Assassins Bite (21 page)

“Honey!” A man hustled anxiously after her. “Please wait.”

I was surprised to see people out and about. Vampires notwithstanding, our little town rolls up the sidewalk at nine. I checked the time. Slightly after one in the morning. All the hoorah at Nosferatu's and Elena's only took a few hours. It had seemed so much longer.

The woman spun on her unfortunate date. “You promised to take me to the best inn in town.”

“This
is
the best inn in town.”

“I thought you meant
Chicago
. This one-horse burg? Where the hell is the romance in a bed-and-breakfast
smorgasbord
?”

“The honeymoon suite?” Desperation edged his tone. When she turned up her nose, he added, “This was a speakeasy in the nineteen-twenties. Isn't that romantic?”

“It explains the stench of beer in the bathtub. The plumbing must be from the twenties too.” She stormed to a car at the curb, chirped it open and got in.

“Honey, please.” The man rushed after her, nearly knocking me down. He stopped only long enough to steady me, pressing something into my hand. “Take this. It's paid for.” He raced away. “Honey, wait!”

A room key rested in my palm. Typical Ruffles luck, chancing into the honeymoon suite when I had no one to share it with. I sighed and went in.

I found Otto whirling around in the parlor, sweeping. He always swept, despite a floor covered in carpets. With his size fifty-two aproned gut and his spindly legs, he's built like a top. To stay upright he has to spin like one too.

“Hello, Sun-Hee.” He came to rest leaning on the mantel of an old-fashioned faux fireplace. “How is your lovely mother and detective brother?”

“Both good.” Dirk would be; Aiden had promised. I held the key out to Otto. “Honeymooners don't want it.”

“Keep it. It is paid for.”

“I really can't—”

“There is a whirlpool bath,” Otto coaxed. “Very relaxing.”

“Well…” I felt myself weakening.

“Plus a lovely smorgasbord. My wife Ottowina is making potato pancakes with applesauce—fresh cinnamon. Applewood smoked bacon. Fluffy diced pepper omelets. Available all day.”

“Yum.” There's a reason Otto and the rest of the Stieg clan make a go of it in the iffy world of niche products. “Okay.” I pocketed the key. I'd have to run home to tell Mom and get a change of clothes. But first, my errand of mercy. “Is Alexis Byornsson here?”

“Upstairs, last door on the left.”

I headed up. As I approached the door, I thought I heard voices. I slowed.

Yes, that was a woman talking…answered by a deep male voice I recognized only too well.

Chapter Twenty-Three

The deep murmur stopped. Frowning, I knocked.

The woman called, “Come in.”

I cracked the door.

Black eyes stared at me. I blinked. They blinked. Luscious tingles of recognition ran from my crown to my toes.

Aiden.

I flung the door open. We stared at each other. Said at the same time, “Why are you here?” Stared some more. I said, “Synnove wanted me to tell Alexis what happened,” as he said, “Ric didn't want Dr. Byornsson to worry.” Then we both stared some more.

Then I opened my mouth to invite him to share my whirlpool with me.

Just as Aiden said mournfully, “Fucking happily married friends. Infernal matchmakers.”

I closed my trap. His whole “I won't be a father” thing at Elena's meant sex wasn't simple for him anymore. It had overtones we had to deal with first. So I simply delivered my message to Synnove's sister.

Then I said, “I'd better be getting home.”

As I started down the stairs, Aiden appeared next to me. “I'll walk you.”

My heart thrilled but I shushed it. “You don't have to.”

I expected him to argue. Instead he just shrugged. “I know.”

That made me laugh, defusing some of my defensiveness. “Channeling Han Solo?”

“Only if you're Princess Leia.” He put a hand on my elbow and steered me out the front. As we crowded through together, he dropped his head near my ear and breathed deep. “You smell wonderful.” He said it almost wistfully.

I shot him a confused glance. “I smell like workout and dirt.”

“You smell like sunshine.”

“Said the creature who hasn't seen it in a few years.”

“I've seen it the past few days—in you.”

“Aw.” But my feet felt lighter.

It was seven blocks of that. Seven blocks of words and touches and almost-gestures that said without saying that despite everything, the untouchable assassin, the enigmatic male, couldn't keep away from me. His words were all so absurdly sweet and underneath our physical attraction simmered until, by the time we arrived at my house, I was starting to imagine putting that honeymoon bed to use.

We could talk after, right?

On the stoop I turned to him. “I'll be back.”

Confusion touched his features. “I thought you were going home. Is something wrong?”

“I needed to get a few things.” I paused on the cusp of the words I was afraid to say. Maybe it was all the talk of children but words formed in my heart that I
had
to say, because I was beginning to suspect if I let him go without a fight I'd regret it for the rest of my life. I pumped courage into my tongue. “Look, I know you're on the fence, but…wait for me?”

