His lips were soft and full and delicious. That was all I could think as I kissed him and his hand moved from my neck to the back of my head. I could tell he was restraining himself, holding back and allowing me to take the lead as I kissed him. I was impressed, usually by now Edward had thrown himself away from me, panting like he'd ran a marathon.
I wanted more though, I wouldn't be satisfied until I witnessed this powerful man's passion for me. I had seen it in his eyes, now I was determined to feel it in his kiss. He was kissing me so gently, our lips caressed each other, but my god he was the best thing i'd ever tasted and almost without me realising, I had sucked on his lower lip, craving to taste more of him.
That was all it took to shatter his tightly wound control and suddenly I found myself on my back being thoroughly ravished. His moan reverberated through my chest as he kissed me deeply, his tongue tasting all that my mouth could offer him, which included the blood I had licked from his fingers.
My own hands tangled in his hair as I fought to hold my own, I kissed him back just as fiercely, unable to get enough of the sweet taste of his lips and tongue. I could kiss him forever, I thought.
He pulled away and I heard myself moue in disappointment as I blearily blinked my eyes open. Above me loomed a greek god, so perfectly etched were his features, his eyes burned so ferociously and it stilled my heart when I realised that was for me.
"Isabella…" He whispered in the way I adored so much, with that lilting Italian accent. He leant forward and kissed me once more, with control now as he licked the last of my blood from my kiss swollen lips.
So enraptured was I by his eyes once he had pulled back that I didn't notice his wrist until it was pressed against my lips. I blinked, confused as I looked at it, marring his perfect skin and the blue veins I could see beneath it were two puncture marks. He had bitten himself?
"Drink, it will heal your back." He explained, kissing my forehead.
He wanted me to drink… his blood? This felt like some sort of weird blood ritual, me having shared mine with him and now him trying to persuade me to drink his.
"Quickly now, before I heal. Please dearest, let me help." He looked at me so tenderly that I was helpless to refuse him. I opened my mouth and closed my lips around his wrist, pressing my tongue against the wound.
The way he looked at me then, in that moment, I realised I would never again want to be looked at by another. He looked at me as though I was the entire universe. I had never felt so adored and the strength of his adoration had me blushing.
I soon abandoned all embarrassment however, when his blood pooled upon my tongue. Rather than taste bitter and metallic as my own blood did to me, it was pure ambrosia. I closed my eyes in ecstasy and gripped his wrist in both hands, now drinking from his wrist with renewed enthusiasm, like I was dying of thirst and his blood was a cool glass of water.
I heard him chuckle above me as he stroked my hair, somehow he had manoeuvred me to be in his lap sideways as he reclined on the bed and held me to his chest with his free arm.
After a few moments he withdrew his wrist and I looked up at him in dazed confusion. He smiled and me and swiped his thumb across my lips, apparently removing the blood I had smeared there.
"I can't let you have too much, otherwise you will be lost to me in a drug like haze for days. My blood is very powerful, being as old as I am." He explained and I sighed with loss but forced myself to gather the restraint I had thrown so easily out the window.
"I didn't realise Vampire blood had healing powers." I confessed, my voice cracking slightly with my desire for him. I rested my head into his neck to hide my blush and breathed him in deeply.
"It doesn't, for most." He stroked my hair and I felt his lips move against my forehead as he spoke. "Again, it's one of the advantages to having been on this planet for so long. My blood isn't as diluted as many others of my kind, in fact I imagine it is the closest to the purity of your own blood, aside from Archos and his son."
I leaned my head back to look at him. "So that's how good I taste, to you?" I asked, dumbfounded.
His eyes lit with amusement as he leant forward and placed a kiss on my earlobe, where the pearl earrings he had gifted to me what felt like eons ago, still rested. "Better." He whispered.
My brow furrowed with concern. "Then how did you stop, so easily? I mean before-" I broke off in embarrassment, realising I was about to ruin the moment by comparing him to Edward.
His eyes watched me knowingly. "I am not a boy, I have had many years to master my control Isabella. I would never hurt you."
"I know you wouldn't." I mumbled and felt my face grow hot as I continued. "I didn't mean that. I meant it was never that good before… I mean he couldn't-" I buried my head in his shoulder out of pure embarrassment and huffed in frustration.
"Isabella Swan, are you trying to tell me I'm the best you've ever had?" I was grateful to him for trying to lighten the mood and take the weight of my humiliation away. "Perhaps Edward doesn't have as much control as he believed."
He leaned toward me again, angling my head with his hand at my cheek so that I met his intense gaze. "I could be starving Isabella, having not fed for a thousand years, and I would still kiss you with the same passion and a hunger of an entirely different kind without ever harming you."
He lent forward as if to demonstrate his point, but instead of the same passionate kiss as before, he kissed me gently and tenderly, I felt his stubble rasp against my cheek and my stomach flipped with pure, unadulterated joy.
Then suddenly I remembered, the vampire who had been left cowering outside my rooms. I sat up abruptly and reminded Aro, worried he had forgotten him in the moment, as I had.
He tucked my hair behind my ear. "He has been dealt with." When I raised my eyebrow in inquiry, Aro continued, perhaps somewhat begrudgingly unused to having to explain himself as he was. "Felix and Jane have escorted him to the dungeon. Where he will wait and I shall deal with him."
I turned to look at him and asked "Will you kill him?"
