Must Love Vampires (25 page)

She blinked hard, her shoulders going back. “They aren’t
that
small,” she muttered, knowing even as she did that she sounded like a pouting child. And why she would want to call attention to her big, giant whopper secrets when he seemed more than willing to offer her a pardon, she’d never know. But once again she’d opened her mouth and inserted her size-seven stiletto.

Sitting up, Aidan twisted his legs off the sofa and pulled her onto his lap all in one smooth move. However painful his sunburns were—and already, the cherry red was fading to more of a hot pink—they obviously hadn’t impacted his flexibility.

“I know they aren’t,” he told her, snuggling her closer. “I’m just saying I think they even out. And that if you’re prepared to overlook mine, I can certainly overlook yours.”

The out-of-control pace of her heart began to slow as she let his declaration and what it meant sink into her brain. She didn’t think another man on the planet would be willing to overlook the fact that she’d kept her child a secret until after he’d slipped a ring on her finger. Add to that her admission that her original intention had been to marry him for his money, her admission that she was a
gold digger
, for heaven’s sake, and she was surprised he wasn’t in the next county already.

How had she gotten so lucky? Aidan might be a vampire—and how wild was
that
? she thought for about the six thousandth time—but he was also possibly
the
most perfect guy for her. Ever. She could search Las Vegas—heck, the entire country—from now until the next millennium, and she didn’t think she would ever again stumble across someone who suited her so very well.

“So now that we’ve both come clean,” she said, “do you think we should start fresh?”

“I think I’d like to,” he murmured softly. “If you would.”

Toying with the inside of her lip, she took a deep breath, then let it out with a firm nod. “I think I might, too.”

A slow smile spread across his face. When his lips parted, she spotted the sharp tips of his normally hidden fangs, and a ripple of dangerous awareness washed over her. Life with Aidan Raines was definitely going to be interesting.

Then, as quickly as it appeared, the smile vanished. His eyes darkened, the pupils going a fraction wider, and he fixed her with a serious, solemn stare.

“There is one more issue we should probably hash out,” he told her.

Oh, no
, she thought with a silent groan, dread dropping to the base of her stomach like a lead weight. How much more could she possibly take? She’d handled his big, unbelievable news rather admirably, if she did say so herself, but she wasn’t sure how many more direct hits her internal bomb shelter could take before crumbling to the ground and sending her into a straightjacket.

“Please don’t tell me there’s more to the whole vampire thing. That you’re also a shape-shifter or some sort of badass
Underworld
vampire-werewolf hybrid.” Although, she did have a bit of a thing for Scott Speedman, so that could turn out to be really hot.

A strange expression flitted across his face. “Um . . . no. I mean, my brother can transform into a cat, yes, but I haven’t mastered the art quite yet.” His mouth twisted, and he took on a mocking tone. “He says I would if I’d only apply myself.”

Aidan rolled his eyes, and she nearly chuckled. Ah, the joys of family dynamics. She’d been there, done that with her own sister, which only went to show that when it came to sibling relationships, it apparently didn’t matter if you were human or vampire or little green leprechaun.

Of course, how he interacted with his brother shouldn’t be the foremost thought bouncing around in her brain. He’d just admitted that vampires could shift into other forms. How freaky was that?

And even though Aidan might not be proficient at it yet, one day he could be, then she’d be living with . . . what? A wolf? A lion? A two-headed sheep?

No, no, no. She couldn’t deal with that right now. She added it to her mental list of topics to discuss later, then blinked the thought away and turned her attention to the hand that was slowly gliding up the outside of her thigh toward her butt.

“Actually,” he continued in a low, seductive tone, “I was thinking we should test our sexual compatibility again. Considering everything that’s happened, and all the life-altering confessions we’ve made to each other, we should probably make sure we’re still attracted to one another . . . that way.” He punctuated the last with a lascivious wink.

His hand reached her rear end, gliding over one cheek before snaking beneath the hem of her top to touch bare skin. She didn’t think he
really
doubted how well they got along between the sheets, but since her pulse was already speeding up, her blood heating and pooling low in her belly, she had no problem playing along.

