At the sound of Nikki’s voice, Drew’s head snapped in their direction. He said one word that changed everything. “Molly.”
There was no hesitation; Nikki turned and sprinted toward the road leading to the front gate, moving with more speed than any human could possess. Of course, that made perfect sense now that he knew her real name. Without a moment’s hesitation, Isaiah took off after her.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Phoenix had no idea where she was running or how the hell she was going to get out of here. She still couldn’t believe Isaiah’s cousin, Drew, was also her old friend, Andrew. They were tucked in the middle of the canyon, and it wasn’t going to be as simple as just walking out the front gate. Turning to her left, she decided to try to lose them in the wooded area behind the house. Unfortunately, she only made it a short distance before Andrew cut her off. Spinning around, she slammed into Isaiah. His arms wrapped around her, and before she knew what was happening, she found herself over Isaiah’s shoulder and being carried back toward the house.
“Put me down, Isaiah,” she shouted. “I need to get away from you.”
“Not going to happen, Nikki, or Molly, or whatever your name is,” he replied in a quiet voice that clearly conveyed his anger.
“It’s Phoenix,” she said quietly.
“Like the tattoo,” Isaiah mused.
Andrew snorted beside her. It wasn’t until then that she realized he was walking right beside Isaiah. “Why would we believe that’s your name? You lied about everything else.”
“I had to lie to you, Andrew,” she insisted.
Andrew looked like he was going to snap at her, but then he let out a sigh. “Yeah, I get that. Neither of us was exactly honest with the other. Of course, you knew what I was because you’re a hunter,” he accused.
Isaiah suddenly stopped. “Why were you surprised that I’m a vampire? Come to think of it, how were you able to hide a hunter’s mark from me? I’ve examined every inch of your body.”
“It’s under the tattoo,” she explained. “The tattoo was done by a witch so other hunters wouldn’t be able to find me, but it also makes it impossible for me to recognize vampires.”
“That explains the tattoo parlor visit,” Isaiah muttered.
“You followed me?” she demanded, but he didn’t answer, just opened the sliding glass door and walked into the kitchen. Much to her mortification, there were people in the kitchen when Isaiah stalked in with her still slung over his shoulder. It was a miracle all of this hadn’t triggered a panic attack.
“Put me down, Isaiah,” she said as calmly as she could manage.
Isaiah snorted. “I’ll put you down once I get you alone.”
The people in the room seemed to be pulled from their stunned silence, and Phoenix heard a woman’s voice. Since Isaiah had stopped, she assumed the woman was standing in front of him.
“Put her down, Isaiah,” the woman ordered in a forceful tone.
“Get your wife out of my way, Justin,” Isaiah growled.
“Caitlin’s right. You need to put her down,” the guy she assumed was Justin agreed. “Roman’s going to be here any minute, and he’s not going to like what you’re doing.”
“What do you think I’m going to do to her?” Isaiah asked in a calm voice, but Phoenix felt the tension radiating through his body.
“You should borrow one of Justin’s paddles,” Andrew called out.
He was still standing just behind Isaiah, so Phoenix glared at him. “Stay out of this, Andrew.”
“Not gonna happen, babe,” Andrew replied with a smirk. “When you got knocked up with my kid, I earned the right to have some say in all of this, and I say my cousin should paddle your lying ass.”
“You got another woman pregnant?” asked a high-pitched voice.
“We don’t have a child together, Andrew,” Phoenix argued. “Could you please put me down, Isaiah?”
“No,” was his only reply.
“Isaiah, you can’t just carry her off like some caveman,” Justin told him in a very reasonable tone.
“Oh, please,” Caitlin said. “You’ve done it to me plenty of times. It must be a genetic defect you both share.”
“Just let him deal with his woman so we can figure this out, and he can try to get the footage from my father’s house,” Andrew suggested.
“It doesn’t look like she wants to go with him,” Justin added skeptically.
