I walked downstairs and stopped at the door to Bill’s office. He’d glamoured Erin, and I was pissed. Still, he was all I had at the moment. He was busy tapping on his computer. I reached toward the doorknob and then decided against seeing him before my date.
He hadn’t dated in forever. What advice would he have? I wished Riv were here. I didn’t want to add to the stress of his concussion by asking him about dating and blood bonding and all that jazz. Still, I found myself calling him, hoping he was awake and would take my call.
“Hey, Dante,” he said.
“Riv. How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine. I want to get the hell out of here, but they’re insisting on keeping me another night even though my CAT scan and x-rays were fine.”
“It’s better to make sure everything’s okay.” I cleared my throat. “I have a…date with Erin tonight.”
“Yeah? That’s great.”
“Yeah…great. I’m scared out of my mind.”
“It’s just a date.”
“A date with the woman who needs to feed me, and when she finds out, she’s going to come unglued.”
“Give her a little credit, Dante. Everything will be fine.”
“Easy for you to say.”
“It is easy for me to say. If she’s formed this bond, she will understand. Maybe not at first, but you can make her understand. Just go with it.”
Just go with it. I said goodbye, drew in a couple deep breaths, and left.
I drove to Erin’s and parked, my nerves a mess of jitters as I walked to her door. I was tempted to check if the door was unlocked, but I didn’t. I knocked.
“Just a minute,” she called through the door.
I swallowed the nausea erupting within me.
Tonight was the night.
The first night of the rest of my life.
Please let it work out. Please don’t let her run away from me.
The door opened.
And in front of me stood pure beauty.
Erin’s dark hair fell in soft waves around her bare shoulders. She wore a soft-green camisole dress—perfectly matching her eyes—that flowed midway down her thighs. Her nipples protruded through the silky fabric. God, those legs. Long and luscious.
With bite wounds on them…
No! Don’t go there.
Her toes were painted light pink, and her feet were clad in strappy silver sandals.
“You okay?” she asked.
My mouth was hanging open. I shut it quickly. “Yeah. You look amazing.”
She blushed adorably. “Thank you. So do you. You want to come in?”
“Later.” If I went in, I might not be able to leave without getting her naked. “I want to have our date.”
“Okay. Let me just get my wrap.”
The drive to the restaurant didn’t take long. We were seated, and she looked at the menu.
I looked at her.
She bit her bottom lip.
My gums tightened and tingled.
Not now.
I flagged down a waiter. “Could I get a cup of coffee please?”
“Oh, sure. And for the lady?”
She arched her eyebrows at me. “Coffee?”
“Make it Irish coffee.” I needed the coffee to stave off the blood lust. Not that I thought it would actually do any good. “What do you want, Erin?”
“I’ll have a mar— No. Make that a cosmopolitan.” She smiled. “The last time I had a martini—well, two martinis—I got pretty hammered.”
I smiled. Had she been hammered? All I remembered was the music, the sweet taste of her blood…
I’d been hammered.
Then River had tried to tell me I was hearing things because of the booze.
No reason to think about that now. I had Erin here, looking ravishing, at a nice restaurant, and I was going to make this date work. I had to. For both our sakes.
The waiter brought our drinks. I inhaled the robust scent of the Irish coffee. It still didn’t take Erin’s fragrance out of the air.
Did I even like Irish coffee? Time to find out. I took a sip.
Not bad.
“How is River doing?” Erin asked.
“He’s good. Still at the hospital.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. He’s fine though. That’s what he tells me anyway.”
“They probably want to keep him a second night because of his concussion. It’s standard procedure. No reason to worry.”
“I’m not worried.” River was the least of my worries, although I’d wondered more than once what had led to the accident. Vampires had amazing reflexes. They were almost never in car accidents—or accidents of any kind.
But I couldn’t think about that now.
“Tell me about yourself,” I said. “Everything.”
She laughed. “Everything? That could take a while.”
“We have all the time in the world,” I said.
“Okay. Well, you know I’m a nurse. I originally wanted to be a doctor, but my parents couldn’t help with college or med school, and I didn’t want to go any deeper in debt than I had to, so I chose to be an RN instead.”
“Do you enjoy it?”
“I do.” She nodded. “It’s very rewarding work, though it can be heartbreaking sometimes.”
“Yeah, especially in the emergency room.”
“Exactly. Losing patients is hard, but it’s hard no matter what department you’re in.” She took a sip of her drink. “What about you? I never found out what you do for a living.”
Okay, I hadn’t thought this through. Questions about her would invite questions about me. What could I tell her? That I’d been held captive and abused for the last ten years wasn’t going to cut it. Presently I did nothing for a living, but that would have to change. Funny how I hadn’t considered it until now.
I had to keep her focused on her own life.
“We’ll get to that.” When I could figure out what to say. “Tell me about your childhood.”
“It was modest. Small house in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio. Just Jay and me and our parents. My mom still works as a cashier in a local supermarket, and my dad does construction.”
“Were you happy?”
