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Chapter Fourteen

A Question of Eternity

"If I take your blood," she began, curious as to how she managed to find her voice with Augustin's eyes so steady on hers like this, full of emotion as they were, "wouldn't that make me a vampire, too?"

"No. Because of what you are, you'd remain human. Eternally human."

She could feel a heavy warmth pressing on her chest as she considered the matter. It wasn't a burdening weight, more that it was oddly calming. A strangely lulling sensation, keeping her wholly at ease as she thought. Hermione couldn't deny that her memories of them feeding on her blood had become sweet, treasured glimpses to her. Intoxicating, really. And the idea that they could, again and again, with no harm to her?

There was a faint flicker of jealousy through her as she recalled Tom's mention of taking the blood of vagabonds to sustain themselves, despite that she'd not even been part of their lives, yet.

"And you—neither of you—would need to feed on anyone else's blood ever again?" Her voice came out a bit breathless, and she wondered if her tone betrayed that she already knew what her answer was.

"Precisely," Tom replied, dipping his head to brush his lips against her skin.

Her eyes drifted closed and she found herself leaning back in Tom's embrace. "You expect me to think when you do such forward things?"

"I was under the impression you were finished thinking on this," he said, slipping his hands back up along her sides and to her neck to start tugging at her dress.

"And I that you rather welcomed 'such forward things' from us by now," Augustin tacked on, that familiar, wicked half-grin of his curving his mouth.

"But wait, wait . . . ." She shook her head in a slow, wobbling manner. "If you can only sustain yourselves on human blood, why did you bite Tom?"

She could feel the rush of breath against her throat from Tom exhaling an airy snicker as Augustin grinned. "Oh, that. That's simply because I enjoy the sensation of my teeth sinking into flesh, which Tom graciously obliges."

Opening her eyes, she met Augustin's gaze again. Hermione needed to witness it once more. Needed to assure herself that now, now that they'd been completely forthright with her, what they were didn't frighten her anymore.

"I want to see that again," she said, her voice barely a thread of sound as it spilled out.

She could swear she felt a small tremor wrack Tom's frame at her request. Well, that was interesting. It seemed that not only did Augustin enjoy the sensation of biting, but that Tom enjoyed being bitten.

"Tom?" Augustin lifted his gaze to the other man's. "Will you oblige me once more?"

Nodding, Tom raised one arm around Hermione. As she'd seen earlier through the keyhole, he offered his wrist. Augustin returned his attention to the woman between them as he slid his hand around Tom's. Those blue eyes holding hers unflinchingly, he pulled back his upper lip, allowing her to watch as his canine teeth elongated.

As he lowered his mouth to Tom's wrist and bit down, sinking those needle-sharp points into his lover's fair skin.

A small, choked-seeming gasp rumbled out of her at the spectacle. She could feel Tom shuddering against her. She could hear a sound of bliss work its way out of him. And all the while, Augustin observed her, even as he nursed Tom's blood from the wound he'd created.

Her skin flushed and there went that sweet clenching low in her body—the one that seemed edged by some mild aching.

They were so beautiful. They were creatures the world didn't believe existed. They loved her . . . and she could literally stay with them forever.

"Yes," she said, that single word bursting abruptly in the quiet room.

Augustin eased his fangs free of Tom's skin as he stared at her. "You're truly certain? Say yes, again, and I'll share Tom's blood with you this very moment."

"Yes."

He didn't hesitate then. Taking another sip from Tom's wound, he lifted his head to capture Hermione's mouth with his. There was a sense as though she was melting into him as she caressed his plunging tongue with her own. If he didn't know any better, he'd swear she was trying to lap up every last drop of Tom's blood in her eagerness.

She broke the kiss, wincing a little as she gave herself a shake. Already, she could feel something was . . . different. She felt more. The fabric of her dress suddenly seemed rougher against her. More confining. The darkness further inside the house was nuance, now—where she only saw the shadowed recesses before, now she was able to discern shapes, furnishings and objects silhouetted against the greater darkness of the night.

Everywhere their skin touched hers, that chill was sharper, causing the contrasting heat of her own skin to spike. She understood, now. That had never been her imagination. Her body reacted to their coolness by keeping her warm.

Looking to Augustin, and then turning her head to look up at Tom over her shoulder, she felt her jaw go slack. They had somehow become even more breathtaking. A bit of blood from one of them was really all it had taken.

In a bit of a daze as she tried to note every change she felt, as Tom's blood did its work awakening her, she became aware of them undressing her. Her garments pooled around her feet.

While she watched him, Augustin lowered to his knees before her. Was the whisper of fabric behind her really Tom removing his dressing gown as Augustin saw to unlacing her boots?

As though in answer to her thoughts, Tom pressed against her, then. She bit her lip to hold back a gasp, adoring the feel of his cool, bare skin on hers. He smoothed his hands down along her sides before circling them forward and up, to cup her breasts.

Augustin, almost carelessly in that mischievous way he had, tossed her boots aside and assisted her to step out of the bundles of material on the floor. He held her leg, at last tearing his gaze from hers as he let his eyes drift closed and pressed a kiss to the inside of her ankle.

She thought surely she must be in another daze as she simply kept on, observing his somewhat reverent motions. His touch was so gentle, his lips impossibly soft as he kissed a path up along her leg. He paused at her knee, and she jumped a little at the touch of his other hand between her thighs. She'd been distracted by Tom teasing her breasts and the delicate sweep of Augustin's lips.

"You truly want this? You want to be with us completely?"

Nodding, she slipped one hand over Augustin's. Recalling those evening glimpses, she guided his fingers into motion against her. "Completely."

