Six
Fraze sipped the lemon drop he’d ordered, but it didn’t taste right. He wasn’t ready to drink again so soon after overdoing it last night.
No, it wasn’t the fucking lemon drop, he told himself. It was because he’d touched that amazing creature, Gracie Jane, and he’d wanted her. And then he’d let her go.
How bereft could he feel when he’d turned down a dead girl?
No, he shook his head. She wasn’t dead. She was alive. And despite the fact that she was a vampire, she had a beating heart. It moved more slowly, but it was there. Her lungs still took in air, slowly again, but nonetheless. She was a creature of magic, just like he was, and he’d done the same thing Bella had done to him years ago—he’d rejected her because she was different.
It wasn’t right.
He stood up and nodded at the bartender, shoving his glass away, then walked outside.
Where had she gone? He tried to follow her scent. Roses, dusty ones. Secrets. She had something dark about her scent, something he couldn’t identify. It was sexy, and it was sweet and old.
It shouldn’t turn him on so hard when he knew she was a vampire, but he couldn’t help it.
He followed the scent around the corner of the old farmhouse, and there she stood, her arms wrapped around a woman, her face pressed to the woman’s neck.
Fraze stopped in his tracks. Should he save the woman Gracie Jane held? Should he…intervene? Before he could rush forward, Gracie Jane stepped away from the woman and held her at arm’s length. “Go on, now,” she said. “I’m glad I could listen to you about your ex. He’s a cheating bastard, and you’re gonna find someone better soon.”
Smiling, the woman kissed Gracie Jane’s cheek, nodded at Fraze, and walked past him to go back into the bar.
“What—what was that?” Fraze asked.
“That was me being ‘one of them,’ as you called me,” Gracie said, her voice bitter and her eyes flashing.
“It wasn’t fair of me to say,” Fraze said. “I came to apologize.”
She looked so cute, leaning up against the wall in her little sundress. It wasn’t like the dark clothes she’d been wearing the night before. This one showed a soft-looking expanse of her chest, with the barest hint of cleavage. And her legs stretched out beneath it. He wanted to touch those, too.
“Well?” she said. “Am I enough of a freak for you? You’re getting a good eyeful, aren’t you?”
“Sorry,” he said. “I just wanted…well, I wanted to apologize. Can I buy you a drink?”
“I don’t think so. I’m not thirsty anymore.”
“You fed on that woman,” Fraze said.
“It’s what vampires do.”
“But you didn’t kidnap her, keep her in a cage for three days.”
She shook her head and gave him a bitter smile. “That was Maslin’s way. Not all of us liked it. We have to follow the king or queen’s orders. I hunt this way, though. And I try to improve the lives of those who give me some of theirs.”
Her heart was beating faster now; he could sense it. She seemed warmer to him, too. He reached out and trailed a finger over her shoulder.
“What are you doing?” she asked, sharply.
“I’m…I’m drawn to you. I don’t know why. And when I ended our dance, I felt wrong.”
She stepped closer to him. “I’m drawn to you, too. And it’s not because I’m thirsty.”
He dipped his head and pressed his mouth against hers. She tasted not of blood, but of sweetness and life and all the dark secrets he wanted to devour. She was a mystery and he wanted to figure her out.
She moaned against his mouth, kissing him back.
Someone left the bar; he could hear their feet on the porch, so he backed Gracie Jane up against the wall so they’d be out of sight. The whole time, he couldn’t stop kissing her sweet mouth. She hooked her knee around his leg, pulling him closer. He wanted nothing more than to be with her, inside her, tasting her and feeling her and losing himself in her.
“I want you,” she said. “I haven’t wanted anyone like this in a very long time.”
“You can have me,” he said.
Her hands were already on his belt before he could look down. Tugging at the buckle, then touching him through his pants. She unfastened the buttons of his jeans and reached inside, gripping him, and he threw his head back to push his pelvis closer to her.
He touched her breasts through her dress, finding her hardening nipples and pinching lightly so that she arched forward into him. “Want you,” he said.
“I’m ready.”
“Do we…need a condom?” he asked.
She laughed, then said, “No. I can’t get pregnant, can’t get diseases.”
She shoved his pants down to his knees, and he lifted her dress. Before he pushed inside her, he touched her, making sure she was as ready as she said. Oh, she was. The dampness between her thighs felt like a slippery paradise, and he pressed his cock home.
Bass thumped from inside Hart’s, and he could feel it against Gracie Jane’s heartbeat, feel it coming into his heart. She gasped as he stroked in and out of her, and she gripped his shoulders with her hands. He kissed her mouth, touched her sharp teeth with his tongue, wanting to explore all of her, wanting to see all of her. Make her happy. Make her feel good. Make her his.
She came first, shuddering around him, her pussy clenching his cock and squeezing tight. It was all he needed for the final push into orgasm, and he came then, too, his muscles locking up as his cock spasmed inside of her.
“That was…that was the best,” he breathed.
The woman in his arms shivered with another aftershock and then blinked up at him. Her dark eyes looked even darker, black like the night. He loved the darkness in her and wanted it to spill over to him.
He was completely, utterly taken with this creature, but what was he doing here?
After easing himself out of her, he straightened her dress, then leaned forward and kissed her forehead.
“What just happened?” she asked, her voice hoarse. Bedroom voice. Except they were out here leaning against a bar, of all fucking places.
“I don’t know,” Fraze said.
She looked at him for a long moment, then rushed away.