The raging heat built and threatened to explode between them both.

With their lips fused together she could feel and read Simeon's intent and wildly running thoughts as clearly as if they were in text in front of her very eyes.

He wanted her pa.s.sionately, desperately, a craving deep in his blood and psyche. It was as if she was some wickedly cool designer drug, and he a complete addict more than desperate for his next fix.

Clare felt a womanly thrill pa.s.s through her she had never experienced before. She had never known any man to feel such a deep desire all on a few scattered kisses and a tiny bit of conversation and teasing.

She smiled as Simeon hungrily nibbled on her lower lip. If she weren't so worried about him and the strangely red haze of l.u.s.t and need she could so easily sense inside him, she felt absolutely certain she would have a swollen head from his unintentional compliments on her ma.s.sive s.e.x appeal to him.

Even so, she could feel her face flush red-hot with her need for him.

For a split second she wondered if she had been struck by the same red haze of heat she knew swirled inside him. She had a feeling this internal heat had created the need he held for her, but a moment later after touching his mind she threw the worry aside.

While the heat inside Simeon might be pushing him along, she could not ignore the true, real need for her she felt deep inside his soul.

Mixed in with the pa.s.sion and need, she could feel the-she searched a moment for a more accurate word to describe the emotion she could sense in him-heat was the only word she could find to come close.

She smiled as she understood it was almost as if he had a fever, deep within his blood and rocketing through his body. She remembered perfectly well reading about how vampires could not get sick or carry diseases, one of the cooler aspects of their different genetic makeup, but more importantly she remembered snippets from the tome she had inadvertently brought over, detailing a vampire going into heat.

She remembered reading of weeklong s.e.xual escapades, orgies and s.e.xual odysseys, all of which had sounded exceedingly cool in print, but faced with the reality, Clare had a feeling she would literally be chafing after a couple of hours with this man.

She could feel his needs, could easily reach out and touch his hunger and almost unequaled thirst for s.e.xual completion. As she was so gently laid onto the enormous bed, covers already pulled back, she reached out a hand to gently remove his shirt.

Simeon simply sat there next to her, breathing deeply and trying to regain control over himself. Clare smiled, feeling wild and free. She had never experienced anything like this before, and d.a.m.ned if she would back down now.

"It's okay," she whispered softly to him, rising up onto her knees to better unclothe him. "I can feel your need. I actually find it rather s.e.xy, as well as an impressive compliment to my own s.e.xiness. I haven't felt this needed or wanted...well...ever, really. So don't worry, I'm with you on this."

"I just can't move us too fast," he panted as he toed his shoes off and began ripping his socks from his feet. "I need you to understand-"

"I know about vampires in heat," she panted, wishing they could just get into it. Even with impatience riding her hard though, she smiled to hear Simeon wanting to help her, protect her. It was incredibly sweet, just misplaced when all she wanted was to feel him thrusting deep inside her, hot and hard.

"I doubt I'll last more than a few rounds," she said in resignation, quickly shrugging off the faint regret at even her usually insatiable hungers eventually being worn through, "but as long as you know to stop when I insist, I truly think this will all work out perfectly for us both."

Clare smiled as she finally managed to remove Simeon's shirt, unveiling a truly droolworthy chest and abs, oh-so-lightly sprinkled with dark, dark brown hair, almost the same shade as framing his face.

"Do you know about the ritual?" he said carefully, a harsh, needing quality casting a darker edge to his voice.

Clare tilted her head to the side and, as she reached out one unsteady hand, brushed a few strands of hair away from his face to tuck behind his ear. She felt curious, but unconcerned at Simeon's reference to "the ritual".

While she wanted to ask questions, since she frankly had no idea about what "ritual" he thought suddenly was so important, she pushed it all to the back of her mind for the moment.

The researcher inside her had piqued with inquiring questions, but as she could feel his need become wild, almost feral as his control slipped more and more with each second that pa.s.sed, Clare decided she would far rather live in the moment than ask stupid questions about some ritual Simeon wanted to explain to her.

In a blinding flash of realization, she knew without a doubt she didn't care about whatever it was that would come. Ritual or no.

She still wasn't completely convinced she had been brought here into this odd time and place for this, a couple of utterly wild rides with a vampire in the sack. But by the same token, why the h.e.l.l not enjoy the trip while she could? For all she knew she could get struck by lightning and sent home instantaneously by some freak act of the G.o.ddess in an hour's time.

Clare wriggled in the softness of the truly huge bed, and managed to strip off her top and pants in seconds. Shoes and socks went flying unheeded to the floor as she reached for Simeon's pants.

