Mitch

by Dakota Rebel

  I told him, as politely as I could manage, that I was still looking and walked away to browse the rest of the store. He eventually took the hint and left me alone while I finished shopping.

  I bought the shirt, a plain white button-down in the softest cotton I had ever touched, and a pair of dirt-washed jeans that looked about ten years old. I headed home, swinging through a drive-thru for a bag of food. Reagan was always hungry, and I had to imagine it came with the age. I got enough to feed a small army and brought everything into the apartment.

  The girls dove into the food, taking burgers and fries into the bathroom with them. I was glad to see that the living room was clean. I checked the carpet and didn’t see the bleach spot.

  “Reagan? How did you fix the floor?” I called down the hall. I had no desire to see what they’d done to my bathroom.

  “I used a Sharpie. You can’t even tell, huh?”

  I laughed, no one could say the girl wasn’t inventive. I took my food and clothes into my room. I pulled the shirt out and hung it up, not wanting it to get wrinkled then I balled up the jeans and threw them on the floor so they would. The things we do in the name of fashion.

  I glanced at the clock again, knowing that the girls would want to leave way earlier than necessary. Just because the vampires would all be awake in an hour didn’t mean they wanted us at their house before eight p.m. when the sun went down—not that I would mind spending some time with Jarrod before the party. I wanted to talk to him about Skip. I’d have to come clean with him soon, but I was terrified he would take off and go into hiding. I’d just found him. I wasn’t ready to lose him. I decided I would leave the conversation for a different night. I didn’t want to ruin the party, and it would give me at least one more night to have fun with Jarrod before everything blew up in my face. I hoped so anyway.

  Reagan and Donna seemed to have vacated the bathroom, since I refused to believe they had lowered their voices and it had gotten quieter outside my door. They would be absolutely obnoxious until we left, so I decided to just get ready.

  I dressed then went into the bathroom which was thankfully clear of the girls’ makeup and hair-care products. I shaved, brushed my teeth and swiped some gel through my hair. Ten minutes later, I stood in the living room staring at the living-dead girls in disbelief.

  They were both dressed in black from head-to-toe, which I had expected. What I hadn’t expected was the gothed-out makeup jobs they had done on each other. Their eyes were caked black with eyeliner and mascara, and they might as well have put flour on their faces they were so pale. I really wanted to say something to them, but if they wanted to go to a vampire party dressed like posers…that was their problem not mine.

  I called Jarrod to make sure it was all right if we showed up early.

  “Sweetie, you can come whenever you want to,” he said.

  “Cute. We’ll be there soon.”

  I hung up, rounded up the girls, and we all piled into the car then headed for the warehouse.

  I was less than thrilled to find the warehouse already crowded with people when we arrived. I had assumed people still came to parties late, not early. But maybe the times were changing, and I was behind them.

  The girls took off in search of Skip. I looked around but didn’t see Jarrod downstairs. I was just about to call his cell to see if he was still upstairs when someone grabbed my ass.

  “Nice jeans,” Jarrod whispered against my ear. “They look like they’ll come off real easy.”

  I turned around smiling. “Glad you approve.”

  He took my hand, leading me toward the elevator.

  “Where are we going?” I asked, following him reluctantly.

  “I want you. I’ve been thinking about you for hours, and now that you’re here, I’m going to do horrible things to you.” He turned, pulling me hard against his body and kissing me deeply. He broke away and started walking again.

  “I don’t really want to leave Reagan alone,” I said, but I knew it sounded weak. There were enough people around that she would be safe for an hour if I wasn’t right next to her.

  Jarrod knew it, too. He threw a look over his shoulder and didn’t bother to stop walking again. We got in the elevator, and he pushed the button while I pulled the grate closed. As soon as we were out of the sight of the people downstairs, he threw himself at me.

  The force of him knocked me back against the wall. I wrapped my hands around his back sliding them up under his shirt, trying to touch as much of him as I could while our tongues danced together.

  The elevator lurched to a stop, and I heard the grate slam upward. I looked around Jarrod to see Skip standing in front of us, a half-smile on his face.

  “Shouldn’t you two be downstairs?” he asked. “It’s full dark. The party is about to start.”

  “We’ll be there in a little bit,” Jarrod said, pulling me into the living room. “I’m sure you can handle everyone just fine without me, Skip.”

  I had obviously just walked into something I wanted nothing to do with but that might have had everything to do with me. Skip shot me a glare as the elevator started its descent toward the party below.

  “Look, I don’t want to cause any problems for you two,” I said, backing away from Jarrod. “If he doesn’t want me up here, maybe we should just go back to the party.”

  “He’s just being a child. Don’t worry about him. I live here, too,” Jarrod waved his hand in the air as if Skip were something harmless that didn’t even matter to him. “Come on, let me show you the view.”

  He led me through the apartment to a large studio in the back of the building. Instruments and computers laid everywhere. He ignored them all, walking to a huge curtain that lined the entire back wall.

  With a flourish, he pulled open the drape, revealing a floor to ceiling window that overlooked the skyline of Detroit. From far away, the city is gorgeous, especially at night with the buildings lit up. The window afforded a fantastic view of it. I was so taken with it that I didn’t notice there was a door off to the side that led onto a balcony until Jarrod pulled me outside into the cool night air.

