Only Human (Kirsten O'Shea Book 1)

by Blevins, Candace

  I couldn’t be sure he’d read the actual thought, as it was possible he’d read my aura or scent, so I kept them under control as I imagined deep throating him. The startle calmed down a bit instead of getting worse, and his reactions told me he was reading my aura or smelling my emotions, but didn’t have access to my thoughts. I had the feeling he knew I was contemplating something sexual, but he didn’t know exactly what.

  I could work with that.

  I didn’t know if this was a trap or not, but I knew I couldn’t admit I knew of the existence of vampires, because to do so would break the agreement I’d made with Kieran. If Abbott wasn’t sure about it, and I admitted I knew they existed, then I’d just told someone the big secret. This had trap written all over it, and I needed to get away from him but I had a feeling he wouldn’t let me go without creating a scene.

  It wouldn’t hurt to try, though.

  “Look, Abbott… I’d like to thank you for a lovely evening. I’m going to walk back to my car now and head home to my daughter. Please remove your hand from my arm.”

  “I will remove my hand, but I’d like to ask you to give me ten minutes. If at the end of those ten minutes you still wish to leave then I will walk you to your car and bid you a safe drive home.”

  “And if I don’t agree to your ten minutes?”

  “I’m hoping you do.”

  He didn’t say it as a threat, but I was aware it could be taken as one. I sighed as I told him, “Talk fast. You have five minutes.”

  He lifted his hand and reached for his coffee again, wrapping his hand around it but not picking it up. “Thank you. When Kieran asked if it was okay to let you go with knowledge of us, he spoke with me through a mind connection. I approved of them letting you go home that evening.” His smile wasn’t the affectionate one of earlier. This was the smile of someone with power who was comfortable exercising his authority. Someone who didn’t apologize for his decisions — not even the hard ones.

  I could easily see the Master Vampire now, and I wasn’t sure I liked it but I didn’t let the fear climb. I faked self-assurance and calm, and hoped my scent followed what I was pretending to feel.

  “To be honest,” he continued, “I didn’t completely believe them when they told me of your energy and your ability to block our powers, but you hold the energy of a dozen humans, and you just blocked me from your mind when no human and only a handful of supernaturals have been able to do so since I came into my power.”

  His smile returned to the affectionate one of earlier. He was back to being Abbott, no longer the Master Vampire with the huge power signature. “I originally wanted to speak with you to verify their report, but I find myself intrigued by you. I’ve lived a very long time, and humans — with their short lifespan and foolish notions of how best to spend them — don’t intrigue me.” He shook his head. “And yet I’ve thought of almost nothing but you since our conversation in the theater the other night. Kieran and Gwen tell me you weren’t freaked out about them being vampires and needing to drink blood. If this is true, would you be interested in going on a few dates with me to see if we’re compatible?”

  “Are you done?”

  “Yes, I believe so.”

  “Good, you may now give me a card or some way to contact you, and then walk me to my car.”

  “You have nothing to say in response?”

  “Not tonight. I told you I’d hear you out, and I have. I’m not commenting on whether I’ve met people named Kieran and Gwen, and I’m still fairly positive there’s no such thing as vampires. If I change my mind, I’ll give you a call.”

  He smiled as if he understood perfectly, stood, and offered his arm. I hadn’t thought he was actually reading my mind, but could I’ve been mistaken? Or had he just finally grasped that I wasn’t going to admit to anything until I spoke with Kieran personally? No idea, and my instincts told me not to test it right now, so I didn’t.

  We talked of Hong Kong and the Star Ferry while we walked to our cars, and he politely said goodnight and watched me pull away. I called James on the way home and told him it was a pretty uneventful date and we hadn’t made plans to see each other again. We have a code word to use if things are going bad and I’m being coerced into giving a positive report. Luckily there was no reason to use it tonight.

