Byron laughed softly. “And here you are.” She was starting to ache with hunger again. It was partly because they were newly bonded by blood, but also because Amelia understood her and her fears so well. “You know me without even being told. I can’t explain how much that means to me. I’ve been alone for three hundred years.”

“Not any more, sweetheart. I’ll always be by your side, and on your side,” Amelia whispered.

Byron couldn’t stop her need any more, and rolled Amelia underneath her.

Amelia shivered. “When you’re hungry, my blood burns and I ache inside.”

Byron lowered her lips to Amelia’s. “That’s because you’re in my blood, and I’m in yours. We’re connected. Our souls are connected—”

“Bound in blood and spirit for all eternity,” Amelia finished for her.

“I love you, mia cara.” Their lips came together passionately and desperately.

Amelia opened her legs and Byron slipped between them. She kissed her way down Amelia’s jawbone, and placed tender kisses over her healed bite mark.

“Byron, God, I need you.”

Byron smiled and said, “I know. Patience.” She kissed down her chest and moaned when she got to her full breasts. She kissed one while her hand squeezed the other.

Amelia moaned, “Yes,” and placed her hand on top of Byron’s, encouraging her to squeeze harder.

When Byron swirled her tongue around her nipple, both of Amelia’s hands went to the back of Byron’s head, grasping desperately. “Byron, please touch me now.” Amelia grasped Byron’s hand on her breast and pushed it down to her sex.

Byron didn’t slip her fingers into the warmth she knew she’d find there. This was the first time she didn’t have to hide her true nature, and she wanted to savour this. She didn’t fight the fangs that wanted to erupt from her gums, and from Amelia’s reaction, she knew her eyes were dark red.

“Don’t be scared of me.”

Amelia cupped her cheek, and let her thumb tenderly rub the skin around her eyes. “I’m not afraid of you, and I never was. When I see your eyes deeply red like this, they are red with passion for me. Drink from me again?”

Byron felt such liberation being able to be herself. Her mind cast back to the time they made love in Monte Carlo, when she had turned Amelia away so she would not see her vampire side.

“Do you remember the day I introduced you to Sera—we made love before going down to the beach?”

Amelia gave her a knowing smile. “I remember. We christened your antique chest of drawers.”

“I did that because I couldn’t control my vampire that day. I changed, my fangs, everything, so I had to change position so you wouldn’t see me,” Byron said.