Bit the Jackpot (8 page)

"I called you in sick for the next two weeks. Your manager was very understanding when I explained you got hit by a car."

Cara stopped en route to her suitcase and swung around. "You did
what
? Maybe we need to discuss our issues right now, because you cannot just walk into my life and take charge. Rule number one: Back off."

Furious, she glared at him. He just petted Fritz and stared back at her, very calm and confident.

"Rule number two," he said. "Until I am convinced you understand all facets of your new life, and I'm assured of your safety from the two vampires who attacked us in the alley, you will not be working at the club. You will not be leaving this casino, or even this apartment, without an appropriate escort."

"That's ridiculous!"

"It's for your own good."

"What are you, my dad?" Cara stomped over to her suitcase, so angry she was on the verge of tears. She could not, would not, stay with him, doing whatever he wanted. She had always lived her life on her terms, free from the suffocating domination of men. The one time she had given up control, let herself fall in love, she'd only lived to regret it. She wanted to maul Seamus for doing this to her.

When she bent over to unzip her suitcase, her head spun a little, and her stomach burned. She tried to ignore it.

"No, fatherly is not how I feel about you."

Determined to ignore the sensual ripple moving over her body at the sexy huskiness in his voice, she zipped the suitcase open, still upright, and let the contents slide out toward the floor in a pile of bunched clothing. "I don't want to stay here," she said firmly.

"I know. But you don't have a choice." Seamus drummed his thumbs on his knees. "It's to protect you, Cara. To protect every vampire in the nation. If you stumble around not knowing what you're doing, you risk your exposure—and therefore our exposure—to mortals. Or you could inadvertently break our rules and bring censure down on yourself. I can't allow that."

"Alexis said you're anal to a fault." She pawed through the pile looking for some clean panties. And a bra would be really helpful. It was dangerous to walk around in a tight T-shirt without one around Seamus.

"I'm very organized. Thorough. If that's a flaw to Alexis, clearly we don't agree."

Yes, he was thorough. There was everything she could need in her suitcase. Toiletries, makeup bag, hairbrush, blow-dryer, pj's, matching bra and panty sets, an assortment of jeans and shirts, and gym shoes.

He had even packed her vibrator.

Cara felt her cheeks go hot. He must have gone through her dresser drawers. He must have found
that
drawer. The one that had various forms of stress relief, as she liked to think of it. He must have packed it to embarrass her, but somehow that didn't seem like something Seamus would do. Her first assessment made more sense—that he was just thorough, gathering everything he thought she might want.

Because she remembered that it hadn't been in her drawer at all. She'd left it out on the bed. In full view. After using it. Oh, help.

He must have assumed it was a necessity to her if it was out and ready to go.

Could she be any more mortified?

"What's the matter? Did I forget something? I can go back for you or we can buy anything you need in the casino. There are a dozen shops downstairs."

That he could sound so innocent, so helpful, ticked her off. "Ones that sell these?" She picked up the vibrator and waved it in the air, wanting to make it clear to him she wasn't addicted to it or anything. She wasn't embarrassed she had it, but she sure in hell didn't want him to think she
needed
it. "Thanks for packing it, but I could have gone a few days without it."

Seamus's jaw dropped. "I didn't pack that! Ethan packed your bag."

That made her roll her eyes. "Oh, right. Like Ethan, a married man, would just scoop up my vibrator."

"Maybe he didn't know what it was," Seamus said, but he was lying. Cara could tell by the way his eyes darted off her and onto Fritz.

"How old is Ethan?"

"Nine hundred and something."

Jesus. That almost sidetracked Cara. But she managed to give Seamus another glare. "Then he knows what it is, give me a break. And just admit it. You put it in here to piss me off."

"I did not put it in there," he said, his voice rising in anger. "But if it had been me, I wouldn't have packed it to piss you off. I would have packed it because it's damn hot to picture you using it on yourself."

Cara was sorry she'd brought it up. Because now they were staring at each other, both angry, both breathing hard, Seamus looking hot and bothered, Cara feeling hot and bothered. She would not picture lying on Seamus's bed, moaning in pleasure, legs spread, Seamus standing at the bottom of the bed watching her, his eyes dark, erection thick.

