Nicholas' Bargain Ch. 07

He turned the hardback over in his hands slowly, opening it to first page to see she had marked today's date, signing it with love. 'There was no need.'

A hurt look passed over his mate's pretty face.

'That is – I did not expect anything,' he continued, feeling bewildered at the thought she had put into it.'

'It was silly idea-'

'No,' he said slowly. 'It was...' he was at a loss to articulate himself and so he showed her the only way he knew how, with touch. He returned to her silk wrapper, pulling it from her silently to reveal a flimsy, semi-transparent night-dress, all lace and ribbons.

'It was a little tricky to get on without the help of a maid – and I wanted you to be surprised.'

He ran a hand over the soft fabric and said roughly, 'You succeeded.'

With a tug of his hand, he jerked on the strap which broke in his clumsy grasp. He looked at her sheepishly but she merely smiled. 'I will have a hundred more stitched,' he promised her, not bothering to remove it.

Instead, he reached inside the bodice and lifted a breast out, thumbing the crest for a moment before bending to it.

He tasted her eagerly, the nub hardening under his tongue, and murmured in protest as she pushed him to his back, pulling his shift from his trousers, unbuttoning him, pulling his garments down and his cock sprang free.

With clumsy enthusiasm, she climbed atop him. 'We never did get to finish this way,' she said shyly, rubbing against him until her wetness coated his groin.

An objection flirted on his tongue before slipping away. He had been set to dominate her, to ride her hard and well, but there was something about her sitting above him, breasts spilling out of her frothy little night-gown, small hands braced on his chest for leverage, that devastated him.

'Take me inside you,' he rasped, grabbing her hips.

Slowly, she lowered herself over him and, with his harshly toned words of approval and lust, worked until she had accepted his whole length within her channel.

Nicholas groaned. 'No-' he said then. 'Stay still a moment, love – let me feel you for a moment,' he begged. Her cunning fluttered and pulsed around him, squeezing him tight.

When he could bear the exquisite torture no longer, he guided her into long, slow movements, thrusting into her cautiously.

'Faster – please-'

'Let me love you gently tonight,' he appealed, 'I can be tender-let me show you that I can be-'

He broke off on a gasp as, in answer, his mate leaned down and bit his chin, her brilliant eyes glazed, and his balls tightened in jubilant response.

She righted herself once and started to ride him with abandon, her expression urgent, her hair trailing over body wildly, and he was utterly at her mercy. She milked him hard, pulling his seed from him greedily, crying her release moments later.

She fell onto his chest on a satisfied murmur, patting at his shoulder approvingly.

'Wonderful,' she sighed.

He clasped her languid body to him tightly, moving his hand down to her abdomen, a slight cloud drawing over his bliss. It would not be long before they were joined by a mewling babe for he knew his seed taken route.

Jealously, he wanted to keep her to himself and yet the prospect of her bearing him offspring filled him with fierce joy.

'Why are you scowling, my lord – is it because I wouldn't let you be atop?'

He laughed incredulously. 'Let me, my love?'

'Mmm...' she closed her eyes, fidgeting in his arms until she'd sought a comfortable position on his chest.

I lie only to myself,he acknowledged then on a reluctant smile. She had mastered him quite cleanly. She had him in her palm.

A light hand smoothed its way over his forehead.

'You're scowling again.'

'Forgive me,' he murmured.

'Oh, very well.'

The hand moved to his own hand, tugged, pulled, until she lay under him, her legs locked snugly around his hips.

'Dominate me as you wish, my lord – do your worst.'

He licked the teasing smile off her face.

'I think,' he whispered into her mouth, 'you will come to regret that order, my love. But an order is an order and I am nothing but your humble servant.'

That said, he dragged her legs over his shoulders and proceeded to show prove his point.

Epilogue

1928

"Stop!"

The crunch of the footbrake followed the order and Nicholas received an annoyed look in its wake.

"Oh– I was doing perfectly well, you-"

"Youwere about to drive straight into a brick wall, my love," Nicholas said between tight lips, his fingers unclenching from the leather seat slowly as calmness returned now that imminent damage to his vehicle had passed.

"Such anexaggeration," the beauty beside him muttered under her breath. "I'm sorry we can't all be wonderful motorcar drivers like you-"

"Sweetheart," Nicholas soothed, placing a hand on the exposed knee beside him. "You just need to exhibit a little more...control-"

"You didn't seem adverse to my lack of control this morning."

And at the dark brow his mate arched at him in challenge, Nicholas felt himself harden as he recalled their earlier bed play. "Your recklessness in bed is poetry in motion," he concurred a little roughly, "however-"

"Oh, for heaven's sake - if you're going to be domineering about it all the way to Oxford,youcan drive," she interrupted him, sighing as she slipped out of the ruby red car before settling herself into the passenger seat.

"You didn't seem to mind my domineering you-"

A cool little hand pressed over his mouth, halting further speech, and Nicholas bit the soft flesh of his mate's palm, laughing low.

