I leaned against her, kissing her lips. She returned my kiss eagerly, moving her mouth quickly, cupping my face in her hands.
She rained kisses over my cheeks and my forehead, and I closed my eyes gratefully, drinking it all in. She nuzzled my face with hers, sighing in contentment.
“Time is so weird in the other realms,” she said. “While I was schmoozing Baital and Kali, a whole month passed. A whole month without you. I missed you so much.”
“And I thought two days was hard,” I murmured, catching her lips again. I kissed her passionately, overwhelmed with relief to have her in my arms again. But then my stomach growled viciously, and she frowned against my mouth.
“When was the last time you ate?” she asked.
I couldn’t really remember, honestly. It was sometime before we all got high the night before, but I couldn’t even recall what I’d had. A peanut butter sandwich? There might have been marshmallow Fluff on it, but don’t quote me on that.
I lingered against her with my eyes closed, feeling her breath on my mouth. I didn’t want to let go of her. I felt like a small girl holding her teddy bear, with someone coming over to try and take it away.
“I’ll have plenty of time to kiss you after you eat,” she promised me, leaning her forehead against mine. “I’m kind of hungry, too.”
Fine, I’d eat some damned food. But I’d make her kiss me for twice as long when I was done. Her lips would be so raw, she’d need a whole tube of Chap Stick to supple ‘em up again.
We pulled away from each other, and she grinned when she saw what I was wearing. “I like seeing you in my clothes,” she said in a low, seductive voice. “It turns me on.”
“Oh, yeah?” I replied, smiling happily and slipping my hand into her back pocket, giving her ass a little squeeze. “Well, I couldn’t resist the Guns N’ Roses shirt. I’ve always wanted to live somewhere where the grass is green and the girls are pretty.”
She laughed, leaning forward to kiss my forehead. I gave her butt one last pinch, then went to the fridge and pulled out a loaf of bread, carefully avoiding looking at the bags of blood on the top shelf. Couldn’t get away from the smell, though. That hit me like a swift kick in the gut.
“Blah,” I muttered, holding the fridge open for Risa.
She smiled sympathetically, taking hold of the door handle. “Haven’t gotten used to the smell yet?” she asked.
“Nope,” I answered with a grimace. “Doubt I ever will.”
“You might want to look away, then,” she advised me.
“Double blah,” I mumbled, carrying my bread to the counter where the peanut butter jar was standing. But I couldn’t stop myself from glancing over at Risa in front of the fridge. She picked up one of the blood bags and broke the plastic seal at the top, tilting it back like a frickin’ Capri Sun pouch. She drank it quickly, obviously needing it badly.
But it was strange, because when I watched her do it, I was nowhere near as disgusted as I was when I watched the others drink. I wouldn’t have been crazy about kissing her bloody mouth right away, but it didn’t turn my stomach or anything. I was even still fairly optimistic about holding down my peanut butter sandwich. Sans Fluff, apparently, because I didn’t see any of that lying around. That part must have been a pot-induced hallucination. Not the most exciting thing to fantasize about, but there you go.
“Do you want a sandwich?” I asked Risa. “I’ll make you one.”
“Yeah,” she answered, walking over to meet me at the counter. “I’m starved.”
She stood behind me and wrapped her arms around my waist, kissing my neck softly. Don’t get me wrong, I shivered with pleasure at the touch of her lips – but she just drank a bag of blood.
“You can touch whatever you like, vampire girl,” I said playfully, slathering peanut butter on our sandwiches, “but you need to brush your teeth and rinse your mouth out before you go kissing my parts.”
“Yes, ma’am,” she whispered in my ear, her lips tickling the delicate skin and making me shudder. “But which parts can I kiss?”
I leaned back against her for a moment, laying my head on her shoulder, feeling her soft breasts pressing into me. I turned my face slightly towards hers, caught a whiff of coppery blood. “You can kiss them all,” I murmured in a husky voice, reaching back to grip her narrow hip. “So hurry up and eat your sandwich.”