“Oh, she wants to go,” Andrew assured them with a humorless laugh. “Just let them work this out.”
“Fine,” Justin snapped. “You have ten minutes.”
“I’ll be down in half an hour,” Isaiah snapped back and stalked out of the room without waiting for a response.
Phoenix knew she should be terrified since she was a hunter in a house full of vampires. Instead, she felt mostly embarrassed about being carried off like this. She’d been tempted to insist that she stay there and clear some things up. The thing with Andrew’s son, she definitely needed to clear up, but Isaiah didn’t seem to be in the mood to listen, and it might be better if they talked alone first. There was this other annoying part of her that was turned on by Isaiah carrying her off. Phoenix was not the type of woman who liked dominant caveman types. At least, she hadn’t before Isaiah.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Isaiah’s mind was still reeling from the realization that Phoenix was a hunter. The fact that she’d not only slept with Drew, but she’d also had a child with him, should probably be bothering him, but it wasn’t. Actually, she’d told Drew they didn’t have a child together, and he was inclined to believe her, despite the fact that she’d lied about so many other things.
Phoenix remained silent while he carried her upstairs, which was probably a good thing since he wasn’t sure what to say just yet. He’d worked hard to get his life back in order after his breakdown. Phoenix had complicated things as a human, but he’d never have guessed she was the hunter Drew had wanted him to find. He’d found her all right, and despite everything going on, he was not giving her up.
“Isaiah, I can explain,” she began when they were almost at his room.
“Not yet,” he told her. “I’m not in any frame of mind for a civilized discussion at the moment.”
“Then why are we going up here if we aren’t going to talk?” she asked.
Isaiah opened the door to his room and set her on her feet inside his room before closing and locking the door. “The only thing I want to hear right now is you begging me to fuck you, because I need inside of you more than I need air.”
“Because you’re angry?” she asked.
Isaiah blinked before shaking his head. It was a struggle not to reach out and touch her when he needed to feel her close to him so much. “I’m not angry with you. Shocked by what I just learned? Yes, but I’m not angry. You being a hunter complicates and simplifies things at the same time. I’d already decided I couldn’t let you go, even if you were human, but now I don’t have to let you go. Before you argue with me about the trouble you’re in, I don’t care. Tell me you want me in you,” he commanded.
“Please fuck me, Isaiah,” she pleaded, and he couldn’t stop the guttural sound that came from the back of his throat.
That was all the encouragement he needed. Isaiah slammed his mouth down on hers. His tongue moved past her lips, sliding into her mouth. When she sucked on his tongue, his last thread of control nearly snapped. Lifting her from the ground, he pulled his mouth away.
“Wrap your legs around me,” he ordered, and groaned when she immediately complied. Then he walked her across the room and set her on her feet by his dresser, before stripping his shirt over his head. What he wanted to do next was rip her shirt from her body, but he controlled himself enough to slip it over her head and toss it on the floor with his, before undoing the clasp of her bra, stripping it off of her, and tossing it in the pile. Pulling a condom packet he’d grabbed on the way out of her apartment from his pocket, he tossed it on the dresser, be
fore kicking out of his shoes and stripping off his jeans and boxers, while Phoenix watched him with hungry eyes. The look on her face told him she was just as lost as he was, and it made him desperate to get her out of her remaining clothes.
“Take them off,” he ordered, pointing to her pants, and again she immediately complied, sliding out of her shoes and then removing her jeans and the sexy scrap of lace that was barely covering her. When she was naked, he moved forward and lifted her onto the edge of his dresser.
Phoenix let out a little squeal and wiggled around. “It’s cold.”
Running his finger around her opening, Isaiah shook his head. “No, it’s hot. This is all for me, isn’t it?” he asked, bringing his finger up to his lips to taste her.
“Yes, it’s all for you,” she admitted.
Isaiah groaned, sliding on the condom. He positioned himself at her entrance before pressing all the way into her welcoming body. A shudder ran through his body when she tightened around him, and he knew this wasn’t going to be sweet or gentle. That wasn’t what either of them needed.
