Deadly Secrets (Forever and a Night Book 3)

by Lana Campbell

  Chelsie glanced at Randy and the other guys, who obviously had picked up on her distress and saw the tear tracks she was certain had sliced through her makeup. They all wore uneasy expressions.

  “Are you okay, Chels?” Randy asked, stepping toward her.

  Before she could answer, Chad slipped his arm around her waist. “Of course she is. She’s just as blown away as we are. She’s showing it differently because she’s a girl.” He smiled at her, leaned down, and gave her a kiss.

  Something broke in Chelsie in that instant, a river of emotions that she’d held in check by a very tenuous, crumbling dam for months. She yanked away from him and smacked him full-force across the face. She’d never had a violent tendency in her life, never touched another person in anger, but she couldn’t pull forth a bit of remorse for her action.

  He rubbed his cheek, his expression wroth. “Damn it, Chelsie. That hurt. I’m going to have a mark, and the audience is going to see it.”

  Chelsie was seething. “They’ll see even more marks on you if you touch me again. You’d better listen carefully, Chad. As you know, earlier today I gave the boys my stipulations for signing this deal. Now I have one for you. If you ever again kiss me, touch me, look askance at me even, the only piece of paper I’ll be signing is a restraining order against you.”

  She threw her hands up in the air, a big steam of rage pushing out words she should have said long ago. “I can’t stand you. I want to vomit when you touch me. You don’t care about me. You couldn’t care less that I’m giving up the dearest thing in the world to me to do this for the band. And God forgive me, but right now I hate you for all the lies you’ve weaved between all of us. If things hadn’t gone the way they had tonight, where do you think our three friends would be? Working dead-end day jobs forever because playing in bars does not provide sufficiently for families. But you don’t care about that, do you? You take the biggest cut because you’re the band’s manager, which is exactly why I take no money, in order to make sure they and their wives and children have enough to eat.”

  “Is that true?” Randy asked, his voice deceptively calm considering the dangerous glint in his eyes.

  Chad looked nervous but tried to cover it up with a laugh that came out shaky and strained. “That was her choice. Besides, she doesn’t need the money. She’s a doctor, and her mother is married to a billionaire.”

  “You really are an asshole,” Colt said through clenched teeth.

  Chelsie was done with the drama. “We haven’t signed anything yet. If we stand out here arguing much longer, we’re going to lose Cajun Refugees. Right now, we can’t afford to lose any of our gigs. We need to suck it up and get back on stage.”

  “She’s right,” Wayne said.

  Before she turned to go, she said to Chad, “I meant what I said. There is no us. If you want the contract, that’s the price you pay.”

  Chad gave her a hard look then nodded. Chelsie strode off and went back inside. Because she knew Chad so well, she doubted he’d abide by her ultimatum. He would probably try to slither his way back into her good graces and start this whole girlfriend/boyfriend thing again, because he’d always thought she had no backbone. Years ago, she’d been spineless where Chad was concerned. Maybe recently, too, but she intended to grow one. Her mind was made up. Never again would that disgusting liar manipulate her or lay his foul hands on her body.

  ***

  After about an hour, the band broke for a second time. As soon as Chad made the announcement, Asa popped out of his seat and headed for the stage because he wanted to see Chelsie. He knew whatever happened with Chad and that producer had upset her. Her eyes had been red and swollen after she’d returned from the first break. Aside from that, a blind man could have seen her misery.

  During the last set, her voice had been flawless, but he could tell her heart was burdened, because her sparkle was gone. That magical way she bewitched an audience with her husky, seductive voice was no longer there.

  Chelsie caught sight of him just as he reached the edge of the stage. She gave him a wan smile and a little wave. Knowing she’d never hear him over the bar’s piped music, he mind- spoke to her. Please don’t take off again. I need to talk to you.

  Her eyes widened, then a secretive smile wreathed her pretty face. Follow me.

  She headed across the stage to the left. Asa followed, ending up in an alley behind the club. Traffic, music, and other city noises filled the night air, but the alley was void of life, beyond theirs, and much more quiet than the huge, noisy bar.

