Let Him In (Let Him Trilogy)

by Davis, Sharon

  Shannon liked the sexploitation films because she thought half-naked people and the noises they made while having sex were funny. Lacey had found it painfully embarrassing and would close her eyes whenever a sex scene came on, while Shannon would cover her eyes during the scary parts of the B movies and cult classics that had been Lacey’s favorites.

  Lacey blinked back hot tears. Sammy was the first person to come along who’d made her believe she could have that again. On some level Lacey suspected she may be projecting Shannon on to Sammy, who could have been the male version of her former next door neighbor and best friend.

  Lacey didn’t know who the hell she was projecting on to Zane. She hated him and yet she couldn’t stop thinking about him...

  Or that night in her room.

  The feel of his hard body pressed against her back, his strong arm around her waist, his hot breath on her ear were sensations she couldn’t forget no matter how desperately she tried.

  And his masculine scent was impossible to escape since she slept in his shirt every night. The first time, she’d told herself it was only because the thin silk would be a lot cooler to wear on muggy nights than a T-shirt or flannel pajama top. But then, when she couldn’t bring herself to launder the article of clothing, the truth became undeniable: for some stupid reason, she liked being enveloped by Zane’s scent.

  With a low, deep grumble, Lacey yanked the comforter back over her head. She was going to stay right there in that damn bed until she figured out...

  A roll of thunder yanked Lacey from her—for once—dreamless sleep at six forty-one that evening with the same thought she’d had before slipping into unconsciousness: What am I going to do?!

  Before she could begin to ponder her options, Lacey’s empty stomach made its presence known with a hollow rumble at the same time Casper released a plaintive meow of protest from having not been fed all day. “Sorry, kitty,” she whispered, stroking his head, “I’m as bad a mother as my own.”

  After feeding the kitten and then taking the fastest shower in history, Lacey smoothed on some vanilla-scented body lotion, gave her underarms a couple swipes of deodorant, blow-dried her hair and then brushed her teeth before returning to her room to dress.

  Maybe she’d be able to think clearly with some sugar and caffeine in her system.

  Glancing up at the darkening sky as she walked to her scooter, Lacey expelled a weary sigh—it looked like it could start raining at any moment. “Please,” she murmured, climbing onto her scooter, “just hold off until I get back.”

  A half hour later Lacey emerged from the Lil Bit ‘O Country store to a light drizzle. Deciding to wait it out, she plopped down on the bench and then plucked a candy bar from her bag of goodies. She sunk her teeth into the thick chocolate and gooey caramel block of heaven, moaning softly as she began to chew.

  Lacey devoured the whole thing within seconds. After sucking her fingers clean she ran her tongue over each tooth and then lapped at the sides of her mouth before taking a gulp of soda.

  The only outdoor light source came from the lantern hanging above the store door so it was like peering through a piece of black chiffon as she glanced around the empty—

  Lacey’s heart hitched in her chest.

  Not empty.

  The parking lot was not empty.

  It’s not him, she thought, staring at the black van blocking the view of her scooter. It can’t be him. Oh dear God, don’t let it be him!

  The cow bell over the door clunked. Lacey yelped as she nearly jumped out of her skin. Don’t look, don’t look, don’t look.

  She looked.

  “Lacey,” Zane said when her eyes met his.

  He knows my name...how the hell does he know my name?

  A prickly tingle zipped through her at the sound of his husky voice, just like that one time she’d plugged her hair dryer into the wall outlet and got zapped.

  Keep cool. Act casual. And breathe.

  Lacey swallowed hard. “Zane.”

  “Ah, you remembered. I am flattered.”

  “Do—” Her voice cracked. Damn it, she thought, wetting her dry throat with a sip of soda. “Don’t be. I’m good at remembering names, that’s all.”

  Zane’s pleased smile disappeared as he took a step forward, his ice-blue eyes lasering into hers. Lacey shot up off the bench like a Jack-In-The-Box. She took a step back, then silently berated herself for doing so. Tilting her chin up, she held the bag of candy tight in her hand, ready to pummel him with Raisinets, M&M’s and Milk Duds should the need arise.

