Embrace the Heat (13 page)

Norah leaned in and kissed him. He let her
control the kiss, let her show him without words what she felt, and
his body practically vibrated with lust.

“I forgive you,” Norah said. “I think I’ll
always forgive you, but don’t push your luck.”

He laughed. “How about if I just push you
until you scream?”

“You’d better be talking about sex,” she
said.

Rand tore off her flimsy panties and lifted
her so she straddled his hips. When he kissed her again, her hands
reached between them to position his cock at her entrance. She was
so wet and hot that he moaned into her mouth. When she began to
wiggle against him, he pushed into her. Then he let her set the
pace. She was wild in his arms, wiggling and grinding against
him.

Soon he couldn’t take any more. He walked her
over to the door and leaned her against it as he slammed into her
body. Norah’s pants and screams only made him hotter as he drove
into her tight body. His desire cooled for a second as he worried
that he might hurt her. He was much bigger than her, and he wasn’t
usually this rough.

“Harder,” Norah moaned. “I’m so close.”

Rand dropped to his knees and rolled Norah
under him. Then he thrust into her body so hard that she had to
grip the mat behind her to avoid being moved. She screamed, and he
felt her tighten and pulse around his cock. That was all it took to
send him over the edge with her.

Rand rolled onto his back and pulled Norah on
top of him. He kissed the top of her head. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” she murmured. “Do you think
anyone heard us?”

Rand laughed. “I think it’s possible that
Connor and Raven heard us in Fangri La.”

Norah smacked his chest gently. “We’ll be
okay, right?”

He kissed her and knew that he’d do anything
to keep her. “We’ll be fine,” he said, hoping he was telling the
truth.

“I need to go check on Layla,” Norah said
sleepily.

“After we rest a little,” he said. “I really
need to hold you just a little longer.”

Danny’s arrival came as a surprise to Simon.
He’d figured Danny would try to avoid him after intentionally
tweaking his temper earlier that day. Then he had to wonder where
that stupid idea had come from. That human thrived on being a pain
in the ass. Simon suspected it was one of the reasons Ian liked
Danny so much. Ian had been a lot like Danny in his younger years.
Maybe that was also one of the reasons Simon liked Danny, he
reminded him of Ian before Ian had lost his family.

“Why are you here?” Simon didn’t care how he
sounded. The visit with Layla still had him on edge.

“I came to talk to you about Layla,” Danny
said in a more serious tone than Simon was used to hearing from
Danny.

“Now is not a good time,” Simon said. It was
true; he was dealing with issues with the extermination team they’d
sent out that morning. Communications were already spotty. The
visit with Layla earlier that day still had him worked up in more
ways than one. He was also out of cookies and hungry. Having never
had solid food before, he’d had no idea how filling it was. Sure,
he couldn’t survive on it, but he suddenly understood why Eloise
loved it so much. Now he knew why some of the first born vampires
had gone insane when they’d been denied solid food.

Maybe Jack would invite him over for dinner.
No, that wasn’t likely to happen since Muriel was still a little
afraid of him. Eloise would feed him.

Danny held up a bag and smiled. “I stopped at
Layla’s to get muffins on the way over here.”

Simon nodded and snatched the bag from
Danny’s hand before letting him in.

“You sure do like baked goods,” Danny said
and made himself at home in Simon’s living room. “I didn’t even
know you ate solid food until Layla told me how many cookies you
took today. I don’t blame you. That woman is a great cook.”

“I’d never had solid food before today,”
Simon admitted. “When I was growing up, we weren’t offered anything
other than a minimal amount of blood. Honestly, I didn’t think I’d
enjoy solid food as much as I do.”

“It’s not all good. I still remember my mom’s
cooking. Back then, I preferred raw fruits and veggies over
anything she put on my plate. Layla learned to cook pretty young,
and she’s always been a good cook. She comes up with her own
recipes. We didn’t have stuff to bake too many treats like this
back at the human settlement. The stuff we got didn’t have sugar in
it, but we got muffins and cobblers sometimes. Those were nothing
like Layla’s cookies. The first month we were here, Layla watched
those cooking shows every chance she got. She’s not much into
movies and such, but she likes watching people cook.”

