Would Thomas really have let my parents eventually walk off into the sunset to live out the rest of their lives? Doubtful. Sun-tzu said, “Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer.” Always practical, when my father discovered where Chase was being held, he went to retrieve him under contrived orders from Cain. Chase was four years older than me and looked and acted more like my father’s son than I ever had. We’d been raised practically as brothers.
“If you think I’m going to just step aside and give her to Chase, you don’t know me at all,” I told him. “I gave her my word.”
“Randell, for heaven’s sake…”
“Look,” I began, “I’m tired. I’m not going to argue with you about this. Not now. Alex and I have work to do. We need to maintain our focus on the mission. This little personal drama will have to play itself out later, after we’ve gotten what we needed. We’re going in tonight. We’ll start laying the groundwork and we’ll wrap this up as quickly as we can. Do you know anything about an Immortal named Malcolm? He’s local to Vegas, powerful, probably older than dirt.”
“Malcolm?”
“Yeah. Raif put on quite a show last night at dinner. I think it was all meant to be a test of some sort, a test of my strength. He had his opulence on display, great food, a lavish presentation, and a consort on a leash. What that slimy bastard could have done to rate a prize like Rita, I’ll never know. Anyway, he said I’d be meeting Malcolm tonight.”
There was nothing but silence on the other end of the phone.
“Dad? You still with me?”
“I’m with you,” he answered. “Rita, dark hair, dark eyes, skin like dappled moonlight, cute little red mole on the top of her left breast?”
“Are you kidding me? I don’t even know what the hell dappled moonlight looks like. Are you and mom reading poetry to one another again? And I was just trying to explain to Alex that men don’t call them breasts. Dad, you’re really disappointing me here. What even makes you think I noticed her…breasts?”
“You’re my son. Now answer me,” he said. I could hear anticipation in his voice. My father was on edge, Mr. Calm, Cool, and Collected.
“Yeah. That’s her, right down to the ‘cute little mole’. Who is she?”
“Is she all right? Tell me that.”
“I don’t know. She seems to be. Raif’s a feeder. I think his sexual tastes run a bit off the beaten path. She didn’t look bruised or battered, but we heal fast. Hard to tell.”
“Can you get her out of there?”
I practically dropped the phone.
“What? Why?”
“Because Rita doesn’t belong to Raif,” he said. “She’s mine.”
Chapter Ten
“Yours? Does…Mom know?”
I hadn’t seen that one coming.
“She was given to me long ago. Long before I met your mother. I managed to…acquire her from one of the other Dominie,” he replied. “Someone who was very loyal to Cain and always hated me.”
The pieces started falling together like some jigsaw puzzle.
“Let me guess,” I began, only my father interrupted and finished my thought.
“Malcolm.”
“What’s going on?” asked Alex as she slid her silk nightshirt back on and starting buttoning it.
“I need coffee,” I told her.
“On it,” Alex nodded as she scrambled off the bed. No sooner did her feet hit the floor did she turn around. “Wait a minute. You’re not just asking me to make the coffee because I’m a girl, are you?”
“Who said anything about making coffee,” I said. “Call room service.”
“Why call room service when there’s a coffee pot here in the room?”
“You know how to make coffee? Have at it!”
“Are you telling me that you don’t know how to work a coffee pot?” she asked, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.
“I have other skills,” I reminded her, flashing my most disarming smile. I watched the redness creep into her cheeks down her neck and across her chest. She was remembering some of those skills, no doubt.
Dad cleared his throat. It was a reminder that we weren’t alone.
“Dad, I’m going to put you on speaker,” I told him before hitting the button. “Dad, this is Alex. Alex, meet my father, Byron Renfield.”
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Renfield,” Alex said, while she nervously ran her fingers through her hair in an attempt to smooth out the morning tangles.
“Please,” he said, smooth as silk, “call me Byron. I can’t wait to see you, really see you. Randell tells me that you’re even more beautiful in person.”
“Now I see where he gets his charm from,” Alex laughed.
“You find my son charming?” asked dear old Dad
“Dad, ” I interjected before Alex could respond, “let’s stay focused on the important stuff.”
“I’ve got to put you on hold for a second. Someone’s on the other line.” Only I didn’t hear him click off. Was he still there, listening? I didn’t know.
Alex turned around and walked over to the minibar where the coffee pot was.
I climbed out of bed and followed her. “I didn’t mean to imply that how you feel isn’t important.”
“Of course not,” she said.
Shit. I’d hurt her feelings.
“I can make the coffee,” I offered, it seemed like a nice conciliatory gesture. How hard could it be?
