The Return of Nicholas Collins

His grip on her arms was harsh enough to hurt, but no way in hell she was going to try and pull away or tell him to let go, not now. The truth was finally coming out and by god she would die before interrupting him because of physical pain.

She clenched her fists at her side to keep from touching him as he shifted his hands to her face and stroked his thumbs across her cheek. "I couldn't risk losing you forever, Rachel. The woman who turned me into a vampire came back into my life. She would have killed you without hesitation or a second thought. Her only reason would have been because I loved you."

She brought her hands to his hips and pressed herself against him. She tried to speak but the sight of his dark tears shining in his eyes stole her breath.

"I drove you away, love, and hoped that some day I would find you again." He touched his lips to hers and it startled her to feel them quiver. "I hoped that you would still love me, that you wouldn't hate me." He kissed her again, deeper and longer, his whole body trembling. "Please talk to me. Tell me that you understand, that you forgive me, that you still love me."

His name was no more than a sob as it left her mouth. Time stopped. All seemed right in the world that his arms created for them. She tasted blood in their kiss, tasted the subtle differences in it, and knew that it was his tears that she drank from his lips.

Slowly she placed a trail of open mouth kisses along his beard. "So many years wasted, Nicholas." She suckled his ear lobe, then nipped it. "You should have never sent me away." Gripping his hair in her fist, she tugged him away so he could see her eyes. "We were always stronger together than apart, and nothing, no one, would have been able to keep us apart."

He groaned and tilted his head exposing more of his neck to her exploring lips. She answered his groan as his long nails scrapped across her scalp and pulled her mouth closer to his jugular. "Rachel, I only sent you away because I loved you." He gasped and held his breath when she sank her teeth just beneath the skin. His heady taste filled her mouth and she fought the urge to slice into his vein and drink her fill of him. "I couldn't... God, Rachel, I, I can't think with your mouth on me."

Rachel removed her teeth, laved her tongue over the pin prick size holes she created and smiled when he ground his cock against her belly. "I can stop, Nicholas." She nibbled her way toward his Adam's apple, felt it bob under her kiss. At the hollow of his throat she lightly tickled him with the tip of her tongue. "Do you want me to stop?"

He pushed her away and her breasts swelled at the sight of his face. His handsome features had shifted into the dark hungry looks of his vampire form. His ivory white fangs gleamed in the soft light. The flash of pinkness as he tongued their sharp points caused her engorged clit to throb.

The light played on the angular planes of Nicholas' face, made him look wild, untamed. His blue eyed gaze had turned nearly black. Their depths hypnotized her, pulled her in. It took all her strength not to submit to his ageless power.

His hands went to the edges of his shirt and in one sexy, smooth move, he pulled it over his head and dropped it to the floor. Her eyes made a feast of his chest and under her exploring stare his nipples turned into small hard pebbles. Her mouth watered with the need to lick his lightly furred skin.

With the grace of a cat, he closed the space between them and placed her hands on the solid muscles of his chest. He shivered beneath her palms as he said, "I don't want you to ever stop touching me," then he placed one of her palms over his heart, "and I never want you to stop loving me."

Rachel leaned in and placed a gentle kiss over his heart. His strong arms circled her as she lifted her face to look into his eyes. "I tried for over a hundred years not to love you. There were days when I thought I had succeed," she traced his tender lips and teased his exposed fangs. "But my memories, my heart, wouldn't let me forget or stop loving you."

His eyes touched upon her face before his mouth descended to hers. He nibbled and sipped, drawing moans of need from her until she had enough and took his head into her hands, deepening the kiss.

She licked at the tip of his canines and cut the pink flesh of her tongue. She shivered when he suckled it, pulling more of her blood into his mouth. His moan of pleasure vibrated through her and set her nipples ablaze with heat inside her blouse.

So lost in the feel and in the knowledge that he loved her, she hadn't noticed that he picked her up until the ridge of his erection pressed against the crotch of her jeans. Her legs wrapped around his hips as his hands squeezed her ass and rubbed her against him.

Neither missed a beat while Nicholas walked them with care through the house to the bedroom. Rachel nearly slammed the door shut when he plunged his tongue between her teeth. The stray thought of Roni in the other bedroom was all that stopped her.

