Exposure: Bloodlust Series Book 1

by L. L. Ash

  He started to climb and I stood there with bated breath as he made his way slowly up. When his hand appeared on the roof, I hopped out of the window, freezing in my tank and booty shorts and ran across the roof to him, grabbing his hand and helping him up.

  “That’s a lot harder as a human,” Clarence laughed quietly as he rested on his hands and knees, catching his breath. “Thank you for the help.”

  “You’re crazy!” I scolded as I tried to pull him inside.

  Clarence followed me into the room and I had just enough time to close the window behind us before he was right there, his lips devouring mine and his arms wrapped like steel bands around me.

  I was instantly mush and putty in his hands, and moved easily as he maneuvered me toward the bed.

  “Tell me to stop and I will,” he mumbled against my lips between kisses. “But I want you so terribly, Addie.”

  My heart fluttered at the words and my pulse started at an irregular beat as my back hit the bed and our legs tangled.

  “I want you too,” I managed to squeeze from my lips.

  His manner became more demanding and his mouth fairly crushed mine as his upper body pressed into me, his weight feeling oddly exquisite and safe.

  My fingers tingled as they gave up restraint and touched his back through his t-shirt. Clarence’s mouth dipped away from my lips and he blazed down my jaw, scraping his teeth against that tender little spot behind my ear. Suddenly I was panting and we hadn’t even taken any clothes off. I just laid there, basking in the worship as my heart struggled to keep pace and my lungs attempted to take in air.

  His fingers grazed up my ribs, pulling my tank up with it. As he brushed up to my breasts, he made a sound like a whimper when he noticed I wasn’t wearing a bra. His harried movements softened and he pressed a gentle kiss to the underside of one breast.

  I took in one big breath, arching my back and pressing further towards his mouth. Moist lips embraced me back.

  His lips moved down the valley between my breasts sending shivers through me as I struggled with the tank top bunched up under my chin. I managed to slip it off as his mouth reached my navel, tongue dipping in before breath washed over it with icy tendrils, over and over. My belly quivered, and my thighs were pressed so hard together they were starting to cramp. Fingers rounded underneath my butt before slipping into the band of my shorts and pulling, taking my panties along with them.

  Clarence flung them across the room, then pressed his cheek to the inside of my thigh, scratching with his 5 o’clock shadow. His lips brushed across my inner hip and his fingers brushed across my nest of curls.

  “May I taste you?” he breathed in the most seductive voice I’d ever heard.

  His fingers were still petting, and slowly dipping between until they reached moisture.

  When his head came up to look at me, I realized he’d actually asked me a question.

  “Uw-nuh-whah?” I mumbled out indelicately.

  He was so lost in his lust he didn’t even smile.

  “May I taste you?” he asked. “Your perfume is intoxicating, and I can’t go on not knowing how sweet you are.”

  Whah?

  I gurgled what must have sounded like an affirmative answer because his face relaxed in relief before his head dipped back down, nose pressing against my mound. His fingers spread me open and another one of those whimpers escaped him before something warm and firm brushed across my sensitive pearl and down to my core.

  My hips bucked immediately at the strange invasion, but gentle hands held my thighs and hips tightly to the bed as his mouth descended for another taste.

  “As sweet as honey,” he groaned, the vibrations of his voice spearing straight through me and settling in my pelvis. “And fragrant as lavender, my Darling.”

  Lick after lick turned into gentle explorations as his hands held me down and his mouth persisted in its feasting. His touches had started so gentle, but soon he was devouring me, as he devoured my mouth. His tongue danced against my pearl, then his lips would surround and suck until I was bucking and biting on my hand so I didn’t start screaming all over the place.

  His fingers soon joined in and pressed into my core, one at a time until he had three in, the feeling so full it was almost uncomfortable. Flexing with a come hither motion, he soon had me thrashing, my belly on fire and my thighs pressed around his head until every muscle in my body tightened, and an explosion of heat trickled down into my limbs, making everything go limp as my whole body pulsed.

  “Dear God...” he whispered against me before taking a couple more long licks around where his fingers were being strangled. “Beautiful...”

  Eventually his fingers drifted away, leaving me empty and distracted.

  “I need you,” I finally whispered back at him when I got control of my voice again.

  His wet hand found residence on the crease of my hip and thigh before that devastatingly handsome face appeared in front of me.

  “That is enough for tonight,” he told me, pressing a kiss to my lips that tasted like salt and sugar and something floral or musky.

  “You see?” he kissed me again, tongue brushing my swollen lips before backing away again. “You taste exquisite.”

  I swallowed hard and willed my foggy brain to start functioning again.

  “What do you mean? We’re not having sex?”

  He looked a little taken back.

  “We do not have sex, Addie. We make love.”

  “What’s the difference.”

  “You have sex with a stranger or a whore. You make love to the woman you love.”

  “Fine,” I groaned. “Then I want you to fuck me. You know what that means? It means hard, fast, ruthless...”

  “You’re still too new, my darling girl,” he stroked his clean hand across my cheek. “In time you will know it all. WE will know it all… For now, this is enough.”

  I rolled my eyes in frustration, but I was so tired after being woken at...3am?

