He took me at arm"s length and visually scanned my body. "No, what will make you sick, though, is running around in next to nothing."
I stared down at the thin pale pink silk nightgown I was wearing. It hung almost to my feet. It had spaghetti straps and a v-neck line. It covered all of me, but left little room for the imagination.
I snorted. "Like I have a choice. You won"t let me leave to go shopping and the stuff you bring in looks like this."
"I believe this has a matching robe."
I growled and went to walk back up to the house. Grabbing hold of my arm gently, he pulled me back towards him. His finger slid over my shoulder and under one of my straps, tugging on it gently.
"I"m sorry," he said, but didn"t take his hand away. Giovanni"s eyes could get him out of trouble with anyone. His long thick black eyelashes curled slightly on the ends. I"d found myself staring into his eyes all the time lately, wanting very much for them to stare back at me. To see me in the same light. For him to want me as I wanted him. He gave me a wink and a nervous laugh escaped me.
As he moved his fingers down towards my breast, my nipples hardened. My eyes followed his and I found that the silk nightgown seemed all too pleased to show off how erect my nipples were. My body was responding to him more and more as of late. I wasn"t sure if it was due to not having s.e.x in four months or because I was really attracted to him. He was hot and I had gotten used to having s.e.x, lots of s.e.x, so there was no telling.
He pulled his hand away and turned his body from me. I stepped in closer to him and drew his face back around to me. As I stared at him, so many things ran through my mind. I wanted to know our history. I wanted to know how someone so perfect could be so evil, but most of all I wanted to know what it felt like to be naked and in his arms.
Yeah, four months was a long time without s.e.x for me. Maybe going cold turkey wasn"t the brightest idea I"d come up with. What else was new?
"Tell me what you"re thinking, Bella." For some reason Giovanni wasn"t able to read my thoughts. He could answer my call for him from anywhere in the world, but he could not scan my mind. I don"t understand how vampires get their powers and how they know which ones will develop and which ones wouldn"t. I was losing track of who could do what and happy to only be dealing with one vampire at the moment.
"It"s nothing," I said, unconvincingly. Giovanni touched my chin and tipped his head to the side. He wasn"t buying it. I tried again. "Was it like this before between us? Was it this intense? This overwhelming?"
He thought about my questions for a minute. "Yes, in many ways it was like this. Yet, it was so much more than this and I do not mean just s.e.x, although that was part of it, too."
"More than this?" I had a hard time believing I could have felt more than I already did.
"Yes, Bella, it was an amazing time for us, at least for the first seventy-five years or so we were together. The last twenty were not as grand as the years prior."
Hearing him talk about our time together being that long made my head hurt. Being only twenty-five years old, I couldn"t comprehend spending that much time with someone. I stared at him, knowing the entire time we had been together we never aged or changed, but something went wrong somewhere. I knew, only from being told, that I"d stopped sleeping with him and started acting more like a roommate than a lover somewhere along the way. That"s when I"d met Pallo. Pallo also told me that I was frightened of Giovanni by the time our paths crossed. I"d refused to run off with Pallo for fear Giovanni would kill him then me. According to the stories, my fear had come true, but instead of killing Pallo, he had turned him into a vampire-he sired him. He had no problem killing me, though. I was crazy for letting myself get close to him again and I knew it. But for some insane reason, the idea of leaving him scared me more than the thought of him turning on me.
"Bella, what troubles you?"
"I was just trying to figure out how it all went wrong. If, as you say, and I believe you, that our time together was even better than it is now, then why did I leave you for Pallo and why did you ...?" I couldn"t bring myself to say kill me and he didn"t look like he wanted to hear it.
Giovanni pulled me close to him. Sliding his hands under my hair, he caressed my shoulders. I tipped my head back and rolled it around. My neck muscles were tight from worry and the feel of his hands on my skin was making that go away. I pulled my hair up and turned my body around so that my back was to him. He moved closer to me and continued to rub my shoulders and neck. I bent my head down. Giovanni traced a path down my spine and then returned to my shoulders. I backed up into him, allowing our bodies to press against each other. I let my hair fall and drew his arms around me. I stood, savoring my moment of Zen in his arms.
I heard a noise off near the end of the house. Giovanni pulled me tighter to him.
I knew that he was looking around, he"d heard it, too. We heard it again. He tried to pull back from me.
