Then I remembered all the times I thought I saw his face change, and all the flashes of fangs between his lips. And the long plastic case in the closet. A case that could hold a man Jonathan’s size.
Frowning, I shook my head. No way could that be possible.
His hand was on my face smoothing away the lines of my forehead. “Is something the matter?”
“No. It’s nothing.”
“Are you sure? You can ask me anything. Anything at all. And I’d tell you the truth.”
I looked at him then, knowing that I should be making the same offer, but the words were stuck in my throat. I was a coward.
“It’s nothing that won’t keep.” I stroked his cock again, it was still hard.
He handed me a condom. And I quickly sheathed him in one deft stroke and moved up his body. He was like steel in my hand as I lowered myself. Inch by exquisite inch, he filled me up. I held him still within me, as I rubbed my hands up and down his chest, enjoying the way his hard muscles felt under my palms. Watching his face, I contracted the muscles of my sex squeezing him tightly. I reveled in every flicker and grimace of emotion that flashed over his devilish face.
Jonathan reached up and molded my breasts in his hands. He squeezed and flicked his thumbs over my nipples. I arched my back as waves of bliss swept over me. I began to move up and down on him, squeezing my muscles with every stroke.
I watched his beautiful face contort with strain as I quickened my pace. I could tell that he struggled for control. That he was quickly losing it as I took him up and over.
He moved one hand down to where we joined. He circled his fingers over me, finding my clit with expert ease. He stroked it firmly, pushing me toward climax.
I grabbed hold of his shoulders as I moved faster, harder, taking us to the edge. I dug my nails in as the first crest of orgasm mounted inside. I groaned and pushed down on him, filling myself completely with his hot male flesh.
He pressed my clit one more time and flipped me over the edge. I collapsed forward onto his chest as I spiraled toward my climax. He wrapped his arms around me as he soared over with me. We fell hand in hand into the delirious depths of passion.
Chapter Thirteen
After an hour of sleep, my eyes fluttered open, and I peeked at Jonathan. He was strewn across the bed in a deep slumber. I smiled. He did everything with fierce determination, including sleep. I gently slipped my arm out from under his leg and rolled over to the edge of the bed.
I felt like a thief in the night, but it had to be done. I had to escape before this all exploded in my face. I quietly stood up and searched the room for my clothes. After slipping on my dress and shoes, I gathered my garter and stockings and shoved them into my purse. All the time I watched Jonathan to make sure he didn’t wake up.
I was about to make my escape when I paused and really looked at him. Strange notions kept plaguing me. Yes, I was thinking of vampires at this moment. It was definitely a first for me. But honestly, there was so much out there in the world that I didn’t know and I hadn’t seen, so maybe bloodsucking fiends really did exist. Not that Jonathan was in anyway a fiend.
As carefully as I could, I sidled up next to the bed and reached for his mouth. Gently, I pressed my finger to his upper lip and lifted it slightly to expose his teeth.
He had maybe longer than normal canines, but I wouldn’t have considered them fangs per se. I lowered his lip, then stepped back. I turned toward the closet. I had to check. Or it was going to drive me insane for the rest of my life.
I slowly drew open the closet doors. I glanced behind me to make sure Jonathan was still asleep. He was. I pushed aside the hanging clothes to discover the case missing. It wasn’t there.
“Shit,” I muttered under my breath.
“Looking for something?”
Gasping, I whirled around to see Jonathan standing right behind me, fresh from the bed and still naked. My heart nearly jumped right out of my mouth.
“Jesus, you scared me.”
“What are you doing in the closet?”
“Um, you caught me.” I laughed. “I was going to steal one of your shirts so I could wear it to bed sometimes and still smell you.”
The way he looked at me, told me he didn’t believe a word I’d just said. I was usually an accomplished liar, but his gaze was penetrating. As if he was looking right through me, measured and found me wanting.
“Are you sure that’s the answer you want to give me?”
“Yes?” I squeaked.
He eyed me a while longer, then turned and went to sit back down on the bed. “Will I see you later?”
