"You really probably shouldn't be quite so relieved to see the back of your brothers, you know," she said, trying and failing to keep the humor out of her voice.

"Are you kidding?" he replied, pushing away from the door and closing the distance between them. "I could barely have waited another minute."

Clare smiled as his lips found hers. She now recognized his taste. Hot, powerful, spicy and just a little musky. He tasted of pa.s.sion.

Acknowledging his point, she angled her head to allow her tongue to slide into his mouth, as her hands framed his face, tucking the stray strand behind his ear where she now knew it would merely fall from again in a moment. She moaned when he slid a hand up under her top, to palm her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

"You drive me crazy, Clare. Utterly mad."

"Well, you do the same for me, Simeon. Please hurry," she panted, feeling the rising of his heat. At her words, she felt it break free, unleashed like some ravenous beast. They only made the few paces back into the main living area, and within seconds she was being pressed down into the couch.

"Your room..." She couldn't speak coherently while kissing him furiously. Her body seemed to be moving of its own volition as his warm, large hands caressed her flesh. He knew all her sensitive spots, under her arm, the back of her neck, the centerline of her chest.

How had this vampire taken over her body and mind so quickly? So easily? She felt as if he knew each and every one of her special secrets, and more surprisingly still, she didn't care he knew such deeply intimate things about her.

Her body felt racked with pleasure, almost inundated with the sensations he gave her. She didn't even need to see the erotic, explicit fantasies dancing in his head to help spur her on. When one particular scene entered his mind, shared with hers, she couldn't help the snort of laughter.

"That's impossible," she chuckled. "I'm not that flexible."

"You could be," he said seductively, nibbling his way down her neck. Clare closed her eyes and let herself be carried away in the feelings he aroused in her. How could one admittedly devastatingly s.e.xy vampire, she reminded herself with a thrill, elicit such a huge response from her? She had always been pa.s.sionate, but Simeon brought out the inner wanton inside her with barely a flick of his eyes.

"I figure a couple of warm-up runs, and you could do this," he teased her as he licked a wet path down her neck.

"A couple of warm-up runs, Simeon," she panted as she struggled to release the words, "and I would be unconscious, not flexible."

Her lover laughed, she opened her eyes to look deeply into his dark brown ones. Pa.s.sion and love resided in there. She felt her heart overflow. She had read stories where men and women could fall in love, so quickly and easily, yet she had never experienced such a powerful and potent thing for herself.

She knew without a shadow of a doubt he cared for her, that he completed her in a way she didn't fully understand nor even knew existed. He knew all the little things about her and she could feel his desire to make her happy, keep her safe in this odd new world now her own.

Clare smiled, knew she could travel throughout this wide-open galaxy, experience new cultures and meet alien, strange new people with this vampire by her side and be happy, content-excited as well. With Simeon by her side, she felt as if she could conquer the world.

"You're thinking about travel," he said softly. "I will be more than happy to show you all the worlds you like after we've located Gav. It won't take Michael or Rylan long. We probably should make some effort ourselves, as well."

Clare laughed and hit him in the shoulder. As soon as Rylan and Michael had been out of sight Simeon had turned them both around and headed back here. They hadn't even made it close to the Book Nook before he had been overriding her protests, claiming he needed her body far more than either of them needed to find any tidbits of knowledge Alderic could give them.

"We will pick Alderic's brain later," she insisted, trying not to break out into giggles, "and I'm sure your brothers will come up with some leads, they're resourceful guys. We can help them then."

"But for now," he whispered against her shoulder. Clare chuckled and half sat up on the couch.

Bending her back, she once again removed the orange shirt she had come to be quite fond of and her bra. Lifting her hips, she started skimming the pants over her hips, Simeon helping to pull them free of her legs, easily slipping her shoes and socks from her feet.

Naked, she turned to her lover. He had already removed his shirt, and was fumbling with the fastening of his pants. Clare placed her hands over his and helped him remove them. With both of them naked, Clare ran her eyes and hands over his handsome form.

