Vampire Friend

by V. B. Andrian

  I was suddenly feeling exhausted, so I went into the bathroom and took a quick shower, then put on the T-shirt Kay had given me. I had the bad habit of not wearing any knickers, especially with linen trousers. But then I shrugged at myself, and decided that first thing in the morning I would go out and buy some proper for the Californian weather clothes.

  I went back to the bedroom and slid on the bed. I was used to sleeping on the edge of a bed, and took the side further from the door. I didn’t lock the door though, as Kay had suggested. I really didn’t expect anyone to barge in with a serial-killer’s knife and start slicing and dicing. Besides, I thought it would be rude to lock the door in a house that wasn’t mine.

  Sleep claimed me almost immediately, and I let it take away all the negative feelings of the day.

  Nate

  Another fucking sleepless night. I was determined to tire myself to the point of exhaustion, and maybe then I could simply pass out into something that would resemble sleep. So, I’d asked Luke for the keys to the gym. He’d mumbled something along the lines of what a crazy asshole I am, but he hadn’t argued.

  I’d been pushing myself to my limits for hours when I finally decided to call it a night. My eyelids were heavy, and if I took a hot shower, maybe I could finally sleep.

  I locked the gym and stashed the keys where Luke had told me to. We’d switched apartments ever since last Christmas, and we were now right across the street from Santé. Evy had found an apartment similar to the one we’d been living in before, with soundproof rooms as well. A necessary adjustment when living with musicians.

  I climbed the stairs to the apartment and immediately walked into the bathroom. The hot water was cleansing in more ways than one, and I let it wash away every thought, in an attempt to have a clear head. I tugged on a pair of boxers and slipped into my bed. I hadn’t yet got used to sleeping in the middle, like I used to before I was with Kiara. For some weird reason I couldn’t explain, I was still sleeping on the side of the bed I did when she was sleeping with me. A voice in the back of my head – that sounded a lot like Luke by the way – whispered that I was doing it because I hadn’t really accepted her death yet, but I pushed that thought and every other aside, and closed my eyes, begging for sleep to come swiftly before my body could react.

  The body that was lying next to me was warm and soft. I was having a dream. And by all looks of it a wet one.

  In my dream, I was lying on my side and a sexy girl was tucked against my body. I thought I’d feel the memory of Kiara consume me, but it wasn’t her I was dreaming of. Kiara always smelled like lavender and vanilla. This girl smelled like peaches and honey.

  Ali.

  My arm was draped over a slim waist, my fingers grazing the soft swelling of her breasts. Her skin was unbelievably smooth and warm. I let my fingers slide higher, like they slide from the white keys of the piano to the black ones, and brushed them over her nipple. I liked how it hardened and swelled under my touch. So responsive. My cock was painfully hard and I pressed it into her ass. She let out a soft moan and I twitched in my boxers. Why the hell was I wearing boxers in my dream?

  Realizing that I was probably on the verge of waking up, I lowered my hand to reach her sweet wetness, before I lost the dream entirely. I grazed my fingers over her stomach, down to her navel and reached the small, swollen nub above her folds. I circled it without touching it and then slid lower, dipping one finger inside her slickness.

  “Jesus, fuck,” I muttered in my sleep.

  The girl beside me sucked in an audible breath. And I realized I wasn’t asleep.

  I peeled my eyes open, my finger still inside her. Her. There was actually a girl in my bed. This was real. Holy crap, there was a girl in my bed.

  I jumped off the bed at the same time she did. My brain took a few beats to realize what my eyes were seeing.

  “Ali?” I croaked out.

  Jesus, fuck! Ali was in my bed. And she was wearing my T-shirt. Only my T-shirt. I knew that because I’d just felt her up. Literally. All of her.

  God, she was even sexier with my T-shirt.

  Her golden mane was tousled from sleep and she had some creases on her cheek from the sheets. She wasn’t wearing her glasses and her eyes were open wide as she was gawking at me. Her mouth opened and closed several times, making me painfully aware that I was still hard as granite.

  Jesus, fuck!

