Danger Calls (8 page)

“R
est,” he said, easing the journal out of Melissa's hands.

“Ryder said—”

Sebastian laid a finger on her lips to silence her. “It makes sense to read the later journals, which you've been so kind as to identify and leave for me to scan. So I'll scan and you rest.”

A small smile spread beneath his index finger before Melissa eased back into the cushions of the sofa. “You can be very demanding at times.”

It took all his willpower not to lean over and kiss her smile away. Put those luscious lips to better use. Fighting back a groan, he said, “I'll wake you when I'm done.”

“You'll wake me in an hour whether or not you're done.” She snuggled deeper into the cushions of the sofa and pulled a throw over her legs.

“Now who's being demanding?” he said with a smile.

He liked the way she seemed able to let loose with him. As he had a few nights ago, he turned his attentions to safeguarding the journals while keeping an eye on Melissa. As she had a few nights ago, she fell asleep within minutes.

He wondered if it was some trick they taught you in medical school. After all, residents worked wickedly crazy hours and any free time for sleep was precious and not to be wasted.

Time being a finite thing for most people, unlike it was for Ryder….

Sebastian wondered about Ryder's existence before Diana had come into the picture. Had his life been fulfilling with only the Danvers family as his support? Sebastian didn't doubt Melissa's affection for Ryder. Even if she hadn't made it clear to him, he'd seen firsthand how committed she was to the vampire and how even before the deaths of her parents, she had viewed him as part of her family.

Which made him wonder about the kind of man Frederick Danvers had been. Especially considering he had ignored a daughter as beautiful and intelligent and loving as Melissa. Could he have been as distant and intolerant as his own father, or possibly worse?

As Sebastian looked over at Melissa, he pitied the child who hadn't been loved and the young woman who'd had her life stolen from her. But Melissa wouldn't want his pity, and as for his love…

Despite what had recently happened between them, Melissa had made it clear that her life had no place for love or for a normal man like him.

That was a shame, he told himself as he reached for the journal, eager to be finished with his task. The quicker he was done, the quicker he could get her out of his mind—or find a way to convince her that she was wrong. Maybe there was a place for him.

And if there was, could he be strong enough for her? If not, he had to gracefully extricate himself from her life. He refused to consider that it would be much a much harder job to yank her out of his heart.

 

The hallway was long and narrow. Dimly lit by bare bulbs in industrial-style sconces on the walls.

She inched along slowly, keeping one hand on the rough concrete surface of the walls as if to keep touch with reality.

The sound of her own breathing was rough, bouncing off the corridor and echoing loudly. Her foot caught on something, and the sound of her slipper was a loud zip that stopped her in her tracks.

Melissa's heart beat so loudly in her head that she couldn't hear anything else. She waited for her father to open the door to the lab at the end of the hallway, but the door remained closed. Taking a deep breath, she moved onward, farther into the main wing of the house.

She crept forward until she was almost to the door, but then paused as something dark and slick slid from beneath the edge of the wood. It looked too much like blood, only there was so much of it. It ran around the edges of her pale pink slippers with the little yellow flowers that Uncle Ryder had bought her.

The door flew open, revealing her father in a bloodied lab coat, his normally precise hair in disarray. He held his hands over something on a table. Something that shifted for a moment before opening and sending a torrent of blood onto the floor toward her.

She began to scream….

Sebastian grabbed her gently as she bolted upright on the sofa, breathing hard, the remnant of her scream still ringing in the air.

The door to the office flew open.

Ryder stood in the doorway, naked except for a pair of boxers, his hands clenched at his sides. “Melissa, are you okay?”

His question was followed by the sound of hurried footsteps. Diana came to the doorway in a robe that had been hastily tossed on and her Glock drawn for defense. She glanced uneasily at Ryder. “How'd you do that? One second you were there and the next…”

Ryder shrugged. “I don't know. I just heard Melissa and reacted.”

“Like The Flash?” Sebastian prompted, but didn't wait for Ryder's reply. He gentled his hold on Melissa, slipping his arms around her shoulders.

Melissa shot him a grateful smile. “Thanks, but I'm okay. It was just a nightmare. A weird one.”

Ryder took a step into the room. “Do you need—”

Diana laid a hand on his arm and prevented him from going any farther. “I think things are under control here. On the other hand, you and I need to discuss your little disappearing act.”

