by Tisha Wilson
He stood up, put his gun in the back of his pants, and was about to pull on a shirt so he could start her some breakfast when his feet took control of him again. He used his arms to try to hold on to the walls but pieces of wood splintered in his hands. He flung the door open again to find her in the middle of his bed, covers thrown back, writhing.
Her kitten t-shirt was pulled up and she fondled her breast as the other hand was working beneath the band of her lace panties. He could see her fingers as they began to slide into her and he found himself rock hard. What the hell! He growled.
“Stop that,” he commanded both her and himself.
*
She saw him holding back as he clutched the door frame. She heard his command, but she couldn’t anymore stop it than she could hold a cup of water in the palm of her hand. She was on fire and she yearned for him like she hadn’t yearned for anyone in her life. Not even in high school, when she had her teenage angst, had she wanted anyone this bad. Plus, he had obviously slept with no shirt on and his long hair was flowing down his muscular back in a wave of golden lava. He was so damn muscled and so damn hot.
“Please,” she pleaded as she looked up at him.
“You don’t want me,” he growled yet again.
This time she was fully aware that her legs worked and she was up and out of bed. She strode to him clad only in her t-shirt and underwear. She fell to her knees before him. Her heart was pounding as she unzipped him and let him free. His eyes turned violet as he looked down at her.
“No.”
She paid him no heed as she took her first taste of him. He was hard as steal and smooth as velvet and so big. She could barely manage much past the tip, but still… he tasted so damn good. He was salty and smooth and… big. She licked his shaft over and over again as he threw his head back and continued to hold on to the door frame. She heard the wood cracking beneath his grip.
Finally she pulled off her shirt and climbed up his body. She was hot and so damn wet and she wanted him to fill her. He lost control then as he released the door and brought his large arms around her. She was completely consumed. They fell to the bed and she felt him pressing at her panties. If not for the thin fabric he would already be inside her moving in her. The thought made her all the wetter.
His bare chest rubbed across her breast and she moaned out loud. His mouth took hers in a kiss that nearly made her toes curl. It was everything she could want in a kiss. It was tender without being weak. It was powerful without being pushy. His tongue stroked her and tasted her in a way that set her head to spinning and left her wanting more. It was as if they were tasting each other more than kissing.
He finally broke the kiss as he lifted a hand to take one of her breasts into the palm. He pushed her into the mattress as he played with each breast in turn, sucking one into his mouth while torturing the other between his fingertips. His tender ministrations set both her nipples on fire and her core to pulsing with need. He tore the lace panties away easily before he dipped his head and went straight for the kill. She didn’t even have time to think as his tongue delved deep inside her and stroked her where she craved him.
She clutched his hair as she lifted her hips and cried out his name. His tongue was thick and went ever deeper, driving her even crazier until she just fell off the edge of the world. There was nothing to describe the feeling that came over her. When she finally began to float back down she felt her legs go limp in his grasp.
Horror blossomed swiftly and with a vengeance. She covered her breasts as she looked down at him. He was trying his best to take deep breaths. What had she done? She pushed up on her elbows.
“Braden,” she began but what could she say? Sorry about calling out to you, making you hard, teasing your cock with my mouth, letting you make me come, and by the way you won’t be getting any?
“You bathe first, I’ll get breakfast started. We have a long day ahead of us,” he said before he pushed himself from between her legs. He zipped up his pants and strode from the room as if nothing had happened. For some reason that thought caused a pang in her heart.
She didn’t call him back. What could she say? Two days in a row now she had called out to him, and twice he had come, seemingly against his own will. Well he wasn’t the only one who was doing this against their will she thought peevishly as she pulled her naked body into her chair. She hadn’t asked to be bitten, to have her world torn apart.
She grabbed her bag on the way to the bathroom and attempted to slam the door. With no handle, in fact a hole where the handle had been, it was less dramatic than she would have liked.
* * *
Braden paced the room as he waited for her. He had though to let what had happened yesterday pass but it was now clear to him that he couldn’t. He had been going over his options. They were very few. In fact they were nearly none. He could not leave her to go through this alone, at least not without taking the chance that she would endanger humans, and the American mentor continued to be MIA. So he really had no choice.
She wheeled out wearing jeans and a t-shirt with a huge pink glittered heart on the front. She also wore black gloves with the fingers cut out. The gloves would have looked menacing save for the pink embroidery on them that said smiles make me happy. Her blond hair was dripping wet and he noticed that it had gotten longer and healthier looking as a hunter’s hair should. There were streaks of gold, red, brown, and honey in her hair that told him the color it had been before was not natural to her. It looked better this way.
Pushing that thought away he took a deep breath and began to stalk again. That was a mistake. She obviously had some kind of vanilla and honey scented body wash that made her smell even tastier than before. What the hell was happening to him!
“Is this for me?” she asked pointing towards the muffins and canned pears he had plated for her.
