AN: So, originally, every chapter was supposed to have a big sex scene in it, but something went wrong here. Sorry! I promise I'll make it up to you ;) Lots of thanks to SenceLess, SynethesiaTastesGrey, and MsTuri for reviewing. If you read but didn't review, what's wrong with you? REVIEW, DAMMIT!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of this, however much I wish I did. I promise that I will make no profit from this, that I will return the characters to their proper owner when I am done with them, and that when I do they will have nothing worse than some bruises and a few rope burns.

Kiss to Savor

The Dawnseeker Sequence, part eleven

Spring night descends it's sweetness on me
This late night stroll leading
With one thought on my mind

For a while I lost track of who was feeling what. It was like our bodies and minds had somehow melded together. I could feel every shudder that wracked his body, every surge of pleasure that ran through his veins, as clearly as I could feel the pleasure that spiked up my own spine. I could feel what my own energy tasted like as he drained it from me, warm on the back of his tongue and burning hot through his veins. When we finally separated, I felt almost hollow and empty, as though something precious had been taken away from. But the aftershocks of pleasure that ran through me were enough to wash the sensation away.

As we lay panting in each others' arms I slowly remembered that we were lying on a mat in the old conference room. I also remembered other things, like what Mircea would do if he found out. Yet somehow it all seemed insignificant compared to the sound of Pritkin's ragged breathing and his slowing heartbeat.

He stirred suddenly and sat up. He leaned over me, eyes concerned, and I saw that his pupils were back to normal. "Cassie?" he asked anxiously. "Are you alright? Cassie!"

"I'm fine," I murmured. The afterglow was like a drug, drifting through my veins like liquid gold and making me drowsy and content. Pritkin studied me closely for a moment, and then started laughing. I stared at him in absolute disbelief. I had never seen him laugh before. After a moment, he began crying as well. He doubled over, laughing and crying hysterically, while I wondered if I should slap him or something.

I settled for grabbing his shoulder and shaking him. "Pritkin? What's wrong with you?"

He pulled me against him and kissed me. It was just as wild and fierce as ever, but the hunger was gone, and it was slower, deeper, more leisurely than I had ever felt from him.

"You're alright," he said when we broke apart. He was grinning like an idiot, and I thought it looked good on him. "You're alright! I didn't hurt you! I thought—I thought I would never be able to touch anyone again. And now—" He kissed me again—and again... and again...

My cell phone woke me out of a blissful sleep. I groped blindly for the nightstand, my eyes gummed shut. When I finally got them open, I saw that I had been searching on the wrong side of the bed. I rolled over and sort of swam through all the sheets to snatch up the phone. I had no idea what time it was; sunlight was streaming in through the windows, but there were no clocks in the suite and the little display on my phone showed "Incoming call: Mircea" instead of the time.

I stared at the phone for a minute as it hit me—really hit me—that I'd cheated on Mircea. I felt sick and guilty. I loved Mircea, and even if he didn't love me he at least cared about me. How could I have done this to him? How could I have done this to us? And what about Pritkin? Mircea would kill him—or worse—when he found out. The thought of anything happening to Pritkin made my mouth go dry.

I flipped open the phone just before it went to voicemail. "Hey," I said, trying to make my voice as natural as possible.

"Hello, dulceaţă." Mircea's voice was smooth and dark, utterly seductive. I shivered despite myself.

"Sorry I took so long to pick up," I said quickly, trying to cover the confusion of emotions tangled in my chest. "I was asleep." I couldn't understand why his voice made me crave him when I desired Pritkin. But if it was Mircea I wanted, why was I sleeping with Pritkin?

"Long night?" he asked innocently.

My heart almost climbed out of my throat. How did he know? One of the masters must have found out, told him. I closed my eyes, breathed in slowly through my nose—and realized that he didn't know. He was just teasing me.

"Yeah," I said drily, trying to calm my racing heartbead. "This place is just thrilling. No, I was taking a nap because I had nothing better to do."

"Your boredom will not last much longer," he told me. "Mage Marsden and I have set the date of your confirmation for next month."

"Next month," I repeated numbly.

"You don't sound very happy."

"I never wanted this in the first place," I reminded him. "And... I guess it all just feels so sudden. A little over a month ago I was just some clairvoyant on the run from a vampire hood. And now a month from now I'll be Pythia. And all this craziness will be over."

"Not over," Mircea said gently. "Once you are Pythia, you will simply have a different kind of 'craziness' to deal with."

I sat up and dangled my feet over the side of the bed. "Don't remind me."

"Don't worry. I will be there to help you."

Even if you found out I'd been sleeping with Pritkin? I wondered. Maybe he would. I was certain the Consul was trying to control me through him, and she might order him to continue his relationship with me. Maybe he would do it of his own accord. Maybe he was willing to turn a blind eye to any infidelity on my part for the sake of the power I brought.

"Cassie?"

I stood abruptly, feeling slightly ill. "Yeah?"

"You are very quiet. Is everything alright?"

"Yeah," I said again. I switched the phone from one ear to the other and walked aimlessly around the room. "I'm just... worried."

"Don't be," he said soothingly. "Everything will be fine."

