Burning Days (The Firsts Book 17)

by C. L. Quinn

  He turned, pushed the door closed and lifted her onto a service ledge that brought her crotch level to his.

  “This is a public place,” he whispered.

  “I don’t have a problem with public places,” she whispered back.

  Already unzipped, his pants fell to his ankles when she pushed, releasing his penis from the denim to spring free, rigid, bobbing against her palm, wet.

  “I don’t think you do either.” Ife’s fingers tightened around his cock. “I’m not wearing underwear, Jack.”

  “Oh, fuck…” His hands shot beneath her skirt and slid her near so the tip of his cock pressed to her slit.

  Ife lifted her skirt as both their gazes dropped to watch his cock weeping between her legs.

  Jack’s resistance crumbled and he lifted her buttocks to push into her; rough, too rough, too hard.

  It felt right, perfect, like he was where he should always be, like he was home. Neither had any desire to linger, the contact alone, his cock pounding into her, Ife squeezing his ass to pull him tighter, the movement in and out so quick, both their orgasms came too soon and not soon enough, he exploded into her and she squealed, slapping a hand over her mouth. Her eyes sparkling with amusement, she dropped her hand.

  “Sorry. That was unrestrainable.”

  Collapsed against her, holding her to his chest, Jack laughed. Ife dug in closer to feel his body shake as he did, the pleasure of just feeling him while he laughed a new sensation for her.

  Was there a chance he could be a vampire’s mate?

  “Beautiful naked lady, I can’t make you understand how much I needed that. Not just the sex, I needed that too, but just to touch you. Maybe it’s this ridiculous connection we seem to have so fast, but being with you, Ife…thank you.” He set her back and looked into eyes that he knew he would never forget.

  “Now you have to go and not come back.”

  Ife knew now, she would have to use compulsion to find out his secret, if it really was something that would keep them apart.

  “I’ll go, Jack, and I’ll stay away, on one condition.”

  “No conditions.”

  “One. It won’t compromise my safety, I promise. I want you to come to my house one more time. Just once. Then I won’t ask again.” It was time to discover the truth.

  “No. Ife, no. Let me make sure you stay safe. Let me do what I was trained to do.”

  “One time. Jack. Once. Please.”

  “All right. For now, please go. I’ll stay in here until you’re gone so no one will connect me to you.”

  “Soon, then. Come soon. Oh, and, thank you, too.”

  Ife slipped out the door and closed it behind her.

  Jack waited, long enough to get his clothes back in order and let her get out of the diner. He stood wondering why he had met her when he couldn’t be with her.

  “You’re fucking cruel, fates, or whatever the hell you are. I was happy enough without her.”

  Now, he wasn’t sure he’d ever be happy again if he couldn’t see that impish smile, that perfect body naked for his eyes on a moonlit beach.

  Oh, well, things went the way they might, it wouldn’t be a problem for a dead man.

  Sighing, he opened the door to join his friends and wrap up the night so they could get home and come back to do this fiasco all over again tomorrow.

  The door opened smoothly, and he looked up to see Ife standing near their table beside Sanquinetta.

  The word shocked didn’t even describe how he felt. What the hell…?

  Ife was smiling, but she shook her head. He could see it hadn’t been her idea, so he looked to Sanquinetta.

  “Jack, I saw your friend coming out of that room. She’s the girl you told me about, yeah? Your new girlfriend?”

  “Jack…” Ife began to say, but she was cut off.

  “Now don’t be shy. Jack’s not good at bringing around his new friends.” She tugged Ife to the table where the hunters were finishing up their meals. “Everyone, this is Ife.”

  Jack watched helplessly as Sanquinetta introduced a woman he wanted to protect from his world to all the people in it.

  “Scoot over, Roadkill, let a lady in here.”

  Buzzkill moved his seat much closer to Plato than he’d prefer as Sanquinetta pushed a chair between his and hers.

  “Right here, sweetheart. Jack, get that shell-shocked look off your face and introduce your girlfriend.”

