Isabeau collapsed on the bed, pure pleasure washing over every part of her, wrenching a scream from her throat.

Celeste crawled up her body, her eyes red with lust and satisfaction, and settled onto the pillow beside her, one hand resting on Isabeau's stomach.

Two months had passed since the night that they'd met, when Celeste came to her home and gave her a new life, and Isabeau had never been happier.

Celeste had warned her that becoming a vampire would be painful, and she hadn't lied. After the initial pain of the bite, Isabeau's stomach had been wracked by a relentless ache, eased only by the blood that Celeste fed her. But it hadn't lasted long and Celeste had remarked that she'd never seen anyone come through the change so quickly. To Isabeau, that was a clear-cut sign that she had chosen the right path.

She was meant to be a vampire.

Celeste had taken Isabeau to her large home on the edges of Paris, and Isabeau had never left. It was the perfect place for her to learn how to control her new abilities, and Celeste was a patient teacher.

For Isabeau, the time they spent together wasn't just about learning to be a vampire. It was about simply being with Celeste.

For the first few weeks, there was no suggestion that Celeste wanted to kiss her again. Instead she focused on teaching Isabeau, to the point that Isabeau wondered if she'd imagined the spark between them that first night.

But gradually, as Isabeau had made it clear that she was a fast learner and that being a vampire came surprisingly naturally to her, things changed between them. Celeste would always stand a little closer than she needed to. She would find excuses to touch Isabeau, and her hands would always linger. When she was looking at Isabeau, her eyes seemed to shine that much brighter.

Isabeau had eagerly waited for the day when Celeste would kiss her again and when that day finally came, it had been better than she imagined.

Celeste did not stop at kissing.

Within a week she'd taken Isabeau into her bed, and Isabeau had discovered she had more to learn than just being a vampire.

But she was a very fast learner.

Now, barely a day went by when they didn't make love.

Isabeau felt like she was in a dream, one she never wanted to wake up from.

"I sent Renee to make enquiries about your sister," Celeste said.

Her hair was splayed out around her, tangled with Isabeau's curls, the sweet smell of her filling the air.

Isabeau tensed just a fraction.

A week after she was turned, she'd asked Celeste to check on her family. Isabeau was sure they were better off without her, but she needed to know if they thought that too. Celeste had warned her that she might not like the answer, and Isabeau knew that was true, but she still needed to know.

Celeste was right.

Isabeau had not liked the answer.

The sudden disappearance of Henri Aguillon's eldest daughter was the scandal of the month. Most people seemed to think that Isabeau had eloped with some secret lover, and Isabeau didn't care about that. Gossip and rumours couldn't hurt her now.

What did hurt was that her family really did seem . . . happier now she was gone.

Her parents focused all their attention on Henriette, and Henriette herself no longer had to contend with her disgrace of a sister.

But despite the cruel words that Henriette had flung at her when they last spoke, Isabeau still wanted to know how her sister was doing.

"I could have gone to see her myself," she said.

"It's better this way," Celeste said.

Isabeau felt a prickle of annoyance. Celeste did this sometimes – acted as if she knew so much better than Isabeau, and maybe she did. She was hundreds of years old, after all. But Isabeau didn't like the way Celeste made decisions for her.

Before she'd become a vampire, she'd faced the prospect of becoming someone's wife, which meant allowing him to make all the decisions for her, because of course, as a silly woman she couldn't possibly be trusted to decide anything for herself. She'd thought it would be different with Celeste, and sometimes it was.

But sometimes it wasn't.

"Don't you want to know what Renee found?" Celeste asked, propping herself on one elbow so she could look down at Isabeau. Her hand never strayed from Isabeau's stomach.

Isabeau swallowed her annoyance. She had to remember that Celeste had been a vampire for a long time, and did know more about these things than Isabeau.

"Tell me," she said.

"She's attracted the attention of a Baron's son. No engagement as of yet, but both families approve the match, so I imagine it's only a matter of time."