“You. Are. Mine,” he ground out as he slammed into her.
“Yes, I’m yours,” she panted out as she stroked his hair. One hand was behind her on the dresser so she could arch up to meet his thrusts.
His thrusts were hard and fast. If it weren’t for her whimpers and the way her hand had moved from his hair to claw at his ass, he might be worried that he was hurting her. Her tight body hugged his dick like a glove, and soon, it began to pulse around him as her whimpers turned to screams.
“You feel so perfect,” he ground out.
Phoenix arched in a way that thrust her breasts forward. Slowing his pace, he reached forward to roll one of her nipples between his finger and thumb. Watching him with hooded eyes, Phoenix clawed at his ass again. He knew she wanted him to move faster. He knew she needed it just as much as he did, but he was too close to coming, and he wasn’t ready for this to end, so he continued to grind against her with every slow thrust.
“Faster,” Phoenix finally begged, and he pinched her nipple in response. She reacted just like he’d expected her to by gasping and moaning.
“Move your hips against me,” he ordered. “Make yourself come for me.”
Phoenix moaned and began to move, rolling her hips. Isaiah watched her face, overcome with arousal, as she worked toward her orgasm. Her body was gripping his dick so tightly, he was hanging on by a thread.
Finally, Phoenix tightened even more as the spasms began. “Isaiah!” she screamed, coming hard around him.
The sound of her screaming his name stripped away the last of his control, and Isaiah set her on her feet before turning her to face the dresser. “Bend over,” he told her and growled when she thrust her perfect ass out at him. Not able to wait a second longer, he slammed into her from behind, enjoying the little spasms that started in her body all over again. He thrust into her body over and over again, gripping her hips to hold her where he wanted her.
Finally, Isaiah exploded inside of her body.
Pulling out of her wasn’t easy when he was already getting hard again. Reluctantly sliding out of her warmth, he tossed the condom in the trash next to the dresser and turned Phoenix in his arms to kiss her softly. After savoring her sweet mouth, he lifted her in his arms and carried her to his bed, wondering if he’d really make it back downstairs in half an hour.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Lying on Isaiah’s bed, Nikki watched as he stretched, sweat glistening on his skin. Basking in the afterglow, she could almost pretend all of her problems were over. She could almost believe a future with Isaiah was possible, but the rational side of her brain wouldn’t allow her to fall into that trap. Most would consider any relationship between them unnatural. There was also Andrew to consider. The cousin Isaiah hated, just happened to be her old friend—a friend she’d slept with. There had never been anything even remotely romantic about their relationship, but it had to be weird for Isaiah.
“Give me a minute to take my contact lenses out,” Isaiah said before disappearing into the adjoining bathroom. When he returned, his eyes were an icy blue. Had she seen those eyes the first day he’d walked into the coffee shop, she would have recognized him as a vampire. Those eyes were the exact shade as Andrew’s. Now, looking at Isaiah, she could easily see the family resemblance. It was funny how a few minor changes could make someone appear so different.
“You dyed you hair,” she remarked.
He nodded. “I needed to look different for the job, just in case anyone recognized me. I’m not exactly famous, but I’m fairly well-known in corporate security.”
“How will you handle things with your company when you reach the point where people notice you don’t age?” she asked, curious about how vampires dealt with that sort of thing. Hunters and breeders dealt with similar issues, but they tended to be employed in fields where they could easily remain in the background, or where they only dealt with others of their kind. “I’d assumed you were in your twenties, but I guess you could be any age.”
“I’m quite a bit older than my twenties,” he admitted before grabbing a pair of glasses from one of his drawers. “The situation hasn’t come up for me before because I was mostly in the background. In the early stages of my business, I had others do all the face-to-face meetings, and the rumor mill helped me explain my lack of public appearances. Somehow, word got around that I was an underage hacker from a wealthy family. It wasn’t until recently that I started physically breaking into buildings. Before that, it was just hacking into their systems. I suppose, when the time comes, I’ll just move into the background again. I’ll miss breaking into buildings, but the hacking is fun, too.”
