by T. J. Quinn
Durk replied quietly, “Maybe everyone does not find true love, Dakota. I have lived a long time, and the time I spent with you was the best I have known. I know you liked being with me. We were good together. I don’t understand why you would throw away something good just for the hope of having something perfect. What we had was nice. I like feeling cared for and having someone to cuddle up to every night. I know how much you hate sleeping alone.”
She sighed, growing frustrated. “You are such a nice person. I really enjoyed the time we spent together, and I love you dearly just not in the way you deserve to be loved. Being in love is wonderful, and I don’t want to take that opportunity away from you. Do you understand?”
He touched her face, slid his fingers through her long dark hair and offered, “If you really want to forget Alek, trust me I can make that happen for you.”
She looked into his eyes and saw smoldering desire. “I have no doubt that a few hours in your arms and most women could forget most things. However, I doubt I could forget my love mate for any male, even someone as unique and gorgeous as you. Durk, I don’t know how to explain to you that he is in my heart and in my soul, and even if he never comes back to me, I just want to hang onto every single memory for as long possible.”
He reached out, ran his hand around behind her, pulled her to him and tried to kiss her. She stood up pulling herself from his grasp and turned away from him.
She began arranging items on a table. He stood up and said, “Thanks for the drink, as always it was superb.” He made his way to the door, and she stood thinking of her truly convoluted situation.
She could hear the front door close behind Durk. She made her way to the stairs and turned off the light switch. Alek’s form was outlined in the moonlight of her back picture window.
~ Alek ~
He didn’t know why he would bin her in such a public way and then go immediately to her again. Though Alek was pleased Dakota didn’t accept the advances of another male when she was down, he thoroughly hated Durk for trying it on with her when she was broken hearted and vulnerable. It really hurt to realize the depths of her love and commitment to him only after understanding that they could never be together.
He sat on her back patio for a very long time while the full magnitude of what he had lost hit him. It was a pain he had not known before. Then went over and looked into her bedroom window. She was sleeping in her bed. Her long dark hair fanned out across the pillow. He placed his hand against the window, and strangely she shifted in her sleep. He realized she seemed to be having a bad dream. Alek worried that his behavior towards her had been damaging for her and was causing the bad dreams. He typically thought of himself as a bit screwed up and this just proved it.
He had decided to ensure she would not want him back. He stood with his hand on the window looking down at his feet thinking about his behavior this evening. He realized he was totally out of line. He had to really work at creating the bloodlust tonight, and it was a combination of tasting blood and looking at Dakota and remembering what it was like to make love to her. It was a very effective way to communicate to her that she was not special which had been his intent. He needed to stop stalking her and just leave.
He looked up and found her standing in front of the window looking very beautiful and very confused. She placed her hand against his on the other side of the glass. He could feel his need for her intensify. Their connection was incredibly strong. He had to force his breathing to slow. He turned and walked from the window using the pure force of will.
As he was walking to his car, he heard her front door open. She walked out to him, and he never broke his stride. He put his hand on the door handle and suddenly her arms wrapped around him from behind sending a wave of electricity and longing whipping through his body.
“Please don’t go. Stay and talk to me. Whatever I did to hurt you I will never do again. Tell me what you need.” Her words were like a sharp knife to his heart. As much as she had been around vampires and vampire males, in particular, she just could not possibly be that clueless.
Her voice was tender and sweet, and she whispered, “Please stay with me. I need you.”
He said, “I would have thought you might take Durk up on his offer. I’m sure a hot, sexy vampire like Durk could drive all thought of me from your memory if you gave him half a chance.”
“No man could erase the sweet scent of your body from my mind or make me forget the pleasure of being in your arms. I love you so much more than you will ever know. I am begging you not to leave tonight. Stay with me, share my bed and know I will do anything to make this work with you.”
He tried, but he just did not have the strength of will to stop himself. He turned around, gathered her into his arms, walked her to her bed and fell on top of her. The raw, aching need to be inside her got the better of him, and he could not stop. He realized his lips were on her lips demanding and forcing her compliance.
He wrapped his arms tightly around her delicate body and pulled her to him. His manhood was so hard and ready for her touch. He didn’t know how but he was in the blood rage again. His claws were extended, and he literally ripped her thin white gown from her pale body. Her hands were flying over his clothing and had it off in a matter of minutes.
He forced her legs apart, and his fangs dropped into her neck with some force. He drank long and hard as he thrust himself inside her over and over again. Her sounds of pleasure were different. She sounded louder, and there was something else mingled with the pleasure.
He was surprised that she was so compliant with his needs. She seemed to love being dominated by him. Usually any halfway sane woman would be fighting for all she was worth right now. He vaguely wondered how he had fallen into the blood rage before tasting her blood in his mouth.
He made love to her until her body shook then sat up and began pulling on his clothing. He had to stop. He had to be gone from her bed while he still had an ounce of willpower left in his wretched body.
