by J. L. McCoy
“Oh dear,” Trey groaned and chuckled as he covered his eyes and stood up. “I think I’ll save myself some unnecessary trauma and leave you heterosexuals to it, then. Have fun you two.”
I tried unsuccessfully to mutter a heartfelt apology, but Jameson was busy making sure my mouth was otherwise occupied.
*****
Jameson left me so he could take a shower upstairs and I decided to make a quick call to Tricky Dic’s before I took my own. I really wanted Dean to join us out at Drop Kick’s tonight for a beer or two and hoped he would agree to meeting me.
“Tricky Dic’s. What can I do for you?” a familiar masculine voice asked as he picked up the line.
“Um…hi. Is Dean available?” I asked as I hopped up on my bathroom counter and finished taking off my chipped red toenail polish.
“Depends on who’s asking,” the guy rumbled deeply.
“This is Skye Morrison,” I offered.
“Sure,” he said after a few seconds. “Just a sec…I’ll get him for you.”
I smiled and thanked him before I was put on hold. The short wait was made even shorter by the awesome dubstep music that flowed over the line. Bassnectar pumped a funky beat and I found myself bouncing slightly on the counter, my free leg swinging, as I finished the remaining two toenails.
“Well, well, well…if it isn’t the stranger herself. How’s it going, toots? I didn’t know if I’d ever hear from you again.” Dean said lightheartedly.
“I could say the same for you, mister,” I smiled, happy to hear his voice. “You haven’t been to the club lately. What’s up with that?”
Dean took a deep breath and sighed. I could hear the shift in his mood right before he answered honestly, “Well, I didn’t know if you wanted me around. I just figured with the way we left things…”
“Yeah, about that,” I interjected quickly, “One of the reasons I called was to say that I’m sorry about how I reacted to your…news. It was stupid, immature and judgmental of me and I sincerely apologize. I know it took a lot of guts for you to tell me. And, I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to call you. Thank you for what you did for me…for all of us. I would have said it sooner, but you haven’t been back to the club since everything went down. I’m beginning to think you’re never coming back, so I wanted to make sure I called to tell you.”
Dean was quiet for a few moments and I found myself holding my breath, waiting for his response. “So you’re not mad at me?” he asked quietly, completely unlike the Dean I had come to know.
I put the used cotton ball down on the counter and lowered my leg. “No, honey. Are you kidding me?” I asked; my brow furrowed in confusion. “How could I be mad at you? You saved my life Dean. You dropped everything and you and your friends helped rescue me from that sadistic asshole. I don’t think I would have been found without your help. Jameson told me that you and your friends were the ones who tracked me to that house. I owe my life to you guys.”
He sighed and cleared his throat. “So, I uh…heard a little about what’s going on. How are you dealing with everything? Have they caught the guy who kidnapped you yet?”
It was my turn to sigh. “No, not yet, but they’re working on it. I won’t be able to fully relax until he is. But speaking of relaxing,” I quickly changed the subject with a smile, “I was wondering if you had any plans for tonight. Jameson has a show at Drop Kick Dan’s and I’m hoping I can persuade you to come out and have a few beers with me, my treat of course.”
“Well,” Dean chuckled and I could hear the smile return to his voice, “I suppose I can spare a few hours for a pretty girl. But drinks are on me, Skye. I insist.”
I groaned and opened my mouth to argue, but Dean shushed me. “A gentleman never lets a lady pay. Besides, your pleasant company is payment enough.”
“Oh whatever, you big flirt,” I laughed as I hopped off the bathroom counter. “Show starts at 9pm. See you there?”
“With bells on babe,” Dean purred sexily and hung up.
I looked down at my cellphone as I worried my bottom lip. I hope he behaves himself tonight, I silently thought. I didn’t want Jameson reading too much into his flirtatiousness. I seriously didn’t think that Dean had a thing for me, but some people might interpret his friendliness the wrong way. He seemed like the type of guy that genuinely had a flirty disposition and used it lightheartedly with all the girls.
