Chapter Four
Bianca blinked in the bright sunshine filling her small bedroom. From the angle of the sun it had to be late afternoon. Sure enough, a hasty glance at her alarm clock showed the time to be almost 4:00 PM. Already, the orange ball of light was making its slow descent behind London’s skyline, visible from her one bedroom, first floor flat.
Bianca stretched and smiled to herself. When was the last time she had slept so soundly? She couldn’t even remember. She never slept in. Usually the pain in her leg had her up several times in the middle of the night. Then again, she’d spent the evening at the orphanage, and she’d fallen asleep exhausted on Jimmy’s bed, and she’d had the most delicious and bizarre dreams…
She stretched again and froze. If she’d fallen asleep at the orphanage, then why was she waking up naked in her bed the following afternoon? Her heart beat faster, and she sat up with a start, bracing herself for the familiar jolt of pain from her leg—a pain that never materialized. Instead there was delicious leftover soreness between her legs, and her butthole clenched in remembered pleasure. What the hell?
Bianca threw the covers back, and her mouth fell open at the sight of her leg. Instead of the ugly crisscross of scars, pale and flawless skin greeted her. A shiver went down her spine, and her hands shot up to her neck. She bolted out of bed and almost stepped on the two roses that fell on the floor. One black and one yellow, they mocked her with the vivid image of one blond and one dark head bent over her. The room swayed, and she sat down heavily. It couldn’t be. It had been nothing but a dream. Vampires did not exist—they just didn’t. She anxiously checked her body for any signs, but all she found was perfect skin, far too perfect skin that shouldn’t belong to her. Even her freckles had disappeared.
She forced herself to walk towards the bathroom, and she had to grab the hand basin for support. An incredibly beautiful version of herself was staring back at her. Gone were the freckles, her green eyes sparkled, framed by long lashes, and her once so unruly red hair fell round her face in gentle waves of russet that reflected the setting sun. She looked like she always wished she would look, and most importantly no dull pain shot up her leg. No niggling backache forced her to draw shallow breaths into her lungs. For the first time in years she didn’t have to reach for the ugly brace to help support her.
The picture-perfect image in front of her blurred, as she burst into tears, and she sank to the floor and allowed the tears to flow freely. Tears of relief, of joy, of hope, and utter bafflement. By the time she finally had herself back under control the sun had set and her flat was shrouded in darkness.
Bianca shot to her feet, as the significance of that fact sank in. Darkness meant they could come for her. Her heart beat faster at the thought, whether in fear or anticipation she didn’t dare determine. One way or the other it wouldn’t do to greet them in her birthday suit. Heat stained her cheeks as vivid images of all they’d done together assaulted her. She stepped into the shower and turned it on full blast. In her dream, she’d been woken up numerous times by her handsome vampires. They had taken it in turns, claiming her ass, her pussy, her mouth, even her tits, and she’d loved every second of it. Her cunt clenched, and she moaned her arousal as she ran her hands over her slick folds. A rush of her juices was her reward, and she circled her clit and spread her legs wider. She braced one hand against the tiles, and her body convulsed in shivers of remembered pleasure, as she fucked herself to orgasm.
But it wasn’t enough. Bianca craved the brothers’ touch, and her heart clenched painfully inside her chest. What on earth was she going to do, and what if they didn’t want her? They hadn’t looked at her before yesterday and Sister Maria’s gentle insistence that they help her. Fresh tears fell, and she stepped out of the shower and wrapped the towel around herself, all too aware of the ease with which she achieved these simple tasks. Bernhard and Archie had given her a precious gift, but did they care for her at all? Or had the most fantastic night of her life ever been just a pity fuck for them? Or worse, just a walking, talking snack? They were vampires, after all. What was the morning, afternoon after, etiquette here?
The few previous sexual encounters she’d had had always ended with her waking up alone or the man making his excuses with dizzying speed. Clearly, the brothers could not have stayed. The rising sun would have sent them back to wherever they sheltered from the daylight.
There was only one way to find out. Bianca straightened her shoulders and got herself dressed in record time. She paused at her phone for a fleeting second, but then dismissed the idea. She had a standing invitation to show up at the orphanage whenever she wanted thanks to Sister Maria, and she would gauge the men’s reaction better if she didn’t announce her arrival.
Half an hour of brisk, exhilarating walking later, Bianca stepped over the threshold of the orphanage. Sister Maria greeted her with a wide smile and open arms, and pulled her into an unexpected hug that brought tears to Bianca’s eyes.
“I knew you’d come. I told him, but that silly boy was adamant you wouldn’t.” She pulled back and studied Bianca for a minute.
“You knew, didn’t you? About them being … you know.”
Bianca looked around and dropped her voice, not sure she ought to say it out loud, and Sister smiled at her.
“Of course, I did. Why do you think I encouraged this thing between you? I’ve always known, and I’m so glad they helped you.” She turned Bianca around and gave her a shove down the hall.