She was apparently not ready to give him up. Her arms came around him again, and she whispered in his ear, “Let me love you. I need to love you or I won’t be able to sleep all night.” She slid his shirt back off his shoulders and pressed him back onto the bed. She moved on top of him and ran both her hands up his arms and into his hands.
He could feel her slowly moving him into her body, and she began giving him the exact same rough treatment he gave her. He could not hold back any longer and came within moments of her pleasuring him.
She stilled as he gushed inside her. She apparently didn’t know what all the extra energy was about, why he was angry with her or why he had broken things off with her then immediately came here and started it back, but she did know that rough sex was on occasion fantastic.
He immediately tried to sit up again, but she wrapped her arms around him again. “Careful, you are going to get yourself hurt if you keep playing with fire.”
“Too late, seeing you slobbering on another woman tonight was extremely hurtful.”
He held up his hands and looked at the slowly retracting claws. “Do you have any idea how much damage these could do to your precious body?”
She took his hand and intentionally scratched it down the front of her chest leaving a bloody trail and looked at the shocked look on his face.
He immediately licked the scratches and said, “My God, what’s wrong with you. Never do that again.”
She climbed into his lap and whispered, “Search my body. You will find not one scratch except the ones I just gave myself and with the healing power you just left on the wound I will wake up in the morning without a scratch.”
She kissed him passionately and pulled him back down into her bed. They both fell asleep, and when he awoke, he realized he was entirely out of bounds again. He dressed, kissed her gently on the neck and left as quickly as possible.
~ Dakota ~
She woke when she heard her front door close gently behind him. She was too lazy to get up, but she did turn over
and look at her chest. Not as much as a hint of the scratches she put there the night before.
Her dreams had been filled with him, and as much as she wanted to be with him, she knew he was not interested in a committed relationship with her. Following her home, last night was half anger overseeing her leave with Durk and half sexual craving that he would soon learn to control. Whatever if anything she had been to him she knew that was now over.
Chapter 11
Moving Forward
~ Dakota ~
Dakota called her shuttlecraft, showered, dressed and went to the institute to visit her son. He seemed pleasantly surprised to see her and came to her immediately along with Selene.
He hugged her and said, “I knew you would not stay away on my weekend.”
She said, “So what have you been doing to amuse yourselves?”
Jared spoke up excitedly. “The cartography room is amazing. It has every single topography map of every single country.”
She smiled at his enthusiasm. “We had two Austrian men work on that for a year and a half.”
Selene was giddy with excitement as well. “I love that it is all in 3D holograms. I feel like I am actually there.”
Arianna came to meet her with a stack of files. She smiled and said, “Compliments of Squeaky…wow can that little man work!”
Dakota gave her a quick hug. “I can see you have both been pretty busy.”
Arianna grinned. “For my part, it was my pleasure to read through the information. I also took the liberty of analyzing the prototypes for each proposal. A couple of them were unfortunately flawed. One more relied on faulty design engineering. The other five seem like a go.”
“I will just take your word for it. Where do I sign?” Arianna showed her where to sign, and Dakota asked if they had gotten a chance to swim. She could tell they had not.
Dakota announced, “We have a large man-made lagoon that spans a couple of acres. It is gorgeous and the water changes colors depending on your mood.”
Jared replied, “Maybe for humans. Vampires have an extremely low body temperature that doesn’t fluctuate much.”
“Actually, it was designed by a vampire, and it picks up very subtle fluctuations in body temperature. You should give it a try.”
Everyone agreed to meet in twenty minutes with their swimming gear.
Dakota went to her office to change into her swimsuit and noticed that her sofa had deep claw impressions on the arm. She vaguely thought maybe for the first time he went into overdrive. She went to her restroom and slid into her swimsuit. They all boarded the shuttle, and they touched down a mile or so away.
The lagoon had always been Dakota’s favorite spot. She watched the youngsters come pouring off the shuttle and dive into the lagoon. The water was cool and refreshing. She could see that their body temperatures were low except John who was warm.
They hit a ball back and forth, and Dakota was shocked at how competitive they were with each other. She was also surprised that they broke into two teams, males against females.
Arianna realized they were losing to the males and waved Dakota into the mix. “Come on we need your help.”
Dakota declined stating, “Three to two is an unfair advantage.”
Arianna could see Dakota’s face darken and she realized it was because the woman thought her father should be present for family time.
They swam for a couple of hours, and Arianna brought out a small box of food for her mate and Dakota realized that the woman had also packed another tray on top for her. Dakota was beginning to get hungry and thanked her. She sat with her mate, and they ate as the others swam.
John asked, “So what is going on with Alek? He has been a bit stranger than usual since you started coming around.”
Arianna nodded. “I’ve been wondering about him as well. He’s been so strange since he began seeing you. I know he’s my father, but he needs to get his act together before he messes things up permanently with the only good thing that has happened to him in years.”
John quipped distractedly, “That’s the problem with older people who don’t date much. They aren’t good enough at it to maintain a real relationship.”
