‘The way I looked at her?’
Anger wrenched her gut at the glimmer of amusement in his eyes, at the slight upward curve on those enticing lips.
‘Was it painful, fledgling, watching her with me?’ he asked, the coax clear in his tone.
‘Jake was right, wasn’t he? That was why you slept with me. You knew she’d come here.’
‘I had sex with you because I wanted to.’
‘To entrap me. But I’m not going to be a pawn in your twisted games anymore, Caleb. I should have been long gone. None of this should be happening. This is all your fault.’
‘What do you want me to say?’
‘I want you to admit you were wrong to keep me here.’
‘We all act on what information we have at the time.’
‘That’s not good enough.’
‘Not good enough?’ His eyes narrowed. ‘Who the fuck do you think you are?’
‘I’m the woman whose life you’re on the verge of ruining because I came here to do the right thing by your family.’
‘We all have choices. You chose to put your sister above everything you’ve been taught. No decent serryn would do that. That’s why the guidelines are in place. You fucked up just as much as I did.’
She felt something inside her snap. ‘How can you say that?’
‘We both went against our better judgement to save those we care about, despite the fact we knew it was wrong and we knew of the potential fallout. You had a choice, Leila. A choice to come here. A choice whether to reach your full potential. Take some responsibility.’ He leaned forward and threw his apple core into the fire.
She should have bit her tongue but she couldn’t. ‘Don’t you dare lecture me.’
‘I’ll admit you’ve proved me wrong. What you did for Jake, I never thought possible. But that doesn’t change the situation now. Looks like we both ended up deeper than we intended.’
‘Well, thanks for that,’ she said tersely. ‘I appreciate it. Even if it is several hours too late.’
‘That’s not an apology, Leila. You can’t blame me for not trusting you.’
‘No, I don’t. Especially now I know what happened to Seth, which, believe it or not, I’m really sorry to hear. Just as I know Feinith’s backed you into a corner. But whether you intended that to happen or not, and I don’t know what I believe as far as that goes, but Alisha and I are both still stuck in the middle. And that’s down to you. You have to get us out of here.’
‘And what then, Leila? You’re really going to walk away from all this and never come back? Never report it? Even if that’s the truth, now that Feinith knows you exist, do you think she won’t hunt you down? You might think you’re safe in Summerton, but it’s not inaccessible, no matter what your politicians tell you to justify charging you your extortionate rates. It certainly isn’t as impenetrable as they like you to think. The Higher Order, and those with connections to them, has ways and means. They know who to pay off. She’ll find you. Only I won’t be around to help you.’
‘I told you – I don’t need your help. I just need you to get me out of here and I’ll sort the rest.’
‘I don’t know if your naivety is endearing or irritating. She may come across cool, but she was simmering when she saw the way I protected you. This has become personal.’
‘Thanks to you.’
‘I think we’ve laboured that point enough.’
‘And I’ll keep labouring it. You’ve used me from the outset. If it’s not one thing it’s another. So please excuse me for feeling slightly aggrieved.’
He stood.
She tucked her hand under the sofa seat, her fingers extending to check the syringe was still there.
She wrapped her hand around the shaft, uncertain how quickly she’d be able to extract it. She knew she’d have to wait until he was closer, until he wouldn’t catch a glimpse in the corner of his eye. She had no doubt his reaction times were second to none and she knew she only had one shot at it.
But instead of approaching her, Caleb strolled past the sofa. Stepping amidst the mess his temper had left behind, he lifted the first bookcase off the floor and pushed it back against the wall, all the muscles in his back and arms tensing. He did the same to the one next to it before returning the books back to their rightful place a few at a time.
She needed him close. She needed him as close as she could get him.
She tucked the syringe behind her back as she stood and turned to face him. ‘So what now? I’m to remain a prisoner here until you finally hand me over, is that it?’
‘Unless I can find a way through this.’
‘My hero,’ she said.
He glanced across at her as he slotted more books back into place.
Aggravating him was not going to help. She needed to get him to lower his guard.
She watched him as he slotted more books onto the shelves, as she struggled with something more placating to say.
‘Feinith shouldn’t have announced about your brother like that to Jake. It was cruel.’
Busy reinserting pages into a split book, he didn’t look at her. ‘That’s Feinith for you.’
‘And that’s quite a temper you’ve got,’ she said, the battle between her head and her heart rife as she watched him tend to each battered book in turn. ‘Remind me to stay on the right side of it.’
He glanced across at her again as he picked up another pile of books.
After a few more moments of hesitation, she stepped over to join him. She lowered to her haunches. The moment he turned his back on her, she slotted the syringe between the pages of one of the books. As he looked back across his shoulder at her, her heart pounded, but he merely stood and placed a few more books on the shelf.
She reached for more books and added them to the pile, looked up to see him glancing in her direction again. She carried them over to the bookcase next to his. She slotted them amidst some others, lying down the syringe-contained one within easy reaching distance so she could tuck her fingers between the pages. She leaned back against the bookcase to cover her tracks.
