HeartsAflameCollectionV (12 page)

Sophia was blinded by her tears as she ran down the
sidewalk.
 
She knew she had over-reacted,
but staying every night that week had left her utterly exhausted and overly
emotional.
 
She didn’t really want to
break up with Logan, she loved him, but something was definitely going to have
to change between them if they were going to continue this relationship.
 
She hoped desperately that he would chase
after her and they could form a compromise together.
 
When she heard the sound of male footsteps
behind her, she smiled, hoping it was him.
 
When she turned around, however, she got a nasty surprise.

It wasn’t Logan behind her at all, but a gang of six
large men.
 
She recognized them as being
the troublemakers who frequented the bars near the university campus.
 
It was obvious they had been drinking as they
laughed and joked with each other.
 
They
were often rowdy and rude, harassing girls as they walked down the
sidewalk.
 
Sophia knew she wouldn’t be
able to outpace them, so she stepped to the side, pretending to adjust her
jacket, hoping they would pass her by.
 

The plan nearly worked, as the gang strolled by, but
then the last one in the group stopped and turned around to look her up and down
crudely.

“Hey, sweet thing!
 
What are you doing out all alone on a night
like tonight?
 
Are you looking for a
little action?” he called out to her.
 

The rest of the gang took notice, and they all joined
him, encircling her on the sidewalk.

“I’m just joining my friends.
 
In fact, I’m late and they’ll be looking for
me if I don’t get there soon, so I’d better hurry,” Sophia said in a trembling
voice, but the lie sounded weak even to her and she knew they wouldn’t believe
it.

“You don’t need to join your friends.
 
You’ve got plenty of
friends
right here,” the gang member said.

One of his buddies stepped closer and caressed
Sophia’s hair. “Yeah, we’re real friendly.
 
Why don’t you come be friends with us tonight?”

The other members of the gang followed suit, closing
in on her in a tight circle, grabbing at her hair, clothes and body.

“No!
 
Let me
go!
 
Leave me alone!” she screamed, as
two of them grabbed her by the arms, dragged her into the nearby alley and
pinned her down onto the ground.
 
She
struggled with all her might, but they were too strong.
 
She realized with terror that they were going
to rape her.

Suddenly, there was a flash of movement.
 
The gang members were thrown away from her,
flung powerfully into alley walls and out into the street by a force too quick
to be seen by the human eye.

“What the hell is going on?” the lead gang member
shouted, his eyes wide with fear.

The moving blur came to a stop in front of him,
revealing the form of Logan Longfellow.
 
Sophia gasped and stared in shock and wonder.
 

Logan faced off to the man, casually appraising him
with the air of someone who had all the time in the world.
 
His light blond hair flowed softly in the
breeze and his deathly pale skin looked white as snow in the moonlight.
 
His muscles rippled, and he reminded her of a
cat preparing to kill a mouse it was toying with.
 
His pale blue eyes looked deadly, and a smile
of delight curled the corners of his lips.
 

“What are you?” the gang member gasped, sensing his
opponent wasn’t fully human.

“I’m her boyfriend, so I suggest you treat this lady
with respect.” Logan reached out with lightening quick speed, grasped the man
by the neck and lifted him clean off the ground as if he weighed no more than a
doll.
 
“In fact, I recommend you treat
all ladies with respect.
 
No one wants to
be looked at as if they were nothing but a piece of meat.”

Logan toyed with the man, holding his throat close to
his teeth, which had suddenly become razor-sharp fangs.
 
Logan opened his mouth as if to take a bite
of the man’s throat and said ominously, “Raw meat to be devoured by sharp
teeth!”

“No!” cried the man, openly
sobbing now.
 
“Don’t drink
my blood!
 
Don’t kill me!”

Logan opened his hand and dropped the man, as if disgusted
by him.
 
“I won’t today, but next time I
see you harassing a lady, I will.”

He watched as all the members of gang ran off into
the distance, completely terrified.
 
Then
he turned to Sophia and helped her to her feet.
 
He held her gently in his arms. “Are you all right?
 
I had to come after you to tell you why I
behaved the way I did.
 
I’m not ashamed
to be with you.
  
I want to have a real
relationship with you, but I’ve been keeping a secret.
 
Now you know what it is.
 
I hope you can still love me, because I love
you more than anything in the world.
 
If
you want me to leave you alone now that you know the truth, I will.
 
I’m hoping, however, that you can still find
a way to love me.”

