England, 1869

Night was falling on Craven Manor and inside its thick stone walls that had stood for centuries, its young Mistress was scared.

Victoria had once loved the night. Loved watching the sky darken from blue to black as night spread over the land. Now she dreaded its coming just as she dreaded going to sleep.

No matter how much her motherly housekeeper Mrs. Robbins fussed over her she would not, could not, sleep during the night.

For the ten hours that darkness hovered over the manor Victoria fought to stay awake. She read, played the piano, sketched and walked endlessly through the mansion’s countless rooms. She did whatever she could to keep from falling asleep.

Unfortunately, two housemaids had already been dismissed by Mrs. Robbins because of the tales that they had spread about Victoria in the village. Their malicious gossiping had only been discovered by chance when Victoria’s horse had fallen lame during a morning outing with her dependable old groom Mr. Stark.

To Victoria’s shock and horror a small child had run screaming from the sight of her, begging his mother to save him from the ‘vampire lady.’

After that she had decided that it was best not to venture out again.

xxxxx

Victoria stood suddenly from her chair by the fire and walked to the windows that looked out over the south lawn. The wind had picked up and it looked as if it was going to storm.

She was about to turn back to the room when something scratched against the window pane making her jump. Her heart hammering in her chest she leaned forward to look out. She laughed sadly when she saw that it was only the branch of a tree that needed pruning.

Turning she crossed the room and sank back down in the chair that had once been her fathers and stared into the fire. As a child she had loved stormy nights. She had waited until the house was silent and then crept down to the study to curl up in this very chair to listen to the rain against the windows. The peaceful sound had never failed to lull her to sleep.

She wished that she could go back in time, back to the sense of safety that little girl had felt, but those days were long gone and she was afraid that they might never return.

She turned her face from the flames and looked at the table next to the chair. On it sat a single glass. Just the right size for an after-dinner Brandy. But it wasn’t Brandy or any other form of spirits. No, in the glass was her salvation or her doom. The terrifying part was that even she didn’t know which.

She reached out and picked the glass up and looked at the viscous liquid inside. The doctor had prescribed her laudanum months before when her sleeping problems had first started but she had never taken it, too afraid what the drug would do to her sleeping mind when she needed all her wits about her. Tonight was finally the night. She had thought about it for a week and had finally reached her decision. She was going to purposely drug herself to sleep.

She was going to take control.

She got up and made her way over to the large leather sofa that dominated the east wall. Earlier, the housekeeper had brought down pillows and blankets, all too eager to do anything if it meant that Victoria might sleep.

She sat down and thought about removing her shoes but decided against it. No matter how silly it sounded she wanted to be fully dressed when she confronted the monster in her nightmares.

She took a deep breath and in one gulp downed the nasty liquid then sat the emptied glass on the floor by the sofa and lay down. She had no idea how long it would take the drug to affect her but she doubted that it would be that long. Even though she slept during the day it wasn’t deeply and it was never for long enough.

She lay still and tried to control her racing mind.

Taking deep breaths in and letting them out slowly she clasped her hands on her stomach but that was too reminiscent of the way that her mother had been laid out in her coffin so Victoria balled her fists up at her sides. As she closed her eyes she sent a small prayer heavenward to her parents, “Please, please watch over me and help me to dispel this fiend.”

xxxxx

He was there. The same way he always was.

“There you are my dear. Where have you been? I’ve been quite concerned about you.”

He turned his head to look at her and once again Victoria was amazed at the intense feelings that washed over her.

“My darling what’s wrong? You look unwell. Are you not eating again?”

He patted his knee for her to come and sit and as appalling as the truth was she had to face it anyway. She wanted to run to him. She wanted to feel his warmth against her. She wanted to feel his strong thigh beneath her.

No matter how terror-stricken she was upon seeing him, there was also a small part of her that thrilled at the sight of him and that scared her most of all.

The longing that washed over her at the sight of his face gave her the impetus that she needed. “This has to stop.”

The look on his face as she spoke made her think that maybe he hadn’t understood her. She had said it so fast that it might have come out as gibberish rather than as the plea that it had been.

“Stop?” he asked.

She ran her tongue over her dry lips and nodded.

“Stop seeing each other?”

She nodded again.

“But why my dear? Why would you want to stop?”

He stood suddenly from his chair, or rather her father’s chair, and took a step towards her.

She retreated quickly. If he touched her then all hope was lost.

Her heart was pounding so hard in her chest that surely he had to have been able to hear it. Her hand came up to push her hair back from her face and as it did she saw that it was trembling. “I can’t do this anymore. I can’t. This is wrong. Something is wrong with me.”

He raised an eyebrow in question. “What are you talking about? Nothing is wrong with you.”

She nodded. “Yes…yes it is. Something is wrong with my mind. In my soul, I fear. I have to stop this, it’s driving me mad.”

He took another step towards her and she turned to look at the room around her. It looked just the same as when she had lay down on the couch to drink the laudanum.

Even now she could see the impression of her head on the pillow and the blanket tossed aside as if she had gotten up from the couch to approach him. But she hadn’t. Despite what her eyes told her she knew she was still sleeping. She knew that even though she could not see herself, in real life she was lying on the couch in a drugged sleep.

She turned back to see that the beast had crept closer while she had been distracted and he was now only an arm’s length away. She put her hand up, beseeching him.

“Victoria my love you’re worrying me. Let us sit and discuss this.”

He moved as if to grab her hand but she managed to pull back right before he touched her. She flung herself towards the couch and what she felt beneath her feet as she climbed upon it made a tiny crack open in her mind.

Though she couldn’t see her sleeping form she could feel her body. She could feel that she was standing on her own chest and she had to put a hand over her mouth to stifle the scream that threatened.

She scrambled off the couch and her long skirts tangled in the blanket causing her to fall to the floor. The monster moved as if to help her up and she did scream at that as she frantically backed away from him.

He went to his haunches on the floor in front of her but didn’t try to touch her this time. The look on his face was one of concern and love. A love that threatened to widen the crack in her mind.

“Victoria please tell me what is wrong. I’m afraid for you darling.”

She had backed up as far as she could. Her bottom was pressed tightly to the wall and she was shaking in terror.

“Victoria I’m going to go and sit back down now. Will you come join me my love? I’ll move back and not touch you, I promise. Will you come and sit and take a moment to calm yourself?”

His tone of voice was mild and controlled but she detected a note of concern underneath it and that made her stomach roll.

He stood in the same slow sensuous manner that he did everything in and backed towards the fire and the chairs, never taking his eyes off her. When she didn’t move right away he stopped and his voice when it came again held something different, something darker this time. “Victoria I must insist that you come and join me or I will pick you up and carry you to the chair.”

He waited, not moving, not seeming to breathe, as she stood. When she slowly put one foot forward he started to back away again and when he reached her father’s chair he turned back to look at her before sitting down.

The green leather chair was angled at such a way that as she approached it the flames of the fire illuminated one side of his face and kept the other side in shadow. It was eerie and made her heart turn over again in her chest.

As she maneuvered so that her back was never to him, the shadow on his face moved and once again his face was normal. Or as normal as it was possible for him to be.

He was, even if she hated to admit it even to herself, the most beautiful creature that she had ever seen. His thick black hair shown with health and vitality and was long enough to just brush the top of his collar. His green eyes were dark, the color of warm summer grass and they danced from the light of the flames. His lips were generous and full and would have made him feminine if not for his strong square jaw with the shadow of beard just below his skin’s surface.

His fingers were long and well-shaped with short square nails and more than once she had pictured those fingers touching her. His hands themselves were big and she found that the sight of his wide wrists covered with a scattering of black hair made her feel things that she knew a proper young lady should never feel.

Her glance moved from his strong wrists down to his clothing and she saw that he was wearing the same clothes that he always wore on these nightly meetings.

A pair of black breeches that hugged his thick thighs tightly ended in a pair of high gloss black Hessian boots. His waistcoat and jacket were both black and his snowy white shirt was open at the neck so that she could see a scattering of black hair at the v that it made.

He moved and she looked up to see that his green eyes were watching her with a mischievous look in them. “Do you like what you see my dear? I can always take something off if you would like to see me better. All you have to do is ask.”

She blushed at that and averted her eyes.

He laughed a wicked, rakish laugh and leaned forward in the chair. She didn’t turn to look at him but it was a struggle. In a whisper that lightly touched her cheek he asked, “Would you return the favor? If I asked would you take off something for me?”

Her heart turned over in her chest and she had to fight to keep down the gasp that threatened. It would not do to let him see that he had affected her. He loved to tease and the more she blushed, the more shocked she became, the more vulgar he became.

When she did not respond he sighed deeply and sat back in the chair. Though she wasn’t looking at him she heard the sound as he rubbed his hand down his thighs.

“Victoria I have been patient with you and I hope that I can continue to be so. But my dearest I am becoming more and more frustrated as time goes on. I want you…no, no…that isn’t right! I need you Victoria and you need me. We are meant to be together. Why do you fight it?”

She turned to him then in anger. “I am NOT meant to be with you. How can you even think that? I would never, never want to be with you. Why won’t you leave me alone?”

