His yellow-orange eyes lit up when he walked into the room as he smiled at her. He gave a slight nod back toward the doorway. “Is the boss upstairs in his office?”
“Yeah, Daddy’s upstairs, but you might wanna leave him alone for a while. Mom went to take him something to eat thirty minutes ago, and she hasn’t come back down yet. I don’t think she’s feeding him, if you know what I mean.” She laughed.
Sawyer held up his hand and wrinkled his nose. “Stop. Don’t need the visual.” He came over and collapsed in the spot next to her.
“So, what’s up? Why did you slam the door?” she asked.
“Your brother. He found some girl to take home, and he made me give her friend a ride home. He knows I hate that. I’m not a fucking babysitter.”
“Are you sure you’re not just pissed because Vaughn is getting some, and you’re not?”
“No, I don’t care about that. If I wanted to take some random woman home, I would have.”
Sawyer was handsome and received plenty of female attention. However, he didn’t date or even bring girls home. Nobody knew what he did when the urge to have sex came over him. In the past, a few of Payton’s friends had flirted with him, only to be politely rejected.
He smiled at her. “Besides, it’s not as if I lack female attention. You should know. You used to have a crush on me,” he said, his tone joking.
She snorted. “Maybe when I was like five. Obviously, my taste has improved with age.”
While she admitted he was attractive, she saw him as a brother. Since Sawyer didn’t have siblings, Payton felt duty-bound to tease him as only a younger sister could.
“Maybe you don’t want some random woman. Maybe you have the hots for the female you took home. You seem more annoyed than usual.” When Sawyer failed to reply, Payton moved closer to study him. “Holy crap, that’s it.” She burst out laughing. Sawyer actually liked a member of the opposite sex. “You want her.”
“No. I do not.” He narrowed his eyes. “Just drop it.”
“You might think you don’t, but your body says otherwise.” This time, she leaned over farther and really got in his face while inhaling deeply through her nose.
He pushed her away, causing her to fall back on the couch, which made her laugh harder.
“I said, drop it, okay?” His mouth turned down into a scowl.
She didn’t understand what the big deal was, but she wiped the smile off her face before sitting back up.
“Sorry. Sheesh. I didn’t know you were so sensitive.”
Sawyer was always so confident that it bordered on arrogant, and it was strange to see him bothered over something, specifically a female.
“What are you doing home on a Saturday, anyway?” he asked.
She let him change the subject.
“Oh, you know me.” She mockingly fluffed her hair. “So many people requested my presence tonight that I didn’t think it was fair to choose one over the other.” She looked at the TV, but didn’t pay attention to it. “Actually, Nathan and I broke up, and I thought I’d lay low tonight,” she said, putting the mischievousness aside.
“Oh.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sawyer wince.
“Sorry I asked.”
“Yeah…well, I broke up with him, so…you know.” She shrugged. “He turned out to be a wuss.” She shook her head. “I knew I shouldn’t have brought him home.”
Sawyer chuckled. “He did look like he might piss himself, didn’t he?”
Nathan had taken one look at her father and brother, and then he’d practically run out the door in fear. There was no way she could find him attractive anymore. Although, the men in her family continually intimidating the guys she dated was getting really old.
“Yeah, I really know how to pick ’em.”
Payton just wanted someone who wouldn’t give a crap about her family’s reputation, and in turn, wouldn’t give a crap about what her family thought of him. On some level, she knew her wish was unrealistic because she didn’t want someone disrespectful either. Yet, she longed to find a dominant male like her father and brother—correction, she needed a dominant male. She wanted someone who would stand up for himself and for her. Pushovers were unattractive. No pussies, thank you.
“I think you’ll be fine as far as males go. You know you’re gorgeous.”
Payton rolled her eyes. She knew she had been blessed in the looks department. She was basically a female version of her brother with matching black hair, sapphire eyes, and full lips. Except, where he was tall and broad, she was average height and had female curves. Unfortunately, being beautiful did not guarantee one would meet the right guy. In fact, sometimes, she wished she could be a little more average.
Payton sighed. “Yeah, I guess.”
Their conversation halted with the arrival of her mother and father. They walked down the stairs into the family room, both flushed and sharing a secret smile. That was exactly what Payton wanted for herself someday.
“Sawyer,” her father said when he spotted the man. “What do you have for me?”
It still amazed her how Vance Llewelyn could go from playful with her mother to serious and down to business so fast.
“Let’s go to my office.” He kissed his wife on the cheek, and she headed into the kitchen after saying good night.
Sawyer patted Payton’s knee. “See ya later, brat.” He stood to go upstairs.
“You’re still up, Payton?” her father asked.
Payton turned off the TV, moved off the couch, and walked over to him. “Yeah, I’m going to bed after I talk to Mom for a minute.” She kissed her father on the cheek. “Night, Daddy”
“Good night, Kitten.”
“Night, Sawyer.”
“Later, Payton.”
She turned to go find her mom. Maybe someday, Payton would have what her mother had with her father.
Naya sat on her bed, watching reruns of Friends and eating pizza with Vaughn. She was a little in awe of everything that had happened between them. Part of her still couldn’t believe she’d slept with him.
