by Tina Folsom
“Noooooooo!” Samson’s scream echoed in the kitchen. He flashed his fangs and snarled, pinning Amaury underneath him as he pummeled him with his fists. His friend’s arms came up in defense, trying to shield his face.
“Stop!” But Amaury’s voice was drowned out by Samson’s fierce roar. Samson’s fist connected with his friend’s jaw once more. Deflecting his next hit, Amaury held him at bay.
“Samson!” Delilah’s voice finally penetrated his head.
“I didn’t do anything,” Amaury hissed.
“Samson! What’s going on?”
He jerked his head and instantly knew he shouldn’t have turned toward her when he saw her reaction him. In his daze he’d forgotten about everything. He hadn’t realized what she’d see: his vampire side.
Delilah shrieked, eyes wide, mouth open, her hand holding onto the counter as she backed away from them.
“Oh my God!” Her chest heaved as if she couldn’t get enough air. “Oh my God, what are you?” It wasn’t really a question. It was more of a statement.
He was so screwed.
***
Samson’s eyes were red. Blinking freaking red!
They looked the same way as that time in the shower, when Ricky had interrupted them. She hadn’t seen wrong, as much as she’d wanted to explain it away. But she couldn’t explain it away, not anymore, not when she looked at his mouth from which two teeth were protruding now.
No, not teeth.
Fangs!
Pointy, sharp fangs like those of an animal. Like a Sabertooth tiger.
She couldn’t think it, no, because to think it made it real. It couldn’t be real. It didn’t exist. He didn’t exist, not like that.
Was this one of her strange dreams again? When would she wake up from this nightmare? When? Delilah gripped the counter behind her harder to counterbalance her buckling knees and felt the pain in her fingers where she’d cut herself. No, this wasn’t a nightmare, this was reality. Bizarre reality.
She watched Samson get up, releasing Amaury from his grip, slowly moving toward her.
“No!” Her breath caught in her chest.
Need air. Need air now.
“Delilah, everything’s ok.” His voice was as soothing as it had been the night before.
“Get away from me.” She backed away further until she hit the wall behind her. There was nowhere else to go. She’d managed to back herself into a corner. And he was coming toward her, slowly, but steadily. Oh, Jesus Christ! Her throat dried up. Her vocal cords froze. She had to face facts now. She couldn’t deny it any longer.
She’d made love to a vampire, over and over again.
Dracula. A vampire.
Samson was a vampire, a vampire whose mouth had devoured her, whose fangs had been so close to her jugular—he could have killed her with one bite.
“I’m not going to hurt you.”
She let out a hysterical laugh. “No, you’re just going to bite me. That’s what you want, isn’t it? Oh God, how could I have been so stupid?” Really, how could she have been such a fool? Why had she not seen this coming? She felt like one of those stupid heroines in a B-grade horror movie, running up the stairs in her nightie with the killer hot on her heels.
Delilah frantically looked around for anything she could use as a weapon.
“Amaury, would you give us a moment alone,” Samson requested.
“Do you think that’s such a smart idea?” Amaury rubbed his jaw.
“I want Amaury to stay,” Delilah said quickly, hoping that at least he could provide some protection against Samson.
Samson gave her a surprised look. “So you think having two vampires in the room is safer than one?”
That’s when it hit her. She drew in her breath. They were both dangerous, they were both vampires. Amaury didn’t show any fangs, and now that she stared at Samson again, his had retracted too. His eyes were their usual hazel color. Had she hallucinated? Was she even awake?
“Samson, I wasn’t attacking her. I was helping her bandage the wound.”
They exchanged looks until Samson finally nodded. “I’m sorry I misjudged you, but I couldn’t take the risk of anybody hurting her. The situation—”
“I’m not as bloodthirsty as you think, and I would never touch your woman.” Amaury sounded a tad hurt. A vampire hurt by somebody else’s words?
Get real! You’re seriously losing it.