  “Nate?” Her voice was a little high-pitched yet breathless. “What are you doing here?”

  My eyebrows shot up. “Me? This is my house. My bed. What am I doing here? What are you doing here?”

  She blinked several times and her hand went to her throat. “Your bed? Oh bugger, did I sleep in the wrong room? But your brother said I should sleep here. He gave me a T-shirt and showed me the bathroom and I went in and had a shower and then came back here and I know it was the right room because the T-shirt he’d given me was still there on the bed.” She brought her hand further up and clamped it over her mouth.

  I was still processing her words. “My brother? Kay? You know my brother?”

  She nodded and lowered her hand a bit to talk. “I met him last night. He said he was your brother and I had nowhere to sleep because Julia locked me out again and he found me outside and told me to come here with him.” She covered her mouth again.

  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, before opening them again to look at her. She looked like she was about to burst into tears. I was about to burst too, but in an entirely different way and for an entirely different reason. I sat at the edge of my bed to hide my discomfort. “Hold up. Julia locked you out?” She nodded. “And you had nowhere to go and my brother found you outside last night?” She nodded. “And you came here with him and he told you to use this room?” She nodded. I ran my hands through my hair. “Okay. It makes sense. And I’m definitely going to kill my brother.” I stood up and looked at her again. “Just…” I shook my head and all but ran to the kitchen.

  Kay was already awake, leaning against the kitchen counter and sipping his coffee. The moment he saw me storming out of my room, he smirked. The fucker smirked!

  I threw my hands up in exasperation. “What the fuck, Kay? Is there something you need to tell me?”

  His smirk widened and he took another sip of his coffee. “Morning, little brother. Sleep well?”

  “Sleep w—” I exhaled. “Are you fucking kidding me? Couldn’t you have, I don’t know, told me Ali was in my room, sleeping in my bed? Left a note? Sent a fucking text?”

  He cocked an eyebrow, but his smirk didn’t go away. “I was just helping the girl out, Nate. I thought she was your friend. She needed a place to crash and I brought her here. What should I’ve done, have her sleep on the couch?”

  “You could’ve fucking told me, you asshole. I was just… I… I…” What the fuck was I supposed to say? That I’d basically molested her? “Fuck!” I exploded.

  “What the fuck are you yelling about, Nate?” Evy emerged from her room in one of Kay’s T-shirts and a pair of shorts. Her black curls were all over the place. “Can’t you fucking wait for people to actually wake up before you start screaming? Jesus!”

  I threw my hands up. “Do you even know what your smart-ass of a boyfriend did last night? Do you know that I woke up to find Ali sleeping in my bed?”

  Evy blinked several times. “Huh?”

  I huffed. “Tell her, Kay. Tell her what your brilliant mind thought of doing, because I swear I’m having an aneurism.”

  Evy turned to Kay and cocked an eyebrow. The fucker shrugged and kept smirking. “I met with Nate’s friend, Alicia, last night. She’d been locked out of her room, and she was sitting on the sidewalk outside the campus, crying. She said she was going to find a hotel to sleep in, until she could get to the administration and file a request for a room change. I couldn’t let her go to a hotel, princess. She was sad and overwhelmed, and she’s Nate’s friend. So I brought her here and showed her to Nate’s room.” He shrugged again. “
Nate doesn’t even sleep in it anymore anyway, and even if he would magically be able to sleep, I figured he would see her and take the couch, like the gentleman he’s supposed to be. Apparently my little brother was too wasted to see past his own nose and didn’t see Alicia in his bed.” He pretended to pout. “And now he’s yelling at me for doing the right thing and offering his friend a place to stay.”

  Motherfucker! I was going to kill him. I was going to commit fratricide. We were going to end up in the evening news.

  Evy tilted her head to the side. “I knew it. When you came to bed last night, all smug-smiling at me, I knew you’d done something stupid.”

  Kay lifted an eyebrow and pinned Evy with a dark look. “Careful, Evelyn. I might have to spank you if you keep this up.”

  Evy’s eyes lit up. I was going to be sick.

