Chapter Nine
The next morning, a knock sounded at the door. Ash ignored it. She squeezed her eyes tighter, hoping to reclaim the dream that she’d been pulled from.
She’d been lying under Hunter, with him settled between her open legs. He’d been making love to her, softly and sweetly. He’d given her complete access to his body, where she could run her hands across his strong muscles, kiss him in places that she’d only heard about and do things to him that she’d seen in movies. In her dream, she was an experienced lover who brought him to pleasure over and over again.
Another knock sounded.
Her dream was gone. She opened her eyes to stare at the ceiling.
More knocking.
She turned to her side and glanced at Clarissa’s coffin. There could’ve been a million people wanting to break down the door and the Vampire wouldn’t hear a thing.
The first time she’d seen Clarissa climb into her coffin, she’d been in awe. Real-life Vampires existed and she had one as her very own protector. Clarissa had put a bed in her private room just for Ash and instructed her not to ever open her coffin or disturb her while she slept. Clarissa had made her feel so protected that first night. She had been her savior. Ash had spent the entire day sitting on the floor by Clarissa’s coffin, waiting for her to wake up again. When the sun had gone down and Clarissa emerged, she’d laughed at Ash and assured her that she had nothing else to worry about anymore.
That had been one of the few times Clarissa’s laugh had been genuine.
But what Clarissa had failed to mention was that from then on, Clarissa would be the cause of all Ash’s worries.
More knocking.
Ash sighed and rolled out of bed. She walked around Clarissa’s coffin and from the room. Before reaching the stairs, she passed two other rooms where she knew, behind the closed doors, were more coffins and more sleeping Vampires. She made her way downstairs and to the front door. She looked through the peep hole. Hunter.
There was no way she should’ve opened the door to him. With the others asleep, she shouldn’t answer the door for anyone. Not while they were as vulnerable as they were.
“I hear you on the other side, Ash. Open up. I just want to talk.”
She’d been doing one stupid thing after the other. Why stop now? She opened the door for him. “What are you doing here?”
He thrust his thumbs into the pockets of his jeans. “Thank you.”
She frowned. “For what?”
“Um, for not saying anything about Erzsebet.”
She shrugged. “You asked me not to.”
“Yeah, but I saw how they exact their punishment on you.”
He didn’t know the half of it. She folded her arms and leaned against the door. “I’ll have to tell them eventually. I don’t know why I didn’t then.”
“Whatever the case. I owe you.”
“So why was it so important that I not say anything? If Erzsebet can’t hide anything from Andras then she should be able to explain why I found fifteen million dollars in her personal checking account.”
Hunter’s mouth fell open.
Ash nodded. “Yeah, that’s a lot of money. Then in the blink of an eye”—she snapped her fingers together—“it was transferred out of her account.”
“Our parents left us money when they died and she probably invested it in stocks and bonds.” It sounded more as though he tried to convince himself than her.
“She’ll have to explain it to Andras.”
He let out a defeated breath. “Honestly, Ash, I can’t say for sure if she has anything to do with the embezzlement or not. My heart says no, but she’s been acting so strange and not being herself. I just need time to figure out what’s going on with her.”
There was so much pain and confusion in his voice. It was apparent that he loved his sister and didn’t have any trouble with showing it. She wanted to console him, like she’d wanted to last night, but in the end, she’d kept her hands to herself. As she would now.
“I understand what you want to do, but time is something that you don’t have a lot of. I won’t be able to hold on to this information forever.”
“I know.” Something beeped and he retrieved his phone from his pocket. “That’s why I put a GPS on her car.” He held up his phone. “She’s leaving work in the middle of the day. This time, I don’t have to follow her. I can just wait until she gets to her destination and find out what she’s doing.”
He turned to bound down the steps.
“Hey, wait,” she called out to him. “I’m going with you.”
He nodded toward the house. “What about Clarissa?”
She peered over her shoulder, half expecting Clarissa to be there. “She’s asleep. I risked my life for you. I at least get to see what I risked it for.”
“Okay.”
She hadn’t expected him to give in so easily, but welcomed that she didn’t have to fight him about it. “Give me ten minutes to dress.”
She closed and locked the door then ran upstairs. She hurried and brushed her teeth and washed her face and only spent a few minutes to style her hair in a single braid down her back.
When she left, she closed and locked the door behind her. She started down the front steps and stopped short at the last one. Hunter was on a motorcycle. He was the epitome of the bad-boy type. Jeans molded to his thick thighs. A gray T-shirt stretched across his broad shoulders, muscular chest and well-defined abs. His arms were overly beefy like Ricko’s and Rocko’s, but arms that she would love to hold and grip.
