by Lauren Dane
By the time she ended up back at the penthouse it was nearing two in the morning and Rowan was exhausted emotionally as well as physically. So it wasn’t a pleasure to see Clive leaning up against her front door looking delicious and like a huge prick all at once.
She looked him up and down. “Why are you here? Do you have a death wish? I’m in a wish-fulfillment sort of mood so that would be win-win for us both.”
“You’re angry with me. I thought it best to discuss this issue like adults so we could avoid bad blood between the Hunter Corporation and the Nation.”
“Ever the master of understatement, aren’t you? How about this? I could kill you. I know I’d feel loads better.” She walked past him and unlocked her front door. He hesitated at the entrance and she waved him in.
“I did not kill this woman, Hunter.”
“Your inaction did. And your ridiculous belief that a human couldn’t possibly know more than a Vampire.” She moved to her back hall and got rid of her blade and other weapons before returning to where she left him in the living room. She wouldn’t need them, it wouldn’t come to blood. At least not yet.
“Why must you insist on knowing what I do or don’t believe? It’s very arrogant.”
Rowan snorted, turning to stalk into the kitchen where she headed to get a beer. He wandered in, still haughty. “Want one?” She held a bottle up, mainly because manners dictated she offer, but also to see his reaction to drinking from a bottle.
To her surprise, he nodded. She popped one open for him and tipped her head toward the cabinet, asking if he wanted a glass.
He grabbed the bottle from her hand and took several drinks. “I’m not as uptight as you think I am, human.”
“Puhleeze. You’re so uptight I bet your boxers are ironed.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
She burst out laughing and began to make herself a sandwich. “Want one?”
“I’ve eaten this evening, thank you. Are you going to dance around this murder and talk about the state of my undergarments or can we discuss it like mature people?”
“You’re not people. You’re a Vampire. And the state of your starched boxers just shows what an uptight, judgmental bastard you are.”
“I am not a bastard thank you very much. I know who my parents were and they were married when I was born. I don’t deny I am rigid, that’s what it takes to run my territory and keep my people in line.”
“Oh yeah, so in line they rip poor human women to pieces and dump them in the desert like they were nothing. Sounds like they’re so well behaved instead of animals on the loose. What do you know about it? Tell me everything.”
He narrowed his gaze at her and leaned forward, palms against the marble countertop. “It is clear there is a rogue at large. I agree. I have my people on it and I will share what I believe is important enough to share. But I am not a Hunter, it is not my job to do yours for you.”
“It was clear six weeks ago too. The only difference today is that another human family has to mourn. Because of a Vampire.”
He had the good sense to look away briefly, before he gathered his composure again.
“I came to you and told you you had a problem. You blew me off. And now two humans are dead. That is arrogant. Have you seen pictures yet?” Having stabbed that point home, she gave him her back and stalked out to grab the file. Proud of herself, she managed to slide it to him instead of throwing it in his face.
He looked through it and breathed through his nose. The anger rolled off him in waves. When his gaze met hers, she saw his emotions quite plainly. “Sloppy. This Vampire has no control at all. He’s exposed us all. I will kill him.”
“Not if I kill him first. There are bite marks here and here.” She pointed at the picture. “They’ll try to blame it on animals postmortem… If you’re lucky.”
“This messiness…it’s beyond dangerous. Do they know who she is?”
Rowan shook her head. “Not as of the time this information came to me. I want to go to the scene but it can’t happen today. It’ll still be hot out there with cops.”
“I tried earlier and yes, it’s still filled with law-enforcement personnel. My people are more skilled at concealing themselves. One of my lieutenants is there and will report to me.” He held a hand up to quiet her. “Yes, of course, I will share with you what you need to know. Rowan, it was not my intention to have another human die because I didn’t trust your perceptions. Despite what you may believe about me, I do not want this rogue to kill any more humans. It’s bad for us all.”
“That must be why you keep accusing me of trying to find a way to pin stuff on your people just for shits and giggles.”
He sighed and stood straight. “Must you be so argumentative when I’m trying to be apologetic? You’re a very trying woman.”
“Apologetic? I don’t know where you were raised, bub, but where I was raised, by a monster no less, I was taught an apology goes something like I’m sorry.”
He sighed. She was going to make him say it, infuriating woman. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. I will reiterate my belief that your intense dislike for my people creates a blind spot within you but I do not believe in this case you are wrong.”
She took a healthy bite of her sandwich and plopped her rather delectable bottom on one of the chairs lining the center island. “That’s a start, although you should have stopped after I’m sorry. The rest sort of negates the apology.”
He wrestled a smile. So very hard on the outside and yet, he’d seen glimpses of a softer woman beneath the exterior. It intrigued him, made him want to know more even as he knew it was the very last thing on earth he should want.
“London.” He sat across from her and took another drink of the beer.
“Hmm?”
“You said you didn’t know where I was raised. I was raised in London. My parents were, are natural Vampires.”
Surprise lit her eyes. He liked the way it softened her face.
“How old are you?”
