by Jessica Sims
And if he was right that vampires liked to kiss, I did need to brush up.
“All right,” I said, suddenly feeling shy. I closed my eyes and waited.
Josh rumbled a laugh, and I felt it all through my chest. His other hand stole to my nape. “You don’t want to watch my technique?”
Oh. Oops. I opened my eyes just as his mouth brushed lightly against mine.
All rational thought vanished. I stared at him, dumbfounded, as he closed his eyes and his lips played over mine. Oh, that was . . . erotic. I gasped against his mouth, feeling desire surge through my body. I watched, fascinated, as he tilted his mouth ever so slightly against mine and his tongue stroked between my lips, demanding entrance.
And then my eyes closed and I fell into the kiss, wrapped up in the sensation of his soft lips against mine, the harsh rasp of stubble against my cheek, the warm, solid thrust of his tongue that moved in a slow, delicious rhythm that made my pulse pound. His tongue slid against mine, coaxing and rubbing, before stroking deep again. Possessive and sweet and playful all at once. As if he had all the time in the world to kiss me.
His hand slid to my ass and he pulled me tighter against him.
I yelped and pushed at his chest, not sure where to look. Anywhere but at him. I pried his hand off my ass and slid away down the couch.
“Thanks, I think,” I said softly. My mouth felt swollen and slick.
“You were right,” he said. “Your technique needs some work.”
I gaped at him. “I can’t believe you just said that!”
A hint of a teasing smile played at his mouth and my gaze locked there, fascinated by his lips. I felt the absurd urge to lean down and lick them.
“We should probably practice more, until you’re comfortable with it,” those gorgeous lips said.
Then the reality of what he was saying sank in, and I grabbed a throw pillow and smacked him with it. “You just did that to kiss me!”
“Hey,” he said, raising his hands to ward off my blow, a grin on his face. “You were the one crawling into my lap.”
“Good night,” I said pointedly.
“Suit yourself,” he said, rising from the couch. At the door, he turned back to face me. “Just call me if you need me. I’m off for the next four days, then I’m on for the next eight. We can work on prepping you for your first date with a vampire, if you like. And we can practice more.”
I shut the door in his face.
And then I leaned against it, ignoring his chuckle from the other side, and touched my mouth with wondering fingers. That kiss . . .
If I could have fallen asleep, I’d have dreamed about a kiss like that. To think that it had come from him, the man who was supposed to have been helping me prepare for snagging a vampire. The man who had repeatedly offered a one-night stand. No strings attached, because strings weren’t allowed between human and Alliance. I had scoffed at the offer every time. Sleep with Josh, just for the sheer pleasure of it?
Before that kiss, I’d have never entertained such a thought.
Yet now it was all I could think about. One night. In Josh’s arms. Kissing. Making love.
Part of me wondered if I should seize the opportunity while I could.
• • •
I was still thinking about that kiss when I went in to work on Monday night. Maybe I could get Josh to turn me?
Beau would be furious, but he couldn’t stay mad at his brother, and Josh seemed to like spending time with me. He wouldn’t have to marry me, after all; just change me. Enough to give me a second lease on life.
“Bad news,” Sara said as I entered the office. Her face looked drawn and unhappy.
My heart clenched. “What kind of bad news?”
“Remember that were-tiger who changed the human girl? It just got worse.”
“What happened?”
“Johnny decided he wasn’t in love after all. Dumped her. So much for true love, huh?”
My jaw dropped. “They broke up?”
“Oh, it gets even worse,” Sara said bitterly. “She wanted to leave and go home. Naturally, the clan wouldn’t let her. One of the males challenged another for her. It started a fight, and then the next thing we know, both males are hospitalized and the entire tiger clan is furious. The other clans are freaking out, the girl is freaking out, and Johnny just wants to run away. Vic’s about to lose his shit. The other clans are flat-out refusing to have anything to do with the Alliance until those two are exiled and made an example of. Beau’s putting them on a plane to Greenland this morning.”
