by L. J. Fine
“As for what makes Natalie different? Maybe she’s not scared of him. She’s the one person in that town who believes that there’s an actual person underneath all that armor and she calls him out on his bullshit. He loves her strength and thinks that she might be able to withstand a life with someone like him.” He blinked as if coming out of a trance, then gave a soft laugh. “I mean a vampire like him.”
Was that a sample of what made up his own version of a “Charming List”? Before she realized what she was doing, Emma found herself mentally cataloging her own personality to see if she possessed any of the traits that he spoke of. What would it take to be the one he saw differently from everyone else he had ever met? What would it take to be the one who wiped that pained look off his face and replaced it with that stunning smile he so rarely gave? And more importantly, why was she suddenly feeling so desperate to be that one?
Trying to mask all of the completely inappropriate thoughts that were firing off in her brain, she cleared her throat and flashed him a smile. “You sure you’ve never written a novel before?”
Rolling his shoulders as though he were suddenly uncomfortable, he frowned. “Hey, it’s your story. You can write about what you want. Those are just my thoughts, for what they’re worth.”
“No, I like your idea.” And she really did. “It’s ten times better than anything else I was coming up with on my own. It’s definitely something I’ll have to think about and expound upon later.”
He nodded stiffly, then looked like he was about to say something else when someone called his name. Emma turned to see that it was the guitar player motioning for him to get back on stage.
“Guess break’s over.” He stood. “You sticking around for a while?”
“Yeah, probably.” She nodded.
Giving her another nod, he ventured back toward the stage. Did that mean he wanted her to stay or not? Or maybe he didn’t care either way. But then why ask? Maybe the question should be why she cared so much.
Heaving out a self-disgusted sigh, she got up from the table and went in search of Chloe and her promised martini that seemed to be taking an extra-special long time to make. She found her friends congregated by the bar chatting with Tyler and Adam when they were in between customers. Or when Adam wasn’t flirting with one of said customers.
“So what happened? Did you guys run out of alcohol, or what?” she asked Adam when he stopped chatting up a pretty redhead long enough to notice she was standing there.
Adam’s ever-ready smile faded a little around the edges. “What are you talking about, darlin’? If we ran out of alcohol on a Saturday night Brandon would put my ass in a sling.”
That mental image had her laughing as she said, “I’m talking about the martini Chloe was supposed to have ordered for me about ten minutes ago.”
“I never ordered it,” Chloe interjected. “I was giving you and your new lover some time alone to catch up.”
“You mean Ben?” Emma and Adam asked at the same time. Startled by the incredulity in his tone, she turned to see a full-on worried frown marring his handsome features.
“First of all, a one-night stand does not a lover make.” Her comments were directed toward Chloe but she watched Adam out of the corner of her eye. It wasn’t as though this information was a secret—nothing much was a secret around Chloe—but she was curious about Adam’s reaction. As she spoke, he clenched his jaw and she could see the muscle there ticking. He wasn’t jealous, was he? No, no way. Sure he flirted with her but he flirted with every woman within a mile’s radius, so her affections and attention were of little consequence.
So what was with the frown?
“And second of all,” she said, trying her hardest to ignore the unease his fraught expression caused her, “we weren’t talking about anything exciting so you could have stayed at the table.”
“Mmhmm.” Chloe smiled at Adam. “Sweetie, could you please make my dear friend, Emma here, a martini?”
Regaining some of his signature charm, he smiled and threw Emma a wink. “Sure thing.”
Once she had her drink in hand, there was no more talk of her and Ben as a couple. Instead, she, Chloe and Mina made their way onto the dance floor leaving the men, and their odd behavior, behind them.
Eventually, as closing time approached, the band wrapped up their set and left the stage. There were still a handful of people lingering about for last call as she sat at the bar. She told herself that she was just enjoying the time spent with friends and in no way was she waiting for Ben. But when he came up behind her and braced his hands against the bar on either side in front of her, all of her rationalizations went right out the window.
“I was thinking.” His deep voice in her ear sent goose bumps breaking out along her skin. “How does Charlie break it to Natalie that he’s a vampire?”
Emma laughed, then had a moment to wonder if that low, seductive sound had actually come from her. How was it possible that he affected her like this? He was just about the complete antithesis of the type of man she’d always been attracted to. But against all odds, the fact still remained that she wanted him so badly she ached with it.
“That’s what you were thinking about while you were up on stage?” She tried to bring her voice back to a normal tone rather than the husky quality it now somehow contained. But with his sheer proximity and the way he chuckled against her skin, she didn’t think she succeeded all that well.
“What can I say? Your book’s got me intrigued. So how does he tell her?”
Emma twirled her half-full martini glass between her fingers, forcing the rest of her body to remain still when she felt herself begin to lean back against his warm hardness. “She invites him over for dinner and he kind of slips up and has to tell her.”
“Do they fight about it?”
Frowning, she turned to look at him. “No, actually, they don’t. At that point in the story she trusts him.”
Ben cocked an eyebrow. “Really? Does anyone else in their small town know what he is?”
