But it was a far different question that slipped passed her lips.
“Would you ever have told me what you are?”
He didn’t reply immediately, and she didn’t open her eyes. The question was revealing. It showed a vulnerability she’d rather have kept hidden. But exhaustion and the intimate silence were working against her.
“I don’t know.”
A curious pang twisted in her chest. His answer shouldn’t hurt. He was a necromancer, after all. No matter what they’d started in the city, she could never be with him in the way she’d planned. It shouldn’t matter that he’d never intended to be honest in their relationship.
“You wouldn’t have given me the slightest chance had you known the truth.”
“No,” she agreed. She would have run from him as fast as her feet could carry her. “So why’d you do it?” She opened her eyes and turned her head toward him. “Was it just to see if you could get the better of a lonely vampire desperate for a little attention?”
He didn’t so much as blink as she threw back the words he’d used at Dominic’s dinner. Until she’d asked her question, she hadn’t even realized how heavily the phrase had weighed on her. No matter what game he’d been playing when they’d first met, she didn’t want him to see her as some desperate vampire he could use for his own amusement.
“I came after you to stop a war,” he said instead, avoiding her question. “I would have come for any vampire in your position.”
She didn’t flinch. Points to her.
Tarian reached out to touch her cheek. “But my good intentions don’t account for the panic I felt when I heard you were gone.”
Melissa held still, waiting for him to continue.
“I lied about my species,” he told her. “But never, not even for a moment, did I lie about wanting you. You’re not just some lonely vampire I used to entertain myself.”
A painful hope tugged at her even as she tried to battle it back with reason. “I’d be a fool to believe your words,” she said.
“Doesn’t make them less true.”
Not for the first time, Melissa felt out of her depth. For years she’d watched her father play every political and strategic game known to man, but they hadn’t prepared her for Tarian. How much of what he told her was a lie, and how much was truth? He’d promised not to use his magic on her so long as she stayed with him. Seducing her would be an easy way to bring her under his control. His attraction might be real, but that wouldn’t stop him from using it to his advantage.
She had to be strong. To keep him at arms length. If she couldn’t believe him, then she had to avoid letting her libido take charge. Tarian was one temptation that could be hazardous to her health. And heart.
“I need to go out,” she said, pushing up from the bed and the clinging intimacy it inspired.
“What?” he asked as he sat up. “Dawn is coming up fast.”
“I know. But a girl’s gotta eat.”
Understanding lit his eyes. “You’re hungry.”
“Gold star.” She threaded her fingers through her hair. “I’ve only had one small glass of blood in two nights.”
“We’re not exactly in an urban center.”
Melissa shrugged. “I have to find something. Surely there’ll be early morning joggers or someone I can snack on. You have to love athletes. They’re like drinking a diet.” When he arched a skeptical brow she added, “Plus there’s always the clerk downstairs if I get desperate.”
“Or there’s a far easier solution.” He tugged off his jacket.
“No.”
Tarian arched a brow. “You’re hungry. I’m offering.”
Longing snaked through her before she battled it back. “I’m not feeding from you.”
“Give me a good reason why not?”
Because feeding was intimate, and she couldn’t handle more “intimate” with this man. The tiny taste she’d had in the alley still weighed heavily on her mind. All she had to do was glance at his neck, and she wanted to lick her lips in anticipation.
“Legend says drinking more than a drop or two of necromancer blood gives them power over us,” she said instead.
A harsh laugh broke from him. “Look at your history books, Melissa. Your people did a damn fine job of drinking half my race dry. As we are the ones hiding in rural towns, I think you can safely assume there are no ill effects to drinking our blood. Now quit stalling. You’re starving.”
Her stomach rumbled as if to punctuate his words.
“I can hold out till tomorrow night,” she said instead. “When I’ll have more time to hunt.”
“If you starve, you’re too young to control the bloodlust it will inspire.”
She narrowed her eyes. The damn man wasn’t wrong, but no one liked having their weaknesses thrown in their face.
Melissa paced the length of the room. Going hunting this close to dawn was never a safe option. Nor was leaving bite marks on the clerk.
But she didn’t trust herself with Tarian, even if the thought of sinking her fangs into him did fill her with a surge of possessive delight.
Just think of him as any random stranger in your past, she ordered herself. A meal is a meal. Don’t make it into more than food. A few gulps and that’s it. Home free.
“Come here, Melissa.”
She turned to see him holding out a hand to her. Still she hesitated. She wanted to hate him. Wanted to rail at him for making her feel small and foolish. And instead her mouth watered, and her body yearned to go to him.
“I’m running out of ways to say no.”
“Think about this logically. This is the safest choice.”
“I’ve never been a room service kind of girl. I’d rather go out for a bite.”
He shook his head. “Don’t be ridiculous. You know I’m right.”
She fought back the urge to hiss at him. “Indeed. I suppose I should be grateful you’re not making me beg at your feet for a meal, necromancer.”
His expression blanked.
