by Jessica Sims
“Says the man with four-inch fangs.”
He grinned, and the fangs seemed even larger. “Two inches. But you flatter my ego.”
I flushed at the innuendo and turned away so I wouldn’t see him maul my wrist. “Just get it over with.”
He reached for my chin and turned me toward him, his expression puzzled, the hunger dilating his eyes abating a little. “Did . . . did I hurt you badly last time?” He looked miserable at the thought. “When you fed me?”
It was like having my wrist torn from my arm. I nodded, unable to stop the trembling in my body.
His free hand brushed over my cheek, and he looked at me tenderly. “And yet you would feed me again?”
I shrugged, averting my eyes. “You’d do the same for me.”
“I would,” he said, and the words seemed to have more weight than a simple meal should involve.
He snared me around my waist and tugged me close, and I fell forward into his arms. “It’s not supposed to hurt,” he murmured. “The bite is pleasurable.”
I said nothing, but my expression must have said volumes.
Michael tugged me closer. My breasts pressed against his upper body, and he released my hand. It instinctively went to the firm wall of his chest. His skin felt cool against mine but not unappealing. Instead, his hand slid to the collar of my shirt, tugging it away from my neck. “Do you believe me when I promise you that it won’t hurt?”
I froze, instinct and memory warring against the feel of Michael against me. My sex had started to throb with need, my nipples scraping against his chest, hard little pinpricks.
“Do you trust me?” he said.
My fingertips twitched against his chest, and then I nodded slowly.
He leaned in so close that I thought he might kiss me, but he just ran his lips over my jawline.
I shivered against him, my fingers curling just a little.
“The trick with vampires,” he said as he breathed against my throat, “is that our saliva is a bit of a wonder drug. It’s a coagulant and an aphrodisiac all at once.”
I stiffened in his arms. “Aphrodisiac?”
He pulled my hair away from my neck with one hand. The way he held it, I was forced to tilt my head a little, exposing my neck.
“Let me show you,” he said softly. He leaned in and licked my neck at the curve of my collarbone.
The sensation was ticklish and sexy and sent another pulsing flare to the junction of my thighs. That was nice, but it didn’t feel like anything special. “I’m not sure that I’m feeling anything. Maybe shifters are immune—”
“You’re not immune,” he said with a chuckle, and licked the same spot again.
“I still don’t . . . ohhh . . .” The spot he’d licked felt amazing. Tingly. Warm. Delicious. My sex suddenly felt hot and slick with need, and my nipples ached, they were so tight. I reached for him, tangling my fingers in his hair. “Oh . . . I see what you mean.”
He licked at my throat again, more languidly, and I couldn’t stop the moan that rose from my throat.
“We don’t drink from the wrist,” he said against my throat. “Too many delicate bones there packed close together. Not enough surface area. The neck is so much more pleasurable, wouldn’t you agree?”
My hips rose involuntarily, and I dimly realized that I was straddling him. Didn’t care. God, he felt good. My skin felt flushed and hot with need. “Oh, Michael.”
He groaned against my throat. “I love hearing you say my name, Ruby.” He drew in a ragged breath and then nuzzled at my neck once more. “I’m going to drink now, sweetheart.”
My body tensed a little at that, my heart fluttering with fear. Before I could protest, though, I felt his tongue press against my throat once more. Then there was a tiny pinch, and I felt his teeth sink into my throat, felt him pull hard, sucking at my blood.
God, it felt as if he’d thrust deep inside me. I whimpered, and my free hand went to my sex, finding it soaking wet and aching with need. This was such a bad idea, but I didn’t care. I rubbed myself as he drew from me, and I heard a low groan low in his throat. His fingers curled into the curves of my ass as he drank, and I moaned, needing more. Wanting more. My hand slid away from my sex, and I fumbled with the zipper of his pants. His cock was hot and hard under me, and when I ground my hips down on his, he thrust against me with equal heat. He wanted this, too. I didn’t care if it was just the aphrodisiac of his tongue or my own desperate, lonely need, but I needed him deep inside me.
