“And of course, then you had to survive my typically relentless pursuit of your pleasure.” The corner of his mouth quirked into a crooked smile. “How many times did you climax? Three? Four?”
She couldn’t help smiling at the hint of pride in his voice. This was what it was like to have a normal conversation with Alex, or at least what counted as normal for him. “Four, if you count the time in the bathroom.”
“Of course I only count the times that I’m responsible for,” he said, giving her a teasing sidelong glance as he took a drink.
“Yeah, I guess you could say you really know how to wear a girl out.” Caro took a sip of her cognac and wondered what had happened to Jack and Sherene. She rolled her shoulders forward, suddenly aware that her muscles were tightening painfully. “Lord, I think I need a massage.”
Alex reached his hand up under the fall of hair covering her back, his fingers seeking and then finding one of the knots on her back. He slowly started to rub, saying, “I’m sure you’d find a few willing candidates for masseur or masseuse.”
Caro felt her muscles twitch and tense up even further at his touch. She lowered her shoulder to shake off his fingers, trying to be casual even though she felt like fleeing.
“Mm, no thanks. I have a pretty good idea where that would lead and I think I need to throw in the towel for tonight.” She started to stand up. “I wonder what happened to Jack and Sherene?”
Alex caught her arm. “Stay.” The word was a request. Simple. Sincere.
She turned her head, trying to keep from looking into his eyes.
“Stay with me here tonight.” His tone was just as coaxing as his words. He was using his bedroom voice. Intimate. Husky. Tender. “I won’t do anything you don’t want, I promise. I’ll just hold you. It’s been so, so long since I’ve held you.”
“I think we both know that wouldn’t work very well,” she said quietly. “I really need to get back to my hotel and get my head together. Go over my proposal for tomorrow. Call Len. Stuff like that. He’s probably freaking out because I’ve had my cell turned off all this time.” Damn, she was babbling like an idiot. She had to get out of here. Now.
She was relieved when Jack and Sherene appeared. They wore bathrobes and Sherene carried a stack of towels. Jack’s short hair was spiked with moisture and he looked refreshed.
“Sorry we took so long, guys. I couldn’t resist the thought of hot water, so we took a quick rinse.” He draped a towel around Caro’s shoulders first, and then Alex’s.
“Hey,” he said after looking at the two of them for a moment, “how about another spa? You both look like you need to warm up and relax.”
“Umm…I think I’ll have to take a rain check on that, Jack,” Caro wrapped the towel around herself and quickly stood up. A little too quickly. Sherene reached out to steady her.
“Thanks.” She grimaced at the ache in her muscles. “Sorry to cut this most interesting meeting short but I’m tuckered out. And my partner will be desperate to hear news about the reception.”
“I, for one, could benefit from some pulsing water.” Alex set down his empty snifter and shifted a glance at Jack and Sherene. “It’s up to you guys if you want to hang some more. Feel free to join me.” He shrugged the towel off his shoulders and stood up, apparently feeling quite comfortable about remaining in his gorgeously naked state. The muscles in his abdomen rippled as he exhaled deeply. “I’ll go turn on the jets.”
Caro could do nothing but stand there and watch his fine-looking ass walk out the door. She felt numb. She looked over at Jack and Sherene and gave them what she hoped was a convincing smile of encouragement. “Go ahead. I’m no fun anymore, but I’m sure you guys can carry on quite admirably without me.”
Jack looked doubtful. With concern in his voice, he asked, “Are you sure, Caro? Maybe you’d like me to come back to your hotel with you. We could get something to eat…you look like you could use some company.”
They all looked over as Alex came into the room carrying a pile of clothes. He quirked an eyebrow at them as he silently set the pile on the nearest chair and then turned to leave again.
“How come it’s never as fun getting dressed as it is getting undressed…” Jack smiled wistfully. “So what do you think, Caro? Can I take you to your hotel?
“No really, I’m fine. I’m just gonna run through Alex’s shower real quick and then grab a cab.”
