“Get the scarf that goes with it,” I said.
And she did. Which was charmin’.
When we stepped back out on the street it was dark. The wind had died down some, but it felt more damp and, therefore, more frigid. The holiday lights were beautiful at night.
“You promised that I’d get a turn to get a taxi.”
I looked up and down the side street. There was no sign of a cab.
“Okay. First lesson. When you do no’ see a taxi, what do you do?”
“Walk until you see one?”
“Find a busier street.” I pointed. “That way.”
She waved for a cab wearin’ her white hat and scarf. When he swerved to the curb and stopped at her feet, she practically jumped up and down like she’d just scored at rugby.
Inside the car she was breathless from the cold and excitement and could no’ stop talkin’ about Bloomin’dales. It was clearly her favorite thing. I saw the cab driver stealin’ looks at her in the rearview mirror. Maybe because she was animated in a non-New York kind of way. Maybe because she was the world’s most beautiful woman. At least to me.
And two others, I thought with a sour taste.
When we were settled into our seats next to each other on the whister and lifted off, she leaned close and said, “This was the best day of my life.”
If I live to be three hundred, I’m sure I will never hear words sweeter than those. What I wanted to say was, “I do no’ want to be a vampire hunter anymore. I just want to take you home to Ireland where I can keep you safe and love you every second for the rest of our lives. I want to kiss your freckled nose and your rosy cheeks and your beautiful mouth, worship that body that slays me and make love to you over and over until you beg me to stop.” But what I said was, “Me, too.”
Somehow, I hoped to Paddy she heard the rest that was unsaid, but in my heart.
“You know everywhere we went today, people stared at you.”
“You’re so very wrong, my girl. ‘Twas you they were admirin’.”
After havin’ her to myself for the whole day, I found that sayin’ goodnight was even harder than usual, but I managed to let her go.
“Thank you,” she said softly.
“Pleasure was mine.” I handed her the box of boots. “You look beautiful in your new hat and scarf.”
She grinned and closed her door.
The first hour back at work on Tuesday, I got a text from Elora.
Meet me on street level. Now!
I threw down my bar rag and turned to the other bartender. “You’re on your own for ten minutes.”
“Hey!” he said, but I was already gone.
I saw her waitin’ outside the bistro door. “What’s…?”
“Come on,” she said as she started joggin’. She went slow enough to look like somebody from our dimension, just like we’d taught her. “I’ve got to meet Baka and, you know, since you’re my partner…”
I had no reply for that.
The vampire was waitin’ in the same alley where Elora had killed one of his buddies.
“Hey,” she said to him. “What’s up? We’ve got five minutes before we have to start back.”
Baka flicked a glance at me, but spoke to her. “I finished remapping the underground. It’s pretty much the same as it was in the twenties except that somebody has updated the lighting with low energy, storm shelter fixtures. When I reported to your Sovereign yesterday, he ordered me to take E Team on a reconnaissance tour since you had the day off. I told him I thought that was a bad idea. If we were spotted by vampire we’d lose the element of surprise when we need it.
"He said do it anyway. So I took them down for an hour yesterday afternoon. We didn’t encounter vampire, but there are indications that the tunnel system is... in use.”
“You mean you saw signs of remains,” I said and he confirmed that with a nod. I ran my hand down my face. “And why be tellin’ us this then?”
Baka scowled. “Because something about E Team doesn’t feel right." He shook his head. "Hunches are the hardest sort of thing to explain.”
I looked at my watch and touched Elora on the arm. “Gotta go.”
Baka looked between us. “Watch out for the entrance. It’s hidden in the wall at the end of the hallway where the restrooms are.”
“Show us,” Elora said.
When we got back to the basement level, the manager grabbed me. “Hawking, if you want to keep your job for another night, I suggest you get yourself back to the bar now.”
Elora nodded at me to go. I was torn. I needed to keep the job and the cover, but did no’ really want to let her out of my sight with that leech. I reasoned that she had already been alone with him, in and out of captivity. Plus, I had to show her she had my confidence, same as I would give any other partner.