  “Fine, then sleep with me,” I told him, turning my back to him and digging my butt back into his stiff erection.

  He wiggled his hips too, away from me, before putting his arm around me and pulling my shoulders in tight against his chest.

  Within seconds I was asleep again.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Wake up, Love,” Clarence’s deep velvet voice invaded the blackness around me.

  My eyes slowly drifted open and closed, open and closed until I managed to keep them open.

  “Your alarm clock went off. I think it’s time to get ready for school.”

  School? That seemed so trivial now.

  “I’m awake,” I ground out through my dry, shrunken vocal cords.

  He grinned at me, head sharing my pillow only a couple inches away from mine.

  “I wish to wake next to you every morning for the rest of my life,” he whispered through his smile.

  “You’re even well spoken and cheesy in the morning?” I asked him with a laugh.

  “Would you like it if I were like a humping dog instead?”

  His grin turned mischievous and his arms around me tightened as he bucked his hips and ground his jean-clad morningwood into my belly.

  A shriek of a giggle erupted out of my mouth and I quickly bit it off, covering my traitorous lips as I grinned at his playful display.

  Clarence laughed quietly with me, holding me tightly until…

  BANG-BANG-BANG

  I jumped, sending Clarence over the edge of the bed with a loud thump before more banging form the door.

  “You ok in there?” It was Dad. “It sounded like you screamed. Everything alright? You find a spider or something?”

  My brain fumbled with trying to find an answer.

  “You decent? I’ll kill it for you...”

  “NO!” I shrieked, seeing the look of panic on Clarence’s face as well. “It’s ok, I got it. It was right next to my face when I woke up, is all.”

  I stared at him wide eyed, realiz
ing that it was the truth. Except I’d woken up next to Clarence, not a spider.

  The doorknob rattled. Clarence stumbled to his feet and I rushed off the bed, opening the sliding closet and motioning for him to get inside. I slid the door closed, effectively cutting him off from Dad’s view, I realized I was still naked.

  Just as he got the door open, I managed to slide on my short robe and tie it closed.

  “You sure you’re ok?” Dad poked his head in. “You’re acting really strange.”

  “I’m fine,” I waved my hand around and smiled in what I hopped was innocence.

  Surely I looked guilty as sin, but he must have thought better of questioning me further as his eyes dragged around the room, catching on my dresser.

  “Uh, ok. As long as you’re ok,” he said quickly and shut the door again.

  I quickly locked it behind him and laser focused my gaze to the dresser. On top lay my discarded shorts from the night before with my underwear still tucked in perfectly. It was incredibly incriminating. No doubt Dad knew what was going on.

  After snatching them up and dumping them in my hamper, I went back to the closet where Clarence was half hidden in my hanging clothes.

  “What was incredibly close,” he whispered, looking around the room.

  “He knows,” I told him mournfully, but in a quiet voice. “My shorts and undies from last night were on my dresser. There’s only one way they coulda gotten there looking like that.”

  For the first time, I saw Clarence blush.

  “And he didn’t kill me?” was his only response as he climbed out of the closet.

  “He probably wants to,” I laughed into my hands.

  His blush deepened.

  “I’ll need to be much more careful and discreet in the future.”

  “Well you can’t leave now. Dad’ll see you. You’ll just have to stay til he leaves and it’s time for school.”

  Clarence nodded and sat on the edge of my bed hesitantly.

  “What do we do while we wait?” he asked, looking toward the door.

  “Well… As long as we’re quiet, I can think of one or two things...”

  The hesitancy on his face dissipated and the mischievous look was back.

  “Please do enlighten me.”

  I sauntered over to him with every intention of demanding this morning what he refused me the night before.

  Genie demanded information from me about my birthday weekend, but I didn’t oblige her. Mason begged for another vial or two of my blood so I trekked through the woods with Clarence to their cabin, grateful for not having run into any werewolves again. And Dad never brought up what had happened that morning.

  All within a 24 hour period. By school the next day I was ready for the weekend again, but it was only Tuesday.

  At lunch Clarence was sitting with me and Genie, who had Bobby glued to her hip, hanging on her every word. It was a nice day so we’d taken our trays outside and sat under the partially cloud-covered sky as we ate.

  Clarence took a few hesitant bites of his lunch, his brow covered in tiny droplets of sweat as he chewed.

  “You ok?” I asked him, touching his hand.

  It was ice cold.

  “I feel… I feel… faint,” was all he got out before he was stumbling up from the bolted down bench seat and sprinted toward the nearest trash can.

  Clarence hunched over it and vomited his meager lunch back up.

  I was on my feet in a second, following him to the trash can.

  “You ok?” I asked again, touching his back softly.

  He jerked away from my touch and shot me a terrified look.

  “No, I am not,” he said, canines prominent and eyes that strange icy blue.

  Chills ran through me even under the warmth of the sun.

  He was a vampire again.

  After another heave into the trash, he stumbled back, wiped at his mouth and managed to hold onto the side of the building as he made his way toward an empty section of the school courtyard. He looked at me again one more time, his icy eyes filling with tears, then with a whoosh, he was gone.

