The Vampire's Pet (The Vampyr Book 1)

by V. R. Cumming

  Her fingers drifted down to my chest, scratching lightly through my shirt. “I like it. Very James Bond-ish.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Why is every man in a tux James Bond?”

  “You should be so lucky,” she retorted tartly. “Now, tell me you’ve got the rest of the night off.”

  “I do. In fact, I was hoping I could talk you into coming back to my place, maybe spending the night.”

  She tilted her head and gave me a coy smile. “The tux is good, but not that good.”

  “Har. You can have my bed and I’ll take the couch.”

  She dropped back onto her heels and gave me a considering look. “Something’s wrong.”

  Not a question. Had she picked up on my unease? I’d been practicing maintaining a wall around my thoughts and thought I was getting pretty good at it, but apparently not. “It’s nothing important. I just wanted to take a few precautions.”

  “Like having me stay at your apartment. You know, if you’re ready for sex, you don’t have to make excuses to get me ready, too.”

  I wheezed out a laugh. “Geez. Just lay it on the line there.”

  “I’m just saying,” she said reasonably. “I’ve got an early class.”

  “We’ll set the alarm.”

  “I don’t have any clothes at your place.”

  “Now who’s making excuses?” I pulled her close and buried my face in her neck, PDA be damned. I’d waited long enough to breathe her in, to be surrounded by her beautiful, passionate scent. “We’ll run by your dorm, pick up enough clothes to last the weekend. Come on. It’ll be fun.”

  I whispered the last words into her ear and felt her melt against me with a shiver of rising need.

  “You fight dirty,” she said in a breathy voice. “I need to say goodbye, ok?”

  “Sure. Want me to grab a taxi?”

  She shook her head, sending her wild curls bouncing against her face. “I brought my car so I could leave early. Good thing for you, huh?”

  I grinned and let her lead me into the crowd, a surprising mix of ages and backgrounds, judging by the range of fashions and hairstyles. She snagged a passing woman in her early twenties and asked after someone, then steered us toward the back of the house, which was marginally quieter and less crowded than the front rooms.

  A blonde-headed woman with a pixie cut and an elf-like face gave me the once over. “Ooo, nice catch, Gigi.”

  “Faith, this is Eric. Eric, Faith, my roommate.”

  “This is Eric?” Faith’s eyebrows shot up and her eyes drifted down my body again. “You made him sound like a staid scholar, and then you bring me a sexy secret agent.”

  I stuffed my hands into the pockets of my trousers and tried not to squirm under her stare.

  “Hands off,” Gianna said with a laugh. “I’ll probably hang with him this weekend, so don’t expect me back at the dorm until Sunday night, maybe later.”

  “Sure.” Faith pursed her lips into a moue. “Throw me a bone here, Gigi, and tell me he has a brother just like him.”

  Gianna shot me a glance out of the corner of her eye and I shrugged. We hadn’t gotten around to deep discussions about our families yet.

  “Sorry,” I said. “Only child.”

  “You’re killing me here.” Faith heaved a noisy sigh. “Guess I’ll just have to find my own man.”

  She winked at me as we left, and I chuckled, earning a disgruntled look from Gianna.

  “What?” I said.

  “I had no idea I’d have to fight women off of you.”

  I considered her for a long moment. “You’re teasing.”

  “Yeah,” she said with a grin. “You’re so easy.”

  “Hunh. You have no idea.”

  It took another hour to find her car, gather clothes and books at her dorm, and make it back to my apartment. By that time, it was midnight and my stomach was eating a hole in my abdomen. I’d been so focused on getting back to Gianna that I’d forgotten to eat at Elizabet’s.

  I settled Gianna in my bedroom, made room for her clothes in a drawer, and told her to make herself at home before heading to the kitchen, loosening the damn tie as I went. I left it dangling so I could peer into the fridge and weigh my options. Hmm. Sandwiches or sandwiches or, hey, more sandwiches.

