“Which she obviously knows. She knows you aren’t going to do anything to stop her from killing people so she just does it. Dominic almost kills me and that’s a death sentence. Phoebe actually does kill countless humans and she gets what? What exactly does she get? A stern talking to? Maybe a timeout? How does that make any sense?”
“It’s not the same thing,” Roman said.
“Why?” Lydia threw up her hands, turned her back on him, and took several deep breaths. Finally, she turned and met his gaze. “Why does this surprise me? You’ve spent years being a cold bastard.” She saw the hurt flash in his eyes, but she didn’t care. “I can’t be around you right now.”
She made it to the bottom of the steps before Roman caught her arm. “Where are you going?”
“Let me go,” she said through clenched teeth.
“After you answer my question,” he said.
“I’m going home,” was her weary reply.
“You are home.”
She shook her head. “No, I’m not.”
“Your life is in danger,” he reminded her. “You can’t go back to your old life.”
“I need to be away from you,” she practically begged.
Roman released her arm and half turned away. “Justin and Isaiah will alternate on guard duty. Isaiah has a good security system in place already. After you pack, I’ll drive you.”
“I’d rather drive myself,” she said numbly.
“Fine,” he agreed reluctantly. “Take any car you want. Sofia will go with you and drive the car back. Until it’s safe, you shouldn’t drive anywhere alone.”
She nodded and started to leave the room, but he caught her arm one last time.
“Understand this,” he said with a heated gaze, “we are not done. Now, you need space, but we will talk more about this later.”
With Roman’s warm hand around her arm, Lydia ached to lean into him and lose herself in the comfort she could find in his arms. No matter how strong that desire was, she wouldn’t give in. Lydia had allowed herself to become completely lost in a man and that stupidity had nearly killed her. She needed to be smarter. If Roman couldn’t value human life, how could they be together?
“I’m not sure there’s anything more to say,” she said with a sad smile.
Roman released her arm and stepped back. He opened his mouth to speak but closed it. Lydia felt his eyes on her as she walked up the stairs. It took everything in her not to look back.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Being back in her condo felt really strange. Most of Hannah’s belongings were still in her room. Oddly, that was the first place Lydia went when she walked in the door. The laptop sat on the bed, where Hannah had been working on a paper before deciding to order pizza. Textbooks were stacked on the bookshelves. Even Hannah’s clothes still hung in the closet. The night Lydia collapsed, everything changed for both of them. Still, the condo looked like Hannah might come home at any moment.
Lydia’s room was another matter. Many of her belongings had been moved to Roman’s home, most were still there. When Lydia had walked out of the door, she’d only brought a small bag. It was too hard to pack up everything, too final. As she’d stacked paperbacks on her empty bookshelves, she had to fight back tears.
Someone obviously came in to clean the condo or there’d be an inch of dust on the shelves. That was probably Roman’s doing. He liked things orderly and clean.
Justin and Caitlin were with her. That made things a little less awkward in some ways and a little more awkward in others. She knew Caitlin wanted to ask her what happened, but she was pretty distracted with Justin trying to rile her temper. Justin seemed to love making Caitlin angry, and he was very good at it.
Now, they were all sitting in the living room. Caitlin was pretending to study and sneaking worried looks in Lydia’s direction. Justin was texting on his phone and sneaking heated looks at Caitlin. Yep, this wasn’t awkward at all.
“You don’t have to stay the night,” she assured Caitlin.
Caitlin came across the room and sat by Lydia. “I can tell you’re upset about this whole thing. I figure you need a friend to talk to.”
Lydia shook her head. Caitlin wasn’t that type of friend. She’d be there when things were really bad. Ah fuck! Caitlin thought things were really bad. Lydia knew she must look worse than she thought. “I’m not ready to talk. For now, I’m going to grab a book and soak in my tub. Thank God someone kept my tub clean because I really need it right now. Why can’t I just go back to my normal life?”
“I know this can’t be easy on you,” Justin said and, shock of shocks, looked concerned. “There have been a lot of changes in your life. Give yourself time to adjust.”
