Read A Mate for York Online

Authors: Charlene Hartnady

A Mate for York (5 page)

BOOK: A Mate for York
8.55Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads
Chapter 6

 

“And…”
Dee whispered as they sat down to eat. “How did it go? I didn’t see you for the
afternoon session.”

Cassidy
shrugged, not sure she wanted to even talk about the events of today. Her hands
still shook and she actually felt cold despite the high temperatures. She
shoved a mouthful of food into her mouth instead. Steak, mashed potatoes and
salad, normally a firm favorite. She didn’t taste a thing though, just went
through the chewing motions.

Dee
licked some sauce off of her hand and gave Cassidy a smile. “If you think I
have the glowing look of a girl who got it all, you would be right.” She
giggled quietly, talking as softly as possible.

Cassidy
shook her head but couldn’t help but to smile. “You have more guts than me
that’s for sure.”

Dee
ate a forkful of mashed potatoes before continuing. “I only planned on letting
one of them touch me, but”—she shrugged—“I kind of let them all do it.” She
pulled a face. “It’s not like I had sex with them or anything.”

Cassidy
took a deep breath. “Don’t beat yourself up. It’s hard resisting the urge.”

“No,
it’s pretty much impossible. I orgasmed so many times, my eyes actually
watered. And my throat hurts from the screaming.” Come to think of it, Dee did
have a bit of a huskiness to her voice that she didn’t have earlier.

“Really?”
Cassidy felt her eyes widen.

“Wait
a minute, are you telling me that you were able to resist?” Dee pulled a lock
of hair behind her ear.

“Um…yes...”
She felt that she owed the other woman something in return. She really did seem
very sweet. Cassidy cut a big piece of steak and shoved it into her mouth.
Hopefully it would keep Dee from asking any other questions.

“I
can’t believe it. You resisted all three guys?” The other woman’s eyes were
wide and her mouth actually gaped. “You are much stronger than me. I am in awe
of you. I also think you are a bit nuts because even though they barely touched
me, the experience was off the charts good. I’m not even going to try and
resist tomorrow.”

Looking
around the room, she noticed that the only other girl left in the program was
nowhere to be seen. It was just the two of them. Cassidy took in a deep breath.
It felt bad to allow Dee to assume that she’d had three guys drink from her.
That she had managed to resist three times. “I only had one of them drink from
me…” She shivered, remembering how good it had felt and not just the drinking
part but also the feel of him. It was probably because she missed having
someone in her life. She was lonely.

Dee
frowned. “Why only one?”

Cassidy
sighed. “He went into bloodlust.”

“Oh my
god!” Dee shrieked, a small piece of steak shot from her mouth and she slapped
a hand over her lips. Her eyes widened. “What happened? Are you hurt?”

Cassidy
shook her head. “It was really scary. Not what I expected. He just started
taking bigger and bigger sucks on my neck. Started making these growly/grunty
noises. Holding me tighter and tighter. Then the guards were pulling him off of
me.” She swallowed hard. “It’s all a bit of a blur. He snarled and made these
terrible noises. He fought the guards. His eyes were the scariest of all…” She
took a deep breath, trying hard to calm herself. “They were glowing and wild.
Like nothing I’ve ever seen before…”

“Glowing?”
Dee sounded totally in awe.

Cassidy
nodded. “He kept his eyes on me, even while he fought. It was like he wanted to
tear me limb from limb. If they hadn’t tasered him, I would be dead. For a few
moments there I saw my life flash before my eyes.” In that moment, she had
realized what a pathetic existence she had lived. No job or real direction, no
significant other. She had been the only child of older parents who both had
passed away before her twenty-fifth birthday. Both her mom and dad were
estranged from their families so no aunts and uncles or cousins. Her mother was
a writer and her father a painter. Both introverts till the very end. Cassidy
only had one real friend, but Julia had long since married and was so busy
raising her family of three boys that they hardly got to spend much time
together any more.

Especially
since Sean had passed away. There was another reason, but it wasn’t something
she allowed herself to dwell on.

