He groaned into her mouth as electricity sparked between their bodies, trying to close any gaps. He curved one hand around her ass, cupping the firm flesh and pulling her into him. Then he slid the other hand up her body and into her thick, black hair, tugging on it as he pressed her head to his.
Her hands clawed at his chest then eventually made their way to his back, running over the broad planes of muscle like she appreciated it as much as he did her curves.
She opened her mouth and let him plunder it with his tongue. He stroked her teeth, her palate, and rolled his tongue around hers in a seductive dance that his hips tried to mimic.
When he was seconds away from dragging her into the bedroom, he pushed himself away from her, groaning at the loss of sensation. Her chest was heaving, and quick, loud breaths came from her parted lips. She put a hand to her mouth like she might be feeling the same loss. If nothing else, they definitely had chemistry.
“We better go now if you still want dinner.” His voice was rough and crackled with need. She nodded and pulled the door closed behind her.
“Would you like to go to that nice Italian restaurant up on Terrence?” He opened the door to the Beemer for her, and she raised an eyebrow and slid into the buttery leather seat. The car looked good on her.
“That sound great.” She ran her hands along the glossy, burled wood accents.
He made the short drive to the restaurant, resisting the urge to ask her about the night before even thought that was all he could think about. She seemed happy to be with him tonight, though, so he hoped that meant she hadn’t spent last night with some other guy.
The maître d' frowned at her outfit and led them through the candlelit dining room to a small table hidden in a back corner. She was probably dressed a little too sexy for a classy place like this, but Taven appreciated the view, and he didn’t mind the private table, either.
“This place is really nice.” She ran her hands over the black tablecloth, unrolled the cloth napkin and laid in on her lap, fiddled with the silverware and wine glasses, then stroked a petal on the red rose in a little vase like she didn’t know what to do with her hands. Taven reached out and took one of them in his. Her palm was damp. She clasped his and settled down a little.
“I should take you out more. You’re easy to impress.” He’d been to a million restaurants like this over the years, but she obviously hadn’t.
“I probably wouldn’t be so impressed if we went out more.” She grinned and glanced around at the elegant room. Yeah, he definitely needed to make more of an effort. She deserved to have more nights like this.
A waiter wearing a fancy version of Taven’s usual, all-black uniform came over and handed them leather-bound menus, filled their water glasses, and asked if they wanted wine. Taven ordered a bottle.
“A whole bottle? What if we don’t like it?” she said as soon as the waiter left.
He waved it off. “I’m sure it’ll be good, but if not, we’ll just order something else.”
She gave him a strange look but picked up her menu. She glanced at it for a second then started flipping pages, frowning.
“What’s wrong, can’t find what you’re looking for?” He checked out his own menu, but it was pretty straightforward.
“There aren’t any prices.”
He chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. It’s my treat.” Did she really expect to pay for her own dinner? He hadn’t taken her out much, but a girl as beautiful as her had to have been on lots of dates. Were they all lame-ass losers who wanted to split the check?
When the waiter came back with bread and wine, Taven ordered steak and lobster and Ivy ordered spaghetti.
“Are you sure? You can get anything you want.”
“Well, I was thinking about the fettuccini Alfredo. It sounds good, but I don’t know if I’ll like it. I’ve never had it.”
He gawked at her for a moment. She’d never had it? What rock had she been living under? “It’s really good. Try it if you want. I’m sure you’ll like it.”
She grinned and bit her lip then looked back at the waiter. “Okay, I’ll have that instead.”
He nodded and wrote it down then glided away.
Taven swirled his wine, took a deep whiff, then sipped it. Delicious. “I take it you haven’t been to very many Italian restaurants. What kind of places does your family like to go?”
She crossed her arms and gave a little roll of her eyes. “What family? My birth parents who lost custody of me when I was seven, or the half dozen foster families I lived with till I ran away?”
Taven’s mouth fell open, and Ivy grabbed her wine glass and took a large gulp then glanced at the glass appreciatively. How did he not know that about her? They’d been together for a month. Had he really never asked her about her family? He didn’t talk much about his because it was a sore spot, and apparently he’d been too busy taking advantage of her to bother to learn much about her.
“I’m sorry, Ivy. I didn’t know that. Do you have any contact with any of them?”
She grabbed a piece of bread from the basket and picked at it, keeping her eyes down while she talked. “No. They all sent me packing within a year, so obviously none of them wanted to maintain a relationship with me.”
“How old were you when you ran away? Where did you go?” He grabbed his own piece of bread and dipped it in the plate of herbs and oil.
She watched him then did the same. “I was 16. Old enough to drop out of school, so nobody bothered to go after me. I lived on the streets for a while.”
“How did you support yourself?” He had a feeling he knew the answer, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear her confirm it, but he couldn’t stop the words from coming out of his mouth.
She peeked up at him then dropped her eyes again and slowly chewed a bite of bread. He clenched his own roll in his hands, crushing it, while he waited for her answer.
“There aren’t too many ways for a teenage girl to make a living.” That wasn’t an answer, but it told him enough. He hated the thought, but he understood why she did it.
