by C. L. Quinn
Moments later, he walked out carrying the blankets. She knew right away that it was Nikolai who laid them on the back of the sofa and joined her in the kitchenette.
He offered a tight smile. “Good evening, Sarah.”
“Evening, Nik.” Her eyes moved over his attire, which was the set of scrubs from last night.
“You need to get to your hotel room.”
He glanced down. “True. Or get a job in the hospital.”
Sarah offered a slight smile. “Coffee?”
“Please. What a night. Dreams, wild ones that carried both Mies and myself into weird landscapes that left us wondering what the hell they meant.”
As she prepared his mug, Sarah nodded. “It makes sense, I think. Neither of you know what you’re here for or what is expected of you. No one has any idea how this will turn out in the end.”
She hesitated as she slid the mug to him and watched him take a sip, then leaned closer, her eyes frozen on Nikolai’s. “And you don’t believe you’ll survive this.”
Nikolai took long sips, then set the cup down.
“No, I don’t.”
“I won’t let that happen. I’m going to fix this, Nikolai. You know I rarely fail when I start something. I’m like that assassin in those Terminator movies, I keep going until I get what I want.”
She made him smile, thank God.
Then Nikolai’s smile faded. “But this is cosmically sanctioned.”
“Bah. I have a few cosmic connections of my own. No less than 10 first blood vampires who have spiritual ties well beyond this plane. Make no mistake, Nikolai, I will use every tool I can to make sure that you are still standing when the smoke clears on this.”
“My little tiger.”
“I like that. A glorious animal with sharp claws and teeth. Very few things on this earth will mess with it.”
“I would never bet against you.”
“Wise man. Let’s get to your hotel, get you some clothes, get some food in you, and, God help me, let Mies find an appropriate blood meal.”
Nikolai rolled his eyes. “It’s been difficult. I’m aware, of course, that he needs to feed, but I find the process quite distasteful.”
“It’s necessary, though, for vampire health. He really does need the blood.”
“I know, I’ve felt the effects when we have gone too long between feedings. He’s wanted sex, too, but I’ve asked him not to, and he’s been kind enough to comply. But he’s not happy about it.”
“I wouldn’t imagine he would be.” Sarah thought about that engorged penis, and now that she knew he had been celibate, she felt even guiltier for turning him on and then turning him away.
But she had no choice. She would not lie with a vampire and upset her entire plan.
Hopping up, she snagged Nikolai’s sleeve.
“Let’s get moving.”
The hotel room was kind of dismal, but it provided exactly the type of protection a vampire needed from daylight. After putting on clothes still too small for his current size, Nikolai followed Sarah back out of the building.
“We’re starving,” he commented, as they slid into a waiting taxicab.
“I’m taking you to Transparency, a restaurant with delightful food. I figure that you two have been through so much, I would treat you to the best. My girlfriend takes me there once in a while, and it has become a favorite. Not only mine, but this entire city.”
Minutes later, they pulled up in front of a building on a busy street. The entire front was a series of windows with elaborate etchings, the glow from the interior threw soft amber light into the darkened street. Several groups of people waited outside.
“There are a lot of people here tonight. I’ll see how long it’s going to be, but we may have to seek another restaurant.”
“That is okay, Sarah, whatever you can do.” He followed her into the busy space, and although a lot of people wandered around the lobby, and voices could be heard, it was pretty quiet. The acoustics were designed to soften sound within the room.
Nikolai leaned against a glass wall as Sarah waited to speak with a tall red-headed hostess behind a frosted glass pedestal. Several women passing him stared or did double-takes. He smiled back at them, aware that his body was now what women called a stud. Two stopped and actually ran their fingers along his arms, the heavy muscle apparent in the strained shirt.
Sarah watched from where she waited, a smile on her lips. That was a spectacular body, naturally he would be noticed. The blatant touches surprised her, but she noticed that he didn’t seem to mind. She remembered that he hadn’t allowed Mies to have sex the past few months, and of course neither had he, so the attention was probably welcome.
