Chapter 13

He didn’t come home that night.

I sat up until almost three o’clock in the morning, hoping to hear his key in the door, his step on my front porch. But there was nothing. I finally fell into a troubled sleep a little after three and then I had the dream over and over again—the moon, the statues, the boy, the wolf, the blood...it beat in my brain making me crazy, waking me over and over with his name on my lips.

I felt like shit the next day and I’m sure I looked it too. I lost a case that should have been a cut and dried conviction and went home early with a feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach. Would he be there, waiting for me, as though nothing had happened between us?

He wasn’t. I sank onto the lumpy love seat wearily after checking the entire house. The only thing that gave me hope was the fact that his clothing was still there, neatly placed in the small bureau I had cleaned out for his use. If Richard was leaving me for good, he would have taken his clothing, wouldn’t he? I tried to cling to the hope, telling myself that it was all right, that he would walk in the door at any moment and we would be together again soon.

It didn’t occur to me to wonder why I needed him so much—I was hurting too badly to give the source of my pain much thought. I had read that people who lost limbs often had phantom pains, an aching where the part of them that had been amputated had been, and that was how I felt now. It was as though a part of me had been cut off, leaving me helpless to do anything but hurt.

My cell phone chimed, startling me out of my misery for a moment. I fumbled in my purse eagerly and flipped open the phone without checking the caller id. “Hello?” I was almost breathless with anticipation, certain I would hear Richard’s familiar, deep voice on the other end of the phone.

“Darling?” The nasal, proper tones of my fiancé in my ear dashed all my hopes completely.

“Oh, hello, Charles,” I said dully, forcing myself to speak.

“Are you all right, Rachel? You’re not quite sounding yourself,” he said briskly.

“Fine, I’m fine,” I lied. “I just...thought you were someone else. Look, Charles, I’m really busy right now so if you don’t mind getting to the point—”

“The point is that I’m calling to see if you and Richard are up for our little double date tomorrow night.” He sounded a little huffy now, probably at my abrupt tone, but I couldn’t make myself care.

“Double date?” I tried to force my tired mind to remember what he was talking about but I was drawing a blank.

“Yes, Ursula is ~so~ excited. I went ahead and took the liberty of getting a reservation for four at Berns,” he continued. “I didn’t want to wait too late to book.”

“I...Charles, I’ll just have to get back to you. Honestly, I’m just about to walk into the courtroom,” I lied. “I promise I’ll call you back tonight or tomorrow. All right?” Without waiting for his answer, I flipped the phone closed, ending the call. Then I balled myself up on the couch and closed my eyes, trying to forget everything and just sleep.

But sleep wouldn’t come. I was tormented with thoughts of Richard and new doubts that kept rising in my head. Why, I asked myself for the hundredth time, had my mother been so desperate to keep us separated? Obviously she was worried that Richard and I would end up together in a way she had never meant us to be, but the fact was, there really was no blood tie between us. Was she that worried about us breaking a taboo that wasn’t really there? Or was it something else? Something to do with the Amon-kai? The strange ‘teachings’ Richard had spoken of? Why had she urged me to be so human, so normal, to ignore and forget everything she and my father had taught me for the first seven years of my life?

And why did Richard keep insisting that he ‘needed’ me so desperately? Was there really a tie or bond between us that even seventeen years of separation couldn’t break? And what about the weird and frightening fairy tale Richard had told me to explain why we should be together? What were the words he had used? Lana-something... And the talk about bathing in blood—what was that about?

My eyelids began to feel heavy as the unanswerable questions swirled in my brain. Whatever or wherever Richard was, I only knew one thing—that I wanted him back with me. Thinking of that, I fell asleep, my head cradled in the crook of my arm against the side of the lumpy loveseat.

* * * * *

Warm arms were encircling me, pulling me close to a hard, muscular chest. Someone was placing a tender kiss on my temple and whispering in my ear.

“Rachel,” he said and the deep voice was wonderfully familiar. I was almost afraid to open my eyes, for fear of it being a dream, but when he kissed me again, I couldn’t resist looking.