  “Fuck off, Kay. Stop the foreplay with my sister in front of me. Are you even going to apologize?”

  “It’s not his fault,” Ali’s voice came from behind me and I snapped around. She was still wearing my T-shirt, but now she’d put on a pair of khaki linen pants and she had her glasses on. Her hair was perfectly brushed, flowing down her back like a river of gold. “I’m so sorry, Nate. Your brother was just trying to help me and now I’ve made a dog’s breakfast. I’m just going to leave.” She looked down at my T-shirt she was wearing. “Um, do you mind if I wear this for now? I was planning on going to the shops and buying some new clothes of my own, since the ones I have with me are only good for the winter here in California. I promise I’ll wash it and bring it back.” She bit her lower lip, and I felt my anger dissipating upon seeing her nervous habit. And my bastard-of-a-dick twitched.

  “Ali, don’t apologize. You did nothing wrong. I just woke up and you… I…” I ran my hands through my hair again, still unable to forget the feel of her soft skin under my fingers, or the hot wetness I’d sunk one in. “Fuck, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have…” I shook my head and let out a loud breath. “Just… my fucker of a brother is going to make us breakfast to apologize for being a complete asshole, okay?” I heard Kay chuckling and I flipped him off without even bothering to look at him. “I’ll just… I’m going to go get a shower and be right back.” I started to walk past her and stopped beside her. She tilted her head back and looked up at me, a thousand different emotions passing behind her golden eyes, with embarrassment being the most obvious to me. I gave her a reassuring smile and leaned in to brush my lips over her temple. “And keep the shirt,” I murmured. “It looks really good on you.”

  Chapter 4

  Alicia

  Embarrassment was still coursing through me as I watched Nate disappear into the bathroom, but it wasn’t the only thing I was feeling.

  I still couldn’t forget what it had been like waking up with his finger inside me. I’d never had anyone touch me, let alone there, not even myself.

  At first I’d thought it had been a dream. I had been dreaming of him, strangely enough. He’d been touching me, stroking my stomach, toying with my nipple and pressing his hardness against my rear. But I hadn’t realized the dream had jumped out of my head, until I’d felt him sinking one finger through my wet folds and it had felt too real to be a dream.

  The moment I’d realized the truth, I’d jumped out of bed, even though I’d recognized immediately the scent of ocean that was surrounding me and had known it was Nate. And for a second, I had dared to believe that he’d known exactly what he’d been doing because it had been obvious that he was, um, enjoying himself. But the look of horror he’d given me when he’d realized who I was, that I was there, had felt like a knife straight into my abdomen.

  It had been impossible not to hear him yell at his brother. And at that point I’d gotten dressed, and hurried to apologize and see myself out. In all honesty, Kay had been a true gentleman to offer me a bed for the weekend and I would have loved to stay if that bed wasn’t already occupied by Nate. Although, I wouldn’t have minded sharing it with him…

  Blimey, he’d been gorgeous with only his boxers on. His roped arms wasn’t the only part of him that was drool-worthy. He had a perfect set of abdominal muscles – I could easily distinguish the smooth lines forming the six-pack – wide shoulders and perfect pectoral muscles. His torso’s skin was smooth everywhere except for low under his navel, where a dark line of hair disappeared under the band of his underwear. Underwear that was hanging low on his narrow hips that were framed by perfect V-shaped indentations.

  Drool.

  As he’d walked out of the room, I’d noticed the blurry shadow of a tattoo on his left calf and had cussed myself inwardly for not wearing my glasses to better make out the design.

  I realized a moment too late I was still staring at the spot where Nate had disappeared into the bathroom. I turned around to see Kay looking at me with a smirk. In the light of the day I could clearly see the resemblance to his brother, though it was also obvious that they had many differences. Kay’s eyes were dark brown and his body frame was still a little larger than Nate’s. His hands indicated a rougher man, one who had obviously used those hands in something a lot different than creating music.

