Kiss Hide Bite: A Vampire Romantic Thriller

by Anna Rainn

  “Are you ready?” He asked.

  “No! Where are you?” He was due to pick me up in 30 minutes, which barely gave me enough time to get dressed.

  “I just left. Thought I’d give you a heads up, I might be a bit early. I couldn’t wait.” There was a smile in his voice.

  My heart skipped a beat at the last sentence, and the way his voice took on that husky tinge when he said it. I was headed to the staff bathroom, dress in hand, and phone plastered to my ear.

  I ended the call quickly to start getting ready. Dressing up for a date was half the fun. Actually in some cases, it was more fun than the date itself, although I doubt that would be the case with Nick. I blushed at the thought. All right, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

  Nick and I have been spending time together almost every day this past week. They weren’t exactly dates, though. Black and Foam needed me now more than ever with the growing business and the exposure, and both Caleb and I were there, every day, from five in the morning till midnight. But Nick showed up every day at my thirty-minute break. I had a quick ten-minute lunch at noon and took my half hour at eight, so Nick and I could step outside with two hot mugs and talk under the stars. He visited Owen every night before coming to me with news of the detective and other things.

  I didn’t quite trust Nick with my heart yet, but I knew he wasn’t playing me. He just wasn’t the reliable, safe option I wanted him to be. He was moody and volatile, but I loved all his faces.

  Tonight, I was ready to see yet another face.

  The red dress glided down in smooth lines, falling just above my knees. The strapless neckline low enough to make promises I intend to keep. I swiped a little dash of highlighter on my collar bones, sharp and straight, then another hint at the visible fullness of my breasts. It was probably over the top, but my curves were over the top anyway, and I was wearing short block heels, and minimal no make up, so this should balance things out. I let the messy bun of hair fall in loose pale waves across my shoulder, threw the hairpins in my tote, and stepped out.

  I saw Caleb raise his eyebrow at me on my way out. I ignored him, along with the curious eyes of some of Black and Foam’s patrons. There was only one pair of eyes I cared for. And they were staring at me with dark intensity from right outside my glass front door.

  For a moment, I stood frozen inside Black and Foam, staring at Nick from behind the glass. Two giggling girls slipped through the door, then looked back at him and whispered something to each other before laughing again.

  I have never seen Nick in anything resembling formal attire expect for our first night together, our one night stand. Somehow, he brought some of his elegant carelessness into the carefully put together tailored suit. Whether it was the loosened blue silk tie, the relaxed gait of his large muscles under the shiny fabric, or the borderline dirty look in his eyes, Nick looked like he’d lost his way to the red carpet. In his hand, a bunch of fresh red roses hung. I think my favorite part was how confident he was just standing there waiting. Even the men who buy their girls flowers always look self-conscious carrying a bunch of roses in public, as if it hurts their masculinity somehow. But here he was, a picture of everything male with his dirty shave, daring eyes and the physique of a beast, and he was perfectly okay with standing, waiting for a girl, with a dozen red roses in hand. The corner of Nick’s mouth curved up in a slight smile. I walked out to him.

  Chapter 27

  Soft jazz music filled the air as we glided up smoothly. The luxurious subdued lights and spotless mirror, together with the slow music could almost make you forget you were in an elevator, accelerating up, temporarily suspended in midair. The number on the small screen in front of us changed from 31 to 32. Ten more floors to go.

  I have been thinking about the place Nick would choose for our first date for days. I was quite sure he wouldn’t take me to another coffee shop; I have spent the most part of my days at one, after all, and this was our first real date. That was the limit of my guesses, however. With someone as unpredictable as Nick was, it could be anything. A simple casual dinner and a movie, a candle-lit french restaurant, or even a specialty restaurant I’ve never heard of. Sometime last night, I lost my self-control and asked him where he was planning to take us, I had to figure out what to wear, but Nick wouldn’t budge and tell me. Thankfully, the dress I ended up choosing was more or less appropriate for the occasion.