“Richard,” I breathed, staring up into his pale green eyes, so much like my own. “I thought you were never coming back.”

“I had to come back,” he whispered tenderly. He scooped me up and lifted me as though I weighed no more than a feather. “Couldn’t stand to be away from you any longer. God, it was hell leaving in the first place, Rache.”

“Then why did you?” I demanded. He was carrying me towards the bedroom now, but I didn’t even care.

“I had to.” His voice sounded ragged and strained. “As hard as it was, I had to show you that we belonged together. Did you miss me as much as I missed you?”

“More.” I put my arms around his neck and nuzzled my face into the hollow of his shoulder. He was warm and smelled spicy and right–the scent of the Amon-kai, I vaguely acknowledged to myself. “Never leave me again,” I told him.

Richard laid me on the bed, but remained hovering over me. “I never will if you’re ready to admit that we belong together. Are you ready to do that, Rachel? Are you ready to give yourself to me? To let me breed you?”

I felt myself go cold and hot all over. He wanted me. ~No~, I told myself, ~be honest, say it like it is.~ Richard wanted to make love to me–wanted to ~fuck~ me. Or to breed me, as he put it. And if I was completely honest with myself, I knew that I wanted it too. But I just couldn’t do it.

“Richard,” I said as gently as I could, stroking his cheek which was sandpapery with two days' growth of beard. “I can’t do that with you. You’re my brother, for God’s sake. Not to mention the fact that I’m supposed to be marrying another man in two weeks.”

“Rachel...” He shook his head, his handsome face looking haggard. “You know there isn’t any blood tie between us. And you know that you don’t love Charles. Please...if you only knew how much I ~need~ you.”

“Can’t you just lay here beside me for a while and forget about that?” I pleaded. “Can’t we be close without being...well, ~that~ close?”

He sighed and slumped on the bed beside me, one arm over his eyes. “I’d never hurt you or force you, Rachel, but, my God, you’re making this difficult.”

“Richard...” I propped myself up on one elbow beside him and leaned over to run my fingers through his mane of wild, black hair. “If you only knew how much I love you. I’m so sorry I can’t get past the way we were raised. If only your parents hadn’t died, if you hadn’t been raised as my brother... But it’s too much, too... too ~wrong~. I just can’t.”

“Can you keep your end of the bet, at least?” he asked, uncovering his eyes and looking up at me.

“Bet?” I frowned, at a loss for a moment.

“You lost yesterday.” He sat up suddenly and flipped me onto my back in one smooth move. “We bet that if my kiss didn’t excite you, I’d leave your life forever.”

“I don’t want you out of my life,” I protested earnestly, looking up at him. “I want us to be close, Richard, just not the way you want us to.”

“It doesn’t matter because I won the bet.” His eyes were blazing now, despite the fact that his voice was low and gentle. “You can’t deny that, can you?”

I bit my lip and looked away from the eager, hungry expression on his dark face. The worst thing was, I could feel that same hunger in me as well. “No,” I said at last. “No, you won the bet.”

“Do you remember what I won?” he asked softly, stroking my cheek.

“Another kiss?” I looked up at him again, feeling my heart start to pound.

“Several more, to be exact.” He leaned down and kissed me lightly on the nose, making me smile despite my fear and the forbidden desire. “Take off your clothes, Rachel,” he said softly. “I want to collect on my bet.”

“But I don’t... we can’t...” I shook my head, my heart racing. It wasn’t so much that I didn’t want him to see me naked—it was the fact that without the barrier of our clothes, I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from going too far, from taking that final step and letting him fuck me.

“Don’t worry,” he said, obviously seeing the fear in my eyes. “I won’t do that until you’re ready to. I won’t let things go too far, I just want to kiss you for right now.”

“Why do I have to be naked for you to kiss me?” I protested, hearing the fear in my voice.

“Because I didn’t say where I was going to kiss you.” Richard smiled at me lazily, already unbuttoning the blue silk shirt I had worn to work that day. “I don’t want to just taste your lips this time, Rachel.” He pulled apart the pale blue silk and unhooked my bra effortlessly, peeling it back to reveal my breasts. My nipples were already hard in anticipation and I could offer only token resistance when he leaned down and kissed the right one gently.

