by R. M. Sotera
After reaching the end of the hallway, with no more doors in sight, Mia stopped both physically and mentally and eased her back up against the black-and-red wallpaper that ran the length of the corridor.
Finally, Jordan stopped and assessed her before he said, “We’re going up there.”
Mia pushed herself away from the wall and glanced in the direction Jordan pointed. Another set of stairs lead to a third floor.
“Wow, this place is big.”
“Actually, my room is the only one on the third floor. It’s the attic. I converted it into my room because it is private and the biggest bedroom in this place.”
“Oh,” Mia murmured. “You actually live here?”
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“No. I have my own condo in Orlando. But I do stay here a lot.” Oozing with manners, Jordan stepped in front of her and extended his hand. “Shall we?”
As his strong, smooth fingers intertwined with her own, she imagined what it would feel like having them caress every inch of her skin. Every bit of common sense told her to run fast and never look back.
Being taught from when she was a small child that impure thoughts outside of marriage were the entranceway to the devil’s lair wasn’t helping her situation. Yet she didn’t seem to care. At least not tonight. She sighed. I’ve officially become the epitome of a Catholic sinner, and a hoochie on top of that!
So busy walking down memory lane, she almost plowed into the door when Jordan said, “Here we are.” She halted as he swung the door open.
She stood in awe at the sight before her, trying to drink in the entire room with her eyes before stepping a toe inside. The room radiated masculinity, with a spicy Gothic theme. Massive and antique brown rattan furniture lined the perimeter of the room. A chartreuse down comforter covered the four-poster mahogany bed positioned in the center of the room. If she wanted to sit on the bed, she would need a stepladder to reach it. Covering most of the floor was a charcoal, floral-patterned Oriental rug. A man with taste. Good taste, scratch that, great taste.
“Well, let’s go inside.”
Mia glanced over at the doorjamb. “Okay.” Jordan released her hand, glanced over her once, and then a warm smile lit up his features as he drew her to him. Nice and close, his rich, masculine scent was all she could concentrate on for the moment. “Tonight,” he whispered. “I just want to love you, Mia. Will you let me?”
Moved by his words, she stood in total awe.
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A devilish smile broke over his face. She wasn’t sure if it was from the warmth flushing her face or the lockjaw she felt.
“I’m assuming when you growled at me earlier, it meant you wanted me, too.”
He was right on the money. Nervous as all hell, she nodded.
“It really wasn’t that difficult of a question, Mia. Do you want me?” he asked a second time.
Overwhelmed by his words and the way his eyes held a tinge of pleading, Mia rested her head against his chest. How could she construct the house of words that would let him know how she felt?
And, once she did, how would she let him in? She had never experienced a one-night stand, but maybe that’s exactly what she needed. What were the odds that she would see him after tonight?
And if need be, she could always go to confession and beg for forgiveness after her sinful act.
Closing her eyes, she breathed in his Jordan-owned scent once more before a sudden, blinding, intense need for him overtook her.
She didn’t answer him, but instead, she listened to the rapidness in his heartbeat. Were the fast beats a sign that he wanted her as much as she wanted him?
“Yes, I want you,” she answered finally.
“I promise I won’t hurt you,” he vowed. His low baritone voice wrapped around her, truly making her fear subside. “I could never hurt you, Mia.”
“I know.” Did she really know? She hoped. For now, for this moment in time, it was good enough.
In the next moment, his embrace tightened, and she shivered at the touch of his skin on hers. She wanted to touch his mouth, yield every bit of her body and soul to him. Her moral confusion wasn’t enough to keep her away from him, and slowly the walls she conveniently built around her heart began to crumble.
With her still in his arms, he crossed the floor toward the four-poster bed. “I surely didn’t expect that reply.”
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“Me, either.” The words just rolled off her tongue, shocking her some more.
