right.“You can feed from me every day if you do it like that.I’ve never come so hard in my life.”
“I thought that I’d hurt you.”Tabitha said she was sore right now, but nothing would make her unhappy with the number of times that she’d come.“You were passed out.”
“I did.I loved it.”He wasn’t one to seek compliments when he made love to a woman, but today he needed reassurances like never before.When she rolled to her back and put her hands on his face, he could feel her love for him as if it were a physical thing.Kissing her palm, he told her how much he’d enjoyed it too and was looking forward to fucking her again.“That was fucking, wasn’t it.And for as much as I enjoyed that, I’m looking forward to you simply making love to me, too.I bet you can be gentle when the time is right.I hope that sometime you show me your beast so that I can thank him for a good time.”
Her giggle had him smiling.When her eyes closed for a moment, he thought that she was resting.Staring at her face, seeing a beauty there that he’d not seen before, Sirous counted himself the luckiestman on earth.Picking up his mate, who never stirred, he made his way up to the bedroom she’d been using and put her on the mattress.It took him several tries to get the blankets pulled down correctly, but all in all, he was proud of himself.He’d not dropped her once.
Feeling the power of her blood filling him, he knew that he’d get no sleep beside her.Instead, he brought over a chair and sat watching her sleep.Her breath was sweet-smelling, and he could see that she was completely relaxed, so he didn’t bother her with touching her face.He wanted her to be rested when she woke again.
Sirous was in love with his little mate.He’d thought he’d been before, loving her because she was his, but he knew that this love, the one that he was feeling now, was the kind that lasted forever.The one kind of love that would take them through the good times and bad.Though at the moment, he couldn’t think of a single thing that would come to them that he’d consider bad.He was so in love with Tabitha that he wanted to find someone, anyone, and tell them what he was feeling for the woman who would stay with him throughout eternity.
Going to his office so he’d not do something stupid like wake her to tell her what he was feeling, he sat behind his computer and focused all his energy on what was there.He had some investments to make and some money to move around so that his charities could get what they needed.The longer he sat there, the more he got done.It was like loving his mate had given him a bit more energy than he’d ever had, and he was happy for it.
They were going to be moving into their forever home in the morning.All the things that they’d purchased were going to be delivered in the afternoon.Plenty of time for them to get things situated, like paintings on the wall and the little knick-knacks that they purchased to put in the rooms that they would be shown off in.
Even the kitchen was going to have a touch of art in it just because he knew that they’d be spending a great deal of time in there.He had been told by Brew that watching his mate eat was sexy, and he decided that he wasn’t going to miss a moment of any time he could be around her.When Brew reached out to him, he couldn’t help but tell him how much he loved his mate.
“I know just what you’re saying.I can’t stand to be a moment away from my own mate unless I’m driving her crazy.Even then, I want to be there next to her.”He said that she was sleeping now and he’d had to make himself leave her alone so as not to keep waking her to tell her how he felt.“You’ll have to find ways to show her how much you love her.I’ve been finding ways to make her smile so that I can know that I’m the one who put that look on herface.”
“I have all this energy too.I feel as if I might explode if I don’t do something productive.”Neither one mentioned having sex with Tabitha, but he was sure that’s what Brew was thinking.“You must think that I’m silly.What is it you wanted me for?”
“Oh.I have taken care that Ruby is dead.I let his death linger a bit so that I could find where he was staying.If he’d been in a cave around here, there wouldn’t have been any way that I could have found him.However, he was staying in a house on the outskirts of town, and I’ve found what he’s been doing with the money.You’re to have your share of his bounty for your help in this.Also, I’ve dismissed the council.Had they done their job, he wouldn’t have killed asmanypeople, humans as he’d been allowed to.”He said that he didn’t need the money.“There is no money, believe it or not, but artwork that he’s been collecting.It’s some beautiful pieces that will look lovely in your new home.I’ve taken a couple of pieces for my work in getting him out of the human population, but the rest, and there is a great deal of it, will go to you.”
“Art?I have some pieces myself that we’re going to hang.It’ll look lovely in the new home as you said.”Brew told him that there were over one hundred pieces that would be coming to him.“I’ll hang it in the guest rooms.They’ll never believe that I have such pieces just hanging around.”