With that she began to cry and she saw out of the corner of her eye as he raised his hand as if to touch her hair but he didn’t. Slowly, he moved his hand back to his lap and made a noise of frustration deep in his throat.

He sat in silence as she continued to cry and when she was done she looked up to see him watching her. His face lacked the irritation that she had expected to see, instead the look he gave her bordered on sorrow.

Their eyes met and for the life of her she could not look away.

When he spoke it was in a harsh guttural whisper. “You are a part of me Victoria, like the air that I breath or the blood that courses through my veins. I have loved you for so long now, through lifetime after lifetime and through countless forms and I will continue to love you for a thousand more and yet each and every time it starts the same. I have to convince you to love me.”

He leaned forward suddenly and she jerked back. He moved so that his elbows rested on his knees. “Every life it’s the same. Every single time I must convince you all over again. I must remind you what we have, who we are to one another, and though I will do it now and again and again for all of eternity I must admit that it tires me.”

For once it was she that leaned towards him. “Then stop doing it.”

He laughed at that and shook his head before looking towards the flames. “I wish it were so easy. Believe me I’ve tried. If you only knew how many thousands of women and men that I’ve fucked trying to get you out of my head.”

He turned to look at her and she felt herself blanch at the coarseness of his language and at the images that his words produced.

“Don’t speak that way to me!” she said with anger.

He laughed and it was a mocking, hollow sound. “So it’s not the thought of my cock pounding into countless others that upsets you but the words that I use.”

He moved forward again and came to his knees in front of her. Though he was not touching her she could feel the heat of him and it pressed her back into her chair.

His hands came up to the armrests of the chair and she quickly moved her hands back. His face came closer and she saw that it was filled with an anger that she had not seen before.

His words were venomous as he said, “You sit here in this prim and proper shell shocked at my language and yet you, the real you buried deep within your soul, has begged me ten thousand times to fuck you, to push harder, deeper, to fill you with my cum. Begged me over and over again to never stop fucking you!”

Her hand went out before she could stop it and connected with his cheek. The look he gave her was feral and uncontrolled and her stomach convulsed in fear.

He smiled at her and leaned in until their noses were almost touching. She felt his hot breath as he said, “Before tonight is over you’ll be begging me to fuck you once again sweetheart.”

Before she could react he reached down and with one violent pull ripped her gown from the waist down.

She gasped in fear and lashed out with her legs. She felt it as one booted foot connected with his face and one with his stomach and she thought that she might have a chance to get away for the split second that it took him to grab her legs in his powerful hands. With one tug he pulled her from the chair.

Her head would have hit the floor had it not been for his hand that quickly came up to cradle it.

He pulled her fully to the floor and she fought him with everything she had. She used her nails to gouge at his face and she saw more than one slash of blood bloom on his cheeks but he didn’t try to stop her from scratching or hitting him because he was too busy keeping her legs down with one arm while the other was furiously trying to rip the rest of her dress from her body.

She reached down and tried to capture the hand that was trying to pull the ripped pieces of her skirt off, but he easily batted it way so she grabbed for his face again and her hands brushed against his hair. With every ounce of strength in her body she grabbed two handfuls of his hair and pulled.

She heard him curse right before he jerked his head back and she was left with pieces of his soft black hair in her hands. Then, with one final rip she felt it as the bottom of her dress and her chemise were torn from her body and her lower half was revealed to him.

For a second she felt so ashamed, so vulnerable, that she almost gave up, but something rose up within her and she lashed out with her booted feet trying to hit something, anything that would hurt him or at least stun him for long enough for her to get way.

Thankfully her knee connected with his groin and for a split second there was a slackness in his hold. It was only a second but it was long enough to allow her to flip to her stomach and try to crawl away. Sadly, her struggles were in vain.

Between the torn pieces of her silk skirt and the thick Aubusson rug beneath her, her boots were not able to get enough traction. He reached out and grabbed the collar of her dress with one hand while trapping her legs between his with his other hand.

The collar of her high-necked dress, which was already tight enough, began to choke her and her hands went up to her neck. He must not have realized what was happening because he didn’t release her at first. It was only when she made a choking sound and frantically tried to loosen his hold that he realized what was happening. He looked up in time to see her face turn from red to purple and her eyes begin to roll back in her head.

He quickly released her collar and she took a shallow breath of air into her lungs. He flipped her over onto her back and she saw that his face was full of fear. “Victoria! Victoria, oh my God, Victoria my love, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I never meant to hurt you.”

She could hear the terror in his voice but she could no longer see him as her vision began to darken. It seemed as if the floor beneath her began to shake and she thought she heard a roar rip through the room as her vision went. Her last memory before the darkness took hold of her was of something wet falling gently upon her face.

xxxxx

She woke to a shaft of sunlight across her face.

As she lay trying to gather her thoughts she heard a noise and slowly turned her head to see that Mrs. Robbins was moving about the room.

She started to say something but a sharp pain in her throat stopped her. She put her hand up to her throat just as Mrs. Robbins turned around and saw that she was awake.

“There you are my dear that should make you feel better now. Some sleep was all you needed.”

Victoria didn’t say anything she just nodded her head and Mrs. Robbins continued. “I’m going to have cook prepare you a nice hardy breakfast and then you should go for a walk. It’s a beautiful day out and the sun will fix you right up!”

She didn’t wait for Victoria to respond as she quickly toddled out of the room. It was only when she left that Victoria sat up and pushed the blanket back.

When she saw the state of her dress she let out a gasp that made her throat cramp. The bottom of her dress was gone, and what was left of the top was torn into pieces. Her most private places were on display for the world to see.

She started crying then.

With her arms wrapped protectively around her body she rocked back and forth as she sobbed. Her tears fell on her naked legs but she didn’t bother to reach down and cover herself.

xxxxx

She stayed that way for at least twenty minutes, rocking back and forth and crying until she grew concerned that Mrs. Robbins would come back to check on her and see the state she was in. Wrapping the blanket around herself she let herself out of the library and up the stairs to her bedroom.

The copper bathing tub was already sitting before the fire with warm steam rising off it. Quickly Victoria removed the remains of her dress and stepped in. A year ago, before the trouble had begun, she’d had a ladies maid to help her, and normally she missed having one, but now she was grateful that no one would see her.

She stayed in the tub, scrubbing at her legs and thighs, the places where he had touched her, until the water grew too cold to stand any longer. She stood up then and wrapped a toweling sheet around her damp form. Moving slowly as if in a daze, she went to the mirror. What she saw made her feel dizzy. Around her neck, as clear as the sun in the sky, was a dark purple ring. A bruise from the collar of her dress choking her.

xxxxx

When she was able to move again she dressed in a simple day dress of green muslin and then wrapped a scarf that was not meant for that purpose about her neck. She knew looking at herself in the mirror that if anyone saw her it would only add to the rumors of vampirism.

Squaring her shoulders and taking a deep breath she went down the stairs to the dining room. The sideboard was already laid and she took a little of each dish to appease Mrs. Robbins. She wasn’t hungry at all but her life had become all about keeping up appearances so she ate.

When Mrs. Robbins came in to check on her the housekeeper was pleased with how much she had eaten and she smiled at her before once again urging her to go for a walk.

Victoria thought about declining, normally she slept in the mornings, but she knew that this morning she wouldn’t be able to. Last night was still too fresh in her mind to let her rest.

xxxxx

After gathering her hat and a parasol she left the house and walked through the White Garden, so named because all the flowers in it were white. It had been planted by her great grandmother who had brought the first flower, a lily, back with her from the east.

Victoria stopped and looked at the massive lily that dominated the corner of the garden. She had never cared for the plant, or the garden itself really, and as a child she had avoided it after the gardener had told her that most of the flowers in it represented death. It had made her skin crawl and to this day she wondered why her great-grandmother would want to create such a place.

Shaking her head she turned and strolled out of the garden and walked over the north lawn. The sun was shining high in the sky and despite starting so briskly the day was already warming nicely.

She took a seat on a marble bench in front of the pond and was watching the swans glide across it when she heard the sound of a horse approaching. She stood, fearful of who it could be.

The man advancing towards her was no one that she had ever seen before. He was tall, fair-haired beneath his hat and young. A stranger.

He pulled up a distance from her and alighted from his house. He smiled as he came towards her saying, “Mistress de Bohun, hello!”

She took a step back and he paused upon seeing it.

He removed his hat and executed a small bow. “Please pardon me, Mistress. I know my manners are poor but I knew of no other way to make your acquaintance. I am the new vicar and since you did not come to Sunday sermon, I thought I would bring the sermon to you. Please forgive my boldness.”

Relieved at his words and at seeing that his innocent face was free of guile she gracefully sank into a curtsy.

He smiled at her again. “I understand that the former Vicar sent my letter of introduction to you but had not received a reply. I know how busy you must be so I decided to come and pay you a visit.”

Victoria laughed for the first time in months at his charming manner. “No Sir, you are mistaken. I am never busy.”

He smiled back and Victoria indicated the bench that she had been sitting on. “Won’t you take a seat?”