  As he looked at Sanquinetta, his expression darkened.

  She knew he was pissed, had known he would be when she got up to intercept the stranger coming from the little room. She’d been shaken by how stunningly beautiful Jack’s new lover was. He’d claimed her incredible, but a man’s view of a woman’s attractiveness was often guided by how quickly she let him fuck her, and this one had done so the night they met. In this case, though, loathe to admit it, the woman was, hands down, the most gorgeous she’d ever seen.

  When she’d spied Jack pull the unknown woman with him and close the door, she knew Jack too well, knew who it had to be. She also knew he’d fucked her while they were in there.

  It hurt to see her, hurt to see them, but curiosity stung more. She wanted to see this woman Jack was falling in love with. He wouldn’t admit that, he probably didn’t even know it, but it was what was happening.

  What did she have that Sanquinetta didn’t? This wasn’t a jealously or confidence thing, Sanquinetta was fabulous, she knew that, but Jack was falling in love with this white-haired witch when he’d never fallen in love with her.

  So when she saw the woman exit alone, she’d grabbed her.

  Deal with it, Jack, she thought.

  “So go ahead.”

  Jack didn’t respond to Sanquinetta’s request, but Jack’s woman smiled and took a moment to connect her gaze to each man around the table, then came back to Jack. Her smile widened when she saw the stricken expression on his face.

  Sanquinetta approved. The woman was no milquetoast.

  “My name is Ife. It is a pleasure to meet all of you. Jack and I are, as this beautiful woman said, new friends. Very new, but we find we enjoy each other. I came here for dinner tonight unaware that he would be here, so that’s all this is. I’m trying to get to know Jack, but he’s very secretive, so if anyone would like to share any tales with me?”

  Each man leaned closer, popped off quick greetings to her when she was finished, but no one answered her final question.

  A handsome man younger than Jack that reminded her of him must be his brother, she realized.

  “You’re Ben?”

  “I’m Ben and I apologize for my insensitive brother, hasn’t told any of us about you.”

  “He doesn’t have much to tell. We’ve only seen each other two times before today.”

  “Shame on him.”

  “I don’t know what you all do, but I am to understand it’s less than a safe occupation?” Ife posed her comment as a question, but received an unsatisfactory answer.

  Plato was the one who responded. “Sometimes. Often.”

  “Huh. Well, be careful. Even at the best of times the world can be dangerous.”

  “Truer words, honey,” Sanquinetta agreed.

  Up until that moment, Jack had remained quiet and still, but he pushed his chair back hard and fast, the legs screeching against Quesh’s tile floor.

  “Ife needs to get home. Excuse me while I walk her out.”

  Sanquinetta stood, squaring off with him. “But we’re just getting to know each other.”

  Jack stared her down. “Some other time. She understands that we’ve all had a hard day and we’re heading home now to rest.”

  Ife had moved between them before either realized she’d moved at all.

  “Jack’s right. Sanquinetta, all of you, it’s been great to see that Jack works with such fine people. I hope we can all get together sometime.”

  “Okay, I’ll walk you out.” Jack touched Sanquinetta’s sleeve. “There will be a conversation.”r />
  “I would expect so.”

  Taking her hand, Jack led Ife through the small dining room, out the door, and back into the night.

  “Ife, what the hell?”

  “It was your girlfriend, Jack. She was both curious and jealous.”

  “Girlfriend? San? Hardly.”

  “You might want to have that discussion you mentioned with her about that. Jack, I admit that I was curious too, and when she pulled me over to your table, I didn’t resist.”

  Ife captured his eyes with hers. “I can’t help but want to know more about you. I like you, Jack.”

  His hard stance fell and he pulled her into his arms. His fingers tangled into the strands of her ponytail, tugging on the satin smoothness over and over. “I like you too.”

  As he stroked her hair, he wished he didn’t like her so much. Life was much easier to lose when there was no one left behind.

  She pulled away. “Jack, you’ll come as you promised?”

  “I’ll come.”

  “Soon.”