Simon bit into one of the muffins and moaned.
The muffin wasn’t as sweet as the cookies and had a different
texture. There was something almost tart in it.

“Those are cranberry muffins,” Danny said.
“There are some blueberry ones at the bottom of the bag. So, you
haven’t had any human food before today? Aren’t you like a hundred
years old?”

Simon decided not to respond to the question
about his age. For some reason it made him feel old today. Could be
because he was lusting after a woman who was nearly
seventy five years younger than him. “I drink juice,” Simon
said. They had to drink water on top of blood or they dehydrated.
Simon had discovered the joys of fruit juice a few years ago.

“You might want to eat something other than
sweets. I’m not sure how things work with vampires, but humans get
pretty sick if we only eat sweets.”

Simon thought about that. “I don’t think it
matters. We don’t take in any nutrients from solid food at all. It
just kind of passes through our bodies. I’d like to try other foods
anyway.”

“Layla makes this really good thing where she
stuffs peppers with all kinds of stuff. You should ask her to make
some for you. Are you pissed at me for kissing Layla?” Danny asked
out of the blue.

Simon had just finished the last bite of his
muffin. This chewing thing was getting easier. “Why would I be
mad?” he asked with a tight smile.

“Because you think of Layla as yours,” Danny
said.

“I think of Layla as my friend,” Simon said,
annoyed that everyone seemed to think otherwise.

Danny gave him a sad smile. “Yeah, I know how
that feels.”

Simon stared at him in confusion. He wasn’t
quite sure what Danny was getting at.

“I’ve liked her for a long time,” Danny said.
“It got worse when we met Mark. Mark came under Raven’s protection
when he was fourteen, and I hated the guy at first.”

“Obviously you got over that,” Simon said.
Mark and Danny worked well as a team and obviously had a strong
bond.

“Yeah, we got along fine after we beat the
hell out of each other,” Danny said.

Simon chuckled. “I fought a lot with Connor
when we were growing up.”

“This was over Layla,” Danny admitted.

“Mark is interested in Layla too?” How many
men did she have sniffing around her?

Danny laughed at him. “Stop frowning,” he
said. “That thing with Mark is long over. Well, it is for her. Mark
would still like to be with her, but I think he’s over being in
love with her.”

“Layla had sex with Mark?” Simon’s voice was
low and deadly. The sudden desire to rip Mark’s throat out made no
sense at all.

“Long before she met you,” Danny said.
“That’s why we got in the fight. I was pissed. I’d loved her for
years, and I wanted to kill Mark. Actually, I tried to do just
that. Layla broke it up and wouldn’t speak to either of us for more
than a month.”

“I didn’t know she had feelings for Mark. I
mean other than friendship,” Simon said and wondered why it felt
like someone had kicked him in the gut.

“She doesn’t,” Danny said. “He’s just her
friend. That’s all it was back then. When I asked her about the
sex, she said she just wanted to know what it was like. Naturally,
I was so mad I tried to beat the hell out of Mark again. I hated
that he was her first. I wanted it to be me. If I’m honest, I still
want it to be me she wants, but I know that’s never going to
happen.”

“Why are you telling me all of this?” Simon
asked.

“We both know I can’t beat the hell out of
you,” Danny said. “You’re stronger and faster. I like you too much
to shoot you with a crossbow. Connor would also be seriously pissed
if I did that. Hell, Layla would be pissed.”

“There is also the fact that I’m not having
sex with Layla,” Simon pointed out.

“Yet,” Danny added. “I saw the way you looked
at her in the training center. Now, I could write off that time as
this strange scent thing she has going on. Other male vampires are
looking at her funny too. That’s why I kissed her in front of you.
I wanted to see the look in your eyes after I did it.”

“What did you see?”

“You looked like you wanted to possess her,
body, mind and soul,” Danny said.

Simon smiled and shook his head. “That’s an
awfully poetic way to say you think I want to fuck her.”

Danny wasn’t letting up. “I didn’t say that
at all. You want everything from her. I’m sure I’ve had the same
look on my face more than once over the years. That’s probably why
I recognized it.”

When Danny got up to leave, Simon rose and
grabbed his arm. “I don’t want her like that.” Then he decided to
be honest, not just with Danny but with himself. He’d jumped in
front a bullet before he’d even met her. Layla was human, and he’d
always considered humans expendable. Still, there she’d been, this
tiny little thing fighting like a true warrior. She amazed him. “No
matter what I want, I’m not going to act on my feelings.”