  “Well—gotta run. It’s been thrilling, as usual.”

  Zane’s jaw, built to take a punch much stronger than hers, she couldn’t help noticing, tightened. “Good night,” he said, his surly gaze making her feel like a mouse with feet of ice had just scampered up her back.

  After giving him a curt nod Lacey walked away, forcing herself to take slow steps even though sheets of cold rain fell from the starless sky. When she reached the scooter she pushed her dripping wet hair back off her face with one shivering hand while slipping the other into the front pocket of her soaked jeans. Pulling out the key, she looked up. Her heart dipped low as it skipped a beat.

  Zane’s van was blocking her view of him.

  Squinting in the darkness, Lacey blindly jabbed the key around the ignition slot. Her stomach lurched when it slipped from between her slick fingers. Bending over, she did a shuffle-run search around the front of the scooter. She was about to round the tail end of it when she spotted a pair of rain-splattered Oxfords. She leaped back and collided with the scooter, sending both it and her toppling over. Something hard jabbed into her side a second before the air left her lungs in one quick whoosh as she hit the ground.

  Zane took a step toward her and Lacey scuttled backwards, ignoring the pain and lack of oxygen as she put the one hundred eighty-eight pounds of pressed steel and plastic between them, knowing that the scooter offered no real protection from the six-foot-three wall of sinew standing at the other end of it.

  Gasping for air, she pushed herself to her feet. “What…the hell...do...you want?!”

  “To get into my van,” he answered, his voice soft.

  I am such a dumb ass.

  “Well be my guest,” she snapped, indicating the vehicle with a wave of her hand.

  Zane’s gaze, which seemed darker and yet not as foreboding as a minute or so ago, swept over her as he opened the driver’s side door. The interior light clicked on, its soft, golden glow illuminating half of his beautiful face and the concerned expression that graced it. “Are you all right, angel?”

  “Yes,” she hissed through clenched teeth, feeling like a damned fool and hating him for it. “And that’s not my name.”

  He offered her a warm smile that made her insides melt, liquid heat seeping from her suddenly burning, tightening core. “Do you require assistance, Lacey?”

  She snorted. “Not from you.”

  Faster than Lacey could blink, Zane was standing beside her. She spun around to face him, her neck popping as she snapped her head up, her wide gaze leaving his broad, heaving chest for lips that were curled back over the pair of fangs that she had to be imagining. “I do believe I have had enough of your rudeness,” he snarled.

  Adrenaline slammed against Lacey’s veins as Zane glared down at her, clenching his jaw so tight she was surprised his teeth didn’t crack from the pressure. She fought to breathe as her galloping heart tried to escape through her chest. His face turned dark and fuzzy as it inched closer and closer and...

  His masculine scent enveloped her a split second before the world ceased to exist.

  He had died and gone to Heaven.

  Holding the unconscious girl up, Zane savored the feel of Lacey’s soft, shapely body crushed against his. Drowned in the delicate fragrance of her skin and hair. Groaned at the heat of her shallow breaths caressing his neck.

  Zane’s cock sprang to life and it had absolutely nothing to do with the scent of her blood,
which eluded him still. Hunger, on the other hand, was a contributing factor, however it was not the thirst for the liquid coursing through her veins making every cell in his body tingle with anticipation.

  “Fuck,” he hissed as his sac began to ache, matching the relentless throb in his stiff cock, which was pressed hard against the girl’s soft stomach.

  Sliding an arm under Lacey’s legs, he lifted her up and then climbed into the van, gently placing her on the single back seat before closing the sliding door and then kneeling beside her.

  Zane trailed his fingertip down her damp forehead, petite nose, pink, bow-shaped lips and even the small white teeth behind them. Although he did not know what velvet felt like, from the description of it he doubted her porcelain skin was any less soft. Naturally beautiful, she didn’t need or use a drop of make-up, which pleased him for the world was already inundated with clown-faced girls.

