by Terry Spear
But would she feel that way if Levka turned her? Even now, he could barely control the urge to make her his. He couldn’t believe how little restraint he’d had on the dance floor with her.
Vlad penetrated Levka’s dark thoughts. “Have you showed her your canines yet? Oh, but you must have because you’ve tasted her blood. And how did you ever manage that? She is…” He licked his lips. “She is resistant to our vampiric charms. I couldn’t decide if that appealed to me or not. Then after a year of trying to give her up, I decided it did. After all, one of her kind is very rare. Don’t you agree?”
Levka ignored Vlad as Ruric returned with a tray of drinks.
“Vlad looks like he’s wearing lipstick,” Caitlin said low to Levka.
He glanced back at Vlad and scowled. “Wipe your face!”
Vlad smiled, showing his extended bloodied canines.
Turning to see Caitlin’s reaction, Levka was relieved Arman had distracted her.
Arman said, “You see, Caitlin, a pair of the same cards beats a single. And three of a kind…”
“Thanks,” Levka said privately to Arman.
Ruric shared, “The bastard needs to be put out of his misery and shipped off to outer space.”
“By his own league, not us,” Levka warned.
“If these were the good old days…,” Stasio said.
“But they are not. And unless he attempts to kill one of us, we can do nothing about him.” Though if Levka caught him trying to turn Caitlin, he wouldn’t be able to control his anger.
“Or if he attempts to reveal what he is to a ship full of passengers,” Stasio said.
Levka glanced in Vlad’s direction, but he was gone. Relieved, Levka turned to watch Arman giving card game instructions to Caitlin, but noticed she quickly wiped a tear away. Had Vlad upset her?
Arman stopped speaking and looked at Levka as if he wasn’t sure how to proceed.
For a moment, Caitlin attempted a smile, then sipped on her drink and promptly choked. “I’m sorry,” she managed to get out between coughs.
“What’s wrong, Caitlin?” Levka ran his hand over hers.
She shook her head. “I…I guess it’s late enough to call it a night. We have an early morning excursion to Grenada.”
“Is it the cards?” Ruric asked Levka and his friends. “Not once has she joined in on the games. She says she’d rather watch, but every time she does, she seems bothered.”
Levka pulled her up from the sofa. “I think you’re right, Ruric. I should have been more observant.” He sighed. “I wish she’d said something before about this.”
The guys all rose from their seats.
“Let me just finish my drink,” Caitlin said.
“She’s been careful to hide her distress before this,” Arman offered.
Her hand trembled, and Levka squeezed it. “I’ll take Caitlin to her stateroom.”
“And then what?” Ruric asked.
Everyone looked at him as he raised his brows. “I am her mate, so she has confirmed.”
Arman shook his head and collapsed on the chair.
Ruric bowed. “I knew you’d make her yours.”
“Off to another life-threatening adventure,” Stasio said.
“Doesn’t anyone want my opinion on the matter?” Arman asked. “I don’t think…”
“No!” the others said in unison, as Levka guided Caitlin out of the lounge.
Levka was torn as to what to do next. He couldn’t take Caitlin for his mate as much as he wanted without alerting the Dallas league. But he couldn’t leave her alone in her stateroom to face Vlad who would continue to try and get her alone. Vlad would take her forcibly now that she’d chosen Levka over him if Vlad got the chance. Levka just couldn’t let him have the chance.
“I’m sorry about messing up your card game and upsetting Arman,” she finally said as she handed her key to Levka.
He unlocked her door, remaining quiet, hoping she’d confide in him.
“He’s a good teacher, and I don’t want him to think he upset me.”
“But?” Levka opened her door.
She looked up at him with teary eyes and attempted a smile, but she couldn’t hide her grief from him.
He urged her into the room and sat her down on the pink sofa. “What upsets you about playing cards?”
She shook her head. “You’ll think I’m a psychological mess. I’d rather you didn’t.”
