Diana slipped one hand up to Stacia’s shoulder, needing something to hold on to as desire grew within her, making her dizzy and weak. “How do you know?”
The image conquered her mind. Stacia riding him. Her hips shifting. Between Diana’s own legs, the familiar feel of Ryder filled her and her breath exploded from her chest. “Bitch,” she said roughly, even as her knees trembled from the climax threatening to overwhelm her.
“Naughty, naughty, love. I only did it because he was so intrigued.” Stacia laid her cheek against Diana’s. “You were all he thought of, love. All he wanted while I fucked him.”
Control, Diana thought. She couldn’t let this vamp toy with her any longer.
Diana filled her mind with images of Ryder.
“Yes, that’s it. Think about him with all his delicious honor, beloved. Think about taking him. About the two of us sharing him,” Stacia urged.
In Diana’s mind, visions exploded again, only this time it was of her and Ryder making love. Ryder kissing her, touching her. It was almost as if she was there, with him. Only suddenly, Stacia was there, as well. Sliding into bed with them. Naked.
Diana moaned as Stacia’s fangs grazed her neck. She tried to fight her way out of the illusion Stacia had created, out of the web of power imprisoning her. Vaguely she recalled the other night, when she had failed to connect with Ryder, remembered the sadness and pain that had closed her mind off to his; Sylvia and her baby, her father’s blood staining her hands and his last whisper of breath, Alex’s retreating back as he’d walked away a decade earlier.
Now, with each bitter memory, the desire fled until she was able to rip away from Stacia’s mind games to reality, to the feel of cold lips against her neck as Stacia licked the invisible scar of Ryder’s bite.
“You need our emotion, don’t you, Stacia?” Diana eased one hand between their bodies.
Stacia, still caught in the throes of the passion she had been broadcasting, mistook the action. “Touch me, beloved. Touch me like he touched me.” Her words were part order, but greater part plea. For a moment Diana pitied the vamp.
The vamp’s twisted need made it possible for Diana to hastily shift her hand, slip out her Glock and place it directly above Stacia’s heart.
Stacia stiffened and inched back enough to take note of the threat. She smiled, seemingly amused. “Do you think that will stop me?”
Diana laughed harshly. “Silver, Stacia. It will slow you down. And stop you if you can’t get someone to dig it out in time.”
The vamp’s smile faded. “That might be a big ouch.”
“Glad you understand that. Not to mention that Foley would get upset if we made a mess on his dance floor.”
Stacia glanced to the side of the room and Diana followed her gaze to where Diego, Blake and Foley sat at a table. Foley was handing Blake some money.
“Boys will be boys,” Stacia said.
As Diana looked at the vamp once more, a sense of connection arose, different from the one before. “You can say that again.”
Stacia narrowed her eyes. “United we stand, is that it, amiga?”
Diana’s gun was still trained on Stacia’s heart, but she knew that wouldn’t protect her forever. Taking a gamble that the other woman wanted her alive more than dead, she eased the gun back into her holster and held out her hand for a truce.
Shock flashed across Stacia’s features before she gave Diana a sexy knowing smile that promised much much more than friendship. “You’re not my type.”
In her head, Diana heard, But you and Ryder are definitely mine. In time, amiga. In time.
Stacia whirled away, but then quickly turned back. “Neat little trick, breaking free like that. Just a word of warning—it doesn’t work the same with every vamp.” Stacia inclined her head in the direction of the male vampires nestled together, still watching them intently. “Foley, for instance. He just loves feeding on all that turmoil.”
“Thanks for the warning.”
Stacia nodded and walked away, her swaying hips drawing the attention of nearly every male in the place, both alive and undead.
Diana chuckled and shook her head, finding Stacia disturbingly interesting. Like Ryder had, it suddenly occurred to her, bringing anger and pain that the two had shared—
He didn’t know. Stacia met Diana’s gaze across the width of the room. Diana inclined her head in acknowledgment and again went in search of Ryder.
Chapter 20
T he doorman at Ryder’s apartment, familiar with her, allowed her entry into the building. She hurried upstairs, wondering whether her night would be a total bust, but as she neared the duplex penthouse, she sensed Ryder’s loneliness and confusion.
She paused at the door, cautious, thinking about how she could tell him all that she had to say.
“Why don’t you start with ‘Hello’?” he said as he threw open the door.
It had only been weeks since she’d seen him and yet it seemed like forever. Emotion nearly overwhelmed her. He was standing there, within easy reach if she could muster the courage.
“Hello.” The hesitant catch in her voice brought a crooked grin to his lips.
“Hello to you, too. Care to come in? Have some wine?” He raised the glass he held.
“That would be nice.” Although “nice” could in no way describe anything about them or their relationship.
