Hunted, The Complete Edition: A Full-length Steamy Vampire Romance (New England Nightwalkers) (11 page)

Hopefully this would all be a non-issue and they’d be long gone by then, but just in case they got stuck here longer than he planned, there was one more small thing to take care of.

He turned on the interior light, reached into his coat and pulled a long box from the inside pocket. “I have a gift for you.”

Her full lips formed a pretty “o” as she stared at the red, foil-wrapped box adorned with a black, velvet bow.

“But it’s not Christmas yet,” she protested. “And I don’t have anything for you!”

“It’s not a Christmas gift. It’s just something I saw today when I went to the jewelers to have my watch repaired. Open it.”

She gnawed on her bottom lip for a second before she took the package and began to meticulously dismantle the wrapping.

“Ever the librarian,” he said with a chuckle.

She paused to roll her eyes at him. “You weren’t saying that fifteen minutes ago.”

She had him there. And maybe that was what made him so crazy for her. That dichotomy between so very good and so very bad.

He pushed aside the memory of her face as she came beneath his hand and jerked his chin toward the present. “Okay, you got me there, but I’m not getting any younger.”

She let out a belly laugh and tore the paper. “Fine, all right. Impatient much?” The foil fell away and she tugged the top of the box off. Then, she slammed it closed again, her frantic gaze seeking out his. “Are you frigging kidding me?” she demanded. Then, she proceeded to shove the box back at him frantically. “No way. I can’t take that and I--”

“Deserve it,” he cut in, opening the box to cradle the delicate gold chain that strung together eight, teardrop-shaped rubies in his hand. “You will look like a queen in it, and I want you to have it.”

She stared at the blood-red gems as she slowly shook her head, sending the blonde waves tumbling around her shoulders. “It’s too much.”

“It isn’t. It’s as much for me as it is for you.” He leaned forward and undid the clasp before sliding the chain around her slender neck. “The second I saw it, I knew I needed to see it on you. That and nothing else. It would please me to see you wear it, Zara.”

He fastened it in place and then pulled away to study her. He hadn’t been lying. It looked gorgeous against her golden, silky skin and it
was
for him as much as it was her. Because it held a tiny tracking device. A security measure on the off-chance that Irena or one of his brethren decided to take action. If they discovered who she really was and what her father had done, they wouldn’t kill her quickly. First, they would whisk her off somewhere and do whatever needed to be done in order to extract information from her. To find out who else had been involved and what else she knew. Now, if she deviated from her routine at all, he would get an alert of her whereabouts.

“I…thank you, Gabriel. I love it. I’ll never take it off,” she murmured, stroking the gems with the tips of her fingers.

Her words chased away the lingering guilt that seemed to be his constant companion. His feelings didn’t matter right now. Because whether she knew it or not, he was in a fight for her very life. And he would stop at nothing to ensure that no harm came to her.

Even if it meant behaving like the manipulative bastard he’d fought so hard against becoming.

A
ruby necklace
.

Zara fingered one of the smooth gemstones and tried to wipe the stupid smile off her face for the millionth time in the past five days, but it wasn't happening.

"It's gorgeous," Steph said again, as was her habit since Zara had received Gabriel’s gift. "And I'm insanely jealous. Can you find out if he has a friend who looks like him and has similar taste in jewelry? Because I want a piece of that action bad."

Steph was only half-kidding, and Zara made a mental note to ask Gabriel about a double date sometime. She stirred her margarita with the umbrella perched on the glass and shook her head slowly.

"Am I jinxing myself if I say he's perfect? Like...not perfect," she corrected herself quickly. "But perfect for me. He's confident and might even come across as cocky to some. And his job?" She let out a low laugh. "Most women would be totally intimidated by the fact that he's surrounded by sex and half-naked people most nights. But he says that he doesn't sleep with the clientele and I believe him. He seems like he just wants to be with me."