He painstakingly removed her clothes piece by piece, branding her skin with strings of kisses. Eyes warm as embers stared up at her from where he knelt on the floor in front of her. His touch where his fingers circled her ankles was gentle and light, like the caress of a summer night's breeze.

Her breath came quicker as his long tapered fingers skimmed upward along her leg. A subtle push of his hands made her widen her stance, then she watched him caress the insides of her thighs, bit her lip to keep from moaning as a delicious quiver tickled over her sex.

His gaze was a stormy, tinged with the red glow of passion when he reached the apex of her thighs and his thumbs skimmed the wet lips of her pussy. Rachel's hips came forward, a silent pea for a more intimate touch, but he shook his head and instead placed a whisper of a kiss on her mound.

In his firm grip Nicholas took control of her hips, held her still while he rubbed his beard against the softness of her belly. He then rested his cheek there and closed his arms around her. God how she loved him. Her hands shook as she stroked them over his shoulders and worked her fingers through his black hair. With an easy touch she turned his head until his eyes stared straight into hers.

As she brushed her fingertips across his brow, caressed his cheek and jaw, she realized she could not keep him from entering every corner of her mind or her heart any longer. The love he had for her was right there for her to see. No longer was he hiding it, and because of that she couldn't hold onto the pain of the past.

She closed her eyes and drew in a cleansing breath. Releasing it, she felt the past between them, the hurt and anger she had held onto for so many years, drift away.

Nicholas' arms tightened around her hips and she heard the worry in his voice as he said her name. She looked down and with the tip of one finger under his chin made him stand up. Her gaze stayed locked on his while she took his hand and kissed his palm before she placed it against her cheek. Then without moving her lips she spoke to him. Not to worry, my love, every thing is fine. I'm just allowing an old friend back in to the places he should have never left.

His jaw went slack and his eyes were full of surprise, and then he smiled and tenderly kissed her. Thank you were the only words that he mentally spoke to her, but it was enough because everything was as it should have always been between them.

The psychic link that used to exist was once more connected between them. There had been only one other person who she had trusted enough to mentally let inside, and that was Kelly. But it was much different with Nicholas. Their history was long, filled with pain, sometimes terror, but there had also been many a happy moment that far outweighed all the bad. And then there was her love for him. It went far deeper than anything she's experienced for anyone, including Dunn. So to feel the sensation of his psychic touch in her mind really felt like she'd returned home.

She crawled onto the bed and lay on her side, resting on her elbow watching him remove the rest of his clothing. Juices flooded her cunt as his cock broke free of its confinement and audibly slapped against his belly. It pulsed with the passionate beat of his heart and angled up toward his belly, it's thick vein so pronounced that she longed to caress it with her tongue.

He slid onto the cool sheets beside her and pressed close. He wedged his long muscular leg between hers, rubbing his thigh strongly against her wet sex.

Sensuously she groaned out his name and ground her pussy into him. Her juices spread over his skin like heated oil and made it slick, causing her to slide faster, to push harder into him as a ray of razor sharp need ran from her clit to her womb.

Her skin turned hot where his mouth ran along her shoulder. When his kiss found her neck she sighed and pushed her head into the depths of the plush pillow beneath it, exposing herself to the scraping of his beard and teeth.

Between her legs his thigh muscles bunched and she dug her nails into his chest and hip, digging into his flesh as she

pulled herself closer, spreading the lips of her pussy wider against him thigh and groaning. His rough hand slid across her ribs onto her soft belly. With the backs of his fingers he moved it up toward her breasts, teased the undersides and then tenderly cupped one with his palm. Her breath hissed between her teeth when his fingers tweaked her plump rosy nipple.

"I want to taste you," he growled against her throat before he licked a wet path to her breast, circled the aching nipple and took it into his mouth. She knew what was about to happen but it still didn't stop her from gasping out his name when he sank his lethal teeth into her skin.

Each sensational tug of his mouth went straight to her clit. It swelled and it ached, it felt like his hungry lips were wrapped around it instead of her nipple. It stirred the need within her, made her grind against his leg and strive for her release.

