by Nina Bangs
“Sorry. Can’t do.” He pulled the heavy drapes across the arrow slit. “I’m staying here to make sure nothing happens to you before you leave.” And I’m placing a mind shield over your door. “If you wake up before me, get me up, too. It won’t be easy, but keep trying until I wake up.” If he was lucky, she’d sleep until at least three. She’d probably get all panicky when she couldn’t wake him right away, but there was nothing he could do to change that. He just hoped she didn’t try to leave the room and realize she couldn’t. Eric returned to the bed and slid under the covers.
He felt her stiffen beside him. “Get out of my bed.”
“No.” Eric could feel himself drifting.
“I’m in control now. I don’t need you.” Instead of edging away from him, she moved closer.
“How do you need me? Let me count the ways.” He could feel her heat, smell her warm woman scent, and if deep sleep weren’t beckoning, he’d show her the many meanings of need.
“Paraphrasing Browning? I’m impressed. You’re not just a body and a pretty face.” Closer, and still closer.
“Oh, I’m much, much more.” She had no idea.
Donna was so close that her breath whispered across the back of his neck. “I snore. I walk in my sleep. I talk in my sleep. And I’m very territorial about my bed. I could kick you out in the middle of the night. You never know what sensitive body part my tootsies might connect with, either.”
“Dangerous woman. Sexy.”
An irritated huff, and then silence.
“Sleep tight. And make sure you wake me gently. I’m easily aroused when I first wake up. Any sudden move by you could be . . . dangerous.” This would be a rarity. He tried never to wake beside a lover. Either he or she left right after sex. No time for either one to form a connection. Of course, Donna wasn’t a lover. Yet. If she was smart, she’d get out of Dodge by sundown.
“Right. I bet you’re a real animal in bed.” She sounded half serious.
“Who knows. You’ve met every other damn thing in this castle.” As sleep slid over him, he decided that maybe it wasn’t wise to put ideas in her head.
“Don’t you dare fall asleep in my bed.”
He slept.
8
Donna sat cross-legged on her bed watching Eric sleep. She glanced at her clock. Three-thirty. Talk about sleeping like the dead. He hadn’t even twitched since she’d woken an hour ago.
He hadn’t turned over once as she talked to her brother, who’d patiently tried to convince her that he didn’t need a cruise to renew his love for Carol, that happiness with the one he loved wasn’t contingent on being in a certain place. Donna didn’t get it. Hypothetically speaking, if she cared for Eric, wouldn’t her caring bloom more easily under the warming rays on some exotic beach than in the Castle of Dark Screams? Well, yeah. Made sense. Didn’t it?
Eric hadn’t even moved restlessly as she talked to Trish. Amazing since she didn’t seem able to have a simple conversation with her sister anymore without raising her voice. Trish had announced she was marrying her latest loser no matter what Donna said. Her sister’s last accusation had really hurt. Trish had said that at least she had the courage to keep searching for love, while Donna didn’t have the guts to even try. Low blow. Donna didn’t think it made sense to take chances on something as important as love.
Look at Mom. Donna didn’t remember her parents ever arguing about anything. Every day of her childhood had been serene, unchanging. Boring?
What to do? Should she pick a man who shared all her interests, someone calm and reliable like Dad? Or should she go with Trish’s theory on love—choose a hottie who turns you into a lust-bunny, and to hell with things like character and stability? How could she ever allow herself to love a man when she didn’t know the right answer? Neither path had worked for Mom or Trish.
“So what do you think?” she asked Sleeping Gorgeous next to her.
Lust was looking pretty good right now. Eric had kicked the sheet off him while he slept, and that, more than a need to call her family, had kept her from waking him. Scenery this good only came by a few times in a lifetime.
“I agree. And the love thing? Personally, I’ve never been in love, but I’ve had centuries to observe. You don’t analyze love, you just accept it.” As usual, Asima sounded like she had the defining opinion, and all other opinions were nonsense.
“Where?” Donna tore her gaze from Eric to look around the room. She spotted Asima sitting on the floor beside Sweetie Pie. Or was it Jessica? “How’d you get in here?”