“Okay, if you’re absolutely sure. I’ll call to have a cab waiting for you. And if you need anything during the night you have my cell number, right?”
“Thanks, Jack. I’ll see you tomorrow at Stoked.”
“Sure thing. You get some rest.” He smiled that dynamite smile.
Sherene touched her arm. “And thank you for a fantasy evening.”
Ah, well. Just went to show, one woman’s fantasy was another woman’s…whatever.
“Tell Alex goodbye for me. And call me about setting up a meeting. We need to sit down and talk while fully clothed.”
Jack winked at her as he picked up the phone to call for a cab.
A short time later, Caro was showered and dressed in her rumpled suit. Surrounded by all of Alex’s painfully familiar personal items in his bathroom, she found she couldn’t move quickly enough. She’d stuffed her thong in her briefcase—she would toss it when she got back to the hotel. She was certainly never going to wear it again and she didn’t want to leave Alex any souvenirs.
Holding her shoes so she wouldn’t click across the hardwood floor, her ears picked up on Alex’s husky voice coming through the open terrace doors and then a low responding chuckle from Jack. Caro knew she must be seriously out of sorts if she was avoiding the sight of two gorgeous men cavorting in a hot tub.
Tears threatened to break. God, what was wrong with her? She made it out the door and into the elevator before she let them fall.
Ha. Some sexual sophisticate she turned out to be.
She was going to end up bawling on the way home from her first orgy.
* * * * *
“God that feels good,” Jack said as the water in the spa gurgled and surged around their bodies.
Alex managed to mumble an agreement but he didn’t bother to open his eyes. Lethargy weighed down his bones and muscles but his mind was spinning, bouncing from one thought of Caro to another.
Caro pristinely professional, smiling up at Jack at the Stoked reception. Caro kneeling before him in the restroom, her mouth mixing a heady cocktail of memories as she ministered to his cock. Caro on his chaise, throat exposed, wrists crossed above her head, begging him to take her.
It would have been so easy to give in to that barely controllable urge…and it would have felt so fucking good. Right now his body would be ripping with energy and satisfaction, his mind at ease.
“So, Alexander.” Sherene’s soft voice lilted from the other side of the spa. “Tell us about Caro.”
Alex lifted his eyelids long enough to squint over at her. He was uncomfortable with the deeply personal nature of the question, so he gave her a patently professional response.
“She and Len have sterling reps as caterers, for both mortal and immortal functions, and I know them both well enough to predict they’ll be equally successful on the corporate level. I think we’ll all work well together.”
“Mm. Probably so. But you have to know I didn’t mean business. There was no mistaking the currents running between the two of you. And the fact that she was quite distraught when she left here so quickly…even though she pretended not to be.”
Alex expelled a weary breath and sat up straighter in his seat. He looked down at the amber liquid he was swirling in his glass. The color reminded him of Caro’s eyes. “Do you want the long version or the short version? Because if you want the long one you’d better make me a smoke.”
“Well, now you have my interest too,” said Jack. “Give us the long version, of course.”
Sherene retrieved the tray with the vial of blood drops. She drizzled
drops onto a specially prepared cheroot, lit it up and handed it to Alex. Alex filled his lungs with the relaxant and then exhaled, watching smoke swirl and twist through the steam, wondering how much of the story he should reveal.
Most of it, probably. Otherwise Jack and Sherene would spend much of the next few months thinking he’d lost his mind. Because things were going to get downright insane if he was going to work closely with his estranged bloodmate.
“Don’t keep us in suspense,” said Sherene. “How long has the luscious Caroline been your bloodmate?”
“Bloodmate?” Jack quirked an eyebrow. “Isn’t that a big deal in the vamp world? I thought you two were just business acquaintances.”
“Actually, the bloodmate bond is the most serious connection in the immortal world,” Sherene explained when Alex let the questions go unanswered. “It is a bond of the mind and body that can only be broken with death. Which is why I’m quite curious about this relationship between Alexander and Caroline. I sense it has been many years since they’ve enjoyed the fullness of their connection.”
