First Bitten (21 page)

“
I’d expect you wouldn’t be fine. I’d expect you’d be hurting.”

I shrug. Biting my lip, I look away.

“
Talk to me, Alex.”

My eyes snap up. “You want me to talk you?” I almost laugh. “Five weeks down the line and now you’re asking how I’m feeling.” I rub my face roughly with my hand. “And this coming from the man who told me I had to basically suck it up and get on with it on the first day.”

“
I was wrong and insensitive ... and I’m sorry.” His tone is intense.

I flicker a surprised look his way and my gaze turns suspicious. “What’s your end game, Nathan? Why do suddenly want to help me?”

“
No end game.” He grips my hand tighter. “I just want you to know that you can talk to me about anything.”

I feel a wave of anger and grief coming from somewhere deep within. Tears are threatening my eyes. I look away, a sigh escaping me. “I miss Carrie so much it hurts like a physical pain inside that will never go away.” I swallow back the tears. “I miss Angie and Tom. I miss my life, my job, my home, my friends, and I hate what I’ve become. I hate everything about me. I hate that I have to drink blood, but most of all,” I pause, taking a breath, “I hate that I actually enjoy doing it.” I look back at Nathan, my lips quiver and a tear leaks from my eye.

He reaches his hand up to my face and brushes my tear away, his touch gentle. “What about your boyfriend? Do you miss him?”

At the mention of Eddie, my free hand starts to fidget, picking at the fluff on the blanket. “Ex-boyfriend,” I say, and even I can hear the bitter tone in my quiet voice. “We’d broken up before all of this happened. And no, Eddie is actually the one thing I don’t miss.”

“
Would you have ever got back together if things had turned out differently?”

“
No.” I rub my eyes dry. “Being cheated on once was bad enough, but twice was a joke. I might have been an idiot to go back the first time but I’m not a complete idiot that I’d have done it again.”

He runs his fingers up my arm. My skin hums and all I want him to do is kiss me now.

“
What about you?” I ask, finding my weak voice as I fight the urge to lean into him.

“
What about me?” he asks, his tone soft, his eyes taking hold of mine. Nathan has me, and whatever he chooses to do, I’ll follow.

“
Well, I’m assuming you don’t have a girlfriend because I’ve never heard you talk about one.” I’m nervous. I don’t know if I want to know the answer.

“
No. I don’t have a girlfriend.” His eyes flicker to my lips. I part them to let the breath I was holding out.

“
Boyfriend?”

He throws his head back and roars out a laugh. “No!”

“
Did you?”

“
What, have a boyfriend?” His mouth is twitching with amusement.

“
No, well, yeah.” I’m flustered. “What I mean is did you have a previous, er, relationship?”

“
Yes, Alex, I have had girlfriends. No boyfriends, though.” He grins at me and winks.

Girlfriends - plural. Of course. You don’t go through life looking like Nathan and only ever have one girlfriend.

“
Anyone serious?”

“
One.”

Ahh. My heart gives an unpleasant twist.

“
Was she like you - a shifter, I mean?”

“
Yes.”

“
Why did you break up?”

“
Because she didn’t like what I became after I left the army.”

“
And what was that?”

He stares deep into my eyes. A sudden coolness overtakes the warmth. It sends an unexpected chill running through me. “Uncaring. Hard. Cold,” he answers dryly.

I swallow down. “And what were you before?”

“
Uncaring ... hard ... cold.” He grins, his warmth instantly returning.

I hit him jokingly in the chest. He catches hold of my hand, keeping it there. I glance at it, then back to his face. His brilliant eyes are depthless and I’m falling further and further into them. I feel like I’m swimming in cool water on a hot summer’s day, with no way of ever reaching the edge.

Nathan has both of my hands in his, my heart held in sync between them, and it can no longer keep up, left only with the option of tripping over itself, again and again, waiting for him to reset it.