Then I chickened out and ran inside, not wanting to listen to him make up some excuse to avoid me. I understood he'd be rejecting, not me, but his painful childhood. But I wasn't up to it, not from him, not now.

I left Mom a note under a refrigerator magnet, where she'd see it in the morning. Then I ran upstairs, stuffed a change of clothes and a couple sets of clean undies into my workout duffel, including a sexy, hopeful little red set, and ran back outside.

Aiden was poking at the lopsided wind spinner I'd made in seventh grade shop class.
He was still here.
I stopped with a hopeful toe-rise. Maybe my luck was finally de-Ruffles-izing.

“What's wrong?” He flashed to my side.

“Nothing, strangely enough.” I laughed.

“I've been thinking.” He nodded at my duffel. “If you want training, let me do it. Elena's good, but I'm better. I know tricks she won't.”

That cost him, and I was beginning to understand how much. “Thanks. I'll take you up on that. Later.” I touched his hand and searched his eyes. “For tonight, I'm going back to Otto's.”

Now was where his pain would make him leave, but I had to give him the choice. This was no longer about his past. It was about our future.

His flare of nostrils and the slight sharpening of his black eyes told me his thoughts—that the first word in B&BS was
beds
. Gaze tethered to mine, he said, “Why?”

“Free room.” I patted my pocket, clanking the key. “I was in the right place at the right time.” I realized it as I said it—me, Sunny Ruffles, in the
right
place at the
right
time.

“I shouldn't—”

I put a finger to his lips, not letting him say no. “I know we need to talk. But I want you with me tonight. I
need
you with me.”

His black eyes gleamed in the streetlight. How could I ever have thought them dead? He searched my eyes as if he was reading the secrets of the universe in them. Finally he simply said, “I'll walk you back.” I let myself hope.

But on the porch of the B&BS, he turned to me. “Sunny.”

Now he'd offer some excuse and melt away into the night. In a way it was a relief.

He took my hands and said my name again. His thumb played over the back of one hand. Pleasure ghosted along my skin. His chest started pumping and he looked like he wanted to say more—but nothing came out.

“I understand.” I didn't want to understand. I wanted him to stay and wrap me in his strength and heat and sink into me again and again until we both exploded in pleasure. “You have to go.”

“I should. But I'm not. I can't. You smell so good.”

I'd have laughed but his expression was so
intense
. “If you think I smell good now, wait until I skip upstairs and take a shower.” I winced. Smooth and subtle as a rutted road.

But to my surprise his hands tightened on mine and his gaze heated to burning. His mouth worked as he struggled with some sort of answer. “Maybe…”

I held my breath.

His phone rang.

Not now.
But of course now. We were finally on the same page.

I waited. He didn't answer it. It rang again. I winced and made myself do the right thing. “Don't you need to get that?”

“It's Ric, but…but you're more important.”

I blinked stinging eyes. He was placing my needs, our needs, before his best friend? “What if it's something only you can do? Answer it. Go on.”

“Well…okay. Thanks.” He slid the phone from his pocket and thumbed it live, listening without speaking. Finally he said, “I see.” He slid the phone away. “You were right. Ric needs more blood. I have to go.”

“Right.” I waited but he didn't leave, so I had to. I turned and went inside. Going upstairs, after he couldn't see it, my shoulders slumped.

I took a long, steaming shower for solace. As the hot water ran down my body, I started imagining it was Aiden's hands caressing my skin, those incredibly sensual, strong and clever hands. I soaped myself slowly, remembering his long fingers, his flicking tongue, until I ached with it. Until the pressure was so bad I exploded.

It didn't relieve the deepest aching.

With a sigh, I spun the water to cold and shivered through shampooing and conditioning and soaping a second time. That took care of any arousal. When I had washed away the worst of the wear from Nosferatu's compound, I turned the water back to hot to chase the bumps from my now unhappy skin. The heat sluiced through, near burning, shivers chasing down my flesh, raising my nipples to tight nubs.

Like Aiden's fingers raising them,
pinching
…

I cranked the water off entirely.

Otto's stocked plenty of fluffy towels. I poked a hand past the shower curtain, venting as little heat as possible to the March chill, and grabbed three. I wrapped one around my waist, and a second around my breasts.

Scrubbing my hair dry with the third, I emerged from the shower.

Aiden stood there. Staring. Nostrils flared, chest pumping bushels of oxygen, but immobile in every other way.

I gaped. The hair towel dropped from my hand.

My heart leaped but he didn't grab me or whisper words of love. Aside from his clenched hands and the large bulge raising his fly, he didn't move at all, like an unfeeling statue.

But I knew him better now. I knew the attraction that drove him to claim me, and the past pain that kept him from that claiming.

I understood then. He wasn't a static shadow. He never had been. He was a contained explosion, caught between two unbearable forces.

Up to me to break the stalemate.