  First thing tomorrow, I’d have to make a grocery run. Gianna deserved better than deli meat. We could do real meals. A roast maybe. Mom had given me a crockpot when I’d moved in, along with a lot of things I’d never thought I’d need.

  I made a mental note to get down on my knees and thank her when I went home for Thanksgiving.

  Gianna padded into the kitchen on socked feet. She’d pulled her hair up into that crazy bun I adored and taken her bra off so that her firm, full breasts swung free under her sweatshirt. Her nipples jutted against the thin material like little pebbles, tempting me into devilry egged on by the need swirling through my gut.

  I hoped I always reacted that way to her presence.

  I held up a half loaf of bread. “Sandwich?”

  “Yeah.” She rubbed a hand over her stomach, pulling the sweatshirt up enough to show smooth flesh. “And then I have to hit the sack or I won’t get enough sleep.”

  So I fixed us both a sandwich, sat with her at my teeny dining table, and let her warmth draw me in while we ate. After, she took a turn in the bathroom and I snagged a pillow and a blanket and dropped them onto the couch. She came out a little while later and gave me a startled look when she found me turning it into a makeshift bed.

  “I thought you were kidding about sleeping separately,” she said.

  I tucked the blanket into the seam of the couch. “No.”

  “So you weren’t just making an excuse to get me into your bed.” She twined her fingers together. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

  “Probably nothing. It’s kinda complicated.”

  “Try me.”

  I searched for a way to explain that wouldn’t tell her everything. “There’s a man at work who found out I was dating you. What we do outside of work is…privileged.”

  She gave a half laugh. “You make it sound like you really do work for some super secret agency.”

  “Not by a long shot.”

  “Then why the worry?”

  “Some of the people I work with can be dangerous.” I shrugged, not out of a lack of care but because the words were hard to find. “If I’d known that going in, I would’ve done things differently with you.”

  “You mean, like, not date me, is that it?”

  I met her wide-eyed gaze head on. “To protect you? Yeah, but it’s too late for that. Someone knows who you are, or at least what you look like. There might not be any danger, but I don’t want to take a chance.”

  “I see.” She twisted one of the rings on her finger, turning it around and around as she thought. “I’d feel better if you slept with me.”

  It wasn’t a hard sell, especially since I wanted to sleep with her, too. Sleep, not sex. I wanted to hold her, protect her, if it came to that, and show her how special she was to me.

  I yanked the blanket off the couch, grabbed my pillow, and followed her back to my bedroom. She stripped down to her undies, a thin strip of white that gleamed against her skin, and pulled a worn t-shirt on before crawling into my bed. I went back out and checked the lock on the door, cut off the lights, and then took a turn in the bathroom before stripping down to my undies and putting the tux away in my closet.

  I slipped into bed beside her, smothered a laugh when she rolled over and backed her ass up to me so I could spoon her. A strange contentment washed over me as I wrapped myself around her. My dick was screaming at me to take her, fuck her, make her come, but the rest of me was happy just to hold her. I dropped a kiss to her neck, reveling in the beauty that was Gianna, and snuggled into the bed to enjoy having her near.

  Chapter Six

  I woke the next morning with Gianna’s mouth wrapped around my cock, her tongue sliding over the tip, sending a delicious e
cstasy up the shaft and through every nerve in my body.

  No, that couldn’t be right. Must be dreaming. I scrubbed my hands over my face wearily and tried to clear the fog in my head. Right. Now I remembered. She’d come home with me the night before and, with very little effort, talked me into sharing my bed with her. I patted around and encountered warm sheets where she’d slept, but no Gianna.

  A breath sighed against my dick, then it was sucked deep into wet heat, and my eyes popped open as the muscles in my legs clenched with sweet pleasure. The room was dark. Damn those thermal curtains. They blocked anything but the strongest light, ideal for someone whose skin and eyes were sensitive to the sun’s rays. Not so great when you’re looking for the person giving you a blow job.

  I slid my hands down and tangled them in a mop of kinky curls. “Gianna?”

  “Mmm,” she hummed, sending heat ricocheting through me.

  “What are you doing?”

