He turned to the bed where Anna lay in an uncomfortable heap. He adjusted her limbs and pulled her into a more comfortable position. Brushing the hair away from her face, he exhaled and whispered, “I cannot abide other men touching you, ainsicht. Ever.”
* * * *
Annalise rolled her hips into him, his weight pressing her deliciously into the ground. As his mouth moved down her throat, she felt his deft fingers undo the front of her dress. The cool evening air caressed her skin, setting her nipples in two twin peaks. His warm mouth moved down her body, anointing each breast with a soft kiss. Her fingers sifted through his dark hair as his arousal pressed firmly into the cradle of her hips. Dark hair, not blond.
“Wait,” she breathed as her body argued with her request.
“I cannot wait.” His mouth settled over one hard nipple and pulled as if calling a million nerve endings to its surface with his tongue. She moaned, and the heavy material of her long dress glided over her knee. Dress?
“Where are we?”
“Home, ainsicht.” His palm coasted up her thighs and she reflexively eased open for him. His fingers pressed against her naked moist folds, and he growled, his mouth traveling to her other breast. “I need you now, my love.” Love?
Annalise’s eyes flew open on a gasp. She was not in a field, but a dark room she did not recognize. Her already fast-beating heart doubled its pace as she looked around, cataloguing the unfamiliar items, closed heavy drapes, a table, a lamp, a television, a bureau, Adam. Startled, she frantically climbed out of the bed, her limbs twisting in the bedding and tripping up her movements. She landed with a grunt in an indelicate heap on the floor. Holy Christ she was naked.
“Anna?”
She yanked a pillow off the bed and covered herself. “How did I get here?” Her voice sounded disgustingly shrill even to her own ears.
“I brought you here last evening.” Adam did not look concerned. He stood and walked into what she assumed was a bathroom. The No Smoking plaque on the door told her she was most likely in a hotel room. She looked to the nightstand and saw a business-type telephone next to a room service menu. Yes, a hotel. Adam returned and handed her a terrycloth robe.
“Where are my clothes?”
“I hung them up.”
She shook her head at the absurdity of her predicament. “What do you mean you brought me here? When? Last I saw you I was saying good-bye over coffee.” Was that a dream? Was she dreaming now? She seriously needed to talk to a doctor. She remembered work. That was real. Then she’d danced with Adam. Was that real or was she dreaming while recollections of a former dream permeated her new dream and this was all one big dream crashing together? Wait, what? She shook her head. “Did we have coffee last night?”
He frowned. “Yes, at an establishment a few blocks from your place of work.”
“And then I left, right?” She really did not like depending on a would-be kidnapper for answers.
“That’s correct.”
She eyed the carpet and remembered one of her professors lecturing about body fluids in hotel rooms. Suddenly completely grossed out, she stood. She tossed the pillow at Adam hoping to distract him long enough to cover her nakedness with the robe, but he caught it surprisingly fast as if he expected her to throw it. She tugged the robe awkwardly around her shoulder and turned so she could feed her arms through the sleeves and knot the tie. Turning back around she suddenly realized Adam was without his shirt. “Oh God.”
She turned back around, unable to look at him, not wanting to be distracted by the way the muscles of his chest tapered beautifully into tight, rigid abs, or the way his flat nipples were perfectly dark against his smooth olive skin. Farming must really put a guy through the paces. Maybe she should visit Dutch Country more often, hit up a B&B or something. She shook her head in an attempt to dispel her thoughts. “Can you put on a shirt?”
“Of course. My apologies.”
She heard the sound of a hanger swinging in the closet and watched him out of the corner of her eye. God, he was ripped. As if he could hear her thoughts, the corner of his mouth seemed to kick up in a slight smirk. And was that a blush staining his strong cheekbones? Why did he have to be so attractive? She groused and turned. “Shouldn’t you have a beard and mustache or something?”
“Amish are forbidden to wear mustaches. Most adult Amish men wear beards, but our sect does not.”
