Chapter Six
Vampires weren’t susceptible to human ailments like carpal tunnel syndrome but at the rate he’d been turning his wrist to check his Tourneau, Alec might be the first. He pulled his keys from the ignition of his Audi R8 GT and switched his cell phone to his other hand. “She should have contacted one of us by now.”
“It’s seven o’clock on Sunday morning,” Rook grumbled through his long, drawn-out yawn. “I doubt she’s up. I wouldn’t be if you hadn’t called. Give Melanie a little more time. If we want her trust we need to trust in her. She’ll find her way to us.”
Alec gripped the steering wheel and his knuckles whitened. Neither of them had talked to her since yesterday. She’d left without any promise to commit. Last night with the memory of her touch still warm on his skin, he’d been as optimistic as Rook.
Hell, he had new body art to prove it. They’d both gotten traditional vampire marriage tattoos to prove to her just how committed they were to becoming her mates. Sounded fucking brilliant at the time but now he feared it might serve as a reminder of the one that got away.
“I think one of us needs to talk to her and it needs to be done in person,” he said, adjusting his sunglasses as he stared out his window at Melanie’s small suburban brick home.
Silence. That was all he got from Rook’s end for a few uncomfortable seconds.
“You’re already at her house, aren’t you?” Resignation mixed with aggravation and jealousy colored Rook’s tone. “So this call wasn’t to ask my opinion. You’ve already made up your mind.”
“I thought you should know.” Alec unbuckled his seatbelt. “Anything that concerns Melanie concerns you too. She’s as much mine as she’s yours.”
In actuality she wasn’t really either of theirs yet. With one final taste of her blood they’d be hers forever. She’d still need to take the traditional kiss of blood to seal her bond to them.
“She was adamant about what she wanted, Alec. I think we should give her the chance to come to us.”
“And if she doesn’t?” Alec let out a frustrated sigh, opened his door and stepped out onto the pavement. “Look, we fucked this all up taking her blood so quickly. Now we have hours hanging over our heads and if Melanie doesn’t follow her heart we’re all screwed. Forgive me for wanting to make sure she’s moving in the right direction.”
“You’re my best friend, Alec, but I swear if you fuck this up for us—”
“I won’t. I promise.” He’d never forgive himself if he did. Alec headed across the quiet street. “You keep making sure tonight is special for Melanie and I’ll make sure she’ll be there.” He ended the call and shoved the phone into his back pocket.
His long-sleeved shirt and jeans gave him little protection. Already his skin felt tight and itchy. Self-preservation quickened his pace. He recognized the early discomfort of sun exposure. Melanie’s blood—its effect—was beginning to weaken. Everything in him burned to strengthen the precarious bond.
Potted mums decorated either side of the wide steps leading up to her shaded porch. He hurried to find cover under the awning. Alec slid his sunglasses down his nose, folded them into his shirt pocket and knocked loud enough to wake her neighbors.
Through the door he could just make out the sound of her steps. They slowed as she neared. Inches of milled wood separated them but it felt like miles. Not knowing what was going through her mind, not knowing if she’d be in his arms from this day forward suffocated him.
Melanie opened the door and his lungs gave way, filling with cool morning air. She crossed her arms over the pink tank top that matched her striped flannel pajama bottoms, and tilted her head. “What, no danishes?”
If she looked this cute every morning they were never going to make it out of bed before noon. The furry pink slippers she wore looked like bad seventies shag carpet. They put a smile on his face. So did her unconvincing frown.
“Just tell me the name of your favorite baker and I’ll bring you back a dozen.” Give him a day and he’d have them shipped over from Paris if that’s what she wanted.
“Where’s Rook?” Melanie rose on her toes and looked around his shoulder, her eyes searching. A fleeting shadow of disappointment darkened her expression and then disappeared. “We might need more than a dozen.”
He didn’t let the twinge of jealousy nagging at him take hold. It could only mean good things for them if she missed Rook.
