Chapter 61
His lips nipped at her finger. "I thought you'd never ask."
Without giving Portia time to think, he swept her into his arms and carried her into his bedroom where he set her onto her feet. Seconds later, their clothes littered the floor, torn off their bodies in haste and with impatience. It had been too long.
Only when he felt her naked skin beneath his hands and her warm lips pressed to his, did the tension of the last few days desert his body and fade into the distance.
There was no finesse in the way he brought her down on the sheets, his body simply demanding its due. He'd promised not to bond with her tonight, to give her time to adjust to her new situation, but now with a pliable Portia in his arms, he knew he had to fight every cell in his body to keep his promise.
Zane kissed a path down her neck and filled his hands with her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, kneading the firm flesh and thrumming her nipples with his thumbs. He had one leg wedged between hers, with his hard-on pressed against her thigh, impatient to find its home. He forced back the need to drive into her without any sort of foreplay, but his leg urged hers to part wider, not caring that he was behaving like a savage.
Portia's body arched as she pressed into his touch. Her voice was hoa.r.s.e when she spoke. "Don't be cruel; don't make me wait. You know what I want."
He raised his head to gaze at her flushed face. "Tell me then."
She slid her hand to the back of his neck and pulled him to her. "I want your c.o.c.k inside me. And your fangs in my neck."
Her blunt demand was all it took to free the barely leashed beast inside him. His fangs descended and extended to their full length, their tips peeking from between his lips. And his c.o.c.k had never been harder.
Complying with her wishes, Zane covered her with his body. The scent of her arousal filled the room and drugged him, making him unable to hold back. With a triumphant grunt, he thrust into her in one continuous slide. Her muscles gripped him like a tight fist, robbing him of his sanity once more. Whether he would ever get used to the way she took him into her beautiful body, he had no idea.
A light sheen of sweat built on his body, and with every thrust he delivered, with every impact of flesh against flesh, more sweat acc.u.mulated. He tried to delay biting her, not wanting to lose his head and drown in her essence too quickly. But it was only a matter of time. He couldn't ignore Portia's soft moans, her panting breaths, and her scent that only intensified as sweat covered her own skin.
The graceful curve of her neck called to him, and the vein beneath it pulsed in a frantic rhythm, beckoning him to approach.
Her hips undulated beneath him, urging him to drive harder into her. Beneath her half-closed lids, her eyes shone with pa.s.sion and love, silently repeating her request.
"Zane!" she begged.
The sound of her voice undid him. With a groan, he slid his lips onto the spot where her neck met her shoulder. s.h.i.+vering, he grazed her skin with the tips of his fangs, the contact shooting a flame of liquid heat through his body. Portia moaned in response. Then he pierced her skin and drove inside.
Her sweet blood touched his tongue, her essence so potent and so rich, the effect hitting him instantly. A high spread through his body, which was humming with pleasurable electricity. He drew more of her blood into his body, and the feeling only intensified.
"I love you, Zane," he heard her whisper.
He wanted to respond and tell her how he felt, but was unable to let go of her neck. He needed this; he needed her.
His c.o.c.k worked her frantically, driving them both higher and higher, and the sounds of their lovemaking echoed in his house.
"I've made my decision, Zane."
Her words pushed through the bliss he was coc.o.o.ned in. His brain didn't work fast enough to understand what she meant, when he suddenly felt her lips on his shoulder, her teeth sc.r.a.ping against his skin.
"I don't want to wait."
All of a sudden Zane understood. His heart stopped only to restart the instant he felt her fangs drive into his flesh.
By
Forever together.
Forever one.
As their blood comingled and their bodies exploded in carnal bliss, Zane's heart opened wide. There would never again be a wall around it or chains locking it down.
He was free. Free to love.
His mind reached out to her. Baby girl, I love you.
And then, for the first him, he felt her presence inside him, warmth and love spreading in his heart and mind. When her voice sounded inside his body while her fangs were still lodged in his flesh, he knew that he'd never heard a sweeter sound.
You're mine, Zane, forever mine.
EPILOGUE.
One week later Zane paced the full length of his living room, little Z running around under foot. Where was she? He'd awakened alone when it was still daylight, and that fact prevented him from chasing after her.
"You could have woken me," he chastised the dog. "Ever thought of barking when she left the house?"
Z turned his face up to him, turning on his puppy charm.
"Yeah, you're a great help."
Even a week after bonding with Portia, he still felt nervous about losing her. His nightmares of seeing her in the burning house were only just beginning to wane. Feeling her in his arms was the only thing that chased them away completely.
Where are you, baby girl?
A warm tingle reached his mind.
I'm almost home, her response came.
