by AJ Myers
Nathan thought otherwise.
The car door had barely closed behind me when I found myself pressed back against it once again. With the sexiest smile in history, he planted his hands on either side of my shoulders and leaned in closer, then closer still. My heartbeat sped up like a freight train, and my skin started up that damn tingling again as he leaned down to breathe his next words in my ear.
“Are you sure I don’t make you nervous, Ember?” he asked, making the mutant butterflies that had taken up permanent residence in my stomach wake up and go wild.
“Don’t flatter yourself, Dead Boy.” My voice came out all breathy rather than the hard tone I had been trying for, totally irritating me.
“Hmmm,” he murmured, leaning closer and pressing me against the door at my back, his voice only a breath against my skin as his nose skimmed my jaw. He filled the space around me with his scent, his body, his mere presence, blocking out everything and everyone else. “You know, I think you might be lying to me. Your heart is beating like a hummingbird’s wings and you seem to be having a little trouble catching your breath.”
“Um…you kidnapped me,” I told him, trying to remember why I didn’t want him molesting me in a dark parking lot in the middle of nowhere—with a very convenient crater only a foot away where he could hide my body. I wouldn’t be found for months. As rank as the air around me was, they probably wouldn’t even notice the smell. “Maybe I’m afraid. Ever think of that?”
“You know you’re not really afraid of me, Ember,” he whispered, letting his nose trail down the side of my neck.
“Yes, I am,” I murmured. In more ways than one, I finished silently. I didn’t want to be attracted to him, but I couldn’t seem to stop feeling that electricity between us that was potent enough to make my hair stand on end.
He pressed a soft kiss in the hollow below my ear, his lips as soft and silky as I had imagined they would be, and I thought maybe I had died and gone to heaven. I gasped, trying and failing to come up with a coherent train of thought as he pressed me even closer to the metal behind me, fusing our bodies together from chest to ankle.
Bad idea! my more practical side screamed. This is a very bad idea!
“Ah, you want to play hard to get, is that it?” he breathed against my ear, his lips barely brushing my earlobe, a butterfly caress that made my blood sing in my veins and my pulse pound. “That’s fine with me. I have to warn you, though; I don’t play games I can’t win.”
Vocal ice water.
Playing games, huh? I was sure that was something he was very good at. As beautiful as he was, he probably never had any shortage of playmates, either. He was probably one of those assholes who thought women were put on earth for the sole benefit of being his favorite form of entertainment. Unfortunately for him, that wasn’t really going to work for me. I didn’t want him to use me to amuse himself just so he could toss me when he got bored. I had more self-respect than that.
Didn’t I?
“Don’t bother,” I told him, pushing him away. He looked surprised, at first, but then his eyes became totally unreadable. “I don’t know what game you’re playing, Nathan, but you’re going to have to find someone else to play it with. I’m not interested in…whatever this is.”
“Aren’t you?” he asked, his tone as cold as ice.
“No, I’m not,” I snapped.
And, at that moment, I meant it, damn it, because he'd dragged me from my home against my will and I had absolutely no idea what he planned to do with me, except maybe add me to his Slushie dungeon. And then, just to entertain himself, he thought it was okay to play head games with me. Well, he thought wrong.
He flinched, and I know he read my mind because he scanned my face long and hard, and I stared back with all the disgust for him that I could muster. Eventually, his eyes hardened.
“Suit yourself,” he said, shrugging like it didn’t make any difference to him one way or another. Tilting his head, he gave me a once-over that made me feel half an inch tall. “I doubt you could have held my attention for long, anyway. You’re a bit too…frigid for my tastes.”
I felt like he had punched me. In the chest. As hard as he could. Tears of humiliation welled up in my eyes before I could stop them, and I felt a desperate need to get away from him before I really embarrassed myself—more than I already had, that is. With no other route of escape available to me, I turned and ran toward the only form of shelter I had.
