I let go with my mouth, abruptly, and saw blood on my mouth, on my chin, shining in the lights. I let go of his hair, his body, and stepped back, and I knew that my eyes were still full of that dark light. I was afraid for a second what I'd done, but found that other than a perfect set of my own teeth marks, set like a bloody necklace on his skin, I hadn't bitten through to his pulse. I hadn't hurt him, not more than he wanted to be hurt.
Jean-Claude was standing there, in front of me. "Ma petite," he whispered, "ma petite." But I knew what he was thinking, I knew what he wanted. Bound closer than we'd ever been, it cut both ways. He mouthed something about how did I feel, was I alright, but that wasn't what he was thinking. Not really.
"Say what you want," I said, "say what you want."
He stopped trying to be careful, and said, simply, "Kiss me."
I went to him, and he kissed me. He kissed me as if he were tasting me, as if with tongue and teeth and lips he could drain from me every last drop of Nathaniel's blood and the taste of me along with it. He licked the roof of my mouth and drew a sound from low in my throat. His eyes had bled to midnight blue light, as if the darkest of water held starlight in it.
I caught the glint of my own eyes, and they were still full of light, blind with the darkness of it, except it wasn't blind, it was anything but. It was like being hyperaware of everything, anything. I knew suddenly that as long as the light lasted, that every sense would be heightened. I remembered thinking in the cemetery that to make love like this would either be the most wondrous thing ever, or drive you mad. Staring up into Jean-Claude's drowning blue eyes, I was willing to bet on wondrous.
"We must see to Nathaniel first," he said, but his voice was hoarse and thick with need.
I nodded. "Yes, Nathaniel first."
"And then?" he asked.
"Say what you mean," I said, and my voice wasn't as hoarse as his, but it didn't sound exactly like me either.
"And then there is a couch in my office," he said.
"I was thinking the desk," I said.
He looked at me, and even with those drowning eyes, the look was very male. "Either will do for me, but it is you who will be on bottom, so it is your choice."
"I'll be on bottom?" I made it a question.
He nodded. "Yes."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because that is what I want."
"Okay," I said.
44
Nathaniel was done for the night, there would be no shapeshifting. He was barely conscious in that after great sex kind of way. A few of the customers complained, but not many. Most of them felt that they'd had a show worth the price of admission. We got Nathaniel settled in what the strippers called the quiet room. It had an oversized couch, blankets, low lights, and was just what the name implied, a quiet room, where you could either sleep or get your shit together when things went odd. There were smaller rooms where you could pay to have a private dance, but this wasn't one of them. This was more a room for crashing when you were tired or had to pull a surprise double shift.
I stroked Nathaniel's hair, and asked him, "Are you alright?"
He'd opened his eyes just barely and smiled up at me. I'd never seen his face so content. "Yes, very, yes."
I told him to enjoy the afterglow, and I put Requiem on the door, because Nathaniel was mine to take care of, and I planned on being busy for awhile.
My eyes had bled back to normal by the time I walked down the hallway toward Jean-Claude's office. He stopped in the hallway and called after me, "Where are you going, ma petite?"
I paused at the door and looked at him. "To your office."
"Your mood is cooler now, and the power has left you." He was trying to be utterly neutral, and failing just a bit.
I opened the door still looking at him. "Come into the office, Jean-Claude, and lock the door." I didn't wait to see what he'd do, I went through the door, leaving it open behind me. I went to the desk and hopped up on it. I could have tried for subtle, but it was late, and I didn't feel the least bit subtle. I put my boots up on the desk, my legs apart, and let the skirt ride up as far as it wanted to go. It was outrageously slutty, but the look on his face as he came through the door made me glad I'd done it.
He leaned against the door and locked it, and was unbuttoning his jacket as he walked across the floor. I pulled off the leather jacket and threw it to the floor. His jacket was on the floor, the fluffy white cravat undone so that his upper neck showed pale. I slipped the shoulder holster off my arms but only had the belt partly undone, when he pulled the shirt over his head, and was na**d from the waist up. I finished the belt, but he was at the desk before I got it off, slipping the shoulder holster free and setting gun and all beside me on the big black lacquer desk.
I went to my knees on his desk and fell upon the silken muscle and lines of his chest with hands and fingers and mouth. I licked the cross-shaped burn scar. I drew first one nipple and then the other into my mouth. Rolled them with my tongue, sucked them. Used my hands to mound the flesh of his chest, so I could take more of his nipple into my mouth, more of his breast. Until I could lock my mouth around as much as would fill it, and bit down until he cried out and his hands found my face, drew me away from his body, and to his mouth.
We kissed as we had on stage, as if we were exploring every inch with tongue, lips, teeth. He drew back from the kiss, and his eyes had bled to blue. Mine were still my own, but I didn't care. His hands found my shirt, and he pulled it over my head and bent over me, kissing down the line of my neck, my shoulder, and mounds of my br**sts where they spilled up from the black lace bra. He stuck his hands inside my bra and lifted my br**sts out so they rested on the underwire, like it was a black frame for the pale mounds of my br**sts.
He went to his knees and pulled me to the edge of the desk so he could run his tongue over my br**sts. Flicking against my ni**les, quick, and light, and wet, until I made small noises. He locked his mouth around my breast and drew as much of my breast as he could between his fangs without nicking me. He sucked, hard and harder, rolling his tongue along my nipple and drawing harder on my breast until he stretched me out in a line that felt so good, but I could feel how careful he was being. It wasn't the first time he'd played with me like this, but it was the first time that I'd known that this was only the beginning of what he wanted. It wasn't like telepathy, or a picture in my head, I just knew. I knew what he wanted to do. What he was fighting not to do.
"Bleed me," I said.
He rolled his eyes up to me, so he could see my face.
"Bleed me, I know how long you've wanted to do that now. How careful you've been."
He stopped and released my breast slowly, carefully. He said, "Ma petite, you are drunk with the new powers, but tomorrow night, you will not be."
I shook my head. "Let me feel what it's like to have you stretch me tight in your mouth and draw just a little blood. I'm not saying that the whole ride will appeal to me, but I am saying that I'm willing to try a little, to see if I'll like a lot, or not."
He looked strangely suspicious, and I realized that it was my expression in his eyes, more than his, as if I'd taught him that look, and this caution.
"I give you my word that I won't punish you for anything I agree to try tonight. A little blood tonight, only a little, barely a nick, just a taste." I leaned in toward his face. "I know that you want to feed there now. You never told me."
"Nor would I have, ma petite, you let me take blood so infrequently, that I would never have dreamt to ask such a liberty. When you will not share your neck, why would I think to ask for more delicate parts?"
"I'm offering now. I'd take me up on it, if I were you. Who knows if I'll ever offer again, if you say no now." I stared into his face from inches away and let him see that there was no conflict here, no doubts, just eagerness. Eagerness to try.
"What has gotten into you, ma petite?"
"You, you've gotten into me, or I want you to. I want you inside me, Jean-Claude, I want you inside me. I want you to lie me back across this desk, with my br**sts bare and your mark on them. I want you to push yourself inside me and watch the blood flow from the wound that you made. I want you to watch the blood flow fast and faster, while you f**k me."
"You are echoing my fantasy, ma petite, have I taken you over?"