Adrian used the remote to switch the last screen to the street view and swiveled in the desk chair, eyes widening. “Jesus, your face.”
My brow furrowed. “What’s wrong with my face?”
Mine wasn’t a bloody mess like Alexander’s. I glanced at him. Red lipstick decorated his mouth and chin, his bloody wounds an angry reminder of my bad behavior. He gave me a hard stare, crossed the room at hyper speed and disappeared into the bathroom, door closing behind him with a loud thud. My stomach twisted in an unhappy knot.
Adrian cleared his throat. “You okay, babe?”
I laughed, a brief, bitter sound. “Define okay.”
I pulled my gaze off the bathroom door to focus on Adrian. His eyes drew me in. Pale and icy blue, like an early morning, winter sky. A little thrill shivered down my spine. His face and arms attracted me, too. Shiny, as if he’d dusted his golden skin with glittery body powder.
“Come here.” Power infused my whispered words.
He rounded the desk, making short work of the distance between us. I explored his body with a feather light touch, fingers running over his arms, leaving goosebumps in their wake. His skin was silky and warm, quite a contrast to the cold brilliance of his eyes. My hands travelled to his well-muscled chest and his thudding heart. I saw the network of veins running through his body, like the root system of an enormous tree, the blood pulsating, life’s energy so close to the surface, so close I could almost taste its rich coppery goodness, almost drink it up—
“Jonas, stop her!” Alexander roared.
His voice hit my head like a hammer. The sudden pain froze me for a moment. The vision of Adrian’s circulatory system receded and I discovered I was nuzzling his neck. Shit. I backed away in a hurry and stumbled into Jonas.
“What’s happening?” My voice was tinged with fear. I didn’t like this.
Adrian glowed like he was standing in a pastel yellow spotlight and, despite the distance between us, I caught his scent, the musky soap from his shower, the aftershave with its hints of lemongrass, ylang ylang, and cedar. He smelled good and looked willing. Ready for me to take him.
I must have moved in his direction without realizing it because Jonas yanked me back. Alexander appeared and escorted a dazed Adrian to the love seat on the far side of the room.
“You are behaving like a newly turned vampire,” Jonas explained. “You have little to no control over your power, your emotions, your desires. Or the blood lust.”
“I don’t believe you,” I protested but I leaned my back against him for comfort, let him wrap his arms around me, and didn’t even complain when he poured his power over my body in a wave of tiny electric shocks.
“Why do you think you attacked Alexander so furiously?” he murmured in my ear.
Lovely. My vampire side was asserting itself. “No.” I was unwilling to accept it, to be that out of control.
“Why do you think you were attracted to Adrian? To those humans downstairs? What were you thinking when you looked at them?”
I shook my head. I’m not a vampire. I’m not.
“Come, my little warrior. What were you thinking as you gazed upon the living?”
I disliked his word choice, but knew he wouldn’t give up. Persistent vampire.
“They glowed, all golden and warm like an afternoon sun and I thought they looked yummy.”
“Exactly.”
I hugged the arms hugging me. A myriad of emotions assaulted me. Fear, excitement, worry, anger, hunger, even happiness. It was too much.
I tried to argue it all away. “But I can’t have blood lust. I don’t have fangs.”
“Yet.”
Chills crawled up my spine. Blood lust. Out-of-control emotions. Unruly power. Fangs. “But, I can’t do, I can’t be, I can’t.” I’m a vampire. I squeezed his arms like they were a life preserver keeping me from drowning in stormy waters.
Across the room, Alexander handed Adrian a glass of water. Adrian rubbed his temple in confusion while he watched us talk. Alexander, on the other hand, didn’t spare us a glance. That hurt more than his hammer yell to my head a moment ago.
“And you like the taste of blood,” Jonas continued. “You cannot deny it.”
I pulled out of Jonas’s embrace and sank onto the couch, curling up my legs and hugging my knees. “Okay, no, I can’t deny my new craving for the red stuff. But I wasn’t looking at Adrian, or any of those other people downstairs, and thinking, ‘Hey you, open a vein for me, will ya?’ I just wasn’t.”