  She made a sound halfway between a snort and a laugh and released me abruptly. “What do you think I’m doing?”

  “Right.” Duh. I rubbed my eyes and attempted to focus around the fatigue. “Time is it?”

  “A little after six.” Her hand encircled the base of my dick and began a slow stroke to the tip and back down again. “This poked at me all night, so I thought I’d take care of it before I get ready for class.”

  I groaned and inwardly cursed my unruly body. “Sorry. I was trying to be good.”

  “Oh, you were.” Her voice held amusement and a womanly purr. “While little Eric was poking at me, you had your hand between my legs. You do know how to please a woman.”

  Jesus. What a cad. “You should’ve kicked me out of the bed.”

  “And miss two really great orgasms? I’m not stupid.” She licked the slit at the tip of my penis. “Are you ready for a little payback?”

  She engulfed me before I could reply, sucking my dick into her mouth until it hit the back of her throat, and then it was game on. Her hand and mouth worked in concert, stroking hard and quick until my hips arched upward and my muscles clenched. I twisted my hands in the sheet as the pleasure built high in a sharp crescendo and I came in her mouth on a low, needy groan. She softened her strokes, swallowing the cum spurting into her mouth and lapping greedily at my dick with her tongue.

  My muscles relaxed into a boneless stupor. “Wow. Think my toes curled.”

  Her laugh was soft and husky as she crawled up my body and laid down on top of me with her head on my chest. “Now you know how I felt last night.”

  “Next time, we’ll both be awake.” Her weight felt so good on me, comforting, warm. I gathered her close and reveled in it, reveled in the way her fingers stroked my naked chest and her legs slid across mine. “I want to make up the sleepless night to you.”

  “No need. I can handle one night without sleep. Besides, tomorrow’s Saturday. We can sleep in.”

  “I’d like that, but I still want to do something special. Date night?”

  “Sure. We probably need to talk anyway.”

  “About what?”

  She wiggled upward and flipped on the bedside lamp, then straddled my waist. Her hands came up, one holding her hair out of the way and the other pulling the neck of her t-shirt aside. I blinked in the sudden brightness until my eyes focused, and stared with a growing dismay at the puncture marks on the top of her shoulder near the base of her neck.

  Oh, shit.

  “I can explain,” I said.

  She dropped her hands. “Really.”

  “Yes, and it’s not what you think.” I winced. The truth was probably close to whatever was going through her mind. “Did I hurt you?”

  “If you’d hurt me, do you think I’d still be here?” Her expression said get real more clearly than any words could. “I might’ve freaked if you hadn’t bitten me before.”

  “That wasn’t a bite,” I said hastily. It had been more of a scrape, but maybe semantics weren’t that important here.

  “Close enough.” She crossed her arms and stared down at me. “I know what blood tastes like.”

  I clutched at her thighs. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

  She shrugged. “I like you and I wanted to know more. Who wouldn’t?”

  Couldn’t argue with that, since I felt pretty much the same way about her.

  “Are you a vampire?”

  “God, no,” I said.

  “But you have fangs.”

  I hesitated long enough for her stare to turn into a glare. “It’s kinda complicated.”

  “Uncomplicate it,” she said flatly.

  “Tonight, when we have more time,” I promised. “I can’t believe you gave me a blow job while thinking I was a vampire.”

  “I didn’t think you were a vampire until you denied being one,” she retorted. “I just thought you were into biting.”

  Jesus. “Ok, look, I’m not a vampire.”

  “Right.”

  “I’m not,” I insisted. That much, at least, was true. “I’m a vampire’s blood slave.”

  Gianna’s eyes went wide and her face paled. “You’re a what?”

  “It’s not what you think.” I smoothed my hands over her thighs in what I hoped was a comforting caress. “I provide blood to a vampire every month, but I’m not a vampire. Technically, I’m a blood slave, but Elizabet calls us pets because it’s a voluntary arrangement. We even have contracts and I can back out at any time.” Though I’d have to pay through the nose for doing so, but Gianna didn’t need to know that. “I’m not dangerous, I swear, and I would never hurt you.”