He took control of her when the pleasure grew to be too much for her and her movements became erratic. He placed his hand along her hip once more and then moved it back to slide over the curve of her ass. He squeezed it, ran his fingers along the crack and then teased her anus with one fingertip, which sent a wave of wet heat to her cunt.

Powerful and skilled, he guided her frantic thrusts and worked her pussy against his skin, made sure that her clit ran over the corded muscles of his thigh in just the right way that it gave her constant stimulation.

A quake of tremors went off inside her when he took her mouth with his. He bit and he suckled her lips, forced them open with his tongue and then drove it in deep. Rachel clung to him, dug her nails into his upper arm and held on to him as the knot in her womb grew tighter. She was ready to fly apart in his arms, tried to even pull away because the pleasure was just to painful to end, but Nicholas wouldn't let her escape his powerful grip. He trapped her there, puncturing her ass with his claws and tangling his hand in the hair at her nape.

His voice broke through the harsh sounds of their breathing, of the wet sounds of her cunt sliding against his thigh, and filled her insides. "Look at me, Rachel." She ignored him, and when she didn't respond he tugged her head back and made her whimper. She opened her eyes and found him staring straight into her face.

His gaze was hard as it bore into her eyes, her mind. His power was strong but it felt like the caress of a rose across her lips, it was that gentle. "I can feel inside you, Rachel. Feel the ache twisting tighter and tighter." He flexed the muscles in his thigh and ground her cunt into it even harder. "I feel it right in my own gut just how close you are, so cum for me. I love you and promise to keep you

from flying away."

She groaned and gasped out his name. Her orgasm flared to life like a match, burning her from the inside out with its intensity. The heat poured from between her legs as Nicholas ground her against his thigh. Another wave was about to break, she felt it swirling inside her belly and dug her nails into his shoulders.

Nicholas growled and shifted, forcing Rachel onto her back and spreading her legs wide with his body. In one sharp thrust, he buried himself to the hilt inside her, moaning as her pussy squeezed him tight.

"So sweet," he grunted as he thrust in to her. Harder he plunged, drawing out Rachel's orgasm. The feel of her clamping around his cock was pure torture, one that he would suffer through again and again for as long as Rachel would have him.

He moved between her legs faster. The base of his spine tingling, so close to losing it. Rachel's legs wrapped around him, pulling him deeper. It felt so good to be inside her that he didn't want it to end. He tried to slow down, tried to make it last, to feel the heat of her surround his cock for as long as he could hold out, but Rachel wouldn't let him.

Her lips slid across his shoulder, her teeth scraping his skin. He shivered. She was going to bite him and he ached for it to happen. The very thought of it drove him to pump his hips faster, to push his cock as deep as it would go.

Then she bit him. His back arched but she held on, sinking her teeth into his neck. Her bite ignited his blood. It sent a hot streak of lightning to his belly, which went straight out of his cock as he came inside her.

Nicholas growled her name and fell on her, sinking his own teeth into Rachel's neck. Her flavor filled him, kept his

hips moving between her legs, using her cunt to milk the last of his seed from his balls.

He rolled on to his back taking her with him, still buried to the hilt inside her. He stroked his hands over Rachel's back, moaning softly as her pussy tightened around him.

"Look at me," he whispered. Slowly she turned her head, resting her chin on his chest. He brushed a wayward strand hair from her face and watched as she lazily opened her eyes.

"I love you, Rachel, and for as long as I walk on this earth, I promise to never leave you again."

She lay her head back down and stroked her fingers through the soft fine hair that covered his chest. She sighed and snuggled her body against his and whispered, "I love you, Nicholas," and then fell asleep within his arms.

***

Pale sunlight battled with the fog from the night before to brighten the room, but that wasn't the reason that Roni wanted to stay in bed. Sadness, the aftereffect that lingered from having her shame unknowingly exposed to Rachel, and now that she thought about it, most likely Nicholas too, was the culprit.

