“Sometimes I wonder if humans are luckier, if immortality isn’t more of a curse that weighs heavily upon the souls who face an eternity alone.”
“And you think you face immortality alone?”
“You’ve met my family, right? And they keep growing. No, I’m not alone, but many immortals are. There are times I’m lonely, even with all of my family and Vicky by my side. My older sibling’s lives are far different than mine now. Aiden is involved in something few of us know anything about.”
“He’ll be fine.”
“I know he will, but you know more about what he’s doing than any of his family members. It’s a strange thing to realize when we’ve all been so close over the years.”
“I suppose it is.”
She leaned her head against the seat as she watched him. “Your wife, how did you meet her?” Call her a glutton for punishment, but she had to know more about him.
A muscle in his jaw twitched. “It was at a street fair.”
“What did she look like?”
“She had auburn hair and freckles all over her face. Her eyes were brown. I found her beautiful, though many probably wouldn’t have.”
“Love at first sight?”
He glanced at her; there was something behind her words, a wistfulness or sadness perhaps. “No. I was curious about her. She intrigued me with her coloring and gentle demeanor. Love came later.”
Jealousy speared Abby so fiercely that she sucked in a breath as her fingers dug into her legs. Why on earth had she started on this line of conversation? She’d already lost his heart to an intriguing ghost, why was she punishing herself like this?
“Vivian was vibrant, but refined like the women of those days were. I courted her for a year before we were married,” he continued.
“How old were you?”
“I was twenty-three. She was nineteen.”
“So young.”
“In those days, I was almost an old man by then,” he replied with a smile.
“I suppose you were.” She turned to stare at the roadway again, absently noting the ‘Welcome to New York’ sign they passed on the highway.
“Beatrice was born two years later,” he murmured, drawing her attention back to him. She held her breath, scared to make a sound or else he might stop talking. “And Trudy came two years after her. Beatrice’s hair was blonde, like mine, but Trudy inherited her mother’s auburn tresses. They were both so beautiful.”
“They sound like it,” she whispered. Unable to resist, she rested her hand comfortingly on his bicep. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
He shook his head as if tearing himself from a reverie. “It was years ago.”
“That doesn’t mean the hurt stops.”
Brian glanced at her, noting the strain on her face and the sorrow in her eyes. He hated that look from her. “I don’t want your pity.”
She recoiled from the sneering tone of his voice and tore her hand away from his arm. “I don’t pity you.”
“I’ve come to terms with their loss over the years.” He was acutely aware of the lack of heat from her touch as he watched the buildings around them beginning to crop up more and more. “Life is cruel.”
“It’s also amazing.”
“And that is where we disagree, young Byrne.”
Abby’s teeth clamped together when he called her that again. She recognized it as a way for him to distance himself from her by looking at her as if she were still a child. Turning, she plopped her feet on the floor, having had enough of this conversation with him. He could pretend he’d accepted the loss of his family, but they both knew the truth.
Chapter Nine
Abby had just finished drying her hair when she heard the knock on the door. Placing the dryer down, she hurried through the large, elaborate hotel room he’d rented for her. She’d tried to pay for her room, but he’d taken her credit card away from her and handed it back. The censuring look he’d shot her when she’d started to protest had silenced her.
She threw the locks on the door and pulled it open.
“Did you check to see who was standing out here first?” Brian demanded.
“I knew it was you,” she replied as she turned away.
“And how did you know that?”
“I just did.”
He insisted on keeping his secrets, so she wasn’t about to tell him that she’d become attuned to his scent and the beat of his heart. Let him try to puzzle out how she knew it was him standing on the other side of her door.
She felt the heat of his gaze as it slid over her, but she didn’t turn around. She’d packed only sensible clothes for this trip—sweaters, jeans, and T-shirts to sleep in. However, when he’d told her they’d be going to a club tonight to speak with some vamps he knew in the city, she’d gone down to one of the stores along the street and found something more suitable for club wear. Something entirely un-childlike.
“You packed that?” he inquired, his voice hoarser than normal.
“I purchased it,” she replied as she brushed her hair out and set the brush on the bureau.
“When?”
“While you were in the shower. I can walk around in public you know.”
“Not alone.”
“You’re right, my mom and dad have still been holding my hand all these years.”
He folded his arms over his chest, his scowl deepening as he raked her from head to toe and back again. Her breath caught when the ice color of his eyes deepened to a softer blue. She spotted the growing bulge behind the zipper of his black pants and almost hiked up her barely-there skirt to hop on him and wrap her legs around his waist.
What she wouldn’t give to feel the rigid length of him sliding over her, within her. Wetness spread between her legs and her nipples hardened at the prospect of sex with this man. His gaze latched onto her bellybutton ring with the chain running around her exposed midriff. A mewl of desire almost escaped her when the light of the room glinted off one of his fangs, but she managed to keep it suppressed.
“Your family would have my head for allowing you to walk around in public like that,” he said.
