by C. M. Owens
His hands slide down my sides, igniting a fiery trail as tingles course through me, and I essentially quit breathing. He really shouldn’t be so damn sexy.
“I’m sure you’re not a virgin in that way,” he says, the smile on his face matching the smile in his voice. “I was referring to the fact you’re a first-timer—never bitten. This club is full of seasoned players.”
Swallowing hard, I ignore the glowing red stain that is heating my cheeks. “Oh,” I say lamely. “I’m not. I do this all the time.”
His smile only grows. “If that were so, you wouldn’t have turned into stone the second I got close. Right now, you could be snapped with the slightest movement.”
His hands venture down farther, sliding onto my thighs as he presses completely against my back, and then his eyes meet mine in the mirror. Damn. Those are some seriously blue eyes.
“Don’t say anything,” I murmur pathetically. “I don’t want to get my friend kicked out.”
“The girl researching the place?” he asks, amused. He’s been paying too much attention. How does he know about Marilyn?
Instead of asking questions, I just nod in response to his query.
“And what do you think about all of… this?” he asks softly, his hands sliding back up to my waist, moving against the bare skin that I’ve left abundantly exposed.
“I think… it’s seductive,” I stammer, my voice breaking on the words.
His touch is like fire that is heating everything inside of me while simultaneously igniting small sparks of electricity in me as well. And his too-blue eyes are still fully trained on mine, holding me captive in the mirror as though I’m his to claim.
“Not yet,” he murmurs.
“Huh?” is all I manage to squeak out in my confusion.
“I said not yet,” he repeats, but I’m still confused. “You don’t find it seductive yet.”
His grin changes from amusement to something else—something dark and daring, and I think I shiver. It’s hard to tell what my body is doing right now.
He bites his bottom lip before leaning down and inhaling against my dark brown hair that carries a subtle tint of red. His hands continue to move across the pieces of my bare flesh, and he nips my earlobe, causing me to jump. I can’t see his fake fangs, but I know they’re there somewhere.
“Easy, baby,” he says, grinning again. “I’m not going to draw blood.”
His tone is mocking, and his eyes open up to meet mine once again in the mirror. Those have to be contacts. They’re a glowing blue that can’t be natural.
“When you walked in, you were shocked and somewhat repulsed,” he tells me, nibbling my earlobe once again. “Then you became curious.” He slides his hand up my stomach, and my heart sputters when he moves up even higher and traces the line of my cleavage. It takes all my strength not to swat his hand away.
“After curiosity came a deeper intrigue, especially when you saw me.” He holds my gaze fearlessly in the reflection, daring me to try and say otherwise. I don’t bother, because my gawking earlier left me transparent, apparently.
“Now you’re scared, but fascinated,” he tells me, brushing my hair away from my neck as he starts swaying me to the music.
I want off this stool and in his arms. It almost feels like I’m drunk right now. How the hell strong were those drinks?
“Your body is feeling things your mind is chastising you for, and you’re restrained by your everyday sets of morals and logic. You want to be as free as the others, but you pride yourself on being… more grounded, we’ll say. But in my arms, you’ve almost forgotten that you’re not one of them.”
He pulls me closer, and my head tips back against his chest. I don’t even feel like me right now. It’s as though there’s a spell in the air, and I’m stuck in his thrall. It’s scary how accurate he is.
“You’ve almost resigned yourself to submitting, because now you actually want this. Even though you found it laughable moments ago, you find yourself wishing I’d just do it so you can see what it’s like.”
His lips brush the side of my head, and his hands venture back down, sliding over my breasts without any restrictions or hesitation. Then they work their way back up until he’s gently holding my neck.
“It would take very little for me to convince you to lie down and let me take you in ways you’re too shy to even fantasize about, and you’d be addicted after just one time. Your mind would open to avenues you’ve never thought you wanted to explore, and you’d be desperate for more. All you’d have to do is fully submit—offer yourself to me without limitations—and your entire life would spin on a different axis.”
He takes his time, not making any sudden movements as he gingerly strokes the length of my neck, and then he continues.
“You want to know if it hurts, but you see them aroused, so your mind is trying to sift through the contradicting variables. There’s pain, but there’s more pleasure than anything else. It’s euphoric—a high unlike any other. It’s something wrong in the eyes of many, silly in the eyes of most, but intoxicating in the eyes of everyone willing to submit.”
My breaths become erratic and painful as my heart pounds fiercely. He moves closer to my neck, sliding his lips down my jaw, and I tilt my head without reservation. When his lips touch the skin of my throat, I moan as though he has just done something much more intimate.
But then he merely kisses it, sucking it lightly, and withdraws as my whole body thunders and pleads for more. Why did he stop?
He looks into the mirror as his hands drop from my body, and he smirks. “Now you know what seductive really is. Too bad I don’t play with virgins. This was fun.”
He just completely and totally toyed with me. Now I feel like an idiot.
He turns to walk away, and I scowl at his back. “I think I at least deserve a name after that.”
Yeah, it’s pathetic, but I want to know his damn name. Then I can look him up and find out that he’s really a boring accountant who has blood pressure medicine in his cabinets at home, instead of some dangerous bad boy. It’ll help release me from this… whatever it is that he’s left me with.
His eyes meet mine over his shoulder, and he holds that cocky grin in place.
“It’s Zee.” With that, he disappears into the shuffle of the crowd, and I lean back. That’s not much of a name to go on, but I doubt many people in this town have that name. While Marilyn is working on her book, I’ll do some research of my own.
Unless it’s just a fake name. It sounded fake.
Screw that. I’m not letting him inside my head. He’s just a guy wearing fake fangs and playing a game for the twisted.
I stand up and move through the bodies that are now writhing to the music on the makeshift dance floor. It doesn’t take me but a moment to find him, because he has a girl already wrapped around him. The second his eyes meet mine, he releases his newest toy and comes directly to me, tugging me against him as the music guides his rhythm.
“Couldn’t stay away? That’s why I don’t mess with virgins,” he says, that cheeky smile in place.
“Why?” I manage to ask, wondering why in the hell I’m desperate to do something that had my skin crawling when I walked in.
His glowing blue eyes darken fractionally, and his look… He could stop the world from turning with that look. I’m fairly sure my entire body is burning up from the inside because of the intensity of his gaze. My head is tilted back, because he’s so tall that I can’t see his face without doing so. And I feel like he’s completely possessing my body with his movements, controlling me without trying.
“You’ll start comparing everyone to me if I give you what you want.” He cups my chin with one hand while keeping his other hand at the small of my back. “You’ll seek that same feeling. You’ll be like a drug addict searching for that first high once again. But you won’t find it.”
I narrow my eyes on him. “So you’re saying no because you’re so full of yourself that you think a night with
you will make me a junkie?”
He smirks, still studying me. I should be recoiling, but I can’t seem to make myself walk away.
“I’m saying no because one night with me would ruin you.”