"Yes, well – that's different," she dismissed, running prim hands over the skirts of her green silk dress, and Nicholas marvelled again as he often did at the pleasant direction fashion had taken over the years – that was, when he wasn't spitting like a jealous hen, as his mate put it, when a male of her kind ogled her. Then, he almost wished for the good old days of neck to ankle kirtles from earth's earlier centuries.

Sometime later, they parked in a narrow side road and walked the small distance towards Oxford university, Nicholas with his arm securely his mate's slim waist as she struggled slightly with the cobbled streets in her narrow heels.

"Oh, but he shall be so surprised to see us!" Lara's voice gushed in his ear, and Nicholas threw her a doubtful look.

"Surprised, certainly," he allowed, not adding that perhaps it would have been wiser to call first with news of their visit.

As they neared the university's dormitories, Lara fled from his side and raced up to the one of the many doors lining the sterile smelling corridors, and Nicholas scowled slightly.

For the past week or so since they'd decided to leave France it had been Frederic this, Frederic that...of course he was notdispleasedto see his son after so long an absence, but he couldn't help but feel that automatic swell of jealousy at his mate's cooing adoration. He may well have lived on earth for a good few decades without reprieve but he was still a demon through and through, possessive and jealous of his mate's affections even as he knew such a thought process asinine.

A blonde, slightly dishevelled woman opened the door to Frederic's cell sized room, and the look on his mate's face was priceless. Nicholas shook his head slightly, pulling Lara into his arms as the fair-haired woman made her stuttering introductions.

"Mot – I mean, er, cousin Lara?" Frederic's muffled voice corrected quickly. He sounded alarmed, and it wasn't long before he appeared, his dark hair mussed, his cheeks slightly flushed.

"Er – Annabelle, my cousin and her husband," Frederic said then, terribly awkward, gesturing jerkily towards his parents.

"Isn't she a little old for you, Frederic," his mother said after Annabelle had hurriedly departed. Frederic threw her a dry look.

"Well, seeing as how I have around a century over her-"

"You know preciselywhat I mean, Frederic."

Frederic glanced towards his father for support, receiving none. Hardly a surprise. His father merely shrugged, opting to stay out of it as he often did, refusing to take a side – although when pushed, he wouldalwaysside with mama, besotted with her as he was, ever striving to please her above all else. It was almost sickening.

"Well, I must say I'm surprised to see you both. Glad, of course that you came by..."and at such an inopportune time. "It's certainly been a while."

"Yes, well," his father smiled sardonically. "Your mother was loath to leave Paris," he shook his head. "I ask you, how many Lanvin dresses does one need?"

"At least a dozen more," his mother quipped before turning back to him, her unlined face, youthful face taking on a fond expression. "But I missed you terribly, darling," she placed a hand over his cheek. "And England, of course. So we decided last week-"

"You decided, my love."

"Your fatherand I decided," his mother continued a little crossly, "that we shall rent a house near the university and stay until the New Year. Won't that be wonderful? And perhaps we can bully your sisters into joining us? And Gideon, too. I despair of that boy. It should be a glad thing if he even returns one my letters. But I digress...can you imagine? All of us together – how long has it been since we were all of us together?"

"1897," Frederic supplied helpfully.

"Far too long!" his mother cried out, looking truly stricken.

"Well, my love," his father commented gently, and Frederic shook his head in amused wonder as his sire lifted his mother's hand, adorned with a yellow diamond the size of an egg, and pressed a kiss to it. "They are all fully grown now – it is as it must be."

Frederic wondered idly, not for the first time, if he would ever find someone with whom he was so sotted with, even after all this time – for his parents had been together for aninordinatelylong time.

It was depressing, really, for although he enjoyed Annabelle's company, it was a certainty that he wouldn't feel the same for long. It had always been this way. He tried desperately to form bonds with women – always had the best intentions – but his initial lust and affection would always dim. But he wanted a wife and children, much to Gideon's disgust.

The problem was, Frederic was frozen at this point of time forever, perpetually youthful, whereas as any woman he may choose would inevitably age, leaving him behind. He often wondered how his father had lived so many hundreds of years alone waiting for mother.

Still, Gideon was ten times worse in this regard - he was never with a woman longer than a few days before he grew bored and indifferent. Unlike Frederic, Gideon had the outward look of a man far older. It had taken Gideon far longer to reach his mental maturity than it had Gideon, thus although younger, he passed for forty on a good day.

"I shall treat you just the same until the end of days," his mother was saying defiantly then. "You shall always be my child, Freddie."

"That," Fredric's father said dryly, strolling about the room, flicking idly through one of his law textbooks, "is the problem with a half-mortal mother, Frederic. In my world, mother's abandon their young as soon as they birth them. They haven't a maternal bone in their bodies-"

"And fathers, Nicholas?"

