by Мишель Роуэн
She cut him off. "Really need toshut up , I think."
Just as he was trying to think of a witty reply, she kissed him. She had to raise herself up on her tiptoes to do so, since she was currently high-heel deficient, but she managed.
God, her mouth. Just like the balm, she tasted of strawberries, he thought, as her tongue darted between his lips. He groaned at the feel and taste of her.
He grabbed her upper arms and crushed her against him, letting her go only long enough for her to pull his black T-shirt up over his head. She ran her dark red fingernails down the front of him, and he shivered at her touch.
She kissed down his neck and over his chest, running her tongue down the center of him, from the hollow of his throat, down his chest, and past his navel to the edge of his khaki pants. He drew her back up to meet her lips again. She was driving him insane—his body was literally shaking with desire for her.
When did I lose control over this situation? he wondered absently.
Screw it.
He grabbed the bottom of her new red dress and pulled it off of her, hearing a rip at the last moment.
She stiffened. "There was a zipper, you know."
"Oops."
"Do the words 'designer' and 'expensive' mean anything to you?"
"Will you take a check?" His gaze took in every inch of her perfect, mouth-watering body now clad only in black thong panties.
Yup. He would have guessed that lingerie choice, and he approved greatly.
His mouth felt very dry.
"I have an idea." She bit her bottom lip. "Why don't you just pay me in sex?"
He raised an eyebrow and grinned. "It's a deal."
Then they were on the bed. Quinn kneaded Janie's bare breasts in his hands, taking one nipple in his mouth, working it to a hard peak while his right hand slipped down her body and traced the edge of her silky panties.
"You better add these to my tab." He tore them off her and threw them to the ground.
"Quinn…" she moaned. "Please. Make love to me."
"You're so polite," he breathed into her ear and met her lips again in a hot, open-mouthed kiss while his hands freely roamed her body.
Suddenly, he felt her hands at the front of his pants, fumbling with the zipper. Just as he was about to help her with the situation, she slipped the khakis over his hips and he felt her hand close around him. He let out a shuddery moan and looked down at her with surprise. She raised her eyebrow at his look of shock, giving him a very wicked look.
"Janie—"
And that's when he lost all decorum. The feel of her touching him, of her writhing beneath him, was enough to send him right over the edge of sanity. He'd been standing pretty close to it up until then.
He found her mouth again and kissed her deeply. Strawberries. His absolute favorite flavor as of that moment.
Before she'd managed to work his pants the rest of the way down his legs, he stopped her. He grabbed her wrists to move them up above her head and then, with one deep thrust, he drove himself into her.
"Quinn!" She gasped and then pulled her hands away to grab at his shoulders at his back as he began to move inside of her.
"Janie…Janie …" he said over and over, trying not to lose control but failing miserably.
She arched her back and cried out. He felt her spasm beneath him.
Nothing had felt this good to him. Nothing at all. Nobody. He'd waited his whole life for her.
He loved her. Oh, God, he loved her. He couldn't believe it himself, but having her in his life was the best thing that had ever happened to him. Why hadn't he realized it until just now? Had it taken the possibility of losing her to make him realize what she meant to him?
"I thought I'd lost you," he managed. "I couldn't lose you. Not like that."
Her silky hair ran through his fingers. She found his mouth again, and he kissed her deeper and harder, almost violent in his need for her lips and her body… and forher . All of her.
After another minute, he cried out against her mouth and then fell against her and the soft sheets and the firm bed and her fragrant skin that surrounded him, filling his senses completely.
When he was able to think—which wasn't right away—he pushed up on his elbows, searching blindly for her mouth and finding it. He kissed her for a very long time, just exploring her lush lips and tongue, and then pulled back and looked into her beautiful blue eyes.
"Well, hello," she said.
A smile played at his mouth. "You say 'thank you' really good."
"You think?" She ran her fingers through his hair.
"How much of the dress have I paid off?" he asked.
"Not much. You have a great deal of work ahead of you."
He arched an eyebrow at her and grinned. He was definitely up for the challenge. Like,immediately .
He leaned forward to kiss her again.
"That was simply beautiful," a voice said from behind him.Malcolm .
Quinn tensed and he looked at Janie, whose eyes had widened. Then he looked over his shoulder at the intruder.
Chapter 19
"I thought you'd sire her," Malcolm said, with a wry grin. "You really should consider locking your door before getting intimate. It's common practice in polite society, you know."
"You son of a bitch." Quinn's eyes narrowed. "I'm going to kill you."
Malcolm didn't look concerned. "I've returned for the stone. I know you have it. Give it to me."
Quinn glanced at Janie, who stared back at him with a mix of anger and uncertainty. He swung off the bed, pulling on his khakis.
"You think I'm going to give you anything after what you did to her? I should have killed you myself when I had the chance."
"But you didn't," Malcolm said. "A decision I actually found rather weak, my boy. Very Hamlet, in fact.
The young prince whooverthinks his actions to the point of never achieving anything at all. To his own detriment, in the end."
"Never cared much for Shakespeare."
"I believe it is our deep emotional bond that keeps you from attempting to kill me."