"Cara… I can see your thoughts," Seamus said, his words trailing off into a groan.

"Shit! Stop doing that." She buried her face in her hands and rubbed hard, like that would erase the mental image of her going to town with Seamus as an audience. The burn in her stomach grew stronger. "Well, just so you know, I had it out because I was cleaning my dresser drawers, reorganizing. I don't
need
it."

"Okay," he said, but he didn't look like he believed her. "It's none of my business, you don't have to explain yourself to me."

"Exactly." She shoved the vibrator in an outside pocket on the suitcase so she wouldn't have to look at it. When she saw it alongside Seamus, it made her want to rethink her whole no-men philosophy. Being with him seemed so much more appealing than a date with a jelly vibe. And that was very dangerous thinking.

"And even if I was attracted to you and did want to watch you satisfying yourself—not that I'm saying I am—it wouldn't be a good idea to act on that feeling."

"Right." She thought. Cara rubbed her stomach. That burning was getting worse. It felt like an ulcer was forming and spreading right as she was sitting there.

"Hungry?" he asked, standing up. Seamus clapped his hands and both Fritz and Button bounded toward the bedroom door and out into the living room. He closed the door shut behind them.

"I… don't know." Was that hunger? It felt more like pain. Growing more vivid and agonizing with each passing second.

Seamus lifted his wrist to his mouth and slashed his skin open with his teeth. Immediately Cara smelled the blood, warm and vital, and her stomach cramped convulsively. "Yes, I think I'm hungry." Ravenous.

"We'll let you feed, then we'll discuss what you need to know about being a vampire."

"So that I can go home." Her eyes locked onto the beads of blood flowing from Seamus's wrist, trickling across his skin like a robust red wine. It looked delicious. It smelled even better. Cara licked her lips and swallowed hard, fighting the urge to leap up and cover it with her mouth.

"Yes, so you can home. I don't want to keep you here either, Cara. You are a distraction for me." Seamus sat back down on the bed and flexed his fist several times. "Come sit with me."

He didn't have to ask her twice, especially now that the blood was flowing freely, all down to his elbow, and pooling in a delicious little puddle above his palm.

She walked toward him. "Why am I a distraction to you?"

Seamus took her hand and turned her around so she was facing away from him. "Sit right here, in front of me, inside my legs."

Nostrils flaring, Cara did what he asked, settling herself between his thighs on the edge of the bed, staring at the closet. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, her body excited and alive and desperate all at once.

"You're a distraction because I am attracted to you. I have a personal policy of staying the hell away from women, and each minute I'm with you, you test that resolve." And as if to prove that point, he ran his lips along her temple, slipping his left hand around her waist, gently stroking.

"I have a personal policy to stay away from men." Cara turned toward his wrist. "And you're testing my resolve, too." Seamus put his bloody flesh on her lips and Cara licked through the fluid.

"Then we should definitely concentrate on getting you ready to go home," he said, even as his fingers trailed down between her thighs and stroked across the front of her jeans.

"Absolutely." The blood still tasted disgusting to her, but her body needed it, in a way that made the taste irrelevant. She sucked and swallowed, closing her eyes in pleasure. "Oh," she moaned. "That feels better."

"Good," Seamus whispered into her ear. He popped the button on her jeans while she drank from him, and his hand slipped between her panties and jeans to cup her, his touch hot and firm.

Damn, that was good. She never thought to stop his touch, to push him away. She wanted the sensation of his stroking her, welcomed his touch, the way it added to the pleasure of the blood, the hot need pulsing and spiraling higher and higher.

Cara drank harder, testing her new fangs by puncturing Sea-mus's flesh herself. He gave a groan of surprised pleasure. Cara leaned back, her backside bumping against his erection. She started a rocking rhythm, bumping back to hit his body, thrusting forward to put pressure from his hand on her. She gripped his arm with her fingers and sucked harder still, drinking faster, her excitement rising like helium, inflating her from the inside.

