“How could it not when you’re all so beautifully aroused?” I must be careful to not insult this proud, powerful man. “I thank you for the offer, which is a tempting one, believe me. But I’ve made a vow to Rafe. I will not break it.”
“Ah, a lucky man, that one. Well, since you see we are all fine… ” He trails off, expecting me to pick up the blatant invite to leave. Can’t blame him. If I don’t want to join the party then I should leave.
Staring again at all the excited cocks, my mind freezes for a moment.
“Y-y-yeees!” I stutter like a fool.
Where is my composure of a moment ago?
“I’ll be getting back to the main building now.”
Still not turning. Still fumbling for the door.
I can’t seem to pull my eyes away from all of the straining, silky flesh… It should be illegal to look that tempting. Oh wait, I think in several states what they are doing may very well be illegal.
Jet reaches behind me to open the door.
“There you go now. We’ll see you later.”
My cheeks heat from embarrassment. I back up until my feet hit the porch. Jet smiles broadly at the thoughts painted clearly on my red face while closing the door on me.
His voice barks out, “Back to the whip! I want to see him bleed!”
The sounds of boots thump a retreat from the door. I hear the whoosh of leather singing through the air followed by the crack of it landing on heated flesh.
Yowza. That’s not a sight I’ll be able to get out of my mind for a while. I turn, running away before my hearing can pick up the wet sucking noises I’m sure will be quick to follow. There’s an undeniable wetness in my long johns, making me glad I put them on. Wet and wiggling against a seam of thick jeans isn’t very comfortable.
Steer the mind away… steer the mind away… deep breath in and out.
It would be smarter to focus on the business angle and how I can best use this new information. Jet’s such a private man, I’m not really surprised he would rather play this out in his cabin than in the resort dungeon rooms. Then again, he may not know we have them. A fact I should note in his file and suggest a tour for their group tomorrow. Let him decide on his own if he’d like to give the rooms a whirl.
I’ll need to follow up with Bob as well to make sure Jet clouds his memories enough so tales of the evening don’t carry throughout our staff. I make sure any employee involved in the BDSM games either can’t recall all the details or keep their mouths shut about them. Respect and privacy go hand in hand with our prices and guest reputations are a high security issue.
Realizing I’m doing more harm than good with my bumbling detective work, I decide to head back to the main building. Opening the back door to our kitchen, I’m enveloped by the heat and smells of the room. I stiffen after entry at the sounds that assail my ears. Rafe and Jon laughing together? This is an unexpected turn of events.
They are seated together at the table. The scent of caramelized onions with peppers, sautéed mushrooms and a perfectly cooked steak fills my head. They lean together over the center of the table, clinking their beers while Rafe completes the sentence I walked in on.
“… and then she starts to scribble it all down furiously in one of those damn little notebooks she’s always using!”
Jon continues to laugh along with him as a slow light begins to dawn in my brain.
These son-of-a-bitches are laughing at me! Me! I could crush their little brains with a single thought. I could make them writhe on the floor in pain. I could make them pee themselves.
Or, I could use this to my advantage.
It would be nice not to have them at each other’s throats. If what they need is a moment to come together, complaining or laughing at me, then so be it.
I may not be cut out to be a world-class New York City detective any time soon, but that’s okay. I am secure enough I don’t need to be good at everything all the time.
How to proceed? Their heads whip around at the sound of the door closing while I decide to continue the fragile moment of camaraderie.
“You think that was funny? Wait till you hear what I saw at cabin two… ”
By the time I’m done relaying what I’ve just been through, they both have tears coursing down their faces.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to look at Bob the same way,” Jon gets out between guffaws.
“Now, now. Don’t make me regret sharing. We’ve all seen worse in the rooms upstairs. It was so unexpected it made the moment funnier than the discovery.”
“Yeah, but still… a leather hood? Damn, that must have been a sight!” Jon rises from his chair to carry his plate to the counter. “Thanks for the meal, Rafe. I needed it.”
