by M. L. Briers
He had to wonder how the hell he was going to get his mate to love him when his own flesh and blood couldn’t.
“What happened, Bonnie?” He had a need to know why it was that she shied away from people.
Why a city girl had moved to the back of beyond and what had sent her running there?
Bonnie felt more than uncomfortable, she felt like she’d been pinned to the wall and he’d demanded to know her inner most thoughts and fears.
She wasn’t that girl. She never opened up…
“I’m your mate…”
“I heard.”
“That means that I would never hurt you.”
“I … heard that too,” she melted a little, just a little, but it was something in his book.
“Then you know that you can trust me…” Karl watched the way the little ridges appeared between her eyebrows as she frowned, and he had an irrational need to reach out to her and smooth them away with the pad of his thumb… “Maybe you don’t feel that right now … but you will soon.” He added to try to make her feel better.
Bonnie liked that thought. As strange as it felt to her to be relaxing just a little more with that – big as a house – man in her living room, she was doing it, and she liked not having that bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.
“Take all the time that you need, I’m not going anywhere…” Karl added when she didn’t reply and he watched her frown harder and rushed to reassure her. “Not in a stalky bad way. I mean, sure there will be some – you know…?” He cleared his throat. “Bear activity around your cabin…”
“Stop now…” she chuckled, holding up her hand to silence him.
“I’m making it worse, right?”
Karl scowled – the whole time the words were spilling out of his mouth, he wanted it to stop – hell, he wanted to head-butt a wall to shut himself up … he was rambling, and worse than that, he was probably scaring the hell out of her again…
Some mate…
“A little bit,” she chuckled.
“Yeah, I’m … err … done,” he regarded his feet, but the soft sound of her chuckling did make his heart a little lighter.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
~
“So if this was my blood?” Jenny said; holding up the cup in her hand and Bailey groaned…
“Can we not?” He was getting thirty, but not for coffee.
He knew that he could control himself – but not how long he could control himself for if she kept on with the same line of questioning.
I’m only human … ok, that’s not exactly true, but still – make it stop … make her stop…
He begged whatever entity was listening – if there was one out there at all…
“You said ask you anything…” she teased him because it was a little funny to watch the man squirm.
“And you have – I think you know more about blood and feeding than most vampires…” Bailey offered back, a little starch to his tone as he rebuked her just enough to make her press her lips together to try to supress the smile that had him mesmerised.
“Except how it tastes…”
“You have such a barbed tongue when you want it that I’m sure you’ve tasted your own blood before,” he smirked.
“Well, that’s how it tastes to me, but how does it taste to you?”
“Like that coffee tastes to you, only better – imagine your taste buds were heightened and you drank that coffee…”
“Yum…” she lifted the cup and sipped at the brew inside. “Ok, I get it now…”
“Not yet, but soon…” he wiggled those dark eyebrows once more for effect and watched her smile grow.
“Wait until you’re offered…” She shot back, and then widened her eyes… “Oh, that’s right, you’re a vampire, you stalk, you creep, you swoop, you take…”
“My life sounds like endless fun,” he said dryly.
“No stalking?” She teased, babying him with her eyes and her tone.
“Not of late, no…”
“No creeping?”
“I do not creep … but I am … stealthy.”
“No … swooping?”
Jenny blinked twice when she found herself inside of his arms, tilted back, and looking up into the jet black of his eyes…
“I swoop, I claim, I conquer…” he grinned, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about the little bit of his fangs that he was showing.
Jenny’s eyes dropped down to those fangs and she drew in a fast breath of surprise … there was a rush to something inside of her, but it wasn’t fear or panic…
“You almost spilled my coffee…” she rebuked him.
“Perish the thought,” he shot back, playfully.
“Somebody wants to lose his fangs…”
“Fighting talk and from a human…” he grinned.
“So, now you have me here…”
She didn’t get to finish as his lips came down on hers.
~
~
~
“So, you only went on one date with him?” Karl felt the rumble of a growl within his chest, but there wasn’t a damn thing that he could do to keep it at bay.
The thought of his mate with another man, especially a dangerous one, was enough to send his bear into freefall. He needed to keep a tight rein on the beast, because he didn’t think that her story was going to get any easier for either of them.
“He seemed … nice,” Bonnie said, looking anywhere but at Karl.
“Nice…” he grumbled another growl.
“He lived in my apartment block and I ran into him all the time. He became a familiar face … I didn’t see that other side of him until I told him that I thought we’d be better as friends…”
“Friends,” Karl nodded. His fingers twitched to curl into fists and he pressed his hands flatter against his thighs.
“”Are you going to repeat every last word I say?”
“Say … no,” he shook his head, and Bonnie couldn’t help but smile, even though she didn’t much feel like it.
