I changed the closed sign to open while admonishing myself for my behavior. Nico was an attractive man, but I had been the one to start putting lips in places they shouldn’t have been. I gave myself a second to calm down, but my skin still felt hot. I marched to the little bathroom in the hallway, nervously tucking a little pen behind my ear. I splashed water on my face and saw that my hands were shaking just a little. I didn’t understand the new emotional roller coaster I was on and it showed.
Feeling as if I was finally back to normal after a few minutes of deep breathing and continuously splashing cold water on my face, I walked to my office and sat at the front desk. I’m sure it was supposed to be a receptionist’s desk, but I couldn’t afford a receptionist. Normally when clients came in, they asked to speak to the owner and I tried to pretend that it wasn’t awkward when I told them I was the owner and then led them to my real office in the back.
I was busy trying to make changes to my website, hoping to drive more traffic to it and increase my business when I heard the little bell dingle and I looked up. Nico walked into my office and I immediately dropped my hands from the keyboard.
“Are you following me or something?” I said instantly and then felt I came across rude. That hadn’t been my intention. I needn’t have worried though because he looked unfazed by my unfriendly greeting.
“I stopped by earlier but you weren’t here. I’m actually here to hire you. Strangely enough, I have a stalker problem.”
I wasn’t expecting that and assumed he was joking. I wasn’t going to take the bait.
“Is this a ploy to get me to go out with you?”
“It’s funny that you can seriously ask me that question given that you were practically glued to me less than ten minutes ago. If I wanted to ask you out, I obviously wouldn’t need a ploy if the way you kissed me was any indication of your attraction for me.” He said all of this with a small smile on his face.
I blushed, knowing he was right. Our exchange was heated and I had wanted to do a lot more than go out with him. That much had been very clear.
I ignored his words and instead decided to treat him like any other potential client.
“Come back to my office. Let’s talk.” I led him to my recently organized office and took out a notepad and pen.
“No iPad or tablet?”
“I’m a little old-fashioned.” I said with a shrug.
“I like old-fashioned.”
I tried to ignore the way his smile made me melt a little and served to distract me completely. I shook my head as if to clear my thoughts and was about to speak again when he sat down and handed me a piece of paper with a name on it.
“So this person is stalking you?”
He nodded.
“So you know exactly who’s stalking you. Why do you need me? Why didn’t you take this to the police?”
Something wasn’t right, but I didn’t know what. I wanted additional information. “Furthermore, why would a guy like you need a private investigator to stalk a stalker? I felt your body. You obviously could handle yourself in a fight.” I couldn’t help adding, “You could just bash him a few good times and he would leave you alone.”
“I wish it were that easy,” he sighed sitting back in his chair across the desk from me. I couldn’t help but stare at him again. Besides his eyes, his features were unremarkable individually, but together he was a very attractive man. I wanted to taste him again.
I tried to get my mind back to the subject at hand and said, “Clearly, something more is going on here. What do you need a private investigator for?”
“I know who he is, but I can’t get close to him. It’s too dangerous for me. I need you to track him down for me. I need to know where he lives, what he does for a living. That type of thing.”
“Why?”
“I think he means to kill me.”
Chapter Four
I didn’t know why I said yes to him. I should have just said no. I was going to add that to my list of New Years’ Resolutions: Say no to sexy strangers who want you to do something ridiculous and dangerous. No matter how sexy they are.
Speaking of which, the sexy stranger, currently sitting in front of me, was no longer a stranger at all. I saw him at least twice a week when we met up in random places so that I could report my findings. His stalker seemed uninteresting---just an average Joe with an average job, but Nico was unconvinced.
Nico had asked me to join him for dinner that evening, I assumed for another debriefing, and although I thought it wouldn’t be the smartest idea given his stalker, not to mention not wanting to blow my cover, I had given in. Unfortunately, I wasn’t having a good time. Nico’s mind was clearly elsewhere.
“How’s your food?” He asked when the silence had stretched to an uncomfortable level.
“Good. How’s yours?”
“Delicious.” For some reason our conversation was stilted. I didn’t know why. It could have been because he seemed distant tonight. We had gotten to know each other somewhat over the past two weeks. Normally when I get a new client, I don’t just spend time finding out all I needed to know about the target, but also everything that I needed to know about the client. It made my job easier. I hadn’t learned intimate details about Nico and the Internet hadn’t been much help. I knew he was originally from a small country in Eastern Europe. I knew that he had never been married and he was an antiques dealer. He maintained a shop in the city, but mostly dealt with high-profile buyers over the phone. He travelled a lot for work, constantly collecting rare pieces to sell at extremely high prices, but besides his career highlights, I knew barely anything else.
I had wanted to impress him tonight, even though it wasn’t a date so I had slid on a deep V-neck dress in a dark candy apple red. I also wore heels and I never wore heels. They made my shapely legs look great though, so I sacrificed comfort for beauty. It was only one night. Nico had looked impressed when I showed up, but after a few soft words in greeting, he had gotten quiet and I sat there playing with my hands.
