Chapter Six

Chapter Six

My bottom lip was sore and a little bit swollen when I woke up, but it was nothing too obvious. Hans was right. Nobody would notice the blood-red kiss he’d blessed my mouth with.

The red raw teeth marks on my tits were a different story, though. My flesh was wounded deep and bruised, but it didn’t freak me out as I stared at the aftermath in the mirror. I ran my fingers over the marks and felt a strange rush of pride for taking the pain. So many fantasies over so many nights, come to life. I could only imagine the beauty of every other fantasy Hans had the power to make come true.

I put on my dressing gown and wrapped it up tight, making sure my tits were well hidden before I went downstairs. I needn’t have worried of course, since as per usual the other housemates were all out. Not a soul in sight.

Once again, I wished I had someone to share my stories with. A friend. A family member. Someone close that my mother and grandmother had always failed to be. I didn’t have any extended family. I’d never known my father, and my poor grandfather had died when I was just a baby in arms, and there were no aunties, uncles or cousins to share my life with.

Maybe Hans could be everything, all in one? It was a stupidly optimistic thought that should’ve seemed crazy but didn’t. How could anything about my fantasies possibly feel crazy anymore? I just needed… someone.

Him.

I made myself breakfast. Porridge with plenty of sugar, followed by toast. I tried to relax and let my strength come back to me, lying in bed through the afternoon, watching Buffy reruns on my laptop with a whole new perspective. It was when Spike slammed Buffy against the wall and she wrapped her legs around him that my hand dared snake into my dressing gown. It had been a shocker at the time. Spike was actually fucking her. And damn those kisses were hot. Blood-red kisses. My hand froze just an inch from my pussy, once again gripped like a vice.

Damnit.

I now knew what it felt like to be the victim of a blood-red kiss. I knew what it felt like to have a vampire’s fangs sinking into my skin. I knew how it felt, being a vessel of flesh they were taking their life from.

I knew how it felt to be… owned.

Knew how it felt when your heart ached for someone. I simply couldn’t wait to see him again. To kiss him again. To give myself to him.

If only I could play with myself thinking about it. But no. Definitely not. My hand wouldn’t budge.

I was feeling a little more steady by the time I showered and got ready for work. My bra was sore over my bite wounds, and my blouse felt starchy as it rubbed my skin, but I liked it. The pain was a constant reminder of what Hans had taken from me.

I wasn’t afraid of the cobblestones when I walked through Hyde Street that evening. I was grinning all the way.

My smile was still bright on my face when I stepped into the staffroom and hung up my coat on the rack. I felt surprisingly confident when I pushed my way through the door into the bar to find Eliza there, busy at work. Confidence wasn’t something I was usually blessed with.

She turned to me when she was done serving Richard Scott, and her eyebrows raised up high.

“I expected you to be calling in sick today.” She looked me up and down, still in disbelief. “You look well recovered, though.”

I nodded. “I feel much better today, thanks.”

She was still staring at me.

“Actually, you look absolutely bloody amazing,” she said out of the blue.

Her compliment gave me a flush. Her expression was so genuine but so confused, as though she was staring at an entirely different person than the one she’d come to know.

I was the same girl with the same dark hair wrapped up tight in the same neat bun, wearing the same neutral gloss lipstick, in the same crisp white uniform, but I didn’t feel like it. Not one bit.

“Thanks,” I said, burning up so bad that I was grateful for the distraction as clients came up for drinks.

I served Kristoff and Edward with a happy smile, and then I walked over to George, who was sitting at the side of the bar. It was great to see him there.

“Thank you, George,” I whispered. “For last night. I really appreciate it.”

“Appreciate what, exactly?” he asked.

I gave him a grin. “You know. For fixing things.”

He pulled a face, confused.

“Fixing what, Katherine? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

My surprise must have shown, because he looked at me piercingly.

“Katherine, what are you talking about? Tell me now, please.”

I didn’t know what to say as he glanced around the bar.

“Nothing much,” I lied. “Eliza and I were talking about how the place was quiet, and you told me people would be in soon.”

His eyes came right back to mine.

“Oh, I did, did I? And tell me, who showed up afterwards?”

I shrugged. “Everyone.”

“Everyone?”

“Yes. Everyone.”

“Including Frederick and Hans, I imagine, yes?”

I felt cold, as though I’d blurted out a secret.

“There was a polo game,” I said on instinct. “In Cirencester. Everyone came in afterwards.”

“And Frederick and Hans were amongst them?”

“Yes.”

“I see.”

He drank down his whisky and shoved his empty glass at me for another. I felt like a naughty kid who’d done something I shouldn’t, especially when I handed his fresh whisky over and he shot me a glare. He took his phone from his pocket and headed off to the bathroom without another word. I got a shiver as the door closed behind him.

What had I done?

I didn’t know.

I didn’t have much time to dwell on it before the entrance door swung wide and Frederick appeared. I held my breath with a silent please, and my skin caught alight when Hans walked in after him, dressed immaculately in another black suit with black silk tie. He looked even more stunning than ever. Oh how my heart raced.

“A merlot for me, please,” Frederick said when he arrived at the bar.

“The same for me, please, Katherine,” Hans added, and his smile was so perfectly white that my legs almost buckled underneath me.

I felt like a child giving a performance on stage when I uncorked the wine and poured out two glasses. I handed them over with trembling hands.

“Thank you, gentlemen.”

