He stood up, and I reached for him. “Please don’t go.”
His gaze darted to my hand on his arm, then back to me. Shit, I was doing it. I was being weird. “I mean, I’ll get dressed in the bathroom. Would you just wait? And then we can say goodbye.” I was proud of myself that my voice didn’t crack on the bye, even if I felt the burn of tears at the back of my eyes.
He nodded, and I scrambled off the bed, grabbing my clothes on the way to the bathroom. After shutting the door, the first thing I did was check out the damage in the mirror. Wow, so, my face didn’t look too bad. In fact, did he clean my face? It was makeup free. I pulled my hair up into a bun, wiped my face, and dressed quickly.
When I returned to the bedroom, Dru was sitting on the edge of the bed, his elbows braced on his thighs. He lifted his head, and I adjusted the corset that I definitely didn’t want to be wearing any more.
His expression was frustratingly neutral. I wanted to see him in pain like I was. I knew in my heart I wasn’t like that other human. I didn’t want to be a vampire, I wasn’t obsessed with this club. I just wanted to be in Dru’s presence, to kiss his lips and feel his arms around me.
When I stood in front of him, he reached out a hand and drew me closer, between his legs. He rested his forehead on my stomach, and the sight of his bent head gave me flashbacks to last night.
I wanted to ask if I could come visit him, but I wasn’t sure how he’d take it. So I stayed silent, and ran my hands through his dark hair. Was this our goodbye? A wordless one?
Finally he stood up, and with a tight jaw said, “It’s time.”
Right, Cassie was waiting. I picked up my heels and stood behind Dru as he paused with his hand on the door. He glanced at me over his shoulder, and opened his mouth like he’d speak, but then his eyes clouded over. With a nod, he opened the door and walked out.
We made our way through the club, now mostly empty except for a cleaning crew. Cassie stood near the entrance, arms wrapped around her waist, craning her neck to see me from behind Dru’s body.
“Roxy!” she squealed and raced toward me on bare feet. She crashed into me, and I wrapped my arms around her. “Oh my God, I was so worried. I didn’t see you all night.” She held me at arm’s length and studied my face. “You okay?”
I wasn’t. Nope. “Yeah, I’m fine. Are you okay?”
She beamed at me. “Great! I’ll be back for sure. What about you?”
I glanced at Dru, but couldn’t see his eyes as he stood in a shadow. “Uh, I’m not sure. Maybe in a couple of months if I need the money.”
“Oh, speaking of money.” She held up two envelopes and handed me one. “Here’s yours.”
I took it from her, the weight of the money not comforting at all. This was what I’d come here for, and now that I had it, it felt wrong, dirty. I was getting paid for what Dru and I had done. All I said was a soft, “Awesome.”
“Ready to go? I have your jacket by the way.” She handed me the leather bundle.
“Zeb will lead us back upstairs.” She pointed to Zeb, who stood by the doors.
I clutched my jacket, glad for the familiar feel of the soft material. “Oh, wow, thanks. And yeah, I’m ready.”
She turned around with a flare of her skirt, and I risked another glance at Dru. He didn’t move toward me, and my heart felt like it was cracking into a dozen pieces. When I walked by him, his hand shot out, gripping my wrist. I paused as his thumb caressed the soft skin. “Bye, Roxy.”
Those words were final. And I vowed that no matter how poor I was, and how desperately I needed the money, I wouldn’t return. It wasn’t worth it to put myself or Dru through this. It ended here. Now.
“Bye Dru,” I said. Then I hurried after Cassie.
TWO MONTHS LATER
“See you tomorrow!” I called to the cook as I left the diner after a ten-hour-shift. I had the next two days off, and I planned to spend them all on my couch reading and sleeping. My feet were killing me, and I was glad that the walk home was only two blocks.
Mission was quiet tonight. The cold always had a way of keeping the shenanigans of the riff-raff to a minimum. Still, I wrapped my coat around myself and stuck my hand in my pocket, where I kept my pepper spray on my keychain.
I’d always avoided Mission at night, and lectured my brother about his curfew as well. But ever since that night I’d found excuses to extend my time outdoors a little bit. It was stupid. I knew that. Dru wasn’t coming up here to see me. But that didn’t stop me from glancing around, hoping for a glimpse of those dark eyes and sharp jaw.
That vampire had utterly ruined me. I dreamed of him. And sometimes I wondered if I was going slightly insane, but then I realized I was…in love. Or in lust. Or infatuated. Which was maybe still insane. I’d known him for one night. Every time I thought about him, my stomach went fluttery like it did when I got a crush—which I hadn’t had since I was a teenager.
I couldn’t talk to anyone about him. I hadn’t told Cassie. She would have thought I was crazy. She was basically a groupie now. She went to the club almost every week and asked me to come with her every time. I always said no. She tried to get me to talk about what happened, and I refused. What Dru and I had shared was between us.
I didn’t want to go to Bite, because what if he wasn’t there? Or worse, what if he was drinking from another human? He was probably back to fucking them now since I’d proven not all humans went a little crazy. If I went there and saw him with his tongue between another woman’s legs…
I squeezed my eyes shut. Stop it, Roxy.