She certainly didn’t need to be told twice. She released her hold on me and scooped up her sandwich, devouring it in three enormous bites. “I’ll go brush my teeth,” she said with a devilishly naughty smile. “Eat up and meet me in my room.”
Feeling weak-kneed from the arousal she’d kindled in me, I ate my sandwich, then crept across the warehouse to Risa’s bedroom. Jed and Morgan were still watching TV, but the others must have gone out of the building. I really wished these two clowns would go away, too. I didn’t want them to hear me if I got a little too – shall we say, excited.
The door to Risa’s room was open, so I slipped inside and shut it quietly behind me. I heard the shower running, and I sat down on the edge of the bed to wait. For the first time in my life, I was nervous about having sex. What if Risa didn’t like the way I did it? What if she didn’t like my body? What if I couldn’t make her cum? Mind you – that last one had never been a problem for me before, but I was so damned tense, it was a possibility that I could screw up royally.
Then there was the fact that I’d wanted to wait until I knew her better. And really – I didn’t know her any better than I had two days ago, since we’d spent that time apart. But spending an entire night thinking she was in grave danger had changed something in me. It had cemented her to me somehow, had made it so that I wanted to be close to her, both emotionally and physically. I wanted very badly to touch her – I was just super anxious about it.
I heard her turn off the shower, and my belly did an uncomfortable flip-flop. She was coming. Oh, boy. This was getting real.
The bathroom door opened, and she stepped into the bedroom wrapped in a towel. Her eyes met mine, and my heart skipped a beat. I inhaled sharply, floored by the intensity of her gaze.
“Are you okay?” she asked quietly. “You look scared.”
“A little,” I admitted. And that was when I realized something else. I’d become a pretty well-versed liar over the years – I even remembered whom I’d told which lies to and when – but it appeared that I was incapable of lying to Risa. I hadn’t even thought about it before I admitted I was frightened. To anyone else, I never would have confessed my weakness. But with her, it seemed I had no secrets.
“What are you afraid of?” she asked me.
I thought about it for a moment. Really, the truth could be summed up in just a few words. So I said them out loud for her to hear.
“I’m afraid that you’re going to see me,” I told her. “That you’re going to see all of me – and that you’re not going to like it.”
When I said this, of course I wasn’t talking about my body. I meant who I was inside. I wasn’t exactly Miss Congeniality; wasn’t someone most people would be proud to be with. I was, to put it simply, a manipulative, alcoholic whore.
I nearly winced at the term I used to describe myself. Jeez, that really stung, even when you didn’t say it out loud.
Risa just stared at me for a moment, her expression hard to read. But finally, she came over to the bed, sitting down beside me and taking my hand in hers. “Is that what you really think?” she asked. “I’ve already seen you, Dani. You’ve shown me who you are – and I love everything about you. Even the things you don’t love about yourself.”
She laid her hand on the back of my neck, leaning her forehead against mine. I felt so safe, so cared for in that moment, I knew I’d been a fool to doubt her. But I didn’t need to apologize. She wasn’t expecting that. This was all she wanted. To be close.
She kissed my forehead softly, brushing my hair back with her fingertips. “Just let me hold you,” she murmured, nuzzling her nose
against mine.
“Please,” I whispered, squeezing her hand tightly.
She stood up and rounded the bed, looking for something to put on. Her eyes fell on the Nirvana T-shirt I’d slept in on my first night in the warehouse.
“Ah,” she said with a grin, “I see my wardrobe provided jammies for you, too.”
She picked up the shirt and held it to her nose, inhaling deeply.
“What are you doing?” I asked with a nervous smile.
“I love the way you smell when you sleep,” she replied. “It’s much different from when you’re awake. Sweeter somehow.”
“What do I smell like when I’m awake?” I asked curiously.
“It’s a stronger smell,” she said. “Like evergreen. When you’re asleep, it’s more like magnolia blossoms.”
I raised my eyebrows in bewilderment. “Magnolia blossoms!” I exclaimed. “Don’t magnolia trees grow down South? I wouldn’t even know what they smelled like.”