  She gave a half laugh. “No offense, Eric, but you exude safe.”

  “Maybe that’s part of my vampiric charm,” I said slyly.

  “Right.” Her voice had gone flat again. “We’re going to talk about this later, in depth and at length.”

  I let out a breath I hadn’t known I’d been holding. “You still wanna stay the night?”

  “What do you think?” She leaned forward and braced her forearms on the bed beside my shoulders. “You’re poking me again.”

  Her scent wafted over me, that light, sensual smell that was wholly Gianna. “I forgot it was down there.”

  She laughed softly. Her breath caressed my skin, reigniting the need she’d so effortlessly stoked and then fulfilled earlier. “Hard to miss.”

  “It’s like that all the time around you.”

  “Really? Good to know.”

  I rolled, taking her with me. She sighed when I settled on top of her and rubbed the offending organ against her pussy through her undies. She was wet and hot and tempting. All it would take to be in her was a shift of some fabric and a small push. I could feel it already, the way her pussy would cling to my dick as we moved together, the moist friction, the molten need. I could have that so easily; just push aside her underwear, slip inside her, and brace myself above her so I could watch the pleasure take her as I fucked her slow and easy.

  I buried my face in her neck, wallowing in her scent, and licked to take her in. She moaned and shifted underneath me, and the musky scent of her arousal joined the perfume of her skin.

  “Just tell me one thing,” I said.

  “Yeah?”

  “What did you do with my underwear?”

  A giggle burst out of her, rolling happiness over me. “You’re inches from making love to me and you’re thinking about your underwear?”

  “It’s my favorite pair.”

  I claimed her lips in a gentle kiss, taking my time learning her mouth. Gianna in the morning. What a great way to start the day.

  The alarm sounded, a harsh discordance that broke the spell of arousal. She pushed me off of her and rolled out of bed to get ready for class while I silenced the damn thing and went to make her breakfast. Two more minutes and I’d have been inside her.

  I mentally consigned all alarm clocks to hell while I scrounged up something for Gianna to eat and ignored the limb between my legs poking insistently at the fabri
c of my sweats.

  Hours later, I’d gone to my own classes, stopped by the grocery store for supplies, and decided where to take her for supper that night.

  I’d also bought a huge box of condoms and hid them in my nightstand.

  Just in case.

  After Gianna came in and cleaned up, we walked from my apartment to the restaurant I’d chosen, a little hole in the wall a couple of blocks away that served great burgers. The night air chilled our faces as we strolled along the sidewalk, though we were warm enough under our jackets. We held hands as we walked, laughing and teasing, sharing news of our separate days, and when we arrived at the restaurant, we squeezed into a corner booth and ordered huge burgers with all the trimmings along with large orders of french fries.

  “You sure do know how to treat a girl right,” Gianna teased.

  “Hey, nothing but the best for my gal.”

  She tilted her head and wrinkled her nose and bestowed a soft smile on me, like I’d just handed her the moon.

  “Besides,” I said, “they have great burgers and a killer dessert menu.”

  “Now you’re speaking my language.” She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “You’ll help me work it off later, right?”

  I gave her a slow, wicked smile. “Anything for you.”

  I sat facing the main entrance with a clear view of the street. It’s not that I liked people so much, but I did enjoy people watching, so I alternated my gaze between Gianna devouring her hamburger and the people passing by outside the restaurant.

  Mostly, though, my focus was on her, on our conversation, which ranged from classes to politics to the upcoming holiday break, and on making sure she was well-fed. The effects of her taking my blood were negligible. She’d feel a little more than normal humans simply from being a beacon. My blood would enhance that marginally and provide a strong link between us, but it was too diluted to do anything else, like transform her into a pet or, worse, a vampire.

  Taking her blood, on the other hand, would affect her more harshly, just as if she’d donated to a blood bank. She needed to recharge her blood supply by eating, and I needed to learn how to keep my fangs to myself while we slept.

  Assuming she’d even sleep with me again.