"Yes."

Van sat bolt upright. His fingers dropping from my chin so he could sweep my hands up off my knees. He tilted his head to point an ear at me. "Say it again."

"Yes, Van." I whispered breathlessly.

"Yes, what, My Zira?"

He badly wants to hear me say the words. Though I was beyond reluctant to say all of it I could see the raw need on his face. Some deep desperation. A tiny flicker of hope sending gold lights into the darkness of his nearly-black eyes.

"Yes, Van. I'd like you to make love to me."

Like? Why'd I say that rather than just consent?

Why did I want to entrust my body into the hands of this demon?

That was the thing. To me he was no longer just a demon. Yes, I was haunted by the thing that had shredded my body. Caused me unending suffering and utterly destroyed my spirit that night.

But I also remembered the being that'd woke next to me and carefully gone against his own nature to tender my spirit back to life as though it were the most precious thing in existence.

He'd cared for both my mind and body as I tried to heal.

Defying every grain of what he is. And, for whatever reason, I trusted that creature.

Van.

***

He stood over me. Wearing only those pants and that cloak. And he turned that golden-brown, long fingered hand to offer it to me.

I stared at it, understanding the gravity of what I was doing. My gaze flitted up to his unreadable face and I gained confidence looking at him. Tentatively slipping my far smaller hand into his.

His fingers wrapped around mine and he lightly massaged the back of my hand with his thumb before lifting it slightly to guide me to my feet.

I numbly stood.

He crouched before me. Maintaining eye contact as he lifted my foot and removed first one worn shoe. Then the other. Then he unraveled my cotton stockings and tucked them into my shoes. Setting them aside.

I was suddenly very grateful that I'd returned to the crone's after the true demon had ravished me and gotten more clothes. She'd kindly given me some that no longer fit her girth.

It was the first new clothes I'd had in many years. New to me, at least.

And wearing so many layers now, made me feel slightly less vulnerable beneath his penetrating gaze. Thought the way he looked at me, made me feel as if I were already naked beneath his view.

"You always are." He agreed. Reading my thoughts as he so often did. "I envision you that way constantly. It haunts me. I barely have to close my eyes to see your perfect, bare flesh."

"I'm too skinny. Too frail."

"Too, too...nothing. Where do you get all this?"

"I've been told by men afore."

"They were men that didn't truly see you." Van dismissed focusing now on reaching beneath my skirt to catch the waist of my tattered petticoat and slid it down my legs. His rough knuckles brushing along the outside of my thighs in a delicious way that made me shiver.

He took my hand and held the garment to the ground so I could step out of it.

Treating me more as a lady now then any man ever had.

***

He lifted my skirts and held them up near my waist. Giving me a patient look.

"Oh!" I caught on. Catching up the handful of folds and holding it around my hips. I watched him questioningly.

He gave me a hungry stare as he scooped the back of one of my knees and guided it up over his shoulder. Crouched as he was, he was nearly receiving a face full of my sex as it was. He grinned as he turned his face to the inside of my knee.

And I groaned. Chastising myself for always forgetting how clearly, he heard my thoughts.

"Don't stop." He murmured against the inside of my leg. "I like knowing what you're thinking. I like feeling your trepidation with you."

"Well, that's good to know." I said a bit sarcastically. Trying to focus on snide comments rather then on the heat of his lips slipping along the inside of my creamy thigh. Trailing slow, damp kisses further up the most sensitive part of my leg.

My other leg shook slightly, and I dropped my head back and looked up at the trees. Feeling like watching what he was doing to me was far too erotic.

Too intimate.

***

He nibbled slightly then sunk his square teeth into my leg a bit viciously.

Making me squeak and look at him.

"There. That's better." He rumbled. Giving me a sour glance for having looked away.

He wants me to watch what he does to me? I guess it shouldn't have really surprised me.

He always has before. Chewing my lip, I forced myself to watch as he drew closer to my center.

He pushed my skirts further up over my pelvis, so it was stacked around my belly button. Revealing the nest of coarse curling hair which protected my most vulnerable place. He brushed his nose along it and into my folds.

I hissed through my teeth at the startling sensation. Far more tender than it had been that first morning when he'd delved his forked tongue into me and ravished me inside.

This was something else. He delivered light kisses along those lower lips before slipping a tongue within. Much the same as he'd kissed my mouth on previous occasions. He suckled one lip and the sensation was so unique that I gasped in shock. Feeling as though I were letting him do something truly sinful to me.

Weakening my body.

Then he pushed his nose more firmly against me and rolled his chin up into my crease. Lathing his tongue out to find a tiny nub just above my lips.

It was so sensitive it felt as though he'd just branded me. Put a scalding iron to my flesh. Though this wasn't pain I was enduring.

The fleshen globes of my buttocks shivered and my leg shook beneath me. The one draped over his shoulder shaking equally.

And I realized I was going to collapse.

He pushed his tongue more firmly against me and mercilessly licked the tiny button that was turning my body to molten lava.