‘So was Jake right? Did what happened to Seth start it all? The hunting? Was she the first serryn you’d come across?’
He gathered up a few more books until enough time had lapsed for her to believe he wasn’t going to answer. ‘I came across my first thirty years before then, when I was seventeen.’
Clearly he’d been proficient, even at a young age. ‘Which you survived.’
‘Only because she decided against a quick death.’
‘What did you do? Escape?’
‘Seth and a few others found me. They’d been watching her and followed her back one night.’
‘Did Seth kill her?’
‘No. The others did.’
‘Why not him?’
‘He said once someone started, it was difficult to stop.’
‘Then he was killed by one?’
She let her gaze linger on him in the silence, the distant pensiveness in his eyes making him seem almost human. But he wasn’t human. And she had to remember that.
His silence said enough.
‘For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.’ Her fingers played over the loaded book at the small of her back, guilt tapping at her heart more than she felt at ease with. ‘What did she do to you?’
He glanced at her, raked her swiftly with his gaze. ‘You look exhausted. You should get some sleep.’
‘I have no intention of sleeping. Feinith got up here once; she could get back up here again.’
‘She won’t be back until dusk.’
‘What did you say to her?’
He placed the few books he had in his hands on the shelf beside her, bringing him dangerously close. ‘I told her I needed to think of something I wanted in return for you.’
‘So you admit you’re going to bargain?’
‘I never said that.’
‘At least have the courage to be honest with me, Caleb. Or are you scared of what I�
��m capable of if I believe I’m fighting for my life?’
He rested his arm on the shelf beside her shoulder, giving her his full attention. ‘You don’t believe that already?’
‘I think it’s obvious I do.’
His eyes sparkled in a way she found treacherously playful considering the circumstances. ‘So do I need to tie you up again? Limit the threat?’
She couldn’t let him toy with her. But she could play along now that she had his full attention, now that she had him that close. She took a steadying breath and hoped he hadn’t noticed. ‘Only if you feel you can’t handle me. Can you handle me, Caleb?’
‘Is that an open invitation?’
‘Taken from our last encounter, it doesn’t appear you deem invitations necessary.’
‘Need I remind you that you were more than willing?’
‘Are you saying it would have made a difference if I wasn’t?’
‘You have a lot to learn about me.’
‘In such little time. What a shame.’
His smile in response to her sarcasm was fleeting. ‘I can be nice, you know.’
Her heart pounded. Feinith’s descriptions of what he was capable of trickled through her mind again and left an unwelcome burn. ‘Like you were last time?’
‘You think I wasn’t?’
‘Compared with what I’ve now learned, I think I got off very lightly.’
‘You did.’
‘Because you couldn’t risk the potential coaxing of your mistress by damaging the goods, right? Let’s not make that out to be anything more than it was.’
‘None of this has anything to do with Feinith.’
‘And I’m supposed to believe that?’
‘If I was going to hand you over, I would have done.’
‘If you didn’t want to bargain – you said it yourself.’
‘No, I said I bought us some time. Which you should be grateful for.’ He braced his arms either side of her shoulders. ‘So why don’t you tell me the real reason why Feinith wants you alive?’
She looked deep into his eyes, her fingers brushing the edge of the book. ‘I told you why.’
‘She doesn’t abide by the Higher Order laws. Not when it comes to what she wants. And certainly not when it comes to me. She has slain females I have merely looked at the wrong way, yet she agreed to leaving you here. This is about more than playing games with me.’
‘I’m guessing you failed to get the answer out of her, so you expect to get it out of me?’
‘I have more ways and means with you.’
‘Easier, you mean.’
‘No, just more interesting. More enjoyable.’
Her stomach flipped. ‘So you enjoyed being with me,’ she said, despite knowing she was only opening up to more precarious banter – banter that had got her into enough trouble last time.
His smile was brief. ‘What is it that you’re most scared of, fledgling – becoming one of them or is it the pain of the bite?’
‘If I become one of them, the second is inevitable.’
‘Both of which you forgot long enough to give yourself to me.’
She slid the back of her fingers along the pages of the book. ‘So did you sleep with her too?’ Leila asked, unable to contain herself. ‘Before you came to try your luck with me?’
‘Why would I have sex with her when I’ve got you up here?’
Her heart skipped a beat. ‘That’s one hell of an assumption on your part.’
‘Is it?’
‘Why would I have any intention of sleeping with you, with everything I now know?’
‘Because it felt good.’
He leaned in, traced his kisses up her neck to behind her ear.
Kisses of a vampire dangerously in control.
Leila shivered, every tiny hair on the back of her neck and her arms prickling as he nipped her earlobe.
‘I thought that talent of yours made you immune to our charms,’ he whispered. ‘Not a little chink in that conviction is there, serryn?’
‘You seem to think so.’
Despite it wrenching at her stomach, she knew what she had to do. She had to get a grip and make the most of his distraction, his arrogance – the only chance she might get.
