In the Dead of Cold (16 page)

“James?” Guilt rode on her shoulder. But just like she needed to make things right with the broken dishes, she needed to make things right with James as well, despite the fact that her memory of hitting him with her energy and sending him flying was still little more than a hazy flash lost in her foggy mind.

“Hi.” He offered her a huge smile. “Ms. Smyth, right? Spelled with a
y
?”

James offered her his hand. She smiled, shook her head, and gave him a small wave instead. The last thing she needed was further emotion from touching him.

To her ears, his greeting sounded a bit too cheerful. She hoped he didn’t ask her if she was enjoying her stay at the Moonlight Resort. How would she answer that?
Oh sure, it’s great. As soon as I get past the idea of being surrounded by vampires and I escape the one who’s trying to kill me, I’ll be able to take in a few slopes.

She gave him a small smile. “Call me Jane.”

“What can I do for you, Miss Jane?”

“I wanted to apologize—for last night.”

He looked hard at her for a moment as if he had no idea what she was talking about. “It’s all right. As you can see, I’m fine. I’m glad I could be of assistance.” He moved aside as three young men slipped around them. The men were caught up in their own excitement and conversation and paid them no heed.

“I wanted you to understand that I would never intentionally harm you, or anyone for that matter.”

He grinned at her. “I understand.”

With dark hair, dark eyes, and a broad stance, he was good-looking. But then, that was the one thing that made all of
them
dangerous—their good looks, making it easier to lure in victims. And his smile was infectious. Jane couldn’t help but return the same.

She wasn’t certain when the crazy idea to use James to test Milo’s theory that she couldn’t be with anyone but Milo struck her. Maybe when James greeted her so pleasantly. Or maybe it was when she’d recognized him coming down the hall. Everything about her entire circumstance was so surreal, she needed to know what to believe and what not to believe. Otherwise she would never know for certain if she could trust Milo. Not that this one thing would be enough to bring on absolute trust, but it was a step in the right direction.

“Is there anything else I can do for you, Miss Jane?”

“As a matter of fact, there might be.”

His brow rose. “Oh?”

Jane’s heart raced. She couldn’t believe she was thinking what she was thinking. She had never before been so bold. She chalked it up to the circumstances. “Is there someplace…private we could talk?” Even though the last thing she planned to do was talk. He stared at her as if she’d told him she’d built a spaceship and asked him to go to Mars with her.

“There’s an empty office right over here.”

He led her to a locked door, produced a key card, and ushered her into the office. With the blinds closed, there was little light, but enough filtered through to see an empty desk and chair. Two other chairs lined one wall. The room smelled dusty, dry, and unused.

“Do I need to turn on a light?” he asked.

What to say, what to say.
She didn’t normally do this. Seduce a guy. Her heart raced, and her chest was so tight it was hard to breathe. She turned to face him. Before she could talk herself out of what she was about to do, she reached out, grabbed him by the lapels of his dark suit, and pulled him close. In touching his clothes, she felt his warmth but no emotions. Then she pressed her lips to his. There was little emotion there, either. It was if he somehow blocked them from her.

Jane couldn’t believe she was doing this. She had never in her life thrown herself at a stranger. Perhaps in the terror of the past day, she’d somehow lost her mind. Yes, that must be it.

She molded her lips to his. His kiss was hesitant. Then he groaned, pressed his body against hers, and kissed her back. He put his tongue in her mouth at the same time he reached up and cupped her breast with his hand. He tasted like a breath mint.

Jane’s brow furrowed. She didn’t understand it. She felt no response whatsoever. Despite his touch, her nipples never grew or changed at all, much less peaked. She thought that strange, since all she had to do was see Milo across the room or hear his voice and her tits wanted out of her bra. In fact, the spot where Milo had kissed her a short time before now itched and tingled, distracting her with a tiny stab of pain.

James’s kiss deepened and grew urgent as he pushed her farther into the room. When the back of her legs hit the empty desk, he dipped her back until she rested on the flat, hard, cold surface.

He stopped fondling her for a moment and slipped both hands underneath her sweatshirt.

