Fashionably Dead

by Robyn Peterman

  “I’m not ready for all this.”

  “Ready does not factor into the equation, Angel. Life happens whether we are ready or not—the only choice or control we have is whether or not we will rise to meet its challenges.”

  “How’d you get so smart?”

  He laughed and sat down on the edge of my bed. “Because I’m five hundred twenty-two years old.” He leaned over and took my hand in his. He started rubbing delicious little circles on my palm. This did not bode well for rational decision making on my part.

  “Angel, when I drank from you I took part of you into me. You are inside me. When you feel joy, I feel joy. When you feel sorrow, I feel sorrow. When you feel like your world is being ripped apart . . . ” He paused, letting the sentence finish itself. He watched me closely. “That’s why I came. I came to take care of you. Please let me take care of you.”

  “You don’t want me.” Oh. My. God. Was I about to cry?

  He sat up. “You have no concept of how much I want you.” His tone and the look in his eyes sent shivers through my body.

  “It’s not me that you want,” I insisted.

  “What are you talking about?” He was bewildered.

  “You don’t want me, you want the Chosen One,” I said.

  “You’re one and the same,” he laughed, clearly confused by my logic.

  Why couldn’t I accept that it didn’t matter why he wanted me? The fact that he wanted me should be enough, but it wasn’t.

  “If I weren’t the Chosen One, you wouldn’t want me.”

  Now I was crying. Great.

  “Oh baby,” he said, gently gathering me to him, “I’d want you even if you were the devil incarnate.”

  “Really?” I blubbered.

  “Really. I knew from the moment I saw you,” he said, tucking my hair behind my ear and running his thumb along my cheekbone. “You’re so beautiful, so strong,” he whispered, cupping my cheek.

  God, this felt so right. I was so small and soft against his hard body. I leaned into his hand and very slowly, very tentatively wrapped my arms around his body. I felt him contract under my hands and heard a soft moan escape his lips. He guided my head to his chest and gently laid us back on the bed. I closed my eyes and breathed him in. I could feel him doing the same.

  “What do I smell like to you?” I asked quietly.

  “You smell like heaven, like wind and rain. You smell like promise and desire and hope and a little touch of brown sugar.” His voice was husky and I could feel my body tightening. God, he was good. If I weren’t so exhausted from transporting and crying for five hours, I’d be tempted to slip my clothes off, straddle him and make him beg for mercy.

  He chuckled, “There will be plenty of time for that,” he said.

  Damn it, I think my brain doors have a defect.

  “You are mine,” he whispered, running his hand through my hair. “You were meant to be mine. You will always be mine.”

  “Aren’t people going to worry about you?” I mumbled, snuggling closer. I could barely keep my eyes open. “Should you go home?”

  “I am home, Angel. You are my home,” he said.

  I smiled into his chest and fell asleep.

  Chapter 18

  She was going to die if I didn’t help her. The voice inside the tomb was not weak or sickly. It was strong and melodic and very insistent.

  “Astrid, you have to help me,” she begged.

  “How do you know my name?” I asked, thrown by the familiarity.

  “Because you are part of me,” she replied. “Push the stone, Astrid. Help me, please. You’re the only one.”

  “Why does it have to be me? I’m not strong enough,” I insisted. I started to cry. I should get help. Big men . . . or the police . . . or a crowbar.

  “You are strong enough,” she said simply. “There’s not much time left.” In that moment I knew she was right. I was strong enough. She was going to die if I didn’t get her out. Now.

  I walked slowly toward the tomb, my hands outstretched. I could feel the tingling in my fingertips. It quickly spread down my arms, through my chest and into my legs. My heart was pounding inside me, my stomach felt twisted and it was hard to breathe. The wind picked up and blew my hair wildly around my head. I was inches away.

  “Push, Astrid,” she gasped.

  I placed both of my hands on the tomb and began to push. The tomb started to crumble under my fingers. The stone turned to cold, hard diamonds . . . beautiful, sparkling sharp ice that sliced into my hands. My hands bled, but I did not stop. I was so close. The blood ran from my hands, down my arms and seeped into the soft white cotton of my shirt. The stunning diamonds were awash in my blood. I knew if I pushed just a little more . . . I could . . . The pain was becoming intolerable. Every nerve ending in my body was on high alert.

