“That’s about as far from angry as you can get.”
“What can I say? Girls really do just want to have fun,” she told him with a wink and sat back when the waiter arrived with their check.
Maggie felt more alive than she had in years as she watched Aiden pull out his wallet and place some cash on the table. She’d never been a boy-crazy teen, but she suddenly felt young and carefree in a way she’d never experienced before.
When Aiden held his hand out to her, she knew she shouldn’t take it, but she did. He helped her out of the booth and drew her closer when she rose beside him. Her skin came alive until she felt their contact over all her nerve endings.
“Is there something you’d like to do now?” Aiden asked. He ran his hands over Maggie’s arm when she tilted her head to look up at him.
A smile played across her lips. “The beach.”
“The beach it is then.”
Maggie resisted laying her head on his chest as he walked with her across the restaurant. She glared at a couple of women eyeing Aiden with a look that made it clear they’d happily shove her out of the way to pounce on him. One of them smiled smugly back at her and fluffed her blonde hair. Aiden didn’t look at them as he pushed open one of the glass doors in the lobby of the hotel and held it open for her.
The March air caused goose bumps to break out on her arms, but the briny scent of the ocean drew her across the street and toward the beach. Aiden helped her over a guardrail and down a hill toward the ocean below. The wind whipped her hair away from her; she licked the salt from her lips as the air froze her cheeks and her breaths plumed before her.
The dim light from the hotel illuminated some of the shadows, but the beach was more in the dark than out of it. With the stars twinkling against the black night and the sliver of moon hanging low over the bare trees, she could almost pretend everything was normal and she was simply on a date with a man she liked. When they reached the shoreline, she closed her eyes as she listened to the ebb and flow of the waves rolling onto the shore.
Aiden stopped at the edge of the water with Maggie’s arm locked securely in his. The awe on her face captivated him. Then she tugged her arm free of his, bent, pulled off her sneakers, and set them down. She removed her socks next and stuffed them into her shoes before digging her toes in the sand.
The wet sand froze her feet, but she burrowed her toes in deeper as the icy water swirled around her ankles and between her toes. Removing her arm from his, she picked up a pink shell, twisted it in her fingers, then slipped it into her pocket and bent to pick up a rock. Pulling her arm back, she skipped the rock across the surface of the sea.
Aiden couldn’t recall the last time he’d found joy in anything, but his heart swelled as he absorbed her delight. He was tempted to draw her close, to kiss her again, but he couldn’t interrupt this for her. She walked closer to the ocean then laughed and danced back when the cresting waves chased after her.
“It’s cold,” she said when he approached. She bent to roll the bottom of her jeans up and snugged them into place above her knees.
“So that means you’re going further in?” he asked.
“Of course, Nosferatu. Don’t go getting all broody on me tonight. Relax and have some fun. Tomorrow we can go back to worrying about being jumped by a bunch of Savages, my mother’s insanity, and world peace, but tonight….” She sighed and gazed at the crescent moon reflected on the surface of the vast sea.
“We think we’re so big, so important, but we’re this infinitesimal speck in the grand scheme of things,” she said as she glanced at him. “Tonight, I want to be that speck.”
Maggie didn’t look back at Aiden as she walked into the water. Icy waves crept up her legs, but she continued until she stood midway up her calves in the ocean. When the waves rolled in, they brushed against her knees, dampened the bottoms of her jeans, and occasionally grazed her fingers. The flow of her blood seemed to match the rhythm of the waves.
She didn’t hear Aiden approaching, but his arm warmed hers when he stopped beside her. She looked up at him, and her breath caught at the expression on his face. She’d never seen such raw hunger from another before, and it was focused on her.
Is it my blood he hungers?
A strand of her auburn hair blew forward, and Aiden clasped it in his hand. The moonlight brought out the deeper shades of red in it as he slid his fingers over the silken lock. Her mouth parted while she watched him.