"No, don"t. Call one of your men. Don"t leave me."
"I will take you to the house, then I will investigate this further. You do not have to be afraid."
I ran my hand over his leg. "Please, stay with me. I don"t want anything to happen to you, Giovanni."
I wasn"t sure if it was the please that did it or not, but he pulled me tightly to him and our bodies lifted off of the ground. I never once worried about him dropping me. It seemed silly to trust a man who"d played a key role in my death in another life, but I did.
He set us down on the balcony with ease. I tugged on his hand, doing my best to yank him through the open French doors leading to my room. He seemed sluggish once we entered. Turning, I found him staring out into the night sky. He hadn"t gotten to his position by being easily distracted. Something was running loose on his property and he wanted to find it. He was driven. I"d give him that much. I"d been told he was close to five-hundred years old. He didn"t look a day over thirty. I would have been jealous, but I knew the same would happen to me. I would cease to age, as well. This was my cut-off point. I would look almost identical to the way I do now, four-hundred years from now. If something didn"t kill me before then.
I ran my hand over Giovanni"s and tried to draw his attention from the window. I led him over to the large, iron-framed bed that sat in the center of the room. He was still looking off into the night. "Giovanni, they can handle it. Come on."
He turned and his eyes widened when he saw me pulling him towards the bed. "Gwyneth ...."
Putting my finger on his lips, I pulled him close to me. I rose onto my tiptoes to kiss him. At first, I thought he was going to back away. He went to take a step back but stopped. Instead, he artfully moved my body around until my back was pressed against his stomach. His muscular arms wrapped tightly around me and his body swayed, taking mine with it.
We rocked and moved to a beat playing in our heads for what felt like eternity- yet was only seconds. Every time I tried to turn my head to kiss his cheek, he held me tighter, preventing me from doing anything but looking forward. He was being a gentleman, trying to do his best to talk me out of having s.e.x without the use of actual words, to wear me down. At the rate he was going, you"d think he"d be winning. He wasn"t. He was only making me hornier.
"Giovanni, if you don"t want to do this then just say so."
He pressed his mouth to my ear. "It is not I who does not want this to happen, Bella."
"Me?" I snorted. "I"m the one who pulled you in here, remember?"
"How could you want this to happen after everything I have done to you?" The sorrow in his deep voice moved through me.
I ran my hand up the side of his leg and pulled his body tighter against mine. Grabbing a fist full of material, I tugged gently on it. The sheer silk material not only showed off how excited I was to be near him, but it allowed me to feel his excitement in return. His impressive, rigid c.o.c.k, pressed firmly against my lower back. My body craved s.e.x and I craved Giovanni. The combination left me on the verge of begging him to enter me. I needed to feel what it was like to have him buried deep within me.
I reached up and ran my fingers through his silky hair. Giovanni moved his hand to my neck, skimming his fingers down the length of my body and over my breast. I pulled at his head to get him closer to me. He kissed the side of my neck and I tipped my head more for him. When he reached my hip he stopped and pulled me tighter against him. A moan escaped me as his clothed c.o.c.k rubbed my body just right.
"Giovanni," I whispered.
His breathing grew shallow and the very sound of it spurred me onward. My nightgown rose as he kneaded the material in his hand. Glancing down, I saw that he"d managed to get it up and over my knee. A few pulls later and his hand branded my bare thigh. Turning my head towards his, I met his mouth. I was the one who took the kiss to the next level. I plunged my tongue into his mouth and felt his caress mine. His hand moved higher up my bare thigh to my hip. Our kisses sped up as our bodies continued to sway. Pleasure built within me and we"d done nothing more than kiss. At this rate, I"d explode before we ever made it into a bed.
I found his hand on my hip and put mine over his, easing it over to the apex of my thighs. His breathing was choppy, as was mine. I tipped my head back more. He pulled away from my lips and planted kisses on my neck. It felt so good. Too good. Giovanni"s touch pushed me towards my crescendo.
My eyelids were heavy from the intoxicating allure of promised s.e.x. Desire clung to the air around me and it was all I could do to stay upright. Lazily, I open my eyes and glanced at the full-length mirror. As I closed my eyes again, Giovanni slid his fingers over my pink silk panties. I was moist and eager for him. He pulled the edges of the material and slid his fingers in. Peeking out, I caught a reflection of someone standing behind Giovanni.
