All gratitude to Laurelinthepale, as always
Chapter four
Torches illuminated the seemingly endless driveway that led to the castle that was home to Andrew and Lucy. Beth eyes widened in excitement as the dark, curving stone steps and the tall, broad front door came into view, the lights of the castle blazing from every window. A group of people stood in casual conversation on a broad cobbled landing the base of the stairs. Josef pulled the Jaguar into the valet line and patted it goodbye as he helped Beth out. Immediately, a tall, striking brunette ran across the stones as fast as her silver platform boots would carry her, and threw herself on Josef, wrapping her hot-pants clad crotch right against his and kissing his face as if she'd be happy to swallow it whole.
"Josef, I am so happy to see you," she said as she clung to him. "Thank you for our present, wait until you see where I've hung it."
Beth began searching the ground for a weapon.
Andrew strode toward them quickly. Josef was trying to untangle himself, but the woman held on tenaciously, now flattened against his chest and hugging him tightly.
"Hi Andrew, how's it going," Josef smiled innocently over the woman's shoulder.
"Well, you're wearing my wife and there are grass stains on my precious tires. I've been better," he said as seriously as he could with his eyes twinkling and his hand outstretched in friendship. "Since you're busy with Lucy, might I pass the evening with your lovely Beth?" he asked as he winked at her and draped an arm across her shoulder, tucking her closely to his side.
Lucy released Josef immediately, and Josef was next to Beth in the blink of an eye.
Andrew laughed heartily and with immense good humor as he released Beth. "You've got it bad, haven't you, lad?"
"That's putting it mildly, Andrew. I-"
He was cut off by Lucy's quick words. "Oh, so this is the one you were telling me about, darling. Well, I'm Lucy, welcome dear, we have got to talk. Come with me, you have no champagne, come see my new painting, Josef is too generous, that's an interesting neckpiece," she chatted as she took Beth's arm and urged her up the steps and inside.
Josef and Andrew stood smiling after their women. "Andrew, I thought I had, but in all these centuries I've never felt like this."
"Aye, I ken the feeling. What about St. John? I thought they were…"
"They are. It's her choice. I can only hope that it's me."
"You're a very persuasive man, Josef. Come on inside, let's see what ball of yarn the kittens have tangled themselves in."
Beth really wanted to live in a castle. She'd concluded as much about halfway through her tour of the first floor, and shared as much with the laughing Lucy. As they climbed the broad staircase to the second floor, Lucy chatting amiably about the castle's history, Beth realized that fate was offering an opportunity she might never have again, not while she was human. As she admired her hosts' enormous bedchamber, she seized her chance.
"Lucy, I know this is none of my business, but how did you and Andrew meet?"
"We met at a concert in nineteen seventy-one. I was twenty-five, a starving painter and full-time scene stealer, and he owned what was, at the time, the only place to hear music and be seen. For me, it was love at first sight. And I spent three months trying to get him to notice me, or so I thought. But it turned out he'd felt the same way, but he was a vampire…." Lucy's eyes relived the pain of rejection, briefly, before brightening once again. "Anyway, we got past that, and a couple of years later, married."
"So when did you know you wanted to be one, too?"
"It's a practical matter, my dear. If you're going to love a vampire, you have to make the decision. Humans just can't take the physical toll over time. Do you know how long it takes for your body to replace the lost blood?"
"I'm embarrassed to say I don't. And I've only been sleeping with vampires for about a week, and so far, I feel pretty good. Except that I can't stop eating everything in sight."
Lucy laughed. "Oh, I remember that. Don't worry, the workout they give you burns it right off. The other thing is, I couldn't stand knowing that Andrew was always holding something back. He had to, or he would have killed me. I couldn't see making the man I love do that for forty or fifty years while I grew older and called upon him for even further restraint. So having him turn me was my wedding gift to him. Is this about Josef? Are you in love with him?"
Beth nodded wistfully. "I am in love with him. But it's not just about Josef. I'm afraid that I'll be so different, if I'm turned, that he might not care for me at all."
