by Elisa Adams
“Let me leave. Please, Alec, I just want to go home.”
“Is that what you really want? Do you really want to walk away from a chance to save your life?”
No. “Yes.” She had to. There was no other way.
“Fine. If you think you can leave, go ahead and try.”
* * *
Alec watched the emotions war in Adriana’s eyes. She was scared, but she was also curious. Interested, even. But still, she wanted to go. He’d miscalculated. He should have been more careful. Humans were skittish, and they didn’t trust things they didn’t understand. She wouldn’t understand him or this house, no matter how hard he tried to explain. He’d assumed Frank would have told her at least something about Alec and what he really was, but Frank obviously had kept the secret. That left one more thing for Alec to explain. One more thing to push Adriana even further away.
He stepped back and crossed his arms over his chest. None of that mattered anymore. She might want to leave, but she couldn’t. The house wouldn’t let her go. Her father had to have known it would eventually come to this. He had to have seen that his plan would eventually drive his daughter right into Alec’s arms. He’d been intuitive for a human, and Alec didn’t believe in coincidences. “What are you waiting for? You’re free to go anytime you choose.”
“I will, then.” Her chin went up and her gaze turned cold and determined.
He nearly laughed, but he fought to hold it back. At the same time, his cock hardened against his zipper. She had no idea how much this little game turned him on. It turned her on, too, though she probably didn’t realize it yet. The scent of her arousal hung in the air between them and it was all he could do not to lift her off her feet, press her against the wall, and drive into her.
He’d touched her so many times, but only in his mind and hers. Now he wanted to touch her for real, to run his hands all over her naked body, to stroke his cock inside her until they both came.
He nearly groaned. Soon. Very soon. For now, she had a few things to learn about life here and how she would fit into it. “You won’t get another chance. Once you leave, you’ll never find your way back here.”
“What do you mean?”
“This place has secrets. So many things hide here. You can only get past the gates with permission and I only give that once.”
“Yeah, right.” She laced the words with sarcasm, but he caught the doubt in her eyes. She might not want to admit it, but he knew she could feel that there was something different here. Something she’d never encountered in her human world. She’d been suspicious since he walked into the kitchen. She was a smart girl. It wouldn’t be long before she put it all together.
Frank had sheltered his daughter, sometimes a little too much. If she’d known what Alec was, and what he could do for her, she might have come to him as soon as she found out she was sick.
“Leave, then. Go ahead and try.” The words weren’t much above a whisper, but he’d found that soft speech often had more effect than raising one’s voice. Adriana did as he expected, opening the door once again and stepping out onto the stairs. A thick layer of gray mist surrounded the house, making it impossible to see more than a few feet past the door. Impossible for her, at least. He had no problems seeing through the mist and the darkness.
“Are you leaving?” he continued, fighting the smile threatening to curl his lips. She thought she could walk away. She didn’t know how wrong that line of thinking was. Stubborn woman that she was, she’d have to learn firsthand rather than take his word for it. He could continue to shelter her, to watch over her and pretend nothing in her safe little world had changed, but he wouldn’t perpetuate that fantasy any longer. Things had changed, and she had no choice but to accept that.
“Yes, I am,” she said, but she didn’t move from the top step.
“All right. If that’s what you feel you need to do, I won’t stop you.”
“Gee, thanks. I’m so glad you’re not going to stand in my way.” She let out a breath and shook her head. “You wouldn’t want to point me in the direction of my car, would you?”
“Straight ahead. A few hundred feet down the path. Though be careful where you walk. Sometimes the ground can be… unforgiving. There are many dangers out there after the sun goes down.” None of that was a lie. His kind had to take extra measures to protect their existence. Over the years, they’d learned a few tricks that would curl a human’s toes.
“I’ve walked around in the dark before. I think I can manage.” She walked down the stairs then, and made it as far as the bottom step before she let out a cry and rushed back up, her eyes wide and her shoulders shaking. “Something grabbed my ankle. What’s out there?”
Nothing but illusions. Though, at times, even illusions could be deadly. “A few safeguards. I told you, no one gets in here without my permission.”
She glared at him for a few seconds before she spoke. “Just as no one apparently leaves without it, too.”
The woman was a quick learner. Perhaps she wouldn’t take as much convincing as he’d first thought. “Are you ready to come back inside now?”
She shook her head, a panicked look on her delicate face. “No. Please, let me leave. I just want to go home.”
“I can’t do that. You have to be here. But understand this, Adriana. I won’t ever hurt you. Ever. You’ve already been through enough. I just want to make the pain go away.”
Her narrowed eyes and pursed lips, as well as the fists she made of her hands, told him she wasn’t reassured.
* * *
Adriana paced the length of the room, her arms crossed over her chest. Every so often, she stopped to glare at Alec, who sat unmoving in an armchair in the corner of the dimly-lit library. He hadn’t said a word to her since he’d led her back into the kitchen, poured her a glass of wine and watched to make sure she drank every last drop. And then, he’d brought her in here about ten minutes ago, plunked himself in that black chair and just stared at her as if waiting for her to say something. Well, he’d be waiting a long time. She wasn’t the one who needed to explain her behavior.
