Dark Secrets Box Set

by Angela M Hudson

  He laughed into my skin, kissing but not biting. “Yes. It’s my predatory lure making you think that way.”

  “Oh.” Well that was a relief. “But you won’t, right—you won’t cut me?”

  “No. I won’t. But I am going to feel your flesh against my teeth.” He turned us to the side and placed me on the table, stepping in closer until his hips once again rested between my thighs. “Do not scream,” he warned. “It will only excite the monster.”

  “Is that not a good idea?”

  His hands flew up and tangled in my hair, his thumbs on my cheeks, holding my face in front of his. “If you do… you will die.”

  I held my breath, lost in the intensity of his penetrating gaze. But something inside told me not to worry. Maybe it was the way he held me, his hands so tight around my face, or maybe it was the concern in his own eyes that made me sure he would never let himself destroy me.

  My jaw jutted forward a little, my bottom lip catching his in a delicate kiss—a wordless reassurance. He kissed back, his lips moist, cold like the lips of a person who just ate ice. And as it intensified—as his hands slipped beneath my dress again, finding my hips—I grinned playfully, resting back on my hands.

  Undress me, I thought.

  “Jesus Christ, Ara.” He folded over a little, resting his breathless lips against my shoulder. “You don’t know how close you are to losing your innocence right now.”

  “Maybe I’m ready for it.” I lifted my dress a little.

  David leaned back, looking down at my floral-print undies. “To lose your virginity in a closet space?”

  I parted my legs a little more, inviting his touch to where his eyes and thoughts lingered. “Yes.”

  His heavy breath stopped, his hand slowly reaching toward my upper thigh. Then he grabbed it in a firm palm, letting his thumb fall against my delicates. “You shouldn’t play games like this with a dangerous predator.”

  “A dangerous predator shouldn’t bring young girls into dark spaces—alone.”

  “It wouldn’t be a problem if that girl would stop showing the vampire parts that he’s wanted to see for the longest time.” He lowered my dress and smoothed it over my legs.

  “Did you ever think maybe she’s wanted to show him for the longest time?”

  “What is wrong with you?” he said with a smile. “Why do you say things like that? I want to do any number of unsavory things to you right now, including kill you. Can you comprehend that?”

  “That’s what makes this so romantic. I know you won’t, even though you want to.”

  He shook his head, trying to wipe off a smile with a frown. “Only you could think something like that is romantic.”

  “David.” I ran my fingers through his soft hair and rested them behind his neck. “You’re a vampire. Don’t even pretend you don’t think it’s romantic.”

  A breathy laugh parted his lips. “I really love you, Ara. You are just so perfect for me.”

  I rolled my head to the other side, lengthening my neck. “Good. Then show me what it feels like to be under the spell of the vampire.”

  “I—” His eyes met mine with hesitation. “I’m afraid I’ll enjoy it.”

  “Isn’t that a good thing?”

  “No. I mean…” He looked at my neck, pressing his thumb to the pulse. “You know my teeth are sharper than yours. Even if I don’t use my fangs, chances are I’ll cut you.”

  “You won’t.” I smiled. “I know you can control yourself when it comes to me.”

  “Perhaps, but… I’ve wanted this for too long.”

  “Wanted what? To cut me?”

  “Yes. Eat you, feel your blood pulse under my teeth, see the life leave your eyes, breath leave your lips.”

  I let out an indignant huff. “How rude.”

  “I know.” He laughed timidly. “It’s a vampire thing, and… I’m afraid I might enjoy hurting you, Ara. If we do this and the vampire in me takes control, there will be no going back.”

  “As in… you’ll kill me?”

  “Perhaps. Or I will not be able to stop thinking about killing you—hurting you—even after the day is done and we’ve parted ways.”

  I thought about that for a second, feeling a mischievous smile creep its way into the corners of my eyes. “Then it’ll be a true test of our love, won’t it?”

