by M. J. O'Shea
“You’re on damage control?”
“Yeah, with Zack. Someone’s got to hold back the hotheads.”
I chuckled at the idea of Noah being a hothead. I’d seen enough of his temper that I understood, but it just seemed so funny for some reason.
“Okay, let’s get ready and go. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can go home.”
I gave PC a smile that had him scrambling for his coat.
PC HAD been right. They were obviously planning something. There was a whole lot of shushing and gesturing when they saw us walk through the door of Red and head for their table.
“I’m not stupid, Noah,” PC called good-naturedly. “Just tell me what you’re doing so I know what I’m supposed to hide from the council.”
There were guilty looks all around as we sat at the table and an exasperated sigh from Zack. Apparently he hadn’t been very successful at hothead control in PC’s absence.
“We’re not planning anything.” Noah looked so innocent… and so full of it.
PC rolled his eyes. “I believe that ’cause I met you yesterday. I’m serious. I need to know what you’re going to do. You could be in danger from the lycans if any of them think you’re working for Silivasi. Not all the elders know you guys.”
“They would if they’d ever try to take us seriously. Hardy Boys… shit. It still annoys me.”
“They annoy me too. And worse. Be glad they’re not actually in charge of you. I’ve been dealing with them since before I was even old enough to realize what assholes they were.” PC made a face. “So we all agree that the elders pretty much suck. Just tell me what you’re thinking. I know I told you to stay out of it, but they pissed me off today. I’m on your side.”
Noah and Leila exchanged glances and PC rolled his eyes.
“Really? C’mon, you guys.”
Noah nodded at Leila, who shrugged. “Fine. You’re right, we’re planning something. I just don’t get why Komarov doesn’t want our help. Even if we seem mostly useless to him, wouldn’t whatever small thing we can do be better than nothing?” Noah seemed honestly perplexed along with being annoyed. He was right. It didn’t make sense for them not to help. Were territory lines really that important?
PC rolled his eyes. “Who knows why that man does anything? If I never had to deal with him again, I’d be a whole lot happier. Komarov has the unconditional respect of the council in Bucharest, though. His word is the way it has to be. Doesn’t mean we can’t act under his nose, right?”
Noah grinned. “I knew we were friends for a reason. Leila, tell him what we got so far.”
Leila outlined their plan for tracking Silivasi. I had to admit it was smart. The lycans were wrong to think my friends couldn’t really do anything to help. New York was their city, after all, and they had contacts the upper-crust lycans wouldn’t even dream of using. As I listened to them talk, I realized PC had more of those seedy contacts than the rest of them put together.
“Jesus, who else do you know?” I finally had to ask, after he’d listed yet another unsavory type who would be useful to them in their quest to find Silivasi and stop him. PC chuckled under his breath.
“I’ve spent the last four years on a quest to be as little like the lycan elders as I can possibly be. I made friends with basically anyone who would piss them off. Until the imprinting thing happened, they’d been trying pretty successfully to pretend I didn’t exist.”
“And now that’s gone, and so is your newly earned status.”
“Like I care. Those pompous assholes are not on my ‘need to impress’ list.”
“Who is?”
“You,” he teased, tickling my sides.
I batted at his hand and laughed. “Hey, listen, I’m going to go find a, uh, drink and let you guys hash the rest of this thing out.” I kissed PC’s cheek and went to stand.
Zack stood as well, looking like he’d like to escape from the conversation.
“I’ll help you. You’re still really new at this and it might be awkward.”
I didn’t think it would be, but I hated to ruin his excuse for getting up. So I just smiled at him and nodded.
“Not big into the death and dismemberment?” I asked when we’d walked a few feet from the table.
“That easy to tell?” He smiled. “I’ve been hunting with them for over a year, and every single time I’m shaking all night because I’m terrified that something’s going to happen to Noah. He can be so reckless.”
“I would have never guessed when I first met him.”