  Chelsie faced him and flipped a long section of hair over her shoulder. She offered him a serene smile that did nothing to convince him she was okay. The woman kept way too much bottled up inside, but he intended to work overtime to change that. He pulled her into his arms, reached out, and stroked her cheek. “I hope by now you know you can be honest with me.”

  She nodded, her expression turning flat. “I’m sure you were witness to what happened with that man after our first set.”

  “I did. Why are you going through with this, Chelsie?”

  She pulled away and let out a soft, miserable groan. “Because there are more lives at stake than my own. The other guys in the band have wives and kids. They moved here on false pretenses, thanks to Chad. It’s a long story, but the bottom line is, I was negligent in making my level of commitment to the band clear. They assumed I’d be on board if this day ever came. I have to do this for them. It will be temporary until the band makes a name for itself and we find someone to replace me. At least I hope we can.”

  God, she didn’t need this new nightmare. She needed to be concentrating on her health. Obviously, Tiffany had been correct about Chad blackmailing her emotionally. The selfish bastard! “I think what you’ve chosen to do is admirable, Chelsie. However, if your heart isn’t in it, you won’t be much help to your friends. During this last set, your voice was beautiful, but your spirit was gone. Even Tiffany and Christian could tell the difference between how you sang tonight and last night.”

  She rubbed her forehead and sighed. “I figured as much. I feel like I sold my soul. But the price was worth it. Eventually my passion for singing will return. It’s just going to take some time and a great deal of prayer.”

  Asa had no reservations about that. For all the magic that sprang from her soul when she sang, it didn’t hold a candle to the passion he’d witnessed with patients. Her mention of prayer sparked a memory of one of his patients with a particularly long and difficult labor, one of the saddest deliveries of his career.

  Chelsie had been shadowing him at the time. The woman’s life mate had recently died in a car accident. Like any widowed vampire, she wasted away, courted death despite her newborn son. Chelsie sat with her nearly around the clock for two days after the child was born, reading passages from the Bible, praying with her, encouraging her to live for her baby. Whatever she had said or shared with the woman during that time wrought a miracle, because the gross depression the patient suffered abated, and last month at her six-month checkup, she’d appeared whole and happy and totally in love with her baby.

  “I’m not a very religious man, but I have no doubt there is a God. I’m sure any prayers you submit to Him will be answered.”

  Her eyes brightened marginally following that comment. “Thanks. Unfortunately, life brings trials and tribulations for saint and sinner alike. I’m just going to have to muddle through this mess, but I will get through it. Thank you, Asa. I’ve always thought you were an amazing person, but these last two days have shown me a completely different side of you, and I’m liking every aspect.”

  He grinned, reached out, and clasped her hand. “Me too. I’m loving this. Are you still interested in getting together later? I know it’ll be late. We can make it tomorrow if you want.”

  “Yes, it will be late, but I’m used to these ungodly hours when I play. If you’d like to come to my place after we’re finished, I’ll cook us breakfast.”

  Asa didn’t he
sitate, because he’d been aching to spend some private time with her. “Sounds great. I make a mean biscuits and gravy.”

  She giggled. “Yum. My omelets are good, but they end up looking very sad by the time I get them out of the pan.”

  “I’m not a food snob. Your plate presentation won’t turn me off.”

  “Good. Then it’s a date.”

  She gave him a hungry look as she ran her hand up and down his forearm, setting off a series of hot and cold flashes that most definitely had him turned on. “I can’t wait.”

  Asa leaned forward to kiss her, but a noise behind him grabbed his attention. He turned.

  The back door of the club opened and Chad strode out, pinning the two of them with a hot look. “There you are. Damn it, Chelsie, me and the boys have been scouring the place looking for you. We should have been into the third set five minutes ago.”

  “Fine. I’m coming,” she replied in a starch tone. To Asa she said, “I’ll see you later.”