I take a deep breath. “There must have been something good that she saw in you when you first got together,” I say from out of my tacky mouth. I feel like someone’s poured glue into it.

He shrugs, lightly. “You’d have to ask her that.” He presses his lips together, letting his eyes drift into a long blink, and all I want is him, forever.

“
Well, seeing as though I can’t do that, you know, me being dead to the world an’ all, I guess I’ll have to go off my own impression of you.”

He leans closer with interest. He’s so close to me now that as he speaks his hot breath scorches over the skin on my face, blistering my lips. “Oh yeah and what’s that?” He smiles. “Apart from what I already know - what was it you said? - that I’m an arsehole and a bastard.”

I grin sheepishly, a blush rising in my cheeks. “I believe I actually called you an arse and that was when you were been an arse, but since you’ve been nicer to me, I know different.”

He lifts an intrigued eyebrow.

“
I know there’s a lot more to you than you allow people to see. You’re guarded but you care. You love your family a lot. I know you’d do anything for them, and the way you love your horses is amazing. And I also know that for some reason you think it’s your job to save the world and everyone in it. I mean, look at what you did in Iraq, saving all those people.”

“
That was my job.” He lets go of my hands and I instantly know I’m losing him. I can see him starting to close up.

“
It wasn’t your job,” I say in a small voice, “and you saved me.”

He hangs his hands on the back of his neck and closes his eyes. “You were different,” he says, voice low.

My pulse races. “How so?”

He opens his eyes. The way they study me cuts straight to my heart. I swallow against the thickness in my throat. He opens his mouth to speak and closes it again. I see his face shut down completely and whatever he was going to say is lost. And after a long moment he simply says, “I don’t know. You just were.”

The frustration I feel is insurmountable. It practically blisters under my skin. “Can’t you ever answer a question truthfully?” I challenge.

“
Don’t start.” He casts a warning glance my way and all that he manages to do is to annoy me further.

Angry, I get to my feet. “Just when I think we’re getting somewhere, Nathan, you shut down on me, again!”

“
What the fuck are you talking about?”

“
Nothing. I’m talking about nothing. Just forget it.” I stomp off in the direction of the track.

“
Why do you always have to walk away from me?” he calls angrily from behind.

He’s right, this is twice now I’ve walked away from him when he’s tried to do something nice for me, but I’m so sick of asking him this question and the instant I do he shuts down.

“
Because you annoy the crap out of me!” I yell back.

He’s behind me now. Hooking my arm, he swings me around to face him, pulling me close. “You know what?” His face is angry but his eyes hold a lot of depth. “You annoy the crap out of me too but it still doesn’t stop me from wanting to do this.”

Then he takes my face in his hands and kisses me.

Chapter 17

Surprise

I feel like the sky has fallen in on me. Of all the ways I ever imagined this would happen, this was not one of them. It didn’t even radar on my list but it’s gone right to the very top.

Nathan is nothing like I thought he would be. I imagined him to be rough and impatient. He’s not, he’s intense and passionate.

My legs are like jelly, nearly giving out, but Nathan’s strong arms around me are keeping me upright. My body is shivering under his touch. Wherever his hands go, my skin instantly responds.

He inches his fingers down my back and grips a tight hold of my vest, pulling me closer to him. My arms snake around his neck, my fingers twist into his hair. He parts my lips with his. His tongue runs over mine, warm and inviting, and he tastes just like heaven.

I feel the desire pass through us. It’s like lightning hitting a circuit breaker, blowing out all the fuses, and all my thoughts head south. Nathan lifts me at the hips. I wrap my legs around his waist. Then, without breaking from our kiss, he carries me back over to our picnic blanket.

He lays me down, resting himself on top of me, and our kiss deepens to something a little more than passionate.

My head is light with anticipation. He runs his hand under the hem of my vest, his fingers working their way up my side. My heart starts to beat out of my chest.