She showed a faint smile. An almost sad smile. “I grew up in New Orleans,” she said. “Lots of magnolias down there.”
I wondered for a moment about that strange, sad smile, but it didn’t seem like the right time to ask questions. Maybe eventually she’d tell me more about . . . well, whatever it was she was thinking of.
She let the towel fall from the place where it was tied around her breasts – and I was confronted with every bit of her naked, beautiful body. She was covered with tattoos, just like her arms, and she was so soft. Everything about her looked so smooth and delicate, so pleasing to touch. She was a long landscape of gorgeous feminine curves, from the medium swells of her pale breasts, to her narrow hips, to her lean, lithe thighs.
She pulled the T-shirt over her head, hiding the masterpiece of her stunning form from my view. I swallowed thickly, trying to content myself with the fact that I’d see it all again. Soon. Very soon.
She lay down in the bed, then looked at me and smiled, patting the mattress beside her. I crawled up to meet her, and I didn’t even think about it before I snuggled down close to her, resting my head on her pillow. I gazed into her eyes, feeling so satisfied with this moment in time.
I reached out to trace her jawline with my fingertips, and she leaned into my touch, purring like a cat. That was a seriously sexy sound. I could feel my heartbeat between my thighs, pulsing thickly, responding to the sound she’d made. All of me responded to her. My body. My heart. My soul, if a cold bitch like me even had one.
“I heard you took Jace out of the equation,” she said, looking at me with deep admiration. “That is so badass.”
“Ah, nah,” I replied, tracing my fingers down her neck, down to the hollow of her throat, making her moan softly. “Just your everyday crime-fighting bullshit. Besides – it was Sonya’s gun that offed him, not me. But I heard,” I added, touching her soft lips delicately, sucking in a breath when she laid a kiss on the pad of my finger, “I heard that Max has a crush on you, and that’s the reason she went psycho on everyone. Because I came into the picture.”
“Max has been trying to get me to go out with her for years,” she replied, opening her mouth to gently suck on my fingertip. I shivered with deep arousal, clamping my thighs together. “I tried to explain that I felt no attraction to her – but I guess there’s really no nice way of saying that, because she’s been bitter about it ever since. When she found out Serenity wanted my head, she was only too happy to go up against me. I think she’d get a serious kick out of seeing Serenity get what she wants.”
I shivered again, though not with pleasure. No, this time I was wracked with unfathomable, bone-chilling fear. “Please don’t say things like that,” I begged her. “The past two days have been hard enough. I don’t need to think about her – about her hurting you . . .”
Her expression grew soft, and she pulled me into her arms, laying her cheek against mine. “Hey,” she said gently, rubbing my back with a soothing hand. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. Everything’s going to be okay – I promise. We’re going to be okay.”
I gave an almost imperceptible nod, but I knew she felt it, because she tightened her arms around me, caressing my cheek with hers. The gesture was so comforting, so intimate, I nuzzled her back, then caught her lips in a deep kiss. She returned my passion ardently, and the electricity came to fill me, passing into my mouth and down my throat. I had viewed the sensation as unpleasant, at first, but now I was beginning to savor it. It was just a testament to our profound connection, the bond that went beneath the surface, joining us together at our cores.
She ran her hand down my side, exploring my body, and I did the same. I felt her delicious curves, obstructed by nothing more than the thin material of her T-shirt. I caressed her outer thigh, reveling in the feeling of her cool, soft skin. I floated high on the sensation of her fervent kiss, probably higher than I’d been on weed the night before. I felt the round swells of her breasts against mine, and they excited me. The sweet flavor of her tongue in my mouth made me moan loudly. Even if there had been a remnant of bloody taste in her mouth, I wouldn’t have cared. Fortunately, though, she tasted like minty toothpaste.
“What if someone hears us?” I asked her, though I was honestly getting too carried away to stop. It’s kind of like when you give a bag of coke to a junkie. You really don’t think he’s going to stop at just one hit, do you?
