"Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme" - Rachel Morgan Series Fic (NC-17)
Disclaimer: The Rachel Morgan series belongs to Kim Harrison, I encourage you all to read her works. I am making no money from this of course and no copyright infringement is intended.
Title: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme
Genre: Rachel Morgan series; Ivy/Rachel
Rating: NC-17; rated for sexual situations
Timeline: AU; sometime after For A Few Demons More but keep in mind I haven't read the book after that. Spoilers for Demons
Author's Note: As with my first smut piece, I'm a little nervous about posting this, as I have never written something quite like this story. And I do want to give fair warning to people, this does put Rachel and Ivy together, please don't read if you are offended by female relationships of a romantic nature. Anyhoo, my first try at this type of story, any constructive criticism appreciated.
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
I settled cross-legged on the floor in front of Ivy’s expensive stereo system and found myself staring it down almost as if it were an adversary. In my hands, I flipped a CD case over and over; stalling.
“Oh come on, Rachel, how bad can it be?” I chastised myself.
I got up on my knees to open the case and slide the CD into the tray before pushing play. I sat back down expectantly, waiting for the damn thing to play, which it did after several minutes of pale static.
“Welcome to lesson one of ‘So You Want to Learn to Play the Guitar,” a bland, innocuous voice greeted me from the stereo speakers.
“I don’t,” I muttered under my breath, but Ceri had given me the CD and insisted that I needed to find something to help me focus. Shadow magick was too dangerous a thing to leave unchecked, and now that we had discovered that the nearly extinct demon talent had somehow manifested itself in my own magic, thanks it would seem to the ‘cure’ Trent’s father had given me as a child, Ceri had declared I needed a method to focus the strange power now working through me; hence, the CD.
“That’s right!” The bland voice encouraged, and I realized that I had missed everything leading up to the statement. With a sigh, I rose to my knees again and set the CD to the beginning.
“Welcome to lesson one of ‘So You Want to Learn to Play the Guitar…”
Suddenly, a screaming, shouting hoard of pixie children came buzzing into the room. Before I could say anything, the youngest of Jenks’ children dove into the loose curls of my hair, an event so unusual, that I was at a loss as to what to do.
“Jariathjackjunisjumoke…” Their father shouted, stringing his children’s names into one nearly incomprehensible word. “You leave your sister alone and come explain yourselves now!”
My friend and business partner buzzed into the room, his dragonfly wings a bright riot of color from emotion. The aforementioned children were giving their father chagrinned looks and preparing to explain themselves when suddenly the pixie child hiding in my hair made a break for it. Her siblings were after her like a shot as they all flew from the room and in the direction of the garden.
“Tink’s knickers, when I get a hold of those children…” Jenks growled darkly.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
“Yeah, well it will be as soon as I figure out exactly what happened,” the pixie answered. “Sorry Rache,” he said as he eyed the guitar and listened a moment to the instructional CD that was still droning on.
I waved away his apology. “S’okay,” I assured him.
Jenks nodded. “I’ve gotta go deal with this; you practice. Don’t want your head imploding or anything from an overload of Shadow magick.” He snickered a little, then turned to fly out in the same direction his unruly brood had gone.
“Now, are we ready to try our first note?”
I sighed and restarted the CD yet again before reaching for the expensive guitar that Ceri had also given me. It was almost too beautiful to touch as far as I was concerned, the rich dark wood and ornate blue ivory inlay of its construction making me almost hesitant to hold it. I fumbled clumsily with the instrument, trying to find the right placement for it in my lap and in my hands. By the time I had figured out how to hold the guitar, the CD had droned its way blithely along to track 5... “And now, how did we do on our first scale progression? Excellent. Next, let’s try…”
“What are you listening to?” Ivy’s smooth voice interrupted, startling me and almost causing me to drop the instrument from my grasp. I set it down carefully and quickly rose to my knees to press stop on the stereo system.
“Are you trying to learn how to play the guitar from a CD?” My partner asked incredulously.
“Yes,” I replied. “Ceri gave it to me with the guitar,” I continued almost defensively.
“Why don’t you just find someone to teach you?” The vampire asked as she walked into the room the rest of the way.
Still on my knees, I finally turned to face Ivy.
The first thing I noticed was her hair. She had let it grow long once more, down past her shoulders and nearly to the small of her back. She had also let the gold tips fade back into their natural ebony color. As much as I had liked it short, I had to admit that the new, simple style looked good on her, framing her pale oval face and drawing attention to the elegant grace of her movements.
Noticing that, let me take in her outfit as well; black leather pants and equally black cotton tank top. She must have just come back from a run, since it was her customary attire for one. She had the black leather vest that completed the outfit draped over her left arm, and she held her boots quietly in the other hand.
She gave me a curious look, her cinnamon brown eyes patient as she offered her opinion as if it were a statement of fact. “You can’t learn to play the guitar from a CD.”
“Well, I don’t have the money for an instructor or a class,” I replied, my voice clearly taking on a defensive tone now. “Besides, I’m not learning so that I can play for a concert or anything. Hell, I don’t even have to be good. I just have to learn as a focus for working with the Shadow magick.”
“But if you have to learn anyway, why not learn properly?” Ivy insisted.
“I told you, I can’t afford to pay someone to teach me. And,” I continued quickly, “I’m not letting anyone else pay for it either.”
“You let Ceridwen give you the guitar,” my partner countered.
I sighed and turned away from the vampire. “It’s not exactly like I could tell her no.”
I didn’t have to see Ivy to know that she had one eyebrow raised, giving me the look. I shrugged it off.
“Have Ceridwen do it then.”
“She doesn’t know how, that’s why she gave me the CD,” I replied. “And before you ask, no, I don’t know anyone else who plays.”
“I do.”
“What?”
I turned back to look at my friend.
“I know how to play the guitar,” she repeated softly. “I could teach you if you like.”
The last was said even more softly than the first statement, almost hesitantly.
“I didn’t know you played. I’ve never heard you.”
“Kisten taught me. I haven’t played since… not since he and I… I don’t play anymore… but I remember how, and I could teach you,” Ivy explained, uncharacteristically stumbling over her words as she spoke quietly.
At the mention of Kisten’s name, I felt a quick sharp pain that I knew Ivy shared with me. We would never be completely over his death, the unexpected pain proved that, but we were healing too. Ivy’s offer was proof of that as well.
I looked at my partner, and after a moment, I gave her a soft shrug that she took for the agreement that I meant it to be. Ivy set her boots down next to the couch and put her vest over the buttery leather of the armrest before joining me on the floor. I picked up the guitar again and tried to focus on what she was telling me about how to hold it and where my fingers should go.
“No, Rachel, it’s just the first finger down, try to keep the other fingers up.”
I tried to place my finger down properly.
“Down lower,” Ivy directed.
I struggled to place my fingers just right before plucking almost violently at the strings with my other hand.
“You’re meant to strum it,” Ivy corrected.
I couldn’t help but glare at her, my frustration starting to fray both my patience and my nerves. Angrily, I tried to brush my fingers over the strings to produce a more pleasant sound. A string broke, snapping out and up.
“Damn it,” I swore, sucking on my finger where it had been stung.
“Let me see,” my partner offered.
“I got it,” I mumbled, my finger still in my mouth. “I got it, it’s fine.”
“Well here, at least let me re-string the guitar. Did Ceridwen give you any extra strings?”
I pointed mutely over to a plastic bag on the couch, the same one that I had pulled the CD out of earlier. Ivy took the guitar from me and while I nursed my smarting fingers, she deftly restrung the instrument and padded back over to me.
For a moment, she simply stood over me, giving me an odd, considering sort of look. But before I could ask what it was about, she sighed and spoke.
“Let’s try this another way.”
I tensed as she padded around me and settled herself down behind my back. I was still tense as I felt the vampire inch closer.
“It’ll be easier if I show you how to do it, instead of trying to just explain it,” Ivy said quietly. “It’s okay,” she added, saying it to reassure herself as much as me I thought. “I’ll just show you quickly and it won’t be as frustrating as doing it the other way.”
Ivy scooted even closer and I stiffened when she set each of her leather clad legs to either side of my body. I was so focused on the sight of her legs around me that I almost jumped when she lifted her arms up and over my head to set the guitar in my lap. I felt the vampire tense in response and forced myself to relax. It was the closest we had been in months, both physically and emotionally, the last thing I wanted to do was give Ivy any reason to pull away. I took a deep breath.
“Okay, so what’s first?” I made myself ask in a normal voice, proud for being able to do so. I felt Ivy relax a little herself and was glad for it. Then she reached around to take my hands in hers. For a moment, I went stiff again and felt my partner’s conflicting instincts keyed up by my response. Concerned, I made myself to go loose in her grasp and slowed my pulse down with a couple of deep breaths. “Ivy?”