“Oh. It doesn’t matter anyway. How did I get here? And don’t lie to me.”
“I do not lie, Anna. I told you, I brought you here.”
“When?”
“Last night after your friend came to visit you.”
“My friend? Oh, my God, Kyle! Where is Kyle?”
“I imagine he is home sleeping soundly in his bed.”
“You were in my apartment! You followed me!”
“I only followed you to make sure you were safe.”
“Then you decided to kidnap me just to be absolutely sure?”
“I did not kidnap you. You were unconscious. I did not want to leave you there alone, and it was almost morning.”
“What does that have to do with anything? And sorry to disappoint you, but I have been asleep and alone in my apartment since I was nineteen. I can manage fine on my own. Wait…” She frowned as images from the previous evening came back to her. “Why was I unconscious?”
“You fell asleep.”
“No, I was asleep, then Kyle woke me up, then you burst in and …Oh my effin God, what did you do to me?”
“I did nothing to harm you.”
“Do. Not. Lie. To. Me.”
“I am not lying. I did nothing that would cause you harm.”
“You made me sleep. Did you slip something in my coffee?”
“No.”
“Then what?” More outraged than afraid, Annalise stepped up to him and pushed him in the chest. He stepped back, not from the force of her push, but as if in shock. His hand went to the spot she shoved him.
“We do not hit, Anna.”
“We? There is no we, Adam. And sorry to disappoint, but when I am drugged and kidnapped, I hit.” She enunciated her last word with another example. Before her palms touched him, he caught her wrists in a gentle but unbreakable grip.
“No!” he said with the quiet sternness a parent uses with an undisciplined child. She didn’t like that, so she kicked him in the shin and he grunted. The next thing she knew she was being pressed back against the wall, her wrists still trapped in his hands and his thigh now wedged between her legs. She struggled to get free, but he was freakishly strong, even for his size. He didn’t seem to be expending any energy at all from retaining her. “Anna, ruich. Be still.”
Her movements stilled the moment the command left his mouth. She felt a lolling calm wash over her, and her vision blurred as she stared up at him dreamily. His grip loosened, yet he kept her pressed against the wall. He released her and moved his palms to the wall just beside her head. He had her efficiently caged in.
“Good girl.” She wondered if he was like a horse whisperer or something on his farm. She could imagine him breaking even the most determined animal with that voice. She suddenly felt punch-drunk and slightly aroused. Adam released a slow, gravelly purr and pressed his hips firmly into hers. Yup, he was aroused too, and boy did it feel nice. Wait, what?
Annalise blinked several times as if coming out from under a trance. “What did you just do to me?”
“You were behaving violently. That is unacceptable.”
“Unacceptable? You have some nerve. You know what? No wait, it doesn’t matter. I want you to let me go and I want to leave. I don’t know how you do things on the farm, but here in the suburbs you can’t just get all caveman on a girl and expect her to twitter and submit. Where are my clothes?”
“You are aroused.”
“I want to get dressed. Wait, huh?” Where did this guy come from?
“You are aroused. I can feel it and scent it.”
“That’s dis
gusting. Adam, I want my—”
“Not disgusting, natural. You want me, and I want you.”
“Uh, how ’bout no?”
“You lie to me?”
She tried for her cockiest expression. “I think you’re lying to yourself. Hey! What? What are you doing?”
Her robe was suddenly undone and his hand had snaked between her thighs. She tried to press her legs together, but his leg was still in between hers. His finger came in contact with her wetness, and suddenly, as if she were getting a medical exam, he pressed a finger inside of her. She grunted at the intrusion, and then it was gone. “You lied,” he repeated.
Beyond shaken, she simply breathed in several fast breaths and stared at him. Okay, maybe it was time to get a little frightened. Guys didn’t just do that. There were laws against harassment. However, if she was being honest with herself, she would admit she was currently feeling more aroused than harassed, but who needed honesty? She should be indignant over such domineering behavior from some guy she hardly knew.
