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Coming home was the best part of any day and when Shantal finally walked through the doors, she knew she was finally back in the world where things made sense and she was going to be able to make things happen. As she fumbled with her keys and unlocked the door to her apartment, she threw open the doors and looked inside, staring at Greta playing with Blake. He was laughing and squealing and all she could think about was that she was jealous of her nanny for getting to spend time with her little Prince.
“Hi, everyone!” She called out to them as Greta and Blake walked over to her. Blake ran as quickly as his little feet could carry him, calling out “Ma!” all along the way like the little vocalist he was turning into. She dropped her bag and reached down, scooping up the man she was infatuated with and hugging him as he giggled and hugged her sweetly. He was the kindest person she knew.
“He was great today,” Greta told her. “We had a whole lot of fun.”
“Did you?” she asked him as he squealed and tried to tickle her.
It had been months since she’d had to worry about the vampires that had tried their hardest to capture her and her son. The more she thought about it, it had been a year and a half since her son was almost taken from her and she was grateful that the thoughts rarely came into her mind anymore. The last thing she wanted to worry about was losing her son. It had been a horrifying experience, but it was behind her. It was all locked away in her memory and she wasn’t going to worry about it ever again.
“All right,” Greta said, packing up what she had brought with her.
Shantal smiled at Greta and knew that she was very fortunate to have someone as helpful as Greta. There was nothing this young woman wouldn’t do to help make life easier. She wanted to make sure Greta knew that.
“I think I’ll head out of here. Bo is waiting for me.”
“Big date night?” Shantal asked playfully. She had taken more time to get to know Greta in the passing months, savoring the friendship she had at her disposal, rather than taking her for granted. She wanted to have a full and complete life and that meant having everything she needed at her disposal.
“Yeah,” she said with a nervous smile on her face.
Shantal loved seeing her friend in such a state. There was something about Greta that made her feel young and she liked having her around. Greta was always welcome in her house no matter what.
“I’m really excited,” Greta replied.
“You like him a lot?” Greta nodded and grinned at her.
“Good,” Shantal said with all the confidence in the world. “Make sure you hold on to him if he’s worth it. Good guys are in short supply these days.”
Greta nodded and gave Shantal a hug before she left and went on her way. Shutting the door behind her friend, Shantal hoped there would be a day when her friend would truly understand that and she would have the kind of love Shantal had in her life.
Turning around, she scooped up Blake and played with him, savoring the time she was given with him.
“Do you want to help make dinner with Mommy?”
He nodded gleefully and she was grateful he was more than willing to be her little helper. They always made a habit of never watching TV or wasting a second of their time together. She wasn’t going to lose the chances she had been given with the son she almost lost. She wanted all the time she had with him to be quality time. It was something she was working very hard to understand and to be a part of in her life.
Every morning, when she woke up, she made sure she went through a routine that reminded her of the life she had been given and the chances she had with all the things that mattered to her. She didn’t want a single day to pass her by without seizing the potential it offered her.
She wanted to make sure that all around her, the life and beauty at her fingertips, was understood and harnessed with all of the energy she had inside of her. She would wake up before Blake decided to get up and take the time to focus her mind and her soul.
She wanted to be a mindful person and she wanted to know there was purpose in everything she was doing. She wanted to know there was more than just random chance in her life. She was a person with a purpose and she was going to harness it.
“How about spaghetti?” she asked him with a smile on her face. He didn’t know what he was agreeing to, but he liked to nod and agree with her. She kissed him on the forehead and listened to him as he babbled and walked around the kitchen. It was amazing she had only had him for a year and a half. It felt like she had been with him forever. He was the kind of little person she was never going to get used to or take for granted.
It took an hour for them to prepare it and when it was ready, she pulled up his booster seat to the table and cut up the pasta so that it was tiny enough for him to manage. The two of them sat at the table and she talked to him, telling him all about her day and how much she had missed him. She didn’t want a single day to go by where he didn’t know how crazy for him she was. She laughed at his little personality and how he would often try to talk with her.
