Viktoria had to give the vampire credit for being persistent. He lurked on her balcony, thinking himself hidden from her in shadows, again. Why he didn't just speak to her? She'd stopped on the beach and waited, but he had kept his distance and watched her. Creepy.
Ember, why did it have to be vampires? Why not something safe and predictable, like a bunch of berserkers?
Her friend had some explaining to do.
Well, if he wasn't going to talk to her she saw no reason to talk to him, but she had let him know she knew he was there. She'd stepped into a shadow and disappeared, traveling a short distance between shadows to exit behind him. The look on his face when he realized it was now her following him as he looked for her was almost worth being stalked.
She'd tired of their game in the streets and brought their contest to her home turf instead. She could have left the vampire behind and traveled to her home through shadows. He couldn't follow her that way even if he was comfortable skulking in them, but she found herself intrigued by him in spite of knowing she was better off leaving him behind.
She hoped he brought her perfume. That was an expensive bottle, the scent made for her alone. The sacrifice would have been worth it if the distraction had worked, but since it hadn't, she wanted it back.
Arriving home, she took down her wards long enough for the vampire to cross and put them back up. She went upstairs to her bedroom, and felt it when the vampire slipped over the wall. He was goodβshe almost didn't see the blur cross from the top of her wall into a tree and onto her balcony.
But here he was, lurking again. The vampire, no, she couldn't keep calling him that. She would call him... Lurky.
Lurky being this persistent did not bode well for being rid of him by telling him to go away when she was done with him. Well, if he wanted to lurk and watch, she would give him a show.
She tossed her stilettos into the closet and went into the bathroom to begin the process of removing her dress. Untying the strings that weren't held on by body glue from one another and a string that ran around her neck like a collar, she let them slither through her fingers one by one.
Twisting her hair into a messy bun, she filled a small bowl with hot water and dipped a wash cloth into it. Tugging at the criss-cross of strings that covered her left breast she ran the cloth over her skin to remove the traces of glue left behind. As the water cooled on her skin her pale, pink nipple hardened into an erect nub.
Revealing her right breast, she turned her back to the mirror, reaching her arms over her head and behind her back as she contorted to get at the last few strings. She stretched her body taut and arched her back, the extremes she was going to meant to tease and not necessary for the last few strings.
Teasing the vampire wasn't the best idea, but Viktoria considered it payback for having to put up with his stalking her. And she was determined he would be the one to break their silent stalemate, not her.
When the last of the strings were freed she let the dress slide off her body to pool around her feet. A low growl, cut off almost as soon as it began, came from the direction of her balcony. She gave no sign she heard it but was gratified to hear her efforts were being appreciated.
Naked, she reached for some lotion with the same scent as her perfume. Squeezing a dollop into one palm she set the tube down and rubbed her hands together to spread the lotion between them.
Tilting her head to one side to stretch her neck, she rubbed one hand up and down her throat while the other one slid across her collarbone. Moving her hands down, she cupped her full breasts and massaged lotion into them. She tweaked her nipples, letting out a small moan as her head fell back.
She slid her hands lower, skimming her belly, waist, and hips before propping one leg up on the counter so she could slather lotion over the length of it. She took her time, making sure to bend, stretch, and display her body as she massaged every inch of her leg before she shifted to prop her other leg on the counter and start over again.
Finished with her lesson on how to apply body lotion, she left her dress pooled on the floor, switched off the light, and walked through her bedroom clad only in the moonlight streaming in from the open balcony doors.
Lurky lurked, his stare boring into her.
She told herself it was the cool winter air, not Lurky's hot gaze, that had her body shivering and her nipples hardening.
Her bedroom, like everything else about her, was a study of light and dark, and her bed was covered in an inky black comforter. She crawled onto the high four-poster bed and rolled onto her back, letting her body relax.
Time to step up her game even further.
<><><><><>
Up to this moment in his long, undead life as a vampire Jael thought only the sun, beheading, or a stake through his heart could kill him. But as he watched his Draga touching herself he added 'spontaneous combustion' to the list of possible ways to die.
His body and instincts were at war with his mind in an unfair two to one fight to claim his Draga. An unfair fight in which the odds had become further skewed as his Draga unknowingly joined the battle against his mind.
Jael thought it was bad when she used the washcloth. He hadn't thirsted for water in thousands of years, but watching the rivulets of water drops caress her as they slid down her skin, he'd craved for those drops like they were an oasis in a desert he'd been crawling through for days.
Watching her movements while she revealed her body bit by bit, baring herself with no hint of self-consciousness as she let her dress fall to the floor had him clenching his fists. Watching as she touched and massaged every inch of her skin with a cream that bore the same scent as the perfume he associated with her made him step forward.
And the way she'd walked across her bedroom, her skin glowing in moonlight before she crawled onto her bed, he hadn't been able to take his eyes off her. He could see the effect of the cold on her body. She shivered and her nipples were hard points, but she didn't get under the bedclothes for warmth, she lay on her back on top, her pale skin glowing against the ebony covers.
She'd let her legs fall open, and her hands traveled over her body with a new purpose as she began pleasuring herself. The fingers of one of her hands slid up the inside of her thigh to her core and moved in rhythmic circles. Her eyes fluttered shut and she moaned as his new favorite scent flavored the airβthe scent of her arousal.
Jael had seen enough. His mind gave up the fight and he stepped from his hiding place on the balcony through the open doors into her bedroom. "Viktoria." He spoke in a quiet tone, not wanting to scare her."Don't be alarmβ"
"So, the vampire
can
speak."
Jael frowned. She knew he was here? More to the point, she knew what he was? And far from sounding startled or scared, she sounded... bored. She hadn't even opened her eyes to look at him or stopped moving her hands over herself.