“Your fingers need to go here and be like this,” she instructed, placing my hands where she wanted them. “That’s an E.”
“A,” she said then, repeating the process of placing my hands. “D…”
She continued through each note until we had done the scale three times.
“Every Apple Does Go Bad Eventually,” Ivy chanted as we completed the last progression.
“
Well, that’s a cheery little thought,” I replied with light sarcasm.
“It’s a mnemonic device to remember the notes,” the vampire countered a touch defensively.
“I get that Ivy, I was just saying… never mind…” I sighed, curious about how I could have struck a nerve, but not wanting to press the issue and drive my partner away.
Ivy sighed herself in mild exasperation and I tried to not notice how warm her breath was against my neck. Just as I tried equally hard to ignore the sensation of her long hair tickling my shoulder when she pressed closer to get a better hold of my hands.
“You need to learn the Major and Minor chords too,” she explained, moving my hands as she spoke. “They give the guitar a soul… emotion… and let you give a song a beating heart.”
“And just when did you start getting all poetic on me?” I teased, still trying to keep myself focused on other things besides the heat of her pressed against my back or the softness of her breath stirring the tendrils of my hair.
“Rachel…”
Ivy’s tone made me realize that all my focusing had caused me to go tense again.
“Rachel, we should…”
The thought struck me abruptly then, that we had never talked about our kiss; between the tension, and then the chaos afterwards, followed by Kisten’s death, there simply hadn’t ever been a time that seemed right. And after that, it had become a strange balancing act between us; between what was spoken and unspoken. Neither one of us had wanted to shatter our friendship with words that we could never take back, so we had only said what we needed to, to make through the days and nights together.
We had never talked… we had never talked about how, as conflicted as I was about it, I had decided somewhere along the way between then and now that I wanted her to kiss me again.
I titled my head, offering her my neck.
“Yes…” I almost sighed.
Her lips fell to my skin, just shy of the hidden scar on my neck, and for a moment, it was right. Then suddenly, almost violently, Ivy pulled her head up.
“No,” she practically spat. “I told you once, it’s all or nothing, Rachel.”
“Ivy…”
“And I’m not Kisten. I will not be some kind of replacement for you. We’re not interchangeable; something to feed your need for danger or adrenaline,” she declared in a heated tone.
She tried to take her hands away from mine and pull back from me, but I gripped her as tightly as I could, letting the guitar fall. It hit the floor at an odd angle and I could hear the neck crack from the stress, but I held onto Ivy.
It wasn’t a practical gesture, she could easily break my grasp, but I did it because I needed her to hear what I had to say. “I know that,” I returned with equal vehemence. “I know that, and this isn’t about you biting me, or finding some kind of blood balance. It isn’t about my need for danger or even just about what you need.”
“Then what is it about?” Ivy demanded, her voice tinged with an edge of violence that I had to admit excited me as much as it scared me.
I took a deep breath anyway and plunged in, ignoring the way that my heart seemed to drop in fear. There was lot I could lose in the next minute, or a lot I could gain. The rush of that nearly made me dizzy.
“I love you, Ivy.”
I said it simply, no hedging, no embellishments. I said it the way Ivy needed to hear it. I said it and never turned around, though I was aching to see her face. Instead, I brought her hands to my waist and used my own to slide hers just under the hemline of my light blue silk camisole. I let my hands linger just a moment before releasing hers, ceding the next move to her.
“It’s all,” I said quietly. “You gave me a choice, Ivy, and I pick all.”
Her hands were tense against my skin, still not moving.
“This isn’t some kind of game for me, Rachel, and you have to know that it’s too dangerous if you’re thinking it is.”
“No one’s playing here, Ivy,” I replied sincerely and gently.
Carefully, her hands spread out against my skin, then ever so slowly, hesitantly, Ivy began to slide them up beneath the silk. And if a touch could be called hopeful, hers was. It was a very wary kind of hope, but hope nonetheless.
I held my breath.
After what seemed like hours instead of the minutes I knew it to be, the vampire’s fingertips brushed the undersides of my breasts and my breath rushed from me in a sudden whoosh of sound. It seemed to make Ivy more confident. Gently, she cupped my breasts with her hands and brushed her thumbs once quickly across my nipples. They went erect with sudden sensation and I gasped, arching into her touch with obvious desire.
I could practically name it as the moment that Ivy’s tension went from the edge of anger and hurt, into something else far more welcome.
“Ivy…” her name fell from my lips almost as a prayer or a spell.
She brought her own lips back to my neck, teasing along the edge of my demon scar, but never quite playing on it directly. Meanwhile, her hands grew more confident, until I was arching like a bow into the steady pressure of them caressing my breasts beneath the silk of my camisole.
“Ivy…”
“Say it again, Rachel. I need to hear you say it again.”
“I love you,” I half said, half begged. The words came quickly now, though whether that was because they were easier to say, or because of what she was doing, I couldn’t quite tell. Either way, it was enough for Ivy, and she finally brought her mouth to my scar. Pleasure raced from her touch and down through my body to settle low in my belly, causing me to writhe in my partner’s arms.
After several moments that left me panting, Ivy abruptly stopped. She pulled her hands away and moved out from behind me. I ached with the sudden loss and felt myself go tense with wondering what her unexpected withdrawal meant.
“Relax, Rachel,” my partner soothed as she settled herself in front of me. “I just wanted to see you.”
I looked into her normally cinnamon brown eyes and saw that they had gone vampire dark, reflecting the light around us as well as my own eyes, wide with desire.
“And what do you see?”
“Something I never thought I would,” Ivy admitted as she reached out to brush a stray curl of my red hair back behind my ear. “You’re so beautiful, Rachel. Do you realize just how beautiful you are?” she whispered.
“You’re not half bad yourself,” I replied with a teasing grin that I was surprised to see the vampire return before I brushed her dark hair back, mirroring her caress with my own.
I let my hands drift through the ebony strands.
“I like your hair long,” I half whispered, gently tangling my fingers in the soft tendrils. It was suddenly fascinating to see the contrast of her dark to my light.
“I thought you liked it short,” Ivy countered, her own voice as close to a whisper as mine was.
“I like it either way…because I love you,” I replied, meaning it.
I gently pulled her closer, my hands still tangled lightly in her hair. Almost helplessly, her eyes slid closed a moment, shutting their shadowed depths away from me.
“God, you smell good…” Ivy sighed in a tone hinting at intoxication.
I watched her lips as she spoke.
“Yeah?”
“Like spicy cedar and rosemary,” the vampire murmured, her breath warm against my lips as I brought mine closer, close enough to kiss hers.
It was feather light, just the shadow of a real kiss, but still, it made Ivy’s eyes fly open and she would have pulled away but for my hands still tangled tenderly in her hair.
“I love you,” I reassured her before brushing my lips against hers once more. “I’m ready for it all” I vowed, and what I wasn’t ready for, I would face down anyway I told myself. Because whatever else was true, that I loved Ivy was a fact, and for that fact, I would confront every other uncertainty.
I kissed Ivy, and for a moment, everything from here to the ever-after seemed to still. Then suddenly, my heart burst into a million glorious pieces, each one becoming like a star in my breast. The dizzying sensation left me breathless until it began to kaleidoscope inward and all I could do was get lost in the sweet clove and vanilla taste her.
“God Ivy, you taste good…”
I kissed her again, letting the taste of her fill me. Eagerly, my tongue traced the sharp edges of her teeth, flirting with the dangerous points of them until accidentally, perhaps inevitably, I nicked myself.
“Rachel…” she murmured, half in warning, half in desire.
“I’m coming to you, Ivy…” I murmured, tasting the whisper of my own blood in my mouth.
Ivy’s lips were warm and subtle as she slowly returned my kiss before her moan hummed through me as the first taste of my blood set off every instinct in her. She kissed me then liked she wanted to consume me, which, I tried to remember through the haze, was exactly what her vamp instincts were telling her to do. It was only her love for me and her willpower, that kept those predatory instincts in check.
“Mmm…” my soft moan was an echo of hers as I surrendered myself, trusting that Ivy could do that; trusting Ivy.
When we finally surfaced from the kiss, it was like swimmers, breathless and a little dizzy.
“Wow…” I gasped.
“That was definitely… it was… wow…” Ivy echoed, uncharacteristically inelegant as she tripped over her words.
I couldn’t hold back my delighted laugh in response and I was pleased to see Ivy smile with me.
“Definitely wow,” I agreed in a low voice.