“But you wanted them. Wanted what they had to offer.”
“What were they offering me?”
“Everything.”
Confusion clenched my insides. “I don’t get it.”
“It is not solely about the blood, Carina.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You do not need to. Yet.”
I groaned and flopped my head against the couch back. “How long is this going to take? This, uh, new adjustment period I’m experiencing?” I felt like a newbie alcoholic in a twisted twelve-step program.
Hi, my name is Carina Tranquilli and I’m a human-vampire hybrid. I’ve been sober for twenty-five years and now my freaky powers and blood lust have come online, so I’ll be over here, taking it one moment at a time, and I promise I’ll try not to turn you into a charcoal briquette or suck the blood out of your veins while I learn to get a grip. Really, don’t worry. I’ll get a handle on it. Just make sure you have a fire extinguisher handy. Oh, and a straw, if you wouldn’t mind donating a little blood now and then.
Jonas laughed.
I glowered at him. “Stay out of my head.”
He sped over to the love seat and sat next to Adrian. Adrian stared at the mirth-filled vampire like he’d never met him before. And he probably hadn’t. Jonas never laughed. Ever.
“Gee, Uncle Jonas, glad my misery amuses you.”
His attitude pushed on my last nerve. I was done for the evening. Stick a toothpick in me already and check. Done. The urge to pummel Jonas ramped up—
Alexander distracted me. “Here.” He settled on the couch and offered me a facial wipe and mirror from the bathroom.
I aimed my aggression and sarcasm at him. “What are you trying to say?”
He plopped the items in my hands without comment.
“Oh. Whoa.” The oh was for the smeared lipstick around my mouth, and the whoa was for my eyes. Amazing. Black as night, that is, a night sky pulsating with twinkling lights. Pretty damn cool, in a disturbing and scary way, of course. But still, I liked it. Welcome to the new, freaky me. Whoopee.
“Oh, stop,” Jonas chuckled.
“Oh, stay out my head,” I snapped, but my grouchy uncle cracking up made me want to giggle, too. I allowed myself a little snicker then set to work on my messy face.
Jonas quickly sobered when Adrian struggled to stand and his legs buckled. Jonas caught him, arms banding around the other man’s waist and shoulders. Black eyes flashing, lips parting on a sultry growl, he leaned in for a kiss, a kiss Adrian returned with complete abandon.
I’ve seen Adrian kiss boys—and girls—before, but this was different. Usually man on top, he was submissive in Jonas’s arms like the heroine in a romance novel swept off her feet by the tall, dark, dashing man. In this case, however, it was the smaller yet stronger, finer boned, pale vampire doing the sweeping up.
Alexander touched my arm and I jerked, gaze flitting to him. The scratches on his face had almost healed. Faint pink lines remained, and they, too, continued to fade. Even so, the guilt and embarrassment over my recent psycho behavior resurfaced.
“I’m sorry.” I searched his smoky blue eyes for a hint of forgiveness.
He leaned forward, pulled the wipe from my unresisting hand, and set to work finishing the cleaning job. He dabbed at my lips and chin with a firm but gentle touch. His handsome face hovered so close if I leaned forward, we would kiss. I tightened my grip on the mirror, resisting the urge to pull his lips to mine.
He caught the hungry expression on my face and chose to ignore it. Instead, he took the mirror from me and held it up. “All better.”
My face was indeed devoid of messy red lipstick, but my irises remained black and sparkling like a darkened room filled with blinking Christmas lights. Would they ever revert to brown?
Yes. Jonas replied in my head.
“You okay there, babe?” Adrian strolled over with his usual confident swagger.
“Yeah, but shouldn’t I be asking you that? And apologizing for, you know...” Almost eating you? Couldn’t say it.
He shrugged and dismissed my lame apology. “I’m good. Awesome in fact.” He gave me a wicked grin and kissed my cheek. “Time to make the rounds.”
He headed for the door, but switched direction halfway there to grab his suit jacket off the desk. Relief flooded me. Adrian was okay if he remembered to put on his jacket. He rarely went without, no matter how hot the club. But I hadn’t switched off my glamour as I had downstairs with the dancers.
