Aisle after aisle, he never deviated from what she wanted, except for those strawberries. She'd only been thinking about them and had no real intention of buying them. And the raspberries must have been a favorite of his because she rarely ate them. Nevertheless, he had her wondering if they really were ‘linked' as he put it. Maybe that was the danger.
On the other hand, maybe the danger was the arousal that lived inside her own body. She had a hard time trying to walk normally with her pussy throbbing. And she was aware of him watching the way she moved and she felt awkward. She looked over at him and he smiled knowingly. She glowered at him and he chuckled.
"Karyn, let me take care of you," he said as he moved closer to her side. He placed his palm against her back making her spine tingle with its warmth while he leaned down to whisper in her ear. "I had a fantasy about tasting those raspberries from your body. I bet they'll be absolutely wonderful and we'll both feel so much better…”
Malcolm stopped talking. Karyn had just begun to think about what he tasted like himself, but she looked at him and followed the direction of his eyes to a redhead at the end of the aisle. He watched her with a concentration Karyn thought was damning because it reminded her of her ex. Kevin's eyes used to follow anything with breasts and she used to ignore it telling herself it was only natural for him to notice a beautiful woman, but all the time she felt like a fool.
It was all she needed to get her mind straightened out. She would not be played again.
"You know what? I've got to go," Karyn said taking her cart and walking away from him.
He shook his head as if remembering that she was there. "I'm sorry, Karyn. I was thinking of – "
"I know exactly what you were thinking," she told him. "I already told you to leave me alone. Don't follow me again."
Damn, Malcolm thought. What just happened?
He let Karyn walk away, wisely deciding not to challenge her. He'd deal with her anger later. But there was something about that woman who walked by. He went to the end of the aisle and looked both ways but she was gone.
She looked so much like Julia, he thought. Yet Julia had been dead for a long time. It was weird though. He had the strangest compulsion to go to her and beg her to forgive him. Why?
He walked out of the grocery store with an uneasy feeling and went back to his car. Something bumped into him and he quickly turned around. There she was. The redhead. She had a cart full of groceries that she was struggling to push around because of a bad wheel.
"Sorry," she said absentmindedly. She mumbled a few choice words to the cart before getting it to cooperate.
"Do you need any help?" Malcolm asked. He realized that she didn't look so much like Julia after all. Of course, the basics were the same. Reddish-brown hair. Tall body. Big chest. Slim physique.
But the face was definitely different. She had lighter hazel eyes instead of Julia's deep brown. Her nose and lips were too thin. The shape of her face was squarer instead of oval.
"No, thank you. I'm good," she told him.
"Be careful," he said, still feeling uneasy as he watched her maneuver her cart away. Something was wrong but he didn't know what. Being with Karyn gave him a moment of rest but now it seemed the sickness was back. He felt disoriented again looking at that woman.
Very strange. Maybe the stress of looking for his brother had finally gotten to him. Whatever it was he decided to go home and figure it out from there.
His brother had lied to him.
There was Julia. She walked across the parking lot looking as beautiful as she ever did. Her vibrant red hair was put up in a soft bun at her neck. Her long legs were encased in light colored pants. He couldn't tell what color they were exactly. The glare from the store and the streetlamps hurt his eyes and made him feel sick.
She pushed a cart full of groceries to a small brown car at the end of the row. He wondered what happened to her horse, Old Paint. Then he remembered Old Paint was long gone. That made him sad. But Julia was still here. He was elated.
He wondered why she was getting her supplies at night. So unconventional, his Julia, but she shouldn't do that. It was dangerous. Someone might hurt her. He'd better go help.
He approached her as her back was turned.
"Let me get those for you, lalid," he said.
She turned around suddenly and that's when he realized this woman wasn't Julia. Now he was angry.
What happened to Julia?
He grabbed the woman by her shoulder. "What did you do to her?" he said.
"Get the hell away from me!" the strange woman screamed. She made his brain throb and he got angrier.
His brother had told him Julia was dead. Didd she kill Julia?
Rage consumed him quickly. He barely had time to wonder if it should be so. All that really mattered was that she would suffer for hurting Julia.
He opened his mouth and she screamed again. No one would get a chance to hear. He sank his teeth into her throat and ripped it open. Once the life spilled from her body, he dropped her empty husk to the ground and left.
He thought killing her would make him feel better but it didn't. Julia still dominated his thoughts and it seemed like everyone wanted to keep her from him. And their problems weren't even his fault. He wanted to cry.
Sometime later, Karyn walked out of the store to her car. She was at the end of the row. It was a place most people normally avoided, but she noticed that while she had been in the store, someone parked a tiny brown car parked next to hers. An empty cart had rolled between the two vehicles to settle against her door. She hoped her paint wasn't scratched. Paint jobs were so expensive.
She placed her own cart next to her trunk making sure it didn't roll away before going to remove the other one. Think logically, she said to herself. More than likely it hadn't damaged her car but it was still blocking her door.
The cart return was just on the other side of the brown car. Karyn was wondering why whoever had used the doggone thing hadn't just stuck it in there in the first place, when she almost slipped. She looked down and saw some sort of dark liquid all over the ground. She followed it's trail with her eyes and saw somebody laying down next to the small car.