I stumbled through the dingy front doors and took in my surroundings with tear-filled eyes that made the world look all blurry and soft. Haven was a lot better looking on the inside than the outside, the worn tables polished and clean, the chairs upholstered in bright colors. They definitely weren’t doing booming business, though. The only person I saw was a gaunt old man who looked up in surprise from behind the register when I bolted through the doors like my ass was on fire. The only thing I cared about, though, was the sign painted in curly black script that read ‘Restrooms’.
I ran into the women’s bathroom and locked the door behind me. It was only then that I let the tears fall. Sliding down the door, I crossed my arms over my chest and clamped my mouth shut tight so the sobs fighting their way up from deep inside wouldn’t escape as I tried to figure out why Nathan’s words had hurt so much.
Because you know they were true, a sad little voice said in the back of my mind, and the truth hurts.
Even after the tears had run their course, I just continued to sit there and stare at the faded roses on the wallpaper across from me. I had never willingly hidden from anyone or anything, but I just couldn’t bring myself to stand up and walk back out that door knowing I was about as important to the vampire waiting on me as a piece of trash.
I don’t know how long I sat there before a soft knock at the door reminded me that I was hiding in a public bathroom. I had just opened my mouth to tell whoever was on the other side that I would be right out when the one voice I could have happily gone the rest of my life without hearing again drifted through the wood separating us.
“Ember, are you all right?” Nathan asked softly, tapping on the door again.
“I’m fine,” I said woodenly, his voice giving me the push I needed to stop acting like a child. Standing up, I threw the door open to find him looking about as miserable as I felt.
“Are you ready to go?” I asked, pushing past him to get out of the bathroom.
He caught my arm and turned me back to face him and I focused my eyes on his chest and kept them there. Even when he tilted my chin up so I would have to look at him, I still refused to meet his gaze.
“God, I can’t do this,” he said softly, more to himself than to me, I think. “I’m so sorry, Ember. I didn’t mean to—”
“Didn’t mean to what?” I snapped, knocking his hand away. “Didn’t mean to kidnap me? Didn’t mean to play with me? Didn’t mean to make the poor, pathetic loser cry? What is it that you didn’t mean to do, Nathan?”
He flinched back from me like I was flinging napalm in his face instead of just words. The sadness in his eyes might have made me feel sorry for him, but I didn’t have enough pity to spare for him. No, I was saving that all for myself.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he said, his voice still soft. “I never wanted to hurt you.”
“You didn’t, so I don’t guess you need to apologize,” I lied, keeping my expression neutral and my voice cold. He had hurt me, but I’d be damned if I told him that. Instead, I decided to let him know he was no more important to me than I was to him. “I would have to care about you for you to hurt me, Nathan, and I don’t. You’re just the guy who kidnapped me. So, why don’t you get on with that so you can dump me off somewhere and leave me alone?”
I pulled my arm free and he didn’t try to stop me. Without another word, I turned around and walked away. The old man I’d noticed on my way in caught my eye on my way out, and I immediately bristled when I saw his sympathetic expression. I didn’t want his pity. And I damn sure
didn’t want Nathan’s. All I really wanted was to go home and cry on my bestie’s shoulder.
“Prince Charming, my ass,” I muttered as I marched back to the car. “Bloodsucking toad is more like it. Seriously, I have no taste in guys. None at all.”
I jerked the passenger side door open with enough force to warp the hinges and had already thrown myself into my seat in a fit of temper when I realized two very important things.
Nathan hadn’t followed me out. Stupid vampire probably thought I was too scared of him to try anything—proving he didn’t know me at all.
If he had, the genius never would have left his keys in the ignition.
And if he hadn’t, I wouldn’t have stolen his car.
Caveman Mentality
I don’t think I’ve ever moved as fast as I did when I jumped across the console like a professional stunt driver. I didn’t stop to think about the fact that I was about to piss off an immortal being who could crush me like a bug. I didn’t care that I was probably going to get caught before I ever got the car started. I didn’t even mind that I was committing grand theft auto, a felony if there ever was one. All I could think of at that moment was getting as far away as possible before fang boy realized how bad he’d just screwed up.