"You tan?" she asked softly, touching the lightly brown skin.

"In the sun," he said, running his own much larger hands over her soft skin. The friction of the contact of his skin on hers had her shivering. "Most of the ancient tales are ludicrous. We're simply a different species. I can't wait to show you all the different species and races. We're a much bigger galaxy than you had any idea of."

Clare smiled, "I'd really like that. Later."

"Definitely. Later," he said as he bent back to capture her lips.

Clare indulged in his lips, his taste, enjoying the intimacy of sharing her mind and thoughts, what pleased her and what she felt curious about. When she pulled away again, Simeon moaned.

"You're trying to kill me, aren't you?"

"Not at all," she laughed, "I just want to try something. Move up a moment."

Clare giggled at the incredulous look he sent her, but Simeon did indeed move back and sit on his knees on the floor. Clare lay down fully on the couch, stretched out like some pagan sacrifice. She reached out and grabbed Simeon's hand, pulled him closer to her.

"Now," she said, "can you follow my lead?"

"What..." Simeon trailed off as Clare sent him a picture. In her mind, she had him bend down and kiss her softly on the lips. A moment later reality mimicked her image. Her picture wavered, as she enjoyed the reality of soft lips pressing over hers, her mouth opened to accept the tongue seeking entrance.

Time pa.s.sed, as they merely kissed, chaste except for the game of tag going on between their eager tongues.

Clare sent a new image, of Simeon running his hands over her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, palming her nipples. Barely a second pa.s.sed before she felt the heated warmth of his hands, cupping her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and his thumbs flicking over her erect nipples.

"We're playing follow the leader, huh?" Simeon finally replied huskily. Clare smiled into his eyes, his pupils were so dilated they seemed almost black. Her leading him, showing him what she wanted and liked turned him on more than she could have ever guessed.

She smiled saucily, incredibly impressed with her unconscious ability to turn him on. She found it excited her to excite him. She swallowed the laugh that bubbled up inside her.

"It can be your turn next," she promised huskily, and sent him a new image. This time while one hand palmed her breast, the other moved down to her curls. She felt Simeon slide up next to her, angle his head over hers as he complied with her thoughts.

One hand still cupped the rounded breast, thumb and forefinger tweaking her nipple, but the other slowly flitted down her body, touching and caressing the skin as it went. He made a sound in his throat as he discovered the slight roundness of her belly was particularly sensitive, as her legs shifted restlessly at his caress.

Finally, after what felt like an age to her, one thick, warm finger separated the tight folds of her p.u.s.s.y, gently stroking the heated flesh he found there. She moaned, canted her hips so he could slide deeper inside her.

"Is this what you want?" he murmured huskily as he nuzzled her inner thigh. Clare could feel his thick finger stroking her inner walls. Before she could even reply to his heated question, she felt a second finger slide inside her, joining the first.

"Yes," she muttered huskily, "yes, and I want more."

"I know," he replied darkly, "I can feel your growing excitement, can feel the pleasure I give you."

Suddenly, Clare could see herself as he saw her. Her face and chest were flushed light red, a heated blush across her face and skin. Her legs were splayed wide, her damp slit lightly covered with dark curls, the heated red depths of it beckoning to him like a siren.

Clare could feel his love for her along with his desire. He wanted her desperately, needed her even, to quench the raging hunger inside him, yet she could also sense his softer feelings for her, his protectiveness. He wanted to cherish her, wanted to keep her safe and make her happy.

Clare smiled, tears welling in her eyes.

"I want you now," she said, craving to put out the fire she felt so deeply inside herself.

"We agreed to do this one slowly," he said, teasing. Clare watched as he placed another finger inside her, stretching her to her limit. She felt so full, so decadent, she shared the feelings and images with him.

She knew she cared about him too, wanted to stay with him. She knew love grew inside her, yet it didn't feel right to share that with him just yet. The twinkling in his eye showed her she might have already shared her thoughts with him, but he was gentleman enough not to press her.