“Greenland?” I sat down heavily.
“Yeah,” she said unhappily. “Some town just south of the Arctic Circle line, until things get ironed out. I don’t know that things will, though. People are really furious.” She swiped a finger under her eye, and I realized she was crying. “Poor girl.”
I said nothing. I knew Sara had been turned against her will, and it had worked out for her . . . eventually. She’d apparently had a very stressful time of it for years and years. And the wolf pack was to blame for a lot of it.
My thoughts automatically went to Sara’s wolf side. Maybe I could find a wolf to turn me . . .
And then I thought about Sara’s predicament and scratched that idea. A wolf pack wasn’t about to turn me and then let me waltz away. They’d lay claims, and from the stories Ryder had told me, several of them liked to lay claim at once. No, thank you.
“Everyone’s going nuts about all the changes,” she said sadly. “First my coming out as a human-turned-werewolf, which got the packs all riled up, and now this girl being turned into a cat. I feel sorry for the next guy that tries to turn a girl, because he’s going to have a lynch mob after him.”
I swallowed, thinking of Josh’s kiss. “What do you mean?”
“If a human so much as breathes in a supernatural’s direction now, every single alpha in the state of Texas is going to flip his lid and come gunning for them. No one wants to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.” Sara shook her head. “Some supes give me dirty looks at meetings. I can only imagine what that poor tiger girl is going through. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next person who turns a human ends up a smear on the pavement.”
Smear on the pavement? I thought of Josh’s laughing eyes. Those long lashes. That warm smile.
Guess I was back to vampires.
Sigh.
• • •
We were sitting on my couch, going over some of the vampire notes before my next date, when Josh looked over at me. “We should practice your kissing again.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Your kissing,” Josh enunciated, as if I’d been deaf and not just surprised by his words. “I said it needed work and that I’d help you, remember?”
I gave him a wary look. If it had been anyone else, I’d have thought he was doing it to mess with me. That he was feeding me the world’s corniest line because he wanted to kiss me and thought this would be an easy way to get what he wanted.
Except that this was Josh Russell who was offering. The playboy of the Paranormal Alliance. A man who could get any woman he wanted—and did, quite frequently. He had no need to play flirty little games with someone like me.
So it had to be legit.
I dug my nails into my palms to fight the blush that threatened to reveal how unsettled I was by his offer. When we’d kissed before, it had shaken me to my core and had made me want things that I wasn’t supposed to want. Things that weren’t part of my ironclad plans.
But now my entire body clenched with how much I wanted that. Flustered, I slid a bit closer to him on the couch. “You really think practice is necessary?”
“Absolutely.” His gaze was totally confident and relaxed. “For one, I think you should work on your expressions.”
“What’s wrong with them?”
“Vampires are predators, right? So you need to think like prey. The last time I kissed you, your reaction wasn’t very pleasing to the male ego.”
“It could be because I was kissing you,” I said, my light tone taking the bite out of my words.
“Ouch. I’m wounded, Marie.” He clutched a hand to his chest in mock injury, then moved a fraction closer to me. “I’m serious. After a guy kisses you, you need to go all soft and sweet in his arms. He’ll think he’s turned you into a pile of mush, and that’ll please his ego. Especially a vampire’s, since they seem to have bigger ones than most. Stroke it a little and you’ll be sitting pretty.”
My mouth quirked in amusement at the thought of faking softness after someone kissed me. Exactly how did one pretend to be soft? Picture marshmallows and let my posture slump? Poke my lips out in some sexy version of the duck face? What?
While I contemplated this, Josh moved his hands to my hips and tugged me forward. Suddenly I was pulled against his larger form. My hands automatically went up defensively, and I ended up resting my palms on his chest. His nice, firm chest.
I resisted the urge to flex my fingers against it.
Josh’s face leaned in close to mine, and I could smell his breath, minty and sweet. He tilted his head slightly, as if moving in to kiss me.