Which was why, after being together at some point every day, when he told her he had to work a double shift the next two nights, she hadn't been worried or jealous. She'd accepted him at his word and had decided to invite Steph out for drinks. The thought of sitting at home alone watching TV until her brain finally slowed enough for slumber as had been her habit B.G.--before Gabriel--didn't appeal to her in the least anymore. He'd brought her back to the land of the living, and everything, from the lively conversation with her all-too patient friend to the tart, icy bite of her margarita felt fresh and new and vibrant.

She'd been locked in a deep, all-consuming depression, and it was only now, looking from the outside in, that she realized how low she'd sunk.

She shook her hair over one shoulder and sneaked a glance at Steph. "Do you think he's too far out of my league to stick around? Am I fooling myself here?"

Steph studied her for a long moment and took a long pull from her wine glass before answering, a move that had Zara's stomach doing flips. Good news never came after a pause like that. She steeled herself for the worst.

"He really likes you. No question."

Steph tucked a lock of jet-black hair behind her ear before leveling Zara with a serious stare.

"Be careful, all right? It's probably me being paranoid or whatever, and he did nothing at all to deserve my suspicion. I just care about you and know what a tough year it's been. Someone has to be the voice of reason and make sure that you're not being reckless. And," she paused, a grin spreading over her gamine face, "ironically enough, that person is me. But truly? He seems great so far. And from what you're saying, he's been nothing but amazing to you. I'm very happy about that. I just don’t want you picking out wedding dresses until you know him a little better, okay?"

Zara's stomach unknotted as she took a sip of her drink. That was a fair assessment. After all, she was doing things that were totally out of character and much more in line with how Steph lived her life. Of the two of them, Steph would have been voted most likely to BDSM and Zara would've been voted most likely to FBLA. The realization that the roles had switched for once gave her a singular shot of glee.

"Well, I'll tell you this much. I'm having the time of my life."

"That's what's important. If you’re happy, I’m happy. Just take it slow, is all." Steph’s smile amped up to full watt as she held up her glass and clinked it against Zara's. "To running over a hot guy and finding out he's not a vampire."

Zara let out a snort-laugh and gulped down the ass-end of her drink. She gestured at the bartender to get them another round and then glanced down at her phone where Gabriel’s last message still shone.

Miss you.

She still hadn't worked up the courage to tell Steph exactly what it was like being with him. On some deep level, she knew the other woman wouldn't understand. Hell, she didn't understand it herself. She'd slept with enough guys to know the difference between bad sex, good sex and great sex, and the thing she had with Gabriel? Fit none of those descriptions. It was transcendent. She felt like a superhero version of herself every time she made him groan, every time he murmured her name or a soft word of praise for her body. And the orgasms were so long, so intense, and so plentiful. She was starting to wonder if she'd turned into some sort of sex addict or something.

"You have the literal worst poker face, ug," Steph said with an eye-roll of faux disgust. "I can practically see you drooling just thinking about him."

Zara was just about to deflect with a stupid joke when her phone lit up and began to buzz. Heat pounding, she snatched it up and bit back a sigh of disappointment as she realized that it wasn't Gabriel. Detective Rick Gleason.

What could he possibly want? He'd said more than enough when they'd last spoken, and he’d told her flat out that her father's case was closed. And now, for the first time since his death,
she
felt like it was closed too. Along with that chapter of her life. The last time they'd talked, she'd nearly killed Gabriel with her car. Picking up the phone would just send her hurtling backward when she needed to move forward.

She thumbed the red
ignore
button and set the phone down on the lacquered wood bar top before settling back on her stool.

"Not Gabriel, I'm guessing, by the look on your face?"

"Nope. I think it's the Detective in my Dad's case. Probably about tying up paperwork and loose ends, and I just don't feel like talking to him right now." She made a mental note to check her voicemail the next day if he left one. If it was more important than that, he was sure to call back.

"So when are you going to see him again?" Steph asked.

Zara forced herself to keep her gaze locked on her glass.

"Well, actually, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that once I firmed up all my plans. He’s asked me to stay in town this year to celebrate the holidays with him. I'm making us dinner at his house--turkey and all the trimmings--on Christmas Day. Christmas Eve, I was going to come help you set up for your party and stay a few hours before I meet him at Club Nitris for his work party."