In the back of her mind, the good Catholic girl was telling her to stop the travesty, get down on bended knee, and beg for forgiveness, yet the woman in her wanted to experience Jordan. Every solitary inch of him.
Placing her on the comforter, he asked, “Really? What reply should you have given me?”
She scooted upright and crossed her legs Indian style, grabbing one of the decorative pillows from the center of the bed for moral support. “Well, I’m not that experienced with one-night stands.”
“Oh?” Surprise edged Jordan’s voice.
“Oh?” Mia echoed, confused.
Jordan coughed to cover up a laugh, then tilted his head in an incredulous lean. “Are we going to have sex, Mia?” As if on cue, her body flushed several degrees in temperature. Oh boy, what does he mean, “Are we going to have sex?” I thought…oh, geez. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Well, darlin’, usually the saying ‘one-night stand’ is synonymous with sex. Is that what you want from me tonight? You just say the word, and I’ll give you what you want.” Flustered, Mia flopped back against the bed and dropped the pillow to her side. There I go again, open mouth and insert foot. Did she want sex from him? She let her eyes skate over him for the umpteenth time tonight. Wow, part of me does want to experience casual sex, especially with you, yet the other part of me wants to jump off this bed and run home.
Jordan lingered at the edge of the bed. “I’ll tell you what. Let’s leave tonight to fate. I’m going to get us a couple glasses of wine and make a quick stop in the restroom. Keep my side of the bed warm until I get back.”
Once he was safely tucked in the bathroom, Mia reclaimed the small Oriental throw pillow and placed it over her face. She needed to 72
disappear from view, just in case her expression gave more of her inner secrets away. “Fine.” I need to calm down. I need to think of something else.
She was just starting the counting-backward exercise in her head again when the bathroom door opened and he emerged. Her gaze shifted once again to the diamond in his nose. Damn, that thing is sexy.
“Touch it,” he whispered.
She refocused. “Touch what?”
Prompting her undivided attention by brushing a strand of hair over his shoulder didn’t help her refocus. “Don’t act shy, darlin’. You know you are dying to run your finger over and across my shiny jewel.”
“What?” Shiny jewel? What the hell are you talking about?
“Right?”
She opened her mouth, hoping for a sound that wasn’t a babbling moan, then closed it. Jewels? Usually when men spoke of jewels they meant… She let out a gasp just as her mouth flung open. He’s talking about his penis! Flabbergasted, she opened her mouth a second time, and sound filled the room. “You’re crazy.” Lifting a pink-colored nail into the air—quickly checking for chips in the polish—she proceeded to give him a piece of her mind.
“Other girls may want to touch your stuff—jewel—whatever you want to call it.” She pointed between his legs. “But I am not one of your groupies, and I refuse to touch your…your thing!” A stoic expression tilted Jordan’s face as he remained patient for a full minute, and then his mouth curved into a seductive, badass smile.
“I meant my diamond stud, Mia. But I see other parts of my anatomy have captivated you.” He winked, deliberately stroked the corners of his mouth. “Oh, wait. You were talking about my other earring, my Prince Albert, right? I would love to show you that piercing.” She wished the bed would swallow her whole.
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“Oh my God, shut up!” She reached up with both hands and splayed her palms over her face, in an attempt to make him disappear.
Extreme embarrassment did not even begin to describe how she felt.
Prince Albert?
“Actually, darling, to show you that special piercing, you’ll need to get me naked first. This, in your case, won’t be hard.” Mia preferred to disappear from the face of the earth and see nothing, simply because she really wanted to see him naked.
In the time it took him to sit next to her on the bed, snatch her finger, and place it on the side of his nose, she’d decided to ask him the question she was dying to have answered. “What makes you think you are a vampire?”
A truly surprised expression crossed his face. “Wow, that question was unexpected.”
“Yes, I know, but I was going to ask you that before you bated me with the earring question.”
When his finger started stroking Mia’s arm, heat curled in her stomach, gradually moving through her body, desire splintering every inch of her soon-to-be-sinner’s body.