He nodded and moved towards the bench, but he would not sit until she had resumed her seat. After taking his place next to her he looked round at the lake and the great lawn and smiled. “I say, this is marvelous. The only time I missed England was when I thought about the beauty of a summer’s day.”

Victoria looked at him. “You are newly returned to England then?”

He nodded and continued to look out over the lake. “I am. My mother was American and after my father died she wished for us to live with her family in Boston. She passed earlier this year and I decided to return to my birthplace.”

Victoria sighed. “You have my sympathy sir. My parents have both passed too.”

He turned to look at her and his face was thoughtful. “My condolences.”

His grey eyes were clear and kind and she took an instant liking to him.

He smiled at her before looking away and she watched his profile for a few minutes in silence. He had a calmness about him that soothed her and for the first time in months she felt safe.

“Vicar-” she started to say, but he cut her off. “How uncouth you must think me Mistress. I did not introduce myself.”

He stood and made another courtly bow. “Adam Mortimer at your service.”

She smiled at him and waved her hand back at the bench. “Vicar please take a seat.”

He smiled and sat as he said, “I’d insist that you call me Adam, but I know that’s not proper here. I’ll have to get used to the formality, it’s been awhile.”

Victoria turned her head. “Do you miss America?”

He shrugged his wide shoulders. “At times. I miss my family and friends and I miss the excitement of Boston, but I’m sure I’ll get used to this.”

She frowned. “Why, may I ask, did you decide to return?”

He took a deep breath. “My father was curate of a town not far from here. It was his wish that I join the church also. My mother didn’t agree. She wanted to keep me with her.”

Victoria nodded in understanding. “And now here you are, returned to your father’s vocation.”

He acknowledged that with a small nod and looked down into her eyes. She felt something, like a tiny flutter, in her breastbone.

He looked away quickly and coughed. “I understand that you have been unwell.”

She didn’t say anything and when she remained silent he turned back to look at her. She could not imagine lying to a man of God so she shook her head. “No. Not unwell. Just not myself.”

Confusion clouded his face. “How so?”

She looked away from his searching gaze and glanced back over to the lake. The two swans, mates, were swimming next to each other, their necks intertwined.

She whispered, “I’m sure you’ve heard the stories in the village.”

He laughed. Surprised she turned to look at him. He shook his head and said, “My apologies, but are you referring to the ones in which you are a vampire?”

She felt a blush steal across her face and she nodded in mortification.

He looked up at the sun which was still shining brightly above them, “Then my dear Mistress de Bohun I must say that you’ve made a very unwise decision. If you were a vampire the sun above would burn you to ashes.”

At the laughter in his voice she smiled hesitantly at him. “You mock me Sir!”

He shook his head. “Oh no! Not you. I mock the idyll and the stupid who would say such things about you.”

He put his hand to his chest. “I too read Mr. Polidori’s novel when I was a boy, and for weeks after I refused to sleep by myself, but even Polidori himself would not accuse someone like you of such a thing.”

She flushed, this time in pleasure and not in embarrassment, and he smiled even wider at her. They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes, watching the swans, the only sounds the birds in the trees and the wind blowing softly.

She felt it as he turned towards her and she looked over at him shyly. “Since we have established that you are not in fact a vampire, would you care to share what has been ailing you? You must remember that what you say to me is held in strictest confidence.”

She took a deep breath and finding a solace in his calm eyes she said, “I suffer from night terrors.”

He nodded slowly and with a thoughtful look he glanced away. “When did they start?”

Finding that it was easier to talk when he wasn’t looking at her, she said, “The night of my eighteenth birthday. The seventh of this January past.”

He dipped his head. “And what form do these night terrors take?”

Clutching her hands together she looked down at her lap. “A man.”

Startled, he turned to look at her and she met his eyes. “A man?”

She nodded and voiced her deepest fears. “A demon.”

His eyebrows leapt up and disappeared into his fair hair. “A demon?”

Already regretting the impulse that had made her tell him, she looked back down at her lap.

“A demon?” he asked again.

When she did not respond he stood from the bench and went to look at the lake. With his back to her he asked, “What does this demon do?”

She shook her head and then realizing that he wasn’t looking at her she whispered. “Nothing. He sits in the library, in my father’s chair, and talks. Although…” she trailed off and touched the scarf that covered her throat.

“What?” he said turning towards her.

He saw the gesture and came over to her. She was startled when he went to his knees in front of her. “What is it?” he asked in a whisper.

She shook her head, her hand at her throat in a protective gesture.

His hands came up and she gazed up at him. His eyes were gentle as he captured the knotted end of the scarf and untied it. When her throat was bare to him he gasped and sat back on his haunches.

She looked up, terrified, to meet his eyes.

“He did this to you?” His voice was full of fury.

She nodded.

He reached up and softly ran his finger across the mark. She shivered at his touch and that made him become aware of what he was doing. He abruptly pulled his hand back.

She reached up and retied the scarf.

He didn’t move. He sat staring at her. Finally, he asked. “What does he want with you?”

Victoria took in a belly full of air and with a sigh let it out. “He says that I’m his. That I belong to him.”

She looked up at him and her face was filled with the horror of those words.

xxxxx

He stood and held out a hand to her. “Mistress will you walk with me? I find that my thoughts become clearer as I walk.”

Looking up into his kind face she nodded and placed her hand in his. A frisson of electricity went through her skin where it touched his and their eyes met for a second before they both looked away.

He pulled her hand to his arm and they walked in silence until they were at the small bridge that crossed the lake. “Have you told anyone else about these dreams?”

She swung her head from side to side, not looking at him.

“And how often do you dream of him?”

She stopped walking and looked up at him. “Every time I sleep when it is night. I now try to sleep during the day, for I do not dream of him when the sun is out.”

He nodded towards her neck in question and she reached up to touch the scarf. “I decided yesterday that I was tired of being afraid. So last night I took laudanum to sleep so that I could confront him.”

He looked back towards the way that they had come. “And he choked you.”

Unable to believe that she was about to defend the demon, she said, “He did not mean to. He was upset and I tried to get away from him. He grabbed the back of my dress and that it is how it happened.”

The Vicar’s eyes were wide at that and Victoria rushed on. “Normally he just talks. He sits in my father’s chair in front of the fire and talks. In the beginning, when I first started having the dreams and did not know him for what he is, he told me stories of the world. He made me laugh. We talked of books and even played chess.”

“And when did the dreams change?”

Ashamed, Victoria looked down at the water beneath the bridge.

She could see fish swimming along so peacefully and she wished for a moment that she was one of them. Unknowing and untouchable in their water world. She could not look at him as she said, “One night he said things to me. Things that made me uncomfortable.”

She could feel the vicar’s arm tense up and her faced bloomed with color.

“What kind of things?”

She shook her head. She would not, could not, repeat the things he’d said.

“They were of a private nature?” he asked gently.

Not understanding his meaning she looked up at him and he clarified. “Matters between a man and a woman?”

Mortified, she looked down and nodded her head.

“I see…” he said in a quiet voice and started to walk again.

They walked peacefully for a few minutes, over the bridge and back towards his horse which he had left to eat grass in the field. At the stone bench he helped her to sit and then he looked down at her. “Would you do me a favor? I know I have no right to ask it of you, but it would make me feel better.”

She nodded her head and he reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver cross on a chain. He handed it to her. “This was my mother’s. I keep it with me for good luck, but I would feel better if you were to wear it.”

Uncertain, she looked down at the tiny cross and then back up at him.

“Humor me please Mistress?”

She nodded and sat it on her lap as she undid the scarf. When the scarf was off she went to put the necklace on but he took it from her hands and put it on her.

His fingers brushed gently over the back of her neck, almost a caress, and she shivered. Her breasts felt suddenly heavy and her nipples, of which she was unaware of for the most part, hardened in response.

He turned her around and she glanced up at his face. It carried a solemn look.

“Might I ask one more favor of you?”

She continued to look up at him and when his eyes darted to her mouth she almost gasped. She saw him swallow and then he said, “My Uncle is a doctor in the next village. Would you let him look at your neck?”

She shook her head but he reached up and put a hand on her cheek. “Please? It would make me feel better.”

Unable to say no to this kind stranger she finally nodded her consent. He took a deep breath and stepped back from her. She felt bereft at the loss.

He bowed again. “Then Mistress I will return on the morrow with my Uncle.”

She watched him as he mounted his horse and turned to ride away, but before he did he turned his horse back and came up to her. “Mistress…”

She looked up into his grey eyes.

“Promise that you will be careful.”

She nodded and he smiled before turning back and riding off.

xxxxx

As Mrs. Robbins served her luncheon she told her housekeeper about the vicar’s visit. The older woman was happy to hear about it. Victoria didn’t see the smile on the older woman’s face as she told her that he was young and had a kind heart.

When she was finished eating she went to her room to lie down. She took off her dress and shoes and kept on her chemise and stockings. She crawled into bed and pulled the covers up.

She never realized that she had forgotten to ask Mrs. Robbins to wake her. The afternoon came and went and then finally twilight, that time that was neither day nor night. The time when all of God’s creatures were able to roam.

xxxxx

One-minute Victoria was dreaming about the swans in the lake and the next she was in the library and he was there with her.