“Richard,” I protested weakly, “You know we shouldn’t do this...”

“You mean this?” He leaned down again, this time kissing the left nipple very lightly. “Or maybe this?” His tongue flickered out, lapping my hot flesh and making me gasp. “Or even this?” Richard whispered. This time he sucked my nipple completely into his mouth, nipping it gently and sending a shower of sparks throughout my entire body.

I moaned and pressed myself up to his mouth, offering my breasts to his gentle, intoxicating torture. It felt so good, so right to let him do this, even as my mind was screaming that it was wrong, wrong, wrong. I tried to remember all the troubling questions that had been running around in my brain before I’d fallen asleep on the loveseat, but I was drawing a complete blank. My body had taken over now completely and all I could do was feel.

Richard spent a long time on my breasts, sucking and biting my nipples gently, marking the tender slopes of my tits with dark red love bites I knew wouldn’t fade for days. I was helpless to stop him—in fact, I urged him on. I buried my fingers in his thick, black hair and pressed my breasts up to his mouth, giving him free access to my body.

But while Richard’s mouth was busy above my waist, his hands were busy below. I barely realized that he was undressing me until I felt the cool breeze of the overhead ceiling fan on my unprotected sex.

“Richard, please, I shouldn’t let you,” I begged. But even as the words left my mouth, I was spreading my legs for him, inviting his fingers to touch me again, to explore me as he had the night before. I was already so wet for him, wet and ready for things I dared not name or acknowledge to myself.

“I love to touch you here,” Richard whispered, sliding two long fingers carefully into my wet sex. “You’re so hot and wet, Rachel. Can you imagine what it would feel like to have my cock inside you, filling you up, instead of just my fingers?” His fingers mimed the act, pressing gently inside me, thrusting rhythmically as far as he could without taking my virginity.

“Please…” I wanted to close my legs but I couldn’t.

“Please what?” Richard leaned over to look at me and I found I couldn’t meet his eyes. I couldn’t look at him while he was touching me so intimately, not without losing what little control I had left.

“I…I thought you were going to kiss me,” I whispered at last, not sure what else to say. I could feel my cheeks growing hot even as my body gave him what he demanded. Why couldn’t I control myself around him?

“Oh, I am,” he reassured me softly. “I’m going to kiss you until you come, Rachel. Come ~hard~, just for me.”

“I don’t…” I began, but he pressed a soft, warm kiss to my lips to silence me. His fingers left me but even as a protesting moan fell from my lips at the loss of the sweet sensations he had been building inside me, his mouth began to travel down my body. He kissed my breasts again, and the valley between them, and moved lower, sucking and nibbling the soft skin of my trembling stomach, circling my navel with his tongue teasingly until I wanted to scream with frustration.

By now I knew what he intended to do and yet, I still couldn’t summon the willpower to stop him. ~Just a little while longer,~ I told myself. ~Just a little bit more and then I’ll make him stop…~ When he reached the tender vee between my legs, I knew I had to tell him no. It was wrong to let him do this to me—wrong to let ourselves go so far.

“Richard…” I tugged at his hair as he bent to kiss me ~there~.

He looked up, his pale green eyes full of need.

“Richard, ~no~,” I said as firmly as I could. But my voice was trembling with the effort of making myself say the words. “We can’t do this…It’s wrong…~dangerous.~”

“Just one kiss,” he said thickly, his voice rough with desire. “Just one, Rachel. You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to do this, how long I’ve wanted to taste your sweet wet pussy.”

His words almost took my breath away, and as our eyes locked, my breathing quickened and my pulse thudded in my ears so hard I could barely hear myself think. What he wanted, what he was asking me to let him do, was wrong on so many levels I could barely name them all, even to myself. I couldn’t let him do this, could I? Couldn’t let him spread open the wet folds of my sex and taste me this way? Such an intimate kiss surely exceeded the boundaries of all decency. But maybe, I thought, trying to justify the act to myself, I could make it a little less wrong somehow. Maybe we could compromise…

“All right,” I whispered at last, giving in, but only a little, I told myself. “All right but just one, Richard. On…on the outside, all right?” I squeezed my legs together as I spoke, pressing my thighs tightly closed to make sure there was no mistake.