Caitlin snorted. She’d walked across the room to go through the DVD’s close to where Justin was sitting. She turned around with her hands on her hips. “Don’t try to act nice to impress me.”
When Caitlin turned her back on him, Justin slapped Caitlin’s ass hard and winked. “I would never try to be nice for you because you like it better when I’m not nice. That was for Lydia.”
Lydia smiled and shook her head.
Roman tried calling her five times while she was in the tub. Unable to get into her book, Lydia checked her emails and found that Sofia was now following her on Twitter. There was also a Facebook friend request from Sofia. That made her smile. How was it possible that Sofia managed to adapt to modern times better than Roman? Most likely it was because Sofia hadn’t closed herself off from the world. Sofia went out and lived. As near as Lydia could tell, Roman hadn’t done much socializing before her.
Facebook proved to be a little overwhelming. Apparently, everyone knew about her illness and her wall was full of comments from well‑wishers. Who knew so many people she considered acquaintances cared? After typing a quick, Thanks for all the love! Doing much better, she looked at her relationship status, which still proclaimed she was single. Was she still single? Roman said it wasn’t over. As her finger moved across the touch screen to update her relationship status to ‘married’ Lydia felt like an idiot. What was she doing? Quickly, she changed it back to ‘single’ again. Then back to ‘married.’ Finally, she settled on ‘it’s complicated.’ Great, she’d just changed her relationship status eleven times. That wasn’t going to make people wonder if she’d gone crazy.
Just thinking about Roman brought her to tears. She missed him. There was no denying that fact. That was the nature of breakups. It felt wrong to call it a breakup. How could things just end? How could she have been so wrong about him?
Well, she was going to have to get out of the bathtub and face Justin and Caitlin. The water was cold and she was well and truly pruney now. She was also starving.
Lydia toweled off and spritzed herself with body splash. That was one thing she’d forgotten to grab at Roman’s. Luckily, there was a bottle of her second favorite scent, Love Spell from Victoria’s secret, tucked in the back of the bathroom cabinet. Then she slipped on a pair of grey sweat pants and an oversized t‑shirt. This was her wallowing in self‑pity uniform. Too bad they hadn’t stopped at the store for ice cream on the way to the condo. She would kill for some Ben & Jerry’s right now.
Caitlin and Justin were waiting in the living room. Caitlin was concentrating on a text book while Justin typed on a laptop. Both were pre‑med students. Justin had the unfair advantage of already being a doctor. Because he didn’t age, he’d attended medical school several times to keep his license up to date and keep up on the latest medical advances. In general, he didn’t work in human hospitals, but there were times when he had to. There were also times when he needed to sign death certificates. Lydia suspected Justin’s fascination with Caitlin bordered on obsession. That might have bothered Lydia more, if she wasn’t enjoying seeing her friend flustered by a man. Caitlin obviously wanted Justin as much as he wanted her, but she didn’t like wanting him.
Caitlin finished reading a page and closed the book. “You doing okay?” she asked
with as much sympathy as Caitlin was capable of. On a good day, Caitlin was a bitch. On a bad day, she was a little scary.
“I’m wishing we’d stopped to pick up ice cream on the way over here.”
“Justin can go pick it up,” Caitlin said without asking him.
“No, he can’t,” Justin replied without looking away from the laptop screen. “Justin was ordered to stay here and guard Lydia. Justin does not want to get killed by his uncle so he is going to do what he was told.”
“Why are you referring to yourself in the third person?” Lydia asked.
“Because Justin is an ass,” Caitlin explained with a smile.
“Speaking of asses,” Justin drawled. “You keep pushing me and I’m going to turn you over my knee and spank yours.”
Caitlin’s mouth dropped open and her cheeks flushed. Her breathing became a little labored. Much to Lydia’s surprise, Caitlin looked aroused by the idea. Now, that she didn’t see coming. She’d always figured that if Caitlin went for kinky stuff like that, she’d be the one inflicting pain.
“You two have a very strange relationship,” Lydia muttered and headed into the kitchen in hopes of finding some hidden chocolate.
“We don’t have any sort of relationship,” Caitlin protested.