  “No,” he said, sweeping my hair away from my shoulder. “It will be a test of my willpower.” And before I could respond, his teeth started my heart, coming closed tightly around my flesh. I squirmed, a cold shiver running down my spine while hot blood rushed up under the grip of his bite. Everything in me from my toes to my shoulders tensed, the tendon in my neck going rigid like wet rope, and all the nerves under it screamed out in agony while my heart pleaded for more. He kept his fangs away, but every now and then they brushed against me like the pointed tip of a blade.

  “Bite me harder, David.” I grabbed his arms, digging my nails in, half pushing him away, half pulling him closer. I felt his body go colder, like the heat of desire pushed his hunger deeper, making him icy between my legs. He became more ferocious as he lost himself to the bite, his hands searching wildly, travelling under my dress and commanding my craving skin to crawl into his touch.

  “David?” I squeaked as he bit down harder, pressing me against the chairs stacked on the table. “David, it’s hurting a bit.”

  “Shh.” He shoved the chairs off with a quick push and rolled me onto my back as they crashed noisily to the floor. The people outside laughed raucously, their familiar, human sounds setting my heart on fire.

  “David. Stop.”

  My neck burned where he pulled away for a moment, but he didn’t stop; he moved to the other side and wrapped his lips hard around my skin as I pushed against him. I felt the scrape of his fangs, sharp, as if he’d cut through, stinging like a thousand hot little needles under my skin.

  “David. It’s hurting.”

  His cold hands went up my dress again, slipping my underwear past my hip on one side as he dragged me closer, thrusting his pelvis into mine. And though I wanted him to—wanted him to make love to me right here on the table—I also wanted him to kill me. I could see it all, as if his intentions became my thoughts. But I didn’t want to die. And I wasn’t truly ready for sex.

  “David!” I burst into tears. “Please don’t.”

  “Don’t what?” He looked down at me, confused.

  I shoved him away and rolled up to stand, darting across the room to the safety of the wall. “Why did you do that?”

  “Do what?” He appeared in front of me, his eyes wide and black. “Do what, Ara?”

  “Why didn’t you stop?”

  “Ara, I’m sorry.” He reached for me but I jerked away. “I didn’t realize you were frightened.”

  “I asked you to stop,” I cried. “That’s a pretty clear indication, don’t you think?”

  “Yes. But, I—” He rubbed his brow. “I didn’t hear you. I only stopped because I tasted your tears.”

  “What?”

  “I was drawn in completely. Compelled by the scent of adrenaline—the fear—it makes the hunger unbearable.”

  “But…” I cupped my hand to the swelling on my neck. He hadn’t broken through. “You didn’t bite me?”

  “Ara?” He frowned as if the suggestion insulted him. “I would never do that. I always had control over that. I just”—he stuffed his hands in his pockets—“I couldn’t control the vampire.”

  “Isn’t it the same? I mean, the bite is the vampire?”

  “No. The bite is the hunger. The lust before is the vampire—it’s what made you want me to bite you in the first place.”

  “Oh.” I touched my collarbone. “So, you wouldn’t have bitten me?”

  In one long stride he closed the gap and cradled my face in his hands. “Not in a million years.”

  “Then, why couldn’t you hear me?”

  He closed his eyes. “I can hear the resonance of your voice in my he
ad now, but I was so lost in your touch I could think of nothing but…”

  “But what?”

  He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t have done it, anyway. Not with you.”

  “Not with me? What do you mean?” I folded my arms as he walked away. “What wouldn’t you have done with me?”

  Ignoring my question, he leaned against the table and reached out his hand.

  I hesitantly took it.

  “I’m sorry I scared you, my love. But have no doubt that my lips, my teeth, or my touch would not have done anything you didn’t want me to.” He held back a cheeky grin. “Except maybe tear your clothes off.”

  I smiled, relenting.

  He pulled me into his chest, and the cool of his skin through the thin fabric of his shirt surprised me. “From now on, if I’m in that state, use your thoughts to reach me. It’s clearer.”

  I nodded against him.

  “I’m so, so sorry I scared you.” He exhaled, smoothing his hand over my hair.