  That damn dream was getting weirder and weirder, and when in the hell did my bed get so lumpy and hard? Prying my eyes open was an impossibility. I’d cried so much they were fused shut. I rearranged myself and realized my sheets had grown muscles and hair. Really soft, sexy hair and muscles that made my fingertips tingle. It was definitely not the tomb lady.

  Feigning sleep, I crawled on top of the hot Vampyre in my bed and noticed two things . . . we were very topless and he was very happy to see me. Hmmm . . . should I stay or should I go? I should go. Definitely go. Right? No, I should absolutely go . . .

  I opened my eyes and tried to slide off his body, but his arms were like steel bands keeping me pinned where I was. My very aroused body was having an internal bitch fight with my good girl brain. My body was winning . . .

  Wait a freakin’ minute. What in the hell was I doing? Just because he was hot didn’t negate the simple fact he tried to kill me and then he half-Vampyre married me, without my permission, in front of six hundred Vampyres. Not to mention I’d had a screaming Big O in front of said Vampyres, ensuring I would not be able to maintain eye contact for years . . . possibly centuries.

  He was an egotistical, hot, obnoxious, sexy, bossy ass. I should hump a tree before I did the nasty with him.

  But he’s so damn hot . . .

  My mind flew back to the graveyard and the visions of what he wanted to do to me. I didn’t think half of it was even legal. A slow heat started between my legs and began to move quickly through the rest of my body. The right corner of his mouth lifted and I knew I was gone. All of the excellent reasons I had come up with vanished. I was staring at the most beautiful man I’d ever seen. I was face-to-face, not to mention body-to-body, with every fantasy I’d ever had.

  “Hello, pretty girl,” he murmured as he pressed his lips to mine.

  My arms, clearly controlled by my raging hormones, found their way around his neck as my lips parted underneath his extremely insistent ones. He moaned his approval as his tongue began a very deliberate exploration of my mouth.

  “Wait a minute,” I demanded, untangling my mouth from his. “How did I lose my shirt?”

  “I couldn’t sleep.”

  “So getting me partially naked helped you sleep?” I narrowed my eyes and tried not to focus on his perfectly ripped chest.

  “No,” he grinned. “But it made staying awake a lot more fun.”

  “You do realize you’re a pervert.”

  “Agreed,” he said, cupping the back of my head and drawing my lips back to his.

  He was making me dizzy and I tried to pull away, but apparently that wasn’t part of his agenda. He held me firmly against his rock hard body. I couldn’t move if I tried. Squirming would only make the mouthwateringly large problem pressing against my tummy bigger. Anyone else would have received my knee to his man bits, but with him . . . all I wanted to do was press my body even closer.

  He slowly made his way from my mouth to my neck. Ohhh my God. “Ethan,” I gasped.

  “Yes, Angel?” he answered, lightly scraping his fangs along my neck.

  I cried out and he flipped me over, pinning me to the bed with my arms over my head
. Damn, that was hot. All of his hard was pressed against all of my soft. My body jerked underneath his and his eyes went an even more brilliant green. I hadn’t been this turned on . . . well ever. If I could just . . . wait. Small house. Too many people here. Makes me scream. Pam will give me hell . . .

  When his mouth moved slowly and deliberately down my body, my brain completely fritzed out, to my body’s delight. My mind was a jumbled mess and my body had hatched its own plan. I arched wantonly toward him. His controlled dominance made my thinking erratic and the slickness between my legs was more than obvious to both of us.

  “Look at me,” he said, taking my chin in his large hand and forcing me to stare into his beautiful eyes. “Do you know what you do to me?” he demanded, lowering his lips to mine and kissing me senseless.

  I writhed beneath him. His eyes were blazing green and I knew mine matched. He tore his mouth from mine and ran his open lips form my jaw to my breast. My back arched up and his chuckle of delight sent shockwaves right to my core. I had never wanted anyone so badly in my life.

