Chapter Fifteen
Simon’s eyes opened the second the sun began its descent. He arose from the floor; his senses in tune to Madison.
She picked that moment to step into the room, but she avoided his gaze. “You’re awake.”
“Any news?” He sauntered over to stoke the fire.
Madison shook her head. “Nothing yet. But then again, Roman will just be rising.”
Simon knew that. He opened his mouth to question her further, but she beat him to it.
“Did you feed?”
“Did you?” he retorted, picking up his sweatshirt and pulling it on.
She faced him then. “Can you be serious for once?”
“Put on your shoes and jacket. I want to show you something.”
Madison lifted an eyebrow, nodding toward the door. “Outside?”
“Yes, outside. Now bundle up.”
She remained still. “There are bears in these woods.”
“I’ll keep you safe from the bears. I promise.”
After another round of obvious contemplation, Madison pulled on her boots, and jacket. “This better good. It’s frikkin’ freezing out there.”
Simon unlocked the door and stepped outside. He waited for Madison to follow suit before closing it behind her. “Climb on.”
She looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “Your back?”
“No,” he murmured sarcastically, “my front.”
If looks could kill, Simon would be rotting in a grave right about then. “Of course my back.”
“I’d rather walk if it’s all the same to you.”
Simon took a patient breath. “It’s about three miles from here. We can spend the next hour traipsing through the woods in the dark, or you can hop on my back and we can scale that time back to two minutes. The choice is yours.”
Indecision became apparent in Madison’s eyes before she relaxed her stance and waved a hand in his direction. “Fine. Turn around.”
Simon gave her his back, bending his knees enough for her to climb on.
Once her arms were around his neck, he gripped her behind the knees and hoisted her up higher. “Hold on.” He broke into a run.
The feel of Madison clinging to his back, sent a slew of foreign sensations scattering throughout Simon’s body. His stomach tightened and his shaft hardened instantly.
His mind conjured up the moan he’d heard coming from the bathroom while Madison had showered. The soft sigh that escaped her when he’d pressed into her mind.
Simon had been all too aware of Madison’s sexual tension during her shower. He’d felt her hunger in the far recesses of his mind.
She tightened her hold, her face buried against the side of his neck, and he nearly dropped to his knees with need. Damn, but he could smell her intoxicating scent, feel the heat radiating from her body to seep into his own.
He slowed to a stop near the place he’d been before, and expanded his senses.
“Where are we?” she whispered near his ear.
“Shhhhh.” Simon closed his eyes and sought out the doe he’d ran across earlier. He scented her about a mile to the north.
He blasted forward once again until he located the mother deer and her fawn. “Stay quiet.”
Pressing into the doe’s mind, Simon calmed her enough to approach. He bent his knees, and allowed Madison to slide off his back. “There, about twenty feet in front of us.”
“It’s a fawn,” Madison breathed, slowly stepping forward.
Simon willed the mother to remain calm while Madison crept ever closer to the helpless fawn and lowered to her knees. “Hi, little one.”
She eased her arms around the tiny creature and pulled it gently into her arms. “Don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you.”
Listening to Madison softly croon to the spotted fawn sent Simon’s heart racing. The fiery-haired, sarcastic female had definitely gotten under his skin.
He moved to kneel next to Madison. “I ran across them earlier this morning.”
Madison gently stroked the fawn’s back. “You didn’t hurt the mother?”
“Of course not. I’m a vampire, Madison, not a monster.” It bothered him that Madison thought so little of him.
She glanced over at him. “That’s a matter of opinion.”
“Why do you despise me so much?”
His question obviously surprised her if the look on her face were any indication. “I don’t despise you. I just don’t approve of some of your tactics.”
Simon supposed he deserved that. “I can’t argue with you there. I’ve done things I’m not proud of; things that I can never undo.” He dropped heavily to his ass and propped his elbows on his bent knees.
“Then why did you do them?”
Simon shrugged, unsure of how to respond. He glanced away before meeting her gaze once more. “I’m over two thousand years old, Madison. I wasn’t born this way. I had a family once; a wife and a son.”
Madison’s eyes grew huge in her face. Her arms fell away from the fawn. She didn’t seem to notice when it trotted off in the direction of its mother. “What happened to them?”
Releasing his mental hold on the doe, Simon allowed his mind to travel back in time; back to a small village in Rome where he’d spent the first thirty-five years of his life.
He had been working the fields when he’d sensed an impending storm. The skies had grown dark and the hour late. Still, he’d worked. His family’s survival depended on the crop Simon yielded. If he’d only returned home an hour earlier…
“Simon?”
Realizing that Madison expected an answer, Simon cleared his throat and got to his feet. “They were killed.”
Madison stood as well, reaching for his arm as he moved to turn away. “Simon, I’m sorry.”
He stared down at the hand resting on his forearm, and then gave Madison his back once more. “We should return.”