Yeah. I remembered. I remembered so well a quick shiver raced down my body like a blast of hot air. Yum. I bobbed my head in dimwitted affirmation.
“And everyone smells, err…I mean, has a scent. Yours is…” he inhaled through his nose, “…nice. Kind of flowery, with maybe a hint of shea nut, maybe vanilla too.”
“That’s my shampoo.”
“It’s nice.”
“Thanks.” Weird conversation. “You really thought I was the one killing those women?”
He looked away, his mouth opening and shutting twice before he finally said, “I…I thought you might’ve had something to do with it. Yeah.”
“What do you think now?”
“I think…I think you’re a great girl and that you should let me worry about it.” He pulled the key from the ignition. “Mind if I walk you all the way up? I’d feel better if I can check the place. Make sure you’re safe, before I take off.”
“No. I’d appreciate it. Thanks.” I pushed open the truck door and hopped out, ignoring the way my stomach wobbled at the thought of him in my apartment again. I came around the front of the truck and met him on the sidewalk. “I can help figure out who’s doing this, you know. I am an investigative journalist, after all. With, I might add, the power to suggest people, including vampires, do whatever I want. Could come in handy. Especially with the cops.”
“Could also make you a target, bring you to the notice of others like it did tonight.” He followed up the steps behind me, waiting while I unlocked the front door. We stepped inside, letting the door slam closed behind us. “Besides, I’m not all that concerned about the police. If they do connect me to the murders, I have my own skill set that’ll help me deal with them. My worry isn’t the police but the donors. If they get wind someone’s targeting Il Piccolo Morso’s human customers, they’ll stop coming.”
I winced at him over my shoulder, leading the way up the inside stairs to my apartment. “Oh. Yeah, I can see how that’d be bad for business.”
“Screw the business. You don’t get to my age without accumulating a comfortable retirement fund. No. It’s more than business. It’s about blood.” He held out his hand for the key when we reached my door. I gave it to him, and he unlocked the door, then gestured with a raised hand and a point that I should wait there while he checked the place. I did.
Minutes later he was back, holding open my door as I entered. “Nice parting line. But what’d you mean it’s about blood?”
He hung my keys on my kitty key holder and locked the door—all three locks—straightened the cross above the threshold and repositioned the string of garlic cloves so it hung over the door. Answered my question about garlic.
“My club and others like it over the centuries are the only things that have kept our races from wiping each other out. We need fresh infusions of blood, Sophie.” He followed me the two steps to the corner then on into my living room. I tossed the little red purse into the dress box still sitting on my coffee table while Alex went around and collapsed his muscled, wonderfully male body onto my couch.
His blond bangs flopped over his eyes with his bounce. “If vampires can’t get those infusions in a safe, mutually agreeable manner like my club, then they’ll get it however they can. My club allows humans who want to donate, for whatever reason”—I knew the reason—“to make themselves available to vampires. And avoids vampires taking blood from someone who prefers not to…share.”
I perched on the edge of the couch beside him, careful to keep the high hem of my skimpy dress from riding any higher. Knees together. “So you’re afraid this will start a panic that could spread to other clubs?”
“It’s happened before. Not here, but in other countries. During the vampire hunts in Europe. It won’t end well for either side.”
“You think it’s humans again?”
He shook his head, leaned forward bracing his forearms on his knees. “I don’t know. It could be someone with a personal grudge against me, I guess.”
“Like Octavius.”
“But I haven’t seen him in more than a hundred years. Why now? Why risk unmasking our entire race by draining the bodies the way he did?”
“Maybe he didn’t know where you were until now,” I said. “Didn’t you say a vampire can get lost in the fabric of time? Maybe it took him this long to find you and now he’s trying to call you out.”
“Maybe.” He swung his gaze to me and I was suddenly, acutely aware of how close we sat. “But how’s he doing it? He’d have difficulty draining a human once, let alone four times so close together. And how’s he leaving my mark on them? I mean, I never touched those girls. I haven’t touched anyone in that way since…”
I knew how his sentence would’ve ended if he’d finished. Since Elizabeth. I put my hand on his knee, wishing I could take away the pain of those memories. “If he has your ring…”
Alex pushed to his feet. “He doesn’t. I wasn’t that careless. I handed it to the time-capsule committee chairman myself. He was a weasel-faced man. Tall, with blond hair and thick wire-framed glasses. I remember distinctly. I watched him place my ring in the box with the other items.”
