15 Paranormal Romance Collection Boxset- Billionaire Bad Boy (37 page)

As I watched Damon’s back, rippling with coiled muscle leading me to what I suppose was his living room, I realized he was just as tense as I was. The lavish room was modern in design with sturdy looking black leather couches and an elaborate TV display with a number of gaming consoles fitted along shelves next to what I assume were priceless pieces of pottery. It was an odd setup and even though it fit together like he’d paid someone some serious cash to organize everything, it was off putting to see new technology next to what I assume were ancient pieces of work.

I flopped down on one of the couches. Decorative pillows bounced out of their place. Funnily enough, Damon reached over and set them back up in their previous position, shooting me a look as if I’d committed a crime.

“Would you like something to drink?” he asked.

“Yes, I’d also like to go home.”

He groaned and while most people looked repulsive when uttering such a sound, Damon looked like a haughty model standing before a cameraman. It wasn’t really fair that someone could look so good and be wealthy on top of it. If it were up to me, you could only get one or the other not both.

By the time, my appreciating and jealous thoughts had siphoned away and returned back to their frightened and confused state he’d returned with a bottle of water. Of course, it was in one of those fancy styled plastic bottles that probably cost far too much.

I obliged his request and drank deeply. My throat feeling lest restricted with every gulp. Damon had paced away from me to stare out his window again. Watching for the monstrous pair, I’d encountered. My curiosity finally caught up.

“How did you know I was over there?”

I heard a grunt before he spoke up. “I heard Benjamin practically salivating as he was carrying you into his home. Plus I could smell you.”

My arm rose almost without thought as I tested the smell of my armpits. A clean odor of deodorant. Nothing offense.

“You smelled me from three houses down? Either my sense of smell is gone or I’m losing my mind but really I don’t think I smell all that putrid.”

He turned from the window and met my confused gaze before heartily laughing. He left the window and sat beside me, still chuckling.

“No, you smell just fine. If anything, you smell quite good. It’s how I could tell Benjamin had taken a female. That intoxicating feminine scent.”

“How did you ‘smell’ me? You’re not making any sense.”

“I’m a werewolf of course. Wherever there are vampires, my kind always follow. It’s been as such since the dawn of time.”

He said it so matter of factly. As if, I should’ve learned this from a textbook in grade school. Really, it caused my blood to run cold. I felt my heart stop in my chest as I realized this very attractive, very wealthy man sitting beside me was batshit insane. I’d only gotten a glimpse of crazy when he spoke of other people being supernatural monsters. If anything, I thought it was a joke.

No. He was deadly serious.

Again, an adrenaline rush hit as I realized I needed to get away. It didn’t matter anymore that he’d saved me or that he was faster stronger better at everything. If I was going to live, I needed to leave immediately.

“Do you have a bathroom I could use?” I asked, attempting to hide the fear that swarmed through my brain. Afraid that it would leak out onto my face.

“Of course, right across the way there take a right and its two doors down,” Damon said pointing back into the parlor.

I mumbled a quick thanks and forced my legs to move normally. It was quite a task fighting the urge to sprint right off the bat. As I left the leaving room, I looked back once to see Damon flipping on the huge television that was mounted on the wall. I took the opportunity and opened the front door, as soon as it creaked open I was out.

Running harder than I had ever gone in my life, I swept across the lawn, not bothering with the cement pathway that led to the road. I didn’t know where I was or how close I was to home but I could find out somewhere else. Somewhere far from here.

As I made it to the street, I could hear howling behind me, mixed with the word no it was a horrifying noise. A sound that made the hair along my neck stand on end.

I thought I’d gotten away. House after house along the street, my footfalls echoing out into the night as sweat dripped down my back soaking my dirty shirt. I hadn’t gotten away. I hadn’t even gotten very far before I was knocked to the ground.

It wasn’t Damon that got to me. A quick flash of pale skin and it became clear that it Benjamin that’d gotten to me. I stumbled and fell but rolled. A tight grip latched onto my arm and yanked me up. His face inches from mine.

“Hello little bird. Taking a quick flight out into the night eh? I think it’s time we clip your wings.”

To say his breath smelled is an understatement. Just like the rest of him, it smelled of death. While trying to turn my head and gag I caught a glimpse of something I hadn’t expected. Fangs. The real deal, glinting from Benjamin’s mouth.

Of course, I thought I’d seen them earlier, but that was in, I was barely conscious. Yes, Damon had just revealed that not only was he something from nightmares but so were my previous captures.