“Do you really want to hear this?”
No!
But I have to know…
“Yes,” Karl managed to force that one word out when his mind was screaming the word no at him.
“He started to show up at places – the coffee shop that Jenny and I went to – in the line at the cinema – our local bar…” Bonnie tossed up her hand in frustration. “It all seemed innocent at first, because he made it feel like that. I guess I wasn’t looking for anything hinky…”
“Why would you?”
“Right,” Bonnie nodded. “But then it got a little more obvious. He showed up at my front door – got a little aggressive with a male friend of Jenny’s that I was chatting with, who’s gay by the way…”
Bonnie shrugged, and it looked like a pretty helpless shrug from where he was sitting.
He wanted to reach out and wrap her within the safety of his arms. The need was clawing inside of him to make certain that she knew that she was protected – that she knew deep down that he’d never let anyone hurt her ever again.
He didn’t know how to do that without her freaking out.
What he did know for sure was that he wanted to kill the guy responsible.
“So, he’s not a shifter?”
“No.”
“Vampire?”
“God, no.” She realised how bad her response sounded the moment that the word had come out of her, and she looked a little sheepish.
“No magic, wizard, warlock…”
“No magic…”
“Just a human…” he considered it for a long moment.
“Define just…” Bonnie was scowling now.
“Well, I mean, he doesn’t have …” he floundered when she raised just the one eyebrow at him.
“Any superpowers?”
“Yes,” Karl said, and he almost blew out a sigh of relief that she’d let him off the hook.
“Hmm …” Bonnie folded her arms under her breasts
and he caught the way that they rose just a little – he stifled the growl that rumbled through his chest at the images that went through his mind.
“I didn’t mean anything by it. It’s just…”
“And we’re back to just … Look, the man might not have fangs and claws and magic, but he’s got fists, and an attitude that would rival a…” she tossed a hand up towards him…
“Bad mood bear?” Karl asked.
“That’s not what I said…”
“But was it what you meant?” Karl pressed her and she was back to scowling again.
Karl wasn’t sure how they come to be at loggerheads. He’d put his foot in his mouth somewhere along the line – probably the just human remark – and now she was looking at him as if he was public enemy number one.
CHAPTER TWELVE
~
“I don’t know you.”
It was that simple. One thing was for sure, she didn’t rush to trust anyone anymore, and shifters had a reputation for short tempers and fighting, and not just around their own kind.
She certainly didn’t want to get in the way of one of his fists. Her eyes dropped to his huge hands that were balled up on his thighs.
There was an air of anger that sat within him, she could see it, and it made her nervous.
Karl followed her gaze. He knew that his anger was bubbling just beneath the surface.
His bear was loving the idea that was pinging around his mind of hunting the man down and ripping him limb from limb, but he was worrying his mate, and that couldn’t happen.
Karl made a conscious effort to unclench his fists. It felt to him that the act of stretching out his fingers to lay against his thick, muscles thighs took a phenomenal amount of willpower on his part – let alone his bear, but he managed to do it anyway.
For her.
“Not everyone that you’ve met in your life has tried to hurt you, Bonnie,” Karl had a hard time keeping the rolling growl from his tone.
“I know.” She nodded in acceptance of what he was saying.
She knew deep down that she now had irrational fears about people – men, and yet, just like being afraid of a harmless house spider, they were there up front and centre within her mind and she couldn’t seem to shake them free…
It wasn’t Karl’s fault. The man had been nothing but nice, and he’d saved her backside when she was swinging from the guttering on the roof. Hell, he’d even come over to help them move in…
She felt the flare of guilt inside of her.
The man was her mate, and according to what they had read on the internet as they’d worked their way through a bottle of Scotch the night before, and from what she could remember because of that Scotch – mates were, on the whole, protective.
They also mated for life and that part was scary.
He’s my mate … I get that, maybe … but how am I supposed to know that?
And what am I supposed to do about it?
Am I supposed to just look at him and know that this man is the one I’m supposed to spend the rest of my life with?
Like … love at first sight?
Maybe lust at first sight …
Oh, wow … change that thought…
Bonnie realised that he was giving her an expectant look, and she didn’t think that she’d missed a question…
“I get it. I do – I just…”
“Don’t know me…”
“Right.” She nodded, just once, but it was a big one.
“What happened next?” He asked, not really sure that he wanted to hear it, but it was better that he heard it now, when everything was new, than when his beast was bonded and he had no choice but to hunt the man down and kill him…
“He broke into my apartment…” Bonnie couldn’t meet his eyes, she stared at the space on the carpet between them, and he didn’t like that one little bit.
“He … hurt you?”
“It was only Dane showing up that stopped him from doing far worse than he did…” She shivered at the thought. “Dane is Jenny’s friend.”
