by Anna Rainn
Okay, no, I had to call him back. I slipped into the back of the living area; the small balcony was off-limits, and hit the call button. Nick picked up at a quarter of a ring.
“What happened?” He was panting.
“Hello special consultant Nicholas,” I said, sweetly.
He paused for about five seconds. Then he hissed at me, “Where the hell are you?”
“With a friend. I’m glad you finally found the time to call me back.”
“Where are you? Tell me NOW!” His voice went up two notches at the last word.
“I don’t see why you should be talking to me like that, and it’s none of your business where I am.”
Wait, how did he know I wasn’t at my place?
“Where are you?” I asked him.
“In your kitchen,” he answered, then accusingly, “you didn’t eat the French toast.”
“How did you get in my house?!”
“I broke the door, Marissa. Now your house is doorless, and you’re to blame. Where are you?”
“You WHAT?”
“Let’s get this straight. You were attacked by vampires not once, but TWICE. You are under clear instructions to stay in your house from sunset to sunrise.”
“Instructions?!” I interrupted.
He ignored me and went on, “but you see fit to leave the house at night without telling me, and not pick up or text back,” he finished, then audibly took a breath in. “This can wait. Where are you? I am coming to get you.”
“First of all, you told me to stay indoors, not stay in my house. I am indoors at a friend’s house.” I couldn’t remember his exact words about not going outside at night, but I was inside, and Caleb’s house was probably safer than mine.
“Which friend?” He asked.
“Caleb, my manager,” I answered, then immediately regretted it. Do special consultants have access to the police database?
It took me a few seconds to notice Nick was completely silent. “Hello?”
“You’re at some guy’s place?”
“Not some guy! I am at my best friend’s house. It doesn’t matter whether he is male or female,” I challenged. What was that? The 19th century? Then I added, “And even if it wasn’t so, it isn’t really any of your business.”
The angry energy that had been pouring into my space through the phone speakers suddenly stopped. The dick hung up on me.
Chapter 17
When the doorbell rang fifteen minutes later, I almost jumped. Yesterday’s door encounter was still fresh in my head. But I knew it was highly unlikely vampires would find Caleb’s place as they had mine. It didn’t hurt to be safe, though. Before I could tell Caleb to ignore whoever it was outside, he was already at the door.
“Caleb, don’t!” I yelled, trying to stop him before he opens the door.
He turned to me with a quizzical expression on his face. I could see his bolt and chain were closed. He wasn’t opening the door; he was just looking through the spyhole.
“Who is this?” Caleb asked.
A cold voice came from behind the door. “Open the door, Marissa.”
I rolled my eyes, getting out of my comfortable bean bag, then I opened the bolt against Caleb’s objections, and pulled the door open.
“What are you doing here?” I started. Nick was standing in front of me, with a slim white T-shirt stretched across his body and hell in his eyes. “Did you use police resources to track me down?”
“Dude, that’s my house. You can’t come in,” Caleb backed me up.
“Really?” Nick narrowed his eyes at Caleb, ignoring my question.
“Who are you exactly?” Caleb challenged.
I interfered, “He is a police consultant.”
A murder had taken place at Caleb’s workplace, and now I was in his house screaming at him not to open the door. Of course he was tense.
“You know him?” Caleb asked, confused.
“Yes.” Both me and Nick said at the same time.
“Okay, come in. But don’t make her upset.”
“Thanks for the advice,” Nick muttered under his breath, pushing the door and walking into the apartment, forcing Caleb to back off and make room.
Caleb staggered back, then gave me a questioning look. I rolled my eyes.
Nick kept his back turned to us both for a few seconds, probably utilized towards a few calming breaths, then he turned with a cold professional smile on his face.
“Caleb, you’re Black and Foam’s manager, I understand?” He called my café by name. I secretly smiled at that the way people smile when someone remembers the name of all of their five children.
“Yes,” Caleb said smugly, crossing his arms across his chest, conveniently hiding that coffee stain.
