Half in Love [Willie Krenshaw] (Siren Publishing Classic) (9 page)

* * * *

Willie couldn’t get the picture out of her head of Nick feeding from the delivery dude. She’d tried not to watch, always uncomfortable with that side of herself. When he’d bit slowly into Mikey’s neck and uttered a sensual moan, she was forced to look. She couldn’t rip her eyes off the scene once she started watching. She wanted to find it disgusting, but she just couldn’t. There was something intimate about the connection between him and his prey. The power that Nick had used to subdue his prey, the predatory look in his eyes as they softly glowed emerald green, the smooth swallowing of his throat muscles after each pull. It was almost enough to make her come right there. He was sex incarnate. Every move he made was beautiful in its animalistic nature.

She’d fought the urge to share his meal. She wanted to crawl to him, insinuate herself between his arms and his meal and drink with him. She could almost taste the blood coursing hot and thick down her throat as she lay against Nick. What the fuck was wrong with her? She knew he could sense her arousal seeing she could smell it herself, flowing off her in waves.

She shook her head to clear the image and headed back into the living room. Her gums tingled as she forced her canines back. She didn’t even remember them pushing out. She turned the news on and sat in her chair, determined to not look at Nick. She stared at the television, not really seeing the story. She jumped when he touched her shoulder. She turned quickly in her seat and almost upended a plate that he had balanced on his hand.

“You forgot to eat your chicken. It is sort of cold, but if you want, I can throw it in the microwave for you.” He smiled and held the plate out to Willie like a peace offering. She huffed and berated herself for getting so caught up in watching him feed that she totally forgot her own food. She took the plate grudgingly.

“Thanks,” she mumbled. She took the fork from his outstretched hand and took her time cutting the chicken up on her plate. Her mind was whirling, trying to find a way out of the situation. He knew that she was turned on, they had nowhere to go for the next few hours, and he was now juiced up on Mikey blood. She picked up the first piece of chicken with her fork and poised to shove it in her mouth when the news report finally registered with her addled brain.

Tonight at five. Do we have a serial killer in our fair city? Our reporter Peter Robinson will be reporting on seven questionable deaths that have occurred in the last three weeks. All reportedly carried out the same gruesome way. The bodies were all drained of blood and then dumped unceremoniously in alleys around the city.

Willie whipped her head around to stare at Nick. What the hell was going on, and how hadn’t she heard about this before? He didn’t look like the news report was actually news to him. Suspicion coursed through her. She narrowed her eyes as she stared at him. It was time for him to come clean or else.

“Nick. What do you know about this? You don’t look surprised, so either you knew about the deaths or you are involved in them.” She scowled at the vampire until her forehead hurt. She didn’t want to care, but seeing as she found Nick in an alley, and they found a dead body together in an alley, it seemed that Fate was toying with her in another area of her life. It wasn’t bad enough that she was battling the urge to get naked with him. Now he was somehow involved in multiple human murders.

“Do you know about the vampire Council?” he asked quietly. He sat on the couch facing her and propped his elbows on his knees. He didn’t look happy to be talking.

“Sort of. It’s a group of vamps that regulate how many can live in an area, send enforcers after rogues, stuff like that, right?” She didn’t expect the Council to be involved. Her curiosity was getting the best of her, and she wanted to know what was going on in her city.

“Yes, that is a fairly accurate analysis of the role of the Council. The Council has been watching this area of the country for some time. It seems that there’s a vampire out here creating illegal baby vamps and then releasing them on the populous. The Council is trying to identify the vampire involved and the reason for his or her actions.”

“So, what part in this do you play?” She watched him closely, and if she hadn’t been studying him, she would’ve missed the minute tightening around his mouth.

“I have nothing to do with those deaths,” he answered. He didn’t meet her eyes and stood quickly to pace the living room.

“That doesn’t really answer me, though, does it? I didn’t think you had anything to do with the deaders, but you do have something to do with this vampire and the Council. Why else would you have been drugged and in that alley, or have your house trashed by the same vampire that happened to dump a body in an alley last night?” She flushed with anger and mistrust as she watched his face become an impenetrable shield of calm disinterest. Well, shit. If he was involved with the Council, then he would likely fill them in on her. Fear gripped her chest as many deadly pathways unrolled in front of her. She tried to swallow past the tightness of her throat and whispered, “Are you an enforcer?”