  Asa nodded and watched her pass Chad and enter the building. When she was gone, the human walked up to him and said, “I suspect she told you what happened tonight.”

  “Yes, and she’s none too happy about it.”

  “That doesn’t matter. She’ll get happy. I know Chelsie far better than you ever could. She may be mad at me right now, but she’ll come around. If you do anything to sabotage this deal or my relationship with Chelsie, I will kill you. Chelsie’s mine and always will be.”

  Asa studied him for a few moments before he replied. There was a wildness in Chad’s eyes he’d seen many times in his career, and Asa knew he gazed into the eyes of a psychopath. In the mere twenty-four hours he’d known the human, Chad had displayed every sign of a narcissist with psychotic tendencies. Chelsie’s repeated rebuffs to his attentions proved he couldn’t adequately judge reality from fantasy.

  Fear swamped him, not for himself, but because he could snuff the man’s life before his next breath should he be so inclined. This man posed a serious danger to Chelsie. The thought of her on the road traveling with him at some point sent ice coursing through his veins. Damn it. This bastard was the last thing she needed in her life right now.

  To the human he said, “If you hurt Chelsie in any form or fashion, I promise you won’t live long enough to execute that threat.” Asa grasped hold of his sick, poisoned mind and allowed him to see what he ached to do to him in this moment, which was to rip out his throat with his fangs, toss him on the ground, and allow his disgusting blood to pool on the asphalt beneath his miserable body.

  When Asa mentally released him, Chad gasped, stumbled backward, and glared at him with horror. “What the hell are you?”

  “Your worst nightmare if you even cause Chelsie to frown. Now go back to your guitar, little man, before I do what you just saw in your head.”

  Fear and confusion blanched the human’s features. Coward that Chad obviously was, he ran back into the building, the door slamming behind him. Asa had exposed himself for vampire and knew it probably wasn’t wise, but humans who experienced something beyond their five senses generally found reasons to dismiss the event. However, with a human possessing a fractured mind, there was no telling the conclusions someone like that might draw.

  Well, if necessary, he’d wipe the episode from the man’s mind, but for now he intended to let fear marinade in him, in hopes it would keep Chelsie safe.

  Chapter 7

  “Your place reflects you, Chelsie. It’s very warm and inviting,” Asa said as he followed her into her apartment and glanced around.

  “Thanks.” Chelsie gave him an appreciative smile and hung her purse and car keys on the appropriate hooks in her foyer.

  Asa’s compliment made her happy, but chaos was having a field day with her emotions. Here she was, completely alone with Asa, something she’d yearned to experience for months. Now that she had him to herself, she hadn’t a clue what to do with him. She knew if she allowed things to progress, something intimate would ensue, but at what level, she wasn’t sure. What she did need to be sure about was letting him know where she stood on casual sex.

  He obviously sensed her unease and smiled. “Are you hungry? I’ll cook us breakfast if you’ll show me to your kitchen.”

  That sounded like a perfect beginning to put nerves at ease. “Actually, I’m famished. Follow me.”

  A short time later, her refrigerator and cupboards had been ravaged of their contents and the two of them had made a major mess of her kitchen while preparing a breakfast fit for a small army. They’d never be able to eat it all, but Chelsie didn’t care about the excess food or mess. The last hour spent with Asa had been so much fun. She hadn’t thought about Chad once or that god-awful contract that would probably set her medical career back years. The same couldn’t be said about her cancer, but the never-ending headaches made it hard to forget. She couldn’t wait to get the date set for her turning.

  After they ate and did a little kitchen cleanup, they settled on her couch in the living room to watch a movie. “What’s your pleasure?” Chelsie asked as she scrolled through Webflix options with her remote. “Drama, action, romance? Plain TV or 3-D holomode?”

  “How about all of the above in 3-D?”

  His tone held a very seductive edge and gained her full attention. When she met his gaze, his amazing green eyes were smoldering with sensual intent. Chelsie sat the remote on the coffee table and faced him. “What did you have in mind?”

  “This and more.”