Ryder stepped aside and motioned her to the balcony. On a table next to an oversize chaise lounge sat a bottle of wine and an empty glass.
“Waiting for someone?” she asked, surprisingly annoyed by the prospect that he might have been expecting Stacia.
“Jealous?” One dark brow arched upward, a prominent slash against his pale face as he poured a glass of wine for her.
She could have kept playing games, but it wasn’t her style. So she pulled up the memory Stacia had left with her, let it fill her mind and reach out to his.
“Shit.” Ryder crashed down onto the chaise, causing it to grate against the stone floor of the terrace.
She allowed the vision to clear and met Ryder’s disgusted gaze. “She messed with your mind.” Her hands trembled as she held the glass up to her lips.
“I’ll kill the bitch.”
She knew he meant it. Knew that in the world he was melding into, such violence was routine unless…
“Don’t go there, please. Don’t become like the rest of them.”
“Why not?” He spread his hands out and motioned to the night around them. “This is where I belong, darlin’. Creature of the night and all.”
His face, silvered by the moonlight, was harshly defined, the lines of his features sharp. His fangs were even sharper and his eyes glowed with the unnatural phosphorescent light of the demon.
“This is what I am. What I will be forever,” he reminded her, but she couldn’t fail to hear the self-loathing behind his words.
She took another sip of her wine and reached across him to place the glass on the table. She wanted to show him she wasn’t afraid. The demon might have driven her away, but she was back. Her time in the human world, with its own darkness, had taught her that she could deal with that part of him.
Really, love? He brushed those lethal fangs along the fragile skin of her neck, which brought a shiver of fear and need.
“It won’t work, Ryder. You can’t scare me away.”
“I thought I had. I thought that was why you needed the s
pace.”
Uncertainty almost replaced her earlier resolve, until she ran her thumb along the edges of his mouth and the dangerous fangs, then locked her gaze with his. “I was afraid. Of me. The world you showed me…So cruel at times. So black-and-white and yet…It called to me. To the way I was or maybe still am.”
“It isn’t a nice world.”
“No, it isn’t, but neither is my human one. The path I’ve chosen is hard and filled with violence. But if I didn’t follow that path, I’d be denying a part of what I am.”
“Are you sure—”
“I’m sure of how much being with you balances me. How it drives the worst of the darkness away.”
The demon fled with her words. When Ryder spoke again, he was human, his dark eyes filled with emotion, his full lips soft beneath her thumb. “And so now you want—”
“To talk. To let you know what I feel because—”
“Dealing with this whole undead thing beats a normal life?” He leaned forward and sniffed. “I can smell him, you know. He’s all over you.”
She thought of Stacia. “Can we not do this?”
“I’m sorry. And I’m sorry about what happened with Stacia. I didn’t—”
She raised her hand to silence him. “I’d like to kick her ass, but I’m smart enough to know I can’t. Yet.”
“I’m sorry about what happened with her.”
“It hurts. A lot. It hurts only a little less since you didn’t know, only…Why did you go to her? Why the fascination?”
He laughed harshly. Shifting away from her, he pillowed his head in his hands and looked up at the night sky. “She’s been alive for nearly two thousand years. I thought that in all that time, she might have learned how to deal with it.”
“With what, Ryder?” Uninvited, she joined him on the chaise, lying on her side next to him.
“With death. With the thought of one day losing you. With the power to take or give life.”
Ryder fixed his gaze on the moon and held his breath, not sure how she would react. She closed the last distance between them, laid her head on his shoulder and placed her hand on his chest. It was more than he had hoped for, and, in truth, more than he deserved.
You deserve more, amor. “You deserve someone who can love you forever. And I’m not that person. In the past few weeks, I’ve had to face death more than I might have liked and yet…” She took a breath and closed her eyes, clearly struggling. “I don’t think I’m strong enough to live with everyone leaving me, even if you’re by my side.”
Pain gripped his gut, twisting it into a painful knot. “I’m not sure I can let you go.”
Diana raised up on one elbow. “Stacia said that’s why you went to her. Did it help?”
He laughed harshly. “Actually, it only made me realize how long eternity can be without someone to share it with.”
“Ryder—”
He laid a finger on her lips to silence her. “When the time comes…I may not be able to let you die.”
“You will, Ryder. You’re an honorable man and if you promise me—”
“I don’t know if I can. And I can’t ever give you—”
“When Sylvia told me she was pregnant, I imagined how my life might be different. Then Alex came back. I thought that if it could be the way it was, before my dad died, I could have that different life. A nice house somewhere, filled with a kid or two. Time for a husband and job, as well. Women do it every day, right?”
“Right,” he said, as if he hated agreeing with her.
“Only I’m not the girl I was before my dad died. I guess I knew that all along, but having Alex here…”
“Brought it home?” he asked.
