I had, and the second I opened my eyes and realized he had left me standing there alone posed for a kiss, I kind of wished he had just killed me instead.
The rejection burned in my chest, sending the peaches in my stomach spinning.
What had made me do something so stupid?
It had to be the sugar and the peaches. I’d had peaches before once when I found a tree with fresh fruit on it, but I never lost my sense of reality, which I had to assume was what had happened to me.
It was his questions about whether I had lived. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I hadn’t lived at all, and those thoughts made something shift inside me.
Sure, I was breathing, and my heart was beating, but knowing the dead man in front of me had lived harder and better pushed me to do something so ridiculous.
And to be honest, I was embarrassed.
This man was supposed to be my killer—he was supposed to be the thing that sent me to the place my family was—yet he had somehow become more. In a way, he was becoming like a friend.
I think.
I wasn’t sure since I had never had a friend. I only knew he was making me feel comfortable, mentally and physically, and he hadn’t tried to kill me yet.
I had never been so satisfied.
I had never been so clean and comfy.
I had never been so at peace.
He stayed in his room after that, leaving me alone to roam his massive condo. I contemplated running, but I knew he would be standing beside me before I could even unlock the door.
So instead of running, I napped on the couch, enjoying the comfort of the soft cushions and the warmth of the blanket he had given me.
It wasn’t long before he was coming out and joining me in the rest of the condo once again. Still, we didn’t talk much. Mostly, he read, and I sat around waiting for something to happen. The place was suffocating me, and the boredom was overwhelming.
“Do you think maybe I could go in your collection room and look around? My mom used to tell me stories about the past, and I’d love to look at some of your treasures.”
He nodded, his eyes never reaching my face. “You can go any place in my condo as long as you don’t leave. It’s not safe for you around here.”
That was laughable.
It was officially safer to be stuck inside with a vampire than it was to go outside.
“Am I safe in here with you?” I asked, suddenly feeling rebellious.
“You’re safer with me than you are out there,” he said, jerking his head in the direction of the window.
“Where are we exactly?”
There was no telling. I had been knocked out during our trip to his place. We could be in another state for all I knew.
“We’re just inside the city.”
“I get that, but which city?”
He chuckled. “How long do you think you were knocked out for?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, but I know your kind are able to move pretty quickly.”
His eyes finally scanned my face, and it was then I noticed his eyes weren’t as red as usual. If anything, they looked blue.
“My kind,” he repeated as he shook his head. “We’re in Atlanta. We didn’t go very far.”
“Your eyes.” I pointed at his face.
“What about them?”
“They aren’t as red as usual.”
He didn’t respond. Instead, he flipped the page of the book he was reading and looked down at the page.
“Why is that?” I pushed.
“It’s the hunger. When my craving is at its worst, my eyes turn red.”
“Your hunger is gone away now?”
His eyes met mine once again, his expression turning grim with sadness.
“My hunger never goes away, but it’s more manageable today.”
I nodded, understanding that he did indeed still want to feed on me, but I appreciated him not doing it even if there were moments when I wished he would just get it over with already.
“You said your mother used to tell you stories of the past. Does that mean you like hearing history?”
I nodded. “I do. I’d love to know more about the world before…” I stopped, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable with the conversation.
“Before vampires took over and killed everyone?” His brow quirked with his question.
“Yes.”
He closed his book, setting it on the table next to his chair. “You know, I’ve been around a long time. I could tell you about it if you’d like.”
I sat straighter, suddenly feeling excited to hear the stories he had stored in his brain.
He chuckled at my obvious happiness.
“Come,” he said as he stood. “I’ll show you and tell you all about it.”
We ended up in his collection room, and I sat as he pulled out old trunks full of newspapers, magazines, and books.
He showed me newspaper clippings from the past. Major stories like the first black president and the first female president. He showed me stories about the war between countries and new inventions. Things I had never even heard of.
But it was the light-hearted stories I liked the best. Reports on the times when things were fun and carefree.
Festivals.
Holidays.
Birth and marriage announcements.
The stories that made me smile.
Soon, I found myself looking through old catalogs and sales papers. Flipping through an old furniture magazine, I stopped at a page with the most beautiful bed I had ever seen.
It was wide and looked plush; a canopy rose above it reminding me of all the nights I had slept under a large oak tree in the brush. The canopy was black as the night around me with intricate carvings in the wood.
I closed my eyes and pictured a home with my own bedroom. And inside that bedroom sat the bed in the catalog full of fluffy pillows and warm blankets. Covered in clean sheets that smelled like the soap in his shower and smooth like the feel of the crisp cotton shirt I was wearing.
“What’s making you smile like that?” he asked, pulling my attention from the sales paper.
I held it up, the paper rustling.
“This bed. It’s gorgeous. I think if I ever had a bed, I’d want one just like this.”
