Something Witchy (Mystics & Mayhem) (41 page)

With a wicked smile, Nathan let his fingers drift up the side of my neck, his eyes so full of heat that I felt like I was melting right there on his lap.  When his thumb started running back and forth across my bottom lip and his eyes focused on my mouth, I started to think I had been a little hasty.  Seriously, that garage didn’t look half bad all of the sudden.

 “Come on, I’ll show you the rest of the house,” he said, grinning, just when I was about to cave.  “But, just so you know, this garage just took on a whole new level of special for me.”

I really tried not to make getting off his lap any harder than it had to be for either of us, but it was a lost cause.  Like I said, my breasts aren’t exactly the appropriate size for my body and they brushed against him with every movement.  By the time I was back in the passenger seat, I was almost on fire again and Nathan looked like he was actually in pain.

With an intense, smoldering look in my direction, he got out of the car and closed the door softly behind him.  It took much longer for him to come around to open the door for me than it usually did, and I smiled a little when I realized why.  He was cooling off.  Then, so was I, so maybe I shouldn’t have been feeling so smug. 

He led me into the house and I looked around me appreciatively.  The kitchen I was standing in was very modern.  It was done all in granites and dark woods with stainless steel appliances.  I took one look at the refrigerator and turned a questioning look in Nathan’s direction.

“Gotta keep up appearances, Ember,” he said, chuckling and leaning against the wall next to him. 

“I’m not going to open that and find it full of blood, am I?”

Strangely enough, the thought wasn’t as repulsive as I would have imagined it would be.  I mean, he had to eat
something
, right?  Better that he get his dinner from blood bags than the general public. 

“Go take a look.”  

Hesitantly, I walked over and opened the double doors to find the fridge was actually full of food.  Real,
human,
food.  Most of the things I saw were my favorite foods.  He’d even gotten my favorite veggie packs with carrot sticks and ranch dressing.  I took a second to wonder when he had had time to stock the refrigerator in the first place, but then I knew.

“Oh, no,” I whispered, sadly.  “You knew.”

“Yes, I knew.  I went directly to your house from the airport,” he said quietly, pushing himself away from the wall.  He took a step toward me and then stopped, bowing his head and shoving his hands in his pockets.  “Reading your mother’s thoughts is like walking through a mine field and probably just as dangerous.  The face she shows the rest of the world definitely doesn’t reflect the messed up shit going on in her head.  She’s bitter and jealous and hateful to an extreme that I found more than a little unhealthy.”

I closed the refrigerator and let my head fall against the smooth surface of the door.  Considering everything else that had happened I had been able to shove my mother to the back of my mind.  Now, the terrible truth of it came crashing back in on me in a brutal way.

I had never been so humiliated.  It was one thing for him to know and another thing entirely for him to
know
, to have seen the hatred my mother had for me first hand.  I didn’t resist when Nathan turned me and dragged me up against him, his arms wrapping around me tightly. 

My mother hated me.  She hated me because I was something she had once longed to be with every fiber of her being.  Though she had always been cold and inattentive, I had never truly seen the loathing she had for me.  She didn’t love me and probably never had.  It was heartbreaking to know that. 

Nathan held me close, murmuring soothing words in my ear and stroking my hair.  I held on to him, the only anchor I had in a world gone mad.  It took me a while to get control of myself, but the soft, hypnotic sound of his voice helped to ease the gaping wound my mother’s hatred and rejection had left in my heart.

“A time will come when she will see things differently,” Nathan whispered against my hair.  “She has no idea how special you are.”

“I don’t really care if she does or not,” I said, pulling away from him. 

We both knew it was a lie, but I was determined to make myself believe it.  Unhealthy?  Maybe.  Necessary?  Definitely.  Not caring, or at least pretending not to, was the only way I could think of to survive the awfulness of what had happened.  Later, when it didn’t hurt quite so bad, I would deal with it.  For the moment, though, I just wanted to move past it.

Nathan frowned at me for a second and then gave me a sad smile.  His hand reached out to cup my cheek and I leaned into it, closing my eyes.  In an obvious effort to distract me, he suggested a tour of my new temporary home, and I gave him the best smile I could come up with and allowed him to drag me through the house.