“So tell me about yourself Lexa? You know so much about me already and I know nothing about you.”
“You don’t need to know anything about me. I just work for you.”
He shook his head, “I would like to know more about you. I apologize for being so distracted tonight. I have a lot on my mind.”
I nodded in understanding, “What do you want to know, Nico?”
“Everything.”
I laughed and then saw that he was serious. I was immediately nervous again, “This isn’t a date.”
“Oh really? I couldn’t tell. Do you always show up to business meetings outside your office scantily clad?”
I blushed.
“I love your complexion. I especially love the way it tells on you whenever I say something that turns you on.”
I sputtered, “What makes you think you turn me on?”
“Your nipples are hard right now.”
I looked down at my dress and cursed myself for not wearing a bra. I moved to cover my nipples now pushing against the thin fabric, by bringing my arms up and close together. That didn’t work. Not that it mattered because he moved my arm away instantly and said, “Don’t cover up. I like to look at you. Truthfully, I spent some time tonight just thinking about how they would look. And of course, I want to know how they would feel inside my mouth.”
I sucked in a breath and he leaned forward and trained his beguiling eyes on mine. “Don’t tell me you haven’t thought about us together.”
“You’re my client.” I managed to whisper, my mouth felt dry and I could barely get out the words.
“I would rather be your lover.” He said darkly and I felt my pulse quicken.
My body suddenly yearned for his touch and he looked at the little vein on my neck and reached across the table to trace it with his fingers. I shivered.
“How about it, Lexa? Can I taste you again?” He said seductively.
Nico didn’t give me a chance to answer
instead he stood up and tossed a few hundreds on the table as if they were ones and stretched his hand out to me. I took it and he led me out of the restaurant.
The valet brought our cars around and I followed him in my car to a high-rise right outside the city. It was a gorgeous building. It was modern and minimalist with clean lines and the decor on the inside made me want to take it all home to decorate my own house.
I got into the elevator with him and leaned my body against his. As he pressed the button to the penthouse floor, he trailed his hands up my skirt and closed his fingers around the waistband of my panties, clearly not interested in waiting until we actually got into his apartment before taking me. I let him slide my panties down my legs and when he kneeled down and pressed his face into my mound, I had to steady myself against the walls of the elevator as the pleasure of his tongue licking my sex and his mouth kissing my clit made my entire body shake.
At one point, I grabbed his head and began to grind my sex against his face, loving the roughness of his beard against my own delicate skin and then he did something completely unexpected. He picked me up, still while kneeling, and spread my thighs wide apart. My thighs hung over his shoulders, my back was against the wall of the elevator and he moved my hips up and down on his face, easily supporting my weight as he brought my sex down on his face over and over, curling his tongue inside of me, stroking my g-spot, pressing his fingers into my thighs. I writhed against him, growing wetter by the second, just a lick or two away from orgasm.
I heard the bell of the elevator and instantly went to pull away, afraid someone would see us, but Nico wasn’t having that.
“You’re not going anywhere,” he growled against my skin. He didn’t get up off his knees. He didn’t let me down.
He held me there and continued to lick, suck, and kiss my sex with the elevator door wide open as I shuddered in ecstasy and shouted his name. When I found myself falling a bit to the side, unable to sit up after the force of my orgasm, he finally lowered my legs to the floor.
He then looked up at me and said, “I knew you would taste good.”
I shivered and knew by the wetness between my upper thighs that I was more aroused than I’d ever been.
“Come with me,” he said standing up finally and taking me by my hand. It was then that I noticed he had his own floor. No wonder he hadn’t felt the need to pause our shenanigans in the elevator.
He opened his door and I looked around. Even in the dark, I could see the plush carpeting in certain areas and then dark hard wood floors in others. One side of the room was wall-to-wall windows and there was a Jacuzzi and swimming pool just opposite of the windows. I spun around and looked at the rest of the penthouse. It was a study in old world meets modern luxury. It was tasteful, elegant, and clearly expensive. Maybe I should have raised my rates, I thought to myself with a smile on my face.
“What are you smiling about?” he asked coming up behind me and wrapping his arms around me.
He kissed my ear and brought my hips back to rub my behind against his erection, clearly straining at his pants.
He slowly turned me around and I placed a hand on his shoulder and took my time letting my hand trail down, clearly going towards his member when he looked up abruptly and before I knew it he threw me over the couch and I landed with a hard thud, hurting my elbow.
“What the f---?!” I began and then I started to scream as the windows of his penthouse exploded inwards and glass flew everywhere including on top of me.
I heard nothing but silence and then the words, “Come out, Nico. We got you now. Come out.”
I looked up and instantly recognized the man now standing in the shards of glass that littered Nico’s living room. He was dressed in all black paramilitary gear. It was the man who had been stalking Nico, William Guardian. Strangely instead of a gun in his hand, as I had been expecting, he carried a sword.
I looked around not seeing Nico and then I held in a scream as my eyes caught sight of the figure hanging upside down on the ceiling above me. It was Nico crouched like a spider, hanging there defying gravity, with a finger to his lips, willing me to be quiet.
