I’m already nervous thinking about driving the Audi. After I crank it to get the AC going, I have to slide the seat forward because Dex’s legs are way fricking longer than mine. Then I need to adjust the steering wheel and all the mirrors. But I have to admit it is kind of fun to have it to—
He can’t see himself in the rearview mirror when he looks in it.
That thought punches me in the gut.
I sit there for a moment, hands fisting the steering wheel, just…breathing.
Deep breaths.
Which is why I fucking scream like a girl—hello—and nearly piss myself when Garrett raps on the driver’s side window with the back of his fingers. He snuck up on me, and that just flat does not happen to me, usually.
He’s wearing mirrored shades and I can tell he’s…concerned.
I finally figure out which button puts the window down. “Um, heeeey, Garrett.”
“Hi.” He studies me for a moment. “You all right?”
“Yeah. Please take your glasses off. You know that weirds me out.”
He chuffs the way wolves do, but he takes them off. Yep, he’s looking at my neck and arms.
“He hasn’t bit me, Garrett. We haven’t even had sex. Hell, he hasn’t made it past third base yet.”
He scowls. “Why not? What the hell’s wrong with him?”
“Nothing! We just…got distracted last night talking and ran out of time.”
“Ran out of ti—ohhh.”
“Yeah. He turns into a pumpkin. Killer curfew.”
Literally.
He leans against the side of the car, bracing his bare forearm against the top of the door, and I know exactly what he’s doing.
If he didn’t think people would look at him weird, he’d be rubbing himself all over the car and then would probably literally piss on the tires.
It’s a wolf thing.
And they know vampires can scent them, so he wants to make a statement.
Add one car wash to my fricking list of things to do…
“So, funny thing, Connie.” He levels his gaze at me and, while he’s not even close to shifting, it’s like I can see his dang wolf, right there, shimmering near the surface. “I know Dexter walked into the building and up to your apartment with you, but I didn’t scent a second trail leaving.”
I stare at him, and he waits me out.
Minutes tick by.
He’s good at this Alpha shit. I obviously crack first. “What do you want me to say?” I finally ask.
“I want you to tell me where he is.”
My pulse spikes. “Why?” Mentally, I’m already running through a list of Lucius’ human guys I can call who might stand a chance helping me hold the shifters off, and—
He takes a deep breath and slowly lets it out, like he’s trying to stay patient. “I’m not going to hurt him. We have shifters living in the building, and maybe not all of them have gotten the message yet. I don’t want anyone freaking out.”
“Why should they freak out? He can’t enter an apartment if he’s not invited.”
“Work with me here, please? I’ll have one of my guys stand guard outside your door while you’re gone. Because he’s in your freaking closet, isn’t he? Your apartment is an east-facing efficiency apartment. That’s not exactly secure, and frankly, the pack stands to make a lot of damn money off him. I’d kinda like to keep him alive.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh. Can I put my glasses back on now? It’s bright out here.”
“Sure. Sorry.” I release the steering wheel and shake out my hands. “We literally sat there talking on my fuzzy pink rug and lost track of time.” I think about the pain and loss and grief in his voice as he told me about his love. “He’s a good guy.”
He smiles and waves at a couple who park a few spots away, waits for them to head inside, then glances around. He ducks his head into the window and drops his voice to a whisper.
“I know, Connie. I’m not happy about this weird little business merger, except Amber says it’s what has to happen for the good of everyone. I might not trust leeches, but I trust her. And she says we can trust him. Because of you, if nothing else. So, I’ll put a guy in front of your door.”
“He won’t go inside?”
“No, he won’t go inside, I swear. He’ll also make sure no one else does until you return. But word of advice? Please don’t make this a regular occurrence, okay? Fuck him here, if you want, but have daytime sleepovers at his place or at Club Toxic. I don’t want people freaked out. And make sure Lucius knows and passes the word that it’s a special, conditional exemption for Dexter and his two men only. It’s not a new free pass for everyone.”
“I will. Thank you.”
He nods and pats the roof of the Audi. “You look good in this. Should have him buy you one of these. That 4Runner of yours is a death trap.”
“It is not, and you know it. Your guy did the work on it and said it’s in great shape now.”
He grins. “Van Sussex is rich. He should buy you pretty things. He can afford it.”
I roll my eyes. “Gotta go, Garrett. Thank you for looking out for me.”
He pats the roof again, in a different spot. Fricking hell. Like he thinks I don’t know what he’s doing. “Well, you’re pack, sort of. Adopted. You ever get tired of working for that leech, I’ll put you in Eclipse, or at Fight Club. We could use someone like you full time. Management, even.”
I think about my mom, how she sometimes fought. How the smells in Fight Club are very much what she smelled like sometimes when she came home from a fight, bruised and sore, but usually having made rent money in just one night’s fight.
How I hated that she was forced to do that for us.
For me.
Because she had to raise me.
I think I instinctively knew the reason we were on the run—why I couldn’t go to regular school—was because of me.
“I don’t know if I could work at Fight Club,” I quietly say.
He cocks his head. “I-I’m sorry, hon. I didn’t mean to hit a nerve.”