“It’s nice meeting you. You’re needed for questioning. Please drop by the station first thing tomorrow morning. Your workplace is closed anyway, so I presume we won’t be keeping you from anything.”
It took both Caleb and I some time to recover. Nick patiently waited. I suspect he was quite enjoying himself, the dick. Caleb was the first to speak.
“Questioning why?”
Nick’s ice blue eyes met Caleb’s kind brown ones. “Because your old colleague was murdered in your current workplace.”
The way Nick phrased it made it sound like Caleb was a suspect, which didn’t really add up since both Nick and I knew that vampires were behind the events. Then I realized that he was trying to get under Caleb’s skin for reasons of his own.
“Now, you,” Nick turned to me, “with me,” he signaled me towards the door.
“Ummm, no?”
“Yes, and now,” he glared at me. “We need to talk.”
“I’m fine with talking here,” I answered.
“Privately,” Nick said.
There wasn’t any place in Caleb’s apartment where we could be private unless I was willing to go into the bedroom or bathroom alone with Nick, which wasn’t a very good idea. Even then, I wouldn’t have the chance to tell Nick exactly how I felt about him tracking me here in fitting words and a suitable volume with Caleb outside. This, and Caleb was already muttering under his breath. His customer service background and good nature kept this brief yet painful interaction from turning into an outright pissing contest thus far. I didn’t think that I could count on Caleb maintaining his good behavior with Nick and me fighting in front of him, though.
“Is it safe to go outside now?” I asked Nick meaningfully. It was nighttime, after all.
“What do you mean is it safe?” Caleb asked, alarmed.
“You’re with me. You’re safe,” Nick said, ignoring Caleb.
To prove a point, I turned around and gave Caleb a hug. “Don’t worry about me; I’ll be fine.”
At the door, Nick turned to Caleb, “I’ll see you tomorrow at the station. I’m sure we’ll have a lot to talk about.”
He just had to do that, didn’t he?
Chapter 18
I was never a sheltered child. My parents are the kind of parents who believed in raising an independent girl and letting her venture into the world to make a life of her own. Both me and my sister Melissa could always count on mom and dad’s love and support at any given time we ask, but it was up to us when to ask and how. I managed to spend my years as a young adult without running crying to my family house, all through breakups, daunting work hours and exams, and even with loans and building a new business from scratch. There were the weekly phone calls and the holiday visits, but during those, I was treated as an adult, an equal.
This is why leaving Caleb’s house with a strong arm wrapped around me, and the other protectively hovering close felt weird.
“Do you want me to carry you?” Nick asked.
“No!” I tried to wiggle out of his ironclad arms, but he didn’t even seem to feel me move. He just kept me surrounded by him as we slipped out of the elevator, then out of the building. Nick did a quick sweep of our surroundings with his eyes and sniffed at the air, then his
arms tightened around me and carried me off the floor.
I made an embarrassing squeaking sound, taken by the surprise, but before I could voice my objections at being carried like a child, Nick had already crossed the distance between Caleb’s building and the parked Audi in three wide steps, and I was gently being set down in the passenger seat, then Nick was beside me fastening his seat belt.
I caught my breath in preparation for battle. Nick threw the first punch, though, before I could prepare my assault.
“Why did you make me so worried, Marissa?”
It was under the belt. Where I expected anger, Nick just sounded hurt and tired. It threw me off.
“I didn’t mean to… I didn’t know you would come to my place,” I stole a look at his face. He was looking ahead, the street lights reflecting off his short hair. I hated how apologetic I sounded and how sad he was.
“You broke my door!” I accused, trying to get him to argue with me instead of looking so hurt.
“Somebody is already on the way to have it fixed,” he said absently. “I thought something happened to you,” he then whispered. I could see his hands squeezing the steering wheel.
I was at a loss for words. How does the guy who fucked and ran turn into a guy making me french toast and breaking my front door to make sure I was okay?