Why is he free? I thought at Jonas.
Adrian is mine, he replied as he stalked to the door.
So, what, you broke my hold on him, just like that?
Yes.
This is some power thing I don’t understand, isn’t it? I let annoyance color my mental voice.
Of course.
I shrugged in response, tired of talking, tired of struggling to understand and navigate the intricacies of my fledgling power.
Adrian joined Jonas at the door and they joined hands. “Later, babe. Alexander. I’ll be downstairs until dawn. Guaranteed. You two try not to—” He pretended to search for the right words. “Break anything while I’m gone.”
“Dude, I’m sorry about your house. It wasn’t my fault. Well, not entirely.” I crossed my arms and slumped against the couch, feeling lame, tired, and cranky.
“Aw, babe, you’re too easy to tease. Just kidding. Have fun you two. See you at dawn.”
“What makes you think we’ll be up here until dawn?” I pouted.
Adrian and Jonas both gave me the look that comment deserved. My pout devolved into a scowl, but I knew I’d lost.
“See you later,” I muttered.
Alexander gave the two men a brief wave. The double doors closed behind them with a soft click, followed by a beep. Adrian had secured the room.
Nice parting touch.
An awkward silence followed their departure, so loud my ears hummed with it. I averted my gaze—though I knew Alexander’s eyes targeted me—opting instead to stalk to my desk and watch the monitors as if they displayed the most important information on the planet. I was nervous and worried, and unsure how to shake it off.
Turn around.
Was it that simple? If I faced him would the hormones kick in? Would we forget about my trip to Crazy Town and simply kiss and make up?
Probably. Maybe. Maybe not.
You went too far, doubt whispered in my head, with the pushing and the yelling, and oh right, mustn’t forget the face scratching and bespelling of innocent people. All accidental on my part, true, but Alexander had every right to feel frustrated and angry.
What if I’ve turned him off? What if I’m now too much of a freak for the monster?
I stood and took a step, then another and another. In the middle of the room, I stopped with my back to Alexander, afraid to see disdain, anger, or worse, the I’m-so-done-here look. Sure, he’d been nothing but civil since we got up here, even cleaned up my face, but he hadn’t cracked a smile or shown me even the tiniest hint of affection. So now I didn’t know what to think. Or do.
Break up with the boyfriend I hadn’t officially dated yet? Or had he already dumped me? Maybe we should just go downstairs and call it an evening.
I wrapped my arms around myself, nails digging into my waist, as I worked up the guts to break the silence stretched out to the size of the Grand Canyon.
“Doesn’t have to be this hard, you know.”
I jumped at the sound of his voice. His neutral tone gave me no clue about his stance on us.
“Carina,” he whispered, when I didn’t respond.
Okay, that sounded a little better. A bit sultry. Sultry is good. We like sultry.
“What doesn’t have to be hard?” Must not turn around. Must not relax my guard. Wait for it, wait for it...
“Us.” He was closer now. I hadn’t heard him move.
“Is there an us?” Butterflies in my gut. A flutter of hope.
“There can be.” Behind me. Close, so close.
“Do you want there to be?”
“Do you?” he parried.
Yes, yes, good god, ad infinitum yes! “I don’t know.”
“Liar.” His warm breath fanned the back of my neck, the hollow of my shoulder.
My core performed an excited come-and-get-me dance.
His hands slid over the bare skin at the small of my back. I released my death grip on my waist and leaned against him, open for more. But he kept his touch feather light, his breath continuing to caress my neck and shoulder, lips so close, almost there. I shivered from head to toe.
“How can you want this after what I did?”
He slipped his hands under mine, pressing against my belly.
Butterfly kisses on my neck. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“But—”
“Shh.” A graze of fang.
“Are you going to bite me?” Not like I’d say no. Penetration of any kind. Please.
He stilled. “Is that what you want?”
I tilted my head to give him a better angle, but he didn’t take the offer. Instead he turned me in his arms and it hit me, the hunger for me, clear in his eyes gone black like mine. I returned his hungry gaze, unable to take much more of this sexual build-up before I lost it and jumped him.
“Is that what you want?” he repeated, voice husky.