“Ruby,” he whispered softly against my throat before sinking his fangs in again and drinking once more. He lifted his head, and I felt those long fangs slide free of my skin once more. “Are you sure—”
“Yes. I want you,” I whispered. I pushed at his head, encouraging him to return to my neck.
His tongue traced the spilled blood on my skin, licking it away, and then I felt his fangs return, felt his teeth sink deep.
I moaned. My fingers found the hard, velvety length of him. It sprang free from his trousers, and I felt his grip tighten on my hips. I wrapped my fingers around that hard length and sank down over him, my breath sucking in as he seated himself in my tight warmth. It had been a long time since I’d had sex, and he was big—had he always been that big? I whimpered again as his hips gave a jerky thrust and his tongue moved against my neck. I couldn’t tell if he was still sucking, but it didn’t matter. He was deep inside me. I rocked my hips, moaning at how good he felt filling me. My beloved Michael.
He thrust up into me, and I cried out at the delicious sensation. His tongue lapped at my neck as I leaned forward, brushing my nipples against his chest. His hands tugged me down hard every time he thrust upward, and I heard him whisper my name. I rode him, need overtaking me, until I was rocking atop him savagely, heading for a climax, his thrusts becoming just as frantic and jerky as my own. His fingers dug into my hips harder, pulling me down on him with each wild, rough thrust. Just when I was close to hitting the peak, he bit my neck once more. I cried out at the pure, piercing pleasure, my entire body stiffening, and felt him tense underneath me in orgasm. Waves of ecstasy rolled through me, exploding through my shuddering body, until I returned to earth and found myself panting, sweating, and weak in Michael’s arms.
His hands slid up my back, and he pulled me close for a long, hot kiss that tasted of my own blood, his fangs now retracted. I kissed him back, heat flaring anew as his tongue rubbed against my own. The kiss seemed to last forever, and he pressed repeated smaller kisses on my mouth as if he was unable to stop tasting me.
I suddenly thought about what we’d just done and flushed with embarrassment. We’d been reunited for a blink of an eye, and here I was climbing all over him like a jungle gym. Since I wasn’t a one-night-stand type, this might complicate things.
“Thank you, Ruby,” he whispered against my mouth, and pulled me down under the small shelter with him as he moved toward day-slumber.
Those three little words echoed in my head, taunting me, as Michael fell asleep.
Thank you, Ruby.
Thank you? As if I’d handed him a sandwich or something? I’d let him drink from me! We’d shared wild, orgasmic sex! And I got a pat on the shoulder and a thank-you?
Like a friend.
Chapter Five
I decided to sleep in my jaguar form so I would be ready for any surprises. When the sun was about to set, I scouted the area once again, looking for hints that the vampires would be back as soon as the sun went down. When I saw no traces of trouble, I headed back in, shifted to human, and demolished the rest of the food as I waited for Michael to awaken.
After we got out of there tonight, my life could go back to normal. Quiet job, quiet days, quiet nights alone. Normal and lonely. Michael would continue running, since the vampires knew he was in Fort Worth. He’d be gone again just when he was back in my life. Now, when I could date him. Could sleep with him. Could touch him and not worry about endangering others with my lust for him. I touched my mouth
, thinking of his kiss. My fingers strayed to my neck, where nothing indicated that I’d been bitten. He’d been right—it had been wonderful.
How many women had he bitten since we’d broken up? I hated that I even wondered, as if I had any claim on him. This was just a hookup with an old flame. I could blame it on the aphrodisiac, but the truth was, I’d wanted him and I’d taken him. Simple as that.
This evening when he awoke, his eyes were bright and his smile brighter. He looked over at me and reached his hand toward mine. “Ruby.”
I stood up, straightening my borrowed shirt. “No time for chitchat. We should get out of here while it’s still early. We can get a head start on the bad guys.”
Michael sat up, the expression on his face inscrutable. “We should talk—”
“Not right now,” I said in an exasperated tone. “Michael, please. I don’t want to live in this dusty old meatpacking plant forever.”
“Of course,” he said in an angry, stiff voice, clearly taking my actions as a rebuff.