The sensations were overwhelming as they zipped through my body. I didn’t know what to do or say, or where to look. I was almost relieved when Baron Taylor stepped up and ordered a merlot for himself. I got to work with a coming right up, thank you, but then something niggled me from nowhere. A tickle down deep that drew my attention to the closed bathroom door. George was still in there, his whisky still sitting on the bar counter.

I got the weirdest pull to say something to Hans, but I didn’t know where to start other than to close the distance between us. Every step felt heavy, the butterflies in my stomach going insane.

His eyes were so green, and I should have known it. I didn’t need to say a thing.

“Where is George?” he asked me, with a piercing gaze.

I gestured behind him. “In the bathroom.”

“And how long has he been gone?”

“A few minutes.”

Hans didn’t look at me this time, he looked at Frederick sitting right beside him, and Frederick gave him the slightest nod before he got to his feet.

Frederick smiled at me. “I’ll say hello to George when I’m in there. I need the bathroom myself.”

I didn’t get the chance to ask Hans anything once Frederick was out of his seat. He took the action for me, fixing me in another perfect stare before I could speak.

“Don’t trouble yourself with this. Please stay out of it. And stay away from George.”

“But George…” I blustered. “What about serving him?”

“You won’t need to serve him,” Hans told me, and I got an ominous shudder up my spine.

“Is George going to be ok?”

Hans looked genuinely curious. “Would it bother you if he wasn’t?”

My words were a stutter. “Well, I… I like George… George is–”

“Old,” Hans said. “George is a very old man.”

“But–” I began.

“But what?” Hans asked, and he was so cold, so detached.

I looked at the bathroom door and back again.

“Is Frederick going to, um…”

“Kill George?” Hans laughed a little. “No.”

“I don’t understand what’s going on here.”

“You don’t need to understand,” Hans said. “Trust me, and stay out of things you don’t need to be involved with.”

I got a flood of relief when George stepped back out of the bathroom. I was straight over to him when he took his seat.

“Are you alright, Mr Miller?” I asked, but he held his hand up.

“That’ll be all. Greatest thanks.” He drank down his whisky in one and got up to leave. “I’ll be seeing you.”

But he was lying. I knew in my heart I wouldn’t be seeing George Miller again, and I felt bizarrely upset about it. I marched over to Hans when the door closed behind the old gentleman, and to Frederick beside him, who was taking his seat, back from the bathroom.

“What’s going on?” I asked them, and Frederick looked surprised at my question.

He held back, and it was Hans who answered me.

“Katherine. Leave us, please.”

But no. I didn’t want to. I didn’t speak it aloud before Hans repeated himself, with a lower tone this time.

“Katherine. Leave us. Now, please. This doesn’t concern you.”

I knew from his eyes that there was no room for negotiation, so I backed away, feeling trapped in a corner. I had the urge to say something to Eliza, or to chase George down the street to make sure he was safe, but I got another shudder, and a sense of something deeper.

No.

I shouldn’t do that.

I stopped in my tracks on my way over to Eliza.

No.

I spun back and caught my breath to find Hans staring at me.

No.

I nodded silently, then turned my attention to an approaching Max and Stephan instead.

“What can I get you, gentlemen?”

The rest of the night was busy and bustling, and Hans was continually caught up in conversation with Frederick and Benjamin, who joined them shortly after. Every time I looked Hans’ way he would flash me a glance in return, with a smile always waiting to greet me, but there were no more words between us. Eliza was the one to serve them every time they had a request.

The hours passed, and my skin grew hotter. The minutes ticked by and the wounds under my blouse began to glow, sore, and with every second came an increasing feeling of desperation, until I was as needy as I’d been in the alleyway.

It felt like I was craving something. That’s the only way to describe it. As though I was an addict craving some kind of fix, and that fix was Hans and his teeth. I needed his teeth in my flesh.

If only I could tell him so, but I didn’t get the chance.

Hans, Frederick and Benjamin left the bar together at just gone midnight with nothing more than a thanks and goodnight.

Jeez, I needed the other clients to fuck off and leave me alone. Two more hours until closing felt like a lifetime. I was on a frantic mission as Eliza and I cleared the bar together, trying to get out of there as quickly as I could.

“Steady on,” she said when she saw me scrubbing like crazy. “You’ll take the veneer off at that rate.”

I tried to slow down, but it was hard. So, so hard. I had so many cravings, and questions, and needs. All of them piling up inside me like a squirming mess of sensations.

Hans.

I needed Hans.

Finally, after what felt like a lifetime, the bar was cleared and washed up and it was time to go. I got my coat on as quickly as possible, waving goodbye to Eliza before she’d even reached the coat rack, and then I was on my way, practically running down to Hyde Street and the cobblestones where I prayed to God Hans would be waiting for me.

As it turned out, I didn’t need to get that far. Hans was waiting on the corner before the cobblestones began, propped against one of the marble pillars by the banking chambers.

“You have questions,” he said.

“Yes,” I panted. “I have questions, and I can’t walk away from them, Hans! I can’t play ignorant. I just can’t!”

“I know that, little one. You are so beautiful in your curiosity. It’s one of the things I love about you.”

I love about you.

His words hit me like a lightning bolt, but it didn’t make any difference in that moment. I was shaking like an addict. His smile was so affectionate it gave me flutters, but I didn’t want his affection right then.

“I need you to bite me,” I said. “Please, Hans, I need you to bite me. I can’t take it anymore.”

He was up against me in a heartbeat, backing me against the stonework of the building before I could take a breath.

“Oh, don’t you worry. I know.”