Chapter Twelve
-Volterra, Italy-
I stretched, rolling onto my back.
"Buongiorno, mia cara." His voice was directly in my ear.
The heart attack I had nearly had me falling off the bed. In the entirety of my stay here, not once have I woken up and not been alone in bed. I glared down at him, "What the hell are you doing?"
Aro raised an eyebrow, "Do you not recall our evening?"
"Oh, I recall. Unfortunately." Started against the wall, then bent over his desk, on one of the couches, and finally we decided to actually utilize the bed. We had been busy pretty much the entire night, for some god awful reason. I wrinkled my nose, "Please put clothes on."
"I take it you have regrets," he frowned. I hummed in thought as I got up, "I'm not sure regret is the right word, but yeah, pretty much."
"For what reason?" Aro sat up so he could see me as he spoke, the sheet falling from his chest. He sounded a bit wounded. I almost felt bad. Almost.
"Well, for starters," I looked over my shoulder at him as I gathered my clothing, "You're a vampire. Second, I'm supposed to hate you; and you're supposed to hate me."
"Yet, neither of us do."
"Yeah, I still haven't figured that one out. Third, I don't appreciate this," I pointed to the bite mark on my right shoulder. It hopefully would be faded in a day or two, but as of now it still hurt like a bitch. Aro came to stand behind me, his cold finger tracing the red crescents, "I apologize, but I rather enjoyed myself."
"Really? I couldn't tell," I swatted his hand away so I could pull a t-shirt on, "Obviously, so did I. Otherwise it would have stopped after the first round."
His arms folded across his chest, "Then I fail to see where the problem lies."
I turned to face him, "The problem, you, a vampire, laid in bed with me, a werewolf. Bloodsuckers and Children of the Moon do not have sex with each other! Why have you not gotten dressed yet?!"
Not that it was entirely a complaint. He had an attractive body. Toned, not ridiculously muscular. And he had my absolute favorite feature on a man: chest hair! But if I wanted to maintain my dislike of him, he definitely needed to not be naked. That being said, I tried to keep my gaze locked with his, and not allowing it to follow down his happy trail... His expression said he still wasn't accepting my excuses. He reached up to brush the back of his hand across my cheek, "So our kind doesn't typically engage is such relationships. But we are different, my dear. There must be something between us."
For a second time, I pushed his hand away, "Yeah, we're both too horny for our own good."
Aro looked annoyed. And confused. He lifted a hand again, "My dear-"
I pushed it away before he could touch me. That was the last thing I wanted to happen right now. I shook my head, "Don't. Look, it was great and all, but no more."
Now the man looked mad. But he said nothing and made no further move to make physical contact with me. I stepped into the bathroom, shutting the door behind me without another word. Fuck me.
Caius stalked toward him and Aro already knew what he was upset about. He didn't look up from his book as the blond man approached. Hands slammed on the table beside him, "What the hell was that?"
"I'm not sure what you mean," was Aro's clipped answer. He didn't really want to have this conversation after the one he just had with Lorna. The woman's words had stung in a way he hadn't expected and they continued to dig at him. He couldn't comprehend it at all. She was nothing to him but a pet, of sorts. Then why did she crawl under his skin so?
Caius growled, "You know well what I'm speaking of, Aro."
"I do," he licked his thumb before turning the page, "But, as it's my personal affair, I believe it's none of your concern."
Caius snorted, "None of my concern? You made it known to nearly everyone in the building, brother."
"And yet," Aro narrowed his eyes at the man, "all but you seem to know better than to speak of it. As if you have not made your business with Athenodora known?"
"She is my wife, Aro. A vampire, like us," Caius replied pointedly. Aro was about to say something else but Caius cut him off, "Have you forgotten what she is? She is not your mate, brother. She is a werewolf. We destroy them, not breed with them."
"Your ill harbored feelings for her kind aside, she is mine and I will do with her as I please," Aro answered, his tone attempting to convey the conversation was finished.
"To be completely transparent, brother," Caius continued anyway, "I find it quite disgusting you'd do such a thing. To even speak such nonsense. Do you not comprehend the consequences of your actions?"