“Dear Lord,” he said in a hoarse growl and she saw that his face was twisted with some painful emotion.

He was not looking at her face though, so she looked down. She was standing in front of the fire and her white chemise was sheer in the light. He could see every inch of her body.

With a gasp Victoria reached down and covered herself at the same time that she moved towards the library door. She had never tried to escape the room before, she had never thought about it, so she was surprised when the door opened easily and she was in the hall.

“Victoria!” he shouted behind her and she ran.

She should have run out, left the house and run through the grounds, but she wasn’t thinking clearly so she ran up the stairs to the safety of her bedroom.

Once there she slammed the door and locked it. She turned franticly, looking for something to push up against the door to keep him out, and that was when her glance fell across the bed. She gasped in shock at what she saw there.

Moving slowly towards it she looked down at the form upon the bed and saw herself.

She was laying on the bed, dressed as she was now, and she was deeply asleep.

She had been able to feel her body before, but never had she been able to see it. She reached down and grabbed her own shoulder and shook it as hard as she could, but it made no difference, her sleeping self would not wake.

She looked over to the window and saw that the sun had gone down. She realized then her error, she had not told Mrs. Robbins to wake her before sunset. She shook her head in horror.

Looking back down at her sleeping form she pulled her hand back and slapped herself as hard as she could. Grabbing her shoulders she shook her body again, “Please wake up. You have to wake up! Hurry! He’s coming.”

“Oh my,” a soft voice said behind her and she turned with a scream to see that he was in the room and coming towards her.

She ran to the other side of the bed and when she had nowhere else to go she turned back to look at him. He was standing over her body on the bed, looking down.

She whimpered in fear and he looked up at her. “I have not seen you in waking life yet. Look at you…” he looked back down and ran a hand softly across her hair. “You are so beautiful that it makes my heart ache just to look at you.”

He looked back up at her, and he smiled with only one side of his mouth. She swallowed in fear and watched as he leaned down over her body on the bed and softly kissed her lips.

She shook her head. “No,” she whispered.

He didn’t act as if he could hear her. He moved her hair back from her face and lightly ran his finger across her cheek before sending it down and over her neck.

“No,” she whispered again in horror. “Please.”

He didn’t look up. Instead his finger went lower and then suddenly he stopped. He laughed a soft laugh and looked up at her huddled in the corner like a frightened mouse. “Was this supposed to keep me away?”

She looked down to see that he was holding the small silver cross in his big hand. She looked back up to meet his eyes and he shook his head from side to side with a twisted smile on his face.

As she watched he leaned down and slowly brought the cross to his mouth. His eyes came up and met hers as he kissed it.

She shook her head. This couldn’t be happening.

He stretched his fingers out and as she watched in horror he opened the top of her chemise until her breasts were exposed to him. He stared at them for a minute and then he looked up and met her eyes. “Mine,” he said. “Mine.”

And then he bent his head and took her right nipple in his mouth.

With a scream Victoria flew from the corner and onto the bed, pushing him back from her prone form. Normally she wouldn’t have been able to move his big body, but he was too caught up in what he was doing to brace himself. He moved back, and with the momentum he went to his backside on the floor.

She hovered over her prostrate form with tears pouring down her face as she looked at him. Her heart trembled and then sputtered to a stop at the rage on his face. It contorted his beautiful features as he snarled, “You are mine!”

“No,” she said, crying harder. “No! I won’t be.”

He stood up slowly and pulled his jacket from his wide shoulders. She sobbed as she tried to cover the chest of her unconscious self.

His waistcoat and shirt came next and when she saw his broad and powerful chest, the thick muscles covered with a light dusting of black hair, she whimpered in fear. She shook her head as his hand went to the waistband of his pants. “No, please!” she begged.

To her surprise he stopped. She swallowed down the bile that threatened to rise in her throat as he stood staring at her.

He took a deep breath and then shook his head, his hands going up to his hair in a punishing grip. He shook his entire body and took another breath before looking back at her. “Victoria…” he started.

He stopped and shook his head again. He took a step towards the bed and she whimpered again. That stopped him and he looked from her face down to her form on the bed.

He started again. “Victoria. I’m not sure what has gone wrong this time. Why we’re doing this.”

He stopped and looked around the room. “I know the fault is entirely my own. I don’t have the patience that I normally do. I don’t usually rush you. I wait you out. But this time something is different and even I don’t know why. Maybe I missed you more this time.”

He looked up at her and it was the face of the man who had originally appeared in her dreams. That face of a man who was kind and loving. The face of someone she could begin to care for.

She shook her head. “I don’t want you. I don’t.”

He shook his head and he looked sad. “You say that every time my sweet. Every time. But in the end you want me, in the end you always love me just as much as I love you.”

‘No,” she said in an anguished voice and shook her head in denial.

He smiled sadly. “I remember the first time that I saw you. Your father had a maid fetch you and you walked into that library and into my heart. You’ve never left it.”

She shook her head. “No. That never happened.”

He nodded. “Yes it did. You just don’t remember. It was a very long time ago. Half a century.”

She shook her head again in denial and he moved over to sit on the stool at her vanity. He looked big, masculine, and powerful as he perched on the tiny peach stool.

“We were married that same day.”

“No!” she said with anger in her voice and he laughed.

“You came to our wedding bed afraid, but before the night was over you were happy to be mine. I remember so clearly how you clawed my shoulders in your pleasure and begged me to touch you.”

She started crying at that and he looked at her with tenderness on his face. “I would do anything, give anything, if it meant that we didn’t have to go through this each time. If you could just remember me the way that I remember you.”

“That’s not true,” she said, still crying. “None of that is true.”

He nodded his head.

They sat that way for over ten minutes, Victoria crying and holding her hands over the breasts of her prone form on the bed. He never took his eyes off her. He watched her cry with sorrow on his face.

Finally, in a soft voice, he told her. “Your father sold you to me. In exchange for the safety of his family he promised me his only daughter.”

She shook her head in abhorrence. “No, you’re insane.”

He turned to the mirror on the vanity and looked at his reflection. “He was afraid.”

He reached up and ran a hand over his hair to fix it. “People do stupid things out of fear Victoria. Even in your innocence you know that. He signed away your soul to me to escape the Black Death.”

He turned back to look at her. Her eyes were wide with fear, but she had stopped crying. “Like all of his kind he never took the time to ask questions and once he shook my hand the deal was done. You were mine for all time.”

She whispered. “You’re a demon.”

He grunted. “No.”

“You’re the Devil,” she said in a fierce whisper.

He shrugged his broad shoulders carelessly. “Some call me that. Some call me Satan, or Beelzebub, Mephistopheles, or even The Prince of Darkness. There are thousands of names that humans have invented for me. I care not what your kind calls me. None of them are my true name.”

She looked down at her sleeping form and prayed that she would wake up and escape this nightmare, but no matter how hard she wished it, she did not wake up.

Looking back up at him she took a deep shaking breath. “Then what is your true name?”

He stretched his legs out in front of him and crossed them at the ankles. He brought his muscular arms up and folded them across his naked chest. The energy radiating off him was powerful. A living force that reached across the room and touched her. She shivered with it and he saw it and cracked a small smile.

“To you, I am Raphael.”

“And to others? If you weren’t always Satan then who were you before?”

He shrugged his broad shoulders again. “Once, thousands of years ago, I was a king.”

She started at that and in a trembling voice asked, “Was? What happened?”

He shook his head. “Victoria we’ll have time for all of that later. We have much more important things to talk about now.”

Something occurred to her and she had to ask. “Are you alive? Are you a…” she hesitated and then burst out with it, “A vampire?”

He laughed at that. A real laugh that transformed his face into something otherworldly. Handsome was not a strong enough word for him. The word beautiful came closest, but even it wasn’t enough.

He was chuckling as he said, “No. I am not a vampire. I am a flesh and blood man.”

“You just said that you’ve lived for thousands of years. That’s not a man.”

He nodded. “Once, we were all immortal Victoria. Once, you were all like me. Now I am alone. Left to wander the Earth as punishment.”

“What did you do?” she asked him.

She didn’t think he was going to answer, but after a moment’s hesitation, he did. “I had the courage to stand up to him. To say that I was just as good as he was. To tell him no. I defended my people and in exchange for questioning him he called me a traitor. Selfish.”

“Who?” she asked in a whisper.

He looked at her and his green eyes were burning with fire. “God.”

xxxxx

He stood abruptly and approached the bed. He looked down at her sleeping face and then back up at her. “The night grows late and I am weary. Come, let us stop this nonsense. I will make you a deal.”

She laughed at that. “You just said that people who make deals with you are stupid.”

His eyebrow raised. “But you are not, so let us make a deal. I promise you that I will not try and trick you. That I will take only what you give.”

“Why should I trust you? Why would I do that?”

He closed his eyes for a second and then opened them. They were sad, mournful, as he looked at her. “Because you love me. Because deep down in some place that is hidden to you now, you love me as much as I love you. Because in that place you know I am telling the truth. You know that I would never hurt you. That to hurt you would be to hurt myself.”