"Just shut up, old man." Quinn's eyes narrowed. "You think you can walk in here after everything you've done and get it from me? Not damn likely. Where's the Eye?"
He pulled it out of his jacket pocket. "Right here."
Quinn glanced down at it, every muscle in his body tense and ready to strike.
Malcolm didn't back down. "I'm sure you think you can take it from me, right? Well, let me remind you of one thing, Michael Quinn. My plan? Do you remember what I shared with you?"
The conversation he'd had with Malcolm in the country bar replayed in his mind. The gist had essentially been, "Kill them. Kill them all." Fist pump.
"What about it?"
Malcolm smiled thinly. "I'm not surprised that you came here to the very casino where I told you my plans would begin in earnest. Your first thought is to save others, even when they are scum who deserve to die."
Quinn stared at him in stony silence. He'd had so many chances to kill Malcolm. Yesterday at his house when he'd first knocked Janie out. In the alley after he'd staked Quinn and left him in the country bar.
Even earlier today in the museum. Three opportunities to end a creature who'd given up his right to live by being the epitome of evil—the very thing Quinn had always hoped to save others from, even when it was misplaced.
All because the old coot used to be nice to him as a kid.
Not good enough.
Quinn shrugged, attempting to look in control. "I think all three hundred hunters in attendance here might disagree with you. And I very much doubt they'll have a problem taking you out if you try anything."
"Is that so?" Malcolm raised an eyebrow. "So many of them and only one of me. And yet tonight I shall still begin my true plans with a… bang."
"What the hell does that mean?" Janie snapped from behind Quinn. She gathered the sheets to cover herself and stood up.
Malcolm smiled and raised his
index finger to his mouth. "Shh. Do you hear that? Three hundred hunters now gathered in the theater for their ego-stroking awards. All of them in one place. And I will kill them.
All of them."
Quinn tried to laugh at that. "You must have a very big gun."
"Or a very big bomb."
Quinn's blood ran cold. "What did you say?"
Malcolm smiled. "I have placed a bomb in this building. It will detonate in…" He glanced at his wristwatch. "… less than twenty minutes."
"You're lying."
"Why would I lie about something so perfect?"
Quinn glanced over his shoulder at Janie. Why he expected her to look afraid of the old man who almost killed her, he wasn't sure. Instead, her eyes flashed angrily, her teeth clenched, her fury barely contained.
He could tell she was having a difficult time restraining herself from killing Malcolm where he stood.
"Now," Malcolm said, rubbing the Eye against his leg as if he was polishing it. "I don't plan to take the ruby from you by force. It would be very foolish of me to try. I want you to give it to me of your own free will."
"Like hell. Where's the bomb?"
"Why should I tell you?"
"Because you obviously want to. If you didn't, you wouldn't have come up here to do your little dramatic presentation. You know that I can kill you easily."
"Perhaps not so easily, boy."
Quinn spread his hands. "Then why don't we find out? You have no idea what I'm thinking right now.
How much I hate you. You're disappointed in me? I have no words for the disappointment I feel for somebody I once considered closer to me than my own father."
"As if you are any better than me."
"He is, you son of a bitch," Janie snapped. "There's no comparison."
Malcolm looked at Quinn. "Your whore is defending you."
Quinn backhanded him across his face.
Malcolm raised his fingers to touch his jaw.
"Iam better than you. And you know why? Because I won't stand here and let all of those men down there die."
"That's exactly what you're going to do."
"You're wrong. You're going to tell me where you put the bomb, and you're going to tell me right now."
"What do you care about their fate? They're hunters who live by the sword and have chosen a dangerous path for themselves by killing indiscriminately. They deserve death."
"I'm curious about something. Did your God complex come before or after you'd been made into a vampire, Malcolm?"
He snorted at that. "God complex? Just because I wish to reshape the world in my own image? Because
I know best for all of humanity and I will kill or save whomever I chose? You think that means that I have a God complex?"
Quinn blinked. "Well, that's pretty much the definition of it. So, yeah."
"I've planned this night for a very long time. I won't let anything ruin it."
"Then you're going to have to make a choice. Right here. Right now." Quinn paused. "You can either kill all of the hunters at the awards ceremony tonight. Or I can give you the stone."
"Quinn!" Janie shouted. "What are you doing?"
He didn't turn to look at her. He kept his gaze fixed on Malcolm's wrinkled face. "Tell me where the bomb is and the stone is yours."
"I could tell you it's anywhere, and you would believe me?"
"No. You tell me, and Janie and I will go find it. Disarm it. Then we will meet in a neutral location and I'll give you the stone and you can do whatever the hell you want to do with the Eye."
"Just like that?"
He nodded. "Just like that."
A humorless smile curled his lips. "Well, this is a rather interesting turn of events. I honestly didn't predict this, my boy."
"And you can stop calling me that. I'm not your boy."
"No, you're not." He rubbed his chin as he appeared to think things through. "Very well. It's a deal."
"It is?"
"Yes. I have years ahead of me to execute my plans."
"That's the spirit."