I shook my head and set my cellphone down on the counter as I got ready for my shower. I quickly bathed and did my hair and make-up. I threw on an old baggy Poison concert t-shirt that I had cut into an off-the-shoulder, midriff-showing crop-top, my favorite pair of tight-fitting ripped jeans, and my black Converse chucks. I grabbed my black messenger bag and threw the essentials into it before I threw it over my shoulder and exited my temporary room.
As I walked into the living room I was surprised to see Archer standing in the kitchen.
“Hey,” I called out to him. “What are you still doing here? Everyone left for The Mausoleum over an hour ago.”
Archer looked up at me and smiled before draining his lowball glass of alcohol and setting it down on the counter in front of him.
“You look tasty,” he joked with a quick wink.
I took in his expensive suit and tie with raised eyebrows. Damn, he looked good. Really good. “Well, you are looking very dapper yourself tonight, sir,” I smiled radiantly as I walked up to him. I set my bag down on the counter and reached up to adjust his tie. “Very dapper indeed. What’s the occasion, if you don’t mind me asking?”
He smiled down at me before lifting his chin, allowing me access to his neck. “I have a business meeting. I’m thinking about investing in the local real estate and I’m meeting with a company who plans to build several high-rise condos downtown. It could potentially turn into a very lucrative partnership.”
“Well then, I wish you the best of luck tonight,” I bit my bottom lip at how delicious he looked and ran my hand down the length of his tie, smoothing it flush to his chest. “Thanks for letting me have a night out. I was starting to get a little stir crazy.”
Archer’s eyes darkened and he stepped closer to me. He swept my long hair back over my left shoulder and gazed deeply into my eyes.
The last time he looked at me like this, with such need and desire, was a few weeks ago as we sat in his office above The Mausoleum, his nightclub. It was a few days after my rescue and as luck would have it, we were alone and there was enough time and privacy to have the big talk that we had needed to have for the past week. I licked my lips and took a deep breath as I remembered the conversation.
I looked up from my paperwork as Archer’s office door swung open and he entered.
“Did you have any problems with payroll?” he asked as he shut the door and took off his sports coat.
“No,” I replied as I finished licking the last envelope and scrolled one of the dancer’s names across it in purple ink. “I just finished.”
“Good,” he sighed tiredly as he opened the door to his adjoining apartment and entered. “Would you mind pouring me a glass of bourbon?”
“Sure thing.” I set the envelope down on top of the finished pile and walked over to minibar under his wall mounted flat screen TV. I swiped a crystal lowball glass out from under the bar and poured up four fingers.
I sauntered into his apartment and immediately stopped a few feet in. Archer had his naked backside to me and was pulling on a pair of jeans. Oh, my sweet baby Jesus, I swallowed thickly. I quickly closed my eyes as my heartbeat sped up and I tried to suppress the flood of dirty thoughts that were steadily bombarding my brain.
I heard the sound of a zipper as Archer chuckled. “You think you’d be used to seeing me naked by now, love.”
“Not hardly,” I whispered and shook my head. I’ll never get used to seeing that glorious ass, I thought before I remembered that I should be censoring those thoughts to save myself some unbearable embarrassment. I cringed and he chuckled again. “Here’s yo
ur drink,” I mumbled as I opened my eyes and took in his bare torso. My eyes slowly navigated his broad, muscular chest and tight abs and I swallowed thickly. Oh my…
Archer slowly strode over to accept his drink, a sexily sinister smile on his lips. His hand brushed mine as he took the glass and I was unexpectedly hit with a powerful wave of his vampire pheromones. My lower abdomen clinched tight and I couldn’t suppress the slight moan that escaped me. I flushed instantly and took a quick step back as I tried to get a handle on my breathing. I’m like a damn cat in heat, I mused in horror.
Archer threw his head back and laughed.
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” I frowned as I crossed my arms over my chest.