Where was he going with this? “Well, there’s another vampire in town. One of the rogues that Charlie would have hunted before his retirement. The rogue is killing random women because he’s trying to draw Charlie out into the open. But he’s the only one who knows.”
He snorted. “So there’s a string of murders all of a sudden since he moved to town and in the middle of that shitstorm he drops the vampire bomb? How can she trust him at that point?”
Shaking her head she put a little space between them. “He explains to her about the other vampire and why he’s hunting him.”
“No, they have to fight about it. No one is that gullible and trusting. Besides,” he lowered his gaze to her mouth and licked his lips, “make-up sex is hot as hell.”
Swallowing hard, she said, “I wouldn’t know.”
Dipping his head, he ran the tip of his nose along the side of her neck before bringing his mouth to her ear. “I can help you with that, Sugar.” He placed a soft kiss against the sensitive spot below her ear and she shivered.
“How?” The question came out as a whisper so soft she was surprised he heard her. “Are we going to get into a fight?”
This time when he looked at her there was no mistaking the heat in his eyes or the flash of mischief that had the corners of his lips twitching in not quite a smile. “You up for a little role-playing?”
The way his voice dropped an octave when he said that had moisture dampening her panties. She tried to mask how hot the concept made her by smiling playfully. “Let me guess. You’ll be the big bad vampire and I’ll be the helpless, unsuspecting woman you’ve set your sights on?”
“Something like that,” he rumbled as he bent forward to brush her lips with his. “You in?”
Seriously, she’d have to be a crazy person to tell him no. So, proving her complete soundness of mind, she said, “I’m definitely in.”
Oh, the things she did for research. What a hardship.
“Good
.” He straightened to his full height and shoved his hand in his pocket to dig out his cell phone. “I’m gonna run home and grab a shower. Give me your number and I’ll text you when I’m on my way to your motel room.”
Something about all of that gave her pause. “Don’t you need to know which motel I’m staying at?”
He shook his head. “Nah.” When she just looked at him he cocked an eyebrow. “Small town, remember? I already know.”
Right. That wasn’t unsettling or anything. Taking a deep breath, she rattled off her phone number.
“All right. See you in a bit.” He headed toward the back of the bar.
She watched him walk away, eating up the roll of his hips until his broad shoulders disappeared into a back hallway. When she turned back to the bar, she realized that none of her friends had given her exchange with Ben any attention. They all seemed completely oblivious to the fact that she and Ben had been so close to each other, whispering intimately. Well, all but Adam.
When their eyes met, she saw the same worried expression on his face that he had worn earlier. If she didn’t find out what was up with him, it was going to bug her all night. Moving to stand in front of him, she propped her elbows up on the bar.
“Is there something on your mind you’d like to share?”
Eying her dubiously, he asked, “What do you mean?”
Emma suspected he knew exactly what she meant, but she played along anyway. “Every time someone mentions Ben and me, or you see us together, you get this little crinkle in your forehead and your whole body gets tense. What’s up?”
Sighing, he flipped the towel he had been wiping some glasses with over his shoulder. “I just want you to be careful with him, Emma. That’s all.”
“Is this a warning for my benefit or his?” She narrowed her eyes.
“Yours.” He leveled his gaze on her. “I love my brother more than life itself and I’ll be the first person to tell you he’s a good guy. But he has some problems and he tends to shut people out. Even his family.” The muscle in his jaw ticked as he blew out a harsh breath through his nose. “I just don’t want you to get too attached or get your hopes up. He won’t hurt you on purpose, but sometimes he can’t see past all the shit in his head.”
It wasn’t like this was a news flash, but to hear her suspicions confirmed by someone so close to him left her feeling deflated. In spite of her yearning to know what it was that had him shutting out the rest of the world, she wasn’t naïve enough to believe that she would be the one to change him or get him to open up. He wouldn’t do that until he was good and ready—if he ever was—not because of anything she said or did.
“Thanks, but don’t worry. He’s just helping me out with my book and we’re having a little fun while he does. I can keep it in perspective.” She hoped.
He nodded. “You seem like a nice girl so I figured you deserved the heads up.”
“That’s sweet and I appreciate it,” she said with a sincere smile.
Not long after Adam’s fair warning, the bar closed up and they all said their goodbyes and dispersed in their separate vehicles. Adam, she noted with amusement, went home with the pretty redhead she had seen him flirting with earlier.
Once Emma was back at her motel room waiting for Ben, Adam’s words rang through the silence. Would she be able to keep what they were doing in perspective like she’d promised him? As much as she liked to think she was the modern liberated woman when it came to relationships, her experiences had been limited. She had never tried to sleep with a man without getting her emotions involved. But that had been the point of this trip. Even if she hadn’t met Ben it would have been someone. She just hadn’t thought that someone would appeal to her on as many levels as Ben did, in spite of what she had mentally written on her “Charming List”.
On the heels of that thought, she heard a soft knock on the door.
