Alone (13 page)

“Then you have HBO and Showtime, all the cussing you want, blood-palooza, people naked and fucking, all if warranted and needed for the story, but certainly viewer discretion advised. That’s what I write. Viewer discretion advised.”

“But no Skin-a-max?” Edward purred, extending his fingers to brush my hand.

“No,” I chuckled, tapping the bottle in my other one on his digits. “That’s erotica, and to each their own, not my thing. And then porn is porn, written, visual, whatever.”

“So you finally found your artist and lover all-in-one. Good show, brother,” Edward chuckled.

“It wasn’t a quest, Edward,” Conall ground out, staring him down. “Stop making it a thing when it wasn’t.”

“Oh come on now. How many artists have you been the benefactor for over your many years?” he drawled, rolling his eyes. “You like the arts. You like the way their blood tastes. You’ve always had a thing for creative blood the way I do for redhead blood.” He glanced at me then before nodding at Conall. “In all fairness, I will defend that I’m sure my brother had no intention of bedding you when he came calling. He’s a supporter of the arts and we need blood. I know it’s hard for a human to understand—”

“No, I get it.” I shrugged, giving Conall a tight smile. “I like supporting charities that help literacy programs since I’m an author.”

Conall’s eyes went wide and he shook his head, his knuckles going white on his fork. “Not the same, Nina. You weren’t a charity.”

Okay, fine, it was
kind of
a dig, and no, I didn’t really get it. “Fine, not the same, but I was making a human parallel. I like gardening because I like eating vegetables?”

Edward threw back his head and laughed as Conall jumped to his feet. “May I speak to you in private a moment please?”

“We have a guest,
honey
.”

“Please, Nina,” he whispered, looking as if he was on the edge of tears. I nodded, setting down my cider and fork before getting to my feet. I followed Conall into my room and then into the bathroom where he closed the door and turned on the shower.

Wow, I didn’t know their hearing was that good.

“Please, believe me when I say that my brother is twisting all of this. It’s what he
does
. He gets off on it.” Conall’s voice cracked and instantly my anger was gone. This was his family wound I could help with. “He shows up when I finally have a
shred
of happiness and pokes his fangs into it until it’s all gone. He ruins whatever relationship I have or drives whatever artist I’m the benefactor for mad. He’s stolen more women from me than I can count.

“They like him better because I’m not as assertive or brilliant, not as well-placed in society. They flock to him and I’m left there standing like a fool heartbroken. I came here because your stories touched me. Yes, I like the taste of creative blood. I can’t help that. But I need blood to survive. It’s not a fetish. I’m not some freak who stalks artists for it. I’m a patron of the arts. Lots of people do that. I just happen to need blood to survive too. You have a gift that I wanted to be a part of.

“I know I screwed
everything
up when I got here but I had pure intentions. Edward makes it sound so underhanded like I wanted to keep you as a pet to write just for me and that is so far from the truth it’s North and South Pole.” He turned and cupped my cheek, wrapping his arm around my waist. “I told you before, this place, here with you, is where I most feel at home than I have in the longest time. It is the truth. And I know this is a
horrible
way to tell you this, but it’s because I love you, Nina.

“You are
amazing
and not because of your art, but that makes me love you more.” He moved his hand down from my cheek to my heart. “This, here, this makes me love you. Not your blood. Not what you do for a living. It’s your soul that I love, and from that soul comes the books I love too. I love you and the love we make together. The woman who tortured me today to make me tell her what I needed in life. The woman who played at the zoo with me and gave me the best day I can remember. I love
you
. Please don’t let him take you from me.

“I cannot lose you. Edward will not love you as I will. You have my heart, my Nina. For him, it is a competition. You have already won me, and yes, I see how it seems like a game to me since I am proclaiming all this now when he is here, but we are in such a place of upheaval it did not seem the right time to say all of this to you. But now he wants to rock our boat even further and I
cannot
lose you. And he wants you.
God
does he want you.

“Now that you have rejected him, he will push even harder than ever just to prove no one says
no
to him. I have never seen him look at a woman the way he looks at you. And he’s not used to a woman with a brain so you’re a rare gem to him. He doesn’t think you’re crazy, but fascinating. Women fawn all over him and you said
no
, stood up to him. Please, my Nina, I cannot lose you.” He leaned his head down to my chest, his shoulders shaking as he let out silent sobs.

I ran my fingers through his hair, letting his words and
centuries
of his pain absorb in me, because I could feel it coming from him. It was that thick.

It also explained a
lot
of what had happened between us.

“Okay, it’s okay, Conall,” I cooed over and over again until he settled. Finally he lifted his head and stared at me, his eyes shining with unshed tears. “I believe you.”

“You do?”

“I do.” I smiled at him and gave him a wink. “Do you trust me?”

“With all my heart and always.”

“Good. Then we’re going to have some fun and give that bastard some payback.”

“How?”

“You’ll see. Tell him I needed a moment to freshen up from the zoo since we weren’t expecting company. I’ll be right out there.” He nodded and went to pull away, but I stopped him. “I heard you, but I’m just not there yet.”

“I know. I’m simply grateful you heard me and gave me the chance to explain after all of this.”

“You’re not half as bad as you make yourself seem to be,” I teased. He smiled and I smacked him on the ass. The second he was out the door, I flew into action. I stripped and jumped in the shower, taking the world’s fasted one, glad I was shaved in all the right places. Then I got out, toweled dried off, combed out my hair, put on mascara and deodorant, and a tiny little nightie that Conall had gotten me and hadn’t even seen me in yet.