She nodded and lay back down, her head on his shoulder, hand over his heart. “Sylvia. My dad. Thinking about their deaths made me realize that what counts is not how long a life you live, but how full of life you are while you’re alive.”
Ryder thought of his own lives, both human and vampire. Thought of how he hadn’t truly lived until Diana had come into his existence. How being with her made him feel complete.
“That’s how you make me feel, Ryder. Complete. I could have a mortal life with Alex or with someone else, but a part of me—a big part of me—would be empty without you.”
Was she thinking of what his life would be like after her death? Whether his life would have an empty place without her?
“Diana, look at me.” He gently urged her to meet his gaze. Her eyes glistened with tears and one slowly trailed down her face. “Being without you—”
“I don’t know if I can stay without a promise that you won’t turn me.”
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, imagined never holding her again, never kissing her. He thought about what she had said about living as full a life as one could. As long as his life had been, emptiness had ruled for far too long.
Cradled in his hands was the face of the one person who could change that, if only for a short moment in his existence. How could he lose the prospect of even that short span of happiness? “I promise.” He brushed her lips with his as he repeated it. “I promise, Diana.”
A sigh escaped her lips, bathed him with her relief. “Thank God, ’cause I wasn’t sure I could leave.”
Her honesty dragged a laugh from him and he kissed her once again. “So what do we do now?”
Diana shifted her body over his. “It hasn’t been that long that you’ve forgotten, has it?” She moved her body, wanting to drive away thoughts of anything else. Anyone else.
He clearly read her mind. As he wrapped his arms around her waist, he whispered, “There’s only one person in my heart. Only one person I ever thought of, no matter what Stacia made me do.”
She eased away from him. “I know that. I want you to know that I didn’t—”
“It wouldn’t matter to me if you did, darlin’,” he said.
“Liar. But I didn’t.”
A smile erupted on his face a second before he reclaimed her lips. But when he made a motion as if to rise from the chaise, she muttered, “No. Right here.”
“Here?” His hands sneaked beneath the hem of her suit jacket, eased her shirt out of her pants and slipped beneath to feel skin, alive with mortal warmth.
She shot a look at the full moon, which bathed them with the kiss of her light. “You are a creature of the night, aren’t you? Besides, it’s been too long. I don’t want to wait.”
He groaned at her words and at the way she straddled his hips, shifted herself along the length of him. The very erect length of him.
“Ryder?”
He placed his hands at her waist to still her movements. “I don’t want to wait, either.”
Smiling, she yanked at her suit jacket, but winced as the movement brought pain to her injured shoulder.
“Diana?”
“There was a shootout today—” Immediately he undid the buttons on her shirt to reveal the fist-size bruise a few inches beneath her left collarbone.
“Christ, Diana. You could have been…” He laid his hand over the wound and dragged the pads of his fingers over the highly sensitive area.
The action yanked a gasp from her.
“Did I hurt you?”
“Never.” As her gaze locked with his, he realized the sound had been one of desire. Gently he shifted to ease her holster and shirt from her body. Then he undid the clasp on her bra. Her nipples hardened immediately.
“Can I touch you?
” He waited for her nod before finally cradling her breasts in his hands. He passed his thumbs over the peaks of her nipples. She wanted nothing more than for him to touch her harder.
“Do you want me to bite?” He moved his mouth to the tip of one breast.
She slipped her hand to the nape of his neck and urged him close. “A love bite, not—”
“The bite. To be turned, you have to put the bite on me, after…”
His pause made her pull away from him. “After what?”
“After I drain you or…”
Despite his hesitation she knew. “I’m dying. You promised not to turn me and I trust that promise because—”
“If we don’t have trust between us, what do we have?”
She nodded and laid her head against his. “Love me, Ryder. Bite me. A human bite.”
He eased his hand to the middle of her back and held her to him as he licked the tip. Her breath grew more uneven with each pull until he finally bit down, creating a clenching need between her legs. She rubbed that need against his erection, but she didn’t want to rush. Didn’t want all the feelings to evaporate with a sexual climax.
Wrapping her arms around him, she held him close, accepting the way he loved her with his mouth until she was trembling, hot, wanting to kiss and suck and bite him, as well.
She eased her hands between them and took off his shirt. When his skin came into contact with hers, it was cold.
Rubbing the hard little buttons of his nipples, she smiled at his surprised sigh of pleasure. “Do you like?”
Ryder leaned back so she would have greater access to his body. “Will you bite?” he asked, a wry smile on his face.
“Only if you ask me to.”
“Bite me.”
Laughing, she bent her head and tongued one dark copper nipple before closing her teeth around the tip and gently giving him the kind of bite she had known he wanted.
Death Calls Page 13