Pool of Crimson (10 page)

I shook my head and tried to smile. There wasn’t anything wrong with me that Danny could fix. No one could. I turned my gaze to face Danny, but he looked around the tables instead of at me. The look on his face sent chills through me. He crinkled his nose like he smelled something bad. His eyes focused back on me with determination.

What was I thinking bringing someone else into my madness?
I’d thought for a minute, just one damned minute, that I was like everyone else.

“Nothing,” I said with a faint smile. “I just got a cold chill. That’s all.” I shrugged his concern and my tension off as I took a mouthful of delicious pistachio ice cream. I slunk back into my seat with a heavy resigned breath and tried to relax. I was stiff, and my shoulders and neck started to ache.

No matter how much I wanted to forget Patrick was there, I couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. Patrick was dangerous and having him lurking in the background reminded me what I was. I’d been able to forget for a little while, but I’d been fooling myself.

“It’s because you’re in love with me already, isn’t it?” Danny spoke in such a deadpan voice he caught me by surprise.

I stared at him, speechless. He either didn’t notice my tension or chose to ignore it. “I knew this was going to happen,” he said, hanging his head and shaking it in a futile motion, mocking me with every word.

I laughed, full throated and easy, sending a spiral of delight down to my toes.

He gave me his biggest, brightest smile. It just felt ... easy. Danny made me forget the vampire with a book in his hands.

Screw him. I’m not about to let them run my life any more than they already do.

After thirty minutes, we’d both finished our ice cream and were talking easily. The vampire got up in my peripheral vision. I’d been keeping an eye on him as casually as I could without direct eye contact. He was leaving without a confrontation and without a word.

Maybe our bumping into each other here was just a coincidence.

Something deep in my gut told me that this
coincidental
meeting was no accident. As he stalked through the tables with long, graceful, predatory movements, a weight lifted from my shoulders, as if the air wasn’t so heavy anymore. The chill in the air dissipated to a cool breeze.

Patrick got into the gray Audi A5 parked just in front of us on the street. He shot me one more penetrating gaze from those dark eyes, a small almost indiscernible smirk gracing those full lips. His expression was filled with wonder, intimidation, and heat. His tongue slid out slightly from between his lips, and he ran it along his bottom lip in a sultry, hungry caress. My lower body clenched in response.

It’s a warning. A warning! Not an invitation.

He drove off in a high-pitched squeal of tires.

I released the heavy breath I’d been holding. Since the moment Patrick moved from his seat, the tension that had been pushing me down into my chair evaporated. I looked at Danny with a weak, apologetic expression.

“He stared at you the whole time,” Danny snarled. Tension pulsed in his jaw as he ground his teeth, while anger rippled from him in waves. “You know him?” he asked, taking another sip of coffee. His eyes flashed with an emotion I couldn’t identify but would have sworn was jealousy.

“Ah, you’re sweet to be so concerned. But no, I don’t know him.” That flash of something I couldn’t identify passed through his eyes again. I thought I caught a glimpse of amber flooding his hazel gray irises, but I couldn’t be sure.

I’m losing it.

He laughed, but it sounded forced.

It had to have been the light.

Danny walked me home in the cool late-October air. My heart thundered in my chest when he tugged me closer to him and slipped his arm around my waist. He was warm, and as I stood next to him, so was I. We took the stairs up to my porch in slow, unison steps. I didn’t want the night to end. I hoped he didn’t either.

I pulled away and dug for my keys deep in my bag. My heart raced, and my stomach fluttered with anticipation. My palms grew moist and warm as I fumbled in my bag. I finally snatched my keys from the bottom and couldn’t help but fidget with them.

Danny stood, silent and waiting. He opened his mouth, then shut it. He looked everywhere but at me, his hazel eyes darting around the porch quickly and without pattern. I shifted from foot to foot and waited for something to happen. I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth and bit down so that I wouldn’t crawl up his body and embarrass myself. I wanted to kiss him. His lips moved in slow motion as he spoke words I couldn’t register. My mind wandered, and I focused on the full, perfect shape of his mouth.

“I had a really good time tonight,” he said, his voice hoarse and unsure. I craned my neck up to see his face. He shifted his eyes to my mouth.

