“It’s Joffrey. And, yes. Sometimes. I like the atmosphere,” he drawled with cool lips, the vein in his forehead pulsing.
“I don’t know about you, Joe, but I can’t get into all this loud banging and pounding bass. It gives me a headache.”
Spencer watched the look on Joffrey’s face turn from the serene calm of a few moments ago to a mask of complete control. “It’s Joffrey, Mr. McBride, and like I was telling Spencer earlier—to each his own.”
“It’s Detective McBride, Jeffie.”
Joffrey pushed back his chair and stood, his lanky frame paling in comparison to Larkin’s bulk. “Of course it is, Detective. Spencer, it’s been a pleasure. I’m sure we’ll see each other sooner than you think.” His words sounded anything but pleasant. In fact, to her sensitive ears, they sounded almost like a threat.
But Jesus, she hoped she never saw him again. Not if the world were coming to an end and Joffrey here held the key to saving humanity did she ever want to see him again. “Goodnight, Joffrey. It was nice talking with you.” Not.
Joffrey sauntered his way through the crowd, his head held high, his back straight, and disappeared into the throng of dancers.
Larkin chuckled. “Not even if he held the key to saving humanity? Did he say something to make you uncomfortable?”
Spencer let her head fall to her folded arms and laughed, too. God save her from herself and her rampant thoughts. “Nope. Not at all. He just exists, and it’s creepy. Can’t say why he throws off that vibe, but the entire time he was looming over me, doing his best to appear mysterious and seductive, he just made me feel unclean.”
“I noticed he didn’t much like me poking at him. There was a whole lot of slow burn beneath that slick exterior of his. Jeffie’s a tightly wound guy.”
“So it was a test then? The Jeffie thing?”
He lifted his chin and smiled. “Yep. I like knowing early on where I stand with someone who looks like he belongs on Team Edward and tries too damn hard to come off unruffled.”
“So you mussed his hair up.”
“And took his lunch money.”
So. Hot. She groaned. Be one with the silence, Spencer and shut up. “How interesting to see you flaunt your detective skills.”
Larkin eyed her for a moment in that soul-searing way of his then changed the subject. “So, what brings you here, Spencer Polanski?”
She leaned in on the bar, letting her head rest on her fist. “My cousin’s need to fulfill her ‘girls just wanna have fun’ quota.”
He looked out over the crowd of gyrating dancers. “Who’s your cousin?”
Spencer pointed over her shoulder and giggled. “The dark-haired one on the dance floor with the sparkly silver dress, doing a terrible impression of twerking.”
“Does she work with you?”
“She worked with her dad in Tucson, but she just had a baby so she’s decided to take some time off. She’s just helping out until my brother comes back from vacation.”
“Wow, how long ago did she have the baby?”
“About two months.”
Larkin whistled his approval. “Talk about bouncing back. Good for her.”
“Her husband Joel is big into fitness. He helped.”
“Tell me, Spencer. I thought vampires couldn’t have babies?”
Spencer kept her face placid, and her body relaxed as though she were laughing at him instead of in an utter state of panic that Larkin was closer than he realized. “Now how can that be true, Detective? If that were the case then where would more wee little Draculas come from? Wouldn’t we be a dying breed?”
“Well, first, don’t you all live forever? And second, if you were dying off, wouldn’t you just bite people to keep your breed from extinguishment?”
Good thing he couldn’t read her stomach, because it was in a big knot. “Where are you getting all of this information anyway? Is there a big book of vampires? Or maybe you’ve been reading Vampires for Dummies?”
“Is there such a thing? Can you get one of those on Amazon?” Larkin leaned in to spear her with his gaze again, making her stomach clench tighter and her nipples burn the inside of her Miracle Bra.
Okay. This had to stop. She could not lust for a man who was the enemy.
Spencer pushed her stool back and hopped down, almost teetering on her heels. “I don’t know, Detective. You tell me. You seem to know everything.”
He grabbed her arm and stopped her from leaving, his expression anything but playful. “Oh, no. We’re not done. Tonight you’re all mine.”