I stood beside Alex. “Did you watch them seal the box?”
“Yes.” He blinked, seemed to think better on it. “No. I’m not sure. No. I guess not, but I lived a block down from the cathedral. I helped with the planning and the ceremony. I was there nearly every day. I would’ve seen Octavius.”
“Not if you didn’t know to look for him. You thought he was still in Europe, didn’t you?”
Alex nodded, his brow puckered tight over blazing blue eyes. “I often wondered if he’d been captured and killed in the vampire slayings.”
“Clearly he wasn’t.”
“Yes, but why would he act now? He did nothing after that night Elizabeth cut off his… I never saw him again. If he wanted revenge why not strike back then, when he knew where we were? Why not act while Elizabeth was still on this earth? What does he achieve now?”
I shrugged. “Who knows? I don’t speak crazy. Maybe she scared the crap out of him when she cut off his berries. Maybe it took this long to grow a new pair.”
Alex swung a pitiful look my way. “They won’t grow back.”
“Yeah. I figured.” I tried to hide the shudder crawling up my spine at the thought. “I was speaking metaphorically. Listen, we’ll figure this out. I’ve got connections at the college and down at city hall. There’s gotta be some official record of what they put in that capsule. And who knows, maybe we’ll get lucky and find some old photos of Octavius sneaking around the build site like they do in the movies, to prove he was there.”
“We are never photographed,” he said, as though it wasn’t even possible.
Was it? “Is that a vampire thing? Y’know, no soul, no reflection in mirrors, invisible on film.”
Alex gave me a look that I imagine many a lithium patient must see on a daily basis. “Uh…no. It’s just not wise to be captured on film when you don’t age.”
“Oh. That. Well, yeah.” Look at that. I do speak crazy. “Still, we might get lucky.”
“We will do nothing of the sort.” He took me by the shoulders so our bodies were squarely facing each other, then raised my chin with the crook of his finger. “You will drop this investigation and keep yourself from notice. If Octavius is behind these murders, there’s no telling to what depths of depravity he’ll sink. I won’t have you caught in his deranged world. Understood?”
Kinda cute how he thought that would actually work. “Oh, yeah. Sure. You bet.”
I tried to keep sincerity in my eyes when our gazes met. It worked. He smiled, assured, then reached to brush a disobedient curl from my forehead. “Your hair’s so short.”
“You like long hair.” I remembered Octavius’s comment.
His shoulders lifted slightly, a half-hearted shrug. “Depends on the woman. There are no rules to beauty.” His gaze went to that curl again. “The color is…remarkable.”
“Where were you when I was thirteen?”
Amusement shook a quiet laugh through his chest before his attention turned to my mouth. He traced his thumb along my lower lip, so light and tender it sent a cool tingle over my skin, raising the fine hairs all over my body. My breath shuddered with my exhale, a million butterflies fluttering in my belly. I licked my lips on reflex, accidentally touching his thumb with the tip of my tongue.
He stilled for an instant, as though the sensation did wonderful, dangerous, things to his being. Then his chest swelled with his breath and life returned to him. “There’s something about you, Sophie. Why do I find you such a fascinating temptation?”
“My winning personality?” The soft shaky sound of my voice ruined the humor, though Alex’s face still lit with his smile.
“Perhaps that’s it.” Holding my chin pinched between the crook of his finger and thumb, his other hand smoothed down my arm then slipped to my waist. The heat of his palm warmed against the bare flesh at the small of my back. Gentle pressure nudged me closer as he slipped his hand from my chin to cup my cheek, then tunneled through my hair to the back of my neck.