His brows pulled down low just as I set my attention back on the paper in my hand.
“Surely, you’ve had a bed before?”
I chuckled at the disbelief in his voice. “Nope. I’ve never lived anywhere for more than a few weeks.”
He grew silent, prompting me to look up at him. His eyes scanned my face, the blue dominating the red.
“What?” I asked, feeling exposed the longer he stared. “Why are you staring at me like that?”
He shook his head.
“No reason.”
He left me in the room alone after that, allowing me to plunder his historical treasures and put together the pieces of a past that sounded more appealing than my present or future.
9
James
Two days later, things were still a bit awkward. Neither of us talked about what had almost happened in my kitchen. I stayed in my room for the rest of the night after almost kissing her and listened as she paced the condo until she finally fell asleep.
I had almost left the room several times with a mission to kill her. I never figured out what it was that helped me stay put, but there had to be some kind of an intervention from a divine being.
When I wasn’t hiding from her in my large condo, I was pretending nothing happened and finding as many things as possible to keep me busy. I was sure she would run the second I stepped out of my condo.
I called Rhys repeatedly, but still, it wasn’t safe to take Harley to the lab. As badly as I wanted her for myself in more ways than one, I also wanted her out of my care as soon as possible. I didn’t want to be responsible for the things I didn’t feel like I could control. And something else was happening. I was beginning to feel less like a c
old-hearted vampire and more like a warm-blooded human.
That wasn’t a good thing since I was the furthest thing from human. It was like a tease, feeling alive and human again when it was the last thing I would ever be. I needed to remember that, but it was hard to do because Harley was special. She was warm and inviting. She made me think of times gone past—reminded me of the boy I used to be—and I liked it.
I liked her.
She made me feel things I hadn’t felt since I was a wet-behind-the-ears human chasing Sarah around town and begging for her attention. I was feeling things for Harley I thought I would never feel again, and that wasn’t safe.
I looked over at her as she sipped a glass of water and watched old reruns of Sex in the City. It was the only female-friendly DVD I owned. My clothes hung from her body, and every now and again she would move, and I would get a glimpse of her tanned flesh. It was a tease of the worst kind.
Flavor and fun.
Sex and succulent blood.
Promises of things I hadn’t felt or tasted in years.
Still, I smiled to myself when she giggled at the funny parts and frowned when I saw her face in awe at the way the world used to be. A world I remembered and honestly missed, but a world she had never known.
She had never even had a home, for crying out loud.
A bed.
Something as simple as a comfortable mattress and blankets.
I wanted to give all those things to her, yet I wanted to end all that she was at the same time. It was the most confusing thing I had ever experienced in my long life.
Again, she giggled at a joke on the show, and again, I smiled, feeling joy in someone else’s comfort and happiness as if I was human again.
Then things grew heavy.
The room around me smaller.
My senses on high alert.
A sex scene flashed across the large screen, and she squirmed on the couch, her face in shock at the things playing across the screen, yet I could smell her arousal as it drifted across the room, making my cock so hard I thought I would explode in my pants.
I stayed seated and pretended to work at my desk. I was so lost in thought I almost missed the sound of the couch squeaking as Harley stood.
I looked up at her as she slowly walked across the room to me. She looked more than delicious in my black silk boxers and a gray tank top I had found in the bottom of my drawer. Without a bra, I could easily see her hard nipples through the tank, and my mouth watered just thinking about sucking one between my lips and biting into the puckered flesh.
Her dark hair was wild, her natural wave able to bounce since dirt and grime no longer down weighed it down. The side of her mouth lifted into a smile that seemed to punch me in the chest and knock any oxygen I might have accidentally taken in out of my body.
“I need to tell you something,” she said as she boldly sat on the edge of my desk.
I hadn’t felt so shook up around a woman since before I had changed. It was a nice change, but I hated it at the same time.
“Oh, really?” I tried to play it cool.
“Yes.” She put her head down and took a deep breath. Again, her scent swarmed around me when she tucked her hair behind her ear. “I found some magazines in your treasure room full of naked people doing those things.” She pointed at the large flat screen.
Just like that, everything stopped.
I had forgotten about the Playboy magazines in an old chest in the corner.
My mouth felt dry, and the burn of hunger in the back of my throat didn’t seem to be helping much. She was close, meaning her scents were stronger.
Her arousal.
Her flavor.
It blended together in my mouth, making me smack my lips together.
“I’m sorry about that,” I said. “I should have taken them out before I allowed you full rein in the room.”
“It’s okay. I kind of liked them.”
I jerked my head up to look at her as if I had heard her incorrectly.
“Excuse me?” I asked.
Her cheeks burned, and she looked away.
She couldn’t look me in the eye.
“I said I liked looking at the pictures of those naked people,” she whispered. “The shape of the men and the way it all worked. Sex, I mean. I had an idea, but no one had ever explained it to me. It’s quite extraordinary how well we fit together.”