"I don't care anymore," she stated slowly, clearly and emphatically. She willed him to understand and sense her genuine, free choice and the firmness of her opinion for the whole matter. "Let's just do this before we both self-combust, and worry about everything else later," she stated firmly, hoping to bring an end to his hesitation.

As she pulled his pants down, freeing a truly impressive shaft, desire overwhelmed her with a fierceness she had never felt anything like ever before. Clare couldn't tell if it was her own desire, or Simeon's, or maybe even both of their feelings combined.

Frankly she couldn't have given a d.a.m.n whether his l.u.s.t was feeding or swaying her own in some way, or whether this was all some one-sided hallucination on her part. All she knew was she wanted and needed to have this man inside her more than she currently wanted her next breath of air.

They rolled together on the bed, kissing and touching each other with equally tender, curious, hungry fierceness. It was as if they were starved teenagers on their first make-out session.

She cried out as he palmed her naked breast, ran his thumb gently over her erect nipple. She felt her cream leaking from her c.u.n.t, weeping from her body in a desperate need to have and ease his thickness inside her right there and then.

Clare had never been a coy woman, had indulged herself in numerous affairs, yet never had she felt as simultaneously aggressive and needy as she did now. She marveled how it would be this man, a vampire in a future, largely unknown world, who would be the one to expose this deeply pa.s.sionate side of her nature for the first time.

Unable and not willing to play around with an extended amount of foreplay, Clare rolled Simeon onto his back and, feeling wanton and brazen, she straddled his hips, tilted her own hips and positioned herself right on the razor edge of heaven and h.e.l.l.

"I need you now, Simeon, right now," she warned him. Or maybe she was pleading with him? In the hungry haze she felt enveloped in it was incredibly hard to tell who was in charge of whom.

"I'm all yours, love," he panted, spreading his arms wide and indicating she truly could do anything she pleased with him. This complete willingness to open himself and his body to her caused a thrill of possessiveness to course through her.

Smiling down at him, letting her warm feelings show brightly in her eyes, she lifted herself ever so slightly, and then pressed herself down onto his rigid staff. She gasped in surprise and joyous abandon.

She loved the feel of her swollen, sensitive, tender flesh slowly opening and swallowing his thick hardness whole. She felt surprised how it took a deliciously long, drawn-out moment to encase him.

She was ready, flushed and creamy with her hunger and need for him, and yet he was so thick and seemed so large she had to wriggle a bit to fit herself onto him properly. She shivered with the delicious sensation of this first joining.

He laughed, his dimples flashing and causing her heart to hitch a moment. No, she insisted to herself, I am not falling in love with this vampire.

Clare forced her thoughts to return to the agonizing age it was taking her to embrace Simeon's entire shaft.

"Your c.u.n.t is so small and tight, dearheart," Simeon whispered softly, obviously reading where her thoughts had headed. "Of course it will take a minute for you to stretch around me. But I wouldn't worry about it, we have plenty of time."

She smiled and clucked her tongue at his obvious lie. Simeon no more had plenty of time than she did-she wanted him with a hot and hungry desperation, and she could feel his own lack of control.

The rumbling deepness of his voice simultaneously soothed and agitated her, making her crave more, even though he sat fully embedded inside her and she certainly was stretched to her limit.

Besides, she didn't need to read his mind or thoughts to hear the untruth in his words. They were both starved, ravenous with their mutual need to take everything from one another, and share everything they could.

She bent down to kiss him as he pulsed deep inside her p.u.s.s.y. She had a reckless craving, wanted to parry her tongue with him as her body softly clenched itself down and over his last few inches as she pressed herself onto him.

She sighed in relief and pleasure as she finally settled fully over him, then squeaked in shock as he expertly flipped them both over without letting a single inch of their flesh move away from each other.

"I wanted this to last," he panted hot against her lips, "wanted to do this right. But I'm a fully grown vampire in heat, dearheart, and my control has, as of this moment, officially ended."

Clare smiled, trusting him as she had never trusted anyone else before.

"Go for it, darling. I'm all yours," she said, repeating his own words back to him, and stretching her arms wide out on the soft bed.

Clare could easily feel how right the words of trust tasted on her lips and it felt more freeing than anything she had previously experienced to open her heart and soul to this vampire above all other people.

Simeon started thrusting deep inside her, making her back arch deeper into the extraordinarily soft bed in delighted pleasure.

Clare gasped and panted, tried to catch her breath as her head began to whirl dizzily with the intensity of her erotic pleasure. She had never felt such driving, ramming need and pleasure erotically intertwined together. They kissed deeply, somehow she knew they shared their thoughts and feelings with each other in an intimate mental embrace.

