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Tears, bitter salt under my lips, hers and mine.

I broke away from the kiss, breath ragged from more than the desperation I felt just moments ago. Was it only months ago I begged her, "Not like this?" Was this any better? My pants and my heart felt too tight, and she was sobbing.

"Beth?" My voice cracked, not unlike the walls I'd carefully built around my soul for the last fifty years. I may have been patching them for the last twenty-two, but it was obviously a bad job, and now the crumbled chunks were a mess of reddened eyes and blotchy cheeks in my arms.

"Don't stop." Husky, choked. Choking me as the sound reverberated through the deepest and most base parts of my body. If ever I needed proof that undead wasn't dead...

"I won't, I promise," you I can't, not now, may God or Satan help me. Who's the patron saint of the damned? "But I need to slow down a little, please, Beth."

She clung tighter to my neck, so I straightened, perforce lifting her from her feet and hurried to the couch. It wasn't that she was heavy, but that I was weak. I needed to sit down. Badly.

"Beth..."

Her hand covered my lips and her head shook, blonde silk falling over one eye, "Don't tell me. Show me."

Show her. Fine. How in hell was I going to do that? I really hadn't been with a human woman that survived the experience since I was turned. I wanted nothing more than to take Beth and make love to her, but I honestly didn't know how! Josef's voice in my ear, "Vampires can have sex with humans, Mick." Too bad the asshole hadn't bothered to let me in on the secret handshake that would keep me from killing her. I settled on nodding a little under her fingers. She gave me a watery smile and moved her hand from my face. Where she put that hand was a little distracting and I bit back a moan, "Beth."

"Shh."

I had to. Her warmth draped across me, pressed me against the back of the couch. Her mouth searched mine, finding the sharp edges of my arousal with her tongue. I couldn't suppress the shudders as she pricked her lips on my fangs and her blood sweetened the kiss. Her hands busied themselves with my belt, and I grabbed her elbows as gently as I could, "Please, slow down Beth. I can't..."

"You can't what? You were the one that said that this would work. You begged me!" Those eyes. Those damned sky blue eyes, Coraline would have been deadly if she had been born with Beth's eyes. Bright as a spring morning, dark as an evening storm.

The wind was rising, "I did, I want to. But I haven't, I told you that. I don't want to hurt you."

"You won't." The sun peeked from behind the clouds.

"I honestly can't say I won't, Beth. I sure as hell don't want to, but..."

"I trust you." She laid her head on my chest. I couldn't imagine what she must have felt at the silence there, but she stayed. I released her arms and stroked her hair.

Her warmth radiated into me, her heart beat against mine. Life curled itself against me, "I'm going to bite you."

Not even a flinch, "I know."

How could I fight this? "Beth."

"If you could stop when you were dying, you can stop now. Shut up."

I did.