"I will tell you where. And you will meet me in twenty minutes downstairs at the entrance to the theater."
He nodded. "Sounds fine. Janie, grab your dress. We're leaving."
She raised an eyebrow. "My ripped dress, you mean?"
He turned and met her gaze. Despite everything, he almost smiled. "You have other clothes, right?"
She sighed. "I really liked this dress."
Malcolm raised his hand. "She stays with me."
"What?" she exclaimed.
"She will be my insurance that you will not just leave after you take care of my present for the hunters.
That you will return and follow through with your end of the bargain."
Quinn glanced at Janie, who looked suddenly stricken. "I'm not leaving you alone with her."
He laughed. "So protective. Get over it. When she dresses, she comes with me."
"Forget it. The deal's off."
"Quinn," Janie said. "Just…just do as he says. I'm fine with it."
His throat felt tight remembering what the old man did to her an hour ago. "I don't like this."
"I'm not exactly doing cartwheels over the chance to spend time with that crazy old asshole, myself. But it's the only way."
"Such a sweet, charming girl." Malcolm raised an eyebrow. "Then it's settled."
Quinn played out all scenarios in his head as fast as he could.
He could take Malcolm down right now. Then he'd have the Eye, and Janie would be safe, but three hundred hunters plus several innocent bystanders and a good chunk of the hotel would be blown up when the bomb went off.
He could say yes to Malcolm's plan and take off after the bomb, but Janie would pay the price, both from Malcolm and from her Boss when she didn't come through with the Eye.
He tried to think of a third option but came up empty.
His only hope was to buy some more time. Disarm the bomb, then figure a way out of giving Malcolm the stone. He didn't know what the old man wanted to wish for, but he was confident that it wasn't world peace.
"Fine," he said finally.
Malcolm smiled. "The bomb is beneath the speaker's podium of the hunter awards. It would be interesting to witness a vampire risking his life to save hundreds of his enemy. Would they do the same for you, do you think?"
"Enough talking." The muscles in Quinn's right arm were twitching. If he could make his wish right now,
all he'd wish for would be a wooden stake. Extra sharp.
Malcolm studied him. "I know you so well, my boy. Eight years and you still wear your emotions on your face. You are thinking of killing me. But perhaps I am lying. Perhaps I've told you the wrong location? You won't know for sure until you check it out for yourself, will you?"
"I hate you," Quinn spat out.
Malcolm's smile widened. "Best be off, now. You're wasting time. We will meet you downstairs by the tournament slot machines."
Quinn picked his shirt up from the floor, casting a worried glance at Janie.
"I'll be back."
"Is that your Schwarzenegger impression?"
"Hadn't planned it, but sure."
"Good luck."
He moved toward her with the sudden desire to kiss her again. For luck or just to touch her, to reassure her that he meant that he'd be back. But Malcolm grabbed his arm.
"Leave. My patience wears thin."
Quinn scowled at him.
"Go," Janie said. "It's okay. Don't worry. I can handle fang breath here."
"Who, me, worry? Ridiculous."
With a last look, he tore his gaze away from her and left the room, his heart thudding like a wild animal in his chest, to go prowl among the hunters who would love to make it stop.
The moment Quinn left the room, Janie had tried to kill Malcolm with her bare hands. She flew at his throat, losing the bed sheets wrapped around her in the process. He'd managed to bat her away like a pesky mosquito.
; She was weak from loss of blood. She'd felt great for a while, but the events of the night were catching up to her. She couldn't overexert herself, and killing vampires was hard work.
When she got her strength back, first she'd stake him, she decided, as the elevator descended to the ground floor. Then she'd hold his head under a vat of holy water. It wouldn't do anything, but it would be fun to watch him flail around. Then she'd probably decapitate him. Or burn him.
Possibly both.
The violent thoughts helped to calm her a little.
Then her thoughts moved to her sister, and a knot formed in her stomach. She'd be okay. Out of everything that had gone on tonight, at least Angela would be safe.
She twisted her were-loom necklace and glared at Malcolm.
"For some reason you look terribly displeased with me," he said.
"Bite me."
He smiled. "But I already did that, didn't I?"
Decapitation, burning, staking,and electrocution. Maybe she could find some hungry rats, too.
She'd made him take her to her room first so she could grab her jeans and tank top. They'd seen better days, but the dress wasunwearable . Well, it was fine if she didn't mind baring her left breast while walking through the casino on the way to where they were to meet Quinn.
She kept getting flashes of Quinn making love to her. It was very distracting, to say the least. She would have been very happy to have spent the rest of the night in bed exploring him much more thoroughly than their passionate but much too quick session before. She bit her bottom lip.
She looked at Malcolm and her eyes narrowed. He'd had to interrupt them just when things were getting good.
She spent the rest of the elevator ride thinking about even more imaginative ways to end his life.
The doors opened. She made a move to get off, but Malcolm raised his arm to stop her.
"Don't try anything," he said.
"What do you mean?"
"Don't try to get anyone's attention or warn anyone. This is between you and me and Quinn. Do you understand?"
"I understand that you're a sick, twisted freak."