“Yes.” And hurry up!
He caressed my arms, making me shiver. “You aren’t food, Carina. It will bind us together in a way you cannot imagine.”
I watched his lips move, unable to grasp whatever he was telling me. Just wanted to devour that mouth, trace my tongue over those fangs. Draw a little blood and drink it down. Drink him down. I wanted him, any part of him, inside me. Now.
“What do you want, Carina?” He squeezed my arms when I didn’t answer him. It almost hurt.
I searched his face. What did I want? I wanted to stop talking already, wanted to rip off his clothes and do him on the floor or the desk or wherever, wanted to stop being afraid of what my gut insisted was the real deal and ‘just let go’ as Adrian had recommended not so long ago. I wanted to stop thinking so damn hard about every little thing and—I caressed his cheeks, recalling the damage I’d done to his face, all healed now, but still...
Remorse dampened my lust. I opened my mouth to apologize yet again, but he stopped me with a finger against my lips. “Shh.”
My hands fell away from his face.
His finger traced my lips. I took the tip into my mouth up to the first knuckle, held it between my teeth and circled it with my tongue. It tasted like the lavender hand soap from the bathroom, and underneath a hint of salt and copper. Alexander sucked in a breath and pulled out his finger while I grazed it with my teeth. He trailed it, wet now, along my lower lip, down my chin to my chest, down, down, stopping when he reached the hollow between my breasts.
“What do you want, Carina?”
One finger, just one finger touching me, and I was undone. I spoke the words my heart wanted to say. “I want...Everything.”
Our bodies collided. We kissed hard and fast, like the world was about to explode and this was our last gasp at feeling something, anything.
But it was only the beginning.
I pulled at the buttons on his jacket. Off it went. I ripped off my fingerless gloves, freed the bottom of his shirt from the waistband of his pants and pushed inside. Finally, his chest under my hands. He pulled back from our kiss and de
voured me with wild black eyes. A jab of excitement hit my gut. I pushed at his shirt. He took over and it was gone, off his body, every glorious inch of his chest exposed to my hungry gaze, a chest well-muscled but not overly so, the skin smooth and hairless, the way I liked it. Tattoos on his upper arms and chest caught my attention, but I wanted my mouth on him again. Sex now, art appreciation, later.
Much later.
We kissed again, softer this time. I pressed myself against his delicious, bare chest but it wasn’t enough. My top was in the way. Alexander must’ve agreed because a second later my shirt was gone, followed by my bra. He gazed at my breasts, eyes wide and hungry. Then we were airborne. I landed on the couch with Alexander on his feet in front of me, his movement agile like a cat. I had a millisecond to catch my breath before he fell upon me in a blur of vampire speed and his mouth found my chest.
He worked one nipple with lips, teeth and tongue, sucking, licking, nibbling, his fangs close to piercing the tender flesh. He teased the other nipple between his forefinger and thumb, squeeze, pull, squeeze, roll, roll, repeat, repeat, repeat. I moaned and clawed at the smooth surface of the couch, arms stretched wide, seeking something to hang onto as the pleasure-pressure built between my legs.
I held my breath, body trembling with tension, head back, eyes closed. Alexander stilled. The wave threatening to engulf me receded.
“Don’t stop,” I panted. I was a quivering mass of nerve endings and they all wanted to be touched and adored.
Immediately.
When Alexander didn’t reply with word or action, I opened my eyes. That’s what he wanted. His fangs retracted. Once gone, his lips descended to the breast that hadn’t yet had the pleasure of meeting them, but instead of the fierce and fantastic onslaught the other had experienced, this one received the softest of kisses, a little lick, a gentle nip. Even so, the pressure came hurtling at me again and I threw back my head, ready to fall into that dark well of pleasure, but Alexander growled against my breast.
“No. Stay.”
For once in my life, I didn’t mind being told what to do. So I stayed, eyes open, attention on the man at my breast. He played there a moment longer then trailed light kisses down to my belly, pausing at my piercing. He took the barbell into his mouth, held it between his teeth and pulled hard enough to make me gasp and grab his head. His hands caught mine and pressed them to the couch.
Haven Page 23