by Elisa Adams
His expression was interested, and concerned. “It sounds like you take care of everyone.”
He didn’t even know the half of it. “I do okay.”
“Why don’t you tell me something about you? Your family sounds interesting, but that’s not why I’m here.”
She found herself watching his lips move when he spoke, and wondering what it would be like to kiss him. She was having a harder and harder time keeping up her end of the conversation. “I’m not a very interesting person. I work at home, keep to myself most of the time, and I have only a few close friends in town.”
He nodded slowly. “That’s a start. What about your hopes? Your dreams?”
She scoffed at that. “I’m living my dream.”
“Taking care of everyone? Having no time for yourself?” He shook his head and leaned across the table, his eyes dark. “What kind of dreams are those?”
“They’re my dreams. I have a nice home, a wonderful family, and my painting, which I love. What more could I ask for?” She squinted at him through the bright sunlight, looking for humor in his expression. She found none.
“You’re a talented artist, Ellie. Before I came to find you today, I took a look at the paintings in the gallery.”
A wave of anxiety washed over her at his words. “If you say so.”
“You aren’t making getting to know you very easy.”
“It shouldn’t be.” She smiled in triumph, finally getting some of her footing back. “Now how about you tell me about you?”
“I don’t have many living family members. Just one younger sister. I travel whenever I get the chance.”
“What do you do for a living?” She sipped her coffee while she waited for his answer.
“This and that. I own a couple of small companies.”
His eyes met hers, and she knew he’d lied to her. For some reason, he seemed to want her to call him on it. So she didn’t. “That must keep you busy.”
“It does. But like I said, I enjoy traveling whenever my schedule permits.”
Yeah, right. Why was he lying to her, and why didn’t she feel threatened by it? For some reason, she was warming to him, even knowing he wasn’t being entirely truthful.
He set his mug down on the table, his fingers brushing hers in the process, something she thought wasn’t an accident.
She drained the last of her coffee, needing to be away from him before she begged him to strip her and take her right there in the middle of the yard. “I have to get back to work now.”
“Are you interested in having dinner with me?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why not? You do eat, don’t you?”
She set her mug on the table with a thump. “Of course. I just don’t date men I don’t know.” Especially men who don’t eat.
Eric was a vampire. She couldn’t let herself forget that.
She didn’t expect him to give up easily, and he didn’t disappoint. “How will you get to know me if you don’t take a chance?”
She hesitated just a moment. “I’m…kind of seeing someone.” It wasn’t exactly a lie. Well, maybe it was now that she and Royce had called it quits. But the excuse protected her from her intense reaction to Eric. If he thought she was seeing someone else, especially a man as big and powerful as Royce, he’d leave her alone.
Yeah, sure he would. Eric wasn’t as tall or as big as Royce, but he had a commanding presence around him. His strength seemed to come from somewhere inside as well as the physical. She had a feeling he could hold his own with even someone like Royce or Marco.
A shadow passed over his eyes and his hands clenched tight around his mug. “Is it serious?”
She started to say yes, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t lie about that. “No.”
He smiled, his teeth flashing white. “Then I see no harm in a simple dinner.”
Simple didn’t seem to fit the situation, or anything having to do with Eric. He was complex, unnerving, and entirely too sure of himself for her comfort. But she couldn’t deny the fact that she was curious, and attracted, and maybe one dinner wouldn’t be so bad. “Okay. Only dinner, though. I don’t want you to expect anything more.”
“Can I pick you up tonight at seven?”
“I’ll meet you downtown, at the front entrance of the park, at seven.”
She waited for him to protest, and he looked like he might, but in the end he agreed to her terms. “Good. I’ll let you get back to your work now. I’ll see you tonight.”
He stood and walked away, leaving her at the table wondering how she would get through an entire meal when she could barely make it through a cup of coffee with her willpower remaining intact.
Chapter 4
“You have another date? Isn’t that two or three this week? I think this is a record for you.” Charlotte stood in the door, munching on a bowl of popcorn while she watched Ellie get ready for her dinner with Eric. “Is it with Royce, or someone different?”
Ellie sighed, but didn’t bother to correct her sister’s assumption. No sense confessing she was pretty much a failure when it came to relationships. “I’m allowed to date, Charlotte.”
“It’s about time you figured that one out.” Charlotte laughed and tossed a piece of popcorn at Ellie. “Wear your hair down. It looks sexier that way.”
Ellie paused, her hair half-piled on her head. “Really?” She let her hair drop, fluffing it as it fell past her shoulders. “You don’t think it looks too…boring?”
Charlotte just rolled her eyes and ignored the question. “Are you going to sleep with him?”
“No.” Not tonight. With the way things sparked between them, she couldn’t make any guarantees beyond that. She was definitely attracted, and she wouldn’t mind pursuing something further, provided he wasn’t some kind of depraved psychopath. Or worse.
Married.
“I think you should.” Charlotte smiled. “Is he as hot as Royce?”
Ellie swiped some red lip-gloss over her lips to match her red dress. “That’s enough. You don’t need to know any of this.” She wasn’t going to talk about Eric until she knew more about him. She knew his name, and that was about it. But she wanted to get to know him, despite her earlier promise to herself to not get involved with anyone right now.