Sophia pulled away from his embrace and stared deeply
into his face.
 
She looked at him, with
thoughtful eyes, examining his sharp fangs, ferocious eyes, and heaving
muscles.
 
He was beautiful.
 
He didn’t look like monster to her, although
she understood now that he truly was a vampire.
 
To her, he still looked like Logan, the man she had fallen in love with.

In answer to his questioning eyes, she simply wrapped
her arms around his neck and kissed him, long and slow and deep.
 
Logan’s heart swelled as he felt all the love
she felt for him in her passionate kiss and knew that he hadn’t lost her.
 

They walked arm-in-arm back to his castle then, and
he answered all her questions about being a vampire.
 
How had he become one, where did he get blood
to survive?
 
The questions went on and
on, and as the evening came to an end, there was just one last thing she needed
to know.

“So, if vampires are drawn to drink the blood of
virgins, will you really
be
able to resist drinking
mine if we stay together?”

“I have so far, although I must admit it can be
difficult.
 
There are times when I’ve
really struggled to keep my composure, but I’ve always succeeded.
 
I love you too much to lose control and bite
you.
 
My love for you overcomes my lust
for virgin blood.”

“That hardly seems fair to you,” Sophia said with
compassion.
 
“You’ll always be suffering,
battling your natural instincts to drink my blood whenever we’re together.”

Logan shrugged, trying to make light of the
situation.
 
“Being with you is worth it.”

“Would it be less difficult for you if I wasn’t a
virgin?” she asked with a coy smile.

“Actually, it would ease my discomfort a lot.
 
The blood of a virgin is what vampires crave
the most, it’s like an addiction.
 
I
would never ask you sacrifice your purity for me though.”

“What if it’s not a sacrifice?
 
What if I give it freely to you, as a gift?”

Logan smiled and kissed her tenderly on the
lips.
 
Just then, the clocked chimed,
reminding them both that dawn was approaching.
 

“Tomorrow night,” Sophia promised, kissing him
goodbye and heading for the door.
 
“I’ll
meet you here right after the sun sets and give myself to you, not because I
have to, but because I want to.
 
Ever
since we first kissed, I knew that you were the man I wanted to make love to
for the first time.
 
Tomorrow night will
be that night.”

Sophia’s heart was pounding as the sun slowly set
below the horizon.
 
She’d done miserably
on her exams at school that morning, but she didn’t care.
 
Tonight was the night she would give her virginity
to the man she loved.
 

In the end, she decided not to go to her last two
classes of the day, so she could go home and prepare.
 
She took a nice long nap, so she was
refreshed and not tired.
 
Then she took a
bath, washed her hair, and got dressed in a special outfit she’d bought just
for the occasion.

Her roommate Michelle showed up just as she ready to
leave, looking flustered and worried.

“Here you are!
 
I’ve been looking all over campus for you!” Michelle cried.
 
Her expression of relief quickly turned into
one of annoyance.
 
“What’s going on with
you?
 
You’re never home at night any
more, you sleep through most of your classes, and now today you didn’t even
show up for two of them!
 
You used to be
so motivated to get your degree in Societal History so you could work at the
Institute. Now it’s like you don’t even care about graduating!
 
Are you hooked on drugs or something?”

Sophia laughed gently, feeling touched by her
roommate’s concern.
 
She wrapped her arm
around her friend’s shoulder and said reassuringly, “No, I’m not addicted to
drugs.
 
I’ve met someone.
 
I always thought I’d be alone all my life;
but it’s finally happened to me.
 
I’m in
love!”

Instead of sharing her happiness, Michelle looked
more worried than before.
 
“Who is this
guy?
 
Is he a student here?
 
Do I know him?”

“No, he’s an older man.
 
I’m certain you’ve never met him, but trust
me when I tell you he’s very nice.
 
He’s
everything I’ve ever wanted in a man; tender, caring, intelligent, funny.”

“If he’s so great, why haven’t you brought him to
introduce him to me?
 
Why are you always
gone, staying out until dawn every night?”

“It’s complicated,” Sophia said, not knowing what to
say to her friend that wouldn’t expose Logan’s secret.
 
She needed to talk to him about it.
 
She knew she could trust Michelle not to
reveal anything she told her confidence, but she couldn’t just tell Logan’s
secret to others without his permission first.
 
Suddenly, she realized it was already dark outside, and she was late for
the most important date of her life.
 