“Bernhard is in the study, drowning his sorrows, and Archie is around here somewhere. Knowing him he’ll show up when you least expect him to. Now, go get them, my dear.”
Bianca dragged her heels somewhat approaching the heavy door to the study that doubled as Sister Maria’s office during the day. She looked back at the elderly nun for reassurance, and was rewarded with a rather impatient shake of her hand.
“Go on, girl, they need you. Those boys have been waiting for you for decades. You’re just what they need. What this place needs. I won’t be around forever, and God willing you three will be, so scoot. Make him see sense.”
“What makes you so sure of my intentions? For all you know I could have a stake hidden under my coat.” Bianca couldn’t help but goad the older woman a little. Sister Maria looked far too smug for a nun right now. “And besides, how come you’re harboring vampires in your midst? Shouldn’t you be wishing them got rid of?”
Maria simply smiled, and her eyes narrowed. A gust of wind alerted Bianca to the fact that the door to the study had opened. The fine hair on her body rose, and Bernhard’s scent surrounded her. Her stomach fluttered in anticipation, and she turned around in slow motion, all too aware of Bernhard’s gaze scorching her skin.
He raised a hand towards her face, but balled it into a fist and withdrew, his expression darkening.
“You would expect a nun to get rid of the monsters we are, wouldn’t you?”
Bernhard’s growled words settled like lead in Bianca’s stomach, and without thinking about the wisdom of her action, she grasped hold of Bernhard’s white-knuckled fist and kissed it. His fangs ran out with an audible click, and Bianca stepped closer still.
“I don’t think you’re a monster. I wouldn’t be here if I did. You healed me. You didn’t have to do that. How did you do that anyway? I mean you didn’t turn me, did you?”
Bernhard’s expression softened, and he cupped her face with his free hand. Bianca sighed at the contact and placed a hand on his chest right over his heart.
“No, I would never turn you without your permission. To take away your right to walk in the sun, no.” He shook his head, and his expression intensified. “However, our blood has healing abilities, when consumed in very small quantities, so…” He pulled back slightly, and the ghost of a smile quirked his lips up. “I may have just done that to please Sister Maria.”
“Bullshit.” A blur of air accompanied the expletive, and before Bianca could blink Archie had whisked her inside the study and had her pinned against the wall. His big body caged her in, and the desire she read in his eyes set her insides aflame in answering need.
“My brother seems to be under the mistaken notion still, that you would despise us for what we did. I told him you enjoyed yourself far too much last night for any such foolishness.”
Heat rose in her cheeks, but she didn’t contradict him. Archie smiled that wicked grin of his, and some of the tension left his coiled muscles. He cupped her face and kissed her—a gentle exploration of loving tenderness that brought tears to her eyes and made her arms snake ‘round his massive shoulders to pull him closer. By the time Archie broke away they were both breathing heavily and Archie’s fangs had run out. She swallowed at the visible reminder of just who and what she was dealing with, all too aware that Bernhard was watching her every move.
She glanced across at him, and Archie dropped another kiss on her nose with a whispered, “Go. Convince my dumb ass brother.”
“I can hear you, Archibald.” Bernhard’s voice could have frozen the Sahara, yet Bianca couldn’t quite stop the giggle threatening to escape.
“Archibald? Really?”
Archie took an exaggerated bow and wriggled his eyebrows. “Archibald Henry William Jackson the Third, at your service, my lady. So very pleased to make your acquaintance.”
He took her hand, and with the flourish and aplomb of days long gone by dropped a kiss on the back of it, whilst giving what a historic romance novel would have described as an elegant leg.
Bernhard groaned, and Bianca giggled.
“This isn’t a laughing matter, Archie.”
Archie just shrugged and rolled his eyes. He did turn Bianca around to face a grave looking Bernhard though.
“It never is with you, brother. You best explain it all to our sweet girl here, and try not to bore her silly.” He wrapped his arms round her waist and drew her back against him. His cock pressed into her ass, and Bianca couldn’t resist a little wriggle that made him harden and growl into her neck. “Watch it, little one.”
Bernhard glared at his brother, and Bianca sobered.
“If you have quite finished pawing her.” He settled his attention on Bianca, and the swirls of emotion in his azure gaze had her stomach tightening. He looked so utterly focused and serious, Bianca wasn’t at all sure she wanted to hear this.
“Whatever you think you have to tell me, Bernhard, it won’t make any difference. I get it. You’re vampires. You’re probably ancient, and any sane person should run away screaming, but if you wanted to hurt me, you could have done that last night.” Bernhard took a step back at the words tumbling out her mouth, and Archie’s arms tightened around hers. “Yet, you didn’t. Sister Maria clearly trusts you, and I’ve seen the way you are around the children. Those are not the actions of a monster, no matter what you’re going to try to say. And I don’t expect anything of you. You’ve given me so much already.”
Archie growled his annoyance and nuzzled into her neck. The vibrations trembled along her skin, and she squeezed her legs together to relieve the instant ache in her core. It seemed one night of hot sex had turned her into a nymphomaniac. Then again, one glance of the brothers had been enough to turn her insides into mush. This had started long before last night, if she was honest with herself.