“Immensely,” he purred and took another step toward me, closing the gap that I had just put between us. “I think you’re adorable when you pout.”
“Eat me, Archer,” I huffed unhappily.
“Don’t tempt me, Miss Morrison,” he winked and my knees wobbled.
I thought it best that I sat down before I fell down and took a seat on the nearest free spot I could, which happened to be his bed. I felt Archer watching me as he sipped from his glass of bourbon, but I tried my best to ignore him as I worked on my breathing. It was terribly embarrassing to still be as affected by him as I was. Vampire pheromones were one thing and Archer Rhys was another. I could pretty much handle each of them independently, but throw them together and it’s a wonder I still had my panties on.
“So, how have you been feeling?” Archer asked as he took a seat beside me on the bed.
I took a deep breath and sighed. “Better. Each day is a little better than the last. My shoulder is doing this weird popping thing when I move it sometimes, though.”
“I’ll tell Jameson to heal you again and that should take care of it.”
“I really don’t want to bother him with it Archer,” I said, shaking my head. “The last time he healed me, well healed all of us really, it almost killed him. I don’t want him to overexert himself. He’s still healing, too.”
“You really care about him, don’t you?” Archer asked after a few silent seconds.
“Of course I do,” I looked up at him, my brow furrowed in confusion at his question. I thought my feelings about Jameson were obvious to everyone. I adored him.
“Do you still care about me?” he asked quietly.
“You know I do,” I whispered, my heart constricting with pain.
“Enough to be with me?”
I searched back and forth between his beautiful ice blue eyes. They were full of honesty and some other emotion I couldn’t quite put my finger on. “I…I don’t think I should answer that.”
“Why not?” he asked before taking a small sip from his crystal glass.
I swallowed thickly and looked down at my hands. “Do you really want to make things harder for me than they already are?”
“Like they aren’t hard for me as well?” he asked as he gently put his finger under my chin and made me look at him. “You know how I feel about you Skye.”
I licked my lips and shook my head. “I don’t think I do, Archer. I mean, I know we have this attraction to each other, but I don’t understand why. Well, on your part at least. I know why I’m attracted to you.”
“My pheromones,” he said with a sigh as he dropped his hand from my face.
“No,” I said quickly, my brow furrowed hard. “I mean, yes, obviously. But it’s more than that…way more than that. And it’s not just your amazing body or your handsome face either, Archer. It’s you. It’s all of you.” I had to look away from him because I felt a sudden pang of guilt. I knew I shouldn’t be having this conversation with him. A woman who was spoken for should not be having conversations about feelings for another man. I felt terribly guilty all of a sudden and I wrung my hands with worry.
“Do you want to know how I feel about you, Skye?” he asked as he set his glass down on the floor and turned his body toward mine.
Yes. “No,” I shook my head quickly as I got up off the bed and headed for the apartment door. I had to get out of there. We were neck deep in dangerous waters and I didn’t want to drown. I knew what tended to happen whenever I submerged myself in too much Archer.
Archer flashed to the door and closed it before leaning against it. “We need to have this conversation, Skye. I’ve needed to tell you this for days but every time I try to, something comes up. It’s just you and me here. No one is going to interrupt us and you’re not leaving until I’m finished.”
“Archer, please,” I inhaled as I hugged myself tightly. “Let’s not do this.”
“I have to,” he whispered as he slowly took a step closer to me. “I can’t bear to look at you sometimes.” My brow furrowed as he continued, “When I see you smiling or laughing with the others, I find it hard to keep my feelings for you hidden from my face. I’m afraid that everyone will see how much I care for you; how much I adore you. When you stand next to me, I sometimes find myself reaching out to touch you and I have to stop myself.” He took another step closer to me and gently cupped my face. I gazed up at him in complete wonder as my heart thundered loudly in my chest. “And when you look at me as you’re looking at me right now, I have to fight the overwhelming urge to wrap you in my arms and lose myself to you.”
