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Wet scarlet strea down the branches and trunks around the blood

There, in that surreal realer while he fell into rapture over her The rapture that would compel him to love her and feed on her until he drained the last pulse of life from her heart

Concern replaced the anticipation in her sht?

Give me a moment, love He ducked his head so that she wouldn’t see his fangs I’ you

No, he wasn’t He’d already spread her legs with his knees and held a handful of her cheers to uncurl and se the beast, but only she was here Only she could give it to him

He couldn’t drink fro into rapture and wouldn’t care, he would not take her life But he would, unless…

He reached for the whispery pink scarf she’d draped around his neck and twisted the ends around his fingers

Close your eyes When she did, he used the scarf as a blindfold over thee up over one eye to peek at him Do you call out Marco Polo now until I find you?

No, you stay right where you are He pulled the scarf back into place I won’t be a moment, love

He left her there, went to the old owl’s nest that served as his cache, and reached inside for the bags of blood he kneould be there He tore open and e her as he reached for a second, and then a third Only after draining a fourth did he feel the hunger dwindle and the demon subside He would have e herself on her elbow and turning her head as if trying to hear what he was doing

Feeding so quickly, even on the chilly stuff, caused heat and pleasure to spread like fever throughout him He drank from a bottle of heavy red wine to wash the taste of blood fro to her

Her slim, cool hands wandered over him You feel so hot

You burn in ed the blindfold from her eyes Why the devil won’t you tell ers stilled I don’t have one

You are called Chris for soical mother never named me She was probably a prostitute or a junkie Chris traced the old bow scars crisscrossing his fingers No one even knohen she gave birth to me, but it was probably sometime in the winter of 1976 She kept ood care of me Maybe she couldn’t afford to, or she didn’t care One summer she left me in a playpen with a sheet of plywood over the top to keepout, and never came back

Robin brushed the hair back from her eyes But they found you and took you away froer of the flophouse where she’d been staying came up two days later to collect the rent He found me Chris drew her hand away It isn’t important It’s ancient history anyway

Rob kissed her forehead Itreally stupid, like fall in love with you She pulled him on top of her Then think of how much trouble you’d be in

Indeed I’d have to spend a fewyou He hooked his thumbs in the soft satin of her panties and pushed theers He stroked the soft down of her red curls, the narrow cleft they covered, and tested the silkiness waiting for him Are you ready for me, love?

She thrashed under him Lord

My lord

"My lord"

Robin opened his eyes, squinting against the glare of the interior cabin lights He lay reclined in the wide seat with Chris on his lap She had her arms looped around his neck, and he had his hand between her thighs

Carefully he shifted his hand and pulled her skirt back into place "What is it?"

"We are preparing to land, my lord" The attendant nodded toward Chris "And the lady is beginning to wake"

Chapter Eleven

Chris didn’t like waking up in Robin’s lap, or being hustled off the jet before she could get her bearings She’d slept too hard; her head felt like an overstuffed flotation device

The erotic drea back over her, but it had been different this tis that she had never ht, like how she had been abandoned by her mother, and how easily she knew she could fall for him

Her, in love With a thief