She could feel Simeon's pleasure and deep satisfaction in her body, and she knew he could feel her joy in his thick, hard possession. She also realized she felt a tiny bit shy, in that she knew she had never felt so wild and free, so almost feral in the heated joy of a man, any man's hungry possession.

She knew he felt a very faint, slight amus.e.m.e.nt at her shock at the intensity of her feelings and hunger for him. Although he didn't seem anywhere near as surprised by the heated intensity positively crackling between them, he still found a wry, masculine approval and amus.e.m.e.nt at her reaction.

They both strained together, their bodies coming into the most intimate of contact and clashing in the perfect mating of two people in perfect accord and sync. Clare felt an almost lightheaded sense of freedom in Simeon's driving possession of her body and soul.

She felt like she could fly, soar above herself as they kissed and shared their desire and excitement in discovering each other's bodies. In seconds, even though her fingers gently caressed his hot, sweat-slicked skin, wanted this moment to stretch out and last forever, she could feel them both cresting the ultimate peak.

Clare whimpered, wanted to search more, wanted to explore more between them, yet her body betrayed her. She could feel her body reach up, grasping, straining for that height of climax. Despite herself, Clare pressed on, touching and tasting, wanting everything all at once.

Mere seconds later, as she screamed her blinding o.r.g.a.s.m, she felt Simeon reach out to touch her mind even deeper than he had been before. In the confusion of the moment, the intensity of her climax and the roaring release of a zillion different thoughts and emotions, she almost thought he was sending her a plea for understanding.

Before she could think or even open her mouth to attempt coherent conversation instead of screaming her release, she felt the very light, faint pain of teeth bite deep into her neck. The astounding mixture of pain, pleasure and shock sent her over the edge a second time before she had even fully come down from her first o.r.g.a.s.m.

Clare dimly heard Simeon roaring out his own climax, but even the liquid heat of his seed spurting into her body became lost in the plethora of other emotions and feelings bombarding her body.

Clare could feel her body become hypersensitized at the onslaught of myriad different sensations and emotions. She could feel her own body sending signals of unendurable pleasure, her mind sending her warnings of vampire teeth in her neck, and she could feel the haze of l.u.s.t and need and desperate craving coming from Simeon.

Simeon, in fact, had an even more confused ma.s.s of emotions and sensations bombarding him, and the eddy of his mind caught up with her and sent her skyrocketing.

Clare felt Simeon take a small amount of her blood into his body, and she could almost feel the pleasure and distinctive taste of herself in his mouth. She could feel his love for her burn deep inside him, his complete and utter certainty that only she could fulfill him and make him whole.

Even though she didn't fully understand the confusion of his thoughts and emotions, she knew he was not tricking her, or hiding anything from her. He was being more honest than any mere mortal could ever hope to be.

As stunned as she felt, as dazed and confused as her mind seemed, with the heavy lethargy of her body's monumental reactions, Clare could no more help herself than she could turn the sky green.

She offered him her heart and everything she was.

At the same moment, she would later swear she could feel him offering her his soul and everything he was and would ever come to be in return to her.

She smiled as her mind insisted it was a fair trade. Everything she was, for everything he was. And what a devastatingly fantastic exchange that would be.

Clare felt invaded by his warmth, consumed by his heat and scent. She couldn't really understand how she knew, but she could have sworn they exchanged something in that intimate moment of perfect unity. Her chest felt warm, fuzzy, as if she had snuggled suddenly into a hot water bottle.

Then the oddest thought flashed through her mind-as his teeth gently sank farther into her neck, as he drew some of her blood into his body, she thought she could feel him take the parts of her soul she offered him.

Clare blinked, but the sensation, the feeling did not wane. She thought she could feel Simeon lift parts of her soul, and fuse them with parts of his own soul, which he had so freely offered to her.

Not only had she offered him a section of her soul, but he had offered the same in return, and joined the two of them!

She remembered the vampire tome, and she smiled slightly when she realized what he had done. By offering her his soul, he had completed her Soul's Circle, and by taking her offering, he had completed his own Soul's Circle at the same time.

Even though she suspected they were now fused together, she smiled as she realized they still were complete in and of themselves.

It felt perfect and paradoxical at the same time, just like a quirk of fate, odd humor that it seemed to have. She also understood why she hadn't fully been able to understand the tome earlier. The paradox was something one had to almost experience to understand.

She felt Simeon's seed hot and potent inside herself, leaking very slightly from between her legs and mingling between their intertwined bodies. More importantly, Clare could feel his satisfaction and satiation rumbling almost like a purr between them.