“That’s
terrible.” Dee let her knife and fork fall down onto her plate with a clang. “I
can’t believe you’re still here. I’m tempted to leave just hearing your story…”
She chewed on her bottom lip for a few moments. “There I was having all these mind
blowing orgasms while you were almost killed. It could happen to any of us.”

“Not
that there are many left. Where is that other lady? The blonde who chewed the
gum all the time left earlier.”

Dee
sucked in a deep breath. “Really? Why? Did her vampire also have bloodlust?”
The other woman visibly shivered.

Cassidy
shook her head. “It was nothing like that. She actually…” She paused.

“She
what?”

“She
let a vampire touch her and was pissed about it. She asked to leave and was
escorted out.”

Dee
took a long drink of her soda. “Wow! She didn’t like it? I can’t believe that.”

“I
think she liked it a little too much if you ask me. She spouted some bull about
vampires being disgusting bloodsuckers and told that head guard that she was
just in it for the money.”

“Yeah…there
are a lot of hate groups out there.” Dee shook her head sadly.

Cassidy
nodded.

“It’s
so ridiculous, why can’t everyone just get along?”

Cassidy
shrugged. Her mother had been African American and her dad’s family was
originally from Scotland. She had to smile just thinking of him…of them. Her
dad had orange hair and freckles and burned in the shade if he wasn’t careful.
They were so different from one another in so many ways, yet they fit together
perfectly. They got one another. Completed each other. Her dad had passed from
a massive heart attack and her mom passed just one year later. She went in for
corrective surgery for a mild hernia. It was a routine operation. She never
woke up. The medical staff could not give a reason. Everything was text book
except of course for the part where her heart stopped. Cassidy was sure that it
was from a broken heart. Not a day went by when her mom didn’t mourn the
passing of her husband. True love did exist, it was just as rare as the hills
though.

“I
still can’t believe you are still here after going through such an ordeal.”
Dee’s voice brought her back from her own thoughts.

“I
need the money.” She smiled at the younger woman. “Besides, the security team
did a great job of rescuing me. York is one of the biggest vampires I’ve seen
and they managed to keep me safe in the end.”

“Good
to know.” Dee finished her soda, pushing the glass away.

Cassidy
looked down at her still mostly full plate. She was suddenly really hungry. It
had felt good to talk about her ordeal. It helped put things into perspective.
York was out of the program, she’d been assured that she wouldn’t see him
again. The security team would protect her from any further incidences. Two
more days and she’d be home free.

****

After
a shower, she hit the sack. Flicking through the various channels until she
finally settled on a mindless action movie. She woke up with a start. There was
a woman screaming on the television. After glancing at her watch, she noticed
that it was already a few minutes after twelve.

Cassidy
switched on the side lamp and then pushed the button on the remote, watching as
the TV screen turned dark. She used the toilet and made her way back to the
bed. She had an early start tomorrow and would have her blood siphoned by no
less than three vampires. Hopefully she wouldn’t be as attracted to them as she
was to…

A big
hand latched over her mouth and an arm snaked around her middle. She screamed
against the palm trying to pull herself free from the iron grip. There was no
give. Her feet were hauled off the ground. Whoever was behind her was not only
tall but solid. Like a brick shit house of gigantic proportions. Cassidy
panicked, kicked out and even managed to nail her assailant a few times on the
legs.

He
grunted, pulling her more firmly against him so that she didn’t have enough
room to maneuver.

“Easy.”
His deep voice had her heart kicking into overdrive. It was him. The man…make
that vampire…who had tried to kill her earlier today. It was York. She would
recognize his deep baritone anywhere.

He was
talking to her but she was too busy trying to get out of his ironclad grasp to
listen. Sweat beaded on her brow. Her breathing was labored. She struggled to
get sufficient oxygen through her nose. His hand was tight around her mouth.
Cassidy had to save some of her strength. Trying to get away from him like this
wasn’t working. She sagged in his arms, acting like she had given up.

His
big chest moved up and down behind her with each deep breath that he took. His
mouth was at her ear. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he whispered. “I came to
explain about earlier. I came to apologize.”

Yeah
right.
She’d seen the look in his eyes. It was as if he couldn’t take his
eyes off of her. She’d watched a documentary once about lions and how they stalked
their prey. Even if there was a whole herd of deer, they would set their sights
on one and then not take their eyes off of the target until it was trapped in
powerful jaws. Until it was game over.