Ivy’s smile quietly became a promise of desire and the fulfillment of it before she kissed me again, leaving the lingering taste of her on my lips even as hers left mine. Slowly, she began trailing kisses like rose petals from my mouth to the scooped neckline of my camisole and the feel of her breath whispering against the lace made me loose my own. It fell from me in a soft sigh.
My partner tilted a look up to me from beneath ebony lashes, a hundred and one questions in her eyes, questions that she wanted me to answer. For a moment, I felt nearly overwhelmed, but then I met Ivy’s obsidian dark gaze and realized that I even though I couldn’t answer a hundred of them, there was at least one that I could.
“Rachel?”
“Yes…”
The vampire licked her lips and I watched, fascinated and feeling my heartbeat racing ahead of my thoughts. Then unexpectedly, Ivy slid down and took one of my nipples into her mouth, caressing it through the smooth silk.
“Oh God, Ivy…” I gasped in surprise, feeling not just my nipple, but my whole body go taut with pleasure. It suddenly seemed like a nearly unforgivable sin that I had denied us both this for as long as I had.
“I want to show you everything, Rachel,” Ivy said, as if reading my thoughts.
I moaned in response, feeling the delicious slide of hot, wet silk beneath her lips as it moved over my nipple.
“I want to give you everything I’ve been waiting so long to give to you.”
I gasped as I felt the soft scrape of her teeth through the fabric and arched back, trying to press myself closer to the vampire’s very talented mouth.
“I want you to understand everything that we can be together,” she murmured, her breath teasing over my nipple and causing me to shudder even as I plucked almost frantically at the silk between us. It was too much; it wasn’t nearly enough. I needed…
“More…” I half sighed, half begged, still pulling fitfully at my camisole.
Ivy responded by lifting her head up from my breast and giving me a subtle smile before sliding her hands very slowly and gently under the hem of my camisole. She let her hands drift upwards, the silk pooling around her wrists as she helped me free of it.
“More…” Ivy promised, her melodic voice touching something primal in me, resonating through my body until I felt like a taut guitar string waiting to be played. And the moment she took my nipple back into her mouth, pleasure did hum from me like a song that my body danced to. It wasn’t until I felt Ivy trail kisses to the waistband of my jeans and flick the button open that the song stilled in my throat.
“Rachel?”
I tensed.
“Rachel? Are you…” I felt Ivy herself stiffen and pull away even as I did.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Ivy… I just… I’ve never… and…” The words tumbled from me as the force of my desire suddenly crashed into the wall of my uncertainties.
“Shh…” the vampire interrupted gently. “Shh… It’s okay. We don’t have to. It’s enough; you’re enough,” she assured me softly.
Ivy’s eyes were still a predatory black but an edge of cinnamon brown was appearing as Ivy pulled herself back. I saw the vampire hold her need and desire in check even though it had to be painful for her. I saw my partner hurting herself for love of me and it drew her name from my lips in denial and protest.
“Ivy…”
It made me ache to see her in pain, more than that, it made me ache to know that I was the one causing that pain.
“It’s okay, Rachel. It’s enough; you’re enough.”
I met Ivy’s eyes. More importantly, I met the love in Ivy’s eyes. It was enough to break down the wall.
“No…” I countered, rising to my knees to unzip my jeans before shimmying out of them.
Ivy watched with eyes rapidly being swallowed by obsidian shadows and her breath coming in shallow whispers.
I swallowed, almost overwhelmed by the intensity of her regard.
“Rachel…” It was half question, half expression of need and desire.
“I want this,” I said, ridding myself of the last of my clothing and kneeling naked before my partner in more ways than one.
“I want you,” I continued, reaching for Ivy’s cotton tank top and helping her to pull it up over her head before brushing her hair back off of her shoulders gently.
“I’m nervous as hell,” I admitted, my fingers light as I slipped her bra straps down, kissing her shoulders before removing the garment completely.
“But you’ve waited too long…”
Together we slid Ivy’s dark leather pants off of her long, shapely legs.
“And even if I didn’t know before…” I whispered.
I hesitated only a moment, then helped the vampire to shed the rest of her clothing as well, letting my fingertips linger against her soft skin as I did so.
“I’ve waited too long for this moment. Show me… show me what we’ve both been waiting for…”
Ivy was gentle as she laid me back into the thick pile of the carpet and I felt myself sink lightly into the soft depths.
“Rachel…” she murmured, making my name the first line of a song, an aria composed as she trailed kisses like notes down my body until she came to rest at my navel. I arched up into the gentle pressure of her mouth before she began to trace her way lower to a place where her breath stirred intimate curls, making me gasp and twist beneath her.
“Please…”
I felt, more than saw Ivy smile before she began to tease me with light brushes of her lips until the pulse thundering in my ears seemed to shake my whole body.
“Ivy, please…” my own voice sounded wild to my ears, tangled as it was with need and desire.
Finally, she deepened her kiss and it was like nothing I had ever experienced before. Ivy drank me in as deeply as if I were an exquisite wine and she wanted nothing more than to be intoxicated.
“Oh God…” I was rapidly loosing the power of speech as I writhed wildly beneath her.
The vampire settled her hands on my hips to steady me as she lead me gently toward something shimmering and glorious.
“Oh my God, Ivy…” I gasped almost frantically and reached out blindly, digging my fingertips into the thick carpet. I bucked against my partner’s hands, my back arching like a bow as I sought release.
“Oh…oh…oh…” My climax rocked through me and I burst into a million glorious pieces, shattered and scattered into nothing more than light and sensation. For a moment, there was no Rachel Morgan, there was just me, and I was the universe. I reveled in the feeling even as it slowly slipped away, returning me to my body. But something was… I hesitated to call it wrong exactly…
“Rachel, are you okay?”
Ivy’s question made me realize that I could feel ley line energy filling me.
“I spontaneously tapped a line?” I asked myself. It wasn’t possible, at least, I had never heard of it being possible, and it had certainly never happened to me before.
“Rachel?”
There was a touch of insecurity in Ivy’s voice and I realized that while I had been busy thinking, I had left her alone in uncertainty.
I met her obsidian dark eyes.
“I’m fine,” I reassured her. “More than fine,” I added with a pleased smile.
I reached out to touch Ivy’s cheek and when she shivered, I realized that she could feel the magic through my fingertips. I smiled softly.
“Do you trust me?”
“With my soul,” my partner replied without hesitation.
Before today, her statement might have scared me to death, it still did actually, but now I wasn’t letting that fear hold me back.
“I want to try something, if you’ll trust me.”
Again, without any sign of hesitation, Ivy pulled me to her, shivering as she kissed me and the ley line energy danced between us. I broke the kiss only long enough to reverse our positions, laying her back on the carpet and placing myself above her.
“I want to make you feel as good as you just made me feel,” I murmured.
I took a deep breath and reached for Ivy, starting with her hand and the thought that she could pull it away easily enough if she had to. I traced her fingers first, gently liming them with the soft glow of magic. When I was done with them, I slowly made my way up her arm and then to her shoulder.
I slipped my fingertips to the hallow of her throat, dancing them over the delicate pulse beating just beneath her soft skin until she sighed in pleasure.
“What are you doing?” Ivy asked, her voice colored with the just the hint of wonder.
Gently, I trailed my caress lower, tracing a path between her breasts until I could slid my hand to the smooth skin beneath her right breast. Already, her nipples were taut, and I wondered what it would feel like to brush my fingertips over them.
“Do you feel it?” I asked quietly as I traced an inward spiral over her breast.
“Yes…” she sighed.
“And it feels good?”
Ivy moaned in response and I felt her pleasure tug at something primal in me.
“This…” I traced the outer edge of her nipple, spiraling out ley line energy in a caress over her breast. “Does this feel good?” I murmured, brushing my fingertips lightly across Ivy’s nipple, causing her to gasp and arch up against my hand.
“And this…” I said in a quiet voice before tasting the pulse at the hallow of her throat even as I continued to caress her nipple with my fingertips and ley line energy. “Does this feel good?” I asked in a whisper against her warm skin.
“Yes…” the vampire sighed.
“Good…” I whispered in return, echoing the kisses that still lingered on my skin before taking Ivy’s other nipple in my mouth. She moaned and arched up against me as I followed my own sense memories and played them out over her body with the ley line energy dancing between us.
It was strange and exciting, caressing curves and shadows where before my hands had only known angles and hard planes. And as I explored Ivy’s secrets, it was as if I were seeing her for the first time.
“You’re so beautiful,” I murmured with an awed breath. “I never… I didn’t realize just how beautiful until…”
She interrupted with a kiss that left me breathless.
“What’s beautiful is this,” Ivy whispered. “Right here, right now…”
I smiled quietly and kissed her again, catching her gasp as my fingers finally played though her ebony curls before dipping slowly into her.