Our bodies came together, my breasts crushed against the hard lines of his chest, my hips nestled against his and the stiff ridge of his arousal pressing a line along my belly. His smile melted in the heat of his eyes, desire lowering his lids, softening the line of his lips. “For more than one hundred years I’ve not fed on a living human being. I’ve not touched a woman in the throes of blood lust. But now—with you… What is it about you that makes me think of nothing else?”
I swallowed hard unsure how to answer or even if I should. My hands had found the muscled rounds of his biceps, their strength cradling me against his body. Anticipation tingled over my lips, made me lick them, thoughts of his mouth pressed to mine filling my head. But he didn’t move, neither toward a kiss, nor away from it. And when I looked into his eyes I could see the inner battle deciding one course or the other.
“Maybe.” I kept my voice a quiet whisper. “Because it’s all I’ve been thinking about too.”
His lips edged closer, his gaze dropping to my mouth, then hesitated. His fingers caressed the back of my head under my hair. The sensation relaxed muscles in every part of my body even as it sent a wash of heat tingling through my sex. God, I loved the way he touched me.
“Do you know? Do you understand what it is I want to do to you?” His breath warmed across my mouth, the hint of wine and some other tempting spice I couldn’t name filled my nose, rippled down my throat to breeze through my lungs.
“Yes. You…you want to take my…blood.”
He lifted his chin and pressed a kiss to my forehead. The skin beneath his lips warmed instantly with a heat that went beyond simple body temperature. It seemed to ripple all along my skin working its way through my body like a drug. “That’s right. But do you understand what the feel of it will do to us?”
I swallowed again, my eyes closed, my nose brushing under his chin breathing in the sweet powdery scent of his cologne, his lips feathering against my forehead. “Blood lust.” The words were barely audible.
“Lust. Raw and powerful. To lose all abandon. You won’t be able to stop. You must be sure, Sophie…now.” He leaned back just enough to watch my face.
I nodded, uncertain my voice would be heard. “I’m sure.” I held my breath.
His gaze focused on my mouth again and my lips parted an instant before he pressed his kiss. The taste of him filled my mouth, cinnamon and sweet wine, the flavor swirled over my tongue, warmed down my throat like a fine liqueur. Delicious heat spread like a blaze gone wild, burning me up from the inside, igniting every nerve ending, awakening my body so my muscles pulled tight, need coiled low and my thighs trembled.
His muscles flexed under my hands pulling me closer, tighter. His kiss deepened and my mind swam with the feel of his tongue exploring my mouth, his fingers denting my back, gripping my head, holding me…like prey. I felt consumed and wanted more, but he pulled himself back, trailing his lips along my cheek, nibbling my ear, teasing his teeth over my neck.
I shuddered, each scrape of his teeth sending a fast pulse through my sex. Hot and wet with lust, I squirmed in his arms, fumbling with the buttons down his shirt. Alex pulled back enough to help, shrugging the white cotton off his shoulders, allowing only a moment for me to work his belt and zipper before his hands slipped up to my shoulders.
I unfastened the button of his slacks so they loosened around his narrow hips just as he hooked his fingers on the edge of my dress and slid the red elastic tube off my shoulders and down my arms, letting it fall down my legs to pool on the floor around my feet. I was left wearing only a pair of lace boy-cut panties and my high-heeled shoes. Both matched the dress. The neckline had been too low to allow for a bra.
Alex’s blue eyes took me in, lingering over me from head to toe as though a picture were being drawn in his mind. My heart thundered in my chest, muscles so tight my breaths came in soft, shallow pants. I wanted his lips on mine again, his arms around me, the heat of his hard body pressed to mine.
“Alex…” I fought not to squirm under the intensity of his gaze. His eyes met mine and the heat of his stare nearly took my breath. He swept in and pressed another searing kiss to my lips then bent lower to capture my breast in his mouth.
I gasped as the warmth of his venom penetrated through the pores on the sensitive flesh. The gentle massage of his hand turned my knees to rubber. I wrapped my arm around his head, held him to me as he suckled my breast, tugging the hard nipple into his mouth.
Would he bite me there? A wave a desire swamped through me and I moaned out loud at the thought, arching my back, pressing my flesh deeper into his mouth. I wanted to feel his teeth sink into me, to feel the rush of blood as it spilled from my body into his.