  The number 42 glowed in large white digits on the elevator screen, then the shiny silver doors glided smoothly, revealing a place I had only seen once before. I paused, hit by a pang of uncertainty, inhaling Nick’s scent and feeling him standing still a mere inch behind me, waiting. Then I stepped out of the elevator.

  My heels sunk into the deep burgundy carpeting as I walked toward the bar across the sprawling space. It seemed as if my feet were moving out of their own accord, responding to an invisible pull from one shiny bar stool near the edge of the long glossy bar. Nick stood watching with a smile on his face as I climbed atop the stool, then he sat beside me. It wasn’t until then that I realized that it would’ve probably been more appropriate to head for one of the private booths scattered behind us, conveniently hidden by spots of dark amid the chic floor spotlights.

  I looked at Nick’s face and felt time rush back. My red dress was black, and Nick was in an untucked baby blue shirt and a pair of grey slacks. His hand climbed up my thigh. I shivered.

  “You chose the same chair,” Nick said carefully.

  I nodded.

  “It wasn’t a one night thing for me,” he said.

  “Love at first sight?” I tried to mask the bitterness with sarcasm, but my attempt at a joke ended up showing too much of my real emotion. We hadn’t discussed our one night stand throughout the past days; we had both chosen to enjoy the quiet after the storm. But no matter how many romance movies I watched, I couldn’t accept the idea of love at first sight in real life.

  “That’s fair,” Nick nodded.

  The bartender was giving us space, and the few stools to our right and left were unoccupied. “It was what it was,” Nick said. “At least at first. But I was never able to stop thinking about you.”

  I bit my tongue, stopping myself from saying something mean and unnecessary. What was there for him to think about after our wild night together back then? My tits in his hands, in his mouth, on his dick?

  “The way your hair tickled my chest and neck in bed and how your voice sounded in the dark,” he whispered.

  I had allowed my hair to fall and form a makeshift curtain between Nick and in an attempt to hide my face and avoid his eyes. Now, he was leaning toward me and brushing it back with long fingers. I glanced at him.

  “I won’t say that I need us to put this behind us, because I would never want to forget the first time we met. It was the best day in the past hundred years.”

  I shook my head at his joke, but he just went on.

  “I need you to accept how we started and how we have grown.”

  “But I can’t, Nick, I can’t. I had never done this, what we had done.”

  “I did, though.” His answer stopped me mid-sentence. I blinked at him. My hair was now tucked behind my ear, but I turned slightly toward Nick anyway.

  “A lot,” he admitted. “Before we met, and after we met. And it was never like what you and I had. Before you, I have never as much as remembered a face the morning after. After you, it was always one face: yours.”

  “Is that supposed to make me feel special?” Keeping my voice down took effort.

  “No, it is not. But this is full disclosure, Marissa. We can’t move forward without this. I’d rather you know as much as possible now than risk more getting in the way later and pushing you away.”

  I stayed silent for a minute. That’s why he had taken me here. It wasn’t an ill attempt at being romantic, or at seducing me; he wanted us to make peace with what had been. Now it was up to me to get up and walk away or to accept that what I thought of as my biggest mistake had b
rought something good into my life. What was no longer an option was me boxing this up and letting it poison what the relationship me and Nick were now building slowly. That was Nick’s intention, and I loved him for it.

  “Is there more I should know?” I asked, finally looking into his eyes and feeling a delicious shiver run down my body.

  His pale blue eyes shined with his smile before it invaded his lips and he shook his head. His hand was open on the bar. I put mine in his and felt it get enclosed in a ball of warmth.

  The booth was ended up at was a bit too small for two people to sit next to each other. Nick pushed his body next to mine, anyway. I opened my mouth to say something, then closed it again when I saw the mischievous look in his eyes and how his tongues poked out to lick his lower lip. So I just stepped on his foot with my heeled shoe.

  “Oh, sorry,” I said innocently, regretting that I didn’t go for a more pointed heel. My block heel was evidently ineffective and only capable of producing more amusement across Nick’s handsome face.

