Cursed (The Brookehaven Vampires #4) (40 page)

A moment later, he gently eased me back, his body resting over mine. I arched my back, pushing myself closer to him, silently telling him that I needed him. He seemed to be willing, and I wasn’t about to turn him down.

The outside world was disappearing. It was just the two of us there on that cozy chaise, a faint crackling coming from the fireplace beside us.

With my back flat on the chaise cushion, Oliver pressed himself against me, letting me know what I was doing to him, and moaning softly as he did so. I knew right then he had little self-control left.

Slowly, his lips traveled down my jawline to my neck, little pricks from his fangs pinching my skin with every kiss.

I trembled with anticipation.

“I need you,” I breathed.

“I don’t have anything with me,” he said against my ear, his voice a ragged whisper.

“I don’t care,” I breathed, my voice barely audible as I arched against him once again. I needed this. We both did.

A moment later my shoes, pants, and panties were off.

Oliver wasted no time. Biting my bottom lip, I moaned with pleasure at being one with him. His lips were quick to find mine, and his kisses were deep and passionate. I held him to me, digging my fingers into his back as he moved his body against mine, pushing himself deeper.

His s
cent was strong, his movements were stronger. He was rough and desperate as he thrust himself into me, over and over.

My body was tingling and warm. The fire let out a loud crackle beside us. Oliver’s fingers dug into my hair behind my ear. My eyes began to roll with the pleasure my body felt. I kissed him harder as I attempted not to cry out. With one final thrust, he was done.

We panted heavily as his body collapsed on top of mine.

The moment had been fast, but it was easily the sexiest of my life.

“You okay?” he asked, his voice unsteady as he pushed himself up and gazed down at me. He was trembling, as was I.

I nodded as I looked up into his beautiful green eyes.

“I thought I told you not to seduce me like that anymore,” he said, the hint of a smile appearing as he quivered over me.

A huff of laughter escaped me.

His smile faded. “I love you,” he said, ever so softly.

I told him the same and pulled him down to me, kissing him hard. Then we heard the sound of car doors closing and voices growing near.

“Shit,” Oliver muttered under his breath.

We both scrambled as fast as we could to get our clothes back on.

In his panic, Oliver just about threw my shoes at me as he hurried to pull up his pants. My pants and underwear were on the floor, just in front of the tree. I all but dove for them. I put on my clothes faster than I had ever done anything in my life.

When Hayden and Isaac walked into the house, I was sitting on the chaise, my bottoms on, and my shoelaces shoved into my shoes. I was just thankful
I’d even managed to get them on my feet.

Oliver was standing near the edge of the front room, right near the entryway, a look of nervous panic on his face.

I stood and quickly moved beside him. I took his hand to silently reassure him we were fine, and we hadn’t been caught.

He exhaled a shaky breath as Hayden and Isaac greeted us. They gave us hugs and told us that they missed us. All the while, I hoped they wouldn’t notice we were both a little shaky.

Once the initial greetings were over, Hayden made her way to the kitchen with her cup of ice cream in her hand. “It smells weird in here,” she announced.

Oliver’s eyes nervously met mine for a moment. His bonding scent—something that happened every time we were intimate—was still permeating the air.

Isaac noticed the look Oliver and I exchanged. A grin spread across his face before he clapped Oliver on the shoulder and then headed off toward the kitchen with his daughter, a chuckle escaping him as he walked away.

I felt my whole face burn with embarrassment
while Oliver pulled me against him, hugging me tight, and laughing nervously.

“That was way too close,” he whispered against the top of my head.

Yeah,
way
too close.

I nodded, and then I looked up at him and whispered, “You know, this kind of thing wouldn’t happen if you didn’t deprive me of you.” I flashed him a cheesy grin.

He laughed.

Isaac, who
I noticed was sporting quite a bit of facial scruff and his usual turquoise tips were fading from his hair, still had a knowing smirk on his face as he and Hayden got seated at the dining table and began eating their ice cream.

With both of us still feeling the sting of embarrassment, Oliver and I headed out to the garage and began loading boxes into the trunk of the Challenger. We could only fit so many
, so we stored what was left in the back of Oliver’s coven-issued SUV that was parked in the garage.

Once we were done, we headed back inside and told Hayden and Isaac goodbye. Isaac was still grinning knowingly. My face burned with embarrassment, once again. The thought of them coming home even two minutes earlier… I couldn’t even imagine. Hayden would have been scarred for life, that’s for sure.

As we got into the car, I was sad that I didn’t get the chance to love Lola once more before leaving. We would have to come back again soon so I could get my Lola fix, and maybe pay the chaise another visit… Or not. Probably not the wisest idea to try again.

As we were driving away, I noticed that one of the houses near Julz’s had a for sale sign in the yard. I jokingly made a comment about us buying it.

Oliver got all serious and said, “Laney, when I buy you a house, it will not be next to her.”

His words made my stomach drop, in a very good way. I took his hand and held it, resting them on the console between us while we headed back to town.

*****

In class that night, I was so distracted by what Oliver and I had done at Julz and Isaac’s
, I couldn’t focus.

I just kept thinking about how exciting, how hot, and how
very
freaking sexy it had been.

My body was alive with excitement as I replayed the entire act through my mind, repeatedly.

I had to fight every urge to prevent myself from leaving and hurrying home so we could do it again. I knew he wouldn’t, because of our roommate, but I figured it might be worth a try.

But I stayed put, lost in my fantasy.

I felt so loved and safe with Oliver, but being away from him left me with an uneasy feeling.

