Once Bitten, Twice Shy

by Wood, C. C.

  After I dried my damp face, I wandered back into the bedroom and climbed into bed. As I burrowed under the covers, I couldn’t stop thinking of Lex and the way he made me feel. Between the book I had been reading earlier and that dream, I had gone way beyond hot and bothered, straight into nuclear meltdown.

  With an aggravated sigh, I rolled over and punched my pillow into submission, trying to get comfortable. It had been too long since I’d had decent sex or an orgasm with an actual living, breathing partner. Stanley wasn’t a huge dud like Donna and my girlfriends made him out to be. We may not have had insane, mind-blowing, gorilla sex, but he always took care of me. It was nice. Comfortable.

  The thought of sex with Lex, which made me smile because it rhymed, wasn’t nice or comfortable. It was consuming, terrifying. That man could chew me up and spit me out and not just because he was a vampire. I fell asleep thinking that I would enjoy the ride, even if I ended up mangled by the end of it.

  Light seeped around the edges of the drapes in my room when I woke. Stretching slowly, I relished feeling warm and cozy. God, the beds at Donna’s house were so much better than mine. Then I realized why I felt so comfortable. A long, muscled arm was wrapped around my waist and a furnace pressed lightly against my back. My sleepy stretches stopped and my entire body got tight. What the hell?

  I must have said that out loud, because the arm around my waist tightened. I tried to scramble to the edge of the bed, but I only succeeded in rolling onto my back and getting stuck like a turtle, arms and legs waving wildly in my attempt to escape.

  “Let me go,” I snapped, trying to toss my hair out of my face.

  “Calm down,” Lex said sternly.

  I glared at him through the thick veil of my curly hair. “What the hell are you doing in here?” I demanded.

  He held me easily. “Calm down before you hurt yourself, Ivie.”

  I stopped fighting, mostly because he was as immovable as a three ton boulder. I stared daggers at him and tried to blow my hair out of my face.

  “Are you going to answer my question?” I asked in the coldest voice I could muster.

  Lex sighed as though he were equal parts frustrated and disappointed. I didn’t care for that sigh. Not because I found it annoying, which I did, but because I also didn’t like the way it made me feel. I shouldn’t give a shit if I frustrated or disappointed this man.

  “You called me.”

  My brows snapped together. “Excuse me? How could I call you if I was sleeping?” I hissed.

  Lex turned me to face him and rolled so he was on his back. I was distracted by the wide expanse of olive skin and dusting of hair that I quickly realized was his bare chest. I knew he was a big guy, but I didn’t realize how big until just now, since I was practically lying on top of him. I lifted a hand to push him away, but forgot what I intended to do as soon as my fingertips touched skin. Heat radiated off him, as though a fire were burning beneath his skin. The skin across his ribs was smooth, firm, and stretched over taut muscle.

  “I’m not sure,” he answered, breaking my hot guy trance.

  “What? How can you not know?”

  Lex looked a little uncomfortable. “It’s never happened before. Usually, humans can’t call a vampire telepathically. You can broadcast your thoughts, share images, but the ability to summon a vampire is rare.”

  “I don’t understand,” I said. I relaxed, completely forgetting about Lex’s naked chest, resting my weight against him.

  He brushed my hair out of my face, absentmindedly playing with the strands, as he stared across the room. It was as if he were a million miles away. “When you called me, Ivie, I felt as though I had to come. It is a bit like how a vampire controls a human. We can call them to us, it’s part of our abilities as predators to aid us in trapping prey.” I shivered at his description after having been on the receiving end of that particular trait before, but he only held me closer as he continued. “I could have resisted you, but it would have been difficult.” His eyes returned to me, intense. “And I didn’t particularly want to resist. Especially after that delectable dream you shared with me.”

  I gasped, feeling the blood rush to my face. I knew I was beet red. “You know about my dream?” I asked softly.

  His mouth quirked slightly, but his eyes were hot and dark, promising me that the things I dreamed were only the beginning. “Yes. Somehow I think you pulled me into the dream with you. I was in control of my actions, yet I had no memory of how I got in your room. That’s never happened to me before.”