He went to the table and sat down, waiting until she had slid into her seat and began eating. She ate as if she had not eaten in days. “Does the food satisfy you?” he asked.
She nodded but didn’t speak, obviously still upset or embarrassed about this morning.
“What I mean is… you don’t still feel hungry after you eat… food?”
She paused and looked up at him then back down at her plate. “Yesterday after I ate… I felt satisfied. I am getting full now. Well, at least not as hungry. Am I supposed to be eating… I mean do I need blood?” she asked a look of horror on her face. He had the strangest urge to laugh at her.
“Not if you don’t crave it. Hunter’s crave blood the way you crave food. We can eat food but to no avail. It holds no satisfaction for us.”
She nodded before she finished off the food before her. She had to be one of the few humans he’d ever observed eating that didn’t make him nauseous to watch. In fact she was kind of… cute when she ate. He had to suppress a cringe. Since when had the word cute been allowed to enter his personal thoughts? Since she had suggested he wear a t-shirt that said ‘kiss me, I’m cute’.
“What are you smiling about?” she asked and he noticed that she had stopped eating and was watching him with a stunned expression. He dropped the smile he didn’t even know had spread across his face. He settled on a smirk since he couldn’t seem to force the damn thing completely away.
“I was thinking of showing up to our annual hunter training wearing a shirt that says ‘kiss me, I’m cute’.”
The smile that broke across her face was like sunshine itself and did strange things to his heart. He nearly wanted to rub his chest again and return her grin in kind.
“I told you the idea would grow on you.”
“Yes well…” It was now or never. He might as well put out what was on his mind before she completely fried his brain with those beautiful smiles. “We are going to start sleeping together.”
This froze the smile on her lips as her mirth turned to confusion.
“Excuse me,” she said at last sounding a little shocked.
“I don’t want to k
eep ruining my walls because I’m fighting to stay away from you when you wake up calling out to me. I can’t seem to stop myself and I think you feel the same so… we are going to start sleeping together.”
*
If her legs were working she would have shot straight up out of her chair and paced the floor. She settled for an evil look as she crossed her arms over her chest and stared at him.
“It’s not like I really wanted you coming in there this morning,” she stated angrily.
“You have an odd way of showing it,” he shot back and she felt a little deflated by that. She had gotten up and gone to him this time.
“I wasn’t under my own control. Whatever is happening to me seems to be making me… happy in the morning.”
“Yes well, your happiness is causing me to tear apart my own house. Since you don’t seem to be exceptionally wealthy to pay for repairs, I would prefer to do the easier thing.”
She laughed ironically as she slapped her forehead. “You’re right. What was I thinking? To avoid having to pay for repairs for damage YOU caused to your own house I should just lay down and be a sacrificial lamb?”
She shoved her plate away as she scrambled into her chair. She was surprised that her legs hadn’t started working again as mad as she was about this. He spun her around and she crossed her arms to glare up at him.
“Will you stop being a child? I don’t understand what the big deal is. We are not in love or in danger of catching diseases from each other, and we won’t be producing children so we might as well deal with this up front instead of denying it. It is just sex, it happens every day.”
“Well what if I don’t want to have sex with you?” she shot back.
“I’m fairly certain that you don’t. We are not in this situation of our choosing. You didn’t choose me. I didn’t choose you, but here we are, and we can face this thing or hate ourselves for doing it when it was out of our control. I am certain that as I breathe, this is going to happen and neither you nor I will be able to stop it so...”
“So what? We just hop right to it even when you don’t like me?”
She waited for him to confirm or deny that statement but his face was completely impassive as he shrugged one large shoulder.
“We go to sleep in the same bed tonight. If it happens, okay, if not, all the better, and then we get on with our day.”
“Like that?”
“Just like that.”
She wanted to argue more but she allowed herself time to think. It would be better to have him there when she woke up in need than to do the whole pull and tug thing. She swallowed her pride. She had called out to him twice. She seemed to have a desperate need for him. It didn’t hurt that he was extremely hot. She shook her head.
They were a mismatched pair if ever there was one. People would look at her in her wheelchair next to this Norse God and say to themselves… what does he see in her? He didn’t see anything in her. He was only a victim of circumstance, in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now he would be stuck with her.
It was a depressing thought. She might get to sleep with him, but it would mean nothing at all to him. She would end up with a broken heart. He would undoubtedly break away from her the first opportunity he got.
“Fine,” she finally conceded. He seemed to look a little shocked that she had relented.
He nodded before he turned from her. He went to pick up his truck keys and hit a little button on the key ring. Something dangled from the keychain but before she could give it her full attention the floor began to slide back and a small arsenal lifted up into the room. Her mouth fell open and she blinked a time or two.
No one would have ever been able to guess what lay beneath this old floor. She wheeled forward and looked over the array of guns and grenades and rocket launchers and swords and ammo. She had never seen anything like it outside of the movies.
“Today you are going to learn something about weapons,” he began.