Oh, those words…pass the fan. She raised an eyebrow in haughty fashion. “Pardon me?”
“I said you’re not leaving. Not without me anyway.”
“Don’t make me hurt you, Detective. I took self-defense and I’m not afraid to make a scene,” she said through clenched teeth. Partly because his hand on her arm was going to shoot off sparks from their combined friction and partly because she was afraid he was straying into dangerous territory.
Larkin yanked her closer, letting his hand slip to her wrist. Their bodies pressed tightly together, her breasts crushed against his wide chest. “Don’t make me use my handcuffs, Spencer.”
All righty, playtime was over. Spencer whipped her wrist from his grasp with eye blinking speed and latched onto Larkin’s thick forearm.
If he was surprised by her strength he was pretty good at masking it when she dug her fingers into his skin and twisted. “You wanna see a grown man cry, Detective?”
Larkin’s teeth gritted and his jaw ticked, but he didn’t budge.
Spencer narrowed her eyes at him. “You forgot about a vampire’s strength when you were doing all this research, not to mention a vamp’s speed. I could kick your sissy ass all over this bar, Detective, if you don’t go the fuck away and leave me alone.” She twisted harder, feeling the strain of hard muscle beneath her hand.
“You’re a vampire, Spencer, and I intend to find out what this all means to me.” He spoke calmly, succinctly, but beads of sweat had broken out on his forehead, a sure sign he was getting ready to fold.
“Heeeyy!!! Who do we have here, Spencer?” her cousin Cathy asked breathlessly as she came to stand beside Spencer and Larkin.
Spencer shoved his arm away and squared her shoulders, turning to a smiling, but confusing Cathy by the frown on her face.
“Just a guy,” Spencer said as indifferently as possible. “Can we go now, honey? I’m tired and my head hurts.”
“I’m sorry, Spencer. I didn’t realize it was this late. I want to get back so I won’t miss the baby’s feeding anyway. Let me go get Sara and we’ll go, okay?”
Spencer latched onto Cathy’s hand and said, “I’ll go with you.” Over her shoulder, she turned, winked at Larkin, who was rubbing his forearm, and wiggled her fingers.
Never fuck with girl power, Spencer thought. You hear that, McBride?
Chapter 5
Spencer was exhausted. After her bout with Joffrey and then Larkin, all she wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep. She didn’t even bother to turn on her lights in her small apartment. Not that she needed to—her vampire eyesight was just right.
Good eyes sure as hell didn’t help her keep tabs on the detective. Not like a good sense of smell would. How was it that a mere mortal could read her mind and she couldn’t smell a bloody thing?
The fates were cruel indeed.
Spencer wandered down the hall as she kicked off clothing and berated herself the entire length of her hallway because she’d all but admitted to being a vampire.
Damn her temper. It might have made things much worse for her family. Larkin McBride could fuck up their carefully constructed world and it would be her fault because her mouth got the best of her.
But—she smiled to herself—had she held on much longer, she could have made him scream like a girl. Wanna wrestle, Detective? Spencer giggled as she entered her bedroom just thinking about that surprised look on Larkin McYummy’s face.
&nb
sp; “No one makes me scream like a girl.”
Spencer jumped and let out a long yelp. “Arggghhhhh!”
Larkin sat in the chair by her window, his legs crossed at the ankles, looking like he was right at home.
Infuriated that he’d broken into her home, she forgot she was in her underwear. Forgot she wasn’t supposed to use vampire force. Just forgot—everything—except the desire to punch Larkin McBride in the nose.
“Okay, I’ve had enough of you and your brand of pushy, Super Sleuth! Now I am going to kick your ass and I’m pretty sure you have no doubt in that pea brain of yours that I can,” she seethed the words as she stomped over to her bed, hopped up on top of it, and jumped off the other side to stand in front of him. “Get up and take it like a man, McBride.” Spencer hovered over his sitting form, hands on panty-clad hips.
And then she realized. Shit. She was in her underwear. Way to intimidate, Polanski.
