SEDUCTIVE SUPERNATURALS: 12 Tales of Shapeshifters, Vampires & Sexy Spirits (231 page)

But the moment Kayla opened the door, she could tell something was different. It was like the texture of the air had somehow changed. She flipped on the light, bathing the living room in the soft glow of lamplight. Nothing was out of place, and yet she knew an intruder had been in her house. “Someone’s been in here.”

Welcome Home, Vampire: Chapter Five

Cole adjusted his vision, using his amped vampire version to scour the darkened interior of Kayla’s house. “You sure somebody’s been in here? Nothing’s been moved.”

Kayla shook her head, tucking her hair behind her ear. “I know, but I can just tell.”

The problem was he could too. There was a faint displacement of air as if someone or something had moved through the space. The sweet, vanilla and almond-like odor of angel food cake lingered on the air currents of the room, putting all his sense on edge. The smell, however faint, hadn’t been there that morning, which meant that creepy feeling he’d gotten about them being watched was also accurate. These Enochians, whoever the hell they were, had been here. He’d bet his last promotion on it. He didn’t want to alarm Kayla, since he’d been doing his best to calm her fears all evening, so he downplayed his reactions. Keeping her safe was top priority.

“Let me go take a look. Just in case, close the door. Take your phone out and stay put. Dial nine and one. If I’m not back in two minutes, dial the other one.”

"Maybe we should call the police anyway."

"And say what? That you
think
someone's been inside your house? No evidence, nothing disturbed. . .?"

Kayla frowned. "You don't believe me."

"I didn't say that. Keep your finger on that final digit and wait for me. I'll be right back."

Her hands shook as she pulled her phone out of her pocket and poked at the screen, the blue glow of it up-lit her face. Damn. He didn’t want her to be afraid, especially in her own home. The suffusion of adrenaline coursing through her system spiked the air. He’d never meant to bring this to her door. Hell, he hadn’t even known these things, whatever they were, had existed before this afternoon. She looked up at him and he gave her a single nod.

On silent feet he moved quickly from room to room. There was no need to turn on the lights or pull a weapon. His bare hands and fangs were all the weapons he needed and he could see perfectly well in the moonlit darkness of the little house.

In Kayla’s bedroom the smell grew stronger, but was still too faint for the intruder to be present. He checked the hall bathroom, the closets, the kitchen, and the spare room.

When he circled back into the living room, Kayla was still standing there her finger over the screen of her phone.

“All clear. You can hang up.”

She pushed the off button on her phone then shoved it into her pocket. “I’m not crazy. I can tell someone’s been in here while we were gone.”

He moved closer, putting his hands on her upper arms and rubbing them a little, trying to soothe and comfort her. It might be working for her, but it wasn't helping his libido to touch her soft skin when he was already hot for her. “I believe you. And I think you’re right. It looks like they didn’t take anything, but I think it would be best if maybe you packed an overnight bag and came back to the hotel with me.”

“I’ve got a perfectly good bed here and I’ve got a better idea. Why don’t you stay here tonight?”

Damn. He’d been afraid that might come up. He’d already been telling himself since they’d kissed in the gondola of the Ferris wheel and he’d felt the metal frame give way under his fingers to just walk away when he brought her home. The temptation Kayla presented had him balanced on a razor’s edge between need and duty. As much as he needed her, he had a duty to keep her safe, even if it was from himself. Jack had entrusted that duty to him in his last words, and he had every intention to see he carried out that assignment.

Cole gave the small couch a rueful glance. It wasn’t nearly big enough to accompany his frame stretched out, but it would have to do. There was no way in hell he was getting in Kayla’s bed, no matter how badly his libido wanted him to. Their intimacy in the gondola had stretched him to the limit of how far he was willing to go with her, considering the risk.

“You sure you won’t go to the hotel?”

“Does your hotel room have more than one bed?”

Her lids dropped half way down and she looked up through her lashes at him, her mouth curling into a seductive smile that almost drove him to his knees. “Does that mean you’re offering to share my bed?”

