by Lia Davis
“Where are you headed?” Max whispered from behind Grant.
“What?” Grant whirled around, shock in his expression when he realized it was Max. “How did you...”
“End up here?” Max finished for him as he stared into the confused man’s face.
“I was behind you not but a second ago.”
“Indeed.”
“But...” Grant’s crystal blue gaze dropped to the floor.
“Don’t look away,” Max instructed. “That’s not what you want. Is it?”
Grant shook his head as he slowly met Max’s stare again.
“You follow me night after night. Your mind is curious, but you don’t know how to approach me.”
Grant’s breathing became more rapid, the vein in his neck throbbed faster, harder. The scent of his blood wasn’t the only pull for Max. It was the most divine liquid he’d ever encountered, but there was more. A stirring in his body, an unrest in his soul. This human was his.
“You clutter my every thought. I don’t know why, Professor Avery. I have this uncontrollable urge to be close to you. To be in your presence.”
“I understand.” The feeling is mutual, but you have to come to me freely.
“I’m sorry.” Grant looked away again. “I’ve never done anything like this before. I don’t understand why I would act this way.”
“Not one suspicion?” You’re a smart man. I see the way you study me. Don’t disappoint me.
“I have several, but none that would be considered rational.”
“You don’t have to be rational.” Max reached out, holding Grant’s chin and commanded him with his eyes. It was so easy to sway this willing human. The warmth of Grant’s flesh charged through Max, igniting some odd energy. He’d touched many humans through the years, but he’d never experienced anything so invigorating before. “Tell me what you think is happening?”
“I couldn’t.” When Grant bit the corner of his lip, Max had to control every primal urge within himself. “You’re an educated man. I’d sound like a fool.”
“The only way you could be a fool in my eyes is by not facing what’s right in front of you.” Max brushed Grant’s cheek with his thumb, seducing him into a confession. “Are you going to tell me or am I going to have to show you?” Max took Grant by the arm and scurried him into a candlelit corner away from prying eyes. “Do you need help believing what you suspect?”
“Please.” Grant’s breath fluttered across Max’s lips. “I can’t stop what I’m feeling. I need you to convince me I’m not mad.”
“Very well.” Max parted his lips, exhaled and showed his fangs. He closed his eyes and waited for the student to run. If he did then Max could put this behind him and go about his lonely life. Of course he’d have to relocate now that he revealed what he was.
“Stunning,” Grant whispered.
“Do you still think it’s irrational?” Max opened his eyes and released Grant from his hold.
“How did I know?”
“They say a human will find us when the time is right.” Max had found his own creator in the woods among a gypsy camp when he was on an educational expedition. He’d just taken the job at a university and wanted an adventure. Never anticipating the one he’d come across, but that experience gave him a life he wouldn’t trade for anything. Even if he had spent the years alone and wondering what his purpose was.
“I’m yours?”
Max nodded.
“Do you want to drink from me?” Grant swallowed hard. “Is that what happens next?”
“I want so much more than that, but yes, I crave you.”
“I want to satisfy you.”
“Hmm...” Max nodded. “Do you have any idea what you’re saying?”
“I do.”
You can’t possibly, but I will teach you.
“Once I taste you I won’t be able to stop what happens next.” When a vampire indulged in the blood of the one, his true companion, there would be no turning back. “We’ll be connected in ways that are beyond explanation. Beyond our control.”
“Eternity?”
“If you so choose.” Not every vampire was destined to live out eternity with their creation. Max’s creator had left him decades ago. He was a nomad and couldn’t be tamed. He wasn’t civilized or educated, and eventually he could no longer hold Max back so he released him from their eternal bond. Unleashing a pain that would stay with him forever. “You can walk away now. We can forget this encounter ever occurred.” Would Maxim come back from that? Time hadn’t healed the void his creator had left, so how could he expect to recover from his human abandoning him as well?
“I can’t.” Grant tilted his head to the side, focusing on Max’s lips. “I don’t want to walk away.”
“I had to offer.” Max took Grant’s face between his, pressing his lips to the corner of Grant’s mouth. “Come home with me and I’ll show you how connected we can be. How right you were to follow your instincts. That was no accident.”
When Max extended his hand for Grant, he took it without any hesitation or apprehension.
Their story began on that brisk autumn evening in a dark hallway. That wasn’t the night Max turned Grant into a nightwalker. That would come a few years later. Once their adjustment period ended and Max was certain that Grant would be his forever.
A century isn’t long enough...
Chapter 4
The sun had set over the lake. It was a dismal day, so Max and Grant emerged from their sleep earlier than normal. Most days they could roam freely inside the house as long as the curtains were drawn and they stayed indoors until dusk. If it was a cloudy or a rainy day they could even go outside before dark, but they tried not to make that a habit.