My entire body tensed, waiting for the brush of his lips on mine, and I closed my eyes.
Nothing happened.
I opened them again.
He was giving me that same expectant look. “Kiss me, Marie.”
“Why should I kiss you? I’m the one that has to be all melted at the thought of your lips touching mine.”
“Soft. Not melted.” He grinned at my grumpiness. “And if you kiss me, I’ll show you what I mean, and then you can try it yourself.”
“This feels like a scam,” I muttered in protest, but I leaned in obediently and lightly brushed my lips over his closed mouth. Then I pulled back and watched him expectantly.
He laughed in my face.
I scowled. “What’s so funny?”
“You think that was a real kiss?”
“We’re pretending here, remember?”
He shook his head. “I’m almost offended at how bad that kiss was. Clearly we need to practice more than just your reaction.” Josh turned to face me fully. “Here, let me show you how to do it.” When I didn’t move, he added, “Relax.”
I gave a deliberate full-body wiggle and rolled my neck to show him that I was relaxed. “Hit me with it.”
I shouldn’t have been startled when his hand moved forward to lightly cup my neck. I mean, I was staring right at him, watching him lean in, his eyes so heavily lidded that they looked closed, his mouth angling for mine. But the brush of his fingers against my nape sent shivers down my spine and pleasure cascading through my body.
One thing was for sure—I loved Josh’s touch.
And then in the next moment, his lips were on mine. Soft, gentle, ever so slightly gliding over my own. Prickles of awareness rushed through me, setting all my nerve endings alight with sensation. He tilted his head just a little and the delicate brush of his lips over mine changed, adding just a hint of pressure. It felt almost as if he’d been touching me all over my body, and my nipples grew hard.
This felt . . . dangerous. I had this crazy attraction to Josh that I couldn’t afford to nurture, and kissing—this soft, caressing tease of a lesson—was exactly what I didn’t need in my life right now.
I parted my lips to protest—and his tongue slid into my mouth.
I moaned, unable to help myself. His lips had parted, changed the intensity of the kiss, and the hand on the back of my neck was more urgent. He’d pulled me against him at some point and I’d gone willingly, my nipples brushing against his hard chest as his tongue dove into my mouth over and over with a sweet, hypnotic pattern of strokes that made heat curl deep inside me. I was lost in that kiss, in the power of his mouth slanting over mine.
His tongue stroked against mine, encouraging my responses, and I whimpered against his mouth, my fingers curling in his shirt to anchor him to me. Again, his tongue licked against my own, and my body wanted to follow that delicious movement. It made my mind go to deep, dark, dangerous places—like the thought of that wonderful tongue flicking my nipples into stiff little peaks. Or between my legs—
Josh pulled away, breaking the kiss and my erotic daydreams.
My eyes opened—when had I closed them?—and I stared at him in fuzzy confusion. Why had he stopped? I wanted to ask, but the only syllable that fell out of my mouth was a soft “Whuh?”
His thumb stroked over the wet lower curve of my lip. “Like that,” he said in a soft, husky voice. “Just like that, sweet Marie.”
“Just like what?”
“You.” He leaned in and pressed another feather-light, openmouthed kiss on my parted lips. “Soft. Gorgeous. Full of need. When someone kisses you, that’s how you need to look back at him. Like he could pull you into his lap and make you his in the next moment.”
I pulled away from Josh slowly—and a bit reluctantly. His words were destroying the delicious, erotic fog over my thoughts. I didn’t want to kiss someone else. I wanted more of Josh, his expert tongue and amazing lips. His hard body pressing me onto the couch and covering me.
I certainly didn’t want to think about kissing vampires at the moment. “So . . . that was good?”
“Pretty good,” he said, and there was a husky note in his voice. His gaze seemed to go back to my mouth once more. “Did you want to practice again?”
“Can we?” Oh man, my voice sounded so breathy.
“Of course.” He tugged at the curls on my nape and tilted my head back just a little.
