We arrived at the Charlotte Towers around eleven thirty. “You have a package waiting for me?” Bones queried as he signed in.
The man behind the desk, Alan from the name on his badge, scanned his notes.
“Let’s see, Mr. Arthur, you booked a deluxe room with a king bed and…oh, yes, we had a delivery for you. Here you go.”
He handed Bones a FedEx box, which he tucked under his arm. I had other concerns.
“A king bed?” I turned to Bones, still stewing over the whole I-had-energy-to-burn-after-shagging-you thing. “I said I’d go with you to this, but we are not having sex tonight.”
We had Alan’s full attention now. Bones gave my hand a warning squeeze and spoke in a low tone.
“Causing a scene? Why don’t you run an ad in the newspaper that we’re in town as well?”
Goddamn, he was right. I was letting my pettiness get the better of me. One of us could sleep on the floor. We had bigger fish to fry than a celibacy spat.
I looked at Alan, who stared at us with rapt attention. “Show’s over, buddy. Going to hand over those room keys or what?”
He passed them over. “Enjoy your stay.”
“Thanks ever so,” Bones replied, eyes still flashing at me.
I followed him to the elevator and up to the room. Bones didn’t say a word to me after that, and he pointedly left me alone in the bedroom while I changed.
Deleted scene that originally took place in Chapter 14, after Cat agreed to date Bones and they returned to the hotel.
“Let’s go inside,” he said softly.
I managed to nod in agreement.
It wasn’t cold, but I put my coat on. After all, there was blood on my dress. Mustn’t look like a murderess in front of the nice employees.
Bones pulled me close as we hurried inside the lobby. The same concierge Alan was alone at the desk. Poor man, he must work the graveyard shift. I pressed the button for the elevators, and Bones shot me a wicked glance before he called out to him.
“Looks like we’ll be having sex after all, mate.”
Mortified, I slapped him. He simply laughed and grabbed me, kissing me so soundly I didn’t even notice when he propelled me into the elevator. The doors closed on the stupefied face of the concierge still staring after us.
We barely made it inside the room. As soon as the door opened we fell onto the floor, knocking over a table nearby and sending the lamp crashing to the ground. Bones kicked the door closed while ripping off his pants, tearing them in his impatience. I slid along the floor under him. The carpet scraped against my skin as he pushed my dress around my waist and buried his head between my legs. My hands stretched out behind me, fingers mindlessly grasping for anything to hold on to during his erotic assault on my sensitive flesh. Something solid brushed by my hand, the lamp from the table. His tongue stabbed into me and I gripped it. After a moment, it shattered and cut my palm. I didn’t even feel the pain. Only the feel of his mouth registered, and it burned me as if he breathed fire.
“Now. Now…” The words were raggedly spoken in pure desire. Everything ached to feel him inside me again.
“No,” he growled, voice muffled against my skin and tongue ruthlessly tormenting me with pleasure.
“Yes. Now.” My fingernails ripped the carpet in frustration, spine arching with every wet stroke.
“Tell me you want me. Say the words.”
He paused long enough to lift his head so he could see my face. His eyes drilled into mine, unrelenting, and his tongue flicked out to tease my quivering flesh.
Sparks nearly flew off me.
“Yes, oh God, yes. I want you. Now.” If I had national secrets to spill, I would have. Anything to make him comply.
He dragged his mouth up my stomach, pausing to rend my dress from me and draw on each nipple before his body covered mine. I opened my legs and gave a shuddering moan as he slid inside me. He rocked his hips slowly and my arms wrapped around him so that nothing separated us. My hand bled where the glass sliced into my palm. He held my wrist and sucked on the cut while continuing to move within me. I pulled it out of his mouth and kissed him, tasting my blood and other things when his tongue caressed mine.
“I can’t get enough of you,” he murmured into my mouth.
Good, I thought. Then you won’t stop.
Bones locked his arms around my waist and flipped us over, leaving me on top. This hadn’t happened before and I hesitated, unsure.
