“How about if we talk about something other than my panties?” she suggested.
“This would be a bad time to ask what type of panties you’re wearing, right?” he asked, a teasing twinkle in his eyes.
Talia laughed and hugged him. “I’m insane for agreeing to this,” she breathed out against his neck.
“I’m just insane,” he admitted. “Thank you.”
Talia released him and nodded. “This isn’t how I thought our argument would end.”
“We’re not done arguing,” Drew stated with narrowed eyes. “Acting as bait for a bunch of psychos is a bad idea. You aren’t even on their radar. Why bring attention to yourself? Why let them know who you are?”
Talia’s eyes narrowed. “When did you figure it out?”
“Last night,” Drew admitted, not pretending to misunderstand her. “When I was running my fingers along your hunter’s mark, I noticed it had a lot of raised areas. Spelled ink scars on vampires.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” she asked, more curious than anything else.
“You were trying hard to keep it a secret,” he explained, shoving his hands in his back pockets and rocking back on his heels. There was a wary expression in his eyes. “If I told you I’d figured it out, I was worried you’d leave, and I don’t want to lose you.”
“I guess I can’t be too mad at you about that,” she admitted.
One corner of his mouth kicked up in a lopsided grin. “You aren’t even a little mad at me, are you?”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” she insisted. When he continued to watch her, she sighed. “Fine, I’m not mad at you.”
“So, you aren’t really a hunter?” he asked.
“I’m trained as a hunter,” she replied. “Actually, I’m a better fighter than most hunters. I can sense vampires just like any other hunter.”
“But you don’t have a hunter’s mark,” he added.
“And I can get pregnant,” she blurted out. “I just thought I should mention that in case things go further.”
Drew’s grin could only be described as predatory. “Things will definitely go further. That is good to know. I’m not prepared. I should buy condoms. That kind of sucks. I was hoping to fuck you without one.”
“I need you to make an effort to think before you speak for the next ten minutes,” she told him.
“Only ten minutes?” he asked.
“We’ll begin with baby steps,” she replied. “Something tells me it’s going to take a lot of effort for you to learn to think before you speak.”
“Are you telling me you don’t find my quirky comments endearing?” he asked.
“I do, actually,” she admitted. “Something tells me if you stop saying completely inappropriate things, I’ll miss that about you.”
“I like you just way you are, too,” he told her. “You know what we should do?”
“What’s that?” she asked hesitantly.
“We should go out,” he replied. “It’ll be our first date. We can grab lunch, and I can try to talk you into telling me what kind of panties you have on. That sounds like the kind of thing people do on dates.”
Talia couldn’t help but laugh at Drew’s excitement. “You’re insane—totally certifiable.”
“I know,” he agreed. “So, lunch? I’m starved. Maybe we can even go see a movie. We can talk about your plan to act as bait later.”
Talia wanted to insist that they wouldn’t ever be having that conversation, because it was none of his business, but she was hungry, so she decided to save that argument for later.
Chapter Thirty-One
“I can’t believe we made it out of the house without anyone asking where we were going,” Drew mused as he slid behind the wheel of the car.
Talia slid into the passenger’s seat and looked around. “I can’t believe you own a fucking Tesla. Although, I’m not sure why this surprises me, considering the giant house you live in.”
Drew grinned at her as he started up the car. “It’s not mine. My grandmother bought it, but she hates it, so it’s been sitting in the garage here for months.”
“How can she hate a Tesla?” Talia asked. It’s not that she was a big car person, but she’d heard they were fun to drive.
“She bought it so she could drive in the carpool lane,” Drew began. “My grandmother hates having to use mind control to get out of tickets for illegally using the carpool lane. Occasionally, she even runs into a cop she can’t influence. She looks like she’s around thirteen, so cops are already suspicious when they see her behind the wheel.”
“I still don’t understand why she hates the car,” Talia remarked as Drew drove up to the front gate.
“The car’s too quiet, according to her,” he explained while he entered his code at the gate. “She says it’s unnerving to hear the cars around her but not her own.”
“I can see how that might bother someone,” Talia mused. “Why all the security around your house? It seems like overkill.”
“It started with my cousin who owns the house going a little crazy over some woman,” Drew began. “He basically kidnapped her. You haven’t met him because he rarely stays at the house, and he’s been traveling a lot with his job. After that, my mom tried to kidnap Justin, so security was tightened even more. We each have our own code and can’t enter or exit without it. Isaiah can deactivate anyone’s code remotely. He also changes them frequently.”
“Kidnapping seems to be a common theme among your family,” Talia mused.
“Try not to hold it against me,” he muttered. “It’s bad enough I’m this screwed up. If you add in the fact that my family is a mess, I’ll never get a second date with you.”
“I don’t have much room to judge you on your family. My birth parents are trying to hunt me down and kill me. Actually, I guess my birth mom is dead now.” Talia paused. “I have no idea why that feels so strange. Don’t get me wrong,” she quickly added. “I’m not mourning her death. The woman didn’t care about me, and I didn’t want a relationship with her. Still, I wanted to confront her.”
