Red Seas Ch. 01

But it was her voice that completed the false image the night gave her, or maybe it was a finished portrait of her true, relaxed, being; either way, the low toned drawl, steeped in sleep flowed to him luring the fires to a blaze despite the words.

"Are you always such pleasant company when a woman denies what you want?"

"I'm unpleasant company either way."

He had wanted it to sound indifferent, even blasé as he looked away from her to shift in his lean against the bedpost. Glad at least that he could sit on the floor with out choking himself.

"Somehow I don't believe that."

"Really, ask anyone that knows me."

"I would, but it occurs to me that I don't even know the name of the man I'm about to send off to the slave market."

"...Mikkail..."

She rolled to her back apparently oblivious to the way her body shifted and stilled with the motion. The moonlight caressing every curve, sliding upon it like a lover's hand and moving as she stretched her arms above her head and off the edge of the bed. Her hair tumbling like a river of blood to kiss the floor near his extended leg. She was within reach now but he avoided this temptation, curling his fist in the deep pockets of his salt encrusted slacks.

She repeated his name once...

Twice...

A third time only to say it in a shortened version he had come to be so accustomed with. "Kail. I think I like that better."

"I don't."

"Is it a pet name?"

"No."

"You are a horrible liar, Mikkail. Your lover called you that didn't she?"

He balked with a bout of laughter as he shook his head, lifting long strong fingers to slide through his shoulder length hair and cast a look of sterling silver to meet her inquisitive gaze. "There was and is no 'she'."

His implied tone was made evident as he gave in and reached out to entangle those digits into her disarray of crimson.

"I see... So what was 'he' like?"

"You ask too many questions." His sudden smile faded as she pursued the conversation. Those exploring fingers giving her tresses a gentle tug but he could see that his avoidance only made her all the more persistent, so he cut off her words and watched his hand engulfed within her hair. "He was a slave, not much more then that."

"I did just say you were a horrible liar."

"Yes, but that is all I am going to say about it so you best forget the rest of what you want." His mood had changed from the sense of strained calm to a slow rising temper as his hand grasped her hair and pulled - dragging her off the bed and up against him before she could protest.

It had almost been expected.

It should have been but she was only thinking about the retort she had for his dismissal of her questioning when she felt the sharp pain in her scalp and the bump of her body against his. She did not even realize how it happened before she was there, her back pressed to his chest, and his hand moving to gather about her throat as he leaned forewords settling his cheek to the side of hers. His head turning to let him bury his face against the fall of her hair, a deep inhale of her scent sending a shiver through them both.

"All I have to do is scream."

"You'll be dead before you do."

His voice was a promise, not a threat, the simple truth as his hand tightened upon her slender column of skin, and she suddenly stiffened realizing she had only her hands to defend against a vampire that was nearly to complete strength.

"What is it you want then?"

"For now - I just want to cleanse my palette of the fetid blood you have been feeding me. I will be kind enough tonight to wait for a bath before doing what is racing around in that head of yours."

"You won't get another chance after this, I promise you that."

"You are a horrible liar, Captain." He chuckled as she whipped her head about at the mocking reply, the tip of his nose touching hers with a gentleness that did not suit the moment. "Now be a good girl and let me erase the torture you have been putting me through."

"I most certainly will..."

She didn't get to finish her words as his mouth took hers, filling it with a kiss, one she did not realize in her dreams that she had wanted again in the real side of pleasure. She became slack in his hold at the embrace of their lips, this time he sent no images into her subconscious but let the stark reality of his mouth burn a trail of wild fire down her spine.

She was breathless and offering him her throat when he pulled away.

He said nothing, warm lips tracing a path along her jaw to bring gentle nibbles over her skin and finding her racing pulse. His teeth drew long and grazed against hot flesh. She jolted and sent the soft touch of one hand up along the high line of his cheek into his hair. Grasping and holding him to her. A small pinch was his teeth finding home within her. Bringing forth the heat of her life's blood into his mouth.

"... Mikkail ..."

His hand rose to cover her lips, to keep that sultry voice from reaching his ear so close to her mouth. He had to do it.

She did not protest and bit her lip to show she would not speak, giving him chance to follow the path of his fingers she had imagined in her mind as her body lay back supported against his chest.