  I was silent, trying to decide what to say. I wasn’t sure what I even could say. Mortification overwhelmed any ability I had to think. I couldn’t believe that the dream hadn’t been real, yet it also had, in a way.

  I decided to move away from the intimate details and focus on his previous words. “Is it rare for a human to be able to share dreams with a vampire?” I asked.

  He nodded, his face serious. “It is extremely rare.”

  I wasn’t sure what I thought, so I just kept my mouth shut. Lex continued to study me for a few more moments.

  Finally, he spoke, “I can see that this is overwhelming for you. I think it’s best if we discuss it further after you’ve had breakfast.”

  I almost snorted at his understatement. Overwhelming? The concept he presented was well beyond overwhelming. I knew next to nothing about vampires, other than the fact that they had fangs, drank blood, and had the ability to control minds. I would have to think about it later, after caffeine. As for discussing it further, I would be doing that. But not with Lex. Right now, he had me trapped, but, as soon as I was free, all bets were off. I intended to go back to avoiding him as best I could.

  Suddenly, his face grew tense. “I’m not reading your thoughts, but I can read your face. You will not avoid this conversation, Ivie. Am I understood?”

  I stared down at him, my eyes wide. While the independent woman that usually ruled my brain told me to kick him in the nuts, there was another part of me that melted at his demand. The same part that hated it when he looked disappointed or angry with me. My tummy felt like a bowl of Jell-O. I swallowed hard and nodded.

  “Say it,” he said sternly.

  I wasn’t sure what he wanted me to say, but I was also afraid to ask. His gaze softened slightly, as though he understood my predicament perfectly.

  “Say ‘I understand’, Ivie,” he prompted.

  Though it was difficult for me to hold back my bratty response of ‘I understand, Ivie’, I did. Instead, I merely said, “I understand.”

  He nodded and pressed a light kiss to my forehead. Then he released me, rolled off the bed, and headed toward the door that led out to the hall. I blinked at his gorgeous, naked back and his firm ass in his navy pajama pants, then he was gone.

  I flopped back into the fluffy pillows on the bed and stared at the ceiling, wondering what in the fuck had just happened. I had gone to bed alone the night before, shared foreplay in a dream, and woken up to find a man in my bed. Screw all those romance novels on my Kindle, I had enough stuff happening in my own life to write one of my own.

  Chapter Seven

  After the strange encounter in my room earlier that morning, I expected Lex to be waiting on me when I came down for breakfast an hour later. He wasn’t. In fact, he was locked in the study with Conner. Donna had gone in to work under the watchful eye of one of Conner’s men. I didn’t know his name, probably because I was afraid to speak to him. His eyes were pale amber and cold, like a wolf’s. Anytime he looked at me, I felt as though he could see straight through to my soul and it didn’t impress him.

  I ate a quick breakfast, gulped a huge cup of coffee, and decided to try and work. Maybe if I appeared to be busy, Lex would leave me alone for a while. I grabbed my laptop from my room and took it into the rarely used library.

  I loved Conner’s house, because, not only did he have a study, he also had a huge library. It was two stories and full of books and windows. The room was filled wit
h light and escape. I set my laptop up on a large table by a window overlooking the side yard and began going through my office emails. My boss had sent me the specifics on a new project that was due the following week.

  My plan was a little too effective. I began working on a project for my graphics firm. I was so immersed in the details of my work that I missed lunch. In fact, the only reason I stopped was due to Conner’s housekeeper, Susan. She came into the room, dust cloth and furniture polish in hand. A few steps inside the door, she hesitated.

  “I’m sorry, Ms. Lang. I didn’t realize you were still in here.” She fidgeted slightly. “Do you want me to come back later?”

  I rolled my shoulders, suddenly aware of the knots in my neck and back. “What time is it?” I asked. I could have looked at my computer, but that would have been useless. My eyes were so blurry from the hours of staring at the screen I never would have been able to read the tiny clock in the corner of the screen.

  “3 p.m.” Susan seemed shocked that I had no clue what time it was.