Asima did the equivalent of a cat shrug. “How isn’t important. Why is the essential. I’m here to wrest you from Lola’s crass clutches.” She padded over to the bed and leaped onto the foot, where she crouched staring at Eric. “He’s enough to turn even you into a sensual dynamo.”
Donna frowned. Sounded like an insult to her. “Sensual dynamo isn’t at the top of my priority list right now. Living till the end of the week has edged it out.”
“Don’t worry, you’ll survive just fine. Eric has layers of power Taurin couldn’t begin to equal. Let’s get back to what we can do to wow Body Beautiful here when he wakes up.” She sidled closer to Eric.
“Layers of power? What’s that supposed to mean? No, don’t tell me.” She needed time to let all the weirdness she’d experienced this week soak in before making any new discoveries. Fine, so that was a lie. She wanted Eric to reveal what needed revealing. “And I can take care of my own sex life.” Sort of.
“Don’t be shy about admitting your sexual inadequacies. That’s why I’m here. To help. Now, let’s look at the prize, shall we?” She moved even closer to Eric. “I love those silky strands of black hair spread all over his pillow, and that hard but sensual male face. Can’t you imagine tangling your fingers in his hair and pressing your mouth to his? Think how that mouth will feel, still soft from sleep. And did you ever see such thick dark lashes on a man? He’ll lift his lids and look at you out of those hot blue eyes. He’ll murmur your name as he stretches his arms above his head and arches his back like some lithe jungle cat—”
“Whoa. Cease and desist.” Donna could see where Asima was going. “I want a brief explanation of why you’re here, and then I want you to leave. Oh, and please stay out of my mind.”
Asima widened her cat eyes. “How can I help you if I can’t look into your mind? Your mind is a treasure to me. But I know you’re anxious to kiss your sleeping prince awake, so I’ll make it short.”
Sleeping prince? Donna did some mental eye rolls.
“I saw the fright-mistress sleepwear that Lola gave you. Her bad taste never ceases to, well, scare me, actually. Don’t wear it. I’ve left the perfect nightie hanging in your closet. Go take a look.” Asima waited while Donna slid off the bed and looked in the closet.
What could she say? White. The nightgown was long, flowing, and made her want to run barefoot in the night away from some dark and tortured hero who lived in his dark and decrepit ruin. “It’s . . . white.”
“It’s virginal. Men are crazy about virgins. It’s the whole ‘to go where no man has gone before’ syndrome.” If Asima got any closer to Eric, she could sit on the body part of her choosing. And Donna had no doubt which body part that would be. “I hope you appreciate what you have lying here all unwrapped. If not, I wouldn’t mind changing into my human form for a night. I’ve accumulated lots of vacation time.”
Human form? Asima was a shape-shifter? Donna felt like stuffing her fist into her mouth to hold back the hysterical screams. She forced herself to breathe in and out, in and out. Hyperventilating would solve nothing. Okay, she was semicalm again. Trying to hold logic at bay for the moment, she looked at the bottom line. A ghost and a shape-shifter were manipulating her sex life. To make both of them happy, she’d have to become the Virgin Dominatrix Donna. Hey, no problem. “It’s not all about sex, Asima.”
“Sure it is.” She put one exploratory paw on Eric’s bare thigh. “Of course, I have my day
job, but this is my hobby. Lola? She’s made a career out of it. Sex drives the world. Never doubt it. Do you think Eric would mind if I walked on his body, sort of got a feel for him? Hmm?”
Sheesh. “I think it’d upset him.”
Asima made a moue of disappointment. “I’m leaving you some lavender. It’s over on your bureau. Consider it a safeguard against evil. Oh, and your cell phone is on the bureau, too. I found it in the parking lot.”
Donna swallowed hard. Why had Asima been out in the parking lot, and what did she know about what had happened there? Up till this moment, Donna had tried not to think about why Eric was sleeping in her bed. She couldn’t ignore it any longer. Taurin. “Thanks. I won’t keep you from whatever else it is you do here.” Secrets. Was there anyone in this castle besides her who didn’t have them? Okay, maybe Brynn didn’t. He’d laid everything out last night.
Asima leaped from the bed and padded to the door. She stared at the door and it swung open. “Oh, I want you to hear something before I leave. No one else in the castle shares my love of opera.”