His palm was curled beneath the curve of her breast now, his thumb flicking her nipple through the lacy material of her bra. She wiggled on his lap, teasing the hard line of his erection pressed against the fly of his dress slacks.

“Mmmm,” she hummed from deep in her throat. “You’re right. There’s nothing worse than a sexless marriage. We really should make sure we haven’t messed up that side of our relationship before we commit to the ‘till death do us part’ thing.”

One corner of his mouth lifted. “You don’t have to worry about that, at least not on my end.”

“Yeah,” she muttered, her nose wrinkling in one-quarter distaste and three-quarters puzzlement. “How is that going to work, exactly? Do I just grow old and gray and wrinkly, then keel over, while you stay young and hot and perpetually limber?”

“That’s one of those details we’ll be discussing down the road. And I’ll fill you in on all the options, believe me,” he said, tugging her against him as he fell back on the arm of the sofa, taking her with him to drape across his chest.

It might have been the time of morning . . . or the events of the day (and past two nights) . . . or Aidan’s hot, hard body sprawled beneath her, primed and ready for action . . . but she found herself feeling strangely agreeable. The future was a giant, blank, fang-covered canvas that she should probably be having all kinds of qualms about, but she just wasn’t. Whatever happened, whatever he told her about his past or present or how he had to live, she’d deal.

“Okay,” she said with a shrug, her fingers deftly beginning to undo the buttons down the front of his shirt. “I suppose I can accept that for now. And we really should get down to the business of finding out if everything still works the way it did before I found out you were a bloodsucking fiend and you found out I’m a gold-digging, formerly single mother.”

“Bloodsucking fiend, huh?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

She nodded. “And former single mother gold digger.”

“I like that term—‘former,’ ” he said in a low voice. “I like even more that I’m the one to help you put those things behind you. The ‘single’ and ‘gold-digger’ parts, not the mother part,” he clarified with a sexy half-grin.

“Me, too. Although, I could use a little less talk and a lot more action here,” she told him, tucking her hands inside his now-open shirt and running them over the flat planes of his chest. His firm pectorals with their light dusting of hair, his tight, well-defined abdomen that went concave as her nails scraped along his flesh and he sucked in a sharp breath.

For the first time ever, she noticed the slight glow to his eyes. Not just the typical gleam of arousal, but an actual reddish glow. It was odd and otherworldly, and both frightening and fascinating at the same time.

“Show me your fangs,” she whispered.

He pursed his lips, and for a moment she thought he might refuse. Then the tip of his tongue darted out to wet the thin line of those lips before he opened them, slowly and cautiously.

Millimeter by millimeter, his top lip peeled back until his teeth were revealed. All of them, including two thin, sharp, pearly-white incisors.

Touching one with the tip of an index finger, she marveled at how real they were. How intimidating, and yet practically invisible most of the time.

“Why haven’t I seen them before?” she wanted to know. “I mean, we’ve talked and laughed. Kissed and done . . . all kinds of things with your teeth and mouth. Why didn’t I ever notice them when they’re so long and . . .
obvious
now?”

“I didn’t want you to see,” he told her, his lips brushing her fingers while she continued to probe and explore this interesting new aspect of his anatomy.

“So . . . what? You wished them away?”

He grinned at that, making the fangs even more evident.

“Not exactly. For one thing, they retract, so unless I’m hungry and about to feed, or feeling some extreme emotion, they pretty much align with the rest of my teeth, and as long as I’m careful, they’re fairly easy to hide. For another, vampires have the ability to . . . distort human perception, if you will.”

“Distort,” she repeated slowly, “human perception.”

His mouth closed, and he nodded. “Mm-hm.”

“As in . . . mind control?”

He winced slightly at her candid choice of words. “Yes. Sort of.”

“How ‘sort of’?” she asked, raising a brow.

Her brain was already racing over every interaction they’d ever had. Did he hypnotize people? Could he read minds? Had he ever intruded upon her thoughts, or made her do or say something against her will?

