Cursed (The Brookehaven Vampires #4) (23 page)

“Beverley,” Oliver said, his tone stern and proud, “this is my mate, Delaney.”

My eyes narrowed on this woman as she turned her attention to me and then back to Oliver.

She made a
tsk tsk
sound, then said, “Such a shame.” She sauntered off.

I looked to Oliver and silently questioned him. The glare I still held asked the words my mouth could not form.

Oliver took a seat on the empty stool next to Levi. Levi was just finishing his third drink and ignoring us. Oliver draped an arm around my waist and pulled me close.

“I have been a challenge to that woman,
nothing more than a conquest, for years.” He finished the contents of his pint glass and set it back on the bar. Then he wrapped his other arm around me.

“She’s disappointed,” I said as I watched this
Beverley
woman. She was making her way through the bodies, toward the other end of the bar.

“Are you jealous, Laney?” Oliver questioned with some humor in his tone.

I turned my attention back to him and glared.

He grinned. Then he stood and pulled me out onto the dance floor.

I continued to glare at him as he tugged me along, pulling me through the crowded dance floor.

In one quick movement, he turned and pulled me to him. He did it so quickly that my breath caught. He rested his forehead to mine, his smile
gone, replaced by a look I had grown very familiar with. A look that made me feel weak.

He slipped one hand around my waist, resting it on my lower back, and he pulled me closer to his firm body. His other hand slipped up into my hair, just behind my ear. His hungry emerald eyes were locked on mine.

I could hardly breathe. My body yearned for his—aching to be one with him.

He leaned closer, his lips right beside my ear. Very softly, he said, “I
’m yours now, Laney. Nobody else’s. Ever.” He lifted his head and our eyes locked.

I felt my chest heave at the thought of what was to come. Excitement pulsed through me. I rose up on my toes and gently pressed my lips to his. As I lowered myself, his lips stayed on mine, following me. I wanted him to take me back to the hotel so bad, and right at that very moment. I was quite certain he knew this, but his attention suddenly shifted.

He straightened, breaking the connection of our lips. He quickly pulled his phone from his pocket and then returned it. “Nikki is here,” he said, his eyes meeting mine.

I was sure he could feel my disappointment; the sad hint of a smile he gave confirmed this.

He then looked toward the bar where we had left Levi. Oliver nodded and returned his attention to me. “I’ll be right back,” he told me.

He took one of my hands in his, gently pressed his lips to mine, and then he put my hand in someone else’s.

I looked up to find Levi standing beside me. Oliver hurried through the crowd and out the door while Levi pulled me into his arms as if he knew he had to guard me with his own life.

Levi held me tighter than he had the previous night. I chalked it up to there being more people crammed together and in a smaller space. Plus, I think his mind was elsewhere. He knew Nikki was within his grasp—that he would soon get to see her and hold her.

As far as I could tell, the bar did not have windows, so we both watched the entrance while we swayed to a song that people should not slow dance to.

Once Oliver and Nikki came through the doors, we both stopped moving. We watched them make their way to the bar.

Levi kept his grip on my hand while he quickly tugged me to the bar ahead of them.

With a quick movement, Levi set me on a barstool so I was facing away from the bar. He told me to stay put. I raised an eyebrow at him, and he smiled at me in return. “So much like her,” he said, and then he vanished.

I shook my head and laughed to myself. Levi was kind of a trip.

I waited at the bar for only a moment before Oliver and Nikki joined me. Oliver grinned when he saw me. Nikki smiled, shyly. She scooted up on the stool next to mine and faced the bar, resting her arms across the front of it.

“The usual, Nikki?” Oliver asked.

She nodded
and smiled a bit uncomfortably while Oliver ordered her something called a Midori sour.

Nikki quickly drank her green drink as soon as the bartender placed it
in front of her. When there was only ice left, she looked over at Oliver who was leaning against the bar beside me. “Where is he?” she asked.

Oliver’s eyes shifted and he nodded behind her.

Levi was heading toward us. His head was down and his eyes were locked on his target. She turned toward him as she saw him coming. As he reached her, Levi grabbed both sides of Nikki’s face and he planted his lips to hers. At first she was tense and stiff, but she soon relaxed and lost herself in his presence.

The kiss lasted an uncomfortably long time. I turned away from them and leaned against Oliver, which he welcomed.

Levi and Nikki were not the only ones showing a large amount of PDA. It was the first time I had really looked around. Most of the bar was filled with groups of people (vampires) sitting together in the booths that lined the walls, or at the tables that were in one area at that far end, away from the doors. If they weren’t seated, they were at the bar or dancing. Mixed in with all of these people were a few couples here or there that were
really
enjoying each other’s company.

I looked down the bar
, which circled around and out of sight, and spied Miss Beverley far down toward the curve of the bar. She had her disappointed eyes on my boyfriend. My eyes narrowed on her and she smiled at me. It pissed me off, but I reminded myself that he was mine. I would not play into her games. I returned the smile and hers immediately faded. I felt victorious in more than one way, as I enjoyed the feel of Oliver’s fingers trailing up and down my back.

I turned my attention to Oliver and he looked down at me. I rested an elbow on the bar and my head on my hand. “If you’re supposedly so much more protective now, how is it that you’re okay with me dancing with Levi?”

“It’s different…it’s like if you were dancing with Felix,” he said. I raised an eyebrow. “It’s like you dancing with a family member.” He then took my hand and led me back out onto the dance floor.

Nikki and Levi were already there. They were wrapped around each other, all kisses and smiles.

“She’s just telling him goodbye, huh?” I said to Oliver as he pulled me into his arms.