The sound of some operatic aria filled the room. Asima must have the same invisible CD player as Lola.
“It always brings tears to my eyes, and I feel the urge to break into song.” So she did. Of course, since Asima was a cat with a cat’s lungs, she sounded like a cat. A cat who was being murdered slowly and painfully.
Asima was right. The music was bringing tears to Donna’s eyes, too. Would it be rude to stick her fingers in her ears?
“What the hell is that god-awful screeching?” Eric almost fell out of bed. And as he rubbed his eyes in an attempt to wake up completely, he looked wildly around the room. When he spotted Asima, he narrowed his gaze on her.
Asima’s song ended in mid-screech. “He’s beautiful, but has absolutely no musical taste.” With an offended twitch of her whiskers, she padded out the door.
“She walked out the door.” He seemed puzzled by that.
“Uh, yeah. That’s how people usually leave a room.” Donna was getting a rear view at the moment. Strong muscular back tapering down to lean hips and an incredible ass. Not a behind or buns. Those were weak, ineffectual descriptions. What she was looking at were tight and tantalizing, symbolizing strength but with something substantial enough for a woman to grab as she guided him . . . Anyway, incredibleass, two words said as one, was the only description that did them justice.
Eric walked over to the open door, stared at it in the same way Asima had, and then closed it.
“Why’d you stare at the door before you closed it? Asima did the same thing before she left.” For a moment, Asima’s comment about Eric’s layers of power slid across her mind.
He shrugged. “It doesn’t look like it, but the castle has lots of high-tech stuff. I was just deactivating a protective power grid I put across the door last night. I wonder how Asima got through it.”
Yeah, like she was buying that. “So where’s the remote control? You didn’t flip any switch that I could see.” Let him wiggle out of that.
“In my pocket?” His smile was warm and self-deprecating, meant to call her attention to his bare body sans pockets. And once her gaze was focused on his naked splendor, she was supposed to forget her original question. “Why don’t you call down for something to eat while I take a cold shower to wake me up. And the castle supplies an extra toothbrush for emergencies. I guess I qualify as an emergency.” He walked into the bathroom, leaving her alone with Sweetie Pie and Jessica.
She sighed. She’d let him get away with the power-grid lie for the moment because Asima had worn her out. “Well, girls, there’s no better pick-me-up in the morning than a naked hunk. Do you think?” Evidently, they thought it was all good, because Donna could swear their leaves looked perkier. “Shame on you. You’re nothing but dirty old viney voyeurs.” She grinned at them. Her leafy friends and she had something in common.
To distract her mind from creating a shower scene in living color and Dolby Surround sound, she called down for a late, late breakfast. By the time Eric finished his shower and emerged from the bathroom with his jeans on, she’d finished her orange juice and was starting on her cereal. Donna paused in the act of lifting her spoon to her mouth. She remembered. No underwear. Woo-hoo.
“I was going to order something for you, but I decided you’d probably want to order for yourself.” She sipped her coffee and looked at him over the edge of her cup. “It’s pretty dark in here. Why don’t you pull back the drapes?
“That’s okay. I’ll pick up something after I leave. And I like the dark.” His voice was a low and delicious suggestion of things that flourished in darkness. He returned to the bed and propped himself up beside her. “Do you always eat in bed?”
“When I want to feel decadent.” She grinned at him. “And what’s more decadent than sharing a bed with a man who doesn’t wear underwear. It might just be the highlight of my whole week.” Donna frowned. “Other than Lola, Asima, Brynn, and Taurin.”
“We need to talk.” He leaned over to slide a strand of hair away from her face and then smoothed his fingers lightly along her jawline. “Brynn, Conall, and I can protect you during your show, but until then you need to stay close to me.”
“Why? Vampires don’t rise until sunset, do they?” She took a bite of her toast that turned her lips into buttery temptation.
This one has risen way before sunset. Eric tried to convince his cock that life would go on even if his impressive erection found no admirers. His cock didn’t think so.