“The outside?” He stroked gently over the outer lips of my cunt, crowned with a soft thatch of barely-there blond curls. I shivered at his touch, feeling the fire wash through me all over again.

“Y…yes,” I managed to say. “Just one kiss on the outside and that’s all.”

He bent his head without answering, his breath hot on my exposed sex. He placed his hands, warm and large and somehow comforting, on my inner thighs and began to spread my legs.

“Richard!” I protested, resisting the gesture.

“I can’t reach you with your legs locked shut,” he said reasonably, stroking my thighs. His touch was gentle and soothing. “If I only get one kiss, I want to be sure to do it right, Rache.”

“I…all right, I guess,” I whispered at last, giving up my resistance. I felt his hands parting my legs, spreading them wide and then wider as he devoured me with his eyes. I tried to relax and trust him, telling myself it was only one kiss…just one. But the lips of my sex were swollen with need and as Richard spread my legs, I could feel my cunt parting as well. I was opening for him whether I wanted to or not—it was as though my body had decided independently of my brain what it needed. What could I do when my own flesh was betraying me this way?

I bit my lip against the protest that wanted to come out as Richard opened my legs fully, exposing me completely to his gaze. The lips of my sex were fully parted as well now, the soft inner folds glistening and my throbbing clit prominently displayed, like a pink pearl for his pleasure. I felt waves of shame and desire sweep over me at the obvious display of how much I needed him—of how much my body longed for his.

Richard bent his head, and I tried to brace myself for the touch of his mouth, hot and wet, against the parted lips of my naked pussy. What would it feel like to have his tongue explore me? To have him press deep inside me? To feel his kiss on my clit?

But to my surprise, Richard placed a soft, chaste kiss on the springy mound of curls at the apex of my sex without taking advantage of my exposure at all. Then he looked up at me, waiting.

I let out the breath I hadn’t known I was holding, feeling a strange mixture of disappointment and relief. Maybe he had changed his mind about wanting to taste me. Maybe he had realized how wrong this was and was willing to give it up... But his next words shattered that half-formed wish completely.

“Look at yourself, Rachel,” he said, his voice low and needful. “Look at the way your body responds to mine. Look at the way your pussy opens for me—so sweet and wet. Your body knows what you need—that we need each other, that we belong together. Why can’t you accept it with your mind as well as your body? Accept that you and I are Amon-kai and that we’re right together?”

“Richard, please…” I shook my head and tried to close my legs, but he wouldn’t let me.

“You can’t think of any reason not to let me give you another kiss, can you?” His voice was low and seductive now, promising things I was both afraid of and wanted desperately.

“Another kiss?” I stopped struggling abruptly.

“On the inside this time.” His intense green gaze pinned me down, holding me in place as surely as his hands on my thighs. “You want it, Rachel,” he told me softly. “You want it and you can’t deny it. You want me to spread open your pussy and suck your hot little clit into my mouth. You want to feel my tongue stroking in and out of you…tasting you…~fucking~ you.”

“I…” I shook my head, feeling myself weakening. I fell back on the only thing I could think of. “Just once?” I asked weakly.

“Unless you ask me not to stop,” he replied, his eyes still locked to mine. “Unless you want me to keep kissing you, to eat your soft little pussy until you come all over my face.”

His hot, dirty words excited me almost more than I could have imagined possible. He was asking for more than permission to taste my pussy—he was asking for my complete surrender.

I had no words to answer his demands. Instead, I buried my hands in his thick black hair and urged him down, showing him what I needed, what I couldn’t bring myself to ask for. ~It can’t hurt to let him just once…just a little,~ I told myself. The truth was that I wanted him so badly I was almost beyond reason. Only the thinnest thread of self-control was keeping me from begging him to not only taste me but to fuck me as well.