“Rachel…” my partner moaned into our parted lips when we finally took the chance to breathe.
Encouraged, I caressed her with gentle fingers and brushes of ley line energy until Ivy was moaning wordlessly against my lips as she came in a single bright moment.
“You’re so beautiful,” I murmured again, moved by the wonder of watching Ivy’s climax and knowing that I had caused it. “So beautiful…” I whispered, tracing kisses over her face like the memory of a dream or a spell.
Ivy brought her hand up to caress my face. Then gently, she let her fingers dance from my cheek and to the edge of my hidden scar, arousing me with unspoken questions.
“Yes…” I replied breathlessly.
I rose back to my knees, followed with liquid grace by my partner. We knelt in each other’s space, breathing each other in a moment before I sighed softly.
“Yes…”
I tilted my head, offering.
“I love you, Rachel,” Ivy whispered, tracing the edges of my scar before gently bringing her lips to it. I felt it flare to life and couldn’t help the moan that escaped my lips.
“Ivy…”
“I love you, Rachel,” she whispered against my neck and I could feel the hint of her teeth against my skin. It made me shudder with need, aching to feel the sharp, sweet sting of them.
“Love me…”
“I do love you, Ivy…” I whispered, feeling her anchor herself and her need to the words. I knew that it would be okay. “I trust you…”
I felt her kiss my scar once, lingering and soft.
“Ivy…” I moaned, lost in the moment, but trusting that my partner would not loose me.
She teased her lips almost playfully along my scar again and I closed my eyes in ecstasy.
“I remember how you taste, Rachel,” the vampire whispered against my neck. “I remember, and I’ve dreamt about it… sweet mulled wine and strawberries… I want…”
“Yes…” I sighed, interrupting her with something close to a plea.
The sweet, slow slide of her teeth made me come nearly undone as I felt my blood racing, aching to rush into her and fill Ivy’s need. It was like a cool stillness that I knew I could ease with my own warmth and I did so in blissful abandon.
“Oh Ivy… I love you… I love you… I love you…” I half whispered, half moaned as if it were a divine sutra.
Lost in passion, my hands fumbled caresses over her skin until my right hand brushed the soft curls that hid her body’s secrets. I felt Ivy press herself easily against the pressure of my touch and I played my fingers through her curls before slowly sliding one into her.
The vampire’s own hands clenched almost painfully for a moment where they rested on my shoulders and I felt her pull even more deeply against my neck.
“Oh God…” I moaned almost helplessly as a pleasure approaching orgasm washed over me.
Ivy’s grip eased and she slid her hands down my arms before letting them settle on my hips. The pull at my neck remained deep though, and the gentle tease of her tongue over my scar made my eyes drift closed in ecstasy. Dimly, a small voice of self preservation warned that I had surrendered myself completely to the predator that my partner truly was. I ignored it with blissful abandon, sinking into the sensation of completing Ivy and making her whole in a way that only I could.
My submission called to my partner’s vamp instincts and she slid one hand up my spine before splaying it wide over the middle of my back. Possessively, she pulled me tighter to her until we were pressed knee to knee, hip to hip, and breast to breast. The embrace trapped my hand between us and I felt Ivy shudder as my fingers moved deeper into her.
“You like that, Love?” I asked, the endearment falling easily, if unfamiliarly from my lips.
I used my fingertips to find the intimate secrets of Ivy’s body, caressing her with inexperienced but eager desire. Her own passion was the perfect counterpoint to mine, deft and patient as she played upon my scar, bringing my pleasure to a cresendo in my very blood. Every cell seemed to temble with a release greater than any orgasim I had ever had. It was like touching the infinite and, just for a moment, being able to hold it in your hand.
“Ivy!” Her name rose from me as a cry that even as a near scream, couldn’t express everything I was feeling as my partner drank in my climax.
Impulsively, I bit hard into Ivy’s neck, leaving marks.
“Oh God, Rachel,” the vampire moaned as she released her own hold on my neck. “Oh, God…”
She trembled against me as I bit just a breath harder.
“Rachel…” Ivy sighed, sated. Her head fell back to my shoulder and I shivered as her warm breath danced over my skin.
“We can do this,” I whispered as I slowly eased my mouth away from her neck.
“We can do this,” she agreed quietly.
I rested my own forehead against Ivy’s shoulder.
“Sorry about…” I kissed the almost angry looking marks on my partner’s pale skin.
Her low laugh in response was musical and touched me in places I had never thought a voice could reach. “Don’t be.”
I smiled, though I knew she couldn’t see it.
“So you…”
I was interrupted by the bright hum of Jenks’ wings as he flew into the room.
“So Rache, how’s it going? I don’t…” he trailed off in surprise and chagrin.
My own embarrassment made me tumble from Ivy’s arms and reach for the first thing I could to cover myself. The guitar strings made a discordant twang as I held it in front of myself.
“Oh, I’m… I didn’t know… I…” Jenks stammered, his wings turning a bright red in mortification as dust drifted from him in a glittering cloud. “I’ll just be going then…”
He darted out of the room.
“Well that was…” I began before Jenks interrupted again, startling me into clutching my guitar tighter to myself.
“But can I just say…” he teased with a good-natured smirk. “By Tink’s bells and garters, it’s about damn time.”
The pixie darted out of the room again, his embarrassment clearly not greater than his amusement as his laughter echoed down the hallway.
“Well, that couldn’t have been more embarrassing,” I muttered. “Could he have had any worse timing?”
“Actually, he could have,” Ivy replied, slowly lowering herself back to sit on her heels.
I darted my gaze toward the vampire, catching her small smile out of the corner of my eye.
“I suppose you’re right,” I agreed, unable to keep the wry smile from my own lips.
I shifted the guitar in my lap, noticing the crack in the golden wood of the neck. I traced it carefully with my fingertip.
“Looks like I broke it after all,” I sighed regretfully.
“Let me see.”
Ivy reached out and I moved closer to hand her the instrument before sitting cross-legged on the thick carpet. The vampire herself mirrored my pose, settling the guitar in her lap.
“It’s not too bad,” she reassured me as she brushed a fingertip over the wood. “I can probably fix it for you if you’d like. No one would ever be able to tell.”
I nodded in agreement and relief. I didn’t want to have to tell Ceri that I had broken her gift. And I definitely didn’t want to tell her how it had gotten broken.
“Thanks.”
Ivy smiled and strummed a low chord experimentally as she tilted her head a moment, listening. Whatever she heard seemed to satisfy her and she began to play softly.
“Are you going to Scarbourough Faire? Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Remember me, to one who lives there. She once was a true love of mine.”
Ivy’s voice slipped smooth and silken through the air to reach out and caress me.
“Tell her to make me a cambric shirt. Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Without a seam and with no needlework. And then she'll be a true love of mine.”
I closed my eyes, just letting Ivy’s perfect voice wash over me.
“Tell her to find me an acre of land. Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Between the salt water and the sea-strand. Then she'll be a true love of mine. Tell her to reap it with a sickle of leather. Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. And to gather it all in a bunch of heather. Then she'll be a true love of mine.”
My partner’s voice was like honey as she reached the final verse.
“Love imposes impossible tasks. Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. But none more than any heart would ask. I must know you're a true love of mine… a true love of mine…”
I kept my eyes closed until the last notes of the guitar stilled into a quiet hum.
“Breathe, Rachel,” Ivy said in an almost whisper and I took a deep breath, not realizing until that moment, that I had been holding it. “Breathe,” she repeated.
The dusky scent of vampire incense heightened the feeling of near intoxication still whispering through my veins.
“Rachel?”
I opened my eyes slowly.
“Rachel, are you…” Ivy asked almost hesitantly, her voice trailing off before finishing the question. But what her words didn’t ask, her eyes did, uncertain and hauntingly insecure.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I reassured her softly, ignoring my own uncertainties by focusing on the one thing I was certain of in the whole situation. “I’m not going anywhere,” I repeated.
My partner searched my eyes, hope, love, desire, and fear all waring inside her own. I was almost disconcerting to see it all and know that it was centered entirely on me.
“I’m not going anywhere, but maybe,” I smiled a little. “We could move this lesson out of the living room?”
I darted a quick glance in the direction of the door, and beyond it, the garden.
“Ivy?”
Ivy gave me a small smile and I gently lifted the guitar from her lap to set it aside, carefully propping it against the couch. Then I rose and offered my partner my hand.
“Coming?”
Ivy’s quiet smile in response was rapidly becoming one of the most beautiful things that I had ever seen as she reached for my hand.
“Anywhere with you…” she replied, and feeling her hand in mine, I knew that however crazy it sounded, I had just found the one thing that made perfect sense in my life.