He had a mind of his own and there was so much going on inside of it. She would nod along with his jibberish and smile at him, thanking him for sharing with her. She loved listening to his soft little voice.
“Are you full?” she asked him when he was tired of eating and refused to open his mouth anymore.
She kissed him on the forehead and she knew that he was going to start putting up a fight if she didn’t act fast. Washing his face and hands, she took him out of his high chair and let him run around for a while.
She had no way of comparing him to other children, but when she took him into his room and changed him into his pajamas, she was certain that there was going to be a point in his life when he fought with her, but not quite yet. She had a ritual and a routine with him at night that made him all ready for bed.
They would go to his rocking chair and she would sit down as he walked over to his bookshelf and selected a book for her to read. She never really knew what went through his mind as he made his selections, but she knew they were serious and he was talking her through the process the entire time he was over there.
She smiled and nodded, telling him it was a very good choice as he would run as quickly as he could over to her and wait for her to pick him up.
She brushed his dark hair out of his eyes and she wrapped her arms around him as she opened the book, beginning the adventures of the dog who had lost his spots. She would read the first book with him, tickling him and talking with him through all of it. He would point to the pictures and talk in his cute little voice. But when he went to go get the second book to read, she was quiet and soft, drifting him into the lull that was coming for him to float away into the land of dreams.
When they were done reading, she would close the book and tell him that she loved him. She would rock him slightly before picking him up and taking him over to his crib. She knew that in a few months, her little Prince would be too big for his crib and she was going to have to start thinking about a bed for him. That was a terrifying thought to her.
Setting him down inside of the bed, she watched him as he was oddly willing to participate with her. She thought about how easy he was and wondered if parents had this kind of ease with all the little toddlers in the world. He would let her put his blankets over him and she would tuck him into bed. As she would hum to him, whatever song was stuck in her head at the moment, he would watch her and smile, whispering to her in his strange little language.
Putting him to bed was the hardest part of her night. She knew that some parents felt relieved when they finally got their child down for the night, but it was painful for her to put him to sleep. It was like the one friend she had in this house that was never going to leave her was actually leaving her. She hated being alone without him.
He was her entire world and she felt like she already saw so little of him. She wanted to have more of him in her life and she knew there was a gaping hole in her heart when she was left alone.
Kissing him on the forehead, she told him once more that she loved him and wished him sweet dreams. He didn’t know what she was saying and he hugged his teddy bear violently to his chest before tossing the fluffy animal aside and messing up all the work she had put into tucking him in.
She shook her head and walked out of his bedroom, slowly closing the door behind her and knowing it was going to be tomorrow morning before she would hear that sweet voice again. If she was lucky, she’d hear him talking in his sleep tonight.
Walking into the living room, she felt the loneliness of the house and knew it was the kind of void in her life that was never going to go away. There were certain people who were destined to be alone and she knew she was one of them. Well, she was never going to have the kind of life she thought she deserved. She was never going to have the kind of life she wanted where she would come home to her husband and she would kiss him and ask him how his day was.
She was destined for a different kind of life.
She unlocked the window and opened it, listening to the sounds of the city below her. It was an exciting feeling to feel the breeze from the city and hear all of the distant noise. She didn’t know if she hated the city or loved it. Part of her wanted to move out to the country, but she wasn’t going to do that for a while. Everything was going good at work, so she was going to stick around for a while.
Going into the kitchen, she cleaned up after their dinner. She didn’t like the idea of having a messy home and she hated the thought of Greta coming over and seeing the place a mess. She never really felt like doing the dishes, but it was just one of those things that had to be done.
The sooner she got it over with, the sooner she would be able to move on to something else.
She looked over her shoulder at the window. There was something particular she had in mind. It was something she had been thinking about all day long.