Zack chuckled ironically. “Don’t be fooled by the sweet face. That one’s got a wild streak a mile wide. I think he actually likes the danger. I hate it. I couldn’t imagine losing him. It would kill me.”
“I understand, believe me.” I cocked my head in the direction of PC, who was grinning and participating enthusiastically in the discussion of how they would hunt for Silivasi under the lycan council’s noses. Whatever happened to controlling the hotheads?
“So let’s find a snack,” Zack said. “I could use some blood. I have a feeling it’s going to be a long couple of weeks. What’s your flavor?”
“You know, I’m not sure. I like how men and women smell, but not all of them. I can’t figure out what it is about the ones I like. There’s nothing that I can see that makes them any different from the people that I don’t like.”
“What’s different about the smell?”
“It’s lighter, less… oily or something.”
“Hmmm. You’ll have to point out a few of them and let me see if I can figure it out.”
Zack and I made a game out of figuring out what it was about the smells I liked. We’d find a person who smelled good, then ask them a few questions, trying to find things they had in common with the others. Then we’d both take a small taste and compare notes. Zack liked the way the women tasted better than the men but gamely agreed to try both. He also thought there was a lighter flavor to the blood of the people I liked. He didn’t necessarily think it was better or worse, just different. Our taste testing was fun and a little silly, a huge turn-on, and a diversion from the hunting conversation we both wanted to avoid.
After we’d been through about ten different people (and were starting to feel a bit sloshy) Zack finally had a revelation.
“Wait, weren’t you a vegetarian when you were human?” He said it like it’d been a hundred years instead of only two days. In a way, it kind of felt like that.
“Sort of. I ate fish and chicken every once in a while, but never beef.”
“Let’s try one more. I think that may have something to do with it.”
This time when we found someone who had that same light smell, a girl with coppery red curls, Zack asked if she ate meat. The girl made a face and shook her head. Bingo. I liked the taste of vegetarians—or at least people who didn’t eat much red meat. I bet if I’d gone back and asked all the others, I’d find the same thing. It was something I’d taken from my human life, and it made perfect sense in a weird vampire kind of way.
I was lost in my short bout of scientific reasoning when I felt a pair of warm familiar arms encircle my waist from behind. His strength and that sexy smell filled my nose and made my skin prickle with desire.
“Hey, baby,” I purred and rubbed up against him, curling my arm around to grab his hip and pull him closer. All that blood had me feeling heated up.
PC gulped and tightened his arms. “You trying to give me a stroke, huh? You can’t do that to me in public.”
“Sorry,” I murmured, leaning my head back against his shoulder. “Can’t help it. The blood turns me on. You turn me on even more. I want you.”
“Want you too. Always. What were you two doing, anyway? Noah and I have been watching you for a while. It’s like you’re keeping score. This isn’t Iron Chef, you know.”
I turned to see him grinning at me. I couldn’t help but to kiss him. The kiss was a little less casual than I’d originally planned and ended with me plaster
ed against him, groaning, with my hand under his shirt. Finally, I caught my breath enough to answer him.
“It was an experiment. We’ve been trying to find a pattern in the blood that I like.”
“Did you find one?”
I nodded. “I think so. It seems like it’s the red meat thing. The lighter and sweeter the blood tastes to me, the less meat the person eats. At least, I’m pretty sure that’s what it is.”
“So we can go to one of those vegan restaurants and you’ll be in hog paradise?”
I grinned at his joke. “Yeah, as long as the people there aren’t just pretending to like it ’cause it’s trendy and sneaking out for a big burger afterwards.”
“I know what I’d want afterwards.”
I moaned and dropped my head forward until our noses were touching. And then our lips bumped against each other and the kisses started all over. I should have stopped. I knew we were in public, but I didn’t care. The whole outside world had disappeared; everything that mattered had converged onto the one small point where our lips were connected. Nothing else even registered. PC sank the fingers of one hand into my hair and the other landed on his favorite place on my lower back. My head spun happily and I brushed my tongue along his.