“I can’t say I’m surprised you’re asking about my lifestyle. Most people are curious. And though, my beautiful lady, I intend to give you an answer, you’re going to get the condensed version since I don’t want to waste our time talking.” Yeah, talking is overrated. Mia folded her hands on her lap in an attempt to look studious. It was hard since she really was interested, more like fascinated.
Before he began, he slipped his hand into Mia’s, his warm palm sending her body into heat mode. “I knew from a young age that something was different about me. During my childhood, I was sick a lot. I was tired and depressed constantly. Psychiatrists analyzed me, and doctors ran test after test on me. Of course, the diagnosis was always the same. Mononucleosis.”
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“I got mono every year from the age of eight until I turned nineteen. For months, I would lie in bed, hating my life, wishing the world would swallow me up. It wasn’t until I was in college that the idea of real vampirism took form. I met a girl in one of my classes who noticed I was missing a lot of school. We started talking. One thing led to another, and I was awakened with a taste of her blood.” His gaze seemed to study her, a faint smile tipped his lips, and he continued. “I’m sure being a teacher, you’re aware that blood carries energy, that it’s a life force.”
His mention of teaching prompted her to stop him. “Wait…how do you know I’m a teacher?” A little bit of fear snuck into the inferno residing in her body.
She must have had the “are you a stalker” look on her face, because he answered her question without a second prompting.
“Actually, I didn’t until now. Your necklace says ‘Number One Drama Teacher,’ so I assumed.”
Mia touched her fingers to the gold charm hanging from the chain around her neck. Observant. “I’m sorry I interrupted you, please continue.”
“Not a problem, I understand your concern. I’m sure I freaked you out for a few moments. No worries, I’m not a stalker, not yet anyway.
Again he laughed. That low, beautiful sound wrapped Mia up like a favorite blanket. “I only consume a very small amount of blood, a few drops, and it isn’t all the time. Only when I know my body needs it.” Thinking she understood, she interrupted. “So, it’s a religious belief. That’s why you drink the blood? Like it represents Christ?” He slightly shook his head, but she ignored him and continued. “This practice sure sounds a lot like some of the rituals they practice in Catholicism.” She narrowed her gaze. “The whole idea of blood representing life sounds like the information was taken right from the pages of a Catholic prayer book.”
“No, Mia. It has nothing to do with religion. We all have different spiritual beliefs. I drink blood for health reasons, because my body
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needs the pranic energy from it for me to live a normal life, a life without constant sickness that doctors can’t cure. I was born this way, doll.”
Disappointed that she was wrong in her assumptions, her tone came across let down. “I just assumed it was a sort of a religious belief.”
“Many people who don’t understand it claim it to be satanic or a cult. I’m a very spiritual person, Mia. I practice all types of different beliefs, from voodoo to Wicca. As for organized religion, like Catholicism, it’s not for me.”
He says Catholicism like it’s the plague.
No one needed to tell her that a blank expression sat on her face, because she felt her muscles relax. Jordan tightened his embrace on her hand then laced their fingers. “Oh, I see. You’re a Catholic?” His voice rang soft before a devious laugh intercepted.
“Is it that obvious?” Why the strange laugh? Perhaps now you find me amusing, as opposed to whatever this is we have going on tonight.
True interest seemed to perk up his expression a little more.
“Umm, please tell me more.”
She shifted her legs so they curled to the right of her body. Here we go, spilling the Catholic upbringing. “I was raised devout Catholic. I went to Catholic schools, and if my parents had had their way, I would have been a nun by now.”
“Interesting.”
She cocked an eyebrow. He appeared honest, and, strangely enough, interested in her. “How so?”
“Wouldn’t it be interesting to take your blood-drinking boyfriend home to meet your parents?”
Mia thought about his words for a few moments. “Interesting is a good word.”