  “Soon. Go home, beautiful.”

  “I will, and Jack, I want you to imagine this. It’s warm tonight so I’m going home to swim naked in the ocean.”

  With that, he watched Ife walk away, slide into the seat of a pricey classic gas-powered convertible, and drive into the dark.

  She didn’t hear the deep groan she left behind.

  Returning to the table, meals skeletonized, Jack caught his brother’s eyes. “I’m going home. All of you, get there too. We have another long day waiting for us in the morning.”

  Moving quickly, Jack was out of the diner again, surprised when Ben grabbed his arm.

  “Wait a minute.”

  “Ben, let’s do this tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, sure, but, Bro, why the hell wouldn’t you tell me you have a girlfriend?”

  Facing Ben, Jack folded his arms. “Hunters don’t have girlfriends, that’s why. And right now, if we did, they’d be targets. That’s why I didn’t tell you, tell anybody, about that woman. We were together one time, and you can see she’s too good for me. It’s over. Ben, I can barely think right now, and neither can you. Let’s go home.”

  Ben nodded. “I’m with you, Bro.”

  He was. As they walked to their vehicles, Ben thought about the waitress at a busy breakfast bar in Eugene he frequented. The pancakes were exceptional, but they weren’t why he went so often. Polly was slight and sweet with huge amber eyes that he fell into every time he looked into them. That had been his secret; that he’d been getting up at three a.m. every morning to travel to another city because he was falling in love.

  He’d already decided that he wasn’t going tomorrow.

  IN EUGENE, DOWNTOWN

  The late seating at Applebee’s was packed, not unusual for a Friday night. Eugene’s Skyscraper City, the largest in Oregon, housed over 300,000 people. The wait was about an hour for most new arrivals.

  When a six foot four walking sex god pushed through the waiting room with a small woman on his heels, all he did was whisper to the host and they were seated immediately at a prime table on the balcony overlooking elaborate water fountains.

  Gracious, Saul thanked him.

  “Your waiter will be right with you.”

  “Please.” Saul glanced at the tables around them. “Oh, kid, can you get us a couple of bottles of wine?”

  He looked at the woman. “I assume you like wine?”

  “Sure. Yeah, whatever you want.”

  His look of surprise and disdain lifted to the host.

  “The wine will be fine.”

  Saul glanced back at the young woman. “We can speak freely. These people won’t pay us any attention.”

  “It’s your funeral.”

  Her voice was pleasant, he thought, but her manner verbose and aggressive. He found it grating, but this was business, not pleasure.

  “So you were successful.”

  Her eyes, an odd marbled gray, bore into him.

  “Of course.”

  “Of course,” Saul repeated, amazed that anyone thought this attitude appropriate for conducting business.

  She finally spoke up without prompting.

  “With the images you provided and recognition software so exceptional and accurate, I could probably track those two men back to when they were in diapers.”

  “Impressive, but that won’t be necessary. I just need the addresses and affiliations I requested.”

  “On this c.t. is everything you asked for.”

  She handed him a small information device which he pocketed. “I guess you really are as good as I’ve been told.”

  “I guess I am. That’ll be 10 thousand.”

  Lifting his fone, Saul pressed a few numbers. “I’ve had it ready since we arrived. Thank you, Evaleigh. You’ve helped justice prevail. These hunters think it is okay to kill us, that it isn’t murder. It must be addressed.”

  She didn’t say anything following his declaration, so he continued. “This is a good start.”

  Curious about this tiny slip of a girl, he watched her perusing the menu. She was perhaps thirty, couldn’t be higher than five-three, thick blonde hair pulled into a single braid that reached to her waist. No makeup, but it wasn’t needed with her strikingly smooth cream-colored skin. Human. Obviously brilliant.

  She dressed like she’d had no choice in her clothes; a shirt and pleated skirt that didn’t match, knee-high boots in 80 degree weather. Tattoos circled her wrists, delicate vines on one and on the other what looked like a tattooed charm bracelet. He couldn’t make out what was on the charms.