“God, Ivy. I’m sorry you had to go through all that.” He reached out and stroked her hand. It was shaking a little.
The waiter arrived with the food then, so Taven let go of Ivy’s hand and sat back. Ivy gawked at Taven’s huge steak and giant lobster tail. “Whoa, that’s a lot of food. Are you really going to eat all that?”
“Is that a challenge? Cuz you know I can’t step down from one.” He tucked his napkin in his collar and stabbed his fork into his steak.
Ivy swirled her fork through her creamy pasta then took a tiny taste. Her eyes got wide. “Mmm, this is amazing.”
Taven grinned. He loved seeing her happy. He loved making her happy. If all it took was a plate of pasta, he could handle that kind of commitment.
“What about your family? You’ve never introduced me to any of them besides Roric.”
He didn’t normally like to talk about it, but since she’d shared her story, which was a lot worse, he figured she deserved an answer. He took a sip of wine to fortify himself for the story he hated to tell.
“All of my ancestors were full blood vampires… except my mother. My dad was in love with a vampire when he was young, but she mated someone else. He was heartbroken and didn’t want another relationship for a long time.”
Taven paused for a moment as the reality sank in. He was just like his father. The girl he’d loved had left him, and he’d been too scared to have another serious relationship since then. The second one hadn’t worked out any better for his father. Maybe that was why he was afraid to get serious about anyone else.
“He met my mom when she was a human, but he convinced her to turn for him. She did, but she regretted it. She hated being a vampire, hated the bloodlust. My dad is very controlling, and he wouldn’t let her go out at all during the day or see any of her human friends or family. There weren’t nearly as many vampires in Modesa back then, and she was lonely. He convinced her to have kids,
hoping that would make her happy, but it didn’t, because he wanted to control everything about that, too. When I was six, she killed herself.” Tears stung his eyes, and he blinked them back, resisting the urge to wipe them with his napkin.
Ivy laid her fork down and ran a finger over his hand. “Wow, I guess being rich doesn’t solve all your problems.”
Taven snorted and sipped his wine. “Not hardly.”
But she’d been through so much worse than him, and he never even knew it. She hid it all behind her smile. She looked so beautiful sitting there, the candlelight making her dark eyes sparkle and her skin glimmer like polished bronze. She was his for tonight. Did he want her forever? He thought maybe he did. But did she want that? He had to know where she was at.
He leaned forward and stared at her. “Ivy, tell me you weren’t out with some other guy last night.”
She jerked, and her eyes got wide, and that told him the truth even if she wasn’t going to. Taven’s blood pressure skyrocketed. He jerked back, knocking his knee into the table, rattling it. “Damn it, Ivy! I thought we had something here. Caroline told me you wanted me to make a commitment to you, but yet you’re still seeing other guys?”
His voice was too loud, even for the secluded table, and Ivy glanced around to see if anyone was looking at them. She turned back and whispered, “It’s not like that. It wasn’t a date.”
“Then what was it?” He wasn’t yelling, but he wasn’t quiet, either.
“I was just picking up some extra work. I needed the money for rent.” She poked at her food, trying to act like it was no big deal, but something told him it was.
He should’ve stopped there, taken her word for it and moved on, but he didn’t. Did she work another shift at the diner? No, she’d been expecting someone. Suddenly, it dawned on him. He dropped his fist on the table with a loud thwack.
“Are you still hooking?” The thought of her selling her body to some other guy had his blood boiling. He could feel it setting his face on fire.
Ivy pulled back like she was afraid the flames would jump to her. “I didn’t have sex with him. I don’t do that anymore.”
“Then what was he paying you for? Cooking lessons? What else do you have to offer?” He snarled at her.
She flinched, and the look in her eyes told him he’d hurt her, but she quickly covered it up and snarled back. “Blood, okay? He was paying for blood.”
Taven’s body tensed, every muscle vibrating, and the pressure in his head increased till he thought it would explode. He wanted to jump up, scream, pound his fists into something. The fact that he didn’t was a miracle because he felt totally out of control.
“What the hell, Ivy? I told you how vampires feel about that! How I feel about that! I’d almost rather you be having sex with him! How could you do that to me?”
She hissed at him. “Because my rent is due, and I was out of money! I found out a while ago that letting vampires suck my blood made me more money than turning tricks. I don’t have a good job or a rich family to take care of me, so I do whatever I have to do to get by. I don’t see what it matters to you; you treat me like a prostitute, too. All you want me for is sex and blood, only I give it to you for free!”
She stood up and threw her napkin on the table then rushed out of the restaurant, leaving him stunned. Is that what he was doing to her?
Chapter 14
Caroline rolled down her car window and called out, “Make sure you drink a blood bag whenever you feel hungry. It’s the only way to keep the cravings under control,” as she dropped off Houston, not feeling very confident about her attempt to convince him that being a vampire wasn’t a death sentence. Probably because she wasn’t convinced herself. There were some perks to being a vampire, but it wasn’t an easy life. Would he be able to handle having all his goals and dreams upended?
She drove home, changed into her work uniform, then took her own advice and drank a blood bag. The thick, refrigerated vampire blood filled her belly and settled the hunger, but it did nothing to satisfy the craving she had to drink fresh, hot blood from a vein. And not just any vein, either.