His stomach muscles flexed as he sat up. His hands caressed my back, dark eyes bright green with lust. One sinuous arch under me as he rubbed his loins into mine took my shyness away.
“Bones,” I moaned. “You feel so good it drives me crazy.”
He smiled and bent his head to my breasts. “That’s the intention. Now it’s your turn. As hard or gentle as you want, you decide. You’re in control.”
I repeated the motion he just used. The hard slide of his flesh was punctuated by his pelvis hitting my most sensitive spot, sending heat flaring through me. Being in control had never felt so good.
“Let’s see if I can make you crazy now,” I said in a throaty voice, and began to move with single-minded purpose.
Deleted/amended scene that formerly took place in the middle of Chapter 15
“Is this the place?”
Bones had slowed the motorcycle enough for speech to be productive. Even though I was facing his back, I could just feel him scoping out the area with his gaze.
“Second house on the left.”
It was almost twelve hours after my morning coffee with Timmie. Bones had arrived at my apartment right at dusk around six. He’d taken one whiff inside my place and then asked me with questionable politeness how I liked my new neighbor. That nose of his would put a bloodhound’s to shame, but then again, Bones was a true bloodhound in every sense of the word.
“Remember, luv, don’t use your real name.”
Well, that was easy. I barely knew it myself anymore.
Bones pulled into the driveway of the modest one-story house, and I was the one who got off. He stayed where he was, causally resting the bike upright. A young girl would look a lot less ominous to the Spencers than he would after nine at night. Natalie’s parents, if that’s who they were, lived several counties away. If I’d have been driving instead of Bones with his damned speedy, unsafe bike, we wouldn’t have arrived until after midnight.
My knock was greeted with slight grumbles but then a man maybe in his early fifties answered the door.
“Hello?”
I smiled brightly. “Mr. Spencer, it’s Suzy. Sorry to come by so late, and you probably don’t even recognize me with this new hair color - gosh, it’s been years, huh? - but when I got back into town I just had to come by and see if Natalie was home. The house looks great, by the way. Love the new color.”
Bones was nothing if not thorough. When he said he’d researched the Spencers, he researched them. I bit back the urge to say, Glad that prostate of yours cleared up! The Spencers had lived in Bethel for twenty years, and though they weren’t rich or influential, there was a break in the typical pattern with Natalie. She hadn’t been a loner, on drugs, or prone to any problems. That’s why we were proceeding with caution, because there was no need to green-eye or alarm these people if this was a wrong number.
George Spencer rubbed his eyes and blinked. “Um…Suzy. How, ah, how nice to see you again.”
If there was one thing my young years had already taught me, it was that men hated to admit they didn’t know something. If Mrs. Spencer had answered the door, I would have used a different ploy.
“I want you to meet my boyfriend, Cris.” I said, waving Bones over when he pretended to be hesitant. I lowered my voice conspiratorially. “Can you believe it? I finally snagged a cute guy! Don’t tell him what a dork I used to be, okay?”
George Spencer appeared mildly dazed. I saw him glance up the stairs inside, and knew if I had telepathy, I’d hear him screaming, Honey! Get down here and res
cue me from this chatterbox!
“Natalie’s not here,” he said with an eye on Bones as he approached. His hand on the doorway tightened. “She moved to Los Angeles two weeks ago. Said some agent’s gonna make her the next Nicole Kidman. Maybe you can talk some sense into her. She doesn’t listen to reason if it’s coming from her parents.”
“Who is it, George?” a woman’s voice called from upstairs. Must be Liz Spencer.
“Natalie’s friend Suzy!” he yelled back, sounding impatient and weary.
“Suzy?” The voice was closer, and then a graying blonde came down the stairs with her brows furrowed in puzzlement. “Natalie doesn’t have any friends named Suzy.”
Bones hit the two of them with his gaze right then, pushing past George Spencer as I closed the door behind us.
