The Devil and the Dancer

by Elizabeth Hunter

  She sighed and leaned toward him. “Huh?”

  “We’re home.” He ran a finger down her cheek and slung her messenger bag over his shoulder. “Fucking hell, woman, what do you keep in this thing?”

  Her eyes were still closed. “Contact lens stuff. Glasses. Change of clothes. Leggings. Shoes.”

  “When are you going to start leaving things here? Your room has a closet bigger than most East Village apartments.”

  Her eyes flickered open. “Pushy.”

  Gavin shook his head and opened his car door, waiting outside for her to wake up and join him. The driver sat idling and silent while Gavin stood, his jaw clenched.

  Pushy? For fuck’s sake, he was anything but pushy. If he was pushy, she’d have been in his bed months ago. If he was pushy, Chloe Reardon would be in his thrall.

  You don’t want that.

  Chloe got out of the car and walked around to him, rubbing her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s fine.”

  “You say that”—she stood in front of him as the car pulled away—“but your tone says you’re pissed off at me.”

  Gavin walked toward the elevator. “You’re tired. I don’t want to talk about this right now.”

  Chloe followed him. “I shouldn’t have called you pushy. You’re not pushy. You’re like… the opposite of pushy.”

  He pressed the button to call the elevator and felt the air stir across his skin. He needed a nice long flight tonight. Needed the wind across his skin. Needed—

  Chloe nudged his arm out of the way, slid her hand across his back and into the rear pocket of his trousers.

  Gavin looked down in surprise. “Miss Reardon, you have your hand on my arse.”

  The corner of her mouth quirked up. “Are you complaining?”

  “I don’t know,” he muttered. “You’re being a bit pushy.”

  Her laugh was punctuated by a small snort, and Gavin broke into a smile. She started to slide her hand out of his pocket, but he grabbed it and kept it exactly where she’d put it.

  “Are you planning to keep that there all the way up to the penthouse?”

  “Are you worried someone has seen you stake your claim? It’s three in the morning; I think we have the elevator to ourselves.”

  Her cheeks flushed a little. “Stake my claim?”

  “It’s about fucking time, I’ll add. I like it when you get territorial.”

  She pressed her face into his shoulder. “I’m never going to hear the end of this.”

  “No.” He chuckled. “If I could get the angle right, I’d take a picture.”

  He watched her laughing against his shoulder, ridiculously pleased that she was sleepy and silly and walking home with him. That she trusted him. That she looked at him and didn’t see a monster but a man.

  Oh, fuck me. Gavin felt his heart thump twice.

  He didn’t just want Chloe Reardon. He was in love with her.

  2

  Chloe watched Ben stride through the loft, tossing phone chargers and batteries next to his backpack on the couch.

  “We’ll be in pretty remote areas at times, so use the satellite phone if my mobile doesn’t work.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “From what I’ve heard, nothing is reliable. Not power. Not cell signal. I’m bringing the solar chargers, so we should be fine with the satellite phone.”

  “But only for emergencies,” Chloe said. “Tell Tenzin I’m not calling her to report on the flowers blooming.”

  “I’ll let her know, but…”

  “No! Enough. She’s obsessing.” It was true. Tenzin didn’t do slight interest. If something caught her attention, that interest quickly turned into obsession. In the year Chloe had been living at the apartment, she’d seen it happen half a dozen times.

  “That’s what she does.” Ben shrugged. “And you have to admit the garden does look really good.”

  Ben had relented and allowed Tenzin to plant a full garden on the roof, including fruit trees, a water feature, and a fire pit.

  “Just tell her she has to trust that I will not kill all her plants. She’s showed me what to do at least a dozen times. And you guys are going to Puerto Rico, not Kathmandu.”

  Ben squinted. “Do you know where Kathmandu is?”

  “Do you?”

  “Nepal.”

  Chloe threw a balled-up sock at him. “Fine, know-it-all. Still, it’s like four hours from New York, not the ends of the earth. I’ll survive without you two.”