Augustin nodded back, dragging his lips up along the inside of her thigh as he steadied her, bracing her leg over his shoulder and relinquishing his hold. The hand between her thighs stroked against her slow, but insistent.

"Tilt your hips back, darling," Tom, silent all this time, said in a low, gruff whisper in her ear.

Doing as he bid, she felt the hardened length of him against her. But, she felt movement, too. She didn't have to look, she knew it was Augustin. Reaching his free hand up to stroke over Tom.

"Up on your toes."

Again, she followed his bidding. If not for Augustin before her, she was certain she'd rather comically fall over. During that vaguely distracting thought, she braced herself, one hand back to grip Tom's bare hip, the other threading into Augustin's hair and curling into a fist.

A moan tore out of her as Augustin positioned him and Tom thrust his hips, entering her.

Though she froze as he withdrew and pressed forward a few times, there was the most delicious little shiver wracking her with each repetition. As he worked up to a rhythm, Augustin parted her, sealing his lips around the tender little bundle of nerves revealed.

Augustin lapped and suckled as Tom sank into her again and again, and Hermione thought how stupid she'd been to almost walk away from this. They were worshiping her.

And she was going to spend eternity letting them.

But her inexperience was her undoing, and it wasn't long before she found release. Tom wasn't nearly finished, she could tell. His movements were steady, but sharper, harder as he felt her tightening around him. At the way her limbs stiffened, Augustin tilted his head this way and that, just as eager to help . . . nursing that sensitive little bead of flesh though her orgasm.

She screamed behind closed lips as her body gave out, rocking between them of its own volition as the blissful sensations ebbed.

Yet, no sooner had her orgasm started drifting from her than did she find them moving her. She didn't know how much more she could take when Augustin pulled back and sat on the floor. Tom lifted her entirely, withdrawing and then kneeling with her in his arms. She let out another of those horribly wanton moans as he lowered her over Augustin's lap, and she felt herself being filled anew.

She knew Tom hadn't spent himself yet, but she adored knowing what they were one another. Even as Tom's fingers gripped her hips to rock her against Augustin's motions, she took one of Augustin's hands in her own and guided it to wrap around Tom's still-hardened length.

"I trust you'll teach me how to do that?" she asked in a halting, exhausted whisper when she felt the motion of Augustin's arm as he followed her behest, working his hand over Tom.

"Oh, God, yes," Augustin answered with a chuckle.

Lowering his mouth, he kissed a path down to her breasts as they moved against each other. He knew what biting her just now would do, and so he held back for a time. Augustin's attention flicked from her face, her head tipped back a little and her lips moving in silent prayers as Tom rocked her over his thrusts, to Tom's face above her shoulder. His teeth were sunk into his lower lip and his eyes were closed in the most exquisite expression.

When he found himself nearing that edge, Augustin tightened his grip on Tom a little. The other man opened his eyes, meeting Augustin's gaze. "Hermione?"

She only managed a whimpering moan in acknowledgement of her name.

"We're going to feed from you now."

Hermione nodded to Augustin's words, feeling suddenly as though she'd been waiting this entire time for them to do exactly that.

She felt those sharp pins—at her breast from Augustin, at her throat from Tom—but the pain was fleeting, as it always was. Soon there was nothing but the sweetness of them drawing from her wounds, the feel of Augustin's length thrusting into her again and again, the awareness of him working Tom to release, and the sensation of their skin slowly warming against hers.

Throwing her head back, she let out an ecstatic scream as they brought her to orgasm, once more. She could hear the rough groan that rumbled low in Tom's chest as he fed from her while finding his own release. Augustin's motions became sharper and unsteady, until he stilled against her, spending himself as Tom's jerking movements kept her rocking over him.

Everything slowed by increments until they had each finished. Until they were each shuddering and thoroughly drained.

Hermione all but collapsed between them as they withdrew their fangs. All three struggling to catch their breath, but no one moved to disentangle themselves from the other two.

After what seemed forever, she said in a shocked whisper, "Oh, my Lord. I'm so embarrassed."

Both vampires pulled themselves from their blissful, languid stupors to give her quizzical looks.

She glanced from one to the other and back. "Well, Peter lives here, too. What if he walks in on us like this? We did just make a bit of a racket."

Augustin burst out laughing as Tom hugged her from behind. "You're adorable, you are. Peter's a total recluse. Never leaves his room in the servants quarters unless we summon him, or he has a particular task at a particular time of day."

"It's why we hired him. Shut-ins don't ask a lot of questions so long as they can mostly be left alone."

"Oh." She nodded, loving the way Tom was holding her. Loving the way Augustin leaned over her to kiss the other man before he dropped a gentle kiss on her forehead and then rested his head on her shoulder. "So . . . every night will be like this?"

"Yes. Well . . . days, too, if you like."

"You two are trying to kill me, I knew it!"

They each chuckled at Hermione's facetious accusation, tightening their hold on her.

She must've drifted off at some point, she realized, because she awoke in her own bed. The sun streamed in through the window and she blinked, for a moment in fear that she'd dreamed all of that.

Except that as she snuggled beneath her covers, still quite worn out, she was greeted by the pleasant press of mildly cool skin on either side of her. Pillowing her head in the hollow of Augustin's shoulder, she closed her eyes again, wriggling herself back a bit against Tom's solid form curved behind her.

"Watch that, darling. None of us will get any rest you keep that up."

A grin curved her lips at his rough, sleepy whisper in her ear. Augustin snickered, but only shook his head against the pillow. "Troublemaker we've found ourselves."

"Troublemaker you've got on your hands forever," she pointed out, snuggling tighter between them.

Tom made a satisfied rumbling sound in the back of his throat as the other vampire said, "Oh, we're aware. A