He sucks my bottom lip into his mouth. “Is this how all our fights will go from now on?” he murmurs, his voice breathy, as he trails his fingertip around the edge of my bra.

“
Hopefully.” I bite down on a smile.

He laughs, an intimate laugh, and starts to kiss me again, his hot breath mixing with mine as his hand runs down my arm, searching for my hand. Taking hold, he interlocks our fingers and moves my arm to rest up above my head. “Let’s go home,” he murmurs into my mouth.

My stomach tumults. “Will anyone be there?”

“
No, they’ll all be out working on the farm. The house will be empty.” I can hear the smile in his voice.

I put my free hand under his T-shirt, feeling the ridges of his muscles on his back, and run my hand under it onto his hard chest. His muscles flex with my touch. A memory flashes through my mind of how Nathan looked that time I saw him naked when he stripped off in the woods, and it practically sets my pants on fire. I’ve never wanted someone as much as I want him and I really don’t think I can wait the half hour journey back home.

I kiss him again, deeply, wrapping my legs around him, holding him to me. I never want to let him go. I feel him harden against me and any rational thought I might have had left flies out of my mind, and all I know is I want him, now.

“
Is there anywhere else closer we could go?” I sound like I’m sixteen again and after a quickie with my boyfriend. My excuse: I’m not thinking rationally; I’m driven solely by lust and, really, who can blame me?

His mouth twists into a perceptive and sexy smile. “There’s a hotel about five minutes from here.” His pupils are wide and dilated, so much so the green of his iris is almost indistinguishable.

A flux of butterflies swoosh through my stomach. “Sounds perfect.”

Nathan starts to lift himself up off me.

“
Is this a private party or can we all join in?”

The deep voice jolts us the rest of the way apart. Nathan springs to his feet. I shoot up into a sitting position, all my breath leaving me in a whoosh.

We were so lost in each other, we didn’t even sense them coming. And no, I don’t need to look at them to know who or what they are. Vârcolacs.

And it’s at this exact moment that I know it’s all over for me. A tight feeling of impending doom slides through my stomach, not stopping until it reaches my toes.

When I do finally bring myself to look, I see the three of them standing just to the left of us about twenty feet away, blocking our only exit.

I clamber to my feet, and the second I’m standing Nathan takes hold of me and pushes me behind him.

I’ve so many thoughts flying through my mind, I don’t know which one to address first, and now there’s a chill in the air pushing the sun out and my clothes suddenly feel inadequate. I know with certainty they’re not enough to protect me from whatever harm the three of them intend for me. And neither is Nathan. Nathan’s undoubtedly strong and a trained fighter, and I might be freakily strong nowadays but I’m no fighter, and that puts us at a considerable disadvantage to the three of them.

So basically, I’m fucked. There is no way out for me. Now all I can do is to try to ensure Nathan gets out of this unharmed.

One of the Vârcolacs takes a step forward, moving away from the other two. He’s average height and build, has white blonde hair, really pale skin and bright blue eyes. He reminds me of an albino.

“
Nathan,” he says, addressing him like he knows him.

Does he know him? Oh God.
Alarm shoots through me, my eyes darting up in panic to Nathan as my heart slams into my chest.

“
Am I supposed to know you?” Nathan says flatly, but I hear a discreet undercurrent of menace there.

A strange sense of relief ripples in waves over my skin and I falter against Nathan, gripping a tight hold of his arm.

“
No,” The albino’s mouth twists in the suggestion of a smile, “but I know you and I also know that you have something which belongs to me.”

“
And what would that be?” Nathan asks, almost conversationally if it wasn’t for the set line of his jaw and the chill in his eyes.

Albino tilts his head in my direction. His eyes drift over me, a slow languid smile forming on his lips. My skin practically ups and crawls off my bones. “Wow, Alex, you really are a beauty. You were not done justice at all. The Originals are going to be very happy to meet you.” He clicks his tongue in approval and I feel all kinds of violated, and completely and utterly terrified.