And maybe they were. Friends didn’t get all sappy with friends after they had sex, right? I began quickly unbuttoning my shirt. “Where is your closest hideaway?”
“Southwest side of I-35. Other side of downtown. Not a great neighborhood, but that’s what makes it ideal for a hideout.”
“Okay, we’ll go there for now. Then we’ll decide what to do.” I took off the shirt and handed it back to him. This time, his gaze was carefully averted from my nakedness, and for some reason, that hurt. Why did sex have to ruin everything? “I’m going to go in jag form. You’re going to be my owner. I found a strip of fabric that can pass as a collar and some rope, so I’m going to be your exotic pet, all right?”
He frowned. “But that’s demeaning to you.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “It’ll give me a chance to protect you if I need to and allow me to use my animal senses. Plus, it’ll be easier than strolling through the street naked.” I dropped to my knees to change again.
“Ruby,” he began thoughtfully.
I shot back upright, my heart hammering with hope. Was he going to tell me how he felt? “Yes?”
He smiled at me thoughtfully. “Thank you. For everything.”
I could have cheerfully strangled him. I dropped back to my knees and began to shift.
—
People swerved off the sidewalk at the sight of my jaguar form. Michael just smiled and acted as if he always took a massive feline out for an evening stroll. I hoped the bright pink bow collar I’d fashioned out of discarded costume parts would alleviate some of the fear. It looked ridiculous, and I felt ridiculous wearing it, so I hoped it took away a lot of the scariness.
We turned down an alley, and I kept guard as Michael slipped a key from his wallet and then punched in a key code. The door clicked open, and Michael nodded at me. “Come on in.”
I quickly changed back to human form and followed him inside.
We entered a butcher’s shop, and my mouth watered at the overwhelming smell of meat. Even though it was put away in refrigerated cases, I could still smell it, the blood soaking the paper, everything. It was like walking into a buffet.
“It’s back this way,” Michael said, going behind the counter.
I stared up at the security cameras and crossed my arms over my breasts. “Are those going to be a problem?”
“Oh, uh.” He paused, scratching his head. “I guess they will be. Don’t worry. I’ll leave a note for the manager.”
“Won’t he wonder why you’re not on the camera and I am? Totally naked, I might add?”
“A long note,” Michael amended, then gestured for me to follow him. “Come on.”
Reluctant, I followed behind him.
Michael entered the meat freezer, and I tiptoed in behind him. He moved to the back of the freezer and began to run his hand along the back wall. I glanced at the gigantic sides of beef hanging from the hooks, the pork, the splayed racks of ribs. Wow. It all looked . . . juicy. The thought revolted me even as my stomach growled. My jaguar half wasn’t picky, but the human part didn’t like the thought of gnawing on raw meat.
“Here we go.” Michael’s hand found a seam in the metal wall, and he pushed at an invisible panel. The wall clicked and opened a crack, revealing a dark room on the other side. I followed Michael in and was surprised to discover that this was just a small antechamber, equally as cold as the meat freezer. The room was empty of everything but a windowless door on the far side and a numbered security panel set into the wall.
“The code is eleven twenty-nine,” he said, punching in the numbers. “Just in case you need to get back in while I’m unconscious.”
“Eleven twenty-nine? That’s my birthday.”
He glanced over at me, a hint of a smile flicking over his face. “Coincidence.”
Yeah. I gave his back a skeptical look as he turned toward the door. The panel beeped, accepting the code, and the door clicked, unlocking. Michael held it open for me.
If I was expecting something amazing on the other side, I was sorely disappointed. There was an easy chair, a flat-screen TV mounted on the wall, a game system on the floor below it, and a single bed on the far side of the room. The blankets were mussed, and the room was small, maybe twelve by eight feet across.
It wasn’t warm, either. I rubbed my arms, looking around. “This is your safe room?”
“One of several.” He moved forward, grabbing DVDs off the seat of the chair and placing them on a nearby rack. “I’ve been moving around in the hopes that Mariah would think I was gone and would get the picture, but she doesn’t seem to be paying attention.”