It’s difficult to remain calm when you’re reality is ripped away. As if a curtain to some dark, mystical place had been shoved aside and I was thrown in. In that moment, it didn’t matter that I was being held at arm’s length by a hungry vampire. Only that my world had crumbled around me, and I all because I had wanted to be healthy and active by taking an after dinner run.

Most people never have to regret exercise.

My brain must have completely stopped for more than a few seconds because one moment I was staring blankly into Benjamin’s wicked grin and the next I was on the ground. A ball of arms and fur intertwined with growling happened to be in front of me. I should’ve taken that instant to attempt running again but I didn’t. I waited.

The rippled muscular back of Damon faced me as he pinned Benjamin to the ground. He sounded like a rapid animal, lashing out at the downed vamp.

“I claimed her from you. She’s mine!” Damon’s throaty voice spat out at Benjamin.

Claimed me? What kind of shit was this?

“I got her first you mutt. You stole her from Edgar and me.”

“In accordance with our treaty, if I make it to my home base with your selected target then I can do as I wish. You lost.”

“She escaped from your home. The bounty was forfeit. I reclaimed her.”

Damon didn’t reply. His fist ripped back like a viper and plunged into Benjamin’s face. Instantly the vampire’s face went slack, his eyes flew upwards. Damon got up and left him laying limply on the pavement.

“Best way to win an argument I say.” I couldn’t help it. The sarcasm was a coping mechanism. It was there when times were rough and I’d made the mistake of letting my mouth open long enough for it to escape.

“Back to my house. Quickly before the old man spots us.”

Again a tight grip on my arm. I was getting pretty tired of being shuffled around like a child that’d just thrown a tantrum in the grocery store. I yanked my arm from his grasp.

“Don’t touch me.”

“You must come into the house. Do you want to be drained dry? Because that’s going to happen if we toil out here any longer.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah yeah yeah. I get it. You’re all scary monsters. I’m coming.”

They were scary monsters though. Beasts from the dark. Animalistic killing machines from every horror movie I’d ever seen. My deodorant must have run its course, I could feel sweat dribbling down my sides and I’m positive it wasn’t from my quick sprint down the street.

Damon didn’t leave my side as we trudged back to his house. The door was still hanging open and I could hear the sound of commercials floating around, practically mocking my escape attempt.

“Why did you run?” He asked as he bolted the front door behind us.

“You just told me you were a freaking werewolf. True or not, I’m pretty sure anyone would’ve run from a revelation like that. In my case I thought you were crazy.”

He grunted. I don’t know why I expected anything more; so far, Damon hadn’t been much of a conversationalist. To be fair though, he tried to explain to me and I did bolt. Maybe I offended him.

“I don’t know why I bothered with you.”

That hurt. I’m not quite sure why, but my stomach sunk as Damon slunk back to his living room living me standing alone in his parlor. I had offended him.

“Hey, wait a minute,” I caught up just as he slunk down onto the couch and picked the remote back up, “You’re supposed to be the good guy here. Moreover, why did you save me? Don’t those creeps catch people all the time?”

“No. They normally stick to donated blood. The Edgar gentleman is new in town and seems to have a different idea though.”

“Why don’t you just kill them then?”

“There are rules. I am nothing but a watchmen. We can do nothing until my Alpha gets here; he has been notified and will be arriving tomorrow. That’s why we must wait till morning.”

So that was it, Damon was just a grunt in this weird supernatural travesty of a neighborhood. They were bickering over what could be food and I was in limbo. The entire thing sounded like a load of crap to me.

“Then why did you tell me to leave?”

He looked at me then. Finally, whatever bad feelings between us that had surfaced pushed back into place.

“It is the safest idea. If my alpha decides that you are forfeit, I would feel guilty. I was hoping to get you out of here by dawn, before he arrived. The vampires wouldn’t be outdoors long enough to contest it when I said you’d escaped.”

I felt guilty then. The only weirdo in the entire neighborhood that cared and I’d bailed on him and made his job more difficult.

“Sorry then. About the running off. It’s just a lot to take in ya know.”

I slouched down on the couch. Once again, the decorative pillow bounced out of place and onto the floor. Hesitantly I leaned down and picked it back up and put it back in place snuggled into the corner of the leather couch.

Damon smiled. “I realize it is a big thing. To know what I am and they are and that we exist, but is there really no part of you that thought we did? Our tales have been around for as long as man has had the ability to speak. We have existed alongside you for as long as time. Surely you did not complete deny us?”

“You were made out to be nothing but stories. Things that go bump in the night. Of course I never thought it were true. Just like freakin Santa and the tooth fairy.”

