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“I promise,” he responds without pause, lifting his hand to his heart.
Then he draws near, and experimentally touches his lips to mine. Gentle at first and then increasingly more urgent. I run my hand down his spine, up again, over his shoulder blades. He pushes my top up, plays with the white lace of my bra. My throat goes all strange and ticklish. Ethan laughs, low and intimate. He unclips my bra, then discards both it and my top, pulling them up over my head with care. He runs his hands over me, fondles with the edge of my pants. Resists lowering them.
In the dark, under the covers, we explore each other with our fingertips. Light and curious. His skin is like hard silk.
“Can I keep you?” he whispers in my ear, holding himself above me, peering down with inky dark blue eyes.
“I’m not worth keeping,” I answer, my words barely audible, a quick defensive smile on my lips.
Ethan grins slowly. “Only a true treasure has no idea of its worth,” he tells me before planting butterfly kisses along the curve of my collarbone.
His hands move about me, probing, exploring. Each touch brings its own tiny explosion of pleasure. I hadn’t realised just how much I wanted this until now. For you can tell the extent of your anticipation from your reaction once the waiting has ended, and I’d be lying if I said I’m not surprised by how much I am falling into this man. This vampire. I never expected this feeling of clean, pure heaven from him. Honestly, I’d anticipated a pleasurable fall into treacherous fiery depths. That’s what monsters like Ethan are supposed to bring, isn’t it? Anything but this. This thing of beauty and warmth and something else.
He’s kissing his way up the inside of my
leg when I pull him up to me, and – experimentally – initiate a soft, unsure kiss. He returns my advance, and presses his lips to mine while laughing gently, the sound goes through me. Marks me.
“You are –” he begins, “nothing like what I expected,” while doing something amazing to me with his fingers. He gets there so quick, I didn’t notice until it was happening. I half gasp, half sigh.
“And,” he continues, “so, so soft. I like that sound, do it again.”
I blush and tense up. Self-conscious of how much he sees me. A thin shaft of grey morning light shines through my open curtains.
“Ah,” says Ethan. “The earth’s rotation does not wish me satisfied,” he exhales gently, his sweet minty breath brushing over my cheek. He pulls back, places a kiss on my forehead, and rises from the bed, grabbing his discarded jeans from the floor.
“You’re leaving?” I ask in a quiet voice.
“I must get home before sunrise,” he answers, and smiles tenderly. “But don’t worry, angel, I’m not finished with you yet,” he sighs, while buttoning up his dark shirt. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be.”
And then he’s gone.
You’d think I wouldn’t have gotten much sleep last night, especially since Ethan left so suddenly. But I actually slept like a log, all the lost hours must have caught up with me. My conscious mind checked out. This was a blessing since I would have spent the minutes and seconds and hours thinking of Ethan’s effect on me. His touch. Taste. I know I’m a complete fool to be falling for this, but I don’t think I care much anymore. I might as well enjoy myself if I’m going to be stuck in this situation either way.
Although perhaps the instantaneous sleep wasn’t so much of a blessing since he occupies my thoughts now, as I’m tying little handwritten brown paper price tags onto some home-made therapeutic bath soaps. Marcel is out as per usual, and Gabriel’s working on the cash register. Right now I’m eavesdropping on a conversation he’s having with a customer, a middle aged woman asking him the difference between Hatha and Ashtanga Yoga, and which book he would recommend buying.
“I’ve been having these aches, you see,” says the woman in a high-pitched, grating voice, surreptitiously I glance at her out of the corner of my eye. She’s wearing a paisley shirt. Ugh.
“And my doctor recommended I take a few beginner’s Yoga classes,” she continues.
“How forward thinking of him,” Gabriel mutters quietly.
“But the problem is,” she goes on. “I have absolutely no clue where to start. I thought I’d purchase a book first to learn the basics before booking a class.”
“Very wise,” says Gabriel. “But I’m afraid I’m no expert in this area.”
I get up from my crouched position by the shelves and walk over to the counter. “You should probably go for Hatha,” I tell her, shoving the extra blank price tags into the cupboard below. She glances in my direction when I speak, looking grateful for any advice. “Ashtanga is very fast-paced and intense, Hatha is more slow and gentle, better for a beginner,” I plaster a smile on my face.
“Oh,” she says grinning, causing the skin around her eyes to crinkle. “That’s great, thanks. I’ll take this one then,” she says to Gabriel, handing him the Hatha book.
“You do Yoga?” Gabriel asks casually, after he’s taken for the book and popped it into a bag for the woman.
“I did,” I answer. “I’ve been meaning to get back to it, but I’m just too lazy.”
Gabriel smiles, eyes lingering on my face, he shakes himself and looks away. “I forgot to mention, Marcel wants to do some spell casting at lunch, you up for it?” he continues.
I hesitate. “Actually, I can’t. I have plans for lunch, sorry.”
Gabriel’s green eyes find me again as he glances up from the book he’s been skimming all day. He studies me a minute. “You aren’t so keen on this whole thing, are you?” he asks.
