It was not much later that Lucian found himself once again waiting at the harbor. This time though, his vile sire was right next to him as they waited on the next ship to America to pull to shore and begin letting passengers board. As the ship began to drop anchors, he had to look back down at her, the hatred clear in his eyes.

“I still would like to know how you think I’m really meant to make a beautiful three hundred year old vampire gain my trust at all, let alone fall in love with me” he replied coldly.

“I’m sure you’ll manage” Awsha allowed another of those irritatingly sweet smiles up at him. She then added, “but if she is going all the way back to California, there is a chance you may have to cross paths with Sean” she said thoughtfully.

“And who is Sean?” he made himself ask.

“My brother” she stated simply, then looked back, “and her husband.”

Lucian adopted a look of further disbelief, “she’s your sister-by-law?”

“Not really. Sean and I simply had the same sire, before I... had to get rid of him” she stated in an eerie monotone.

Lucian just gave her another dark look, “so not only am I to try to seduce a woman that beautiful, but also one much more powerful than whatever power you think you’ve given me; but I have to do it regardless of the fact that she has a husband already?”

Awsha smirked, “and he’s the one who made her. So he’s even more formidable than she is” she warned, “so, we need to take a few precautions.”

“You don’t say” he returned sarcastically. “How about the precaution of me not getting on this ship at all? How’s that one?” he told her with continued anger.

“Well, you could do that. But then I’d have to do something. And there’s so many things I can imagine doing... especially to little Lenore, who trusts me even more than her own father now” she reminded him with that same malevolent smile once more.

He shut his eyes against her words, his fists clenched so tightly his nails nearly drew blood, “what bloody precautions, Awsha?′

“Well, Sean has probably learned to read thoughts now that he’s Prince, I’m sure...”

“Excuse me?” he asked with further disbelief.

“I was talking here” she stated coolly. “Now, as I was saying, if he can read you, he can’t find me inside your head. That would ruin the entire game.”

“Game” Lucian scoffed.

“So” she stated as she moved to take his face in her hands, adopting that hypnotic tone, “you won’t remember my name, or my face. The one thing you will remember about this entire past week is that you are what you are now because of someone who will do very, very bad things to little Lenore, unless you do exactly what they want you to. Understand?” and with that, she turned him away from her once more, and nudged him toward the now lowered gangplank, which he crossed, in a nearly trance-like state then.

----------------------------------------

It was almost three in the morning when Claire and Eliot found themselves atop the bed in their quarters again after the slightly suggestive conversation above deck. Claire had since freed him of his shirt once more, and was leaning over him as he laid back against their pillows. She moved her kisses from his lips, to his neck, as he tensed slightly once more, but soon she moved those kisses to his chest instead. As her lips made their way slowly down over his ribs and then his stomach, where his breaths came more quickly now, she began undoing the buttons lining the front of his trousers. Underneath the material, he was actually already starting to respond to her touch, much to her relief as she continued the task.

It took only moments for her to remove that last bit of his clothing, as she smiled down at where his arousal continued to become more apparent with each touch. Through a smile, she once again moved her lips to his heated skin, daring to even more gently move her tongue over the trail of black hair that led downward to where he had almost fully hardened now.

Those soft kisses, and the gentle way in which she let her tongue tickle his skin continued downwards until she was now spreading kisses over the full erection he had since achieved. As her lips continued their task and her tongue soon joined the assault on his senses, he could no longer stop the gasp from leaving his own throat, his back arching at each caress of her tongue.

Though his voice was more than broken under his now even heavier breaths, Eliot forced himself to find words and then remember how to even try to speak them in her language right then, “not that I’m saying I’m a bit nervous or anything about your mouth being on that particular part of my anatomy...” he breathed, “but I still don’t see how this could possibly help pay my debt” he managed with a breathy chuckle, his body still trembling ever so slightly at her continued kisses.

She finally removed her lips and tongue from that pleasantly surprising hardness to look up at him, “sorry, it seemed like you wanted me to continue.”

“My brain and... body” he decided on, “often do have a bit of trouble agreeing with one another” he teased, his breaths still too short to make the words have any more strength than that of a desire-filled whisper.

“So you do want me to stop?” she asked in a sad but sultry tone as she moved back up the length of his body to lay her cheek upon his chest, though her fingers inadvertently couldn’t help continuing to move over that trail of hair above where her lips had been filling him with more and more desire by the second.

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“That is an ever-so-loaded question” he breathed.

“Just a yes or no is all I need” she smiled against his chest.

“Of course I didn’t want you to stop. But if I didn’t force myself to try and interrupt, I have a feeling that debt of mine would be doubled, within seconds” he breathed through another smile.

She smiled again, “ok, so I’ve stopped. Though you still seem a bit...” she smiled down at him again. “So, should I just let you try to go off to sleep in that state, or...?” she asked in a slightly mischievous tone.

Eliot couldn’t help another smile as he moved to flip her onto her back and gave her another long kiss, “I mean, I need to make some attempt at fulfilling that debt, before incurring any more, don’t I?”

Claire smiled up at him as she wrapped her arms around his neck, “you honestly don’t have to feel obligated to do anything, Eliot. Remember, this is about what you’re comfortable with.”

