Zack was kissing her, touching her, and holding her against his rampant body. His mouth was at her throat. Pain spiked there, but it was a sweet pain that induced pleasure between her legs. And as the stinging ebbed, that pleasure grew, and Zack lifted his face to look at her.
His eyes weren’t periwinkle blue any more, but a wild and violent red – crimson to match the blood on his gleaming lips.
‘Are you all right, love?’
No, I’m all wrong.
That hadn’t been just a passing erotic fancy about Zack as a vampire. It had felt like a memory, not a fantasy. She could feel it in her sex.
She could feel it in her neck.
Her fingertips flew to the place where there had been a red mark. She’d dismissed it as a nervous blotch, but what if it’d been something else? And what if that slightly funny turn in the kitchen yesterday hadn’t been due to her just being hungry?
Get a grip, Teresa, she reprimanded herself. Zack is your friend, and your house buddy, and you fancy him, that’s all. There are no such things as vampires and you haven’t even kissed him, so how could he have given you a love-bite?
‘Teresa? Are you all right?’
His soft voice shocked her back into the real world of car journeys and impending weddings.
‘I’m fine, thanks … just wool-gathering. Car trips get me that way.’
She glanced sideways again, and their glances clashed. Zack’s blue eyes looked cautious and wary in a way she’d never seen before.
‘We can stop for a while, if you like? There’s a service area coming up soon.’
He was trying to be kind, and the offer was tempting. The sudden change of atmosphere in the car – from dreamy sensuality to palpable tension – was uncomfortable. But they’d soon reach their destination anyway, and then they could both retreat to their separate rooms … and their own space again.
‘No. Thanks. Let’s push on, shall we?’
‘OK. Good idea.’ With a smooth change of gear, he put his foot down.
Teresa sucked in her breath again, and stole another sideways look. Zack seemed calm and unruffled again, totally focused on the road. If he’d sensed her inner madness he wasn’t showing it.
Turning to the window, and the darkness outside, Teresa squashed down her crazy notions – and thought of nothingness.
3
‘You’re kidding me … there’s only one bedroom? When I rang, you said there’d be two.’
‘I’m very sorry, Miss Johnson. I’m afraid there’s been an error. The hotel’s full for the wedding, and there’s only one room in your name.’
Teresa hardly heard the rest of the spiel about folding beds and extra bedding and a. refund. Her attention was locked on Zack and the stormy expression in his eyes. She’d never, ever seen him look this troubled, and it didn’t surprise her when he took her by the arm and led her away from the reception desk.
‘Look … I don’t think it’s such a good idea that we share a room. Why don’t I leave you here and return again tomorrow night, in time for the wedding. It’ll be dusk again then … and, if I leave the car in the garage, I needn’t be out in daylight when I set off.’
For the first time ever since they’d met, Teresa felt annoyed with him. What on earth was the problem? They were friends. Surely even if they weren’t a couple they could manage to rub along together somehow in the same room for a couple of nights? For such an intelligent and normally equable man, he was being ridiculous.
‘Don’t be silly. We can manage. It’s not a problem.’ Suddenly, though, it did seem like a problem. Zack was as still and unmoving as ever, yet he was surrounded by a strange aura of energy. Anger? Apprehension? Something else entirely? Totally unnerved, she said the first thing that came into her head. ‘I won’t leap all over you, if that’s what you’re worried about. It’ll be strictly platonic.’
Fingers like the prongs of an iron trap tightened on her arm. ‘It’s not you I’m worried about, Teresa.’ His voice was low, intense and unfamiliar. He released her arm, and automatically she rubbed it. ‘This just isn’t a good idea.’
‘Why not? You’re obviously not actually attracted to me or you’d love the idea of sharing a room!’
‘You are wrong there, Teresa … so very wrong.’
Zack pursed his lips, and looked as if he were about to elaborate, but from behind them the reception clerk asked, ‘Shall I call housekeeping about the extra bedding, Miss Johnson?’
