by J C Gordon
“How old are you, Caleb?” she asked, her voice coming out sounding hesitant. She felt and heard him suck in a deep breath before he slowly released it and kissed the top of her head.
“I was twenty eight when I was turned to the life of a vampire,” he answered slowly. “That was over two millennia ago, Annie.”
Two thousand years! She had expected maybe two centuries or a little longer but over two thousand years old? That was totally mind blowing. “Wow, that’s pretty old,” she managed to get out and was pleased to hear only a light trace of shock in her voice. “I must seem like a child to you.”
His chest rumbled as he chuckled into her hair and dropped another quick kiss on the top of her head. “Oh no, you feel like all woman to me, my precious one,” he laughed throatily, his large hand slipping inside the comforter to cup her right breast firmly and give it a rough caress.
She let out a little moan of appreciation and then a deep sigh of disappointment when he removed his hand and tucked the comforter securely around her again. She could feel his hardness pressing against her bottom and she knew he wanted her again. She wished he would just take her and ravish her until she screamed his name in ecstasy. Her stomach rumbled and she groaned with embarrassment when he laughed.
“I know what you want,” he whispered against her ear, “and I know what you need. Go and have a shower while I fix you some food. I’ll satisfy your other hunger after you have eaten.” He nipped her earlobe lightly and pushed her from his lap so he could slide his jeans and shirt on. He really wanted to join her on the bed and satisfy both of their needs, but she required food and he was determined that he was going to provide for her.
Caleb left the bedroom and headed downstairs and into the large kitchen. It was one of the very few, ultra-modern rooms in the mansion. It was all stainless steel appliances and shiny white cupboards with black, granite work surfaces. Along the nearest wall to the doorway was a large wooden oak table with four oak chairs around it.
Despite being a vampire and not needing to eat human food, he used the kitchen daily. His people enjoyed drinking most beverages and his weakness was coffee. He loved the taste of the rich, bitter liquid and had a state-of-the-art coffee machine which made every type of coffee imaginable. He smiled happily as he moved to the machine and started to make a cappuccino and a mocha. Rhianna had opted for a mocha earlier when they had been waiting for the real estate agent to arrive to show them the properties she had short-listed.
He frowned suddenly and stopped making the coffees. He should probably cook first, that would probably take the longest time. It was a bit weird having to think about things so carefully.
He headed to the refrigerator and was glad he had brought in some human food. He had done so on impulse after speaking with Jared this morning, just in case Rhianna came over and he needed to feed her. He pulled out the two steaks and wrinkled his nose. He could probably eat his ‘blue’. It would be a bit more palatable.
However, Rhianna probably wouldn’t be too impressed with watching him eat a steak swimming in blood. It would doubtless put her off her own food. Rolling his eyes, Caleb grabbed his newly acquired cookbook and hunted out the steak recipes. He quickly settled on peppered steak. The burgers earlier were peppered and she had seemed to enjoy hers immensely, so she should like peppered steak.
He was soon lost in the new intricate art of creating a meal. He was surprised to find he was actually enjoying the experience and put it down to his desire to cater to his woman’s human needs. Taking care of her made him feel warm inside and he was soon serving up peppered steak and fries with a green, leafy, side salad to go with it along with crusty garlic bread and the hot coffees he’d started preparing earlier.
He set the plates on the dining table and smiled proudly. He had even managed to get the dishes to look exactly as they did in the cookbook. He hoped that was a good sign and her dinner would taste exactly the way it should.
~~~~~
Rhianna showered as quickly as she could, taking care not to get her hair wet. She didn’t know if Caleb had a hairdryer and all their exercise had made her famished. She dressed quickly and tried to remember the route back down to the lower floor. She hadn’t been paying that much attention on the way up, but after a few false starts, she finally found the stairs and hurried down them towards the wonderfully delicious smells coming from the kitchen.