  “You are beautiful,” he murmured before taking my painfully hard nipple into his mouth. He drew hard and I whimpered, arched higher, and wordlessly begged for more.

  I rubbed myself against his hard, sexy body. I wanted him. I wanted to be controlled by him.

  I wanted the decision of becoming his mate and having sex with him taken out of my hands.

  I wanted him to force me . . . I wanted to be blameless in a decision I knew I wanted to make. It went against everything I was taught and everything I thought I knew about myself . . . everything I believed.

  He nipped and sucked until I saw stars. He pressed the lower half of his body into mine, creating a rhythm that made me see Jesus. I felt my fangs descend and I pulled Ethan up by his hair until we were face to face. I slanted my mouth across his and drew his tongue into my mouth. He dug his fingers painfully into my hips and increased the speed of his undulating body. I cried out. It was perfect . . . that mind-numbing sensual place that mixed pleasure and pain.

  He groaned into my mouth, cupped the back of my head with one hand and my ass with the other and flipped us over. I wanted to get closer. I wanted to be completely naked and I wanted him inside me, but I wanted more. For the first time, I was conscious of thinking like a Vampyre, not a human. It was scary and liberating.

  I slid my lips along his jaw and down his neck. I could feel the blood rushing through his veins. With the tip of my tongue I traced the arteries in his neck, loving the taste of him. My fangs burned and I knew what I had to do. What I wanted to do. What I needed to do. His body tensed beneath mine. Through his jeans, I felt his erection grow bigger.

  I scraped his neck with my fangs and his body jerked.

  “Angel,” he moaned.

  I laughed and lightly punctured his neck with my fangs, without drawing blood. I loved the sound his skin made when I bit into him. It popped. It was different from Pam or The Kev or Gemma. It was right. I knew it with every fiber of my being. As my body writhed on top of his, I reached down and ran my hand up and down the length of him. He was beautiful and mine. I moved in to take what I wanted.

  He moaned and drew my head back to his neck. All I could focus on was his skin . . . the breathtakingly beautiful, smooth pale skin on his neck. The place I would bite him and drink from him and make him mine. Mine. Mine for eternity. It was so clear to me. I had never wanted anything so much. I would mark him and finish what he started . . .

  Wait.

  I gasped and jerked back. What in the hell was I doing? Just because my lady bits were on fire didn’t mean I should make a decision that would last a lifetime . . . a really long lifetime. Would I be doing this if I wasn’t half naked? Or if he wasn’t so freakin’ hot? Was I about to let my need for an earth-shattering orgasm dictate the rest of my undead life? Um . . . yes. Yes, I was.

  “I can’t,” I said. I rolled off of Ethan and buried my head in my hands.

  “You’re right.”

  “No, Ethan, I really can’t . . . wait. What?”

  “You’re correct. As much as it pains me . . . and it does,” he said, referring to the unavoidably large bulge in his pants, “this is not how it should happen.”

  “So, I guess you don’t want me,” I teased.

  “Oh, I want you,” he moaned and chuckled. His green eyes glittered dangerously. My insides jumped, not with fear but with lust, and I wondered if I had been an idiot not to claim him. “Letting you pull away from me was the most difficult thing I’ve done in all my years.”

  “First of all, you didn’t let me do anything. I did it myself,” I informed him. “I just didn’t think you were that into it.”

  He pulled me into his body and pressed me against some hard evidence to the contrary.

  “I’m into it, Angel,” he grinned, “but more importantly, I know that you’re into it.”

  “Am not,” I laughed, trying to get out of his embrace.

  “Are too,” he said, grabbing me and trapping me underneath him. “Just because you can’t bite me yet,” he informed me with an evil twinkle in his eyes, “doesn’t mean I can’t bite you.” He leaned into my neck.

  “Not fair,” I screeched, trying to wrestle him off of me.

  “So not fair,” he agreed, “but so going to happen.” He grinned as his fangs elongated.

  I gasped in total delight, struggling only to entice him further.

  “What in the fuck is going on in there?” Pam bellowed from the hallway.

  “Could you hear that?” I asked him.

