Must Love Vampires

by Heidi Betts

  Once inside, he stumbled toward the sofa, dragging Chloe more than she was guiding him, and dropped onto it with a long, ragged sigh.

  “Don’t you have any light switches in this place?” she grumbled.

  Forcing his eyes open, he saw her as clearly as summer morning—or what he remembered a summer morning looking like, at any rate. Around her, every detail of the apartment was equally clear, but he’d forgotten that her night vision didn’t stand a chance of comparing to his own.

  “Sorry. There’s a lamp over there. And a wall switch over there.” When he raised an arm to point, he was embarrassed to see that it shook, and quickly lowered it back to his side before Chloe noticed.

  She flipped on both, and he clamped his eyes shut, hissing as the bright light stung his still-sensitive eyes.

  “Sorry.” It was her turn to apologize, and she immediately flicked off the overhead, leaving only the lower-watt lamp to wash the room in a dull yellow glow.

  “Now where’s the burn ointment?”

  “I don’t actually have any,” he replied.

  She gave an annoyed, motherly tsk that almost—almost—made him smile.

  “What about a first aid kit?”

  Not like he had any use for one of those most days, either.

  “I don’t know,” he muttered from beneath the heavy shield of his arm thrown over his face. “There might be one in the kitchen or the bathroom.”

  Was a first aid kit something a designer would have supplied when she outfitted the place with everything from dishes and flatware to toothbrushes and toilet paper? He’d hired someone to fill the apartment from top to bottom before he’d moved in, then he’d slowly added some of his own belongings, but he hadn’t removed much of anything. It sort of made him wonder what all he would find if he started poking into nooks and crannies.

  He heard Chloe moving around, and then she called out, “Found it!”

  A minute later, he felt the sofa give as she settled beside him.

  “Move your arm,” she told him a second before gripping his forearm and slowly prying it away from his face.

  He let her, opening his eyes in time to see her wince at the condition of his face. Flipping open the tube of burn cream, she squeezed a little onto the tip of one finger and lifted it to his cheek.

  More gently than he would have thought possible, she spread a thin layer of the cool medicine over his marred skin. Cheeks, brow, the tip of his nose. Then she started on the tops of his hands and backs of his fingers.

  “I thought vampires were supposed to heal instantaneously or something,” she murmured, her gaze intent on what she was doing.

  “Rapidly,” he replied, “not instantaneously. All of this will be gone by tomorrow morning, after I’ve had a chance to feed and rest.”

  Finished playing Nurse Betty, she sat back to study her work, searching for any spots she might have missed.

  “So this is the deal, huh?” she asked. “You’re a vampire. A real, authentic vampire. Up all night, sleep all day, can’t go near sunlight, need blood to survive. I get it. I can even accept it, as surreal as it still feels at the moment.”

  Leaning away from him for a second, she set the tube of first aid cream on the coffee table before wiping her fingers off on her jeans. “But what does it mean for us? For, you know”—she gave an all-encompassing wave of her hand—“our marriage and everything.”

  Ten

  Chloe held her breath, waiting for Aidan’s reply . . . and she wasn’t sure why.

  What did she want him to say? What did she expect him to say?

  She was pretty sure she was in love with him. For real this time. Not just pretending to be in love because she was looking to hook the big fish, land herself a rich husband who could provide not only the necessities, but a lavish lifestyle for both her and her son.

  And not just because he was a novelty. Being married to an honest-to-goodness vampire . . . ? That was pretty awesome, if she did say so herself.

  Not that she could ever tell anyone. She might not be completely schooled in the dos and don’ts of immortality, but she was pretty sure keeping it under wraps was a must. Otherwise, everybody would already know about vampires, and Aidan wouldn’t have had to work so hard to convince her, right?

  So she understood that if they stayed together, there would have to be some adjustments to her routine and basic mindset—not to mention Jake’s and the rest of her family’s. She might not tell them the whole truth about Aidan, if his “condition,” as he called it, was something he preferred to keep to themselves, but she suspected excuses would have to be made when Aidan couldn’t attend daytime functions or passed on a second helping of Christmas dinner.

  Despite the burns on the back of his hand that must hurt, even if they were preternaturally on the mend, he stitched his fingers with hers and pulled her hand to rest on his firm abdomen.

  “I guess that depends on you,” he said in a low voice, his coffee-brown eyes glittering intently into hers. “I’m in love with you. I want our marriage to work. But I also know I lied to you . . . or at least deprived you of some rather pertinent details. So if you want an annulment or whatever, I won’t blame you.”

  A heartbeat passed. Or in her case, half a dozen. Her heart was pounding in her chest like a hummingbird’s wings, her palms sweating. And she could only wipe one on the seat of her sister’s pants because he was clasping the other.

  “What if I don’t?” she asked quietly.

  His fingers flexed on hers, the only outward reaction to her words.

  “Then we’ll stay married. It won’t be easy. There are things you’ll need to know, certain things we’ll need to do that you may not be used to. But I’ll do whatever I can to make you more comfortable. Answer any questions you have, and try my best to fit into your life, though I realize there will probably have to be more changes made on your part to fit into mine.”