She stopped in the doorway and stared in surprise at Caleb sitting at the huge dining table sipping at a cup of coffee while he waited for her to appear. There was a feast on the table and she quickly noted he had cooked for himself as well as her.
“You didn’t need to do that, Caleb.” A small smile tugged at her lips as she slid into the place that was patently meant for her. She saw him frown quickly, his eyes dropping to the plates on the table.
“The food isn’t to your taste?” he asked starting to rise. “I can make something else.”
Rhianna reached out and stopped him by placing her hand on his. “The food is amazing, Caleb.” She smiled to reassure him. “It looks and smells heavenly and my mouth is watering to taste it. What I meant was, you didn’t need to prepare a plate for yourself. It really won’t bother me at all to eat alone.”
Caleb relaxed and smiled at her, twisting his hand so he could capture her delicate one in his and raise it to his lips for a quick kiss. “I want to eat with you, Annie.” His breath whispered across the back of her hand and he inhaled deeply of her wonderful sweet scent. He did truly want to eat with her, even if it had no taste to him.
She laughed and pulled her hand from his so she could reach for a slice of garlic bread. She loved garlic bread and was a little surprised it was on the menu. “Garlic?”
His face broke into a wide smile and he took a slice of the bread too. “Myth.” Caleb bit into the pungent smelling bread. He chewed slowly as he watched her enjoy her own bread with obvious pleasure on her face. He tried hard to see the appeal of the garlic bread but it did nothing for him, still he ate it anyway.
At least his coffee erased the pungent taste from his mouth. “Most of the things you’ve seen and read about vampires are nothing but myths, Annie. We have to let you humans feel safe by ingraining our immortality with ‘get out’ clauses like garlic and silver and holy water, not to mention the old sun burning us to a crisp and a stake through the heart turning us to ash. Humans would never be able to sleep at nights if they didn’t have the comfort of believing they could kill us so easily.”
His tone was matter of fact, with a large hint of amusement in it. Rhianna watched his face as he spoke and literally answered a large portion of the questions she was dying to ask him. “You can’t die at all?”
“Everyone can die, Annie.” Caleb’s tone was low. “Some of us can just live a bit longer than others. If we are burned badly enough, it can kill us or if someone takes our heads, we will die. We naturally try our hardest to avoid those circumstances.” His smile was wry as he watched her assimilate his words. He really wished she would just eat her food and not ask the one question he wasn’t ready to answer.
She seemed to consider it, he could almost see her mind whirling as she debated internally whether to ask, and then she appeared to come to a decision and she picked up her knife and fork to cut into her steak.
They ate in a companionable silence. Caleb managed to eat most of the steak before his iron control finally rebelled, and he set his utensils on the plate before rising to make another coffee. He emptied his plate into the bin and set it in the sink before crossing back to watch Rhianna finish her meal.
“Will you stay with me tonight, Annie?” He didn’t want her to leave. He wanted to lie and watch her sleep, to listen to her deep even breathing as she rested at his side. He wanted to wake up in the morning with her lying beside him in his bed so he could slowly kiss her awake and make sweet, passionate love to her again.
“I can’t, Caleb,” her tone was regretful. “I need to get home soon. Millie will start t
o worry and I don’t have any clothes to change into anyway. It’s not that I don’t want to because I do want to stay. I just need to be slightly better prepared for staying over.”
He nodded his understanding but he wasn’t happy about it. Now he had found her he never wanted to let her go. She belonged to him. She belonged with him forever but he couldn’t push her into anything too quickly. He had to give her time to become used to him, to want to be with him the way he wanted to be with her.
Rhianna could see his disappointment. His gentle smile didn’t quite reach his eyes but he didn’t protest her decision, and if she hadn’t already been in love with him, she knew she would have fallen in love with him that very instant. She gave him a big smile and reached over to take his hand in hers. “Take me home now,” she smiled. “I have a couple of things I need to do, but I’ll come back later tonight and stay with you.”
