Tall, Dark and Paranormal: 10 Thrilling Tales of Sexy Alpha Bad Boys

by Opal Carew

  Simone laughed. “What changed your mind?

  He shrugged. “My next column wasn’t due for a while and I didn’t have anything else to edit, so I thought, why not? I had to read a few romance books to get a feel for the genre first, of course. Turns out, it was one of the best career moves I ever made.”

  “Well, you’re very good at what you do.”

  “Thank you.” His mouth curved. “So are you, by the way.”

  The compliment warmed Simone all the way to her toes. She started to thank Drake, but got distracted by his smile. Any guy with a mouth that sensuous had to be a great kisser, she decided, and suddenly had the urge to find out what those lips of his would feel like on hers. She might actually have leaned across the table and planted one on him if he hadn’t spoken.

  “So, what made you want to become a writer?”

  Though it was difficult, she reluctantly forced herself to stop thinking about kissing him and focused her attention on the question instead. “I wanted to be one ever since I took creative writing in high school. Luckily, I had a great teacher who encouraged me to pursue it. She even talked me into submitting some of my short stories to a few magazines. I was thrilled when one of them actually accepted my work.”

  “I can imagine,” Drake said. “I would never have had the courage to do something like that in high school.”

  She doubted that. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy who backed down from any challenge. She gave him a wry smile. “It wasn’t courage as much as mindless, youthful exuberance. That almost got me into trouble, though. I published one short story and was ready to forget about college altogether, sure I was going to be the next Danielle Steele. My parents weren’t quite as sure of my success, however. They talked me into going to college so I could have another career to fall back on.”

  “That sounds like something parents would say.”

  “I wasn’t too thrilled with their advice at the time, but I ended up going to college just to make them happy. I decided to major in journalism and English. That way I could still tell myself I was doing it so I could be a writer.”

  “Your plan obviously worked.”

  “Not at first. Unfortunately writing romance novels took a backseat to getting a job after graduation. I was lucky enough to get one at a cooking magazine, so at least I still did some kind of writing. But it wasn’t the same as writing romance books.”

  He picked up his coffee mug. “Was it tough finding time to work on your books while you were at the magazine?”

  “In the beginning. I had to start at the bottom and work my way up, which meant putting in a lot of ten-hour days and weekends for a long time. But it was worth it. After the first couple of years, my schedule wasn’t so hectic and I got back to writing. It took me a lot longer than I would have liked to finish my first book, but eventually I had a finished manuscript ready to submit to a publisher.”

  “The Gamble, right?” Drake leaned back in his chair and unconsciously assuming a pose so damn sexy she wanted to take a bite out of him right there in the restaurant.

  Simone stifled a groan. If she didn’t get control of herself soon, she was going to start drooling all over the table. “That’s right. Have you read it?”

  “I’ve read all your books.” His mouth twitched. “Purely for research purposes, of course. You have quite the knack for writing some damn erotic sex scenes. You could probably rewrite the Kama Sutra.”

  Simone’s cheeks colored. She wasn’t usually shy when it came to talking about sex scenes, but then again, she’d never discussed them with a guy as hot as Drake. “I’m not so sure about that. And for all my supposed talent, I’d still be stuck without your help.”

  Drake grinned. “No one ever has to know about that. I just gave you a couple of ideas, anyway. You did all the hard work.”

  She didn’t quite agree with him on that, but she didn’t argue. Laughing, she reached for her second iced tea of the afternoon only to realize the glass was empty. Even the ice cubes were gone. She glanced as casually at her watch as she could and was stunned to see it was almost five o’clock. She and Drake had been talking for almost two hours.

  Afraid he might think she wanted to cut their date short if he caught her looking at her watch, Simone quickly lifted her gaze to find him looking down at his own. Or at least she thought that’s what he was doing. But when she caught a strange flash of light, she realized he wasn’t looking at his watch after all. Curious, she leaned forward a little to get a better look and was amazed to see him holding a mirror in his hand. As she watched, he moved his face from side to side ever so slightly, checking out his reflection.

  She frowned. What the heck? Well, she could honestly say she’d never had a guy do anything that strange on a date before. Then again, this was New York, so she supposed she really shouldn’t be surprised. So what if he was a little vain? It wasn’t that big of a flaw really, not compared to some of the issues her other boyfriends had. And she’d said she was going to make more an effort to accept a guy for who he was, faults and all.

  As he slipped the mirror in the pocket of his jeans, she leaned back in her chair to see the waiter coming over to their table, two menus in his hand.

  “I thought maybe you two would like to order something to eat?”

  Simone looked at Drake to find him regarding her questioningly. She wouldn’t mind spending another couple of hours losing herself in those dark eyes of his. And she was certainly hungry. “I could eat.”

  “Sounds good to me,” he agreed.

  Simone took the menu from the waiter, but barely glanced at it. Instead, she spent the time gazing at Drake over the top of it and thinking she’d much rather nibble on him than anything on the menu. But since climbing on his lap right there in the middle of the restaurant was out of the question, she settled for a basic cheeseburger instead. She’d work off the extra calories by going for a long jog in Central Park tomorrow. Or she could just lie awake all night playing with herself while she fantasized about Drake. Oh yeah, that sounded like much more fun.