Considering that this was apparently such a small town that everyone knew where she was staying, she tiptoed over to the door to check the peephole before answering. Just in case. For some inexplicable reason, when she saw Ben standing on the other side of the door her pulse jumped. She had known he was coming but the sight of him made their planned meeting real and she felt just this side of giddy.
“Hi,” she said when she opened the door. His dark gaze met hers briefly before travelling down the length of her body. When she had gotten back from the bar, to keep herself from fidgeting while she waited, she had changed into a lacey camisole and a pair of boy-shorts. Knowing what he was coming over for, she decided to dress for the occasion.
Stepping closer to her, he ran his index finger under the waistband of her shorts. “You look ready for whatever.”
Smiling, she shrugged. “I am.”
That amber gaze visibly darkened before he pulled away to walk past her into the room. Quietly, she closed the door behind him then leaned against its hard surface. His big, muscular body taking up space in her little room seemed overwhelming but it thrilled her at the same time.
Turning to face her, he braced one lean hip against the dresser as he folded his arms across his chest. “So what are our heroes doing when Charlie is forced to break down and tell Natalie what he is?”
Straight down to business then, huh? Emma could live with that. Probably made it easier in the long run anyway, she thought as she remembered her conversation with Adam. Moving farther into the room, she sat on the edge of the bed in front of him.
“Natalie invites him over for a late dinner and they get to talking. Eventually, they end up lying on her bed making out. They’re so lost in each other that they don’t notice the sun starting to rise. He realizes before she does and puts a stop to their make-out session, saying that he needs to get home, that he doesn’t want to take advantage of her, blah blah blah. All the while he’s quietly freaking out, wondering how he can get to an empty room in her house to dematerialize without her noticing. That’s when she sees it’s daytime and goes to open her curtains. He tries to stop her but doesn’t make it in time and the sun ends up burning him. That’s how she finds out.”
Ben let out a gruff laugh. “So she sets his ass on fire. I like it.”
When he smiled at her like that she couldn’t help it. It was so uncommon and wonderful that she had to smile back. “He doesn’t actually burst into flames, but yeah, more or less.”
“Okay, we can work with this. Let’s start out where she goes to open the curtain and he jumps up to try to stop her. Say the first line you wrote after that and then we ad-lib. Follow my lead and do whatever comes natural from that point.”
As he spoke she wondered if he’d done this kind of thing before and how awkward it had been. It was actually kind of surprising that he was taking such an avid interest in this at all. That he was actually willing to become one of her characters to help her get an idea of how it should all play out. Granted, there were definitely benefits in it for him, but he could have just left it at fucking. That he was genuinely trying to help her to better develop her plot was giving him points. Suggested there was more to him than she had originally thought and she itched to delve deeper.
But then he tugged his gray t-shirt up over his head and tossed it on a nearby chair and she lost her train of thought.
She had seen him shirtless earlier, but it had been from a distance. The man was male physical beauty personified. His broad chest tapered down to a lean waist that was delineated with hard, sinewy muscle. A light spattering of dark hair covered his chest then formed a line below his navel that disappeared into his low-slung jeans.
Her mouth watered as she took in the sight of him half-naked, standing in front of her bed. Then she noticed a slash of pink, puckered skin from an old wound on his side just below his rib cage. Before she could think too hard on it or start to wonder where he had gotten it, he was speaking again.
“You should probably pick a safe-word.”
That snapped her back to reality right-quick.
“Are you plannin
g on being so rough with me that I’ll need one?”
Gaze finding and holding hers, he said, “I don’t want to do anything you don’t like. Or if the game gets too intense and you wanna stop, I want to know you actually mean stop and you’re not playing. So pick a word.”
Wow, this was definitely something she’d never had to do before. All of her previous sexual experiences had been so painfully vanilla that needing a safe-word had never entered into it. But, then again, she supposed that was why she was here, in this room with Ben right now. She needed to broaden her horizons, sexually speaking, or her writing was going to pay the consequences.
So she just blurted out the first non-sexual word she could think of. “How about coffee?”
If he had been any other person, she might have sworn he would have outright laughed then. But since this was Ben, all she got was a cocked eyebrow and a question. “Coffee?”
“Yes,” she harrumphed crossing her arms over her chest. “I don’t think there is anything remotely sexual about coffee.”
“See.” He clicked his tongue. “I dunno about that. A good cup of coffee can be almost a religious experience.”
“Ah, religious, but not sexual.”
He dipped his head as if to concede her point. “Okay, coffee it is. You clear on the rules?” When she nodded he took her hands and pulled her up from the bed to stand close in front of him. “Then go stand by the window and do your thing.” He kissed her softly on the lips before whispering, “I’m Charlie, you’re Natalie. And go.”
Feeling slightly ridiculous, she went to the window and began to pull back the curtain. The yellow glow of the security light outside her room added an effect that was an unexpected bonus.
“No, wait,” he said grabbing her arm and she pulled the curtain aside as he spun her around, exposing his bare upper body to the light. Immediately he recoiled, arms coming up to shield his face. Hissing, his whole body trembled as though the light were actually burning him. And just like that, it all became real and she sank into her role like a second skin.