“Cheeky.”
She shrugged and he tried hard not to notice the tip of her tongue as it darted to gather a spot of mustard on her lip.
“Four-hundred-and-seventy-five more or less.”
“Wow, the world has really changed in your lifetime. I remember Theo talking about seeing an aqueduct for the first time in Rome, lit by the moon. It’s hard to imagine living in a time before electricity much less a time before running water.” She looked up at his expression after her casual use of The First’s name.
Pushing away from the island and moving to put her dish in the sink, she laughed with a shrug. “I forgot you people have all this reverence for him and rarely utter his given name. He was just Theo to me.”
He heard the emotion in her voice and wondered, not for the first time, about the feelings she must have for the man who raised her and yet had her parents killed. It gave him a chill to imagine what it had been like for her. He rarely mentioned Theo’s given name because to name a thing gave it power and the last thing Clive wanted was to invite The First into his life any more than he had to.
And then he paused because he wanted her to tell him. He wanted to know about her life and that was not a good direction.
She moved to stand at the doorway. She stood silent, her back to him for long moments. He didn’t speak, sensing something was about to happen, not wanting to ruin it.
Slowly, she turned on her heel and leaned against the doorway. “I’m going to take a shower. Care to join me?”
Surprise momentarily stole his words. “What? You aren’t going to goad me into a fight first?”
“I could. I do want to alternately smack you or fuck you. But as you did apologize and we both know sex is inevitable when we’re in the same room alone for three minutes, I thought I’d kill two birds and take a shower first.”
If she’d been nice, or even rational, he might have resisted. But something about her goaded him and that worked on levels he hadn’t ever ex
perienced before. Still, it wouldn’t do to agree so eagerly right off. “You know this is a very bad idea.” Not that he had any intention of stopping it.
“Yep.” She turned and left the room.
He sat for a while and thought of the hundreds of reasons why having sex with her again would be disastrous but in the end he rose and followed her scent up a spiral stair and toward the steam coming from a half-closed door.
Their previous coupling had been so fast and furious he hadn’t really had the opportunity to take her in. So as he divested himself of his clothes, he watched her through the glass enclosure.
She was long and lean, athletic but possessing the kind of curves a man’s heart sped at the sight of. Her long, deep red hair was plastered down her spine as the water from the showerhead pelted her.
Not even looking up when he entered, she kept her eyes closed as she stood under the spray. He did sense a change in her awareness at his presence, the slight speed of her heartbeat.
He saw the Hunter’s mark, a brand just above her right hip, balanced by the mark of service of her father’s family on the inside of her wrist. A tattooed fleur de lis she’d most likely received at the age of eight or nine.
When her eyes snapped open and focused on him, the shock of it lit his every nerve. She wasn’t classically beautiful, though her body was. She was striking. She drew the eye because there was something remarkable about her. Her strength prowled just beneath her skin with a raw energy that seemed to charge the air around her. Like Vampires had auras, she had something very similar.
“Decided to walk on the wild side?”
“Shut up and let me wash my back.”
Laughing, she moved aside and let him get under the spray. It agitated him that she made him so discourteous. He was usually very solicitous to his sexual partners. Unless he was dressing someone down, he rarely lost his temper and even more rarely lost his control. With this human female, control was a constant battle.
She moved to leave the enclosure but he reached out and caught her about the waist and hauled her to his body. The heat of the water over his skin soothed the intensity of his need for her though not quenching it.
“Not so fast. It occurs to me, Hunter, that my cock has not been in your mouth and the idea appeals to me on two levels. One, how can any man not want his cock in that mouth? And two, with your mouth filled with cock, you can’t carp, complain or agitate me.”
“You’re pretty bossy for a man who wants to put his johnson near my teeth.”
“I have a feeling it may be worth my while.”
“Come on then. I’m not going to get to my knees on this tile, it hurts.”
She got out and tossed him a towel. It was then he noticed the scars on her lower back.
She turned and caught him staring at them. “Don’t.”
He shook his head, wanting to say more but letting it go. He’d have had scars too if Vampires scarred in all but the direst of injuries. Growing up at the knee of The First would not have been easy.
Instead of speaking, he followed her into a bedroom adjoining the bath. She jerked her head at him, indicating he should climb to the bed and he did.
He most definitely liked the view as she scrambled on after him and got to all fours over him.
Rowan knew she taunted danger. Her own people would have a conniption if they had any idea and his people would be equally upset. Perhaps that’s what fired her blood at the sight of him there, spread out below her.
Her fingertips followed the curve of his pectoral muscles, down the center of his chest, flirting with the sensitive skin of his belly just below his navel. The warmth of him rose against her body like seductive smoke. Vampires weren’t cold unless they hadn’t fed but this one had and the shower had warmed him too.
He was beautiful there below her. Eyes devouring her every move. Clive Stewart was confident, arrogant and cock-sure. Goddess help her, it was irresistible. So many men were cowed by her or afraid to fully own their own allure. This man did not have that trouble at all.