I barely managed to swallow the gasp building in my throat before his mouth descended on mine again. He kissed the hell out of me—thoroughly, thoroughly kissed—and his tongue swept into my mouth again, driving all rational thought out of my head. There was only Josh and that powerful, endless kiss.
By the time he pulled away again, my thoughts were mush. My lips felt full and a little tender from his kiss, and my nipples—and my sex—ached with need. He could have definitely tossed me down on the couch and had his way with me.
As if sensing what I was thinking, he leaned in once more. I parted my lips in anticipation of his kiss—
And wasn’t prepared for the sensual slicking of his tongue over my parted lips in a blatant move that left me breathless.
“That’s how you kiss someone, Marie,” he said in a husky voice as he broke the kiss and retreated back to his end of the couch. “Did you take notes?”
“Buh?” I asked, still all foggy with need and incredibly eloquent.
“You’re getting better with your reactions,” he said casually, as if we’d just been describing the weather. “Just let me know if you need more practice.”
“More practice?” I echoed, and then reality crashed over me.
That’s all this was, of course. Just practice. I pulled away from Josh and scooted back on the couch, giving myself space. “I’m good for now.”
“Suit yourself,” he said casually.
But he licked his lips, as if savoring my taste, and it sent another pulse of heat through my body.
• • •
“You ready for this?” Josh said, fixing the neck of my sweaterdress so it hung over one shoulder, exposing my neck, collarbones, and my upper arm.
I batted his hand away. “I will be just as soon as you leave, Henry Higgins.”
“Who?” he asked.
“Never mind. Just go. Please,” I said urgently, eyeing the empty table that I was supposed to be sitting at. Josh had been hovering behind a shield of plants at a two-seater table in another section and had come over to let me know that he was there. It seemed that my “coach” wanted to supervise my date. He said it was to give me pointers. I was starting to think it was because he wanted to keep an eye on me.
From what I could tell, Josh didn’t trust vampires. And the more I found out about them, the less I liked. They were secretive and apparently untrustworthy. No one in the Alliance liked the
m much, and they didn’t even seem to like other vampires much. Vampires were loners. Suspicious loners. It seemed to be a rather cutthroat community compared to the supernatural clans, which were more like a big family.
But I wasn’t a girl with a lot of choices. I had vampires, or I had nothing. So I picked vampires.
Josh nodded in approval. “You look stunning tonight, Marie.”
I was surprised by that compliment. “Really?”
“I want to lick you all over. But I’ll leave that for your date.”
I felt my cheeks heat. “Gee, thanks. I’m going to go sit down now.”
He winked at me and grinned.
When I turned to leave, he swatted me on the ass.
The man was impossible, I thought as I went back to my table. It was going to be hard to concentrate on my date with a massive were-cougar male hovering nearby.
Lonnie Smith showed up a short time later. He didn’t look several hundred years old, which his bio had listed. I’d never met him in person; whereas most supes liked to come in to the agency themselves, vampires were a reclusive lot and didn’t venture out unless they had to. Getting one to show up for a date was a trick in itself.
He wore a black turtleneck with several gold chains looped around his neck and a black leather coat over it. His black hair was slicked back, and he looked like something from a bad ’70s movie. Maybe vampires had a hard time keeping up with fashion.
I extended my hand for him to shake and gave him a quick smile of greeting. “Lonnie? Hi, I’m Minnie.”
“Minnie, my angel,” he said in a low, rumbling voice. He clasped my hand in his and held it tight. “You look more beautiful than in your picture. I am very pleased.”
Though he held my hand a bit longer than was comfortable, I resisted the urge to pull it away. “Thank you. I’m glad you’re pleased.”
“Oh, very,” he said, still holding on to my hand and sitting down in the chair next to mine.
I had no choice but to sit down as well. So he was a little touchy-feely. I could deal with that, I guessed. After all, being turned had to involve a certain level of intimacy, didn’t it?