At the touch of his hands on her bare breasts, the tingling spot on her throat burned as if James had pressed a lit match to her skin. Jane reached up with her hand and rubbed the spot as she continued kissing James, hoping to feel something—anything. She did feel something, actually—repulsion.

“No, wait—” She tried to turn her face away, but he followed her and silenced her with his lips.

And worse, she felt his teeth against her mouth.
He was one of them.
What the
hell
was she doing? He was a vampire, able to control her with a single taste of her blood, able to kill her with one quick bite, able to hypnotize her by looking into her eyes. What if he was evil like Bart, and she couldn’t feel it?

Her heart began pounding in fear and loathing. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think. She tried to squirm out from beneath him.

“Oh, don’t ask me to wait now,” he growled. “I’ve been wanting this ever since the moment I first saw you in Mr. M.’s office, showing off all that great sexy leg with your ripped skirt.”

It was because of Bart her skirt had been ripped. Terror pressed against her chest with the memory. With the terror came clearer thoughts, more understanding. This wasn’t what she wanted.

She heard him fumble with his belt and the zipper of his pants, and her stomach roiled. Pressed between her legs, she felt how much he wanted this, and the idea made her chest tighter. She couldn’t let this happen. “No, stop. I’m sorry. I’ve changed my mind.” She wanted to tell him that kissing him left her cold. His touch, his closeness sent icy terror into her veins. She could not do this. “Let me go.”

“Please, honey, I need you so bad, right now.”

She could slam him away with her ability, but she’d apologized for doing just that moments ago. Still, she couldn’t let him do this anymore than she could let him cut her open and remove her appendix right there on the desk.

He leaned forward and kissed the sensitive spot on her throat.

Something like burning, painful shock moved through her. Jane screamed.

“
No
!” With her hands on his shoulders, she pushed him away long enough to slide off the side of the desk. She tried to catch herself, but instead she tumbled to the floor. Jane got to her feet as quickly as possible but still felt as if she were moving in slow motion. She haphazardly fixed her shirt on the way to the door. She couldn’t seem to get there fast enough.

She snatched up her purse from where it had fallen on the floor and yanked open the door, half expecting James to grab her from behind. She stopped short.

Milo stood out in the hallway, leaning casually against the wall, his arms crossed. He looked damned handsome in his black jeans and black sweater. Black was definitely his color. He looked as if he were merely waiting for her while she used the restroom or tried on some new clothes in the dressing room. He met her gaze and held it. The swallow she forced down burned in her already tight throat.

Seeing Milo, her body responded. Her nipples swelled and grew sensitive against the soft cotton of the sweatshirt she wore.

Oh. Hell.

“Satisfied?” He didn’t sound angry, but there was an underlying, clipped tenseness in his voice. If she didn’t know better, it was almost as if he had expected to find her right where he’d found her.

“I’m not.” James stepped up casually behind her.

The relaxed tone of James’s voice twisted her gut into a knot, and his next words pulled that same knot tight. He stood so close behind her that he invaded her space, making it hard for her to breathe.

“Can we have about ten more minutes? I think it shouldn’t take much longer than that.” He casually brushed her hair to one side, exposing her neck.

Milo shrugged. “It’s up to her.” He still held her gaze. “Do you think you can handle ten more minutes?”

James’s fingers brushed the sensitive spot on her neck where he’d shoved her hair aside. Jane moved out of his reach. Her stomach did a somersault. “Don’t touch me.” She took a deep breath, working to keep everything she’d eaten in her stomach while she rubbed the spot on her throat. Damn, but she had some serious nausea at the moment.

“I’m hurt,” James pouted.

His voice sounded phony to her ears.

“Five minutes ago, you wanted me to touch you.”

No, she didn’t. Not really. It had been a test, one she’d failed. She was still caught in Milo’s hot gaze. “You knew where I was and what I was doing.”

It really wasn’t a question.

“Yes,” he said, still not looking away from her. “Now that we are linked the way we are, I will always be tuned in to your emotions.” He looked beyond her at James. “I think we’re finished here. Thank you for your assistance.”