Cole frowned. He had a king bed. One bed, which could fit them both very nicely, especially if Kayla was under him. His dick pulsed, happy at the thought. He gripped the back of his neck and kneaded at the tension there. Fuck yes, he wanted her in his bed, any bed, so badly his skin burned hotter than normal and he had a hard-on that didn’t plan on going anywhere soon.

Not. Going. To. Happen.

He wasn’t going to take the chance he might hurt her, he’d seen what his strength had done to the gondola, even if Kayla hadn’t. In a moment of passion, he'd dented the damn frame, with his freakin’ bare hands. Had it been Kayla’s tender flesh, he’d have more than bruised her, he’d have broken her. “I’ll take the couch,” he muttered, his tone more surly than he intended.

Kayla’s brows knitted in confusion at the mixed signals he knew he’d given her. He couldn’t help it. He was mixed up about this. He wanted to take her. He couldn’t. He needed to protect her, not just from these Enochians, but from himself.

She sighed. “Okay, then.” Turning on the ball of her feet, she stalked off through the house toward her bedroom, flipping on all the lights as she went. In two minutes she was back with a stack of soft sheets, a pillow and a blanket. Slipping the fitted sheet around the bottom cushions and flipping the top sheet and blanket out, she made a neat, little bed. She stood back, hands on her shapely hips and surveyed her work. “There. It isn’t a king-sized bed at the Hilton, but it should do.”

She glanced over her shoulder. “You sure you want to sleep out here? I’ve got a perfectly lovely bed that would fit us both.” The glimmer of hope that laced her words just about killed him.

He was not sleeping in Jack’s bed, with Jack’s wife. No. Way. In. Hell. “This’ll be fine.” He tried for sincere, but his tone was still underscored with agitation. Sometimes being a good guy who did the right thing sucked.

“Well, if you’re good, then I’m going to take a shower and get ready for bed while you keep lookout.”

Cole couldn’t bring himself to say a damn word. He wasn’t good. He was in fucking misery. He wanted release so bad his whole damn body ached with it. He wanted to be in that shower, under the hot water with her, his soapy hands caressing every inch of her wet skin. His jaw clenched with each throb of his dick.

Maybe it was a good thing she was taking a shower first. Maybe she’d use up all the hot water and then he’d get a cold shower—which was just what he needed.

“Cole? You good?” she asked again, since he’d never actually answered her.

All he could manage was a nod of his head.

Kayla shrugged, then padded back to her bedroom, humming to herself as she got ready for bed. Cole didn’t need to be in the bedroom or bathroom to know exactly what she was doing. His acute vampire hearing picked out the raspy slide of cotton against her silken skin as she shucked out of her jeans and T-shirt, and the whisper of her skin as she moved without anything on. The shower started and the curtain clattered into place as the shower rings moved on the metal shower rod. He tried his best to block out the slick sounds of her soapy hands, but his imagination was only too happy to supply the details in vivid clarity.

He gritted his teeth and laid his head back on the couch. Just sitting here, listening to her was going to drive him nuts. He glanced at the cardboard box of Jack’s things she’d set aside for him. Maybe focusing on Jack would take the edge off.

He got up and pulled the box over to the couch and unfolded one of the cardboard flaps. A strong whiff of angel food cake scent tweaked his nose. He quickly flipped the other flaps back. There, laid on the top of Jack’s things inside the box was a note.

We know what you are. We know that you are part of a conspiracy within the government of your country to capture and unravel us. But we are watching and ready for you, and you will not succeed. Leave our city or we will take action. This is your last warning.

What the fuck? Who were these guys? And why the hell were they targeting him? Cole crumpled the note in his hand and threw it across the room. He was pissed and a whole lot annoyed that they’d come into Kayla’s home because of him. Maybe it would be better if he left. Maybe if he left and never came back, they’d forget all about that he’d been here and leave Kayla the hell alone.

Damn.

He got off the couch and walked over, picking up the crumpled wad of paper and smoothed it back out. Chances were his commander was going to want to see this note. Maybe there were fingerprints or trace DNA on it they could use. He folded the paper carefully and put it in his wallet, then went back to the couch.

The shower shut off and he could hear Kayla pull back the curtain. God, he wished he were her towel right now. . .