Richard understood my consent and he needed no further urging. Dipping his head to the vee between my legs, he spread the lips of my cunt even wider and laid a gentle, open-mouthed kiss on my wet pink interior. I felt the brush of his lips over my clit and then the stroking of his tongue. He was tasting me, as he had said he would, laving my trembling flesh with kisses and licks until I could stand it no more and cried out with pleasure.

Richard looked up for a moment, his mouth wet with my juices. “Should I stop now, Rachel? Is that what you want?”

I shook my head, completely out of control. “Please, Richard,” I begged him shamelessly. “Please…oh God, don’t stop. ~Don’t~ stop.”

“That’s good, that’s right,” he murmured, stroking along the heated skin of my naked thighs. “That’s what I needed to hear. I want you to relax now, Rachel. Relax and let me take you where you need to go.”

Once again he was asking for my surrender, for me to give myself up to him completely and utterly and this time I had no defenses left. “Yes,” I whispered, spreading my thighs even wider, offering him my naked, unprotected sex. At that moment I think I would have agreed to anything. His touch on my skin was like a drug—instantly addicting and one I couldn’t get enough of.

“That’s right, baby,” he whispered tenderly, placing a soft, chase kiss on the top of my slit. “Spread your legs for me and let me make you come.” Then he bent his head to me again and again I felt instant surge of pleasure, of ~rightness~, when he touched me. He kissed my aching clit once more and then he pressed lower and entered me with his tongue. I felt him pressing deep inside me, exploring the most hidden and forbidden part of my body gently but with great determination. He was fucking me with his tongue, claiming me, owning me in a way no one else ever had. I had never been so utterly vulnerable with a man before and I reveled in the sensation. I was helpless and naked on the bed, my thighs spread wide with his tongue buried in my tight, wet cunt and there was nothing I could do about it. Nothing I ~wanted~ to do about it.

“Richard! Oh, God…Richard!” I moaned wantonly. I buried my fingers in his dark hair and pressed my hips up to meet him, offering myself to him shamelessly. I was no longer in control of my own actions, nor did I want to be. I could only react to the pleasure he was giving me, the intense sensations he was building inside my body until I felt I was going to explode. If only he would press just a little deeper…

It was as though Richard could read my mind—as though I had spoken the request aloud. I felt his tongue press deeper, harder into me and knew that if it had been his cock entering me instead, I would no longer have been a virgin. At the same time, I felt the broad tip of his thumb pressed directly over my inflamed clit, rubbing with just enough force to send me screaming over the edge of orgasm, feeling like I might die from the overload of pleasure he was giving me.

“Oh God…Oh God…” I panted the words, feeling my nipples tighten with the wave of pleasure washing over me. I was gasping for breath and literally seeing stars. It was the most incredible feeling I had ever experienced—even more intense than when he had touched me before.

“Rachel, you taste so good, baby. So sweet.” Richard slid up my body, kissing gently until he was cradling me in his arms. He parted my lips with his own and fed me the taste of myself on his tongue, letting me know how delicious he thought I was. I kissed him back, still tingling with the aftershocks of my intense orgasm, still willing to give him what he wanted as long as he would just keep touching me.

Richard reached between us and I heard a low purring sound as of a zipper coming down. Before I knew it, he had slid out of his jeans and was pressed naked and hot against my thighs. I felt the hard, heated shaft of his cock against my inner thigh, not seeking entrance…yet. But it was still undeniably there, ready and waiting for me to give my permission.

“Doesn’t this feel right?” Richard whispered in my ear. “To hold each other this way, with nothing between our bodies? No barriers to stop us. I love you so much, Rachel, my Lana-zeel. I’ve waited for you for so long…”

“Richard,” I whispered, forcing myself to make the feeble protest even though I was still aching for his touch. “Richard, we can’t. Please.”

“Just let me be close to you for a while. Let me feel you against my skin.” He nuzzled his face into the side of my neck and kissed me there, sending a shiver down my spine. “Give me a chance to touch you before you say no,” he whispered, and there was a note of pleading in his deep voice I didn’t feel able to deny.

“How? How do you want to touch me?” I asked him, even as I pulled him close for a soft kiss on the lips. What we were doing felt so wrong and yet so right. My brain was so clouded with need and pleasure that I felt incapable of telling him to stop and get off me at once, which was what I knew I ought to do.