“But—”

“
Now
, Ryder.
Por favor.
”

Sebastian could tell Ryder was uneasy about leaving them, but acquiesced to Diana's request. Of course, not before shooting Sebastian a warning glare.

Once the door to the room closed, Sebastian reluctantly released her. “Are you sure you're fine? That was one hell of a scream.”

Sighing, Melissa dragged her hands through her hair and leaned back. “I'm fine. I guess all this tension led up to the nightmare.”

“Want to talk about it?” He sat next to her and draped his arm across the back of the sofa. As Melissa settled into his side, he hesitated before moving his arm down and wrapping it around her.

Melissa took a moment to appreciate so many things: the warmth of his body close to hers; the smell of him, still fresh after a long day; the comfort of his embrace. The last still confused her, and for a moment she pondered whether to tell him about the dream. Maybe doing so would lessen the fear factor and keep it from coming back.

In soft and sometimes hesitant tones, she gave him the details of the nightmare. He patiently listened, not interrupting her until she got to the end. “I never really had nightmares as a child. After finding out about Ryder…” She hesitated. “Nothing like this one.”

“Maybe the business about your parents' deaths and the journals made it happen.”

“Maybe,” was all she said and snuggled deeper into his side.

He was quiet for a little while, but then he asked, “Do you think it was something real that happened? Something that scared you as a child?”

She tried to remember. Her father had once had a small lab at home. He'd spend long hours down there. Especially when her mother was going through one of her “bad spells,” as the household staff used to call them.

As a child, Melissa hadn't understood the toll her mother's anemia took on her family. All she'd known was that during those times she was supposed to play quietly and stay away from her mother so she could rest.

As a doctor, Melissa had learned how anemia could rob a person of strength and cause debilitating pain. But even with that knowledge, it hadn't made it easier to understand her mother's remoteness and absences, which lingered well after her mother was over one of her spells. And as for her father…

“Whenever Mother was really ill, Father would go into his lab. By the time I was older, we'd moved and Father would work in his lab at the college. I don't remember anything out of the ordinary.”

Sebastian squeezed her arm reassuringly. “Was your mother always sick?”

“My father met her when he was a resident. She'd come for treatments. The beautiful but dying patient fell in love with the brilliant young doctor, like in one of those grand love stories.”

The pain in her words was impossible to ignore, Sebastian thought. For Melissa there had been nothing grand, and apparently very little love from two people self-absorbed with each other and with the illness that had brought them together. Sebastian even suspected Ryder had had little to do with the Danvers family except for his obvious involvement with Melissa. “I'm sorry,” he said.

She yanked away from him and shifted to the far end of the sofa. “Don't you dare pity me, Sebastian Reyes. That's the last thing I want from you.”

Sebastian shook his head and sighed harshly. “Melissa.
Querida.
I can never figure out what you want from me. First, it's just business. Then, it's just friends. And now—”

She shut him up by kissing him. Her brain at that moment wasn't working very fast and she couldn't think of any other way to counter everything she was feeling right now. Of avoiding that she needed some from-the-soul admission from him. She only knew that if she didn't kiss him at that moment…

And, dear Lord, was she thankful she did.

He brought his arms around her back, reached up and dug one hand into her hair to keep her mouth tight to his as the kiss went on and on. The kiss intensified as she met his mouth over and over again, managing to draw a breath every now and then to counter the dizzying effect.

When he slipped down to lie on the couch, she went with him, settling her body against the length of his. She joined him in the deepest and slowest of kisses until her body was shaking and just kissing him wasn't enough.

She broke away, her breath ragged as she glanced down at him. “Touch me, Sebastian.”

H
e grinned and in his unpredictable and unrepentant way, said, “I'd thought you'd never ask.”

He grasped her waist with his hands, tenderly urged her to straddle him, then covered her breasts with his hands.

There was nothing playful about the way he looked at her. Touched her. He cupped her until her nipples peaked against the soft cotton of her T-shirt. Grasping each hardening tip between his thumb and forefinger, he applied gentle pressure until she moaned and had to move against him to satisfy the ache growing inside.