Fear shot through me and I spun around quickly. Giovanni"s eyes widened. A look of horror moved over his face. "I am sorry. I thought you were all right with ...."
Putting my hand up, I stopped him from going on. I ran towards the open door. I stopped short of running out it and then stared back at the mirror.
"I thought ... in the mirror ... it looked like he was standing behind you. I thought he was going to hurt you."
Giovanni looked back at the mirror and then at me. "Who?"
"Pallo."
Chapter Four.
I made my way down the tiny dirt path. The sun was so bright that I a.s.sumed it meant it would be very warm. I was wrong. A slight breeze was blowing that I could feel even through the tan sweater I"d tossed on.
I moved the little, brown wicker basket I was carrying to my other hand, pleased with my yield so far. The basket was half-full and I"d only been out collecting herbs for a little over an hour. Giovanni"s herb garden was not in a regular little square formation. No, he"d covered the side of the mountain that his home was built on. Different levels held different bounty and each was more beautiful than the next. It wasn"t well kept, but not overgrown. Whatever he had done to maintain the gardens had left them feeling very natural and extremely pleasing to the eye.
I knew that Giovanni was in my room asleep. Dawn had come while he was still trying to convince me that I hadn"t seen Pallo"s reflection in the mirror. Had I not freaked out, I"m sure we would have slept together. In a sense we did. He lay down next to me and literally slept in the same bed as me all night. I was being silly about the Pallo situation. Giovanni was probably right, but I couldn"t shake the feeling he"d been there-with us, in the room, watching us. Giovanni was the one who had sired him and therefore, in theory, would be able to sense when he was near. I understood all of what Giovanni was telling me, but I still believed I"d seen Pallo.
I put the last few snippets of sage into my basket. It rounded out my herb collection nicely. Plus, sage was a favorite of mine, but it could never take the place of lavender. I wasn"t finding any of that growing around Giovanni"s house. English lavender was tops in my book and I missed my small collection of it at home. I wondered why he didn"t grow it. It seemed like it would do well here. I didn"t ask, because I knew he"d put it in by the next day. He seemed to like giving me anything I wanted and so far. I wasn"t complaining.
"Hmm... interesting choice, I myself prefer the red sage to the common, but it all depends on what you"re using it for."
I looked up quickly to see the source of the soft voice. A woman stood twenty feet from me wearing a large white hat and matching dress. Her hair hung to her mid-back and was several different shades of blonde. Upon closer inspection, I saw that it had streaks of pure white in it. Either she had a fantastic hairdresser or that was the real deal. She looked at me through eyes of pale blue and smiled.
She waved at me and lifted a handful of rosemary towards me. "Hi, I"m Malita ... you must be Gwyneth."
I"d never heard Giovanni mention her name before, yet she knew my name and was on his property. She was standing in the afternoon sun so I ruled out her being a vampire. Unless science had somehow perfected a sunscreen with an SPF of a billion, then she was definitely not a vampire. I smiled at her and shifted my basket to my other hand again. "Gwen, is fine. So, Malita how is it you know me?"
"Oh, yes, I see the rumors are true, you are very direct." She gave me a wide smile as she came towards me. "Well, for starters, Giovanni and I go way back and I"m not too sure of anyone in our circle who hasn"t heard of you. I mean, your father did spare no expense introducing you to the world. Speaking of which, you do know everyone is looking for you, right? The Nocturnal Journal is offering a fortune for pictures of you and your faerie fiance. I"d certainly rather have them print my photo than the Preternatural Post. They"re as close to a tabloid as you can get in the underground."
I stood there thinking about everything she"d just said. I didn"t give a fig about the tabloids wanting pictures of me. I was busy thinking about her connection to Giovanni. If she and Giovanni went way back that could mean she was a h.e.l.l of a lot older than she looked. Her clear skin, perky b.r.e.a.s.t.s and slim body were making me think she was in her early twenties, the way she talked so nonchalantly about my father and Giovanni added at least a hundred years to my guess. You don"t run around flapping your gums about the King of the Dark Realm unless you"ve got some years under your belt.
"Yes, I imagine that my father is looking for me. I"m betting he has lots of ideas for the wedding to discuss with me."
Malita glanced away quickly. I got the sense she knew more about this than she was letting on. "Yes, I know the King has been looking for you, but I"m not so sure it"s to discuss wedding plans."