"I want you to come first," he whispered starkly against her thigh, and as Clare tried to marshal a coherent response, he started suckling her c.l.i.t, causing her mind to fly open and her body to shake with reaction.

I always seem to come first with you, she sent mentally, wondering if he could receive her thoughts with her mind so scattered and unfocused.

True, he replied, but this time is special. I can't explain it better than that.

Clare lay back and closed her eyes, wallowing in the sensations he gave her. She cast her mind about, searched around and inside them both for an explanation. When he found her G-spot, stroked it gently and tugged with his tongue on her c.l.i.t, she flew apart, screaming her climax.

That was when she saw it.

She and Simeon were in the park-rec-park, she corrected herself-just near their lodgings. The suns were shining, warmly enough for her to be in a tank top and Simeon to have no shirt on. They were dancing under a tree, laughing and twirling each other about in an undignified semi-waltz. The lake shone, shimmered enticingly in the warmth of the two orange suns.

"Mama!" she heard a young voice call out.

Clare pulled away from Simeon and immediately turned around. She saw two dark-brown-haired little boys running toward them, their short little legs pumping wildly, carrying their tiny frames at a face pace across the gra.s.s toward her.

Clare felt her heart overflow with love for their twin sons. She turned to Simeon who smiled indulgently as the two little boys cried out "Daddy!" and threw themselves into his open and waiting arms.

Clare felt her heart constrict, and then expand. An overwhelming love for this man and the two little boys who were the spitting image of each other crashed through her, rocked her and the world she thought she knew onto its axis.

One of the little boys literally threw himself out of Simeon's arms and launched himself at her. The complete and knowing trust she would catch him had her heart beating even faster.

Sure enough, Clare found herself catching the little vampire easily, instinctively, as if she had done this a million times before, and would a million times again. Dark brown eyes eerily like Simeon's bore into her, stealing her heart. She knew she held Zebadiah and Simeon held Ethan.

She had tried so hard not to think of these two little babies, worried she had merely hallucinated them, or created them in her mind, yet she could feel Simeon here with her this time. "That was fun, Mama," Zebadiah said with the certainty only youth can give. "Daddy, I want to do it again!"

She held on to the little boy, wriggling like a monkey, and looked at Simeon. She knew her love for him, her adoration of their little boys shone in her eyes, straight from her heart.

Clare opened her eyes and took a deep breath, as if she had been holding it while underwater for a full minute. She still could feel the ripples of pleasure from her intense o.r.g.a.s.m coursing through her body, sending little jolts of pleasure through her system.

Simeon looked down at her, seemingly proud of his accomplishment. He withdrew his fingers, and Clare realized her dream, or vision, or whatever it had been had taken mere seconds, not the minute or even two she had lived through.

As she felt Simeon lodge the tip of his c.o.c.k inside her, she touched his shoulder.

"Simeon, we've completed each other's souls," she started, licking her suddenly dry lips. How could she ask this without giving her vision away? He paused, waited for her to continue.

"That means, as you're in heat, we might create a child..." she trailed off, looking up into his dark, dark brown eyes. She saw a warmth there, a yearning and a flicker of hope.

"Does that bother you?" he asked gently. "There are ways I can let us wait. With our souls merged, neither of us will age until we both choose to. Our souls are completing each other. We have a long time, we can wait for the next heat phase."

Clare smiled, felt the tiny bud of love inside her begin to grow and flourish in his care and warmth. She wrapped her arms around him, drawing him close.

"I think it might be a bit late for that, and I really must warn you," she said softly as Simeon smiled with pride, his dimples deepening in his cheek, "I won't negotiate on names."

The brilliance of his smile as he thrust inside her made the heat welling inside her explode. Clare wrapped her legs around Simeon, drew him close. As he gently pressed her upward, urged her to fly at the same pace as he, Clare kept up with him, pressed her nails into his shoulder as the pleasure became unbearable.