Did he just say boyfriend? Her heart skipped and then started to race.
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She would have been fine if his lips hadn’t touched her hand.
When that happened, all she wanted to do was kiss him, but instead he slipped his right leg across her thigh. “You know, Ms. Catholicism,” he whispered, “women would give anything to be where you are right now.”
“You’re comfortably conceited.”
He smirked.
“No, princess, just confident. I know what I can do to a woman.” Now his breath was on her neck, and it felt like all the air was sucked from her lungs. “Of course from this moment on, I only want to do those things to you.”
When her breath returned, she pondered his question. “Oh, great,” she murmured, finding his vain attitude borderline charming. I find a man that catches my attention more than my boss Jamison, and he’s stuck on himself. Isn’t that just my luck?
“You know, Mia, Cindi wanted to get caught by us. Her research will now be one hundred percent accurate once she spends time with a real-life vampire.” He coughed, then huffed out a half laugh.
“Tonight, Ridge will give her the learning of a lifetime.” Before his words registered completely, Jordan pinned her against the mattress. She pushed against his chest. “I need a…drink of water.”
“Mmm….you’re not going anywhere.”
She tried again in vain to break free from his embrace. She felt like Sybil, because first she wanted him and then she didn’t want him.
She really needed to get a grip and enjoy the hunk of a man on top of her. Slanting his lips over hers, he hesitated one split second before he covered her mouth with his. God, he felt like heaven, but when he deepened the kiss, she panicked, pushing her palms against his chest.
He growled deeply and unlocked his lips. “Is this what you want, Mia? I’ll let you go if you want me to.” He bent down and nibbled the edges of her mouth.
For one split second, she was sure she was in control, until shockingly she pulled him against her and kissed him. He tasted of the
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passion that she had denied herself for so long. She planned to rip his shirt from his body, when the doorbell rang.
Startled, Mia sprang forward, knocking him off-balance and onto the floor.
“I’m so sorry.” She couldn’t have hidden the embarrassment in her voice if she were the best actress in the world. No way. It was there loud and clear.
Laughing, he picked himself up from the floo
r, then, straightening his pants with his palms, he chuckled all the way to the door.
When he swung the door open unto the lady in white holding a syringe, Mia just about peed in her pants.
One hour later, Mia was well educated in vampire donors, bloodborne pathogens, blood dolls, and all the latest cutting tools used for bloodletting. Her head was spinning out of control from her newfound knowledge. What shocked her even more than the recent vampire education, she agreed to give a tube of her blood for testing.
Even though she kept asking Jordan what the purpose of taking her blood was, he’d just smiled, the smile that made her want to do anything for him, and asked her to please do it for him. Jordan had a way of making her agree to just about anything.
Lounging on the bed, she contemplated their earlier conversation, still stunned she’d agreed to give blood to some random woman dressed in a nurse’s outfit. For all Mia knew, the woman could be in a costume left over from Halloween.
Jordan had just returned his phone into his pocket for the third time. Damn man was a busy person. Mia cleared her throat. “Wow, as you stated earlier, this lifestyle is pretty dangerous.” She pondered extremely sick and death for a few moments. Did she need her head examined? Perhaps her idea of a one-night fantasy would be her demise. It would really suck to pick a casket out before my wedding gown.
“Yes, it can be, so we normally have our own donors.” She scrunched her face. “There’s that word again…donors?” 78
The next part of the conversation covered donors more intensely, and their function in the vampire world. Sliding back into bed with her, he took her hand into his then looked into her eyes. “I can’t taste your blood tonight unless I am positive nothing is wrong with it.” Bombshell number two.
Mia’s thoughts came to a screeching halt. “Hold on a minute. I haven’t agreed to you sucking my blood.” Okay, she gave her blood to the nurse willingly, but she didn’t seriously consider he would be licking her blood tonight. The fantasy in her mind was one that consisted of donating sinful sex, not blood.