  Drake ordered a burger, too. While they waited for their dinner to arrive, Simone shook off her erotic fantasies and found herself telling him about what it was like growing up in Connecticut and what a change it had been to move to the big city. While he was obviously interested in what she was saying, she couldn’t help but notice he was checking her out the whole time they talked. In fact, he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her. That was fine with her.

  As the waiter set a slice of cheesecake in front of them a little while later, Simone brought the conversation back around to Drake again, asking if he was originally from New York.

  “Chicago, actually.”

  “So you just moved from one big city to the next, didn’t you? What made you leave the Windy City?”

  He took a forkful of cheesecake. “If you’re going to work in the world of finance, Wall Street is the place to be. Moving here made sense from a professional standpoint.”

  As he went into more detail about that, Simone took another bite of cheesecake and decided she could listen to Drake’s deep, sexy voice for hours. She might have to order a second slice, calories and all, so she could do just that.

  * * * * *

  Drake couldn’t believe he had almost chickened out on the date. He’d made that whole thing up about getting held up in traffic. He’d actually arrived at the restaurant fifteen minutes early. But instead of going inside, he’d stood on the corner watching Simone and trying to work up the courage to approach her.

  With her long, silky hair and captivating blue eyes, she was even more beautiful than her picture. For some reason, that made it even harder for him to walk up to her and introduce himself. While they’d hit it off online, he wasn’t sure they would in person. Besides, a woman as beautiful as she was had to have guys climbing all over each other to go out with her. What made him think she’d be attracted to a part-time zombie?

  When he finally saw her glance down impatien
tly at her watch, he realized what an ass he was being. Simone didn’t deserve to be stood up just because he was a coward. So, he’d grabbed hold of his balls and forced himself to walk into the restaurant. Now, sitting across from her, he had to admit it was the best decision he’d ever made.

  Besides being beautiful, smart, funny, confident and ridiculously easy to talk to, she had to be the sexiest woman he’d ever been around. And he’d been around a lot of women. Just not in eight years.

  He had to stifle a groan as she took another bite of cheesecake. She probably didn’t even realize how big of a turn-on it was when she ran her tongue over her lips like she was doing. She was most likely just making sure to get every last little bit of cake, but to him the gesture was intensely erotic. He shifted in his chair, trying to find a more comfortable position. Damn. Her little show was making him hard as a rock. His jeans tightened even more when she let out a throaty moan after she took another bite of cheesecake. God, what he’d give to hear her make those sexy sounds in his bed. An image of her naked, her hair wild, her face wanton as she rode him while he pumped into her came to mind unbidden and he stifled a groan. Down boy.

  Drake realized abruptly he’d better focus on what he was saying before he came right there in his pants. Or revealed something he shouldn’t. He was so damn comfortable around Simone that he almost slipped up more than once. Like telling her he hadn’t been out of the Upper East Side section of Manhattan in eight years. That would definitely raise a red flag. He couldn’t help it, though. She had him talking about things he hadn’t even thought of in almost a decade. In addition to explaining why he’d moved to New York, he found himself telling her about growing up in Chicago with his family, about going to Bears games in the freezing cold weather and about his decision to go to college for finance. Of course, he left out the part about being cursed by a Voodoo priestess and getting turned into a zombie. That was definitely not conversation for a first date. Talk about way too much information.

  When the waiter came by later to ask if he and Simone wanted more coffee, Drake looked up and saw that it was already dark. He glanced at his watch, stunned it was almost nine o’clock. Damn, they’d been sitting there for six hours. No wonder the waiter kept asking if they wanted something else. If they hung around the café any longer, the man would have to bring them breakfast.

  That was when Drake remembered Beck. Shit, the PI had been sitting in his old Caprice Classic in a parking garage around the corner the whole damn time. The poor guy must be bored out of his mind. On the other hand, Beck was a private investigator, so he was probably used to sitting on stakeouts. At least, Drake sure as hell hoped he was.

  When he and Simone said they didn’t want a refill on the coffee, the waiter cleared the table, then pointedly placed the check in the center of it.

  Across from Drake, Simone smiled. “Do you think he’s trying to tell us something?”

  Drake laughed as he reached into his back pocket for his wallet. As much as he didn’t want the date to end, they couldn’t sit there for the rest of the night. “We probably should go. We’ve been holding the table for hours.”

  Taking out his credit card, he placed it inside the folio without looking at the amount, then left the waiter a big tip when the man brought him the receipt to sign.

  As they walked out of the patio area and onto the sidewalk, Drake automatically placed his hand on the small of Simone’s back. He could feel the warmth of her body through the thin material of her top and his own body temperature rose at the slight contact. He was taken aback at how damn arousing such a simple touch could be. Yet another reminder of what he’d been missing all these years. He reluctantly dropped his hand when she turned to look at him.

  She smiled. “I had a really nice time.”

  His mouth edged up. “Me too. Maybe we could do it again sometime.”