She looked up into his face. He was staring down at her bared breasts, and his eyes suddenly seemed unnaturally silver. She cursed herself as her nipples hardened under his intense gaze. Her breathing quickened as his hand slowly rose. His knuckle traced the outer swell of her breast.
“Schmecklich,” he whispered, his warm breath teasing over her naked flesh.
“Wh—what does that mean?”
“Luscious. Your body is beautiful beyond measure.”
He lifted her breast, and his thumb moved back and forth over her nipple. “Adam?”
“Yes, Anna?”
“Did you hurt Kyle?”
His movement stilled, and his eyes suddenly focused on hers. She tried not to cower under the severity of his stare. “He was touching you. If I had hurt him he would have deserved it, but no, I did not harm the man.”
“He…Kyle is my boyfriend. He’s allowed to touch me.”
“No, Anna.” The words left his mouth with such certainty it was as if he was arguing the sum of a simple math problem.
“Uh, actually, yes, Adam.”
His fingers came to her face and gently tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. He did not release the strand until his fingertips followed it all the way to the end. “You are incorrect. He is no longer your boyfriend. I will allow him to be your friend but nothing more. There will be no more touching or late-night visits.”
“Um…” She literally did not know what to say to that, so she laughed. This was just absurd. “Okay, Adam, that’s not how it works. I know you had some dream about me, and I may have dreamt about you a time or two, but that doesn’t give you a right to choose my life or who’s in it.”
“There are a lot of things you do not understand, ainsicht.”
“Okay, there’s more of that talk. What does that word, ainsicht, even mean?”
“It means ‘my only one.’”
“Okay,” she said dragging out the word. “Look, I’m sure you’re a nice guy. You seem to have no problems financially, and you’re not hard on the eyes, but wouldn’t you rather find some nice little Amish girl to be your ainsicht? Maybe some girl with a nice buggy whose family could offer you a few goats for her dowry or something?”
“No.”
“Well, even still, you’re going to have to consider that, because this…” she motioned between their bodies. “Is not happening.”
“Yes, Anna, it is.”
Okay, how much longer was this supposed to last before she started really getting nasty? “Adam, I do not want to be your ainsicht or whatever. I am not Amish. I don’t even go to church. I am studying to be a medical assistant and work in a bar serving a bunch of grabby, politically incorrect men.” He growled, but she pressed on. “I am not really sure why you’re here, but if it’s for me, you made your trip for nothing.”
“Ganoonk!” he barked. “I will hear no more of these silly objections. I am telling you that you are the one. There will be no more Kyle or any other men who think they can touch or grab you. You are mine.”
“I want to talk to the police.”
“Hush. Do not interrupt me. I will protect you. I will give you as much time as I possibly can, but I will not allow you to be groped by other males. I will retrieve your books and any other items you wish for, but until we make further arrangements you are not leaving my side.”
“Adam, I have a job. I have classes I need to be at, exams I need to take in order to graduate.”
“None of that is relevant.”
“It’s all relevant!” she shouted. “You cannot hold me here against my will. If you don’t let me leave I will fight back. I know self-defense.”
“You cannot fight me.”
“Wanna bet? Look, I don’t want this to get ugly. Just…just let me go, and I won’t tell anyone about all this.”
“No.”
She took a deep breath and looked down, pretending defeat. When she felt him relax, she slammed her knee as hard as she could into his groin. He hissed out in pain, and she bolted toward the door. She felt something sharp scrape her shoulder as her body was propelled backward and onto the bed. She saw Adam’s body coming at her and began to frantically pinwheel her legs to stop him. That was when his movements became too fast for her to follow. As if in a flash of light, he circled the bed and had her flipped to her stomach and her wrists held behind her back. She cried out at the sudden move.
