Her gaze moved quickly to the place on the wall where she’d been restrained and held captive. He watched her cross the room to the wall, and as she reached out to the eyebolt that still stuck from the cinder blocks, her hand shook.
She turned back to look at him. “Were you down here with me?” He nodded. “How could I forget something like that? I remember him. I remember … how terrified I was, his smell, his weight on top of me, and then … nothing…”
“I pulled him off you.”
“How did you kill him?”
“I tore a chunk of his carotid artery out and then drained him.”
“Was I afraid of you?”
“A little at first. But I assured you I wasn’t interested in hurting you, and then I put you to sleep, and I left.”
“I woke up, unbound, on the floor. I remember seeing him dead, and I ran. I was nearly hit by a car as I ran from the house…”
“I know. I was watching. I couldn’t stay. Too small of a town to let myself get involved, so I stayed nearby, waiting for you to come out and be discovered. I hadn’t thought it would be quite so dramatic as you nearly colliding with a car, but it certainly got you found.” He gave a slight smirk at the memory as she continued to look around. He was nervous to ask his next question, but he wanted to know. “Anything? Do you remember anything about me from that day?”
She shook her head slowly, but her brow was wrinkled and she was biting her lip. She was trying to remember. When she finally spoke, Truman’s heart pounded. Her voice was far off and distant in some long-buried remembrance. “I remember feeling relief at some point … before I woke up … and then nothing” He nodded. It was nothing more than a small memory, a feeling more than anything, but his heart thudded loudly, and he swallowed hard over the lump in his throat. It was something. She looked confused and shook her head at the passing thought.
He approached her and took her hand once again, leading her upstairs and back out into the fresh, unfettered night air. They returned to the car, and he drove them in silence to their next stop. When he pulled up outside of the house where he’d found her with Todd, they stayed in the car and didn’t even turn the car off. The house was occupied, and they just looked.
“Do you remember Todd coming on to you?” She nodded. “He wasn’t taking your rejection very seriously, and I stopped him before wiping his memory. You were drunk, and I drove you home, carried you upstairs to your bedroom, and helped you change into your nightgown. You tried to kiss me, and I rejected you before I had the chance to do something I’d regret. You questioned me, interrogated more like, on everything vampire, and then I wiped your mind again. I came to your coffee shop the next morning. I could barely take my eyes off you and your ridiculous red hair. I bought a coffee from you, and you spilled it on my table. I made you nervous…”
“Oh my God. I remember that. From the coffee shop that morning. You tipped me twenty dollars.” She was eying him curiously.
He chuckled—not something he’d done in a long time. “I didn’t wipe that memory. No need. You had no context to put me into, so my presence meant nothing to you.”
“Was I attracted to you then?”
Chuckling again, he responded, “You surely don’t need me to answer that question, but yes, very much so. You could barely function around me at the coffee shop.” And then eyeing her seriously, he spoke again. “Shall we fast-forward another few years?” This one would be rough for her, and he didn’t relish the idea of causing her pain, but it was important … just as all their memories were.
She nodded, and he pulled from the curb. He drove them to the cemetery where her mother was buried, and he walked her to her mother’s grave. She hadn’t been there since the day she’d left town, and as they approached, he listened intently to her heart as it lurched and pounded. Her tears fell, and he stood back. He wanted to hold her, and in their previous life, he would have without hesitation or permission. But this wasn’t that world. She stood staring at the headstone, and he started to think she may not be able to pull herself away. But, eventually, her tears slowed, and as she sniffed her nose, she spoke. “You took me from the cemetery, didn’t you? I remember being here and then nothing.”
“You fainted, and I carried you to my car—wiped a few minds on the way. And then I took you to my house on Newfoundland Lake.”
“And you fucked me.” Her arms were folded across her chest, and her features were pinched. If that weren’t enough, her tone and words were loaded with accusation. This was a difficult memory for her to process, and it left little doubt it was taking its toll on her disposition.
But he wasn’t interested in sullying the day, and leaning to her ear, he spoke quietly. “We’ll talk all about your first time in a while.” He was going for seductive, and the sudden beat of her heart reassured him he’d hit the mark—even if he’d yet to experience the scent of her arousal on this day together.
He took her hand and walked them back to the car, and pulling from the curb, they headed off in the early morning darkness as the first glimmer of daylight showed through the surrounding hills.
When they entered his home, she stood by the door, looking around. He watched her for a moment before taking her hand and leading her back to his bedroom. He’d never sold the home—rarely ever sold one of his properties, and this particular one held one of his most cherished memories. One he intended to share with her.
The moment he saw the bed he’d first made love to her in, he stilled. How could her memories not be plaguing her mind with this sight? His own were roaring through his brain, sending his body into a frenzy of need. It had been years since he’d been to this home, and aside from a housekeeper who came in a few times during the year to keep it up, this place had been largely abandoned since they were here last.
Leaning to her ear from behind her body, he spoke. “Sit down on the bed.” She did as he asked, and as she looked back up to him, he undressed. She watched his every move, and as he dropped his shirt to the floor, he could hear her heartbeat accelerate. When he reached for the waist of his pants, she swallowed over the lump in her throat, and when he dropped them to the floor, she looked away. But he didn’t move a muscle. He stood in front of her, waiting for her to look back at him, and after what felt like an eternity, she did. Her eyes passed over his, and as her gaze dropped to his groin and the hardened length of his erection, she finally looked, and she didn’t look away.
She was studying his body, and as he watched, her gaze traveled down his thighs and to his calves before moving back up his body. There, she stared at his pectoral muscles and then moved farther up to his neck and out along his shoulders. She looked at every inch of his body aside from his eyes, and when her eyes were finished exploring, he approached her, kneeling on the floor at her feet, and he settled in to tell her every last detail of their first time.
“I released your memories at the cemetery, so you knew me. You knew who I was to you, and you trusted me. You asked me to make love to you, and I did. You touched my cock, stroked it, tasted it, and I came in your mouth, and you swallowed every last bit of my cum.” She gasped at his blatant language but kept watching and listening. “I fingered your pussy. You were soaking wet, and when I tasted your arousal, I thought I was going to lose my mind. After a most pleasurable eternity of foreplay, I finally entered you. I was on top of you, and I pushed into your body. I could see the pain in your eyes, but you were so ready, and as I started fucking you, you pushed back to me. I could smell the scent of your blood filling the space around us, and I could barely contain my desire and hunger for you. And when I’d finished, I licked up every last bit of blood spilled from your body.”