Seamus yanked her panties aside and slid his finger across her wet heat. They both moaned. He started thrusting forward when she would bump back, so they were colliding together violently, mimicking sex, sending shivers of arousal throughout her body.

"You like to feed from me, don't you?" he asked, dipping his finger down into her, then pulling it back, slippery and elusive as it teased around her clitoris.

She nodded, not wanting to take her mouth off his flesh. Wiggling to try and force his finger where she wanted it, she felt herself careening closer and closer to explosion. He was barely doing anything, but every inch of her was zinging with pleasure, tense with desire, and the quest for violent satisfaction.

Stroking in her faster and faster, thrusting against her, Seamus buried his lips along the back of her neck, pushing her hair out of the way with his mouth. When he bit her, teeth sinking into her flesh unexpectedly, sharp and powerful, Cara broke her own hold on his wrist long enough to suck in a shocked breath.

Then she came in a rip-roaring orgasm that would have sent her shooting to the floor if his hand wasn't holding her in place, his teeth firmly buried inside her neck.

The shocking spasms rocked out from the center of her body, drenching her in ecstasy as Seamus pushed inside her with a finger, and pulled out of her with his fangs. She swallowed the blood in her mouth, accidentally biting her lip in her excitement.

"Oh, my." Wiping at her lips, Cara rocked one last time against Seamus. "I thought you said that doesn't happen every time."

"It doesn't."

"Oh." She thought about that for a second, her body reacting to the blood, her energy kicking up, her limbs tingling. Shoving her hair back, she closed her eyes against the light-headedness the orgasm had given her. Her brain was scattered, but when she pulled it together, she realized something. "So…"

"That means we have a problem."

His erection snugly between her cheeks, hand still down her pants, Cara knew he was right. If she did this every time she drank blood around Seamus, she could forget about her independence. She'd morph into his love slave, begging him for more while offering to do his laundry. She would pout when he was late, feel jealousy when he glanced at other women, and would constantly worry about her weight. In short, she would become her mother, the way she'd been with Cara's jerk of a father.

No thanks.

"You have to let me leave," she said, trying to stand up. His hand in her pants kept her firmly in his lap.

"You have to learn how to be a vampire first."

"Then start teaching." She grabbed his wrist and pulled him out of her panties. What was he waiting for, a private escort out of there? "I mean, about other things than this."

Seamus thought if anyone was going to be the teacher in this relationship, it should be Cara. She was the most sensual woman he'd ever met. She danced naked—damn well, he might add—she had a vibrator that matched her decor, and she twice now had embraced the eroticism that feeding could inspire and had had an orgasm.

Neither time had she apologized or looked all that embarrassed. In fact, at the moment, as she stood up, she had a sly little smile of satisfaction on her face, despite her no-nonsense words.

She wanted to leave. He got it. But was there any reason they couldn't fully explore the attraction between them while he taught her all things vampire? And she taught him all things hot and sexy? That was what he had wanted when he'd gone to speak to her in the first place. An explosive affair. A rediscovery of sexual pleasure with a woman who appreciated an orgasm for the sake of an orgasm.

Not commitment, no ties, just some amazingly hot sex to get him through another two hundred years.

It was sounding better and better and he wanted another nip at her flesh.

Cara yanked open the bedroom door. All three dogs tumbled into the room. The cats followed a second later at a more leisurely, blase pace.

Satan dashed over to Seamus, his tiny legs a blur as he ran right up to him, gave a little leap in the air, and started barking violently. Seamus looked down at him. "What?" He and the Chihuahua weren't coming to terms with each other yet.

"Does he need to go out?" Cara asked, down on her knees petting a dog and a cat at the same time.

"I have no idea." It's not like the dog was crossing his legs or anything. How the hell was Seamus supposed to know? "We're going to have to hire a dog walker for during the day when you're sleeping. Day life isn't an easy feat for a young vampire. Especially since you're used to the night shift anyway." And he really didn't want any doggie accidents in his apartment. The carpet had just been cleaned.

Cara didn't say anything, but her lips pursed. A second later, she said, "Why can't I just walk them at night? They can sleep during the day with me."