He continues being a Gentle'man'

Whilst Ava showered, Dagaz headed to the kitchen. He loved this room, and had spared no expense in kitting it out with a variety of gadgets. Deliberating for a moment, he settled on a blend and quickly set about getting a fresh pot of coffee brewing in the expensive machine on the side. He hardly ever used it himself, he'd bought it more for show, but thankfully he'd had the good sense to buy some decent beans to go with it. From the fridge, he grabbed a pack of bacon. Taking a heavy copper skillet down from the rack on the wall, he set about cooking the breakfast he'd promised earlier. To a mortal, there's few smells more appetising than cooking bacon. To a vampire's heightened sense of smell, it was bordering on the divine. He threw some eggs in for good measure too, the aromas rising up to mingle in the air.

Cooking had been a passion of Dagaz's whilst he was alive, and he wasn't about to stop enjoying it just because he wasn't among the living any more. He's became so absorbed in the simple task of cooking breakfast, his ears didn't pick up the soft pat, pat, pat of slippered feet making their way delicately across the floor towards him.

"That smells amazing." said a voice behind him.

He turned, spatula still in his hand, and smiled. Ava was standing there, hair piled on top of her head in a damp bun and her body wrapped in a fluffy white gown, looking every bit as sexy clothed as she had in the shower earlier wearing nothing but her skin. Now that was true sexiness as far as he was concerned.

Gesturing to one of the stalls at the counter, he flipped some of the bacon and eggs into plate as she sat. "Well hi. Coffee?"

"Please." She picked the stall closest to the stove. "Milk, 3 sugars." Dagaz raised his eyebrow. "I know, I know, three's a lot. Its about all the sugar I have, so I'm allowed to indulge myself OK." she explained laughing.

He raised his hands in mock surrender. "Hey, no judgment here. This is strictly a no-judgment breakfast. Bacon doesn't judge, coffee doesn't judge. They're neutral. Unless you don't like bacon. Then I'm not sure I can't judge you." Lifting a piece of bacon to her mouth and taking a small bite, Ava smiled back.

He turned the stove off. Retrieving two mugs he made his was to the coffee machine. Over the aroma of coffee and bacon, he could make out Ava's scent. She smelt like lilies in bloom, and fresh honey, with just a hint of copper from her blood pumping so close to her skin, the veins having risen to the surface from the heat of her shower. She spelt delicious. Dagaz ran the tip of his tongue over his fangs, still not quite used to the feeling of his canines being longer than he was used to. He pressed his thumb to one, and surprised himself as one of them punctured the skin with their sharpness, causing a drop of blood to well up. He licked his own blood from it, savouring the sensation as he swallowed it down his throat.

What happens if I give her my blood?" he though He wasn't completely sure where the thought had materialised from, seconds ago he'd had no intention of doing anything of the sort. But now the though had popped into his mind, it had taken root. 'Well Ysabelle did say I should learn to thrive. Maybe I should experiment to do that.' Bringing his thumb to the edge of Ava's mug, he squeezed a single drop of blood down into the dark liquid inside, then added a second for good measure. He wasn't sure if the heat would affect his blood , but he guessed he'd find out if nothing happened. Adding her two sugars and a splash of milk, he carried the two steaming mugs back to the breakfast counter. Placing one down in front of her, he took a sip of his own.

"It's a fresh pot. Careful, it's hot.'

Bringing the steaming mug to her lips, she blew gently on it for a few seconds before taking an experimental sip. "Mmm, that's really good. I love fresh coffee, where's it from?"

It was such a simple thing, but Dagaz was glad that he'd done something to make her happy, even just a little. He felt incredibly guilty about what he had done to her earlier on the roof, and wanted to try and make amends if he could, even if Ava didn't know that he needed forgiveness.

"The coffee?" he asked, sitting down on the stall next to hers. "I picked up from this little place called the Amazon."

She actually looked impressed for a second, before she realised that he was joking. "You mean Amazon, don't you?"

"You caught me. Yeah, I ordered it online. Don't have the faintest to where it's from. But you're right, it's a great roast." He took another sip himself. "So Ava," he asked. "Do you have a last name? I feel like I should introduce myself properly. After all, I've guarded you whilst you've been ****, and you've used my shower. I think we're a little past unfamiliarity at this point." Dagaz offered her his hand. "Dagaz Milquiste, at your service."

"Ava La-vure" she replied, offering her own hand in return. Dagaz raised it to his lips, taking care to keep his fangs tucked safely behind his lips. As he planted a delicate kiss on the back of her hand, he felt her tremble, felt her pulse quicken beneath his hand. His heard the sharp intake of breath she made as she gave a little gasp when his lips made contact with her skin. Her breasts rose gently as the air filled her lungs, and the little twist in her seat as she pressed her thighs together didn't escape his notice. He could smell her arousal, it rolled off of her in waves, and she smelt delicious. Turning her hand over in his, he traced the path of her veins along the length of her wrist. Dagaz could feel the thrum, thrum, thrum of her pulse beneath the skin under his fingertip, and had to fight the urge to sink his fangs into it.

"So Ava La-vure. Tell me a little about yourself. Your hopes, your dreams." Dagaz winked smiled. "Kinky little secrets."