“No. I won’t. You’ve had a terribly traumatizing experience, and it wasn’t all that long ago.” He sat beside her and pulled her against his chest. “What upsets you about playing cards?” he repeated. He couldn’t help trying to coax it out of her using his vampiric charm. It was as natural for him as taking a breath of air, despite the fact he knew she could resist his abilities no matter how hard he tried.
Was it that she was such a challenge that intrigued him so?
“Sometimes you sound like my psychiatrist,” she confided, “coaxing, insistent, caring.”
Inwardly, he groaned. A psychiatrist indeed.
She took a deep breath. “A year ago, my foster dad loaned my father his yacht. They had sailed for years together. My father was a good seaman, but the storm came up suddenly. We…” She looked away. “…we didn’t stand a chance.”
“How long were you in the water?”
“Two days. The nights were hardest. The first night…that was the worst. Lightning struck all around me, lighting up the sky, showing me the wreckage, but no signs of my parents or sister. I was all alone. After the accident, I wasn’t right in the head,” she said.
“You suffered a terrible tragedy.”
“I could hardly sleep, and when I managed to fall asleep, I’d have the same night terrors, the black ocean, sharks swimming nearby, bumping me, getting ready to take a bite out of me on the next pass. No water to drink, the sun beating down on me during the day, blistering my face and arms, the return of the wind and cold at night, but worse, my family was gone.”
He’d seen enough horror in all his years of living and could imagine the terror she must have felt, adrift at sea after losing her family, all alone.
“I didn’t speak for a long time. I was a mess. My friends quit writing to me. They couldn’t understand what I had gone through. They didn’t know what I needed to get me through the pain. I didn’t either.” She gave a small laugh. “I felt I would have been better off if I had drowned.”
Rubbing her arm, he tried to console her, wishing he could share how much he understood. “They think that after a year you should be perfectly fine.”
“Yeah. Like all the horror should be behind you.”
“It takes time.” A lifetime or several, he should know. He wanted to tell her he’d be her friend for all eternity. He wanted her like he’d wanted Cassandra, but he couldn’t take her into his dark life. “It’ll get better,” was all he could say.
Caitlin looked at the door.
“What’s wrong?” But Levka knew what was wrong. Vlad was communicating privately with Caitlin. She stiffened in his arms.
“I wish I could block his talking to me,” she said softly.
She could, if she became one of them. But even then, it would take some time for her to learn all their ways.
“What does he want?” As if Levka didn’t know.
“For me to invite him in.”
“And you mustn’t.”
She shook her head. “You’re my mate. You’re the only one I would invite in.”
Levka kissed her cheek. “He won’t give up trying.”
“He can try all he wants, but I’m not letting him in my stateroom.” Smiling, she leaned over and kissed Levka's lips.
Her mouth felt velvety against his, sweet from the sugary soda she’d sipped. He ran his fingers through her raven curls and luxuriated in the feel of the silky strands. Her jasmine fragrance called to him. Her pulse quickened, sending his hormones into turmoil. Gritting his teeth, he fought extending his canines.
&nb
sp; Being here alone with her in her stateroom was so not a good idea. Yet what alternative did he have? He couldn’t leave her alone. In fact, for the rest of the trip, he couldn’t chance having Vlad get her by herself.
Yet her actions, and his, were driving him over the edge.
“Caitlin…” He meant to tell her she needed to go to bed, that he needed to cool his heated blood down, but when she licked his lips, he groaned in defeat instead.
He deepened the kiss as her fingers undid the tie around his hair. She was everything he was not, lightness to his dark, innocence where he no longer had any, trusting when he was not to be trusted. Growling low, he bit back a curse and pulled away.
Her hands dropped away from his shoulders. He’d hurt her feelings when he’d rather die than do so, but if he took their relationship any farther, he’d make her one of his kind, and that would hurt her more.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, the hurt evident in the softness of her voice.
“Nothing.” Except he’d lost control of his canines again. He took her hands and kissed them. “You’re so beautiful, so precious to me. You have to believe me when I say this.”
The bewildered look on her face indicated she didn’t believe him at all.