  His mouth twisted at the last, taking her stomach with it. How had he lived until now? she wondered. How long had he been a vampire, and what kind of family, what kind of life, had he experienced? Good, bad, indifferent?

  There really were so many questions she had for him, and was glad he’d offered to answer them all. She suspected there would be a lot of very long, intense discussions in their future while she grilled him like a shish-kabob. But that would come later, after this first and most important decision had been made.

  “You’re really good with Jake,” she murmured, loud enough for him to hear, but mostly to herself as she worked through her own thought processes and myriad emotions.

  “He’s a great kid.”

  “You’re good to me.”

  His free hand rose, and he ran his fingers lightly through the hair at her temple, tucking a strand behind her ear. “You deserve to be treated well.”

  That made her throat tighten and her eyes grow damp. “Maybe not,” she whispered.

  His brows knit, and he looked at her askance, waiting for her to continue.

  In a rough, watery voice, she said, “I have one more confession to make. I . . .” She paused, swallowed hard, tried to school her rushed breathing. “I married you for your money, Aidan. I cared about you, I had fun with you, but I don’t know if I’d have gone through with it if you weren’t a millionaire Raines.”

  Dropping her head into her hands, she covered her eyes, trying to hide from the wave of shame that washed through her. She’d been so stupid, convincing herself that she was doing the wrong thing for all the right reasons . . . that she cared enough for him to make a marriage work, even if it was based on lies . . . that he was flush with cash, and if she didn’t take advantage of that, some other woman would.

  But he wasn’t quite the man she’d thought he was. He wasn’t just a man at all, really—he was that and so much more. And even though he’d kept that from her, she understood why. He’d certainly had a better reason for lying to her than she had for lying to him.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, near
ly weeping into her hands. “I’m a terrible person, I know. I’m just so afraid of being trapped as a showgirl all my life, of never being able to give Jake anything more than he has right now, when he deserves so much! And I convinced myself that we got along well enough, were sexually compatible, that you wanted to marry me, and we’d do okay.”

  With a sniff, she straightened and forced herself to meet his gaze. “If we didn’t, I figured we could always get divorced, and I’d still be left with a very comfortable settlement, at the very least.”

  “And alimony?” he asked in a low voice.

  Her chest hitched and tears spilled over her lashes to trail down her cheeks. She nodded weakly. “I know, I’m horrible!” she cried.

  For a minute, Aidan simply stared at her, his eyes dark, his gaze unreadable. She hoped he wouldn’t lose his temper so much that he flew into some sort of murderous, vampiric rage and bit her to death.

  And then he threw back his head and laughed.

  Chloe pulled away, her eyes going wide at such an unexpected reaction. Was he going crazy? Was this what the beginning of a murderous, vampiric reaction looked like?

  But still he laughed. Deep guffaws that rippled the muscles of his tight abdomen.

  When he settled down to mere chuckles, she licked her lips and said, “You’re going to kill me, aren’t you? Drain me dry and leave my lifeless body in an alley somewhere for the rats to nibble on.”

  He chuckled again, a single low rumble of amusement. “I’m not that kind of vampire,” he teased. And then, “Actually, I was just thinking that we make quite a couple. First we dash off to elope after one of the shortest courtships in history, then we kick off our honeymoon by admitting all of the secrets we’ve been keeping from each other.”

  He didn’t sound angry at all, which frightened her a little.

  “You aren’t mad?” she asked warily.

  He shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. I think it’s kind of funny, actually. My one big secret probably trumps your two smaller ones, anyway.”

  She blinked hard, her shoulders going back. “They aren’t that small,” she muttered, knowing even as she did that she sounded like a pouting child. And why she would want to call attention to her big, giant whopper secrets when he seemed more than willing to offer her a pardon, she’d never know. But once again she’d opened her mouth and inserted her size-seven stiletto.

  Sitting up, Aidan twisted his legs off the sofa and pulled her onto his lap all in one smooth move. However painful his sunburns were—and already, the cherry red was fading to more of a hot pink—they obviously hadn’t impacted his flexibility.

  “I know they aren’t,” he told her, snuggling her closer. “I’m just saying I think they even out. And that if you’re prepared to overlook mine, I can certainly overlook yours.”

  The out-of-control pace of her heart began to slow as she let his declaration and what it meant sink into her brain. She didn’t think another man on the planet would be willing to overlook the fact that she’d kept her child a secret until after he’d slipped a ring on her finger. Add to that her admission that her original intention had been to marry him for his money, her admission that she was a gold digger, for heaven’s sake, and she was surprised he wasn’t in the next county already.

  How had she gotten so lucky? Aidan might be a vampire—and how wild was that? she thought for about the six thousandth time—but he was also possibly the most perfect guy for her. Ever. She could search Las Vegas—heck, the entire country—from now until the next millennium, and she didn’t think she would ever again stumble across someone who suited her so very well.

  “So now that we’ve both come clean,” she said, “do you think we should start fresh?”

  “I think I’d like to,” he murmured softly. “If you would.”

  Toying with the inside of her lip, she took a deep breath, then let it out with a firm nod. “I think I might, too.”