Or fed from him.
A couple of hours had passed, and his blood was a deep hum under her skin. It was amazing. Yet, she was beginning to sense his mood, and it made her feel a little guilty.
When a vampire took the blood of another, they would form a temporary bond, but vampires were also natural blockers, both as a blood giver and a blood receiver. They kind of had to be. Up until that point, Naya had only fed from her mother and cousin, and her cousin had fed from her. She certainly wouldn’t want them, especially her mother, to know how she felt, and she wouldn’t want to know how Arianna felt in return.
She wasn’t getting a whole lot from Vaughn at the moment, so perhaps he was a natural blocker, too, or his blood hadn’t been in her long enough. Maybe it was both. Either way, what had been done was done. She couldn’t give him back his blood, and the little selfish part of her liked that. The only thing she could do was enjoy the rest of their time together. She would never see him again, and he never had to know what she had done.
Glancing down at her food, she thought about how pizza made her grateful that she was required to eat food like humans. It also made her grateful that she wasn’t at home. Her parents wouldn’t be caught dead eating something as common as pizza. Just picturing it made her chuckle.
Vaughn glanced at her. “What’s so funny?”
“I’m thinking about my family. How do I say this?” She considered her words. “I don’t want this to come across as bragging, but they have money, and it’s been that way for generations.” How could she put it a better way? “Think of Titanic—how they dressed in ball gowns and tuxedos simply to have dinner.”
Vaughn nodded as he shoved half a slice in his mouth.
He raised an eyebrow, and she realized he’d caught her staring.
“Sorry. I’ve never seen anyone put away food like you,” she said. Not even vampires, who had larger appetites than hum
ans due to their higher metabolism, ate as much as Vaughn. He had eaten almost a whole large pizza on his own.
“You sucked all the energy out of me. I need to refuel.” His teasing smile was incredibly sexy.
Wow. She fought not to blush. “Anyhow,” she said, returning to the original conversation. “That’s how my family is. I pictured my parents eating pizza, and it made me laugh because it would never happen. I think I would actually pay money to see my mother eat with her hands.” She smiled. “I guess you’d have to meet them to understand.”
Vaughn nodded. “I think I could picture it. So, do you have any brothers or sisters? Are they more like your parents or you?”
“No brothers or sisters. I do have a cousin though. Arianna has lived with us since her parents passed away when she was ten, and I was eleven, so we’re like sisters. We get along well, but she takes after my parents. We don’t do much together away from home. She would probably have a panic attack if she set foot in a nightclub.” Naya put her pizza down.
Due to their having unprotected sex earlier, she knew she should bring up pregnancy and diseases, and this was probably the best opportunity without giving away her vampire status. “I’m an only child because it’s very hard for people in my family to conceive or have babies. Nobody knows why, and unfortunately, that’s the way it’s been for as long as anyone can remember.” Some vampire scientists thought it might be difficult for their species to have children to offset their strengths, enhanced senses, superior immune system, and longer life span. Maybe it was Mother Nature’s balancing act.
“I wanted to share that in case you were wondering why I wasn’t concerned about us using protection earlier.”
She couldn’t tell Vaughn the real reason he didn’t have to worry that she would get pregnant. A vampire and human pregnancy was virtually unheard of.
Suddenly, her disappointment was like a smack in the face. Vaughn would make beautiful babies. Naya, get a hold of yourself. You just met the guy.
Quickly, she picked up her pizza, so he couldn’t see the wistful look that had bound to be on her face and remembered to finish her speech. “Also, I don’t have any diseases, in case you were wondering.”
“Ah, I wasn’t too worried,” he said as he grabbed his next slice. “I’m clean, too, and it’s also hard for people in my family to have babies. I still should have asked you about condoms though. Sorry.” He sent her an apologetic smile. “I realize it’s not an excuse, but you had me thinking about only one thing, and that was me—getting inside you.”
Her eyes went wide. Was he always this blunt? Naya could feel her cheeks heating up.
Already having had sex with him, she shouldn’t be embarrassed by his words, but she was. It could be because he’d touched, licked, and looked at places no one but she had seen before. And even some, she hadn’t seen. Her only previous partner had insisted they have sex missionary style under the covers.
Oblivious to her reaction, he was focused on his pizza. He took a bite, swallowed, and continued on as if they were discussing the weather. “But I do have a sister, Payton. I’m thirty-two, and she’s twenty-three. It took my parents nine years to have another baby.”
Then, he smiled cunningly and watched her from the corner of his eye.
Maybe he hadn’t been oblivious after all. He seemed to like getting a reaction out of her. She smiled and pretended like he hadn’t made her blush.
“So, what do you do for a living?” she asked.
“My family owns a large construction company. You might have heard of it. L & L Construction? We’re based out of Minneapolis.” Naya shook her head. “We do a wide range of work from remodeling homes and businesses to building them from scratch. Also, we do most of the work ourselves, employing our own subcontractors instead of hiring from outside.”