Isabeau absorbed that. "Is she happy?"

"Renee thinks so."

"Good." It came out flatter than Isabeau had intended, and Celeste noticed.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm glad that Henriette is getting what she wants from life, truly I am. But how matter how strained my relationship with my family had become, it's not easy to know that they're happier now they've lost me."

"You don't need them. We're your family now," Celeste insisted, kissing Isabeau's jaw.

That wasn't the point, but Isabeau didn't bother to say it. Celeste's human family had been dead and buried for centuries, and she rarely talked about them, but sometimes Isabeau wondered if that was because Celeste had mostly forgotten them. Hundreds of years from now, would she remember her own family? Or would they become nothing more than a vague memory, just some people that she'd once known?

"In fact," Celeste continued, "there's something I need to talk to you about. I think you're ready to hear it."

"Can it wait? I'd like to bathe if I can," Isabeau said.

One of the first things that Celeste had taught her was regarding water. Isabeau had been raised to think that bathing in water was extremely harmful as it would open her pores and make her more susceptible to dangerous miasmas in the air. Celeste had bluntly informed her that that was utter nonsense, and if she was going to live with them, she'd have to get used to regular bathing. Isabeau had quickly discovered that filling a bathtub with water and scrubbing herself clean with sweet soaps was one of her favourite things.

"Can't that wait?" Celeste asked.

"I just . . . I need some time to think," Isabeau explained.

There was a good chance that she would see Henriette again, but Henriette would not see her. Masked balls were still all the rage in Paris, and Celeste had assured Isabeau that they all attended them from time to time, when they wanted to dance and flirt and feed in darkened corners. No one would recognise them behind their masks. So when Isabeau was ready to attend a ball with Celeste and the others, she might run into Henriette. She might be able to find out when Henriette was engaged, married, pregnant. But she would never be part of Henriette's life again. That saddened her, in spite of the distance that had long brewed between her and her sister.

Alone in the bath, without a wonderfully naked Celeste to distract her, Isabeau would be able to properly sort through all her thoughts and feelings.

She felt better after the bath.

The act of slowly washing her skin in clean, fresh water, helped clear her mind. By the time she was done, she'd processed the sting of knowing that no one seemed to miss her, and that she'd never really be able to mend the rift with Henriette. Her annoyance at Celeste was long gone, and she was ready to hear what the other woman needed to tell her.

Pulling on a loose cotton dress – and marvelling again that she no longer had to adhere to expected social fashions – she returned to the bedroom where she'd left Celeste.

And found Celeste sprawled on the bed, back arched and eyes closed with bliss, Renee's head settled between her legs.

"What are you doing?" Isabeau cried.

She expected them to leap apart, shame-faced that she'd caught them, but Celeste opened her eyes and gave her a lazy smile. Renee didn't even look up.

Celeste stretched out a hand, beckoning Isabeau over to the bed. Isabeau didn't move.

"I told you she wasn't ready," said Jeanne, and Isabeau jumped.

She'd been so focused on Renee and Celeste that she hadn't even noticed Jeanne leaning against the wall on the other side of the bed. She wore a simple cotton dress like Isabeau's, and it hugged the curvy shape of her body, emphasising the sway of her hips as she approached the bed. She climbed up next to Celeste, trailing one finger between Celeste's breasts, up her throat to her mouth.

"Not ready . . . for what? What's going on?" Isabeau said.

Renee finally lifted her head and gave Isabeau a wicked smile. "You didn't think you were the only one warming Celeste's bed, did you?"

Absurdly, Isabeau wanted to point out that none of them could actually warm Celeste's bed since their vampire skin was always cool to the touch.

Celeste lifted her head, and her blissful expression faded. "Isabeau? You're not alright, are you?"

"No," Isabeau burst out. "What is going on?"

Celeste sat up properly. Renee made a noise of protest, but Jeanne took her arm. "Let's give them some time to talk," she said.