“So did I,” I said reassuringly, an encouraging smile lifting the corners of my lips up.

Embarrassment washed over his face as he met my eyes again. His cheeks flushed under his light blond hair. My smile grew bigger with each shade of red on his face. “Maybe we could do it again, sometime,” I suggested.

He stared at me intently, a twinkle of promise in his bright hazel eyes. I melted a little under the intensity of his gaze as my heart sped up. His hungry and possessive expression sent heat pulsing between my thighs. I released a long, quivering breath as I pushed my arousal aside and turned a coy smile upward.

He took my face gently in his overwhelmingly large hands. His warm and slightly callused fingers moved almost roughly across my skin before sliding into my hair. His thumb lightly glided across my cheek, back and forth, stroking my body into a lather. I bit down on my bottom lip to keep myself from begging for more. The pain of my teeth against the plump flesh of my lips helped me focus. His warm, rough hands felt incredible on my skin, intimate, as he looked down at me, hungry, his lips slightly parted. His panting breath was heavy and shallow.

He pulled my face within an inch of his own and paused for the briefest of moments. My breath caught in my throat as I gasped, wanting so much more. I waited for a millisecond that stretched on into eternity before he gently pressed his warm, full lips to mine.

I closed my eyes and melted against him. My insides fluttered instantaneously, pouring heat through my body in an intoxicating rush of adrenaline and hunger. His mouth pressed tenderly against mine in a soft crush.

I took a deep breath, filling my nose with the scent of him. He smelled like oak trees and fresh-cut grass, and I lost myself in those scents of pure male.

He inched away slowly. Tension filled his shoulders and his arms were rigid, as if he’d had to force himself to pull away from me. His delicate kiss left me panting and wanting. A primal fire in the pit of my stomach, and lower, pulled at me, making my pulse race at the thought of his hands running over my skin, beneath my clothes, over my naked ...
Whoa!

My reaction to him was not what I’d expected or normal. I’d never reacted with such a strong instinctual desire to anyone. Danny was lodged in my nose, in my gut, and in my womanhood like something about him belonged to me. But when I looked up into his hazel eyes, I didn’t see forever looking back at me.

“I want to see you again,” he said breathless. His hands were still in my hair, and his thumb stroked comforting lines across my cheek.

I nodded. I wasn’t absolutely sure that I could get any words out and still sound intelligent, even if I had been brave enough to try.

He laughed a light-hearted and easy chuckle as he stepped back. I went suddenly cold, feeling the absence of his hands and body pressed firmly against mine. He stumbled down the stairs of my porch in a quick catch of feet as he headed toward his SUV. Evidently, the kiss had been pretty good for him, too, and I couldn’t help but smile.

“How about this weekend?” I said, laughing as he caught himself and straightened his back at my remark, and a panicked look filled his eyes.

“Oh,” he said shortly. “Sorry, I have the night shift this weekend. I’ll call and let you know. Okay?” he asked after circling his Durango. He stood on his running board at the driver’s side door, watching me over the roof. His speech was hurried, and the muscle along his jaw jumped like he couldn’t get away fast enough. I nodded apprehensively.

“Sure,” I said with a smile as fake as a three-dollar bill. I turned and opened my front door. It was dark both inside the house and out. I was sure he couldn’t see the doubt in my eyes when I answered, or hear the disappointment in my voice. The fearful expression on his face left a bad taste in my mouth.

Danny drove off in a roar of engine noise. I walked inside and locked the door behind me. I was so turned on and wired there was no way I was going to sleep. I strode into the kitchen and picked up the phone.

For the first time, it bothered me that I was alone. I dialed Jade’s number. Thankfully, she picked up on the third ring.

“Hello,” she said in her rich alto, groggy from sleep.

“What’d you find out?” I asked.

After a few minutes of bleary-eyed conversation and a bit of babbling on Jade’s part, I discovered she had no new information. I let her go back to sleep, knowing I was avoiding my own bed. It was empty, and I was scared to death to dream.

