She laughed and backed away from him, "So they used this bed for a few hundred years?"

"Yes Aimee we had amazing mattress manufacturers three hundred years ago. They worked wonders. And had a company called Sealy, I believe you know of them."

She giggled nervously, "You're a dick."

"Stupid questions Aimee. I bought a new mattress this year." He took a step toward her.

She grinned and took a step back, "Where are we?"

He sighed impatiently, "I told you my place."

"Country?"

"Italy."

"No shit?"

"None."

She pointed to the painting she could see over the fireplace where the candle was lit on the bedside table next to it, "You paint that?"

He laughed, "No uhm a very kind man named J.M.W. Turner did. I usually called him Joe."

The butterflies in her stomach took a break as she turned away from him and picked up the candle. The painting was beautiful. It was a country estate painted in the dark with the light of the moon and stars shining down on it and a field behind it.

"He was known as the Painter of Light." She whispered the thing she remembered the most. She'd seen another of his paintings the Slave Ship, in print of course. It was tragic and beautiful.

"It was Marcus's home outside Colchester. Joe stayed with him for a while. He was painter in residence. We each got a painting that year."

"You keep it here? It must be worth millions."

He laughed and took the candle from her hand, "It is, so, maybe don’t light it on fire. It's obviously irreplaceable."

She turned to him, "You said you didn’t have houses all over Europe and money and blah blah blah when we met."

He laughed, "I don’t. I have this apartment and a small farm."

She raised an eyebrow, "How small."

He pointed to the estate house in the picture.

She put her hands on her hips, "You have an English country estate? You said it was Marcus's"

"Aimee I really don’t want to talk about farms and paintings and bank accounts. Marcus paid me with the house once." His bright blue eyes were smoldering in the dim firelight.

He placed the candle on the bedside table again.

Her stomach dropped. She could feel everything quicken.

His hand took hers and tugged gently. She stumbled forward. He smirked.

She frowned at his grin, "What?"

He laughed, "We haven’t been together like this since you were sick."

She nodded, "So."

"I had to be gentle with you then." His voice was full of mischief.

He pulled her hard into his arms. His mouth crushed her lips against her teeth.

His hands ripped the shirt from her body.

She started to laugh nervously. He stepped back and pulled his own shirt off. She stopped laughing. His body was amazing. He towered over her. He pushed her onto the bed.

He knelt in front of her and pulled her boots off, "Why do you wear these in the summer? It's hot as sin."

She leaned on her elbows and smirked at him, "They're my ass-kicking boots Aleks. I need em."

He dropped the boot on the floor. She winced watching them be treated so badly. She had a special closet for them at home.

He leaned over and pulled at the waist of her pants and slid the jeans off her body.

His eyes sparkled in the light.

She gasped, feeling the muggy air against her bare thighs. She hadn't noticed how warm it was.

He leaned down and kissed her bare belly. His warm lips made her skin light on fire. The electricity of their touch hadn’t faded through his death and rebirth. She felt the energy in the air around them.

His hands roamed her torso, caressing her softy and working up to a knead. She dragged a hand through his hair. He moaned into her stomach, "I need you Aimee."

He kissed his way to her lips. She met his fiery kiss with passion and desire. His hands worked their way into her underwear. She felt nerves dancing inside of her, as he dragged her underwear down her thighs.

Her brain threatened reflection but she shut it down.

His kisses were enough. She felt her hands trying desperately to suck from him. She didn’t have to guard them. They pulled passion from him and filled her up but no life force was taken. She could feel his thoughts and desires, not like she knew them but felt them. The urgency of his hands was explained in the feeling she stole from him. He was terrified the moment would end. He wanted to savor as much as he could.

She gripped his face, "This is it. You and me forever."

He kissed her lips softly, "It won’t ever be enough Aimee."

He lay on his side. She grabbed the waist of his jeans. She could feel the bulge under them, it was about to burst the jeans open.

She smiled and undid them, releasing him. He was magnificent. A true Viking in every form. She gasped seeing him. She pulled the jeans off and smirked, "Commando?"

He shrugged, "I had a busy morning and it's summer."