  I stood against the brick, my face burning and my eyes dripping tears as I tried to choke down a sob. What had happened? Did he get re-turned by Mason? He would have told me, right?

  What the hell was going on?

  Genie and Bobby asked where Clarence had gone, so I told them the obvious, that he was sick. They nodded and went back to their food without much other thought.

  My thoughts, however, were with him all the rest of the day.

  Before bed that night I hung a white handkerchief on my window, in the code he’d told me to use before he’d turned human. So I sat there at my window for hours until I fell asleep.

  The next day, still no Clarence. My fear was starting to turn into terror, and from terror anger as the hours went by. If Clarence had died or turned or gotten sick, Mason would have told me, right? If Clarence were ok, HE would have told me. I was effectively cut off from the man I loved and it was frightening and infuriating.

  Eventually by Friday, I took matters into my own hands and made my way back to the cabin. Having walked there just earlier in the week with Clarence I was pretty sure I could find it, so I took the chance. I needed to know if he was ok. And if he was ok, I needed to know what happened.

  I skipped out of school early and made my way into the woods, following my instincts as I walked. But soon there was leaf and twig snapping and crunching behind me. I kept looking back and the noise would stop, but nothing appeared to be moving. A few more minutes in and I heard it. Not a growl like I’d expected. No. It was a voice.

  “What are you doing out here?” came the unmistakable clash of accents that could only be Mason.

  “I’m looking for Clarence, what do you think I’m doing,” I told him in a short voice.

  “He doesn’t want to see you,” was his tert response.

  “I don’t freaking care if he doesn’t want to see me!” I practically shouted. “My boyfriend started throwing up his guts, turning pale and cold and his eyes were… And he just left. He left and he hasn’t said another word to me. What the hell is happening?”

  Mason’s irritated face eased a little before he motioned for me to sit.

  I looked around for some sort of seat but ended up sitting on the ground, back against the rough bark of an evergreen.

  “It seems… the cure was not really a cure, after all,” he said slowly, watching my expression. “We thought it was permanent because of the success, but it’s only temporary. The potion has worn off and the virus has returned. He is no longer a human, Miss Harper.”

  “Stop calling me Miss Harper,” I growled at him, then stood and stomped over. “And bring me to him.”

  “I told you before. He doesn’t want to see you. The kid’s been a fucking nightmare since it happened. I swear, I didn’t know vampires could contain so much bloody emotion.”

  My heart sank.

  “Please Mason. Take me to him. I don’t care if he doesn’t want to see me. He needs me, and I need him, too.”

  Mason chewed on my plea for a minute before shaking his head and shrugging.

  “I s’pose it can’t get worse than it already is. Hop up, Sweetheart.”

  I glared at him again, but approached close enough for him to get his arms around me and jump.

  We landed with a jarring in my brain caused by the harshness of the descension, but I didn’t fall down as he let go of me. Mason led the way silently toward the cabin’s front door and I followed, mentally preparing myself for what I was going to find.

  Clarence was nowhere to be found. For a second, fear shot through me that Mason had tricked me, but instead of attacking me and draining all my freakishly weird blood, he stomped to one of the freezers and tossed open the door.

  “I told you to fucking leave me alone you prick!” I heard Clarence’s angry voice through the room clearly as Mason stood beside the freezer, arms folded across his chest.


  “Careful about the language, ol’ boy. A lady is present.”

  It was silent for a whole five seconds before a hand appeared on the rim of the freezer bed and a blonde mop of hair appeared. Inky blue eyes rimmed with dark circles met mine.

  “Addie?”

  It was almost a question, but mostly just a surprised statement.

  “Yeah it’s me. So get out of bed and talk to me.”

  I watched Clarence visibly gulp before he pushed himself out of his freezer.

  “Now, would you like to explain to me why you just left and I haven't seen hide or hair of you since?”

  His lips pressed together and brow descended in what looked like anger. The first I’d ever seen directed a me.

  “You would like to know, my Sweet Girl?” He started in a syrupy, condescending voice. “Because I am not like you anymore, Madeleine. I am no longer human. I’m just as likely to drink your blood as make love to you now. And I will never be human, therefore you are better off without me. You want a warm home, with children and outdoors and restaurants and family… You want to grow old together with the one you love. I cannot. So you must find another man to seek these things with because you will never get them with me.”

  His voice turned so cold, it sent shivers down my spine.

  “So that’s it?” I demanded before tears took over. “You want nothing to do with me cause I’m not one of you?”

  “I will live forever!” he cried out, suddenly his tone was pure tortured sadness and anger. “The cure didn’t work, Addie, I can’t be what you want me to be!”

  “Fine!” I yelled back at him. “Turn me. Make me one of you so that I can have you!”

  The room went completely silent.

  “No.” Clarence answered coldly, refusing to meet my eyes. “Never.”

  My gaze cut to Mason and I stuck my arm out at him.

  “You, then. I don’t care who does it. Just do it!”

  Mason held his hands up in a defensive gesture.

  “I still need you,” he told me, shaking his head. “I need your blood. Human blood. There is still a chance that the cure...”

  “There is no cure!” Clarence roared and shoved papers off the desk in front of him.