“I’m betting he’s lost his taste for danishes indefinitely.” His gaze traveled to her lips. Alec’s sluggish heartbeat sped up. Never would he lose his taste for her. He barely kept himself from taking her into his arms and indulging in one of her sweet kisses. “When you left yesterday he headed back to his apartment in the city.”
“So what you’re telling me is Rook is better at following directions than you.”
“You said you needed time, not how much.”
Her lips quivered, almost giving way to a smile. She ran her fingers through her hair releasing the faint citrus aroma of his shampoo still clinging on from yesterday’s shower.
He wanted her covered in his blood scent too, marking her as his own. “I was hoping we could talk.”
“Do you want to come in?”
More than anything. “I better not. Me, you and all manner of surfaces to have sex on. I don’t trust myself. We better stick to public places.”
Melanie looked up from under her flirty lashes. “You don’t strike me as the kind of man who would shy away from putting on a show in public.”
With Melanie he’d never shy away or apologize for the desire he felt. How he’d need to touch her, always and often. He rubbed his fingers along the hard line of his unshaven jaw. “I’m game if you are?”
“You think you’re so charming, don’t you?” Melanie shook her head and challenged him with her no-nonsense look.
“I don’t know. You tell me.”
Alec had promised himself they’d just talk but she was irresistible. And her obstinate posturing was his favorite kind of foreplay. He moved closer and when she held her ground he cupped her face. The warmth of her skin relieved his worries. Touching her made everything right.
Her lips parted but no words came. Slowly he closed the gap between them and breathed in her shallow breath as it bathed his lips. The space between them became almost nonexistent.
“I can hear the race of your blood beneath your skin and smell your desire, Melanie. And those nipples of yours refusing to be ignored under your shirt, hard and needy begging to be touched. You don’t have to tell me you’re charmed by me. Your body already has.”
Alec followed her sharp intake of breath and sealed his lips over hers. He delved into her mouth, slipping his tongue along hers. Her taste was addicting, something he craved more than blood. Time ticked away but still he didn’t rush. If this was all they’d ever have he wanted to relish every second.
Kissing her deep, he filled her with his longing and pulled her near. The way her hands rushed around him to grab his ass made him quake. Alec stepped forward and guided her into her home. Blindly he reached for the door and shut it as she ripped her mouth away with a moan.
Her carnal, lusty tone traveled across his skin like electrical currents.
“Just because my body doesn’t know what’s good for it doesn’t mean I should be with you and Rook,” she said, her tone defiantly sexy. Melanie’s body language, however, was much more willing. She turned, braced her hands flat against the door and arched her back.
Every one of his muscles tensed when she wiggled her ass invitingly against his erection. She didn’t have to tease him twice. Alec pushed her pajama pants down and she helped him by kicking the slippers from her feet. Bare-ass beautiful, she wore no underwear to impede him. He looked his fill, admiring her flawless milky skin, the curve of her waist.
“You’re wrong. Your body knows just how good we are for you.” Alec unbuttoned his jeans and forced them down his thighs along with his fitted boxers. He bent his knees and
thrust through her whimpers until he was as deep inside her as she could take him.
Skintight perfection. Her silken heat tempted him to lose all his control. Fuck her so hard she’d be too exhausted to say anything but yes to him and Rook. He mastered his emotions. He needed to cater to hers right now. Alec didn’t move an inch.
“When you’re thirsty you drink. When you’re tired you sleep. So when your body tells you to love, why are you fighting it?”
Melanie looked back out of the corner of her eye and even at this angle he could see the dimple at the corner of her shaky smile. She rotated her hips in a circular motion tempting him to move. “You call this fighting?”
Smart-ass. He loved her quick wit.
“You’re here aren’t you?” Alec drew away and with considerable willpower didn’t drive back into her like he ached to do. “You should be with Rook and me where you belong. Forever and always. Not here alone.”
