Bill blinked and stared at me, visibly stunned by this outburst. A tiny red tear appeared in his eye as he gazed sadly at me. "Oh my poor darling. You've been through so much haven't you? I've been so wrapped up in Lilith and the Authority that I haven't been paying attention to what you've had to put up with. Listen sweetheart firstly, Lilith and I had come to a kind of truce by the time she left me but if there is one thing that I will never forgive her for it's the fact that she took my body and used it to betray you like that!"
"I know it wasn't you but..."
Bill put his finger to my lips. "Shhh! Let me finish! Secondly, Sonjia may appear attracted to me but I swear I've never done anything to encourage her and besides, I think you're mistaken anyway. What attracts her is not me, not who I am but my status, my power. I am Lilith's Archchancellor, her counsellor, her companion if you like. Her friend even, possibly the only friend she has. Vampires are attracted to strength, to power. That's what Sonjia sees in me...they all do, don't think I haven't noticed. But you...you are so different. You met me when I was weakened by the silver poisoning, but you still cared for me. Do you think Sonjia would have had the slightest interest in me then? Of course not! And as for Lilith! You can't possibly think I would be interested in her...as a lover! I know her, remember! What did I do as soon as she left me? What was the very first thing I did?"
I stared up at him silently, knowing what he would say.
"I asked you to be my wife! Do you think I would have done that if you weren't enough for me? Believe me you are more than enough for me. There is more to our relationship than that! Much more! You have had to make so many adjustments to your life in order to be with me and I assure you that I am just as capable of adjusting as you are!"
He leaned over and kissed me tenderly. "Now please tell me you haven't intentionally allowed me to hurt you because you thought I required it of you!"
"No, of course not!" I whispered.
"So why didn't you tell me?" he persisted.
"Oh Bill... I didn't tell you for the same reason you've been giving me! Because I only want to please you!"
He smiled. "Oh my poor darling! I'm not some kind of perverted sadist Alex...you don't have to suffer to please me...okay?"
"I know that." I breathed.
He smiled his sexiest smile. "Besides, there's so much I can teach you that doesn't involve the stamina of a vampire!"
I giggled. "You mean like that thing you did with the ice cube?"
"Yes, you enjoyed that...didn't you? He asked, sounding slightly doubtful.
"Yes, of course!" I laughed. "You've never done anything that I didn't like, it's just the whole episode with Lilith...I was really struggling there not to let you know how much she affected me. You had more than enough to deal with at the time. It was just….I felt so helpless! I was just being carried along by events that I was quite unable to affect at all! I knew you were having a hard time with her. I could feel it through the bond but I couldn't do anything to help you, I couldn't even help myself…"
"Oh but you did help me! You helped me tremendously Alex, I really don't believe that I would have survived at all without your strength. And you certainly protected yourself from her."
I stared up at him, totally confused.
"Shall I tell you how I knew? How I could tell that you didn't completely trust what I had become?"
He took my hand and entwined his long fingers with mine. I wanted to tell him that I had trusted him completely but I knew that it wasn't true. I hadn't, not really, but how could he have known? I felt a flood of love pour through the bond into me, breaking down any barriers that might have remained between us and around our entwined fingers I saw a faint flicker of pale blue light. Bill gave a little sigh that might have been relief.
"There, you see!" he leaned over and kissed me gently. "In all the time you were held prisoner in Darius' house you never tried to use your power. When Lilith ordered that you be brought to her, to us, she never saw a trace of it. I think that you used some of it, unconsciously, to help me to drive her back, to control her…" he ran a finger up my arm, trailing a blue haze behind it "…..but in all that time that we were together, Lilith and I, all the times we made love, I never felt your power, never saw this once, and I knew that you didn't want her to know about it. I think that, deep down, you knew that you didn't have the power to drive her out completely and you were afraid that if she found out about it she would try to use you, use your power for her own ends, maybe by threatening me in some way. There was no indication of it whatsoever until that protester tried to kill Harry in the Museum and you saved him. You used your power instinctively then because you had to. There was no other way."
He smiled down at me. "And this is the proof. Now that she has left me, now that you're safe, it's back again!" He lowered his body onto the pile of dead leaves beside me and kissed me.
"We've both been through a traumatic experience sweetheart. It's only natural that we'd be affected by it."
"What, you mean like my unreasonable fear of basements!" I asked. I was trying to make a joke out of it as I felt it was extremely silly but Bill looked back at me perfectly seriously.
"When you've been stripped and beaten and thrown into a basement cell to wait for some vampire to come and choose you and you know they'll very probably kill you, then it's hardly unreasonable now is it?"
He leaned down and began to nuzzle at my throat, his hands working on the fastenings of my jeans, I lifted my hips from the ground and wriggled to help him pull them off me, then slid my leg up and flung it over his hip. He rolled over onto his back, lifting me until I sat astride his hips.