"Oh my God, what happened?" she whispered to herself. Karyn slowly walked over noticing that the person's clothes matched the woman from the store. The one with red hair. She saw her face and then she screamed. It looked like some sort of animal attacked her. Blood was everywhere and her neck looked as though it had been savagely torn apart.
CHAPTER THREE
Malcolm was about to enter the building when he noticed Karyn sitting in her car. She had her head against the steering wheel. Her hands gripped both sides as though she were using it to support herself. Was she okay?
Her back moved up and down non-rhythmically as if she were struggling to breathe. He saw her wipe at her face distorting her features slightly as she tried to right whatever it was that was wrong.
No. She wasn't okay. She was crying.
He walked over to her car and tapped on the window. Startled, she shot up straight and looked at him. He motioned for her to roll down the glass and she did. Her eyes were red with her tears and Malcolm's heart hurt for her.
"What's wrong, Karyn? I want to help you."
She gave a weak, somewhat incredulous laugh before she wiped her eyes again.
"I don't think you can," she told him. She rolled up her window and opened her door forcing Malcolm to move out of the way.
"No, you can't help," she said as she got out of the car slamming the door, "Not unless you can find a way to burn my eyes out of their sockets." Every time she closed her eyes, she could see that woman laying helpless on the ground. God, she felt like throwing up.
The way she spoke upset him. Granted, he hadn't known her very long, but for the most part Karyn was usually calm and collected whenever he was around her. Now she sounded almost hysterical. She was about to walk away from him but he touched her shoulder and gently turned her around.
"We are linked, Karyn. Tell me what's wrong. I'll make it okay," he said softly.
For someone she had dismissed as a player his touch felt oddly comforting to her. She wanted to be held by him, just like in her dreams.
"After you left the store, yesterday, I went back to my car."
"And...?" Malcolm felt anxious again, just like last night. What happened yesterday? What did she see?
"That woman was there, you know, the one you were looking at. I was so jealous of her, how she could grab your attention like that, even though it wasn't her fault." Karyn closed her eyes. "I wished something bad would happen to her and then there she was on the ground. She was dead and there was so much blood. Her neck was ripped open. I could see everything inside."
Karyn broke down in tears again and Malcolm pulled her to him. He wrapped his arms around her tightly as he tried to soothe her and make her feel safe. His heart, however, beat hard and fast. Malcolm hoped she wouldn't notice.
He was in a state of panic. He had known there something strange was going on with the woman at the store but he had been too entranced with Karyn to figure out what it was. Now it was obvious,
That woman had a close enough resemblance to Julia that his brother, Marcus, somehow had noticed. With their connection as twins, she drew Malcolm's attention as well. That's what had pulled him into the store, not Karyn. Malcolm must have been closer to finding his brother than he originally thought.
As his disease progressed, Marcus had become obsessed with Julia and refused to believe she was dead. He'd even accused Malcolm of hiding her and lying to him about it. Malcolm suspected it was the real reason why he ran away. To go find Julia.
But why did he kill her, for as surely as Karyn told him the story, he knew it was Marcus who did it. His brother's disease made him very violent and a torn neck was a sure sign of an attack by one of their people. He held on tighter to Karyn not just to console her, but to help himself as well. He didn't want to believe his brother was a killer but with the circumstances and Marcus' disease, it all seemed to fit.
He nuzzled the soft curls of hair on top of Karyn's head and inhaled the delicate floral scent of her shampoo. Lavender. The scent should have calmed him but he was miserable. He wished everything were different. He wished Marcus wasn't sick. He wished he could concentrate on having the woman of his dreams. He wished they could hold each other and forget the whole world today.
"Look at me," Karyn sniffed after a while. "I'm getting your shirt all wet."
"It's okay, lalid. Cry all you want, it will dry." Malcolm lifted her chin. "I'm just so sorry you went through what you did."
"Thank you." She moved away a little and wiped at her eyes again. "I really appreciate it."
She studied his face for a moment and looked into his eyes. "You know, I didn't expect this from you."
He was curious. "What do you mean?" he asked.
"Your sensitivity," she told him. "Most people would have avoided me. You took the time to see that I was okay. Why did you do that?"
He thought about it. Had she been anyone else, he probably would have ignored her like she said. But he didn't want her to cry. He had this persistent idea that she should never feel sadness or pain. He wanted her to be happy.
"I care about you."
An understatement. He wished he could express everything he felt each time he looked at her but he knew she wasn't ready for it. She wasn't ready for those feelings.
She confirmed his thoughts. "You can't care about me. You don't even know me."
"You're right. I don't know you. Not yet. Not absolutely. But you're a part of my dreams, Karyn. A part of my soul."
It was the truth. Whenever he looked at her, or when he was around her, it felt as though he had found the other half of his soul. The part he gave up on long ago when Julia turned on him.
Karyn didn't know whether or not she should believe him. She knew that she felt different around him, but what did Tracey say? Oh, yeah...she was gullible. Maybe the man was only saying what she wanted to hear. For now, she decided not to care.