As they cried out together, screamed their release, Clare could feel the hot stream of his seed as it flooded inside her. She once again saw the little twin boys running toward them across the rec-park. This time, she knew Simeon saw them as well, the stunned amazement on his face evidence he felt as excited and proud as she.

"Twins," he whispered in awe as he pulled himself from her and settled beside her on the couch. He wrapped warm, strong arms around her, and Clare felt a rightness, a peaceful contentment settle deep inside her chest.

Even though she could still feel the rumbling l.u.s.t of his heat phase, sated but not satisfied, she knew somehow the magic in the vampiric tome had brought her here for this man.

She had been happy in her old life, but never truly satisfied. Her soul had not had the nourishment and care she had so deeply craved. Here with Simeon, and placing a hand on her stomach, she knew soon her little twins, she could create the life of happiness and joy she had always dreamed of.

Simeon spooned her, whispering promises of the cleansing cubicle in his section of the lodgings. She snuggled with him, enjoying the feel of the warmth of his body stretched out along hers.

"In a second," she whispered. "I just want to enjoy this moment. Knowing you, you'll only get more excited in the shower. Some of us need breathing room."

She chuckled as Simeon laughed and kissed her neck. "It's you who drives me wild, Clare. With you to satisfy my every need this will likely be the shortest heat phase on record."

Clare smiled and closed her eyes. She dozed, dreams of her twins and the family she and Simeon could create together dancing through her head.

Epilogue.

Ruthie continued to stare blankly at the report she was proofing. She had heard the door open, and could feel the vampire who had walked through it. She might not be "one of them", but both her parents had been members of the Force, and both had trusted their instincts and intuition completely.

They had raised her, their daughter and only child, to believe all her gut instincts, to listen to the clues her mind gave her, and had helped teach her to hone her intuition.

She was by no means psychic, but she was only a few steps away from it on her good days.

However, she needed no nudge from her mind, none of her other senses to tell her it was Rylan Montague who walked through her door. Her own juvenile crush on the man helped her plenty with recognizing him-the scent of his aftershave, and the sounds of the tread of his feet on the outdated but exceedingly useful tiles.

She struggled desperately to not remember how she had last seen the deliciously handsome man. Naked, lying next to her in the bed they had shared.

Ruthie had woken up from pa.s.sing out drunk wearing a soft cotton shirt she still had no knowledge how he had found in the empty hotel room. She had been almost obscenely grateful to find herself still in her own panties, but other than that and the shirt, she hadn't been wearing much else at all.

Deep inside herself, she knew Rylan Montague hadn't taken advantage of her, but a treacherous part of her wished he had given her the option. Before she had pa.s.sed out on him that was.

Oh yeah. The Annual Vampiric Desperate and Dateless ball had been one h.e.l.l of a blast.

Ruthie pushed the memory far, far into the back of her mind, and she wondered for a moment what her parents would have thought of him, had they still been on this plane. Ruthie continued to move her eyes as if she read the report she wasn't focusing on. She imagined a meeting between her parents and Rylan, but her mind couldn't conjure up how they would have reacted to each other.

Finally, he broke the silence between them.

"I'm not here to bug you, Ruthie," he said in that deep, s.e.xy tone that never failed to make her melt. Already she could feel the cream gather in her panties. "I'm here on legitimate business," he continued. "You can quit pretending to read that holo-report."

Ruthie looked up and nearly drowned in the dark brown eyes that haunted her dreams and fantasies way too much for her peace of mind. Not a single night had gone by since the D and D ball where she hadn't imagined and fantasized what could have happened between them.

She blinked, cast a critical eye over the blue slacks and red shirt which only deepened the color of his eyes and made her want to run her hands through the shoulder-length curls which always seemed to be so neatly arranged.

Dammit, she had to get over this silly schoolgirl crush!

Her hands even now itched to run through the soft strands and muss them up a bit.

Instead, she set up a new screen on her PCC and nodded for Rylan to take the seat opposite her.