Kissing Sin (24 page)

I raised an eyebrow, a faint grin twitching my lips. “Glorious body? I thought you ate on the other side of the fence? What’s with the sudden appreciation of the female form?”

“I may eat on the other side, as you say, but that doesn’t mean I can’t admire a luscious female form like yours.” He lightly slapped my arm. “Stop fussing and stand up.”

I did. He showed me two white cups. “Breast supports. They’ll lift as well as support, and give your beautiful bounty even more prominence.”

“Like I need that,” I said dryly, as he lifted my boobs and slipped the supports into place.

“The more they ogle your assets, the less they ogle your face,” Rhoan said with a grin. “For once, this is a good thing.”

“Says the male of the species who never has to put up with men talking to their breasts rather than their face.”

“There are advantages to being a male.”

Like
not
being stripped down and rebuilt by your brother’s lover. Liander handed me the so-called dress.

“What, no undies?”

“We do not need ugly panty lines with this dress.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Not even ugly G-string lines?”

It was his turn to give me “the look.” I grinned and wiggled into the dress. It fit like a glove, covering me breast to thigh, and left an almost indecent amount of flesh on show. “I am going to be the laughingstock of this function.”

“You’re going to have them drooling.” Liander stepped back, his expression that of an artist studying his masterpiece. “Tug the hem down a shade more.”

“Do you want my boobs all the way out?”

He grinned faintly. “No, though you have to admit, it’d definitely stop anyone recognizing your face.”

The dress stayed right where it was. Half an inch more, and my nipples would be waving hello to the world. “Shoes?”

He handed me a pair of strappy, four-inch stilettos. “My favorite type,” I said, running my finger down the wooden spike of the heel. “Red and ready to use.”

Liander grinned. “They’re becoming quite a fashion statement—though I doubt if anyone has quite cottoned on to your special use yet.”

“Thank God. I’d hate to have to find another innocuous weapon.”

Once I got them on, I turned and studied myself in the mirror. If smoldering sexiness was the look we’d been going for, then we’d achieved the right effect.

“What about my voice?”

“Modulators will fix that. Open wide.”

I did, and he inserted the extremely thin plastic chips on either side of my mouth. The surface of the modulators was supposedly covered with an analgesic that deadened the skin as they went in. In theory, anyway. In practice, it felt like he was ripping out teeth rather than shoving in plastic. At least once they were attached, I couldn’t actually feel them. And no one else would, either, unless I decided to deep throat someone.

“Those things always hurt going in,” I said, when I could, amazed by the sound of my new voice.

“Stop being a baby,” Liander commented, “and say the alphabet, so I know they’re working properly.”

The alphabet had never sounded so sexy, let me tell you. “What about a coat? Or are you intending to freeze me to death in the name of perfection?”

“Believe me, with the heat that’ll be following you, you won’t need a coat.” He held up a hand, forestalling my protests. “I do, however, have one for you.”

He handed it to me. Thankfully it was black, not eye-blinding red. I slipped it on and did up the buttons. No sense in giving Quinn a heart attack, especially when he hadn’t yet decided whether he could continue a relationship on my terms.

“One final item,” Rhoan added, offering me a small bag. “Clothes to change into after you leave the function.”

“I certainly don’t want Misha thinking I got dressed up specially for him,” I muttered, accepting the bag gratefully.

Liander looked at his watch. “Time to go.” He leaned forward and kissed my cheek. “If this doesn’t blow your reluctant vampire’s mind apart, I don’t know what will.”

I looked at Rhoan. “Have you been discussing my love life again?”

“Well, it is more exciting than mine at the moment. I mean, vampires, a horse-shifter, alpha wolves—”

“An alpha wolf?” Liander interrupted, and punched me lightly in the arm. “You go, girl!”

I grinned. “Believe me, I intend to.”

Someone knocked on the door. “Riley?” Jack said. “You ready? We need to get moving.”

“Coming.” I kissed my brother. “You be careful out there.”

“Right back at you. And remember, don’t ever trust Misha. He’s playing his own game, and, as yet, we have no idea what the rules are.”

“I’ll remember.” I threw the bag over my shoulder, and headed for the door.

It was time to go hunting.

Chapter 8

J
ack gave me the once-over, though he couldn’t really see much thanks to the coat. “Very good.” He handed me a bit of paper. “Memorize this. Ring it when you come out of the club, and we’ll have a car pick you up.”

I took the paper, committed the number to memory as ordered, then handed it back. “What next?”

“Next we get you to the car.”

“Is it safe for us to be going direct from here to the airport?”

Jack pressed a hand to my spine, guiding me down the hall. “You’ll be changing cars. Quinn’s limo will actually be taking you to the airport.”

I nodded. “Did you happen to find out anything more about that breeding center we were in?”

“Not a lot.”

“What about building permits and the like?” Surely someone somewhere had to give approvals. Surely you couldn’t build a structure that big without someone noticing.

“None registered. The land itself was bought by a Peter James some three years ago.”

“Let me guess, Peter James doesn’t exactly exist.”

“And he paid in cash, so there’s no credit trail to follow.”

That raised my eyebrows. Credit cards were the norm these days—cash was something rarely seen, let alone used. “And that didn’t trip any alarms?”

Jack grimaced. “No.”

“I don’t suppose the security cams at the land office caught Peter James’s pic, did they?”

“As a matter of fact, they did. We’re working on retrieving it at the moment.”

“Give me a look when you do.” Hell, it might just trigger a much-needed memory.