“Sebastian?” she asked, although she wasn't quite sure what she wanted except more of him. More of his hands and his mouth and…

He must have known what she wanted. He slipped his hands beneath the hem of her shirt, slowly eased it up and even before it hit the ground, he brought his mouth to one breast, suckled it gently while continuing to tease the other with his fingers.

Melissa moaned. She cupped the back of his head and shifted her hips, drawing herself along the hard ridge of his erection. The ache and dampness between her legs intensified as he loved her with his mouth and hands.

Her taste was so sweet in his mouth and the soft cries coming from her only made him want more. But Sebastian knew she was vulnerable right now and it wasn't just because of the nightmare. In the past week, she'd been on a roller-coaster ride of emotions and while he wanted nothing more than to make love to her, Melissa might regret anything they did tonight.

And what about you? he asked himself even as he eased off her sweats and turned their bodies until they were both on their sides, Melissa's back against the cushions of the sofa.

The honorable thing to do would be to stop, but he had to take one more taste of her nipples. It was impossible they were so delicious or that their hardness against his lips was so irresistible.

He was still telling himself one more taste when he kissed his way down her body to the juncture of her thighs. As he parted them and she shifted to lie on her back, Sebastian lost what little restraint he had left.

He only knew that he wanted to show her just how special she was. She'd had so little of that in her life.

Bending, he brought his mouth to the center of her and found the nub buried beneath the dark blond curls. With his tongue he caressed her, and as her soft cries grew louder, Sebastian sucked her swollen clitoris until Melissa raised her hips to his mouth, needing more.

Sebastian gave it to her. He slowly eased his fingers into her.

She was wet and oh so hot. He licked her as he moved his fingers in and out. Her taste was rich. The smell of her musky and enticing.

His erection tightened to the point of pain inside his jeans, and he groaned against her center as his control fled.

“Sebastian.” Her insides tightened against his fingers.

“Sshh,
querida
,” he said tenderly, and continued moving inside of her, drawing her closer and closer to the edge.

She moved her hands down to his shoulders and entreated him to join with her, but in soft tones he urged, “Just let go, Melissa. Enjoy it,
amor mio
.”

He pressed his thumb upward into her clitoris and as his mouth sucked at her, she lost it. Clutching the hard muscles of his shoulders, she cried out her completion, shaking with the force of it.

While her body slowly relaxed, Sebastian eased up the length of her. With tenderness, he urged her to her side, cupped her breast and rode his thumb over the still hard tip of her.

Even with the remnants of her climax still washing over her, Melissa needed more. She slipped her hands down his body to the fly of his jeans, but he hurriedly stopped her. “Not yet, Melissa. Not until—”

“We know what we want? Besides sex?” she interrupted, a little confused by his sudden streak of virtue. “Then why this? Why—”

He kissed her and she could taste herself on his mouth. It was both unnerving and satisfying in a way she couldn't quite define. Just as, intelligent woman that she was, she couldn't quite define him or what was going on between them—or wasn't going on.

As he ended the kiss and eased away from her, she met his gaze. As before, there was a wealth of conflicting emotions there. They matched her own. “Thank you,” she said, grateful that he somehow had a better sense of control than she did.

Funny really, since he was the rebel and she was supposed to be the one able to govern her emotions.

“You can thank me by closing your eyes and trying to get some sleep.” He drew her close, wrapping one arm around her bare back while with the other he drew a throw over her naked body.

She could have argued, but she was too tired, both emotionally and physically. And it felt too right to lie beside him. Except for one thing. He had way too many clothes on.

She closed her eyes and embraced him.

 

Diana snuggled into Ryder's side, but the only warmth there was that of her own body. It was still one of the things she was getting used to even after months of being his lover. But his earlier disappearing act that night…” How did you do it?”

Now in the quiet aftermath of their lovemaking, she hoped he'd provide an answer. Instead, all she got was the slight tightening of his body next to hers.

“I don't know. Although I'm certain that isn't what you want to hear.”

Diana cradled her head with the arm she propped on the bed. She gazed down at her lover. Her vampire lover. Raising her free hand, she laid it over the center of his chest, directly above his heart. There was a beat there. A steady beat that grew intense with their loving. A gentle and tender heart, she knew, for he loved her and cared deeply for Melissa.

