Embrace the Heat (10 page)

Layla could only imagine how good they’d feel
as her body moved against them during sex. A moan escaped her lips
as she let herself get lost in the fantasy. Eyes closed, she
pictured the feel of a man’s chest pressed against hers, his weight
pushing her further into her comfortable mattress. Her nipples
hardened. His full mouth would press against hers as his blond hair
fell forward onto her cheeks.

Layla’s eyes snapped open as she forced that
fantasy from her head. “No,” she reminded her stupid horny body.
“Simon is never going to happen. I need to start fantasizing about
a man I can actually have.”

The buzzing of the phone on the end table
startled her. Then she laughed at her own reaction. When they’d
first moved to the vampire settlement, she’d been really resistant
to the phones everyone carried. Naturally, Connor had made it clear
that he wasn’t offering them to the humans but ordering them to
carry them at all times. Most of her human friends had taken to
them right away, but she still felt weird talking on it.

Luckily, this was a message. Layla smiled
when she saw it was from Simon. He hardly ever called her. She’d
told him how much she hated talking on the phone, so he messaged
her most of the time. The irony was that Simon hated sending
messages on his phone.

She clicked on the message to read it.

u ok?

Simon was obviously using the little keyboard
thing attached to his phone. She didn’t know anyone else who used
it, and even he only used it at home.

She used the little pen to reply.

No. I need to get out of this house or I may
kill someone.

She didn’t have to wait long for a reply.

Will cum 4 u 2moro.

Layla read the message and started laughing
so hard she dropped her phone, and it slid under the bed. Her phone
was buzzing again almost immediately, but it took a little while to
get herself under control enough to reach under the bed and grab
it. When she finally managed to retrieve her phone, she realized
that she’d missed a call from Simon, but he was already calling
again.

“Hello,” she said, still struggling to get
her laughter under control.

“I really didn’t mean that the way it looked
on the message,” Simon said quickly.

Layla laughed. “Too late to take it back now,
you already said you’d cum for me tomorrow. Can I watch, or will
this be you and a bar of soap in the shower?”

It felt good to tease Simon. It felt normal,
like their strange conversation that morning hadn’t happened.

“Are you going to send me some naked pictures
to help encourage me?” There was a teasing quality to his voice,
but it was joined with a rough, almost tense, one.

Layla decided to push it. Partly, she did it
because they always teased each other, but that wasn’t all of it.
Sex wasn’t one of the things they teased each other about, but she
wanted to explore that strange tone in his voice. Playing this game
was probably a bad idea since it might mean going back to the
tension they’d had that morning.

“Well, I
am
already naked right now,”
she said boldly. “I’d just stripped out of my clothes and slid
under the covers when you messaged me.”

“So, you’re all snuggled up in your bed?”
Simon asked.

“No,” she said and laid down on her back. “I
dropped the phone when you offered to cum for me. I had to get down
on my knees and look under the bed. Now, I’m lying on the bed with
nothing covering me. It’s a little chilly.” Let him figure those
images out.

Simon didn’t speak, but his breathing sounded
labored on the other end of the line. He was definitely thinking
about her naked, and it was affecting him.

“How about you, Si? What are you wearing
right now?” she asked.

There was a hesitation before he finally
answered. “Just a pair of shorts.”

“Why don’t you take them off and get
comfortable. You should be in your own bed right now,” she said.
“Slip off those shorts and come to bed with me.”

“Layla,” Simon said, “I can’t do this to
you.”

“Do what?” she asked innocently.

“Use you like some kind of whore. You’re my
friend, and I care about you too much,” he said.

“Come on, Si,” she said with a light tone.
“Why is this bothering you so much? We joke around all the
time.”

“But you aren’t joking,” he said quietly,
“and neither am I. You’re my friend, and I don’t want to screw this
up.”

Layla swallowed hard before saying the words
she knew Simon wanted to hear. “You’re right. I’ll talk to you
tomorrow.”

“Sleep well,” he said and hung up.

