“Good night, Iro. I love you.”
Iro didn’t say it back. She hadn’t in years. And as much as Cassia seemed to love saying it to her, Iro hadn’t ever felt the same urge to tell her immortal lover that she loved her. After decades had turned into centuries, there was no longer the same rush when they were together. She supposed that was normal, even though being a vampire with another vampire wasn’t exactly normal at all. Being with someone for hundreds of years wasn’t possible for humans, and sometimes, Iro wished she could go back to the simpler times when she was just a woman, in love with another woman she could never have, before Cassia had come along and changed everything.
She thought back to her life in London, prior to being turned, and to the woman who had captured her heart but had been forced to marry another. She thought back to the day she’d found out that she’d been gone and the time when Iro had met a mysterious woman in a pub, who had offered her solace from the horrible and unending pain.
When she exited the villa and found her driver smoking, standing off to the side of the car, she nodded to him, and he dropped the cigarette and got back to the car.
“Iro!”
Iro looked up at the balcony over the driveway and saw Cassia standing there, still naked and uncaring if anyonesaw her, which was Cassia in a nutshell – uncaring of any consequences.
“I’ll see you soon, my love.”
Iro didn’t say anything. She got into the back seat of the car and slammed the door behind her, angry with herself for giving in yet again.
CHAPTER 2
Cassia
“Ladies,” she greeted.
Gigi and Miranda walked – no, sauntered – into Cassia’s bedroom. They knew what they were there for. She’d turned them, one right after the other, three years ago and hadn’t regretted it once. Neither of them complained. It was all part of the arrangement. They didn’t ask her for more than Cassia offered, but she supposed she offered plenty, and they both made her come almost as well as Iro. Cassia allowed them to live in her villa in Florence and in all her other homes, and all they had to do was be available to her when she called.
When Iro had shown up, she’d planned to tell Gigi and Miranda that they would have to move into another of her properties during her time-on with the woman Cassia considered to be her wife, but Iro had left after only a couple of hours the previous night when Cassia had expected them to get back to normal. She’d been prepared to suggest the four of them have a little fun together, but she’d doubted Iro, who had always been a one-person person, would want that. Yes, it was true that after spending a hundred years together, Iro had been the one to suggest that they take a break, and Cassia had allowed her to go. It was also true that Iro had slept with other women. It had always been one at a time, and sometimes for a long period oftime, but Cassia knew Iro hadn’t ever fallen in love again. Cassia was her true one and only.
In the 1850s, if she remembered their timeline correctly, they’d gotten back together after a year apart, and she hadn’t expected Iro to suggest, only a few years later, that they spend more time apart. Back then, though, they’d decided that since time didn’t matter to them and they’d always come back to one another, that ten years would be in order. On and on it had gone, with Iro asking for a break and Cassia giving it to her, but this most recent break, Cassia had kept a closer eye on the love of her immortal life. Iro was pulling away, and Cassia couldn’t have that, so she’d called, and Iro had come running. That had told her that Iro wasn’t gone yet, and she could still prevent her from pulling too far away. She now had two women, model-beautiful women, who only modeled for her in her bedroom, so she would give Iro just a little bit more time away and enjoy this night, but then, she would be getting the only woman she’d ever loved back.
Neither Gigi nor Miranda asked what she wanted because they already knew. If she was in the chair when they walked into the bedroom, Cassia wanted to watch them. Gigi removed Miranda’s clothes first, leaving her in a see-through thong that had Cassia going wet, and Cassia stared while smoking her cigarette as Miranda slowly peeled every article off of Gigi’s body, leaving her completely nude. Then, Gigi knelt in front of Miranda and licked her through that thong.
“No, I want to see,” Cassia said.
Gigi stood and moved around Miranda to stand behind her. She pressed her hand to Miranda’s center and stroked her through the fabric.
“Yes, like that,” Cassia said and pulled on her cigarette.
She missed Iro touching her like this: slowly, not with the intention of making her come but taking her time to build herup, making her wait for it. Last night, Iro had made her come quickly, and while she had let Cassia fuck her, it had also been much too fast for Cassia’s liking. She had needed more, and now, she was getting it; differently than she had wanted, but this was all right, too.
“Inside,” she ordered.
Gigi slid her hand into the thong and began stroking in earnest. Cassia leaned forward in her chair, her legs crossed, and watched Miranda wrap her arms around Gigi’s neck and pull Gigi in closer to her.
“Now,” she demanded.
Gigi’s head went back then before her mouth opened. Her fangs bared, and she bit down, sucking. Miranda came moments later. Cassia licked her lips, smelling iron and sweetness and wanting it herself. She stood and approached them quickly, taking Miranda’s hand and sliding it up into her skirt. Miranda did the rest, moving inside Cassia’s panties to rub Cassia’s clit for her. Then, as Gigi sucked on one side of Miranda’s neck, Cassia’s fangs tore into soft, hot flesh, and she sucked from the other side. She drank Miranda in, loving the taste of her but wishing it were human blood that she was tasting because human blood was sweeter, like the best kind of candy. Vampire blood was sweet like fruit but had none of the addictive qualities of that precious, sweet candy.
“God, I want you to make me come. Then, we’re going out,” she said, licking Miranda’s skin.
“Where are we going?” Miranda asked, pushing inside.
“To find someone to eat,” Cassia answered and bit back down into Miranda’s neck, earning a hiss. “I’m simply starving.”
???
“Cassia, what about them?” Gigi asked before she took a sip of her dark liquor.
Cassia turned from their seat in the back booth and saw two women kissing off to the side of the dance floor. When she turned back, she spied Miranda’s hand slip under the table and land on Cassia’s thigh.
“You like them, Miranda?” she asked.