He wanted to kiss her cheek, to assure her in a more chaste way, but he couldn’t chance getting too involved again. Already the sweet blood racing through her veins called to him like an aphrodisiac. Already his canines itched to sink into her neck, to take her blood, share his blood with her, and link them together forever.
“I…I was too forward, wasn’t I?” She stood.
“No, dear Caitlin. It has nothing to do with you.”
“Is there someone else? Someone back in Texas?” Folding her arms, she tried to look like a soldier, straight and strong, but her lip quivered, giving her away.
Feeling like a slug, Levka rose from the couch, but kept the distance between them. If she saw what he was, she’d surely have a stroke. And because of her telepathic abilities, he couldn’t control her mind or wipe her memories if he had to.
“There is no one else. Although I did lose a girl I loved several years ago.”
Her brows rose.
“A couple of years ago,” he amended.
“Ruric mentioned her.”
“Yes, well I have not felt anything for a girl since. Not until I met you.”
“Oh.” She looked so forlorn, he couldn’t endure not giving her a quick embrace, just to reassure her, he told himself.
Closing the distance between them, he gathered her in his arms, and she returned the embrace. Soft, warm, cuddly, and needy. What was he do to with her? He couldn’t let Vlad have her, and he couldn’t take her for his own without the Dallas league’s permission. Until he and his friends proved their worth, he feared the league wouldn’t go along with his taking her for a mate.
“You don’t think I’m a clinging vine, do you? Too many troubles? Too insecure?”
He kissed her head and tightened his hold. “You’re perfect.” For me, he wanted to add.
She ran her fingers over his back. “I…I was playing cards with my eleven-year-old sister, Tanya, when the storm began. Dad told me to stay with her and keep her from getting scared. I…I wanted to help my father. Mother went up to aid him as the yacht slammed into the pitch black waves. I knew the boat would soon break in two. I knew it like I knew I could never win at chess against my little sister. Tanya was a much better actress than me. She talked away about what we’d do when we got home, about how she had a new friend at school who wanted to start an online newsletter club with her. She was the one who tried to calm me.
“I made her put on a lifejacket when I could no longer hear my mother and father’s voices shouted above the wind. The lights went out on the yacht, and when the boat rolled on its side I grabbed my sister’s hand. Somehow…somehow, we made it out of the sinking boat, but I lost hold of her hand.”
Tears streaked down Caitlin’s cheeks. “I lost hold of her. I was supposed to take care of her.” She looked up at Levka and sobbed. “My brave little sister was lost, and me…oh, Levka, why did they have to die?”
And why not herself? He knew that’s what she failed to say, knew in her heart that’s what hurt her the most. Why did she live when her family had to die?
“You are not so different from me,” Levka said, kissing her cheek. “I felt the same way concerning the death of my family.”
“You said your father died in the war? Was it the Persian Gulf War?”
“An earlier one in a foreign land. Many battles fought overseas are not even mentioned in the States.” Which was the truth. The Marcher Baron battles along the border of Wales are not in the history books taught in the States. Or at least the classes he took. His extended canines began to recede.
“You said your mother and sister were killed, too.”
“Yes, by an army that slaughtered the innocents along with those of us who fought them.”
“You, you fought these men?”
“Not then, not until I was older.” And then to his horror, he’d come down with the plague. Some had died, and others… He shook his head. Others like him and his friends became a new race. Improved in some ways, cursed in others.
“Levka, do you need us to relieve you sometime during the night?” Arman asked.
“Thanks, Arman, but I’ll manage.”
Levka kissed Caitlin’s lips one more time and hugged her to his chest. “You will be my undoing, siren.”
She smiled sweetly, but the look was too sexy to be that.
“I’ll come for you in the morning. But remember, don’t invite—”
“Vlad in. Yes. I have that down. Thanks for listening to all my woes and still being a friend.”
“That’s what friends are for.”
The door opened and Alicia glared at them. “Out, Levka. If you can throw Dylan out of here…”
“He’s not a creep like Dylan is,” Caitlin said.