Aro tilted his head, forever observing me. "Would it distress you if I did?"
I looked down at my hands and began picking my nails, a nervous habit. "I don't know. I don't think he deserves death. He was clearly hungry and there I was, I shouldn't have left my room without Heidi."
Aro looked angry for a moment, the fury I had quelled reignited in his eyes. "I swore you would be safe here Isabella, I said you were free to roam as you wished. That being under my protection was enough. I wont have you feel imprisoned in your own rooms because you are too afraid to venture outside."
"He said he had been away, thought I was a welcome home gift. Maybe he didn't get the memo." I shrugged and stroked my hand down his cheek, watching again as the rage in his eyes ebbed at my touch.
"Tell me exactly what happened." He said and I hesitated, my eyes dropping to his chin as I wondered whether to be honest. I decided not to lie. Aro sat in silence, merely stroking his hands across my now healed back as I spoke. Only when I finished did he comment.
"You told him you were mine, and still he attacked you." Aro stated, as if this enough was reason for him to do as he wished.
"I imagine plenty of humans claim to belong to one of the three Volturi brothers to avoid death Aro." I explained, unsure as to why I was defending the man who attacked me. Perhaps it was that forgiving nature towards I had Vampires which Aro had talked about or perhaps it was that I wished to test just how much power I had over the Volturi leader. I tried not to dwell on how easily I was discussing my belonging to him, I was unsure yet as to whether the thought thrilled me or unsettled me.
He growled softly, apparently my words rang true and it displeased him. "I cannot allow him to go unpunished Isabella. If I hadn't arrived…"
"But you did." I interrupted and leant forward, placing my hands on both sides of his face and meeting his eyes directly. "You were there, as you have always been. You kept me safe."
I kissed him and his hands wrapped around my waist, pulling me tightly against him as his thumb rubbed against the exposed bare skin on my hip between my t-shirt and my trousers.
"What would you have me do?" He sighed, apparently giving in.
I smiled at him, pleased I had managed to get him to see reason, but I wouldn't declaw my very own lion even if I did have the ability to do so. "Punish him as you will, but please don't kill him? I can't have another death on my conscience."
"Isabella." He breathed somewhat amused. "We are already dead, my darling."
My head shot up sharply and I glared at him and shook my head. "No, you aren't! Don't you ever say that to me. Ever. I can't even… You're not, do you understand?"
He looked at me with wonder, like he had the first time I had begged and screamed for Edwards life, I realised now he had wanted that for himself, wanted me. He nodded once and stood, easily spinning me around and depositing me upon his many pillows.
"Wait here dearest one, no one will come into these rooms. If you get bored, your library is through there." He pointed to a tapestry which was pinned back to reveal a door.
"Wait… You have direct access to my room?" I asked, open mouthed that i'd never found the door leading to this room in my library.
"Not quite direct access, after all the library is in-between to protect your modesty." He winked at me and I was thankful that I was already be laying down, sure my legs would have turned to jelly. "I will be back shortly."
With that he was gone and I took the time to look around his rooms, it looked as though he'd just arrived back home, for sleek black suitcases occupied the corner of the room next to a half moon shaped table which had just one chair sat before it.
I stood and walked closer, my eye had been caught by the glint of an ornate gold box which sat upon the table. I realised as I approached that this was a writing desk, for upon it sat several pens, organised neatly in an overly expensive looking desk tidy. And there was the familiar paper, soft and thick with the visible ridges which gave away its expense. I smiled as I imagined him sat here, reading my letters and writing back to me.
My eyes again drifted to the ornate box, which I realised has a small brass key protruding from the lock. I chewed my lower lip as my eyes swept guiltily around the room. I shouldn't intrude on his personal space.
I forced myself to turn instead to the window, which looked out across Volterra. From this height it felt as if we were floating among the clouds.
Moments passed.
As I admired the view I felt a body press against me as strong arms encircled my waist with the now somewhat familiar and yet still exciting touch of my… What was he to me?
"I see you resisted the temptation." He interrupted my thoughts, his voice liquid gold in my ear as I melted back against him. How had he known I would fight not to open the box? "You have a naturally curious nature. I am surprised you didn't open it, I confess."
I turned to face him, his arms now slipped from resting on my lower abdomen to the top of my bottom. I licked my lips and quirked an eyebrow at him in challenge, waiting to see if he would remove his hands. He didn't. Instead he turned with me and dropped one hand, only to gently, but firmly push me forward, toward his writing bureau.
"You have my permission to look, my curious little bird." I turned to look at him over my shoulder to see him lean backward against the windowsill and fold his hands before him, watching me patiently.
So I leant forward and turned the key, trying not to be self conscious of the picture I was displaying to him, bent over as I was. The lock clicked in a satisfying manner and I pulled open the lid. It was full of paper, and it took me a moment realise it was my letters, all of them. Including the most recent which lay on top, with my hastily scribbled writing which read:
Come back to me.
AN: Wow, chapter 30! Thank you to all of you who have reviewed thus far, especially to those loyal few whose pen names are so familiar to me now. Please if you do read then leave a review behind, it only takes a moment but means so much. I know and am guilty myself of reading through a story and not reviewing, but it definitely helps me to see there is still an appetite for this story and 100% keeps me writing. I love seeing in my inbox that I have a reviews from someone and get so happy to read them!