CHAPTER TWELVE
One week later
Regan had been gone every night that week. The first two nights I stayed home and waited for him, but when it became clear he wasn’t planning on stopping our hunt, I continued with my own. We made love the night we talked last, but it felt cold and distant. There wasn’t the heat and passion I had grown used to, and I wasn’t sure if it was more on my end or his. What I did know was things hadn’t been the same between us since that first kiss with Dylan.
It wasn’t like it was the first time we had done something like that while luring in our prey. There were many times we had gone much farther than that in order to hook them. Never going to the point of full sex, there were more times than not it had come close to it before we brought them into our house and chained them to the basement wall.
When Regan left that night, I decided to go back out and finish what I started. Our hunt night was coming fast, and I was worried I had already blown it with Dylan. If I had, there wouldn’t be time to find another one willing to come with me. I would have to bring one to the party without any prep and that was never as much fun.
Besides, I found myself missing Dylan more and more with every day I wasn’t with him. It was strange to think of a human in the ways I had been, but there was something different about him.
I took a quick shower and started to fix my hair and makeup. With us being on a strict animal blood diet until our celebration, I had lost a little strength and it had become harder and harder to do the things I normally did. It was like that every time and I expected it. What I hadn’t expected was the extra effort it would take to keep Dylan and Regan separate in my mind.
I put on my lace, off white top and a short black skirt. Making sure my lace panties were still covered when I bent over, I finished the look with a gold chain that held a dove on the end. It was something I was given many years ago and before Regan came into my life. I thought it was a promise of a good life, but I found out later that it had been a bribe to get my mother’s permission to take me. That felt like so long ago and I wasn’t the same woman I had been back then. Brian was the first kill I had ever done, and I thought back to how Regan was by my side the whole time. He’d never let anything happen to me at the hands of another human. It didn’t mean he was a saint though.
Regan could be as mean as a badger when he wanted to be and with the two of us being alone all the time together, I was the one who took the brunt of most of it. It wasn’t that he was much of a hitter, but the words he spoke could cut you deeper than any knife. There was a time after we had been together for a while that I thought about leaving. I stayed because I loved him and wasn’t ready to do life without him.
When you are a vampire, your social circle is cut down so deep that your mate is really your only friend. Some would think that was lonely, but that was because they didn’t understand the way we thought or felt. We didn’t mate for convenience or money. We mated because there was a bond that drew us together before we even met.
I tried to tell myself that over and over as I made my way to Dylan’s house. The fact that Regan sought me out when I was still a human and knew I was his mate hadn’t helped the feelings I was starting to have for Dylan. He was still nothing more than a human, but one bite could change that in an instant.
I still had the huge problem ahead though on if I could do it. Biting Dylan would be easy if he would let me. I hadn’t been given the choice with Regan. But I wouldn’t have said no if he would have asked. There was a pull with him that I couldn’t get away from. Dylan had the same pull and if I was honest with myself, it was stronger than any I had with Regan.
My biggest problem was, if I chose Dylan and he chose me, I would have to end Regan’s life. It wasn’t as easy as a human and their rapid divorces. Leaving a mate in the vampire world meant one was dead. Either by a hunter, which we had gotten incredibly good at avoiding, or if their mate chose to find a new one. That was more common but still very rare.
My stomach twisted into knots the closer I got to Dylan’s place. There were so many things I wanted to talk to him about, but I wasn’t sure he was ready to hear them yet. I knew how I felt about him, but that didn’t mean he felt the same way about me. I had to make sure before I made any kind of move or I could be bringing death on all of us for no reason.
He had to feel the same way though. I’d started to hear his thoughts the last two times I had been with him. That only happened when you were close to a person and they felt the same. Still, he had no idea what I really was. He was clueless on the fact the woman he invited in over and over was nothing more than a blood thirsty monster in a pretty wrapper. How he would take it, if I ever told him, would determine where we went.
I pulled into his driveway and tried to push all the messed-up thoughts I had in my head out. I wanted to focus on him and see if I could pick up on how he was feeling about us. For all I knew, I was falling in love and he was only out to get a piece of tail that wasn’t giving in as easy as he had been used to.
I still had the car running when the front door flung open and I could see his silhouette against the bright lights behind him in the house. He raced down the two small steps and glided across the walkway. Standing in front of my door before I had it open, the handle clicked, and he swung it out of the way before reaching in with his hand.
“There you are. I was worried you were standing me up again tonight. I’ve missed you.”
His lips touched the back of my hand and that same tingle raced up my arm and across my chest before moving down to between my legs. His scent was intoxicating, and my mouth watered, but not for his blood.
“I’m sorry about the past couple of nights. I wanted to come over, but my head was killing me.” I hated lying to him, but how would he know vampires never got headaches or sick. He didn’t even know what I was.
“Well, I’m glad it’s better. I made you a fantastic dinner, so come on in before it gets cold.”
“Sounds great.”
I let him lead me up the steps and into his house. Before we made it all the way in, I could smell the meat he had cooked, and I fought to keep anything down as the rancid smell assaulted my nostrils. It was the only thing about him I couldn’t stand, but he still needed the food to survive, so I couldn’t fault him for it. I would go in there and choke down a few bites before excusing myself to the bathroom to get rid of the meat.
The lights in the dining room were off and he had six candles on the table and shelf to the right of it lighting up the room. Flowers were in the middle of the display of food and he had soft classical jazz playing in the background. My time of living in New Orleans gave me a greater appreciation for that style of music.
“This looks amazing,” I whispered.
“Yes, you do.”
His lips were on the back of my neck before I could stop him. With every graze of them, my knees grew weaker, and a longing that started in the pit of my stomach and radiated out to every part of me had me so hot, I felt like I was dancing inside the flames from the candles.
I reached my arm back and grabbed a chunk of his hair. Gently, but firmly, I pulled him into me harder. When I felt all of him against my backside, a moan left my lips before I could stop it. He took that as a sign to keep going and I was too weak to stop him. As his left hand reached around to the front of me and cupped my breast, it took all I had in me not to spin around and have my way with him right there.