Night's Promise (10 page)

Retreating from the memories, Duncan watched the monitors for any sign of trouble. When Melissa entered, his eyes were drawn directly to her.

Could there be more between them than just the urge for him to help her? It had certainly felt like more when he’d held her. Why else would he have promised not to touch another woman so long as they were figuring out what was between them?

It was true, he enjoyed jerking off as much as the next guy—hell some would probably say he enjoyed it even more. But his hand was no substitute to feeling a woman’s warm, wet pussy sliding down his dick. Just the thought of it, the memory of his cock thrusting in and out of a woman was enough to get him hard. He became uncomfortably harder when that woman’s anonymous face became Melissa’s sweet one.

On the monitor, she seemed to be looking for someone. Could he hope that it was him? Or perhaps she had changed her mind about ever seeing him again. That seemed more likely; she was looking for him to say she didn’t want to see him again.

The gods knew it would be the better choice for her.

Giving in to temptation, he left the monitors, going downstairs with the intentions of ending things with Melissa before they went too far. He wasn’t the man she deserved, he never could be.

“Go watch the monitors,” he told the first bouncer he saw. When the man hesitated, Duncan rolled his eyes. “It’s safe enough.”

Damn, a man jerks off one or two—dozen—times and suddenly you gotta tell them if it’s even safe to go in the room.

Staying back, he waited until Gareth left the table to dance with Lalita, thankful his cock softened enough to allow him to walk without a limp.

He didn’t feel up to a confrontation with the man, and knew Melissa would be upset if he hit her brother. And he doubted she would care who swung the first blow.

Bram wouldn’t be too happy either if an incident happened in the middle of his club.

Carefully, he approached her, keeping a lazy eye on the dancing couple, so he wouldn’t be taken by surprise if her brother suddenly appeared.

Drawing closer, he watched Melissa at the table, talking with another woman. He knew they were friends, he’d seen them hanging out at the club together but couldn’t remember the other woman’s name. Her short, auburn hair was styled in a way that gave her the appearance of being sweet and innocent.

Anyone who had ever been around magicks would know better. The woman’s power practically sparked as it flowed off of her.

“Of course I think it’s cute,” Melissa told her friend. “Mona, I swear you are one of the few people that I think can pull off that hairstyle. And no, teenagers don’t count. Seriously, you look fabulous.”

“I’m just worried that now guys will think… Hello.”

“Hey.” He smiled at them, the forced smile turning genuine when he glanced at Melissa.

“Hey,” she answered shyly. After a few seconds, she shook her head. “Mona, this is Duncan, he’s a bouncer here. Duncan this is a good friend of mine, Mona. Mona’s a—”

“I know. I can see the power surrounding her. Pleased to meet you, Mona.” He offered his hand.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She shook his hand, an approving expression on her face. “Not many people would shake my hand, knowing what you do.”

“Duncan’s not like most people,” Melissa said then blushed.

“Well, I think I’m going to go…do something else. That way if Gareth asks me what’s going on, I can honestly say I have no clue. Duncan, it was nice meeting you.” Quickly excusing herself from the table, Mona rushed away from them.

“Is everyone afraid of your brother?” He sat down beside her.

“Well, they’ve seen how he reacted the last time a guy grabbed my ass. We’d just left CS and, to be honest, the guy had to go to the hospital.”

“Why? I know for a fact you can protect yourself.” He couldn’t help grinning at the memory of her punching him. The thought of her doing it again was enough to make his cock twitch with interest inside his pants.

“Yeah, and he knows I can. But I think to him I’ll always just be his baby sister, you know?”

“Not really.” He shook his head. “And I can honestly say I’ve never regretted it. I was glad when my parents didn’t have anymore kids. They said I was more than enough for them to handle by myself. They weren’t sure they could handle another child, especially if I taught it all my tricks.”

“That was so mean of them.”

“Not really, they were absolutely right. I raised a lot of hell in my day. I was forever ignoring all the rules, and doing what I wanted. And they were also right when they thought I’d teach any siblings my tricks. Not all of them, mind you, but enough to make my mom’s hair turn gray. Or should I say grayer? Her beautiful black hair was almost snow white by the time I finished puberty,” he told her with a chuckle.

There was a lull in the conversation. Unable to stand the confusion, the not knowing any longer, he blurted out, “Did you change your mind?”

“About?”

He arched an eyebrow.

“Oh, that. N-No, I didn’t. Why did you?”

She looked afraid; so young and vulnerable that even though he knew he should break things off between them, he couldn’t. He couldn’t reinforce that all men were complete pricks who were only interested in one thing.

He knew men who weren’t like that. Like Bram. Bram was a man who deserved a woman like Melissa. He’d say and do all the right things and quickly help her forget about the horrors in her past. But the thought of Bram holding her in his arms pissed him off.

“No, Angel, I didn’t change my mind. How could I when you look so beautiful?” Looking around, he motioned for the door. “Wanna get out of here?”

“Where would we go?”

“Anywhere you want to go.”

“Even to a movie about knights?” A look of mischief was on her face.

With a groan, his head flopped forward until it hit the table. “Even a movie about knights,” he told her grumpily.

Laughing, she was shaking her head when he looked up. Standing up, she took his hand and preceded him out of the club.

Outside, she stood on her tiptoes to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. “You are something else, do you know that?”

Motioning for him stay where he was, Melissa climbed into a taxi and leaned closer to the driver, whispering their destination in his ear.

She’d made certain he stayed far enough back that he couldn’t hear what she told the driver over his radio.

When the driver nodded, she gestured for Duncan to climb in.

“That was just wrong. I said I’d go to the movies.” He sulked, curious to know where they were going.