Well? Teresa didn’t articulate the word, but Zack seemed to hear it. He closed his eyes for a moment, as if he were weighing up a thousand what-ifs in the space of a split second, then opened them again and nodded infinitesimally.
Her mind whirling, Teresa turned away from him and returned to the desk.
Up in the room, they stared at each other across their heap of luggage.
Teresa attempted a smile and, for a moment, Zack’s face was inscrutable – a beautiful, blank, unwritten page.
Was he going to explain? Tell her what he’d meant, down there in the lobby?
‘Zack, what did you mean downstairs … about me being wrong?’
He looked away, towards the bed, and then his eyes flicked instantly away from it, as if it were the sun and the sight of it burnt him.
‘You are wrong. I am attracted to you but it’s just not a good idea for me to follow up on it.’
For a moment, Teresa wanted to cavort around the room and shout, You do like me. I knew you did. I just know.
‘But why isn’t it a good idea? You must have realised that I’m attracted to you too.’ The urge to dance turned into a strong compulsion to shake him for his obtuseness.
‘It’s not something I can easily explain, Teresa.’ There was wistfulness in his voice. She sensed some huge obstacle standing between them. It was hurting him, and it made her want to hug him, not for sex, just to comfort. ‘Please trust me …’ His shoulders lifted in a heavy, resigned shrug. ‘But I still want to be friends … more than anything. If you can accept that?’
There was such yearning in his blue eyes that Teresa just melted.
‘Yes, of course.’ Still confused, but feeling better, she smiled. ‘We’re good, Zack, but don’t ever try to tell me that it’s us women who are the contrary ones. OK?’
Zack smiled back at her and the tension between them lifted.
‘OK. And don’t worry … I’m fine on the couch.’ He shrugged in the general direction of a rather inadequate-looking settee. ‘It looks perfectly comfortable.’
Teresa frowned. That was nonsense. The couch was a fussy, reproduction item, a triumph of style over practicality.
The bed, on the other hand, was deep, and well sprung and inviting – and it was more or less time to get into it. Zack’s photophobia had meant that they’d had to wait until dusk to set off and now it was past eleven. There was nothing Teresa wanted more than to just crawl under that duvet and sleep. She didn’t want to think about what amounted to their first ever argument. She just wanted to fall asleep, knowing that he really did care for her in his own weird way.
Then Zack shrugged out of his jacket and draped it over a chair back, and the sight of his lean body in that fine dark shirt woke her up again. All her good resolutions about boundaries and being ‘just friends’ melted like Scotch mist.
‘But … um … what about your bad circulation? Won’t you be cold just with blankets?’ She glanced at the undesirable sofa. ‘I could manage on the couch. I’m shorter. I’ll fit better.’
Zack’s whole demeanour seemed to lighten and he gave her an eloquently masculine look.
‘No way.’ He shook his dark head. ‘I’m an old-fashioned man, Teresa. A lady’s comfort must always come first.’
I’ll bet it does. The thought was involuntary. As was the image of Zack, kneeling between her outstretched thighs as she sat on that very sofa, his long red tongue licking, licking, licking.
The entire surface of her skin seemed to tremble. She felt out of control, yet
suddenly energised. On impulse, she strode across the room, squeezed his hard muscular arm and kissed his cool cheek. ‘Thanks, Zack. You’re a very sweet man. I don’t deserve you.’ Right in his personal space, she felt bold and crazy. She sensed danger, but she hungered for the taste of it.
When she pulled back, Zack was staring at her, his eyes wide and strange. He had his full sensual lower lip snagged in his upper teeth, and in the low light they seemed to glint like polished porcelain, sharp and deadly.
Almost dazzled, Teresa felt giddiness whirl her feet out from under her, and without knowing quite how, she found herself sitting on the edge of the bed.
‘Wha–’
‘Come on, Teresa, you need rest. It’s late. Why don’t you slip into bed and get some sleep?’ Zack’s voice was matter of fact. He was sitting a decorous distance away from her, inches and inches of clear space between their bodies.
‘Er … um … yes, I suppose you’re right.’