Judging from the time, he hadn’t slept the whole hour.
He stretches then leans back against the sink. “I’m still a bit bushed. Maybe I’ll head to bed early tonight. See you both later.” He heads for the door then turns back with a smile.
“Viv? How about we check out room six tomorrow morning early?” Jon says with a small smile.
I bet he’s replaying the scene Rafe was telling him. Ass.
“Fine. I’ll meet you here so we can head up together. Let’s say around eight?” He nods his agreement and leaves. Through our entire exchange, Rafe remains silent.
“I thought it best to stay quiet to allow the good vibes last a bit longer. It’s a rare moment when I don’t feel like pummeling the guy.’’
“Yes, I know. Imagine my surprise when I discovered what brought it about.” I give him a glare to remind him. He appears a bit uncomfortable. Good.
“Um, about that… see, it started innocent enough, with both of us rehashing what has happened so far… and… uh… ”
I decide to save him from himself.
“It’s okay, love. Really. I couldn’t care less. There was a moment there when I almost crushed you both like bugs, but it was brief.” I smile to lessen the sting. “We’ve certainly had an odd day, haven’t we? Considering it’s not even nine o’clock yet and we’ve got a ways to go.”
Rafe looks at me closely. “You look better than you did when you left. How are you feeling?”
“Still not myself. I need to bleed some of this energy off. I almost exposed myself tonight, and not in a good way.” I fill him in on my conversation with Drew. “I think I left it okay, but he’s a hard one to read.”
“Oh, that’s not good. We’ll see him later tonight?”
“Yes, we should.”
“You haven’t touched him yet in the week he’s been here? How come?”
“I was not at the front desk when he checked in,” I answer a little sharp. “He plane arrived earlier than expected, something about getting good tailwinds. Now I’m thinking no advanced phone call on behalf of the shuttle driver was an elaborate scheme to avoid me.”
“Relax, I’m not criticizing, just asking.” His sharp eyes take in my agitated state. I’m not normally so sensitive.
Rafe stares at me a bit longer, tilting his head to the side. “I know what will help.” Scooting his chair out a bit, he pats his hard thighs in invitation. “Come on over here and climb aboard. No time like the present.”
I know exactly what he intends, picking the thought from his mind. He’s right.
Walking toward him in my bulky clothing, I peel off my coat, dropping it to the floor before straddling his lap.
“Hey, I do need to talk to you after this, and we don’t have a lot of time. This is not going to be a major undertaking, okay, babe?”
He grins back at me. “Ah, only time for a quick bite? Then let’s get to it.”
Normally, I’d never be the one to push a quickie. I love to draw every blood exchange out, letting the emotions rack our bodies. This murder hangs over our heads, while I become more tense and worried. I want to talk about the death, work out a plan on what to do, but time seems to be getting away from me. Yes, I’m a control freak. And it has helped me survive a long, l
ong time.
Rafe senses the tension coiled under my skin. It permeates every fiber, feeling like it’s pushing to get out. I feel the need to do—to be doing something—now, NOW!
He runs his hands up and down my arms to soothe me.
“Shush, my liebling, you must turn your mind off sometimes,” he coos in a soft voice.
Like I can shut it down any time soon. The werewolf blood’s driving me hard and making my skin feel itchy again. So much for my yoga pose helping me to achieve some calm.
Rafe kisses me lightly on the mouth while reaching for a small silver paring knife on the kitchen table. I feel a sharp nick on my neck a split second before his hot mouth latches on to the cut. The knife clatters back to the table with a twist of his wrist. Rafe’s fingers reach between us as he pulls deeply on my neck.
The pressure of his hand, palm in, on the seam of my jeans is delicious. He slowly rubs the juncture between my legs. The action gives me something to focus on in the rush of sensations. The weight against my mound feels firm and steady, arousing me in the heat of our exchange.