Steph's eyes went suspiciously glassy and she ran the back of her hand across her nose. Zara squinted and leaned closer to peer at her friend under the dim pendant lights of the bar.

"Are you crying?" she demanded, a trickle of concern running through her. What had she said?

"No. You're crying!" Steph let out a slightly weepy laugh and drained her drink before taking both of Zara's hands in her own. "I'm just so glad to see you like this, is all. And if he wants to spend the most magical time of year with you, and you like him enough to stay in town to do it, then I've got to stop being such a worrywart and get behind you. It may have happened fast, but I see the way he looks at you and how happy you are. It's hard to argue with the facts when they're right in front of your face." She squeezed Zara's hands and then released them. "Congratulations, my friend. I think you're falling in love."

Zara settled back onto her stool with a thud.

Love? Could that be? They'd only known one another for a week. That was ridiculous. Foolhardy. Positively crazy and totally out of character. And still...something about Steph's words curled around her heart.

Gabriel Thorne.

Zara Thorne.

She chewed on her lip as the bartender set their fresh drinks down. When he scurried away to take another order, she leaned in closer to Steph. "I want to do something special for him for Christmas, but I don't know what. After he picked out the most gorgeous gift for me, I feel totally inadequate because he seems to have everything."

Steph rubbed her hands together and grinned, the tears drying instantly.

"Ah, this is where you need me and my nefarious skills. You say he has everything but what he seems to want most is you. So why don't you use his holiday party as a chance to rock his socks off? Something he will remember for the rest of his life. It's the perfect environment. Maybe you could call one of his co-workers and see if they will let you set something up in advance."

"Oh my God, seriously? That would be so embarrassing. Call up and tell them I want to seduce my boyfriend at their club?" But even as she rejected the idea outwardly, once the kernel was planted, it took root in her mind and wouldn't let go. She had met his boss Irena the night she’d gone there, and the other woman had seemed nice enough…

"Not their
club
," Steph said, leaning closer. "Their
BDSM
club. Surely you aren't the first person to make a request like that. Probably happens all the time. How do you think they stay in business?"

She had a point.

Zara mulled it over, weighing the cons of making such a humiliating phone call against the pros of seeing Gabriel's face if she managed to pull it off. "Maybe I could do something..."

Steph let out a squeal, and stood on the foot bar of her stool to lean over the bar and grab a pen and a paper napkin.

"Oh my god, this is going to be so much fun! Okay, so what kind of rooms do they have there? Can you set up a scene?" She scribbled something on her napkin before jerking back and holding up one finger. "Oh! How about hot doctor and patient? Ooh, or you could do a striptease." She shimmied her breasts in solid imitation of an exotic dancer. "Do they have a pole? Tell me they have a pole!"

Zara sat in silence listening to her friend's chatter, excitement and terror warring inside her. She wasn't the type of person to be overly concerned with her looks and didn't consider herself to have low self-esteem, but pole dancing? Setting up a scene? That would take some serious balls. Balls she wasn't sure she had.

"You look like you're going to puke. Are you going to puke?" Steph demanded.

"No, no. I just think we could start with something a little tamer."

Steph's face crumpled like Zara had just told her that her best friend was moving away. "Tamer. Sure. That could be fun too." She balled up the napkin and grabbed a fresh one with a sigh. "Okay, so what are you thinking? Singing telegram, maybe? Or you could make him a mix-tape."

Zara didn't know whether it was the expression on Steph's face or her own escalating sense of disappointment that did it, but a moment later, she found herself stretching to reach the discarded napkin.

"You know what? You're right. If I want to wow him, I have to do something he wouldn't expect. Let's go for it.”

Steph beamed and began to shoot off rapid-fire questions that Zara replied to as fast as they came. She might not have the money for something as extravagant as her ruby necklace, but that didn't mean she couldn't put her all into giving Gabriel a holiday to remember.

And, after a week in his bed? She was pretty sure she knew what he liked.

"I've got it. We'll need to go to the costume shop on 5th Street. You down?"