“I really don’t get over to Minneapolis much. I have pretty much everything I need close to home. We typically go to nightclubs in St. Paul, but Kenzie really wanted to check out Pulse, with it being new. Plus, she thought the location was cool since it’s technically in both cities.”
“So, are you one of those people who thinks one side is better than the other?”
“No. It’s important to my parents, but it doesn’t matter to me.”
“Same here.” He swallowed another bite. “It’s a good thing, too. If you hadn’t come into Pulse tonight, I’d be eating pizza with some other girl,” Vaughn said matter-of-factly.
She threw her dirty napkin at him.
“What?” He held his hands up in pretend shock. “I was talking about my sister.” He laughed, and his amusement was infectious, so she joined in.
“Liar.”
“Yeah, well”—he kept his smile, but his eyes turned serious—“I am glad I met you tonight.”
“Me, too.” She smiled back. He was easy to be around, and she enjoyed his company. Her face fell as she thought this would most likely be the only time she got to spend with him.
“Naya?”
She realized she had been staring off into space, and she looked back at Vaughn.
“Are you okay?”
Not really. “Sure.” She smiled to show him she was fine. They were having a great time, and she couldn’t afford to waste it with sad thoughts. “What were you saying about your work?”
He studied her for a few seconds before continuing, “My main job is security, but I help my dad with the company as much as possible. Although, with the way the economy has been for the last few years, I haven’t been needed as much on construction jobs. What do you do?”
“I’m a little ashamed to admit that I don’t have a job.” Embarrassed, she picked at her pizza. “My family owns a large portion of a credit card company—part of the whole rich thing—so I don’t have to work. Plus, remember the whole Titanic thing? My parents are old-fashioned. They wouldn’t be comfortable with me having a job. I did go to college, and I have a B.S. in political science, but it seems like a waste. Rather than work, I volunteer at different places, so I can contribute in some way. My favorite place to volunteer is at an animal shelter.”
“So, you like animals?”
She met his eyes. “Oh, I love them.”
Vaughn dropped his chin to his chest and passionately stared at her “Good,” he rumbled.
She thought maybe he was ready to get physical again by the heat he was throwing off, but then the look passed.
He asked her, “If your parents don’t want you working, are they okay with you volunteering?”
“They don’t really understand why I like it. They don’t openly disapprove, but you wouldn’t find them joining me.” She laughed without humor. “They wouldn’t want to get their hands dirty.”
“After the way you’ve described your parents, I’m amazed they don’t say anything to you about hanging out at nightclubs.”
“Please don’t think badly of me.” She sighed. “My parents don’t know what I do when I’m away from home. I’m not sneaking out or anything. I’m twenty-eight years old, and I don’t exactly need their permission. They could never appreciate why I like to go out, and I don’t want them to be disappointed in me.” She shrugged. “We simply don’t discuss it, and I use Kenzie’s place to keep clothes for our nights out.”
If circumstances were different, they’d probably be roommates, but that was another thing Naya missed out on from being who and what she was.
Vaughn’s look turned serious.
“Do you think I’m a horrible person now?” she asked.
“Nope. I think you’re a good daughter who doesn’t want to hurt her parents, but you also know you need to find your own identity and your own way in life.”
Surprised by his answer, she grinned. “Thank you.”
He smiled. “You don’t have to thank me, beautiful. It’s what I believe to be true.” Vaughn pointed at the pizza boxes. “Are you finished?”
“Yes.”
He sat up, grabbed the boxes, and moved off the bed.
“How did I miss that?” She sat up on her knees to get a better look.
He spun around to look at her. “What?”
“Your tattoo.” She’d missed it earlier. “Turn back around.”
He did as she’d asked.
“It’s remarkable. I’ve thought about getting a tattoo, but I never have,” she said.
The tattoo took up virtually his whole back, and the design looked tribal. It stretched from shoulder to shoulder and from his neck to his butt. She couldn’t see the end because his jeans were covering it. The thick black lines pointed, curved, arched, and swirled in a remarkable display of art. She’d never seen anything so sexy.
“Let me put these in the kitchen. I’ll be right back, and then you can look as long as you want, I promise.”
She forgot he was holding the pizza boxes.
When he came back into the room, he took off his jeans and tossed them to the side, allowing her to see the bottom of the tattoo, not caring that he was standing there, naked. She outlined it with her fingers, starting at the top and working her way down.
Wow. And here she’d thought Vaughn was attractive before.
Since she was concentrating on tracing the lines, he startled her when he quickly turned around.
“Baby, I would love to let you keep looking at me, but you are giving me some serious wood.”
Vaughn grabbed the bottom of his T-shirt that she was wearing and yanked it over her head. He laid her flat on her back and landed between her legs, leaning over her.
“God, what is it about you? You make me so fucking hot.”
Naya smiled as she wrapped her arms around his neck. She felt the same way.
“Good,” she said as she tilted her pelvis up to rub against him.
He gave her a long, lingering kiss. He tasted like pizza, Vaughn, and sex. He jacked himself up on one arm and used his other hand to wrap around her thigh. He pulled her leg away from her body, opening her up further for him.
He broke their kiss and put his mouth down to her ear. “Good? I’ll show you something way better than good.”
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