  Chapter Six

  Monday morning I made a special effort to shave everything that needed to be shaved, and trim everything that needed to be trimmed. I donned a navy pantsuit with an ivory blouse, dropped Lauren off at school, and took the stairs up to my office with Xiaolan so she could retrieve her bike. There’s nothing wrong with the elevator, I just liked the exercise.

  I asked my assistant to get me the contact information for Kieran and Gwen Dixon, and I began to prepare for my first appointment. This was to be a ménage group, two males and a female trying to live together, so I needed to set the chairs up with three of them in a group facing my one. The loveseat would not be good here, everyone needed their own space.

  I stepped to my desk and saw that Eileen had messaged Kieran’s number, so I picked up the phone and called. I didn’t expect him to answer, since he’d be all dead by now, but figured I’d leave a message. His recorded greeting made me want to slap him for his too-perfect grammar, but I left my cell phone number and asked him to call me.

  I had three appointments that morning and then it was time for a quick salad before heading to meet James. He’d texted me where to go already — James owns half a dozen vacation cabins and we generally meet at one of them. His favorite has these huge exposed beams, and he loves to throw a rope over them and tie the ends to my wrist cuffs, but today we were going to one we don’t often visit. It has a delicious hot tub in the master suite though, and I hoped to make use of it.

  Sometimes our sessions are all about pain, sometimes there is very little pain. Always, there is some lesson about submission, or my body, or making me accept what my body craves. Without James in my life, it’s possible I would’ve settled for someone I wasn’t completely compatible with just so I could satisfy my kinky cravings. However, James manages to scratch all of my itches, which allows me to make responsible relationship decisions with my head instead of my hormones.

  Today’s session was all about pain, and was apparently exactly what I needed. It centered me in a way not even hours of meditation is capable. The rest of the world falls away to nothing when you’re physically bound and pain is doled out in a controlled fashion. James and I’ve been together as trainer and student, Dom and sub, Mentor and mentored, for long enough that he has my complete trust.

  You know how Eskimos have all those words for snow? I think there should be dozens of words for pain as well. There are so many flavors of pain — one word can’t possibly describe them all.

  The cabin is in the middle of nowhere, and today he took me to the screened-in porch on the back, tossed a rope over a support beam, and connected it to my wrist cuffs so I had no choice but to stand with my arms over my head. He put a blindfold on me and reminded me our agreement allowed for him to invite spectators so long as they were in the lifestyle.

  One never knows if Master James is mindfucking you or serious, and he had me believing he’d invited people to watch. I’m not a huge exhibitionist, but I’ve been his submissive on stage enough for shows and demonstrations, and had enough orgasms doing so that it’s becoming a little of my kink. Not something I need in order to be fulfilled, but certainly an idea that spices things up a bit in my mind.

  He flogged me for a while, then stopped to put a butt plug in before resuming with the flogger. At some point he added nipple clamps and a butterfly vibe, and every time I asked for permission to come, he allowed it.

  He let my arms down a few times and tied me bent over a table, but then would string me from the rafters again for a while. He occasionally added earplugs as well, though never more than probably ten minutes at a time. Over the course of about three hours, Master James layered pleasure, agony, bliss, and
torment over the top of sensory deprivation, and I managed several dozen orgasms.

  Master James didn’t have any orgasms — he never does in my presence. I’ve never seen him in any stage of undress, and yet I feel completely comfortable around him when I’m nude. It took me a while to be okay with it, but I am now.

  He held me until I came around, wrapped in a blanket, safe and secure in his arms. When I sat up, he fed me some grapes and then walked me to the Jacuzzi, his arm around me for extra security.

  As I soaked, he sat in a chair wearing jeans and a dress shirt, with his legs stretched out in front of him, and we talked about the scene and how various things made me feel. I relaxed in the warm water, my head back and eyes closed, and answered his questions about what turned me on, what I liked, and what I wasn’t thrilled about. This used to be so hard for me, but now it’s just part of the scene. If I hide what I feel and I’m not honest with him, he can’t help me deal with it. He needs to know everything if he is to train me properly.