“Like this,” he whispered. I felt him shift, and then he was parting the swollen lips of my cunt once more, this time with his cock instead of his tongue. I bit my lip, prepared to tell him to stop if he began to enter me, but he didn’t. Instead, he slid slowly along the length of my slit, rubbing against my oversensitive clit with his shaft until I gasped aloud with the pleasurable tension.

“Richard,” I protested, knowing I shouldn’t let him do this. Shouldn’t allow him to slide his thick cock against my open, unprotected pussy no matter how incredibly good it felt.

“Just think,” he whispered softly in my ear, ignoring my half-hearted protest. “How good it would feel to be joined together right now. How perfect it would be if you let me make love to you, the way we both want to so badly. I could just spread the lips of your sweet little pussy apart and slide my cock all the way into you the way I need to—the way you need me to.”

As he spoke, I felt him shift again until the broad head of his cock was positioned just at the entrance to my cunt. A sudden spear of panic stabbed through me. He wouldn’t really do that, would he? He couldn’t—I couldn’t let him!

“Richard,” I gasped. “Stop—~now~. I can’t let you do this.”

“But you want it—you ~need~ it as much as I do,” he whispered in my ear. “We have so many lost years to make up for. Every day that goes by we need each other more.” He pressed into me gently, breaching my entrance until just the head of his cock was inside me, opening me, ready to penetrate me completely if only I gave him permission to do it. It was so like the dream I’d had the first night he stayed with me that I bit my lip.

“Please!” I moaned. I wanted to push him away, off me, ~out~ of me, but I didn’t seem to have the strength.

“This is our destiny—we were bonded as children—fated to be together. If we hadn’t been separated so young, torn away from each other, I would have had you years ago,” he whispered. He withdrew the head of his cock and pressed into me again, a little more deeply this time so that another inch of his thickness entered my unprotected cunt. “I would have come to your room at night and touched you, just the way I’ve been doing every night since I’ve been here. I would have stroked your breasts and pussy and filled you with my cum, my essence, many times long before I fucked you and bred you. Your body would have been used to mine completely by the first time I took you.”

His words seemed to awaken some long ago memory of a fight I’d heard my parents have back in the old Victorian mansion we’d lived in as children.

“That’s why,” I murmured, still fighting to get control of myself. “That’s why she took me away from you—she knew that you’d do that. Do what you’re doing now.”

“I used to lie awake at night dreaming of this,” he told me in a deep, ragged voice. “Wondering where you were, imagining how sweet it would be to take you for the first time, to fill you with my cock and claim you for my own. Entirely my own.”

He pulled out once more and fucked into me again, again a little more deeply. I could feel at least three thick inches of his cock sliding into me now, filling me, stretching me to the limit and beyond but he was being so careful that the pleasure I felt far outweighed the pain. In fact, I realized, the pleasure was clouding my brain so that I could barely think—barely protest what he was doing to me. I could only imagine the effort it was causing him not to take me completely.

“Richard,” I begged breathlessly, “Please…”

“I’m only giving you what we both need,” he told me softly, still sliding into me, a little deeper with every thrust. “It feels so good inside you, Rachel. I love you so much. Can you honestly say it doesn’t feel good to you, right to you, to have me here?” As he spoke, I felt the broad head of his cock press deep into me, right up against my virgin barrier. One more thrust and he would be buried inside me irrevocably. If I didn’t stop him now, there would be no stopping any of it. Richard would fuck me and come in me, claiming me as his own forever.

“Richard,” I whispered, stilling his motion with my hand on his hip. “Why? I…I think I understand why I was taken away from you but I don’t understand why you feel you need this so badly. What are you not telling me?”

“There’s nothing you need to know right now except how much I love you. How much I need you. Need to make love to you. Need to come in you, Rachel,” he whispered hoarsely with barely contained passion.