“Not usually, but that wouldn’t keep Taurin from hiring someone to do his dirty work.” Eric hoped he wasn’t reading the other vampire wrong. But Donna seemed the most logical target. If Taurin wanted to attack Eric while he was away from the castle, he’d have plenty of opportunities. Eric didn’t intend to hide from Taurin. But Taurin would want to recreate the same scenario that ended in his brother’s supposed death. It would appeal to Taurin’s twisted sense of justice.
Donna took a peach from her tray and then set the tray on her bedside table. She studied the peach. “How long ago did his brother die?”
He didn’t need to slip into her mind to sense the beginnings of suspicion. Eric didn’t blame her. He could tell her the truth, but then what? She’d either curl her lip in disgust, or terror would fill her eyes. He wasn’t ready to see either reaction, and so he lied. “Ten years ago.”
Donna nodded as she met his gaze. “How did it happen?”
Eric wouldn’t chance another lie, because each lie he told might trip him up later. “Look, can we talk about something else? That was one of the more upsetting episodes in my life.”
Her eyes warmed with sympathy. “Sure.” Her gaze slid over his chest and stomach. “If Brynn is really a demon of sensual desire, and you guys aren’t brothers, then what does that make you and Conall?”
There it was, the direct question. “Nothing you need to worry about right now, Donna.” He rubbed his palm across his chest to dispel the warmth of her gaze where it touched his pecs and nipples. If just her glance was lethal, he might go up in flames if she touched him there with her fingers.
She speared him with an intent stare, and he was afraid she might push it. Then she nodded. But her expression said she’d demand an answer later. “I’ve decided to stay for the week. Now that I’ve calmed down, I realize this whole castle experience is too amazing to miss. And my boss wouldn’t be understanding if I abandoned the show and ran back to New York claiming I was chased out of town by a vampire.” Her gaze slid away from him again. “Besides, I trust you to keep me safe.”
Yes. He didn’t understand why her decision and her trust made him so happy. Maybe it was only certain body parts that felt the joy. No, the joy seemed pretty widespread. “We’ll keep you safe.” I’ll keep you safe.
Her expression turned musing. “I’ve asked myself why I’m not having a screaming fit of hysterics.” She smiled. “Maybe I expect someone to stand up at the end of the week and yell
, ‘Gotcha!’ I don’t think the reality has really sunk in yet, and when it does I don’t know what I’ll do or how I’ll feel.”
Eric didn’t know, either. He just hoped the sinking-in thing didn’t happen right after she found out he was a vampire. Okay, back up. From the moment he heard she was bringing her program to the castle, he’d been sure of only one thing—Donna couldn’t find out he was a vampire. It would spell the end of what Brynn, Conall, and he had together here. Well, she knew about Brynn, and life as they knew it hadn’t ended.
“Maybe I’ll take a week off to get my head together.” She bit into the peach she’d ordered, and he watched, mesmerized, as a drop of juice clung to her bottom lip.
God, he was only human—or not—and there were some temptations no man could resist. He leaned over and slid his finger across that full luscious lip and then slowly licked the juice from his finger. Peach juice wasn’t his beverage of choice, but it was the symbolism of the act that counted.
“Why’d you wipe my lip with your finger? I had my napkin. . . .” Her gazed darkened with sensual awareness as she watched him lick the juice from his finger. Yeah, she got the symbolism.
“Because I figured if I slid my tongue across your lip, you might bite it. Hey, I’m not a morning person, so I know how vicious morning-haters can get. Not that it’s morning, but for me”—he shrugged—“it’s morning.” No doubt about it, his focus was shifting where Donna was concerned. He wasn’t worrying as much as he should about Brynn and Conall. He was becoming an all-about-me kind of guy.
Her lips tipped up in the beginnings of a smile. Amazing how any movement of her lips fascinated him.
“Okay, what you’re saying is that if I stroked your lips with my tongue right now, you’d bite me.” She was openly laughing at him now.
“Absolutely.” She had no idea.
“Oh.” She had that cute line between her eyes, the one she got when she didn’t know what to say.
Cute line? Give me a break. This was getting serious. Not only was he allowing for the possibility that she might find out how much he really enjoyed biting, but he was also worried if she could bond with a bloodsucking fiend. For someone who’d worked hard to keep from getting involved with humans and their emotions, he was caring about Donna’s feelings way too much.