Delilah slowly moved along the wall while the two vampires had their chatty conversation. She barely listened as she slid along the wall toward the kitchen door. Just a few more steps and she would reach the door.
“Where’re you off to, Delilah?”
She stopped in her tracks. So much for her escape. She bit her lip.
“Let’s bandage your hand first, before the scent of blood drives one of us over the edge.” His voice seemed calm, but it could be a trick. For all she knew he’d suck her dry as soon as he saw the blood drip from her fingers.
Samson took a few steps toward her, and she pressed herself harder against the wall. But there was nowhere else to go. He was only inches away from her now.
“Please, I’m sorry you had to find out like this. I was planning to tell you—”
“When? Before or after you bit me?” She shouldn’t show him her fear. It made her even more vulnerable, but she had no idea how to hide it. And animals like him would pounce as soon as they smelled fear, wouldn’t they? Would he? Would he attack her when he realized that she was scared shitless?
She could feel his breath on her face. It reminded her of the way he’d kissed her, how he’d made love to her, how he’d touched her. How could he be the same man? No, he wasn’t a man, he was a vampire.
Wake up and smell the blood!
“I’ll never hurt you, sweetness. I was trying to protect you. I smelled the blood and thought Amaury had attacked you.” Did he have to look so deadly sexy while he was only inches away from her? It wasn’t fair.
She felt his hand reach for hers and tried to pull back, but he held on.
“Amaury, Band Aids are in the top drawer next to the stove.”
Seconds later, his friend handed him the box of bandage strips. Samson lifted her hand to his mouth. Delilah shrieked. He was going to drink her blood. She knew it! It was just like in her nightmare.
He acknowledged her frightened look. “I’ll lick your wound. My saliva will seal it, and it’ll stop bleeding. Trust me.”
Trust him? Was he kidding?
There was no way she would trust him, but he held her hand in an iron grip, and she couldn’t free herself. Helplessly, Delilah watched as his tongue licked gently over the cuts, lapping up the blood. She felt a warm tingling feeling on her fingers and noticed that the blood flow stopped instantly. Samson placed the Band Aids over the sealed cuts. When he closed his mouth, she saw him swallow and inhale sharply.
His eyes suddenly locked with hers. “Oh God, even your blood tastes of lavender.”
She watched him lower his mouth, but couldn’t stop him. His lips brushed hers lightly before he took her mouth and captured her. That was when she knew with absolute certainty that she wasn’t dreaming. She knew his touch, his taste, his scent. He was real, and he was a vampire.
She couldn’t stop her body from reacting to him in the same way she’d reacted to him the night before and allowed his tongue to enter and caress her.
But this wasn’t like the night before—he wasn’t the same. He was a vampire, not the man she thought he was. She had to get away from him.
Samson was too engrossed in kissing her that the kick to his groin hit him like a train. He instantly let go of her and doubled over. Hell, nobody had ever kicked him in the groin. Right where it hurt most. Nausea overwhelmed him. As a vampire he could take pain, but even for him this was right up there with getting fingernails pulled out of their sockets.
When he looked up he caught a glimpse of Delilah as she ran out of the kitchen. Unable to run after her just yet as he still fou
ght nausea, he gave his friend a command. “Bring her back.”
By the time Amaury came back with her, Samson had recovered from the pain and was able to stand upright again. Amaury held her, too tight for Samson’s liking. A pang of jealousy hit him. This was not good.
“Sweetness, you have to stop hitting me. I’m sure we can find another way for you to show your affection.” He had to hand it to her. She had a lot of spunk, and taming her would be fun, if exhausting, and at times probably painful.
“I’m not your sweetness!”
Ah, that was more like it. He didn’t like the fearful look she’d displayed earlier. He much preferred her being a fighter. Something he could work with.
“Can Amaury let go of you now, or are you going to bolt again?”
Delilah shook off Amaury’s arm as Samson nodded to him. She immediately crossed her arms in front of her chest. Definitely ready for battle. Not that she’d win. Ever. But he’d let her try.