“Don’t worry about that,” she answered in a sensual, throaty voice, kissing my neck tenderly, then sucking the flesh there to make me throw my head back and cry out softly. “You can make as much noise as you want. There are wards of silence all around this room.”
“Oh my God,” I murmured with a sudden realization. What reason could she have had to put those kinds of wards around her bedroom – if she hadn’t been accustomed to bringing people into it? People who usually made a lot of noise? “You’re naughty like me,” I added with another moan, writhing beneath her as she kissed and licked my collarbone.
She looked into my face with a wolfish grin, coming back up to kiss my mouth hungrily. She pushed up my shirt, caressing my belly with a firm touch. I was melting into her, savoring the act of entwining our limbs; and for the first time in my life, loving the person who owned the skin that was pressed against mine.
Chapter 13
Risa had just barely wrapped her fingers around my left bra cup – when the sudden sound of an explosion made our heads jerk towards the bedroom door.
“What in the hell was that?” I asked quickly, looking back at her.
“Damned if I know,” she replied, her expression darkening. “But we’d better go and find out.”
We slid out of bed, and she pulled on a pair of jeans. Then we walked to the door, opened it slowly, and peered out into the warehouse. But it seemed that someone was watching the door, because as soon as it opened, a voice called out.
“Hello, Risa!” a man said. “Long time, no see! I must say, I started to get offended when you never even called. Brooke says that’s just how you are, though. She sends her best wishes, by the way.”
I glanced at Risa, and I saw her expression twist with rage. I could think of only one person that voice could have belonged to. Kristoff, leader of the SC Vamps, the guy who’d stolen Risa’s last girlfriend.
“How did he get in here?” I whispered to Risa.
“He’s a warlock,” Risa answered in disgust. “He has his low-down, underhanded ways.”
“Do you think the others are all right?”
“I don’t know.” She shook her head, looking concerned. “I hope so.”
“Max paid a visit to Serenity last night,” Kristoff said. “She told her about the little trick with burying the warehouse under the street. It might have worked if Max wasn’t so . . . let’s say tenacious. Serenity sent me ahead to pay you a visit. So here I am! Why don’t you come out and give me a proper greeting?”
Risa didn’t respond, but I could see that the wheels were turning quickly in her mind. She was trying to
think of some way out of this. I wasn’t about to say it out loud and put any extra pressure on her, but I sure hoped she thought of something fast. Like MacGyver-fast.
“That wasn’t really a request,” Kristoff added, his voice growing a little sharp. “Come out, Risa. Bring your girlfriend with you.”
Risa looked into my face, clearly distraught. I knew that she wanted to protect me; but I also knew that she wasn’t sure how to do that right now. She was powerless to deny anything Kristoff asked of her. She was under his thrall.
She opened the door all the way, then stepped out into the warehouse, holding my hand tightly. There was a massive hole blasted through the ceiling of the building, tunneling up through about an eighth of a mile of earth before opening to the street. This guy must have been an incredibly powerful warlock. That made me a little uneasy, of course, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to admit it.
I immediately noticed the bodies lying inert on the concrete floor. God, I really hoped they weren’t dead. I could see Sonya and Michelle lying close to us, and Morgan a little farther away, but I couldn’t see the others.
“Don’t worry,” Kristoff said when he saw us looking at our friends. “They’re alive. It’s just a sleeping spell, that’s all. They’ll wake up in a few hours. In the meantime – we have business to discuss.” He gestured to Risa’s T-shirt. “Love the shirt, by the way. I’m a big Cobain fan myself. My personal favorite is ‘In Bloom,’ I think, but it’s so hard to choose, am I right?”
I surveyed Kristoff, trying to get a feel for the infamous leader of the SC Vamps. He was currently leaning against the back of one of the couches, but I could tell he was tall, and there was no denying he was good-looking. He kind of looked like Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ironic as that was. But I supposed he was Angel in full evil mode – not Angel in I’m-going-to-be-a-good-vampire-and-always-do-the-right-thing mode.
“Business?” Risa said carefully. “I have no business with you.”
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