  “Yes.” He had the strangest expression. “Who was that?”

  “My Angel, Pam,” I said. “Are you okay?”

  “Yes,” he paused, “I just had a . . . I think . . . ”

  A flash of pained confusion passed his face, and then it was gone.

  “It’s nothing,” he smiled and shook his head. “Probably the blue balls I feel coming on, damaging my brain.”

  I laughed and kissed him. “So, what are we doing?” I asked.

  He considered me and my question for a moment. A slow, sexy smile spread across his beautiful face. “We’re going to get to know each other and I shall court you.”

  I grinned. “Court me?”

  “Yes, Angel . . . court,” he proudly informed me.

  “Um, Ethan,” I said and rolled my eyes, “you’re kind of showing your age.”

  “Yes,” he grinned. “I am.”

  “Are we courting exclusively?” I asked with narrowed eyes.

  “I don’t know.” He watched me carefully. “Are we?”

  “If this is going to be fair, it shouldn’t be exclusive,” I told him.

  “Are you seeing someone else?” His eyes flashed green and I saw a streak of possessiveness that scared the hell out of me and turned me on with a vengeance.

  “Nooo,” I said, messing with him, “but I might. I’m new to this whole Vamp thing. I don’t even know what’s out there yet.”

  He did not like that. I watched the muscle in his jaw clench. He controlled his jealousy, but with effort. God, he was so easy to bait. I could twist him in knots.

  “Well, Astrid, I suppose if you don’t mind watching me with other women . . . we can do it your way.” He crossed his arms over his naked chest and waited for my hissy fit.

  “I don’t mind at all,” I lied through my teeth. If he thought I was going to throw a fit in front of him, he had another thing coming. I would simply wait until he left. I grabbed my shirt with shaking hands and yanked it on. What in the hell was going on? Why was I so furious at the thought of him with someone else? Not just furious . . . murderous. “It’s probably a good idea. I really don’t think we’re suited anyway. So you should just go get laid by a bunch of Vampyre floozies and I’ll . . . ”

  Faster than I could blink, he was on me. I was flat on my back, trapped under the man I wanted to be trapped under.

  “Astrid, the only Vamp I want to get laid by is you. And I’
m quite sure the only Vamp you want to get laid by is me.”

  “Someone’s a little full of himself,” I snapped.

  He gave me a lopsided grin and my insides melted. Just the sight of him was a punch to my gut and my heart. Crap.

  “This will be fun, Astrid. I look forward to winning you. And make no mistake . . . I will.”

  He leaned in and kissed my very willing, traitorous lips and left. I tried to find my voice, but it was gone. I wanted him to win . . . I think. But he was going to have to work very hard.

  Chapter 19

  Wandering around the art room at the senior center, I tossed out all the clay phalluses and boobs. Didn’t want to scare my potential replacement. The interviews were going to start in thirty minutes. I’d never interviewed anybody in my life. Ready or not, I had to grow up. Why in the hell they wanted me to interview my replacement was beyond me.

  I didn’t want to quit but I had a few new issues . . . Daylight was a problem, although not as much as it was initially. Apparently my body behaved like a five to six hundred year old Vamp. Sunlight sensitivity wears off with age and it was becoming less of an issue for me, even though I’d only been dead for a month. That pissed Venus off to no end. Even with her black skin, she burned like paper in a fire when she was exposed to the sun.

  The main reason I couldn’t teach anymore was time. As an Elite Guard I had to train day and night. Ethan was hell-bent on preparing me for whatever the Chosen One was supposed to do, although no one seemed to know exactly what that was. Turns out, training was for my own safety as well as the safety of everyone around me. Certainly my weapon skills had a long way to go.

  For instance, if you threw a dagger it shouldn’t end up embedded in the head of someone on your team. I was sure Cathy thought I did it on purpose. I solemnly swore on my life that it was an accident. Not a good way to become friendly with someone who already hated me. Thank God we were Vampyres, because a human wouldn’t have lived through that one. Apparently the Chosen One had to know how to do it all. Not that they believed I was the Chosen One. Hell, I wasn’t even completely convinced.