"It is different, there's no denying it, I mean, you're dead, which naturally changes everything. But I can honestly say that in my case, once I tasted the first drop of his blood on my tongue…I was in love with him when we married, but I felt even closer to him. And we are closer; he doesn't have to contain himself around me. Now let me ask you something. Are you satisfied with the sex?"
Beth was so happy to have someone to talk to about this. "Lucy, I woke up humming," she laughed. "It's amazing, he's so intense, it's the best sex I've ever had. No, it's the best I've even imagined."
Lucy smiled, "Well, imagine if he didn't have to worry about breaking your bones, or draining you when he came. Imagine how it would be if he never had to think while he was making love to you, if all that was on his mind was how he loved you. And he will love you, maybe more than he does now, after he's turned you. He'll be free to love you as he yearns to, body, blood and soul. And that aside from the fact that every vampire has a very intense relationship with their sire."
Beth was breathless, her mind reeling with the possibilities. She could not imagine feeling closer to anyone; she could not believe that there could be more fulfilling sex. "Thanks Lucy, I really do appreciate your sharing this with me. It gives me a lot to think about."
"Josef is a very good man. If you're even thinking about breaking his heart, do it sooner than later. He's far more fragile than he lets on, and I think he loves you very much. Come on. If we're up here five minutes longer, Andrew and Josef are going to demand that they be allowed to watch."
Josef was pleased to see Lucy and Beth getting on so well, and while he neither sought nor cared about his friends' approval, he could see they'd admired her complete ease at dinner as the three of them fed on a rotating menu of freshies while Beth enthusiastically consumed each of her courses as it was presented. He couldn't stop himself fussing over her, refilling her water glass so she's stay properly hydrated, suggesting she have just a bit more of the venison and greens so her iron intake would be sufficient and withstood Andrew's gentle chiding at his careful service.
When dinner ended, they adjourned to the conservatory, where a DJ with an enormous sound system played Glam to a crowd of happy revelers. The French doors along one end were open to the fieldstone terrace, letting in the cool night air and out the over-heated dancers. It was to that terrace that Josef and Andrew, preferring the night air, gravitated, taking seats on the large, curved banquette that graced one corner, just outside the door. People came and went, chatting mostly with Andrew, but both men's attention wandered only briefly from the sight of their women, dancing together with drunken enthusiasm. "I knew those two would hit it off," Josef said swallowing a draft of the excellent champagne.
"Me too, and a good thing it is. Lucy needs a new playmate, and Loch Awe is but a half-hour away in the 'copter."
"If Beth decides she wants to live here. If I decide to live here. If she decides it's me she wants," he added with a sigh.
Andrew laughed. "Well if the scent in my car is any indication, I'd say you're safe on that point."
Josef nodded. "That she definitely wants. To live with me, to love me…." his words trailed off as the ladies threw themselves on the couch, panting and taking deep swallows of the available liquids. Andrew called for blood as Josef forced copious amounts of water on Beth.
"I don't remember these two being such grandmothers, do you?" Lucy asked as she shot her husband a loving smile.
"I do. Eat your protein, hydrate, I hear it all day long," Beth smiled as she leaned against Josef.
"You're sweating on my new suit," Josef teased as he pulled her closer, loving the smell of her blood so close to the surface of her flushed skin.
"Then let's go someplace where you can take it off," Beth whispered seductively.
Josef felt the all too familiar stirring in his loins, as if her voice were a physical caress. "Young Americans" came up in the DJ's rotation, and Josef said, "Come on, Lucy, time to dance." Taking her hand, he led her to the spot on the terrace reserved for dancing, and Beth settled back, surprised again at his grace and beauty as he moved. Unconsciously, she sang along.
"And how would a lady your age know this song?" Andrew asked sincerely.
"I love David Bowie. My mom was all-glam, all the time. I grew up with him, Gary Glitter, Roxy Music, T Rex, you name the pretty boy, my mom loved them, and I did too. 'Let's Dance' is one of my favorites. I hope they play it."
"He'll play it," Andrew said, signaling a waiter to do his bidding. "Do You Want To Touch' came on, and Josef rejoined Andrew while Lucy and Beth danced wildly and sang along at the tops of their off-key but sincere lungs. As Beth moved to dance in front of one of the lights studding the terrace, revealing every curve of her body through the thin fabric of her dress, both men reached for the carafe of blood on the table before them, laughing.