His breath skimmed across the back of her neck, as he seemed to try to refocus his self-control. She felt her hair being gently brushed away from the stinging part of her shoulder she’d somehow scratched. “Your silly prank has gotten you hurt. I am sorry. I did not mean to scratch you.”
She was still trying to catch her breath when she felt his mouth open over the scrape. His tongue traced the open wound from the top of her shoulder to the space between her shoulder blades where her robe had draped. She sensed him getting excited. The press of his erection into the back of her thighs was proof of his arousal. He was licking her blood.
In a frightened voice she did not recognize as her own, she whispered, “Adam, can you make me sleep now?”
He stilled, and she sensed his regret. For some reason she suddenly seemed very in tune with his emotions. “Yes, my love. Sleep now.” The world went black.
Chapter 11
Whatever was jostling Annalise had her squeezing her eyes closed. Was she on a train? Annalise was snugly pressed against something warm yet there was a lot of wind. Perhaps a convertible. She wanted to open her eyes yet felt as if they had been cemented shut. She moaned uncomfortably, that notorious moan that escaped as a prerequisite to the world’s worst hangover. Annalise heard foreign words from the voice that had been haunting her dreams, then her grip with reality slackened again and fell away to blackness.
Sometime later, she awoke to the unmistakable stench of manure. Groaning and rolling onto her side Annalise slowly opened her eyes. Was that hay? Was she lying on hay? “Oh God.” She squeezed her eyes shut and fought the urge to vomit. How long had she been out?
The light crunch of footsteps had Annalise’s eyes opening wide. She was not alone. From her position, all she could see was hay and more hay and some kind of wooden divider. This was it, she thought, this was where she was going to die.
“You’re awake.”
The fuzziness of Annalise’s brain had her wincing at the melodious voice. Groaning again she rolled to her back. Her stomach was so achingly empty she felt sick. It was as if the walls of her intestines were collapsing upon each other.
“Here, drink this.” A small, childlike woman kneeled down at her side and reached under Annalise to raise her off her back. She pressed a cup of something to her mouth. Annalise didn’t know what she was being given and was prepared to turn away until the smaller woman softly said, “Drink.” It was as if a string on a puppet had been pulled and Annalise’s movements were no longer her own. She drank the thick, cool liquid down to the last drop, fighting the
urge to gag as the creamy fluid coated her tongue and throat.
When the cup was pulled from her mouth she asked the girl, “What was it?”
She giggled. It was an altogether childish sound. “It’s buttermilk, silly. It will settle your stomach. I imagine you’re hungry. Adam said you’ve been in and out for about eighteen hours.”
“Adam.”
“He’ll be back shortly. He needed to…eat.”
Her throat hurt as if she’d smoked a carton of cigarettes before bed. “Who are you?” she rasped.
The girl smiled cheerfully. “Why, I’m going to be your sister.”
Sister? Annalise eyed the girl’s clothing, black, long, and some sort of simple lace headdress. Was she at a convent? The girl laughed again. “No, no, silly. Not that kind of sister.” Annalise had not heard herself ask the question out loud, but she must have. The girl seemed to know exactly what she had thought. “Sister as in blood. You are going to mate my brother.” Then, as if sharing a secret, the girl leaned close, cupping her hand at the side of her mouth and whispered, “You saved him.”
Annalise simply sat quietly waiting for the girl to say more. Her legs were wrapped in a scratchy blanket and she was still in her tank top. Was this all she had for clothing?
The girl stood quickly as if using no effort at all. She went over to a wooden divider and pulled something dark that was slung over the top. Bringing it back she said, “I brought you a dress. You are closer to my size, but I think I am a little smaller. This was one of Larissa’s. It will be big, but I can mend it for you in no time. Mother will have more dresses made for you by week’s end.”
She eyed the garb the other girl held. It was black, like the one she wore. There was a small cap and a deep maroon chemise. Suddenly the other girl reached out and touched the thin strap of Annalise’s tank top.
Called to Order [The Order of Vampyres 1] (Siren Publishing Allure) Page 11
