Temptation Calls

by Caridad Piñeiro

  They were silent for the longest time until Diana finally asked, “Did you mean what you said before? About you know, the whole ‘holding me’ part, because—”

  “You’re not interested. I knew that,” he said, trying to clear the air.

  “That’s good because Ryder and me are…”

  She hesitated and that delay puzzled him. “Ryder and you are what?”

  “Lovers. Friends,” she answered quickly, but her hands tightened on the steering wheel.

  Behind her words, her tone was uneasy, so he had to ask, “But not living with one another? Unless I heard wrong, you said, ‘Ryder’s apartment.’”

  She shrugged as she pulled into a spot in front of his building, but she didn’t face him. “We don’t live together. Not yet anyway. Maybe not ever.”

  Her words surprised him. The emotions he’d seen pass between his friend and Ryder were intense. Then Samantha’s words came back to him. “I’m sorry, Diana. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  She gave a harsh laugh. “You tell yourself you can deal with not having a normal life. With always being in the dark, especially when that time in the dark makes you feel more alive than you ever have in your entire life.”

  Peter searched her face and noted the glint of tears in her eyes. “But?”

  “Something like this happens. Something to remind you that no matter how you might delude yourself into thinking your life isn’t all that far from normal…”

  She couldn’t finish. She just dragged in a rough breath. They sat there together in the car until she had recovered.

  He examined her face one last time. “Are you okay?”

  Diana nodded. “I noticed some surveillance cameras at Diego’s place. I’m going to head back and see if the tapes will help us. In the morning, I’ll get David and Maggie working on whatever evidence we have.”

  She was back to being the Diana he knew, competent and in control. But he’d seen the woman beneath—the insecure one she didn’t let many see. “I appreciate our talk. I’m confused about things and knowing I’m not alone—”

  “Helps a lot. I’m glad we talked, too, Peter.” She gave him a forceful hug, although he couldn’t control the flinch from the pain that came to his shoulder. Diana motioned to his injury. “Take some medicine and ice up that shoulder. It should feel better in a few days.”

  He chuckled and said, “A few days, huh? I guess I should look at the upside.”

  Diana shot him a quizzical look and he added, “It makes me forget the pain in my neck from Foley nearly strangling me the other night.”

  She laughed as he’d intended and he got out of her car.

  As he was slipping his key into the lock of his building, the sense that he was not alone made him pause. Looking upward, he searched the rooftops and fire escapes, but saw nothing in the murky light of late dusk.

  With a painful shrug, he went inside.

  Chapter 24

  S amantha wasn’t alone.

  She had perceived a presence and power chasing her during her headlong flight from Diego’s apartment.

  She’d arrived at the building across from Peter’s in time to see him at his door while Diana drove away. When Peter seemed to sense her, she’d stepped back, right into Ryder.

  “What are you doing here?”

  With a confused shake of his head, he shifted away from her. “Quite frankly, I don’t know.”

  “You don’t know? Did Diana tell you to follow me?”

  Ryder crossed his arms and calmly answered, “Yes.”

  Because she was hurt and angry and confused, she said, “And like a good dog, you do everything she tells you?”

  He moved then. Quickly. She found herself dangling inches off the ground. Ryder had her throat in a painful grasp.

  She kicked him square in the stomach, weakening his grip enough that she could escape. She prepared for him to try and contain her again, but he just straightened and rubbed at a spot on his midsection. “Why does it upset you so? My relationship with Diana?”

  “We’re not supposed to mix with them.”

  He laughed, surprising her. “Really? Is that written in a book somewhere. Undead for Dummies?” Before she could reply, he continued, “Even if there is such a rule, who’s going to stop me? Or you for that matter?”

  “Me?” she said. “What makes you think—”

  “That you love him? You can try to push him away, but he doesn’t strike me as the kind who’ll run from what he wants.”

  Samantha walked to the ledge of the building, considering what Ryder had said. Across the way, the lights in Peter’s apartment were on. A shadow passed by the window before the lights went off in one room and snapped to life in another.

  Ryder joined her. “It’s not easy on them. They’re always conflicted about the whole bloodsucker thing and what happens when they grow old and wrinkled.”

  “And you’re not?”

  A rough sigh escaped his lips. “I die a little every day knowing it’s one less day with her. Knowing that I could lose control of the demon and hurt her.”

  Samantha understood the feeling. “Would you turn her? Or prolong her life like a keeper’s?”

  He shook his head. “I wasn’t aware of the whole keeper thing.”

  “I know you don’t like being what you are, but it’s not fair to her if you don’t know what you’re capable of.” She met his troubled gaze.

  “I’ve told myself that a thousand times,” he said. “Only…I need someone to show me.”