“No, I know. It’s…a long story.” I force a smile I know doesn’t fool him.
But he doesn’t move. “Tell me the truth—do you think he’s the one?”
“I don’t know. I’d like him to be. But I also don’t want to endanger his life.”
“I told you—”
“I meant because of me and my…shit. What happens the day that thing comes back, huh?”
“We stand shoulder to shoulder with him and fight it for you,” he says, his voice full of certainty. “That’s what we do.”
“I don’t know if it’s something that can be fought.”
“Maybe it’s time for you to stop running and find out.”
“But I don’t want to find out at the expense of anyone’s life—shifter or vampire or human.”
He grumbles some. I can tell he wants to argue this point with me, and I get it. I appreciate it—I do. But he’s already conflicted enough. If it was up to him, the shifters would wipe out all the vampires.
I get it.
I also understand why the vampires do their thing. Some of them are pretty shitty, some are great, and most are average. Like shifters.
Like humans. I mean, humans can be massively shitty to each other.
But, hey, it’s the vampires the shifters will call on to wipe human minds, so they don’t have to freaking kill them because of their bullshit secrecy codes, sooo…
Who’s the “worst” one of the two? Well, three, counting humans.
It’s a draw.
“Be safe, Connie.” He steps back and pats the side of the Audi—motherfucker—and smiles. “Let him buy you stuff. You deserve it.” He strides back toward the building and is already pulling his cell out.
It’s tempting to race back inside, but I have to trust Garrett. He’s a wolf of his word.
Besides, he’s a fricking wolf. He could practically walk through my door and rip the closet open
before I could even get halfway up the stairs.
I roll the window up, make a final check of the mirrors and everything, and fasten my seat belt.
This will be a long freaking afternoon.
20
Eilidh
The first stop I make is at a full-service car wash, except I pay for it myself with cash.
I mean, seriously. Garrett did everything but drop his jeans and rub his junk on the Audi.
Relatively speaking.
Once the car is de-wolfed, I head to the hotel. I have Dex’s wallet in my purse. I bypass valet parking and self-park in the lot. When I head inside, I fight the urge to run.
This isn’t a walk of shame.
There’s nothing wrong with what I’m doing.
Hell, the people here don’t even know Dex is a vampire. They don’t know about shifters or vampires, unless they’re part of either world. They’re clueless humans who go about their lives happily unaware of the danger living among them.
They don’t know I’m attracted to Dexter in a way I’ve never felt about anyone before, and all the conflicting feelings I can’t process.
I’m sweating fricking bullets as I ride the elevator up to his floor and then get my bearings. The main suite door opens with the key, and I head down the hall. At his room door, I swipe the key, and the lock turns green and clicks open.
Okay, here we go.
The suite is still and dark, except for a table lamp in the living room that’s on. The air smells like him.
I close the door behind me and stand there with my eyes closed, deeply inhaling.
No, I can’t ignore the way my soul keens for him. The way my body longs for him.
I think about how it felt being carried up the mountain by him.
The way he kisses.
The sexy things he did to me, and we were both still fully clothed.
The grief in his voice as he told me about Robert.
These men are, around others, stoic and strong and seemingly invincible.
Except in daylight.
That’s why they have to be such fucking bastards sometimes, or at the very least tend to come off as massively cold assholes. Because they can’t afford to show weakness. They’re vulnerable in the daylight, and have to make others fear them enough to avoid them.
But they’re even more vulnerable when they love.
Being in Lucius’ inner circle allows me access few others get, humans or vampires. I’ve been lucky enough to see Lucius with Selene in private. He would sacrifice himself without hesitation to protect her. He loves her with everything he is and has. She is his biggest weakness. I’ve seen other vampires pair off and find forever love and have the same reaction.
Wolves mate for life, when they find and mark their true mate. The wolf who marks their mate will forever follow their mate and try to protect them, achingly long to be with them if circumstances force them apart.
Can never love another. And the one who’s marked will forever bear the scent of that wolf in them, meaning no other wolves will touch them.
The wolves and vampires really aren’t that different, when you get right down to it. Different sides of the same coin.
I know I can’t stand here all day and should get moving. Even though I’ve been—ha ha—invited in here, I feel like I’m an interloper in Dex’s private albeit temporary domain.
I walk into the bedroom. The small mini fridge must be his personal one because it doesn’t look like the one out in the small kitchenette, and it’s plugged into an extension cord.
Steeling myself, I open it. Yep, full of bags of blood. There are also some of those freezer packs in the, you know, freezer portion. And a soft-sided cooler sitting on top of it. So, I grab it and the freezer packs and pack two bags of blood.
Thinking about it, I add two more bags of blood. Hell, might as well. I don’t know how many he’ll need. Better to have extra he can store in my fridge.
On to the bathroom, where I find his shower kit and grab everything I can think of that he might need, including checking the shower for anything he left in there.
His clothes are actually unpacked—into the dresser and closet.
Really? I mean…wow. I don’t think I’ve ever done that. I’ve used a hotel closet before, but never unpacked my suitcases into the dresser, even when I’ve stayed in one for more than a few days.
