by Elisa Adams
“You paint me in a very bad light, woman.”
She shrugged. “All men are the same. What can I say?”
“Although you’re right about quite a bit, us lowly males do have some good qualities, too.”
“And what would those be?” She had yet to see them. Even the ones she thought she could trust, like Robby, turned on her eventually.
She wasn’t even going to get started on Derek. To think, she’d actually planned on marrying the guy. She was glad that she’d told him he had to wear a condom for extra protection until after the wedding. Who knows what kind of diseases she might have picked up, since he’d apparently slept with just about everyone he’d ever met.
“You’re just going to have to find that out on your own. It won’t be too hard, if you’re really interested in looking.” He walked back inside, stopping by the fridge. “Are you hungry?”
“A little.” She followed him. “Why don’t you tell me about some of your good points? I’m beginning to wonder if you have any.”
“I can cook. What do you want to eat?”
“Marco—“
He held up a hand to stop her. “Let me cook you some breakfast first. We can talk after.”
“Supper. It’s after eleven. Almost time for a midnight snack.”
He shrugged. “That all depends on how you look at it. Do you want eggs? Toast?”
She snorted. “Not at this time of night. I have enough trouble forcing that stuff down at six in the morning. It’s nighttime. I want a cheeseburger.”
“A cheeseburger?” He blinked a few times. “Are you sure that’s what you want?”
“Yes.” If she was going to be on vacation, she was going to enjoy herself. She no longer had to live on a piece of lettuce and a couple of carrot sticks a day so she could fit into her skimpy costumes or conform to Hollywood’s twisted version of beauty. Now she could eat like a human and not someone’s pet rabbit. “Please?”
He looked shocked, but he relented. “Okay. I’ll see what I can do.”
* * * * *
Marco watched as Amara finished off the last of the cheeseburger. He was a little astounded when she’d requested something so simple. She was most likely used to gourmet meals. Why would she want something she could get at any fast food restaurant in the country?
She enjoyed it, though. The little noises she made while eating it rivaled the ones she’d made last night in bed. His mouth went dry just listening to her.
He was glad he’d had Ellie bring in some food, or else Amara would have starved. He’d learned firsthand she wouldn’t eat peanut butter, and that was about the only thing he ever kept in the cabinets.
She looked different sitting across from him at the kitchen table than she did in the films, or even at the functions where he’d seen her. Now she looked more relaxed, more natural, and less like the snotty bitch he’d thought she was. He was learning a lot about her, and what he learned scared him. He had less and less reason to hate her with every sentence that came out of her mouth.
In fact, he was disgusted to find he was actually starting to like her.
Wanting her body was one thing, but truly admiring who she was as a person was out of the question. At this rate, the woman was going to turn him into a softie by the end of the week.
“Tell me where you get your insight into my true nature.”
She shrugged and finished off the last of the burger. “Growing up, my mother got married to a different man every other year. I had seven stepfathers and quite a few uncles. I learned a lot just watching them.”
“You don’t have a very high opinion of men, do you?”
She snorted. “Are you kidding? Why should I? Every single man in my life has proven to be a gigantic letdown.”
Maybe she just hadn’t found the right man yet.
“Where do you get off, asking a question like that?” she continued, her expression irritated. “Your opinion of women seems pretty low.”
“Yeah, and I have a good reason for that, too.”
“What’s that?”
He studied her, debating how much to tell her. If he relayed the entire story, he’d scare her off for good. Then again, that would certainly solve the problem of unwanted emotional attachments.
“I was married once. A very long time ago.”
“Okay.”
“My wife was not exactly what you’d call faithful.” He took a deep breath, the pain of what had happened still there, even though it had dulled to a low throb.
“I’m sorry.”
She truly looked it, too. And he was sorry for what he was about to say to her, but there was no way to do it gently. “Do you want to know why I’m a vampire?”
She nodded, but she didn’t look so sure.
“I was to be executed for killing my wife and her lover.”
“You were what?”
“You heard me right the first time. I’m not going to repeat myself. I was convicted of killing the two of them, but before I could be hanged my wife's father took matters into his own hands and stabbed me. There just happened to be a vampire living in our village. I guess the smell of my blood must have been quite an enticement for him. He came to me and offered me a way I could live in exchange for a meal.”
“The rest is quite a long story, and I don’t need to go into the sordid details, but I think you need to know exactly what I am.”
She licked her lips and he had the sudden urge to suck them into his mouth. He shook his head to remind himself he was trying to push her away, not draw her closer.
He watched her closely, waiting for that mental retreat he knew was inevitable. It never came.
“I see. But that doesn’t answer the question of how you became a vampire.”
He blew out a breath. He’d anticipated fear, almost welcomed it, but not her curiosity. “I explained how I came to be what I am. What more do you need to know?”
“Not who, Marco, how. How does it happen? Did he make you feed off of him?”
She sat on the edge of her seat, waiting for his answer. He didn’t like her eagerness.
“Why do you need to know the technical details?”
“I don’t need to. I want to.”