Layla laid there with her phone trying to
figure out why she’d come on to Simon like that. She’d never done
anything that stupid. Simon would never take things further. Before
that morning, he’d never even shown any interest in taking things
further. Why would he? He had a wood nymph to take care of his
needs. Actually, he had two, and Layla knew she couldn’t compete
with that.

Just as she was about to doze off, her phone
buzzed again.

r u ok?

She didn’t know the answer to that question,
but she knew if she gave any indication that their conversation was
still bothering her, Simon would call her again. She wasn’t sure
she’d be able to handle a second round of rejection that evening,
so she sent a quick message.

Just sleepy. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.

Simon’s response came back right away.

k, c u 2moro.

Simon knew there were going to be problems at
the meeting the minute he saw Rand follow Norah into the room. Rand
wasn’t on patrol, but Norah was. Rand looked uncharacteristically
aggressive. Even worse, Norah was doing her best to ignore her
ill-tempered husband.

This was just great! All he wanted to do was
assign an extermination team to send up north and send the teams
out on patrol. It was tempting to order Rand out of the meeting
room, but he figured that would just delay things further. With any
luck Rand wouldn’t do anything more than brood during the meeting.
Rand and Norah could fight all they wanted after Norah got back
from her patrol. Then Simon remembered that Rand wasn’t completely
off that day.

“Aren’t you supposed to be working with the
new trainees this morning?” he asked Rand in the hopes it would
remind his friend that he should be elsewhere.

Rand shrugged. He hadn’t taken a seat in the
room with the rest of the people waiting to be briefed on the plans
for the day. Rand just stood by the door, arms crossed in front of
his massive chest, glaring at his wife. “Shelby’s taking over for
me this morning. She owes me a favor.”

Simon nodded. Connor got pissy when people
traded without clearing it with him first, but Simon didn’t give a
rat’s ass who did the training as long as it got done. The only way
he would care is if someone was being lazy, but the people handling
the training were by no means lazy. Rand took on his share of extra
shifts, and Shelby would have told him she couldn’t do the training
if she was too tired.

“Where the hell is Jack?” Simon muttered to
no one in particular. He wanted to get this over with so he could
go to Layla’s house. Just to check on her, he reminded himself. His
stupid dick obviously thought there was an even better reason for
seeing her because it was already hard just at the thought of going
over to her house. Thankfully the table was hiding his condition.
Stupid appendage! There was no way he was trusting the judgment of
that thing again. It had been fine with Narissa too, and she was a
crazy bitch. Simon shifted in his seat to reposition his
erection.

Carla, Norah, and Jack were in charge of the
patrol teams for the day. He could easily start without the other
members of each team, but not the leaders. Danny was also there
because Simon needed his input on the extermination team.

Jack burst into the room, brown hair messy,
blue eyes full of joy, and dimples flashing. Jack looked youngest
of them all because he’d never really gotten that jaded look in his
eyes. Simon loved Jack like a brother. They’d been raised together,
and Jack had been one of the things that kept him sane. Looking at
Jack, he could see that there was good in the world. That had been
hard to remember the first sixteen years of his life.

“Sorry I’m late!” Jack said as he sat down,
grinning from ear to ear. “It’s Muriel’s fault.”

Simon was annoyed with Jack’s excuse, but he
reined it in. Jack would enjoy pissing him off, because Jack was
also that annoying little brother type.

“Doesn’t anyone want to know what she did to
make me late?” Jack asked.

“I’m going to pass on those details,” Carla
said.

“I’m only asking because you’ll spend the
next hour annoying me if I don’t,” Norah said.

“Muriel is pregnant again,” Jack said with a
great deal of pride. “We’re going to have another baby.”

While Jack listened to the rounds of
congratulations, Simon watched Rand glare at Norah.

When things quieted down, Rand finally spoke.
“That’s great, Jack. It’s nice that your wife loves you enough to
want to have your child.”

Norah looked like he’d struck her. “This
isn’t the time for this, Rand,” she said quietly. “We can talk when
I get home tonight.”