Her playfulness vanished and she looked down at the floor. “No talking, no thinking—not right now, Alec. I’ve spent all night doing that.” Melanie pushed her hips back and flexed her inner muscles around the head of his cock. “Please…please just fuck me. Fuck me hard like I know you want to.”
“You want it too.” Alec clenched his jaw against the incredible sensation. He held onto her hips and kept her willing body at bay. “You want it today and I promise you’ll want it tomorrow.” Finally he gave in to his need for her with a never-ending volley of forceful thrusts that tore gasps from her.
“And you’ll want it for all the tomorrows after that.” He pounded each word home with the slap of his hips.
Melanie screamed out with pleasure and bucked against him. Her hair slipped away, revealing the delicate line of her neck.
The temptation to end this here and now overwhelmed him. His fangs erupted. He threw his head back and released his frustration with a gut-wrenching groan. It would be so easy. Other vampires had done it, bonded with a lifemate without permission. Rook’s youngest brother Archer had but not without consequence. It had taken a long time for the couple to rebuild trust.
Not Alec. She’d come willingly or not at all.
He kept pounding into her seizing flesh, wet with her excitement and ignored the burn of his imminent orgasm, determined to milk hers for all it was worth. “Don’t let this end today. Fuck, Melanie, please don’t walk away from me.”
Whatever will he had to hold back crumbled when she cried out his name. Alec slammed into her pussy and dug his fingers into her hips hard enough to leave bruises. His release assaulted his senses and a wave of heat ripped through him. The tip of his cock was supersensitized. With slow, short thrusts he prolonged his orgasm with the most pleasurable shocks of pain.
Alec felt her sobs in the quiet tremble of her body before he heard them. “Melanie?” He tenderly ran his hand up to the bottom hem of her shirt, working his fingers beneath the fitted material. “Are you okay?”
She pulled away and huddled up against the door instead of taking comfort from him. She covered her face with her hands. “I don’t know.” She sniffled.
He could deal with a lot of things. Not this. Not seeing her cry. Alec pulled his pants up and enveloped her from behind. “Talk to me, Melanie.”
She shook harder with his words.
Thankfully, his fangs receded. He nestled his cheek against her head and ignored his own rush of emotions.
“I don’t know if I can do this.” The words came out in a rush.
“You’re one hell of a woman, Melanie Woodson. I’ve only needed a few hours with you to see that.” Alec forced her around. “You can do anything you want.” She kept her head bowed but he refused to let her hide. “Look at me, Melanie.”
When her eyes met his, hers wet with tears, he hated himself for being the one to have caused them. He’d spend the rest of his life making it up to her if she’d let him. “I’m sorry we didn’t give you more time. Both of us were selfish. We should have waited to take your blood but you are so tempting and we didn’t want to lose you.”
Now they just might. Alec smoothed the hair from her face and couldn’t resist keeping his fingers nestled in the soft strands. “You know what I want, what Rook wants. We want you.”
“You make it sound so simple but it’s not.” She dabbed the tears away from the corners of her eyes. “What will people think of me, being with two men? I don’t know if I can spend the rest of my life being the object of scorn, let alone bring children into this world to deal with the same ridicule.” Melanie took a deep breath and guided his hands from her hair. She held them gingerly. “Kids always made fun of me for having the fat parents. Can you imagine the kind of crap our kids would face?”
“This is getting ahead of ourselves, but there are private schools here in the city that cater to our kind. If you do agree to be with us, if we’re blessed with sons, there is a whole community there to support us.” Alec gripped her hands tighter. “My parents were monogamous but Rook lived with three fathers. That hasn’t stopped him from wanting a similar life for his sons. I don’t think he’d choose to do anything that would hurt people he loves.”
She stilled and her eyebrows shot up. “Really, three?”
Alec nodded. He wasn’t ready to deal with what her answer might be to his next question but he forced himself to ask. “Would you have already agreed to become a lifemate if there was only one of us?”
Her cheeks flushed and she stared at him, unflinching. “Honestly,” she sighed, seemingly relieved to speak the truth. “Probably.”
