Chapter Five
Melanie looked up at the sexy heap of men that towered above her. Had she done that? Reduced them to slumped-over, worn-out versions of their former vigorous selves? Until now, she’d have sworn that vampires were like pink drum-wielding bunnies that just kept going and going. She sighed, pleased with her efforts, and gave herself an imaginary high-five.
Rook held his hand out. Happy for help, she took it and stood, ignoring her achy knees. He drew her against his damp body and wrapped his arms around her so fiercely, she stopped breathing.
Cuddled up against him with Alec’s hand resting on her shoulder, there wasn’t any place she’d rather be. His skin was warm, his hold secure. More than the sex, this was what she’d missed, the tenderness of an intimate relationship. It wasn’t very business-minded of her but she was going to allow herself to indulge in their methods while she was their client. Maybe she’d even make some requests.
As soon as Melanie got home, she promised herself she’d put pen to paper on that bucket list of sexual experiences she’d never even bothered to make.
“I love you, Melanie,” Rook said on an exhale.
Her heart turned over in her chest and she held her breath, willing it to slow. God, she wished he really did. The sex-crazed chemicals in her body had her wanting to say those three little words back. What girl didn’t want the fairytale? It’d been years since a man had said that to her and here was Rook, practically a stranger, saying them and sounding sincere.
Melanie squeezed him back. She had great friends, and not that she needed a man to make her happy, but she wanted a deeper kind of love in her life. With her parents and sister gone she was alone. She wanted a husband, two-point-five kids and everything else that came with a family.
Alec and Rook weren’t those kinds of men. She couldn’t forget that. Hell, they weren’t even men—they were vampires. Vampires she was paying to have sex with her so she could lose weight. It didn’t strike her as a great foundation for starting a relationship.
Even though she ached to burrow in closer, run her hands all along Rook’s skin and pretend that he spoke from his heart, she gave him a dismissive pat on the back and discounted his response as something automatic like saying “bless you” to someone who sneezed.
“I think all men feel that way after oral sex,” she countered. “Especially after really good oral sex, if I do say so myself.” She turned her head toward Alec, his gaze a hypnotic clash of pale gray eyes against dark brows and lashes. Her breath caught in her chest as his smile widened.
Love. That’s what she felt whenever she looked at either of them. Her body tensed against the emotion. If she were falling it would be up to her to pick herself up when this was all said and done.
“Next Alec will be proposing marriage, I’m sure,” Melanie joked, trying to lighten her thoughts, as she forcibly had to pull away from Rook.
Alec arched his brow and made a great display of laying his hands all over his naked body like he was searching for something. “I seemed to have misplaced the ring.” He stepped out of the shower, retrieved a towel and much to her dismay fastened one around his hips.
“Will a towel suffice for now?” He handed her one and threw another towel to Rook.
“Only if it’s some fancy high-thread-count Egyptian cotton.” Melanie squeezed the water from her hair and wrapped the thick oversized towel around her chest. “Otherwise I’m going to have to wait for a better offer.”
If a man like Alec proposed she’d have accepted a burlap sack.
Alec’s eyes lost their humorous light, his smile disappeared and his gaze held hers as firmly as Rook’s arms had a moment ago. “What if I made a real offer? What would you do then?”
“Is this one of those what-if games? Because I’m really bad at making decisions, even hypothetical ones.”
“It’s not a game.” Alec’s unwavering gaze made her squirm.
“So let’s stop playing them,” Rook said seriously. “It’s time. We need to tell Melanie the truth.”
Melanie’s heart skipped a beat with his abrupt admission. The truth? Her mouth went dry. “What’s going on?” She held the towel tighter, looking back and forth between them.
Alec didn’t answer. He walked into his room and returned carrying the envelope she’d handed over to Rook yesterday at her consultation.
“You’re no longer a client of Empriva Fitness.” He tossed the paperwork into a small trash can by one of the sinks. “Really you never were.”
Melanie grabbed her new thinner stomach to make sure it was there because it felt like it had plunged to the floor. If they didn’t have business between them what did they have?
“What do you mean I’m not a client? I gave you money and signed all the contracts. The weight is already coming off. Did I do something wrong?”
Rook slipped his arm around her shoulder and she shrugged him away. His touch, like Alec’s, had a way of making it hard to focus.
“Melanie, you didn’t do anything wrong.” Rook took her hand and held firm even as she tried to pull away. “You’re everything right.”
“I am so confused right now.” She yanked free and stared them down, her blood pressure rising. “Tell me right now what you’re keeping from me.”
“Rook and I don’t want to be your consultants.” Alec blurted out the ugly truth without flinching.
Melanie felt sick. Her throat burned as her stomach churned and her shower-damp skin moistened with an uncomfortable sweat. “Don’t you think you could have told me that before you both had sex with me?”
Before you made me feel like the sexiest woman alive. Before you made me feel like what was happening between us might actually transcend business. Melanie fought back the tears pooling in the corners of her eyes. Stupid. How could she have been so stupid?
“We want you to be our lifemate.” Alec took a step forward and his penetrating stare paralyzed her. “I promise as many luxury towels as you want.”