  As he held his arms folded over his chest, I noticed there was a tattoo of a tree on his left forearm, with chains circling its trunk, and ending on a padlock right in the center. The letters B and M were forming the roots of the tree, while a little higher A and L were joined by an intricate link of the chain. At the junction of the trunk and the branches, a K was on one side and an N on the other.

  His girlfriend was studying me utterly expressionless. She was beautiful, stunning really. Taller than me – though almost everyone was taller than me – with a tiny waist and perfectly shaped feminine curves with an ample bosom. Her black hair was thick and draping in perfect curls over her shoulders to the middle of her back, and her eyes were the color of the bluest ocean.

  It was a good thing I wasn’t a blusher, because my embarrassment went up several notches under their gazes. I wanted to hide under a rock.

  “Um, I’m really sorry. I really didn’t mean to cause a fuss.”

  The girl waved me off. “No fuss, no worries. Nate is probably overreacting. He’s not himself lately.” She turned to Kay. “Hero, will you make us breakfast?” Then she turned back to me. “And afterwards we can go feed your dog, if you think it can wait a little longer.”

  Um, what? “My dog?”

  The girl blinked at me. “I thought you said something about your dog’s breakfast…?”

  I let out an awkward laughter. “Um, no, I just said I made a dog’s breakfast. It means I made a mess.”

  The girl burst out laughing. “Oh, that accent is so damn cute. You need to teach me a few of those expressions too. I’m Evy, by the way.”

  I offered her a small smile. “It’s lovely to meet you, Evy. I’m Alicia. Though I would have preferred it being under different circumstances.”

  Evy clasped her hands together and brought them under her chin. “Oh, she’s so cute. So polite. Well, don’t worry about it. In this family we like grand entrances. You should have been here when Kaylan and I met.”

  “Um, Kaylan?” I asked in confusion.

  Evy pointed at Kay with her thumb. “That guy. His full name. Mine is Evelyn, but only he calls me that.” She rolled her eyes. “Stubborn asshole.”

  “I heard that, princess,” Kay called from where he’d started preparing breakfast.

  Evy smirked. “I meant for you to hear it, hero.”

  Kay turned to look at me and smiled big. I realized I was also smiling at their banter. “I told you she’s calling me a hero. How could I’ve left you out there on your own?”

  I raised an eyebrow, feeling a little more relaxed now. “Well, in Nate’s defense, you could have told me it was his bed I was sleeping in. Things wouldn’t have escalated like that.”

  “Like what?” Evy asked with a curious light in her eyes. “Did you end up sleeping all over him? Oh, I know. He kicked you in his sleep, didn�
�t he? He’s such a messy sleeper.”

  The awkwardness returned with a vengeance. “Um, no, he was… That is to say… It was just awkward.” I brought my lower lip between my teeth again, lest I said too much.

  Evy kept looking at me and a slow grin formed on her lips. It was a little scary. “You’ll tell me later,” she mouthed.

  I shook my head, but avoided saying anything else. Her grin widened into unnatural proportions, and she grabbed my hand and tugged me towards the kitchen island.

  “So, tell me about you, Alicia. All I know is that you’re Nate’s friend and you’re obviously British. What else? What are you majoring in? How did you meet Nate?” She placed a glass in front of me and poured me some orange juice.

  “Um, well,” I straightened my glasses, “I’m a Science major with a minor in Computer science. When I first arrived here, I was exploring the campus grounds and I came upon Nate, playing a song I love on the piano. And he helped me with, um, a situation in the lunchroom the next day.”

  “What kind of situation?” Kay asked, placing a plate of pancakes in front of me.

  “Thank you. Um, my roommate was… how should I say this… trying to mark her territory? Nate gave me an excuse to politely get away.”

  Evy snorted. “What’s the deal with this roommate? First she harasses you in the lunchroom and then she locks you out? Who does she think she is?”

  “Julia Walters,” Nate said, coming to sit beside me. His hair was damp and he was wearing a pair of nylon shorts and a T-shirt. I missed the shirtless part. My heartrate increased dramatically nonetheless. “Macy’s sister.”

  Evy groaned. “Oh, God, there are two? What did you do in your past life to deserve her as a roommate?”