If this was the way that she wanted to play, than that was just fine. He was going to give as well as he got. There would be lots of women there. Lots of women, who would be more than eager to warm his bed, not run away from him.
“I cannot believe that you’re wearing that,” Ian muttered in disgust.
Stefan had to hide a grin as he realized that her brother was almost as upset about the provocative dress as he was. Although, her brother was worried about it because of men like him, who wanted nothing more than to rip it off of her, reveal her splendid body, and take her. He was worried that he might just rip it off of her before the night was over.
“It’s a perfectly fine dress,” she retorted.
“For a hooker,” Jack mumbled.
Isabelle’s face reddened in anger. “You would know!” she snapped.
“Hey! I have never paid for it! And we’re only looking out for your safety!” Jack protested hotly.
Isabelle was seething as she clenched her hands in her lap. She really didn’t need this, especially not in front of Stefan. They were treating her like a child. “And how is that?”
Ian and Jack both sighed wearily. “You’re such an innocent Isabelle,” Jack muttered. “Abby and Vicky have more common sense than you do.”
She stared at them in disbelief, hating the childish way that they insisted upon treating her. “Are you telling me that you would rather see Vicky or Abby in this dress, than me?” she demanded.
“Yes!” they both cried.
Isabelle sat in stunned silence, unable to believe what she was hearing. “Why?” she inquired softly.
“Because Vicky and Abby at least have some idea about men, you don’t,” Ian said coldly. Isabelle’s face flamed red. She despised the fact that they were talking about her like this right now. In front of him! “They can handle a man, you can’t.”
Isabelle’s mouth dropped open as her hands fisted tightly in her lap. She was fighting the fierce urge to punch them both in the face. “That’s ridiculous!”
Stefan didn’t think it was at all ridiculous. She really didn’t have any idea about her effect on a man, or what a man was capable of doing. “Do you have any concept of men?” Jack demanded.
“Maybe if I had ever met one I would!” she snapped furiously.
Stefan bit on his bottom lip to keep from laughing. To think he had been feeling sorry for her because her brothers had teased her about feeding. He now realized that Isabelle gave as good as she got, and was more than capable of handling them. “We’re going to have to beat the guys off of you!” Ian yelled.
“Then there will be less of them for you to worry about while you’re looking to get laid,” she retorted hotly. “Besides, I can handle myself perfectly fine, thank you.”
“Isabelle...” Jack started.
“Look, I am a grown woman; I don’t need anyone to raise me anymore. I can handle myself, and anything that happens. Besides I’m stronger than any human male, so I think I can protect myself around them. Now just back off!”
“Never could talk reason into that thick skull of yours so forget it,” Jack muttered.
“Isn’t that what I said when I got in the car?” she demanded.
Isabelle turned to the window, her face flushed with anger, and embarrassment. There were times she greatly wished that she had no family at all, and this was definitely one of them. It didn’t help that she could sense Stefan’s anger, and humor. They were yelling at her about the men in the club, yet the one that they should be afraid of they had invited to come with them! Well, she’d show them all. She was a grown woman, and she could definitely handle herself. Especially with a human. It was the man sitting in front of her that she couldn’t handle herself around.
CHAPTER 12
Isabelle immediately began to wish that she wasn’t such a coward. She could have stood up to him in her room, she could have told him to leave. She could have made him leave. Instead, she had run like a deer straight into the lion’s den. The club was packed; the flashing lights, pounding music, and overwhelming smell of sweat, alcohol, and blood were enough to make her head pound the minute that they walked in.
Isabelle stopped in the doorway, her eyes wide in surprise as she struggled to take everything in through the mass of bodies, and the pulsating lights that were nearly blinding. The dance floor was beneath them, down a narrow set of metal stairs. There was no room on it as men and women ground against each other.
She was wearing more clothes than most of the women here. Her anger from earlier returned with a vengeance as she scowled at Jack and Ian, who wisely chose to ignore her. Hell, she was dressed like a nun compared to most of the women there!
She turned her attention away from the scantily clad bodies, before she started yelling at them for being overprotective, insensitive, morons. Lights of all different colors flashed on and off all over the floor. The music was so loud that it shook the metal balcony beneath her feet. Isabelle had to fight the urge to cover her ears and close her eyes in order to block everything out.
“Come on Issy!” Ian yelled in her ear.
She really didn’t want to go, but he already had a firm hold on her elbow and was propelling her down the stairs. She halted at the bottom, uncertain of where to go. Ian released her elbow and began to make his way through the crowd, somehow finding a path that she never would have known existed. A young girl reached out and grabbed his arm. He was instantly swallowed up, and so was the path. She found herself momentarily engulfed by the thick mass of bodies, completely uncertain of where to go.
Stefan grabbed hold of her elbow and pulled her along, easily parting the crowd. Isabelle followed silently behind, too afraid of getting lost in the mob to protest his high handed treatment of her. They reached the end of the floor. She breathed a sigh of relief as the crowd parted, and a group of tables were revealed, most of them empty. Stefan led her over to one and she slumped gratefully into a chair.
“Do you want a drink?”