“I guess I should’ve told you that I had a motorcycle. Do you need a few more minutes to change?”
She glanced down at her outfit. Business suit and heels. Hardly motorcycle attire. “This is all I have.”
“It’ll have to do, then.” He held a helmet out to her. “I only have the one. You can wear it.”
That was enough to snap her out of her daze. She walked over to him and took the helmet he offered. “How do I wear it?”
“You’ve never put on a helmet before?”
She shook her head. She’d never had a need for one before.
Hunter swung a thigh over the motorcycle to stand in front of her. He took the helmet from her hands and placed it on her head then snapped the straps under her chin. “So, does this mean that you’ve also never ridden a motorcycle?”
“Never had the opportunity.”
He adjusted the helmet, making sure it was tight enough and wouldn’t fall off. “Well, that is very sad, indeed. I’ll have to make sure to show you a good time.” He smiled down at her, showing pearly whites. “On my bike, that is.”
He settled on his seat and patted the space behind him.
She swung her leg over the seat and settled in.
“You’re too far away. Pretend like we’re lovers and get real close.” His smooth voice oozed sex appeal.
She did as instructed, pressing herself against him. Heat radiated from his body. “I’m ready.”
He sighed and grabbed her hands to make her wrap her arms around his waist.
“Oh,” she said. “We’re getting real familiar with each other.”
“I told you, pretend like we’re lovers or else you’ll fall off.”
‘Lovers.’ I guess now wouldn’t be the time to tell him that I’ve never had one of those. “Okay.”
“Hold tight.”
She clasped her hands together and squeezed her eyes shut as they began to move.
They started off slow, but that didn’t last long. They were soon going so fast that the wind whipped around her body. She giggled as the cold rush of air made her skin tingle. She felt every move of his body, no matter how slight—the way he leaned to the side when they turned corners, the jerk of his leg as he switched gears and his stomach rising and falling with the breaths he took.
He was right. This was intimate. In the past two days, she’d been more intimate with him than she’d been with anyone before and she hated for it to end.
But end it did, for the moment. Hunter pulled into a parking space across the street from a bank. He cut the engine and straddled the bike between his thighs, holding them upright.
He took out his cell phone. “The GPS has her inside the bank.” He scanned the bank parking lot. “There’s her car.”
The door to the bank opened and Erzsebet came out. She had her head down and focused on the paper that she held. Ash watched as she went to a truck and climbed inside.
“See? She knows something is going on with her bank account. She has to.”
When the truck maneuvered out into traffic, Hunter followed three cars behind her. They followed her to a strip mall. Hunter made sure to park far away from where she had.
Erzsebet went into one of those chain lingerie stores that Ash had never dreamed of visiting. She had no reason to wear any of those lacy undergarments. There wasn’t a special man in her life. There had never been time for dating. While most women her age were determined to find a husband and have kids, she’d had other plans.
Hunter didn’t say anything as he watched the store.
“Why isn’t she going straight to Andras to show him her statements?” Ash asked.
“I-I don’t know. Maybe that money was hers?”
Judging from the sound of his voice, Hunter really didn’t believe what he’d said, either. Ash held her tongue.
Erzsebet emerged thirty minutes later and again they followed her, but this time, she led them back the way they’d come and when she turned down a single lane dirt road, Hunter kept going for another three miles then pulled over.
“Are we done following her?” Ash asked.
“Yeah, she’s going home.”
“So what now?”
“I wish I knew.”
“Hunter, I’m sorry.”
He shook his head. “I have faith in my sister. I’ll get to the bottom of this.”
“I can probably hold them off until tomorrow, but that’s it.”
He nodded. “I understand.”
“Can you take me back home? I have to get ready for work.”
He turned and sniffed her.
She recoiled. “Hey, don’t do that.”
“You smell like me. Are they the breathing type of Vamps?”
Vampires didn’t need to breathe but knowing Clarissa she would take a deep breath and question why the house smelled like mongrel. “I can’t go home smelling like you.” She looked at her watch. “How about you drop me off at Dark Wolf Enterprises instead?” She would be a few hours early, but she would rather be early than risk another handcuff punishment.
“Good idea. But can we eat first? I’m starving. Are you hungry?”
She was starving. “I’m fine. I can get something from the vending machine at work.”
“Vending machine?” He tsked under his breath. “I make a mean cheese omelet. We’ll stop by my place first.”
“Um…sure.” I really should say no, but when was the last time I had an omelet? A year or two ago?
He got on his bike and Ash settled onto the spot behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist, holding him tightly.
Men were trouble. And the way her body reacted to his should have reminded her of that fact.