"There...is that better?" he murmured softly.
"Mmm...much better." I set to work on the fastenings of his trousers and eased the zip carefully down over the impressive bulge. His erection leapt out into my hand seemingly of its own accord and I curled my fingers around it, marveling at the contrast between the stiff hardness and the soft velvety skin covering it. I stroked it gently feeling it twitch and harden further in my hand. I looked down at Bill's eyes and felt my muscles clench inside me in anticipation. Still staring down into his eyes I rose up an my knees and began to rub myself against him, coating him with my slippery juices until his stiff shaft slipped inside me almost of its own accord.
His hands moved up to my hips steadying me as I sank down onto him, taking him deep inside me. Then, when he could see that I was comfortable, he began to move me gently, lifting me and letting me fall slowly. After a few moments he gripped my hips tighter and rolled over onto his side. Pulling me down beside him, my legs still wrapped around his thighs.
"You want to please me?" he asked softly. "Let me show you how to please me."
"Sure!" I answered, a little breathlessly. "What do you want me to do?"
He began to move himself gently inside me, just a little. "You feel that, you can feel me inside you?"
"Yes...mmm...oh yes!"
"You can feel the muscles around me? Tighten them, squeeze me!"
"I don't think...I can't..."
"Don't think about it! Just relax and concentrate on what you can feel."
And I could! I could feel exactly where he was and, without even thinking about it, I instinctively tightened the muscles holding him within me. He gave a helpless little moan which seemed to blow every circuit in my body at once. I relaxed and then did it again. His arms tightened around me and he began to murmur encouragement into my ear. After a little trial and error we settled into a rhythm where he pushed in deeply and I squeezed him as he pulled out against the tightening of my muscles and as soon as I released him, he pushed in again until I had driven him to an involuntary shuddering climax. I could feel him trying to hold back, his fingers digging into the leaf mould beside my head, but he couldn't help himself. I felt incredibly powerful as I held him in my arms. I had done this! Sure, it had happened before, obviously, but this time I had done it deliberately. I had made him come by a conscious effort on my part.
I felt his soft lips on my throat. "How could you possible think I was interested in Lilith?" he asked quietly. "You are my goddess Alex... my angel."
I relaxed in his arms. "Is that what happens when..."
"When what?" he asked, sounding amused. "When you come? Yes, that's exactly what happens, except that this was longer and possibly even more intense..."
"Even though I didn't come?" I asked, tentatively.
He lifted his head and looked down at me and the look in his eyes made me feel like the most beautiful creature in the world. "The night is young..." he murmured in his sexiest voice.
Bill had said that if anyone approached he would hear them but, judging by the look in his eyes, Cromwell's New Model Army could have marched through the copse and he wouldn't have noticed. I could hear the faint snuffle of a badger but for all I knew there could have been a circle of woodland animals watching us like some pornographic Disney cartoon and I couldn't have cared less...
Later...much later, after Bill had ensured that I was more satisfied than I had thought possible, we lay in each other's arms looking up at the stars.
"I don't think I've ever told you how much I love your hair" he said suddenly, twining a lock of it around his finger.
I laughed "Don't be silly, it's an out of control disaster, there are leaves in it for heavens sake!"
"It's wild, like you, uncontrollable..."
"Me? Uncontrollable..."
He pulled me closer laughing. "When you came looking for me, did you tell anyone? Did you tell Ulrich?"
"Don't be daft! Of course not. He'd have tried to stop me!"
"Uncontrollable...I rest my case!"
He leaned over and kissed me and I completely forgot any response I might have been going to make to this outrageous suggestion.
Later still I lay back looking up at Bill. I watched his tongue lick a drop of my blood from his lips and marveled at the thought that this seemed perfectly normal to me. He clearly relished my blood, but he was always careful not to take too much.
"I suppose we should be getting back" he said stretching out on the bed of dead leaves. "Whoever William was, I owe him a debt of gratitude...this is a beautiful place." he gave a sigh. "But I have to get you and your uncontrollable hair back to the Inn!" He picked a couple of leaves out of it. "Hmm...you're right!"
I suddenly recalled our mode of transport, grazing peacefully a few yards away.
"Oh Bill! I've got to ride back to the village?"
He stared at me for a moment, obviously puzzled, and then it dawned on him what I meant and he burst out laughing.
"Oh my poor darling! Will you be very uncomfortable? I'm so sorry!" He didn't look in the least bit sorry. His lips wore a little smirk with just a touch of smug.
"You liar! You're not sorry at all!"
"I'll carry you on my lap if you like?"
I eyed Oberon warily. "What, on that monster? Not likely!"
We dressed and rode slowly and carefully, on my part at least, back to the Inn where a sleepy groom was waiting to take the horses back to the stables.