“You don’t know how to make coffee,” she pointed out. Then she opened a bottle of water and began to pour it into the reservoir of the coffee maker.
I slid my hands around her waist and pulled her back against me. “You could teach me,” I whispered as I brushed her hair back over one shoulder and nuzzled at her neck. “Right after you teach me how to stop being so incredibly stupid.”
“Stop,” she said. “I’m mad right now. I’m angry with you and if you melt that away…”
“Then what?”
“Then I won’t be mad at you any more,” she murmured, her voice soft. She leaned her head back so that it fell against my chest and she released a sigh. “God, you make me crazy.”
“I’m sorry,” I told her. “Whatever it is that’s happening between us? Well, it’s happening fast, it’s intense, maybe too intense. I’m off balance. It’s confusing and I don’t like being confused. It feels…weak.”
Alex turned around in the circle of my arms and faced me. “Running away from your feelings, Dell, that’s weak.”
“I’m not running away from them, Alex. I’m just putting them in a box, slowing things down between us. We have to get this mission out of the way. The rest can be sorted out later. We have all the time in the world,” I told her as I caressed the softness of her face.
“No,” she said. “You have all the time in the world. My time is limited, Dell.”
“I swear your sister is going to drive me to drink!” my father declared, suddenly breaking the silence between us.
I smiled. “This I can’t wait to hear. What’s she done?”
“She’s insisting on going away to college. I compromised on an all girl school. Acceptance letters are coming in right and left and not one of them, not a single one, is for an all girl school,” he ranted. I heard the bang of a drawer and imagined him throwing the latest into it and slamming it shut.
I scratched the back of my head and wondered whether I should say anything or keep my mouth shut. Me? Keep my mouth shut? Nah.
“Let her go, Dad.” I was thinking about what Alex had just said. You see my sister Lily is human, human and eighteen. How much of her life has she already lived? Twenty-five percent? Twenty percent? “She deserves to live, to experience life. She’s not like us, she doesn’t have all the time in the world.”
“You mean she’s not like you, I don’t have all the time in the world either. Not anymore. Course…I wouldn’t change that for anything. Not for anything, Dell.”
I forget that my parents are going to die someday.
It’s easy to remember with Lily, she’s so purely human. But my father and mother are both strong. They both still look so young. It’s likely they’ll live another couple of centuries.
“But this isn’t why I called.”
Dad was turning the conversation back around and focusing once again on business. I was okay with that. More than okay. I’d had enough introspection and self-examination in the past few hours to meet my quota for the month.
“How did you arrange for time off for us? Do I even want to know?”
“Does it matter?”
“Not really.”
“Good, let’s move on then. Antoine will be arriving shortly. He’ll be staying at the hotel. The private jet is on standby at McCarran airport. Call Antoine once you have this little matter wrapped up. He’ll drive the three of you to the airport and then fly you to Bella Bella. The boat to bring you over to the island will be waiting for you.”
“Three of us?” asked Alex.
“Dad wants us to bring Rita. He thinks she’s being held against her will,” I told her.
“I know she’s being held against her will,” he emphasized. “If she could have gotten away, she would have returned to me.”
“Apparently, Rita used to belong to Dad,” I explained to Alex.
“She still belongs to me, Dell,” he insisted.
“And what do you propose I do? Just walk in there and tell Raif that you want her back?”
“If you have to, yes. She’s mine by right. He can return her or face the consequences. Tell him I’ve agreed to pay you handsomely for her return.”
Alex seemed stunned. I couldn’t blame her. Dad’s little surprise had shocked the shit out of me as well. I just couldn’t imagine arriving at my parent’s doorstep with Rita…naked…on a leash. As far as I knew, my father had always been faithful to my mother. I couldn’t do what he was asking me to do. I just couldn’t.
“Have you lost your mind? I can’t bring Rita home, Dad. I can’t.” There, I’d said it.
“We can’t leave her here, Dell,” interjected Alex.
Shit, they were going to gang up on me.
“Randell?” he called out.
“Yeah?”
“Rita is important to me. She’s much more than my consort. She’s my friend. I’d given her liberties, freedoms. When your mother and I first mated it was Rita that I trusted to help your mother through The Awakening. I trusted her with your mother and she didn’t let me down. I can’t let her down.” His voice sounded thick and strained.
“Dad…”
“Don’t let me down,” he added.
I’d been awake for less than an hour and already the day had turned into a complete disaster.
Chapter Eleven
“So, let’s see if I’m getting all of this,” began Alex. “Cain, the father of all vampires is being held in some secret underground fortress.”
“BaMidbar.”