“Can we talk now?”
Delilah didn’t answer and instead, pressed her lips together even tighter. He knew exactly how he could get those lips to open up, but it was probably better to not try it while she was still pissed at him. He didn’t fancy another kick in the balls.
“Shall I leave you guys alone?”
He nodded to his friend. “Thanks. Make yourself comfortable in the living room. This will take a while.”
Once they were alone, he looked at her. Her expression hadn’t changed. He could see the tension in her body and face, the fierce determination not to let anything get to her. She wasn’t ready to listen to him, he knew that. But he had to try anyway.
“Delilah, I’m still the same man.”
She shook her head without saying a word. Ah, the Silent Treatment. A woman’s prerogative.
“What we have together—”
“We have nothing together,” she interrupted him. “You lied to me.” At least she was talking now. It was a start.
“I wanted to tell you. But this isn’t exactly the easiest thing to explain. What should I have said? ‘Hey honey, let me take you to dinner, and oh, by the way, I’m a vampire, so just order anything you want while I drink a glass of blood.’ ”
“You never had the intention of telling me. All you wanted was a little sex toy.”
“That’s not true, and you know it. I told you last night—”
She interrupted him. “Lies. That’s what you told me. I even fell for your cute story about your erection problem. Is that what you tell all the others?”
Delilah uncrossed her arms and fisted her hands at her waist.
“There’s only you. And what I told you last night is true.”
“Bullshit. Is that why the redhead dumped you? She found out you were a vampire?”
“First of all, she’s a vampire too, and second, I left her.” He stared at her shocked face. She obviously hadn’t expected to hear that Ilona was a vampire, but she caught herself quickly.
“So what, you ran out of vampire women and had to fuck a human?”
“It wasn’t about sex, at least not after the first night.”
“Liar.”
“You’re repeating yourself.”
“Because you keep dishing up the same stories.”
“Because they are true. I admit, the first night was all about sex, but after that, damn it, it wasn’t. I wanted you, and not just for physical pleasure. You can’t tell me you didn’t feel that when we made love.”
Delilah had felt it, but it had to be an illusion. He’d tricked her. She’d slept with a vampire, she’d let him inside her, not just her body, but her heart. People like him shouldn’t even exist. Something was so wrong in this world.
“You’re a vampire. You’re a vampire.”
As if by saying it, it would go away, but it didn’t. He was a vampire, and he stood in his kitchen looking at her, making her feel like she’d hit her head and was coming out of a daze. But she hadn’t hit her head. He was real.
“I slept with a vampire.” She dropped her arms to her sides and let her shoulders slump.
Samson nodded. “And you liked it just as much as I did.”
“No.”
She had to deny it to keep her sanity. What would happen to her world if she suddenly had to admit that she liked, no, loved sleeping with a vampire? Everything around her would crumble. Creatures like him shouldn’t—couldn’t!—exist. Vampires were myth, folklore—stories to tell around a campfire to scare people. They only lived in the movies, never in real life. Every child knew that! Just as everybody knew there was no Easter Bunny. This couldn’t happen. None of this could be true. Denial was the only way to go.
“I have to go. I have to go back to New York now.”
He slowly shook his head and came closer. “No. You’re not leaving.” With his knuckles, he stroked her cheek softly. “I need you.”
“You’re a vampire.”
“Don’t you think I know that? It doesn’t change how I feel about you.”
“Get away from me.” She used all her strength to reject him, when her body was trying to lean into him. He still had the same power over her he’d had ever since she’d met him. She still wanted him, wanted to lick every bit of his skin with her tongue. She wanted to have his hard body pressed against hers and feel him impale her, when what she should want was to impale him—with a wooden stake right through the heart! If he even had a heart.
“Don’t touch me!” At her outburst, he instantly pulled his hand back as if she’d slapped him. She could see the anger well up in him, his eyes suddenly flickering red. It looked as if it took all his strength to control himself.