Cole shook his head then forced himself to focus on the box of Jack’s things in front of him. There were pictures of him and Jack, yearbooks, a trophy from their winning season at basketball, Jack’s letterman’s jacket. All of it was a collection of memorabilia that only meant something to the person who had the memories.

Only one thing in all of it called out to him: a small shark’s tooth necklace on a black leather cord. It had been a gift from himself to Jack on his friend's sixteenth birthday when Jack’s parents had taken them to the California coast. Cole picked up the necklace and held it in his hand, letting the pointed tooth, which ironically reminded him of a vampire fang now, twist freely in the air. He and Jack had done a lot together, but that part of his life was past. He could only move forward. . .but he would never forget. He slipped the necklace around his neck.
I'm taking good care of her, buddy.

He owed it to Jack to keep Kayla safe. He could hear her rubbing her hair between the folds of the towel, slipping into clothing, brushing her teeth and climbing in between the sheets of her bed. He could tell all that, but he couldn’t tell how to keep her safe.

He tried to stay awake long after the deep, even breathing from Kayla told him she’d fallen asleep. He hated sleeping, because then he dreamed. And it was never a good thing. The nightmares were so vivid, so tangible that he had a hard time telling between nightmare and reality when he woke.

The military shrinks called a symptom of his PTSD. He called it a reason never to want to sleep again. Over and over, every night, the attack came, the missiles and bombs exploded and shrapnel flew, and Jack died in his arms. He replayed every moment. Every insurgent’s face as he shot them to protect himself, Jack, the men and women in his unit, his country. Eventually sleep overtook him. And so did the dreams.

* * *

He was jolted wide awake by the sound of movement. His fangs were out, his body rigid in an instant, expecting an attack. It took a moment for his eyes to focus and for him to realize he wasn’t covered in sweat and sand, but crammed up, knees hung over the arm of Kayla’s couch. A light flipped on in the hallway and he turned his face toward the back of the couch, forcing his fangs to recede beneath the soft folds of gum tissue before Kayla saw him this way.

“Cole?” she called softly from doorway.

He blinked rapidly, then turned his face away from the light, until he could feel with his fingers that his face was normal, his fangs gone.

“Yeah?” He turned to look at her. She was leaning against the wall, her hair had dried in soft, golden, gossamer waves. The little pair of sleeping shorts and tank top, that must have been her usual pajamas, clung to all her curves, including the swells of her unbound breasts, giving him an instant hard on. He wasn’t sure she even realized what she did to him.

“I’ve been thinking,” she said as she rubbed two of her fingers back and forth over her forehead. “It’s really not right for you to be out here on this couch that is obviously not going to fit you.”

“I already told you, we’re not sharing a bed.”

She waved off his objections. “I know, I know. I just think maybe it would be better if you took the big bed and I slept out here. The couch is really comfortable for me. I fall asleep out here all the time.”

“I am
not
kicking you out of your bed.”

Kayla pushed off the wall and padded toward him, her bare feet whispering as they moved across the wooden floor. “Don’t think of it that way. Think of it as a sleep over and I’m being a good hostess to let my guest take my bed.”

Sleep over. Yeah. That thought didn’t help in the slightest.

Kayla put her hands on his shoulders, and looked down at him. Her breasts swayed slightly, practically in line with his mouth. Close enough that through the thin cotton fabric of her tank top, he could tell she was aroused. His temperature and pulse both soared. He wanted to pull her down to straddle him like she had in the gondola. He didn’t dare. The spark between them was intense enough that it didn’t need to be fanned into an all out inferno.

“Kayla—”

“Shhh.” She put her finger against his lips, effectively silencing him, because immediately all he could think of was the texture of her skin and the light, fragrant smell of citrus and soap that came off her warm skin. “I know things have been hard for you.”

She had no freakin’ clue. And she was making them harder.

“But I want you to know there are no strings attached here, okay?” she said as she moved slowly, sitting down astride his lap, one knee on either side of his hips, making it impossible for him to think let alone form coherent words and phrases. “I’m fine with whatever this can be between us right now. I don’t expect you to stay or make any promises.”