He pushed away from the table. “Maybe sometime I’ll tell you. But not tonight.”
She’d be surprised at how simple it really was. There was no way he was going to arm her with that kind of knowledge. Before she could protest, he stalked out of the room.
Chapter 8
Men!
Just when you think you’re getting somewhere with them, they get all closed-mouthed and cranky.
Amara finished the last of the dishes, which Marco hadn’t even bothered to help with, and laid the towel neatly on the counter to dry. She’d asked a perfectly reasonable question. Was it too much for her to expect an answer in the same night? She didn’t think so, but apparently the dark and brooding one had other ideas.
Oh, well. His loss. If he didn’t want to talk to her, fine. But he’d better not be expecting any bedtime privileges until he learned to stop being such a jerk.
She settled on the couch with the remote, finally deciding on the late night news. With three channels to choose from, the choice wasn’t exactly difficult.
He wanted her to consider this a vacation. Well, it certainly wasn’t her fantasy vacation. In her fantasy, she would be on a tropical island, alone, with not a single man in sight to mess up her plans. She’d spend the days soaking up the sun and the evenings relaxing on a hammock on the front porch of her bungalow.
Without an annoying male to bring down the mood.
She would most certainly not be trapped in the middle of nowhere, locked in a house where the only company was a man who changed moods as often as she washed her hair.
She couldn’t stand this anymore. After living most of her life in noisy trailer parks and then L.A., she needed some kind of noise. Another couple of days here and she was going to be as crazy as Marco was.
&nb
sp; She got up from the couch and walked to the front door. She jiggled the doorknob a few times, but couldn’t get the door to open. She jiggled harder, ready to break it down if she had to. For God’s sake, the man didn’t even have a stereo, at least not one she could find. She had to get some noise in her life.
She was considering putting her fist through the glass inset when a hand closed around hers and she nearly jumped out of her skin.
“Are you going somewhere, Amara?” Marco’s voice was a low growl and his breath hot against her skin. A little too hot. He was angry.
Oops.
She winced. “I, uh…”
“You expect me to trust you, when the second I let you out of my sight you try to leave?” His hands came up to cup her breasts. “Were you even going to say goodbye?”
She shook her head. No goodbyes for this girl, not ever. She preferred clean breaks. Not that she’d be able to break away from Marco, not completely anyway. He was the kind of man who burrowed himself under a woman's skin for life. She wondered if he was ever planning to let her go.
“Are you afraid of me?”
“No.” But she was now. Just a little. It was that confession that had done it. He’d killed his wife, and her lover. That was something she wouldn’t easily forget. No matter how good he was in bed, the man was capable of murder.
He was a vampire. Weren’t they all capable of the senseless destruction of human life? Or was that just in the movies? Reality wasn’t the same as it used to be.
“Why do you insist on lying to me?” He nipped her earlobe. “I can tell you aren’t being truthful.”
He turned her around to face him, pushing her back into the door. “Do you really think I would let you go this easily?”
She shrugged, trying for casual. “A girl can hope, can’t she?”
“You want to leave?”
The funny thing with that was, if he wasn’t holding her hostage she wouldn’t mind getting to know him a little better. Being kidnapped kind of took the fun out of it. “It doesn’t matter what I want. You aren’t giving me any choice.”
For just a second, he actually looked upset. But he covered it quickly. “We all have choices.”
“And the one you made when you brought me here wasn’t exactly a sane one.”
He sighed, his eyes closing briefly. “I told you why I did that.”
Yeah. He’d been telling her his reason since he brought her here. It was starting to lose its edge. “You have yet to tell me exactly what you plan on doing to me.”
“I haven’t decided that myself.” He pulled her up against him. “I thought I’d start with this.”
His mouth crushed hers in a kiss that was anything but gentle. He forced his tongue into her mouth as his teeth grazed her lips and his body pressed against hers. When he released her, he looked as shaken as she did. This time he didn’t even try to hide it.
A man had never looked at her quite like that before. She’d seen lust, heat, amusement, and boredom—sometimes all in the same night. But this was a first for her. This wasn’t about sex. Well, it wasn’t entirely about sex. Marco wanted her, not a warm body to sink into every night. He hadn’t gone looking for someone else last night after they’d had sex. Actually, he’d given her pleasure and didn’t even ask for anything in return. She’d never met a man like that in her life.
Maybe this could be more of a vacation than she thought.
After what Derek had put her through, she deserved a man who would put her needs first. She deserved a little pampering, a little fun, and who better to give her what she needed than Marco? If she could just forget about the whole kidnapper-captive problem, she’d be fine.
“Would you really continue to hold me here against my will, even if I really wanted to leave?” She asked him.
He said nothing, but the look in his eyes told her all she needed to know. He felt guilty for what he’d done, even if he couldn’t own up to it. She looped her arms around his neck and pulled him down for another kiss.
He seemed surprised, but he got over it quickly. He had her back against the door almost immediately, his hands all over her body. She squirmed against him, knowing she was torturing him and loving every second of it.