  My eyebrows rose. “Really?” I asked.

  She nodded. “Do you want me to come back later?” she asked again.

  I shook my head. “No, no, of course not. I need to stop for a while anyway. I’ve been at this since 8:30 this morning.”

  Her eyes widened. “Do you want me to make you something to eat?” she asked. “You really shouldn’t skip meals, Ms. Lang.”

  I waved her offer away. “No thank you, Susan. Please call me Ivie. Ms. Lang reminds me too much of my mother.” I loved my mom but I didn’t necessarily want to be her.

  “Okay, Ms. La…I mean, Ivie.”

  I saved my work and shut down my computer. “I’m going to get out of your way and go stretch my legs.”

  She murmured something I couldn’t understand as I left the room, carrying my laptop and charge cord. I didn’t ask her to clarify because I was pretty sure Susan was the shyest person I’d ever met. I just nodded to her as I walked by. She smiled slightly but that was all.

  After I deposited my laptop in my room, I slid on a pair of shoes. I knew that Conner would never let me go for a walk in his fabulous neighborhood. I could already hear his sexy Scottish brogue telling me that it was unsafe. I decided to take a stroll around the backyard. Hell, it was almost the size of a city block anyway.

  I was just getting ready to head back inside when Donna popped out the back door of the house, still dressed in a sharp dark plum suit, two glasses of white wine in her hands. As I walked under the roof covering the veranda, she gave me one of the glasses and walked over to the swing that Lex and I had shared a few weeks before.

  Plopping down hard and causing the swing to sway alarmingly, Donna took a large sip of her wine. “Damn, I had a long day.” She turned her eyes to me. “How was yours?” she asked.

  I shrugged. “I had a lot of work to do.”

  Her mouth quirked. “Still avoiding Lex?” I didn’t answer right away and she perked up. “What happened?” she asked.

  I settled on to the swing beside her and took a drink of my own wine. “Can I have a couple days to process it before we talk it to death?” I asked. Typically, I wanted to discuss this kind of thing with my girlfriends, but Lex had been correct this morning. I was completely overwhelmed by what I was thinking and feeling and all the information would take some time to digest.

  Donna watched me carefully for a moment before she sighed. “Yes, but we’re doing girls’ night in with all the girls when we do talk about it. I have a feeling I’m gonna need Kerry to make me her Man Problem Special.”

  Kerry’s Man Problem Special was basically a shot of tequila chased with a Long Island Iced Tea. Simple, effective, but lethal.

  “Fine.” I just hoped by then I figured out exactly what was going on inside my own head.

  She seemed mollified by my answer and continued to drink her wine without a word. We sat together on the swing for a while in companionable silence. Every now and then, she would use her toe to gently set the swing in motion.

  I wasn’t sure how long we sat out there together, just enjoying each other’s presence when Conner appeared on the veranda, a chilled bottle of white wine in his hand.

  “Dinner is almost ready, ladies,” he said softly, as he refilled our glasses.

  Donna smiled at him, affection and tenderness plain on her face. While Conner’s expression wasn’t as open, his blue eyes shimmered with love and contentment. I felt my throat tighten as I saw it. I couldn’t help the wave of longing that crashed through me. I wanted that. I wanted to come home after a long day and have someone pour me a glass of wine and make me dinner. Or at least help me cook. I wanted to go to bed at night with a man who looked at me the way Conner was looking at Donna.

  “Thanks, babe,” Donna said softly. Conner just nodded at her, then me, and headed back into the house.

  She and I sighed at the same time, though hers was much more dreamy than mine. I gave her a sidelong glance.

  “You’re a lucky bitch. You know that, right?” I asked.

  She snickered and took another sip of her wine. “Yes, I do.”

  I shook my head and stood. “Well, let’s go inside and set the table for dinner.”

  Donna rose to her feet and we walked into the kitchen together. As it turned out, we didn’t need to set the table, Conner had. There were only three place settings. At the sight, I felt my stomach clench with a feeling so alien I couldn’t name it.