“I thought it was about me finally allowing myself to be comfortable with, all of this” he said as he moved his eyes down the length of her still clothed body, “that will never truly happen until I actually let myself... try be comfortable with it. Will it?”

“So you do want to? At least try?”

He then gave a pointed look at the ship’s cabin surrounding them, “I seem to be willing to try all kinds of new experiences lately.”

“So what is it that you want to try then?” Claire smiled up at him again.

“I just want to make you feel good too, if I can” he added with another slight blush.

“Judging by what I watched you doing with Aidan. I’m pretty sure you can” she teased.

“Slightly different machinery, love.”

“I think you’ll manage” she smiled up at him again.

With another smile down at her apparent confidence in him, Eliot moved back from her just enough to allow her to lay back on the pillows. He took a deep breath as he looked down at where she still smiled up at him. Eliot then inched closer once more and slowly made his still slightly shaking fingers begin untying the laces of the corset that just barely kept her breasts hidden behind it.

As the material slowly began to part with each unlacing, exposing more and more of her pale skin as he went, he had to smile again, “no dressing gown underneath tonight? The cold really must not bother you, huh?”

“One perk to being me” she whispered as she continued looking up at him, slightly biting her lip as she waited for him to continue undressing her.

Eliot took another even deeper, shakier breath as he made himself finish with the last of the laces. Another moment to try and gather his courage, reminding himself that he had seen her quite naked already, and quite deeply in the throes of passion as Aidan made love to her just one night prior.

With that, he reached down to pull the dress open, exposing her completely to his eyes from the waist up. He swallowed again as he let his eyes move over her already hardening nipples, her body apparently able to feel some effect of the still cool air in the crudely heated hold of the ship.

Taking another moment to steel himself, he moved closer still, as he offered her lips another sweet kiss, her nipples just barely grazing his own as his lips took hers. With another shuddering breath at the feel of her breasts against his bare skin, he moved his kisses downwards to her neck, buying himself more time to further overcome his nerves right then.

As he continued warming the cool skin of her neck with his kisses, Eliot slowly moved a hand to her stomach, causing the tiniest sound of approval to pass Claire’s lips at the feel of his touch. Somehow emboldened by what sounded like a positive reaction to the touch, his hand slowly moved upwards towards her breast. His fingers barely grazed the underside at first, as the intensity of his kisses at her throat grew as well then.

As her arms wrapped around his neck again, encouraging him to continue his attentions, Eliot finally moved his hand upward to ever so lightly let his fingers graze her nipple. And that tiny touch caused another soft moan from Claire then. At the sound, he let himself touch her with a bit more confidence, gently squeezing her breast before letting his fingers begin to tease her nipple, causing it to harden further, as parts of his own anatomy continued to do at their prolonged intimacy.

Keeping that one hand upon her breast, Eliot slowly began moving his kisses downwards from her neck to the swell of her other breast. Claire’s back arched slightly, as her arms around his neck tightened as well. As she still appeared quite pleased with his attentions, he bravely continued moving his kisses toward her other nipple, just letting his lips gently graze it as she allowed another tiny moan.

At that added encouragement, he let himself give into the passion that couldn’t help growing at the simple sensual touch of another person’s body against his. And on that note, he took her nipple into his mouth, the warm wetness of his tongue on her flesh causing a slightly louder moan as she arched her back against him again.

After continuing tasting her breast as both their bodies pressed closer to one another, he finally made himself look up at her breathlessly, “I take it all those little moans are a good thing?

Claire couldn’t help another smile, though her deep green eyes remained closed, her own desire apparent, “a very good thing” she assured.

Smiling back down at her, Eliot took another breath before letting himself move back enough to reach up to begin pulling her dress down her arms. The feel of him reaching up to continue undressing her at last did cause her to finally open those green eyes to him as she readjusted enough to let him finish pulling the dark blue velvet from her arms. She then laid back again, lifting her hips slightly to allow him to finish the task, pulling it down from her waist and over her legs, to fall to the floor at the foot of the bed.

“Nothing to hide at all tonight, huh?” he smiled as he warily moved his eyes over where she was now just as naked as he, laying before him atop the bed.

“You said yourself, you didn’t look away once last night, right?” she teased.

“True enough” he agreed as he let his eyes move over her body more boldly then.

Eliot took one more shaky breath before moving to lay the length of his body against hers once more. He then reached up to brush a lock of hair from her cheek, before leaning in to give her yet another kiss. As the kiss continued, he wrapped his arms about her waist, and their bodies pressed even closer to one another. He then pulled back just an inch or so, and looked down at her, as though surprised by something suddenly.

“Yes?” she smiled over at him.

“You’re not... not ice cold anymore.”

Claire looked down as though to blush again, “that’s what happens when... when we make love. Our body warms. Comes back to life, so to speak” she whispered, hoping her words wouldn’t scare him away with the reminder that she wasn’t actually truly alive after all.

He surprisingly smiled as he thought on her words. “So, any time I feel you getting warm, it means you want to...”

“I think tonight, whether I wanted to was pretty obvious, even before that” she smiled again.