“Saint Nicholas was a real man though.”

Damon had gotten me to accept what was happening after a long conversation about reality. He explained what had been right in front of me for the entirety of my life and, well, everyone else’s too.

After a good hour, the conversation tapered off and we sat staring at the TV that was flickering a movie. The light danced around, flashing before me but I don’t even remember quite what it was that played.

“So I really have to run from all of this? Even if your alpha says that the vamps can’t have me they’re going to come after me anyway huh?”

“Yes. Benjamin had never had human blood. Edgar is from older times, a more lawless world. He obviously has feasted repeatedly. You can see it in his eyes. He will track you, and Benjamin will follow because his hunger will not be sated until he has you. It’s the instinct of the hunt. You’re like wounded prey now. The alpha will take that into consideration. It’s why I fear for your safety.”

I didn’t want to leave. I liked the small nothing life I had. My boring job and my crappy apartment and my stupid car. All the day-to-day complaints that I had for so long were nothing. I wanted all the inconveniences of life.

“Do you have family?” Damon asked while I thought about what I was going to have to leave behind.

“I have my mom and my brother and he’s married and he and his wife have a little boy. I guess I won’t be able to see my nephew grow up.”

“You have no one of your own though? No mate no offspring?”

“Damon, why do you have to make shit sound so weird? No, I’m not married. I don’t have a boyfriend and I don’t have ‘offspring.’ I’m pretty much alone. I’ve dated a few times. Had a bad relationship or two.”

“Hmm,” was his reply.

“What?”

“There is another way, but you wouldn’t like it.”

I didn’t much like anything right now. Whatever scheme Damon had come up with couldn’t be good. I’d been watching him nervously running his thumb along the inside of his palm. It only happened when our conversation got heated. He was worried, which only made me worry as well.

“It is uncommon, but I could tell the Alpha you are with me. He would be required to protect you then.”

“With you? What do you mean? Like we’re in a relationship? Sounds a little fishy to me.”

The corner of Damon’s mouth jerked up into a lopsided grin. “He wouldn’t question it if you smelled of wolf.”

“What is that supposed to-“

Damon’s mouth cut off the end of my question. His lips latched to mine and even though a good part of me wanted to jerk away from his foreign touch the other part just let it happen. I wasn’t one to let myself do things like this. I never kissed on the first date and this wasn’t even a date. It was a rescue attempt.

He must have taken it as a sign that I was interested because I felt the warmth of his body against mine. His hands caressed my cheeks and then he was pulling me close. Encircling my body in his arms.

Maybe it was all the adrenaline that was still coursing through me, but I let it happen. Even though Damon wasn’t human, or really even completely human he still acted like any guy I’d ever been with. Soft lips turned to exploring tongues, a slight embrace morphed into a closeness that could only be described like two puzzle pieces fitting together.

I gasped as Damon’s fingers traced their way around my waist to the top button of my pants. My lips stayed locked to his as he then grabbed at the bottom hem of my shirt, wrenched it loose. He threw the balled up shirt to the ground as a feral growl escaped his throat.

My bra was the next to go. I unhinged it one handed and tossed it aside as Damon resumed his torrid assault on my mouth. Damon paused, leaving me momentarily confused, before smiling and leaning his head down, trailing his lips along my collar bone, to the soft patch between my breasts. His hands came up from fumbling with my shorts to grasp at the newly exposed flesh.

He sucked and licked until my pink nipples were standing up straight, skin tightened around them. I gasped again as Damon unmercifully took my nipples repeatedly into his mouth, sucking until they felt they were going to rip off at the seams.

Damon’s hand plunged down then, ignoring the still done up pants, searching for that tender spot his own hard erection longed to touch.  I felt one finger slip inside, and then two, and without thought my legs were open as Damon masterfully moved them back and forth, calling me forward from the inside out.

My hands were in his hair, my legs wrapped around his waist and he was pulling me tighter against him. It didn’t matter that I had no clue who Damon really was or that the entire night had been pretty awful. It only mattered that I got closer to him, to feel every inch of his body as he did the same for me.

A knock at the door. Damon ripped his face from mine and I jerked back away from him like a teenage girl caught by her parents. Immediately my cheeks burned warm with embarrassment as I realized our physical exploration had gone on for a good half hour. It felt like only seconds.

“It is the vampire, Edgar. The old one.”

“How do you know that?” I asked while readjusting my shirt back into place.

“I can smell him of course.”

“Yeah he does reek pretty badly.”