The way she said we as if she was speaking directly about the two of us sent the wrong signals to the right parts of my body.
I was definitely going to explode in my pants.
“We?” I asked.
She nodded. “Yeah. Men and women. It’s sort of beautiful, isn’t it?”
“It is.”
I could hear her heartbeat loudly as it banged and echoed throughout the room around me.
“Do you like looking at the naked people having sex in those pictures?” she asked hesitantly.
“Most men do.”
She nodded. “I understand, but do you like looking at them?”
I swallowed. “I do.”
“Do you ever look at me the way you look at those pictures?”
I coughed like it was something I needed to do.
It wasn’t.
I hadn’t felt a tickle in my lungs in ages.
“Harley, this is inappropriate.”
At that, she laughed, the sound exploding from her lips robust and uplifting.
“What’s so funny?”
I was confused by her reaction.
“You’re funny. There’s nothing appropriate about our situation here.”
A smile pulled at the corner of my lips. “That’s true.”
“So then tell me.”
“What do you want me to tell you?”
Somehow, she felt closer, her scent even stronger. The room was closing in on us, pushing us together somehow.
“Do you like looking at me?” she asked in a seductive voice that left me wondering if she had watched too much Sex in the City.
“Yes,” I answered honestly.
Reaching up, she sweetly ran her fingers down my cheek, and I flinched. She was petting a hungry lion, and she didn’t even realize it.
Either that, or she didn’t care.
I closed my eyes, letting the feeling take me over. It had been so long since I had been touched that way.
The softness.
It was my undoing.
“Why?” she asked. “Why do you like looking at me?”
I looked her in the eye when I answered her. “Because you’re intoxicating. Because you’re beautiful—your skin’s so pink and warm. You’re so soft and alive. The sound of your heartbeat brings back memories of a life I don’t want to forget, and when you touch me, I feel as if I have a heartbeat, too.”
I had said too much.
Since when did I say too much?
She looked back at me with wonder in her big brown eyes, and I knew no matter how badly I wanted to take it all back, I couldn’t.
Her eyes roamed over my face, her fingers following their path.
“James,” she said, her voice feeling as if it was caressing me, as well.
“Yes?”
“Could you please kiss me now?”
I leaned in, ready to give her what she was asking for—what I needed—but a loud knock on the door sounded and filled the room with so much fear I could barely swallow.
We both jumped at the knock, and our heads swung around toward the door at the same time. Another knock sounded harder, so hard the door shook. I couldn’t believe I had been caught so off guard.
I blamed Harley.
She was throwing off my senses, and in the world we lived in, that wasn’t allowed.
“Go to my room and hide,” I demanded quietly.
“What? Why?” she asked defiantly.
“Just do as I say,” I said fiercely.
We spoke in hushed whispers, but I knew whoever was on the other side of the door could probably hear us.
I snatched her arm and turned her toward my room. She didn’t fight me. Instead, she rushed to my bedroom. I waited until I heard the door click before going to the front door.
I opened it carefully since it could have been anyone knocking on my door. It could have been crazy wild vampires for all I knew.
David Powers, a fellow vampire guard and also a vicious snake in the grass, stood there staring back at me. Dressed in his usual all black, he stared back at me and his wild red eyes practically glowed. I sensed his hunger and nerves. I could hear the venom dripping in his mouth and pooling in his jaws.
“David? What can I do for you?” I asked.
My instincts were telling me something was wrong, yet I remained calm and unhurried.
“Rhys sent me for the human.” His fangs shined back at me.
“He never called me and said anything to me about you coming for her,” I said.
I should have kept my mouth shut; I should have denied the fact that a fresh blood bag was hanging around my condo, a rather tasty looking fresh blood bag—one that still smelled of sweet peaches, fresh soap, and maybe even a little bit of me.
“It’s a female.” He sniffed the air. “I smell her, James. She smells delicious.”
“Get the fuck out of here, David.” I remained calm.
“Give me the girl!” he said louder.
“Go away, David!” My composure broke.
There was no way I would allow Harley to leave with him. He was crazed and starving.
I wasn’t sure what David was thinking or if he was thinking at all, but I could see it in his eyes he was ready to kill. He didn’t want to take her to Rhys; he wanted to suck her dry.
I started to shut the door in his face, thinking maybe he would come back to himself and go away, but I was sadly mistaken. Before I could get the door shut, he pushed it open with all his might and somehow managed to make it around me.
“I’m starving!” he screamed.
I was on his heels.
When I caught up with him, he was in my room and staring Harley down. Her alert eyes stared back at him, and still, I saw no fear there. She looked over at me, and I saw the same resolve in her eyes that was there when I had first met her. She knew she wasn’t going to make it very far in our world. She had accepted her death, even if I hadn’t.
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