At his words she reached up and touched her neck and the bruise that was there.

He sucked in a breath and took a step towards her. His eyes filled with tears and that made her feel something that she didn’t want to look too deeply at. “I’m sorry my love. So sorry. Please forgive me.”

She looked away from him and down at her sleeping form. “What is your deal?’

“Let me have you. Be mine this night. Give yourself to me. After, I will leave you alone. If you change your mind and you decide that you want me, then you will have to come to me.”

She looked up in shock and shook her head. “No! No! How can you say such things?”

His eyes were steady on her own. “Because the need in me is so great that I would do anything to have you, even if only for a night.”

Not believing his words she said, “It’s a trick. It’s some kind of trick.”

He shook his head. “I cannot lie Victoria. I am not capable of lying. He saw to that. If people ask then I must tell them the truth. If they don’t ask, I don’t tell, but if they are smart enough to ask then I have no choice but to speak the truth.”

She looked down at her sleeping form as she thought. Then she looked back up at him. “And if I say no? Then what?”

He looked down at her body on the bed. “Then I will take you as you sleep. I will force myself upon you and take from you what I need. My hunger is so great that even something as abhorrent to me as that has become possible.”

She started crying at that. “You just said that you won’t hurt me.”

He looked at her and shook his head. “I would not. I will touch you only in love.”

She shook her head. “No. It’s a trick.”

He shook his head. “Ask me Victoria. Ask me what you need to know. Set your terms for me and I will obey you.”

“Why?” she asked. “Why are you giving me a choice? If you could just take me, then why give me a choice?”

He smiled gently at her, “Because I love you. Because I want you to remember who I am on your own. Without forcing it. I want your soul to remember mine.”

“And you think that if I give you my body I will remember you?”

He nodded. “From the very first time we met we have had a physical connection. In that first act of love making all those years ago you opened your soul to me and I opened mine to you. We became one then. We linked our souls.”

“So you think that I will remember you? That if I let you lie with me then I will remember?”

“Yes. That is what I believe.”

“And if I don’t? If I do what you want and I don’t remember you then you’ll leave me alone? You won’t come back? You won’t come into my dreams anymore?”

He looked at her in silence for a moment and then he nodded his head. “Yes. I give you my word. If you do not remember me after we have joined together then I will go away. I will not visit your dreams anymore. I will not meet you again in this life unless you come looking for me.”

She moved back from her sleeping form and stood from the bed. Approaching him across the now darkened room she held out her hand the way that she had seen her father do when he conducted business. He looked down at it for a second and then reached out and took it in his own.

Victoria stepped back. She’d done it. She had just made a deal with the Devil.

xxxxx

He gestured to the door, and she looked at him in surprise.

His answer when it came shocked her. “I did not think that you would want to lie next to your sleeping form.”

Horrified, but realizing that he was right, she nodded her head reluctantly and went ahead of him to the door. He opened it for her and she went out into the dark.

No candles were lit and she had a hard time seeing, but before she could worry he was there and he was taking her arm.

He led her down the hall and up a short flight of stairs to her parent’s room.

He opened the door for her and she stepped inside and looked around. She had not been inside it since her father had died and the sight of it, looking as if it was waiting for her parents to return, made her choke up.

He must have heard her make a sound because his arm was suddenly around her.

He led her to the bed and he sat down on it pulling her so that she was standing in front of him. He spread his legs wide so that she could stand between them. She could feel the heat coming off his broad chest and she gulped as it washed over her.

He reached up and pulled her braid over her shoulder and began to pull the plait apart. When her long blonde hair was loose around her shoulders he ran his hands through the golden tresses and the look on his face as he played gently with her hair made her stomach quiver.

He looked up at her as he ran his hand through her hair, cupping the back of her neck before grabbing strands of her hair in his fist and tugging. The tug sent a bolt of sensation surging through her body, tightening and raising her breasts and flooding her womanhood with liquid fire. She moaned at the unexpected feeling.

He smiled in satisfaction and something within her twisted. A hot black worm of desire skated across her mind and she shook her head to try and clear it. He was The Devil. Satan himself. She could not be fascinated by him. She could not be taken in by his charm and beauty. She had to stay strong.

He moved his hands down from her hair and began to undo the strings at the neck of her chemise. She thought of earlier when he had done the same thing to her sleeping form and she gulped with the memory of his dark head bent over her breast.

She was brought back to the moment by cold air hitting her chest as he opened her chemise and pushed it off her shoulders. Her body lay before him and he stared at it in awe.

It was his turn to shake his head. “I have had so many women. Thousands of women. Queens, princesses, whores. I have fucked some of the most beautiful women that the world has ever seen and yet none of them, not one, compares to you. None of them has ever had the ability to make me feel as you do.”

He looked up at her and his face was curious, as if she could tell him what the hold was that she had over him. He brought his hands up and gently cupped her beautiful breasts in them. His voice was a whisper. “I have missed you this time like no other. I have longed for you with a grief that has threatened to bring me to my knees.”

He leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on first one breast and then the other before leaning back to look up at her face again. “Thousands of years I have walked this Earth and lifetime after lifetime I have waited for you. But this time I thought I would go mad with the longing. I watched you from afar, waiting for the day you would turn eighteen so that I could make you mine. So that I could visit you in your dreams. So that we could be one again.”

He moved back towards her breasts and rubbed his face up against them. The scratch of his face, of the hair just under the surface of his skin, thrilled her, though she would never admit it. He turned then and opened his mouth and with his tongue he traced the darkened part of her breast. He groaned in the back of his throat as he did.

Moving to her other breast he did the same before taking the pebbled peek into his mouth. The feel of it, the feel of his hot wet mouth sucking on her made her moan and she reached out and put her hands on his shoulders.

It was the first time she had touched him and the shock of it sent a shudder through her body. His skin was silky and hot. So hot that it felt as if a furnace burned just under his skin. She shivered at the remembrance of who he was and knew that the very fires of hell burned within him.

As he pulled her towards him her mouth brushed up against his shoulder and she inhaled the scent of him. Despite what the church would have her expecting he didn’t smell of fire and brimstone, but instead of warm, spicy man, a scent she had never smelled before.

He brought her head to his shoulder as he continued to suckle on her breasts and the feeling of his mouth made her knees shake. He sucked deeper and it created a wave of wetness that rushed through the private core of her. It was the most amazing feeling and yet she knew it must be sinful.

“Did you look like this before?” she whispered.

He looked up at her and with one last lick he pulled back from her. “What?”

“When you were just a man did you look like this? Or do you look like this because you’re the Devil? Are you like a beautiful colorful snake that was created to tempt you to stroke it even though you know that doing so will kill you?”

He smiled slowly. “Do I tempt you?”

She nodded and whispered. “Yes.”

He reached up and cupped her breasts, squeezing them in his strong hands. “I have not changed form. I am the same as when I was a king.”

She looked down to where his hands were cupping her and watched as he massaged her chest before letting go. She gasped when he plucked at her nipples and twisted them. Such a thing should not feel pleasurable and yet it did.

She looked into his gleaming eyes, and he watched her face as he continued to squeeze and twist the tight swollen peaks.

“No one will have me after I have lain with you.”

He laughed, and it was a dark sound of derision. “That is as it should be, because you are mine. You belong to me. Your body, your mind, your very soul is mine.”

“Am I never allowed to belong to myself?”

Surprised, he let go of her nipples and looked up at her. “What do you mean?”

She started to pull away from him but he refused to let her go. His hands went down to her hips and held her in place.

“I belonged to my father and now, you say, to you. Why am I never allowed to belong to myself? To live how I wish to live. To do as I please.”

He shook his head softly. “It is not the way of your world. It was not the way of my world. All women belong to their fathers and then to their husbands.”

“But I am a human being. A creature of God. Are we not all created equal in his eyes?”

He laughed and it was a sound of contempt. “Humans are lowly creatures in his eyes. Created like the beasts to roam the world mating, eating, shitting, and dying.”

She shook her head in denial. “Then why create us at all?”

His shrug when it came opened a vein of sadness within her heart. “We were created to be his playthings. Toys, to be discarded when he grew bored with us.”

“I cannot believe that. I cannot believe that he would be so cruel. So uncaring.”

He sneered at that. “You do not know him my dear. Trust me when I say that he is not the kind, caring, benevolent God that you wish him to be.”

He pulled her back towards him. “Enough! I do not wish to talk about him. I do not wish to talk at all.”

She gasped as he ran his hand down the front of her body. When he came to the apex of her thighs he brushed his fingers gently over the hair that lay there and then sent a finger between her moist lips.

The feeling was like nothing she had ever experienced before. She could not help the moan that escaped. Her knees began to shake and with his free had he grasped her waist as he sent another finger in to join the first.

They slid easily into her moist channel and she cried out at the intrusion.

Her eyes closed and her head fell back as he pulled her towards him. As he moved his fingers slowly in and out of her he opened his mouth over her breast and took her nipple back into his mouth.