Throughout the day, she would think about how every night, she would go through a routine where she would go to the window and unlock it. In a way, it was like putting out a signal or shooting a flare into the darkness. It was the kind of moment where she hoped she would be able to call to him and to draw him back to the home waiting for him.
She knew he was busy and if he wasn’t there, that probably meant something good for her. However, she hated never seeing him. She kept that hope alive though, every time she opened the window for him.
“Hey, Beautiful,” she heard him say.
A smile spread across her lips, igniting as she loaded the last plate into the dishwasher and tried her hardest to control herself. She wanted to run to him and throw her arms around him. She wanted to kiss him and tell him she had missed him more than anything, but there were things she liked to keep a mystery. She liked keeping him on his toes and wondering if this was the night where she hated him or loved him. It was a complicated relationship and she was more than willing to play her part.
“You finally decided to show up,” she said, teasing him as she turned around, shutting the dishwasher door and folding her arms. It had been over a week since she had seen him and she never really asked him what he was doing. She knew now more than ever he had a lot of enemies and they were always out there, waiting for him.
“I figured, since I was in the neighborhood,” he played along nonchalantly.
As he walked over to her, she took him in, picturing him back on that dark night where she had killed the creature known as Flavus. It was the kind of night she tried her hardest to forget about, but when she pictured him coming through the ash and the dust, she couldn’t help but feel like she was in love with a god. He was the kind of heroic figure any woman would have killed to had, but she was lucky enough to actually have him in her life.
“You look tired,” she said to him. Vampires never slept, but there was something about him that looked exhausted, worn out. She knew his life was taxing, but she always thought of herself as a kind of escape for him. She thought about him as the kind of person who needed her to recharge and to put his head on right.
“I’ve missed you,” he said, changing the subject. Sure, there were dark things out there he didn’t want to talk about and she knew better than to pry it out of him, but she still worried about him.
She reached up and cupped his cheek with her hand, feeling the cool touch of his skin and wanting so badly to warm it up. She wanted to give him what he desired and as she leaned in for a kiss, pressing her lips to his, she knew she was going to give him everything he ever wanted from her. All he had to do was ask her for it. As their lips locked, she knew this was always going to be the pair of lips she stuck around for. She was never going to give herself to anyone else.
He had fought her on that. He had dug his heels in and shouted and screamed like a mad man who was trying to save the one woman he loved more than anything else in the world, but she hadn’t listened to a word he said to her. All she knew was that she was going to be with him and wait for him every night of her life.
Whether he liked it or not was beyond the scope of what she concerned herself with. She loved him and that meant she was going to stick around with him and she was going to have hope in him.
Blake was safe from the vampires out there that wanted to harm Vincenzo or who wanted to kill him. He was safe and so was Shantal, but Vincenzo was never going to be safe. They would hunt him and they would able to sense him all around the world and they were always going to keep coming for him.
No matter how hard he tried to kill every last one of the vicious vampires out there, he knew he would always be putting the ones he loved in danger and that was something he refused to do.
While Shantal understood, it made her sad. It had depressed her for a while, but she told him to keep coming back to her. There was no one out there who was like Flavus and who was even close to being as dangerous as him. If that were the case, then she felt like she could hold her own.
As they kissed, she was glad that he had agreed to that much. When they rarely did see each other, it was a moment of pure delight and joy and she was glad he had come along to do this with her. She needed him in her life and she wanted more and more of him.
Their kisses were powerful and they were possessed by intent and purpose. They weren’t going to waste their time and they weren’t going to lose sight of everything they wanted or needed in their life. When they were together, they weren’t going to talk about what made them angry or what was unfair by fate. They were going to enjoy each other.
If it got to be too much for her, all she had to do was lock that window and Vincenzo would know she was ready to move on. As his hands ran over her body though, she knew she was never going to be ready to move on. That wasn’t something she was going to ever be able to do and she knew he was well aware of that.