“Now you care what happens to me,” I blurted without thinking. Nick glanced at me in surprise.
“What is that supposed to mean? You’re my girl!”
“I’m not!”
“We’re not doing this again.” He shook his head.
“No, we’re not. For the last time, I’m not your girlfriend.”
“Yea, you said that last night. Then you said other things when your clothes were off.”
I flushed at the thought, then I had to waste precious seconds shelving away memories of how my skin tingled under his fingers, and how his lips felt so hungry on mine. That was his tactic to win this.
When I didn’t say anything, he asked, “What are we then?” I had no answer to that. Nick took a deep breath, and he continued, “I catch fire when you’re around. All I can think about is having you wherever we are, whenever we are. That day at Black and Foam, I had to physically step out of the place and take a break just to get over being that close to you, to keep from throwing everything out of the window, tearing off your clothes and making you mine again on the coffee counter.”
My face was heating up at his words, and I knew I was most likely blushing. The heat wasn’t only in my cheeks, too.
“And you feel the same way. I know you do,” Nick continued, his words confident, but his eyes stealing looks at me to see how I am reacting.
I was preparing to challenge this last sentence when he touched my chin with one finger, gently turning my head to face his. My skin was already hot under his finger, and then he started taking the buzzing dot of heat down, trailing slow lines along the side of my neck. Up and down his finger went, patiently stroking my neck the way he had stroked my inner thigh so long ago. I realized then that it wasn’t where his hand was; it made no difference whether it was my face, my neck or my breast he was stroking, I was bound to melt under his touch. Fuck, my breasts. His treacherous hand had snuck into the neck opening of my sundress. Instead of pushing him away, I arched my back instinctively, pushing myself into his hand. He closed his palm around me and squeezed gently, his thumb finding a tight nipple poking through the satin bra and stroking it in gentle circles. I looked around. We couldn’t be outside for long. Even with Nick here, I was in danger; we were both in danger. We were out at night, in a secluded street with two rebel vampires in pursuit. His hand on me should be the last thing on my mind. We needed to get inside. But my house seemed so far away. I had to be taken soon.
Nick must’ve felt the same way, his fingers found their way to the bra’s front clasp, and he undid it with one expert finger, spilling my generous mass of flesh out of the bra and into the tight sundress. I felt the fabric strain against the pressure of my overflowing breasts and Nick’s large hand, then the hand was gone. I opened my eyes to find myself staring straight into Nick’s ice blue eyes, an inch away from mine as he pulled my zipper down and peeled my dress off me. We were parked in a street I didn’t recognize under a giant tree.
I was in a dark car, exposed, topless, being searched by two shameless eyes that took their time at every curve and crease. The touch of his eyes was almost as excruciating as his that of his fingers. I was too aware of my nakedness, of how large and round my boobs were, now shaking with fast breaths and yearning for his hands, and how hard my nipples had stood erect in response to his gentle handling. My need for his fingers around the tight buds, pulling and stroking, was painful. The thought of his mouth sucking the ripe pink berries, taking me into his mouth and tasing me again sent a pulse through me.
“Stop looking at me,” I whispered.
“Come here,” he growled, pulling me off my seat and positioning me astride him. Unlike me, he was fully clothed, but a hard gun of flesh was pushing against his black pants under me. I wanted him as naked as I was, more. I wanted him stabbing me with his weapon, then shooting himself into me in vibrating bullets of pleasure.
His fingers pushed my thin lace thong to the side and felt me up. His breath was getting heavy at the feel of my wetness.
“You want to be fucked,” he drawled, his words becoming darker, and his voice lower the way they do when he gets horny.
“I want to be fucked,” I agreed, wiggling my hips, slathering his hand with my juices. “And sucked,” I shook the soft globes of my breast in his face invitingly. His mouth was eager to accept the invitation, and my needy nipples finally got the attention they had been screaming for since Nick took hold of them.