Caleb’s face lit up with such joy she was glad she had changed her mind. He squeezed her hand gratefully and tugged her from her chair and into his lap. “Thank you, Annie,” he sighed, burying his head in the crook of her neck, his hard lips whispering gently across her shoulder. She fit so perfectly in his arms, her skin tasted so wonderful against his lips. He nibbled at the spot where her shoulder joined her neck and she moaned with pleasure.
“Come on, the sooner I take you home the sooner you can come back to me, sweet Annie.” He smiled raising his head and standing up, his arm steadying her as she slipped from his lap onto her feet. He bent his head and kissed her with a deep need, his body craving hers badly. Soon she would be back in his arms and in his bed. He was content to let her go for now knowing she would be back before too long.
He was surprised when she asked if she could take the property lease home with her. He had forgotten all about it. “I don’t suppose there’s any chance you will let me give you the shop?” he asked with a smile. “Now that we’re a proper ‘item’?”
She laughed and shook her head. “Not a chance and don’t even think about trying to get arrogant about it. You are not in the bedroom now, mister.”
He laughed at her sass and then had to kiss her one more time. She was just so adorable he couldn’t keep his lips from hers. It was Rhianna who ended the long, slow, kiss that had them both breathless by the end of it.
“Take me home, Caleb,” she breathed against his mouth, her lips curving in a little smile when he protested her withdrawal. “I’ll be back so much quicker if you stop messing about.”
Groaning he rolled his eyes and grabbed her hand, practically running out of the house with her as she laughed loudly.
CHAPTER eleven
Rafe lay quietly, feigning sleep on the large bed in Aaron’s guestroom. He had been pretending to be asleep for the last few hours, wanting to alone, and shunning contact from Aaron and his Alpha, who kept stopping by to see how he was. Their concern grated on his nerves.
Why they even gave a damn about him was a mystery. He didn’t deserve their concern or their pity. The vampire had been so right about him, he was a bastard. A cold heartless bastard who had broken his sister’s heart and then allowed himself to be persuaded out of going to her time and time again.
The pain inside him cut deeply. He wanted to go to Annie, to look after her, protect her and hold her as he had done for so many years. The pack wouldn’t let him. His Alpha wouldn’t let him.
The pack crowded him. They were always there flaunting their nakedness and lust, battling each other with sharp bloodied claws and hellish teeth. The scent of blood sickened him. The violence sickened him. The lust sickened him. It was all around him and it was deep inside him.
His wolf revelled in it even as his human side cried out against it. His dual nature ripped him apart inside until he was screaming silently in his head. Only when he was with Annie did the terrible duality ease and he could find some small measure of comfort from the pain.
This life wasn’t for him. He wasn’t a wolf and he could never be one. The violence made his soul scream in agony and he longed for the escape from his endless suffering. He had to get away from the pack but where would he go? If he went to Annie, Jared would only come looking for him and there was the chance his sister would not be able to come to terms with what he now was.
He could run away from the wolves but he would never be free of them, his wolf would always be there inside him clawing to get out. Would his need to suppress his wolf cause him to go insane? Would the wolf break free and subjugate his human side, turning him into a rogue like the man who had done this to him? The thought of that happening terrified him. He didn’t want to hurt anyone.
Rafe sighed and shifted on the bed, making the appropriate sleepy movements a person made, just as Aaron popped his head around the door to check on him again. He settled down as if going back into his deep sleep and waited until his friend left.
He had made up his mind. He knew what he was going to do. He rose stealthily from the bed and stripped off his clothes. Naked, he pried the window open and slipped silently from the wooden house. He shifted as he jumped and carefully kept his mind blank so Jared wouldn’t sense him.
He took off into the trees and began to run as fast as he could. He knew it wouldn’t be long before they noticed him gone. Aaron’s frequent checking had become shorter and shorter in interval and he knew he had little time to get his head start on his Alpha. He flew through the trees, his one goal firmly in his mind. He was going to end this torment finally.