“Absolutely.” I tried to sound cheerful but I figured I just came off desperate. “Have a good sleep.” I walked over to him, pressed a quick kiss to his cheek, then left his room as quick as I could without running.
It was very early in the morning according to my cellphone so I should be lucky enough not to run into anyone. I tiptoed down the hallway to the elevator and pressed the down button. As I waited, I rubbed at my eyes. They were burning. The contacts needed to come out, my hair extensions cut off. Everything about Yvette needed to go. I needed to murder and bury the woman as soon as possible.
The elevator beeped, and the door opened just as I realized that one of my contacts was stuck on my finger. I went to put it back in when I came face to face with a very drunk supermodel.
Tatiana stumbled off the elevator and bumped right into me. I staggered back and ran into the wall. Tatiana stood wobbling in front of me with murder in my eyes. Or it could have been just that her makeup was severely smudged and her eyes bloodshot.
She raised her finger and pointed at me. “You! What are you doing here?”
Tatiana slurred so badly that I had a difficult time deciphering her words. But I got the gist of it when she sneered and growled like an animal.
“I was just going to my room. Which I think you should do. You’re in no shape to be wandering around.” I reached for her arm, but Tatiana spun around quickly knocking the items out of my arms. My purse hit the ground and opened, spilling its contents all over the carpeted hall.
Tatiana started to giggle as she gazed down at the spilled contents. “Oops.”
I got to my knees and scrambled to pick up my things. My driver’s license lay just out of reach, touching the toe of Tatiana’s shoe. I reached for it, but Tatiana bent down and snatched it away. She raised it up to her face and glowered at it.
I swore to myself. Hopefully the woman was too drunk to read.
I was wrong. Tatiana’s eyes widened then narrowed into deadly daggers. “I know you. You’re that fucking reporter.”
I reached over and grabbed my license from Tatiana’s hand. I shoved it back into my purse.
“What reporter? I don’t know what you’re talking about?”
“You did an interview with me. And made up lies about me.”
“Tatiana, I think you’ve had too much to drink, and you’re confused. Why don’t I take you back to your room so you can go put your head in the toilet and puke?”
“No. I’m going to tell Jonathan what a fraud you are. And a liar and a cheat.” She turned and started to march down the hall.
I dumped my items again and grabbed Tatiana’s arm. “I don’t think so.”
Tatiana spun around and pushed at me. I stumbled back, breaking the heel on my shoe and fell on my ass. Tatiana roared with laughter. She was so loud, I was scared Jonathan would hear her and come out to investigate.
She loomed over me. “You know I should just eat you and be done with it.”
Eat me?
“Are you a lesbian?” I scrambled to my feet. “That’s cool if you are, it’s just I don’t swing that way.”
“I am not a lesbian.” She launched at me. Grabbing me by the neck, she had me pressed up against the wall in a couple of seconds. Her face was only an inch away.
I could smell her rancid breath. And I could see that her eyes had changed color. They were jet blac
k. As if her pupil had bled into the rest of her eye. Fear spiked inside my body. I swallowed down the bile rising in my throat. Because I fully understood what she’d been drinking.
Slowly she opened her mouth and titled it toward my throat. Long sharp fangs dripped with saliva. I shuddered at the sight. The bitch was a motherfucking vampire.
“I’m going to tear out your throat. Jonathan should’ve done this days ago. He’s becoming weak.”
Panic surged through me. My fight or flight instinct was kicking in. I was usually a runner but there was just something about this chick that rubbed me wrong.
I fisted my hand, reared my arm back, and plowed Tatiana right in the jaw. It was a sleeper hit. Something I learned from years of hanging around two older brothers who liked wrestling. Tatiana’s eyes rolled back in her head, and she fell backwards into the wall, slithering to the floor in an unconscious heap.
Rubbing at my hand, I looked down at Tatiana’s limp form and shook my head. Normally I would feel sorry for a woman with an obvious drinking problem, but this one was a vampire. There just wasn’t any sympathy available for that kind of issue.