Ignoring the chill of the waves, he stepped closer until they stood chest to chest. She nibbled her bottom lip as he wrapped her hair around his wrist and cinched it in his fist. Gently tugging her head further back, he bent until her breath whispered over his mouth.
For years, he’d craved pain, blood, sex, and death; now all he craved was her. Keeping her hair in his grasp, he slid his hand up until he cradled the back of her head. Her hands fell on his chest; he waited for her to push him away. When she didn’t, he stopped denying himself and claimed her mouth.
Maggie’s knees almost gave out when his tongue caressed her lips before she parted them and he entered her mouth. She felt drugged by the heady sensation as he kissed her like he was making love to her. Her fingers curled into his shirt; the muscle of his chest felt carved from stone as she pulled him closer.
Everything about him was hard, yet when he tugged her hair further back to deepen his kiss, his touch was tender. Maggie gasped when he slipped his other arm around her waist and, lifting her onto her toes, drew her hips flush against his. When the evidence of his arousal pressed against her, she flattened her hands on his chest to push him away.
This was all going far faster than what she was used to, but when his hand stroked her side, her hips thrust forward and she ground against his erection. All thoughts of shoving him away vanished. She melted against him as his tongue and hands wove a spell around her that had everything in her begging for more of him.
Then, something slimy brushed against her calf before wrapping around it like an octopus embracing its prey. With a squeak, Maggie jerked back and his arm slid away from her waist. Her eyes flew to the sea, she half expected to see a tentacle clinging to her as whatever it was tickled her leg again. Then, she started to laugh.
“Seaweed,” she said between chuckles.
Aiden’s hand remained enclosed on her hair; his eyes burned in the night. A flash of trepidation shot through her when red shimmered through his gaze. He’d never touched her in anger, but she’d seen what he could do to others, and there was something wild about him right now.
When she took a step back, his grip on her hair eased. “Aiden?”
Aiden fought to keep himself from pulling her against him once more. He needed to run his hands over her bare flesh and taste her again, but he’d seen the apprehension in her eyes before she stepped further away from him, and he’d heard the tremor in her voice. His hand tightened on her hair before he released her.
Maggie backed away from him before turning and making her way to the shore. Eager to get away, she was heedless of the water splashing around her legs. “I’m cold,” she tossed over her shoulder as an excuse to put some distance between them.
When she glanced back, Aiden remained in the water with his head turned toward her. The ravenous gleam in his eyes sent her primitive instincts into flight mode. She’d never seen a look like that on anyone before. Then, his expression cleared, and he smiled at her.
“It is cold,” he said as he walked from the sea to join her.
CHAPTER 27
Maggie tossed and turned in bed as she replayed everything that had passed between her and Aiden tonight. Her body ached for him, but her mind retained enough sanity to know having sex with a vampire might be the biggest mistake she’d ever made, and she’d made some whoppers in her life.
Like stealing that car at fifteen. She still swore the tree jumped into the middle of the road that day. The police hadn’t caught her after the accident, but she could have been killed, and she could ha
ve killed A.J. who was riding shotgun when the tree pulled up its roots, strolled on into the middle of the road, and committed suicide. Miraculously, she and A.J. had been uninjured enough to run from the scene, but the car was totaled.
Then there’d been the time she’d gotten herself expelled from school after setting the trash can on fire. She’d done it so she could be sent back to the group home where A.J. was staying, but it had been the first school where some of the teachers had taken an interest in her. She’d enjoyed attending there, she’d started to like learning, and she’d purposely blown it.
She didn’t regret her choices, she wouldn’t be where she was if she hadn’t made them, but she could come to regret sleeping with Aiden. She suspected he might break her heart if she got too close to him and it all blew up in her face.
And she couldn’t see it doing anything other than blowing up. He was a vampire, and she was… Well, she didn’t know what she was anymore.
My mother was telling the truth.