I swallowed back a scream. Between the man with the sword and Nico hanging from the ceiling, I didn’t know what scared me more. Then the man stepped forward, “Come out now, or I’ll kill the girl.”
A sound that was more like a hiss came from the ceiling and I looked up to see Nico with teeth bared, long canines clearly displayed. I screamed as he moved as if at the speed of light across the ceiling and launched himself at William. I watched in horror as they hit the ground, struggling, William clearly unmatched as Nico picked him up and tossed him like a ragdoll through the one remaining window. He then moved so fast that I could barely keep up with him as he moved to pick up William and then held him over the ledge, legs kicking, by the neck.
“Put me down, you monster,” William said between gasps of breath.
“You’re the monster,” Nico growled back and tightened his hold on William’s neck.
I didn’t wait to see how the story ended. As soon as I was able to rip my eyes from what was going on in front of me, I willed my legs to move and I ran out of the apartment. I hit the call button for the elevator and sprung in just in time. I breathed a sigh of relief and then screamed when I realized I wasn’t alone in the elevator.
“Hello Miss Charles,” said the gaunt, greasy looking man standing in the corner that calmly took out a gun and pointed it at me.
“You’re coming with me.”
I was already shaking and I couldn’t say a word as I stared at the man and then the gun. I felt faint and sick to my stomach. A million questions were running through my head. What was going on? Most importantly, what was Nico? I didn’t believe in vampires. I didn’t believe in anything relating to the paranormal. I had to be going crazy, I thought to myself. That was the only explanation. Yet that clearly wasn’t true given that I was being ordered around at gun-point.
The man reached out and hit a button, the elevator began to descend, and he seemed frighteningly calm as he surveyed me, letting his eyes linger on my cleavage and the leg exposed by the dress. I felt dirty as he looked at me and he seemed to like to make me feel uncomfortable as he said with a lecherous smile, “So you’re the vampire’s girlfriend? Funny. You look so normal. Sweet even.” He then reached out to touch me. I slapped his hand away and he pressed the gun against my face.
I stared at him defiantly and he reached again for my blouse when the elevator’s lights flickered off and then back on and we came to an abrupt hard stop, which knocked the thug off balance and the gun out of his hands. That was all the time I needed as I kicked him in the crotch and he went falling down to his knees. Simultaneously I heard the sound of metal being shredded and looked up to see Nico ripping away the ceiling of the elevator, his teeth bared, his pupils now tiny black points in blood red eyes.
I started to scream and then felt faint as he jumped down into the cabin of the elevator.
“You really do attract trouble,” he said as he punched the guy in his face who still was kneeling holding himself. There was a sickening thud when Nico’s fist smashed into the man and I wondered if he would be waking back up as the guy slumped to the floor. My eyes were wide as Nico then turned his attention and blood red stare, back to me.
Chapter Five
“What? What are you?” I said backing away from him.
“That’s obvious.” He said not moving towards me.
Soon I was as far away from him as I could get in the confines of the elevator.
“That can’t be. Vampires,” I gulped when I said it, “Aren’t real?”
“So am I a figment of your imagination?”
“Yes.”
He laughed harshly which bared his teeth and I sucked in a breath and looked around for a weapon.
“Are you going to kill me?” I said facing him when I found nothing.
“Why would I do that?”
“Because you
’re a vampire!”
“Shh... Calm down. I like this building. I don’t want to get evicted.”
My mouth fell open. His main concern was being evicted when there was a man bleeding everywhere on the elevator floor still holding on to his privates. The man moaned a little and Nico kicked him in his side.
“What’s going on?”
“Apparently a war on my kind.”
“There are more of you?”
He nodded, “Not many, but yes. Definitely more.”
“Why are they trying to kill you?”
He looked sad for a second, “They’ve hunted my kind for a while, but for centuries we hadn’t heard from them. Suddenly they were back. I guess they had been underground. They’re more organized now. I needed your help to find out more about the one you saw following me. I couldn’t get close to them or locate information about them as you could. That’s why I hired you. I never thought this would happen though. I’m sorry for putting you in danger.”
I didn’t know what to say. His eyes started to turn back to normal and I found that I was no longer as afraid. I knew deep down that Nico meant no harm.
I reached a shaky hand out to touch his teeth, “Do you kill people?” I said softly, snatching my hand back.
He shook his head solemnly, “I can survive fine on animal’s blood.”
“And you can walk in the sunlight?”
“Yes, contrary to what Hollywood says.” The elevator began to lurch to one side and he sighed. “It’s time to go. I need you to trust me.”
He reached down and tossed the bleeding guy over his shoulder. “Like I said, I’m not a killer. Take my hand.”
I hesitated and then I felt the elevator slowly move under my feet and I grabbed Nico’s hand. Just in time, it seemed as the elevator disappeared from beneath my feet, moving fast, out of control towards the bottom floor and I began to scream. I found myself tucked in Nico’s side as he effortlessly leaped through the ceiling of the elevator and grabbed hold to the cables in the elevator shaft.
Cade (Alexander Shifter Brothers Book 2) Page 76