* * *
By lunch time Miranda felt like her head was spinning. She’d seen more bullets, clips, slides, magazines and springs than she’d ever seen in her life. Braden made loading and unloading a gun look as easy as slicing butter. Her attempts at handling the guns were not quite as successful as his. He was patient with her though. As long as she was willing to try, he seemed willing to teach her.
When she seemed to become frustrated and whined a bit, he would move on to the next topic in anger. She quickly learned that her favorite weapon might be knives. He said that she wanted her knives as a last resort because using a knife meant you had to get in close to the creatures, closer than she wanted to be. Perhaps she could become skilled at tossing knives. She didn’t put it past herself. She had always been good with flags and batons. If she hadn’t been head cheerleader she might have been the bands majorette.
She took another spoonful of the beef stew he had made for her. Caned stew had never tasted better. She seemed to be starving lately. She finished off the bowl with barely a breath. She looked up and saw him watching her and had the good sense to look bashful.
“I could make more,” he offered.
“Thank you,” she said. She would have liked to decline but she was still very hungry.
“We need to go into town for supplies this afternoon. You need fresh food,” he said as he used a sharp knife to open a can.
“Why do you keep food in the house when you don’t eat?” she asked before drinking some water. She would be glad for some coffee. Her body nearly cried out for it.
“I keep canned goods in case Bateman or Saul were to come. Plus, it is a rule of the woods. You always leave wood in the box and canned goods in the cupboard in case there is a storm and someone seeks shelter while you are away.”
She appreciated his logic and was again amazed by his generosity. She imagined it would be hard to care about such things after being alive for a thousand years, or maybe it was just habit. A thought came to her.
“Will you… eat while we are in town?” He spared a glance for her before he turned back to stir the pot.
“Hunters don’t have to feed everyday and we can stretch fresh blood out a few months by supplementing with bagged blood. It’s expensive to use bagged blood but it’s what I do when close to home. People would become wary of me if they kept having vague encounters with me.”
They were quiet until the soup bubbled. He brought the pot to her bowl, poured it in and then took it back to wash it up. Again the food was gone almost before she took a breath. He was sitting in his chair watching her in that way he did, like he knew everything there was to know about her just by looking at her, when she finally surfaced.
“What did you mean by vague encounters?” she asked at last as she dabbed at her mouth with a paper towel. Paper towels were really average and ordinary things for a vampire to have in his house. She supposed she shouldn’t stereotype. It wasn’t like she had met a lot of vampires before.
He finally answered interrupting her very random thought. “Humans can sometimes have fragile and impressionable minds, especially when things happen that are outside their realm of possibility. I meet a woman at a bar. I take her to a hotel room. She is inebriated. She thinks we are going to have a sexual encounter. When I push her to the bed and swoop down over her body, I puncture her with my fangs. It’s quick and painless followed by the pleasure.”
She swallowed hard feeling her pulse quicken at his description. All other thoughts fled her mind save one. His large body hovering over her as she waited expectantly. She didn’t want to ask the question but curiosity got the better of her. “The pleasure?”
“When we take blood it brings the human body to a state like orgasm. One or two draws is enough to make them cum. Then, I whisper in her ear all the naughty things we’ve done together. I strip her, tuck her in and she falls asleep feeling sated and satisfied. She sees the bite mark the next morning but assumes it’s a hickey. Our encounter will forever be a hazy shadow in her life, and she’ll wonde
r what really happened that night, but forget about it after the hickey fades.”
He said it without any emotion. He said it like it was as common as showering or brushing your teeth. It was both frightening and exciting. What would it take to make him claim a woman for more than just food?
“She’ll think it was a one night stand. Too many one night stands in a small town would begin to add up,” she surmised for him in a slightly shaken voice. She had to get control of herself.
He nodded. “The less they encounter me, the better. Still, every fifty years or so I move.”
“Makes sense. So… are you going to let me buy you some new clothes?” she asked letting some of the tension fade from her shoulders. His stone face broke as he rolled his eyes and she giggled. He wasn’t as much of a badass as he pretended to be. She bet he was a big old soft kitten underneath all those layers of gruffness.
“I suppose I could indulge you but I won’t be buying any shirts with any types of hearts or that say I love anything,” he said sternly.
He rose and cleared her place. He washed the dishes without a complaint. She wished she could help him but his stove and sink were too high for her. She didn’t even have the stick she used at home to get things off the top shelf. Maybe she could rig up some sort of ramp.
“Don’t even think about it,” he said when he finished wiping down the counter.
“What?” she asked innocently.
“You have that look in your eyes that a woman gets when she wants to start ‘fixing’ things in a man’s house. You aren’t going to be here long enough to change the curtains and put flowers on the table. Besides. You won’t have time to worry about such things with all the training you’ll need.”
“I wasn’t thinking that at all,” she said with a smirk.
He crossed his arms over his chest as he looked down at her as if he didn’t believe her.
“What I was thinking-”
“No,” he cut her off as he strode towards the door. She wheeled fast after him.