But five minutes later she came rushin’ into the bar with a flush on her face and lips swollen like she’d been makin’ out. It had been a long time since I’d felt a fever rage like the one that came over me. Somebody had touched my mate. Somebody was goin’ to die.
I know I growled at her, but I could no’ help myself.
“What the bloody hel, Elora!”
“Two vampire came in while we were in the hallway. A couple of minutes ago. We’ve got to find them.”
‘Twas no’ the time for vampire huntin’. ‘Twas the time for sortin’ out my mate’s behavior. But the honor of bein’ a Black Swan knight takes precedence over everything else when vampire are on the premises. So I decided to shelve the confrontation for later.
B Team searched all three floors of the club, the restrooms, the kitchen, and the perimeter for three blocks, but did no’ find vampire. The manager threatened to fire us all, but allowed us to finish our shifts. We suspected that Sol would find a way to smooth over our lapse in performance. And, certainly, I had more pressin’ concerns.
We stopped at the lounge to share a drink before turnin’ in. After adrenaline and emotions run high on a hunt, we need a taste to calm down.
“E Team is sittin’ outside by the fire pit. What do you say we join them and find out what they learned from their ‘tour’?”
Kay and I nodded. The four of us converged on the veranda.
Storm spoke to E Team. “How ‘bout we join you?”
“Sure,” they said.
After a few minutes of questions and answers about what they’d seen in the tunnels, Ghost stood up and started toward the Atrium door. “Anybody need anything while I’m up?”
Elora said, “Yeah. My Hot Butter Bacardi should be up if you don’t mind grabbing it.”
“Done,” he said.
Half an hour later, I was feelin’ warmed by whiskey and a little less crazed by my suspicions regardin’ what had happened between Elora and Baka.
“Ram?” Elora’s voice was quiet.
“Hmmm?” I was focused on E Team. It seemed to me that they were bein’ unusually tight-lipped, like they did no’ really want to divulge their impressions, which was odd. Black Swan is a cooperative. That means we cooperate.
“I need help. You’ve got to get me home. Please.” Elora had leaned in to me and whispered with an unmistakable urgency. Then she raised her voice, sayin’ to everybody present, “That’s it for me. Some of us actually work for a living delivering booze to letches and drunks. Have a good night then.”
“Hold on. I’m goin’, too,” I said and gave a general wave goodnight.
As soon as the elevator doors closed, I looked at Elora. “What’s wrong?”
“Not sure, but I’m scared that, I think maybe… aphrodisiac.”
I took her by the shoulders and turned her so I could get a good look at her face. Paddy. Her pupils were dilated like she was a tweaker. “Fuck,” I said as if I could find nothin’ less appropriate to say.
The fear I saw in her beautiful eyes sent a jolt of adrenaline racin’ through my veins, prickin’ every nerve endin’ on its way past. I was lost for what to do. If there was an antedo
te for aphrodisiac, I certainly did no’ know it. But I had to do something. Her discomfort was becomin’ conspicuous by the way she seemed to be agitated to be in her own body.
“Okay. We’ll figure something out,” I said. ‘Twas meant to be reassurin’, but nothin’ productive was comin’ to me. I wanted to ease the discomfort that was becomin’ more apparent by the minute, but takin’ advantage of the situation was something I would no’ consider.
Her breath was labored by the time we reached her apartment. She stood in front of the door like she could no’ remember the code. I knew it. So I punched it in and looked up and down the hallway to make sure no one saw me go in so late at night. The last thing she needed was gossip and cat calls. Humans were notorious purveyors of both.
I pulled her inside. When I turned from closin’ the door she had dropped her coat on the floor. My mind was goin’ a dozen different directions, tryin’ to light on a solution, but none was comin’.
She grabbed the front of my leather jacket and said, “You’ve got to help me.” Her eyes were wide and wild, castin’ about like a mad woman, but what tore most at my heart was the plea, you’ve got to help me.