She smiled. “Yeah, I was. My parents stayed married, which was uncommon back then. Probably even more so now. They’re still married. Still live in the same house.”
“How did you and Jay end up here?”
“Jay went to school here and then stayed. I ended up here because…” She reddened.
“Because…why?”
“For a… This is kind of embarrassing. I actually moved here for a guy.”
An anvil of jealousy hit my gut. “Oh?”
“He’s history now. It didn’t work out, but I decided to stay anyway. I found work at University and met Lucy, who became one of the best friends I’ve ever had. And Jay was here. Plus, there’s just something about New Orleans. It’s a special place. I feel like I belong here. I suppose that sounds stupid.”
“Not at all. My family feels that way too. It just seems like our place.”
“That’s exactly what I mean!” Her green eyes gleamed. “I think you get it.”
Yeah, I got it. Our kind were accepted here. Jay and Erin were descended from vampires somewhere in their line. Plus they both worked night shifts. No wonder they felt at home here.
Problem was…I no longer felt at home here. But that had nothing to do with the city.
Home was—
It hit me like a brick in the chest. Home was the woman sitting across from me.
Blood bond or not, I needed her. I wanted her.
Damn. I’d fallen in love.
River had been right. There was no mistaking it. I knew it in the depths of my heart. Erin Hamilton was the first thing I thought about when I woke up and the last thing I thought of when I went to bed. She mingled in my mind all during my time awake, and she was clustered in my dreams as well. I wanted to see her, touch her, kiss her, all th
e time. Being with her was euphoric, and I felt passion and desire I’d never known. Being without her left me hopeless, nauseated, counting the minutes until I could be in her presence once more.
And the jealousy, the obsession… When I’d found her with that other man, I’d wanted to kill him, to wipe him out of existence. Then when I’d found that someone had fed on her…
My gums tingled. I took a sip of my Irish coffee.
Just the thought had rage overtaking me. A chill hit the back of my neck.
No one would ever touch what was mine again.
Never.
Somehow, I had to make her understand what I was—what she was to me and what I could be to her.
All of that without having her run screaming away from me.
The waiter came to take our orders.
“I think I’ll start with a garden salad with balsamic vinaigrette, and then I’ll have the Cajun catfish,” Erin said.
Sounded good, but I needed some red meat. “I’ll have the same salad and then the twelve-ounce strip, very rare.”
Erin scrunched up her nose. “Very rare?”
“The only way to eat a good steak.”
“Nah. Medium-rare is the best. Very rare is way too bloody.”
Not a good sign. “Way too bloody? You’re an ER nurse. You’re around blood all the time.”
“That doesn’t mean I want to eat it.” She laughed as the waiter took her menu.
Really not a good sign. How the hell was I going to convince her that she and I shared a blood bond?
I looked her over. She was in good health, was acting fine. Thank God. Maybe there was no hurry.
Though there was certainly a hurry on my part. I needed her blood. I’d only had a drop, but it had been the most luscious concoction I’d ever tasted, as if she’d been created to feed me.
Apparently, if Bill’s theory was correct, she had been.
“Taste my steak when it gets here,” I said. “I bet I can turn you.”
“No thanks.” She laughed.
“Come on. For me?”
She narrowed her eyes slightly. “If it means that much to you, I’ll try it.”
That had gone easier than I expected.
Now, what had we been talking about? Oh yeah, she’d come here for a guy.
“So what happened with the guy?”
“What guy?”
“The guy you moved here for?”
“Oh. Cory. We broke up.”
“Were you in love with him?”
She smiled. “I thought I was. I know now that I wasn’t.”
“Really? How do you know?”
“Because what I felt for him is nothing like—” She pressed her lips together for a few seconds. “I just know, that’s all.”
“How do you know?”
“Because…I just know. Love can’t be explained, Dante. It’s either there or it isn’t, and you know it somehow.”
Did I ever. I smiled at her, and her eyes lit up. She was so beautiful.
I hoped our dinners would get here soon.
Chapter Nine
Erin
The bite of Dante’s steak melted in my mouth. How had I not known rare beef could be so delicious?
His grin was a mile wide. I wasn’t sure why he was so happy that I’d enjoyed his steak, but that didn’t matter. I wanted him happy.
Dante kept the conversation going smoothly from one topic to the next throughout dinner. It didn’t escape my notice that we never got back to what he did for a living, but he guided the conversation so seamlessly that I didn’t want to poke at him. I wanted to enjoy tonight. More importantly, I wanted him to enjoy tonight.
If things progressed as I hoped, we’d be spending the night together. I’d waited long enough.
Just looking at him made me sigh. His nearly black hair framed his perfectly sculpted face and jawline. His dark eyes, heavily fringed with ebony lashes, smoldered. His deep-violet shirt worked perfectly with his fair complexion, and the few chest hairs peeking out made me want to strip off the fabric and let the buttons go flying as I’d done before in my bathroom.
The time he’d run away when I’d tried to sink down on him.
Would this evening end up just like all the other times?