“Your lifemate?” She spit the words at him. “What the hell is that? A joke?”
“It isn’t a joke. We want you to be our wife,” Rook said softly.
“Do you think this is funny? Is this what gets you vampires off, playing with women’s emotions?” If it wasn’t a joke Melanie didn’t know what it was but whatever it turned out to be she thought she’d deal with it better dressed. “I need my clothes right now.” She turned to the man who’d stripped her last night. “Where are they?”
Alec planted his hands on his hips and hung his head. “In my dresser. Top drawer.”
Her feet slapped against the heated floor. Melanie narrowed her eyes at Rook and gave Alec a wide berth on her way into his bedroom. “I’d appreciate a few moments of privacy.”
Neither one of them made a move to stop her.
She shut the door and drew open the dark navy curtains. Bright sunshine flooded into the room, becoming an impromptu insurance policy that they might leave her alone.
The view from Alec’s bedroom stunned her. It’d been dark when she arrived and she hadn’t seen the vast property. Too bad she wasn’t in the frame of mind to appreciate it.
What they said—could it be true? Her body tightened as she gripped the curtains. And exactly who wanted her to be their wife—not both surely? Rook and Alec could have any woman they wanted. Why her, why now? They hadn’t known her for more than a few hours.
Granted they’d be stupid not to want her but most men were stupid. After so many years of trying to find the right man she’d resigned herself to that fact. Vampires had dicks. Why would they be any different?
For her part Melanie convinced herself that any emotion from her was lust. Plain and simple. To admit her feelings ran deeper would leave her too vulnerable. She wasn’t sure if she could trust either one of them anymore.
Melanie didn’t know what their game was but she was determined to find out. She made a beeline for the antique dresser. She pulled open the drawer and there were her clothes, n
icely folded next to Alec’s shirts. The care that had been taken with her things and their placement felt intimate. The gesture made her feel at home.
Melanie shut down the much-too-comfortable feeling and dressed. Three deep chest-heaving breaths later, she steadied her nerves and reopened the bathroom door.
Alec hadn’t moved. Rook was nowhere to be found.
And then she heard him from behind a closed door on the opposite side of the sprawling bathroom. It sounded like he was getting an up close and personal look at the toilet. She remembered her hurt feelings when the impulse to hurry into the room to take care of him almost overtook her.
“I told him not to eat too much.” Alec crossed his arms and it accented the cut of his chest. “He’ll be fine once he gets it out of his system.”
“Why would he eat like that if he knew he’d get sick?” She’d had enough of male stupidity today, not to mention dishonesty.
“Rook doesn’t do much half-assed—you’ll learn that about him. And this is new for us, Melanie. We don’t usually crave food, but you’ve changed everything.”
She held back a growl and crossed her arms defensively, much like Alec. “So this is somehow all my fault?”
“Not intentionally but yes.”
Not the answer she wanted to hear and she felt the tension take hold in the form of wrinkles on her forehead. The furrows deepened, listening to poor Rook begin another round of retching. Not poor Rook, bad Rook. Remember he’s kept something from you.
“I think he needs some time to himself,” Alec said as he passed by her. “Let’s talk in my room.” He boldly stood in front of the window and light bathed his body.
Lust filled hers. That agitated her even more. Had she lost total control of her libido?
“Did you hope I might spontaneously combust?”
“No. Rook told me the light only gives you a sunburn.” She stepped closer. “But your skin looks fine. Yet another lie, obviously.”
Alec ran his hand along his arm, testing his exposed skin. “The windows are coated with a film that protects me but if I walked outside I suspect it would take longer for my skin to burn. That’s your fault too.”
“How?”
“Your blood, it’s special.” He tossed aside his towel, swiped his pants off the floor and pulled them on before collapsing onto the leather chair beside the fireplace. He sighed and it sounded like it was the beginning of the explanation she’d been demanding.
“We are born human just like you but a genetic mutation keeps us from staying that way. In our early twenties, the change begins slowly and by the time we near thirty, we’re vampires. ”
Melanie sank onto the edge of the bed in a daze. The easy smile that slipped across his face chipped away at her defenses.
“And you’re thirty-five, right?” he asked. “So if you think about it, technically you’re a cougar.”
She bristled and shook her head. “As if. More like you two are lecherous old men. How old are you and Rook anyway?”
“I’m one hundred and thirty-four. Rook’s one-hundred and fifty-two, give or take a few years. He’s not big on birthdays, so I’m not sure.”
And she thought her last birthday had put her in a bad mood. Melanie slipped a strand of wet hair behind her ear, smoothing it down. Alec was almost exactly a hundred years older than her. Still they seemed young. “I expected you both to be older, being immortal.”
Alec leaned forward, braced his elbows against his knees and clasped his hands together. “I didn’t say we were immortal. Long-lived is a better term. We don’t remain vampires forever. We return to being human and live out the rest of our lives getting old and wrinkled like everyone else.”
“Oh.”
Alec’s dark hair was highlighted with distinguished strands of gray and his vibrant eyes softened with crinkles at the corners. Melanie could imagine herself being as attracted to him twenty years from now as she was today.