He was playing some kind of twisted game, and she didn’t like it. But yet, she hadn’t been able to leave. It wasn’t just the slimy, cold thing that grabbed her ankle, either, though that was bad enough. When she’d reached the bottom step, she’d hit an invisible wall and hadn’t been able to go on. Her feet had frozen to the ground and her breath had been sucked from her lungs. As fantastical as it seemed, he must have put some kind of a… a spell on this place to keep people from leaving.
She should have noticed sooner that something wasn’t quite right about Alec. Her parents’ friends were often a little bit unusual -- in the less-than-human sense.
What a lovely evening this had turned out to be. She’d gone into it hoping against hope that he had some kind of cure for her illness, and she’d ended up in the clutches of a psychopath who might or might not be human. She should have turned the invitation down -- but she hadn’t been able to. A chill ran down her spine when she realized he must have done something to that, too. Something that had made her come to him despite her reservations. She’d been brought here against her will and she wouldn’t stand for it.
She stopped in front of him. “What are you going to do to me?”
“Cure you.”
It couldn’t be that simple. “You’re lying.”
“No. I invited you here for what I promised.”
“And?”
He frowned. “And what?”
“Exactly. I should have seen this sooner, but I guess I was too busy worrying about what torturous way you planned to kill me if I didn’t escape. You want something from me in return, don’t you?”
A small smile tipped his lips. “You could say that.”
Visions of sick, depraved things filled her head, but she pushed them away. No sense worrying until she knew what it was he wanted. This was a man who’d been a trusted friend to her father. How bad could it really be? �
��Are you going to keep me in suspense all night, or do you plan on telling me what it is you want?”
“I’ll make a trade with you.” He crossed one ankle over the opposite knee and folded his hands in his lap, the picture of innocence when she knew he was anything but. “In exchange for a cure, you’ll have to stay here.”
That was all? “For how long?”
“Indefinitely. And not in a guest room, either.”
She gulped. Okay, now she could start worrying.
Chapter 3
Adriana took a few steps back and shook her head. “No way in hell is that ever going to happen. Are you really so arrogant that you believe I’ll move in here just because you told me to? Please.”
Alec only smiled. He admired her fight, her determination. Even in the face of an unknown illness, she didn’t back down. He’d been right. She was the perfect woman for him, in all ways.
“You want to be here,” he said softly. “You want me.”
“No.”
He could make her want him, could even have her at his feet, begging him to take her, but he didn’t want her that way. Not this one. He wanted her to come to him without his interference in her mind.
He pushed up from the chair and walked over to her, stopping inches in front of her. Her chin shot higher up into the air and she glared at him through narrowed eyes.
“I don’t want you,” she spat out, her tone venomous.
“Yes, you do.”
“Um, no, I don’t think so. Unlike the other women you must know, I don’t get off on being dragged here and kept prisoner.”
“Actually, I have a feeling that’s a lie.”
Her expression bordered on petulant, and it made him laugh. She was cute rather than stunning, but it was her inner fire that had drawn him to her in the first place. Alec took her hand and brought it to his lips, brushing a kiss across her knuckles.
She gasped and pulled her hand away, but something sparked in her eyes. “Don’t ever do that again.”
“You never told me no before.”
Adriana stilled, her lips parting. She blinked a few times and her throat worked as she swallowed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Up until tonight, I hadn’t seen you for, like, ten years. I barely even know you.”
“Seven years. And you know me well.” He touched his hand to her head. “You know me here.”
He touched her heart. “You know me here, too. And other places.”
She grabbed his wrist and yanked his hand away from her body. “If you touch any of those other places, I’ll break all of your fingers.”
“I’d like to see you try.”
“Please. Give me a break, okay?” She dropped his wrist, spun and marched across the room toward the door, but she didn’t leave. She stood in the doorway, one hand against the doorframe and one foot over the threshold. “Why are you doing this?”
The easy answer was that he was bored and lonely, and had needed something to liven up his life, but he couldn’t tell her that. Nor could he tell her that he’d been watching her for years, protecting her while at the same time wanting her with every fiber of his being -- or that her father had been the catalyst in this whole mess, the cause of every bad thing that had happened to her in recent months. So he settled for something short and simple, something that would irritate her even more. He loved a woman with spunk. “Because I can see right through you. I know what you want, even if you refuse to admit it.”
“You’re a jerk, do you know that?” She kept her back to him and her shoulders hunched.
He’d been called worse. Much worse. He caught a faint whiff of her arousal from across the room and he smiled. A few long steps brought him to her and he brushed her hair off the side of her neck. She jumped, but didn’t move away.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
He should tell her the truth first, explain her illness and how he could reverse the damage, but he couldn’t help himself. He’d been waiting so long, and he needed to touch her. The need was slowly driving him mad. Explanations would have to wait until he could clear his mind. “You’ve been thinking about me. You know how I can make you feel, and you want me. You want it all.”