It was hard to believe she’d preferred the blood bags in the beginning. She’d thought drinking from a vein was gruesome and animalistic. Now, she could barely go a day without it. Even though she and Roric were at odds right now, the desire still consumed her thoughts.
She loved those intimate moments with Roric, their bodies merging into one as they drank from each other and made love. It was intense, erotic, and so intimate it erased all her doubts about their relationship and made her feel like they were meant to be together. But the fact that she’d felt almost the same way for the few seconds she’d fed Houston made her question everything.
She headed to the Taproom, expecting another busy night and grateful for the distraction from the thoughts whirling through her head. But she was only there a short time before one of her worries appeared like she’d materialized him out of thin air with her thoughts.
“Ooooh, check out that delicious-looking black and tan,” Grey whispered in her ear.
Houston scanned the crowd for a second until he noticed her, then he sauntered up and slid onto a barstool. He’d changed out of his baseball shirt into an inky black shirt and black jeans with a lightweight, silky, brown bomber jacket over it that matched the whiskey color of his eyes and the golden highlights in his hair. His outfit did remind her of the ale and stout drink.
He looked sexy and confident, and every girl in the bar was sneaking glances at him. But he only had eyes for Caroline.
“Damn, why do all the pretty ones go for you instead of me? What have you got that I don’t? I mean, besides a great rack.” Grey chuckled at his own joke, but Caroline was too tense to react.
Her nerves went on high alert at the sight of Houston, remembering how she’d reacted the first time she’d come to the bar after being turned. The burning thirst that clawed at her throat, the hunger that devoured her stomach, the bloodlust that took over her body till she lost all sense of reason and reacted on instinct instead. She’d almost attacked her friend just because she’d leaned too close to Piper’s throbbing neck. A room full of humans was way too much temptation for a day-old vampire.
“He’s a new vampire, and I’m mentoring him,” she explained to Gray so he wouldn’t get the wrong idea, then she hustled over to Houston, nervously wiping the bar with a rag.
“Hey Houston, what are you doing here?”
“It’s Saturday night, I always go out on the weekends. Besides, I didn’t really get to scope out the bar yesterday, so I thought I’d come check it out, see where you work. Got any drink specials?”
He gave her a dazzling smile, and she mindlessly handed over the night’s specials menu even though she really didn’t want him staying long enough for a drink.
“Houston, you can’t be here.”
She glanced around at the full bar. It was classier than some of the clubs in town where the college kids liked to hang out. Most of the clientele here were middle-age professionals who’d spent their younger years pursuing their careers, and now that they had found some success, they were looking for love. There was no crowded dance floor with sweaty bodies pressed together, pulses pounding, but still, you couldn’t get more than a few feet away from a human.
Even she felt overwhelmed with cravings sometimes towards the end of her shift when she hadn’t fed in eight or more hours. Most nights, she brought some blood bags with her just in case she felt too tempted, but Houston had come empty-handed.
He scowled at her disapproving frown and stood up. “This place isn’t really my scene, but I figured since you work here I’d come hang out with you. I can go somewhere else if you don’t want me here.”
She grabbed his arm. “It’s not that I don’t want you here. It’s just not safe. There’s too much temptation. All these humans.”
Even as she spoke, a couple of girls sidled up to the bar next to him, scoping him out like prey. He ignore
d them, though, even though they were young and beautiful and dressed to lure in men.
“I can’t stay home and do nothing. I have to give up so many of the things I love because of what I am now, I don’t want to give up this.”
She suddenly felt a lot of empathy for Roric. She’d been just as stubborn when she was first turned. Roric let her come to work like she wanted, but he’d sat at the bar with her all night, watching her, and he’d stopped her before she did something terrible. That was also the night she’d first drank from him, and it had been the most incredible thing she’d ever experienced.
She certainly wasn’t going to do that for Houston, but she could keep an eye on him. If he was going to be out around humans, it was better for him to be here with her. She sighed and shook her head.
“Okay, fine, but next time you go anywhere, you need to bring some… food with you. If you get hungry, let me know. I have some food in the back.” She glanced towards the girls who were standing nearby, wondering if they’d be as interested in him if they knew he was a vampire. Of course, for some people, that would make him even more appealing.
He grinned and nodded. “I’m good for now. I ate before I came. But I could use a drink. What do you recommend?”
“How about a Sazerac?” She grabbed a bottle of rye whiskey and a tumbler.
“Sounds great.”
She didn’t bother trying to be flamboyant, but he watched like she was putting on a show as she mixed his drink, combining sugar, whiskey, and bitters in one tumbler, then pouring the mixture over ice in another that she’d coated with absinthe and garnished with lemon peel.
She spent the new few hours chatting with him in between customers. They couldn’t talk much about vampire life because there was always someone around, but he liked to talk, so he told her about his great friends, his loving family, and his fun college days — all things that made her a little envious and, at the same time, sad that those things would never be the same for him.
Obsessed with the Vampire: A Paranormal Romance (Vampire Enforcement Agency Book 2) Page 10