I grabbed the knot between my breasts and tugged. The top towel fell, exposing my breasts to him.

He made a small, strangled noise. A pair of very sharp fangs emerged from between his lips. Yearned.

I jumped at him.

My movement tore him loose. He caught me. We met in a blast of lust. Our mouths tangled.

“Sunny.” My name was a groan.

I groaned his in return. I twined my arms around his neck, arching into him, pulling him to me.

He wrapped arms around me and cinched me to his chest.

“Please don't stop.” I kissed everything I could reach, cheeks, jaw, mouth.

“I can't. I tried, but I couldn't stay away.”

I was fiercely glad. I clutched him harder, like I'd fuse skin. Kissed his mouth like I'd merge breath. As if I let go now, I'd have to tear my own skin and shred my own lungs and heart to break away.

He kissed me as if he meant it just as much.

Mouth still on mine, he lifted me. Air flowed around us. He eased me onto my back on the bed, his arms tight around me. We lay entwined in the scent of fresh linens.

He nipped my naked shoulder. The tips of his fangs scraped me to shivering desire. I arched my neck, yearning for orgasmic bites.

His tongue eased over the scrapes, soothing.

I didn't want soothing. I ached for the sting of those sharp teeth. “Bite me.”

“I don't dare.” He kissed down my collarbone. “
Thirsty
.”

His need whispered fiercely against my skin, prickling it into bumps. “So? You bit me before.”

“It's different. I gave Ric blood. More than I should have…and I didn't stop to replenish. I want you more than I've ever wanted anyone in my life. I'd bite you
everywhere
.”

It sang along every nerve, jangling desire throughout my entire body like a town full of pealing bells. “
Good
.”

He raised his head. His black gaze drilled me. “You don't know what you're asking.”

“Maybe not. I haven't experienced it. But I can imagine it. It sounds totally out of control. I want that.” I wanted him, unbridled, wild with passion. I grabbed his T-shirt in both hands, reached for that deep
need
and used it to fuel tearing the shirt. It ripped from neck to waist, revealing acres of smooth, powerful flesh. “I want you trembling so hard for me that you not only won't leave, you
can't
.” I licked the exposed skin, the deep notch between collarbones, down the valley, sliding up muscle to a taut dark nipple.

He sucked in a breath. His hands fisted in the duvet next to me. Starting to lose it but not there yet. Struggling to hang on to his self-control.

I raised my head and sucked at his neck.

He stiffened. His hands bit into me…and then he groaned and rolled off me.

Fuck that. I rolled with him. It brought me up on top. Straddling his hips I continued to lick and suck at his neck while I fumbled with his belt.

He drove his hands between us to stop me. I grabbed my final towel before he could seize my hands, tore it off and tossed it away.

He froze, gaze on my exposed hips, his pupils dilating until his eyes were infinite pools. I tilted my hips so he could see everything, including how much I wanted him.

While he was distracted, I flipped the tail of his belt and scissored the pin out.

That galvanized him into grabbing my wrists, vampire-fast, faster than I could evade.

I countered by squeezing my upper arms, giving him an eye load of cleavage. Underneath me, his zipper rose calamitously, and his fangs lengthened even more. But he only clutched my wrists harder.

So I scrubbed my sex against his jeans. My every inch opened to him. I did it again, slippery wet against him. Joy sparkled in the wake. It was scary and thrilling how fast I'd become aroused. I did it again, starting to pant. And again.

His eyes closed in pained bliss. “That scent…” His chest pumped like bellows beneath his torn shirt. “Sunny, you have to stop. My control…I'm near the edge.”

“Good.” I scooted up his body, capturing our joined hands under me, my shoulders dropping to his chest, my face in front of his. “I'm past it. Do you feel that?” I rubbed myself against him, against the fists knotted around my wrists, making him feel all the heat and wet and need. “That's me wanting you. That's me wanting you for
days
.”

His eyes opened, directly on mine. He was listening with every fiber.

“I'm so damned ready for you, Aiden. Past ready. I want to feel you, all of you, plunging inside me.”

“Don't you understand?” His gaze was pleading. “You and I…we could make a baby. I
can't
be a father. I won't do that to a child.”

“You care. That makes me want you even more. Don't worry. It's the wrong time of the month to make a baby.” I eased down, kissing his chest while I fumbled with his snap and zipper. His hands were still tight around my wrists but he was seemingly unaware of what I was doing because he didn't stop me. Or maybe his control was closer to the edge than he knew.

I opened his fly and got my hand on him. One tug freed his thick erection. I shimmied my hips into position, my sex sliding along his cock in a wet kiss.

It tore my name from his throat. “Sunny.
Don't
.”

“Why not?”

His answer was unexpected. He released my wrists to frame my face. “Because I'm not sure
you're
doing this for the right reasons. I'm not sure this will lead to your happiness.”