Two more women stopped dead in front of him and one actually leaned close and put her lips to his collarbone.
Why did that bother her? It wasn’t her business. Perhaps it was just that she thought that the woman’s behavior was too brash.
Sarah sighed. No, it wasn’t. She knew that some part of her was jealous that this man she was unexpectedly attracted to would have sex with a woman very soon, and in spite of her determination not to be with a vampire, she wanted it to be her.
“Unreasonable bitch,” she said out loud.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, what did you say?”
Crap, the hostess had finished with the previous guest and was talking to her.
Sarah winced. “Sorry, not you. Just…” It was obvious that the woman didn’t care.
“How long before you can seat a party of two?” Sarah asked.
“At least an hour and a half, if not two,” the hostess said, a cold smile plastered on her lips.
“I thought so. Thanks, anyway,” Sarah answered and made her way back to Nikolai, whose left arm was entangled by a woman with long hot-pink nails and a whole lot of exposed cleavage.
Sarah knew that when she smiled at the woman holding onto Nikolai, it had to be as cold as the hostess’s insincere smile.
“Nik, it’s going to be too long, so we’ll just find somewhere else.”
“Oh, you must stay!” Hot-pink nails proclaimed loudly.
Sarah shook her head. “Not happening.”
“Sarah!”
Turning to the loud voice, Sarah saw Naji making her way through the waiting diners.
“Sarah, join us!”
Ah, this she didn’t need, not tonight.
“Hi, no, I’m here with a friend and…”
“Friend? Ooh, who is it?”
Naji’s eyes scanned the crowd waiting for tables and when they landed on the huge man behind her, they widened. “Don’t tell me this piece of prime beef is your date?”
Sarah jumped in. “No, no, he’s just a friend.”
“Um, huh, I wish all of my friends came with that equipment.” She surged forward, a smoldering look focused on Nikolai.
Was he blushing, Sarah wondered.
“Hi, I am Nikolai,” he said, his Russian accent more pronounced than usual.
With her inimitable style, Naji wrapped a hand around Nikolai, the other around Sarah, and led them through the standing people.
“This is going to be an interesting night,” she announced. She captured Sarah’s gaze. “Sweetheart, you have been holding out on me.”
“No, he just got into town last night. He’s come a long way, so I wasn’t planning on keeping him out all night.”
Naji’s electric personality was on overload. Sarah knew that it was because she sensed the strong pheromones Nikolai’s body emitted. And she knew that Mies would show up at some point, because Naji was gorgeous, sexy, fascinating, and the perfect blood-meal and bed partner.
She wasn’t sure that she could let that happen. Naji would have an experience like no other, and in that, it would be spectacular. Mies would use compulsion to make sure that she had nothing but great memories. But it breached the trust she had built with Naji. Secrets were dangerous and she’d vowed to keep them at a minimum. Then, there was the nasty jealousy that i
nsisted on raising its ugly head. Being a pragmatic woman, Sarah knew it was unreasonable and silly. If she didn’t want to have sex with Mies, there was absolutely no reason to deny it to someone else. He needed the blood meal, and the sex would significantly improve both Nikolai and Mies’s mood.
Still…
As the evening progressed, Sarah sat amazed. Mies did not show, but Naji and Nikolai were so mesmerized by each other, they barely noticed that Sarah was present. Through three courses of food, their heads bowed towards each other, forks in each other’s plates, and several sensuous feedings, Sarah saw Naji glow like she’d never seen her. Three times Naji glanced over to Sarah, and her eyes sparkled with pure joy. Was she watching the awareness of love in Naji’s eyes?
Naji had told her that she’d never been in love and couldn’t imagine being so. “Too many creative partners out there to ever settle on just one,” Naji had explained.
Tonight, though, there was a distinct difference in how she behaved with Nikolai. Sarah couldn’t imagine why Mies hadn’t pushed forward to make his mark with the lovely woman. She would certainly ask him later why he stayed under to let Nikolai enjoy the evening with her.