Bonnie didn’t want to remember that night. Not in any real detail.
She’d been getting ready to go out with Jenny with half an eye on the clock for Dane arriving to pick her up; when the knock had come at the door. She’d thought Dane was early and she’d said his name when she pulled the door open…
She’d thought about it a million times. Relived it in her sleep every night since – he’d challenged her over Dane – he’d started to push her around, and when she’d stuck up for herself – that was when he’d started to hit her…
If it hadn’t of been for Dane …
Bonnie was almost certain that from the look on his face and what he’d been saying … that she wouldn’t be alive now if Dane hadn’t of been there…
“Where is he now?” Karl wanted to do to the man what he’d done to Bonnie.
He could feel the emotions coming from her in waves and it affected him, affected his bear, and his wild side sought justice for her pain, and her fear.
“The case hasn’t gone to court yet. They gave him an injunction or something to stop him coming near me, but that didn’t stop him from living in my apartment block, so I left.” Bonnie motioned around her…
Karl felt angrier than he’d ever been in his life before. If the man wasn’t dead then he should have at least been locked up and the key thrown away…
“I kind of half expect to look over my shoulder and see him there … it feels like he’s close…” She waved that away.
“Have you seen him here?” Karl pushed up to his feet, but Bonnie was already shaking her head.
“No,” she rushed out. “I guess old habits…”
“If he shows up here…” Karl made that promise to himself, but she wouldn’t let him finish.
“He doesn’t know where I am…” Bonnie assured him.
“I won’t let him hurt you again…”
“Let’s talk about … anything else.”
Bonnie wrapped her arms around her body. She believed that he’d try to protect her, but she didn’t want anyone else getting hurt because of her.
This wasn’t Karl’s fight and she didn’t want it to be.
~
~
~
Bailey allowed Jenny up for air. He’d only meant to tease her with a few kisses, and instead, he’d all but devoured her … although, she hadn’t seemed to mind.
Now, she was looking up at him with those hooded eyes and the scent in the air of her sex told him that she was more than interested in taking things further – but, he wasn’t about to push his luck and have her running for the hills, maybe even claiming in her own defence that he’d used his vampire ways to persuade her by nefarious means.
No. When he took her to bed and made her his – she was going to be all in for the long haul.
That didn’t mean that she’d be asking him to turn her – just that she was his in every way possible.
There was a fever inside of him to taste her blood, but it was a need that he could control – for now.
“I like this … picnic,” Bailey grinned.
“I guess that’s code for how you wanna take me to bed and drink my blood…?” Jenny’s grin was teasing.
“You really do have to stop talking about blood…”
“All blood or just my very tasty blood?”
Bailey bit down on a groan.
“You’re killing me here…” he sighed.
“I hate to tell you this, but you’re already dead…” she whispered back like it was a secret to share.
“Parts of me are very much alive…”
He pressed his hard length against her thigh and groaned again. He was sure that hadn’t been the right way to prove his point, because now he was desperate for her body and the taste of her blood even more.
That need – the desire for her went hand in glove. He wanted to be buried deep inside of her when he tasted her on his tongue for the first time, and the tim
e after that, and the time after that…
“And it’s a feisty little thing,” she exclaimed on a grin so teasing that he wanted to tease her right back to just so show her how he felt … that would have to wait, because when he got her where he wanted her, teasing her would be the last thing on his mind.
“Not so much of the little.” He frowned. “You may give it a complex…”
“Oh, that would be bad – like cutting my nose off to spite my face, right?”
“I … you really are determined to torture me, aren’t you?”
“It had crossed my mind.” She gave a small nod – then she grinned with glee at the thought.
“Torturing a big, bad, scary vampire is never a good idea – it could come back to bite you in the backside – if you’re lucky.” He wiggled those eyebrows once more, and she found herself giggling like a schoolgirl at his antics.
“Firstly – you’re not so big…” She pressed against his manhood on the lie – it wasn’t something that she wanted to be poked in the eye with.
He grunted at the feel of his cock trapped between them…
“Secondly, you’re not so bad, or scary…”
“Really?” He narrowed his eyes on her.
“Sorry,” she shrugged. “I’m a city girl.”
“And…?”
“I’ve seen much scarier monsters than you.”
“That’s because I have my good boy hat on…”
“Says you,” she challenged him. At least, that was how it felt, and he groaned inside once more. The woman really was testing his willpower, but there was no way that he was going to rise to her baiting him. “How about you take a sip?”
“That’s not a good idea,” he scoffed at the thought of only taking a sip from her.
Bailey knew that when he tasted her it would be a feast, one that would make him question his sanity and test his self-control to the limit, but she was his mate and he would make sure that he slipped some of his blood into her drink, just in case things went badly wrong.