  “You’re a fascinating woman.”

  Evaleigh looked up sharply from the menu she’d been immersed in. “Don’t even think about taking a bite. You’ll choke on me.”

  Saul lifted his eyebrows. “Ah, well, then I suppose I’d better order the salmon tray.”

  “Yeah, I guess you’d better.”

  He noticed her attention on the menu strayed to him and then her flanks. So she was watching for possible trouble. Smart.

  Evaleigh kept glancing at this vampire she’d been contracted to help. One of her trusted regulars had signed off on him.

  He was hotter than hell, but most vampires were. What intrigued her was the quiet demeanor, a gentlemanly-like manner that made her think of an old phrase her grandmother used to say—Still waters run deep.

  His hair was dark blonde, which was unusual, as well as the full beard kept neatly trimmed that looked like it hid a strong jawline.

  She’d never been with a vampire; never crossed that line from human to anything else. Never wanted to. Still, he made her wonder… No!

  That was a dangerous thought. No vampires. Ever.

  “Good,” the sexy vampire seated across from her said, and she had to think back to their conversation to remember what he meant.

  He continued. “We’ll have a nice meal, I’ll take my intel and you can run along and do whatever it is you do. Everyone is happy. Order anything you want. It’s on me.”

  She scoffed and got a strange look from him.

  “Sorry, uh, yeah, thanks.”

  Like he was going to pay for it or something. Vampires didn’t pay unless they had to. She always kept someone nearby who couldn’t be compromised by compulsion to verify payment. Malcolm had just texted her that the payment was valid.

  Either way, she ordered the most expensive items on the menu, beginning with a rare wine.

  “Excellent choices,” the vampire she was dining with commented. What was his name? Oh, yeah, Saul. She rolled the name on her tongue a few times. Saul, Saul, Saul. Not bad.

  “Yeah, a girl’s gotta eat.”

  Once the appetizers arrived, she’d ordered four, they began to eat, conversation at a minimum. Evaleigh was certain they looked like an ill-chosen mismatched blind date…the elegant cultured man and the off-the-chain generational throwback with bad taste.

  When their meals arrived, conversation resumed.

>   She tasted the ridiculously priced wine she’d ordered and found she enjoyed it. He showed her how to appreciate the flavors on her tongue and the importance of drawing in the bouquet. She finally got some of the subtleties of wine appreciation she’d missed.

  He turned out to have a clever, wicked sense of humor. After three full glasses of the dark wine, she laughed at several stories he told, and more disturbing, she found herself looking into his cinnamon eyes, dangerous as fuck, she knew that.

  They turned out to have quite a bit in common, which surprised the shit out of her.

  On the way home on her jetbike an hour later, Evaleigh would have to admit to herself that she’d enjoyed his company more than she would have believed possible.

  “Saul!” she yelled into the wind. “Figures!”

  At Hunter HQ

  “Are you as whipped as I am? Thank God we don’t have any other vampire clans to chase down right now.”

  Jack stopped in front of Sanquinetta.

  “What the hell was that last night, San?”

  She had the grace to look regretful.

  “A lapse, my friend. Please forgive me. A lady gets a little nonplussed when she realizes that a woman is so much prettier than she is. I got a little jealous, okay?”

  “I don’t get that. Jealous? We’re not…I mean, you aren’t…are you?”

  Sanquinetta looked around the room, grateful they were the only two there. “Look, you know I like you, right? I mean, we have a special relationship. Right?”

  “We do, I’ve always valued how well we get along, how perfectly in sync we are. But…are you saying that you want to…”

  “No! No. I mean, yes, but we work together and that would never be a good idea, but damn’t, Jack, yeah, I would go down on you in a heartbeat if it weren’t. You turn me on, you never got that? And why the hell haven’t I ever turned you on? What does she got I don’t?”

  This conversation was off the rails. Holy shit, he’d had no idea. San and him? It just never occurred to him. She was a hunter, one of the best, like one of the guys, and he did really care about her.