Her heart aching, Caroline curled back into the pillows. Now that she knew the depth of Jack's affection it would be even more difficult to leave. The smell of him, the taste of him, the skin she'd felt beneath her hands would haunt her forever.
Tonight was all she had. Selfishly she clung to it, determined to enjoy what little happiness fate would allow her before the dawn rose and forced her to go.
* * * * *
Arching his back from the bed, Jack awoke to pleasure so intense it hurt. "Bloody hell," he gasped, his eyes flying open to find his love straddling his hips, his c**k held tightly within her creamy depths.
Caroline smiled down at him, her fingertips drifting across his chest and swirling around the flat points of his ni**les. Riotous, disheveled curls surrounded her face, which he saw as clearly in the darkness as if the room were lit with a hundred candles.
"God you are so beautiful," he breathed, lifting his hands to cup her br**sts, his thumbs returning the favor she had just paid to him. She moved on him, lifting with her lithe thighs and then sinking to claim his c**k again. His fangs descended as the Hunger took over.
Jack dropped his head back on the pillow and allowed Caroline to have her way with him. Through heavy-lidded eyes he watched her f**king him, watched the lust and love that drifted across her porcelain features, watched the pleasure she took in his body, and reveled in the fact he could give it to her.
There was so much he had to teach her about their kind, so much he could sense she didn't yet know, but they had an eternity for such sharing. At the moment he considered nothing but this joining. His hands dropped to her thighs, his thumb brushing across the mark that adorned her hip.
How he loved her! Loved how she hungered for him, hungered enough that the hours he'd just spent pleasuring her senseless had not been enough to sate her. Jack imagined all the endless mornings ahead of them, his body hardening further at the thought of waking again to this delight. Caroline whimpered at his added girth and rode his c**k faster, her firm, high br**sts bouncing with her motions.
His orgasm followed hers, draining him until he sank into the mattress, exhausted. Caroline sprawled across his chest, her sweat slicked skin bonding with his. "I love you," she sighed, snuggling closer. "Never forget that."
"Ah, sweet." He crushed her to him, wishing he could explain how he felt, but knowing there were no words to express the deep need she appeased. "How could I? I expect you to remind my in just this way for the rest of eternity."
But when he woke just after dawn, he was alone again, just as he had been that fateful night in the Moreland garden. He closed his eyes and searched for her, but the echoing reply he'd basked in all night was gone. He sat up and the sheets rustled behind him. Turning, he spotted the missive on her pillow...
I cannot ask you to wait for me, however I pray that you do. There is something I must resolve, but I cannot say how long it will take me. Once I am free, I will come for you.
Yours forever, my love,
C
The warm languor in Jack's veins turned to icy fear as he read. And then the fear buckled under the weight of his grim resignation.
Caroline had run again.
Chapter 2
Caroline stared out the porthole window and brushed the tears from her face. An eternity without Jack was a prospect so devastatingly bleak she could scarcely think through the pain of it. It couldn't be borne. She wouldn't allow it. Somehow she would find a way to have him.
"Milady?"
She glanced over her shoulder at the young seaman who waited beyond the open door of her cabin.
"Do you have any trunks to be brought aboard?"
Her throat clenched tight with misery, Caroline could only shake her head and look away, her vision blurred by the tears that welled ceaselessly. There had been no opportunity to pack, not with Jack sleeping just a few feet away from her wardrobe. She'd have to acquire new clothes when she arrived in France. It was there she decided she would begin her search.
"Very well then," he said cheerfully. "We'll be casting off soon."
"This ship is not leaving the dock."
The carefully controlled voice behind her sounded nothing like the one that had murmured so sweetly to her just hours ago, but Caroline knew it was one and the same. She spun about and stared at the apparition that dominated the slender doorway. Jack stood there, his breathtakingly handsome face so harshly set she took a step backward in fear.
His silver gaze burned into her and never left her face as he ordered the young sailor to leave them. Entering the tiny cabin, Jack kicked the door closed and thumbed the lock.
"Wh-what are you doing?" she asked, her voice faltering.
"There will be no more running, Caroline."
"You don't understand--"
"No!" he barked. "You are the one who fails to comprehend. I am weary of chasing you, Caroline, but I won't stop. Not ever. I will hunt you down, I will run you to ground. There is no place where you can hide from me."
Frightened at his vehemence, Caroline twisted her fingers in the skirts of her traveling suit. "There is something I must finish before we can be together."
"The hell you say."
"I was told to wait for another," she blurted, hoping desperately that he would forgive her once he knew. "The woman who changed me did so with a purpose. She said something about time and love--"
"Love will find a way against time itself."
Caroline gaped. "How did you know?"
"'Tis is an old vampire proverb. One of the many things I planned to share with you."
Fresh tears fell as she explained further. "The woman felt I would be a perfect spouse for her son. She said love might take time, but it would find me. He would find me. One day he will come for me, Jack. But I intend to find him first. I will tell him of my love for you, how I cannot imagine my life without you. I will never belong to another man. Never!"
"Caroline--"
The words tumbled out of her mouth in her haste to tell all. "She placed a mark on me. She said he would know me by it. He will believe me, Jack, and I will make certain he understands that there can never be anything between us."
Studying Jack's face, Caroline saw that her words did not soften him. Instead his ire appeared to grow before her eyes.
"And you didn't feel that you could share this with me?" he asked sharply. "You couldn't tell me this, discuss this with me and allow me to help you? What of the love you professed to me, Caroline? Where is the faith that my love for you would see you through any challenge you faced?"