"She's quite a beautiful woman," Andrew smiled.
"That she is. And I simply cannot wait to see her blush when I tell her that everyone at your party knows she neglected to put her panties back on."
"You wouldn't. She'll be mortified."
"I will," he said, a devilish smile spreading across his face.
"Go dance with your woman, she tells me she likes this song," Andrew said as the opening strains of 'Let's Dance' filled the air.
Josef was up in an instant, sliding his thigh between her legs as he took her in his arms. He gazed at her intently as he led her around, subtly, gracefully rocking her against his thigh, loving the way her body surely followed his rhythm in a dance she could not possibly have done before, as foreign as a minuet to a woman her age. And he danced her down the steps, along the path toward the garden, wanting to be alone in this dance under the serious moonlight. The song ended, and he regarded her excited face, illuminated by the full moon, with the all love he felt for her. They strolled down the path, following the low stone wall, toward the gardens, as the sounds from the party dimmed to a whisper. She stopped suddenly, in the quiet, under the clear night sky and with the smell of heather and green enchanting her senses, reached her mouth up to kiss him. A sudden, booming sound startled her away, and then the night exploded into a thousand colors as a fireworks display began.
He lifted her onto the wall, then encircled her in his arms as he sat beside her, watching the colors splinter against the starlit sky. While not wishing to intrude on her obvious pleasure, he was overwhelmed by the thought of seeing her smooth flesh illuminated by the flashing, colored lights, and told her so. Her face awash in moonlight, she slid from the wall and held her arms above her head, smiling at the blatant surprise that shocked him into temporary immobility. After the briefest of moments, he tugged the dress over her head, carefully laying it across the wall, then spread his jacket over the unforgiving stones and lifted her back upon the wall.
"Beth," he whispered her name as his lips met hers in a kiss so intense she momentarily forgot where she was. He planted kisses everywhere he perceived a flash of light across her flesh, a breast, a hip, the soft underside of her arm, and all she could do was whimper and stroke his swiftly moving head and finally, beg him to fill her, to drink her, to fly her to those lights in the sky. He slid her to the edge of the wall, unzipped and filled her, the moan wrenched from his lips so loud he was grateful for the sounds of explosions that filled the night air. He rocked her gently, positioning himself so as to stimulate her most sensitive flesh, and locked his eyes onto hers as he felt her tension build to the edge of release. He felt himself surge to meet her and drove deeply inside her as he heard her scream, felt deep contractions hold him as he burst inside her, flooding her as his teeth sank into her tender flesh, the thunderous sounds as light filled the night sky no match for the thunder of her light illuminating his life.
The sky quieted, and once again the moonlight was their sole companion. He slid her dress over her warm body as deftly as he'd revealed her to his wanting eyes, and lay his jacket across her shoulders as they made their way slowly back toward the house.
"Enjoy the fireworks?" A grinning Lucy asked as they climbed the steps to the terrace.
"They were wonderful," Beth answered, unashamed and unwilling to hide the fresh bite marks she bore at the base of her throat. She loved him, and proudly wore the brand of his love for her. "Thank you so much for inviting me."
"Why don't you two stay the night?" Lucy asked, adding "There's plenty of room for the two of you and Charles, of course."
"Lucy,' Josef said, embracing her warmly, "We'll have to take a rain check. But Beth is dying to traipse around a castle, so I'll hold you to it."
"You're welcome in our home anytime, both of you," Andrew added warmly as the four walked toward Charles in the waiting car. "But you can't borrow the Jag again unless you promise to have her washed before she rolls tread in my driveway."
"Deal," Josef said as they climbed into the limo. As they rode into the night, Beth settled her head against his chest, and fell to sleep in but a moment. He savored the relaxed face, with its hint of her satisfied smile that he loved so deeply, wondering if after surviving four centuries, there would be reason to wake another day if she chose to leave him alone.
Thanks to all who've read/reviewed. Sincerely, this has been fun.