Larkin’s hand snaked out to run a finger along the waistband, setting a path of flames beneath it. “They’re pretty, too.”
Heat, sharp and stabbing slithered over her skin.
Oh, crap.
Spencer gritted her teeth and glared down at him. “Did you forget your search warrant, Detective? Isn’t this breaking and entering?”
“I didn’t break anything to get in here.”
She waggled a finger under his nose in warning. “Don’t you semantics me to death. You broke into my apartment. Now for the last time, what the hell do you want from me?”
“You,” he ground out, snaking a hand around her waist and pulling her body to his lips. “I want you, and I don’t know what to do about that, Spencer Polanski.”
Her eyes widened in surprise, but everything else tightened with an aching need she almost couldn’t contain. It was sudden and deep and held her in a grip of iron.
“So what should we do about that?” he asked, his voice thick and husky.
Spencer’s mouth went dry, but she fought to keep her cool as his fingers began to walk along her bare thigh. “Is this about what happened back at the bar? Is this about reafirming your masculinity?”
Larkin sat up, his finger slipping deeper into the leg of her panty, skirting the smooth skin where the top of her thigh met her hip. “Nope, this is about you driving me crazy. So crazy, I can’t stop thinking about you—wanting you.”
Spencer’s hips jutted forward with a mind of their own, responding to the pad of his finger and his scorching words. “That’s only because you can hear my thoughts…”
His eyes gobbled her up with their intensity when he looked up at her. “No. It’s more than that. Much more. I just don’t know what it is. So do you want to explore, or do you want me to get the hell out of here and never come back? Your call.”
Spencer shivered at the idea he’d never return. Yet, she didn’t understand such a vehement reaction. He’d been nothing but a pain in the ass since they’d met. But she was drawn like some magnetic invisible force that had a hold of her and wouldn’t let go. It gripped her, forced her to acknowledge it existence.
Still, she managed to keep her response somehow light. “All those romantic words, Detective. You’re turning my insides to mush.”
“I’m not much for pretty words,” Larkin replied with a growl, bending his head and nuzzling her hip, his thick hair tickling her skin. He slid his other hand between her legs and cupped her ass, pulling her roughly to him.
Spencer was immobile, helpless to stop him for the delicious throb growing in her core. The hand that cupped her ass yanked her panties down in one forceful tug, leaving her exposed to his eyes—eyes he used to roam over the most intimate part of her body.
Then he spread the flesh of her ass with two demanding hands and laid his mouth on the place between her legs, resting there.
Spencer’s hands balled into tight fists at her sides and her teeth were ground so tightly together dental floss couldn’t slip between them. A scream settled at the back of her throat when Larkin didn’t move. Instead he remained still, allowing her to become wet with anticipation.
“Say no, and I’m out.” His hot demand against her skin almost drove her out of her mind.
She licked her lips as her toes dug into the floor, and suddenly she could no longer stand the wait. She forgot everything—all the rules her clan had about mates—the fact that she had no sexual experience with a man—forgot all of it.
Nothing mattered but Larkin’s mouth on her, his breath fanning out over her most intimate part. Nothing mattered but the sharp inhale of air he took when he moaned and the tip of his tongue so close to her aching clit.
She was about to break a major rule, her clan’s rule, centuries old. She was about to risk a shunning as she stood in front of him, exposed, so needy she shook.
But even that frightening possibility didn’t matter in this moment. Nothing mattered but the total bliss of Larkin’s mouth, wet and slippery smooth between her legs.
“Spencer,” he said, the vibration of his words thrumming through her, making her ache deeper and her nipples tighten. “All you have to do is say no.”
As an answer, she tilted her hips and thrust forward, and at that exact moment Larkin’s hot, silken tongue sliced through her soaking flesh in one electric stroke.
His groan of pleasure, low and husky, swept to her ears, intoxicating her. “Delicious,” he muttered, before delving deeper.
Her head instantly fell back on her shoulders in response as his tongue created the purest spike of pleasure she’d ever experienced, working its way from her toes to settle deep in her belly. It made her skin flush and her body quiver with fiery desire.