  “I understand.” She stared down at Peter’s apartment. “And I need someone to convince me—”

  “To go down there? Apologize for bruising the boy a bit?” His joke lightened the mood, as if he sensed how much guilt she felt about what she had done earlier.

  She smiled as he had intended, but it quickly fled when she remembered what had happened last time she’d crossed a line with Peter. “I’m not sure I can control myself. The demon—”

  He held a hand up to stop her. “You’ll know what to do, Samantha. As for the demon, who says humans don’t like a little bite in their life?”

  His words surprised her, as did his abrupt departure. He jumped to the next rooftop and leaped from one building to the next, heading uptown.

  She stood there until she could no longer see Ryder, then she once again stared at Peter’s apartment. The lights in his bedroom were off and at the window, a bit of pink fluttered in and out of the opening with a passing breeze.

  It was like a flag calling her to come down. Look inside. See him in his bed.

  Heat snaked through her as she recalled watching him the other night. As she remembered kissing him, while she was in her vampire state. She’d nipped his lip and a droplet of his blood, warm and filled with life, had marked his skin before he’d licked it away.

  She imagined licking it. Licking him. Kissing him. Making love with him.

  She had to know, had to try. Because even if taking it further meant dying a little every day, she preferred that kind of death to never being alive.

  To never knowing any kind of love.

  With that thought, she stepped back from the ledge and made the leap.

  Peter didn’t know what woke him.

  He’d fallen asleep almost immediately after taking the pain medicine Melissa had given him. It had made him a bit woozy, with a medicinal kind of happy buzz, but now, he was fully alert and aware. Rising, he pro
pped one arm on the bed and gazed toward the open window. That was when he saw a shadow out on the fire escape. Her shadow.

  Why hadn’t she come in? Was it because vampires couldn’t enter unless invited? She could sit out on that ledge all night long if he wanted her to.

  But he wanted her in here with him.

  He wanted to settle things between them once and for all.

  “Come in, Samantha,” he called out.

  She raised the window and slipped into his room.

  Peter snapped on the light so he could see her better. She stood by the window, looking uncertain in her faded figure-hugging jeans and a black cashmere sweater that enhanced her coloring. She looked normal, desirable, despite the fact that she’d basically kicked his ass.

  “To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?” He sat up in bed and winced from the twinge in his shoulder. She was immediately at his side, a worried look on her face.

  “I’m sorry I hurt you. I didn’t mean to, only—”

  “You don’t like being touched,” he finished for her, knowing full well the reason for her reaction.

  “I shouldn’t have used my vamp power, but around you…I can’t control my emotions.” A becoming blush came to her pale cheeks. He had the answer to his question about how she would look when she blushed. Even more beautiful.

  “Normally I’d say that’s a good thing, but the pain in my shoulder says otherwise.” He wasn’t quite sure why he teased her. Teasing was a man-woman thing. A prelude to deepening a connection. But she wasn’t human and he was totally uncertain about his attraction to her—except knowing she was a vampire had done little to dim his fascination.

  She clasped and unclasped her hands nervously as she stood by his bed. “I’m sorry. I just wanted you to know that.”

  The need to comfort her arose again, sharp and demanding. Almost unconsciously, he laid a hand over hers. “Samantha, it’s okay. I understand.”

  She shook her head and the long waves of her hair shifted with the vehemence of her movement. “I don’t think you really do.”

  Asserting gentle pressure, he pulled her beside him on the bed. The turmoil in her eyes was difficult to see, but also encouraging. It meant she was as conflicted as he was. That she was maybe thinking about their seemingly impossible relationship and wishing that it wasn’t so impossible.

  Armed with that, he brushed away a long lock of hair, and urged her to meet his gaze. “Tell me. Help me understand.”

  Samantha examined his features, from the shaggy sunbleached hair to his hazel-green eyes, shining brightly with an emotion she wished was hope. She gave in to her desire and brushed back a lock of his hair. As silken and alive beneath her fingers as she remembered. It made her smile before reality jolted her. She pulled her hand back.

  “Samantha?” He rubbed his thumb along her cheek.

  She pressed into that caress like a cat needing attention. “You make me feel…alive,” she finally said.

  He continued to stroke her face, running the back of his hand along the line of her jaw. “After my wife…I didn’t think I’d ever want a relationship again.”

  “My husband was no prize package either,” she said and the smile that had been on his face grew grim.

  “I know he hurt you. But not all men hurt.”

  She nodded. “I know. Now. I know you won’t mean to hurt me—”

  “But you think I will?” he asked. “And you think you’ll hurt me, too, don’t you?”

  With a shrug, she said, “It’s inevitable. You’re human and I’m—”

  “A beautiful woman, although I won’t hold that against you. But I would like to hold you, even though that seems crazy. Can we start that way? Just holding? Until we both figure out what we want?” His voice was expectant, boyishly trusting. It was that Boy Scout sincerity that lessened her resistance. With a nod, she moved until she was sitting beside him, his good arm wrapped around her shoulder, pulling her tight into his side.