His hands ran over her sides and her arms, grabbing her shoulders and feeling them. She was still in her work clothes and she knew he was eager to have her out of them. She was eager to get out of them as well. All she could think about was the fact that it had been weeks since she had been given the opportunity to enjoy his body and she was ready for him.
She wanted him to ravage her and give her the pleasure she had known all along. She had signed up for all the madness and craziness, and the repayment was having him for herself. It was a deal he was more than willing to pay her.
But he had agreed to pay her so much more than that. Even though Shantal was at work every day of the week, that didn’t mean she had to. She was there because she wanted to keep up the appearance of being someone who functioned successfully in society.
She wanted to be someone who knew how to participate in life and who knew about being with other people. She couldn’t get sucked into the world of vampires and the dark things in the world. Blake deserved a mother who didn’t freak him out or tell him ghost stories all the time.
But financially, Vincenzo had more money and wealth than she knew what to do with. He was the kind of financial guru who could have thrown all the money he had on the ground and drowned New York City in eight feet of cold hard cash.
She supposed that when you’ve been around as long as him, you can just stick money in the bank and live off of the interest in a few hundred years alone. Now, he was wealthier than anyone could have ever imagined and she was set for life. There was nothing Blake was ever going to have to worry about.
Strangely enough, she found financial security to be something she was incredibly attracted to. All she knew was that she was going to really enjoy herself tonight with him. As he kissed her neck, she smiled at the tickling sensation of his cold lips against her skin. Everything about him was incredibly hot and she didn’t know how to explain it. She was a sucker for Vincenzo and they both were well aware of the fact that she was crazy for him.
Tearing off her blouse, she sat on the table, thankful she had dedicated a specific amount of time during the day to the gym to make sure she was still the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. There was no denying that she had dedicated herself to looking her best and she had spent the past months working out at the gym hard so she looked the best she ever did.
People were always complimenting her about how she looked too good to be a mother and honestly, she didn’t care. The only thing she cared about was the look in Vincenzo’s eyes when he stared at her in her underwear and she knew that she had pleased him.
She tore off his shirt and tossed it aside and felt his pants, well aware there was a throbbing, hungry cock under there and that it was all hers. She was going to have it and she was never going to let go of it. She wanted it more than anything in the world. As she rubbed it, he groaned and smiled, eager for her to give him all the pleasure in the world.
“I want you to lick me tonight,” she said to him, whispering in his ear so he knew she was serious about it. She gave his cock a firm squeeze and he grunted in pleasure. She loved feeling his warm tongue running around her clit as his cold lips kissed her pussy. She was a sucker for him and all the little tricks of the trade he had for her to experience. She didn’t know how she could ever repay him, but he claimed that she did time and time again.
He rubbed her clit through her lacy panties and she smiled, moaning as she felt the jolts of pleasure running through her. She wanted him to keep touching her and to enjoy everything she had available to offer him. There was something about him that was more than alluring to her and as she leaned back on the table, parting her legs, she felt him push aside the fabric of her thong and get instant access to her pussy.
She smiled and writhed on the table, loving the feeling of his cool fingertips inside of her wet pussy.
“I think we should try for another,” she said to him in all honesty. She sat up on her elbows and looked at him as he pulled down his underwear. He looked at her and there was something in his eyes that told her that he was well aware of what she was talking about. He could read her mind after all. She looked at him and she knew he was well aware of what she wanted.
“You think we should see if Blake could have a sibling?” he asked her, lifting an eyebrow. “That might be dangerous.”
“I have a guardian angel,” she assured him with a playful smile on her face.
Now that she knew what she was getting into, she figured that they would have a better chance at standing against whatever was coming for them.
He smiled at her and slowly pressed the head of his cock against the threshold of her pussy. She opened her mouth and gasped. They had all night together and she figured they might as well start off trying. As his cock plunged inside of her, she realized that he fully agreed with her.
*