  We walked to the railing, looking down into the backyard. There was a dense forest of trees below that kept the back of the building completely private. I smelled the fragrant pines as the wind gently blew over us.

  Jarrod was smiling at me when I looked back at him.

  “What?” I asked.

  “The look on your face,” he said, touching my cheek. “I just knew you’d love it back here. I had all of this custom built. The window, the trees, the balcony. When I bought this place, Skip hated it—and it was pretty terrible—but I saw beauty in it. Skip never sees beauty in anything. To him, the whole world is ugly and harsh, so he feels it’s all right when he acts that way, too.” Jarrod stared past me at the trees. He seemed lost for a moment. Before I could reach out to comfort him, he turned back to look at me with his boyish grin in place.

  “But you, my love, you get this. You get me. And tonight, I want to fuck you out here.”

  “Is that so?” I pulled him back against me, fingers hooked through the loops of his jeans. “What makes you think I would agree to such things? I’m very shy, you know. What if someone catches us?”

  “Would you feel better,” he moved closer, nipping my ear lightly with his teeth, “if I pay someone to stand outside the door and make sure we aren’t disturbed? I seem to remember you like such things just fine.”

  I smiled as he sucked my earlobe into his mouth. The sensation of his tongue licking across my ear made my arms break out in goose bumps. He nudged my knees further apart, inserting his leg between them and grinding his hip against my crotch.

  He moved his face so he could kiss me again. I let go of his jeans, moving both hands up to run my fingers through his hair. One of his hands held the back of my neck while he used the other to unbutton my jeans. He yanked open the zipper so he could rub me to complete hardness. His grip on my cock wasn’t hard, but it was firm
enough to draw a small sound from me that was lost in his mouth.

  “Turn around,” he said, backing away from me.

  I turned and gripped the balcony railing. He wrapped his arms around me, his fingers undoing the buttons of my shirt. When it was completely open, his hands wandered over my chest, squeezing my nipples and massaging my abs. I leaned my head back, giving him access to my neck.

  He didn’t ask this time, just plunged his fangs into me while holding me completely still in his tight embrace. I let out a low hiss at the first twinge of the skin breaking, but the pain was short-lived. I felt his cock getting hard against my ass, and that did even more to distract me from the sensation of him drinking my blood.

  He licked one last time across the wounds before kissing his way to my ear then down the back of my neck. He slid off my shirt, kissing every inch of exposed skin on my back until the shirt hit the balcony floor. He reached his hands around my waist, repeating his slow descent over my body as my jeans went, too. I kicked off my shoes and stepped out of my pants while facing the woods. I hated not being able to see his face but loved the feel of his mouth on the back of my legs.

  He licked his way up my body again, hands sliding up the front of me as he returned to nuzzle my neck. I turned my head, wanting him to really kiss me, but he turned me back the other way. My nails dug into the wood railing with every touch of his mouth on my body. I wanted him so bad my cock ached with the need of it, but he was intent on torturing me.

  He didn’t talk to me, just moved me around with firm movements of his hands. He backed me up so that I leaned forward slightly, my bare ass in the air waiting for him to decide what to do to me next.

  Chapter Eleven

  I jumped at the sensation of Jarrod’s tongue probing at my asshole. I hadn’t been rimmed in a long time, and I’d forgotten how odd the feeling could be at first. He reached between my legs to fondle my balls while he softly licked at my opening. His mouth was so wet and warm against me I relaxed into him quickly.

  His other hand replaced his tongue, sliding two fingers into my saliva-slicked hole. The hand on my balls squeezed gently in time to his light thumping against my prostate until I feared I would come before he got to fuck me.

  “Please, Jarrod,” I whispered.

  “Please what?” he asked, his voice full of amusement.

  “Please fuck me. I want to feel you inside me right now. If you keep doing that, I am going to come all over myself.”

  “Do you like it?” His fingers pressed against that sweet spot in my ass again. “Are you sure you want me to stop?”

  I never wanted him to stop. I wanted him to touch me like that forever. But I wanted him so badly.

  “I want to come with your cock inside me. Please?” I hoped that little word would have the same effect on him that it had on me whenever I heard it from the people I love.

  His hands moved away from me, and I shivered as he ran a corner of a condom wrapper down my back, the foil tickling and scratching at the same time. I heard him spit in his hand, lubing up the condom more before he pressed against the tight ring of muscles his fingers had just loosened.

  His hand went to my shoulder, gripping me tightly as he slid inch by amazing inch inside me. When his body was pressed fully against me, he stopped, letting me adjust to the size of him inside me. I had known he was big already, but being stretched wide around him made me wonder if I’d really paid attention before now. My fingers curled back into the wood, and I felt my nails leaving half-moon marks in it.

  He pulled out, and the feeling of his cock sliding over my prostate made me moan aloud. He moved faster, my muscles resisting less and less against his shaft as he did. Within minutes, he was slamming into me so hard my elbows bumped into the railing and I fought not to scream for him.