We had to come up for air eventually. It was unfortunate, since I would have been happiest if that kiss never ended. The lust clouding my brain finally cleared enough for me to register enthusiastic whistles and catcalls coming from a loud group of vampires just a few feet away.
“You guys suck,” PC grumbled good-naturedly.
“Just showing our appreciation for an entertaining show,” Leila chirped. “Oh, and Lisa agrees. I sent her pictures.”
I laughed. The only other choice I had was dying of embarrassment. PC threaded his fingers through mine and led me back to the table to sit down with our friends.
The rest of the night was fun, easy. PC, Noah, and Leila avoided too much of what Zack called “shop talk,” instead focusing on my odd variation on blood taste and the usual arguments about weapons and hunting techniques. Their argument was obviously more about fun than work, and from what I could tell it was well-worn and comfortable. I didn’t have to really listen; they were sure to have the same heated (and very detailed) debate again in the near future. Instead I concentrated on enjoying my friends’ presence and the warmth that radiated from PC, who was slouched casually in the booth next to me. He’d been behaving, brushing his hand along my thigh every once in a while, holding my hand chastely. I knew that last kiss was still in his mind, though. It hadn’t slipped very far from mine.
Predictably, the good behavior didn’t last long. Somewhere in the middle of Zack and Leila’s stalemate over the merits of modern firearms versus more traditional weaponry, I felt PC’s fingers slyly slip under the hem of my sweater. I knew he wasn’t going to be able to stay away. It had been hard for me too. We really did need to learn how to control ourselves. Later.
I breathed a sigh of relief and reached over to cup my hand on his thigh. I’d missed the lean muscular warmth of his body for the last, oh, twenty minutes or so that I’d managed to keep my fingers off it.
He was touching me again like he always did, slow petting that I could feel in every cell in my body. I tried to practice not feeling it so much, not letting his fingertips drive me insane. But they were relentless, weaving intricate patterns over and over along the small of my back. I breathed in and out, concentrating on not going out of my mind with pleasure. Think about guns and swords. Listen to Zack talk….
When I was finally starting to feel successful, able to concentrate on the conversation instead of his hand on that small strip of skin, he moved to a new spot. His fingertip ran up the middle of my spine, nail brushing along the same thin dent on the way back down. I dug my own nails into my palm to try and distract myself from the mind-obliterating pleasure. It’s just a touch. But, God, it wasn’t. It was explosions, dark pulsing explosions detonating across my skin. His small casual touch was fire. And I was burning.
Every blood cell in my body raced headlong for the achingly hot spot between my thighs that was growing harder and harder with each beat of my heart. I nearly moaned aloud but caught myself at the last second.
I took his arm and pulled it into my lap, lacing his fingers with mine and capturing the hand that was wreaking such havoc in my system. He chuckled softly at something Zack said and brought his other hand across to brush up the inside of my arm. I pushed the hand I had captured down into my lap so he could feel what he was doing to me, be reminded that it wasn’t just a touch anymore. He just grinned and squeezed, pushed against my erection with our entwined fists, and continued with the maddening brush of his fingers up and down, up and down along the ultrasensitive skin of my inner arm.
I gulped hard and stared at the table, not wanting anyone to see what I was feeling. I tried to control it in my face. It was impossible. A low laugh from across the table made me look up.
“If you two don’t go home pretty soon, you’re going to end up getting arrested for public indecency or something. The look on Miles’ face could light an ice cube on fire.” Leila gave me a wicked grin and winked.
The laughter that broke out around the table drew me from my sensual haze. It’s that obvious? My face burned in typical embarrassment.
“Maybe it is time to go. I was getting a little sleepy, after all.” PC yawned and stretched theatrically.
“Sleepy my ass,” Zack countered as we started to stand and gather our coats. “Have fun, you two.” Oh God. They all knew exactly what we were going home to do.