Somewhere in the distant parts of my brain, I felt his hands at my hips, the soft chafe of my lace panties sliding down my thighs, tickling the tops of my feet, hooking on my high heels. I shifted to toe off my shoes, but Alex’s arm clutched around my waist, stilled me instantly.
“Leave them on,” he said, his voice rough and sexy. He gazed up at me, the scruff of his day-old beard scraping my nipple as he spoke. My breath caught at the maddening mix of pain and pleasure, and all I could do was nod.
He lowered his face to my body again, kissing and nipping, the teasing promise of his bite spinning my mind, churning a firestorm of desire through my veins. He tasted my body, kissing the bottom round of my breast, slipping lower to the tip of my breastbone, then lower still to my belly. He sank to his knees and finally, in a heart-stopping instant, he pressed a kiss to the coarse hairs at my sex. With a firm wet lick, he traced his tongue between the sensitive lips. The sensation buckled my knees and in a move far too quick and fluid for me to track, he stood, scooping me into his arms, driving me backwards toward my bedroom. I wrapped my legs around his waist, my high heels catching his back, snagging the belt loop of his slacks.
An instant later Alex was on top of me, his body pinning me to my mattress. He kissed me hard, driving his tongue into my mouth, filling me with the taste of him, the heady burn of his venom. I arched my hips, felt the hard line of his erection trapped beneath layers of cloth. My skin hummed with the feel of his kiss pulsing through my veins, my body moist and ready for him. I reached for his slacks, the tight elastic of his underwear…and pushed.
Alex ground his hips against me, triggered my body to push back, wanting the hardness of him to fill me. I pushed at his clothes again, nudged them to the highest curve of his ass. His stiff sex and the press of his body against mine kept the material from slipping lower.
Enough. I wanted him inside me and with a small point of my high-heeled shoe, I snagged underwear and slacks alike, and shoved them down his thick muscled legs.
Alex pushed up on stiff arms, shifting his legs, kicking and pulling himself free of his clothes. His erection thudded against my groin, brushing throug
h the hairs at my sex again and again. I reached down and took hold, feeling his thickness, caressing his length. Alex stilled for a moment, then rocked his hips, enhancing my strokes.
His was thick and long, but the velvet skin wasn’t as taut as it could be, it wrinkled and gathered at the head moving with my hand. His body didn’t possess enough blood, his heart too weak and slow to flood his penis. He was hard enough to do the job, but he’d never reach satisfaction this way.
I flicked my gaze to his and found him staring into my eyes, reading me.
“More than a hundred years?” I asked.
His lips swept into one of those amused smiles you give a child who’s just said something cute. “It still feels good. Just not…complete.”
“Why’d you wait so long?”
“The last time I indulged my blood lust, my lover cut off the testicles of another man and was lost to me forever. She wouldn’t allow me to feed from her and had no interest in sex without feeding. When she was finally taken from this world, my lust went with her. I’ve met no one in the interim who stirred my desire so greatly my want overshadowed the sorrow of that night—overshadowed the loss of her.”
He rocked his hips back so I lost my hold on him, then lowered his body to mine, sealing us from chest to sex. The smooth head of his penis nudged against my entrance and my legs parted wider in reflex. He nestled his hips between my thighs and pressed a kiss to my lips that stole my breath and dizzied my mind.
I wanted him to finish his answer, to say he’d met no one he wanted enough, until me, but when his thick, firm sex pushed into mine, spreading me, filling me, the need of his words skittered from my brain. A breath-stealing jolt zapped through my body as the length of him nudged the end of me. The sensation was bliss and I held my breath, the two of us stretching the moment. He began to move.
His body slipped in and out of me, drawing friction, teasing nerves, tightening a coil of pleasure deep inside me. He moved faster, rocking his hips, stroking the most sensitive flesh of my body. Wave after wave of pleasure tingled over my skin, glittered through my mind. Muscles tightened, a tempting pressure pushed me toward release. I’d come this way, but I’d come alone. I didn’t want that.
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