  “I’m okay.” I rolled my face upward to look at him. “Well, now I know for certain you wouldn’t have bitten me, I’m okay.”

  “Aw…” David touched my neck. “Look what I’ve done to you.”

  “It stings.”

  “You’re bruising badly.”

  “You were pretty rough.” I smiled, pressing my palm to the mark.

  “I won’t do that to you again. Ever.” He looked up from the bruising, the promise of his words filling out the green in his eyes again.

  “What if I want you to?”

  His jaw tightened, but his smile remained soft. “No. Not ever again.”

  “But, I liked it.” I pulled my hand down from my neck and gasped, seeing a red smear of blood.

  “I know.” He caught my wrist, holding it away from him. “I was hoping you wouldn’t notice that.”

  “What… I mean… how…? Did you cut me?”

  “No. It’s just from the sucking.” One corner of his lip quirked upward. “I drew your skin a little too… eagerly.”

  “Can’t you smell it—the blood?” I held my hand up to him.

  “Yes.”

  “Didn’t you taste it?”

  He shook his head. “It broke through as I pulled away. I was trying to ignore it.”

  “Does it make you want to bite me?”

  “It makes me want to taste you—to see if you taste the way you smell.”

  Holding my hand near my nose, I sniffed. “I can’t smell anything.”

  “That’s because you’re not a vampire.”

  “Here.” I held my hand up in front of his lips. “Taste it.”

  “Ara, don’t!”

  “David?” I frowned at the empty space in front of me, then spun around a few times until my eyes found him leaning against a stack of chairs across the room. “What’s wrong?”

  He inched away from me as I approached. “I can’t do that. One taste could be enough to make me lose control right now.”

  My nose crinkled, and I looked down at the bloody smudge on my hand then pressed my tongue to it. Erk! “Gross. How can you drink this stuff? I taste like a coin.”

  David laughed softly. “You silly girl, of course you won’t like it.”

  “Well, how do you know you would?”

  With a deep, heavy sigh, he reached across and wiped his thumb over the bruise.

  “David, what are you doing?”

  “Tasting you.” His shoulders lifted once, dropping as he popped his thumb in his mouth and closed his eyes.

  “David?” I said in a shaky voice, taking one step back.

  His eyes shot open and I jumped inside. “Just like I thought,” he said sweetly. “Vanilla and honey. Kinda like a cupcake.”

  “Are you…” I took another step away. “Are you okay?”

  “Actually?” His lips turned down as thought washed across his face. “I’m fine. No sudden urge to kill you.”

  “Really?”

  “Strangely, the vampire is screaming for me to suck the life out of you”—he rolled his head to one side and studied me quizzically—“but the human me wants to kiss you and tell you how much I love you.”

  “Well, I always have liked the human you.” I wrapped myself in his arms.

  “Then the human me you shall have.”

  “But, David?”

  “Yes,” he said distractedly, kissing my hairline.

  “You were scary as a vampire, but only because I didn’t know what you were capable of. But now I’ve seen it,”—I smiled at the memory of him losing control—“I liked it.”

  “You’re not serious, are you?” He held me out from him by my shoulders. “Ara, are you joking? Please, because I can’t take that kind of a joke.”

  I frowned, shaking my head. “Why would I joke about that?”

  David’s eyes closed tightly. “You don’t know what that means to me.”

  “Is that… a good thing?”

  “It’s amazing, that’s what it is. You”—he dropped a quick kiss on my lips—“are amazing. Do you have any idea how precious you are to me? I never knew such a creature could exist, and now I’ve found you…” A wave of sorrow softened his eyes. “I have no idea how I’m going to let you go.”

  “Same way you stopped yourself from biting me, I guess,” I said, pulling his hand away from my face.

  He nodded once. “This is a first for me, you know. I’ve never had to do that before—to control myself. It took everything in me not to rip your throat open and drink your blood, and even more to stop enticing you.”

  “Enticing?” I pouted in thought. “Is that what made me want to… you know, die?”