  The head of his cock slid over and over my sweet spot until I finally cried out, yelling his name as I came. But he kept going, his fingers digging into my hips so hard I thought I might have the same marks in my flesh that I’d just left in his railing. His face fell against my shoulder, kissing my skin while he pounded into my ass.

  “Can I?” he asked, his voice strained.

  “Yes.” It came out hoarse as my breath was still a little shaky, but he heard me. His fangs crashed into my shoulder, not at all gentle, just fast and hard and a little more painful than the other times he had done it.

  I felt blood trickling down my skin, but I didn’t care. I reached my hand behind his head, fingers running through his hair as he drank from me. His rhythm faltered, and he cried out against me as he filled the condom in my ass with his seed.

  He licked my shoulder clean as he slid out of me with a soft hiss. I turned around, kissing him and licking a stray drop of my blood from his cheek. I realized that he was still almost completely dressed.

  “Were you in a hurry?” I asked, laughing.

  “I really have been thinking about fucking you all day. I didn’t want to waste any time,” he said, pulling his pants back up and buttoning them.

  “Then why did you get me naked?” I asked. I had also gotten my jeans back in place and was looking for my shirt.

  He handed it to me, making me kiss him before he would let go of it.

  “Because you’re gorgeous, and I wanted to be able to touch all of your skin.”

  As the shirt slid over my shoulders, I winced at the tightness where he’d bitten me. I looked as best I could and was relieved there didn’t seem to be any blood on the shirt.

  “You might be a little crazy,” I said with a small laugh. “You know that, right?”

  “Crazy about you maybe.” He smiled, kissing me. “We should probably get downstairs, huh?”

  I blew out a sigh and nodded. He was right, but I would have preferred to spend the rest of the evening alone with him. I could think of many things I’d like to do with him, and none of them involved hanging out at a party with my sister, her friends and a bunch of vampires.

  We heard that the party was in full swing before the elevator had finished its descent to the warehouse. The music was loud, and the steady hum of voices travelled far up the elevator shaft. When we finally stepped out to the floor, Jarrod was mobbed by people.

  He smiled and shook hands as he pushed through them. I couldn’t tell if he actually knew them or if they were just fans because he had taken on an air of polite aloofness I hadn’t seen from him. I hadn’t realized I would be seeing “rock star Jarrod Axlerod” work the room. In fact, I’d sort of forgotten that he was in a band at all. When it was just us, he was so normal. It was easy to let his fame get clouded from memory.

  Watching him greet people and sign autographs, I knew I would never forget it again. This was what he did, who he was, and it wasn’t fair to him not to acknowledge it. He had worked hard to become this person, and if I loved him, I had to accept all of him. I never would have believed it would be easier to accept that he was a vampire than to accept that he was a rock star. Every day with him taught me something new about myself. But then, I suppose that’s what a real relationship is.

  I excused myself from him and his…friends and went to find Reagan. I was pretty sure that with so many people at the party she would be safe, but I also knew she was unlikely to leave Skip’s side. So of course, when I found her, she was attached to him.

  Their hands were intertwined, and they sat in the back of the room, heads together, talking. I thought about leaving them alone since he was obviously not hurting her at the moment, but he caught sight of me and called me over to them.

  “Mitch, are you enjoying the party? Or did you just show up?” His voice was even, almost pleasant, but his eyes showed that he was pissed at me.

  “Jarrod showed me the view from your studio. Very impressive, Skip. I wouldn’t have pegged you as someone who cares much for beauty.”

  “How wrong you are,” he said, turning to kiss Reagan. “I’m very fond of beautiful things. In fact, I prefer to surround myself with beauty. That’s why I have
Jarrod and Reagan.”

  I wanted to argue that he had neither. That he was only sitting near my sister because I was allowing it for the moment, but it was her party and Jarrod’s home. It wouldn’t do to fight with Skip. Not to mention, I was completely outnumbered if it came to a fight. I had to believe the hundred or so people in the room would be on Skip’s side.

  “Reagan, where’s Donna?”

  She looked around with wide eyes, as if she had been so caught up in Skip she had forgotten that her friend was also at the party. She tried to stand, but Skip held her back with a hand on her shoulder.

  “Don’t worry, babe. I’m sure Mitch would love to go find your friend, wouldn’t you, Mitch?”

  I shot Reagan a dirty look then went to find Donna. I could only hope she was safe, too. I never should have brought the girls to the party. I had tried to convince myself that they would have gone regardless of my feelings about it, but I had to wonder now if that was true. Maybe if I had explained the danger to them, scared them enough, they might have stayed home and watched television instead.

  I found Donna surrounded by a group of boys on the other side of the room from Reagan and Skip. She was laughing and flirting and seemed to be having a good time. A quick glance through the guys around her told me that none of them seemed to be vampires. I gave her a quick wave, which caused her to come running over to me. She threw her arms around my waist and kissed me gently on the lips.

  “Oh Mitch, I’m having the best time. Thank you so much for bringing me. You’re not going to make us go now, are you? Please hang out.” She didn’t seem drunk, but I’d rarely seen her so animated. I unlatched her from my waist and smiled.