“So what age is it when you switch back to human?” She scooted along the bed until she realized her movement brought her closer to Alec.
“Age doesn’t matter. It’s when we’re ready to make the change and we meet the right woman whose blood is so special she can give us new life again.”
Rook stepped out of the bathroom, looking sexy as ever with his towel draped precariously low on his hips. She’d never have known he’d been sick.
“You’re that woman. Your blood initiates the change for both Alec and me.”
“What?” Her head swam and she gripped the comforter before she fell off the bed. “Are you serious? My blood?”
She hung her head. Now she understood why they had wanted to be her consultants. It would have been better if they’d just asked for her blood instead of romancing her to get it. They’d made her feel like she meant something to them. Now she realized that they only wanted her to be a blood donor.
Alec and Rook came and sat beside her. Rook so close she could smell his mouthwash-freshened breath. His towel parted, giving Melanie a distracting view of his thigh. She wanted to rub her hand against his taut flesh and seek his warmth, even as she hurt.
Pitiful. She breathed in deeply, ashamed of herself. Maybe the weight she’d lost overnight hadn’t come from her waist but her backbone?
Rook took her hand and she couldn’t bring herself to pull away. “You are the reason we want to be human. We’re ready to give up countless lifetimes for one lifetime—”
“With you, Melanie.” The words rushed from Alec. ”We want to spend that one precious lifetime with you.”
Their words were epic, life-changing and hard to believe. Her heart hammered so loud she could barely think. Melanie raised her head and took turns trying to read their faces. Were they being serious?
“Are you really suggesting I help the two of you become human again, shack up together and live happily ever after?”
They both looked unfazed by her question.
She cleared her throat and tried to get them to see reason. “I’m sorry but I live in reality, not some dreamed-up dirty erotic romance fantasy world. I mean, I expected to one day be a Mr. and Mrs., never a Mr. and Mr. and Mrs.”
Melanie pushed to the back of her mind the sad the truth that she’d begun to think she’d spend the rest of her life alone.
“We’re rich, Melanie. That affords us a certain level of eccentricity,” Rook said. “We can make this work however you want. Women like you are few and far between. It’s not unusual for vampires who have the same blood needs to share a lifemate. I’ve seen as many as four commit to one woman and trust me, they keep her so happy she doesn’t give a damn what anybody thinks. But if this lifestyle makes you uncomfortable, maybe sometimes you could stay with me in the city and other times out here with Alec.”
“No,” Alec interrupted. “That might work in the beginning but what happens when we have children? Melanie being away from my side would be hard enough—but my children? That’s never going to happen. We’ve talked about this, Rook. We’ll be a family and that means we live together.”
Like her ass was on fire, Melanie shot up off of the bed and away from the two men planning a life for her without her say. “I don’t think we’ve gotten nearly far enough in this conversation to be discussing living arrangements and kids. I mean can you two really have them?” She thought of their orgasms just moments ago. They both had been missing a key element necessary for fathering children.
“Remember, we’ll be human,” Rook said. “But you should know we can only give you sons and they will someday become vampires too.”
She paced the room as her mind raced, trying to put all the pieces together. Too many were missing. “Look, this is a lot for me to try to understand. I know you say you have feelings for me and I’m not saying I don’t feel something too, but really is it something to base a lifetime on? I’m not sure.”
Her gut wouldn’t let her say no. That instinctual part of her that embraced the crazy romance of it all didn’t care about doub
ts. Unfortunately, that logical part of her brain that had been missing since yesterday decided to show up. “I need some time. Let’s take it slow, get to know each other better.”
“We have until tomorrow night to do that,” Alec said, his face a mask of guarded emotion.
“Tomorrow? Are you serious?” Melanie rubbed her forehead, fighting off the mother of all headaches. “Why are you in such a hurry?”
“Your blood carries a virus that our bodies will learn to fight.” Alec frowned. “By tomorrow evening we’ll be resistant. We need more of your blood—”
“Take it.” Melanie thrust her wrist at Alec before she realized what she was doing. It had been a purely physical reaction, done without thought—only need. Why should she care about losing either of these men, she barely knew them?
Alec took her hand, looked into her eyes and kissed her upturned wrist. Tingles traveled along her arm to the rest of her body. “Melanie, we can only feed from you one more time. It will mark the beginning of our lives together. We want to make it memorable.”
“So I help you make the change and then we see about us.” It was all starting to sound like an arranged marriage and she needed someone to be with her because they wanted to, not because she was their only option. “You don’t have to make a commitment to me just because you need my blood. I’ll help you anyway.”
“You’re missing the point.” Rook stood and poured all his emotions into his passionate words. “This isn’t about us being human. This is about us being with you.” He cupped her face and rubbed his thumb along her cheek. “It’s all or nothing for us. Alec and I love you. Accept that, trust it and listen to what your own feelings are telling you. This is right. Your heart won’t steer you wrong.”
His words should have brought her to her knees but the overload of emotions began to numb her body. It all seemed too perfect and unrealistic.
Melanie remained motionless, undecided. There wasn’t any room left for her to consider anybody else’s feelings when she hadn’t gotten a grip on her own.
Dying to Love Her Page 6