  “Yes.” He laughed. “It’s how we kill. We seduce you into trusting us.”

  I wondered if that was what I felt that day by the lake—the gravitational pull. “So, you seduce men too?”

  “No. I’ve never seduced a man. I use an attack kill for them. It’s more brutal, more painful for the human, but I can’t bear the thought of seducing and killing girls since I found you.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I see your face and think how I would feel if that was you.” He looked up as, above us, the loud thunder of footsteps sent vibrations through the walls. “We better get back out there. Lunch will be over soon.”

  “Okay.” I exhaled. “But what will we tell everyone? They all saw us walk in here. I don’t even wanna imagine what they’ll think.”

  “Ara, what do you think they will think? We’re teenagers. Let them think what they want. They’ll never guess the truth.”

  “Well, at least that part’s true.” No one would guess that I led a vampire under the stage and let him bite me. Or that I bit him. It didn’t matter what they thought, anyway. I was so damn hungry that if I didn’t go eat, David would become the next victim of the ogre. Then, he wouldn’t need to worry about me becoming a people-eater, because he’d be in my stomach.

  David shook his head, laughing softly. “I can think of a few ways I could be in your stomach, Ara, without being eaten. Of course, you’d still have to put a part of me in your mouth.”

  My lips gaped, a giant huff expelling between them.

  His eyes widened. “I didn’t mean it that way. I meant blood—drinking my blood.” He held his wrist up.

  I giggled into my hand.

  “I’m so sorry, Ara. That came out sounding… incredibly wrong.”

  “Yes, but it was also funny to watch you react that way.”

  He lowered his head and shook it, a sharp intake of air whistling through his teeth.

  “I love you, David,” I said, still laughing.

  “Come on.” He reached for my hand. “Shall we head back out and face the music?”

  “Yes.” The reality simmered over me then and I shook my head at myself. “I can’t believe I just provoked a vampire into biting me.” Therapy, anyone?

  David cleared his throat. “You said it first.”

  “Hey!” I propped
my hands on my hips. “I’ll give you therapy in a minute, if you don’t stop reading my mind.”

  He chuckled, wandering across the room to grab his jacket. I loved it when he laughed. It made him seem so normal—so human.

  “Except there is nothing human about what we just did,” he joked.

  “Stay out of my mind!” I headed for the door in a stormy huff.

  “Wait.” He grabbed my arm and held up his jacket. “You might want to put this on.”

  I frowned at him. He pointed to my neck. If that bite looked as bad as it burned, people would think David did something really horrible to me.

  “I did.” He held his jacket out, pulled it closed around my chest once my arms were in, and kissed my brow.

  “What about you? I bit you.”

  “I’ll be healed by the time I cross the room. But you”—he laughed, running his finger over my bruise again—“you may take a little longer.”

  “How long?”

  “If you heal fast, a week. Maybe. If not… a month.”

  Crud! “If Dad sees it, he’ll freak.”

  “Ara, he’ll freak if word gets back to him that we were even in this closet—alone.”

  Damn. Didn’t think of that. I wrapped my hand over the bite. The rough denim of David’s jacket rubbed against it, making it sting more, but since he’d been wearing the coat all day, the strong smell of him was all over me like a warm breath, so I didn’t mind one bit.

  “Oh, and one more thing.” He grabbed my arm again. “The history paper?”

  “What about it?”

  He kissed my temple quickly. “Don’t do vampires.”

  “Why?”

  “Just don’t.”

  “You never give me a reason.”

  “I don’t have to. You should just trust me.”

  “No way. What do you think this is, the eighteen hundreds?”

  “No. I think you are a human, and I’m a vampire, and I have my reasons.” He turned away with a sly smile, and the room filled with light as he opened the door, severing any further discussion.

  Hmph! I’m still doing vampires. You can’t stop me.

  He leaned closer and muttered, “Try me.”

  A group of David’s friends—only at rehearsal for their stupid comedy skit—burst into a Mexican wave as we walked out, sending me spinning back toward the closet.