“I have one that I put in the half bath downstairs.It’s the perfect match to the things already in there, and like you said, no one would think I’d be stupid enough to put it in a bathroom of all places.”They both laughed, and Sirous asked him when they were going to be delivered.“Most of the pieces have already been delivered to your home.You need only find a place to hang them when you get there.The rest will be given to you after you’ve moved in.It’s mostly sculptures and the like.That way, they won’t get broken while you’re moving thingsin.”
“I’ll take it.And whatever I can’t use, I’ll give to the others.I’m sure that once they find their houses, they’d like to have some work in their homes as well.”He’d have to find something special for Yosef.He’d made it so that he found his mate.“I’ll make sure that they understand where it came from, too.Was any of it stolen?”
“No, he bought it all.As he laid dying, he said to Winter that it was in the abandoned house so that it would be less dreary.I wondered why he didn’t buy a house to put them in, but I didn’t think to ask him.”Sirous thought that the man was stupid for putting works of art in an abandoned home, but he had been killing humans, too.He had to know that he was going to get caught sometime.“I’ll talk to you later tomorrow.I have a couple of meetings in the morning with the committee that is taking care of the school bus fund.We’ll be matching it dollar for dollar in what they get.”
“Good luck with that.”After closing the connection, he went to check on Tabitha and found that she was still sleeping.Now that he’d gotten rid of a burst of the energy that he had, he laid down beside her.Sirous was out within seconds and knew that he had a smile on his face.
~*~
Tabby woke in the big bed without knowing how she’d gotten there.Not really too worried about it, she sat up in the bed and looked around.She was excited to be sharing the big room with Sirous now and was happy that they’d finally made love.Going to the bathroom, she could feel every one of her muscles protesting movement, and she nearly sobbed with relief when she finally got to the room.
There were bruises all over her body.But almost as soon as she found them, they disappeared quickly.Even her feet were sore, and she couldn’t for the life of her figure out why.As she turned on the hot water for a nice, long hot shower, she tried reaching out to Sirous to find out where he was in the house.She found him in the living room with the delivery people, and that’s how she knew that she’d slept round the clock to the next morning.
“I was wondering if you were going to wake soon.I was thinking that I was going to have to call out for you when the furniture arrived.”She said she must have needed the sleep.“I slept with you for a while.I was a little sore before I took a shower.How are you feeling?”
“The same.Sore.I’ve thought that taking a shower would help.So far, I’m finding more aches and pains to go with the ones that I had when I woke up.”He told her how sorry he was.“I’m not, and you shouldn’t be either.We had a wonderful time and I don’t regret a moment of it.”
“You’re so right.We did have a good time.”She felt his smile and was glad for it.When she finally turned off the water to the shower, she did feel better.Getting dressed with the magic that she had, she was downstairs just as the last of the furniture was taken off the truck.She was so excited to have their home finished out that she realized that she’d slept in the new house without knowing it.She asked Sirous about that.“I brought you here this morning.I wanted you to be able to wake up in our new home after yesterday.Christ, you were amazing.”
He kissed her then, and she kissed him back.She was so in love with the big vampire that she didn’t know what to do with it all.Give it back to him, she thought, and was happy when she was able to hug him.
For the rest of the morning, they moved furniture around.They actually used magic to move it around in the rooms, but it was still exhausting.As soon as the living room was finished with the paintings hung on the walls, they laid down on one of their couches and closed their eyes.As they were in no hurry to finish up, they decided a nap would be perfect.The two of them woke when someone came to the door.It was Brew and the rest of the men to help out with moving things around.
“We’ve all but finished.”They looked so disappointed that Sirous laughed.“I suppose you can help us unpack the kitchen items.There are a lot of boxes that need to be broken down as well.That would be a tremendous help to us.And we’ll order in dinner for you guys.”
It took no time at all to get the kitchen finished.Their cook started tomorrow—she was from the pack that roamed the land, and she had already given them a list of staples that she’d need to start cooking for her.She was excited to have her own cook so she’d not have to prepare anything, but wassad because Sirous wouldn’t be able to join her.
“Oh, but I plan on watching you eat every meal.”She asked him why he’d do that.“Because my dearest, I have a feeling watching you eat a meal will be just the motivation that I need to want to take you against the counters.”
“Oh.”She thought about that off and on all day and wondered why it never occurred to her that he’d do something like that.She was going to have to think of ways to eat food more sexily and entice him to take her anywhere he wanted her.By the time dinner was being delivered, she’d thought of several ways she could eat pizza and get him going.But not tonight.They had too much in the way of company, and that wouldn’t do for them to run off to the bedroom while the others were around.