A drink was exactly what she needed to help her relax. “Yes, a Coors light!”
He nodded and turned to push his way back through the crowd. Isabelle saw the bar then. It was on the right hand side of the floor, a horseshoe shape that curved out to the edge of the mahogany floor. It was flashing with blue and green neon lights that pulsed throughout the glass bottom. There was a huge crowd surrounding it, all of them leaning over to yell their orders at the scurrying bartenders.
Isabelle watched in amazement as Stefan made his way easily through the yelling crowd. It was quite obvious that he was used to being in such places, and wasn’t in the least bit intimidated by the huge crowd. Jealousy flashed through her as she wondered how many women he had taken out of clubs similar to this one. She knew what the stooges and her brothers were like, and Stefan was much older than they were. That added up to a lot of women, a lot of women that she didn’t even want to think about. She tried to shove her jealousy aside, but it had become a hard lump in her stomach that wasn’t going away. How could she ever compete with that many women?
The thought jolted her, nearly causing her to fall out of her chair in surprise. She didn’t want to compete with any other women; she didn’t want him she told herself. As far as she was concerned, they could all have him. But, even as she thought it, she knew that she was lying to herself, which was something that she had never done before, and she refused to do now. She did want him, it was beyond time that she admitted that, but now she had the worry of how inexperienced she was to add to her growing list of worries.
For a moment, she wanted to cry. Life was so very unfair. She had hidden away, determined not to meet someone that made her feel the way that he did. Then he had shown up at her house, invaded her life, and turned everything upside down. But even worse than that, he was arrogant, conceited, harsh, unbending, and a complete womanizer. Why couldn’t she have found a nice, simple, human that wouldn’t be able to affect her the way that he did?
“Would you like to dance
?”
Isabelle blinked in surprise at the young man before her. He was tall and lean; his hair dyed a platinum blond that stood up in short spikes. His face was narrow and pointy, his eyes a dark blue. He was smiling at her as he extended a long, fine boned hand. She opened her mouth to say no, and then recalled the entire reason that she had decided to come here. Being a wallflower was not going to help in her mission to find someone else that she was attracted too.
She may want Stefan, but she was still determined to try and find someone that could make her feel even a little bit of what he did. That would at least be proof that he wasn’t her soul mate. That she wasn’t going to have to spend eternity with him.
She smiled sweetly at the man as she accepted his hand. He pulled her to her feet and led her onto the packed dance floor. She had a moment of panic when she realized that she hadn’t danced since her senior prom, and she had no idea what kind of dancing these people were doing. Then she realized that there seemed to be no rhyme, or reason, to anyone’s movements. They all seemed to be flowing to the beat of the music.
It took her a few minutes to relax, but when she did, she was surprised to actually find herself having fun. “My name’s Frank!” he yelled above the pounding music.
She smiled brightly up at him. “Isabelle!”
He smiled at her as he wrapped a hand around her waist. For a moment she tensed, her whole body going tight with a feeling of wrongness, of not belonging. Her mind instantly flashed to Stefan, and she ground her teeth. She was going to prove to him, and to herself, that she could, and would, be attracted to other people. She forced herself to smile back at him as she found the rhythm of the music.
So what if she wasn’t attracted to Frank, there were lots of other men here. The music changed and Isabelle found herself swept into someone else’s arms. She forced herself to keep smiling through the shudder of revulsion that swept her when the tall brunette wrapped his arm around her waist. At least she was having fun dancing, and if she kept on going, she would find someone who made her feel like Stefan did. She was sure of it.
Stefan stood stiffly on the sidelines watching as Isabelle was passed from one man to another. A fierce anger was slowly working its way through him as one man after another touched her, held her. He had to set their drinks down before he crushed them both. He saw the looks in the men’s eyes, the way that they stared at her, and it took everything he had not to march across the floor, rip her out of their arms, and destroy them. Gritting his teeth, he closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath in order to steady himself.
He opened his eyes slowly, immediately fastening on her as lust tore through him. She looked absolutely stunning as she danced and smiled; the lights played off the golden highlights in her hair, emphasizing the startling violet of her eyes. The simple black dress she wore was more enticing to him than any lingerie could have been. All he wanted was to slip it off and reveal the treasure beneath.
He tore his eyes away as lust, and rage, threatened to consume him. He glanced quickly over the dance floor, noting the admiring looks he received. He slowly began to rethink the way that he had been going about getting Isabelle. He had been chasing after her, trying to force her to bend to his will. But the more he got to know her, the more he realized that trying to force her to do something, was not going to work.
He would eventually wear down her defenses, but it would take longer than he was willing to wait. However, if she began to realize on her own that she truly did want him, she might not fight as hard. If she felt an ounce of the jealousy that he did, than she would come to him. Besides, if it didn’t work, he could at least find someone here that could ease his need.
Stefan smiled as he made his way out to the dance floor, making sure that he stayed near Isabelle so that she could see him, and so that he could kill anyone that tried anything with her. He grabbed the first girl he saw, sweeping her into his arms. She grinned brightly at him as he pulled her against him. Her hips ground against his as her chest pressed provocatively against his. He clenched his jaw tightly as a wave of revulsion swept through him. Damn, what was the matter with him? The girl was pretty enough, and more than willing, but he found himself disgusted by her overt movements, and obvious desire.