“Don’t scream,” he commanded them in that hair-raising voice. Two sets of eyes were instantly transfixed on his glowing ones. “When was the last time you saw Natalie?”
“Two weeks,” both of them answered in unison.
“And did she tell you then she was going to Los Angeles? Just you answer me, mum.”
“No,” Liz said.
“When did you first hear that?”
“The next night after I saw her. She called and said she wasn’t coming home.”
So far, just like Emily.
“And that’s the last you heard of her?” Bones asked, tapping his chin.
“No.”
That reply surprised both of us. He stopped tapping and his brows rose. “Indeed?”
“She called yesterday,” was the unexpected response. “She didn’t want us to worry and she said she was getting a phone in her apartment soon, so we’d have her number. She’d been calling from a pay phone.”
Now that didn’t make sense. Maybe this was way off. From what it sounded like, Natalie Spencer had just gone off to Los Angeles to pursue an acting dream. I didn’t see any of Hennessey’s people letting her call her parents from forced confinement just to chat.
“Get me a recent photo of her,” Bones instructed. Liz went to a picture on the mantle and handed it over without a word. Bones took it from the frame and tucked the photo in his jacket.
“Listen close, both of you,” he said, laying a hand on each of them. His gaze brightened even further. “We were never here. You’ve been in your rooms just as you were before, and no one came to your door. If you ever see me or her again,” a jerk of his head indicated me, “you won’t remember us. Once we leave, we never arrived.”
They both nodded, and I shifted uneasily on my feet. Yeah, this was convenient, but it was still scary that people’s minds could be manipulated so effortlessly.
“Kitten.” Bones turned to me. “Let’s go.”
* * *
I didn’t get a chance to talk to him until two hours later when we pulled up to my apartment. Again, a motorcycle didn’t lend to conversation, especially not at the speeds he drove. My nails were dug almost through his jacket and into his stomach by the time he came to a stop.
“We’re taking my truck next time,” was the first thing I said as I pulled my helmet off.
Bones let out a snort. “Not likely. First, it could very well break down on the way to wherever we’re headed. Second, it’s as maneuverable as a bus if we run into a spot of trouble and third, it’s registered in your name. I don’t want someone on Hennessey’s side to simply have to copy down a license number to find out who you are.”
All three were valid points. Damn him for using logic when he argued.
“What do you make of Natalie’s phone calls?” I said next, defeated in my attempt to avoid ever getting back on that bike.
He started towards the stairs to my apartment. “Not sure. That’s why I took the photo. I want to show it to Emily and make certain this is the right -”
“Hi Cathy!”
Timmie opened his door with a wide smile. He must have seen me through his window.
Bones stopped on the second floor and gave Timmie a look that froze the smile on the younger man’s face.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t see you had company,” Timmie apologized, almost tripping to hurry back in his apartment.
I shot Bones an equally hostile glare for rattling my already skittish neighbor. “It’s okay,” I said, smiling at Timmie. “He’s not really ‘company’ anyway.”
“Oh.” Timmie gave Bones a shy peek. “Are you Cathy’s brother?”
“Whatever would give you the idea that I’m her damn brother?” Bones snapped.
Timmie backed up so fast, he hit the back of his head against his doorframe. “Sorry!” he gasped, and banged into the door again before managing to scramble back inside.
I marched up the stairs slowly and then stuck my finger in Bones’ chest. He regarded me with what I would have called sullenness - if he hadn’t been over two hundred.
“You have a choice,” I said, biting off each word. “Either you make a very sincere apology to Timmie right now, or you leave immediately and slither back to your cave like the festering ball sack you just acted like. I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but he’s a nice guy, and you probably just made him pee his pants. Your decision, Bones. One or the other.”
A dark brow arched at me. I tapped my foot. “One…two…”
He muttered something foul and then spun on his heel, making it to Timmie’s door in one long stride before rapping twice.