It was actually charming. Naji was usually the aggressor in her romantic pursuits, but with Nikolai, she was almost shy. While she ate her dinner, Sarah couldn’t take her eyes off the sweet display. Nikolai kept brushing his fingers along Naji’s arm, frequent shoulder bumps followed big smiles which led Sarah to think that something else might be bumping underneath the table. Maybe she was going to have to let Naji be with Nikolai after all, since Mies was so absent.
Naji’s other dinner companions, an elderly man and his young companion, kept Sarah amused throughout the meal until Naji suddenly looked up at her guests.
“Dinner was wonderful tonight, everyone, thank you for joining us. I’ll get the tab, so if you would like to go on with your night, I’ll stay and take care of everything else.”
She leaned across the table and offered her hand to the older gentleman. “Demeter, thank you for bringing Sofora to meet me. Sofora, I can’t wait to see your work. I’ll meet you at the studio tomorrow evening, all right?”
Demeter pushed back his chair, helped Sofora to her feet, took Sarah’s hand and kissed it, then bowed.
“Such lovely company tonight, we are lucky men, eh?” he said to Nikolai. Nikolai, now standing as well, nodded.
“Da, no luckier in this city,” he answered, but his gaze slid back to Naji.
Sarah tilted her head. Was Naji blushing now? Into the rabbit hole, she thought.
After Demeter and his lady had gone, Naji looked at Sarah. “My darling, would you mind terribly if I steal your man? I would like to welcome him to Boston, Naji-style.”
Sarah was prepared to say yes, and leave them to it, when Nikolai turned Naji toward him, his fingers gently guiding her chin.
Sarah watched Naji nearly melt as he kissed her gently on the lips. Only it wasn’t Nikolai that kissed her.
Mies lifted up from the soft kiss and caught Naji’s eyes.
“We had a nice dinner and connected on a very sensual level. But you will go home now and think of the kind man you dined with. When you dream, they will be erotic and satisfying.”
Naji sighed with a smile, picked up her bag, and walked out of the restaurant without saying a word to Sarah.
Sarah looked up into Mies’s eyes.
“Good evening,” she said. “And welcome back.”
He nodded, walked over to the waiter, used compulsion to take care of the check, and came back to the table where Sarah waited.
“The meal was pleasant and hit the spot. Now, I must look for a quick blood-meal. Do you wish to accompany me or do you prefer to go home?”
He’d get in trouble, in Boston, alone, with no real idea how busy modern cities worked. Nikolai was buried now, and she knew that Mies would not let him out too soon.
“No. This needs to be efficient and safe.”
“It will be. Compulsion takes care of all risks.”
“Like the accident you had when the taxi hit you? It isn’t a good idea since you are so new to this world.”
Hesitating before she said anything else, she almost bit her tongue. But she said it anyway.
“I’ll do it. I’ll feed you. This once.”
Their eyes locked and he watched her pupils constrict while she held her breath. He didn’t say anything, but nodded again, and led her out.
A waiting taxi took them back to his hotel room and once the door closed, Sarah walked to the window to look out at the city lights. It was on the fifth floor and the view was uninspiring.
His voice came from behind her. “Are you ready?” he asked.
For seconds longer, Sarah kept her attention on the cityscape below the window. When she turned, her breath hitched because he’d taken off his shirt and wore only a black sleeveless tee shirt. He stood ten feet from her, his arms at his side, the big well-defined muscles flexing as he flexed his fingers.
“Are you nervous?” she asked suddenly, surprised at the restless motion of his hands.
“No. Anxious. Excited.”
“Excited? I’m just offering the blood-meal, buddy. If you wanted the sex, you should have let Nikolai take Naji home. I guarantee you two would have the best ride.”
“No. I’m just hungry for blood. And I would have receded to allow them privacy, so it would only have been Niko and the lovely Nubian.”
“You mean you wouldn’t have to be present if they were together?”
“I can go into the spirit realm to let Nikolai have the body completely to himself, yes. I can send him there, too, if I need to do that. He prefers that when I take a blood-meal. He has never acquired the taste.”