“With you,” I echoed. “Always with you…”
Title: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme
Genre: Rachel Morgan series; Ivy/Rachel
Rating: NC-17; rated for sexual situations
Timeline: AU; sometime after For A Few Demons More but keep in mind I haven't read the book after that. Spoilers for Demons
Author's Note: As with my first smut piece, I'm a little nervous about posting this, as I have never written something quite like this story. And I do want to give fair warning to people, this does put Rachel and Ivy together, please don't read if you are offended by female relationships of a romantic nature. Anyhoo, my first try at this type of story, any constructive criticism appreciated.
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
I settled cross-legged on the floor in front of Ivy’s expensive stereo system and found myself staring it down almost as if it were an adversary. In my hands, I flipped a CD case over and over; stalling.
“Oh come on, Rachel, how bad can it be?” I chastised myself.
I got up on my knees to open the case and slide the CD into the tray before pushing play. I sat back down expectantly, waiting for the damn thing to play, which it did after several minutes of pale static.
“Welcome to lesson one of ‘So You Want to Learn to Play the Guitar,” a bland, innocuous voice greeted me from the stereo speakers.
“I don’t,” I muttered under my breath, but Ceri had given me the CD and insisted that I needed to find something to help me focus. Shadow magick was too dangerous a thing to leave unchecked, and now that we had discovered that the nearly extinct demon talent had somehow manifested itself in my own magic, thanks it would seem to the ‘cure’ Trent’s father had given me as a child, Ceri had declared I needed a method to focus the strange power now working through me; hence, the CD.
“That’s right!” The bland voice encouraged, and I realized that I had missed everything leading up to the statement. With a sigh, I rose to my knees again and set the CD to the beginning.
“Welcome to lesson one of ‘So You Want to Learn to Play the Guitar…”
Suddenly, a screaming, shouting hoard of pixie children came buzzing into the room. Before I could say anything, the youngest of Jenks’ children dove into the loose curls of my hair, an event so unusual, that I was at a loss as to what to do.
“Jariathjackjunisjumoke…” Their father shouted, stringing his children’s names into one nearly incomprehensible word. “You leave your sister alone and come explain yourselves now!”
My friend and business partner buzzed into the room, his dragonfly wings a bright riot of color from emotion. The aforementioned children were giving their father chagrinned looks and preparing to explain themselves when suddenly the pixie child hiding in my hair made a break for it. Her siblings were after her like a shot as they all flew from the room and in the direction of the garden.
“Tink’s knickers, when I get a hold of those children…” Jenks growled darkly.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
“Yeah, well it will be as soon as I figure out exactly what happened,” the pixie answered. “Sorry Rache,” he said as he eyed the guitar and listened a moment to the instructional CD that was still droning on.
I waved away his apology. “S’okay,” I assured him.
Jenks nodded. “I’ve gotta go deal with this; you practice. Don’t want your head imploding or anything from an overload of Shadow magick.” He snickered a little, then turned to fly out in the same direction his unruly brood had gone.
“Now, are we ready to try our first note?”
I sighed and restarted the CD yet again before reaching for the expensive guitar that Ceri had also given me. It was almost too beautiful to touch as far as I was concerned, the rich dark wood and ornate blue ivory inlay of its construction making me almost hesitant to hold it. I fumbled clumsily with the instrument, trying to find the right placement for it in my lap and in my hands. By the time I had figured out how to hold the guitar, the CD had droned its way blithely along to track 5... “And now, how did we do on our first scale progression? Excellent. Next, let’s try…”
“What are you listening to?” Ivy’s smooth voice interrupted, startling me and almost causing me to drop the instrument from my grasp. I set it down carefully and quickly rose to my knees to press stop on the stereo system.
“Are you trying to learn how to play the guitar from a CD?” My partner asked incredulously.
“Yes,” I replied. “Ceri gave it to me with the guitar,” I continued almost defensively.
“Why don’t you just find someone to teach you?” The vampire asked as she walked into the room the rest of the way.
Still on my knees, I finally turned to face Ivy.
The first thing I noticed was her hair. She had let it grow long once more, down past her shoulders and nearly to the small of her back. She had also let the gold tips fade back into their natural ebony color. As much as I had liked it short, I had to admit that the new, simple style looked good on her, framing her pale oval face and drawing attention to the elegant grace of her movements.
Noticing that, let me take in her outfit as well; black leather pants and equally black cotton tank top. She must have just come back from a run, since it was her customary attire for one. She had the black leather vest that completed the outfit draped over her left arm, and she held her boots quietly in the other hand.
She gave me a curious look, her cinnamon brown eyes patient as she offered her opinion as if it were a statement of fact. “You can’t learn to play the guitar from a CD.”
“Well, I don’t have the money for an instructor or a class,” I replied, my voice clearly taking on a defensive tone now. “Besides, I’m not learning so that I can play for a concert or anything. Hell, I don’t even have to be good. I just have to learn as a focus for working with the Shadow magick.”
“But if you have to learn anyway, why not learn properly?” Ivy insisted.
“I told you, I can’t afford to pay someone to teach me. And,” I continued quickly, “I’m not letting anyone else pay for it either.”
“You let Ceridwen give you the guitar,” my partner countered.
I sighed and turned away from the vampire. “It’s not exactly like I could tell her no.”
I didn’t have to see Ivy to know that she had one eyebrow raised, giving me the look. I shrugged it off.
“Have Ceridwen do it then.”
“She doesn’t know how, that’s why she gave me the CD,” I replied. “And before you ask, no, I don’t know anyone else who plays.”
“I do.”
“What?”
I turned back to look at my friend.
“I know how to play the guitar,” she repeated softly. “I could teach you if you like.”
The last was said even more softly than the first statement, almost hesitantly.
“I didn’t know you played. I’ve never heard you.”
“Kisten taught me. I haven’t played since… not since he and I… I don’t play anymore… but I remember how, and I could teach you,” Ivy explained, uncharacteristically stumbling over her words as she spoke quietly.
At the mention of Kisten’s name, I felt a quick sharp pain that I knew Ivy shared with me. We would never be completely over his death, the unexpected pain proved that, but we were healing too. Ivy’s offer was proof of that as well.
I looked at my partner, and after a moment, I gave her a soft shrug that she took for the agreement that I meant it to be. Ivy set her boots down next to the couch and put her vest over the buttery leather of the armrest before joining me on the floor. I picked up the guitar again and tried to focus on what she was telling me about how to hold it and where my fingers should go.
“No, Rachel, it’s just the first finger down, try to keep the other fingers up.”
I tried to place my finger down properly.
“Down lower,” Ivy directed.
I struggled to place my fingers just right before plucking almost violently at the strings with my other hand.
“You’re meant to strum it,” Ivy corrected.
I couldn’t help but glare at her, my frustration starting to fray both my patience and my nerves. Angrily, I tried to brush my fingers over the strings to produce a more pleasant sound. A string broke, snapping out and up.
“Damn it,” I swore, sucking on my finger where it had been stung.
“Let me see,” my partner offered.
“I got it,” I mumbled, my finger still in my mouth. “I got it, it’s fine.”
“Well here, at least let me re-string the guitar. Did Ceridwen give you any extra strings?”
I pointed mutely over to a plastic bag on the couch, the same one that I had pulled the CD out of earlier. Ivy took the guitar from me and while I nursed my smarting fingers, she deftly restrung the instrument and padded back over to me.
For a moment, she simply stood over me, giving me an odd, considering sort of look. But before I could ask what it was about, she sighed and spoke.
“Let’s try this another way.”
I tensed as she padded around me and settled herself down behind my back. I was still tense as I felt the vampire inch closer.
“It’ll be easier if I show you how to do it, instead of trying to just explain it,” Ivy said quietly. “It’s okay,” she added, saying it to reassure herself as much as me I thought. “I’ll just show you quickly and it won’t be as frustrating as doing it the other way.”
Ivy scooted even closer and I stiffened when she set each of her leather clad legs to either side of my body. I was so focused on the sight of her legs around me that I almost jumped when she lifted her arms up and over my head to set the guitar in my lap. I felt the vampire tense in response and forced myself to relax. It was the closest we had been in months, both physically and emotionally, the last thing I wanted to do was give Ivy any reason to pull away. I took a deep breath.
“Okay, so what’s first?” I made myself ask in a normal voice, proud for being able to do so. I felt Ivy relax a little herself and was glad for it. Then she reached around to take my hands in hers. For a moment, I went stiff again and felt my partner’s conflicting instincts keyed up by my response. Concerned, I made myself to go loose in her grasp and slowed my pulse down with a couple of deep breaths. “Ivy?”