  Leaning forward, Zane placed his lips against Lacey’s. “Oh fuck,” he mouthed against them. More velvet. And warm, like blood. He pulled back, resisting the urge to thrust his tongue between her slightly parted lips so that he could taste every inch of her mouth.

  Growling low in his throat, Zane’s eyes feasted upon the exquisite buffet laid out before him: Full breasts slowly rising and falling behind the thin, wet fabric clinging to them. Narrow waist partially bare because of the turquoise sweater’s bunched up hem. Slightly rounded hips and long legs wrapped in soaked, faded denim.

  “Fuck,” he growled again as his gaze came to an abrupt stop on the plump V-shaped area between the girl’s thighs.

  Zane had never wanted blood more than he did the girl’s body, and at that moment the only thing he wanted to do was rip off Lacey’s jeans, toss her legs over his shoulders and then ram his stiff, throbbing cock deep inside her pussy, thrusting into its tight heat again and again until he was free of the maddening ache in his groin.

  “Who are you?” he whispered, gazing upon the angelic face before him.

  His entire life had been about the pursuit and procurement of blood, the only thing he could smell, taste and from which experience pleasure. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, a human female arrived with the power to change everything.

  He could not make sense of it.

  Zane brushed his fingertips over the exposed skin of Lacey’s stomach. A tiny moan drifted from between her parted lips a second before her eyelids fluttered open. At the sight of him she inhaled sharply, pulling her legs up to dig her heels into the seat and then propel herself backwards until she was flat against the van.

  “W-What are you d-doing? W-What h-happened?” she stammered, her wide eyes darting back and forth between Zane and different areas of the van.

  He stayed kneeling, for if she was frightened now she would be downright petrified when she caught a glimpse of the bulge at his crotch. “You fainted,” he answered in the most soothing tone he could muster, “so I put you in here.”

  “You could’ve called an ambulance.”

  “I could have left you on the ground.”

  “I would’ve preferred that, actually.”

  “I would have preferred you remaining unconscious.”

  Hugging her knees, she pulled them even closer to her chest. “I’ll just bet,” she murmured, dropping her gaze.

  Zane lifted one brow. “If I had wanted that I could have taken it quite easily, Lacey.”

  Her eyes snapped back to his. When her small tongue flicked nervously across her bottom lip the steel rod in his pants twitched. “I have to go.”

  Zane tilted his head, listened intently to what sounded like tiny pebbles pelting the roof. “It is still raining.”

  “Just a little water.” Lacey slowly turned around so that her back was against the seat instead of the van, lowered her feet to the floor. “No big deal.”

  Zane gave her what he hoped looked like a tender smile before dropping his gaze to the bag on the floor. He pulled out a candy bar along with the bottle of soda and then held both out to her. “For my own piece of mind, I insist you wait until it has passed.”

  She looked at his hands as if he were holding bloody body parts. “No, I can’t.”

  “You can, Lacey. You can and you will.”

  The feisty spark that always made him want to take his hand to her bare ass returned to her eyes, which were the color of brewed green tea. “Get out of my way,” she demanded, lifting her chin. “Now.”

  Zane tossed the candy bar and soda back into the bag. “And if I do not?”

  “Then I’ll...I’ll scream!”

  “You could—”

  “I can and I will!”

  “—however since it is after eight o’clock I hardly see the point.” She blinked, the inner corners of her eyebrows knitting together in confusion. “Gus, the owner of the store, left five minutes ago. There is only me and you, angel.”

  She swallowed hard. “Are you deliberately trying to scare me?”

  Zane placed his hand over his heart. “Tap-tap-tap,” he said as he rapidly patted his chest. “Not trying, succeeding.”

  “Oooh,” she said, “big man scares small girl. You should be proud of that extraordinary achievement.”

  Zane tossed his head back and laughed. Amusing little creature, she was. When he looked at her again she had her arms crossed over her chest and her pink lips pursed. “Stop pouting,” he growled as his aching balls turned into lead weights. “I do not like it.”