“I can imagine. So, yes to the blood, as I said. No to sex, sorry.”
“I understand.”
“Where do you want me?”
“Everywhere, but that is off the table.”
“Funny. How about the sofa?”
“It will do.”
Sarah walked around Mies as she took a seat in the center of the sofa to allow him access on either side of her neck.
He approached her slowly. When he dropped beside her, his weight shifted hers and she pitched into him.
“Ummm,” he moaned as he slid his arms around her and gently laid her head back against the sofa.
“You know it will sting for but a second.”
Sarah couldn’t make the words come, but she nodded, her eyes closed, because this was already too sensual and she was aching like crazy between her legs. Oh, this was every bit as bad of an idea as she thought it would be!
His teeth grazed the skin beneath her left ear and she steeled herself for the punctures, but they did not come. Instead, she felt his tongue, hot and aggressive, travel from her neck to her collarbone, then back to her neck. His fingers moved against her belly and she put her own hands on top of his to stop them, but without conscious decision, she curled her fingers around the back of his hand and let them ride along with his as he slipped under her shirt and caressed just underneath her bra, then slid down to unsnap her pants.
The dual assault of his tongue on her neck and his fingers on her belly created a languorous feeling and Sarah found herself sliding down on the sofa as he pressed gently, his weight pushing her down.
“Just the blood,” Sarah whispered.
“Just the blood,” he agreed. Then his tongue slid deeper until it met the top of her bra, and he pushed beneath her shirt to nip a very erect nipple through the satin. “Unless you ask for more.”
“No, I won’t…” Sarah hoped that sounded more decisive than she thought it might. “Blood-meal only, Mies.”
“Okay, but you know vampires need to play with their food.”
He struck then, lightning fast, and she thought that the puncture might sting, might hurt, for a second, but the only thing that she felt was moisture surge between her legs. She wanted to feed her hand down there and p
ress it against the wet opening to remind herself that she wasn’t going to have sex, it might as well stop tweaking. It didn’t listen, though. All she wanted now was to feel Mies there, any way she could get him, but mostly, she wanted to feel the big organ pushing against her leg right now.
Mies’s tongue moved over the punctures, his teeth buried, as he drew blood into his body through a generous artery, and the feeling…oh, fuck, was new. It had to be the abstinence, but he thought he might ascend back to the spirit realm and never come back if he couldn’t get inside of this infuriating woman right now. He’d promised both her and himself that he wouldn’t touch her like that unless she asked. God, she had to ask!
Nikolai was blocked away from this body, sitting on a beach right now, and thankfully, unaware of the intensity of Mies’s emotions. He wasn’t even sure he liked the sharp-tongued wench. There was no doubt that she was intelligent, stunning, and the sexiest thing he had seen since he came to this world. No…before that too. He’d never been this enamored…it pissed him off! And he still wanted inside of her worse than anything he could remember in this life or the last. As smart as she was, and as turned on, she was stubborn, so he knew that there was a great chance that he’d be in that shower and taking care of his own needs shortly.
No, no, no! Good God, how could he feel this sensuous?
“Uh…” That utterance was all Sarah got out before his tongue went flat against her neck and licked a wide path low towards her breasts as it had earlier. Fire licked her skin along with the searing heat and moisture.
She tried again. “When, uh, will you be finished?”
Mies lifted his head and Sarah noticed how dilated his eyes were, the lids heavy. He was dangerously close to a sexual thrall. “Mies, you need to get control.”
“I have control. You need to let me use it. Your body is begging me…I can feel you…your stimulation, you want me. Little doctor, why can we not find pleasure in each other?”
His fingers had stilled, but were moving again, and this time, he held hers and led her own fingers below her waistband to slide under her panties and between her legs, which she widened to allow better touch. He pushed her fingers lower until she followed the line of the slick channel. When he pushed her fingers in, deep into the slit, his own piggy-backed with hers, she felt herself close around the thickness they made.