I looked around the hallway. Now what did I do? I couldn’t leave Tatiana here in the middle of the hall where hotel guests and Jonathan would stumble over her in the morning. I reached down and grabbed Tatiana’s purse. I found her card key. It usually didn’t have the room number on it, but for some reason, I knew that Tatiana would have scribbled the number across the card. Just in case, she forgot it in a drunken stupor.
Room 312. Perfect. I would just pull her into the elevator, drag her down to her room, and toss her in. Easy.
An hour later, I collapsed onto my bed. I wrapped myself up in the blankets and squeezed my eyes shut. I’d get a couple hours rest, write a note to Jonathan telling him Yvette’s goodbyes and regrets, then get out of dodge. I would assess damage control when I was safe and secure in my little apartment back home. Away from homicidal vampire supermodels and too sexy for words vampire billionaires.
There may be criminal charges coming my way. Lost job, most likely. Broken heart. Definitely.
After I slept for a couple of hours, my cellphone shrilled from the confines of my purse that still lay on the bed. I opened it and took out my phone. I flipped it open.
“Where’s my draft?” Carmen was in fine form this morning.
“Um, not sure. Did you open your window?”
“I want your story on my desk in an hour.”
“Carmen, you said by Monday. Now to me, that could mean late afternoon. I mean it’s only nine o’clock. It’s barely even Monday.”
“On my desk, Bradley. Or you can clean yours out.”
I rolled out of bed and walked over to my laptop. I fingered the cover open. The cursor blinked annoyingly at me, and the screen was so glaringly white I needed sunglasses.
“And you’ll have to fax it. My email’s down.” Carmen clicked off.
I snapped my phone closed and sat down in front of the computer. I started typing. A sentence turned into a paragraph. A paragraph soon turned into a page. Carmen would be very pleased with the result, I thought. It was my best piece of writing yet.
Three hours later, I had my stuff packed, my contacts out, my hair stuffed under my hat, and was sneaking out of the elevator to check out of the hotel. I had my note to Jonathan and my piece for Carmen in my hand. If all went as planned, I could be safely on the road back to the city in half an hour.
I stopped abruptly in the middle of the lobby as Serena came bounding through the doors and straight to me like a heat-seeking missile.
“What are you going here?”
Serena grabbed my arm and glanced nervously around the lobby. “We have to get you out of here.”
“I was just doing that.”
“Jasmine’s on her way here.”
I could feel all the blood leave my face. I swallowed audibly.
Serena looked at me and nodded. “That’s exactly how I feel. Is there a back way out?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Oh, and you want to hear a good one? Jonathan himself phoned Carmen and said he would like to do an interview. Can you believe it? And he asked specifically for you to do it.”
My head began to spin. I could feel bile rising in my throat. I bent over and took in some deep breaths.
“It seems he’s been reading the magazine and likes your writing style.”
“I’m…I’m going to get sick.”
“We just have to get you out of here, and you’ll be home free. You won’t have to write anything about him. We can all pretend this didn’t happen.”
Serena straightened me up and pulled me toward the front doors.
“Serena, I’m in love with him. I can’t leave without giving him this.” I showed Serena the note.
“Damn it, girl. I knew this was going to happen. Didn’t I tell you?”
“I know. I know. I know. I know. But it happened, and I have to make it right.”
Serena sighed heavily then guided me back to the front desk. “You know that just ruins your chance to do his interview. And Carmen’s going to fire you over it.”
“I know.” I stopped in my tracks and pushed Serena in front of me. “Shit.”
Jasmine was already storming across the lobby, her hands fisted and rage clearly etched in her thin face.
I started to back up, pulling Serena with me. “Let’s just go. I’ll mail him the letter.”
They turned and started for the main lobby doors just as David was coming through them. I screeched to a halt, my mouth agape. I was trapped.
He took in my luggage. “Finally Jonathan has come to his senses and kicked you to the curb I hope.”