  Once I was out of the tub, our conversation turned to mundane topics as I fixed my hair and reapplied my makeup. He handed my clothes to me, I put them back on, and he took me by the hand and walked me to my car with instructions to email him tomorrow morning to tell him how badly I was bruised and marked, and to let him know what hurt and what didn’t. We hugged one last time, a long one where he held me and I knew I was special to him, and I hoped he understood what he meant to me. I don’t love him romantically, but I do love him — it would be impossible to have the level of trust we have without affection and caring.

  I called the house phone on the drive home and discovered Xiaolan was preparing dinner, they’d both finished their homework, and Lauren was going over her lines for Alice.

  Dinner was nearly ready when I walked in the door, and I set the table and took my seat. We had a nice family dinner, and as Lauren and I were finishing the dishes, my cell phone rang. I recognized Kieran’s number and headed up the steps towards my room as I answered.

  Xiaolan was in the shower, so she wouldn’t be able to hear my side of the conversation, thank goodness.

  “Do you know someone named Abbott?” I asked Kieran as I answered the phone.

  “Yes”

  “He tried to trick me into admitting I know vampires exist.”

  “I do not believe this was his intention.”

  “Right.”

  “He spoke with me Saturday night after you took your leave. He’s hoping to hear from you again, once you’ve verified his identity with me.”

  “He’s your friend?”

  “He is more than my friend. He is... kind of my boss. He’s the Master Vampire of this area. Not just Chattanooga, but most of the southeastern United States. He’s quite powerful.”

  “And what does he want from me?”

  “He is intrigued by you, and this has not happened for a very long time.”

  “And if I turn him down, is he going to vamp out on me?”

  “Vamp out?”

  “Stop avoiding the question. What happens if I don’t call him back? Will he come after me?”

  “I do not know what will happen. I do not believe you are in danger of harm from him, but I also do not believe he will allow you to walk away with no further contact. He will talk to you at the theater, and he will likely continue to try to court you.”

  Court me? Please. Aaron occasionally came up with what I considered out-of-date words and phrases, too. Apparently, this was a common thing amongst ancient supernaturals. “And you don’t believe he was trying to trick me into breaking my word?”

  “No, my lady. I believe he felt you could tell he was vampire and thus would have no problems talking to him about it. It’s a bit of a conundrum that you can stop us from entering your mind, and yet you can’t tell what we are.”

  “Speaking of which, can Abbott read minds? Or does he just read auras?”

  “Miss O’Shea,” he said, his voice a warning, “you ask dangerous questions.”

  “Yeah, it’s like a gift. Are you going to answer my dangerous question?”

  “I think it best if you ask this of Abbott.”

  “Is the danger to me for asking, or to you for answering?”

  “The latter.”

  “Okay, one more question and I’ll let you go. You said he’s the Master Vampire of the Southeast. Does he have some sort of title? Is there a formal way he should be addressed?”

  “Again, you ask dangerous questions. I will not tell you the formal wording. I will tell you his name is his title, though. He is The Abbott.”

  His speech was so formal, I felt the need to be flippant to balance things out, so I said, “Oh, well. Alrighty then.”

  I’d wondered if Abbott was perhaps only a few hundred years old, because his name hadn’t been in use before then. It didn’t make sense he’d be younger than Kieran and Gwen, and this explained it — assuming his name changed when he took the title. Or, perhaps when he moved to an English speaking country? He spoke as if English were his first language, but I had the sense it wasn’t.

  I set the phone aside and stared at the wall as I thought. I wanted to be able to talk to Aaron about this, but with the wording that I couldn’t tell anyone about vampires, I wasn’t sure how to bring it up. The odds are he knew they exist, but I still couldn’t tell him, or even ask. Perhaps I could get him to meet me at the theater when I knew Abbott would be there? Or, perhaps he’d recognize Abbott’s name and I wouldn’t have to tell him anything. I grabbed my cell phone and called him.