  Conner noticed me looking at the table. “Lex had to go to his club for a few hours. He’s having issues with his night manager and I think he’s hoping his presence will clue the woman in to the fact that she is fucking up.”

  I nodded nonchalantly, as though this news didn’t send relief coursing through my veins. After Lex’s disappearing act, I didn’t want to admit how upset I had been at the idea that he had left again for parts unknown. Especially since he hadn’t said good-bye to me.

  I set those thoughts firmly aside. I didn’t need to be thinking like that. When it came to the vampire, Lex, I needed to remain detached, though he seemed intent on making sure that was impossible.

  Dinner was great. Conner had made shepherd’s pie, my favorite comfort food. I eyed him speculatively after we ate, wondering if he had fished that little piece of information out of my brain.

  When he caught me staring at him for the third time in fifteen minutes, Conner sighed and set aside his fork. “Okay, what now?” he asked.

  I blushed lightly, but met his gaze squarely. “Did you know shepherd’s pie is one of my favorite things?” I asked.

  He nodded. “I did. Donna told me.”

  My blush intensified. I hadn’t thought of that. I had just assumed that he took advantage of his abilities because he could. It was embarrassing to realize that I had been so suspicious of my best friend’s fiancé. Her fiancé who just wanted to do something nice for me, like make my favorite dinner.

  I sent him an apologetic smile. In that uncanny way of his, and Lex’s, he seemed to understand what I was thinking and sent me a wink.

  After that silent exchange, some of the tension in my belly dissipated. The rest of the meal was actually a lot of fun. I had never realized how witty and sweet Conner really was. His tales of his life before he came to America and the shenanigans he was involved in as a boy in Scotland were funny and bittersweet. I could sense that time had not dimmed his memories or the feeling he had for his friends and family who were now long gone.

  I was beginning to understand what Donna meant when she said a lot of vampires were more like humans than monsters. Seeing this side of Conner, I could understand why Donna fell in love with him.

  After dinner, I insisted on helping Donna with the dishes. Well, I insisted Donna and I do the dishes. Conner had laughed when he saw the dirty looks my friend was shooting me for volunteering her for the chore.

  He walked over to Donna, leaned in, and kissed her lightly on the mouth. “I have some calls to make, lass. Don’t kill
each other while I’m gone,” he admonished.

  Donna scoffed and waved him away. “You don’t have to worry about what I’ll do to her. Worry about the torture she’s going to inflict upon me.”

  I rolled my eyes as I finished clearing the table. “Washing dishes isn’t torture. It’s a household chore no one really likes, but it’s only fair we do them since Conner cooked.”

  She grumbled about pain in the ass humans and fiancés who used every dish in the house to make a single meal, but she helped. It was after eight when we finished drying the last dish and putting them away.

  “Thanks, babe,” she said, folding the dish towel and throwing it on the counter.

  “You’re welcome,” I answered. My back and neck were killing me from all the computer work I’d done that day. “I think I’m going to head upstairs and take a hot bath and check out early,” I said.

  Donna nodded. “Sounds like a plan. I think I’ll do the same.”

  I gave her a hug and headed upstairs to my room. I filled yet another fantastic tub, wondering who picked out Conner’s bathroom fittings. Every bath in the house seemed to have a huge jetted tub. Once I had filled the tub with water and added lavender scented bath oil, I stripped down, twisted my hair up and secured it with a clip, and slid into the hot water.

  Finally, after waiting an entire day for Lex to show up to continue our ‘conversation’, I felt like I could relax. It was almost ten and he wasn’t back yet. I doubted we would have our talk tonight.

  When the water began to cool, I climbed out of the tub and dried off. I wrapped the towel around me. It was a bit chilly in my room at night and I’d forgotten to bring my pajamas into the bathroom. I stepped into my bedroom and stopped short.

  Lounging on my bed in all black, his shirt unbuttoned to reveal his toned chest and abs, was Lex. He was studying a sheaf of papers in his hand, his legs stretched out in front of him and crossed at the ankle. I realized his feet were bare. He looked completely relaxed and at home. His eyes lifted from the page to look at me, then his entire body went still.