Pleased she’d defend him, Levka squeezed her hand. “See you in the morning.”
“Goodnight, honey,” Caitlin said to Levka, then gave Alicia a smug look.
Alicia’s look couldn’t have been any more fired up. When Levka shut the door behind him, Alicia said to Caitlin, “Honey? Mate? When my parents hear of your behavior, they’ll ground you until you graduate from high school. And here you’ve always pretended to be Miss Goody Goody.”
Caitlin didn’t say a word.
Levka paced in the hallway outside their stateroom. He had every intention of returning to the room, but should he wait until the girls had gone to bed?
He couldn’t risk it. Invisibly, he returned to the room.
Caitlin was gone. He assumed from the sound of the shower, she was taking one. Alicia was already wearing a long T-shirt and pajama bottoms, pea soup green, sitting on the farthest bed from the sofa, closest to the bathroom, painting her toenails.
Levka retired to the sofa. A little too short for his long legs, but it would have to do. At least while he was in the room, Vlad couldn’t get to the girls.
He yawned. But when Caitlin walked out of the bathroom wearing only a towel, he quickly closed his eyes.
“Bathroom’s free.”
Even though she spoke with annoyance, her voice was like the mermaid’s sweet melody. He fought opening his eyes, gentleman that he was. After nine-hundred years you’d think he could be a bit of a rogue when it came to women.
He couldn’t help himself. She would be his mate, and he wasn’t a eunuch after all. He opened one eye.
Chapter 16
To Levka’s disappointment and relief, Caitlin had already slipped under her covers. He watched her until she fell asleep, then got a little more comfortable on the sofa. It would be a long night.
Early the next morning, still invisible, Levka napped a bit while the girls got ready to go on their island excursion. Finally, Alicia shoved her purse on her shoulder and headed for the stateroom door, her face as st
ormy as the weather. “I can’t believe they’d cancel the beach trips just because of a few clouds.”
Levka sighed and returned to his stateroom to shower and change with every intention of chaperoning his minx the rest of the day, but he couldn’t help worry that Vlad might try to grab her and whisk her away.
***
Back at Caitlin’s stateroom, Alicia slammed the door open and rushed off.
Caitlin hurried after her. “Maybe the cruise director is afraid the water’s too rough. You’re just lucky the Concord Falls tour isn’t already booked, and you can still go.”
“Lucky?” Alicia glowered at her. “Seeing a bunch of waterfalls isn’t what I’d call lucky.”
“Why didn’t you just go shopping then?”
“What? And buy another stupid T-shirt? Shell necklace? Spice necklace?” Alicia made a sour face. “When we get to St. Martin, that’s where I’m spending my money. Gold jewelry and tons of it.” Alicia stalked after Lynne who was headed for the off ramp, too. “Did you get booked for the waterfall excursion?”
“Are you kidding? Some of us are…” Lynne gave Caitlin a look like it was private business.
“Why don’t you go on?” Alicia said to Caitlin, her tone of voice suddenly saccharine. “I’ll catch up later.”
Caitlin smiled when she saw Levka and his friends headed for her.
“Sorry we couldn’t come to your stateroom this morning,” Levka said, showing his I.D. to a crewmember.
Caitlin showed hers, then they walked down the gangplank. “Alicia was coming, but some of the kids from my school are up to something.” She couldn’t disguise the worry in her voice.
Levka looked back at Ruric, who gave a small bow, then turned back.
Caitlin frowned. “I can’t understand how you can communicate privately with him. What did you tell him to do?”
“I asked him to see if he could find out what the kids planned to do.”
“Oh. Will he make sure Alicia doesn’t get hurt?”
“Certainly.”
When they boarded the bus, Arman and Stasio took seats near the back while Levka and Caitlin sat near the front. She kept watching for Alicia, hoping her foster sister would get smart and come on the waterfall excursion. But knowing Alicia and the way anyone could easily influence her, Caitlin didn’t figure she’d come with them.