The soft thick duvet was tempting. These funny turns she kept having were worrying, and Zack was right, she’d be better off getting some rest.
She glanced from the bed to the bathroom. The prospect of getting ready for bed made her feel more tired than ever.
Zack seemed to read her mind. ‘I think I’ll go for a stroll in the grounds. Give you chance to get settled in.’
‘But we’ve only just got here. And it’s nearly midnight.’
‘You know me and my nocturnal rambles. And I need to stretch my legs after the drive.’
Teresa’s heart sank.
She should have let him go home and stay in his comfort zone. When this stupid wedding was over, it might be best if she looked for her own place again. This situation of liking each other but not being able to do anything about it was bound to become intolerable eventually.
Unexpectedly, a strong arm came around her shoulders.
‘It’s just a walk, Teresa. We’re fine.’ The arm squeezed, the pressure reassuring, but also unnerving. There was so much leashed power in that lean and elegant body, and he was still wound up like steel wire no matter what he said. ‘I’m just giving you space to do your girl things.’
Emotion rolled over Teresa like a wave. This was all a mess but, even now, Zack was being wonderful.
‘Thanks.’ She flashed him a grateful smile as he released her and rose to his feet.
‘I’ll just put my bottles away, then I’ll leave you to it.’
Ah, the mysterious ‘iron shake’. Something picked at Teresa’s tired mind as she watched Zack unpack several bottles from a cool-pack and stow them in the mini-bar fridge. One of these days she was going to have to ask him what was in that peculiar unappetising drink.
‘I want you to be fast asleep when I get back,’ said Zack firmly a few moments later. Teresa looked longingly at him, clutching a pair of eggshell-blue satin pyjamas from her case. He looked more relaxed now that he was about to escape the room, and his expression was almost brotherly. At least it seemed to be.
‘OK, you’re the boss of this dormitory.’ She pinned on what she thought was a light-hearted, just-buddies smile.
But Zack was already out of the door and gone.
The night was beautiful, and the sky full of moon.
As Zack sped across the great park of Hindlesham Manor, he was aware that anyone watching him from the house would wonder if they were seeing things.
Things like a human-seeming figure devouring the yards at inhuman speed.
He was angry with himself. Not only had he muddied the situation between them by admitting his feelings, he’d given in to temptation and put Teresa at risk. And all he could think about now was her lovely body, clad in those blue pyjamas.
In bed.
Waiting for him.
Could he control himself around her for much longer? His cool heart soared at the thought of touching her, caressing her – entering her. Giving her pleasure while she was entirely conscious and her mind was unclouded by his psychic tricks. Making love to her, while she knew exactly what he was.
Would her natural sympathy allow her to see past his fangs and reddened eyes? Would the attraction he knew she felt towards him be enough?
Vampires had always had a bad press. Misinformation had extinguished the extended lives of many of his kind who didn’t deserve their demise. As with humanity, there were a thousand different flavours of vampires. They were as different from each other as normal people were, each one’s nature predicated by the life he or she had led before being turned, and the circumstances of how that process had occurred.
An evil murderous bastard was still an evil murderous bastard as a vampire – only more so. Likewise, a weak-willed person might also take the easy path and bite the neck out of man, woman or child in order to feed.
But a decent man would find a way to avoid harming others after his turning.
His own situation was unusual.
In 1932, as a novice in a Benedictine monastery, he’d fallen prey to a band of hungry vampires of questionable ethics who’d broken in and attacked the brothers. A beautiful female had sensed the diffidence of his faith, and zeroed in on him. Barely ten minutes later he’d lost that faith, and his human life forever, but unfortunately not his virginity. Swooping away, she’d laughed and taunted him, leaving him shattered, terrified, confused – and yet still aroused.
In the aftermath, he’d waited for the inevitable revulsion of his community, and received the surprise of his young, but altered, life. His brothers had been modern, forward-thinking twentieth-century monks and, far from casting him out or turning a Vatican vampire hunter on him, they’d helped him.