To Aidan’s credit, he didn’t shy away from the question or try to change the subject.

“It depends on the vampire,” he said. “The same as with mortals, the level of power and ability varies. Some are psychic. Some can control others’ actions and thoughts. But most of us simply use a kind of glamour to protect ourselves. To keep humans from noticing the fangs or our sometimes anemic pallor. . . . Or to daze them when we feed, dull the pain of our bite, and wipe the memory from their minds afterward.”

She waited a beat, wondering if the sensation filling her chest was dread or mere curiosity. “Did you ever do any of that to me?”

“Definitely not.”

His response came so quickly, and with such a decisive shake of his head, she knew he was telling the truth.

“I may have hidden a few of the nuances of my appearance from you at first, but by putting a mental veil over myself, not by doing anything to you.”

“So no reading my mind?”

“No.”

“Or persuading me to do things I wouldn’t have done on my own?”

“No.”

“Or making me feel attracted to you when I didn’t really?”

Everything from his chin to his forehead crinkled as he frowned. “Absolutely not. What man wants to be with a woman who doesn’t truly desire him? If I turn you on, that’s all you, babe. Well, it’s partly me,” he teased, arching his hips so she could feel even more of the turgid arousal pressing between them.

He did turn her on. He always had. But all the same, it was nice to know her feelings for him really were genuine, and had been from the beginning.

Even now, she had no doubt he could get her juices flowing in a way few other men ever had. His proposal that they go for a test run to see if everything was still working properly intrigued her, though. It was a little like role-playing, and if they really could go at it like horny minks after all they’d been through since last night, all the revelations and secrets revealed . . . well, then, she might believe they really could have a happily-ever-after marriage.

Granted, it would probably be the most bizarre marriage in history—a vampire and a mortal raising a young son together. Not to mention the fact that they lived in Las Vegas, and Aidan was one of the city’s most recognizable residents, which meant prying eyes and wagging tongues galore.

She didn’t know how he’d managed this long without questions and rumors and speculation running rampant about him and his brother. How had she—not to mention the entire rest of the world—never noticed that they didn’t go out in daylight? That they didn’t seem to age? That neither of them seemed to be connected to anyone—particularly companions of the feminine variety—for any length of time? Normally, the tabloids would sink their teeth into that sort of thing like a pit bull and not let go until they had answers or sold a hundred zillion copies, whichever came first.

So maybe this marriage would actually help him. She’d thought she was using him—for money, security, stability for Jake. But now she realized that he could use her, too. To convince people he was just an ordinary, run-of-the-mill,
mortal
guy. A family man. To turn away speculation that he was anything other than perfectly human.

Given her occupation as a showgirl—which she might not keep up forever, but had no problem sticking with for the time being—it would probably be even easier to explain why they were seen only at night and spent the day tucked away. And who would ever suspect that a couple raising a young son were anything other than exactly what they seemed?

Oh, yes. She was starting to see the up side of this bargain already. And if that wasn’t reason enough to jump his sturdy, undying bones, she didn’t know what was.

Jack

Lifting herself up slightly from his chest, she toyed with the buckle of his belt.

“You know, I think you’re right. I feel completely different about you now that I know what you really are.” Pursing her lips into a disappointed moue, she slipped the tail of the thin leather snake through one side of the buckle. “I’m not sure I’m attracted to you at all anymore.”

Just as she’d hoped, he took the bait. One dark brow went up and he said, “Oh, really?” in a tone filled with pure masculine challenge.

She held her expression and nodded, blowing out a long-suffering sigh.

“Hmm. We’ll just see about that.”

Sitting up, he ripped his shirt the rest of the way off, then he grabbed the hem of her top and yanked it straight up over her head. Her arms lifted, then flopped back down as she let him do whatever it was he planned to do.

Next thing she knew, they were on their feet and he was unsnapping her jeans, dragging them down her legs. Unfastening his own and kicking off his shoes as he stepped out of them. She stepped out of her own shoes and left her pants a pile of inside-out denim on the floor.