“I agree,” Simon said. “We need to get the
teams out, and I think you need some time to cool off, Rand.”

“Norah shouldn’t even be going out,” Rand
argued. “She especially shouldn’t be leading a team on a patrol.
It’s too dangerous for her to be out there.”

“I understand why you’re worried,” Simon
said. “Norah is like a sister to me, and I worry about her too, but
she’s proven herself. She’s a strong fighter and a good leader.
Even though I worry about her, she’s more than earned her position
over the last couple of months.”

“You don’t understand,” Rand said. “I’m a
strong fighter, and I still nearly died. Norah could die.”

“I lived through thinking you were dead,”
Norah said quietly. “I understand why seeing me go out on patrol
frightens you, but I need to do this. Whenever you go out, I’m
scared for you, but I don’t try to convince you to stay home.”

“I understand your fears,” Carla said. “When
Shelby goes out, I worry something will happen to her.”

“That’s not the same,” Rand said, and Simon
cringed knowing the big idiot was about to put his foot in his
mouth. “Shelby is strong. Norah is too fragile for this. It doesn’t
matter how much she trains, she’ll never be strong enough for
this.”

Stunned silence descended over the room. Even
Rand seemed shocked by his own words.

“Get out,” Norah said quietly. “I have work
to do, and we are not going to have this discussion in front of
everyone.”

Rand ran his fingers through his hair and
then looked at his wife. “I’m sorry,” he said softly.

“For saying I’m weak?” Norah asked as she
studied her clenched fists without looking up at Rand. “Or are you
sorry for believing I’m weak?”

Rand opened his mouth ready to argue, but
then he closed it. Finally, he let out a frustrated breath. “I’m an
ass.”

“Yes,” Norah said, finally looking up at her
husband. “I love you more than anyone, Rand, but right now I can’t
be around you. Please, just leave and we’ll talk about this
later.”

Rand looked like he wanted to argue, but the
embarrassment on Norah’s face seemed to stop him. He nodded and
walked out of the room.

“You okay?” Simon asked Norah.

Norah nodded. He could tell she wasn’t really
okay, but he wasn’t going to add to her embarrassment by discussing
it in front of everyone.

“First order of business,” Simon said. “We
need to send an extermination team up north to deal with a turned
vampire outbreak. Connor is getting pressure on this one, and we
have to send ten people. I’ve got Ian selecting six vampires.
Danny, I need you to pick four humans to join them.”

“Is a vampire settlement going to be okay
with you sending in a team with humans?” Danny asked.

“From what Connor says, they live in a
commune type society with humans. The humans don’t rank lower in
their settlement.”

“I’ll have them ready to go in a couple of
hours,” Danny said.

“I want you and Mark here,” Simon added.
“This is supposed to be an easy clean up that we probably could
have handled with a team half this size. I’m keeping my leadership
here.”

“Then why are we sending ten people?” Carla
asked. “We’re already short right now and don’t have ten people to
spare for a small outbreak.”

“Politics,” Simon said in disgust. “This
settlement isn’t part of the main government yet, and the council
in Fangri La has been considering a hostile takeover. Who
knows if this is to show them how great it can be to have support
from the government, or just some stupid ploy to show them how
strong we are so they’ll be afraid of a possible takeover. When I
hear about this kind of crap, I’m glad Connor has to deal with
it.”

No one argued.

“For those who don’t know, Layla is off
rotation until further notice and confined to her home,” Simon
said. “No male vampires are allowed near the house, except for
me.”

“Yeah, I heard something about that,” Carla
said with her arms crossed in front of her chest. “Why is she being
locked up?”

“She’s putting off some scent that’s getting
all the men hot and bothered,” Norah explained. “Even the attached
ones are having an instant reaction to her.”

Carla laughed. “That is hilarious. I can’t
wait to tell Shelby. We were both curious about what was going on.
Actually, Shelby wanted to call and demand answers, but I convinced
her to wait until today.” Carla started laughing again.

“It is not amusing at all,” Simon said.
“There are a lot of issues because of Layla’s condition.”