I reached my apartment and jogged up the stairs to my floor. After unlocking the doorknob and the two deadbolts, I called for my brother. “Nate!” I shut the door behind me and hung my coat and purse up on a hook by the door. “Nate!” I called again. No answer. Frowning, I made my way to the kitchen to see a note on the fridge.
Spending the night at Andy’s. Be back tomorrow afternoon. Love ya.
Nate was sixteen and had a job that he worked around his school hours. He was a good kid, and Andy was one of the few friends of his who had decent parents.
I looked around the apartment. I had it to myself. This was a novelty. I stripped as I made my way down the hallway, peeling off my apron, my jeans, and my grease-stained shirt. After a quick rinse in the shower, I combed out my hair and let it down so it could dry. With a towel wrapped around me, I walked into my bedroom to find something to wear.
And I promptly screamed when I saw a figure standing by my bed.
I mean an actual blood-curdling scream, which I shut off with a hand clapped over my mouth when I realized it was Dru.
Dru was in my apartment.
I stared at him with wide eyes, taking in his massive form, his dark eyes. He wore a long leather jacket that reached his knees, and beneath that a pair of jeans and a dark shirt.
But what I noticed the most was how sunken his eyes looked, how they were narrowed like he was in pain. His lips parted, and his voice was like sandpaper. “Roxy.”
I leaped at him. Because, oh God, he was here, in the flesh, in my world this time. I wrapped my arms around his waist and clung to him. His fingers sifted through my wet hair. “Roxy,” he said again, and I pressed against him harder.
He stumbled a bit, and I pulled back as he sank down onto the edge of my bed. His shoulders trembled slightly and my happiness at seeing him was quickly replaced with concern. I tilted his chin up so I could get a good look at his face. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
His eyes weren’t focusing well. “Tired.”
“Oh, well we can sleep—” I frowned. “Wait, you don’t sleep. What’s going on? Are you sick? When’s the last time you fed?”
He licked his lips and his gaze dropped to my neck before slowly returned to my face. “A bit ago.”
I gripped his chin tighter. “How long ago, Dru?”
“Supposed to have fresh blood every few days, but I’ve been stretching it out….” His voice trailed off.
&nbs
p; “What the hell?” I was frustrated now. “What’s going on?”
“I’m weak,” he said abruptly.
I stilled. “Well that’s because you need to feed—”
He shook his head. “I’m weak because I want you.” His hands wrapped around the back of my thighs and drew me between his legs. Heat spread to my core quickly and I held back a gasp as he kept talking. “I tried to keep going. I fed from other humans, but they didn’t taste like you. They didn’t smell like you. No one said my name in your voice, or ran their fingers through my hair. Every time I fed, I could only picture you, and it was torture.”
His hands slid up higher, under my towel. “Dru,” I murmured.
“See? That. Fuck I missed that.” He moved the edge of my towel to the side and nuzzled against my bare hip. “I missed the sounds you make when you come, how well you fit me. I haven’t been able to touch anyone in two months. I’m the weak one, Roxy. And I don’t know what to do about it.”
His tongue swirled around my hip bone and I clutched his shoulders. I hadn’t even wanted to touch myself the last two months, as my sex drive was at an all-time low, but one look at Dru, and I was soaking wet. I knew he could smell it through the damp towel.
“You let me leave,” I said. “You let me walk out, and you didn’t ask me to come back.”
He lifted his head. “Did you want to come back?”
“I don’t care about going back to Bite. I only wanted to see you.” I swallowed. “But I didn’t know how that could work. I’m human, you’re not, and…”
“I can come visit you.” He seemed to come alive a bit now, his eyes more alert. “I’ll get permission from the Council. And I’ll take you underground on your days off to show you my apartment. It’s not the norm, but we’ll make it work. We have to. I want—I need you to be mine. I have since I first saw you.”
I didn’t know much about vampire social constructs. “And will you be only mine?”
“Of course. I don’t want anyone else.”
Could this really work? “When I left, you didn’t…” Shit, I’d been an emotional void for two months and now I was going to cry.
“I didn’t what?” His hands cupped my bare ass.
“You didn’t even kiss me,” I choked out.
His eyes widened, then he blinked a few times. “I…I didn’t, did I?”
I shook my head and bit my lip.
His eyes fell to half-mast and the corners of his mouth turned up slightly. “Does my Roxy want me to kiss her?”
“More than anything,” I whispered.
He gripped my head and tugged my face down, then pressed his lips to mine. Oh fuck, this was better than I imagined. His lips were soft, yet commanding, parting mine as he dipped his tongue inside. He kissed like he fucked, with an all-consuming possessiveness. I whimpered into his mouth, my knees going weak as he turned me inside out.
With a grunt, he tugged me into his lap, my knees on either side of his hips, and pulled the towel off my body. His lips slid down my jaw. “I can’t wait anymore. I need to taste you.”
“Bite me,” I said, grinding into the hard length I could feel through his jeans. “Take what you need, then fuck me until we can’t speak.”
I inhaled the scent of the somnus. He moaned and, when his teeth sliced into my neck, I knew I’d found home.
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Blood Guard Page 25