by Lynsay Sands
The meal had arrived by the time they reached the table, but Greg was missing. Before she could ask, Anne explained that he’d gone to the men’s room. She’d barely finished saying so when Greg arrived at the table and took his seat.
“Sorry I took so long,” he excused himself. “There was a bit of a disturbance as I came out of the bathroom. Some guy had gone into the ladies’ room by mistake and a woman was hitting him over the head with her purse yelling ‘Rape.’ It took two waiters and four waitresses to calm her down and get the poor confused guy away from her.”
“Oh?” Lissianna asked weakly. She ate without thinking, enjoying the flavors and textures in her mouth after so long on a liquid diet. However, she still couldn’t eat as much as the others and the amount of food she left behind drew attention and comment from the others along the lines of it was no wonder she was so pale and so on.
The ring of a phone brought an end to the concerned murmurs and everyone fell silent as John pulled a cell phone from his pocket and answered it. He listened for a moment, then began to talk, discussing what was obviously work. Lissianna knew he was an accountant and that it was tax time for a lot of businesses he dealt with. When a child at the next table began to scream, he frowned, and said, “Hang on, Jack, I can’t hear you. I’m taking you outside.”
He stood, paused to kiss his wife on the way by, then moved toward the entrance of the restaurant.
They were all silent for a minute, then Anne suddenly said, “John and I were talking while you were all gone, and he suggested we just drive you home when we leave here, then you don’t have to borrow money, Greg.”
Lissianna was aware of Greg stiffening beside her, and understood his problem at once. They couldn’t go to his apartment, it would certainly be watched, and he couldn’t explain to his sister why he couldn’t go to his place. She reached out under the table to pat his leg soothingly.
“Actually, Greg’s car is at my place,” Lissianna lied smoothly. She’d had two hundred years to perfect the skill, and though she tried not to use it unless absolutely necessary, it had been necessary more often than she cared to think about thanks to who and what she was. “We took the tram downtown.”
“Oh, well where do you live, Lissi? We could drop you both there so Greg can collect his car.”
Lissianna gave Debbie’s address without even hesitating. If Greg couldn’t borrow money, they had nowhere else to go.
Chapter 16
“Thank you, Debbie. I really appreciate this,” Lissianna said sincerely as she followed her to the front door.
“Not a problem, Lissi. I was young once, too.”
Lissianna blinked. She always found it startling when people assumed they were older than she…and, of course, Deb did. She thought Lissianna was twenty-five to her fifty. Little did the woman know she was talking to someone who was more than a century and a half older than herself.
Debbie gave a little laugh. “I do understand. My mother didn’t approve of anyone I dated either. Up to and including my husband, who was a prince among men until the day he died.” She paused at the door and turned back to face Lissianna, her glance shifting to the kitchen doorway where Greg waited. A grin split her lips. “And your Greg seems like a prince too: good-looking, polite and a doctor. Way to go, girl!”
“Well, a psychologist anyway,” Lissianna said with a faint smile, grateful—not for the first time—that Debbie had been home when Greg’s sister had dropped them off.
Debbie had been understandably surprised when Lissianna had shown up on her doorstep with Greg in tow. Lissianna could have controlled her and “made” her let them stay, but hadn’t wanted to. Instead, she’d taken a chance and asked for her help. She hadn’t explained much, just telling Debbie she’d been staying at her mother’s house while her apartment was painted, but they’d had a falling-out and she needed a place to stay for the night. Debbie had taken one look at her tense expression and Greg’s grim one and come to her own conclusions, apparently assuming the falling-out had been over him. Sympathetic, sweet, and a sucker for romance, she’d welcomed them into her home.
“You’re a dark horse, aren’t you?” Debbie said now. “You never mentioned your apartment was being painted, let alone that you were in love.”
“I’m not in love,” Lissianna protested automatically, startled by the woman’s words, but Debbie just chuckled softly.
“Lissi dear, I recognize the way you two look at each other. It’s how my Jim and I used to look at each other.” Her expression turned sad at the thought of her deceased husband, then she shook off the melancholy and smiled. “There is no way you’ll convince me you don’t love the man.”
Lissianna hesitated, she wasn’t prepared to use the love word yet, but did confess, “I do really like him, Deb.”
“But?” Debbie asked. “I hear a but in there.”
“But how do you know if a guy is the right one?” Lissianna asked. “I mean, my mother thought my father was the right one when she married him and ended up miserable for sev—…er…a long time.”
Debbie considered the question, then said, “You once said your mother was very young when your parents were married?”
“Fifteen,” she said with a nod.
“Fifteen!” Debbie squawked. “That’s not young, that’s a crime.”
“My grandmother had to give special permission,” Lissianna lied, silently reminding herself to be more careful in her conversations. Next she’d be blurting that she was a vampire.
Breathing out slowly, Debbie shook her head. “Well, honey, you can’t let your mother’s mistake scare you. She was just a baby when she met and married your father. Good lord, fifteen-year-olds are riding the hormone boat, they can’t make lifelong decisions like who to marry.” Deb shook her head again, then said, “But you’re a little older and you’re very mature for your age. I think you should trust yourself. You can tell whether a man is what he claims to be or not.”