“Archibald was a very common name at the turn of the century. That’s when we were turned.” Bernhard’s words focused her attention back on him and away from the sudden insight into her feelings. Feelings that had her heart hammering so loudly in her chest she was sure Maria would be able to hear her out in the hall. Archie dropped a kiss on the rapidly beating pulse point and scraped his fangs along her neck. Her knees buckled, and had it not been for Archie’s arms holding her up, she would have sunk to the floor in a puddle of desire there and then. Need coursed through her, and she moaned under her breath.
“Archie.” Bernhard’s shout sliced through the fog of arousal, and she jumped. Archie grinned into her back and released her. Bianca wrapped her arms around herself, feeling bereft without his presence, and just a little embarrassed at her body’s obvious reaction. She was so doomed. All she wanted was to be held by her men. She didn’t want or need any declarations, yet Bernhard would not stop talking.
“We were young and foolish, and our sexual preferences weren’t exactly the norm. We liked to share our women, still do for that matter.”
Bianca bit her lip to stop herself from going, “Well, duh!”
Archie chuckled behind her, as though he’d read her thoughts, whilst Bernhard ignored her reaction completely, seemingly determined to carry on with his tale.
“It meant we frequented some rather seedy establishments, and one night, fate caught up with us in the form of a beautiful, but deadly, vamp. She turned us without our consent, and we ended up like … like—”
“Drop dead gorgeous hunks whose bones I’ve been wanting to jump since I first saw you? That’s what you were going to say, right? ‘Cause I don’t want to hear the rest.”
Bianca had to smile at Archie’s rather impassioned whoop of joy. Bernhard simply frowned at her, but before he could say anything else she put her hand up to stop him.
“And before you say I can’t possibly mean that, let me tell you I do. When you’re stuck in a less than perfect body all your life, you get plenty of time to figure out what matters in life. I swore to myself long ago, that I would not let my disabilities get in the way of going after what I wanted. That didn’t always work out so well when it came to men, of course. Sure, they’d take the sex on offer, but after that they’d scarper faster than you could throw my damn brace at them.”
“Then they were fucking fools.” Archie’s snarled response gave Bianca a warm glow inside, even more so when she risked a peek up at Bernhard’s expression. He sighed and held out his hand. She grasped it immediately, and he pulled her into his hard frame with a muttered curse of his own. She allowed herself the luxury of being held for a few precious seconds. When she pushed against his chest, he released her immediately.
“So, you tell me why your past should matter to me one iota? Or is this where I find out that you spent the last hundred years fucking everything that moves and leaving a trail of drained bodies behind?”
Bernhard looked appalled, and Bianca barely suppressed her smile of triumph.
“Of course not!” he said. “We knew our family line ended with us and we’d never have any direct descendants, so we donated this house to the order and opened up the orphanage. We had to disappear after a while, lest people would suspect what we were. It was only when Maria took over, and she really looked into the origins of the orphanage, that we came back. We have been here ever since, helping her run the place, always in the shadows.”
“Until this new gorgeous redheaded volunteer showed up one day.” Archie’s smile showed in his voice, and he stepped next to his brother. “Bernhard saw you first, but he’d never have made a move had Maria not pointed you out to us. That woman is far too wise for this world. For my part I fell in love with you the day you chased that new cleaning woman out of the house, screaming like a banshee, because she’d made little Jimmy cry.” He smiled at her with such love in his amber eyes that Bianca’s heart soared, and she blinked back tears. “You almost staked me with that broomstick, the way you were waving it around.”
Bianca remembered that day only too well. She’d been too caught up in her outrage at having witnessed the cleaner raise her hand to strike the boy to take much notice of the broad chest she’d collided with.
“Yes, well, she got me annoyed. I was terrified Sister Maria would have me expelled from the premises after that performance.”
“Maria was too impressed with you for that.” Bernhard took a step towards her as he spoke. “And so was I. It was obvious you were in pain yourself, and yet you were here day after day, helping out tirelessly. Yet you were so sad underneath it all. I wanted to take you and kiss all those worries away, but the one stipulation Maria had had when she took over the running of the orphanage was that we not interfere with the humans. So, I kept my distance, even though it was killing me. Archie feeling the same just made it all so much worse. I never thought you would look at us twice if you knew what we were anyway.”
“What changed?” Bianca asked, not daring to believe what she was hearing.
“Maria sat us down and asked us how we felt about you, and then more or less ordered us to help you.”
“And how do you feel about me?”
Bianca shut her eyes, suddenly afraid of the answer they might give. If she’d read this all wrong, her heart would never survive it, because God help her she loved them, too.
Instead of answering they pulled her between them until she was sandwiched in their embrace. They took turns kissing her, murmuring their love for her every time she wrenched her mouth away to draw much needed air into her oxygen-starved lungs. The world spun and she could do nothing but hold on to her lovers, as her heart soared and she whispered, “I love you both so much.”