“You’ll just have to believe me when I tell you that Logan Longfellow is
a really good man.
 
I’ll explain
everything to you later.
 
Right now, I’m
late and I have to go.”

“Wait!” Michelle said. “Isn’t Longfellow the name of
that creepy castle you’ve been researching all semester?
 
Don’t tell you’ve gotten into a relationship
with someone who lives there!
 
Rumors say
those people are evil!
 
Stay far away
from him!
 
I’m just telling you this for
your own good!”

Sophia brushed aside her friend’s impassioned plea
with a light laugh.
 
“Oh, Michelle, don’t
tell me you buy into those rumors too.
 
Logan Longfellow isn’t evil and nothing can stop me from meeting him.”

“Well, he may not be evil, but he’s definitely hiding
something or I’d have met him by now.
 
Don’t go to him tonight.
  
Tell
him you’re staying here until he comes over and meets your friends first. If he
has nothing to hide, he won’t have any objection.”

Sophia shook her head.
 
“It’s more complicated than that.
 
I can’t explain right now, but I’ll tell you
everything tomorrow.
 
I promise.
 
Now I have to go, I’m late!”

Sophia ran out the door with her long coat wrapped
tightly around her.
 
She was so excited
to meet with Logan; she didn’t even notice Michelle following behind her as she
went.
 

Sophia finally arrived at Logan’s castle an hour
after the sun had set, and he opened the door for her with a relieved
expression on his face.

“I thought perhaps you had changed your mind,” Logan
said as he let her inside.

“No, I just wanted to make you wait a little bit for
me,” Sophia teased, not wanting to ruin their evening by talking about
Michelle’s suspicions yet.

“I’ve been waiting for you for hundreds of years,”
Logan said, kissing her passionately on the lips.
 
“After I became a vampire, I never thought
I’d be able to experience love with a woman, and now here you are, making all
my dreams come true.”

The heartfelt words brought tears of emotion to
Sophia’s eyes, for she had thought she’d never find love either.
 
It was as if they were made for each
other.
 

Slowly, she removed her long coat, letting it slip
from her shoulders and fall to the ground.
 
Underneath the coat, she wore nothing but a pale pink teddy, which
hugged her curves just right, accentuating her full breasts and narrow
waist.
 
She had on matching pink panties
made of delicate lace and white thigh-high stockings held up by garters.
 
Pink high heels completed the outfit, which
was the perfect blend of innocence and lust.
 

“Wow! You look delicious enough to eat!” Logan said,
with his eyes wide and an obvious erection protruding within his slacks.

He advanced upon her slowly and took her into his
embrace and carried her to his bed, kissing her on the lips as he did so.
 
He laid her softly onto the mattress and
gently nibbled on her earlobe, making her sigh with delight.
 
Then he kissed a trail down her long neck, to
her chest and peeled the teddy from her body.
 
She moaned and sighed with pleasure as he lavished all his attention
upon her breasts; caressing, fondling, and suckling them with pure devotion.
Her nipples puckered under his expert touch, and she ran her fingers through
his hair, pressing him firmly to herself.

It didn’t take long before she was panting and felt
that moisture growing between her legs.
 
Sensing the time was right, Logan kissed his way down to her panties and
gently pulled them off her hips.
 
She was
nervous at first, but when his lips came in contact with her most delicate
folds,
her fears were quickly wiped away by the exquisite
pleasure.
 

Sophia had never felt anything so incredibly
wonderful in her entire life.
 
Waves of
pleasure flooded through her body, and soon she felt the need to arch her
pelvis, searching for him to enter her.

When he knew she was ready, Logan stopped pleasuring
her with his lips and moved up to lie beside her, so they were face to
face.
 
He kissed her then, tenderly and
deeply, making her forget any traces of nervousness in his loving embrace.
 
When he entered her, she was so wet and ready
for him that it didn’t even hurt and they moved together as one.
 
She clutched at his back and wrapped her legs
around his waist as her first orgasm overtook her.
 
It was a sensation unlike anything she’d ever
experienced, and she knew that she loved him now more than ever.

Logan felt the same way.
 
Sophia was so sweet, so delicate, and so
delicious.
 
He’d never loved a woman as
much as he loved her, and he knew that he could never hurt her or let anyone
one else ever cause her any harm.
 
He
would devote the rest of his life to keeping her safe and happy, no matter what
it took.
 

He
orgasmed
deep inside her
and then they lay together in the bed, cuddling until she fell asleep.