“Grandma said some man named Eric came around looking for you. She said he was really nice, and pretty easy to look at, too.” Charlotte smiled at Ellie through the mirror and helped her adjust the thin straps of the dress. “Is that the guy?”
Ellie sighed. Leave it to Carol, the one-woman grapevine. “Yes. Now shoo. I need to finish getting ready.”
Charlotte walked into the bedroom and pulled a pair of four-inch spiked heels out of Ellie’s closet, ones Ellie had worn one time to a costume party where she’d nearly broken her ankle walking up the front steps. “Wear these. They’ll make your legs look incredible.”
And they’d make it impossible to make a quick escape, if necessary. “I don’t think so. I’m tall enough without them. I don’t want to look like some kind of giant freak.” She grabbed a pair of tan leather sandals instead, slipping them on before she walked out of the room.
Charlotte followed her downstairs and into the kitchen, still talking while Ellie grabbed her purse and keys. “I still can’t believe you’re meeting him downtown. I would have made my date drive out here and get me.”
Just as she got to the front door, Ellie turned to her sister. “If I want to meet my date instead of having him pick me up, I can. If I want to pay for the meal, I can do that, too. Why don’t you give Doug a call and try to work out your marriage and let me have a moment to breathe here.”
Charlotte sulked, her mood turning stormy. “Doug’s an idiot. Just go out and have fun, okay. Don’t worry about my marriage, Ellie. I can take care of myself.”
She slammed the bowl of popcorn on the counter and stalked out of the room without another word. Ellie watched her walk down the hall, her hands clen
ched into fists at her sides, and realized she should leave the subject of the failed marriage alone, at least for a little while. Maybe Royce was right—she needed to start concentrating on her own life and let everyone else live theirs.
She drove downtown instead of walking the mile, because she wanted an easy out in case Eric turned out to be a major creep. Her grandmother would call her a fool for even seeing him with the doubts she had, but she needed to do it. She had to find out more about him before she made her judgments.
Eric was already there, leaning against a fence post, when she pulled up in front of the park. He rested one hand on a fence post with the other in the front pocket of his dark slacks, his stance casual. Before she got out of the car, she took a deep breath, gathering her courage and calming her nerves. When she finally felt ready, she stepped out of the car and walked over to where he waited. The light gray shirt he wore brought out a metallic quality in his eyes, almost liquid, that she hadn’t noticed before. In the muted lighting of the fading sun, they looked like strands of glittering gold in the clear emerald of his eyes.
“Hi.” She smiled nervously, fidgeting from foot to foot. She hadn’t had an actual date in years, not since before her marriage. What she’d been doing with Royce couldn’t exactly be called dating—not that it would be much better with Eric. Going out to dinner with a vampire didn’t hold a lot of appeal. But spending a few hours with a man who fascinated her did. Her curiosity had forced her to accept his offer, even when her commonsense had called her a fool.
He didn’t say anything—he didn’t have to. His gaze roamed over her with excruciating slowness, heating her whole body to the boiling point. She struggled to draw a breath, sure her skin must be close to the color of the dress by now. Why had she chosen to wear the little sundress tonight? She would have been much more comfortable in her navy blue short set, or even a pair of jeans. Maybe then she wouldn’t have the distinct impression that he was undressing her with his eyes.
His gaze stopped at her neckline and his brow furrowed. “Interesting necklace.”
Her hand flew to her neck and her fingers clutched the totem. “It was a gift from my grandmother for my eighth birthday.”
“You’ve had it for that long?”
She nodded, her hands starting to shake. A faint electrical smell hung in the air, promising a summer thunderstorm.
“A panther is a strange choice for a little girl.”
“Not really. Ever since I was little, it’s been my favorite animal.” Not a lie, exactly, but he didn’t need to know the real reason her grandmother had bought her the totem. “Are you ready to go?”
Eric hesitated before he answered, his brow furrowed and his gaze challenging. “Yeah, sure. Lead the way.”
They walked to a little restaurant down the street, one Ellie frequented with her sisters. The food was good, the atmosphere quiet, and the dining area open enough that she had plenty of choices for escape routes if needed.
Eric surprised her by ordering, and eating, a big meal. She blinked at his clean plate, when she still had half her food left. “Hungry?”
He narrowed his eyes for a second before he smiled, leaning forward in the chair. “Starved.”
She gulped, suddenly struck with the idea that he wasn’t talking about food. “Oh.”
His smile widened, only making him appear more predatory. “Why do you seem so surprised that I’ve eaten?”
“I would have thought your preferred meal would come from a blood bank.” She paused and shook her head. “No, you don’t look much like the bagged type. I think you’d rather have it fresh, straight from the source. Am I right?”
“Bagged type?” He looked confused for a moment, and then he burst out laughing. “What exactly do you think I am?”
Did he really think he was fooling her? “A vampire.” She raised her eyebrows, daring him to deny what was so obvious. Or at least what had been, before she watched him down an entire steak and baked potato in the time it took her to eat two bites of chicken.
