True Knight

by Patricia Logan

  “Hello. I’m Vincent Lasco. You are?”

  He spoke with a deep voice and it came out almost like a purr. I instantly liked the sound of it.

  “Romeo… uh, Rome. Rome Harmon,” I stammered.

  Lasco’s smile grew wider and I realized I’d just stumbled over my own name. I was an idiot… an idiot with a massive hard-on. The man’s nostrils suddenly flared and he glanced down, his gaze seeming to zero in on my crotch. It was impossible for him to smell the precome that was leaking from me but without even looking down, I knew the bulge in my jeans betrayed the reaction I was having to him. I seemed to have no control at all over my own body.

  Fuck me.

  I shook myself as he casually lifted his gaze, meeting my eyes again. His seemed to be filled with amusement. I reached out to grasp the hand he offered. He looked back up just as my fingers closed around his calloused hand. This time, a jolt of electricity shot from my fingers all the way up my arm and if he hadn’t been clasping my hand, I would have stumbled backward. He smiled at me and tightened his grip, not letting go.

  “It’s nice to meet you… Romeo Harmon.”

  The deep voice that came out of him as he pronounced my whole name made me smother a gasp. It was as sexy as any I’d ever heard before and it took every bit of strength I had to let go of his hand. I wanted him soooo badly. I’d never had a reaction to a man like this before. I knew I was screwed.

  “I noticed that you just came out of the saloon,” he said.

  “Yes,” I replied, clearing my throat, barely able to utter the single scratchy word. I took a deep breath, forcing my racing heart to slow down, reminding myself that he couldn’t hear it pounding inside my chest.

  “I’m new to town and I wanted to take the time to meet everyone,” I said weakly.

  He chuckled. “Oh… I see. And… is everyone in the bar?”

  I loved the sound of his laughter even though I knew he was mocking me. It took all the strength I had to drag my eyes away from his golden stare and glance back to where the movers were closing up the back doors of the now empty truck. When I looked back, he was still staring at me, this time seeming to watch the pulse throbbing in my neck. He lifted his gaze to me as I spoke.

  “You’re moving in?” I asked, ignoring his question.

  Lasco looked back over his shoulder as two men came out of the store carrying what looked like some sort of sign as another man set up a ladder on the sidewalk. He turned back to me.

  “Yes, I’m the owner of the new antique store moving into that building.” He smiled again and my gaze was drawn to his straight white teeth and those full fuckable lips.

  Christ.

  I smiled back at him. “New antiques? Isn’t that a bit of a play on words?”

  Lasco laughed and I couldn’t help but laugh along with him. “I suppose it is.” He stared at me, his expression sobering a little. “You said you’re new to town. Where did you move from?”

  “Los Angeles… I’m the new town sheriff.”

  Lasco seemed to consider this a moment before he spoke. “Well, I’m so glad I met you then. It’s always good to know who to come to… if I should ever need the services of law enforcement.”

  By the looks of him, I doubted he would need my help with much of anything. Something about the man screamed at how capable he was.

  Suddenly I realized how much I wanted this conversation to continue. Unfortunately, dragging him back into the bar wouldn’t have been a wise move. It was packed with local townspeople who might question the drinking habits of their new sheriff if I suddenly decided I needed another beer after consuming two already. I had a feeling that everyone would be watching my behavior to size up my character. I don’t know why, but I figured that’s how small towns worked. Maybe I’d just watched too much of the Andy Griffith Show on television as a kid. Still… I was dying to continue this conversation with this stunning man.

  A thought occurred to me and before I could stop it, words tumbled out of my mouth.

  “You know, I was headed home but I’d love to buy you a drink,” I said, the words sounding strange even to my own ears. I glanced back over my shoulder at the saloon before turning back to Lasco. “But I don’t want to go back inside. The locals might not think highly of me if I do. I’ve already had two beers tonight.”

  Lasco laughed and I could tell it was genuine and not forced. “My place isn’t far. I believe I have a nice bottle of wine or a six-pack of beer if you’d like,” he offered.