That was it. I left my long hair wet, dripping everywhere so the negligée was basically see-through. I swallowed every
ounce
of self-doubt I had and walked out of my bedroom.

“Sorry about that,” I chuckled as I flounced back into the kitchen. “I
swear
the stinky smell of animals stuck on me was just making me crabby as all hell.” I ignored both their gaping mouths and grabbed my plate. “Okay, let’s see if Chinese can reheat
again
. Anyone need anything while I’m up?”

Edward recovered first. “Another cider and
anything
else you’re offering, lovely Nina.”

“Behave, Edward,” I drawled, rolling my eyes. I stuck my plate in the microwave and hit it for a minute before opening the fridge. “Only Conall gets to call me that. You’re his
brother
for god sakes, gross.” I snagged three more bottles to be safe and kicked the door closed, making sure the edge of the nightie came up too high. “I need to do laundry and Conall just got me this as a present, but if you’re uncomfortable with me wearing it when we’re just hanging out for a night in, I can change.”

“No!”
he quickly replied, a little too loudly, and then cleared his throat. “No, not at all. My flirting is entirely innocent though.”

“Oh, well innocent is okay, isn’t it, babe?” I giggled, glancing at Conall as I leaned
way
over the table to give Edward a show.

“I don’t mind as long as Edward promises to keep his hands to himself,” Conall agreed, looking to his brother.

Edward dipped his head. “On my honor.” Then he seemed to think better of himself as he checked out my tits. “As long as Nina doesn’t ask me to touch her.”

I turned around when the microwave beeped, rolling my eyes so Conall could see.
Yeah, that isn’t happening.
“Good, then I can stay in comfy clothes.” I plucked my plate out of the microwave and pushed Conall’s empty one out of the way. “I have to say I’m a little miffed you haven’t said anything about your gift and if you like it on me though. I mean, do I need to model it better for you?”

He cleared his throat, showing me how much he and Edward were alike in that instance. “That might help in my assessment.” I slowly turned around,
accidentally
knocking his fork off the table. I bent over to pick it up, biting back a smirk when I heard echoing groans.

“Did you say something?” I asked innocently when I stood back up.

“You must be famished,” Conall covered, gesturing to his lap. “And you look ravishing, my love.”

“I am, and you look hungry too,” I purred as I sat on him. “But let me eat a bit before you have a nip. I don’t want to get distracted with our normal fun of having guests over.”

“Oh? I thought I couldn’t touch you, Nina?” Edward asked, his interest suddenly peaked.

I let out a snicker as I reached over and picked up my fork while moving Conall’s hand between my legs. “You can’t. Conall loves showing me off, but he doesn’t share. I don’t either. We’re
more
than enough for the other, but we like people to watch.” I took a bite, moaning loudly more from Conall’s hand than the reheated Chinese before glancing at him over my shoulder. “Or is that too weird if it’s your brother? My bad. I just assumed since we had a guest, even if he was unannounced. I mean, we
did
just change the sheets.”

Edward spit out his cider all over the table but far not enough to reach us. “You allow guests in your
room?
”

I blinked at him a moment, playing up the act. “Well yeah. How else would they see Conall tie me up and fuck me?”

“Oh for the love of…” Edward moaned, trailing off. I barely heard him, too distracted by how hard Conall got under me and his fingers moving between my legs. “But they don’t engage?”

“No
way
,” I chuckled, taking another bite. “Conall would flip shits. He gets way too jealous. I like that. It’s our thing when we go out. I dance with guys all night, flirt, get them all wound up, then Conall steps in, tells them I’m his and they can’t touch, but they can join us and they can watch him do everything they could ever dream of to me all night. He goes wild and I walk funny for days. We just hide the biting from people who don’t know about him being a vampire.”

“Nina is too tempting for men not to jump at the chance to not simply watch even if they can’t touch,” Conall added, getting in on the ploy. I hurried to eat something, still starving and realizing I wasn’t going to get a big window here with the way things were progressing.

“Babe, you gotta slow down if I’m going to get anything inside me,” I finally teased when his other hand moved to my breast.

“
I
want inside you,” he growled, shoving his fingers in me. I gasped, dropping my fork, no longer playing. “Are you in, brother, or are we saying good night to you?”

“Conall, wait, I need to eat,” I whimpered.

“Have an eggroll, my love, and then I will feed you between rounds.”

I could live with that. I quickly ate one, ungracefully snarfing one down and chugging half my cider before leaning back against Conall, his hand reaching into the nightie as his fingers worked their magic.

He pressed his lips to my ear and barely breathed against them. “Are you really okay with this?”

“For you, I’ll skip eating,” I blurted, unsure how to answer without sounding like it was completely random.

“What does my love want then? Anything you want, Nina.”

“Once before you bite me, my perfect Conall,” I moaned loudly, squirming and remembering there was a show being put on and an audience. He did it and did it well, bringing me quickly and then biting me in the middle of it so I came again. When I was done, I slouched against Conall, gasping for air and my tits hanging out of the nightie for both of them to see.

Conall played with them as he stared at his brother over my shoulder. “Are you in, Edward, are you saying good night?”

He seemed hesitant so I tried the only thing I could think of… Begging.

“Conall, please, please, babe, fuck me. I want you inside me. Bite and fuck me,” I moaned as I squeezed his hands on my tits, squirming on his lap, before reaching back to his head and bringing it to my neck. “We got those new toys you wanted to try for my ass too. Come on, I’m so horny, Conall. It’s been
all day
since you’ve been in me!”

“I need a decision, Edward. Nina needs me,” he demanded as he stood with me, swinging me up into his arms.