“What do you mean?” I said stupidly, knowin’ full well what she meant and tryin’ to stall for an alternative. I’m sure I was lookin’ almost as hysterical, myself.
She pushed at me a little, fistsfuls of leather still in her grip.
“Don’t you dare pretend naïveté with me, Rammel Hawking. You bloody well know what I mean!”
She released me and closed her eyes as if runnin’ her hands down her body gave a slight relief. When her middle finger found its way to her pussy, I began to fear losin’ the battle. My dick was respondin’ to the teasin’ vision with an engorgement like it had never known before and I did no’ know if my desire to be honorable could overpower my body’s interest in a willin’ mate.
“No.” If an elf ever faced a moment of greater frustration, I can no’ imagine what it might have been. “I do no’ want the first time to be like this.”
“Ram!” she shouted, lookin’ on the verge of a full blown panic. “Either help me or get out of the way so I can find somebody else.”
She shoved me aside and started toward the door that had been behind me a moment before. I managed to reclaim my place in front of the door before she opened it and was gone. In the second that took place I’d seen images of my mate out scarin’ up fuck partners. O’course ‘twould no’ be hard for a woman like Elora to find eager candidates. And o’course that was no’ an option.
The reasonable part of me decided that, if there was only one way to ease her affliction, I would serve that purpose even though it was no’ my first choice. I just had to hope that she’d forgive me when the effects of the drug wore off.
“That’s no’ gonna happen!” I matched her tone so she’d know I was completely serious. If she was beddin’ somebody that night, by the gods, ‘twould be me and no other.
“Well then?”
She challenged me to get on with it. Curiously, in that moment, I seemed to forget everything I knew about intimate relations and felt as inexperienced as a backward twelve-year-old. But I knew I wanted to kiss her. I would always want to kiss her. So I would start there.
I took her face in my hands and stepped in, but she was impatient, wantin’ something hard, fast and raw.
I held her firm, no’ lettin’ her wiggle out of my grasp, and said, “Shhhh. Hush now. I’m here. Promise you will forgive me.” She moaned. I gave her a little shake so she’d pay attention. “Say it! Say you’ll forgive me.”
She looked into my eyes long enough to persuade me she was in control of her faculties on some level. She nodded. ‘Twas good enough.
Tellin’ myself I could no’ be a low life cad when I treasured her more than life, I poured my love and cravin’ for her into my kiss, hopin’ she would know on some level that there was so much more to my feelin’s than carnal interest.
For a moment, I thought love might be the cure, and my kiss might overcome the drug’s demon. For a moment, she was quiet and still, but ‘twas the proverbial calm before the storm. She pulled me close enough that I could hardly breathe.
“Ease up. I need to get my breath.”
She loosened her hold and pushed my jacket off my shoulders so that it fell to the floor beside her coat. Then usin’ her mouth to open mine wider, she stole my breath in an altogether different way. Her tongue was tanglin’ with mine in a dance of desperation, when I heard a loud tear.
I pulled back and looked down. She’d ripped the Notte Fuoco tee shirt open from neck to waist. Her hands were runnin’ down my chest and tuggin’ at the waistband of my jeans.
I’d never had a woman attempt to take my clothes from me in such a forceful way before. It was an act so erotically charged that I knew I could no’ pull back if wild horses were tryin’ to drag me out the door. Once I realized that the decision had been made, no turnin’ back, I freed the part of me that I’d been holdin’ in check for what seemed like an eternity and let loose the force of my feelin’s for the woman whose body was demandin’ attention from mine.
I pushed her tank and bra straps down her shoulder until a plump breast popped free. She looked exactly the way I knew she would, creamy skin, rosy pink nipple. She groaned, grippin’ my shoulders and throwin’ her head back when I bent to suck that nipple into my mouth and lave it with my tongue.
I had no’ thought it would be possible to be any harder than I was already, but a throbbin’ impulse was added to the pressure against the crotch of my jeans.
When she reached down, her intention clear as day, I hissed in a breath and angled myself away sayin’, “We can no’ be doin’ that if there’s to be anything left for you.”