Grant sat in the window seat of the study, gazing out at the lake as Max went over the latest numbers of last month’s auctions. The revenue kept them in a comfortable life. Max had been keeper for a long time. In the early days many vampires kept to themselves, not wanting to be exposed, but the world was changing. Vampires weren’t the most secret society anymore. Max and Grant still chose a quiet life. While they mingled with humans they didn’t always reveal what they were if they didn’t have to. Max was old-school and preferred to keep their dealings with humans business like. If they needed something from a human like blood or even travel documents they paid a high price for the human’s service and silence. Max believed that humans feared the unknown and would eventually turn on their kind if the fear was greater than the benefit. That was the historian in him. Grant could accept that the world was changing, but he never cared to change with it. As long as he had Max he was content. Now that the dynamics in their own home were amiss, Grant wondered what changes were in store for them.
“Why are your thoughts so heavy?” Max turned his chair from the desk to face Grant.
Max couldn’t read Grant’s mind, but he could feel his emotions because of their connection. There was no use in trying to cover his thoughts.
“You heard my conversation with Cassie last night.” It wasn’t meant to be a question. Even if Grant hadn’t known that Max could hear everything, he would have surmised that his lover overheard his conversation from the way he took him when Grant returned to their bed. It was as if he was staking an unnecessary claim. Max couldn’t get enough of Grant. He kept repeating that Grant was his.
“It couldn’t be helped.”
“I have nothing to hide.”
“I know that, but you’re conflicted.” Max took Grant’s hand. “You shouldn’t be.”
“How can you be so understanding about what I’m feeling for her?”
“Because it’s out of your control.” Max shrugged as if he didn’t care, but it couldn’t be true.
“So that makes it okay?” Grant hopped off the window seat and paced the study. “I’m battling with my feelings for a stranger. A woman who can’t possibly compare with what I already have with you and you’re fine with it?”
“What should I do, Grant? Figh
t your attraction. Tell you that you can’t have her? Forbid you to accept what can’t be denied?”
“Yes.” Grant whirled around and stared into Max’s eyes. “Am I not worth the trouble of fighting for what we have?”
“This has nothing to do with me fighting for you. We’re not human. We don’t feel the way they do. We’re primal, instinctual. We take what we want. You want me to fight a battle I cannot win.”
“So what are you saying?”
“I’m saying we’ve brought her into our home, you’ve already connected with her. You have to go with it now and we’ll sort it out as we go.” Max got up and walked toward Grant. “It’s all set in motion.”
“I don’t believe that.” Grant couldn’t deny there was something between he and Cassie, but how could his whole world change in twenty-four hours? “I won’t.”
“What did you feel when you touched her?”
“What?” How did he know?
“Be honest with me.” Max pulled Grant to him. “That’s the only way any of this will work.”
“I...” Grant kissed Max before continuing because he couldn’t resist the urge. “It was a charge of energy.”
“Like your heart was beating if only for a moment.”
“Exactly, but how could you know that?”
“Because that night so many years ago in that corridor, my heart came to life too.”
“When you touched me.” Grant closed his eyes and recalled the precise moment when Max took Grant’s chin in his ice cold hand. “I did that to you?”
“You did.” Max pushed Grant against the wall, pinning him between his rock hard body and the cool brick fireplace. “I know what you feel for this little human. Her call will nag at you. You’ll ache until you give in.”
“I ache for only you.”
“Trust me.” Max kissed him hard. “You want me to fight for you?”
“Yes,” Grant breathed out.
“I can’t fight what you have to succumb to survive.” Max swirled his tongue inside Grant’s mouth, taking his time to savor him. “But I promise I won’t walk away because I can’t survive without you.”
“You won’t have to.” Grant twisted his fingers in Max’s hair, forgetting the anxiety and the uncertainty that plagued him all day. “Whatever is happening doesn’t change what I am to you.” If Max understood what was happening with Grant and Cassie then they could find a way to deal with it. To understand it. Maybe even embrace it.
Max deepened the kiss, but Grant needed him to hear.
“What we are to one another,” Grant spoke against Max’s lips. “I will never betray what we have together.”
“I love you,” Max said.
“Don’t doubt my love for you.”
Grant ceased talking and gave into the kiss. Making out with his lifelong partner never got old. They would have kept going, but her presence stopped them. Max placed a gentle kiss on Grant’s lips before releasing him and stepping back. They both turned toward the doorway to find Cassie staring at them. She stood frozen, but Grant detected the lust in her eyes.
“She likes to watch,” Grant spoke so only Max could hear. “Can’t you see it?”
“I’m sorry,” Cassie said. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
Maybe we can embrace this...
Cassie wandered down the grand staircase and through the foyer. She’d had a long day of shopping with Lea. She’d never seen so many clothes before. She didn’t feel comfortable buying so much, but Lea told her that Max and Grant insisted on it. Cassie tried to get used to the idea of being in the care of two vampires. The thought of never being hungry again hadn’t settled in. That came from years of being in the system. Every time she got comfortable in a home she was yanked out because it didn’t work out or the foster parents couldn’t keep her any longer.
You’re not a kid anymore. If this doesn’t work out you can survive.