No. I wouldn’t—couldn’t—let it. I was in love with this man, this man who I knew next to nothing about.
Didn’t make sense. None of this made sense. How could I be in love with someone I didn’t even know?
But I was. As sure I was about anything else in my life, I was in love with Dante Gabriel.
It didn’t matter what he did for a living, where he’d gone to school, whether he’d vandalized a blood bank. I was truly and completely in love with him.
I’d even briefly fantasized about him tying me up and spanking me, something I’d never found appealing in the past. When Cory had suggested it, I’d said “Oh, hell no!” and then hadn’t spoken to him for a week.
But the idea of being bound and laid out for Dante Gabriel? Oh, yeah.
I squirmed as the tickle between my legs intensified.
I really wanted to go back to my place and fuck Dante’s brains out. That was where tonight was headed. I was determined not to take no for an answer.
When the waiter came to ask for dessert, we both said, “No thank you,” in unison.
Good. He was on the same page.
After he paid the bill, he said, “Would you like to go to a movie? Or maybe check out a club?”
How could I tell him no without looking like a bitch in heat?
“Whatever you want is fine with me.” Please suggest going to my place. Please.
“I’m not much for crowds,” he said, “so if you don’t mind, I’d prefer not to go to a club.”
“I’m not much for crowds either,” I said. “Why do you think I work nights?”
He smiled. God, he was so freaking gorgeous.
“In fact, I’m kind of tired,” I said. “Maybe you should just take me home.”
“Oh.” His lips curved downward. “Sure.”
“No, I don’t mean…” I was sending him all kinds of mixed signals. First I told him I’d do whatever he wanted, and then I told him to take me home. Oh, hell. I’d just let him take me home, and I’d make my intentions clear when we got there. “I think I’d like to go home.”
“Of course.” He came to my side of the table and pulled out my chair. Such a gentleman.
He didn’t say much while we drove home. I knew he was thinking this was a rebuff, but he’d find out it wasn’t when I grabbed him and pulled him into my townhome.
I did so when he left me at the door.
“I thought you said you were tired?”
“That was just an excuse to get you here, so I could do this.” I pulled him to me and smashed our lips together.
He opened immediately, and our tongues began the swirling dance I’d come to love. The kiss spoke of passion, of desire, of pure, raw need and ache.
He pushed me up against the wall and cupped one of my breasts. My hard nipple tightened further at his touch. His erection pushed into my abdomen, and I arched my back, the throbbing between my legs becoming unbearable in its intensity.
I love you, I said inside my mind. I love you so much, Dante.
He broke the kiss with a loud smack and inhaled. He pushed some stray hairs off my face. “You’re so fucking beautiful, Erin.”
I sighed, moaning. “So are you. So beautiful.”
He resumed the kiss, our tongues tangling. He put one of his thighs between my legs, and I rubbed against it, soothing my aching clit.
More. I wanted more.
I threaded my fingers through his hair, pulling him closer, closer to me. No space. Needed to be inside his skin, one with him.
He inhaled. “I smell you, baby. I smell your arousal.” He trailed wet kisses over my cheeks and neck.
I smelled it too, that earthy female musk. I was sopping wet from kissing and rubbing up against his t
high. My thong was no doubt soaked. My whole body throbbed with hypersensitivity.
“I want you, Dante. Please. I need you to make love to me.”
The words were raw and truthful, words that had never come from my mouth. But they felt right, so very right.
“I want you too, Erin,” he said, his breath hot against my neck. “God, I want you so fucking badly.”
“Take me to my bedroom.”
Then out of the corner of my eye—
I gasped. A man stood against the wall in my living room, watching us.
“What? What is it?” Dante asked.
But he was gone. He’d looked like… No, couldn’t be.
“I’m sorry. I thought I saw… Never mind.” My heart was still pounding from fright.
“Thought you saw what, Erin? Something got you spooked.”
“I must actually be tired. For a minute, I thought I saw a guy standing over in that corner.” I pointed.
He turned, following my finger, and then walked over to the space. He rubbed the back of his neck.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I just felt a chill on my neck. Probably just a draft. There’s a vent right here.” He returned to me. “Do you want me to leave? If you’re truly tired, I can—”
“Are you kidding? If you don’t take me to bed right now, Dante Gabriel, I’ll never speak to you again.”
He smiled. Oh, God, that smile.
Then he scooped me into his arms and carried me up the stairs to my bedroom.
Chapter Ten
Dante
God, her fragrance. All that dark chocolate, the earthy truffles, and then the sweet musk between her legs. Tonight I’d taste her no matter what bite marks I found.
No. Don’t go there. My fangs threatened to descend. I’d managed to keep them at bay while I was kissing her. I was determined to do so now.
She felt so right in my arms, against my body.
I was so completely in love with her.
Tonight, I would tell her. I would make love to her, tell her how much she meant to me, and then—
Please let her understand…
First things first. I needed to get her naked, needed to kiss every inch of her succulent skin, needed to taste that delicious pussy, and then…
Unchained: Blood Bond Saga: Volume One Page 22