It
wasn’t happening to her.

There
were guards at the building entrance and more patrolling the grounds, she just
had to alert them somehow.

“I’m
going to take my hand away. I need you to trust me please, Cassidy.”

Yeah
right
! Like she’d trusted him before?
No way
.

“I
won’t hurt you.” He growled and for a second the emotion in his voice tempted her
to believe him. It was stupid of her to have believed him the first time. Thing
was, she didn’t have much of a choice then. This time was different.

Cassidy
tried to nod. Her action must have registered because he let out a great big
sigh which tickled the side of her neck. Her nipples on her traitorous body
hardened. Even after he’d tried to turn her into a snack basket earlier she
still reacted to him on a base level. Crazy-assed body. It had always listened
to her before. Why did it have to choose right now to grow a mind of its own?

“Okay…I’m
letting you go now.” His voice was a husky whisper. His scent surrounded her.
York smelled really nice…for a psycho killer.

The
moment his hand left her mouth she sucked in a lungful of air but he slapped
the hand back in place before she could get much out. He cursed softly. “I told
you that I won’t hurt you.” A deep rumble of sheer frustration. “I’m going to
prove it to you.”

Cassidy
tried to shake her head. She tried to make a negative noise. There was nothing
he could possibly do to change her mind about what had happened earlier. Her
eyes widened and fear grabbed ahold of her in its icy tight grip.

She
could hear her blood rushing through her veins. Could hear the sound of her own
heart. Cassidy screamed into his hand as his mouth closed on her throat. There
was a now all too familiar pinch and then a tightening of every part of her.
She wasn’t wearing panties, so wetness trickled down her thighs as he sucked on
her again. Her clit throbbed. Her breasts ached. She was going to die in the
throes of sexual frustration and it wasn’t fair. She tried to scream, this time
out of sheer desperation. She felt the emotion deep in both her body and her
mind. Tears coursed down her cheeks. Of all the ways she imagined her death,
this was not one of them.

York
released her.

Released.
Her.

It
wasn’t possible. From what she’d been told in training, if a vampire had
bloodlust he couldn’t stop himself. If left to his own devices he would suck a
human dry in just a few minutes.

“I
don’t have bloodlust. Please let me explain.” York said, he spoke against the
shell of her ear causing her to quiver in his arms. “Don’t be afraid.” He
added, misconstruing her reaction as fear.

She
nodded.

“We need
to be quiet. If I am found here, I’ll be in deep shit.” This time, York lowered
her to her feet before letting her go. Her legs shook, so he put out a hand and
clasped her waist for a few beats. His touch didn’t soothe her. It only made
her feel even more edgy. God, she was wet down there. Everything still throbbed
and craved. She slowly turned to face him and he relinquished his hold on her.

York
was dressed all in black. Tight cargo type pants, a long sleeved top that
showcased every hard earned muscle to perfection, particularly his biceps and
pecs. “I think you should go. You shouldn’t be here.” She whispered as softly
as she could while putting as much meaning behind every word as she could
muster. He needed to know that she meant business.

York nodded.
“I know you don’t want me here. I came to apologize.”

They
had to stand close so that they could whisper and understand one another. Then
again, it was probably mainly for her benefit since he had superhuman
abilities. “Apologize…So you keep saying.”

York
took a deep breath before running a hand over the light cover of hair on his
head. “I was an idiot.” His eyes locked with hers. “I was trying to get you to
say the word.”

“You
were trying to get me to say pumpkin?” She could feel that her brow was furrowed,
that her eyes were wide.

York
grinned and actually gave a little snicker. “No wonder you were laughing
earlier. It is a strange ass word to use as a safe word. Trust Gideon.” He
shook his head.

Cassidy
found herself smiling despite the situation.

BOOK: A Mate for York
8.55Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

A Study in Sable by Mercedes Lackey
04.Final Edge v5 by Robert W. Walker
Terrible Swift Sword by Bruce Catton
Crossing the Line by Karen Traviss
Redeeming the Night by Kristine Overbrook
Garden of Evil by Edna Buchanan