That realization bolted her out of bed at two in the morning. She paced restlessly over to the heavy drapes covering the window and pulled one back. Across the roadway, the crescent moon created a small path across the waves.
My father is a vicious rapist. And a vampire.
Shivering, she dropped the curtain back in place. Stalking over to Blue, she watched as he happily flitted around his bowl, completely unaware of the turbulent state of her mind. When she put her finger on the outside of the bowl, he went to it and nudged it with his nose. She ran her finger over the plastic side, and Blue followed her motion as if he were receiving a pet. She’d discovered a couple of years ago it was something Blue liked to do. It always made her smile.
Done with his petting, Blue swam away with a flick of his tail. Maggie’s heart sank as she lifted her head to take in the room. She’d never felt so alone in her life. Could she return to her old life with everything she’d seen and now knew about this world? About herself? What would her mother say when she got up the courage to see her again? And what of Aiden?
Screwing a vampire was a Bad idea with a capital B, but she’d never felt as alive as she did when she was in his arms. He may be a bloodsucker, but she also liked him. He made her smile, made her laugh, and he’d saved her ass a few times last night. But then, she’d also been put in danger because of him.
No, not because of him. He’d been attacked, and she’d done her job.
But even if everything that happened last night wasn’t his fault, she sensed there was a lot more to him, his life, and his relationship with Carha than he was telling her. She believed him when he said he didn’t use prostitutes or do drugs, but whatever that more was, she didn’t want to be part of it. And she definitely didn’t want to be anywhere near Carha again.
Aiden may be drop-dead gorgeous, but his life was perilous. Her life had been too uncertain for too many years to risk losing the stability she’d worked relentlessly to achieve by getting more entangled with him. She would never have millions of dollars, but she had what she’d always dreamed of: a place to call home, a career she enjoyed, and control of her life.
And she could lose it all if she couldn’t return to her job soon. She hadn’t been this scared since she’d been a sickly child who had no idea what was wrong with her or where she would be sleeping the next night.
Maggie ran her finger over the rim of the bowl as she thought about the blood that made her healthier as a child, her mother’s ramblings, and the reports she’d read. How had she not put what she was together sooner?
Because who in their right mind would think they could be the offspring of a vampire or that vampires were real?
Maggie prowled to the window before going to the bathroom then crawling back in bed. She turned on the TV and flipped idly through the channels. What she needed was a run, but even before her knowledge of vampires, she wouldn’t have been foolish enough to go for a run by herself at two in the morning.
There was a gym in this hotel; she’d seen signs for it when they checked in. She hated running on treadmills, but she figured it was the treadmill or she knock on Aiden’s door and jump him when he opened it. One of those two things would get this restless energy out of her. Running may not be the more fun option, but it was the far saner one.
Tossing the covers aside again, she turned off the TV, changed, threw her sneakers on, grabbed a towel, and checked the peephole before cracking the door open. It didn’t matter if she stayed here or in the gym, one of those Savages could get her in either place. Aiden had explained no invite was necessary to enter a hotel room because it wasn’t someone’s home. The only thing safer about her room than the gym was having Aiden next door. In her current mood, that seemed more hazardous to her.
Leaving her room, she crept past the closed doors to the stairwell. The hush of the hotel at this hour was more than a little unnerving, and she kept expecting a Savage, or even a poltergeist, to attack her. Refusing to live in fear, she continued down the red-carpeted hall.
When she arrived at the door to the concrete stairs, she hurried down. Her sneakers squeaked on the steps, making her location obvious to any would-be attacker, but nothing leapt out to suck her blood or slime her before she reached the lobby.
Located on the first floor, the gym was in a side hallway beyond the check-in desk. She hesitated outside the restaurant when she heard music coming from the club. The club would be closed to the public at this time of night, but Maggie suspected the employees were hanging out, listening to music, and probably having a couple of drinks as they cleaned the place. She almost went to see if she could join them but decided against it.