  “If you need money—”

  “I have access to Tenzin’s account here.”

  Tenzin’s mind-boggling account.

  Chloe had no idea how much money Tenzin actually had, but the account Chloe used to pay bills and run Tenzin’s financial life was… intimidating. Chloe could buy a modestly priced home in Queens with the cash Tenzin kept available.

  But most of the time Chloe tried not to think about how much Ben and Tenzin spent on anything. She knew how much the remodel was—roughly—but Ben had instructed the builders to send all bills to him. Everything in New York City cost a fortune, even for someone accustomed to Los Angeles. So she gritted her teeth, let Ben pay for everything, and plotted how long it would take for her to get her own place.

  Not that she didn’t like living in the loft. She was ridiculously grateful, enjoyed working for Tenzin, and often felt like she had the entire place to herself. Tenzin had been unusually quiet the past six months, Ben was gone a lot, and Chloe was often the only one awake during daylight hours.

  She was slowly making new friends. She and Arthur had grown close again, though the hilarious designer was somewhat obsessed with her employers. Gavin spent a lot of time with her, but he was more comfortable in the bar or at his place.

  He’d once muttered something about “territories being a bit complicated.”

  I like it when you get territorial.

  The memory brought a flush to her cheeks. Chloe had no idea what Gavin meant by territories. She had no idea how a lot of stuff in the vampire world worked. She didn’t want to know too much. She had her people—and her vampires—but she did not want to get deeper into the sticky politics of immortal life.

  Ben and Tenzin would be in Puerto Rico looking for pirate treasure for about a month. While they were gone, Chloe wouldn’t have much to do other than watch the house, pay the bills, and do any research online that Tenzin wasn’t able to do herself. Half the time that research would involve whatever mysterious artifact or treasure they were following.

  The other half would be how to make a cake in a microwave or why Americans called the back of a car the trunk instead of the boot.

  This was her life.

  A few more minutes with Ben didn’t reassure Chloe that he was headed anywhere productive for himself personally, despite the fact that her friend had actual human relatives on the island.

  She walked downstairs to the training area to find Tenzin, her employer and her oddest friend, staring at a group of weapons spread across the training area.

  “What are you doing?” Chloe asked.

  “Trying to decide what to take.”

  Chloe blinked. “You’re bringing a sword to Puerto Rico? Why?”

  “I always carry at least one sword with me at all times. Usually two.” She looked up. “Arthur made me a new coat.”

  “I don’t want to know.” Arthur probably knew deep down there was something wrong with Tenzin. He just found the ancient vampire too hilarious to examine the instinct closely. “Is that… allowed?”

  Tenzin turned to Chloe with a frown. “Is what allowed?”

  “Can you just bring a sword into a foreign country? Is that allowed?”

  Tenzin narrowed her eyes. “Who exactly do you think would be inspecting me?”

  “Okay. I hadn’t thought about that.” Because of course no one was inspecting Tenzin. If Gavin flew to Puerto Rico, no one would inspect him either. It wasn’t as if there was a wind vampire hanging around in Puerto Rican air
space to TSA the vampires coming onto the island.

  “Right.” She looked at the collection of swords Tenzin had pulled onto the ground. “I’m going to say the one with the curved blade and the brown leather handle—”

  “The Ottoman pala saber. Good choice.”

  “—because it’s relatively short and looks kinda like a pirate sword, which is cool. And then… the triangular grip sword thingy with the jeweled handle.”

  “It’s an Indian punch dagger or a katar. Excellent choice.”

  “It looks very lethal and is probably pretty easy to hide except for all those crystals on the handle.”

  “Those are emeralds.”

  Of course they are! Chloe shook her head. “Okay. So I guess those two.”

  Tenzin patted her shoulder. “You give excellent advice.”

  “I try.” She turned to the small vampire, who was already putting away the dozen swords she wasn’t taking to Puerto Rico in her new jacket. “I need you to promise me something.”

  Tenzin froze. She turned slowly. “I do not make promises lightly.”

  “I know you don’t.”