  He was friendly. I was horny. And who knew? Maybe he was gay and the evening was about to turn out better than I could have hoped for. Straight guys didn’t invite total strangers over to their homes for drinks, did they? I had no frame of reference since I’d never dated a woman in my life.

  “I’d really like that, Lasco… uh, Vincent.” Stumbling through sentences had never been an issue before meeting this guy. I realized I must sound like a teenager right now. I swallowed hard trying to get a hold of myself. I watched as Lasco’s gaze dropped to my throat, seeming to watch my large Adam’s apple bob up and down. I’d been told by some guys that they thought my throat was sexy. What did I know? Vincent made a tiny sound in the back of his throat and I felt my cock throb.

  Christ… I was barely able to hold in my groan.

  Maybe going home for a drink with this guy was a massive mistake. I was going to either embarrass myself by coming all over the inside of my jeans or find myself flat on my back in the dirt rubbing my jaw from where he’d punched me. The guy looked fit as hell and even though I was dying to see what his clothes hid from view, looking up at him from a prone position in the dirt wasn’t going to make my night. My guess was, he was firmly muscled all over. Maybe outing myself right here and now was the way I should play this. That way, there’d be no surprises and hopefully no jaw punching.

  “I’m gay,” I blurted.

  Fuck.

  Inexplicably, Vincent’s gorgeous mouth turned up at the corners as he smiled widely. “Yes, I know.”

  I was momentarily shocked and I narrowed my eyes. “H-how?”

  Vincent stepped closer, making it impossible not to sense the strength of the man who stood chest to chest with me. His height matched my own. He stared deeply into my eyes before leaning in close enough to whisper in my ear.

  “I can smell your arousal and all I want to do is to take your cock into my mouth and suck until it until you come down my throat,” he said. “Then I will lift my face and share your seed with you as I kiss you breathless.” He leaned back and caught my gaze again. His eyes were dazzling, a golden color I’d never seen before in my life. “Would you like that, Romeo? Would you like me to suck you off and then kiss you so you can taste your own come?”

  Jesus Christ.

  I nodded slowly, trying not to climax right there on the street in full view of all the townsfolk. My knees suddenly felt weak. “Yes.”

  “Good. Follow me then.” Vincent rubbed his hands together as if incredibly pleased by my answer. He turned and pointed. “My car is the Civic. I only live a mile down the road.”

  “Okay. I’ll follow you in my truck.” I pointed to the old pickup with faded green paint parked on the street. When I turned back, he was regarding me with a question in his gorgeous topaz eyes. “What?”

  “Are you sure about this, Romeo? You look a bit unsure. Do you want my mouth on you?”

  That deep voice was killing me. My dick was throbbing and my balls were so full, I knew if I didn’t get release right away, things were going to get messy.

  “Oh, God, yes,” I said shakily. I turned away and started for my truck knowing that if I didn’t get moving, I was going to overthink my decision. I heard a distinct chuckle from behind me but I ignored it, putting one foot in front of the other until I’d reached my truck. When I turned to look back, Vincent was striding down the street toward a late model black Honda Civic parked behind the moving van. I got in and started my engine after fumbling to get my key into the ignit
ion. My hands were shaking but my dick was still as hard as steel.

  What in the hell are you doing?

  I blew out a long breath and pulled out of the parking space still shaking my head as I followed Vincent Lasco’s taillights out of town.

  Vincent

  Romeo Harmon, the new town sheriff, wanted me… possibly more than any man ever had. The firm knowledge of it had been there on display from the moment I’d approached him. Arousal pulsed off the man and the scent of precome coating the inside of his briefs was as pungent as anything I’d ever smelled before. The pounding of his heart, the racing of blood through his veins, the sheer tempo of his quick breathing practically drove me mad as I stood in front of him. When I leaned in to whisper promises of what I wanted to do to him, the scent of his hair made my fangs come bursting through my gums. If I were a younger vampire, I don’t think I would have been able to retract them before he spotted them.