Hot shame tore through her even as she tried to tell herself it didn’t matter that she’d tossed his generous offer back in his face. She shouldn’t care about a necromancer’s feelings. Shouldn’t be caught in this confusing situation in the first place. But logic didn’t erase the fact that she did care about the disappointment she read in his eyes.
“Dammit,” she said, whirling to turn her back to him. “This isn’t fair.”
She hated to show weakness in front of an enemy, and yet her body was betraying her. Dawn pulled at her senses, reminding her of the ever-ticking clock that was her reality. If she was going to feed, it had to be soon.
Gentle hands smoothed over her shoulders, and she stiffened. She hadn’t even heard him move she was so agitated.
“I know,” he whispered against her ear, his voice low. “There is very little about this situation I can make right. But this, Melissa, is something I can give you.”
“Doesn’t this unnerve you?” she asked. “We have our fears of necromancers but you have some of us as well. Our fangs are our greatest weapon.”
His thumb brushed over her nape. “I trust you not to drain me.”
Brave or naive? she wondered, turning in his arms. She could take him out. Leave his corpse in the closet and take her chances on her own. But even as the thought crossed her mind, she knew she couldn’t do it.
Because I need him to stop Lucian from raining havoc down on us all, she told herself. Not because she’d miss him.
A wry smile twisted his lips. “Think of it this way. In another life, we probably would have ended up here eventually.”
She knew what he meant. If Dominic hadn’t interfered, they’d be happily dating in New York instead of trekking across the country. She’d be gossiping with Abbey about her excellent match and counting down the hours until she could see him again.
She’d be thinking she’d finally found her mate.
Sorrow shook her as she mourned that shattered life, which
would never exist again. The necromancers had done more than kidnap her. They’d also robbed her of a relationship she’d waited decades to find.
“You would have let me bite you?” she asked. “Even without me knowing what you were?”
“Our blood doesn’t taste different from any other run-of-the-mill immortal,” he replied. “There would be no danger in it.”
“I wasn’t talking about exposing you.” His kind did not sign up for vampire feedings. Nor did they give away valuable advantages as he had with the rield. And they never risked their own safety to help an enemy.
Tarian wasn’t just challenging her preconceptions of his kind. He was smashing them into a million pieces.
“It’s all right,” he said, reassuring her, when it should have been the other way around. “Take what you need.”
He needs you healthy. This helps his cause as much as it does yours, she reasoned. Except, right then the outside world felt very far away.
Taking his wrist, she turned it up toward her mouth.
“No,” he said when she started to lean down. “Not there.”
His hands slid around her waist to pull her closer as he tipped his head back.
She wanted to protest the intimate touch, but it caused her too much joy to demand he stop. Instead she stepped closer, her gaze locking on the pounding pulse in his throat.
Closing her eyes, she breathed in his unique scent of musk and magic. Her mouth watered as she pressed her lips to his neck. Life beat so close to the surface of his skin. Parting her lips, she dragged her tongue over his pulse.
Tarian groaned. His fingers tightened around her waist.
Her fangs lengthened, and she scraped them gently against his skin.
“Do it,” he whispered against her ear.
She bit down without any further urging.
Melissa moaned in pleasure as his blood touched her tongue. Had she ever tasted anything as good as him? She drew a deep sip, savoring the richness.
Tarian’s hand fisted in her hair as she drank. A vampire’s bite could be pleasurable for their victims if they wanted it to be, and Melissa couldn’t help herself from sharing the joy she felt with him.
Every sip she took tasted like pure energy. She felt her body grow stronger and repair the damage the sun had caused. But more than heal, Tarian’s blood excited her, thrilled her.
He waltzed her backward until their legs bumped against the bed. They tumbled onto the soft mattress without Melissa ever giving up her prize.
Without conscious thought, she kicked a leg astride him as she drank. His taste was intoxicating. The desire she felt being around him amplified a thousand fold with his blood on her tongue.
Melissa rocked against him as she moved in time to her swallows. Lust laced through her veins, enthralling her as much as the blood did. The urge to laugh, to touch, to pleasure pounded through her. Given the rock-hard erection between her thighs, it was a craving Tarian shared.
Melissa wanted to drink forever. All too soon she reached the point where his heart shuddered as it tried to pump less blood through his body.
The predator in her demanded she finish what she’d started. She could take it all, every last drop.
But then there’d be no more. No more blood. No more Tarian.
And she had a horrifying suspicion she needed them both.
With a last long pull, she reared back.
“My God,” Tarian breathed, his eyes glazed with pleasure.
Melissa drew her tongue over the small puncture wounds to clean them of every last drop. Pressing her hands against his chest, she pushed herself up even though all she wanted to do was snuggle closer.
“I never knew,” he said. Tarian reached up to run his thumb over her mouth. She saw a smear of red across his skin when he removed his hand and instinctively caught it in her mouth.
Her tongue swirled over the pad of his thumb as she swallowed the last taste of him.
“Good?” he asked.
“Delicious,” she replied. She fought back the desire to roll her hips against his straining erection. Vampires could get blood drunk when they found a truly excellent victim, and she feared Tarian might just be her drug of choice.