His words so exactly mirrored my thoughts and my body was on fire for his touch. It was hard to refute what he said. It wasn’t an argument I could win and so I had to stop arguing and leave before it was too late. “Please,” I said, struggling against him to get up, to keep him from taking that final step. “I don’t…I can’t…”

“Give me one reason,” he said, holding me down effortlessly but not thrusting any deeper into my wet, open pussy. “You can’t think of a reason not to join with me here and now. Not to give yourself to me totally.” He kissed me softly on the lips. “Give yourself to me, Rachel. Let me take you where we both need to go.”

“There’s…” I shook my head, trying to think past the rushing in my ears. It seemed I had been in a state of overwhelming arousal for hours. “What about Charles?” I said, finally finding my voice.

Richard shook his head. “Not good enough. Your body doesn’t respond to him the way it responds for me, and you know it. You don’t ache for him in every fiber of your being the way you and I ache for each other.”

I clenched my fingers against the bedspread, trying not to give in. “Mother warned me about you,” I said at last. “She told me to never see you again and I don’t think this was the onlt reason. There’s something you’re not telling me, Richard,” I accused.

“Her wants were not your wants and deep down she knew it was wrong to separate us,” he whispered softly. “You know that, Rachel.”

I let out a long trembling breath and shook my head. “You’re my brother,” I said at last. “I’m sorry, Richard, but that’s what it really comes down to. Blood or not, we were raised as siblings. I need you to stop this ~now.~ I need you to get off of me. To get out of me. Please understand I can’t…can’t let my own brother fuck me. I just can’t.”

“We’re not truly siblings but we are of the same breed—the Amon-kai,” he countered. And blood is thicker than water, Rachel. There’s a bond between us that can never be severed. You’ll never be satisfied until you let me in, until you give yourself to me completely. Only when you feel my cock buried deep in your willing pussy and my essence filling your womb will you find peace. One day you’ll understand that.”

“But not today. Not now. ~Please~, Richard.” I could feel the hot tears welling in my eyes. I just couldn’t do it—couldn’t let him go through with it. “Don’t do this to me,” I told him, my fear overwhelming my pleasure at last and letting me think clearly. “I love you, Richard, but there are some things I can’t forgive. Don’t…don’t rape me.”

My words had an immediate effect on him. He pulled out of me abruptly, leaving me intact, and rolled to one side, breathing heavily with one arm over his eyes. I curled myself into a ball and pulled the edge of the bedspread over me to hide my nakedness.

“I’m sorry, Richard,” I said, my throat thick with tears. “But I can’t…we can’t let ourselves do this. It’s…it’s wrong in so many ways. I think we should try to forget this happened and…and just go on like before.”

“Just pretend I didn’t almost claim you?” he asked bitterly, lifting his arms to look me in the eyes. “Pretend my cock wasn’t just halfway buried in your cunt? I suppose next you’ll say we should go out on that ridiculous date your fiancé has planned tomorrow night and pretend we give a damn about Charles and his little cousin.”

“I ~do~ give a damn about Charles,” I said, but my voice didn’t sound as strong as I wanted it to. “And,” I sat up, being careful to keep the bedspread wrapped around me, “I think we should go out. We need to do something normal. I love you, Richard, but we’ve gotten too wrapped up in each other since you came back into my life. We need to get out and see that there are other people in the world.”

Richard’s face looked haggard--the face of a lost soul. “You don’t understand. Even now, you don’t understand. There’s never going to be anyone else in the world for me besides you,” he whispered in a low, wounded voice.

“Richard,” I reminded him as gently as I could. “I can never be yours. I’m engaged to another man and besides, I’m your ~sister.~”

“My sister in nothing but name,” he said bitterly. “But fine. You want to go out and spend time with other people, we’ll go. I’ll even do my damndest to show Charles’ cousin a good time. I can be very charming when I want to be.”

“So I’ve noticed,” I said quietly.

Richard got off the bed, careless of his nudity. I had to look away from his muscular body because of the lust the sight kindled in my belly.

“You’ll see,” he said. “The bond that was formed when we were children is already too strong to break. Nothing but death can separate us now and I promise you, by the end of the evening, we’ll both be wishing we ~were~ dead. It’s going to be painful, in more ways than one.”