Her admission was like a punch to the gut. Even though dark curiosity had him wanting to ask her who she would choose given a choice, he didn’t ask. He loved Rook like a brother, but he didn’t know if he loved him enough to walk away from Melanie. And he wouldn’t fault his oldest friend for feeling the same way.
“It’s not normal,” she continued, driving her point home. “Normal people don’t live the kind of life you and Rook are proposing.”
“Who the hell is normal? I’ve lived over a century and the definition keeps changing. Hell, in fifty years we might be the new normal. The only people you need to worry about not hurting are the people you love.”
“The people I loved most in the world are all gone, Alec. My parents, my sister Grace. How would I be honoring their memory by doing something I’m sure they’d disapprove of? I don’t want to disappoint them.”
The pain in her voice made Alec’s chest ache. Rook had told him she had no close family members living.
He turned, wrapped his arms around her, determined not to lose her. “You’re perfect. How could you think you’d ever disappoint anybody? Families are more forgiving than you think. They loved you and if you believe there’s a heaven, they still do. Don’t you think they’d want you to be happy?”
“I know they would.” Melanie eased away, wrapping her arms around her waist. “It’s just not that easy.”
“It can be. Nothing and nobody is stopping you but yourself. Choose happiness, Melanie.” Choose us.
She looked up into his face, her cheeks ruddy. “Will I be happy?”
“I’m betting my life on it.”
“You really are doing that, aren’t you?” She leaned back against the door and pulled her tank top down around her hips as far as it would go. Her countenance remained skeptical. “But how can I trust two days of passion will grow into a lifetime of love?”
“Two days, two months, two years, how much time does someone need until they can be sure of what the future will hold?” He leaned closer and straight-armed his palm onto the door by her shoulder. “I can tell you we’ll disagree and we’ll fight. We’ll also make love until we don’t think we can make love anymore and then we’ll make love again. The love will grow stronger with time. It won’t diminish.”
Alec didn’t doubt for a second that he’d love her more every day. He ran the back of his finger along the soft curve of her cheek and touching her made his worry ease.
&
nbsp; “Lifemates have damn good odds when it comes to forever, Melanie. Rook and I, we know you’re a sure thing. We’re made to know. So are you—you just weren’t raised to trust that feeling.”
She wanted to believe him. He could see it in her hopeful expression, hear it in her sigh. A little push, a little proof would be all she’d need and then he didn’t doubt she would be theirs. Inspiration struck. Alec bent down and swiped her pants off the floor.
“Get dressed,” he said, handing them over to her. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought to do this before.
“And here I thought you liked me naked?” She took her pajamas and stepped one leg at a time back into them.
He smacked the side of her ass before she was able to fully cover up. “That’s why I want to take you to meet someone who will prove to you that lifemates are just that, mates for life. So I can enjoy you naked for many years to come.” Alec yanked his phone from his pocket, skimmed his finger over the screen and fired off a speedy text.
“Where are we going?”
Alec tucked in the tails of his shirt, keeping his phone at the ready. “I want you to meet my younger brother and his wife.”
“I don’t know if I’m ready to meet family.” Melanie folded in on herself again, running her hand up and down her other arm.
His phone chimed with the reply he’d hoped for. “Well get ready—you now have one waiting for you.” Alec gave her a quick peck on the cheek. If he lingered much longer than that, no telling how quickly they’d be horizontal. He had no control around her. “We’ll just zip into the city. After that, it’s your call.”
She hesitated for only a moment and then got dressed. Next, Melanie opened the front door and pointed outside. “Zip? If that’s your car we’ll practically fly into the city.” Her eyes gleamed and her dimples came out to play. “Let’s make a deal. I’ll come with you but only if you let me drive.”
Alec balked and then thought better of it. What was the use? She was already in the driver’s seat. To make it official, he pulled his keys from his pocket and forced himself to hand them over. “If this isn’t love, I don’t know what is.”
Dying to Love Her Page 7