My attention snaps back at Rafe’s first deep pull from the slight wound. The feeding allows me to push some of the excess power out with the flow of my life force. Rafe moans against my skin from the power coursing through our joining, his tongue lapping in delicate strokes at the torn edges of skin.
So much, liebling. I can see why you felt so high strung. Give more to me.
I didn’t know I needed a release so soon after my last one, but my body responds instantly. My hips thrust forward into his hand while I reach up to secure his head more firmly against my neck. Pushing more power into him, I sense his teeth working the wound to keep it open. The vampire ability to heal quickly closes the wound before we’ve both had enough.
When Rafe bites down hard to re-open the cut, his next draw mixes with the delicious pain of his bite, sending me streaking over the brink, moaning out and thrusting like a wild woman toward his clever hand.
One more long, deep suck brings a yell from me.
Writhing in his lap, I convulse and lean forward onto his chest. The orgasm came on so quickly, there’s no time to register the full intensity of the release before the after-shudders wrack my body.
Ah, quickies can be nice, especially when you don’t expect them.
Rafe leans back to slip two fingers from his other hand into my mouth. I suck languidly for a brief, delectable moment. He withdraws them with reluctance to coat the bite on my neck with the saliva. It helps heals the new injury while Rafe licks the small trace amounts of blood off my neck, leaving soft kisses behind.
“You needed that, hon. The energy had to be bled off a little.”
Barking out a ragged laugh, I sag forward onto his big, warm chest. “A little? You think?”
He rubs my back slowly up and down, almost like he’s trying to calm a runaway horse. Pretty accurate when considering my actions from before.
Nudging against my lower abdomen is the hardness of Rafe’s unspent pleasure. “You know I don’t like to leave you hanging, but there isn’t a lot of time for the thorough attention I’d like to give certain parts of your anatomy right now.”
He chuckles. “Never you fear, it’ll keep for later. Let’s have the talk you were so concerned about.”
Chapter Eight
I move to have my own chair and fill Rafe in on all I’ve learned, and done, to our new arrivals. We never did get to cover it with our interlude in the basement and then with Jon stopping by early.
“What are your thoughts on the scenario with Olivia?” I ask when I finish. “Would you like to play a role in my plan or should I enlist Drew?”
“I think it’s a good idea to bring Drew in. You know I don’t like to help out with the jealousy stuff unless there’s no other alternative. It’s not my cup of tea. This could be a good way to feel out what Drew knows, or thinks he knows, about you.”
“Agreed. But Drew seems like he’s been in a funk. He needs a kick in the pants to get out of it,” I answer. “Why else would he have come here?”
Rafe shrugs in answer.
“Anyway, I plan to drive Antonio slowly crazy with his desire for Olivia, and Drew will be perfect for the job. Care to picture me as a blond later? It will help aid my projection if you think of me as a sultry, smoky blond while I tease you.”
“You know I like the Asian look best, but I’ll take one for the team and play with a blond.” His heated look is all I need to set me off on a tangent.
“Down boy, we’re not done yet.” Picking up a leftover dinner roll from a basket on the table, I lob it at him.
I’d gladly ignore all the cares of the hotel to spend an evening in bed with him. He's revved up from my blood and will be for a while. He’s got to be feeling the high I felt. It will make it even more of a joy to tease him later. I smile inwardly. Ah, it’s going to be fun.
After the dinner roll hits him and lands on the table, Rafe smiles and gets back to business. “Shall we focus on these two tonight and go after Liam and Francesca tomorrow during their tour of the third floor?”
“Sounds good.”
Rafe picks up some files on the far side of the round dining surface. “I found these in our room. What are they in here for?”
He’s holding the Natsuhara and Salvador files in his hand, making me realize he doesn’t know I asked Tommy to have them delivered to me or why.
“I thought I could review them to see if they revealed a clue about John Pierre.”