Hearing her voice in his head settled his unease somewhat. Thank G.o.d for the telepathic bond that came with their blood bond. It allowed them to communicate when they were apart.
When he heard the key in the front door a few minutes later, his heart beat excitedly into his throat and as soon as the door closed, he rushed into the hallway and pulled Portia into an embrace.
Hungrily devouring her lips, he didn't even give her a chance for a greeting. Only when the dog started barking did Zane release her lips.
"Now he barks. What a watchdog we've got ourselves there."
"Going by that kiss," Portia hedged, "you must have missed me."
Her coquettish smile made his heart flip as if it were jumping up and down a trampoline. "What do you think?"
Her eyes locked with his. "Tell me you don't love me."
Zane smiled. "I can't do that, baby girl."
She brushed her lips against his. "Why not?"
"Because it would be a lie," he whispered back and took her lips once more.
Breathless, he released her a few minutes later. "Now tell me what was so important that you had to leave our bed."
Portia pulled away from him and reached into the inside of her leather jacket, pulling out a small plastic bag.
"You have no idea how hard it was to find this in the Mission."
Curious, Zane watched her as she pulled a silken item from the bag. His eyes recognized the round piece of fabric. He raised his eyes to stare at her.
His mouth dropped open. "You bought a yarmulke?"
She nodded with a smile. "I want you to wear it at Isabelle's ceremony tonight."
His lips trembled as he pushed back the emotions that threatened to unman him. "I haven't... it's been such a long time..."
Portia put her hand on his forearm where his skin was now bare. Thanks to her, he wasn't hiding his tattoo anymore and had started wearing short sleeved s.h.i.+rts instead of the long sleeved ones that had served him so well over the last decades.
"You should be proud of who you are." She gave him a warm smile. "I am."
Then she reached up and placed the yarmulke on his head. The unfamiliar piece of fabric slid into place right where it belonged, where it had always belonged. Suddenly he felt whole, the one last piece that made him complete finally clicking into place.
Slowly, he stroked his hand over the head cover, but he was too choked up to say a single word. He was free now, free to love and to believe. His faith in the good was restored, because even from evil, something good could emerge. Or someone good.
"Let's get ready. We don't want to keep Samson and the others waiting." Portia caressed his cheek.
"They can't start without me," Zane murmured and pulled her against him. "And I have something important to do first."
"What's that?" she asked, but the excited flicker in her eyes told him she already knew.
"I have to thank my wife for saving me."
"But you were the one who saved me," she protested.
He moved his head from side to side. "No, baby girl, without you, I'd still be lost."
THE END.
ABOUT BUCHENWALD.
Buchenwald was one of the largest n.a.z.i concentration camps in Germany. It was established in July 1937 and liberated by Patton's army in April 1945. During most of this time, only male prisoners occupied the camp. Few female prisoners were at the camp in the early years, and those brought in were forced to work in the camp's brothel. The majority of female prisoners arrived at the camp during 1944 and 1945.
Dr. Franz Mller is a figment of my imagination, however, doctors like him existed, and many of the experiments I described in Zane's Redemption took place, in one form or another, if not at Buchenwald, then at camps like Auschwitz and Mauthausen. The most famous concentration camp doctor is Josef Mengele. After the war, he escaped to Brazil where he died in 1979, never having paid for his crimes.
Adolf Hitler and some of his followers did indeed believe in the occult and the supernatural. They searched, rather unsuccessfully, for the Holy Grail, hoping that once the artifact was in their possession, they would win the war.
The Holocaust is the darkest spot in modern German history. May it never be repeated.
Tina Folsom.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR.
Tina Folsom was born in Germany and has been living in English speaking countries for over 20 years, the last 11 of them in San Francisco, where she's married to an American.
Tina has always been a bit of a globe trotter: after living in Lausanne, Switzerland, she briefly worked on a cruise s.h.i.+p in the Mediterranean, then lived a year in Munich, before moving to London. There, she became an accountant. But after 8 years she decided to move overseas.
In New York she studied drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, then moved to Los Angeles a year later to pursue studies in screenwriting. This is also where she met her husband, who she followed to San Francisco three months after first meeting him.
In San Francisco, Tina worked as a tax accountant and even opened her own firm, then went into real estate, however, she missed writing. In 2008 she wrote her first romance and never looked back.
She's always loved vampires and decided that vampire and paranormal romance was her calling. She now has 15 novels in English and several in other languages (Spanish, German, and French) and continues to write, as well as have her existing novels translated.
Website: www.tinawritesromance.com.
Colleen Gleason.
The Shop of Shades and Secrets.
PROLOGUE.
The sky opened as if unzipped, letting loose a torrent of pelting rain.