“No, thank you, Naya. This time is supposed to be for you two to get acquainted. You can just pretend I am not here.”
Arianna thought she heard Emerson snort quietly. He had to know her hearing was just as good as the next vampire’s, but Naya had not seemed to notice. Perhaps, Arianna had imagined it or alcohol had clouded Naya’s brain. Arianna did not know what she had done to earn his disdain, but she was hurt all the same. When she felt tears suddenly burning the back of her eyelids, she knew she needed to get out of there.
She did not want Emerson to see her cry, and Naya must never know she had feelings for him.
Humiliated, Arianna sprang out of her chair. “Naya, I am sorry, but I must excuse myself. If you two continue to spend time together, I promise that I will not say anything to Uncle and Aunt. I really must head upstairs now.”
Naya stood, her eyes filled with concern. “Arianna, are you okay?”
Arianna put her hand up. “Naya.” She attempted a smile, but she knew it did not reach her eyes. “I am fine. I swear.” She continued to the door. “But I need to go. Please, enjoy the rest of your night.”
With that, Arianna sprinted to her lonely, empty bedroom.
“I wonder what’s wrong with her,” Naya said.
“I have a feeling she left because of me,” Emerson said with a sigh, still sitting on the floor.
She looked down at him. “Hmm…” She still hadn’t figured out what happened between those two.
Emerson was surprisingly fun to hang out with. Every time she’d tried to one-up him, he would come up with something to top her. Unfortunately, she already knew she wasn’t attracted to him, and she sensed Emerson felt the same toward her. She could picture him being a good friend though, and she supposed that was something.
Stretching, Emerson stood. “I think it’s time for me to go.” He glanced at his wristwatch. “I can’t believe I have been here for over five hours. I had fun,” he said, picking up his shoes.
“Come on, I’ll see you out.”
They strolled toward the front of the house, and he picked up his jacket and tie on the way.
When they reached the door, she said, “I had a lot of fun, too, you know. I look forward to the next time we get together.”
Emerson squatted to tie his shoes. “Me, too. I’ll bring the Chinese.” He winked up at her.
“Okay.” Naya laughed. “Are you sure you’re able to drive?”
“Yes, I only drank four beers.”
It took vampires more alcohol to get drunk, and it didn’t last as long due to their accelerated metabolism. She’d only had two bottles over the course of the night, and she felt nothing, not even a buzz.
“Alright,” Naya said
Emerson leaned forward and pressed a light kiss on her cheek. Being close to him didn’t spark anything in her, and she certainly didn’t hope he’d go further.
“I hope you have a good rest of the night,” she said.
“Yes, you, too. Bye, Naya.”
Naya closed the door behind him. Then she went to shut off her Wii, picked up her shoes, and walked upstairs. When she approached Arianna’s room, she could hear Arianna crying through the door. Naya knocked, wanting to find out what was wrong and offer support. After a minute of waiting, Arianna still hadn’t answered, and Naya continued to her room.
Naya got ready for bed despite the sun not rising for a couple of more hours. As she lay down and turned on the TV, she wondered what her future held. She was not attracted to Emerson, but he was nice, and they had fun together. Still, would friendship and her parents’ approval be enough to spend the rest of her life with someone she didn’t love?
THE NEXT SEVERAL weeks passed by in a blur, and Naya’s life was beginning to spiral out of control. She couldn’t shake the sense that something big was about to happen. Maybe it had to do with the two glaring complications in her life—Emerson and Vaughn.
The first problem was, Naya was working hard to form a relationship with Emerson. Naya had been spending one night a week with him, so they could get to know each other better. The more time they spent together, the more they discovered they had in common, and they were becoming closer.
Naya had confided in him how she felt somewhat suffocated from being required to mate with someone her parents had chosen for her. It was hard to know such a big decision was out of her control.
Emerson had confessed he also felt like things were being forced upon him. His family had been on the Vampire Council for generations with his mother now a current member. When the King and Queen had sought the Council’s advice for a suitable mate, he knew his mother had pressured the Council into making him their first choice. He was getting pressure from his mother at home, and he didn’t want to let down the Council—not to mention the King and Queen—by being a poor choice.
Although Naya and Emerson got along with each other, neither was attracted to the other, and they shared zero romantic feelings. But then she thought about what would happen if she turned Emerson down. What if the next male her parents picked could be worse? At least she saw Emerson as friend.
Naya also suspected he had feelings for someone else. At times, it had seemed like he was attempting to push those feelings away, to do the right thing for everyone. She knew he would leave the decision up to her, and if she said they were moving forward with their relationship, he would support it and try to make the best of the situation. But that wouldn’t be fair to Emerson or herself.
Either way, she needed to make some decisions soon. Her parents were going to be home in less than three weeks, and she still didn’t know what to do. When she would close her eyes, it wasn’t Emerson she saw standing at her side. It was someone darker, taller, and far more muscular.
This brought her to the second problem. Despite her best intentions, she had continued to see Vaughn. She texted him every day, and she went to Pulse regularly to see him. When they were able to meet, they would spend the whole night together. The smart thing to do for everyone would be for her to cut all contact with Vaughn, but when they were together, it was as if they were in their own little world. They were the only two that mattered.