“Five years and three months,” said Alex.
“Wow,” said Jack. “No wonder things seemed so intense earlier.
“So tell all, my dear Alex. How did you meet the lovely Caroline and why have you spent so many painful years apart?” Sherene smiled a smile of true friendship.
Alex knew she could find out all the sordid details of his relationship with Caro simply by calling up a few friends and asking. But she respected him enough to ask for his side of the story. And because she was his business partner—and yes, his friend and lover—he would tell her the truth. Or at least his perception of the truth.
He sipped his cognac. “We first met about ten years ago at a party at my place in Manhattan. Lots of mortals were there wanting to get down and dirty with the immortal crowd. I had taken some summer classes at Columbia and some of my classmates showed up. An undergrad named Joe McLean brought his girlfriend—she was visiting him from Ohio. Her name was Caroline Connery. She was about to start her freshman year in college.”
Jack blew out a low whistle of surprise. “So, what…she was only like eighteen or nineteen?”
“Yep.” Alex took another big hit off the cheroot and glanced at Sherene. “I’m sure you can imagine what a stir a nineteen-year-old like Caro would create at a party full of degenerate young vamps.”
“Mon dieu, yes.” Sherene nodded slowly, her bright blue eyes widening.
“Hot, huh?” Jack asked.
“No, not in the traditional sense.” Alex let the cognac fire his taste buds. How could he explain a truly complex attraction in simple, mortal terms? “Vamps have been trying to explain the phenomenon for years, mostly in an attempt to keep our bloodlines pure, to rid ourselves of the propensity to mate with mortals. But there is no logical explanation for the allure of a bloodmate.”
“The French vampire community calls it sang d’amour.” Sherene’s voice was low, her accent melodious. “Bloodlove. Only certain mortal females possess the quality. In the olden times it was the justification for the male vampires’ enslavement of young women. In the media, the use of such females is always excused by thirst for blood. But a vampire can drink blood from any mammal and be satisfied.”
She took a sip of cognac and smiled at Jack. “Did you ever wonder why fictional vampires always choose to feed on pretty, young females? It is because the stories are somewhat based on truth. A vampire meets a certain human female…she has a quality that ignites the senses…something intangible yet unforgettable, like a trace of scent or a fleeting touch. It’s difficult to define it for a mortal. But the male vampire senses it right away. He knows he is stricken with sang d’amour.”
Alex smiled at the awed look on Jack’s face. The guy was definitely vampire-struck. And yeah, bloodlove was a compellingly romantic notion. Especially when explained by a beautiful French vampiress like Sherene. But in reality, the bloodmate relationship sucked. In more ways than one.
“So anyway…I was in grad school at the time doing film studies. Basically wasting time trying to do stuff to annoy my folks. Fucking around was my chosen occupation—
literally and figuratively.” He paused, flicking his ash onto the floor of the terrace. “And when I got scent of Caro—all legs, big eyes and untapped sexuality—what was I gonna do?” He sighed. “She was one of the most innocently alluring creatures I’d ever seen. Joe sure as fuck didn’t know what to do with her. He was completely overwhelmed trying to protect Caro from the interest of all the vamps at the party.”
“But he couldn’t protect her from you, apparently.” Jack smiled.
“It started out pretty innocently, actually. We just talked. Joe ended up having to take some too-drunk friend of his to the emergency room and when the party disbanded I kept Caro company. I was surprised by how smart she was, how charming. My experience had been that teenage girls who looked like Caro weren’t really that fun to talk to. But we ended up talking all night. Hell, I didn’t even put any moves on her until right before she left at dawn.” Alex chuckled at the memory.
“I remember thinking I was gonna play it cool and lay my most skilled, suave and urbane vampire kiss on her. You know, bowl the little Ohio girl over. Scare her away for her own good. But when my lips touched hers…I was gone. I just wanted to be with her completely from that first moment.”
“So you ended up getting together right away?” Jack asked.