Nathan came barreling out the door of the diner just as I threw the car in first and hit the gas. I screamed when he darted right out in front of me and slammed on the brakes. For one long, heart-stopping moment we just stared at each other through the windshield. His eyes were glowing white again, but I didn’t give a shit if he was pissed or not. I was the one behind the wheel of a two ton machine.
He was just a speed bump.
“Ember!” he roared as I smiled.
I didn’t even hesitate. It wasn’t like getting run over was going to kill him or anything! When he flashed his fangs at me, I mashed the gas pedal all the way to the floor.
Yeah, because it’s my fault he was too stupid to move.
I winced at the sound of metal hitting flesh, but I didn’t stop. Knowing that I was as good as dead if Nathan caught me—seeing as I had just run over him with his own car—I didn’t even let up on the gas. Fishtailing like crazy, I sped out of the parking lot, shifting gears like a Nascar pro, and cut a hard right back the way we had come.
I hit ninety miles an hour before I was even out of sight of the diner. I glanced in the rearview mirror as I turned the next curve and felt my blood run cold when I saw Nathan standing in the middle of the highway. I couldn’t see his face, but I had a pretty good idea that he wasn’t happy. Murderous, maybe, but definitely not happy.
It took almost half an hour before my muscles unclenched and I was finally able to stop shaking. So what if my eyes were stinging with tears? I mean, that could be stress, right? I had, after all, just survived ‘an ordeal’. And that guilt bubbling in the pit of my stomach? That had to be because I’d stolen a car, not because I had run over said car’s undead owner. Yeah, that had to be it.
I was so busy trying to figure out all my internal crap that I nearly died of a heart attack when the back tire blew with a loud pop that sounded like a gunshot going off. I had to fight to keep the steering wheel from being jerked out of my hands. By the time I got the car pulled over I felt like I was about to shake to pieces.
Seriously, I had to find a way off the Bad Karma Fairy’s shit list. This was just starting to get ridiculous.
I immediately started looking for a latch for the trunk, thanking anyone listening upstairs that Blake loved me enough to teach me how to change my own tire. I finally located the trunk release and jumped out of the car to get to work. I paused only long enough to arch an eyebrow at the very expensive luggage packed neatly in the trunk. So he had been planning my kidnapping? Well, it sucked to be him, huh? Not only did I have his car, I had his clothes, too.
By the time I had the luggage in the trunk stacked neatly next to the side of the road—where I fully intended to leave it, by the way—my hands had stopped shaking again and I was starting to think rationally again. Nathan’s car was an amazing machine with a max speed of a hundred and ninety, and I had been pressing pretty hard on that gas pedal. Even with vamp super speed, I figured I still had enough time to get the tire changed and get back on the road.
What I didn’t figure on was not being able to get to the spare.
“Are you frigging kidding me?!” I moaned when I grabbed the leather handle made into the trunk liner and it came off in my hand.
With a frustrated scream, I kicked the pile of luggage, sending it flying…and the car…and the gravel beneath my feet. The whole time, I was reciting a litany of every foul curse word I had ever heard. I was so busy using Nathan’s luggage for football practice that I didn’t even notice the car coming my way until it was too late. I immediately froze like a deer in headlights and stared as a bright yellow Jeep pulled in behind me and killed the engine.
Sure that it was Nathan and I was about to die, I just kept standing there, the blood draining out of my face so fast I felt light-headed. When the driver’s side door swung open, every instinct I had started screaming for me to run, but my feet felt like they’d been cemented to the ground. I had a sudden vision of myself as a bloodless corpse and had to swallow hard to keep from screaming bloody murder when a silhouette appeared in the headlights.
“Hey! It’s okay, calm down,” the silhouette said with a deep British accent. “I’m not going to hurt you. I just stopped to see if you needed some help.”