“No. There’s a difference between fantasy and reality. Fantasy is a product of one’s imagination.” She paused and he felt her shoulders stiffen a little under his touch. Her voice was soft when she spoke again. “How did you know?”
“Because I feel it, too.”
“There’s nothing to feel. None of this is even real. It’s all some nightmare and soon I’m going to wake up in my own bed.”
“It’s very real. I’ve touched you with my mind, many times, but for too long, I’ve been waiting to touch you with my hands. My lips.” Alec leaned in and brushed a kiss along the skin just below her ear. She shivered and leaned back just a little. Her small reaction was all it took to make his cock go completely hard. His fangs elongated from his gums even though he’d tried to hold them back. This soon, the sight of them would scare her, but tonight control was a hard thing to come by. He’d waited too long to have any semblance of willpower. He needed to take the edge off. Soon.
“Relax, Adriana. Take tonight for what it is. A chance to live out the fantasies we’ve had and a chance for your life to be saved. Neither of us can lose in this situation.”
He touched the spot where his lips had been with his tongue. This time, a small whimper escaped from her and she leaned back further until her spine rested against his chest. “This is crazy. Do you even realize how nuts you sound?”
He laughed. To a human, his directness might be disconcerting. His people appreciated honesty above all else. They didn’t play games. At least not with each other. They’d found long ago that humans made interesting playthings.
He didn’t want to toy with Adriana. Not much, anyway. He had other plans for her.
“Crazy to you, maybe, but not to me. I believe in being honest.”
“So do I.”
“Then why are you lying, to me and to yourself, about wanting to be here?”
She pulled away from him and spun around. “I’m not lying.”
“You don’t want to be here?”
“Look, Alec, there’s something very wrong about this situation. I’m interested in getting well. I’m not interested in games.”
He took her hand and brought it to his mouth, placing a kiss in the center of her palm. “This isn’t a game,” he whispered against her palm.
Not anymore, though he supposed it might have started out that way. He’d been reluctant to protect her, when Frank had first asked him. Hadn’t wanted the kind of responsibility that came along with it. But then Frank had been killed and Alec had been left without a choice.
Breaking into her mind, bending and shaping her fantasies, had been a way to pass the time, but it had turned into so much more. At least that was what he’d always told himself. In truth, it had been so much more than a game for so long.
He glanced at her and caught a flash of lust in her eyes, but a healthy dose of wariness accompanied it. How could he explain to her what he’d been feeling inside, the hopelessness that had settled over him over a year ago and had been gnawing at his gut ever since? It had been so long since he’d had a woman in his life for more than a night, so long since he’d had someone to share his deepest secrets with. Ian and Elena would always listen, but there wasn’t the same level of intimacy he’d have with a lover, a partner.
“What are you doing to me?” she whispered.
“I’m saving your life.” And my own.
* * *
This is crazy. It’s wrong on so many levels.
The words echoed in Adriana’s head, but it didn’t feel wrong.
He still stood close, too close. His presence muddied her thoughts and screwed with her common sense. He had her nerves humming and her blood boiling and all the moisture in her body traveling south at an alarming rate. Or maybe it wasn’t so much his presence, but the wine h
e’d given her. She was starting to feel a little lightheaded. She rarely drank, for good reason. She couldn’t hold her alcohol worth a damn.
She sucked in an unsteady breath and tried to quell a little of the arousal, but it was no use. He was right, damn it. She wanted him, but she wanted answers first.
“How can you heal me? And I want specifics, none of this evasive crap you keep throwing at me. If I agree, and I’m not saying I’m going to, I need to know what I’m agreeing to.”
“Your body is shutting down.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
“It isn’t going to stop.”
Yet again, she’d heard it all before, from people with actual medical degrees. “Aren’t you the master of the obvious?” She sighed. Did he even have a cure at all? And if he did, would it actually work? “What, exactly, can you do for me? And you’d better make it good.”
A small smile touched his lips. “I can make you live forever.”
She blinked. Okay, that was definitely good.
Chapter 4
“Huh?” The word left Adriana’s lips before she could pull it back. She hadn’t meant to sound so dumbfounded, but what did Alec expect? He’d just told her he could make her live forever. That had to be some kind of exaggeration.
He stepped closer until he had her backed up against the doorframe, his big body crowding hers and setting off all kinds of riots in her nerves. She swallowed hard, trying to wet her suddenly dry throat. His erection pressed against her through the layers of their clothes and she bit back a whimper. Her panties went damp and her nipples pebbled. All those times she’d dreamed about him touching her and they didn’t even compare to the real thing. Of course, this could all be a product of the wine, too. It tended to completely erase her inhibitions.
“Would you like that, Adriana?” Alec asked softly, his voice deep and mesmerizing. “Would you like to live forever?”