“Is that what this is about?” Drew asked. “The thing about you being bait, I mean.”
“That’s a little of it,” Talia admitted. “I also don’t think they’re just going to disappear.”
“The vampires killed some hunters, so I expect the other hunters involved will be looking for them. It seems things will fall apart on their own.”
“That might be the case, but innocent people might also get killed if we don’t do something to stop this. The deaths are attracting the attention of other hunters,” Talia pointed out. “How long do you think it will be before hunters decide they need to defend themselves against all vampires? Then what happens if they start killing vampires? The vampires are bound to feel like the truce has been broken. I’m not saying this will happen everywhere, but you know there are vampires who want to go back to a more traditional way of life. As I understand it, that’s even more common in Europe.”
“How far do you think the news has spread?” Drew asked. “I thought the cop on the inside only told the hunters in your territory what happened.”
Talia shook her head and blew out a frustrated breath. “That would be the ideal situation, but it’s not that easy to keep this sort of thing from getting out. There are too many details that need to be covered up by the police. I’m sure word has already spread to hunters all over this country.”
“So, it’s more than you wanting to be the one to confront them,” he deduced before pondering her words. “There has to be another way.”
“I’m willing to listen if you come up with an idea,” she assured him.
Drew nodded. “For now, I’m just going to enjoy our first date.”
“It sounds strange when you say that,” she admitted nervously.
“I know what you mean,” he told her. “You have more experience with this than I do.”
“Hunters don’t date much,” she replied. “I dated another h
unter for a little while, and some humans. Things were more casual with the humans.”
“Did the hunter know your secret?” Drew asked.
“No,” she admitted. “That made it harder.”
“How’d you get around the birth control thing?” he asked. “Can you take the pill?”
“It doesn’t work on me,” she explained. “I tried an IUD, but my body rejected it. It’s never been tried with other hunters, so I don’t know if they’d have the same reaction, but it doesn’t work with breeders. It wasn’t an issue with the hunter since male hunters are sterile. With the humans, I just had them use a condom.”
“We’ve definitely got this first date talk down, don’t we?” Drew asked with a grin.
“I guess we had to talk about birth control and exes eventually,” she admitted.
“I think most people wait a little longer,” he remarked. “Then again, what do I know?”
“What’s your favorite food?” she asked before adding, “Other than steak.”
“Pizza,” he replied without hesitation.
“What kind of pizza?” she asked. “Style? Toppings? You can’t just say pizza. It’s too vague.”
“I like all pizza,” he replied. “It doesn’t matter what kind of crust or toppings they put on it. Pizza is the perfect food.”
“More perfect than steak?” she asked.
“Hell no,” he replied. “I saw you enjoying your steak. That must be one of the things you got from your vampire side.”
“The love of a good steak?” she asked.
“Rare steak,” he corrected. “Do you need blood?”
“No,” she replied. “I guess that’s one thing to be thankful for.”
“I’ll bet that’s partly why some vampires want to start a war,” he deduced. “They probably hate the rules about them feeding from humans.”
“Haven’t most of you been defanged?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Most in this country have, but Justin is one of the few doctors who do the surgery on this continent. A lot of vampire doctors won’t do it because they’re convinced we’ll need blood again. Justin argues that it’s easy enough to get bagged blood, but I guess they don’t agree.”
“So, vampires in some areas have no one to perform the surgery,” she said. “I’d heard it was rare for a vampire living on this continent to keep their fangs.”
“It is. Justin works hard for our people, even if he is a pompous dick. Some of us still don’t get our fangs removed. I still have mine,” he added.
Talia knew Drew was younger, and she’d heard younger vampires were more likely to get their fangs removed as children. “Why do you still have them?”
“My dad was more traditional, and he didn’t like taking the supplements. He did it, but he still liked to take blood from a human on occasion,” Drew explained. “He refused to have mine removed when I was a kid.”
Talia shuddered. “Taking blood sounds really unpleasant.”
“It’s actually a very intimate experience,” Drew admitted. “I’m sure that’s not the case with anyone who isn’t susceptible to mind control. I have to make my donor believe they enjoy it. The fangs hurt. I bit myself when I was younger, just to see what it felt like.”
“They also hurt coming out,” Talia added with a laugh.
“Good guess,” Drew replied with a grin.
“Where are you taking me?” she finally asked. “I’m so hungry, I didn’t even think to ask.”
“Zachary’s,” he told her with a grin. “They make great Chicago style pizza.”
“I think I’ve heard of them,” she remarked. “I don’t make it up to this part of the bay area too often. The drive from Santa Cruz is a pain in the ass. There’s always traffic.”
“I’ve been down there a couple times, and you’re right about the traffic being terrible,” he agreed. “You’ll love Zachary’s. The only thing that sucks is the long wait for a deep-dish pizza.”
“We don’t have to get deep dish,” she told him.
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that,” he replied as he pulled into a parking spot. “Never say we can go without deep-dish pizza at Zachary’s.”