“We will,” PC assured them with a grin. “Don’t worry.”
“YOU WANT to try it tonight? Like right now?” I was pretty surprised.
We’d just walked into the apartment when he dropped that bomb on me. I gulped hard. I’d assumed that when he said he wanted me to be inside him, he meant “someday.” “Tonight” seemed so immediate.
“Yeah. Tonight. I told you I wanted to.”
“Don’t you want to think about it more? I’m afraid you’re not ready. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Now you understand why I was nervous. We’ll be fine. Promise. I want to feel you.”
I nodded. “Okay, we’ll see how it goes. But tell me right away if it hurts and you want me to stop.”
PC gave me a soft smile and shook his head. “C’mere.” He wrapped me up tight in his arms and breathed against my ear. “Kiss me,” he whispered. “Everything seems so much easier when we’re kissing.”
It did. Everything was perfect when PC was kissing me. So I did what he told me and kissed him. Hard and long and deep, reassuring me that the night ahead and everything he wanted us to do was going to work out. I was afraid he’d hate it, still worried that somehow he’d decide I wasn’t worth the trouble and he was leaving. I missed the security of our bond, the safety of knowing he couldn’t leave. PC pulled away.
“What is it, babe?” he asked, tipping my chin up so I had to look at him.
How could he tell I was freaking out? “Nothing. I’m just being stupid.”
“Stop worrying, okay? I want you—please?”
PC’s big gold eyes killed me. I was never going to be able to say no to him. I sighed. It wasn’t like I actually wanted to say no anyway.
“I want you too,” I whispered and tugged on his jacket, pulling it off his shoulders and down his arms until it dropped to the floor, leaving him in a thin T-shirt. I loved how warm he was, loved his supple, springy muscles. He grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it off quickly.
“Take yours off too,” he murmured, tugging at my sweater and the shirt under it.
I grinned at the familiarity of his words. He was always trying to get me naked. I understood. There was nothing as perfect as the feel of his skin against mine with no irritating fabric in between. My pants were being tugged over my hips, and I shook my feet, trying to get them off before I tripped. I pulled on PC’s belt, then got my hands on his z
ipper.
It was such a relief to land on the bed with him, clothing forgotten. It felt even better than it had the night before. My skin pulsed with happiness, loving his nearness, his scent, his touch. A question halfway clicked in my brain for a split second, but his kisses drowned out any reasoning my distractible brain had been trying to do. He worked his way down my chest with his mouth, licking and sucking and scraping his teeth over nipples that felt like fuses running right into my cock. I cried out when he bit, then sucked forcefully on one of those oh-so-sensitive spots. I was going to explode at any second.
“Hey,” I moaned when I could breathe fully. “Aren’t I supposed to be doing this to you?”
“Shut up,” he grinned. “Wanna taste you now.”
And he did. Jesus, he did. I made a weak attempt to push him away.
“PC, stop. Gonna come. Feels too good.”
He moaned his agreement and kept going, adding a finger at my entrance, massaging softly. His finger pushed in at the same moment he took me deep into his throat.
I lost it.
Eyes wide in shock, a scream stuck in my throat, I came. So long and so hard I saw stars pulsing in my vision. My hips were frozen, lifted off the bed, pleasure pounding me to insensibility. Eventually, I collapsed, my heart thrashing around in my chest. I breathed in and out slowly for a few silent, trembly moments. Then I inhaled deeply, smelling PC and the sweaty, salty tang of sex. That smell was a trigger, its essence filling my brain like a drug that made me want more.
I groaned and flipped him over, dragging my hand down his chest, admiring the long, smooth expanses of skin. So warm and he smells so good. I understood how he felt. I had to taste him.
“Please,” he whispered and lifted his hips again. His eyes opened, hazy and near black with desire. “I wanna feel you. Inside, babe. Please?” His voice was breathy, achy, the sexiest thing I’d ever heard. I let him slip out of my mouth and looked up with a slow smile.