Sometimes, Naya wished he had ignored her and pushed her away like most other men did after a one-night stand. It would make her life easier. Lonelier but easier, and it made her think back to the first time she saw Vaughn after they had slept together.
It had been two weeks since her encounter with Vaughn, and she was back at Pulse. She had tried to stay away. She had told herself over and over again that no good would come of her seeing him again. There could be no way he was as amazing as she remembered, and she had most likely built him up in her head. She was only setting herself up for disappointment. But the more she contemplated it, the more she realized her life would be much simpler if he didn’t’ show up or if he rejected her if he was there. She wished for the former, hoping it would be the less painful of the two. Then she would be able go on to mate with Emerson, knowing that Vaughn was nothing special. She would be hurt, but in the end, it would be for the best.
She chanted these specifics repeatedly in her head as she weaved her way through the nightclub’s crowd. Unfortunately, Naya had already begun to sense Vaughn’s presence. His blood still ran through her, so she knew he was close.
When vampires first began feeding, it could be hard to adjust to the sensation of another person’s wants, feelings, and needs running through them. But they had been taught to block out their emotions from one another, and in turn, they learned to tune out the one they had fed from. In essence, this would make the sensations similar to background noise—unless the emotion was too strong to completely disregard, but that was quite rare.
But Vaughn was different. He was unaware of the blood connection vampires formed, and his presence was like a live wire under her skin, making it hard to distinguish her feelings from his. That night, the blood bond was stronger than anything she had experienced before. Remarkably stronger than the last tim
e she saw him. The signals were so overwhelming, and she was focused directly on Vaughn’s psyche, not paying attention to what was in front of her that they literally bumped into one another.
Overwhelmed with seeing him again, Naya’s assurances about forgetting about him and moving on flew out of her head. All she could think was how devastated she would be if he pretended like they didn’t know each other. After all, they’d never made promises beyond their one night together, and Naya had seen guys who Kenzie had slept with brush her off.
Since he wasn’t blocking anything from her, she was unable to ignore the mass of emotions he was experiencing from seeing her again. She wasn’t able to separate one feeling from the next, and she wasn’t prepared for how he would react to her presence.
He paused for a second, staring at her, while she drank in the sight of his black hair and beautiful sapphire eyes. She wondered if he would mumble a simple, Hey, and keep walking. Instead, he muttered her name as he swung one arm around her waist and buried the other in her hair, hauling her against his body and kissing her like he was a starved man and she was dinner. Not caring they were in the crowded club, she wrapped herself around him to let him know she missed him, too.
The rest of that night, he continued to touch her in one way or another. He kept his arm around her, held her hand, or pulled her close on the dance floor. He made her feel like she was the most beautiful female in the world. This time, before they parted ways, they had exchanged phone numbers.
Despite the fact they hadn’t been able to keep their hands off each other that night, they hadn’t left the club together. Although, they came close a couple weeks later.
Vaughn walked Naya to her car at the end of the night. It was the beginning of August and the air was finally cooling off. They were in the back of Pulse’s parking lot and the only ones around. Kenzie was giving them some privacy by waiting at the front of the club for Naya to pick her up.
Vaughn leaned in to kiss Naya, and she soon forgot where they were. He lifted her onto the hood of the car and rubbed his thick arousal against her center. She was so into Vaughn and their actions that when he sucked on her shoulder, it prompted her need to feed. It had been a month and without thinking about her actions, she drank from him again.
She supposed she should feel shame for drinking from a human, but she didn’t. His blood tasted superior to any vampire blood she’d tasted before, and she liked knowing that she was carrying a part of him inside her body. She loved being connected to him even if she couldn’t share it with him.
It was forbidden to drink from humans. Besides the possibility of taking advantage of the blood bond, human blood tasted very enticing, and vampires could accidentally take too much. But when she fed from Vaughn, she never even came close to overindulging. She stopped both times after taking what she needed.
After she fed, she again worried that he might figure out what she was or that she might have hurt him.
Instead, he groaned, “Holy shit, baby. I don’t know exactly what you do to my neck when you suck like that, but I just about came in my pants.” He laid his forehead against hers and licked his lower lip. “Right now, all I want to do is take you home where I can strip you naked, throw you down on my bed, and fuck you until you leave scratches on my back. I want you to come so hard, all your muscles will be sore tomorrow.”
He followed up with a kiss, and she knew he meant everything he’d just said. As a woman, part of her thought that she should be offended by his salacious comment, but she found his blunt expression of his desire for her sexy as hell. No one had made her feel the way he did. She ached to be with him again. When he asked to take her home, she almost said yes.
But when she realized that one male was courting her as she was contemplating going home with another, she told Vaughn no. He didn’t ask again or pressure her, but she could see the disappointed frustration in his eyes.
From that night on, she made sure all their goodbyes were said in the club. She owed it to Emerson to be fair and give their relationship a chance to blossom, and that meant not sleeping with Vaughn again. However, if she were honest with herself, spending time with Vaughn—in public or while communicating with him through text messages—wasn’t fair to Emerson or Vaughn or herself.