“Whatever you say,” Lydia replied before the kitchen door closed behind her. Her cupboards were bare. This sucked big time. There was no food in her house. Worse, there was no chocolate. How could a woman deal with depression without chocolate? The lack of ice cream was bad enough. Now, not even a little chocolate to get her through things? Of course, she could get Amici’s to deliver and they had a good tuxedo cake. Still, no ice cream. She wondered idly if Zachary’s delivered to her address. Their pizza sounded really good, but she wouldn’t be able to get dessert from Zachary’s. This was not going to work!
When she stormed back into the living room to insist they go out for food, Justin had Caitlin pinned to the wall. Caitlin’s hair was wrapped around one of Justin’s fists while he kissed her. Justin might be uptight, but it looked like he really knew what he was doing. If the moans were any indication, Caitlin was enjoying his efforts. Damn, he was totally taking charge of the kiss. The alpha male thing must run in the family.
“Never would have taken you for the type that likes to be dominated,” Lydia said.
Justin pulled back slightly to give her a satisfied smile. Caitlin started to push at his chest, but he didn’t seem inclined to move back. He gave her hair a gentle tug and Caitlin closed her eyes and moaned.
“You are quite the freak, aren’t you?” Teasing Caitlin made her feel better.
“Get off of me!” Caitlin said and pushed against Justin’s chest again. Apparently, Lydia had managed to embarrass her.
Justin gave her hair another tug. “Ask nicely.”
“Please let go of me,” Caitlin said after several deep breaths.
Justin released her and stepped back.
“I am so embarrassed,” Caitlin said and covered her face with her hands.
“Don’t be,” Lydia said. “That was pretty hot to watch. Justin is damn sexy when he goes all dominant on you. I’m not down with the whole spanking thing, but I could tell it turned you on earlier.”
“I am not into spanking!” Caitlin protested.
Justin snorted and Caitlin glared at him.
“We have no food,” Lydia said to change the subject before Caitlin hit Justin. She wasn’t sure how that would end. Part of her kind of wanted to find out, but she was too hungry. Maybe she could get Caitlin to hit Justin later.
“I messaged Isaiah to come by here so one of us can run out to do some grocery shopping and pick up dinner,” Justin said. “Make a list.”
“Was that before or after you let me rummage through the kitchen searching for chocolate?” Lydia demanded with her hands on her hips.
“After,” he said. “I hadn’t thought about it until you came out asking for ice cream.”
“And you couldn’t tell me this before I tore apart my kitchen?”
“I got distracted,” he said with no apology in his voice at all.
Lydia was beginning to see why Caitlin thought Justin was a prick. “Can Isaiah pick up dinner on the way here?” she asked. “I haven’t had lunch yet.”
Justin pulled out his phone. “What should he pick up?”
Lydia went over the mental list of her favorite restaurants in the tri‑valley area but came back to her pizza craving. “Zachary’s,” she finally said. Nothing like fatty Chicago style pizza to improve a bad mood. “Make sure it’s stuffed crust with pepperoni, mushrooms, and olives. Have him run into the grocery store to pick up Ben & Jerry’s chocolate fudge brownie. We’ll worry about groceries after dinner.”
Justin nodded and typed in the details. “He hasn’t left the house yet so he’ll order the food on the way. He should be here in about an hour.”
Lydia smiled, thankful to have Caitlin to tease at that moment. “So you like being spanked?”
“Shut up, Lyd,” Caitlin muttered.
“How kinky are you going with this spanking thing?” Lydia pushed. “I mean, are we talking the usual slaps during sex? Or are you going over the top ‘Caitlin’s been such a bad girl’ role playing here?”
Caitlin’s face was so red that Lydia started laughing. Finally, Caitlin pulled herself together and looked at Lydia with disdain. “It seems that someone is a little too fascinated with spanking. I’ll bet you dream about it tonight and it gets you excited.”
Lydia laughed and put her hands up. “Hey, I’m not embarrassed when I’m a freak. If I dream about it, I’ll ask a guy to do it.”
“If it’s any guy other than my uncle, you may as well kiss him good bye,” Justin muttered.