  “And I don’t like being held hostage by a—”

  “Cocky asshole?” he finished for her, arching a brow.

  Under the soft glow of the interior light he watched her cheeks turn pink. Her gaze dropped to her hands as she mumbled something.

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “Nothing.”

  Zane sprang up, slamming his fists into the seat as he planted one next to each of her thighs, trapping her between his outstretched arms. Lacey’s eyes widened as he leaned forward until their noses almost touched. “Kindly repeat yourself.”

  He had heard her loud and clear, of course, but that was not the point: if she did not have the courage to stand behind her opinion, then she should not state it so freely.

  And besides, her bratty behavior was seriously starting to piss him the fuck off.

  Lacey took a deep, ragged breath as her gaze darted to his mouth. Her small, pink tongue flicked out to lick her lips, but she remained silent as she looked back up and into his narrowed eyes. Zane growled low in his throat, at the sweet scent of her breath and the warmth of it as it caressed his face. “Lacey—I will not ask you again.”

  Her throat clicked as she swallowed hard. “I said ‘If the shoe fits’.”

  “Meaning you do think I am a cocky asshole.”

  “Y-Yes,” she said in a tiny voice.

  “I see. Well, I must disagree with your assessment. I am confident, not cocky. As for being an asshole...” Tilting his head to one side, Zane looked up as he feigned contemplation. “I do not think I qualify as a stupid, mean or contemptible person.”

  “You acted like you were going to run over me!”

  “You told me I could not scare you even if I tried.” Zane shrugged. “I merely accepted your challenge.”

  Her mouth fell open. She stared at him for a long moment and then her gaze dropped to his lips for a split second before she rolled her eyes and looked away. “Okay, instead of asshole, how about jerk?”

  Zane narrowed his eyes. “Jerk: a person lacking in judgment or prudence. Synonyms: Fool. Ass. Idiot. Imbecile. Madman—”

  “That sounds about right,” she murmured, rearing back until her head left an indentation in the vinyl seat.

  “Madman: a person who is of unsound mind.” He curled his top lip. “Do you think this description fits me?”

  “I...” Her voice trailed off as her gaze returned to his lips.

  “Why do you keep looking at my mouth, Lacey?”

  Her eyes widened as they snapped back up to his. “I wasn’t!”


  Zane growled. “I should warn you that I cannot stand being lied to, angel. It makes me insane, which means the inability to control one’s rational—”

  “Let me go,” she said, her melodic voice pleading. “Just let me go before I...”

  Her voice trailed off as he slanted his mouth over hers. “Before you...what?”

  Zane watched, unblinking, as her eyes moistened. Underneath their tear-induced sparkle was apprehension and indecision. Would she try to make a run for it, or was her fear too great?

  Lacey’s short, quick breaths teased his lips while he waited for her to make a move.

  He did not have to wait long.

  She tentatively pressed her soft lips against his and Zane’s mind went blank from shock. As he struggled to form a coherent thought she slipped her warm, wet tongue into his mouth and he groaned so loud he was sure every resident in the surrounding counties could hear him.

  And then he became nothing but hunger and flesh.

  Zane’s hands flew up to fist in Lacey’s damp hair as he closed his eyes. Pulling her head forward, he thrust his tongue into the inviting warmth of her mouth as the aching, throbbing need in his groin ascended to a deranging level. He continued his frenzied exploration of her mouth as he clawed at the material preventing his itching hands from experiencing the heat and softness of her skin.

  Zane was only vaguely aware of a shrill sound coming from seemingly far away. He was well aware of the sharp burst of pain that followed, however. Jerking back from the unpleasant sensation, his eyes popped open as his hand flew up to his mouth. Only after his fingers confirmed that he still had his tongue did he realize that Lacey was crying, soft hiccup-like sobs erupting from her as she yanked her sweater back down over her white, cotton bra.

  “Get out,” he whispered in a raw voice as he backed away from her. Her wide, glistening gaze darted from him to the sliding door and then back to him. “Now, goddamn it!”