  He answered with, “Hello, gorgeous.”

  I laughed and replied, “Hi, sexy. How are things going?”

  “Other than these murders, you mean? At least there haven’t been any other supernatural emergencies. I’ve handed off the entire half-demon problem to someone I trust, and there’ve been no full-demon problems, which you know because if something’d come up you’d have gotten a call to come help. How are things with you?”

  “Oh, you know, the usual — working and being a mom and spending way too much time sitting in the back of a theater during practice, and, oh, being romanced by a sexy, rich man.”

  “Whoa. You’re being romanced? Someone in that obscene lifestyle of yours, or are you going to break someone else’s heart when you discover they aren’t demented?”

  Ouch. Aaron and I had dated once, but it turns out he’s only insanely dominant outside of the bedroom, so our sex life pretty much didn’t work out. He usually just teases me about being demented, but this sounded like maybe things were a bit more raw than I’d thought. Or, maybe he was just having a bad day. I’d need to figure it out, but later, and in person.

  “He owns The Diamond Club, so there’s reason to believe he’s a bit twisted, though I don’t know for sure yet. But, you know I finally admitted to myself I’ll never be okay with vanilla, and now I always find out by the third date.”

  “The Diamond Club? Please tell me you aren’t talking about Abbott Hamilton.”

  “You know him? Doesn’t sound like you’re a fan.”

  “I need to speak carefully here, Kirsten. He’s a nice enough guy, and in fact someone I consider a good friend. However, his world is…complicated, and under certain circumstances I’d have a hard time protecting you. If you’re going to get involved with him then I need to jump into action tonight to lay the groundwork to keep you safe.” He took a breath and added, “I can’t say anything else at the moment, so don’t start asking questions and please don’t try to figure it out. If you get close it could put you in danger.”

  “Aaron, I trust you with my life and I’ll take your advice. If you tell me to stay away from him I will, but I don’t think it’s that easy. Let me just say I need to speak carefully as well, but it appears he’s intrigued by me, he’s pretty intent on romancing me, and isn’t likely to take no for an answer. He’s a large contributor to my daughter’s theater, and apparently intends on being around quite a bit when I’m there.”

 
There was a long pause and I finally asked, “Aery, are you there?”

  “Yes, Bug, I’m just wondering how you manage to get yourself into these situations. Tell me this — are you attracted to him?”

  “Yeah, but I could also walk away and not look back, at this point. Though as I said, I don’t think he’s going to let me just walk away with no more contact.”

  “Does he know what you’re capable of?”

  I took a moment to consider how to answer, and finally said, “Not everything, though he certainly knows I have some pretty good shields.” Technically, I’d probably said too much, because by saying he knew I had shields, I was telling someone Abbott was likely supernatural. I figured it was within the boundaries, though probably not by much.

  “You’re doing a good job of getting me the information I need. Let me make a few phone calls. Sit tight until I call you back.”

  “Are you sure, Aaron? I don’t want to get you involved in something messy. I don’t know what kinds of politics might be involved but I’m guessing you’re about to dive elbow deep into something smelly.”

  “Don’t worry about me; I need a little excitement in my life anyway. Just sit tight until I call you back.”

  “Aery?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I wish things could have worked out between us. I still feel like our hearts are somehow connected, and it makes me sad that the whole couple thing didn’t work, but I’m really glad we’re such good friends.”

  “I know, Bug. It’s okay. I’m glad you’re my friend, too. I’ll talk to you later. Don’t speak with Abbott until I speak with you again.” And he hung up.

  Maybe I shouldn’t have said that last bit, but I had to. I was sad things hadn’t worked between us, and I wanted him to know. One of the most magical nights of my life had been when he’d transformed into a beautiful dragon and flown me around the night sky. We landed on a mountaintop, he shifted back to human form, stretched his cloak out on the ground, and we had what would’ve probably been great vanilla sex if I were into that sort of thing.