  I could see the naughty thoughts playing behind his eyes, and in an attempt to put a stop or at least a pause, to them, I started talking.

  “So, aside from your one time adventures, were you ever in a serious relationship?” I asked.

  My attempt at curbing his enthusiasm was successful. The sex in his eyes retreated, probably to the back of his head.

  “Only once. A very long time ago. And you? Caleb?”

  “What? No!”

  “Really? Because I saw something there. I was hoping it was a past thing, not a future thing.”

  “So this is why you used police resources for personal reasons to track me down to his place?”

  “First of all, these weren’t personal reasons; they were purely professional. Being at anybody’s place was not safe for you.”

  “And second of all?”

  “Second of all, yes maybe.” Nick’s mischievous smile was wide enough to show his teeth now. I wanted to lick them.

  “To answer your horrifying question, no, Caleb and I never was and never will be anything more than friends. Very good friends, though. If friends could be soul mates, he’d be my soul mate.”

  “Friends can’t be soul mates,” Nick said seriously. Now, men don’t usually believe in soul mates. At least the men I dated never did. Any mention of the concept only got polite smiles, and then eye rolls later on in the relationship. Nick’s reaction was unusual. I filed the observation for later.

  “Well, then, something like you and Owen. How long have you two been friends?”

  The waitress arrived with our drinks: whiskey on ice for him and a glass of rosé for me. Nick took a sip of his drink, then put the crystal glass down.

  “A bit over seven years,” Nick paused, took another sip, then decided to tell me more. “He was a patrol officer back then. It was Halloween. A group of young girls, kids really, snuck out to have a small Halloween party at an abandoned house. They had costumes, and so did their attackers. Halloween is the one sacred night in the underworld, and even the most disciplined vampires sometimes come out to play.”

  “Oh my god,” I whispered. My hands were feeling cold on my wine glass.

  Nick continued, “His patrol was the closest to the scene, and when he and his partner arrived at the house, a girl was lying on the ground outside in a tiny pool of blood. She hadn’t bled a lot because she had been drained. Owen and his partner heard screams, and they followed them into a small thicket of trees surrounding the house. In the clearing beyond, they saw something they shouldn’t have. Two more girls were surrounded by five men in black capes and ball masks.

  When the game started, the vampires weren’t supposed to touch the girls; they only wanted to scare them; it was a Halloween game. But when the girls got scared and started running out of the house, the vampires chased them. The instincts that hadn’t been awakened by the chase came to life when one of the girls fell, cut herself on a branch, and started bleeding. That was the girl Owen first came upon when he arrived at the scene. The police arrival sealed the other running girls’ fate.

  The vampires knew their game had gone too far; they had already killed one girl, and now the police knew. When the policemen walked in on the vampires in the middle of their feeding game, the girls tried to use the opening in the circle around them to escape, but they were hunted down again. The two police officers and one of the two girls were tied down. The second girl was sent back to the house to lure the others out, followed closely by one of the vampires to make sure she doesn’t run away or run inside. It was to be a Halloween celebration. No witnesses left alive.”

  Nick was playing around with his whiskey glass. The ice was half melted.

  “I had silver bullets back then,” he looked at me.

  “You killed them?”

  He nodded.

  “Were you working for the police at the time?”

  He shook his head.

  “Then how did you know?”

  “I had been following the vampires from a safe distance. I had a feeling they were up to no good.”

  “How many vampires were there?”

  “Four.”

  “And you took them all down, no harm done?”

  “We lost Owen’s partner.”

  Nick lifted his glass to his lips and took a big sip. I was in need of some alcohol myself. The rosé was chilled and flowery; it tasted silver smooth, like moonlight. I shivered. What I really needed was sunlight.

  “What happened to the girls?” I asked Nick.

  “The ones that had stayed inside were unharmed. Two of the three girls who ran out lived. It was too late for that first girl.”

  “And so it was a friendship forged in vampire fighting,” I smiled for him.