“First off, no one allows me to do anything. I’m a full-grown woman who is perfectly capable of running my own life and more than capable of defending myself, especially against a human. Second, my family has seen me go out to the clubs before. It’s not like Ian and Aiden were monks for crying out loud.”
Anger and lust roared within him as his eyes ran over her again. The black skirt she wore shouldn’t be considered a skirt at all; it was more like a stretch of material barely covering her firm ass. An ass he wanted to grip as she rode up and down his shaft. Her top wasn’t much better, exposing her flat belly and accentuating her rounded hips and plump breasts with every step she took.
Once again, she was without a bra, which was okay as her breasts didn’t need a bra to keep them firm and high. With the off-the-shoulder style of her top, straps would have been visible. Her black boots came over the top of her knees, the heels on them making her legs look longer and shapelier.
Then there was that belly button ring… What he wouldn’t give to run his tongue over it and tug on the chain with his teeth. He decided she’d be the death of him when she bent over, causing the belly chain to slide up her back.
“Maybe you should stay here,” he suggested. If she walked into a vampire club looking like this, he’d be beating the men and women off her.
The tilt of her chin and the fire in her eyes let him know that wasn’t going to be an option even before she spoke. “Not a chance in Hell.”
“You’ll freeze,” he said.
“Good thing I’m immortal then,” she replied, and grabbed a knee-length, black coat from where it hung on the back of the desk chair. “I have to fit in at a club. No one is going to give us info on Vicky if I’m looking like a preppy narc.”
“You don’t look like a narc because you’re wearing clothes.”
“I’m in clothes,” she retorted
, her eyes narrowing on him. “What is your problem?”
Everyone is going to be looking at what I so desperately want and can never have. “I hate to see a woman flaunting herself,” he said instead.
Red blazed through her eyes as she strode across the room toward him. Her hips swayed in a way that had him gritting his teeth against the urge to throw her onto the bed and strip those barely-there clothes from her. Stopping before him, her eyes were green again when she tilted her head back to look at him, but fury radiated from every inch of her sinful body.
“Then it’s a good thing you won’t have to see me anymore after we find Vicky. You’ll never have to watch me flaunt myself again.”
“So eager to get rid of me then?”
“I can’t wait for it,” she lied, but damn if she wasn’t contemplating driving the toe of her boot into his nuts right now. That flaunting herself comment had her fingers itching to claw his eyes out.
“You should change.”
“No, I shouldn’t.”
He had no idea how to handle this woman. She had him harder than he’d ever been in his life, yet, at the same time, he was considering throttling her. He was tempted to rip the risqué clothes from her body and force her to wear something that wouldn’t make every male in the club want her as badly as he did.
Vivian would have done as he had asked without hesitation. She’d been a good woman, but she’d also been a meek product of her time and upbringing when it came to a man’s will. He hadn’t given one rat’s ass what all the other women he’d encountered over the years wore or their safety. He’d sought his release then moved on. Now, he was acutely aware of what this woman was wearing, and her safety was his number one concern, right above the men who would be panting after her.
The look in Abby’s eyes said, if he attempted to force her into something more modest, she’d try to claw the eyes from his head. He had to admit he did want to see her in this outfit, many times, but only for him. He’d give anything to watch her strutting back and forth in these clothes, with her hips swaying and her breasts bouncing as she walked to him before falling to her knees and taking him into her mouth.
Shit, if she didn’t kill him, his fantasies of her would.
“We had better get going then,” he replied through gritted teeth as he fought against the blood still rushing to his groin. “The sooner we’re able to part ways, the better.”
“My thoughts exactly.” Abby buried the hurt his words had caused; she’d been saying the same thing to him after all.
He held the door open for her, and she stepped into the hallway. She ignored the startled look of the woman passing by and the lecherous look of the man walking by her side, as his gaze ran over her body.
She pulled her coat on and tugged it closer around herself. She ignored Brian’s pointed look when she tied the belt around her waist. Truth be told, she’d never dressed this provocatively before, but she hadn’t been able to resist the skirt and shirt or having Brian seeing her in them. Getting closer to each other would a very bad idea, but she’d been dying to see how he would react and hoped he would stop thinking of her as a child.
She hadn’t expected him to go all Neanderthal on her, but he had been born in the eighteen hundreds when things were much different. Women had been kept at home and had worn enough clothing to cover them from head to toe. She’d never be that woman, and though she’d hated his words, she’d still thrilled at the heat in his ravenous gaze as he’d watched her.
He looked so unbelievably tantalizing tonight. The deep blue shirt he wore emphasized the color of his eyes and the flex of his powerful muscles as he moved. The black pants hugged his taut ass and powerful thighs. Not to mention, they emphasized the massive size of the erection that had blazed to life when he’d seen her.
Either she gave into her body’s clamoring hunger for this man and had her heart broken, or she continued to stay far away from him. The idea of spending an eternity never knowing what it was like to have a man inside her was a bleak and depressing prospect. So was having a broken heart for an eternity.