I blinked as a really cute guy who definitely wasn’t Nathan materialized out of the glare of the headlights. He wasn’t the muscle-bound type I usually liked, but he was still hot. He was tall and leanly muscled, his bronze skin seeming to glow with the last traces of a summer that was long gone. His hair was a little longer than was fashionable and I seriously doubted the highlights I could see in it were chemically done. Everything about him screamed sun and warmth, like he living embodiment of summer or something. Even his eyes, which were the most unusual shade of antique gold and totally gorgeous, seemed to hold that heat and light.
“Are you all right?” he asked, sounding really concerned, when I just stood there and stared at him like an idiot.
“Y-yeah,” I stammered out, still trying not to hyperventilate. He might not be Nathan, but he might not be all sweetness and light like he appeared to be, either. For all I knew he was a serial murderer who preyed on young women on dark roads. “I’m fine. Just a flat. I’ve got it under control.”
“Uh-huh, I can see you do,” he said softly, glancing at the luggage strewn half in and half out of the road. “You know kicking your car isn’t going to get that tire off, right?”
“I’m just having a little trouble getting to the spare,” I admitted, waving the scrap of leather still clenched in my hand at him. “The damn handle broke off.”
With one of those superior male smirks I really can’t stand, he brushed past me and started fishing in his jeans pocket for something. I tensed up so much I’m pretty sure I felt a tendon or two snap when he pulled a pocket knife out and flipped it open. Instead of turning around and gutting me with the thing, he slid it under the flap hiding the spare tire and popped it up effortlessly.
“Right, like I have a pocket knife,” I muttered when he put his knife away and reached back into the trunk to get the spare tire he’d just revealed with his manly skills. “Let me guess, you were a Boy Scout?”
“It pays to be prepared,” he said, chuckling, as he propped the tire against the bumper and started looking for the jack.
“Yeah, I guess,” I said, thinking how much easier my life would be if I was ever prepared.
If I had been prepared, I wouldn’t have ended up a vampire’s captive. Then again, how would you prepare for something like that? Somehow I didn’t think there were any classes or instructions for that eventuality. Seriously, what would they call it? Abduction by the Undead for Beginners?
“Well, I’ll have you back on the road faster than yo
u can say ‘AAA’,” he said, grinning. “My name’s Tyler Jordan, by the way.”
“Nice to meet you,” I told him, intentionally not giving him my name. “Thanks for helping me.”
“Anything for a beautiful woman,” he shrugged, loosening the lug nuts on my shredded tire like a professional.
I arched an eyebrow at that, but he was too busy to notice. When did I become ‘beautiful’? And having two hot guys call me that in the same day…yeah, that had to be a record. I suddenly found myself staring at my rescuer through narrowed eyes as I tried to figure out what kind of psycho he was.
Because, looking at my track record, that seemed to be the only kind of guy I attracted.
Tyler chattered away to me as he worked, but I couldn’t really put a lot of effort into listening to him. No, I was too busy looking around as I waited for Nathan to jump out of the shadows and rip my head off. How long would it take him to catch up with me? An hour? Less? The sooner I got back on the road, the better.
“You all right?” Tyler asked. I looked down to find him looking up at me with a troubled expression.
“Fine,” I told him, my eyes involuntarily scanning the area around me again as my muscles tensed up a little more.
“This is a nice ride you have here,” he said as he stood up and put the blown tire in the compartment in the trunk and threw the jack in after it. “You must be a model or an actress or something to afford a car like this.”
“It’s not my car,” I told him, causing him to arch one perfect eyebrow. “I stole it.”
“Stole it?” he repeated, both eyebrows shooting up his forehead like they were in a race. “Funny, you don’t look like a car thief.”
“I’m not,” I admitted, shaking my head for emphasis. Then, just to see what he would do, I told him the truth. “I stole it from the dead guy who kidnapped me. Oh, and I might have ran him over while I was trying to escape. But that wasn’t my fault. The idiot ran out in front of me.”