“Yes,” Lissianna agreed, and knew that she had an advantage in that area. Other women had to judge a prospective mate based on what a man might say or his actions in the time before they married. While Lissianna couldn’t normally read Greg’s thoughts, she’d actually been inside his head when she’d bitten him and knew what was what with him. She knew he was a good man.
“Just listen to your head and hear what it says, then place it next to what your heart says and weigh the two. And remember, no one is perfect, including you,” she added, then smiled. “You’ll work it out. And, lucky you, you’ll have my place to yourself until tomorrow morning to do so, since I promised to visit Mom tonight before work. I’ll just head to the shelter rather than waste time stopping in here.”
Lissianna nodded. “I really want to thank you, Deb. I don’t know where we would have gone if you hadn’t—”
“I’m more than happy to help,” Debbie assured her, then announced, “There’s plenty of food in the kitchen, and I think I may even have a bottle of wine somewhere. Help yourself, mi casa es su casa. Now, I’d best head over to Mom’s before she gets impatient and starts calling.”
Debbie gave Lissianna a quick hug and left.
“She seems nice. I like her,” Greg commented, coming up the hall from the kitchen now that their hostess was gone.
“She is nice.” Lissianna locked the door and watched Debbie get into her car. The older woman started the engine, then glanced toward the house, spotted her, and waved. Lissianna waved back and smiled as she told him, “And she liked you, too.”
“I gathered that,” he murmured, as she moved past him into the living room.
“Listening, were you?” Lissianna asked with amusement as she dropped onto the couch. She was exhausted. It was eight o’clock at night, and the only sleep she’d managed since the day before was the short nap in the movie theatre.
“You look wiped out.” Greg settled on the couch beside her.
“I am, but I should call Thomas and find out what’s going on at the house.�
“It can wait,” he assured her. “We’re safe for now.”
“Maybe,” Lissianna allowed. “But we can’t stay here forever. What are we going to do tomorrow?”
“We’ll worry about that tomorrow morning,” he said firmly. “We should be safe until then at least.”
“I’m not sure we are,” she said miserably. “What if Mother goes to the shelter to poke around?”
Greg was silent for a moment, then sighed. “You’re afraid she’ll read Debbie’s mind and know we’re here.”
Lissianna nodded.
“Okay. That could happen, but, Lissianna, you are completely exhausted. I’ve never seen anyone as worn-out as you look right this moment. You need to rest.”
“But—”
Greg raised a hand to silence her, then said, “Debbie won’t be at the shelter for them to read for a couple more hours. So, you can stop worrying and sleep for that long at least.”
Lissianna bit her lip.
“Nothing I’ve said is easing your worries is it?” he asked.
“No,” she admitted apologetically.
“Okay, so just relax for ten minutes then. It’s been a stressful day between the mall and my family.”
“I like your family,” Lissianna said with a smile.
Greg grimaced, but said, “They liked you, too. While you were in the bathroom, both mother and Anne said you seemed like a good one and to snap you up.”
Lissianna’s smile faded. “They wouldn’t say that if they knew what I was, would they.” It wasn’t a question, but Greg treated it as such, his expression turning thoughtful. She waited curiously for his answer.
“I think they would,” he said finally. “If they believed you could make me happy, they would. And I think you could make me happy.”
Lissianna sucked in a breath at those words so solemnly spoken. She was still trying to absorb them and sort out what they might mean when he frowned, and said, “You’re still terribly pale. One donor wasn’t enough, was it?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Lissianna shrugged, uncomfortable with the topic. “There isn’t much I can do about it at the moment anyway,” she pointed out.
Greg caught her chin with one finger and drew her face back to meet his gaze. “Yes, there is,” he said solemnly. “There’s me.”
Lissianna swallowed. He was offering himself to her, and she was tempted by the offer, but…
“No, I shouldn’t—I can’t just…” She paused and shook her head with confusion.
“Yes, you can,” he said firmly, then he pointed out, “It’s not like you haven’t done it before.”
“Yes, but that was different. I didn’t know you then.”
One eyebrow jerked upward on his forehead, and Greg asked with disbelief, “So, it’s okay to go around kissing and biting strangers, but not friends?”
Lissianna frowned. “I don’t usually need to kiss to feed. You were different. I couldn’t get into your thoughts.”
“Fine, I’ll change my question. Why is it you could feed from me when you didn’t know me, but now feel you can’t?”
She shrugged uncomfortably and tried to sort her thoughts out in her own mind so that she could explain them to him. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to bite him—Lissianna had wanted to bite him every minute she’d been near him since that first bite—but he wasn’t just some stranger with a bow around his neck anymore. He was Greg, a man she liked, and enjoyed spending time with, and wanted desperately to keep safe from her mother and uncle.
“Would it help if I told you that I enjoyed it the last time?”
Lissianna glanced up sharply, then swallowed and licked her lips, stilling as Greg reached out to rub one finger lightly across the dampness she’d left behind.
“So?” he asked, his voice deepening and growing husky. “Dare I hope that you’re going to satisfy us both and feed on me?”