His expression turned stormy. “A vampire? Oh God, no. Don’t insult me like that.”
His tone was light, humorous even, but she suspected her statement had truly offended him. That made no sense. She couldn’t be wrong about this, it just wasn’t possible. If he wasn’t a vampire, what else could he be?
“What are you?” she asked before she could stop herself. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she wanted to take them back. It didn’t matter what he was. The man was obviously a complete lunatic, or a very impressive liar. There was something about him that just screamed “supernatural being” and “vampire” seemed to fit.
“What makes you think I’m any different than you?” He bit off a large chunk of bread and popped it into his mouth. She waited for him to finish chewing before he continued. “I’m just a regular guy, Ellie.”
Right. “You know, even if you are a vampire, I wouldn’t care. I have a few vampire friends, and it honestly doesn’t bother me.”
“Oh, yeah?” An amused half-smile lit his face. “Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but feeding on blood isn’t an integral part of my survival.” He leaned even closer across the table, so close that his breath feathered across her skin. He smiled knowingly, as if he was about to share a secret, and spoke in hushed tones that went straight to her clit. “But I might bite, if you’re really, really good.”
In her head, she knew letting him talk to her that way on a first date was a very bad idea. But her body disagreed, arching toward him almost of its own volition. She snapped herself back, leaning into the chair to separate herself from whatever it was about him that caused her brain cells to go into sleep mode.
“Don’t trust me yet?” He sat back and took a big sip of his water, his gaze following her every move.
He seemed to find her dilemma amusing, and she fought the urge to wipe the smug smile off his handsome face. “Why should I trust you? You just threatened to bite me.” She crossed her arms over her chest to hide the most blatant evidence of her arousal.
She should not react to his candor in this way. That wasn’t what nice girls like her did. She should slap him and take herself home before she let this go any further.
She gulped as she realized he was looking at her as if she was his next meal. That knocked a smidgen of sense into her, considering she wasn’t entirely convinced that the man wasn’t a vampire. “Well, vampire or not, I’m not into feeding for kicks. It doesn’t do anything for me.”
“I take it you’ve had experience?”
“By necessity only. It’s not like I go around looking for someone to drink my blood.” Just the thought turned her stomach.
His grin widened. “Who said anything about becoming my meal? Perhaps I’m interested in something else entirely.”
“And what would that be?” She was having a difficult time keeping up the false bravado when her body wanted to melt into a puddle in her seat. Maybe she shouldn’t fight it so hard. Maybe if she just let him touch her, kiss her even, she’d get over whatever this was and be capable of normalcy again. She’d find out that he really was just an ordinary man, no more capable of arousing her than any of the men she’d ever dated.
Ha! Ordinary wasn’t a fitting description, and she knew deep inside that he was nothing like any of the men she’d dated. Her mouth went dry at the thought.
“Do you even have to ask what I want from you?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. His eyes narrowed and the darkness she’d glimpsed in them before was now front-and-center. “If you don’t, then I guess I’m getting a little rusty.”
She blinked. He didn’t even try to hide it. It was the first time he’d let her see him as anything less than a perfect gentleman. She liked it. A lot. Her panties were damp just being this close to him, listening to him talk to her so frankly. She wondered how much of a gentleman he’d be when he wasn’t trying to impress a woman—how much of a gentleman he’d be in bed.
Just as quickly as i
t had appeared, the darkness vanished. He took her hand in his and kissed the top of it. Then he turned it over and kissed the underside of her wrist. A shiver ran down her arm, followed by an electrical spark of pain and pleasure when he nipped lightly at her sensitive skin. She tried to pull her hand away, glancing around the restaurant to make sure no one was watching, but the other diners were all too engrossed in their own conversations to notice.
Time to slow this down a bit. He was a stranger. She’d been out with him once, twice if she counted twenty minutes in her backyard as a date. She knew practically nothing about him, and vampire or not, he wasn’t safe. As a general rule, she didn’t indulge in one-night stands, and she’d learned from her time with Royce that she really wasn’t cut out for even casual flings. She needed serious, steady commitment, and she highly doubted a man like Eric would be willing for that kind of a relationship. He was too intense, too…dark to be truly interested in what she had to offer.
Still, she was definitely attracted to him, and to the air of danger about him. She could pretend and deny it all she wanted, but there was definitely something there between them. She’d never felt that kind of connection before. Someone up there had a sick sense of humor—she would have preferred the man who finally stirred her to at least be of the mortal race.
“You need time to think about this,” he said, bringing her out of her thoughts. “Why is it that you can accept that you think I’m a vampire—which you are wrong about, by the way—but you can’t accept that there’s chemistry between us?”
There was that, in spades. But every time she thought about getting deeply involved, Todd’s face formed in her mind. She wanted the closeness, the intimacy of an exclusive relationship, but she just didn’t know if she had the emotional strength to handle the bad that came along with the good. “It just isn’t what I’m looking for. I’m not able to commit to any kind of a relationship right now, so no matter what you are, you can stop wasting your time.” You are such a liar, Ann Elizabeth!
“Sometimes you go looking for one thing, but find something entirely different. Would you give up something that has so much potential, just because you weren’t looking for it?”