“She doesn’t seem to be very good at that,” I agreed, then rubbed my arms. “Clothes?”
He looked stricken. “None here. It’s a fairly new setup for me.”
I tried to ignore the chill. As a shifter, I was fairly immune to cold weather, but I was naked, and it felt a bit nippy even to my metabolism. “Mind if I get under your blankets, then?”
“Be my guest.”
I crawled under the covers and wrapped them around my body, noticing that his gaze followed me. “You hungry again?”
“I’m okay,” he said, too quickly. “You?”
“Hungry,” I admitted. “All that meat two rooms over isn’t helping.”
He grinned. “You like your meat raw?”
“Not that raw, but if I get hungry enough, it’ll do.”
He gestured back to the freezer. “There’s ready-made sandwiches out in the deli fridge.”
“Now you’re talking,” I said, smiling at him.
We retrieved a few sandwiches and another bottle of water, and I wrapped myself up in the blanket, crossing my legs and sitting up.
While I ate, he turned the easy chair toward me and watched as I devoured sandwiches. “You want my shirt again?”
“I’m good for now.” Plus, his shirt would smell way too much like him, and having it rub against my skin again might give me ideas. Time for a distraction. “So,” I said between bites, “you going to tell me your story?”
“My story?” He looked blank for a moment, then laughed.
He was so handsome that I stopped chewing just to stare at him, my heart pounding. That laugh brought back so many memories and filled me with intense longing.
“You mean how I got turned?”
Not trusting myself to speak around the knot in my throat, I nodded.
He raked a hand through his hair, and it stuck up. “Well. After I, uh, dropped out . . .”
When we’d broken up . . . I said nothing, letting the awkward silence fill the room. What could I say? Yeah, when you caught me banging that guy? And then you quit school?
“I decided that I should see the world,” he said. “Took my Pell Grants and decided to tour Europe.”
“Don’t tell me,” I said. “Transylvania?”
“Madrid, actually. I met a very lovely Englishwoman named Gemma who was touring the Continent. We took
to spending time together while I was in Spain. She was fun and carefree and loved to laugh. I needed that, back then.”
Fun and carefree English Gemma. I hated her. That bitch.
“I spent most nights drunk, trying to for—” He shifted in his seat and paused. “Well. I wasn’t in a good place, so I didn’t much care what happened to me. Gemma was a bit of a party girl and a drinker, so I partied and drank with her. One night, I was on a bender, and I passed out in her room early, skipping the party. When I woke up the next evening, I found out that she had turned me into a vampire.”
“Turned you against your will? That’s awful!” I immediately burned with hatred for her. That bitch.
“Well, she hadn’t meant to,” Michael said with a rueful, affectionate smile that made my heart thump with a different kind of beat—jealousy. “Turns out she’d been sipping from me here and there when we were necking, and I’d made her drunk. Too much alcohol in my blood, and she lost her inhibitions. When I passed out in her room, she’d been unable to resist and drained a bit too much. I was in danger of dying, so she turned me instead.”
“This is a pretty rotten story,” I told him. “Did you hate her?”
He shook his head. “Nah. She was truly apologetic. Anyhow, she took me under her wing and taught me how to survive as a vampire. Then, when I had the hang of things, she gave me a nice settlement and sent me on my way.”
“You should have staked her,” I muttered.
“It’s not like that,” Michael said. “I like being a vampire. The feeding’s tricky at times, but it’s opened up an entire new world that I didn’t know even existed. I have new abilities, and I’ve met fascinating people I would have never met otherwise. I don’t regret it.”
I regretted it for him, though. He should have been living in the suburbs by now, with 2.5 kids, a dog, and a cubicle job or something. “You didn’t stay with Gemma?”
He shook his head. “Not long. She didn’t want a partner, just a drinking buddy. We parted on good terms. After she left, I traveled through Europe and Asia, visiting some of the vampire havens along the way. After a couple of years of that, I got bored and decided I wanted to come back to the States. And since I’m new to the area, I joined the dating agency.” He shrugged. “It’s uneventful, I’m sorry to say.”