  A slow smile spread across his face. When his lips parted, she spotted the sharp tips of his normally hidden fangs, and a ripple of dangerous awareness washed over her. Life with Aidan Raines was definitely going to be interesting.

  Then, as quickly as it appeared, the smile vanished. His eyes darkened, the pupils going a fraction wider, and he fixed her with a serious, solemn stare.

  “There is one more issue we should probably hash out,” he told her.

  Oh, no, she thought with a silent groan, dread dropping to the base of her stomach like a lead weight. How much more could she possibly take? She’d handled his big, unbelievable news rather admirably, if she did say so herself, but she wasn’t sure how many more direct hits her internal bomb shelter could take before crumbling to the ground and sending her into a straightjacket.

  “Please don’t tell me there’s more to the whole vampire thing. That you’re also a shape-shifter or some sort of badass Underworld vampire-werewolf hybrid.” Although, she did have a bit of a thing for Scott Speedman, so that could turn out to be really hot.

  A strange expression flitted across his face. “Um . . . no. I mean, my brother can transform into a cat, yes, but I haven’t mastered the art quite yet.” His mouth twisted, and he took on a mocking tone. “He says I would if I’d only apply myself.”

  Aidan rolled his eyes, and she nearly chuckled. Ah, the joys of family dynamics. She’d been there, done that with her own sister, which only went to show that when it came to sibling relationships, it apparently didn’t matter if you were human or vampire or little green leprechaun.

  Of course, how he interacted with his brother shouldn’t be the foremost thought bouncing around in her brain. He’d just admitted that vampires could shift into other forms. How freaky was that?

  And even though Aidan might not be proficient at it yet, one day he could be, then she’d be living with . . . what? A wolf? A lion? A two-headed sheep?

  No, no, no. She couldn’t deal with that right now. She added it to her mental list of topics to discuss later, then blinked the thought away and turned her attention to the hand that was slowly gliding up the outside of her thigh toward her butt.

  “Actually,” he continued in a low, seductive tone, “I was thinking we should test our sexual compatibility again. Considering everything that’s happened, and all the life-altering confessions we’ve made to each other, we should probably make sure we’re still attracted to one another . . . that way.” He punctuated the last with a lascivious wink.

  His hand reached her rear end, gliding over one cheek before snaking beneath the hem of her top to touch bare skin. She didn’t think he really doubted how well they got along between the sheets, but since her pulse was already speeding up, her blood heating and pooling low in her belly, she had no problem playing along.

  His palm was curled beneath the curve of her breast now, his thumb flicking her nipple through the lacy material of her bra. She wiggled on his lap, teasing the hard line of his erection pressed against the fly of his dress slacks.

  “Mmmm,” she hummed from deep in her throat. “You’re right. There’s nothing worse than a sexless marriage. We really should make sure we haven’t messed up that side of our relationship before we commit to the ‘till death do us part’ thing.”

  One corner of his mouth lifted. “You don’t have to worry about that, at least not on my end.”

  “Yeah,” she muttered, her nose wrinkling in one-quarter distaste and three-quarters puzzlement. “How is that going to work, exactly? Do I just grow old and gray and wrinkly, then keel over, while you stay young and hot and perpetually limber?”

  “That’s one of those details we’ll be discussing down the road. And I’ll fill you in on all the options, believe me,” he said, tugging her against him as he fell back on the arm of the sofa, taking her with him to drape across his chest.

  It might have been the time of morning . . . or the events of the day (and past two nights) . . . or Aidan’s hot, hard body sprawled beneath her, primed and ready for action . . . but she found hers
elf feeling strangely agreeable. The future was a giant, blank, fang-covered canvas that she should probably be having all kinds of qualms about, but she just wasn’t. Whatever happened, whatever he told her about his past or present or how he had to live, she’d deal.

  “Okay,” she said with a shrug, her fingers deftly beginning to undo the buttons down the front of his shirt. “I suppose I can accept that for now. And we really should get down to the business of finding out if everything still works the way it did before I found out you were a bloodsucking fiend and you found out I’m a gold-digging, formerly single mother.”

  “Bloodsucking fiend, huh?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

  She nodded. “And former single mother gold digger.”

  “I like that term—‘former,’ ” he said in a low voice. “I like even more that I’m the one to help you put those things behind you. The ‘single’ and ‘gold-digger’ parts, not the mother part,” he clarified with a sexy half-grin.

  “Me, too. Although, I could use a little less talk and a lot more action here,” she told him, tucking her hands inside his now-open shirt and running them over the flat planes of his chest. His firm pectorals with their light dusting of hair, his tight, well-defined abdomen that went concave as her nails scraped along his flesh and he sucked in a sharp breath.

  For the first time ever, she noticed the slight glow to his eyes. Not just the typical gleam of arousal, but an actual reddish glow. It was odd and otherworldly, and both frightening and fascinating at the same time.

  “Show me your fangs,” she whispered.

  He pursed his lips, and for a moment she thought he might refuse. Then the tip of his tongue darted out to wet the thin line of those lips before he opened them, slowly and cautiously.

  Millimeter by millimeter, his top lip peeled back until his teeth were revealed. All of them, including two thin, sharp, pearly-white incisors.