I open the closet and find several suits hanging in there.
Rawr. Helloooo, Sweetie.
I most def have a suit fetish.
Then I see he also brought a couple pairs of jeans, and a hunky pair of black leather harness motorcycle boots. Sploosh.
Fuck.
Me.
I grab a pair of jeans, the boots, socks for the boots, and now to decide what shirt. Henley, or button-up?
Hmm. Decisions, decisions.
I think about Lucius’ men, and I opt for both. He can put the Henley on later. But a button-up shirt and a vest to start the evening.
Ohhh, yeah.
And he wears boxer briefs that probably make his ass look sexy as fuck.
Nom!
Two pairs go into the pile, along with a black leather belt that matches the boots. Grabbing his charger cord from the nightstand, I pause and press my face into his pillow and deeply inhale, nearly bursting into tears as his scent fills my lungs.
Yeah, I’ve got it bad for Fangster Hunkadoofalus.
Please let him be okay!
I find a carryon and pack everything in it except the cooler full of blood bags and the button-up and vest. The latter two items I tuck into his zippered garment bag that I located in his closet.
Where I also spot a plastic storage tub on the floor, tucked into the back. I missed it there earlier.
Opening it, I find supplies—rolls of duct tape, rolls of wide, blue painter’s tape, a couple of tarps, and…
A body bag.
I grab the painter’s tape, a tarp, and the body bag. It’s a little after-the-fact, but maybe they’ll come in handy.
If I’m going to have a pet vampire—or, rather, be the pet of a vampire—I need to stay prepared. I won’t get caught off-guard again.
I stow them in the carryon and head out, making sure both his room door and the outer suite door are pulled tightly shut behind me.
* * *
Once I’m back in the Audi, I text both John and Mark and let them know mission accomplished. Then I stop by the grocery store to grab a couple of things for us for dinner. Back at my apartment building, I remember to slide the seat all the way back, so Dexter doesn’t get kneecapped when he drives it next. Somehow, I manage to carry everything inside in one trip, although my heart’s in my throat when the elevator doors slide open on my floor.
I spot one of Garret’s men, Cairo—“It’s KAY-roh, like the syrup,” he’ll tell you—by my apartment door, leaning against the wall, his cell phone in hand and looking like he’s playing a game on it or something.
When he sees me, he pushes away from the wall, stows his phone in his back pocket, and covers the distance in several quick strides before I’m even all the way out of the elevator. When he reaches to take things from me to carry them for me, I let him.
“Hey, Cairo,” I nervously say.
He nods. “Hey, Connie.” He lives in the building, too. He’s one of Garrett’s cousins or something, a wolf shifter, and just moved to Tucson not too long ago. Single and hunky, I’ve had some pleasant interactions with him. Last time, he tried to offer to take me out to lunch. That was a few weeks ago, and I almost said yes.
I wish I had, now.
Or, do I?
I don’t know.
I notice he starts to reach for the cooler with the blood in it, then apparently realizes what it is and bypasses that, letting me carry it.
I drop my voice to barely a whisper, knowing the wolf can hear me as we walk to my door. “Thank you for this. I’m sorry.”
He tersely nods. “Boss said it’s okay, but if you want my opini
on? Don’t let it happen again.” He tips his head down the hall. “Johnsons in the last apartment down there have three pups, you know.”
My stomach sinks. They’re a super nice family, a wolf shifter family. I’ve babysat for them before when their usual shifter sitter couldn’t make it. “Are they upset?” I fit the key in the lock to open the door.
He snorts. “They ain’t happy. Pretty freaked out, if you ask me. Alpha talked to them, but my advice would be to keep this on the down-low. I would also suggest getting him out of here as soon as possible this evening.”
Shit. My life’s impacting others in a negative way. Exactly what I didn’t want to happen. “I’m sorry. We literally lost track of time. I couldn’t exactly stash him in a stairwell or something. I swear, he would never harm someone here, or an innocent anywhere else, either. He’s not like other vampires. I will put my own reputation on the line to vouch for him.”
Funny how I went from not sticking my neck out to throwing myself in front of him as a literal human shield in under twenty-four hours.
Cairo sets the things he carried for me just inside my apartment door without stepping inside. “Alpha’s taking a big risk by not throwing you and him out of here, Connie. I hope you know what you’re doing.”
So do I.
There’s barely constrained anger, and resentment, and maybe even a tinge of grief in his energy as he walks away.
A missed opportunity there, I’m certain. I’d had paid errands to run that afternoon for Theophilus, and always meant to take Cairo up on his rain check, but never got around to it.
I hope I didn’t screw up.
As I step inside and close and lock my apartment door, I take a deep breath.
Please let my chosen path be the right one.
* * *
I quickly unpack everything—groceries and blood into the fridge, his shower kit on my bathroom counter, and I hang his garment bag on my shower curtain rod, because, well, duh.
I’d left my bed open earlier, so I set his other things on that. Digging out the painter’s tape, I quickly run a strip of it around the door seam and hope this isn’t too little too late.
Her Vampire Obsession Page 19