“Your eyes are red.”
Melissa blinked, knowing what it meant. When a vampire’s true nature pushed to the surface their eyes reflected that loosening of control. Her eyes hadn’t changed color during a feed since she’d been a young fledgling. Rarely did they darken even during a night of great sex.
Yet Tarian shattered that tight rein she used to hold herself in check.
“I like it,” Tarian said as he hooked a hand around her nape.
She should resist, but when he tugged her down, common sense deserted her. His blood pumped through her veins, creating a connection she’d never experienced before. All she wanted was one more touch.
His lips met hers and ignited the desire she was trying to keep banked.
Melissa writhed over top of him. Her hands tugged at his T-shirt in an attempt to work it over his head.
His mouth left hers for the briefest second as he pulled the material over his head. Melissa nearly purred with pleasure when she looked down at his sculpted body. His golden skin offered stark contrast to her pale fingers. They were different in every way.
But that didn’t stop her from pressing her mouth to his chest and licking his essence off his skin.
“Yes,” Tarian hissed when her tongue lapped over a nipple. One hand tangled in her hair while the other fisted in the sheets. He was trying to be good, and she appreciated the gesture. It gave her free reign to play with him as she’d dreamed about.
Her fingers glided across his body, and she felt the muscles in his abdomen tighten at her touch.
Instinct urged her to remember he was a necromancer, not a lover, but the longer she spent in his company the further the line blurred. Right then she wasn’t undulating against an enemy. He was simply Tarian. A man she wanted to be hers.
Melissa traced one light fingertip along the waistband of his jeans, pausing just under his navel.
She rolled her eyes up to his as she began to kiss her way down his chest. Tarian bucked beneath her, urging her on with his body, if not his words.
Her fingers reached for the fly of his jeans, just as the world spun before her eyes.
Desire drained away as it became an effort to keep her head up.
“Tarian,” she breathed, resting her forehead against his chest.
“Melissa?” He reached down for her and rolled her onto the bed. “What are you—?” He paused and glanced at the electric clock on the nightstand. “Bloody hell,” he said. “Sweetheart, it’s dawn.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she groaned.
The intoxication of his blood was fading, leaving behind only the sting of embarrassment. Not only had she been craving a man she should be holding at arms length, she’d gone and riled him up with promises she’d never be able to follow through on. Melissa hadn’t miscalculated her timing so badly in decades.
His chuckles grated her already frazzled nerves. “This isn’t funny,” she said, but it was hard to be severe when she could barely keep her eyes open.
“I’m laughing at myself,” he assured her. “Can you crawl under the covers?”
She rolled onto her stomach and tried to shimmy toward the head of the bed with varying degrees of success. Flopping around like a fish on dry land in front of the man she’d just been pawing did not help alleviate any of her humiliation.
“I’ll take that as a no,” he said, a trace of humor in his voice.
Tarian swept her up into his arms. “Let yourself sleep, Melissa,” he said, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
“Embarrassed,” she breathed as he laid her head on the pillow.
“I told you before. Anticipation is a good thing.”
She felt his fingers caress her cheek but couldn’t find the strength to open her eyes as she fell into unconsciousness.
<
br /> …
Tarian collapsed into the chair he’d pulled up next to the bed. She was out like a light. If he were a gentleman, he’d cover her with a blanket and hit the shower. Instead, he couldn’t drum up the will to move.
Her lashes cast dark semicircles onto her creamy skin. A lock of hair fell across her cheek, and he couldn’t stop himself from reaching out to brush it back into place.
He traced his fingertips along her jaw before sitting back. Melissa was always beautiful, but he’d never seen her this way before. There was no fear, no confusion on her face. She looked utterly peaceful.
And terribly vulnerable.
The past flashed through his mind, when he had hunted during the day, seeking vampires just as vulnerable as the one before him. No hesitation had ever gripped him in those dark days during the wars. He’d never doubted he was destroying evil.
Yet the woman before him was anything but.
“I made my peace with your kind,” he whispered to her. That acceptance didn’t account for the feelings rising within him each time he touched her, however. Hell, his vow to keep his hands to himself had lasted less than two hours. How was he supposed to survive the next few days?
“What are you doing to me?”
There was no answer to be found. A vampire was tying him in knots, and when her lips were on his, he didn’t seem to mind one damn bit.
Pushing from the chair, he reached out and flicked the blanket over Melissa for extra protection from any stray sunbeams. He paced into the bathroom, running a hand over his face. Shower first, and then he’d deal with planning their route for the next day. One thing was for sure. After his last bout with Melissa, sleep would be a long time coming.
“Shower,” he said to his reflection. “And let’s make it a cold one.”
Chapter Ten
The endless driving was not quite as fun the second night as it had been the first.
Melissa sat in the passenger seat and watched the flat landscape fly by outside her window. They’d passed a Welcome to Oklahoma sign a few hours back, so at least they were on the right path.
Dying to Date Page 10