“Amaury! Get in here.” Samson’s voice was sharp. She flinched. Would he lash out at her? Hit her? Bite her?
His friend appeared instantly.
“Watch her,” Samson ordered and bolted from the kitchen.
Her eyes followed him before she looked back at Amaury who casually leaned against the kitchen island as if nothing had happened.
“He wanted to kill me, didn’t he?”
Amaury nodded. “Yes, and he will—between the sheets, over and over again.” He grinned devilishly.
She gave him an undignified look.
“Hey, don’t blame me; I’m just reading his emotions.”
Reading his emotions? What the hell was Amaury talking about? Her look must have been utterly confused, because he threw up his hands.
“Special gift. Pain in the butt.” Then he winked. “And don’t worry, I’m not going to tell him what you feel. He’ll have to coax that out of you all by himself.”
She listened to the footsteps above her. Samson was pacing.
“Don’t worry about him. He’ll cool off. So, to get back to our conversation before we were so rudely interrupted. Have you—”
“You want to talk about the audit like nothing has happened?”
“Sure, we still have to solve that issue. Just because you now know that we’re vampires doesn’t change the fact that somebody is messing with Samson’s company and wants to harm you.”
Delilah shook her head. “What are you guys? How can you think of business right now? Shouldn’t you be biting me and drinking my blood by now?”
“Thanks for offering, but Samson would so kick my ass if I did that, and, yeah, most likely turn me into dust. So, no thanks. You’re safe from me.”
“I wasn’t offering …” Was she truly safe from Amaury? He looked too relaxed, leaning against the kitchen counter, to seem ready to attack her.
“I know that. Anyway, while Samson and you had your lover’s quarrel, I was thinking. Have you looked into what else John might have done besides those depreciation entries?”
If he wanted to talk about the audit, fine. At least it would bring some normalcy back into her shattered life. “What do you mean?”
“What other transactions has he authorized? What information has he accessed? I think we have to look at everything he did.”
De
lilah had an idea. “Does the computer system track which logon has accessed certain files?”
“Sure does.” Amaury nodded, obviously understanding what she was thinking about.
“Then let’s see what he’s been up to.”
FOURTEEN
Eventually his antique rugs would show the wear and tear from his heavy footsteps, but Samson didn’t care. He’d screwed up. He wasn’t angry with Delilah, but rather with himself for not handling the situation right. Since he’d betrayed her trust before when he’d looked into her background and had gotten caught red-handed, she was obviously not cutting him any more slack.
He couldn’t really blame her. Having to accept that she’d slept with a vampire—and liked it—was probably too much to swallow in one big gulp. But he had to get her to accept the fact. And not just that, he had to get her to embrace it, to embrace him, because he knew he couldn’t give her up. When he’d smelled her blood he’d already realized that he was lost, but when he had tasted it, tasted her, he had known there was only one acceptable resolution to their situation: a blood-bond.
Even though Dr. Drake had not helped him resolve any issues before, he’d been right about one thing. A vampire could sense a bond with the person he was meant to blood-bond with, even before the ritual was performed.
Samson sensed this special bond with Delilah. He couldn’t describe the feeling; he just knew that it was right. Almost … instinctual … was the word that came to mind. Whenever he looked into her eyes, he lost himself in them and knew she had to sense it too. There’d been such understanding in her eyes the night before that he was certain he wasn’t wrong.
But even if he tried to explain all this to her, he figured she wouldn’t listen to him. Not right now. But maybe she would listen to a professional. He had to try.
Amaury and Delilah weren’t in the kitchen any longer. Samson listened and could hear faint voices coming from his office. What were they up to? He found her sitting in his chair behind the desk with his friend hovering over her as they both stared into the computer screen.
Even though he knew Amaury would never make a pass at his woman, Samson didn’t like how close his body was to hers. His stomach tightened uncomfortably. Would he always be this jealous when another male was close to her? Was this what it meant to love somebody?