This time it was me who began to close the gap between us. "What"s going on?"
She seemed to be trying to find the best way to break bad news to me. This was the first time in the four months that I felt isolated and out of touch with the world.
"Well, Caleb, he"s... umm... I"m not sure how to tell you this." She bit her lower lip, an action that no doubt made men fall all over her.
"Go ahead," I said, my chest tight with worry.
"Caleb"s been seen running around with other women, a lot of other women to be exact. His photo"s been splashed all over the place. The paranormal paparazzi caught him in some compromising positions, that is for sure." She backed up quickly, clearly scared of any backlash. Although, killing the messenger didn"t necessarily sound that unappealing, I didn"t think it was called for in this instance.
I reached down and traced the edges of the fresh sage leaves, doing my best to control my breathing. I had to keep mentally telling myself that I had no right to be jealous or hurt. I was the one who had walked out on him, even though he"d been more than willing to see me go. h.e.l.l, he"d pretty much pushed me out the door.
"I"m sorry. When I saw you out here, I knew that I wanted to meet you. I didn"t expect to be the first one to tell you about all of this. I"m so sorry."
I pulled my head up high. "Don"t be silly. It"s fine ... I"m fine. So, Malita, what brings you out here? We don"t get many guests."
"No, I doubt Giovanni would want many people around. He"d risk the news of you being here ending up back with your father and I think we all know how your father feels about Giovanni."
She was right. That was why Giovanni had been so hesitant to bring in his people to help guard the grounds. I was a risk to him. Having me here with him could easily bring the wrath of my father, the King, down on him. I suddenly felt sick to my stomach. I didn"t want anything to happen to him on account of me. Malita moved up next to me and offered to take my basket. I"d almost forgotten she was there.
"No, I"m fine. Thank you, though." I turned and headed back up the path to the house. "You never did tell me why it was that you"re here."
She let out a bubbly little laugh. "Yep, you"re definitely your father"s daughter. You don"t let up. Giovanni called and mentioned that you two had had some furry company recently and that"s what I specialize in. It worked out that I was in the area. I had to tie up a couple of loose ends, but I"m here to help out."
"Are you a scientist?"
"In a way, I guess you could say that. I have a degree in zoology, but my expertise in omnimorpheleons is a little more personal ... I am one. My base form is human and my shifter form is that of a tiger."
A tiger? Clearly there were a lot of them who were omnis.
I stopped walking and looked at her. I had heard her say it, but couldn"t believe it. I wasn"t much on coincidences and meeting two tiger omnimorpheleons in the span of a week was a bit of a stretch. I did my best to sense her intentions. As far as I could surmise, she wasn"t a threat. At least not yet.
"Don"t look so surprised, Gwyneth. I promise I won"t eat you. I already had lunch today."
I let out a nervous laugh. She might have been kidding, but for the last six months, my life had been straight out of a horror movie. My luck she"d eat me before we made it back to the house. Everyone there would be asleep for another three hours. Maybe I"d get lucky and they"d be able to track down my remains.
Malita was true to her word. She did not try to devour me. Instead, she joined me back at the house for some iced tea. We sat out on the lower level patio table and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon. I did find out that she was one hundred and fifty years old. I hadn"t realized that omnimorpheleons were immortal, as well.
Ester, Giovanni"s head housekeeper, came out and asked about dinner arrangements. She was a little over four foot tall, which meant I towered over her. At five foot five that didn"t happen often, and I enjoyed every second of it. Her gray hair was always wrapped up tightly to her head. She seemed to own every color possible in ap.r.o.ns and enjoyed mixing them up every now and then. I looked down at her red ap.r.o.n with tiny yellow canaries st.i.tched on it and complimented her on how pretty it was. She smiled and bowed her head to me. I tried to convince her that Malita and I were fine and that she didn"t need to worry about preparing dinner just yet, but she was Italian and there was no talking her out of feeding us.
I had asked Giovanni about her when I first came. Ester was a human and as a rule humans weren"t privy to the existence of vampires, fairies, and werewolves. His explanation was simple. For the last four hundred years Ester"s family had worked for him. Several generations of them have had the task of keeping things in his life in order. Each generation pa.s.ses the secrets of Giovanni and his people on to the next. They take care of him and in return they never want for a thing.
I gave in and agreed to let her fix us dinner. She was going on and on about a chicken dish that I couldn"t p.r.o.nounce and I told her that that would be perfect. I shook my head as she went back into the house.