Thud thud thud. The pulse beneath his fingers picked up speed. A tiny bead of sweat formed along her collarbone, expanding until it fell under its own weight, trickling down inside her robe towards the centre of her cleavage and disappearing. She unconsciously traced a finger along the slick path it had left, down from her jugular to the Y shape at the top of her bosom, nudging the edges of the robe apart ever so slowly in an attempt to cool the heat she was feeling.

"Um, oh. OK, sorry. That shower must have been hotter than I though. You know when you have a really hot one and after you sometime feel a little woozy?"

Dagaz nodded.

"I'll be fine in a minute I'm sure. Anyway, what was it you were asking about? Hopes and dreams right?" Ava paused for a moment, thinking of where to begin. After a long gulp of coffee, she spoke.

"So, my name's Ava, you know that already. I'm 22. Seattle native, but I've been living here for the last 4 years. I've been working as a PA, but my real dream is to be an actress. Don't judge me," she said with a half laugh, so used to having to go on the defensive once people found out that she had dreams of making it as an actress that she adopted the mentality almost by default.

Feigning innocence, Dagaz let her continue.

"That's why I was at the party last night, I was networking. There were a few casting directors there apparently. Nothing big time like Hollywood agent, but genuine, real connections I could make, you know.

"Makes sense, yeah. Have to start somewhere don't you." He gestured to her empty coffee cup, waiting for Ava to nod before refilling it. "So, that's what you were doing before we met. Networking. How did you end up at the bar then? Unless the directors were called 'Jim' and 'Bean', I can't imagine that's where they would have been.

She pouted at his poor joke. "The bar came after I'd found them. We talked, we danced. I schmoozed like you wouldn't believe Dagaz, I really did. And do you know what happened..?"

In this town, it didn't take a lot to make an educated guess. "They said they'd only cast you if you did something for them." He'd seen enough couching cast porn to know exactly how the conversation would have gone. Pretty young girl trying to make it as an actress, sleazy older guy offering her roles in exchange for getting her legs up in the air.

Ava nodded. "I told them to fuck off, that I wasn't the kind of girl who would get on her back for a role. I have standards, class you know. I'm not a slut. They told me they were going to blacklist me, that they had connections in all the studios and that they'd make sure I'd never get a role anywhere. So I hit the free bar to drown my sorrows." she shot him a smile. "There was this cute guy there drinking, and we hit it off." Her voice was on the urge of cracking, Dagaz could see the glimmer of tears threatening to form in her eyes. "I won't whore myself for a role, that's not me. I won't become one just to get work in this shitty town." Looking him in the eyes, she added quickly. "Don't get me wrong, I enjoy sex. Love it in fact, what girl doesn't."

"Got it. So aspiring young actress," he raised a finger. Counting off, he added another. "With morals." As he raised his third finger, he caught her gaze and held it. "That's loooves sex. That about sum it up?"

'With a smile like that,' Dagaz thought, 'she should have had her face 40 feet high on a billboard.' He couldn't help but let his gaze flick down to the curve of her breast that he could make out beneath the fluffy white material. The gown had fallen open enough at the top that she was half hanging out of it at this point, although she seemed unaware of the fact her goods were on display. He didn't feel like pointing it out to her. 'And with a rack like that, she should be packing movie theatres Coast to coast.'

"Just about." Ava sighed. "I'm just not the kind of girl that trades sex for work. I'm just not. It's slutty, and degrading."

That was it, the moment the damn broke. The tears that had up until now had only been threatening to spill, began to fall as Ava started sobbing. Dagaz reached out and placed his arms around her, letting her bury her head into his chest and sob her frustrations away. His white shirt soon sported little translucent patches where her tears had made it damp, and she ran her fingers across them. "Sorry about your shirt."

"This old thing? Don't worry about it." He lied, the shirt was worth a few hundred bucks, but he had a closet full of designer shirts. He wasn't about to worry over one of his collection getting wet. "Just let it all out." Ava snuggled into his chest a little tighter. Dagaz could feel the weight of her breasts pushing against him now, feel the hardness of her nipples even through the thick material of the gown. His head came down to rest on the top of hers, and he filled his nostrils with the scent of her hair.

Ava continued tracing her finger over his chest, to every little damp circle her tears had made. "That suit didn't do you justice last night." She ran a finger over his pecks. "You're more chiselled than you looked under that jacket." She switched the weight of her finger to the edge of her nail as she kept circling, now down to his abs. "I like a man who works out," she whispered in his ear. "A kind man." Her fingers were getting dangerously close to the waistband of his suit pants. Dagaz could feel himself getting hard, the blood rushing down to his cock made his skin far paler than a mortal should have appeared, but thankfully the artificial lights in his apartment helped hide it. Her hands made it down under his waistband with an agonising slowness. She cupped him, happy with what she found, and gave him a gentle squeeze. Her voice had taken on a husky tone due to her crying. "A hard man."

Dagaz felt himself twitch as she squeezed his cock, and it took every ounce of self control he had not to move, but he wanted to let her call the shots on this, felt that she needed to be the one in control, even for just this moment.