  I looked into my rearview mirror as I drove down the road, watching as he followed me in an old beat-up pickup truck. Romeo Harmon was a beautiful man and I couldn’t wait to get him home and into my bed… well, in the bedroom where Lydia’s folks had set up a bed. There was no way I would take him down to my own room since the last thing I wanted to do was to reveal my true nature to the man.

  What on earth was he?

  The new sheriff of Prosper Woods wasn’t human, that I knew. The problem lay in that I didn’t know exactly what he was. If he’d been werewolf, witch, or the average shifter, I would have been able to tell when I first caught his scent. But there was nothing familiar about whatever he was. I smiled as words like alien, ghoul, or ghost flitted through my brain. He was none of those. Of that I was sure.

  What made things more interesting was that I didn’t think he even realized he was anything other than human. If he’d been any of the common supernatural beings I’d encountered in my very long life, he might have figured out that I wasn’t human either. Oddly enough, I’d heard of supes who had genes so recessive in their ancestry that they didn’t realize they were anything other than human. They lived their whole lives without knowing simply because the diluted bloodlines went back centuries, even millennia.

  My God… his scent though. It was driving me mad.

  Romeo smelled like bright sunlight and I hadn’t smelled anything like it before. He smelled like freedom... like glittering rainbows after spring rain showers. What in the hell was he?

  I turned onto the road to my house after a few minutes, driving down the crunching gravel, until I spotted my new home. When I parked, I got out and shut the door to the Civic, waiting as his truck pulled up beside me. He stopped and parked, turning off the engine. I listened to him take a deep breath as he opened the door and got out. He looked at the front of my house and then to the woods that surround it, intentionally not glancing my way. When he was finally satisfied with how secluded we were, he turned to look at me over the top of his truck.

  “What in the hell am I doing here?” His deep brown eyes were clouded with a combination of desire and worry. His racing heartbeat revealed the anxiety he was dealing with.

  I smiled slowly, walking around his truck until I stood right in front of him. I curled my hands into fists, desperate to reach for him, but biding my time. He needed to give me permission to do what I wanted to do to him.

  “Romeo, as much as I want to make you feel good, I won’t pressure you to follow me inside,” I said. “I just want you to know that I want you very much. I want to feel your body pressed to mine. I want to feel your cock sliding in and out of me. And I want to take you to the height of ecstasy… if you’ll let me.”

  He was watching my lips as I spoke these truths to him. His hands shook as he lifted them and scrubbed his long fingers over his face. After dropping them, he blew out a breath, and stepped close to me.

  “I know I’m probably going to regret this.”

  Seconds later, Romeo gathered me into his arms and lowered his face to mine for the first time.

  “Kiss me, Romeo,” I whispered close to his lips. “Make me yours.”

  “You have no idea what you’re asking for, Vincent.” The sheriff let out an almost animal groan as he slammed his mouth down on mine. Almost instantly, my arms slid around him and I pressed against his muscled frame. He ate at my lips, kissing me most ardently as he tangled his tongue with my own. My fangs tingled like crazy but I returned the kiss, refusing the instinct to let them drop. It wasn’t as easy as it should have been when the urge to bite was almost overwhelming. I hadn’t eaten and I’d completely forgotten about the trip I’d intended to take into the city the moment I’d spotted him on the sidewalk.

  Fuck.

  The sheriff’s kiss swept me away, making me dizzy if that was even possible for a man who was over seven hundred years old. I wasn’t a small man, having retained the same twenty-eight-year-old physique I’d had when Sir Robert had ended my human life. When I was still alive, men had complimented me on my cut muscles and my rugged strength. The many scars I’d won in battle prior to my change had remained on my body, even though new injuries healed almost instantaneously. Most men found the scars sexy for some reason and I’d explained them away as scars I’d received on the battlefield. Most men accepted this without question. Just because they’d been battles fought in the Holy Land, didn’t mean my words had been lies.