He was at the apartment, and I was at the school, but being only those few blocks away from him was too far. I could feel the strain of it pulling at my heart. Like it wasn’t whole. Like I wasn’t complete without him. And I wasn’t.

Trying my best to focus on the class, I was bummed to discover we wouldn’t be having a guest speaker. No mermaid in a kiddie pool. Dang!

However, we did have our usual test to see what we had retained. I was certain I did very poorly. I mean, I could not recall if mermaids preferred fresh or salt water, if there was a certain time of the year that they were able to walk on land, and if so when… Could they? Could they leave the water? Why couldn’t I recall any of this? Every time I looked at a question, my brain would switch back to that moment on the chaise, to the way Oliver had looked at me, to the feel of every part of him…

Aaargh!

“Everything alright?” Felix’s voice suddenly boomed in my head.

I looked up from my test. Felix was sitting on the desk in the front of the room, facing the class. He was co-teaching with Amber for the evening. They were interesting together, to say the least, but now I was worried I had accidentally projected my thoughts to him…

“I’m fine!” I mentally snapped, closing off my thoughts to him. I heard nothing more, but my cheeks burned at the thought that Felix might have gotten a glimpse into my day.

Putting my elbows on my desk and my head in my hands, I stared down at my test…

Mermen? Don’t get me started on mermen, because I had nothing! Not one single bit of knowledge was surfacing about them. I was beginning to feel like I had forgotten to read the book or listen at all.

I moved along. There was a yes or no question on whether or not mermaids gave birth to live young. Uhh… I went with yes. It just made more sense than them laying eggs, especially since they were warm-blooded—that I did know. But where the hell would the merbaby come out? Actually…how the hell could
it
happen in the first place? Did merfolk have sex like whales and dolphins? The thought gave me a rather interesting visual…

I gave myself a mental shake and forced myself to answer the rest of the questions.

I hurried through the rest of the test, only skimming the last of the questions. I was slightly worried my test results might have an effect on Amber’s opinion of me studying privately with her and my future in the field. I was afraid she might think I was not worthy.

On the other hand, perhaps she would believe the private lessons would be necessary in order for me to even pass the
paranormal studies class.

Either way, when Professor Amber and her co-teacher for the night excused us, I rushed Carter out of class. I wanted to get back to Oliver as soon as possible. Maybe the distraction of being apart had something to do with my inability to concentrate on anything other than him. I was pretty sure it wasn’t.

Carter hastily told Kiera and Zoey goodbye and then followed me out of the classroom.

“Hurry,” I told him as I rushed up the steps of my previous English class.

“What’s the hurry?” he called after me as he bounded up the steps behind me.

It wasn’t like I was going to actually tell him what my hurry was, and it wasn’t like I was going to get what I wanted… I mean, Oliver was still against certain “acts” while Carter was around, but I just wanted to get back to him, just to be near him, and fast.

“I just want to get home,” I called over my shoulder as I reached the top step.

“Fine,” Carter said from just beside me, surprising me that he had caught up so quickly. “But can we grab something to eat on the way home?” he asked, grinning at me. “Unless you plan on making something, then I’d rather have that.”

A huff of laughter escaped me as we headed out into the night. I shook my head at him. “What do you have in mind?” I did not understand how this boy could eat so much. I mean, we’d just had dinner right before class.

We
were so preoccupied with our conversation about the many things Carter was willing to let me make, that we didn’t notice the weirdness of the night.

We were just about to leave the arched hallway and head for the parking lot when Carter grabbed my arm and stopped me, pulling me behind one of the last pillars.

Turning my focus to him, I realized something was wrong. His forehead was scrunched with concern, the raised, pink scar over his eye gathering together as he peered around the pillar. I peeked with him, wondering what he was looking at.

Silently, Carter pointed out several men, probably about ten to fifteen of them, not far from us. They were outside the quad area, each one dressed in dark coveralls. Some of them had a chemical tank of some sort attached to their backs, others were holding similar tanks in one hand, while all of them had some sort of hose in hand. They appeared to be spraying for
… bugs…

Now, spraying for bugs wasn’t an unusual sight, however, it was something you
wouldn’t typically see the bug guy doing late on a Thursday evening. Especially so many bug guys grouped together in one place. Plus, these “bug guys” looked super shifty.

We took a step back, pressing ourselves against the inside of the pillar, and right in view of Kiera, Zoey, and Jack. Not to mention the rest of the class.

“Shit,” Carter muttered. I fully agreed, as did my racing heart.

As Kiera, Zoey, and Jack made their way to us, they stopped right in front of us. The rest of the class proceeded on to the parking lot.

“What are you guys doing?” Kiera asked, her tone rather snotty.

Carter quietly shushed her and silently pointed out the danger.

Kiera narrowed her eyes on him and put a hand on her hip in response. My eyebrow went up at her. Thankfully Zoey and Jack seemed to register what Carter was saying. They moved a little closer to us, being sure they were hidden behind the pillar, as well.

Carter paid Kiera no attention
. He was too busy watching the “bug guys” as they stared after our fellow classmates who were heading for their cars.

The “bug guys” appeared to be communicating with one another. We saw a few of them lifting their collars, or leaning their heads to the side and talking into their shoulder. That’s when we realized they had some sort of small device on the collar of their coveralls or the cuff of their sleeve. One guy looked like he was having a full on conversation with his wrist.

I wondered if they were talking to someone else, someone not in plain sight.

I did a quick scan around us. Jack noticed and he
also searched the darkness for any other threats.