“It’s getting odder by the moment that no one has come to the front desk looking for him. Makes me think only one or two people may have known he was here. And one of those is the one who killed him.”
I release a sigh, “Ah, and therein lies the problem… which one or two people?”
“Have you thought to call Cy yet?”
“No, I haven’t. Good idea. I bet he could trace the name down for us with what we’ve got so far.”
“Lord knows he owes you. Not many vampires would allow such a loose leash on a rich and powerful member of their flock.”
I wrinkle my nose at the mere thought of a “leash” or having my own “flock” as he put it. “You know me. If they are responsible I set them free. If they aren’t… well… ”
Rafe knows the unspoken end to that statement: If they aren’t responsible, I hunt them down and kill them.
Finishing my trailing thought I say, “He’s doing fine on his own. I have no need to worry.”
Cy Whitfield’s a contact from our time in New York forty-five years ago. I changed him when I found his crumpled body in an alley behind one of his nightclubs in Manhattan. Seems a young fledgling got out without supervision and drained the first person he came upon to within a pint of his life. Cy wouldn’t have been able to recover from such a loss unless the alley laid next to a hospital. Did I have four quarts of human blood and the ability to transfuse him right then? Uh…no. But I did have mine.
It was a split-second decision. If he had been unhappy with the choice when he came over, I would have killed him a second and final time out of respect. I drained Cy as much as possible without risking an instant death. Slicing my wrist with a silver dagger, I bled into his mouth before his last heartbeat. He latched on after the first mouthful went down and the rest is history.
After the initial shock and denial phase, followed by the learning curve to control the blood lust, Cy accepted his new afterlife wholeheartedly and was grateful I happened upon him in the alley. Doubtful he would have felt that way if he’d been married with a family, but c’est la vie. I’m glad things worked out. Rafe and I were both surprised when three months later, Cy’s control proved strong enough I could set him free and not look back.
I turn the prospect of calling him over in my mind, voicing my thoughts, “You are right though. He’d be a good person to call for some intel.”
Rafe continues in his argument, “He’s never let you down when you called to research a prospecti
ve client. Let’s not forget, he did help us when we jumped into the technological age.”
“Yes… ” I draw the sounds in the word out, torn on what to do. I prefer to have no other vampires close to me. It lessens the risk of who can turn me into the Tribunal of Ancients, which translates to less people I’d have to hunt down and destroy.
“Take advantage of the fact that he feels he owes you for his afterlife and freedom—most masters would have kept a gem like him under their thumb.”
“You’ve made your point, I’ll call.”
Rafe settles back with a small smile of victory on his face. A check of the time reveals it’s almost nine. It would be a great time to call Cy. He’s probably at the Zone Out club now. Grabbing the cordless off the counter, I dial his cell phone. Two rings later he picks up. Before he can get out a greeting, loud music assaults my ear.
“Dria, give me a minute to get in the back room.”
“ ‘Kay.” I can hear him pushing his way through the crowd to get to his private office, while the voices of the patrons carry over the line.
“Cy, over here man!”
“Cy!”
He ignores them. Knowing him, he’s probably gesturing to the phone at his ear while signaling he’ll be right back. The sound of a door closing cuts the worst of the noise to a muted thrum.
“Well, hello gorgeous. What brings on this call?”
That’s Cy for you, right to the heart of the matter. He knows I don’t call often and won’t waste my time beating around the bush.
“Hey Cy, it’s been a while. How are you doing?”
I’m honestly curious. I’d hate to have to track him down and kill him; he’s good people.
“Cali keeping you in line?” I plow ahead before he has a chance to answer my first question.
Cali is Cy’s bonded mate. She’s a werewolf—a pretty uncommon match for an undead. Letting her walk around the club unescorted with the trademark sexual werewolf-pheromones leaking out to a crowd could cause a riot. I’m never sure which of the pair attracts the throngs of humans and supernaturals to the club more—him or her.
Everything Erotic Volume I Page 14