by Prince, DD
“If you want. Some fun?”
“Uh, hello? Yes!” Kyla was excited.
“Alright. Then we’ll hang out there for the night and then get back on the road the next day.”
“Or maybe a day or three or three hundred after that?” Kyla raised her eyebrows.
Tristan pulled her on top of him and kissed her forehead, “Maybe we should just get the whole Adrian thing over with. And besides, he’s waiting. Let’s not prolong the inevitable. We can go back to Vegas afterwards. Maybe find a little Elvis chapel?” He raised his eyebrows.
What the fuck?
Kyla’s heart skipped a beat. She chose to ignore that comment, unsure if it was a joke or what and definitely not ready to even think along those lines at this moment.
“Or…” Kyla pulled away and sat back up, “We avoid going to Adrian’s for as long as possible in case it goes horribly wrong.”
“Not very pragmatic to procrastinate, sweetheart.”
“I’m not CEO material like you, I guess. I’m totally fine with prolonging and procrastination where this situation is concerned.”
He laughed. He was trying to keep it light; so was she. The Elvis wedding chapel thing must’ve been a joke.
Must have.
But there was an undercurrent in the air trying to grab her and drag her back down due to her fear of the unknown.
She leaned over and started scrubbing his cheek with her nails, “When are you gonna shave this off, anyway? You’re quickly going from rugged and sexy to not too far off mountain man territory and I gotta say: not feeling it…”
She stood up, about to go to the washroom. He reached over, hooked his arm around her waist, and hauled her back onto the bed and pinned her.
In truth, he was totally sexy and highly fuckable with his unshaven face. Maybe even more so.
“Yeah, well you’re one to talk with your partly shaved leg, mountain woman! Maybe we should both just head for the hills and live in the backwoods with our hairy selves, huh?”
He planted a big wet raspberry on her belly. She squealed and tried to get away. He started to tickle her.
She squealed again, “No, no, no, don’t! I can’t, I can’t handle tickling, I can’t, I…”
He stopped for a second, “Oh…have I found another one of your weaknesses, maybe?”
“Eek!” She dashed off the bed but he caught her and pinned her on the adjacent bed.
“No tickling, please. I can’t breathe when I’m tickled, I---”
Something flashed in her memory, ugly scenes from a foster home. She pushed it back. Tristan must’ve felt it because he stopped instantly.
“You okay?” He was suddenly serious. She nodded and tried not to give that ugliness any further thought.
“Tickling is not my weakness.” She poked at his chest, backing off that bed and then backed up toward the bathroom.
“Oh no?”
He was smiling but she could feel that he was holding back, unsure about her reaction to the tickling. He stalked toward her.
“Dimples…” She poked at his naked chest again, accusingly, “Now those are my kryptonite. Show me those and you can have anything you want. Any. Thing.”
“Anything?”
He gave her a glowing gorgeous smile, dimples on display, then caged her against the wall beside the bathroom door and ravished her mouth with his. She raked her fingers through his hair and linked her leg around the back of his knee, grinding into him.
“You are insatiable!” He hoisted her over his shoulder and whacked her rear end before putting her back on the bed and hovering over her. His smile was so bright he lit up the room.
She fingered a dimple, “I’m sorry that I made you worry about me when I left. If it helps, I was a mess the whole time we were apart.”
“That helps,” he said sheepishly, “We need to talk about everything that happened.”
He laid down on the bed beside her and spooned her close.
“You’ve got stuff to tell me, too.”
“I will. You first.” He touched the back of her neck with his lips.
“Will you?” she asked, dubious.
“I will,” he answered softly.
“Sam reacted first. He turned gray and shot you as soon as I stepped into that cage. Why didn’t that ever happen before in public? Is that something I’ll have to worry about from now on?”
“Dunno yet. I’m guessing something happened after you bonded with me. Even before then. After the first time I fed, I think. But especially after the nectar.”
“So nothing will ever be the same.”
He shook his head, “Not likely.”
“I can’t ever have my period again. I need a hysterectomy to keep myself alive. I’ll never have babies. I mean, I never knew if I wanted kids but to know that I’ll never…” she choked up. Then she realized she’d said all that out loud instead of just in her head.
“Shhh, one day at a time. It doesn’t make sense to just jump to conclusions.” He put his palm to her face.
Yeah, he might not want me to get a hysterectomy. If I stop my periods, the nectar stops.
She stared off into space for a minute.
He shook his head, “Don’t start that. If I haven’t proven to you by now that I love you…”
“Get outta my head.”
“Kyla. Baby. I hear you louder and clearer than ever. I can’t help that. And it’s not just in your head, it’s written all over your face, too.”
“I have to pee.”
She got up.
He gave her a skeptical look.
“I do! I was on my way there a minute ago. I guess you can’t read my bladder yet? Sucks to be you.”
He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose so she huffed as she marched past him to the bathroom.
When she climbed back into the bed he was on the bed, eyes on her.
“So, Sam?” he urged her to continue.
“He shot you. Before you did anything. The second he saw me his fangs shot out and his face turned gray and he attacked you first, before lunging at me, even. He saw you as a threat. I felt a gush of bleeding and then you reacted. But first he shot you and then you shot and hit him and he went down. Then you, you like…lunged for me. I tried to get away but I couldn’t. And then it got sexual.”