She heard muted voices in the distance. Her curiosity lead her to the room at the end of the hall. The house seemed to grow colder as she moved closer to the voices. Pulling shut her new gray sweater, she peered into the study, stopping when she saw Max and Grant holding one another. Kissing... touching... wanting...
They were raw and feral. Arousal swept through her in the most erotic way she’d ever experienced. That sense of belonging came over her as it had in the car the day before. She wanted to be part of what they had. She craved their touch. Before she could step away they stopped their kiss, both turning toward her at the same time. They were in perfect sync. It was as if one couldn’t exist without the other. Her breathing increased, but she couldn’t look away. The appeal to join them overwhelmed her every thought. What the hell? Two strong capable hands roaming her body, making her scream out in pleasure as they took her any way they desired. That was what she wanted.
“I’m sorry,” she stammered as she tried to come out of her lust induced state. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.” The flush in her face heated her cheeks.
“You didn’t.” Grant took Max’s hand. “We have a hard time leaving one another alone.”
“We’re not used to having anyone around.” Max’s stare made her tingle as she glanced down at their joined hands. “How was your shopping trip?”
“Amazing.” She had enjoyed her day with Lea. “Thank you for everything.”
“We haven’t done anything much,” Grant said. “We promised to care for you. Don’t thank us.”
“That’s not something Cassie is familiar with,” Max stated. “It will take some time for her to get used to being cared for.”
How did he know that?
“I appreciate being here,” she said. “Now that I know I have a place to live.” She glanced at Grant, the blush heating her cheeks when she thought about how he had stayed with her the night before telling her about his and Max’s past. “I thought I should look for a job.”
“You don’t have to do that.” Grant looked at Max for reassurance. He did that a lot. “You won’t need to work now.”
“She may not need to,” Max agreed. “But she may want to.”
“Of course,” Grant said. “I just meant we’re more than capable of providing for her. Isn’t that the purpose of the auction?”
“Ask Cassie what her expectations were when she put herself up on that block yesterday.” Max stared into her eyes. His gaze was more intense than Grant’s, but no less enticing.
“Cassie?” Grant’s voice broke her from Max’s trance.
“Huh?” She swallowed hard, trying to get the image of the two sexy, strong men kissing one another out of her head.
Grant smiled at Max and then redirected his attention back to her. They were speaking to one another again without her hearing. What are you saying?
“What were you hoping to gain from the auction?” Grant repeated the question.
“I needed a warm place to stay,” she admitted. “I didn’t know where my next meal was coming from. That’s how I ended up at Dead Way. I was–”
“You were where?” Max raised his voice, but Grant stared into his eyes, reining him in.
“Dead Way,” she softly repeated herself. “I had heard stories about that place. That humans could go there and in exchange they would be paid.”
“Have you any idea how dangerous that was?” Max asked, the agitation in his tone growing with each syllable.
“Yes, I mean, no, I don’t know.” Her heart pounded as she tried to explain herself. “I didn’t have a choice. I was hungry and I...”
“You didn’t have a choice? You subjected yourself to... you don’t want to know.” Max shook his head. “There’s a reason the auction houses are in place.”
“Max.” Grant’s tone held warning. “She ended up in the auction house. It led her to us.”
“She was going to allow the bottom feeders to drink from her.” Max let go of Grant’s hand and redirected his attention to her. “Do you know what could have happened to you?” He looked her over. “I don’t see any
marks on your neck.” He reached out, tossing her hair to one side. When he touched her he stopped, his face didn’t look as fierce, his expression not as hard as she’d grown accustomed to. “I...” He stepped back, clearing his throat. “I’m sorry. It doesn’t appear they fed from you.”
She shook her head. “No one has. Andrea and Jonathan intercepted me that night and took me back to his home.”
“No harm was done then.” Grant studied Max. Something was off between them. Cassie had never seen them so disorientated when it came to one another.
“That doesn’t matter,” Max snapped. “Women like her shouldn’t be there. In a position to get—”
“Women like me?” Cassie asked. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Young, innocent, full of false illusions about our kind. It doesn’t work the way it does in those romance novels. We’re not all heroes. Some of us are very dangerous.”
“You think I was going there to find my soulmate? Like I had nothing better to do?” Cassie challenged him. “I was hungry and alone. The nights were getting colder and I didn’t want to stay in a shelter. Have you any idea what could happened to me in one of those? Humans are dangerous too.”
“She has a point.” Grant shrugged. “That’s why we keep our distance.”
“I’m sorry you’ve fallen on hard times, Cassie,” Max said. “But all of that is behind you now. Please take a few days to acclimate yourself to our home and then we can decide what you’ll do next.”
“My whole life has been full of hard times.” She took a breath, trying not to rehash every sorry memory. “I’m not some innocent. I’ve been on my own for a long time. Obviously you’ve never known what it’s been like to be hungry. I do what I have to do to survive.”
Take that, Mr. Dominating Vampire!
She turned and stormed out of the room. How dare he assume she would exchange her blood for money in an attempt for anything other than survival. Not everyone had millions of dollars at their disposal. Not everyone was privileged.