She kissed his stomach just below his belly button. He moaned as her fingers traced along his skin. The heat radiating from him was making the already heavy air unbearable. He grabbed her arms and threw her on her back, "Maybe another time. I need you, now."

He kicked his pants off and crawled on top of her. She could feel her own readiness as he slid inside of her gently at first. Her body expanded for his slow entry. She inhaled sharply.

He looked at her, "I love you."

He bent and kissed her mouth, sucking her lip as his body rocked back and forth against her. Her skin tingled, coming alive. Searing heat shot from her hands. He moaned when she touched him as her power shot into him and sucked from him.

"Aimee stop."

She couldn’t. He was thrusting in and out of her rapidly and the heat between them combined with the sucking her hands were doing was driving her wild. Her body burst in a bloom of sweat as she rocked her pelvis with his. Her stomach heated up and the fire crept low into her abdomen. Suddenly she clenched against him as pleasure shot through her. Her hands pulled and he screamed. She wasn’t sure if it was pleasure or plain. She didn’t care. She rode her orgasm until her body twitched. She felt full. She felt him collapse on her. He lifted his head, "What the hell was that?"

She started to laugh in between gasping for air, "I don’t know."

"It felt like you were sucking my entire body."

"Did it hurt?"

He cocked a crooked grin, "That would be a no. I'm a better lover than this. I don’t have stamina issues Aimee."

She started to laugh, "Well I'm not as easy to please as this."

He kissed her cheek, "We have time to practice. Maybe save the sucking hand thingy for the end."

She laughed, "We'll see."

She felt relief in a way she had never felt before. He could keep her hunger at bay.

She pulled back and looked into his exhausted blue eyes, "You were made for me. You're strong enough to live through what I am."

He kissed her cheek, "I did try telling you."

She curled into him and let the heavy air soak her in sweat. Nothing mattered, her heart and soul were filled with love. It was a new feeling for her.

Chapter Forty

Ophelia

She paced in the yard. She heard a stick break and glanced over expecting Ben but Oliver leaned against a tree. He nearly killed her with his sexiness. She sighed, "Not right now."

He looked up at the house she stood behind, "You planning on threatening him?"

She looked at the mansion, "This is where we met last time. I was hoping you would come to me here."

He beamed, "My heart swells."

She rolled her eyes, "I need your help. That girl Giselle. I need her to be saved. She's dying because of me. My dad did all of this."

He crossed his arms, "Why do I care?"

"Because I care." She fluttered her eyelashes.

He laughed, "Oh you want me to swoon under the spell of your womanly wiles and save her because it matters to you?"

She nodded and bit her lip.

"What do I get out of it?"

She gulped, "My gratitude."

"I want undying love and physical appreciation."

She laughed nervously, "I want world peace."

He shrugged, "What do I care about the world."

"It was an expression. It means we can't always get what we want."

He pushed off of the tree and walked across the rocks and dirt slowly, "I get what I want. And if you want world peace so badly all you have to do is wish for it. Witches wishes and such."

He stopped walking directly in front of her. She looked up at him, "Will you do it?"

He looked in her eyes, "I want one thing."

Her eyes narrowed, "I'm not the kind of girl you think I am."

He bent and brushed his lips against her cheek. His warm breath whispered into her ear, "I know what kind of girl you are."

He was gone.

She looked around, "Oliver you never said what you want." Nothing moved. The garden was silent.

"Oliver?"

She put her hands over her eyes and muttered, "Shit." She pulled the cell phone Lorri gave her, from her pocket.

In an instant Aimee stood across the grass from her. She looked different. Relaxed.

She beamed, "Hey. You rang?"

Ophelia smiled, "Oh my god is Giselle better?"

Aimee shook her head, "I don’t think so. Blake never sent me a message about her changing. He's there with Alise. I'm heading there now."

"You look weird and you got here fast and you're cheerful."

Aimee blushed, "Oh uhm it was, well, I had a good night."

Ophelia laughed, "Oh gross sorry. I didn’t mean to like, pry."

Aimee shook her head, "No it was fabulous." Her grey eyes sparkled with life. "I never knew what happened when supernatural people, uhm, did it."