The living room was as neat and modern as the kitchen.  The rear of the house was a glass wall of windows overlooking a landscaped backyard.  Not enough windows? How many windows did he
want
?  Given what had happened at Mrs. Amelia’s, I could only hope they would still be in one piece when I left.

A huge leather sectional dominated the middle of the room, facing a state of the art entertainment center complete with massive flat screen television.  What is it about guys—even those who aren’t technically amongst the living—and televisions?  I giggled a little when I saw all the gaming consoles and neatly shelved games and Nathan rolled his eyes and laughed with me. 

“I never said I grew up in those four hundred years,” he said, defensively. 

“Boys and their toys…” I shook my head in mock despair but couldn’t help the smile that ruined my act. 

He laughed again and led me down the hall from the living room.  The main bath was small but as clean and sanitary as the kitchen had been.  I barely had a chance to catch a glimpse through the door before I was being swept on.

“My room,” Nathan said, pointing to the door on the right at the end of the hall.  Then he pointed to the one on the left and squeezed my hand, “Your room.  I promise to be a perfect gentleman, Ember.  I will even put extra locks on your door, if that’s what you want.”

“You’re not going to show me your room?” I asked, giving him an admittedly wicked grin.  “What?  Afraid I’ll find your porn stash?  Do you have Girls Gone Wild posters hanging all over the walls?”

He winked at me, one side of his mouth turning up, and gave me an airy wave to indicate that I should go have a look.  I opened the door warily, not really sure what to expect.  I was surprised by how dark the bedroom was until I saw the blackout curtains hanging at the windows.  The room was lit with simple black iron lamps that went perfectly with the platform style king sized bed and silver and black color scheme of the comforter and pillows.  It was simple and beautiful and I turned to him with an arched eyebrow only to find him standing so close behind me that my breath caught in my throat.

“So, what do you think?”  There was something more than just wicked in his hazel eyes that caused my heart to stutter and then pick up in overtime.  “As you can see; no Girls Gone Wild and no porn.”

“Yes, very grown up of you.”  I smiled, backing away deliberately this time, knowing he would follow.  He didn’t disappoint me, either.  He took a step forward for every step I took back, keeping only a foot of space between us.  “Very masculine.  No feminine touches whatsoever.  At least I don’t have to worry about competition.”

“You were worried?”

The heat in his eyes was melting my insides, making me feel warm and weak.  Everything inside me was screaming that I was playing a very dangerous game, but I ignored my instincts and went with a more primitive, less logical, path of action.  There was just something so exciting about tempting him, even knowing that I would probably be the one who lost in the end. 

“Maybe,” I murmured evasively, the butterflies in my stomach beating away at the same rate as my pulse. 

It wasn’t until my knees hit the edge of the bed that I realized what he had done.  He had herded me right where he wanted me.  Well, two could play his game.  With a totally evil smile, I sat down and slid back until I was in the middle of the bed and arched an eyebrow at him, waiting to see what he would do.  He looked surprised for a second and I nearly laughed when he swallowed hard, his hands clenching into fists at his sides.

“Maybe you’d like to see your room?” he asked, his voice much deeper and huskier than it had been only a minute before.

“No, I’m still exploring yours.”  

I tossed my hair back and leaned back on my hands, looking more at ease than I actually felt.  My body was humming, the look in his eyes making me feel much sexier than I knew I was.

“You think this is safe?” he asked, a grin on his full, yummy lips.

“Do I think
what
is safe?” I asked, acting innocent.

“Tempting the devil.”  He took the last few steps to close the distance between us as he spoke and my heart began to pound like a bongo drum in anticipation.

With one knee on the mattress, his hand found my ankle and began a leisurely exploration up my calf.  With each inch higher his hand went, he inched himself slowly onto the bed with me.  By the time he reached the curve of my hip, he was hovering over me and his lips were so close to mine that I could almost feel them.  Even then I didn’t feel any fear.  I should have, I was in uncharted waters, but I was with Nathan…

And Nathan would never hurt me.  The realization took me by surprise.  He was a vampire.  He had kidnapped me.  He could control me at whim, make me do whatever he wanted.  But, despite all of that, I
knew
he would never hurt me.