I quickly put my finger to his lips in an attempt to silence him. “Please. No more,” I breathed as I shook my head and closed my eyes tightly. Hearing him say everything out loud just made it that much harder for me to deal with. But I couldn’t deny that everything he was saying was exactly how I felt. This is wrong. You shouldn’t be in here with him.
Archer removed my finger from his lips and placed a lingering kiss upon its tip. “I have to,” he whispered as he took that hand and placed it around his waist. I took a deep breath in and sighed. He smelled amazing; like Draakar Noir, leather and citrus. His pheromones seemed to be getting stronger and I found myself leaning into him as I opened my eyes and bravely met his.
“I haven’t met anyone like you before,” he said as he tucked a piece of my long red hair behind one ear.
“I find that a little hard to believe. You’ve been alive for over a thousand years.”
“Well it is true, Skye. You are a very unique individual. Your love for life is infectious. The way you approach everything, with such zest and joy…I haven’t seen that in a very long time. When you get to be my age, you start to feel jaded with life; things cease to be new and exciting. I like watching you experience your world. Everything is new to you and has yet to be tarnished by time. And I like watching you interact with people. You are so kind, patient, and caring. It’s refreshing.” He wrapped his arms around my waist and smiled wistfully. “I truly feel alive when I’m around you and it makes me want to be around you constantly. I find myself thinking about you when I’m not and I genuinely ache for your presence. When you were taken by Amun I felt like my world had ended.”
I shivered involuntarily at the memory of him and fought back tears. “I was panicked,” Archer continued. “I’ve never felt anything so excruciating during my whole existence as your absence was for me. I tried hiding my feelings for you from Jameson, but I failed miserably, I think. I know how much my brother likes you and it just makes it that much more difficult for me. I don’t want to hurt him, but I am hurting myself by not being able to be with you. These feelings are new to me. I’ve never loved a human before; not even when I was one. And even though I married Aoife, I never had the level of love and respect for her as I do you.”
My heart seemed to stop when I heard him say those last few words. Love? He can’t possibly love me. How can you fall in love with someone after just a couple of weeks of knowing them? I shook my head and opened my mouth to argue, but Archer cut me off.
“I didn’t think it was possible either, but there’s no other explanation for my feelings,” he said, reading my mind. “I’ve thought long and hard about this conversation; I’ve thought of nothing since I came
back from my trip to bring everyone here. I know what I’m feeling Skye. I know what love is and I love you; I love everything about you.”
I turned away from him and went back to the bed, sitting down roughly on it. My knees were shaking with the adrenaline that was pumping unhindered though my veins. My fight-or-flight instinct had kicked in moments ago and I desperately wanted to fly from this room, but there was no way Archer was going to allow that. I knew by the look on his face that he was determined to say his piece and there was nothing I could do to keep him from it.
“Stop,” I whispered as the tears finally began to spill down my face. “I can’t bear to hear anymore.” My heart constricted with the pain his words brought. “How can you do this to me? How can you when you know I’m with Jameson.”
I roughly wiped the tears from my cheeks, stood up, and stormed over to him. “What am I supposed to do with this, Archer? Huh? Leave your brother and jump into your bed? What about him? What about his feelings? How can you do this to me? Why couldn’t you have just left it alone? Why did you have to tell me?”
“You deserve to know how I feel,” he growled. “You were mine before you were his.”
“No,” I shook my head sadly. “I wasn’t.”
“Why couldn’t you have just talked to me, Skye?” Archer asked, his voice full of pain. “Why didn’t you give me an opportunity to explain the kiss you saw between Aoife and me before you ran into my brother’s arms?”
“I thought I knew what I saw,” I whispered, losing my fight.
“You knew nothing,” he whispered, matching my tone, as he closed the gap between us and pulled me into his arms. He bent down and nuzzled my hair, taking a deep breath in.
I wrapped my arms around him and clung to him tightly. I buried my face in his chest and succumbed to my waterworks. “I knew nothing,” I finally admitted tearfully.