Malita stood up and excused herself. She"d spent the greater part of the day on a plane and wanted to freshen up. I offered to show her to one of the guest bedrooms, but she insisted that she knew the way. I gave her a questioning look, but she just smiled and headed into the house.
I took her lead and decided to head up to my room to get freshened up, as well. I walked around and used the outside stairs. I headed across the balcony to the French doors to my room. I moved the handle slowly and cracked the door open a little. I saw Giovanni"s tanned shoulder sticking out of the corner of the white sheets first. His long silky black hair cascaded down and covered his face while he slept on his stomach. I turned around and made sure that the drapes were pulled shut and went over to the edge of the bed.
I moved some of his hair back away from his face. He looked like a painting, too perfect to be real. I bent and kissed his cool cheek. He shifted under the covers and the sheet came loose. I couldn"t help myself I peeked under it. For the first time that I could remember, I stood there staring at his almost nude body. The only thing preventing me from seeing the whole show was the black pair of underwear he slept in.
I stood there staring at his perfectly bronzed skin and could no longer fight the urge to run my fingers over his back. He moved again and I knew that if I kept touching him that I"d wake him up, and I"d heard him roaming around in his room during the daylight hours every day since the attack. I knew he hadn"t been sleeping well, and I didn"t want to wake him.
Turning away from him, I took off my boots. I slid my jeans down my legs and laid them over the back of the olive colored Queen Ann chair that sat in the corner of my room. I did the same with my t-shirt. Tiptoeing past Giovanni, who was still pa.s.sed out on the bed, I went into the bathroom, quietly pulled the handles and let the sink fill up with water. I picked up the bar of soap and brought it to my nose. I loved the way the products he stocked in my bathroom smelled. Mostly the soap smelled of honey and a touch of ginseng, but I could make out the faintest hint of oatmeal. As unglamorous as that combination sounded it smelled amazing and made my skin so silky smooth that I sometimes found myself running my hand over my arm to confirm it.
Freshening up, I patted my face dry with one of the plush white towels that seemed to magikally restock themselves. I walked out and looked down at Giovanni. He was still very much dead to the world. I peeked out of the curtains and gauged that dusk would come in about an hour. Malita had said she wanted to get some rest so I didn"t need to worry about entertaining her and the rest of the guests at the house were vampires and they would sleep until nightfall. I made up my mind and decided to climb back in bed until Giovanni woke.
I walked around and climbed in the king sized bed. I didn"t bother getting dressed. I was still wearing my bra and panties and they covered more than my swimsuits did. I snuggled in next to Giovanni and carefully moved his hair out of the way. There is nothing worse than having someone lie on your hair.
Reaching down, I pulled the sheets over myself and tried to re-cover him. Then I yanked the down-comforter over us. It was warmer than what was called for, but Giovanni always felt cold to me. I know that he"s a vampire and he"s cold naturally, but I couldn"t stop the mothering instinct in me. I eased the covers over him and moved down into the bed next to him.
Lying there, I stared at his back for a while and knew if I kept that up I"d be molesting him before he woke, so I turned over and put my back to him. I closed my eyes and let my body begin to relax. Giovanni"s steady breathing was soothing and comforting to me.
Something moved over my stomach lightly. Opening my eyes, I found Giovanni propped up on his elbow, touching me. I smiled and reached up to stroke his face. "Hey you, how"d you sleep?"
He ran his fingers over me again and stopped just under my breast. "Wonderfully, and I am sorry for waking you up, I... umm... was unable to help myself."
"Don"t feel bad, I had the same problem. You know you really need to put some more clothes on before you climb in bed with me again."
His fingers traced the underwire of my white lace bra. It was his way of pointing out that I"d done the same thing. He leaned down and I moved my mouth up, expecting him to kiss me. "Does this mean I will be staying in here with you more often?"
I tried to think about what he was asking me, but his lips were too distracting to me. His hand was still on my bra as I arched my back up to him, pushing my body closer to his.
"I take it your silence means no, I am not allowed to ...."
I covered his lips with mine and shut him up. I pushed my tongue into his mouth and his hand moved over my breast. His fingers slid into my bra and my body reacted to his tender touch. Our heads moved around as our tongues searched for one another, locking together briefly then dodging away to begin the game again.