Page 86 of Once Bitten, Twice Mine

Valeria stilled, and Caroline circled her hips, trying to get her back into action, but nothing could move Valeria if she didn’t want to. Slowly, she lifted her head and looked up at Caroline’s eyes.

“What?” Her pupils were blown wide with pleasure.

“Pierce my maidenhead. Claim me for yourself. Make me scream so loud that Edgar comes to investigate, and he sees you inside me, and I tell him he can go to hell because I’m yours and always have been.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m sick of it, all of it. I’m tired of putting everyone before myself. Of caring about everyone’s happiness before my own. I don’t want to be everyone’s good girl anymore; I only want to be yours.”

This time, the kiss they shared was slower, more tender, but no less passionate. Valeria’s finger entered her slowly. The intrusion was unfamiliar, but not unwanted. Instead, she focused on relaxing. That was what all of the advice she received on consummating her marriage had told her to do.

Though Valeria stopped before she got very far. Caroline bucked her hips in an attempt to spur her on, but the other woman was immovable, so she broke their kiss.

“Why have you stopped? This is what you want, right?” Her voice was small, and she hated that she even had to check.

“Are you sure this is what you want?”

“Of course. You said yourself I’m better at lying to myself than anyone else. I don’t want to marry Edgar. I was marrying him because of my duty. But I don’t care about any of that, not anymore. Not if I can be with you.”

Emotions she couldn’t read swirled in Valeria’s dark eyes. There was triumph and desire, but also grief. Which made her stomach drop.

“How long do you want to be with me?”

“Forever.”

“You don’t even know what that word means.”

“And you do?”

“I’m a vampire,” Valeria sighed.

“We’re the same age! You may be a vampire, but it isn’t as if you’ve lived for centuries and I am a silly mortal girl you met a few days ago who’s willing to throw away her entire life for you.”

“So, you’re telling me you’ve thought about this? You’ve thought about how you won’t age anymore; you will need to keep it a secret from your parents. You’ll have to be dead to them and all of your friends. You can’t keep running this manor as if nothing happened. Not as they watch you remain the same through the decades. And that isn’t even taking into consideration how you will drink. Do you think you have the stomach to drink blood? To kill if you need to?”

Caroline swallowed; her hands shook. She had thought about it a great deal, but the thirst was always the most difficult part. Even more so than leaving her parents forever. “I can get used to it. As long as we are together, I’ll learn to adjust.”

“You’ll adjust to murder?”

Caroline flinched. “You’re not entirely wicked. I know that for certain, and I will trust that we will find a new solution.”

“Oh, how reassuring it is to hear that you don’t think I am entirely wicked.”

“I didn’t mean⁠—”

“How do you think I fed last night?” Valeria interrupted with a thunderous expression.

For the first time, Caroline wasn’t sure. She hated that they were having this conversation while she felt so exposed. “I suppose you went to the village and hunted for your prey as you usually do.”

Valeria removed her fingers and took several steps back before turning from Caroline. Color flooded her cheeks in embarrassment for whatever she said. She had bared her soul to the woman she loved, and now it felt as if everything she had said and done was wrong. Maybe everything Valeria had been telling her was only bedroom talk and not something she should have taken seriously.

“I don’t know what’s worse, that you think I killed people last night or that you were willing to fuck me despite believing I’m a monster.”

“I thought this was what you wanted.”

“To be judged by you for all eternity? To know you are always just above my shoulder, shaking your head at the way I live. Thinking of how desperate you are to fix what you think of as my failings.”

“I just find the idea of having to kill to be difficult. I don’t think it’s right.”