We walked through the center and out the doors. Quinn waited near a pale gray government car, looking like a dark angel in his black suit and burgundy shirt. His gaze slid down my body, then rose to linger on my face and hair. He didn’t say anything, but his hunger burned across my skin, leaving a prickle of perspiration in its wake. It wasn’t only sexual hunger, but blood thirst. And that thirst was so thick, so strong, it left me breathless. He was pushing his limits, and it was reaching dangerous levels. I had to wonder why.

Or did he plan to slake his thirst on some of the lovely ladies at the function? Perhaps raise a little money for the charity on the side? Hell, I knew women who’d pay a fortune to experience the sexual rapture that went with a vampire’s bite. After experiencing it myself, I could understand why.

Quinn opened the door and ushered me inside, his hand pressing into my spine, and sending waves of delight lapping across my skin. But despite this reaction, I couldn’t help noticing that his fingers were cold. And vampires only got cold when they weren’t taking enough blood.

My gaze went to his. The raw desire briefly evident in his dark eyes made my heart stutter, yet, beneath that, the hunger lurked.

“Take care, both of you,” Jack said. “Remember, this is just a scouting expedition, nothing more. Don’t do anything other than look.”

That last point was aimed at me, and I raised an eyebrow. What in hell did he think I was going to do? Drag the general behind into the toilets and beat the crap out of him? Okay, the idea
did
have appeal, but even if the general was the man who was abusing me at the breeding center, there wasn’t actually much point to hitting him. At least not until we knew if he was the power behind everything—and somehow, I thought not.

“Ring me from the plane on the way home,” Jack continued. “And, Riley, we’ll have people guarding the exits of the Rocker.”

I nodded. Jack slammed the door shut and the car took off. Silence fell. I didn’t see any point in breaking it. I’d said all I had to say to Quinn, and the ball now lay in his court. But his hunger continued to lap across my skin, making breathing difficult. It had to stop. He couldn’t go into a function full of women emoting the way he was. It was almost as bad as a werewolf’s aura—and would create a riot in an instant.

Unfortunately, there was only one way I could ease his hunger, and I had a suspicion I’d have to push him into taking blood from me. But I couldn’t do anything here in the car. I didn’t mind public displays, but Quinn did. Besides, I wanted the driver to concentrate on what he was doing rather than what I was doing. There tended to be less accidents that way.

Once we reached the city, we drove into the bowels of a public car park and changed cars. Quinn’s car had thick dark windows that I rather suspected were bulletproof. It seemed he wasn’t taking any chances, and of that, I was glad.

It didn’t take us long to get to Essendon airport from there. Quinn’s plane—a sleek and silvery Y-shaped craft—was on the tarmac ready to go. We climbed aboard. Besides the pilot and copilot in the cockpit, there was just me and Quinn and the sofalike seats. The perfect place for a much-needed seduction. Or, at the very least, a half seduction. I wasn’t going to compel him to go the whole way if he didn’t want to. Even if my hormones were screaming in horror at the thought.

I waited until the plane leveled out, then unbuckled the seat belt, took off the coat, and rose.

The temperature in the small cabin leapt about ten degrees.

His gaze met mine, the dark depths wary. The hunger I’d felt before was gone, but the strain touching the corners of his eyes suggested it hadn’t gone all that far. “Don’t, Riley.”

“Don’t what?” I said, all innocence. “Talk to you about our plans for tonight?”

“We know what we have to do. There’s nothing else to discuss.”

“No? So you’re just going to continue calling me Riley, are you?”

He hesitated, a faint gleam of amusement touching his eyes. “Barbie would be more appropriate—even though you’re not blonde.”

“So you approve of the boob lifts?” I asked, thrusting out my breasts for inspection.

He made a slightly gargled sound and didn’t answer. Men were men, I thought with an inner grin, no matter whether they were twenty years old or well over a thousand. Show them a good set of tits, and their brain went south.

I used that moment to straddle his lap. By the time his brain had reconnected, it was far too late to stop me.

And given the evidence of what I was sitting on, part of him was more than enjoying the sudden closeness.

I threw my arms around his neck and kissed his nose. It was cold. So were his lips when I brushed a kiss across them. He didn’t react to either kiss, didn’t touch me in return.

“Riley, I can’t take just a taste and stop.” His voice was flat, and as cold as his body. And yet there was a desperation in his eyes that warmed my soul.

“Chocolate is like that,” I murmured, continuing to brush kisses across his cheeks, his neck.

“What?”

I smiled and kissed his lips again. His teeth were beginning to protrude. I ran my tongue across their needle-sharp ends, letting them cut my tongue, letting the taste of blood touch his mouth.

He groaned.

“You may not want to do this, but you need to. Your hunger burns my skin, and I’m not exactly sensitive when it comes to emotions. But I’m betting there’ll be empaths and sensitives at that function tonight. You go in like this, emoting hunger all over the place, and what the hell do you think will happen?”

“Nothing will happen, because it’ll be under control by then.”

“It won’t. It can’t, because you’re too close to the edge.” I stared into the beautiful black depths of his eyes. “Dammit, your skin is
cold
. Why are you pushing yourself like this? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“I have my reasons.” His hands went to my hips, his touch almost bruising. “Move, or I’ll make you move.”

I gripped tight with my thighs. “Pretend I’m Barbie. Just another seductive brunette you’re planning to wine, dine, and bed. Nothing serious will ever come of us, and you’ll never see me after tonight. I’m just a quick and easy fuck.”

“I can’t do that,” he said, voice tight with the tension I could see in his eyes, feel humming through his body.

“Why not?”

“Because you’re not Barbie, and you’ll never be just a quick and easy fuck.”

I raised my eyebrows at the edge in his voice. “But that’s all I was when we first met. You admitted that yourself.”

“That was then.”

“Nothing much has changed since then.”