But he didn't care for himself. It was the reason he knew so little about himself and others like him. “It's unfair of you to not find out, Ryder,” she said. “To yourself and to Melissa.”

His tension grew. It was evident in the increasing stiffness of his body beneath her hand. She wasn't surprised when he pulled away from her and slipped from the bed.

She watched as he dressed. “Where are you going?”

“To find vampire friends. That isn't going to happen during the daytime. Isn't that what you want? What you think Melissa needs? So she'll be free—”

Diana jumped out of bed. She knew his anger wasn't just about Melissa. “Ryder, I
am
free. And I've already made my choice,
mi amor.
” She raised herself on tiptoe and kissed him.

He was unyielding against her, so she deepened the pressure of her kiss and wrapped her arms around him. Slowly his tension ebbed and when it did, he said against her lips, “I wish I knew more. About myself and others. I know there are others.”

It was impossible to miss the heartfelt wish in the tone of his voice. “In time, Ryder, you need to find out more. For yourself and for Melissa.”

Ryder brought his arms beneath her legs and picked her up, taking her back to bed. Laying her on the dark maroon-colored sheets, he paused to admire her physical beauty, only a small part of what made him love her. “And what about for you, darlin'? Shouldn't I know it for you?”

Her smile was knowing and determined. “You know all you need to know for me, Ryder.”

“And that is?” he asked as he pressed her down into the mattress.

“That I love you.”

 

He cared for her, Sebastian thought as he held Melissa and observed her sleeping. Of course, his emotions were all wrapped up in the protectiveness he felt toward her and his fear for her safety.

Funny, he'd never thought of himself as a protector kind of guy. But that
was
what he was feeling. Not good. What if he couldn't handle the danger?

He would never be able to forgive himself if he failed her.

Better to get out now, Sebastian told himself. Before he lost his heart to her. Before her feelings for him became more than physical. He knew Melissa had suffered too much rejection in her life and he didn't want to be the cause of more.

Armed with that knowledge, he slowly moved from her side, which wasn't easy since one arm had fallen asleep beneath the slight weight of her body. She barely moved, but the throw shifted, revealing one breast, the nipple relaxed without his caresses. Full and soft, just waiting for him to…

He groaned and with a shaky hand pulled the throw over her shoulders. He would finish this night's job and leave.

Before it was too late.

Which it might be already, he realized as with every set of pages scanned he found himself looking her way and wishing things could be different. That he could be the kind of man she needed.

And not what he was.

 

The slight shift of his weight and the sudden chill the absence of his body brought alerted her to the fact he was leaving. She wanted to protest, but knew it was better this way. She was still too confused about all that had gone on.

As she watched him through barely opened eyes, she saw his bewilderment. Saw his longing, which tugged at her heart.

Only Melissa knew his longing was ephemeral. When all was done, his emotions might be no more than a passing fancy brought about by the weird circumstances into which they'd both been thrown. Like the last time. When Sebastian was faced with the reality that her daily existence revolved around Ryder—as it had to, she reminded herself—Sebastian would be gone.

He'd already warned her that he wasn't cut out to be a hero.

She'd already had a taste of what it was to be with him then have him leave. Their one night together had left her wondering and wishing for things that couldn't be. Tonight had her wanting even more, and she knew it would be more difficult to deal with his exiting her life once again.

And he
would
go. She didn't have whatever it took for long-term emotional involvements.

Her parents had taught her that.

So she pretended to be asleep until he was done with his work. When he came to her side to let her know he was done, she pretended that he had just woken her.

“I have to go.”

She sat up, the throw tucked tight against her chest to hide her nakedness. “I know,” she replied, awkwardly taking the journals he handed her in one hand while clutching the blanket with the other.

There was an uncomfortable moment when he seemed about to bend down to kiss her, but he didn't. Instead, he stood before her, ill at ease, and then gave her a curt nod. “See you tomorrow?”

“Sure,” she answered readily. Too readily.

He seemed to recognize it for the lie it was. He gave her a tight smile and quickly left the room.

Melissa hugged the journals to her, telling herself that they were what was important in her life right now. Something in them might hold information about her parents' murders. Might even help her find a way to deal with Ryder's condition.

But the vague possibilities of those thoughts lacked the appeal of the very solid warmth of Sebastian's reality.