Aro suppressed a grimace. What his brother didn't understand, and probably didn't care to, was that Aro didn't understand it any better than he did. At first, the thoughts had repulsed him as well. A Child of the Moon, a monster more than he. A mindless beast. Merciless killer, of his kind and humans. And for what? Werewolves didn't feed on them. Any that were unfortunate enough to cross paths with a newly changed wolf would be slaughtered, simply because the creature lacked control. Not that he typically pitied the humans.
Lorna, however, has turned out to be so different. He had a strange fascination with her he couldn't quite place. He had felt it immediately, and so had she. He knew she did. For so long Aro and Caius had thought of werewolves as only animals, they both seemed to have forgotten they were also still people. And the person that Lorna was...was interesting, to say the least. Though she was incredibly disrespectful and he did not appreciate her challenge of his authority, she was also quite cunning and strong willed. Qualities he admired. Under her snide remarks was a deep intelligence and determination. Not to mention she was rather attractive in a very ordinary way. He had found himself wanting to be close to her.
But, the more he was close to her, the more he desired to be close to her. He wanted to follow her curves with his hands. Taste her full lips. To claim her as his. He struggled to keep such thoughts away. Was there something wrong with him? He had been determined to resist the urges. If he gave in, all it would become is a distraction. Well, more so than it had been already. And then, the young woman pushed him far enough he no longer cared. Now that he'd had her, he didn't want to stop. He was addicted to the feeling of her body against his. But...
Aro sighed, "Regardless, this discussion is moot. Such activities will not be happening again."
"Harder!" I gasped.
Aro hooked an arm under my leg, pushing my knee to my chest, as he pounded me with more force. He literally growled like an animal.
"If you bite me again, I will kill you."
He seemed to ignore me, too consumed by his primal desires. Couldn't say I blamed him. The man didn't even chide me when I moaned, "Oh, fuck!"
I had told him I regretted it. That I wasn't going to allow it to happen again. I had meant it at the time. And then I sat alone the entire day, and thought. Even if I didn't like him, which I couldn't say for sure was a true statement, the sex had been too good. His touch was like a drug and I needed more.
He had walked through the door without even seeing me. For a vampire, he sure was awful at keeping track of his prey. I understood now why his meals were always delivered to him. He had turned around just in time for my hands to meet his chest, shoving him across the room. The man landed on the floor on his back and, before he had time to recover, I had straddled his waist, pinning his wrists to the floor. At first he glared at me, probably thought about killing me. Until he noticed the way I looked at him. He raised his head to meet my lips, our tongues dancing. I let go of his hands so that I could yank off his tie, roughly pull open his shirt. And he tugged at the button of my jeans.
Aro rolled, forcing me beneath him. He gave up trying to be nice and just ripped the clothing from me. Which was fine, as I did the same to him. I didn't wait for him to come to me. I was too hungry. My hands on his waist, I pulled at him as I lifted myself to him. His erections slid into me and we both shuddered. He rolled his hips quickly against mine and I gasped with every stroke.
We now laid together on the floor, basking in our shared satisfaction. Me trying to catch my breath. Him nuzzling against my throat. As much as I hated to admit it, so I tried my best not to, something about the entire thing felt...right. The realization instantaneously made me fidgety.
"Aro."
"Hmm?"
"Get off me."
He put his hands against the floor and pushed himself up and onto his knees. I sat up, stretched, and pat him on the cheek, trying to maintain my usual demeanor, "Thanks for that! We should do it again sometime!"
I stood and went to locate another pair of pants and a shirt. For me, not him. He could get his own shit. He watched me closely, "I believe this morning you said-"
"Forget what I said this morning," I pulled a tank top over my head, "But we do need to be clear about one thing, though."
"And that would be?"
I turned to face him, "This isn't anything more than what it is."
Never mind that I wasn't even entirely sure what the hell this even was. But for now I was going to pretend that we both just really wanted to sex each other up. There was, obviously, something between us, as he had said. And, also obviously, it was definitely physical. Which was more than it should have been but absolutely was not going to amount to anymore than that.
"Of course, my dear."