Whatever disappointment Renee felt at being pulled away from Celeste didn't last long – even before they left the room, she was kissing Jeanne.

"Sit," Celeste said, patting the bed.

"No."

Only half an hour ago she'd been in that bed with Celeste, Celeste nestled between her legs. And now? Was this Celeste's way of telling her that their relationship was over? Isabeau wasn't in love with Celeste, and losing her would not break her heart, but still, Celeste could have found a less callous way of ending things.

"If you didn't want me anymore, all you had to do was say," Isabeau snapped, folding her arms.

When she'd got out of the bath, she'd been glad of her light cotton dress, glad that she didn't have to waste time lacing herself into the stiff, heavy things that she'd worn when she was human, and now she wished she still had those dresses. She felt more exposed now, like there was no armour to protect herself from what was happening.

Celeste looked genuinely surprised. "What are you talking about? Of course I still want you."

"Then what was that?" Isabeau cried, pointing at the doorway where Jeanne and Renee had disappeared.

"This is what I wanted to talk to you about. Isabeau, these last few weeks with you have been incredible, and now I want to share more with you. Renee and Jeanne aren't merely my friends. They're also my lovers."

Isabeau blinked stupidly at her. "But . . . I'm your lover."

"Do you believe a person should have only one? Or is that simply how you have been taught that things are?"

Isabeau couldn't answer that. She knew that men often took mistresses, but that was still only one partner at one time. As far as she knew, the mistress and the wife did not join the husband at the same time in the same bed.

"Please sit down," Celeste said, and this time Isabeau did.

She didn't look at Celeste though – Celeste was still naked, which was incredibly distracting.

"Renee and I have been lovers since I turned her a hundred and fifty years ago. Forty-seven years ago we met Jeanne, and we both desired her, so I turned her. She desired us both in return, and Renee is not jealous. She was more than happy to share me."

"And now you all want to share me?"

"We all think you are beautiful, Isabeau, and we would all gladly take you to our beds."

"I had no idea that Jeanne and Renee felt that way," Isabeau admitted.

"How do you feel about them?" Celeste asked, carefully watching her.

Isabeau thought about it. "They have become important to me. But I cannot honestly say that I want them the way that I want you."

Celeste nodded.

"Why didn't you just tell me? Why did you think that I would react positively to the sight of you in bed with another woman?" Isabeau asked.

"That's how we introduced things to Jeanne."

"But I'm not Jeanne!"

"No," Celeste agreed. "I realise now that it wasn't fair to introduce you to our life in this way."

"What does all this mean for us?" Isabeau asked.

"I'll be blunt with you, Isabeau. I like what we have, and I think it will only get better with time. But I am not prepared to give up either Jeanne or Renee. We'd hoped that you would be open to the idea of entering into a sexual relationship with all of us, but if you're not comfortable with that, we won't pressure you."

"I'm not comfortable with it," Isabeau said, staring at her hands.

"Do you think you ever will be?"

Isabeau paused to consider it. Sex was still new to her, still a journey of discovery, and she loved taking that journey with Celeste. But the thought of all four of them in the same bed, touching, kissing, making love – it wasn't what she wanted.

"I don't think so," she admitted.

Disappointment flashed across Celeste's face. "As I said, we won't pressure you, but don't ever be ashamed to tell me if you change your mind. We will welcome you with open arms." Disappointment turned to mischief, her eyes glittering in the way Isabeau loved. "And open legs."

Isabeau laughed before she could stop herself.

"As for us," Celeste said, taking her hand, "I still wish to be with you, if that's what you want."

"But you will be with Renee and Jeanne too."

"Yes. How do you feel about that?"

It wasn't something that Isabeau had ever imagined, but the more she thought about it, the more she couldn't see that there was anything wrong with it. It wasn't for her, true, but that didn't mean she thought it was a problem.

"I think I could get used to it," she said.

Celeste smiled.

Part 2/3

How do you think this relationship will play out in the final part on Friday? :)