  Asa leaned in and meshed his lips to hers. Raw desire shot through her system equivalent to an intravenous dose of morphine—sweet, heady, and euphoric all at once. Her hands gripped his head, her fingers threading into his hair, which was tied into a short ponytail. She remedied that quickly, pulling off the band so her fingers could play with satin soft strands. He liked it, she could tell, because a sexy vampire growl rumbled deep in his throat. Another burst of lust exploded within her, unfurling through her extremities to pool deep in her belly.

  Chelsie knew vampire males usually made that sound when they were on the verge of biting or copulating. She had no doubt he wanted to move his mouth to her throat and bite, because he had to be as anxious as she to discover the truth.

  She broke the kiss and stared into his eyes. “Do it. Do it now. I’m dying to know, and I’m sure you are too.”

  He looked a little hesitant. “You know you’ll be immobilized for a bit. My venom.”

  Normally, Chelsie adored the fact that he was a gentleman, but right now she wasn’t looking for chivalry. “Oh, for God’s sake, Asa. Have I not passed every test you’ve given me on vampire mating rituals? I want to know as badly as you do if we’re true life mates. My heart is telling me I am. Let my blood prove it.”

  “If we’re not, where do we go from here?”

  She blinked at him because she’d never considered that option. Even though they’d only been in courtship mode for two days, Chelsie couldn’t imagine things being any different between them than they were right now—meaning primal lust exploding in both their beings, both anxious to touch and be touched, him anxious to taste her, and she headily excited to donate. A vampire bite could be a very sensual, exciting event. Chelsie was starved for male attention. At the moment, she couldn’t even remember the last time she’d been kissed. No, she was doing this with him, and if they weren’t destined for one another, then she’d gained a wonderful friend.

  “Chelsie? You have to be prepared for that possibility.”

  She nodded. “I am, and I suppose if we discover this is merely lust driving us, we back off and become friends. I think that’s the wisest course of action.”

  “Just friends?”

  He looked a little disappointed, but this is where she needed to draw a line in the sand. “Yes, just friends. It can’t be more for a number of reasons. Besides, it wouldn’t be fair based on the way I already feel about you, Asa.”

  “You’re right of course. So if the outcome dictates friend
ship, friendship it will be.”

  “Agreed. Please proceed, because I’m beginning to get very nervous.”

  “Me too. Come here.” Asa pulled her onto his lap, then began to kiss and nuzzle her neck with his lips. Her pulse went wild, exactly his intent, she suspected, when seconds later she felt his fangs puncture her skin. There was a momentary stab of pain, and she gasped, but in the next moment it was gone, replaced by a weird lethargy. Then she lost all muscle control, and her arms fell to her sides, dangling.

  Vampire venom had the same effect on a body as certain anesthesia drugs—the body couldn’t move, but the person could feel everything, and the mind functioned clearly. Logically, she should have been terrified to have absolutely no control over her body, but she wasn’t at all. She trusted Asa that much.

  Lust began to pump through her system, the intensity beyond anything she’d ever experienced. She began to moan and make sexual noises that would have embarrassed her had she not been in such thrall. She realized instantly that the lust wasn’t just hers. She felt his too!

  Without warning, his thoughts and emotions began to pour into her mind, merging with hers, causing a wild, ferocious throbbing in her core.

  In her mind, she saw them making love on a huge bed in a room she’d never seen before. At some point, he stopped drinking from her and began to kiss her as the intimate mental connection went on. The things she witnessed him doing to her next were definitely not her thoughts. They were too starkly sexy for her imagination—so deliciously wicked.

  A vicious, wanton tension began to build inside her body. She began to pant, her heart racing out of control. It was as if they were there in that room physically, and the experience was mind-altering.

  Asa braced himself over her, and they were naked, joined physically in the missionary position. Very slowly he entered her then pulled back a bit so he could play with her breasts. He massaged them, kissed them, suckled her nipples until she was on the verge of shouting for him to fuck her hard and fast so she could get release.