“No, no,” said Alex. “I knew she felt the unusual pull between us, and I also knew she was terrified. She’d only dated mortals in the past. But she told me she was pretty sure her feelings for Joe were over. And she wanted to make a clean break with him before she started a relationship with someone else.”
“Admirable. I don’t think I could have resisted you,” Sherene said.
“Yeah, well. I was kinda happy she backed off. At first. I was terrified of the bloodmate connection. I’d seen the way it had fucked up some of my friends and family. So I was on my best behavior. She was a mortal. And so fucking young… But I soon found out she was very mature about relationships. Unlike myself and almost everyone I knew at the time. Her heart is huge and she has a strong sense of right and wrong.”
“So she broke up with her boyfriend and…” Jack prompted.
“She broke up with Joe and started college in Ohio that fall. She wasn’t sure another long-distance relationship would work. But she kept calling me and I kept calling her. And the more I got to know her, the more I wanted her. Which was the opposite of how my relationships usually worked.”
Alex flicked the spent smoke over the edge of the terrace. “I sent her a plane ticket to fly out to New York for a weekend. And basically, from the moment I picked her up at the airport until the moment she left me for good about five years later, I couldn’t keep my hands off her. God, she was the sweetest fuck…” He shifted in his seat, letting air cool his back and torso, his body getting steamed by his memories.
“Was she a virgin?” Sherene asked softly.
Alex heard Jack’s sharp intake of breath and sent him a reassuring glance. Yeah, it was an intensely intrusive question in the mortal world, but Sherene understood the issue’s importance in vampire lore. A virgin bloodmate could be granted certain vampire powers—gifts that couldn’t be granted to a mortal who’d first been taken by someone other than a vampire. When their relationship began, Caro reveled in those powers, happily sharing his thoughts, his emotions and his energy.
But when it came to sharing his darker side or receiving the gift of eternal life, she balked. Who could blame her, really? When confronted with certain vampire traditions, Alex stubbornly clung to his human side too.
“Yes.” The word came out a whisper. Alex cleared his throat and swallowed more cognac. “And I knew what that meant but I didn’t care about the consequences. Only death would have kept me from her. I had to do it all to her, with her, for her. I knew she was meant to be mine forever.” He closed his e
yes against the intensity of the memories. “You’d think that for something as important as deciding who you want to spend eternity with, you’d take a while to think it over. I knew it the very first time I drank from her. She was the one. I didn’t hesitate. We had the ceremony that very night.”
He opened his eyes and looked beyond the terrace to the deep purple horizon. The lake was invisible, buried under the weight of the night sky. Buried and blackened, like his memories. Maybe it was time to shine some light on what he’d kept covered for so long. Then maybe he could see clearly enough to survive the next few months.
* * * * *
Caro managed to stifle her tears during the short cab ride to her hotel. As she watched all the pretty downtown lights and stores go by she felt strangely disenchanted. Usually the acres of glittering merchandise displayed along the Magnificent Mile got her blood pumping. Now she just felt numb and cold. Definitely not the way she’d planned on feeling when she’d envisioned this night over the last few weeks.
She’d been dreaming about fucking Jack since their last time together. Tonight had certainly been any hot-blooded woman’s fantasy. Having not only Jack but Alexander King, vampire stud extraordinaire, at her service. She closed her eyes and clenched her jaw as she thought about that final overwhelming moment before Alex had put a stop to everything. The look on his face.
Oh Lord. Could the situation be any more impossible?
When she got up to her suite she was breathing hard, her lungs overwhelmed by the task of suppressing panic and sobs. She stripped out of her crumpled suit, stepped into the tub and turned on the water full blast. Then she let the tears come. Even though she kept the water almost unbearably hot, her body shook and shivered as the sobs quaked through her system. The helpless reaction of her body was awful and familiar—she’d gone through this several times in her life. She was experiencing symptoms of withdrawal, agonizing feelings of emptiness and sorrow that overwhelmed her simply because she wasn’t near her mate.
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