“Right then, mate, terribly sorry for my unspeakable rudeness and I do beg your pardon,” he said with admirable humbleness when Timmie cracked it open. Only I could pick up on the slight edge to his tone as he went on. “I can only say it was caused by my natural affront to the notion of her as my sibling. Since I’m taking her straight to bed, you can imagine how I’d be distressed at the thought of shagging my sister.”
“You schmuck!” I burst as Timmie’s jaw dropped. “The only thing you’re getting into bed with tonight is yourself!”
“You wanted sincerity,” he countered. “Well, luv, I was sincere.”
“You can get right back on your bike and I’ll see you tomorrow, if you’re not being such an ass,” I said, furious.
Timmie’s head swiveled back and forth between the two of us, his jaw still swinging open. Bones curled his lips at him in a smile that was more just a baring of teeth.
“Nice to meet you, mate, and here’s some advice: Don’t even think about it. You try anything with her and I’ll neuter you with my bare hands.”
“Leave!” I stamped my foot for emphasis.
He swept past me and then swiveled, kissing me hard on the mouth before jumping back to avoid my right hook.
“Good night, Kitten. Sleep well.”
Timmie waited until Bones had driven out of sight before he dared to speak.
“That’s your boyfriend?”
I let out a grunt that I suppose was an affirmative.
“He really doesn’t like me,” he said, almost a whisper.
I gave one last look in the direction Bones disappeared to before shaking my head at his bewildering behavior.
“No, Timmie. I guess he doesn’t.”
Training scene that originally took place at the end of Chapter 16.
“Is that all you’ve got?” Bones taunted me.
Crouched on the rocky floor of the cave with a split lip and aching ribs, I glared up at him. You would think since we’d been sleeping together for over a month, he’d be a little gentler on the merchandise. We still trained together regularly, although that was at my insistence rather than obligation, but if anything, he pushed me harder when we sparred. Bones wanted to make sure I was up to whatever Hennessey and his men might dish out, since they weren’t known for their chivalry.
“You jerk, you sucker-punched me when I thought I’d hurt you!”
My words came out of a throat sore from being squeezed threateningly before a kick to the groin had dissuaded him. He’d gotten in that rib shot when I leaned over to see if the stake had injured hi
m too badly. Even though it was only wood, I had barely missed his heart.
“How many times have I told you, when someone is down you kick them, not ask them if they’re bloody all right! They’re not supposed to be all right, are they? No, that’s why it’s called a fight and not a chat. Blimey, you’ll get yourself killed one day checking to see if someone’s really hurt. They’re not really hurt unless they’re dead!”
He circled around me, cracking his knuckles and rolling his head around his shoulders. Take advantage of my concern for him, would he? We’d see about that.
Charging forward as if reckless from anger, I pummeled him with fists and legs and took a sound thumping in return. When he went for his traditional head punch that left me seeing stars, I braced for it, following the motion like I hadn’t seen it coming. He was lightning fast. Usually I didn’t see it coming.
His fist connected and I dropped limply to the ground, sparing myself nothing in the fall. My face banged painfully onto the rocks but I lay sprawled where I was, motionless.
“Down again, well, I was knackered anyway,” he muttered to himself as he knelt next to me. When he took out his knife to pierce his palm, I snatched it away and shoved it into his gut. Then, ignoring his groan of pain, I drove the wooden stake straight into his heart. If it had been silver, he would have been dead.
At last, I’d won a round between us.
“Good on you, you nasty wench. Now pull that out, it hurts like blazes.”
Bones winced and blood flowed briefly from his chest when I yanked the stake from him. No use being delicate with a vampire.
“I think you broke my rib, maybe two,” I replied conversationally when he took the switchblade out himself. That wound also released a flow of blood before closing as if by an invisible zipper. Some things you just never got used to seeing.
Bones gave me a crooked curl of the lips. “Never forget to follow your own advice, hmm? Bloody hell, that was a dirty trick. I’m right proud of you. I’d be staring at my body from a block away now if this was real.”
Halfway to the Grave Page 34