“Your fingers need to go here and be like this,” she instructed, placing my hands where she wanted them. “That’s an E.”
“A,” she said then, repeating the process of placing my hands. “D…”
She continued through each note until we had done the scale three times.
“Every Apple Does Go Bad Eventually,” Ivy chanted as we completed the last progression.
“
Well, that’s a cheery little thought,” I replied with light sarcasm.
“It’s a mnemonic device to remember the notes,” the vampire countered a touch defensively.
“I get that Ivy, I was just saying… never mind…” I sighed, curious about how I could have struck a nerve, but not wanting to press the issue and drive my partner away.
Ivy sighed herself in mild exasperation and I tried to not notice how warm her breath was against my neck. Just as I tried equally hard to ignore the sensation of her long hair tickling my shoulder when she pressed closer to get a better hold of my hands.
“You need to learn the Major and Minor chords too,” she explained, moving my hands as she spoke. “They give the guitar a soul… emotion… and let you give a song a beating heart.”
“And just when did you start getting all poetic on me?” I teased, still trying to keep myself focused on other things besides the heat of her pressed against my back or the softness of her breath stirring the tendrils of my hair.
“Rachel…”
Ivy’s tone made me realize that all my focusing had caused me to go tense again.
“Rachel, we should…”
The thought struck me abruptly then, that we had never talked about our kiss; between the tension, and then the chaos afterwards, followed by Kisten’s death, there simply hadn’t ever been a time that seemed right. And after that, it had become a strange balancing act between us; between what was spoken and unspoken. Neither one of us had wanted to shatter our friendship with words that we could never take back, so we had only said what we needed to, to make through the days and nights together.
We had never talked… we had never talked about how, as conflicted as I was about it, I had decided somewhere along the way between then and now that I wanted her to kiss me again.
I titled my head, offering her my neck.
“Yes…” I almost sighed.
Her lips fell to my skin, just shy of the hidden scar on my neck, and for a moment, it was right. Then suddenly, almost violently, Ivy pulled her head up.
“No,” she practically spat. “I told you once, it’s all or nothing, Rachel.”
“Ivy…”
“And I’m not Kisten. I will not be some kind of replacement for you. We’re not interchangeable; something to feed your need for danger or adrenaline,” she declared in a heated tone.
She tried to take her hands away from mine and pull back from me, but I gripped her as tightly as I could, letting the guitar fall. It hit the floor at an odd angle and I could hear the neck crack from the stress, but I held onto Ivy.
It wasn’t a practical gesture, she could easily break my grasp, but I did it because I needed her to hear what I had to say. “I know that,” I returned with equal vehemence. “I know that, and this isn’t about you biting me, or finding some kind of blood balance. It isn’t about my need for danger or even just about what you need.”
“Then what is it about?” Ivy demanded, her voice tinged with an edge of violence that I had to admit excited me as much as it scared me.
I took a deep breath anyway and plunged in, ignoring the way that my heart seemed to drop in fear. There was lot I could lose in the next minute, or a lot I could gain. The rush of that nearly made me dizzy.
“I love you, Ivy.”
I said it simply, no hedging, no embellishments. I said it the way Ivy needed to hear it. I said it and never turned around, though I was aching to see her face. Instead, I brought her hands to my waist and used my own to slide hers just under the hemline of my light blue silk camisole. I let my hands linger just a moment before releasing hers, ceding the next move to her.
“It’s all,” I said quietly. “You gave me a choice, Ivy, and I pick all.”
Her hands were tense against my skin, still not moving.
“This isn’t some kind of game for me, Rachel, and you have to know that it’s too dangerous if you’re thinking it is.”
“No one’s playing here, Ivy,” I replied sincerely and gently.
Carefully, her hands spread out against my skin, then ever so slowly, hesitantly, Ivy began to slide them up beneath the silk. And if a touch could be called hopeful, hers was. It was a very wary kind of hope, but hope nonetheless.
I held my breath.
After what seemed like hours instead of the minutes I knew it to be, the vampire’s fingertips brushed the undersides of my breasts and my breath rushed from me in a sudden whoosh of sound. It seemed to make Ivy more confident. Gently, she cupped my breasts with her hands and brushed her thumbs once quickly across my nipples. They went erect with sudden sensation and I gasped, arching into her touch with obvious desire.
I could practically name it as the moment that Ivy’s tension went from the edge of anger and hurt, into something else far more welcome.
“Ivy…” her name fell from my lips almost as a prayer or a spell.
She brought her own lips back to my neck, teasing along the edge of my demon scar, but never quite playing on it directly. Meanwhile, her hands grew more confident, until I was arching like a bow into the steady pressure of them caressing my breasts beneath the silk of my camisole.
“Ivy…”
“Say it again, Rachel. I need to hear you say it again.”
“I love you,” I half said, half begged. The words came quickly now, though whether that was because they were easier to say, or because of what she was doing, I couldn’t quite tell. Either way, it was enough for Ivy, and she finally brought her mouth to my scar. Pleasure raced from her touch and down through my body to settle low in my belly, causing me to writhe in my partner’s arms.
After several moments that left me panting, Ivy abruptly stopped. She pulled her hands away and moved out from behind me. I ached with the sudden loss and felt myself go tense with wondering what her unexpected withdrawal meant.
“Relax, Rachel,” my partner soothed as she settled herself in front of me. “I just wanted to see you.”
I looked into her normally cinnamon brown eyes and saw that they had gone vampire dark, reflecting the light around us as well as my own eyes, wide with desire.
“And what do you see?”
“Something I never thought I would,” Ivy admitted as she reached out to brush a stray curl of my red hair back behind my ear. “You’re so beautiful, Rachel. Do you realize just how beautiful you are?” she whispered.
“You’re not half bad yourself,” I replied with a teasing grin that I was surprised to see the vampire return before I brushed her dark hair back, mirroring her caress with my own.
I let my hands drift through the ebony strands.
“I like your hair long,” I half whispered, gently tangling my fingers in the soft tendrils. It was suddenly fascinating to see the contrast of her dark to my light.
“I thought you liked it short,” Ivy countered, her own voice as close to a whisper as mine was.
“I like it either way…because I love you,” I replied, meaning it.
I gently pulled her closer, my hands still tangled lightly in her hair. Almost helplessly, her eyes slid closed a moment, shutting their shadowed depths away from me.
“God, you smell good…” Ivy sighed in a tone hinting at intoxication.
I watched her lips as she spoke.
“Yeah?”
“Like spicy cedar and rosemary,” the vampire murmured, her breath warm against my lips as I brought mine closer, close enough to kiss hers.
It was feather light, just the shadow of a real kiss, but still, it made Ivy’s eyes fly open and she would have pulled away but for my hands still tangled tenderly in her hair.
“I love you,” I reassured her before brushing my lips against hers once more. “I’m ready for it all” I vowed, and what I wasn’t ready for, I would face down anyway I told myself. Because whatever else was true, that I loved Ivy was a fact, and for that fact, I would confront every other uncertainty.
I kissed Ivy, and for a moment, everything from here to the ever-after seemed to still. Then suddenly, my heart burst into a million glorious pieces, each one becoming like a star in my breast. The dizzying sensation left me breathless until it began to kaleidoscope inward and all I could do was get lost in the sweet clove and vanilla taste her.
“God Ivy, you taste good…”
I kissed her again, letting the taste of her fill me. Eagerly, my tongue traced the sharp edges of her teeth, flirting with the dangerous points of them until accidentally, perhaps inevitably, I nicked myself.
“Rachel…” she murmured, half in warning, half in desire.
“I’m coming to you, Ivy…” I murmured, tasting the whisper of my own blood in my mouth.
Ivy’s lips were warm and subtle as she slowly returned my kiss before her moan hummed through me as the first taste of my blood set off every instinct in her. She kissed me then liked she wanted to consume me, which, I tried to remember through the haze, was exactly what her vamp instincts were telling her to do. It was only her love for me and her willpower, that kept those predatory instincts in check.
“Mmm…” my soft moan was an echo of hers as I surrendered myself, trusting that Ivy could do that; trusting Ivy.
When we finally surfaced from the kiss, it was like swimmers, breathless and a little dizzy.
“Wow…” I gasped.
“That was definitely… it was… wow…” Ivy echoed, uncharacteristically inelegant as she tripped over her words.
I couldn’t hold back my delighted laugh in response and I was pleased to see Ivy smile with me.
“Definitely wow,” I agreed in a low voice.
Ivy’s smile quietly became a promise of desire and the fulfillment of it before she kissed me again, leaving the lingering taste of her on my lips even as hers left mine. Slowly, she began trailing kisses like rose petals from my mouth to the scooped neckline of my camisole and the feel of her breath whispering against the lace made me loose my own. It fell from me in a soft sigh.