Movin’ toward the bedroom, her goin’ backward, me goin’ forward, we tore away all the clothes remainin’ except for cute little short-type panties and knee socks. She looked like a dream and my cock, standin’ so straight it was practically pointin’ at my chin, agreed.
I pulled the coverlets away, leavin’ a bottom sheet. She wasted no time crawlin’ onto the mattress and pullin’ me down with her.
I moved the crotch of the panties aside and brushed her sex with my fingertips. She gasped and came up off the bed like a wanton never before touched, except that my woman was stronger than any other and almost threw me from the bed.
“Easy, darlin’,” was all I said as I pulled the silky drawers down her legs and away from her body.
“Please,” was all she could say.
It was plain by her frantic movements that she was losin’ the battle with any semblance of control. Her eyes pooled with tears that began runnin’ down her face, breakin’ my heart as they ran. I situated myself between the cradle of her thighs and, just as she began to beg in earnest, I thrust inside her.
The intensity of her need drove me to a performance level beyond aspirations. I put my hand on the headboard and stiffened my arm to keep from drivin’ her into the wall. ‘Twas gratifyin’ to see the pained expression leave her face and be replaced with a rapture so perfect that it filled me with emotion, more than I thought possible. ‘Twas overwhelmin’ in every way imaginable.
When her muscles gripped my cock, I let go with a noise that sounded foreign even to me. I lay still, listenin’ to her heart rate mixed with mine, her breath mixed with mine, as both began to slow. I knew I did no’ have to worry about crushin’ her beautiful body with my weight. So I just enjoyed the moment and the realization that “makin’ love” was no’ just a euphemism for fuckin’, but a real thing.
After a few minutes I lifted my head to look in her face. Her eyelids were half closed, but her face bore a little smile as she said, “Ah, Ram. You feel so good.”
I kissed the remainin’ tears away from her face and, for a time, she was peaceful. Satisfied. I thought it was over and was wonderin’ if I should leave or if I stay with her until the morrow. I was mullin’ over the choice when the next surge
began. At first it sounded like a low groan in the back of her throat, almost too quiet to hear. Within minutes she’d once again become frantic for relief. I was no’ yet prepared to offer myself. So I rolled away and used my fingers to ease her way, the whole time tellin’ her that I loved her, that I would no’ leave her, that she was perfect in every way, that everything would be alright.
Over the next few hours we experienced variations on love-makin’ that few couples manage in one night and I was thinkin’ I was perhaps the luckiest elf ever born.
Durin’ the minutes when light was first breakin’, a hint of pink and gold risin’ to overtake the gray, I lay facin’ her. Her eyelids were heavy, tryin’ to close. Between that and the peaceful way she was breathing, I knew it was finally over.
Her eyes flew open wide without warnin’, like she’d forgotten something important. With a little smile, she whispered, “Thank you.”
I reached over and cupped the side of her face, rubbin’ the softness of her cheek with my thumb.
“Darlin’ girl,” I said. “These have been the sweetest hours of my life.”
When I woke I was spoonin’ with Elora, her very firm and shapely derriere pressed firmly into my lap. Her body heat was enough to keep us warm without the need for covers. What I would have liked more than anything would have been to leisurely savor the experience of findin’ myself in a naked tangle with the Lady Laiken. But the cause of my wakeful state, Elora’s dog, was becomin’ more insistent about his own needs. Hopin’ for the dog version of an alarm snooze, I turned back to Elora and thought to ignore him for at least a couple more minutes. But the dog was havin’ none of it. He gave me a lick on the behind that caused me to jerk my pelvis into Elora.
She hummed, but did no’ wake.
I gave Blackie the dirtiest look possible. Whether or no’ he took it as such, no one can say. His response was a wag of a bushy tail and a couple of revolutions to the left. The dog always turned to the left. Do no’ ask me why I noticed that, but I had the odd thought that he would no’ be very good at reels.
Knights of Black Swan, Books 7-9 (Knights of Black Swan Box Set Book 3) Page 53
