Oh, wow. From past experience, she would have thought an hour tops. How could he spend so long loving her?
She realized then that she very much wanted to find out.
“Okay,” she said.
“Tomorrow night,” he answered. “I need to get some things. Let me take you to Jude’s so you’ll be safe while I go out.”
She looked around her small apartment, sensing that just beyond the circle he had created that thing was hovering again. “It can’t hear us?”
“The elemental? Not within this circle. And the wards Jude put here should keep it under control.”
“I can back out at any time?”
“If you wish. Of course you can. You may be bound, but this must not involve force of any kind.”
Maybe she could live with that. If she had to agree to everything...
The thought was interrupted by an unexpected surge of wildness in her, as if she were ready to jump off a cliff to see if she could fly. Cautious, ordinary, sensible Caro vanished as another part of her nature emerged. As a cop she often took risks, but they were part of the job, and she always tried to manage them as carefully as she could.
This was a different kind of risk, and she thirsted for it. Like the thoughts she had once talked herself out of about trying a fire walk at one of those self-improvement seminars. She sensed, though she could not be sure, that on the other side of this would lie freedom. Freedom from what, she didn’t know. She just felt a sudden certainty that she would be tossing aside shackles she hadn’t realized she wore.
“Let’s go,” she said. She still had another day to change her mind, after all.
It was a day that proved excruciatingly long. Damien had returned with large parcels in the early hours, then had excused himself to go sleep.
Caro wondered what was in those parcels, but they were in the inner office with him, and she simply did not want to open the door and risk any possibility that he might inadvertently receive some exposure to light. She didn’t entirely trust that blackout curtain.
She tried sleeping on the cot in the room just off the front office, then tried again on the couch. The night ahead loomed before her, alternately filling her with anxiety and eagerness for the passion he had promised.
She was a mess. She had to sleep, to be ready for the night’s mysteries, for they would certainly be mysteries, beginning with the fact that she had never really made love to Damien, and ending with the fact that she honestly had no idea what to expect.
This approach to sex struck her as artificial, yet she had indeed checked online and discovered just how old and widespread was the belief that sex could unleash powers, sometimes just naturally, but often as part of organized ritual.
God, she felt like a virgin on her wedding day, with absolutely no idea of what was to come. Knowing the basics wasn’t enough. Damien had thrown a lot of other things into the hopper with his talk of rituals, bindings, increasing power...a whole bunch of mysteries and things to get edgy about.
Things she had never done before, things she had never considered before, all of them looming. It was no help to remind herself that he’d said she could back out at any time.
Chloe was busy at the computer, and busy being her watchdog. That felt silly, too. She’d pushed the thing away herself, hadn’t she? So maybe she had little to fear from it.
Regardless, she was going stir-crazy, locked up like this under constant watch, and sleep was so elusive she wanted to scream. She needed to be in top form for tonight, whatever it held.
And she did want tonight, she finally admitted to herself. She’d been wanting it one way or another almost from the instant she had set eyes on Damien. She couldn’t remember the last time simply looking at a man had aroused her, and she couldn’t be anywhere near Damien without her thoughts turning to the sexual.
So tonight she would find out if it was as good as her body wanted it to be. The more she thought about it, the more she even liked the idea of being bound, of giving up all responsibility. There was something enchanting in that notion, the notion of just experiencing without having to do a damn thing except enjoy it.
Heat pooled between her thighs. She had never had a purely selfless lover, one who would take his own pleasure from hers. Not that she had ever expected one. Sex should be a shared giving and taking. But suddenly she was being offered something she had never imagined: a lover who would expect nothing from her but her own pleasure.
Wow.
A smile came to her face, just a small one, and her internal struggle settled down. This was an experience she simply could not pass up. No way.
With that, drowsiness claimed her, carrying her away into dreams of a candlelit room where a vampire hovered over her, learning her most intimate secrets with his hands and then his mouth.
Unfortunately, she didn’t stay asleep. Maybe an hour before darkfall, she woke suddenly. Not even a lingering bit of drowsiness slowed her down. She sat up, hearing running water, and realized Chloe had gone to take a shower.
She wondered if everyone knew what was going to happen tonight and therefore expected some big deal, or if Chloe had just thought Caro was safe within the shield of wards and could take a moment to freshen up.
Either way, Caro seized the opportunity. She had to get out for a walk. She wasn’t used to all this confinement. She was used to being out and about most of the time, whether in a patrol car or just strolling the streets and window-shopping. Inactivity didn’t suit her at all.
Grabbing her jacket and zipping it up tight, she left a note saying she was going for dinner. Then she headed out for the late afternoon streets. As soon as she stepped out of the office, the feeling of being watched returned, but she reminded herself that there were plenty of people out and about on the street, and it still wasn’t dark.
The icy air nipped her cheeks. The remnants of the last snowfall had ceased to sparkle, having melted a bit and picked up the city’s grime, but there were still places where the lowering sun struck and turned it golden in stark contrast to the bluer shadows.
It was a beautiful late afternoon, with twilight just around the corner and calm, still air. It was so rare among the buildings to have no breeze at all that she noticed the quietude of the air.
People passed, some of them nodding and smiling, others totally ignoring her. She walked swiftly, stretching her muscles, bringing up her heart rate.
She wouldn’t go too far, she told herself. Just up a couple of blocks in a straight line so that if Chloe looked out for her she would be visible.
But damn, it felt so good to be out and moving again.
Even here in this poorer part of the city there were plenty of shop windows to glance into. Occasionally she paused at a display of exotic foods. One of the things she liked in this city was the blending of so many cultures. Here a Korean food store, there an Indian food store. Tiny little hole-in-the-wall restaurants scattered along the street issued enticing aromas of foreign dishes.
The farther she walked away from Jude’s office, the more the place felt like a real neighborhood. Most of the shops and restaurants were at or just below street level, with apartments rising over their heads. She began to hear different languages along with the different aromas.
This was one part of the city she had never worked, and she began to think she had missed something very special.
She had walked only a few blocks, though, when the sense of being watched turned into a strong sense of presence. Looking away from lighted windows, she realized that twilight was coming on faster than she’d anticipated. Either that or she’d lost track of time.