His mouth was cold and soothing on the hot hard nipple, his finger long and experienced on my folds, on my poking bud of joy. He sucked on my nipple gently, my breast spilling between his fingers as he pulled it to his mouth, and he stroked my clit in soft touches. We have all the time in the world, his touch seemed to say, spinning a need in me that made everything around me disappear. I wasn’t me, I was an animal in the jungle dancing to a secret mating song, I was a flower opening up for sweet pollen, I was a female eager to be taken and filled with this member pushing below me as Nick’s hand built me up, teased pleasure into my juicy folds, pulled desire out of my slut of a bud. And there, in the height of my need, Nick pulled on my nipple with his teeth, pulled me up with his hand, freed his screaming erection, and pushed himself into me. I saw stars. Then I opened my eyes.
What am I doing here? Why am I sitting on a guy’s lap in the middle of a street with my dress hanging at my waist? Who am I? My thoughts raced.
But then Nick thrust his hip up, taking himself deeper into me, and the questions were suddenly irrelevant. I held his face and pulled him to me, as I started rocking myself on him, easing more of him in. His tongue was wet and delicious on my neck, his gentle bites drawing moans out of my mouth. His cock wasn’t as patient as his tongue, though. Too urgent to put up with my rocking, Nick took hold my of ass, spread the cheeks, and pushed his hip up, slamming himself into me to the hilt. I screamed. Horrified by the loud sound I was making in the middle of a dark, quiet street, I stopped myself. But then he started bouncing me on his thickness and I screamed again.
My hands looked for support on Nick’s hard chest. The muscles were alive under his top, almost electric. I kept my hands there and held on for the ride. I wish he’d been wearing a shirt, I thought incoherently, hungry for the vista of his ripped trunk, but he was wearing a T-shirt, and there was no way I would have his hands lose contact with my ass. Instead, I slipped my palm under the white T-shirt and felt his body up the way his mouth was feeling my tits up again.
“You’re mine,” Nick groaned, bouncing me harder.
“I’m yours,” I submitted, feeling his cock delve deep into me, find a hidden spot, pound it over and over, spinning a web of shivers throughout my whole
body.
“Say it again,” he ordered.
“I’m yours, Nick,” I moaned, and he unleashed himself on me, hammering my spot of pleasure into sweet submission. Waves of shivers overtook me on top of his strong body, but he didn’t stop there, he kept on slamming into me, relentlessly pushing on the same spot.
“Oh fuck,” I whimpered, losing myself to another wave of ecstasy. This time, his moans met mine as he shot himself into my pulsing depths.
Chapter 19
“This settles it, you’re mine,” Nick said with a smug smile.
I thought of going into a whole lecture about how things said during sex didn’t count, but then I realized I didn’t really want to.
“I’m not yours,” I said instead. “maybe, just maybe there is something, but that’s it.”
Instead of falling back into banter with me, Nick’s eyes caught hold of mine and what was in them made my heart beat so fast I was alarmed.
“I’m yours, too,” he said.
We were moving again, Nick seamlessly put together, and me flushed, with far from fresh undergarments, a wrinkled dress, and a messy ponytail. But I was happy, the happiest I’ve been for as long as I can remember.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“To your house. I took a little detour earlier so we could… talk.”
“No, I can’t go back to my place!”
“Listen, my love,” he stroked a runaway hair strand, “I know you must be scared after yesterday, but it’s okay. Your house is the safest place for you. Trust me.” Then he added with a less sympathetic tone, “There is no need for you to stay at friends’ places.”
“No, you don’t understand. A girl told me not to go home.”
Nick slowed the car down and turned his face to me. When I was finished telling him about the whole encounter, the car started going fast again, too fast, actually.
“Why did you think she was Bianca?” Nick asked.
“Because she had the same hair.”
“You said the girl at the bathroom had red hair,” Nick said. “Bianca was blond. I saw the body myself.”