She left the restaurant and empty front desk behind as she followed signs to the gym. The lights were off when she located it, but when she stepped inside, they flickered to life overhead. Maggie glanced over the equipment stashed in the rectangular room. The concrete walls made it feel more like a prison than a gym, but at least there was a treadmill.
Maggie found the remote for the TV, turned it on, and searched for a music station. She settled on a nineties alternative station, did a quick stretch, and hopped on the treadmill. Working her way through a warm-up, her feet thudded with increasing speed as Nirvana followed Green Day.
A sense of calm descended as her feet settled into a comfortable rhythm, and she found herself starting to work through everything that had happened in the past two days. Much of it was beyond her control, but some of it wasn’t. She focused on the things she could change, or do, as she worked out a plan in her mind. The one thing she had to do was the one thing she dreaded the most, but she couldn’t put off seeing her mother for a week or two, not even a day or two. She would get it over with tomorrow.
When Aiden appeared in the doorway, she wasn’t surprised to see him, but she didn’t acknowledge him either. He didn’t say anything before ducking out of the room again. She couldn’t see him anymore, but she knew he stood outside, watching over her. She wasn’t sure if she found it charming or annoying, but she didn’t stop running until her legs turned to rubber, sweat coated her, and her lungs burned.
She moved through a cooldown and wiped herself with the towel when the machine came to a stop. Draping the towel over her shoulder, she strolled over to the water bubbler, pulled a paper cup from the dispenser, and filled it.
“Are you going to be my new shadow?” she inquired when Aiden returned to the doorway.
“You should have let me know you were leaving.”
“I thought you were sleeping.”
“I wasn’t. It’s not safe—”
“Maybe not, but you said a Savage could enter my room too, so it’s no safer there than it is here. Besides, I won’t be caged. For years, everyone else dictated my life, where I would be, what I would do. I won’t allow that to happen again.”
“I’m not trying to cage you.”
“No?” she inquired and tossed the cup into the trash can next to the bubbler.
Aiden rested his hand aga
inst the doorframe as he sought to maintain his composure. Being near her helped to steady him, but it also made him more uncertain. When he’d heard her leave her room, he’d believed she was fleeing him. The crushing sense of relief he’d felt when she came here, and the anger that followed when he realized she’d risked herself for a run, nearly unraveled him.
This woman held his future in her hands, and she didn’t know it. Only part vampire, she had no idea what was happening inside him or what she meant to him. She may decide to reject him, but he had to make sure she remained safe.
“I should have taken you to Ronan’s estate. He owns a large property, with a big gym, and you can move about freely there. It has a lot of security.” He didn’t like the idea of having her close to so many vampires, but he trusted enough of them to keep her protected if something went wrong with a fellow vamp. “We’ll get our things and go there now.”
“First off, that sounds like it’s a big cage to me. Second, no one is taking me anywhere I don’t agree to go. Third, I have no idea who Ronan is, where his place is, or anything about it, and I was taught young to avoid going anywhere with strangers.”
“Not with strangers, you would be going with me.”
“You’re not much more than a stranger to me,” she replied.
Aiden shoved down the twinge that statement caused to his heart. “You’ll be safer there, and they have a much better gym.”
“Treadmills aren’t much of a bribe.”
“Maggie—”
“I have a life. I know it’s in danger, I got that memo when that thing bit me. But I have friends, an apartment, a career. I worked hard for all of it, and I refuse to let it go without a fight. This problem will be fixed so I can go home. I’m not going to hide out with a bunch of vampires I don’t know. Which sounds about as fun to me as a tween concert where I’m the only adult and they don’t serve alcohol.”
His fangs pricked in his mouth, and his hand on the doorframe—the one she couldn’t see—dug in so deep the metal bent beneath his fingers. She had to realize she couldn’t return to that life, that she belonged to him.
Ravaged (Vampire Awakenings, Book 7) Page 16