My partner tilted a look up to me from beneath ebony lashes, a hundred and one questions in her eyes, questions that she wanted me to answer. For a moment, I felt nearly overwhelmed, but then I met Ivy’s obsidian dark gaze and realized that I even though I couldn’t answer a hundred of them, there was at least one that I could.
“Rachel?”
“Yes…”
The vampire licked her lips and I watched, fascinated and feeling my heartbeat racing ahead of my thoughts. Then unexpectedly, Ivy slid down and took one of my nipples into her mouth, caressing it through the smooth silk.
“Oh God, Ivy…” I gasped in surprise, feeling not just my nipple, but my whole body go taut with pleasure. It suddenly seemed like a nearly unforgivable sin that I had denied us both this for as long as I had.
“I want to show you everything, Rachel,” Ivy said, as if reading my thoughts.
I moaned in response, feeling the delicious slide of hot, wet silk beneath her lips as it moved over my nipple.
“I want to give you everything I’ve been waiting so long to give to you.”
I gasped as I felt the soft scrape of her teeth through the fabric and arched back, trying to press myself closer to the vampire’s very talented mouth.
“I want you to understand everything that we can be together,” she murmured, her breath teasing over my nipple and causing me to shudder even as I plucked almost frantically at the silk between us. It was too much; it wasn’t nearly enough. I needed…
“More…” I half sighed, half begged, still pulling fitfully at my camisole.
Ivy responded by lifting her head up from my breast and giving me a subtle smile before sliding her hands very slowly and gently under the hem of my camisole. She let her hands drift upwards, the silk pooling around her wrists as she helped me free of it.
“More…” Ivy promised, her melodic voice touching something primal in me, resonating through my body until I felt like a taut guitar string waiting to be played. And the moment she took my nipple back into her mouth, pleasure did hum from me like a song that my body danced to. It wasn’t until I felt Ivy trail kisses to the waistband of my jeans and flick the button open that the song stilled in my throat.
“Rachel?”
I tensed.
“Rachel? Are you…” I felt Ivy herself stiffen and pull away even as I did.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Ivy… I just… I’ve never… and…” The words tumbled from me as the force of my desire suddenly crashed into the wall of my uncertainties.
“Shh…” the vampire interrupted gently. “Shh… It’s okay. We don’t have to. It’s enough; you’re enough,” she assured me softly.
Ivy’s eyes were still a predatory black but an edge of cinnamon brown was appearing as Ivy pulled herself back. I saw the vampire hold her need and desire in check even though it had to be painful for her. I saw my partner hurting herself for love of me and it drew her name from my lips in denial and protest.
“Ivy…”
It made me ache to see her in pain, more than that, it made me ache to know that I was the one causing that pain.
“It’s okay, Rachel. It’s enough; you’re enough.”
I met Ivy’s eyes. More importantly, I met the love in Ivy’s eyes. It was enough to break down the wall.
“No…” I countered, rising to my knees to unzip my jeans before shimmying out of them.
Ivy watched with eyes rapidly being swallowed by obsidian shadows and her breath coming in shallow whispers.
I swallowed, almost overwhelmed by the intensity of her regard.
“Rachel…” It was half question, half expression of need and desire.
“I want this,” I said, ridding myself of the last of my clothing and kneeling naked before my partner in more ways than one.
“I want you,” I continued, reaching for Ivy’s cotton tank top and helping her to pull it up over her head before brushing her hair back off of her shoulders gently.
“I’m nervous as hell,” I admitted, my fingers light as I slipped her bra straps down, kissing her shoulders before removing the garment completely.
“But you’ve waited too long…”
Together we slid Ivy’s dark leather pants off of her long, shapely legs.
“And even if I didn’t know before…” I whispered.
I hesitated only a moment, then helped the vampire to shed the rest of her clothing as well, letting my fingertips linger against her soft skin as I did so.
“I’ve waited too long for this moment. Show me… show me what we’ve both been waiting for…”
Ivy was gentle as she laid me back into the thick pile of the carpet and I felt myself sink lightly into the soft depths.
“Rachel…” she murmured, making my name the first line of a song, an aria composed as she trailed kisses like notes down my body until she came to rest at my navel. I arched up into the gentle pressure of her mouth before she began to trace her way lower to a place where her breath stirred intimate curls, making me gasp and twist beneath her.
“Please…”
I felt, more than saw Ivy smile before she began to tease me with light brushes of her lips until the pulse thundering in my ears seemed to shake my whole body.
“Ivy, please…” my own voice sounded wild to my ears, tangled as it was with need and desire.
Finally, she deepened her kiss and it was like nothing I had ever experienced before. Ivy drank me in as deeply as if I were an exquisite wine and she wanted nothing more than to be intoxicated.
“Oh God…” I was rapidly loosing the power of speech as I writhed wildly beneath her.
The vampire settled her hands on my hips to steady me as she lead me gently toward something shimmering and glorious.
“Oh my God, Ivy…” I gasped almost frantically and reached out blindly, digging my fingertips into the thick carpet. I bucked against my partner’s hands, my back arching like a bow as I sought release.
“Oh…oh…oh…” My climax rocked through me and I burst into a million glorious pieces, shattered and scattered into nothing more than light and sensation. For a moment, there was no Rachel Morgan, there was just me, and I was the universe. I reveled in the feeling even as it slowly slipped away, returning me to my body. But something was… I hesitated to call it wrong exactly…
“Rachel, are you okay?”
Ivy’s question made me realize that I could feel ley line energy filling me.
“I spontaneously tapped a line?” I asked myself. It wasn’t possible, at least, I had never heard of it being possible, and it had certainly never happened to me before.
“Rachel?”
There was a touch of insecurity in Ivy’s voice and I realized that while I had been busy thinking, I had left her alone in uncertainty.
I met her obsidian dark eyes.
“I’m fine,” I reassured her. “More than fine,” I added with a pleased smile.
I reached out to touch Ivy’s cheek and when she shivered, I realized that she could feel the magic through my fingertips. I smiled softly.
“Do you trust me?”
“With my soul,” my partner replied without hesitation.
Before today, her statement might have scared me to death, it still did actually, but now I wasn’t letting that fear hold me back.
“I want to try something, if you’ll trust me.”
Again, without any sign of hesitation, Ivy pulled me to her, shivering as she kissed me and the ley line energy danced between us. I broke the kiss only long enough to reverse our positions, laying her back on the carpet and placing myself above her.
“I want to make you feel as good as you just made me feel,” I murmured.
I took a deep breath and reached for Ivy, starting with her hand and the thought that she could pull it away easily enough if she had to. I traced her fingers first, gently liming them with the soft glow of magic. When I was done with them, I slowly made my way up her arm and then to her shoulder.
I slipped my fingertips to the hallow of her throat, dancing them over the delicate pulse beating just beneath her soft skin until she sighed in pleasure.
“What are you doing?” Ivy asked, her voice colored with the just the hint of wonder.
Gently, I trailed my caress lower, tracing a path between her breasts until I could slid my hand to the smooth skin beneath her right breast. Already, her nipples were taut, and I wondered what it would feel like to brush my fingertips over them.
“Do you feel it?” I asked quietly as I traced an inward spiral over her breast.
“Yes…” she sighed.
“And it feels good?”
Ivy moaned in response and I felt her pleasure tug at something primal in me.
“This…” I traced the outer edge of her nipple, spiraling out ley line energy in a caress over her breast. “Does this feel good?” I murmured, brushing my fingertips lightly across Ivy’s nipple, causing her to gasp and arch up against my hand.
“And this…” I said in a quiet voice before tasting the pulse at the hallow of her throat even as I continued to caress her nipple with my fingertips and ley line energy. “Does this feel good?” I asked in a whisper against her warm skin.
“Yes…” the vampire sighed.
“Good…” I whispered in return, echoing the kisses that still lingered on my skin before taking Ivy’s other nipple in my mouth. She moaned and arched up against me as I followed my own sense memories and played them out over her body with the ley line energy dancing between us.
It was strange and exciting, caressing curves and shadows where before my hands had only known angles and hard planes. And as I explored Ivy’s secrets, it was as if I were seeing her for the first time.
“You’re so beautiful,” I murmured with an awed breath. “I never… I didn’t realize just how beautiful until…”
She interrupted with a kiss that left me breathless.
“What’s beautiful is this,” Ivy whispered. “Right here, right now…”
I smiled quietly and kissed her again, catching her gasp as my fingers finally played though her ebony curls before dipping slowly into her.