She turned her head further to the side to expose her neck, offering it to him.
She felt him pull back and their gazes locked.
She knew she was trembling but she couldn’t help it, just as she couldn’t help the surge of arousal that flooded through her. Making him hesitate, making him look at her with those deep, pensive eyes made her feel empowered.
He hadn’t expected that response and she wondered for a moment if it had been a mistake. She slipped her fingers into the book in preparation but instead of retracting as she thought he might, he leaned in again and licked slowly up the length of her artery.
She caught her breath as he lowered his body slightly to press his hardness tight against her groin.
Just as she had coaxed him, he was upping the ante and coaxing her – daring her to tempt him. His confidence was infuriating but dangerously exciting.
‘One bite, Caleb, that’s all it will take.’
‘Once more inside you could be all it takes,’ he whispered in her ear, making her stomach flip. ‘Right now, I’m willing to take the risk. Are you?’
❄ ❄ ❄
Both she and Feinith were hiding something, and being out in the cold was irritating. He needed to know what he was dealing with. He needed to know what he was up against. But forcing it out of her wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted to make her tell him not through pain but by taking her to the point of not caring anymore, just like he had last time. He wanted to consume her that much. Right then and right there.
And he needed to get that close to her again. After the last time, he needed to prove he could enjoy her body without being tempted to bite. He needed to overcome the desire despite knowing that, if she was that powerful, he was contemplating suicide getting that close to her again.
But the rush was intense.
And never more so when she did the last thing he expected – when she turned her head to expose her neck to him.
He drew back slightly to study her eyes.
He couldn’t tell if the clever little witch was double bluffing him or trying to make him think twice, but it wasn’t going to work. If she wanted to play this way, he’d see what she had the confidence to do – what the serryn in her would compel her to do. How far she’d be willing to go before showing her true colours.
And as she reached out, slid her soft, warm hand down his neck and chest, he had the stirring feeling she might actually surprise him.
❄ ❄ ❄
She couldn’t believe she was doing it – playing along. But she wasn’t going to play the victim and she sure as hell wasn’t going to allow him to see her that way.
And she needed to be sure he was distracted enough. He was still watching every move she made and she needed those defences down. She needed to draw him in.
She didn’t have to be afraid. She had succeeded where many didn’t in that she could control it. She would control it. And as she slid her hand down that hard chest, she knew it wasn’t going to be unpleasurable. A part of her needed to do this. To touch him. To let that restrained part of her out. For just for a few moments she’d allow herself that.
Perilously moving her other hand from her concealed weapon, she used both hands to unfasten the buttons on his shirt, not daring to meet his gaze as he watched her in the silence. She could tell she had confused him and it spurned her on, button by button, until his shirt lay open.
He’d been right about the jealousy. Seeing Feinith run her hands over him had made her stomach clench in an alien and unpleasant way. She abhorred thoughts of what he’d done and abhorred the thought of him sleeping with that beautiful vampire just as much – the thought of Feinith doing what she didn’t have the courage to do; taking Caleb as her own; sharing those things with him.
>
But a part of her couldn’t deny wanted to claim that same ownership of Caleb.
She ran the flat of both her hands down that perfect, honed chest, her fingers playing hesitantly over every defined muscle, sliding them as low down his flat, hard stomach as she dared before slipping them back up over his pecs to his strong shoulders, his biceps that strained from his braced arms either side of her.
‘You can get yourself in a lot of trouble touching a vampire like that.’
She looked into his eyes albeit fleetingly. ‘I’m already in trouble, aren’t I?’
‘If you can’t finish what you’ve started, yes.’
She let her fingers slide back down again, lingering over his taut waist, itching to slide lower but uncertain she had that much confidence yet.
She knew what to do. She knew exactly what to do. Without qualm, she’d learned a lot of ways to satisfy the males in her life, to compensate for not being able to go that extra step. But with Caleb it felt different. With the others, she had felt in control. She’d felt safe.
She lingered over the tattoo she guessed was the one Feinith lay claim to. ‘Is this the one you had done for her?’
‘I did a lot of things for her.’
‘Were you together long?’
‘A few decades. On and off.’
‘While you were hunting? Is that how you and Feinith met?’
‘Yes.’
‘I thought the Higher Order are only supposed to mix with other Higher Order vampires.’
‘Feinith doesn’t care much for rules. Not if she’s able to keep it under cover. And neither do I.’
‘So your relationship was secret?’ She looked back up at him as her fingers dared to brush along the top of his low-slung jeans.
But he didn’t answer that one.
He was aroused. Glancing back down at his jeans was enough to tell her that. He almost looked distracted. Focused, lethal, perceptive Caleb seemed a little lost in the moment.
It was what she needed.
It was working.
She could do it. She had the power to get the control back.
❄ ❄ ❄
Her touch sparked something deep inside him and he didn’t know if it angered him or pleased him, but either way the raw sense to her touch excited him.
02 Blood Roses - Blackthorn Page 17