“Yes, but tonight I want you at my mercy. I don’t want you to know where we’re going until we get there.”

Arching his eyebrow, he looked around. “And how are you going to accomplish that?”

Images of Melissa leaning, kissing him as her tongue thrust into his mouth filled his head. He wanted to pull her onto his lap, to bury his face in her neck, breathe her scent deeply.

“Hey,” he said, taken by complete shock when she covered his eyes with her hands.

“It’s a surprise.”

Scooping her up, he pulled her onto his lap.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m just enjoying the ride, Angel.” Laying his head against her shoulder, he felt like he was in heaven.

Chapter Six

The look on his face when she took him into the bowling alley was worth any embarrassment sitting on his lap had caused. Of course she’d wanted to pull him closer when he rested his head on her shoulder. She wanted to cradle him to her breast until he helped them both to forget about everything but the present.

“What are we doing here?”

“You said we could go anywhere I wanted,” she teased.

“Yeah, but I thought you wanted to go to see some movie.”

“Nah. Not tonight. Unless you’re disappointed…I mean, if you had your heart set on seeing some knight movie—”

“Nope, not at all.”

At the counter they ordered their shoes and moved to a lane.

“I didn’t think you were a bowler.”

“Well, I didn’t say I was any good at it,” she told him with a smile. “But it’s fun and it’s not Club Strigoi. And my brother is nowhere to be seen.” She made a show of looking around.

“True. I was beginning to wonder if you were avoiding me, when you didn’t come back to the club.” He picked up his ball and rolled it down the lane, knocking over at least seven of the pins.

“I wanted to give you some space to decide if you were sure you still wanted to go through with the dating thing. I won’t blame you if you’ve changed your mind. After all, not only do you have to deal with my screwed up past, but my brother’s been suspected of doing more than just trying to intimidate guys around me. We get a mystery card with no signature every Christmas, I think it’s from the hospital. But they don’t want him to know how much they appreciate him sending so much business.”

Duncan surprised her by laughing. “Oh Angel, your brother doesn’t scare me. There are scarier guys in this world than him, and you’re with one of them right now.”

“Really? Then why aren’t I afraid? Why do you always seem to want to avoid running into my brother while you’re with me?”

“Because I’m not stupid. Mel, I know you love your brother and I don’t want to hurt you because I had to hurt him.” Rolling the ball down the aisle again, he got a spare. “And you never have anything to fear around me.”

“I’ve already been lucky enough to have one knight in shining armor. What if I don’t need another one?”

“Then I will sigh in relief. My armor was never shiny. It was always more of the tarnished variety.”

Standing poised to take her turn, Melissa started laughing so hard that the ball slipped out of her hand and went almost directly into the gutter. Walking to the ball return to retrieve it, she shoved Duncan playfully.

“No fair. You made me laugh.”

“Haven’t you heard?” There was a twinkle in his eyes. “All’s fair in love and bowling.”

Giggling, she rolled her ball. “I’ll have to remember that.”

Glancing over her shoulder, she paused when she thought she saw someone watching them, but whoever it was stayed too far away for her to see who it was. Positive it was just one of her friends trying to protect her, she dismissed the man watching them.

* * *

The game was almost over. Duncan was rolling his last set. As he pulled his arm back to roll the ball, he felt a hand grab his ass. Releasing the ball a second too early, it went straight into the gutter of the lane—three aisles over from them.

Looking back, he laughed when Melissa tried to act innocent.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t distract you did I?”

“You are evil. But I’m still going to win.” He kissed the tip of her nose, fighting the desire to pull her into his arms right then. Though his cock wasn’t hard, it had remained at half-mast all night. And around Melissa, it wouldn’t take much for it become fully erect again.

Grabbing a ball—any ball—he approached the lane for his last roll.

“You were the one that said ‘All’s fair in love and bowling’,” she reminded him with a laugh.

“This is true. But I’m prepared now, nothing will distract me again,” he bluffed.

“Okay.”

Part of him was disappointed that she wouldn’t try again. But he focused his mind on the game.

Once again, just as he was about to release the ball she made her move. No simple caress, this time she bit his waist.

The ball slipped from his fingers, dropping solidly on his foot, but even that didn’t help the suddenly painful hard-on he now had.

“Oh gods, I am so sorry,” she told him, her voice panicked.

Though he didn’t need it, he let her “help” him over to the chairs. True his foot hurt like a bitch, but he’d gladly drop another bowling ball on it—in the same spot—if it meant she’d bite him again.

“I’m so sorry, Duncan. I just thought it would hit the gutter again.” Kneeling in front of his chair she unlaced his shoe to pull his foot out and take a look at it.

“I’m fine, Angel,” he told her hoarsely.

“You don’t sound fine, mister. Maybe we should call an ambulance?” someone nearby asked.

“I don’t need—”

“Do you think he got hurt that badly?” Melissa’s eyes were wide with fear.

“What happened?” a woman asked as a crowd formed around them.

“He should go to the hospital. He’s probably got broken bones,” another added.

He wanted to smack them. He knew they were only trying to be helpful, but with each comment Melissa’s eyes grew wider; her panic and guilt increasing.

“I’m fine,” he said in a loud voice. Looking at her, he repeated more gently, “Really, I’m fine.”

“That’s impossible,” said some know-it-all voice in the crowd. “No one could be fine after having a bowling ball fall on their foot.”

“I am. I’m just really lucky I grabbed the wrong ball.” To prove his point he gently pried Melissa’s hands from around his ankle and stood up. Forcing back a wince, he smiled and took a few steps. “See, perfectly fine.”