“Rachel…” my partner moaned into our parted lips when we finally took the chance to breathe.
Encouraged, I caressed her with gentle fingers and brushes of ley line energy until Ivy was moaning wordlessly against my lips as she came in a single bright moment.
“You’re so beautiful,” I murmured again, moved by the wonder of watching Ivy’s climax and knowing that I had caused it. “So beautiful…” I whispered, tracing kisses over her face like the memory of a dream or a spell.
Ivy brought her hand up to caress my face. Then gently, she let her fingers dance from my cheek and to the edge of my hidden scar, arousing me with unspoken questions.
“Yes…” I replied breathlessly.
I rose back to my knees, followed with liquid grace by my partner. We knelt in each other’s space, breathing each other in a moment before I sighed softly.
“Yes…”
I tilted my head, offering.
“I love you, Rachel,” Ivy whispered, tracing the edges of my scar before gently bringing her lips to it. I felt it flare to life and couldn’t help the moan that escaped my lips.
“Ivy…”
“I love you, Rachel,” she whispered against my neck and I could feel the hint of her teeth against my skin. It made me shudder with need, aching to feel the sharp, sweet sting of them.
“Love me…”
“I do love you, Ivy…” I whispered, feeling her anchor herself and her need to the words. I knew that it would be okay. “I trust you…”
I felt her kiss my scar once, lingering and soft.
“Ivy…” I moaned, lost in the moment, but trusting that my partner would not loose me.
She teased her lips almost playfully along my scar again and I closed my eyes in ecstasy.
“I remember how you taste, Rachel,” the vampire whispered against my neck. “I remember, and I’ve dreamt about it… sweet mulled wine and strawberries… I want…”
“Yes…” I sighed, interrupting her with something close to a plea.
The sweet, slow slide of her teeth made me come nearly undone as I felt my blood racing, aching to rush into her and fill Ivy’s need. It was like a cool stillness that I knew I could ease with my own warmth and I did so in blissful abandon.
“Oh Ivy… I love you… I love you… I love you…” I half whispered, half moaned as if it were a divine sutra.
Lost in passion, my hands fumbled caresses over her skin until my right hand brushed the soft curls that hid her body’s secrets. I felt Ivy press herself easily against the pressure of my touch and I played my fingers through her curls before slowly sliding one into her.
The vampire’s own hands clenched almost painfully for a moment where they rested on my shoulders and I felt her pull even more deeply against my neck.
“Oh God…” I moaned almost helplessly as a pleasure approaching orgasm washed over me.
Ivy’s grip eased and she slid her hands down my arms before letting them settle on my hips. The pull at my neck remained deep though, and the gentle tease of her tongue over my scar made my eyes drift closed in ecstasy. Dimly, a small voice of self preservation warned that I had surrendered myself completely to the predator that my partner truly was. I ignored it with blissful abandon, sinking into the sensation of completing Ivy and making her whole in a way that only I could.
My submission called to my partner’s vamp instincts and she slid one hand up my spine before splaying it wide over the middle of my back. Possessively, she pulled me tighter to her until we were pressed knee to knee, hip to hip, and breast to breast. The embrace trapped my hand between us and I felt Ivy shudder as my fingers moved deeper into her.
“You like that, Love?” I asked, the endearment falling easily, if unfamiliarly from my lips.
I used my fingertips to find the intimate secrets of Ivy’s body, caressing her with inexperienced but eager desire. Her own passion was the perfect counterpoint to mine, deft and patient as she played upon my scar, bringing my pleasure to a cresendo in my very blood. Every cell seemed to temble with a release greater than any orgasim I had ever had. It was like touching the infinite and, just for a moment, being able to hold it in your hand.
“Ivy!” Her name rose from me as a cry that even as a near scream, couldn’t express everything I was feeling as my partner drank in my climax.
Impulsively, I bit hard into Ivy’s neck, leaving marks.
“Oh God, Rachel,” the vampire moaned as she released her own hold on my neck. “Oh, God…”
She trembled against me as I bit just a breath harder.
“Rachel…” Ivy sighed, sated. Her head fell back to my shoulder and I shivered as her warm breath danced over my skin.
“We can do this,” I whispered as I slowly eased my mouth away from her neck.
“We can do this,” she agreed quietly.
I rested my own forehead against Ivy’s shoulder.
“Sorry about…” I kissed the almost angry looking marks on my partner’s pale skin.
Her low laugh in response was musical and touched me in places I had never thought a voice could reach. “Don’t be.”
I smiled, though I knew she couldn’t see it.
“So you…”
I was interrupted by the bright hum of Jenks’ wings as he flew into the room.
“So Rache, how’s it going? I don’t…” he trailed off in surprise and chagrin.
My own embarrassment made me tumble from Ivy’s arms and reach for the first thing I could to cover myself. The guitar strings made a discordant twang as I held it in front of myself.
“Oh, I’m… I didn’t know… I…” Jenks stammered, his wings turning a bright red in mortification as dust drifted from him in a glittering cloud. “I’ll just be going then…”
He darted out of the room.
“Well that was…” I began before Jenks interrupted again, startling me into clutching my guitar tighter to myself.
“But can I just say…” he teased with a good-natured smirk. “By Tink’s bells and garters, it’s about damn time.”
The pixie darted out of the room again, his embarrassment clearly not greater than his amusement as his laughter echoed down the hallway.
“Well, that couldn’t have been more embarrassing,” I muttered. “Could he have had any worse timing?”
“Actually, he could have,” Ivy replied, slowly lowering herself back to sit on her heels.
I darted my gaze toward the vampire, catching her small smile out of the corner of my eye.
“I suppose you’re right,” I agreed, unable to keep the wry smile from my own lips.
I shifted the guitar in my lap, noticing the crack in the golden wood of the neck. I traced it carefully with my fingertip.
“Looks like I broke it after all,” I sighed regretfully.
“Let me see.”
Ivy reached out and I moved closer to hand her the instrument before sitting cross-legged on the thick carpet. The vampire herself mirrored my pose, settling the guitar in her lap.
“It’s not too bad,” she reassured me as she brushed a fingertip over the wood. “I can probably fix it for you if you’d like. No one would ever be able to tell.”
I nodded in agreement and relief. I didn’t want to have to tell Ceri that I had broken her gift. And I definitely didn’t want to tell her how it had gotten broken.
“Thanks.”
Ivy smiled and strummed a low chord experimentally as she tilted her head a moment, listening. Whatever she heard seemed to satisfy her and she began to play softly.
“Are you going to Scarbourough Faire? Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Remember me, to one who lives there. She once was a true love of mine.”
Ivy’s voice slipped smooth and silken through the air to reach out and caress me.
“Tell her to make me a cambric shirt. Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Without a seam and with no needlework. And then she'll be a true love of mine.”
I closed my eyes, just letting Ivy’s perfect voice wash over me.
“Tell her to find me an acre of land. Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Between the salt water and the sea-strand. Then she'll be a true love of mine. Tell her to reap it with a sickle of leather. Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. And to gather it all in a bunch of heather. Then she'll be a true love of mine.”
My partner’s voice was like honey as she reached the final verse.
“Love imposes impossible tasks. Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. But none more than any heart would ask. I must know you're a true love of mine… a true love of mine…”
I kept my eyes closed until the last notes of the guitar stilled into a quiet hum.
“Breathe, Rachel,” Ivy said in an almost whisper and I took a deep breath, not realizing until that moment, that I had been holding it. “Breathe,” she repeated.
The dusky scent of vampire incense heightened the feeling of near intoxication still whispering through my veins.
“Rachel?”
I opened my eyes slowly.
“Rachel, are you…” Ivy asked almost hesitantly, her voice trailing off before finishing the question. But what her words didn’t ask, her eyes did, uncertain and hauntingly insecure.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I reassured her softly, ignoring my own uncertainties by focusing on the one thing I was certain of in the whole situation. “I’m not going anywhere,” I repeated.
My partner searched my eyes, hope, love, desire, and fear all waring inside her own. I was almost disconcerting to see it all and know that it was centered entirely on me.
“I’m not going anywhere, but maybe,” I smiled a little. “We could move this lesson out of the living room?”
I darted a quick glance in the direction of the door, and beyond it, the garden.
“Ivy?”
Ivy gave me a small smile and I gently lifted the guitar from her lap to set it aside, carefully propping it against the couch. Then I rose and offered my partner my hand.
“Coming?”
Ivy’s quiet smile in response was rapidly becoming one of the most beautiful things that I had ever seen as she reached for my hand.
“Anywhere with you…” she replied, and feeling her hand in mine, I knew that however crazy it sounded, I had just found the one thing that made perfect sense in my life.
“With you,” I echoed. “Always with you…”