  “So it was,” he agreed, sitting back, his long legs brushing against mine in the small space. “And now both Owen and I have survived yet another vampire fight.”

  “Well, I’m definitely staying in this Halloween.”

  “No way!” Nick leaned back toward me, “This Halloween, you’re mine.”

  I felt my face heat up. Wasn’t I to be his every day and every night? What would someone already so kinky have in mind for Halloween night?

  “Can’t I be yours indoors?” I asked.

  “Inside and outside and inside again,” he looked at me sideways with delicious eyes, then he slipped his arm around my waist, pulling me closer.

  “How long for Halloween again?” he asked, his mouth an inch away from mine. I was unable to remember words, let alone make calculations, but I tried anyway. His mouth stopped me, hot with his drink, hungry for more than just alcohol, yet expertly seductive. Nick teased me with his lips deepening the kiss, then pulling back slightly and drawing me into him. With my body leaning into his, Nick’s hand on my waist had slipped down under, brushing my ass, pulling the dress up and slipping under it and onto my bare flesh. His hand closed around my ass, squeezing, taking pleasure in the fullness as he ate my lips. He took my lower lip between his and pulled. I moaned into him, leaned into him, opened my mouth for him. He took what I offered, penetrating my mouth with his tongue. Down below, his finger hovered at my back entrance. Without thinking, I pushed on it.

  “Dirty girl,” he whispered at my lips, his finger squeezing through, and delving a bit deeper. I gasped at the words, at the sensation, at the heat between my legs. I had never allowed for anything like this to happen before.

  “Do you like it?” He asked, watching my face closely.

  “Yes,” I panted, relishing the forbidden feeling of being probed there, secretly wishing to be filled elsewhere.

  “A bit deeper?” He asked. I shook my head.

  “Another finger then, in another place?” His eyes were trained on me, two flames of blue fire. I nodded.

  With my permission denied, Nick slid his finger out, but he had other plans for me.

  There was nothing patient about Nick’s other hand as it slithered up my thigh, between my legs, b
etween my closed folds. He lingered at my wetness for a long second, then he let his finger slide further in, slowly, gently. I turned my face down towards the table and closed my eyes, focusing on the sensations exploding along the path of his long finger. In and out, he gently went, driving me crazy with every entry and every exit. I opened my eyes and looked around. The bar in the distance was almost full to capacity now. Formally dressed professionals exchanged chatter and chic singles flirted. Drinks were being poured. And I was being fingered in front of all of them.

  “Nick,” I moaned.

  “You have to tell me what you want, Marissa.” His voice was dark, just the way I like it.

  But I didn’t know what I was asking for.

  Nick’s other hand tried to help me decide. It let go of my waist and brushed my open cleavage. The dress had slipped down as strapless dresses often do for big breasted girls, which made his job easier. His hand slipped and around me, hot and needy.

  “They’ll see us,” I whispered, but the large soft pillow was already in his hand, malleable and obedient.

  “You’ll do as I say,” Nick pulled his finger toward the very end of my tunnel and hovered there, poking a tiny bit in, then backing out, gently brushing my clit with his thumb My body screamed for him. He was proving a point.

  “Okay, you can have me,” I panted in his ear, “any way you want.” Delicious shivers were running through me at my surrender to this man with the light eyes and the dark touch.

  “Good girl,” Nick approved and pushed back in. I sighed in satisfaction, as Nick’s other hand got busy with my heaving breast. His fingers felt a sharp nipple up.

  “Your nipples are so hard.” Nick bit his lip and pulled on the pink nub gently. Pleasure shot through me. His lips started nuzzling my neck as I felt another finger hover outside my butt, and I both feared and craved the stretch. My nipple was sensitive between Nick’s fingers, my clit swollen and pulsing between my hot lips. It was happening again, and this time we were in public with people everywhere. I couldn’t lose control, not here. I couldn’t be taken here. I couldn’t let him in me here. Nick’s finger pulled out of me, and his lips left my neck. My eyes fluttered open. He wasn’t there.