After he hung up, I held the phone in my hands and stared sightlessly out the window. Las Vegas looked like any other big city during the day: high, featureless buildings surrounded by crowded sidewalks and even more crowded streets, and over everything a gray haze of smog. Only at night did it look bright, shiny, glittering.

I couldn't understand what was going through my head. How could I feel so strongly for both Pritkin and Mircea? Maybe it wasn't so strange, I thought. Love wasn't like a switch you turned on or off. It made sense that I would still care for Mircea even though it was Pritkin I really loved.

Something clattered right in front of me and I jumped, staring around wildly for the source of the noise. I finally realized that the phone had slipped from my hands and fallen to the floor. The concrete floor. I had somehow walked out onto the concrete balcony without noticing.

I picked up the phone and saw it was 10:50. Washington was an hour behind Nevada, so Mircea would be going to bed soon. I, on the other hand, was just getting up. Would it be like this when I was Pythia, us permanently out of sync, only seeing other at dawn or at dusk? My stomach twisted with unhappiness.

I went inside and changed into my swimsuit

An hour later one of the golden-eyed masters stepped through the glass doors into the sunlight. He flinched, but knelt beside my deck chair anyway.

"The mage is here," he said, sounding sullen. "Would like me to send him in?"

I sat up quickly. "Yes!" Belatedly, I realized I shouldn't sound so eager, but the master was already gone into the darkness of the suite.

I followed him in, wrapping a towel around my waist as an improvised sarong, but had to stop just inside while my eyes adjusted to the dimness. As I waited, Pritkin strode into the room, dressed in his usual jeans and t-shirt, with a leather jacket thrown over his collection of weapons. He stopped suddenly when he saw me, then took a few more steps forward, cautiously.

"We need to talk," he said shortly.

His tone did not bode well for whatever we were discussing. "About what?"

"What do you think?" he snapped.

My eyes slid past him to the door that led out into the entry hallway. It was closed, but I knew the masters could hear everything we could say, and would report all of it to Mircea.

"Um, let's not talk about it here," I said, giving him a significant look. "Give me five minutes to shower and get dressed and we can go downstairs." I retreated to the bedroom without waiting for his reply.

I had only been sunbathing, so I didn't need to wash any chlorine out of my hair. I hesitated in front of the closet, a fresh towel wrapped around my chest. I had no idea what to wear. I was not usually a flashy dresser; jeans and a nice blouse were my go-to outfit. I wanted to dress up a little for Pritkin, but I was pretty sure he wouldn't like anything outrageously feminine or impractically fashionable. I settled on a light blue sundress that brought out the color of my eyes and a pair of bright strappy sandals.

When I stepped back into the main room, I got exactly the reaction I'd been hoping for. The dress showed just the right amount of leg and chest. Pritkin's eyes swept up and down my body, and he licked his lips in slow, unconsciously sensual movement. I swung my hips a little as I walked toward him, enough to look sexy but not enough that he'd notice I was doing it. The blue dress was perfect, I thought, smiling into his hungry eyes. It made me look bright and fresh, like a spring morning. I knew the innocent look appealed to him.

"Okay," I said. "Let's talk."

Dante's had a fancy dress-up-and-sit-down restaurant (vampire-themed, of course), but it also had a more casual café-style restaurant that served coffee and sandwiches. We tucked ourselves into a corner table so Pritkin could watch the entrance. I'd missed breakfast, so I ordered a salad and sandwich to go with my iced mocha. Pritkin, of course, had coffee.

"What's up?" I asked between bites.

"What we did yesterday was wrong."

I chewed carefully. "Why do you say that?"

Pritkin looked incredulous. "You don't think it was wrong?" he demanded. "How can you—"

I held up my fork to cut him off. "I do think it was wrong. I just want to hear your reasons. You might have thought of something I didn't."

He didn't smile at my joke. I guess I hadn't expected him to. "I neither like nor trust vampires, especially your Mircea, but that does not mean I enjoy cuckolding him."

"He's only a cuckold if we're married—which we're not."

Pritkin looked pointedly at me neck. "I was under the impression that, under vampire law, you are."

I pressed my hand against the base of my neck and felt the two little bumps Mircea had given me. It was a mark Mircea had not asked me about, a mark that claimed me as his as though I were some inanimate object to be possessed.

"I am not a vampire," I said angrily. I put down my fork with a loud clatter and took a large bite out of my sandwich. "And he never bothered to ask me before he 'married' me."

Pritkin stared at me curiously. "You wish he had not marked you?"

I opened my mouth to answer, and closed it again, confused at the rush of conflicting emotions that rushed through my head. "Yes! No. I don't know. I just don't know, Pritkin. I care about him a lot. But I care about you, too."

I stared at him across the table. We were so close I could have reached over and grabbed the front of his shirt, pulled him to me, kissed him. The urge was so strong I clenched my hands in my lap, because despite our nearness I felt like there was an enormous gap between us. Something was wrong; why didn't he want me the way I wanted him?

Prtikin looked at me with his green, green eyes, though his expression said he wanted to look away. "I care for you as well, Cassie. But I don't I want to be the other man. I think... I think you should give this some thought."

I lowered my eyes so he wouldn't see my pain. When I'd worried about the consequences and future of what we were doing, I had known Mircea would be a problem. But I had never considered Pritkin would drag his feet. What was wrong? Why didn't he want me the way I wanted him?