Dakota responded politely. “I don’t think you will need to worry about it anymore. I got binned in a very public way by him last night.”
He glanced up with an amused look on his face. “I think you might have misunderstood. He would never bin you. He thinks the world of you.”
Dakota sighed. “I don’t think he would like me talking about this with you. You’re a member of his family.”
The young man replied, “Not quite yet. Now, what did he do that made you think he binned you?”
Feeling her face flush, she stated. “I’d rather not talk about it.”
“Fine, keep that all bottled up and see where it gets you.” He got up and dove back into the water, with Arianna at his back. He immediately took her to the side of the lagoon and discretely fed her. Dakota also noticed him whispering something in her ear that seemed to irritate her.
Dakota took out her electronic pad and began reviewing reports. She noticed Jared on his cell a short time later. He climbed out of the lagoon and sat near her.
“Look, I know that Alek fed off that woman at the bar and showed his bloodlust openly in front of you and everyone else, but you need to know that he is a very strange person. Selene says he often does the opposite of what you expect him to in any given situation. Just because he did that does not mean he wants to bin you. It probably means he has very serious feelings for you and he doesn’t know how to handle them.”
Dakota replied, “Don’t worry, son. Even if things don’t work out between us, I’ll be polite to him for Selene’s sake. You’re young and carefree. Don’t waste your youth worrying about an old lady like me.”
“It though thirty-four wasn’t old.”
“It’s starting to feel old.”
Jared laughed and gave her a gentle hug. It was nice to have the relationship she always dreamed of having with him.
Dakota glanced over at Selene, who was just walking up. “Just so you know, not everyone gets a happily ever after. If you can find that with my son, make an effort to hang onto it.” Turning to her son, she gave him a sage piece of advice as well. “Don’t wait until you are hungry to feed your mate. She’s smaller, more fragile and does not eat as much on a feeding. Take care what you are doing there if you are indeed her only feeding partner.”
He smiled, dove into the water and took her aside. They wrapped their arms around each other and fed slowly as they talked and cuddled.
Dakota thought to herself that if she was only going to have one child in her lifetime, then Jared was the child to have. He was intelligent, resourceful, independent, kind and generous. He was the essence of all that she felt was good in the human spirit with a little drop of vampire blood for good measure.
As the darkness settled they packed back up into the shuttlecraft. Everyone had a wonderful day. The only thing that tore at Dakota’s heart was that Alek had not been there to share it with them. She loved spending time with him but as he was not inclined to spend time with her anymore, she supposed they would just have to trade off weekends until he got his head in the game again.
When they landed, everyone came pouring off the shuttle laughing and joking and bumped right into him.
He smiled politely and said, “I came for Selene.”
Selene looked disappointed and complained bitterly. “I thought we agreed for me to spend the night and get dropped off in the morning for school.”
“Sorry my dear, the party is over. Let’s go.”
Arianna walked over to him, took him by the arm like he had done to her in the bar and had pointed words with him.
Her mate shot Dakota a dark look. “Are you sure you don’t want to go over make sure he’s ok.”
Dakota threw his words from the bar right back at him. “And get into the middle of a family dispute? I wouldn’t do tha
t for love or money.” They shared a guarded smile.
Alek and Arianna walked back over. Arianna announced, “My father has offered to spend the night, and you can go out in the morning like we planned.” Selene ran over and hugged Arianna then Alek.
Dakota interjected smoothly. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll make myself scarce this evening.” She headed off towards the common area, where she curled up on a large easy chair with her tablet and reviewed more reports. She was so far behind that she could do this for weeks and not be caught up. She watched Arianna give her father a disappointed look and walked off with her mate. A chill crept up her spine when Jared walked up to Alek. “I don’t think I am warming up to you quite the way I imagined I would. The stunt you pulled in the bar was unnecessary and no doubt embarrassing for my mother.”
“I didn’t realize you and your mother had such a close relationship that you would even care what I did to her.”
Before Dakota could intervene, Jared hit Alek across the face with his fist and sent him flying back onto the wall.
Alek rubbed his jaw for a brief moment with a slight smile playing on his face. “You pack a touch punch, kid. Nobody can blame you for standing up for your mother, but let’s not do that again, okay?”
Dakota ran over and put her hand on Jared’s chest and gently pulled him away. She could tell he was outraged. She got the feeling that Selene was as well because rather than going to her father she actually turned her back on him and followed them.
Dakota took them to the far end of the room, sat them down at a table. “Jared, do you mind if I ask what you are doing there. I have never known you to resort to violence like that before. What is going on here?”
“Nothing, I’m fine. Look I will get you a cup of coffee. I need a minute.” Dakota could see that he did need a moment, so she let him go.
Dakota turned her attention to Selene. “I’m really sorry that you had to watch your love mate and your father at odds like that. Does your father object to you being with Jared?”
Selene promptly reminded her, like Dakota was totally clueless. “They were fighting over you, not me.”