The two feelings combined into an intense pleasure that rippled outward and her body began to convulse. A low burn flashed across her skin and without conscious thought her legs spread to give him even more access. She heard, and felt against her breast, his soft laugh, but she was too caught up in ecstasy to care.

A third finger joined the others and he moved them in and out of her faster and faster as she felt her body spiraling upwards. His hand left her waist and her body wavered. It felt as if she would melt to a puddle on the floor.

She heard the sound of fabric rustling but could not bring herself to open her eyes and break the spell. His hand was back then and he grabbed her about the waist as he pulled his mouth away from her breast.

His fingers slid from her suddenly and she did open her eyes then as his hand came up to grab the other side of her waist. She could feel wetness on his fingers, her wetness, and she frowned as reality began to seep back into her head. But before it could he lifted her and her legs unconsciously opened as he pulled her towards him. She looked down in time to see his manhood, hard and sticking straight up into the air, right before he pulled her down towards it.

She felt it as it brushed against the hair on her womanhood and then he reached down and spread her legs wider. She felt her nether lips open and then he was pushing up inside her.

She was tight despite the three fingers that had been inside her only seconds before and she groaned with the feel of him pushing upwards and spreading her.

She looked up into his face and saw that he was not looking at her. Instead he was watching as that hard private part of his body slid into her. The ecstasy on his face caused her heart to turn over inside her chest.

The tightness between her legs began to burn and she whimpered. He looked up then and seeing the pain on her face he leaned forward and kissed her. His tongue moved over her mouth and she parted her lips to welcome it inside.

The movement of his tongue distracted her from the burning and increased her desire and then she felt it as his fingers came up to touch her body right above the place where he moved inside her.

The feel of his fingers moving over something that lay hidden between her legs was so powerful that her nipples instantly hardened and her legs spread even wider. The moan she released into his mouth was met with one of his own.

And then he was seated completely within her and she squirmed at the feeling of fullness. He pulled back and groaned and the sound of it caused the hairs on her arms to stand and goose-pimples to race across her skin.

She opened her eyes to meet his glare. “Mine,” he groaned.

She whimpered.

His green eyes remained locked on her face as he lifted her and began to slide her from the length of his hard body. She clutched at his shoulders and dug her nails in, and he paused. Her eyes widened as he dug his fingers into her hips before surging his hips upwards.

She screamed out as he slammed into her and with a suddenness that stole the breath from her body explosions rocketed through her and her inner muscles quivered and clenched around him.

He stood suddenly and despite the pleasure still coursing through her she felt the swift sensation of flying as he threw her down on the bed and then he came up over her. He wasn’t gentle this time as he spread her legs and slammed into her again.

She screamed with the combination of pain and pleasure that it brought and looked up into his intense dark face as he pushed her legs towards her chest. The position made the feeling of fullness increase and she felt it as a tear escaped her eye and rolled downward towards her hair. He saw it and he leaned down and gently licked the wetness from her face as his lower body invaded and retreated over and over again.

He pulled back and pushed her legs to the side, moving her upper body towards the bed. His manhood never left her as he twisted her body to the side and his hand came up to squeeze her buttocks. The new position meant that her nether lips were squeezed tightly between her legs increasing her pleasure while he plowed over and over again into her tightness.

Her hands clutched at the coverlet on the bed and she looked up at him. A trail of sweat worked it’s way down his face and landed with a plop on her derriere.

His face was violent as he looked down at her. “I love you,” he said suddenly and she felt it as the part of him that lay within her contracted.

She continued to watch him and saw a shudder pass through his big body as he made three slower, deeper thrusts. And then the steely warmth of him that lay within her began to erupt. She felt it as hot liquid flooded her insides.

xxxxx

When it was over he pulled back from her and she gasped at the loss of him. She had never felt empty before, but she did now.

He moved to lie beside her and she watched as his eyes closed and his face relaxed.

She was churning with more emotions that she could easily grasp. There was a layer of sadness, a layer of despair, a thin layer of disgust and a layer of shame, but more easily she could feel a layer of something like longing that lightly coated everything else.

Her body missed his, her insides missed the feeling of fullness and warmth, and her skin missed the feel of his against it. But her heart was also involved as it beat unevenly within her chest as she stared at him.

“What is it?” he asked suddenly and she jerked back to reality with a start.

She didn’t say anything and his eyes came open as he turned his head towards her.

They stared at one another in silence and slowly he reached out and trailed a finger across her cheek. “I love you so much.”

She closed her eyes in denial and heard him sigh, but when he reached out and pulled her towards him she did not resist.

He moved her so that her head rested under his chin and her breasts touched his chest. With one of his big powerful hands he lifted her leg and pulled it across his body until the apex of her thigh was resting against his hip. She couldn’t help the lazy thrust of her hips that pushed her still moist and swollen lips against him. He laughed softly and tightened his hold on her.

A few minutes later he let out a small snore and her heart clenched again at the intimate sound. She knew she should get up, leave the bed and dress and find a way to wake up, but she was unable to pull herself away from his warmth and the feel of his arm wrapped around her.

Before she realized it her eyes were drifting shut and she fell into a sleep within a sleep.

Her dreams were wild, colorful and chaotic. A mix of him and her, strange images of the two of them wrapped around each other, naked and kissing and always, always with him between her thighs.

She wasn’t sure when the dreams stopped and she woke to the reality of his mouth on her core. Her mind drifted lazily as he licked and sucked and thrust his tongue between her legs. She reached down to clutch at his shoulders and she heard her own moans echoing through the chamber.

She cried out as a wave, even more intense than the others, flooded through her and the upper part of her body came off the bed as her muscles spasmed and jerked. The pleasure that began between her legs spread quickly upward and rushed through her like a tidal wave.

She was still lost to pleasure as the waves of ecstasy continued to move through her when he moved up to his knees and grabbed her. Before she knew what was happening he flipped her to her stomach and she felt his fingers part the cheeks of her bottom before his mouth came down to lick her there.

She shrieked in surprise and was about to protest when he moved upward and she felt instead of his tongue, his member, as he pushed it against the tight hole between her cheeks. She thrashed around trying to get away, but he held her in place with his strong thighs as his body moved into her.

If the tightness between her legs had been severe this was so much worse. She was overwhelmed with pressure as he slid his length into her tight hole. She whimpered in fear and he reached up a hand and rubbed it across her hair and he made soothing noises. “Easy my love. Easy. Let me in. Bear down for me.”

She began to cry and he stopped pressing forward. “Shhh. Don’t cry. It will be okay. Just bear down for me.”

She turned her head and he leaned forward to meet her eyes. “Victoria, bear down my sweet. Let me in. I promise you that once the pain eases off you will love this. This was always your favorite. You have always loved having my cock in your ass.”

She gasped at his vulgar words, but her body knew what to do and she pushed down as instructed. He groaned and she felt it as his body…his cock…moved further inside her.

“That’s it my love. Open to me. Open to the pleasure that I can give you.”

She bore down again at the same time that he pressed forward and suddenly he was fully within her. She could feel the hair around his member resting against her buttocks and when he groaned it sent shivers racing across her back.

He stopped moving once he was seated fully within her and let her grow accustomed to the feel of his…cock…within her ass.

Her mind wanted to rebel at those words, even uttered only within her own head, and yet some small dark part of her was also excited on by them.

She let her head fall to the bed and he sat in silence, not moving a muscle, as her body, as her ass, began to adjust to the feel of him.

It was a few minutes before either of them moved and when movement finally came it was from her. Cautiously she moved her ass back towards him and the feeling that the movement produced instantly hardened her nipples.

She lifted the top part of her body off the bed and that caused him to press harder into her. She whimpered and he reached out and ran his fingers across her back before squeezing her cheeks.

She came to her elbows and the movement caused her to pull a little out of her. It burned for a second and then the feeling quickly faded to be replaced by one of pleasure.

“Can I move now my love?” he asked in a quiet whisper.

She turned to look at him over her shoulder and nodded gently. “Careful,” she whispered back.

He pulled back and reluctantly her tight hole let him retreat, but he did not pull all the way out before he pushed back in. She made a plaintive sound, a cross between a whine and a growl and he laughed softly.

He began a maddening motion then. Pulling almost all the way out before pushing slowly back in and she found the slowness excruciating. He moved his body until his entire weight was resting on his hands and his toes as he lifted his weight off her. The only parts of their body that were touching was his cock as it plowed over and over again into the puckered hole of her ass.

His voice when it came again was strained, and she turned as he said, “This has always been your favorite. Always. Though every lifetime you have loved it when I fucked your ass. It was this, the love that you have for my cock in your ass and the feel of you so tight around me that caused me to fuck a man for the first time.”

She whimpered as a wave of lust flooded her body as he said such a thing to her. He grinned at the sound and at the look on her face and said, “And while it may have felt good my love, nothing has ever compared to you.”

She sobbed in pleasure and pressed her ass back into him.

“Am I fucking you my sweet? Am I fucking your ass?”

She looked up at him, but she could not make a reply to such a question.

He moved suddenly and put his knees back down on the bed before leaning forward and pressing a kiss to her shoulder. He arms came around her and he pulled her up from the bed at the same time that he sat up. His cock was still in her ass as he moved her so that her feet were on the bed.