A new cynicism suggested that their kindness towards a bloodsucker in their midst wasn’t entirely altruistic. His family was immensely wealthy, with old, old money, and the community wasn’t about to pass up such patronage in times when other houses were closing. But, Christian charity or no, they’d made it possible for him to adjust and it seemed that the Church had been secretly handling cases like his for centuries.
And so here I am, Zack thought, a virgin vampire, who’s in love for the first time in his long ridiculous life.
Hindlesham Manor was possessed of a large, traditional box hedge maze, and as Zack entered its perimeter, his enhanced senses savoured the delicious dewy air. Cool scents of wood sap, pine and moss were balsamic and intoxicating. They assaulted him like nocturnal elixirs, provoking and stirring.
But not as much as Teresa stirred him.
The journey had been agony, requiring a constant intense focus on the act of driving. Her perfume was delicate and floral, a beautiful expression of her natural sweetness and purity. Yes, he knew that she’d slept with men, but deep in her heart he detected a central innocence that no man had breached – an untouched and pristine state that mirrored his own.
But it was more than an artificial odour that had plagued him.
The fresh green smells of the night faded and were replaced with warmer richer human aromas. The lush musky scent of Teresa’s body that had kept his penis stiff and his fangs right on the point of descent for mile after mile.
Haunting female sweat. Sex musk, from between her legs. And her blood, just beneath the surface of her smooth heated skin. It had called to him constantly, and it called to him still, demanding more self-control than he’d ever had to exert in all his years.
Plunging on between the tall hedges, he had no fear of losing his way. A natural sense of direction was one of his special gifts. The way was cool and dark, but it didn’t chill his passions. He was erect again and he touched himself lightly as he walked, his mind flying back to the hotel room and the sight of Teresa in that huge tempting bed, her body twisting in sleep, her soft brown hair tousled endearingly.
Perhaps the jacket of her pyjamas might come unfastened as she tossed and turned, revealing her rounded breasts to his unholy gaze. With his psi abilities, it would be easy to touch her and pleasure her without her even waking. The remnants of his religious
morality, never quite shaken off, abhorred such thievery, but when the blood fever in him was rampant, it would be hard to resist.
Teresa was exquisite, the crystallised embodiment of the perfect dream woman he’d wanted all these years. The woman he’d wanted even while he was an imperfect novice, struggling with his faith, before his change.
The only consolation was that she would enjoy the sensual dreams that he induced.
Connecting with his surroundings again, he found himself at the centre of the maze. He stepped into an open area, a spacious oval ringed by benches where explorers could sit and get their breath back, while they tried to work out how to get out again.
Zack didn’t sit. Instead he walked across the central turf to the deep ornamental pond that shimmered like a dark eye reflecting the moon.
Staring into the water, he laughed softly, his lust muted by the perennial amusement of another shattered vampire myth.
In the black water, he saw his own face, and his chest and shoulders, clad in his dark shirt.
He was distinctly visible, although not quite as clearly as Teresa would have been if she had been standing beside him. His image was impressionistic, far less substantial than that of a normal person, expressing the remnants of his humanity. On the continuum of vampirism, he was at the ‘light’ end, complete with spirit, soul and conscience – and it was these that created his reflection in the water. A black-hearted villain probably wouldn’t see a thing.
And yet dark passions surged inside him. His sleeping lust was red and violent, roused by Teresa, and whipped to boiling point by their enforced proximity. It had been insanity to come on this trip, but he’d done it all the same. He was still human in some senses, and subject to the wayward foibles of human nature. And a human need for love that compelled him to grasp at the fleeting chance for intimacy, both emotional and physical.
With Teresa safe in her bed, perhaps a quarter of a mile away, Zack surrendered to the chaos of his senses.
His fangs descended – a rush of sensation in itself. And as the truth of his condition was revealed he rhythmically cupped and caressed his genitals, fantasising that his own large hand was her smaller daintier one. His chilly skin seemed to burn with an icy fire and become painfully hyper-sensitive. His clothes irritated every nerve-end.
Lust Bites Page 11