Maybe she’d never own his heart, but she desperately wanted to possess his body. No one else would ever satisfy her; she’d had enough failed attempts with other men to know that was true. And maybe, just maybe, he’d leave her cold like the others too. Yeah and maybe Hell has Slurpees.
She could worry about all of that at another time. Now she had to focus on trying to find her sister in this massive city. She huddled deeper into her black coat as Brian hit the button for the elevator.
“Cold?” he inquired.
It wasn’t said in a gloating manner but more of a concerned one. “Just thinking about Vicky.”
“We’ll find her.”
The doors slid open and she stepped into the elevator with him beside her. The music flowing from the speakers did little to calm her anxiety as the floors flashed by on the panel over the doors. He took hold of her elbow when the elevator stopped and led her across the marble entryway to the golden doors the doorman pulled open for them.
Brian stepped back to allow her to pass through the door first before walking to the curb to hail a cab. The cold air blew over her skin and caused her hair to tickle against her face as she watched the cars moving by. People hustled up and down the sidewalk, talking and laughing. Other people walked by with their heads down in determination.
An energy she’d never quite experienced before sizzled through the air. She could see why it was called the ‘City That Never Sleeps.’ All around her she sensed an aura of excitement drawing her into the city itself. Laughter filled the air; everywhere she looked there were lights and billboards for shows. She loved Boston, but she felt as if she could get lost here forever.
Vicky. Had her sister felt the same way? Had she been caught up in the same energy? Had she been swept away by the feeling of being able to do anything this city allowed? Had whoever she’d left Boston with brought her here because they had known she would enjoy it?
“Abigail.”
She turned to find Brian holding the back door to a taxi open for her. She had no idea how long he’d been calling her name; she’d been too focused on everything around her.
“Ready?” he inquired.
She hurried toward him. When she reached his side, he clasped hold of her elbow to help her into the vehicle before following behind her. Once he was settled, he gave the address of the club to the cabby, then tucked her close to his side as the driver pulled away from the curb.
“This city is so alive,” she murmured as she eagerly drank in the sights surrounding them.
“It is,” he agreed, however he knew he didn’t look anywhere near as starry-eyed as she did right now.
He found himself watching her every expression instead of their surroundings as they drove down the streets. Her eyes sparkled with merriment; a smile tugged at her mouth as her gaze darted from one side of the street to the other and back again. It had been years since he’d seen so much joy in anyone, and he thrived on watching it come from her.
Without thinking, he placed his hand on her bare knee. Her eyes flew to his, and her breath sucked in as his fingers slid over her supple flesh. She’s going to push me away, tell me to stop. Instead, that fascinated gaze had become riveted on him as his hand slid closer to the top of her thigh. If he slid it up only a few more inches, he would feel her underwear and the delicious warmth just beneath. Would her underwear be lacy or silken like her?
He could push them aside and dip his fingers into the heated flesh he longed to touch. He had a feeling he would find her already wet with wanting for him. His cock jumped in his pants, drawing her attention to it. Yearning flared over her face as she stared at it. His hand tightened on her thigh, and he pulled it firmly against his leg.
Her riveted gaze never left his as his hand slid further up and his fingers brushed over her center, answering his question; they were as silken and soft as she was. A small breath escaped her, and her eyelids became heav
y as he stroked her again. As he’d suspected, she was already wet for him.
He desperately wanted to sate the need he sensed pouring from her as she lifted her hips invitingly toward his finger. Taking hold of her hand, he held her gaze as he placed it against his thigh and ran it up toward his aching dick. Her tongue slid out to lick her lips. He held his breath as he waited eagerly to finally feel her hand against him.
She was only inches from where he wanted her when the cabby spoke. “We’re here.”
The urge to break the man’s neck shot through him when Abby jerked her hand away and pulled her coat closed. He’d been so wrapped up in her that he hadn’t realized the taxi was now stopped. Reluctantly, he pulled his hand from under her skirt and threw the man a twenty. He surreptitiously tucked his erection into the band of his pants before sliding from the car.
He took hold of Abby’s hand, helping her from the vehicle. Red marked her fair cheeks and she wouldn’t meet his gaze as she adjusted her skirt and coat. He took hold of her hand once more, sliding her arm through his and locking it against his side as he led her toward the line winding down to the underground club.
“Dracul,” Abby said when she spotted the red sign on the front of the building.
She kept her gaze on the sign instead of him as she tried to suppress the waves of embarrassment still flooding her from their car ride. She’d been so wrapped up in him and the way he could make her feel, that she’d completely forgotten they weren’t alone in the cab. Maybe the driver hadn’t gotten a total eye full of the activities taking place in his backseat.
“As in Dracula. This club is owned by a vampire,” Brian said.
Her eyes shot to him. “Kind of flaunting what he is, isn’t he?”
“She,” he replied.
“What?”
“The owner is a she, Karina.”
“Oh.”
Abby made a move for the back of the line, but Brian guided her straight toward the mountain of a vampire standing outside the front door. The bouncer didn’t smell off when they stepped before him, but she instinctively recognized one of her own kind.
The Vampire Awakenings Bundle: Books 1-5 Page 122