  Humor had fled Tenzin’s expression. “What is it?”

  “I know neither of us can make Ben do anything he doesn’t want to do. He acts all easygoing, but he’s like a mule sometimes.”

  “I’ve mentally compared him to a donkey many times in my head.”

  “Yeah, so…” Chloe took a breath. “You know he has family there.”

  “Yes.”

  “I think he really needs to see them. Not for them. For himself. For his own sanity. I know it’s been bothering him.” She cleared her throat. “We both have a lot of issues with our families. But for him…”

  “He made very adult decisions when he was only a boy.”

  Chloe nodded. “At least I was eighteen. I had a little more perspective. But I think he was ten the last time he saw his grandmother.”

  Tenzin nodded.

  “Just try. Do your best. I don’t want to interfere with your job down there, but I just think… it’d be really good for him.”

  Tenzin looked at Chloe for a long time before she spoke. “I will do what I can. I promise.”

  “Thank you.”

  “And I want you to do something for me in return.”

  Chloe nodded. “No problem. What—?”

  “You and Gavin should have sex. The tension is really becoming bothersome, and I can tell both of you want to. Do it while Ben is gone, that way there won’t be a strange reaction from him because you’re his childhood girlfriend and Gavin is his friend.”

  Chloe let out a slow breath. “That was so not what I was expecting you to ask me.”

  “Also, I want to start gathering my own mushrooms, because the farmers who sell them at the market are thieves. Can you find some kind of guide for that?”

  Bizarre pronouncement and obscure task. That was much more like Tenzin.

  Chloe nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  Chloe closed her eyes and leaned into Gavin’s shoulder, letting the hot bubbling water soothe the muscles she’d worked that evening during rehearsal. “I’m worried about him.”

  “He’ll be fine.” Gavin rubbed her shoulders. “He’s traveled in far more dangerous places than Puerto Rico. From what I’ve heard, most of the power has been restored—even in more remote parts—and the infrastructure is clawing back. Ben has excellent survival skills. Puerto Rico will not be a challenge.”

  “I’m not worried about him surviving. Tenzin will be with him once he gets to San Juan. Tenzin won’t let anything happen to Ben. That’s not what I’m worried about.”

  “Then what?”

  Chloe struggled with how much to share with Gavin. “I’m worried about him… personally.”

  “Personally?” Gavin tilted her chin to the side so he could look at her face. “Does he have family there?”

  Chloe sighed. “I can’t say.”

  “I know he’s part Puerto Rican. He’s mentioned as much in passing. It didn’t even occur to me that he might have living family.” Gavin frowned. “I assumed Giovanni had adopted an orphan.”

  “I don’t want to break confidence. Just know that most of Ben’s childhood was awful.”

  “That much is evident.” He stroked curly wisps of hair back from her forehead and kissed her temple. “There’s a look a person comes to recognize after a hundred years or so. One can tell which humans have lived hard lives and which have not. Some vampires take advantage of that.” His hand stopped moving. “I’ve taken advantage of that, I’m sorry to say. Or at least I did in the past.”

  “And now?”

  He wrapped his arm around her waist. “It would make me a sad kind of thing to prey on the wounded, don’t you think? That’s what I realized. Humans only have a few years at the end of the day. It’s not for me to make their lives more difficult when their own kind do that enough.”

  The sharp twist in her chest was familiar now, though no less painful.

  “Only a few years.”

  He was right. Compared to Gavin, Chloe only had a handful of years. She would be a few fleeting moments in his very long life. Despite what Tenzin had encouraged her to do, despite what she wanted for herself, nothing about being with Gavin was simple.

  You and Gavin should have sex. The tension is really becoming bothersome, and I can tell both of you want to.

  If only it was a matter of what she wanted.

  “Anyway…” Gavin poured warm water over shoulders that had gone cold. “Ben has that look. I always assumed he’d had a hard childhood. He used to be much easier to read, you know. He’s a bit foggy now.”

  “Foggy?”