“
Thank you for your assistance
,” she mocked. “You make it sound like he helped you carry a heavy box or buy a refrigerator.” Her breakfast churned in her belly. She gritted her teeth to keep from screaming.

“I thanked him for you. He helped show you that everything I’ve told you is true.”

“No problem.” James slid past them and into the hallway. He looked back at her and winked. “If you ever need me again, please don’t hesitate to call. It’s break time. I’m going to have a snack. Do either of you care to join me?”

“No, thank you,” they replied together.

Jane watched James leave. She stifled a groan. “You knew I was with him?”

“Yes.”

“You don’t even sound angry.”

They paused in their conversation as a couple dressed in ski garb made their way toward the lobby, the hallway ringing with the excitement in their voices.

“I’m not angry,” Milo confirmed after they passed. “I trust James.”

“But you don’t trust me?”

“I trust you. I knew you couldn’t let another man touch you intimately, no matter how stubborn you are at needing to see if it could be done, and I trusted James to stop when you asked him. Someone else might not have. And you would have been in a great deal of pain.”

“But I don’t think he would have. He didn’t quit when I asked him.”

“He would have,” he assured her. “He made sure you got the point. Do you believe me now?”

Was that relief she heard in his voice? Perhaps he needed proof as much as she did. Jane stared at him. Her stomach still rolled, and her head ached. But her world felt right now that Milo was within touching distance. Her nipples reached out to him. The pit of her stomach tingled. Her legs were weak. Her pussy was hot and wet, making it easy for her to envision his mouth there. The spot on her throat was no longer painful, but warm—as if his lips were there too.

“I don’t know what to believe.” Her voice sounded defeated, even to herself.

“You can believe me, Jane. I would never lie to you.”

“Never?”

“Have I ever?”

She let out a bitter chuckle. “All we’ve ever shared is dreams. How can I believe them?”

“I never lied to you in any of the dreams either. Why do you think I asked you to talk about Bart in a dream?”

Jane couldn’t think of a reply.

He went on. “I knew you had to tell me, that you couldn’t deny what I asked when we were in the dream together, and that everything you told me would be the truth as you know it. The one thing that isn’t real in the dreams we share is the setting—where we are. It’s as if we choose the setting to suit our mood while everything else is real—our feelings, our emotions, our passion. Can you deny any of that?”

“No.”

Milo stepped across the hall so that he was standing right in front of her. He touched her hair and moved it back behind her shoulder. His fingertips brushed her neck and sent a spark through her. But the touch wasn’t painful like James’s had been. No, his was inviting and alluring, a warm tingle that begged for more as it snaked its way through her and made her hot all over. She suddenly could make love to Milo right there in the hallway and not care who saw them.

“I don’t see your suitcase, so I take it you never made it to your car or the boutique.” He leaned close, his face mere inches from hers. It would be so easy to kiss him.

“No.”

He shrugged again. “You don’t need clothes. We could go back to my room, order room service, and you can stay naked.”

She stared at him. It was a moment before she could find her voice and speak. “How do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Turn on the lust, the desire like you control it with a switch?” Her flesh all but tingled with the need to feel his hands on her. “I want your cock so bad I could do it right here and not care who watched.”

“Oh, yeah?” He kissed her.

It was a kiss intended to search, explore, and conquer. He angled her until he was able to press her against the wall beside the open door. Jane melted against him, needing him so much she thought she couldn’t take another step before she had him.

“Yeah,” she said when they broke the kiss and came up for air. “And I’ve never felt that way with anyone else.”

He grinned and backed her into the empty office, then closed the door.

The next thing she knew, she was pressed against the desk. Only this time, it felt so right as Milo slipped his hand down into her sweatpants and filled her with his fingers. She gasped at the sweet invasion. Before she could get her bearings, he leaned close and covered the tingly spot on her neck with his lips and gave it a gentle suck.

Jane came in an instant and screamed, pressing her mouth against his shoulder to muffle the sound as her entire body shuddered with ecstasy. She dug her nails into his shoulders and held on, trying to keep herself from becoming nothing more than a puddle at his feet.