She took a big gulp of water, “Ugh. I need coffee. Badly. I won’t even try this in-room coffee. Can we?”
~~~
When they got back with coffee and pastries she took her period prevention pill and he urged her to continue.
She sat on the bed and he pulled her down against him. She put her cheek on his chest.
“It was sexual for me because of what you were doing but for you, it seemed like it was just about the blood. I’m sure I was about to die. You were going down on me while choking me and drinking and then you let me go and you made this roaring sound and then grabbed me and I could swear you were going to end my life but I told you I loved you and your eyes changed and your temperature began to rise but I didn’t know if it was the tranquilizer. You passed out.
You passed out and I didn’t know what to do but I looked at Sam and thought, ‘I can’t make him not kill me with nice words and nice thoughts’, so I ran. I ran because I was afraid of him and afraid of you because I didn’t know what stopped you. I know I wanted to be what stopped you, but I didn’t know if that was naïve of me to think that way so I just left. I didn’t know what I’d do, how I’d get over you, how I’d even survive without you, and with the possibility of getting killed by another vampire and I’ve been in the pits of despair and with serious withdrawals or something, but that’s---”
He cut her off by tipping her chin up for a soft kiss, then said, “I heard you, heard your voice from far away. I must’ve been unconscious but you said you loved me in my dreams. You had this bright aura and I could feel your emotions stronger than ever but I thought I was dreaming and then it all went black. I woke up and you were gone and I had all ki
nds of blood on me. I couldn’t feel you.
There was gnawing inside me, this overpowering urge to inflict pain because I couldn’t find you or feel you. Sam almost took the brunt of it but he talked me down. I knew he went off. He and I talked it out. He said as soon as you stepped out of the panic room the aroma was like meat cooking to a half-starved half-crazed man. His instinct kicked in and I was the threat he had to remove to get to you.
Just like I reacted reflexively to the barrier between you and me, the locks. He talked me down… I came close to ripping his throat out, he convinced me he could help, that he wouldn’t come near you until he could get some of that tonic from Adrian and test it. I can read intentions, I can taste lies, even more now than before. I didn’t taste any lies with him. I’m still being cautious but I believe him.
And anyway, I don’t think you just walked out, Kyla, the more I think about it, I think you shut down. I should’ve been able to feel you. You were still in the city when I woke up, I checked everything out when I started to look at you and timing-wise, you weren’t that far. You were in the city for a few hours after I woke up before you caught that flight. If you weren’t sleeping I’m pretty sure you found a way to turn it off. Or maybe my body turned you off. I don’t know.”
“I didn’t sleep. Not for two days. And I was numb, Tristan. Scared and numb.”
He cuddled her close, “Okay. We’re gonna figure this out. I will. I will stop at nothing.” Their eyes locked.
“Nothing,” he repeated and ran his thumb across her cheekbone.
They stared at one another for a beat and then he said, “Let’s get going.”
They passed the maid as they left. She was pushing her cleaning cart toward them and when she saw Tristan her mouth dropped. She looked at him with sexual hunger but it was as if she’d never seen him in her life. Kyla felt anger rise in her. Tristan threw an arm over her shoulder and hauled her closer,
“Easy, princess; keep those claws sheathed.”
Kyla made a “grr” sound as they passed the woman on the way to the front office to check out.
He chuckled.
~~~
“Tell me about Kovac Capital,” Kyla suggested. They’d been on the road for a few hours and she figured it was a good time to learn more about him, about his life, more about the obstacles they were facing.
Tristan was driving, looking handsome as always, with his strong hands on the wheel, hair blowing in the breeze, his eyes hidden behind sunglasses. He was wearing cargo jean shorts, sandals, and a black t-shirt. Kyla wore a racerback apple green A-line sun dress. It was hot out. Her curly hair was up in a messy bun and she had flip flops on her feet.
“It’s a company. It makes money. I’ve got a pretty traditional-looking executive position.” He shrugged.
“Traditional-looking, looking being the operative phrase? You said you also work to keep vampires secret. I’m sure you have stories you could tell. Close calls?”
He nodded, I keep money flowing in and I work to stop threats, keep our secrets safe. I’m on a few councils.”
“Is the money made honestly?”
“We do use our influence in some areas,” he admitted.
“You’re not giving much away…”
“This stuff is irrelevant.” He shrugged.
“What happens when you get the next promotion?” she asked.
He shook his head, “More autonomy. I report to Claudio now and wouldn’t. I’d have more direct contact with other leaders. Some larger scale decisions.” He shrugged again and then turned up the radio. His jaw was tight. Kyla’s Spidey senses were tweaked.
“You don’t wanna talk about this?” She turned the radio back down.
She saw a muscle flexing in his jaw. He didn’t answer.
“You keep trying to keep me in the dark, Tristan. That shit won’t fly with me.”
His mouth tightened.
“Seriously,” she muttered.