She pulled the covers over her head and burrowed into the pillows. Yep, this was as good of place to hide as any, and it was comfortable too. The longer she lay there though, the more she thought about her past, and the more she thought about that the sadder she got. Tossing back the covers, she climbed out of bed and took a shower. She struggled to clean her wounds by herself, but with the help of a mirror and some twisting of her upper body she took care of them.

In a baby blue terry robe that Rachel had given her, Roni stood in front of the open fridge and shook her head in amazement. All that food and they bought it for her. It all looked mouth watering good, so good in fact that she couldn't decide on what to try. After a search for mixing bowls, a skillet and cooking utensils, she prepared herself the biggest omelet that she could, filling it with ham, cheese and tomatoes then sliding it off onto a plate that held buttered toast. The meal went a long way toward making her feel better.

Daytime talk shows left a lot to be desired, she discovered while surfing through the channels. A glance at the few dusty paperbacks that were in the bookshelf proved useless. Romance novels were just not her style. In fact, romances were usually the first thing she grabbed to start fires with on the street inside old rusted out barrels when the nights got cold.

Some time during the morning she must have dozed off after stretching out on the sofa because when she looked out the window all the fog had burned off and in its place left behind an overcast sky. For some background noise and to drown out the quiet she turned on a small radio that she'd found tucked away in a closet. While some woman, who sounded no older than her, sang about love, Roni did the stretches and exercises that the doctor had showed her how to do. Though it had only been a few days since she was shot, she noticed a slight improvement already in her range of motion.

Since it was afternoon she thought she had better get dressed. She felt giddy when she pulled open one of the dresser drawers to choose a shirt. She held a lime green t-shirt to her nose and breathed in deep, pulling the scent of newness into her lungs and laughed. God, it had been so long since she'd had a new shirt. A shirt that someone had bought for her because they wanted to, not because they were obligated to.

Christmas, that's what it felt like for Roni when she donned her new undergarments, blue jeans and t-shirt. The last wonderful Christmas she'd had had been when she was eight years old and her parents had still been alive. Her hand flew to her mouth as she sat down heavily on the bed, bouncing lightly. Eight years, had it really been that long since her parents had died? Tears filled her eyes, which she wiped away quickly. Eight years felt like a lifetime ago to her. She hadn't realized that it had been that long since she'd last seen her parents alive.

Roni sighed as she slipped her feet into her brand new cross trainers. Yeah, she needed to get out of this quiet house for a while; it gave her too much time to think. After a quick run of the brush through her hair she hurried off toward the kitchen and bagged herself a sandwich, chips and a soda to take with her on her walk.

Rachel and Nicholas both had told her not to leave the house last night before she'd crawled into bed, but she was bored, getting jumpy and thinking of things that were better off forgotten. Besides, even though it was cloudy it was warm outside and she didn't want to be cooped up indoors. Anyway, how would they know if she left? She'd only be gone a couple of hours at the most, which would have her back in plenty of time before the vampires wake up call of sunset would arrive.

Roni snagged the keys off the small oak stand near the door and locked up. On the porch she shivered as her body acclimated itself from the air-conditioned cooled house to the warm outdoor air. Headed down the path she saw yesterday when she first arrived, she felt something that she hadn't felt in a very long time, a smile on her face. Normally she disliked the outdoors, too many years without a home had done that to her, but this was far different.

At a distance everything in a city looked clean, but get up close and personal like she had, and you saw just how dirty it was. You couldn't escape the mini-tornados of trash that swirled over the concrete, or the scent of old rotting garbage coming from the alleys. But here, she kicked her foot at the ground, here it was a completely different kind of dirt. She laughed as the thought of clean dirt came to mind.

Take the air for instance; in a city when the heat of summer came along you could see a brown haze hanging above the buildings. You could taste it when you talked or smell it when you breathed. Here it was just plain, honest to goodness tree and flower scented air. If she'd had the ability and knowledge to survive in the woods, she would have left the dirty city behind long ago.

An hour into her walk she came upon a rushing stream that was shaded by sky-high trees. Its banks were lined with rocks, some as tiny as pebbles while others were the size of boulders. Dusting off one of the larger rocks, she sat down and enjoyed her lunch, listening to the music of the swift flowing water and the gusting wind dancing through the trees.