I took a deep breath and made the rounds to make sure everything was closed up tight and locked. The ritual was familiar and told my brain that I was safe. My gut still churned with the unease of remembered terror, overshadowing the rush of adrenaline that had been coursing through my veins only an hour ago.

“Don’t be such a pussy,” I chastised myself as I climbed the stairs with feet that felt as heavy as lead. I had to get some sleep. Jade and I were meeting with Officer Hamlin first thing in the morning to go over our information from the accident. Jade still had to give an official statement. I couldn’t go in there tired. I had to be alert and at my best. I stripped down to my panties and crawled into bed.

“Your heart is racing,” Patrick said softly in that thick velvety voice. He brushed his cool full lips against mine in a whisper of soft flesh and cool breath.

Pleasure swept over me, making me tingle from head to toe as my knees buckled. I flung my arms around his neck in reckless abandon. I marveled that I fit perfectly in his arms. The next thing I knew, I was cradled against him, staring up into his dark eyes. He looked down at me with longing.

“Invite me in,” he said in a soft plea that melted my insides.

I couldn’t deny him anything. “Please, come in,” I begged, without a second’s thought for the consequences. He carried me inside, then shut the door behind him in a smooth flow of arms and legs that looked almost boneless, like a cat hunting its prey. His dark eyes bored into mine.

“I never imagined you in my house,” I said with a laugh of disbelief. I watched him cautiously, like a lonely gazelle on the savannah.

“Where did you imagine me?” he asked playfully. The corners of his mouth turned up in delight as he teased me. He took my hand in his and rubbed his thumb along the outside of my hand.

It felt good, really good.

He tilted my chin up and held my face firmly in his hands. The soft pressure of his cool fingertips pressing into my skin felt like a burn. I couldn’t escape him even if I wanted to.

Patrick lightly pressed his soft, full lips against mine. When I didn’t pull away, his kiss deepened, becoming more eager in a hard crush of passion. His lips parted, and my own lips flowered in response. I slid my hands easily up the front of his body. His chest was like silk-covered stone, hard and smooth. He sucked my bottom lip into his mouth, then bit down lightly as he growled softly in my mouth.

I ran my fingers through his thick, black hair. It was coarse, but soft as it slipped through my fingers.

Dear Lord, I wanted him.
I wanted Patrick. I’d wanted him since I’d first seen him smirk at me with those dark eyes in the art gallery. He looked at me in a way that made me feel naked and exposed before him. I felt sexy and beautiful. I liked it.

Patrick’s hands glided gently down my back and over my backside, touching as much of me as his hands could cover. I was sure that there weren’t enough Hail Mary’s in the world to make up for sleeping with a vampire.

I pulled away from his ridiculously soft lips to catch my breath. I had to get my head on straight. I couldn’t think while he kissed me. My mind turned to mush and my better judgment went right along with it. There was a look of desire and anguish in his eyes that I’d never seen before in any man. My body tingled from my hair to my toes and desire tightened low in my body, pulsing with want.

“Patrick,” I breathed in a husky voice that sounded foreign coming from my lips.

He laid me down on my bed. His fingers slid softly down my torso, my legs, and down to my feet. My skin sizzled as his fingers trailed cool lines of desire down my body. It took everything I had to remain still and wait.

My brain screamed at me to stop him, but as I watched his fingers on my pale skin and the intensity of his desire in those dark eyes, I didn’t want him to stop.

I arched my body up to meet his touch at every point. He pulled off my pumps and dropped them gently on the floor beside the bed.

The muscles in his shoulders were taut with tension, like he was holding himself back as he slid both hands up my right calf. His hands moved over the top of my thigh where the stocking stopped and the skin began. His cool fingertips tickled the soft skin hidden there. He ran his fingers along the edge of the stocking until he came to the garter. He unhooked the clasp and rolled each stocking slowly down my leg, making sure that his fingertips caressed the smooth flesh beneath the sheer fabric of my stocking.

I held my breath, filling my lungs with a burning need of anticipation. I moaned a soft protest in the back of my throat when he stopped touching me.

Patrick unstrapped the garter holding my stakes. He inspected it briefly, turning it over in his long elegant fingers with a curious grin before placing it with care on the nightstand beside my bed. He left my weapons within clear and easy reach.