“Your uncle doesn’t own me,” Lydia snapped.
“Keep telling yourself that until you believe it,” Justin said with a smirk.
“Caitlin’s right, you are an ass,” she grumbled.
Justin merely shrugged.
“Okay, so I gotta ask about the two of you,” Lydia said. “You, say you aren’t dating, right?”
“We aren’t,” Caitlin insisted.
“I’m not sure I’d call it dating,” Justin said.
Lydia plopped down in her favorite armchair with a sigh. Was it insane to miss a chair? “What exactly would you call it?”
“She’s mine,” Justin said. “She just doesn’t want to admit to it.”
“Uh huh,” Lydia said and started twirling her hair. “Is that true?” she asked Caitlin.
“Absolutely not,” Caitlin said in a bored tone. “We do have sex sometimes, but it’s just to fill a physical need. If he wouldn’t chase away other men, I’d get it elsewhere. All he is to me is a sex toy that doesn’t require batteries,” she said with a condescending smile directed at Justin.
“And he spanks you,” Lydia added.
Justin actually laughed which surprised Lydia.
“Why is it that you can’t get over this spanking thing?” Caitlin asked.
Lydia shrugged. “Maybe, I am curious. No biggie. Lots of people are into that now. I mean, it’s in all the newer erotica books. What I really want to know is why exactly are you fighting this so hard? You know he’s better than a lot of men you’ve dated. You even have a lot in common with him. Why not give him a chance? Oh, wait! Is the resistance thing part of the game? Do you want him to play the forceful alpha and toss you over his shoulder, or his knee like he threatened earlier?”
Justin turned his attention to Caitlin and raised an eyebrow.
“Why aren’t you at Roman’s house if you’re so miserable without him?” Caitlin shot back.
“Roman doesn’t value human life,” Lydia said.
“That’s not true,” Justin argued, sounding a little angry at Lydia for suggesting it.
“Then why is Drew’s mother still going around killing people?”
“That rarely happens,” Justin insisted.
“But it d
oes happen,” Lydia countered. “It not only happens but it’s considered ‘okay’ because they’re just humans. Roman values vampires more than humans.”
“So you value the lives of turkeys as much as humans?” Justin asked.
“Of course not,” Lydia insisted. “Turkeys don’t live nearly as long as we do and they’re mostly food.” Realization dawned on her. “Okay, I get your point, but it’s not the same thing at all.”
“Why?” Justin asked.
Lydia tugged at her hair just above her hips and glared at Justin. “Because if I was a normal human, he wouldn’t have cared if I’d died!” she shouted. That was when it hit her that she wasn’t just concerned about all humans. Her feelings were hurt because what Roman had said made her feel like he didn’t really care about her. She only mattered because some crazy talent with plants made her a potential mate for his kind. It hurt to think that he wouldn’t have even wasted time getting to know her if it weren’t for that.
Lydia stood up and walked to her room. “I need some time alone,” she said and closed the door behind her. Lydia sat on her bed and hugged her legs. It really sucked to admit that her biggest reason for being mad at Roman was personal. Shouldn’t she mostly be mad that he wasn’t doing enough to protect humans?
“Well, this is really fucked up.” Lydia pulled out a notebook and started to write out her thoughts. It always helped clear them. She became so engrossed in her own thoughts that she forgot all about her hunger.
A soft knock at the door interrupted her. “Food’s here,” called Justin from the other side.
Lydia’s stomach rumbled at the thought of food. When was the last time she’d had Zachary’s pizza? Caitlin, Justin, and Isaiah were in the kitchen putting out paper plates and napkins.
Isaiah looked better than she’d ever seen him. His hair was short in the back and a little on the long side in front. Dressed in a plum dress shirt and black slacks, his usual glasses were in place. The shy smile he flashed when she came into the room bordered on adorable. It wasn’t his general appearance that was different. No, there was a confidence which hadn’t been there before. If she wasn’t mistaken there was also a little crazy in those blue eyes.
Vampires Prefer Blondes (Psy-Vamp Book 3) Page 15