  They were quiet as they sat there, his body warming hers. His gentle strength and easy nature calming her disquiet. “This is nice,” she finally said.

  “I could get used to this.” He dropped a kiss on her forehead.

  She laid her hand on his chest. His heartbeat was strong. True. Painful since her own heart was an iffy thing in so many ways. “This isn’t a good idea, Peter.”

  But up close, there was no denying the need in his gaze. Impossible to resist the temptation to nuzzle her nose against the warmth of his skin.

  The rasp of his evening beard was a sharp contrast to the smoothness of his lips as he moved them against her cheek, trailed them closer and closer to her mouth until she met his lips with her own.

  They were so warm. Wet as he deepened the kiss.

  Whatever it took, she was going to allow herself this one night. This one chance to feel alive.

  She opened her mouth against his, sampled the vitality of his human breath. The dampness of his tongue as she caressed it with her own.

  He broke away from her, his breathing rough and his cheeks flushed. “I don’t want to stop.”

  “Neither do I only…I’m not sure I can control myself, Peter,” she admitted, suddenly aware of the heat gathering in the pit of her stomach. Human desire that might become vampire lust.

  He grinned, a boyishly sexy grin and said, “I’m not sure I can either since…” He glanced down at the sheet and she tracked his gaze to the juncture of his legs where it was clear nothing was happening yet. “Melissa gave me some medicine and…Shit.”

  She kissed him, while whispering against his lips, “I just want to spend time with you tonight, love. Have you hold me.”

  He smiled. “Anything you want, Samantha. Anything.”

  His words and tone made her shift back for a second. “Anything?”

  He raised his hand and brushed back a lock of her long hair. “If you can’t control it…We can stop, Samantha. I won’t press you for more than you want because…I’m still not sure what I want either.”

  A shudder racked her and it took all of her strength to suppress the demon from emerging, wakened by the power of the emotions he roused within her.

  “Samantha?”

  She met his gaze. “I want the woman in me to be loved, Peter. She’s never known what it is to be loved.”

  She closed her eyes tight against tears, but they escaped from beneath her lids anyway. He wiped them away. “You talk of the woman as if she’s not you, Samantha.”

  “It’s been so long, she doesn’t seem real to me anymore.”

  He ran his fingers through her hair, his caress gentle. “She’s still there, Samantha. And maybe tonight she’ll be real again.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  He kissed her deeply. “I’m not sure of anything anymore. You’ve taken everything I’ve ever believed and tossed it on its head.”

  “So why are you still here?” she asked, unsure of where this road would lead them.

  His grin was broad and lit up his face, making her think of sunny days and a summer beach. “Because I can’t imagine not taking a chance right now. Can you?”

  Chapter 25

  T hen Peter kissed her, a slow enticing kiss meant to show her just how much he wanted her. He caressed her lips with his, a second before kissing the small scar she worried when she was upset.

  He realized then, there were other scars that needed to be healed as well, both physical a
nd mental. Even without the side effects of the pain medication—not to mention the ache in his shoulder—it was clear that tonight was meant to be taken slowly.

  Patiently, he explored the sensitive hollow where her neck and shoulder joined, easing aside the collar of the black cashmere sweater so he could taste her skin. She moaned and held him close, and he slid his hand beneath the hem, caressing her skin all the way to her breasts.

  Moving back up to her mouth, he was kissing her as he finally cupped her breast, stroking the hard tip of it beneath the satiny fabric of her bra. She expelled a rough sigh and a moan.

  He said against her lips, “I want to kiss you there.”

  A shudder ripped through her. Her blue eyes were dark with passion, her pupils wide and dilated. No glow. These were her human eyes locked with his. Her human lips, swollen and wet from his kisses.

  “I’d like that,” she answered.

  With her permission granted, they both reached for the hem of her sweater at the same time, their hands fumbling before he opted for placing his at her waist and watching instead. Black cashmere drifted upward, revealing the smooth creaminess of the skin at her waist and then her stomach. Moved ever upward past her ribs and finally over her head to reveal her breasts in a black satin bra, trimmed with black lace.

  The color was a sharp contrast to her pale skin. To the deep golden color of his hand, tanned from years in the sun.

  She watched as he caressed her, and as he grasped the tip between his thumb and forefinger, she gave the barest hint of a gasp. He shot a quick glance at her face. The tiniest of blushes blossomed along her cheeks.

  Bolstered by her shy smile, he undid the front clasp of her bra. Her breasts spilled free, generous in their proportion given that she was slender elsewhere. Full and firm, with large caramel-colored nipples that he could no longer resist. He took one into his mouth while he pleasured the other tip with his fingers.