  Romeo’s kiss was nothing less than a claiming of me, a taking of what he wanted from me at that moment. There was no mistaking what the man intended. It was everything I had hoped for and more. There was no languid brushing of tongues, no seduction in his kiss. The sheriff was all man, ravaging my mouth, sweeping his tongue inside, sucking mine hard. His arms slid up my back, tracing my heavily muscled frame as he worked his way up. When he slid both hands into my hair and tugged, the slight sting sent tremors of need and sparks of lust flooding through my body. I pressed closer to him, rocking my erection into his, churning my hips against his groin until he moaned out his need and broke the kiss. With his hands still in my hair, he tilted my head back and looked deeply into my eyes.

  “God, I need to fuck you,” he gasped.

  “I need that more than you know, Romeo,” I said. The growl in my words couldn’t be mistaken for anything other than what it was.

  I gasped as he suddenly spun us around, slamming my back up against the cab of his truck, rattling the frame as he once again attacked my mouth. His kisses were bruising, stealing my breath, and all I could do was to hang on to his broad shoulders. I’d never met a man such as him. I couldn’t compare him to others I’d had over my very long life because the aggression in the living breathing creature in my arms stole my senses. My fangs tingled and it took all the power and strength I possessed not to let them drop through my gums and tear into him. When he finally broke the kiss, we were both panting. He stared at me with heaving breaths.

  “I’m sorry I slammed you against the truck,” Romeo panted. “I hope…”

  “It’s fine,” I gasped. “Come inside and fuck me.”

  He took a step back, releasing me and letting me pass by him to the front of the house. I fumbled with my keys and opened the door then turned on a Tiffany lamp. He followed me inside and shut the door, twisting the deadbolt so that we were alone and sealed off from the rest of the world. He turned and caught my eye, crossing the room in several quick strides, reaching for me again. I went willingly, sliding my arms around his waist and accepting his mouth once again.

  Romeo’s kiss was slower and more sensual, seeking—I was sure—to caress my lips as his slid over mine. His tongue was that of a lover, dancing slowly, drawing out moans from me. Before I knew what was happening, he had both hands on my shirt and was unbuttoning it, separating the sides to expose my chest and drawing it down and off my arms. He dropped it on the floor of my dimly-lit living room. I gasped as he lowered his head and took one nipple into his mouth, sucking and nibbling at the tip. My hands slid into his soft black hair and held him to my chest
as his fingers splayed on my lower back. As he slowly sank to his knees on my living room rug, reaching for my belt, I watched, riveted on his broad shoulders. He was about to do to me what I’d offered to do to him. I curled my fingers in his hair and tugged until he looked up at me.

  “Come to the bedroom and take off your clothes,” I said, grinding out the words as though they were made of sandpaper. Apparently, his words and actions had removed the power of my speech.

  He looked up from where he knelt still holding my belt and smiled at me. His face practically glowed. “You want me inside you, right?”

  “That and so much more.” I reached for him as he straightened and then took his hand, leading him down the dark hallway to the master bedroom I never used. Turning on a light for his benefit, I walked over to the bed and pulled down the comforter and sheets.

  “Your house looks like a bed and breakfast inn,” he remarked in passing.

  I turned and watched him shuck out of his jacket and then go to work on the buttons of his sheriff’s uniform. He looked so sexy in it but then again, I’d always been a sucker for a man in uniform, regardless of the type. Hell, I even found chainmail sexy on the right body. As we stripped out of our clothes, I zeroed in on the long lines of his body, his rippling muscles as he bent to remove his boots and socks. His chest was wide, covered in a smattering of black hair much like mine was.

  When he straightened and began unbuckling his belt, I felt my fangs tingling again. I thought I should probably excuse myself to the kitchen for a snack but then again, how was I going to explain that I downed bottles of ketchup by the caseload for the sugar content and tangy sweetness between meals. I should have eaten.

  Fuck.