The position pressed him even further into her and she grew wild with pleasure as her body twitched. He grasped her more firmly and surged up into her again. She felt his face against her shoulder blades and felt the soft kiss he planted there before his mouth opened wide and he bit her. And with that something within her detonated

He held her as she jerked and moaned, never letting his cock slip from her ass. “Victoria my love,” he whispered as she cried out over and over again.

When she stopped shaking and the fires within her calmed once more he pulled out of her and moved her to her back. She looked up at him as he spread her legs and then slid his way back into her ass.

The feel of his thick cock sliding home made the fire flicker once, but before it could get any bigger he made a few deep thrusts within her and as he groaned she felt it as his cock expanded and then erupted with her.

When he pulled back she felt the warmth of his liquid pour from her ass and trail down to soak the bed beneath her.

He sat back on his haunches and stared down at her. His hand came up to rub softly across her hair. “Oh my love, how I have missed you.”

She reached up and pulled him towards her. He came and she touched her mouth to his. When her tongue traced over his lips he opened them eagerly and she sent her tongue in. He sucked gently on it and she felt the heat pool within her core again. How very easy it was for him to fill her with desire. How very easy it was to forget everything, including who she was, when she was with him.

She pulled back and moved to the edge of the bed. As she stood she turned and looked at him. He watched as she found her chemise and pulled it over her head. When it was tied tightly at the neck once more she moved back from the bed.

A few feet from the bed she stopped and looked at him. His body was on full display. His muscles standing out in sharp relief behind the light dusting of black hair that covered his chest and legs. His…cock…lay against his leg. Soft now, and pale in the candlelight.

His smile was lazy and content. The look of a man in love and satisfied. For a moment she searched his eyes. Standing tall and bringing herself to her full height of five-foot four, she squared her shoulders and bit her lip before saying, “I want you to leave now.”

At first his face did not register her words. It stayed calm and content and then a frown flashed across it. “What?”

“You heard me. I want you to leave now. Go. And do not show your face here again.”

He sat up then and his soft cock flopped against his leg.

“Victoria, what are you talking about? Go? Why?”

She pulled her shoulders back even further. “We made a deal. You said that if I lay with you then you would follow my wishes after. My wishes are that you leave this house and never return.”

His face grew angry at that. “You don’t, you cannot, mean that!”

She nodded. “I do. I want you to leave now.”

He stood and he was like a wild animal as he made his way to her. “No! You cannot mean that! We found each other again. You cannot want me to go.”

She stood tall and resolute in front of him. “I. Want. You. To. Go.” She said, emphasizing each word. “We made a deal and I have kept my part of it. I gave myself to you. Now I want you to go.”

The look on his beautiful face was of a rage so absolute that she trembled before it in fear. Despite the beauty of his features for the first time she could see the demon within him. It wasn’t the supernatural thing that she had expected, rather it was a man who had gotten his way for so long that he knew nothing else. No one, she realized, had ever told him no. At least not anyone who had lived to tell about it.

“Do you think to toy with me?” he asked as he slinked towards her.

She shook her head. Her voice when it came was thankfully strong. “Not at all. We made a deal and I have kept my side of it. Now I ask that you keep yours.”

She couldn’t help darting her eyes down to look at his naked, well-muscled body. Shockingly, his member was growing hard again and that made her even more nervous. What had she done that could possibly have excited him?

He stepped towards her and she felt the heat of his skin pour over her. She was tempted to lick her lips for moisture, but she did not want to draw his attention there.

“Victoria my love. I’m sorry if I have upset you. If I went too far, too quickly. As I said this time has been torture for me and my desire for you was so great that I could not control myself. Please forgive me.”

She shook her head and took a step back. “There is nothing to forgive Sir. We made a bargain and as I said, I fulfilled my part of it. Now I kindly ask that you fulfill your part and leave my home and never try to contact me again.”

He shook his head slowly and despite her fear she raised an eyebrow. “Sir, do you mean that you shall not honor our deal?”

He took an angry deep breath and stepped away from her. She watched as he went over and picked his trousers up from the floor and put them on.

His stockings and shoes, which she had not seen him remove, went on next and then he found his shirt and pulled it on, but did not button it. Instead he sat down on the side of the bed and stared at her.

“That’s it? That is how you wish to end this? You want me to leave and never contact you again?”

She nodded and he nodded in reply before reaching down to button his shirt. Standing, he went over and grabbed his waistcoat and jacket from the floor and put them both on.

He did not turn to look at her as he made his way to the bedroom door, but just before he opened it he said, “I said that I would not contact you again. That if you want me you shall have to find me. However, I did not say that I would sit back and do nothing.”

Startled, she jumped as he swung the door open so hard that it hit the wall.

She waited a moment as his words sank in and then she ran after him. “What do you mean? What will you do?”

He paused on the stairs, but again he did not turn to her. “I guess you shall have to wait and see my dear.”

He turned finally and looked at her and the sadness on his face made her heart contract. “Goodbye Victoria. Until we meet again.”

She stood watching as he descended the stairs and went out the front door, slamming it behind him. When her knees began to tremble she finally had to sit down. She sat hard on the stairs and looked at that front door that he had stormed out of.

Part of her, a tiny, quiet voice in the back of her mind, said that she had just made the biggest mistake of her life.

xxxxx

She woke up the next morning in her bed and had it not been for the soreness of her muscles and the stickiness between her legs she would have thought that she had dreamed the entire thing.

When Mrs. Robbins brought her morning chocolate she asked for a bath and while she waited she removed her chemise and threw it in the fire.

After a long soak during which she scrubbed every inch of her body at least ten times, she dressed and made her way to her parents room. To Mrs. Robbins shock Victoria insisted that the coverlet on the bed be burned at that all of her parents items be packed in trunks and moved to the attic.

It took most of the morning, and two footman, but when the room was clean and empty Victoria felt relieved. She had wiped him from her body and from her home. The next step was to wipe him from her mind.

xxxxx

She was just sitting down to luncheon when Mrs. Robbins announced that the Vicar and his Uncle had arrived. Victoria groaned. She had forgotten all about Mr. Mortimer and his promised visit.

She asked Mrs. Robbins to invite the men to luncheon with her and a few minutes later they were entering the dining room. She stood and smiled at them. “Gentleman, please pardon my rudeness. I had forgotten your visit and just sat down to luncheon. Would you care to join me?”

The Vicar made a low bow and smiled up at her. “Mistress, we do not wish to trouble you. We will go and call another day when it is more convenient.”

She smiled and took a step towards him. “Nonsense Sir. I insist that you join me. My chef is always complaining that he has only me to cook for. It would make him happy to have others to impress with his culinary skills.”

She gestured to the table and said, “Please, take a seat.”

The two men seated themselves and Victoria turned towards the Vicar’s uncle and smiled. “Sir, I apologize for my oversight. I hope you do not think me flighty?”

His smile lit his kind face from within. “Far, far, from it Mistress. My nephew has explained that you have been having night terrors and he begged me to visit you. I fear I am the one that has behaved with impudence by coming without an invitation directly from you.”

They were interrupted by a footman bringing in place settings for both gentleman and for a moment they were silent. When the footman had removed himself once more Victoria smiled back at the old man. “Sir, you are more than welcome here at any time. Shall we call it even and start afresh?”

The old man laughed and Victoria looked at the Vicar to see him smiling at her. It was an easy thing to return his smile.

They talked of the weather, a favorite topic among the English, and then of flowers. By the time luncheon was finished Victoria felt more relaxed than she had in a long time. As they made their way to the drawing room the Vicar reminded Victoria why they were there.

“Mistress, I must ask if you managed to sleep last night and if so did you have more of your night terrors?”

Victoria, who was walking ahead of the two men, grimaced, but did not turn to look at them. A footman opened the door to the blue drawing-room and Victoria used it as an excuse to think.

She turned and smiled at both men and gestured them towards the sofa before taking her place in an armchair facing them.

When they were seated she leaned forward and smiled at the kindly old man. “Dr. Mortimer, I thank you for coming but I’m afraid that it has been for nothing.”

Out of the corner of her eye she saw the Vicar frown and she turned to him. “I thank you Sir for your kindness, and I must apologize for upsetting you unduly, but last night for the first time in months I was able to sleep without dreaming and when I awoke this morning I felt more myself.”

The Vicar frowned again but his Uncle smiled at her. “Marvelous my dear! How happy I am to hear it.”

Victoria nodded and took a deep breath. She leaned back and clasped her hands in her lap. “This morning, when my head was clear, I was able to think and what I believe is that the death of my father caused the bad dreams.”

The Doctor nodded understandingly, but she saw that the Vicar was not convinced. She shrugged a small, lady-like shrug and smiled at him. “For some unknown reason my sleeping mind turned my sorrow and anguish into a demon who was stalking me.”

The doctor shook his head and made a sound of dismay.

She was about to continue with her tale when the Vicar spoke up. “Then how do you explain the bruising around your neck Mistress?”