“The last thing I need is to worry about how you’ll deal with shit. It’s shit that’s irrelevant. I’m president of a company. I’m in a high-ranking position on a council that runs the company and that works with others to protect vampires from being discovered. My council works with other councils as a collective, to protect our secrets. End of.”
“It’s that bad? The stuff you keep from me?”
He shook his head, “We know how well it went when you knew I had to deal with that vamp with a taste for kids. You really want more of that?”
“Is there a lot that’s that bad?”
“There’s a lot of a variety of things and some of it you don’t want to know, believe me. And it’s stuff that just doesn’t factor right now. There’s no need to add more stress on top of everything else.”
“You’ve been treating me like a mushroom, Tristan.”
He didn’t reply and she guessed by his expression that under his sunglasses he’d likely rolled his eyes.
“Keeping me in the dark, feeding me shit…” she added.
He shook his head, “Baby, listen…” he started but then he didn’t finish.
“I’m on a need-to-know basis with you. I have been since we met. I understand that there’s stuff that’s irrelevant but you need to get that I’m not okay with being the ‘little lady’ that you keep in the dark.”
He roughly ripped his sunglasses off and glared at her, “And with everything we’re dealing with, Kyla, I need you to know that you can trust me. There’s shit you don’t need to know, stuff that doesn’t factor for you and me. Trust that I am doing everything I can for us. It’s all for us.”
He made a sudden lane change and laid on the horn for a sec, frustrated at something on the road that Kyla hadn’t even noticed. She suspected it was more about him being frustrated with her than with other motorists.
“Who you are, what you do, who we’re dealing with in terms of your colleagues slash compadres, or whatever… it factors.”
“Yeah? You find out shit you don’t like, you don’t get to leave. Then you have to deal with shit you won’t want to deal with and it puts distance between us. Why would I do that to you, to us?”
“I don’t get to leave,” she said with a sneer, “nice.”
He got louder, his driving got more erratic, “No matter what you find out about me, you don’t get to leave me, you know this. You’re mine and I am not ever letting go of that. So, princess, I get to make the fuckin’ choice about whether or not I want you burying bitterness about the things I’ve done, the things I did before I knew you, the things I have to do to protect you, the people I have no choice but to deal with. I choose no.”
“I’d rather deal than---”
“No! Believe me, you wouldn’t rather deal. And I’m not the same as I was before I met you, so giving you a bunch of ugly details doesn’t give you an inkling of who I am now. I need you to trust that I’ll keep you safe, that I’ll share knowledge about Kovac and about my past if it helps us but I will not burden you with shit that will do nothing but hurt you. There’s nothing productive about you learning about any of that. Nothing but pain for you if you do.”
Kyla folded her arms across her chest, which was burning with emotion, “Don’t call me princess when you’re yelling at me,” she said, meaning to come across pissed off but instead coming across hoarsely, her voice cracking.
The anger drained from his face. He reached across the centre console and took her hand. She yanked it away and re-folded her arms across her chest.
The next three hours were filled with loaded silence and if it was possible to shoot daggers at him with her brain, that’s what she was doing the entire time, although she was doing it while also trying to stop herself from agreeing with him because he had a point.
Her stress would filter through to become his stress and they both had enough of that already. She hated it when her brain reasoned with her that he was right because she almost always came to that conclusion after a temper tantrum.
Arrival in t
heir next motel room was punctuated by her slamming the bathroom door so she could take a long shower and get a minute to herself. The room was a lot like the last place. It was a typical single storey motor inn with drive up rooms that contained two beds, small sitting area, TV, and a bathroom.
This one had its décor done in dusty rose and forest green, it was very 1980’s, but it had been the only motel for a long stretch of road and she was glad they’d finally stopped. She wished they could just get a plane to get there. But then again, that would bring reality to her sooner and that reality could be worse than anything they’d endured so far.
Approximately 45 seconds into her shower he stepped in with her. She huffed. He stepped close and put his hands on her soapy hips. She spun around so her back was to him and got her face under the shower stream. He gripped her hips more aggressively and spun her back around to face him. She looked down, meaning to aim her gaze on her feet but down in front of her was his chest, abs, and his impressively erect penis so she instead aimed her gaze on the ceiling. He took her by the chin. She shrugged him off and tried to spin around again but he pinned her against the wall, hips against her, hands on her shoulders.
“Princess,” he said softly, pleadingly.
Kyla’s heart sank.
“I need you, baby,” he whispered against her temple and then his hands gripped her rear end. His lips found hers. She wanted to pull away. She almost pulled away. She was so fuming mad at him. But he gave her a smile and showed dimples and so she glared at him.
“Pulling out the big guns? You play dirty,” she grumbled, poking a dimple.
He laughed, then advanced and got her earlobe in his mouth and his fingers tightened on her ass, “I’ll take every advantage I can get. And I’ll show you a big gun. Let’s play dirty. Together.”
His hand slid down her ass and his fingers slipped between her cheeks and found her centre.
She whimpered. He looked supremely pleased.
Yeah, she wasn’t happy about his secrecy but she knew he needed her, needed to feed, and she also knew that she’d get a release, too, and she needed it right now, big time. With connecting with him and the subsequent orgasm, she’d get his emotions and she’d get to purge the tension for at least a little while.