“Right,” said Alex. “And he’s been guarded by my father for the last twenty-five years while your father has been leading a quiet revolution hoping to mainstream the vampire race.”
“That’s about it. Dad’s been chipping away at Cain’s powerbase by diverting funds from the Dominie and instead investing in things that he believes will bring about lasting social change. Things like medical research, educational scholarships, and specialized training programs.”
“Programs like the PSF?” she asked.
“No. The PSF is an invention of the Feds and they control their own budget. But they recruit from the Academy, that’s for damn sure. The Academy is my father’s baby. That’s where the PSF found me. And, I’ll tell you right now, we’re not the only government making use of creatures—”
“You’re not a creature, Dell,” she said, her tone sounding scolding.
I shrugged. “Thanks to one of those medical breakthroughs I can walk in the sunlight among you, work with you, but I’ll never be one of you. I’m not a man, Alex.”
We’d dressed casually. Alex said she was going to throw on a little something that would distract Raif. The problem was it was also distracting the hell out of me.
The black leather skirt matched her halter and left little to the imagination. The girl was built and how, with curves in all the right places. She had lifted one foot onto the desk chair and was about to slide her Glock into her thigh holster when she paused, turning to stare at me.
Now, normally I’d say that a thigh holster wasn’t a practical choice. I’d think that it would be hard to get to, but not in this outfit. The skirt fell so that it hit her mid-calf, and when she stood still it looked almost conservative, in-so-much that leather on a body like hers could. But the second she moved you could see all of the slits. Occurring every two to three inches, they traveled up above her knee giving her all the mobility and access she needed for a quick draw.
“You feel like a man to me,” she said, a knowing smile forming on her lips.
“Do I?”
She walked over to me, draped her hand over my shoulder and gazed up into my eyes.
“What’s wrong, Dell?”
I sighed. “Nothing.”
“Liar.”
“Raif’s going to love the outfit. It’s a good call,” I admitted, running my hand over her bare shoulder and down her arms, grazing the outside of her breast along the way.”
“But?”
“But I’m going to hate the fact that he’s loving it, that he’s getting to see you like this,” I told her.
“Why?”
Why? Why the hell was it she was always asking the hard questions? I couldn’t put it into words. Or maybe I was afraid to. Instead I leaned down and did something I’d never done before, I initiated a kiss.
For Alex, no doubt, it was a familiar dance, done hundreds of times before. But I was nervous, hesitant, and oh-so-wanting. As my lips brushed hers I released a shaky breath that I’m sure telegraphed my uncertainty, my fear. I was afraid I was going to mess up. I was afraid I wasn’t going to be any good. I was afraid that either Alex or I would lose control.
Then, quite suddenly, I realized that nothing about this…about us…had been perfect. Why should this kiss be any different? So what if it wasn’t perfect, if we weren’t perfect. So what if our relationship had been comprised of a spectacular series of missteps, awkward moments, and almost impossible circumstances? Together, we were pretty damned good.
I closed my eyes and inhaled her sent. I let it wrap around me, wash over me. Then I softly, slowly, pressed my lips to hers, melting into her. The kiss started out sweet, almost chaste. But it wasn’t going to stay that way. I lifted Alex off the floor so that her mouth was level with mine. Then she opened it to me and I slid inside. I pinned her between my body and the wall. I could feel her hand, the one that wasn’t holding the gun, clawing at my back in urgency. I could feel her breasts pushing at my chest, their nipples hardened and peeked against the soft leather of her top. Alex wrapped her legs around my waist and sucked my tongue into her mouth. It was warm and wet and delicious, so unbelievably delicious.
I was vaguely aware of my cock straining against my jeans, begging for relief, begging for release. Her skirt was now hiked up and bunched around her waist, I couldn’t see her underwear and I didn’t bother guessing as to what they looked like. I didn’t care. I tilted my pelvis, grinding my erection into her pussy. I wasn’t trying to be gentle. I’d forgotten all about being gentle. Until Alex pulled back from the kiss, that is.
“Stop,” she gasped.
“I don’t want to stop,” I admitted, my voice sounding rough. The desire in it so heavy that it sounded almost foreign to my own ears.
Alex let her head fall back against the wall and closed her eyes.
“I don’t really want to stop either. But we have to. Unless you’ve changed your mind about tasting me…we have to. Your fangs… I might nick myself.”
I was aware of it then, my fangs had descended. How had I missed that? I lowered her to the floor; the
scent of our arousal was practically choking me. The desire to bury myself inside of her was so strong that it was taking every ounce of control that I had to step back.
Samantha Sommersby - [Forbidden 03] Page 9