Impulsively, Karyn stood on her toes to kiss him. He was so incredibly gigantic she thought as her lips met his, but their bodies seemed to like each other anyhow and fit together seamlessly.
Malcolm was surprised at her initiative but he accepted it. He met the gentle thrust of her tongue and matched it with his own, returning the kiss she gave him. Wanting more, he deepened it, pulling her more closely into his frame and exploring her mouth hungrily with his own.
The contact made her tingle all over and she shuddered. It seemed impossible but he pulled her even closer, holding the back her head with one large hand while the other went to her ass and pulled her against him. His body wasn't the only thing that was huge. She gasped at the feel and heat of his erection through their clothes. She wanted more of that heat. She wanted it right now.
Malcolm wanted her too. He wanted to feel her heat wrapped around his. Her nipples pressed through her clothes into his chest as he held her and it was an exquisite torture. Her skin was so soft and she smelled so good. Their shared dreams gave him the distinctive memory of how it would feel to be welcomed inside her body. The temptation to make love to her now was great.
"We should stop now, Karyn," he heard himself say to her.
"Should we?" she said against his lips.
"Yes."
"Yes?" She touched her nose against his. He never knew he liked such simple seduction, but...
"Yes." He thought of a reason. "We're in a public place."
It was the dumbest thing he ever heard himself say. Personally, he didn't care where they were, other people be damned. But he knew he did not want to take advantage of her. The pleasure she offered him was born out of sadness. If he took it, he knew that she would regret it later.
Hell yes, he wanted Karyn. But he wanted her with no regrets. He made a huge mistake with one woman. Damned if he was going to fuck up his love life again. He wanted their sex to be better than what either of them dreamed. He wanted her soul to bond completely with his. He wanted her to love him.
His dumb plan worked. She pulled away. His Karyn could be impulsive, but an exhibitionist she was not. At least not yet. He smiled inwardly. He'd enjoy teaching her his way of letting go of her inhibitions.
"I'm sorry," she said to him.
"Don't be."
Control was an effort. His hands itched with the need to touch her again. His dick, well, if he thought about that it would only get worse.
"No. I really am sorry. I don't think I'll ever do this with you again," she told him. She was embarrassed but she had been experiencing a multitude of feelings and lust had finally won out. She didn't want that to happen again. She didn't trust herself around him.
"I'm not worried, Karyn. Today's not the day, but it will be soon," he replied softly smiling at her.
Damn, but he was delicious. Just like her favorite coffee cake. Why couldn't she just indulge herself? At least I have my dreams, she thought.
Malcolm left her standing there.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"Inside. I work just like you do."
Being around him was a problem, for sure. Karyn had forgotten where she was and she was about to be late for class.
He held the door open for her and waited. She accepted his silent offer and went through.
"I will not believe Marcus is a murderer!" Veronique shouted. Obviously, she was upset and she stalked the floors like a caged jungle cat ready to pounce on anyone who defamed her favorite sibling.
"It is true, Ronnie."
"Is that what your salesh told you?" she continued to scream.
Malcolm watched his anger. Veronique had always been quick tempered and resorted to name-calling anytime she was upset, but she was his family.
"Karyn doesn't know anything about Marcus and she didn't see him kill anyone," he told her as calmly as he could. "But you're forgetting I was there. I sensed someth
ing was wrong. I just didn't realize what was going on."
"Because you were out chasing a piece of tail," she said in disgust.
He grabbed her by her arm. "Don't call her that again," he said through his gritted teeth. He could feel them lengthen. Ever since he'd been looking for his brother he felt like he'd been pushed to his emotional limits. He felt more reckless and impulsive. Luckily his love for his little sister was there stopping him because he was sure he was ready to fight her. He had enough of her disrespect.
Malcolm felt horrible that he felt such evil towards Veronique and he took deep breaths to control himself before he let her arm go.
His sister studied him while he sat back on the couch massaging his temples with his fingers. She wasn't hooked into any disease but she as well had to make an effort to keep her cool.
"I believe this woman is more important to you than your family, Malcolm." she said after a while.
"No," he said thinking about Karyn. He could honestly say she wasn't. "She is as important to me as my family. I love you all."
She considered that. "Then have you told her about us?" asked Veronique. "Did you tell her that we are Vamfir?"
Malcolm closed his eyes against the truth. He hadn't. Karyn hadn't even let her down her defenses around him until earlier today. And telling someone that you were a vampire was not something that just casually popped up in conversation.
"That's what I thought," said Veronique.
She sat down next to him for a moment. "You do realize that if you are going to be honest at all, Malcolm, you will have to wait until we find Marcus. And we cannot get distracted by anything, or anyone else, in order to find him. Especially if he's in the state of mind you say he's in."
"You're saying I have to give her up." Malcolm said quietly.
"Exactly. You just said so yourself. Your interest in her kept you from finding our brother and look what he did. According to you he has killed someone."
"That's why we should go to the police, Ronnie. They can help us. We can't find him on our own."
"We don't have any other choice!" His sister shot back up like a rocket. "I don't know what Oleqehiis was thinking when he and the others came to this wretched world," she said referring to their father. "It's done nothing but cause misery for everyone."
Awakened Desires Page 3