Almost afraid to speak, Lissianna answered him by allowing her lips to part and drawing the tip of his finger into her mouth as he had done to her that first night. Her tongue slid forward to rub across the rounded flesh as she suckled him lightly. The sudden glow in his eyes told her it had been a good answer. He tugged his finger free and replaced it with his tongue as his mouth covered hers.
Lissianna welcomed the invasion, her body bursting into flame as if all the hours between their first kiss and this had never happened. Oh yes, she thought faintly as his arms wrapped around her. She wanted to satisfy them both. Then she lost the capacity to think as she became aware of his hand sliding up her stomach toward her breast.
Greg had been strapped down to the bed the last time they’d kissed, leaving him unable to touch her. He wasn’t now. Lissianna gasped as he cupped her breast, then moaned and arched into his touch as he squeezed gently. When he used his thumb and one finger to pluck at her suddenly erect nipple through her blouse, she could only think it was a good thing the man had been tied down to the bed the night of her party. Otherwise, her mother and Thomas might have walked in on something much more than kissing and biting.
Lissianna’s fears and worries about their safety rapidly began to fade as he caressed her. Even her exhaustion seemed to disappear as Greg released her breast and moved his fingers to the buttons of her blouse. She would have told him to just rip it open, but it was difficult to talk around his tongue in her mouth, so Lissianna left him to it and set her own hands to tugging his T-shirt upward. She barely got it halfway up his back before pausing to take the opportunity to run her hands over the flesh she’d revealed.
His back was smooth and wide and hard, it felt good against her fingers and palms, but it soon wasn’t enough and she began tugging at his T-shirt again until she couldn’t pull it any farther up. Before she could become frustrated at her efforts being hampered, Greg broke their kiss and leaned back. Lissianna’s hands fell away and she instead caressed him with her eyes as he grabbed the T-shirt and jerked it over his head.
The man might be a psychologist who sat around in his office all day, but you couldn’t tell that from the muscular chest he had. Lissianna sighed with pleasure and leaned forward to run her hands down the muscular surface as he tossed the T-shirt aside, but it was all the touching he allowed her. Brushing her hands out of the way, he caught her blouse and Lissianna glanced down to see that he’d finished unbuttoning it before stopping. Now he stripped it from her, drawing it down her arms to leave her seated before him in black slacks and a white lace bra.
“Beautiful,” Greg murmured, then his hands reached for the two white cups and clasped her breasts through the bra.
Lissianna inhaled, her back straightening and pushing her breasts forward, as he leaned forward to kiss her again. She let her arms slide around his shoulders as their bodies pressed together. Greg kissed her only once before allowing his mouth to trail to the side, across her cheek to her ear.
She moaned as he nibbled briefly there, then he trailed his teeth and lips down along her neck. Lissianna didn’t realize he was urging her backward until she felt the couch at her back. Greg followed her down, his mouth moving back to hers to kiss her again, distracting her so that she almost missed the soft brush of his fingers sliding her bra strap off one shoulder. She shivered slightly as the cool air brushed against her hot, erect nipple, then he broke their kiss and dipped his head down to her breast.
A sigh of pleasure slipped from her lips, and she scraped her fingers into his dark hair as his mouth closed over her nipple. Lissianna was so excited, her nipples so erect and sensitive that his suckling was almost unbearable, and she groaned and arched beneath him, unconsciously grinding herself against the leg he had between both of hers. Greg responded by shifting so that the hard proof of his excitement took the place of his leg, then he nipped the sensitive nub of her breast, making her groan and grind up against him again. This time he groaned along with her and ground back and Lissianna spread her legs to wrap them around his waist so that she could enjoy it more fully. She dug her heels into his flank, urging him on as he rubbed against her and Greg answered the silent request, grinding against her several more times before he suddenly stopped and tore his mouth from her breast.
“Oh God, Lissi,” he groaned. “We have to slow down.”
“No,” she murmured, trying to pull him back against her. “Please. I need you.”
“Not enough,” he assured her, and silenced any further protest by kissing her.
She felt his hand reach down between them to the button of her slacks and a moment later he had both it and the zipper undone. Lissianna didn’t know what she was expecting next, but it wasn’t for him to break their kiss and stand up, then catch her hand to draw her to her feet beside him.
“What—?” she began uncertainly, then fell silent as he smiled and began to slide her slacks off over her hips. When the cloth dropped below her knees, he knelt to draw them off of each foot as she lifted it.
Lissianna expected him to stand then, but instead, Greg sat back on his haunches and peered up the length of her body. His hot eyes moved over her white lace panties, then up to the white lace bra that presently covered only one breast. His gaze seemed to scorch her skin.
“Take off your bra,” he ordered, his voice husky, and Lissianna hesitated, then reached behind her back to unsnap the bra, then shimmy it off her arms. She dropped it on top of her slacks and stood still, terribly aware that she was nearly naked while he was still wearing his jeans.
Greg devoured her naked breasts with his eyes, then his gaze dropped to her panties again. She expected him to order her to remove those next, but, instead, he suddenly reached out to catch her by the hips and leaned forward to press a kiss to the white lace triangle.
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