Without warning, Simeon rolled them both to the side and drew her even closer in a huge, warm bear hug. Clare chuckled, amused at the lightning-quick movement. She lay still and enjoyed the warmth of his body as it penetrated through her skin.

She smiled in satiation, relieved she didn't need the covers pulled up as she felt far too lax and boneless to be bothered with them.

She smiled sleepily at the s.e.xy man beside her, ran her fingers gently in exploration over his face.

The fire of his s.e.xual need still burned beneath the surface, but she could tell for the moment he was utterly sated and content.

"You just bound us together, right?" she said softly, not wanting to break the moment, but having far too many questions roaming inside her head to lay in silence.

"Completed our Soul's Circles, yeah," he replied softly back, obviously not wanting to break the moment any more than she. "I just couldn't help myself, dearheart. And you did offer yourself to me. It is categorically impossible for a vampire to take that piece of your or anyone's soul. It has to be offered. And the blood helps the ritual. I hope I didn't scare you."

Clare smiled. "Not at all, though I wouldn't mind a repeat of the s.e.x sometime soon."

"How about right now?" he said rumbled s.e.xily. Clare laughed, thinking he was teasing, but when Simeon levered himself up over her, resting on one arm, she caught her breath, realized he was completely serious.

"Completing the ritual has given me a large measure of control back," he said, obviously reading her surprise. "Even though I am still in heat and thus haven't got as much control over myself as usual, I still think we can make this round last a h.e.l.luva lot longer, dearheart."

Clare felt her eyes widen, impressed despite herself. Her mouth was dry and she closed her lips, tried to work some moisture inside, but failed miserably when he grinned s.e.xily at her, and bent over her, his lips barely brushing the long column of her throat.

"Tell me what you'd like, love," he whispered naughtily against her soft skin, and Clare felt herself shudder in a fiery hot return of all the l.u.s.t she had thought satisfied.

Even though with his lips a mere hairsbreadth away from her throat, and the burning inside her gut ached to have him possess her as intimately as he had been mere moments ago, Clare decided to show him what she usually liked.

She swallowed convulsively and tried to muster her earlier courage and bravado. When Simeon merely smiled and winked cheekily at her, she felt all her earlier strength returning easily.

Clare smiled at the vampire easily took over her whole heart and soul, and she slowly, teasingly spread her legs. With both hands resting on his broad, deliciously muscled shoulders, she gently pressed him down her body until his face was about even with her belly.

With a wicked, knowing, feral grin aimed right up at her and arrowing straight through her heart, Simeon happily complied and lowered his body even further as he scooted down the bed.

"As long as you realize this is a two-way street, love."

Clare nodded and smiled, gasped and lifted her hips as he suckled her c.l.i.t delicately into his mouth. She felt his long, strong fingers stroking her lower lips gently apart, and she screeched as he thrust three fingers deep inside her.

Even though she had already had two of the most potent climaxes ever mere moments ago, she could again feel herself climbing up the peak. His fingers, though tightly stretching her sheath, were thickly lubricated in her own cream and his seed, and Clare knew she would very soon reach that perfect nirvana.

Simeon gently suckled her c.l.i.t, causing a riot of emotions to well up inside her, and his fingers stroked her inner walls, searching for her G-spot. When he found the small fusion of nerves, he eased the tip of one finger over it, causing Clare to moan. With her eyes closed, she felt another ripple of energy spike through her as she felt his soft lips gently graze over her lower lips, the edge of his teeth so delicately nip the swollen, tender flesh.

Clare began to pant, shocked at how quickly he could fire up her body, amazed how this man she knew so little about could wield such an all-encompa.s.sing control over her body and urges.

She could feel herself reach the crest. Her womb seized up and she felt her back arch again as his long, strong fingers casually strummed her silky inner flesh as if he were a maestro of the instrument of her body.

As she came, crying out softly, Clare felt utterly amazed how her body became energized, not depleted. Still sated, but instead of feeling as if her energy had been sapped from her body, she felt stronger, more full and more complete.

Breathing hard, but by no means finished, Clare lowered her hands to cup Simeon's face. She lifted him up and kissed him, intrigued and astonished to feel herself turned on even more by the salty, tangy taste of herself and him mingled on his lips.

She barely noticed as he withdrew his three fingers from her clenching p.u.s.s.y, and he wiped the dew on his own thigh. Freed now from his touch, albeit for only this moment, Clare sat up on the bed and gently pushed Simeon down flat onto his back on the bed.

For a short few seconds, she cast her eyes down the long, lean, tanned length of Simeon's body. She swallowed hard as she realized he was every heated fantasy she had ever indulged in. He was the good guy with a wild streak. His body was not the overly muscled form of a weightlifter, but more the lean athleticism of a man who ran.