Red Roses for Your Lover

“Very well. Let us begin.”

“The best place to start, I believe, would be with my vest. If you’d be so kind as to unbutton it and remove it for me?”

Seras was amazed at how polite he could be during such a bizarre and frightening scene. She reached out with trembling hands and fumbled at the buttons of his vest. It took several tries. He guided her through removing his clothes until he was fully undressed. He removed his monocle and untied his hair.

She was far too drained to be able to blush. She was too drained to feel much except tired to the depths of her soul.

He turned and walked over to the desk. Seras watched him while he was unaware of her regard. Turning into a vampire hadn’t erased all the scars from his body. He had many on his back and legs. They stood out against the extreme white of his skin for an interesting contrast. She could see where, in theory, Walter would be very attractive with his long, strong legs and well-muscled back and buttocks. It just all seemed so distant from her.

Things became more immediate when she saw him pick up the cup – the cup for which she had bargained her body – and take a drink from it. “Wait!”

Walter looked over his shoulder at her. He returned quickly and pushed her back on the bed. He crushed his mouth against hers and when she opened it to protest, he opened his lips and allowed the blood in his mouth to flow into hers.

The protest changed its nature as she realized that he hadn’t taken any of the precious blood from the cup for himself, but rather brought that sip to her. She greedily drank the precious fluid and searched his mouth with her tongue for anything that remained. Her arms had gone around him of their own volition and she pulled him closer. Her hunger was pounding her will, making her willing to go just a bit further if it would earn her more blood.

When she had found every last drop, she tried to pull away from the kiss, but Walter wasn’t ready to let her go. His hands were roaming her body, bringing a pleasant warmth from friction to her cold skin. She gasped when he abruptly tore her ragged panties and bra. Well, I knew they weren\'t going to survive this \'date\' of ours.

She felt just a little stronger from what he’d brought her. Strong enough to feel what he was doing to her body without the distance that blood loss had brought her. Maybe his little gift was more a curse.

“Are you feeling stronger now, Seras? I need you to be able to move on your own a bit more.”

“I won’t be setting any Olympic records any time soon, but yes, I feel a little stronger.”

“Excellent.” He rolled them over in a swift motion. Now Seras was on top of him. It was impossible to ignore his “interest” in the situation when it was pressing against her so intimately. “You will recall that part of our agreement involved your not biting me. This would be the situation I had particularly in mind.”

Seras did not have much experience with men and none of it was as intimate as the situation she was in with Walter. It took her a moment to puzzle out his meaning. She gasped when it came to her. “You want me to…”

“Yes. I want you to…” He was clearly enjoying her discomfiture. “It is a very pleasurable experience and it has been too many years since I last enjoyed a woman’s attentions in this manner. Just start by kissing me and work your way down. It’s not that difficult.”

He was watching her face intently, allowing her time to conduct her internal debate. He was interested to see how this was going to go. Either she’d capitulate and he’d experience one kind of pleasure, or she wouldn’t, and he’d try a different sort.

Seras just didn’t know what to do. She’d made an agreement, but it was the sort of agreement that she didn’t think any person should be bound to. What’s the word? Duress! An agreement made under duress isn’t binding, right? And if I renege?

If I renege, Walter is going to carve me up and do anything he wants to me anyway.

She laid her head on his chest. “Walter, pretend for me for a minute.”

“Pretend?” his voice was loud in her ear.

“Pretend you still know how to care. Just put your arms around me for a minute and hold me. I’m not backing out, I just need a minute.”

He lay stiffly under her for a moment, then his arms slowly encircled her and he held her close. Seras closed her eyes and thought about Walter Dornez, a man she had cared about and respected. She thought about the first time she’d met him, the small courtesies he’d always paid her, his dry sense of humor, the lithe way he moved when fighting. She concentrated on the things she had always admired about him. If she was going to do this, she was going to do it with the Walter she knew and not this stranger under her.

She turned her head and kissed his chest. He loosened his hold on her and one hand came up to stroke her hair. She kept the image of the Walter she’d known in her mind as she covered his chest and neck with kisses. He wasn’t warm, but she could smell the blood under his skin. She tried to add the lust for blood into the feelings for the old Walter that she was holding between herself and the experience like a shield.

It became easier as she pushed down her thinking self. Seras moved down his body and was soon very close to having to do what she’d been trying not to think about. She was terribly nervous. She glanced up at his face. He was watching her closely and merely nodded his approval. She took an unnecessary, but calming, breath, and laid her tongue against his swollen tip, just trying to get the taste of him.

He spoke for the first time, “The barest brush of teeth is pleasant. Not enough to draw blood, mind you.” She followed his instruction and for the first time heard him make a small involuntary noise. Pleasing him was easier than she feared because he gave her explicit directions. He directed her movements and she learned from his shudders and the sounds he made. After a time, he no longer needed to speak.

His fingers tightened painfully on her shoulders as his movements became more uncontrolled. Walter groaned and thrust himself into her mouth with increasing speed and force. A new taste filled her mouth. It was easiest to just swallow and her stomach didn’t rebel the way it did with most things that weren’t blood. She even felt a little better. Waste not, want not, she thought wryly.

He pulled her back up to him, and bent to lick the blood from the small cuts his fingernails had made in her shoulders.

She sighed, “Do I get my blood now?”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “The agreement was that you’d do everything I ask of you. I’m not done yet.” He rose from the bed and walked back to the desk. “However, as a reward for your good behavior, you may have a bit more.” He took another sip from the cup and came back to her.

This time Seras knew what he was doing and reached for him. The kiss brought her more of the sustenance she needed. She was still desperately weak from everything she had been through. Two swallows of blood after losing so much from wounds from the wires, the chains and Walter’s amusements were hardly enough to keep her going, but it was better than nothing.

It had been easier to think of him as the old Walter while they were intimate. He hadn’t been cruel. He had simply ensured that she knew exactly what he liked.

He settled on the bed next to her. “Now, let us test the limits of your cooperativeness.”