“I thought it didn’t matter what kind of crust?” she reminded him. “You’re the one who said pizza is the perfect food, no matter what kind of crust or toppings it has.”
“It is,” he assured her. “We’re just talking about a whole new level of perfection. It’ll be worth the wait.”
“Fine, but I get to pick the toppings,” she insisted. “I don’t think I trust you after you said all toppings are good. Some things definitely shouldn’t go on pizza.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Zachary’s was busier than Drew had expected, so it took them an hour to get their pizza. He’d suggested using compulsion on the employees to make their pizza first, but Talia hadn’t liked that idea. Before biting into his own pizza, Drew watched Talia take her first bite. Her eyes closed and she let out a little moan that had his dick rock hard. The woman was hot as fuck no matter what she did. Watching her eat pizza was hotter than any porn he’d ever seen.
After she swallowed, Talia glared at him. “Don’t even think about watching me eat with that expression on your face.”
“What expression?” he asked innocently.
“You know exactly what expression I’m talking about,” she replied.
He chuckled. “I was just hoping to hear your reply. How were you going to say I looked like I wanted to eat you?”
“You have a way of making everything about sex, don’t you?”
“Pretty much,” he admitted. “They say guys think about sex an average of nineteen times a day. I’ve always thought about sex at least twice that often. With you, I think about sex at least nineteen times an hour.”
“Yet, you don’t have sex,” she pointed out.
“Don’t tell people that,” he practically pleaded.
“Don’t tell them what?” she asked with a teasing grin. “How you’re worried about taking advantage of a woman? You don’t want them to know the big bad vampire has a conscience?”
“Not really,” he admitted. “Those assholes want to think the worst of me, so let them.”
She waved off his self-pity. “Stop being so dramatic. Why do you feel the need to be as bad as everyone believes you are? You want to act like you don’t care what anyone thinks, but you spend a lot of time trying to look like a complete psycho.”
Drew grinned. He liked it when she called him on his shit. In this case, he thought she was wrong, but he still liked how she stood up to him.
“You’re looking at me that way again,” she complained. Since her lips were twitching, she couldn’t be that annoyed with him.
“How am I looking at you?” he asked with as innocent a smile as he could manage.
“I can’t believe you haven’t asked me more questions since you figured out what I am,” she remarked, trying to change the subject.
There were too many people around to discuss her situation, and Drew suspected that was Talia’s aim. She didn’t have to worry about him asking too many questions—not that he planned to push her on the subject. “You’ll tell me more when you’re ready.”
“Somehow, that seems like proof I might be the crazy one,” she grumbled.
“Why’s that, babe?” he asked casually.
“I may need to stab you in the balls to break you of that habit,” she told him.
“Which habit would that be?” he asked, even though he knew which habit she was referring to.
“Calling me babe,” she explained. “I have no interest in being anyone’s babe, baby, sweetie, or any of those other annoying pet names.”
“But you do want to be mine,” he murmured.
She opened her mouth to argue and then let out a frustrated groan. “I don’t want to like the way that sounds. I’m not the type of woman to belong to a man. Sweet and needy isn’t my style.”
“I know,” D
rew said with a grin. “That’s probably a good thing, considering how messed up I am.”
“You don’t make a good argument for me dating you when you talk like that,” she pointed out.
“I don’t want to lie to you,” he told her. “There’s nothing about me that makes me good boyfriend material. If I try hard enough, I can pretend to be normal, but what would happen when you saw the real me and realized it was a lie? Then you’ll leave me, I’ll end up stalking you, and you’ll probably stab me in the balls.”
“You aren’t joking, are you?” she asked as she studied him.
He shrugged. “A little, but I do like stalking people—not long-term. That seems like it would get boring. Even though you aren’t telling me to leave you alone, I want to follow you somewhere and watch you.”
Talia shook her head and sighed. “Why am I still sitting here with you?”
He shrugged. “I want to say something cocky about how irresistible I am, but I honestly can’t think of any reason you’d stay with me. You’re definitely too good for me.”
“Yet, you’re still the one I’m hanging out with,” she added with a shake of her head. “I end up in your bed every night.”
“And I still haven’t seen you naked,” he complained. “I’m going to make a rule that everyone has to sleep naked in my bed.”
She laughed. “How many people are you planning to have sleep in your bed?”
“Just you,” he replied. “You’re also the only one I want to see naked.”
“I find that hard to believe,” she remarked skeptically. “You seem like a man who enjoys looking at women.”
“I’m also somewhat obsessed with you,” he reminded her.
“Obsessed is not a good word,” she told him. “Obsessions can be dangerous.”
“I’m dangerous,” he replied with a shrug. “So are you.”
“I guess you’re right,” she agreed. “If everyone is naked in your bed, you’d have to be naked, too.”
Drew smirked. “I don’t mind getting naked for you, beautiful. Do you want to see me naked?”
Wicked Crazy Vampire Love (Psy-Vamp Book 7) Page 14