  The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. Shit. What the hell was he thinking? He made it through one date without going all zombie on her. Trying again would be pushing his luck. But the words were already out and there was nothing he could do to take them back. Don’t sweat it, dude. She’s probably just going to turn you down anyway.

  But her smile broadened. “I’d love to.”

  Damn, now what was he going to do? He could just do the standard guy thing and say he’d call her. But he didn’t want to do that. He’d felt more alive in the past six hours than he had in the last eight years. There was no way he could just walk away from that. He weighed his options. If he waited until the weekend, he could end up being in the middle of one of his episodes. It would be safer to go out with her again right away. But that would come off as desperate, wouldn’t it? Shit. It had been so long since he’d dated he didn’t know what even constituted desperate anymore. Ah hell, who was he kidding? He was desperate.

  “How about tomorrow night?” he asked before he could change his mind. “We could go to that Italian place on 49th Street we both like.”

  Drake cringed. Maybe that last part was too much. He’d only been on one date with her. It wasn’t as if they were soul mates or anything. Just because they liked the same restaurant, that didn’t mean she necessarily wanted to go there. She was going to think he was pathetic.

  To his surprise, her blue eyes lit up at the idea. “That would be great. Is seven okay with you?”

  He grinned. Catastrophe averted. “Sounds good.”

  “Great. I’ll meet you there then.”

  Drake wanted to offer to pick Simone up at her apartment, but then realized she might not want him to know where she lived yet. “I’ll be there.”

  She tilted her head to the side and bit her lip in the most enticing way he’d ever seen as she regarded him thoughtfully. “You know, maybe we should exchange numbers, just in case one of us is running late again.”

  Man, he was rustier at the whole dating thing than he’d thought. It hadn’t even occurred to him to exchange phone numbers. Considering he could turn into a zombie at any time, he really should have thought of it. But it wasn’t his fault. Those full, pink lips of hers had distracted him. They looked as soft as pillows and it was all he could do not to tilt her chin up and press his mouth to them just to see if she tasted as sweet as she looked. Unable to resist, he took a step toward her just as she parted her lips. But in his lust-induced haze, he forgot they were standing in the middle of a busy New York sidewalk and was rudely reminded of the fact when a guy in an expensive business suit busted right between them without even bothering to say excuse me. By the time Drake collected himself, the moment had passed and Simone was pulling her cell phone out of her purse and handing it to him.

  “Can I get you a cab?” he asked after he finished punching his number in her phone.

  She glanced at him as she added her number to his phone. “Sure. Thanks.”

  Drake moved to the edge of the curb and hailed the first available taxi that came down the street. When it pulled up to the curb, he opened the back door for Simone.

  She smiled up at him. “Want to share?”

  He was tempted to say yes, just for the chance to spend some more time with her, especially in the close confines of a cab. But Beck was waiting for him around the corner and his friend was probably already going to want to beat the hell out of him for making him wait so long.

  “Sounds like fun, but I have another stop to make before I head home. I’d better just say good night here.”

  She looked a little disappointed at that, but nodded. “Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow night then. Again, I really had a great time.”

  Simone stood gazing up at him, her blue eyes expectant, her lips parted ever so slightly, and Drake wondered again if he should kiss her. Before he could make up his mind, she murmured a quick “goodnight” and ducked into the cab. Damn. Snooze, you lose, dude.

  Drake closed the door, then waited until the cab pulled away from the curb and disappeared into midtown traffic before turning and heading down the street to where Beck
was parked. He owed the other man big. Not just for waiting in his car for hours, but for talking Drake into the date with Simone in the first place. So, what the hell kind of thank-you gift did he buy for a guy who had just given him a whole new reason for living?

  Chapter Five

  When Drake walked up to Beck’s four-door cop car special a few minutes later, he found the PI slouched down in the driver’s seat, his attention fixed on the BlackBerry in his hand. Drake shook his head. He should have known. Beck didn’t go anywhere without his “Crackberry.” Drake had never gotten caught up in the craze himself, mainly because smartphones hadn’t been on the market when he was working on Wall Street. He had to admit they looked cool as hell, but since he didn’t leave his apartment, he really didn’t see the need for one. What would he use it for anyway? His zombie episodes never happened on a strict schedule, so updating the calendar was out. He never shot off the quick, let’s-do-lunch type of emails anymore, so that application would be a waste, too. And the only people he called besides Beck were the take-out joints he ordered from and he had their numbers memorized. All in all, having one wouldn’t make much sense for him.

  Beck glanced at Drake as he opened the passenger door and climbed inside. “I was beginning to think your writer chick had dragged you back to her apartment for a little somethin’ somethin’.”

  Drake almost groaned as an image flashed in his head of Simone doing just that. Considering the way his cock was throbbing, he wasn’t sure he could have waited until they made it back to her apartment. If he’d gotten in that cab with her, he would have been all over her before they had gone a block.

  But of course that scene was never going to play out. Not as long as he was a zombie. He gave Beck a wry look. “As if that’s going to happen.”

  The other man looked up from his BlackBerry. “You on the verge of going zombie on me, dude?”