“No one kicked anyone. I’m leaving on my own accord.”
“Well good riddance to bad trash, I say.”
Serene stepped in then. “You were right, this little man is a condescending little prick.”
Jasmine reached them. “Don’t believe anything this woman says, David. She’s a fraud and a liar.” She sneered at me. “She’s also a criminal.”
“Is that right, Yvette? Jonathan will love to hear this.”
“Yvette?” Jasmine snickered. “That’s a good one. Her name is Makayla Bradley, and she’s a reporter for Hot Gossip magazine. She followed Jonathan here so she could get a story. She was in his hotel room in Calgary and stole his itinerary.”
David smiled. “Oh my, I get to tell Jonathan I told you so. He needs to learn to always listen to me.”
“You’re a dick,” I said as I got in David’s face. “You’re the reason Tatiana showed up here. You’re the one selling Jonathan’s secrets for your own wellbeing.”
“It worked didn’t it?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You sicced her on me. You knew she’d try to eat me, didn’t you?”
Both Serena and Jasmine looked at me like I’d grown horns or something.
He didn’t deny it as he dropped his gaze.
I wanted to punch him in the stupid mouth. But I also wanted to see Jonathan again and wrap my arms around him and tell him I loved him. That I had fallen in love with him the moment I saw him in that nightclub all those months ago. And that I had been pining away for him ever since. But he probably wouldn’t listen to it. I wouldn’t blame him. I had mucked things up and good. There was no fixing this. The damage was irreversible and complete.
“If you print anything of this, we’ll sue the magazine and you. I’ll make sure you never write another word in any form.”
Tears wanted to form but I was damned if I was going to let David see them. Instead I shoved the letter I’d written to Jonathan into his hands.
“Do one decent thing in your life and give this to Jonathan.”
David looked down at it, then up at me. I could tell he wanted to make some rude comment, but by now we’d developed a bit of a crowd. Most of them were glaring at David.
“Fine. It won’t help you anyway.”
“N
o it probably won’t.”
He tucked the letter into his inner jacket pocket and walked away.
Jasmine stood smiling with her hand on her hip. She batted her eyelashes and gave me a smug look. “There, now we’re even. That’s for the dry-cleaning bill I left with Carmen. I’m sure you can pay it when you clean out your desk. Because you know, Mak, I don’t think you’re going to have a job after this. Actually, I’ll be surprised if you ever get another job as a journalist again. Lucky for us.”
Serena reached for Jasmine, her face contorted in rage, but I grabbed her arm before she could touch her. “Not worth it.”
“I wouldn’t worry, honey. I’m sure Jonathan will be over you in no time. I mean, you don’t really think he was in love with you, do you. With a woman like you?”
I released Serena’s arm. “Go ahead, Serena.” I wiped my nose and grabbed my suitcase. “I’ll meet you in the car. Don’t get blood on your new shoes.”
I shuffled out of the lobby feeling hollow and numb just as Jasmine sprinted by me, with Serena in pursuit, fists clenched and an evil grin on her face.
Chapter Fourteen
I typed out the last sentence of my first novella with a grin. The first erotic novella by Yvette Laurent was complete. I shut the laptop and stretched. If felt good to be an actual writer.
My phone sitting on the desk rang. I picked it up.
“Yup?”
“Finished yet?” Serena asked, eagerness in her voice.
“Yup.”
“How does it feel to sell your first story as a sexpert?”
“Not too bad. I have to phone Gwen and thank him though. It was his contacts that landed me this gig.”
“Yeah, that girl is certainly connected for a man. Go figure.”
I got up from my chair and wandered around the room. “How are things at the office?”
“Hectic. Carmen wants you back. Since Jasmine is hip deep in her own scandal she figures it’s safe to bring you back on board.”
I picked up the latest edition of Hot Gossip, with Jasmine plastered on its cover, caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Or with her hand down someone’s pants.
Love's First Bite: Bad Boys and Alpha Vampires Boxed Set (6 book bundle) Page 30
