Page 30 of Once Bitten, Twice Mine

Valeria’s hand returned to her breast. This time her thumb brushed over Caroline’s nipple, drawing another gasp from her. She repeated the motion, and Caroline felt the movement echoed in her core.

“You’re so delightfully expressive,” Valeria smirked. “Even more so than I dreamed you would be.”

“I’ve wanted you to touch me for so long.” She had dreamed of it many, many times. “I’ve wanted to touch you too. To kiss you. All over.”

“Do you wish to be kissed all over?”

“Yes.”

“Your skin is so warm; I know your blood would be too. I promised I wouldn’t, but you make it so hard to be good. I want to bathe in you, drink you in. I want to smell like you, of you. To both be you and be in you. I want to surround myself with you and never let go, until we are completely one.”

“I want that too. Make me yours.”

Valeria groaned as she moved Caroline’s hair to bare her neck. “You don’t know what you ask of me. If you were mine, I would never let you go.”

Caroline didn’t see the problem with that. She opened her eyes, ready to beg Valeria for more, but it was no longer Valeria above her.

It was Edgar, and he looked thunderous. “Is this what you’re doing while I’m working for the money to fix your home? I’m so disappointed to have such a wife.”

Her eyes flew open, thankful to find it was only a dream. She was slick between her thighs, but the threat of Edgar had ceased all of her interest in such pleasures.

Pushing herself out of bed, she walked on shaky legs to her vanity. She splashed her face with the cool water Lucy left for her, glancing up at the looking glass and noticing how bad she looked. Her skin was a little flushed, but her face was drawn, and there were dark circles beneath her eyes.

Fear sliced through her. She didn’t feel sick, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t illness festering inside of her. As Dr. Murnau said, sometimes people could carry plague without being sick. After all, Caroline was the common denominator between Valeria, Nelly, and her father.

Caroline stared at her reflection as her heart rate raced, fear driving her to rip open the collar of her nightgown to check her body for wounds. She searched her neck, chest, around her breasts, belly, and hips to ensure she didn’t have any puncture wounds. When her body was smooth, her heartbeat evened out.

It was all the stress she was under wreaking havoc on her sleeping habits. That was why she was awake before dawn. Taking a deep breath, she calmed herself. She was fine. Nelly’s passing was a tragedy, but her father had improved. All would be well.

As she righted her nightgown, she remembered how suddenly Valeria had fallen ill that evening. Besides the sun sickness, it was so easy to forget the woman was unwell. In all of her worrying about everyone else in the house, she had neglected Valeria’s health, and that would not do. There was still time before dawn, and she wasn’t sure when Valeria went to sleep, but she hoped to catch her.

Slipping on her dowdy light green silk dressing gown, she slipped on her house slippers and made her way to Valeria’s room, where she knocked instead of barging in as she did during the day.

There was no answer.

“It’s Caroline,” she said, knocking again. “Valeria?”

Still no answer. Caroline slowly opened the door, clearing her throat to make her presence known. The covers on the bed were thrown off. Caroline stepped inside. “Valeria? I wanted to see if you were feeling better.”

The bedroom wasn’t big enough for anywhere to hide, but Caroline looked around all the same. She checked the dressing room, but only Valeria’s trunks. Clothes were strewn about, including one of the woman’s scandalous shifts. Without thinking about it first, she reached her hand out to feel the barely-there fabric.

“What are you doing in here?”

CHAPTER 8

Caroline was utterly frozen as she scrambled for the best response for Lucy. It was a miracle that her maid caught her snooping rather than Valeria herself.

“I was looking for Lady Valeria,” she said as she turned, giving her maid a small smile. “Have you seen her?”

Lucy’s eyes flicked to the shift still in her grasp, and Caroline let go. The flimsy garment fluttered down and landed on her feet.

“Not this morning, Miss. I saw her just after sunset yesterday. She mentioned she was going to visit you, but we haven’t spoken since.”

Caroline frowned. “Does she frequently go missing?”

Lucy set down the silver tray she held and removed the cloche, revealing the same meal she had for dinner the previous evening. It answered one of her questions, since Valeria never shared a meal with her. It was comforting to know the woman was still eating.

“I dunno, I haven’t been looking out for her. Sometimes I only see her when she’s still asleep when I’m dropping off her first meal. Sometimes when I come in in the morning she’s here, and we speak for a few minutes. I don’t keep track of her in the hours between; should I?”