So, here Naya was again, at Pulse, looking for Vaughn.
Three weeks had passed since she been to the club. While they hadn’t met in person for almost a month, they had spoken on the phone or texted nearly every day.
Tonight, she felt an overwhelming desire to be with him. It had never been this strong before. Maybe it was because it had been a long time since she’d hung out with him. She suspected her parents’ approaching return from overseas didn’t help
She was desperate to be near him, and she’d considered coming to the club by herself, knowing Kenzie had to work late. But when Naya had told Kenzie she planned on going to the club to tell Vaughn good-bye, Kenzie had insisted on coming with her. This had to be the last time she saw Vaughn. She needed to end all contact between them. It would take time to adjust to not having any communication with Vaughn.
But they still had tonight, and she was going make the most of it.
At the door, Naya apologized to Kenzie for having to leave her so quickly and then said good-bye before she searched for Vaughn. His blood told her where to go. She just had to make it past the crowd first. Apparently, word had spread about the place, and Pulse had increased in popularity.
After a couple of minutes, Naya made her way through all the people before she found Vaughn sitting with some friends. The only ones she recognized were Sawyer and Saxon, whom she’d met a few weeks back. Vaughn took one look at her and stopped talking mid-sentence. He got up, said good-bye to his friends, and came right to her. His blue eyes filled with concern as he walked up.
He gathered her against him and embraced her. He shifted away to look at her. “Naya, what’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. I just knew I needed to see you,” she said in a raised voice.
It was hard to hear over the music and the large crowd.
“Hold on.” Vaughn looked around. “Come on.” He grabbed her hand and led her toward the back of the club to a hallway.
They stopped at a door marked Laundry. When he tried the door, it appeared to be locked, but it took less than a minute for him to open it. He pulled her inside, closed the door, and relocked it. She took a quick glance around. The room was full of clean towels and other linens, a washer and dryer, a sink, and a big tub for dirty laundry.
“That’s better,” Vaughn said.
He hauled her into his arms. Welcoming his familiar scent, she breathed in the smell of spiced cloves.
He pulled back and looked at her. “Now, what’s wrong?”
Here was this tough, strong, and dominant man, such an alpha male, yet he liked her, and he wasn’t afraid to show it. He made her feel special, like she was the most important person in the room. Tonight, he’d dropped everything the moment he saw her, knowing something was wrong.
And it was killing her that she couldn’t be with him.
Naya burst into tears. She didn’t know what was wrong with her. She never felt this sensitive. She usually looked at things rationally rather than emotionally. Whether it was the type of person she was or her coping mechanism, it usually worked for her. But tonight, it had failed. Maybe she’d hit a breaking point.
Vaughn hugged her close again and let her cry. He handed her a tissue that he’d pulled from somewhere in the room. He rubbed her back and told her everything would be okay, yet he didn’t push to find out what was wrong. He just held her and let her cry. Now, she had to add kind and patient to the list of great things about him, which only made her cry harder.
When her crying neared the end, she blew her nose and cleaned the tears off her face. She decided it was time to tell Vaughn about her mess at home. Although he never expressed the desire to have an exclusive relationship or ever referred to her as his girlfriend, he
deserved an explanation. If their relationship continued on the path it was on, it would only grow more serious.
But when she looked up into his eyes and saw his concern and affection, all thoughts of talking flew out the window. She stretched up on her tiptoes and kissed him. This was most likely the last time she would see him, and she burned with the need to be with him again. Her parents, Emerson, the Vampire Council—everyone be damned.
Naya put all her desperation into the kiss. She consumed it and turned it into passion. He licked and nipped at her lips. Their kiss was hot and wet. She had a fleeting thought that she should end this before it went any further, but she pushed it away.
She reached for his belt, praying he wouldn’t stop her. It had been almost two months, and she wouldn’t—no, she couldn’t wait until the two of them were somewhere else. She was desperate to feel him inside her one last time.
Vaughn didn’t hesitate, and he ripped her shirt over her head. He pulled down her bra straps and freed her breasts. He cupped them as he drew one of her nipples into his mouth. He moved from one breast to the other, sucking hard. When she started to whimper, he released them. He pushed her skirt up over her hips, tore her underwear off, and picked her up to set her on the edge of the dryer.
He tunneled his fingers through her hair, grasped her head, and looked her in the eyes. He studied her face as he stared at her. He rubbed his thumb over her lower lip, and she drew it into her mouth. He groaned and kissed her again before inserting two fingers inside her core to prepare her for him.
She moaned, and he withdrew his hand. His lips moved to her neck, and he bit down. His hands held her in place as he pressed his way inside her. She sensed he liked her neck since he nipped and sucked on it often when they were together. Tonight, he’d bitten down so hard that she wondered if he’d broken the skin, but it hadn’t hurt. In fact, it’d felt incredibly good. She also forgot how big he was until he stretched her almost to the point of pain. Both his bite and his push into her body were a sweet ache, causing her to come right away.
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