  “Give him a few years and he’ll be as hard to read as his uncle. Of course, he’ll likely be a vampire by then. Are you ready for that?”

  Chloe’s eyes went wide and she spun around. Her head was full, examining the layers of everything sex with Gavin would entail. What did he mean? Was she ready for that? Did he expect her to become a vampire? Did he want her to? Did that mean he wanted them to be more? What did more even mean?

  “Ready for what?” she asked.

  Gavin frowned. “For Ben to be a vampire.”

  Her heart slowed down. “Oh. That.”

  His eyebrows went up. “Did you think—?”

  “No, of course not.”

  “Because that’s… that’s a conversation.”

  God, let me die now. Twenty-five years has been long enough. This wouldn’t be a bad time to go. “I didn’t. I mean, I don’t… That’s not something we need to talk about.”

  Yes, please. Just let me die.

  “Ever?” Gavin stared at her, that deep, penetrating stare that asked Chloe for everything and offered more than she was ready to receive.

  “Don’t ask me yet,” she whispered. Okay God. Never mind. I could use a few more years.

  Gavin touched her chin with the tip of his finger, drew it up and around her lips, tracing the sensitive outline before he leaned in and took her mouth. His kiss spun her around and unraveled her. Every time. She could feel the iron control in his shoulders when she placed her hands there. Feel the desire he leashed for her.

  The quick inhale at her neck. The tightening fist in her hair. He pulled her to straddle his waist, holding her thigh just above the knee. His hand, like the rest of him, was just as controlled. Firm grip on heated flesh.

  Chloe was the soft to his hard, melting into his chest and letting her muscles rest against his. Her breasts to his chest. Her mouth soft and yielding to his.

  He pulled away. “Chloe, ye make ma heid mince.”

  She leaned forward and pressed her face into his neck, putting her lips against the place where his heart should beat. It only gave the occasional flutter, usually when he was aroused.

  Why do you still wait, Gavin Wallace? Haven’t you gotten tired of me yet?

  She didn’t say those things—didn’t even want to think them—but they we
re the voice in her head. The constant, nagging whisper that tried to convince her she shouldn’t get too attached, shouldn’t let her guard down too much.

  He ran his fingers up and down her spine, massaging the bare edge of her glute with such perfect pressure she wanted him to go farther down. Under the bathing suit. Bare skin to bare skin.

  And then what?

  Chloe took a deep breath and lay against his chest, allowing herself the pleasure of his touch for as long as he was willing to offer it.

  Gavin was a dazzling predator, a powerful and rich immortal with connections she knew nothing about and influence she didn’t stop to ponder. He didn’t flaunt any of it. He wore power like one of his perfectly tailored suits.

  He’ll get bored with you eventually. Probably right after you agree to have sex with him.

  He didn’t push, and she hesitated. They were in stalemate, a pair of would-be lovers, both too cautious to make the first move after months and months of foreplay. She didn’t know what kind of status she had in Gavin’s world other than she was under Ben’s uncle’s aegis and vampires at the bar no longer flirted with her.

  At all.

  She knew they considered her Gavin’s… something. She had no idea what that something was. No doubt they assumed she was his lover. That they slept together. That he fed from her.

  A frisson over her skin.

  Gavin’s hands stopped and pressed in. “What are you thinking about right now?”

  Remember, Chloe. He knows when you’re turned on.

  Sometimes living around vampires made Chloe seriously want to die. They smelled everything. They heard everything. The silent burp you managed to hide on your date? Not hidden if that date was a vampire. No bodily function was a mystery to them.

  “What were ye thinkin’ about?” he whispered.

  The mental image leaped to the front of her mind. Gavin’s fangs, long in his mouth, breaking her skin.

  Her body responded.

  His hands gripped tighter. “Chloe?”

  “What do you think I was thinking about?”

  “Sex.”

  She laughed. “I wasn’t actually. But that’s a good guess.”

  “So not sex. Now I’m even more curious.” His fingers went to work again, stroking up and down her back, teasing the top of her ass, the small of her back, the curve of her neck—