Dropping down onto the bed beside her, Isaiah reached out and caressed the lines of her tattoo, which was still a little tender from her recent touch up. Spelled ink was like acid when it was first put in, and it burned for days. Oddly enough, it looked fully healed almost immediately.
“Why’d you decide to move on to breaking into buildings?” she asked.
“I wanted a challenge,” he admitted. “There was this part of me that was bored with what I was doing. How old are you?” he asked, studying her for a moment.
It was a valid question since hunters, much like vampires, didn’t age. A hundred years from now, she’d still look the same. “Twenty-two.”
“God, you’re young,” Isaiah murmured.
She said nothing because it was a reminder of how awkward their situation had just become. That morning, Isaiah wouldn’t have been surprised to hear she was twenty-two. She had figured Isaiah was in his late twenties and was just one of those rare people who’d achieved success early. He actually looked younger than that, but she knew he couldn’t be. Now, she had no clue how old Isaiah was.
“We should go back downstairs.” Isaiah let out a regretful sigh. “As much as I want to keep you in bed all day, I need to help Drew with the security footage from his father’s home.”
Phoenix stood and began gathering her clothes. “Was he robbed?”
Isaiah had just slipped his pants on, and he hesitated. “He was murdered,” he finally replied.
“Murdered? Poor Andrew! This must be really hard on him. He talked about his father a lot, and I know he loved him, even though they weren’t very close.”
Isaiah gave her a sad smile. “Yeah, he’s had a lot happen lately. Don’t get me wrong. Drew is not one of my favorite people, but he’s family, and he’s kind of been growing on me, as scary as that is to admit. I guess that’s a good thing since you’re friends and we’re together now.”
She let out a defeated sigh. “This situation is a huge mess. I’m a hunter and you’re a vampire. I shouldn’t even be here.” Pausing, she stared at him helplessly, knowing that what she said was true, but not wanting to leave.
He shrugged. “But you are here, and we’re going to figure this out. Now, I get why you were so secretive about what’s going on with you, but I nee
d to know why you’re running. I’m pretty sure it has to do with Hunter, but I can’t help you unless you tell me everything.”
“You don’t have to help me,” she told him, because helping her was dangerous.
“Yes, I do have to help you,” he told her. “I’m not letting you go.”
“Why?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Because I don’t want to let you go.”
“After only a few weeks of awkward flirting?” she teased, not quite ready to admit she felt the same.
Isaiah moved toward her and put one finger under her chin to tilt her head so he could kiss her. It was the briefest of touches—a taste of his lips that left her wanting more.
With his mouth so close, his warm breath caressed her lips when he spoke. “I’m much older than you are,” he began and then flashed a sheepish smile. “I had no idea how condescending that would sound until the words left my mouth.”
She laughed because she liked this side of Isaiah best. While she found him sexy as hell when he was confident and in control, he was irresistible when he was awkward. “Yes, that was not one of your best starts, but I get that you’re trying to tell me you’ve lived longer and you’re wiser than I am when it comes to relationships.”
Isaiah laughed. “That is definitely not what I was going to say. It’s just that I’ve lived all this time, and I’ve never felt this way about anyone. You may not have noticed this, but I’m kind of nerdy.”
“You hide it so well,” she teased.
Isaiah chuckled. “I’m not comfortable with people, but I am with you. Most days, I’d rather just mess around on my computer, alone. I’m too socially awkward to even get into online gaming that involves communicating with others. If I go to a club with people, I play on my phone the whole time because I can’t get away with bringing a laptop.”
She put a hand up to stop him. “I get it. You’re the ultimate sexy nerd.”
“Sexy nerd?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
Vampire in Geek's Clothing (Psy-Vamp Book 6) Page 9