Circling her clit, needy and almost painfully swollen, he tugged at it with lips that seared her, suckling it, taking gentle nips.
Her hands clutched at his hair frantically, whimpering when he ran his tongue rapidly over the fleshy folds, taking stroke after long stroke.
Her already sensitive vampire nerves were ablaze, heightened by the sound of Larkin licking her with his mouth.
The soft suction of wet on wet made Spencer insane with a need unfulfilled for five hundred years. She strained, pushing his mouth against her in search of something she didn’t understand, something that grew, throbbed, pulsed a beat in her ears, and made her want to beg.
As her hips began to writhe, Larkin once more drove his tongue into her, deeper, spreading her wide with his fingers, licking at her until a rush of flames roared through her and a wave of white-hot heat raced in her veins.
Her mind was completely blank, nothing but her desperate ache to reach whatever destination she was bound for flew through her head as she pounded against him, clutching his head, desperately trying to hang on.
The first orgasm hit her hard, making her back arch sharply and her nipples tighten almost painfully. Larkin braced her spine with his hand, spanning the width of her with ease as he relentlessly lashed her with his mouth and tongue.
Her eyes stung when she came again, the pleasure so intense, so all consuming, the white-hot electricity racing through her body as it tore through her was almost visible.
Spencer didn’t remember how they got to the bed, or where Larkin’s clothes went. She only knew when his body covered hers, hard and rigid, she had to have him inside her.
At this very second, she couldn’t imagine going on without his cock, stretching her, filling her. Somewhere deep inside, she knew this kind of intensity bordered insane, but she didn’t care when his long shaft, scorching and thick, lay between them, taunting the lips of her flesh, grazing her swollen clit. Instinctively her legs wrapped around his waist as she arched her back and hung onto his neck.
Larkin’s chiseled body tensed above her, his cock nudging her entrance. Yet, he paused, hovered while his strong arms trembled and his jaw went hard.
But Spencer moved frantically beneath him, desperate, burning, aching until he drove into her, fierce and with a power that made her eyes roll to the back of her head. Her nails
tore into his hard back, latching onto his skin upon entry, clinging to him, burying her face in his thickly muscled neck.
But Larkin suddenly stiffened against her and when she opened her eyes, she found he was gazing down at her, his blue-gray eyes dark and searching. She ignored the question in his stare and tilted her hips toward his, grabbing handfuls of his tight ass and pushing him deeper into her.
Nothing had ever consumed her quite this way—this insatiable, crazy need to have him deeply within her forever.
Larkin’s next thrust was followed by a fierce yell as his neck arched and the firm bronze skin pulled tightly to reveal the thick cords of tense muscle.
Spencer was on fire—every nerve—every inch of her. Slick and hungry, she rose up on her heels and met his lean hips as he embedded himself in her over and over, his balls slapping against her ass. The carnal sound rang in her ears as he rode her, the delicious scrape of his pubic hair against her clit making her mad with want.
Her muscles clenched him, stroking his silken length, taking him deeply, burrowing beneath the strong shelter of his body.
Raising her arms above her head, Larkin collared her wrists with his big hand, holding her still as he plunged into her.
She pushed against the restraint of his hands, knowing she could yank out of his grasp, but the force with which he took her was intoxicating, driving her over the edge to a haven of release.
Deeper and deeper he sank into her, pulsing, radiating heat, their bodies becoming one swift motion of total unison. His cock stretched her, filled her, made her senses rage as she opened herself up to him completely.
Spencer clenched her teeth when the overwhelming force of sensation assaulted her. A wave of sharp heat clung between her legs, making her shudder and twist until Larkin tensed, too, and he thrust one last time, sending them both over the final hurdle.
She knew she screamed. She heard her harsh, hoarse voice echo as she did, but she didn’t care. The pleasure Larkin evoked had to be relieved or she would burst.
And then she exploded into a million shattering threads of light, flashing behind her eyelids. Her body heaved against Larkin’s, his chest crashing against hers as they both came.
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