Dipping her head, her lips skated over his chest and headed south, scooting her body down as she kissed her way downward.
She meant to tease him, to make him beg but suddenly need rode her hard and she showed him it was very possible for her to carp at him and get the job done too. She was a multitasker.
She continued to move with him in her mouth until she was moved off him and found herself on her back.
A lock of his hair, usually so perfect, had fallen over his forehead, a gleam of feral intensity shone in his eyes as he loomed above her. Why it pleased her so much to muss him up, she didn’t know.
He delivered tiny, sharp bites to her breasts and nipples. Not to feed, just for the sensation. His hands roamed over her bare skin, fingertips played over the Hunter’s mark on her hip.
She writhed, helpless to do anything else as his mouth skated over her flesh. He knelt between her thighs, keeping her from squeezing her legs together to gain some measure of relief against the throbbing need.
And then he moved to make everything better.
The buzzing of the intercom from David roused her sometime later. She leaned over and watched as Clive padded into the room, dressed and all cleaned up. Stifling her annoyance that she didn’t get a chance to work on that neck tic thing anymore, she reached out to hit the call button.
“Yes?”
“Déesse, it’s the policeman. He’s here and he wants to see you. Are you indisposed?”
He must have seen Clive enter. All she could do was hope he just meant cleaning up a dead Vampire or still arguing with him.
“Give me five minutes and I’ll let him in myself.” Rowan got up and jogged into the closet, pulled on some clothes and brushed her hair into a ponytail.
“Policeman?”
“Yes and he’s not one to be underestimated, Clive. He’s very sharp and he’s the lead on the case.”
“Does he know about us?” Clive leaned in the doorway, watching her.
“I told you, I don’t violate the treaty. I’ve done my best to direct him with the first victim but I’d never do anything to make him believe it was Vampires.”
He chuckled and caught her arm as she passed. “No, I mean does he know we’re…that we’ve…? Why is he going to think the man who runs the largest casino resort in town is here with you at three in the morning?”
“Goddess, this is not what I need right now.” She sighed. “Walking and talking.” She went down the stairs first. “Jack and I are friends. Have been for years and yes, some years ago we were more. But that’s not what we are to each other now. He’s very protective of me though. Frankly there’s no way to explain away your presence here or the obvious fact that we’ve had sex recently. So, let me do the talking. Don’t you need to go? The sun’s coming.”
He laughed again and tossed himself on a couch in her living room. “I can be home in less than a minute and I’ve got some time before sunrise. I’d like to meet Jack.”
“Yeah, I can tell you’re a real chatterbox social butterfly and stuff. Don’t cause trouble or I’ll stake you.” She tromped over to the door and opened it, going into the hall to unlock the elevator.
Jack stalked in her door less than a minute later, fury on his face. “What the fuck is going on? There’s another body. Of course you know this I’m sure.”
He stopped and gaped at Clive, who sat on her couch all elegance and male sexuality personified. “Didn’t know you were occupied.” Jack’s words held an edge meant to slice.
“Now you do. Jack Elroy, this is Clive Stewart. He was just leaving.”
Clive stood, using that preternatural grace the Vampires had, and held his hand out to Jack. “I can certainly stay for another few minutes to meet your friend, Rowan.”
He even managed to sound chiding, the bastard. Or prick since he informed her his parents had been married at the time of his birth.
Despite her annoyance, the memory of the way he’d said it m
ade her smile just a little as she watched the two of them. Hands clasped in a handshake, they were currently engaged in a test of the relative manliness of each other’s grip without squeezing too hard.
Momentarily she’d get pissed off at this testosterone-laced pissing contest, but she let them get on with it for a few moments.
“How long have you known our Rowan?” Jack asked, taking his hand back and checking Clive over.
“We’ve got friends in common but we’ve known each other for several months now.”
“Rowan and I go back years. I never heard your name before.”
“So, not to interrupt this moment or anything, but why are you here at three in the morning and mad at me?” Rowan turned to Jack but not before delivering a glare to Clive.
“I’ll wait until your guest leaves. This is police business.”
Any minute and they’d be measuring dicks and asking who she liked best. She already wanted to punch them both in the face for being so ridiculous.
There’d be no end to it until she shoved Clive out the door, and in truth, she needed some distance from him. She very much liked the way he looked in her house and she knew her sheets would smell of him too. These were not unpleasant things and they should be. She could not be sentimental about him, not knowing what he was.
“Clive, I’ll speak to you soon. Thank you for coming by.” She tried to usher him out but just in the doorway he caught her, pulled her against his body and delivered a devastating kiss that left her knees shaking. Even as she knew what it was—a taunt to the other male in the room—it still left her breathless.
“I’ll be in touch. You can bet on it, Rowan.” He grinned and strolled into the waiting elevator and slid out of sight as it descended.
Steeling herself, she turned to Jack. “What is going on?”
“Why are you with the guy who runs Die Mitte? This is new.”
“Another body?”
“You’ve been ducking my calls, Rowan.”