He wanted Isabelle, even cared for her, but he would be damned if he didn’t want other women too. No one had ever been able to have that kind of power over him, and he was determined that she wasn’t going to have it now. His new plan with Isabelle was completely forgotten as he became resolved to get her out of his mind, and to find someone else that could arouse him as she did. Maybe she had the right idea after all; they should just avoid each other. So what if he never had her, he’d had many disappointments in his long life, this wouldn’t be the first, and it sure as hell wouldn’t be the last. It was probably better for the both of them if he left her alone.
Involuntarily, his gaze darted to Isabelle as she laughed with the tall, dark haired man she was dancing with. A bolt of sizzling jealousy, and rage, swept through him. His hands clenched upon the tiny girl in his arms. She seemed to take it as an invite as she pressed tighter against him. It took everything he had not to shove her away in disgust, storm across the dance floor, and pull Isabelle out.
He would not do it; he would not let her get to him that way. He refused too. He realized then that he had to leave, that he had to get as far away from her as he could. It wasn’t just a desire to bed her anymore, it was becoming an obsession. One that he needed to be free of. She was beginning to ruin his control, and his damn life! Tonight, he would go back to the house, get his stuff, and leave.
Yet, even as he thought it, he found himself feeling a strange sense of loss. He didn’t want to leave her, wasn’t even sure he could leave her. He ground his jaw harder. Yes, he could leave her, and he would. She was just a woman for crying out loud, a woman like the thousands of others that he’d met. The song ended and he released the girl that he had been dancing with. Isabelle was quickly claimed by someone else. The small girl before him moved back toward his arms, but he turned away from her, searching for someone else, anyone else that could spark some kind of lust within him.
Isabelle danced for well over an hour. She was passed between many men, none of whom affected her in anyway. With each new one, she became more and more determined to feel something, to experience any kind of desire, any kind of urge. Dancing was becoming less fun as her aggravation mounted with the pain in her feet.
She had seen Ian and Jack dancing happily. And she had seen him. The jealousy that had threatened to strangle her at the sight of him dancing with another woman, only served to further fuel her need to find a man that she was attracted too. She flirted more outrageously, and danced more suggestively with them, but nothing happened. The only thing she felt was a growing sense of revulsion, and a growing urge to move into his arms, to touch him, to have him touch her. She refused to do it though. He seemed quite content without her, and she would be damned if she was the one that went to him.
Instead, she just wanted to get off of the floor, find a place to curl up, and give into the tears of frustration that were threatening to choke her. It was all so unfair, all of it, and she resented every single second of it. She resented him.
When the next song ended, Isabelle stepped away from her dance partner, determined to escape. She made it two feet before arms swept around her. She knew instantly who held her by the fierce jolt that rocked her body. Her urge to flee vanished as she turned toward him. His dark hair was damp with sweat, and clung to his forehead with a tussled boyishness that melted her heart and caused a fluttering in her stomach. Without thinking she reached up and gently brushed it back, startled by the wave of tenderness that washed through her. The amount of caring that swamped her.
She hesitantly met his gaze as he stared down at her with dark, turbulent eyes. His jaw was clenched so tightly that a muscle began to twitch in his cheek. The anger, and self loathing, in his gaze caused her eyes to widen in
surprise. There was an air of hostility surrounding him that shocked her as she tried to figure out what could have caused it.
Then, the look vanished, as the fierce hunger she had become accustomed to replaced it. For a moment, her breath left her as that look sizzled through her. Then, he was pulling her tightly against him. Her body melded to his as if he was the missing jigsaw piece that she had been searching for. The world disappeared as he rested his forehead against hers, his dark eyes filling her vision, piercing her soul. What she had been trying so hard to find with everyone else blazed to life. She pressed against him, her heart thumping wildly in her chest as a feeling of contentment, of coming home, stole through her.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and turned her head to rest it against his shoulder. It didn’t matter that the music pulsing around them was fast and hard. Nothing mattered as she moved slowly with him, relishing in the feel of his hard arms around her, in the warmth of his body enveloping her. She loved the feeling of strength, security, and desire that rushed over her.
Stefan held her tightly, moving slowly. He closed his eyes and rested his cheek on top of her silky head. The fresh apple scent of her hair enveloped him. Beneath that, he could smell the sweetness of her blood, and her delicious natural fragrance. He found himself growing hard as desire was finally awakened in him, desire and something more, something shocking. Something that shoved all of his earlier resolutions away.
He felt as if he had come home, as if he had finally found the place where he belonged. A fierce urge to protect her, to keep her safe, and to cherish her rocked through him. With horrifying clarity he began to realize how much he truly did care for her. He wanted so much more than just her body, he wanted all of her.
Fear lanced through him as his hands tightened upon her. He didn’t need this; he didn’t want to feel like this. It made him vulnerable in a way that he hadn’t been since he was a child, and he didn’t like the feeling one bit.
Destined (Vampire Awakenings) Page 16