His hazel eyes were hypnotic and I couldn’t look away.  The first touch of his lips against my skin was heaven.  With maddening slowness, he let his lips slide along my jaw to the very edge of my mouth.  His hand lingered on the bare skin of my thigh, leaving goosebumps in its wake.  I tilted my head back to give him better access when his lips began a trail down my chin to my throat.

“God, you smell so good,” he groaned.

“Good how?” I asked, my voice trembling with desire rather than fear.  My voice wasn’t the only thing trembling, either.  My whole body felt shivery as he continued to set me on fire in a way that had absolutely nothing to do with flames.  “Like you like my perfume? Or good like food?”

“Both,” he said, drawing away just enough to smile at me.  “Are you ready to run now, my little temptress?”

“Not quite yet,” I murmured, raising myself high enough to reach his lips.

I’m not sure how it happened, but when his lips left mine I was flat on my back, my hands tangled in his thick hair.  When his hand slid under the hem of my tank top beneath the hoodie I still wore in search of skin, I did nothing to stop him.  But when I reached down to pull it up and over my head, something in Nathan seemed to snap to attention.  His hands closed around mine gently and pinned them over my head.

“No, baby,” he sighed, looking deep into my eyes.  “Not like this.  Not while you’re hurt and angry.  You’ll only regret it later.  I don’t think I could bear that.”

I felt an instant wash of rejection and looked away from him before he could see it in my eyes.  I tried to tug my arms free, intent on running to my own room and dying of shame.  I mean, I had practically thrown myself at him!

A lifetime of insecurity hit me all at once and I began to tear myself apart.  I wasn’t beautiful enough.  I wasn’t experienced enough.  I wasn’t good enough.  On and on it went until Nathan grasped my chin and turned my eyes back to face him.  He looked anything but happy with my train of thought.

“How can you think such things about yourself, Ember?” he asked, angrily.  “Not good enough?  You’re too good for me, but even knowing that won’t stop me from taking what I don’t deserve.  Not experienced enough?  Do you think I want someone who didn’t have enough self-respect to wait for the right guy, the one they were meant for?

“And as for how beautiful you are, I only wish you could see what I see.”  

He released my chin and, using one hand, held my hands over my head while his free hand drifted down my arm and followed the line of my ribs to the curve of my waist and over my hip.  My eyes rolled back in my head as tendrils of heat began at my fingers and toes and made their way slowly through my body to pool low in my stomach.

“I don’t think I have ever seen anything more beautiful,” Nathan whispered, kissing me gently.

I stared up at him, expecting to see the lie in his eyes.  Instead, I saw the truth.  He believed everything he was saying.  It was so clear in his eyes, in his expression, that it couldn’t be denied.

“Now what?” I whispered, gazing up at him and pulling my hand free to caress the hard line of his jaw.

“Whatever you want, love,” he whispered back.  “What do you want to do?”

I thought about that for a second and then decided I wanted to do…nothing.  I wanted to lay there, cocooned by his arms, and pretend the world didn’t exist for just a little while.  I wanted him to talk to me, to wrap me up in the seductive tones of his voice.

“Can we stay here?  Just for a little while?”

“We can stay here as long as you want,” he said, smiling down at me.  “I only have one condition.”

“What?”

“This thing has to go.” 

Before I could even process what he had done, he had pulled me to a sitting position and whipped my bloodstained hoodie over my head, leaving me in my tank top and shorts with nothing to hide behind.  It was strange, but I suddenly found I didn’t want to hide.  I wanted him to see me, with all my flaws, and like me just the way I was.

“So, what are you giving up?” I asked quietly, trying to breathe as those amazing eyes swept over me.

“What are you demanding?” he murmured, reaching out to run his long, cool fingers over my collarbone.

I looked him over, pretending to think about it.  Honestly, I would have been thrilled if he had stripped down to bare skin, but I wasn’t quite brave enough to tell him that.  Deciding I would have to be content with just a
little
bare skin, I gestured toward his t-shirt.  He grinned and started pulling it off.