“Why?” Danny asked, and then he looked really
annoyed. “It’s because she’s human, right? Humans aren’t good
enough for you.”

Simon shook his head. “It’s not that. At
first, it was. You know I consider several of you my friends now.
There is no way to think of Layla as less important than my vampire
friends. Being with a human means one of two things.”

“Watching them die or turning them,” Danny
finished for him. “So you turn her like Jack is trying to do with
Muriel.”

“Jack is a fool for trying. I’d never risk
anything like that,” Simon said. “There is no way to ensure things
don’t go wrong. People have gone insane from the change. Even if
she became a born vamp and not turned, she still might lose her
mind after the change. Would you be willing to risk that?”

Danny sighed. “Probably not.”

“Then you see why it doesn’t matter,” Simon
said. “It wouldn’t be fair to either of us to let our feelings get
stronger.”

“Seems like it’s a little too late for that,”
Danny said, and then he clapped Simon on the back and headed out
the door.

Simon had a sinking suspicion Danny was
right.

Miles shivered in the cold sterile room. The
room was kept cold to prevent bacteria from multiplying. The irony
of that was not lost on him. Soon he would be impervious to every
bacteria and virus known to man. Well, other than the virus that
would be used to end his human life, the one that might very well
end his life completely. Fear nearly strangled him, but there were
no other options. He could hope they got more nymph blood. If they
didn’t get more nymph blood his treatments would end, and he would
start to age and die. They’d experimented with that on one man
years ago. After stopping his treatments, he’d slowly lost his mind
as he aged rapidly. The process had been extremely painful and
lasted just over a year. Miles feared suffering for a year more
than dying. Perhaps he was a fool for not fearing the eternity of
suffering he might endure after death.

His mother had believed in God and told him
many times that he had to be good or he’d go to Hell. While Miles
hadn’t really done a lot of bad things in his life, he’d been
witness to many and had never tried to stop others from doing
terrible things.

Until recently he’d never believed in any
sort of god. Now that he faced the real possibility of dying, he
pondered it more. Funny how facing one’s own mortality made even
the biggest cynics look for something that would come after the
end. Sadly, all he saw was eternal torment.

Roger was being injected first and ignoring
Miles. It was probably because he thought Miles’ fears were
foolish. Maybe he didn’t really care what Miles thought. Most
likely it was a little of both. They were cousins and had lived
together since their early teens. Miles’ mother hadn’t handled the
vampire thing very well. She’d been the kind of woman to see all
the wrongs of the world and try to figure out why God was punishing
them. His father had become an advocate for vampire rights, but
Miles didn’t know what had happened to the man after his mother had
moved them to California. She’d justified any ill treatment of the
vampires by calling it ‘God’s will’ or claiming that the evil
needed to be destroyed. She’d been too weak to come up with her own
opinions. They’d come from her church or her brother.

Miles was a lot like his mother. Not the
religious stuff, but the inability to stand on his own. Living with
his uncle, he’d believed the blood whore practice was wrong. He’d
seen so many atrocities committed against the blood whores. Even
innocent children weren’t immune to the depravities of the humans
who frequented the reservations. For the most part, he hadn’t used
the whores available to him. His uncle ran the reservation, so
Miles could have any whore he wanted, whenever he wanted one.
Still, he’d avoided them when he could. That hadn’t been completely
possible. He had to fit in.

His mother used to tell him that to be a good
man he had to avoid doing bad things. She’d been wrong. It took
decades to fully realize how wrong she’d been. For years, he’d only
felt bad when he’d actually participated in the atrocities. He
would tell himself pretty lies to get through the day. In those
lies, he wasn’t really a bad person because he never abused the
blood whores himself. The truth was that even back then he knew
they were slaves. He knew they were abused, but he never spoke up.
He’d seen his own cousin with them. Roger never cared if he hurt
them. The abuse was justified by the fact that the vampires weren’t
human. Despite the lies told to the world about these wonderful
reservations that protected vampires, they were just prisons. The
whole thing was just a pretty lie created to cover up the brutal
treatment of the vampires.