He glanced over at the two of them and then back to me. “Maybe in the morning?” he said, flashing me a wicked smile.

I laughed.

We danced for a long while. Oliver twirled me a couple of times, very smoothly too, not all clumsy and playful like Carter always did. No, Oliver’s moves were like he had been trained. When I asked where he had learned such moves, he told me that it was part of his training with the coven.

“We are trained to be ready for anything,” he said as he held me to his body and swayed, his hands making their way to my waist, his forehead to mine.

“Anything?” I responded seductively, my arms wrapping around his neck and holding him to me.

With his forehead resting on mine, he grinned, crookedly. “Well, almost anything.” He kissed me after that, and I felt like we were on the verge of joining the PDA couples in the bar.

It wasn’t long before we left. Oliver and I followed Nikki and Levi as they walked back to the hotel draped in each other’s arms.

It amazed me that she was so freely hanging off of Levi and making out with him in public when she lived not far from the area, worked nearby, and was getting married! Was she looking to get caught?

I wasn’t sure how to feel. I
didn’t know her, and I was well aware that it was none of my business, but if I knew Kiera was doing something like that, which she
so
wouldn’t, I think I would do something about it. But that was probably because of Carter, and the fact I had come to like him more than I liked Kiera.

Back in our hotel room, Oliver wasted no time letting me know how he wanted the night to end. We were naked and about to get to the really good part when we heard a commotion coming from the hallway outside our room. There was some shouting that sounded mostly female, and a door slamming.

Oliver’s eyes locked with mine, and we both knew we needed to find out what was happening.

Oliver threw on his jeans, and I grabbed my panties and Oliver’s sweatshirt, zipping it all the way up as I hurried to the door after him.

Nikki was storming off down the hall with her shoes in her hand.

Oliver gave Levi a look of confusion before running after her in nothing but his jeans.

Nothing. But. His. Jeans.

My body was still trembling at the memories of his touch. At the smile that revealed sharp fangs. At what we should have been doing at that very moment.

I stood in the doorway of our room, watching Oliver have a heated conversation with a very angry-looking Nikki at the end of the hall near the elevator. I turned to Levi who was standing just outside of his own room. He was shoeless, shirtless, and the top button to his jeans was undone.

He had the same dragon tattoo on his left side as Oliver. I was surprised I hadn’t noticed it before, but that was probably because
he’d been stark-ass naked. My focus had been elsewhere, or rather, I had been trying to focus elsewhere.

“What happened
?” I asked as I tugged at the hem of Oliver’s sweatshirt, making sure it was covering all that it needed to. Thankfully it was, although it did leave my legs very exposed… I tugged it down another inch and held it there.

Levi’s sad
, blue-green eyes swept over to me. “I confessed my love to her.” He sounded and looked miserable.

He returned his attention to Oliver and Nikki. I did too, and all I could think was
,
There’s that flare of drama her sister is so good at.

Oliver jogged back toward us, shirtless and shoeless.
Sigh.

For a moment, Levi looked hopeful, as did I, but Nikki kept her back to us
while she waited, facing the elevator.

“Sorry, Levi. She’s adamant about going home.” Oliver hurried into our room and I followed. He pulled a shirt over his head and shoved his feet into his shoes.

“What are you doing?” I asked as I watched him tie his laces in a hurry.

“I’m going to walk her to her car. I can’t let her go out there alone.”

I was about to protest that Levi should take her, but Oliver stopped me.

He stood in front of me and held both of my arms. He dipped his head and leveled his eyes with mine. “She needs some time, Laney. This is really hard for her. I will be right back.” He kissed me on the forehead
then hurried out the door. He patted Levi on the arm as he passed by. “Give her the night to cool off,” He said, and then he hurried down the hall.

From our open room doors, Levi and I watched them go. When the elevator doors closed, Levi lifted his hand and said, “She forgot this.”

Halfway down the long pinky finger of his left hand was Nikki’s engagement ring.

I looked from him to the ring a couple of times before he finally dropped his hand. He stared at the elevator, maybe hoping she would change her mind and come back. I was pretty sure she wouldn’t. Not just yet.

“Come on,” I said. I took his hand and pulled him into my room.

He dropped onto
the loveseat and slouched low, his long legs bumping against the coffee table as he did.

Levi stared at the ring on his pinky. I was still wearing nothing but Oliver’s black hoodie and my panties, so I excused myself for a quick moment. I hurried into the bedroom and put on my pajama bottoms.

Returning to the front room, I sat in one of the chairs across from the couch. I pulled my feet under me and leaned against the arm of the chair. I didn’t know what to say to Levi, and he wasn’t talking. He just stared at the ring on his finger. So I just watched him, wishing he would button his pants. And maybe put on a shirt.

By the time Oliver returned, my arms were
folded on the arm of the chair with my head resting on them, and my eyelids were growing heavy.

When he walked in, he said, “Where were we?” A sexy little grin
appeared as he began kicking off his shoes.

I lifted my head and gave a slight side-nod to indicate we were not alone.

He stopped. “Oh,” he quietly said.

I stood and very quickly took Oliver into the bedroom. “I don’t think he wants to be alone
right now.”

Oliver nodded, concern clearly showing on his face.

So, once again, our evening did not end the way we had wanted.

Instead, we invited Levi to watch a movie with us. Unfortunately, the TV was in the bedroom. This little fact, the one that put me in bed between Levi and Oliver, did not seem to faze Levi, or even Oliver. It fazed me! Being wedged between the two of them seemed…weird. Even so, I fell asleep, cuddled next to Oliver as he sat with his back against the headboard.