He heard Jared roar into his mind and he felt the crushing weight of the Alpha’s command pressing down on him. “Stop, Rafe!” Jared bellowed, but Rafe shook his head knowing he could shake the command off. He’d done it once before and he could do it again. Nothing was going to stop him. Nothing!
He broke through the trees at full speed, seeing the open tarmac in front of him. He prayed for a car, any car to come speeding down the road towards him. The pack was behind him, they were all trying to crowd into his head trying to pull him back to them. He howled an agonised sound and shot into the road just as a car barrelled towards him.
“Yes!” he howled triumphantly as the speeding hunk of metal raced towards him just as Jared and the pack hurtled out of the trees. Only a few more moments and his torment would be over. A car had ended the rogue’s life and so a car would end his and he would finally be at peace.
“No!” Jared roared in anguish as he read the full intent in Rafe’s mind. “Rafe, no!”
~~~~~
The wolf appeared from nowhere and it was only Rhianna’s careful speed and quick reflexes, which helped her stop before she hit it. The squeal of protesting tires screeched through the night as she performed her first emergency stop ever and her car halted mere inches from the large brown wolf in her headlights.
Shaking and white faced, she stared into the big brown eyes of Wolfie as her heart hammered a staccato beat in her chest. Her fear turned to uncontrolled rage, as she fumbled for her seatbelt, yanking it undone, and opening the car door. She stumbled out on shaky legs, her breath coming in short, sharp pants.
“You fucking idiot!” she screamed at the wolf, her fury spurred on by the adrenaline coursing through her veins. “You stupid fucking animal! Are you out of your mind? I could have killed you! Fuck, you could have killed me! I could have lost control of the car and crashed into one of those trees. What the fuck were you thinking, Wolfie?”
She was vaguely aware that she had most probably said the work fuck more times than she had ever said it in her life but her anger was at boiling point and she didn’t care if her language was vulgar. She had been in her own little world, happy to be returning to Caleb’s and the almost-accident had scared the life out of her.
Rafe stared at his sister in shock, her words piecing right through him as the enormity of what he had just done sunk in. He had wanted to be free from this life so badly he hadn’t stopped to think of the potential danger he would be putting the person who was driving the car in.
He had almo
st killed Annie, his baby sister! He threw back his head and howled his agony into the night. Once he started, he couldn’t stop and he howled repeatedly, his anguish more than he could bear.
The terrible agony from the wolf wrenched at Rhianna’s heart and her fury evaporated before he had howled the second time. She felt tears in her eyes as she ran to the huge wolf and threw her arms around his wide neck. “Wolfie,” she whispered. “Oh Wolfie, what is tearing you apart so badly? Please don’t cry my beautiful wolf. Please, Wolfie.”
The wolf howled mournfully and slumped to the ground in front of her, his entire body shaking wildly. Rhianna fell to her knees and tried to comfort the poor animal as the agonised sounds from him ripped deep into her soul. He was in so much pain, so much agony.
She heard a sound to her left and she looked up to see what looked like fifty wolves standing close to the grass verge, the large black one standing slightly in front of them. She stared into the deep blue eyes of the leader of the wolves and she felt her anger spark again.
“What have you done to him?” she screamed at Old Blackie. “Why are you doing this to him?” She didn’t know why she felt he was to blame for Wolfie’s pain but she just did. “Why aren’t you helping him?” she sobbed. “Make him stop hurting. Please!”
Rafe’s anguish was ripping through Jared just as much as it was ripping through Rhianna. The pain was filtering down to all of the pack, even the wolves with a lesser connection to the big man.
Jared couldn’t believe Rafe had tried to end his life. If anyone other than Rhianna had been travelling this road, then the gentle wolf would now be dead. He was sure of it. He pondered the coincidence of it being Annie who had been driving towards the tortured man in the road. Was this a sign of some kind?
He turned away from them and looked at his pack. He had to protect them at all costs. Personally, he would trust the petite redhead with their secret but it wasn’t a decision he could make alone, even as Alpha.