Marco ran his hands up her sides until he was once again cupping her breasts. She moaned as the tips of his fingers skimmed her nipples, making them instantly hard. Her panties were soaked in a matter of seconds.
He was so close that she could feel his heartbeat against her chest. She ran her hands along his abdomen, admiring the hard ridges of muscle under his shirt. She dragged her fingernails over his waist, eliciting a low groan from him.
He grabbed her hands and pulled them away from his body when she reached for the waistband of his pants. “Why are you doing this to me? Are you trying to kill me?”
“Don’t you like it when I touch you?” She struggled against his hold, finally able to pull her hands away.
“That’s not what I mean.” He paused and drew a deep breath as her fingers skimmed over his fly. “I don’t know what’s going on here. One minute you want to stay, the next you’re trying to sneak out the door.”
She hardly knew Marco. He had yet to give her a last name. She’d know Derek for five years before she’d accepted his proposal, and he turned out to be someone different than she’d thought.
“I’ll stay, for now. But only if you promise not to lock me in the bedroom anymore. I was so bored I was ready to pull out my hair.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You weren’t up there for that long.”
“I have a very short attention span.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” He kissed her hard and fast, his hands working on ridding her of her pants. He cupped her mound in his palm, his thumb skimming through her curls. He separated her folds with his fingers and lightly played with her clit.
Her knees nearly gave out right then and there. She clutched his shoulders to keep from falling. His touch was like a brand on her sensitive flesh. His fingertips seared right through her until the sensations consumed her and there was nothing left but the two of them. She angled her hips against his hand to give him better access.
Forget going upstairs. What was wrong with right here? The door seemed sturdy enough. “Marco, please.”
He leaned his forehead against hers, his breathing ragged. “Please, what? What do you want, Amara? Do you want me to stop? This is the last time I’m going to ask. I don’t want you to feel like this is an obligation, because it’s not. It has to be what you want. It’s your choice, but you’ve got to make it quickly.”
She shook her head. “No. I’d die if you stopped.” She almost believed that she would. If he stopped touching her, she felt like her heart might give out. She needed this, she needed him. She’d probably look back on this whole thing and wonder if she’d been insane, but it would be well worth it.
“Upstairs…”
“No.” She shook her head. “Now!”
He stripped off her remaining clothes and dropped them next to the door. Her bare back touched the cold glass of the inset and she shivered. The cool, smooth glass behind her coupled with his warm, rough hands proved more arousing than she would have ever imagined. At the same time, she felt entirely too exposed to the world.
She’d done some wild things in her younger days, but nothing compared to this. There was a big difference between throwing a couple of keg parties and having practically nonstop sex with an immortal kidnapper.
“The window…someone will see.”
“No one is anywhere near here. We’re all alone.”
This coming from a man who lived his life in relative seclusion and had no idea how far the press would go to get pictures. She’d lived that life for the past ten years. It wasn’t exactly fun.
Then again, maybe something like this was just what she needed to jumpstart her sagging career. Sagging? Ha! It was more like it was completely dead, rotting away on the side of an old dirt road. Still, scandals worked for
other Hollywood types. Why not her?
She could see the headlines now—Washed Up Starlet Kidnapped by Crazy Vampire and Forced to Have Sex in Semi-Public Places.
That wasn’t right. First, she wasn’t really a starlet. Sure, she had her fans, but the circles were relatively small. It was more of a cult following, really.
Second, if she ran around screaming that a vampire had kidnapped her, she’d be committed.
Third, he wasn’t forcing her into anything. Everything they did, she walked into consensually. It helped that he was so sexy it made her wet to just look at him.
He didn’t even bother to undress himself, he just lowered his zipper and released his cock. He lifted her legs and wrapped them around his waist, thrusting his cock into her cunt. He pulled her down hard, impaling her completely. She moaned and clung on to him, letting him control the pace of his thrusts. She was already close to orgasm, the intensely pleasurable sensations hovering just out of her reach. She tried to hold herself off, wanting to savor everything about the moment.
She kissed his shoulder and licked the skin of his jaw. Near the pulse in his neck she paused, her mouth watering. She could almost swear she heard the blood beating in his veins just below the surface of his skin. She wet her lips with the tip of her tongue and her pulse kicked up a few notches. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, almost believing she could smell his blood. It wouldn’t take a lot of effort to get to it. All that warm blood, so close…
Shit. Was she going to think about acting like him every time they had sex? She could go for a little biting, but actually wanting to draw blood was a little strange, even for her.
The friction of Marco’s thick cock sliding in and out of her cunt, her clit rubbing against him in such an enticing way, brought on her orgasm much sooner than she would have liked. She came hard, her body melting into his as she clawed at him and begged for more. Wave after wave of fire burned through her until she thought she couldn’t take it anymore.
He came soon after, his body stiffening as he pressed her tightly against the door. He nipped her neck, but didn’t go any further than that. She lifted her chin to expose her neck, silently begging him for more. He kissed her throat gently, but pulled away. Instead of giving her what she really wanted, he set her back down on her feet. “If you give me a minute to catch my breath, we could take this upstairs to a more comfortable place.”