Frederic looked away on a shudder as his mother threw her arms around his father's neck, pressing slow kisses from his throat to his jaw.

"You've proved an admirable one, after all," she continued.

"Yes, well..." Frederic said loudly, cringing at the throaty cadence of his father's response. "Well, er, I'm not sure how I'll explain your likeness to that picture I have over there," he nodded to a portrait of his parents taken a few years ago which his mother had sent him, declaring that he should keep it with him at all times lest he forget them. "Annabelle asked who you were and I unthinkingly told her the truth, saying it was old photo having naturally assumed you'd nevermeet..." he passed an abused look over his mother. "It shall be hard to explain how my parent's – my mother in particular – looks younger thanI."

But his mother waved a dismissive hand. "It will figure itself out, darling. It always does. How go your studies?"

"Oh – fine, fine," Frederic shrugged, falling into a beaten up arm chair tiredly. "Examinations are coming up."

"This is the fourth time you've studied the law..." his father arched a brow then.

"Law's change with the times, father," Frederic shrugged. "Besides, I like the comfort of the routine. Gideon is free to prance about like a fool is he so wishes – he has no discipline, and anyway since the war ..." he trailed off, lifting his shoulders.

Both Frederic and Gideon had fought in the war – Frederic had felt compelled to enlist for he loved this country and knew there was no way he could be mortally wounded so it seemed selfish, when so many of his friend's had enlisted to do their part, to secret himself away, conveniently disappearing for a time. His father, too, had joined – only to track down his two sons after mama had discovered what they had done.

Frederic had brushed the trauma of seeing friend's slain before his eyes, of the carnage and destruction that had befallen both sides, but his brother was different. There was a darkness in Gideon that sometimes perturbed Frederic. Well given who their sire was, it was hardly surprising...still,hehad turned out alright, as had his sisters. Gideon was the veritable black sheep, however.

He shuddered as his parents continued to caress one another and said disapprovingly, "Alright, alright – that's quite enough now. And you said Iwas bad?Hmph.'

Lara shook her head at Nicholas, refusing the pull as she took him in, sprawled across the disorderly bed, nude, dishevelled, skin bronzed.

She slipped on her bra, ignoring his protestations – and his crawling hand which insinuated itself inside her underwear.

'We cannot stay abed all day,' she reprimanded him, dancing out of his hold, and he threw her a stony look.

'Aye – we can. Now come back here-'

She cried out as he leapt from the bed, throwing her over his hard shoulder before tossing her onto the mattress.

He made short work of divesting her of her intimates.

'Fred – Frederic, we are supposed to meet him at seven,' she protested feebly as he fell on top of her.

'So we'll meet him after seven,' Nicholas shrugged, pressing a slow kiss to her neck before moving to her chest, his speed moderate at best. Trust him to pick today to play the tender, amorous lover.

But her complaint fell away as he continued to press open-mouthed kisses to each section of skin he came across, humming low in his throat as he worked, but as he worked his way between her thighs, nuzzling the curls there, she resisted .

'No,' she said throatily, 'it's my turn,' and she took him into her throat, her fingers massaging his cool sack as she sucked at him. His swore above her, roughly dragging her up him body, lifting her legs, thrusting into her.

He was rough and urgent, his fingers biting.

'Slower,' Lara moaned below him, stroking his hair, his back, trying to gentle him.

'After,' Nicholas gritted.

'No – now,' she whispered, her hands going to his jerking hips. 'Now,' she repeated.

'I cannot-'

She pressed her mouth to him and he groaned, his jaw flexing beneath her lips, his hands fisting the blanket, but his tempo slowed.

After, Lara lazily batted his hands away at he attempted to dress her. "You don't want to keep your son waiting, do you?' Nicholas quipped, dragging her to her feet.

'It is shame,' she said, then, 'that I shall never have another babe.'

'You are only saying this because it's been so long since you've seen him. Besides, it is the way for half-mortals,' Nicholas shrugged, indifferent.

'But wouldn't it be wonderful, Nicholas – to have another babe about...' she murmured wistfully.

He shuddered. 'Indeed it would not,' he said firmly. 'Those years were hellish: the mewling, soiled infants – not to mention never having you to myself. No, my love, I am well pleased at the fact.'

'Thatwas your definition of hellish, Nicholas?' Lara shook her head, laughing, thinking back to the first few years after they'd wedded.

Their twin girls had come first, followed by Frederic and, lastly, Gideon. Barely had she birthed one child was she expecting again, much to Nicholas' vexation – but for all of his grumblings, he had indulged each child – in fact, for the most part, it wasshewho had to play the role of disciplinarian with Nicholas giving the odd amused rebuke when the time called for it.

Shortly after having Gideon, he had changed her. Her memories from that time were hazy, and she was glad for it. It had taken her a little while to adjust...how long ago it seemed now, she mused, passing a fond glance over his beloved profile.

'Come,' he said then, pulling her to her feet and taking her hand. 'Our son awaits.'