She reached up and pulled the neck of her gown back so that the doctor could see it. It was an indecent thing to do, so she smiled at him. “I am afraid that I can explain it all too easily. This morning when I woke my nightdress was around my neck. I believe that my night terrors were causing me to thrash about and that my gown was choking me as I slept.”

He looked doubtful, but before he could say anything she turned and smiled at the doctor. “Do forgive me Sir for talking about such delicate matters. I hope you do not think me uncouth?”

He smiled and reached out to pat her hand. “Not at all my dear. You must always be honest with your physician.”

She smiled at him and turned to the Vicar.

It was clear that he didn’t believe her, but he was too polite and too enamored of her to call her out. She used that to her advantage and reached out to touch the back of his hand. “Sir, I am so sorry for worrying you and for putting you to all this trouble. I hope you can forgive me?”

He blushed and she knew she had him.

There was no way that he would say anything now.

He looked down at her hand on his and his blush grew even darker. It made him most attractive Victoria thought. It looked almost like the flush of a man in the midst of love-making.

Some tiny part of her mind rebelled at that thought, but with a will she hadn’t known she possessed, she pushed it down and her smile grew even broader. How lovely he was with his fair hair and his bright blue eyes. How lovely he would be in her bed.

xxxxx

They did not stay long after that and Victoria was glad for small mercies. She did not think she could continue to play the nice, sweet, innocent virgin any longer.

She called for her horse to be saddled and she went to her room and changed into her riding habit. As she was pulling her morning dress over her head she stopped and admired her body in the mirror. Though she still had her chemise on, she could see the shadow of hair between her thighs and the darkness of her nipples as they poked through the thin material.

She reached up and pinched her nipple and smiled at the ripple it caused in her pussy. She tweaked it a few more times before letting go and putting on her riding habit.

When she got to the stable the sight of the footman acting as groom made her frown. It was time to hire more staff. The village gossips be damned. She was tired of hiding and being afraid of their censure and lies.

The footman helped her mount and offered to go with her, but she refused. The time she spent on her horse was the only time in which she was truly alone.

xxxxx

She rode for hours through the foggy, damp day, enjoying the feel of the wind on her face and the feeling of power between her legs. Her mind was blank and untroubled for the first time in her life and she enjoyed the sensation of freedom that it brought with it.

She laughed as the horse jumped over a small stream and when she came down into the saddle once more her pussy bumped hard enough to send a ripple of pleasure through her.

She smiled at that and slowed the horse as she began a rocking motion that pressed her pussy more firmly down into the saddle.

She was enjoying the ride and the pleasure that the motion of the horse and her rocking was creating when she came upon the cemetery. She decided to get off and visit her parents graves so she dismounted and tied the horse to the gate.

She gathered wild flowers and took them to her mother and father’s graves. She didn’t bother to say anything, she knew they weren’t there. Graves were simply a place for the living to go and feel at peace.

After leaving the flowers she ambled for a bit, going deeper into the older part of the cemetery where her ancestors rested. Some of the graves went back to the fourteenth century and for the first time she really looked at them. Many of the names and dates were worn away but a few remained.

Under a large tree she sat. The tress branches had blocked the rain and damp and the ground was dry as she spread her skirts out around her. Leaning back against the tree she looked up into it’s dark canopy. Here, in the old part of the cemetery, it felt like a different world. A world apart from the other. A world in which she was all alone.

She sighed and ran her hand down over the front of her gown, stopping to squeeze her breast. She smiled and let her hand travel lower. When she got to the juncture between her thighs she sighed and spread her legs.

Reaching down she pulled her gown up and as the air caressed her stocking-covered legs she groaned in pleasure. When the gown was fully about her waist she spread her legs wider. She had left off her pantaloons that morning. She was wearing only her stockings and garters. Her pussy was bare.

She reached her hand down and ran her fingers lightly over the blonde hair that covered her mound. It felt so good that she smiled like a contented cat and stretched her body out.

Sending a finger into her wet channel she groaned with the pleasure of it.

She spread her legs and braced her feet on the ground as she grew bolder. Using two fingers she made hard circles on the bud of her womanhood and then sent those same two fingers into her tight, wet channel.

It was heaven. Sheer heaven. And after only a few moments she was gasping as the waves gathered inside her.

She was just at the point of release when she opened her eyes and met the startled gaze of the Vicar. He was standing before her, his hat in his hand, and his chest was heaving up and down.

Smiling at him, she brought her fingers up and as he watched she stuck them in her mouth and sucked her juices off them. His face was comical. Torn between shock and raw desire and she couldn’t help but laugh.

She sat up and with her skirts still around her waist she crawled towards him. She was almost upon him when he began to back up, but he wasn’t able to go far before his back hit a tombstone. She smiled at him, the smile of a predator and when she got to him she reached her hand up and ran it across the front of his trousers.

She could feel him, he was already hard, and she smiled up at him.

Moving to her knees she unbuttoned his pants and he made no move to stop her.

His drawers were of a linen that was as soft as her chemise and she ran her hand across his cock. He gasped and she looked up at him. His face was dazed, that of a man who had fallen down a rabbit hole.

Pulling his drawers down she got her first look at his cock as it sprang up and she smiled in pleasure. It was long and thick and looked just the sort that a girl could ride to ecstasy.

She leaned forward and stuck her tongue out and gave it a long lick. The poor Vicar jerked and she thought he might be about to come, but he managed to hang on. Bravo, she thought, and leaned in for another lick.

“Uhmmmmmm,” she moaned as she licked him. “You taste so good.”

He moaned at that and she looked up and met his eyes just as she took the head of him into her mouth.

The whimper he let out made her laugh and his cock jumped in her mouth. He tasted so good, like candy, she thought, as she moved her mouth further and further down his fat length.

It was hard to breath around it, but that didn’t stop her. She bobbed her head as trails of spit and the liquid leaking from his cock overflowed her mouth and poured out. She was making a mess, but she didn’t care.

She reached a hand down to her pussy and fucked herself in time with the bobbing of her head on his cock. It was fun, but it wasn’t enough. She wanted more.

Pulled back, he popped out of her mouth and she smiled at him. She knew she looked a mess with spit and pre-cum on her face, but she also thought it was kind of sexy. The Vicar must have thought so too because his eyes were on fire with lust.

She grabbed his hand and pulled him down to the ground, his back against her great-great grandfather’s tombstone. She pulled his pants down with sharp, hasty hands and gathered her skirts up as she crouched over him.

He still looked dazed as she straddled him and lowered herself down. When his stiff cock poked against her she smiled and reached down to guide him in.

The moan that he let out as he sank into her tight channel made the hair on her legs stand up.

She bunched her skirts up behind her so that he could see his stiff poker buried in her twat and she reached down and frigged herself in front of him. Careful to not rest her weight on him, she managed instead to bounce up and down.

His face was that of a man in ecstasy and she marveled at how much lust transformed a man’s face. He was no longer the sweet, innocent, caring Vicar that she had met. Instead he radiated an animalistic, primitive power as she fucked him.

It wasn’t long before she could feel his cock tightening up within her and she knew that he was close to his release. She didn’t want him to go over the edge alone so she reached down and grabbed his hand. Pulling it up beneath the skirts that covered her backside and his legs she maneuvered it until his hand was on her ass.

He didn’t understand what she was doing as she pulled his index finger out from the rest of his fingers and pushed it between her cheeks.

He stared up at her and though lust was still the dominating emotion on his face, she could now also see confusion. She leaned down and tried to move his finger, but she couldn’t bend it that way.

“Stick your finger in my ass!” She demanded.

He looked shocked. She leaned down and kissed him for the first time and when her tongue entered his mouth his cock twitched. She pulled back. “Stick your finger in my ass Vicar. Now!”

His finger came out hesitantly and she twisted her ass to the side. Finally, after what seemed like forever, she felt it against the pucker and she was finally able to move her ass in such a way that the tip of his finger went in.

“Shove it in!” she screamed and he did.

And with that she came. Falling into a thousand pieces around him, and the convulsions of her pussy on his cock made him fall over the edge. His cock contracted and his seed filled her pussy with his life force.

xxxxx

He dozed then and Victoria pulled away. His now-flaccid cock slid from her pussy and she turned to look up at him, but he was already asleep.

His finger was still embedded deep within her ass and she moved closer to him. It felt good, right, perfect even, to have something sitting snug in that tight private little chamber.

She moved so that she was half on-top of him, not letting his finger leave her ass and she drifted off to sleep.

She was woke not long after by the Vicar regaining consciousness. She heard his sharp inhalation of shock and then felt the loss of his finger from her ass. She smiled sadly and looked up at him. He looked like a man who had woken up in hell and she knew the fun was over.

She stood up and pulled her dress back down. Looking down at him she waited for him to say something and when he did, his words made her laugh.

“Mistress de Bohun, I apologize. Words cannot express how sorry I am for taking advantage of you.”

She shook her head and looked down at him. His cock was laying against his leg and she thought of bending and grabbing it, but resisted the temptation.

He spoke again and his words this time, shocked her.

“Mistress I feel that there is only one path for us now. And while I wish that it had not happened this way, I must say that I am not disappointed. Mistress de Bohun, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

THE END OF CHAPTER ONE