“No. I’m not an enforcer.” Nick turned and finally met her eyes. Comprehension made him rush to her and kneel in front of her. “And, you don’t need to worry about your background. I owe you for saving me. I’m not going to discuss you with the Council unless I have to.”

She sighed. Could she trust him not to tell about her? She wanted to believe him, to trust him with her life, but she’d been burned before by people she thought were trustworthy.

“Okay, so you aren’t an enforcer. What are you? You obviously have a connection to this mess, and by how elusive you are being, it’s not a small connection either.” She wanted to believe him, to trust him. She wanted to just give in and not question his involvement. But she’d learned long ago that not getting all the facts would hurt her in the end.

“I can’t tell you that information. But, what I can tell you is that it was an absolute surprise to me to find myself in an alley and to have found my house trashed and to find a body stinking of the same asshole. So, we’re in the exact same boat as we were before.” He rested his hand on her knee, moving his pinky in small circles along the edge of her knee cap.

“Fine, you don’t want to talk about it. Whatever,” she grumbled. Her attention was completely focused on the one inch area his finger was tracing on her leg. Every inch of her body wanted to be that piece of skin. She could feel the slight change in pressure as he swept his finger along the seam of her jeans then slowed as he reached the top of her leg. She would’ve laughed if someone told her that her knee was an erogenous zone, but damn, that little finger of his was causing her to get hot and bothered.

She squirmed and tried to focus. What had they been talking about? Just as she was about to stand up and move away from Nick, her cougar came fully awake. It took one look at who was so close to her and started purring. The sound was so loud in Willie’s head that she was sure Nick could hear the rumble. She felt wet heat pooling in her slit, and her nipples puckered. The slow circles being drawn on her knee spiraled sensations lower, forming a conduit of arousal to her clit. She couldn’t stop her breaths from coming is shortened gasps. Damn her shifter nature and damn the sexy bloodsucker causing the riotous reactions in her body.

The cougar pacing in her head wanted to rub on him, picking up his scent and marking him at the same time. The cat forced the images of them naked, sweat slicked, spread out on her wrinkled bedding. The yearning need flowed thick and heavy from her animal. Willie closed her eyes, trying to get a handle on her wayward animal. She didn’t have the strength to fight the cougar again today. Last night had worn her out. If it pushed tonight, she would end up folding, giving into their wants.

* * * *

Nick watched Willie’s chocolate brown eyes lighten quickly to a beautiful amber color before she closed her eyes on a sigh. He’d seen a few shifters in his time, and had witnessed the animal close to the skin. He grinned. She was having a tough time controlling her alter ego by the looks. He wondered if pushing her a little might get him another taste of her lips. A niggling thought whispered annoyingly in the back of his head.
You know if she marks you as her mate, she can’t live without you. You can’t do that to her.

Years ago he’d captured a shifter that was hunting and killing female vamps. The shifter had been mated to a woman who was killed by a female vampire, and he’d slowly gone mad after her death. Shifters couldn’t survive easily without their mates. The animal half of a shifter became overwrought and most times became impossible to control if their mate was killed or left. Of course there were instances of shifters surviving the loss of their mates, but that was the exception to the rule.

Nick sighed. He couldn’t risk her marking him. He didn’t think it would be a hard life to have her around for eternity, but he was sure she’d hate him for allowing himself to be marked. She had quite a hang up about vampires, and tying herself to one wasn’t going to help her trust him.

“Willie, look at me.” He needed her to understand that he wouldn’t push her. No matter how much he wanted to have her bent over the back of the couch, or under him on the floor. He shook his head. Those images weren’t going to help him gain her trust. He watched her eyes open almost against her will. He sighed. “I’m not going to hurt you. I understand your inner animal thinks it wants me, but if you don’t, then I won’t try to seduce you any longer.”

She grimaced. “Look, to be honest. I want you as badly as she does, but with my kitty trying to mark you ever time I catch a whiff of your scent, it is not safe for me to give in. I’m not taking a mate.” He watched fear skate through her eyes with the last sentence. He battled the urge to wrap her up in his arms and murmur his undying pledge to her that if she mated him he would be by her side for all of existence.

What was he thinking? Did he really want Willie as a life partner? She was definitely adorable and sexy. She had fire in her eyes that would promise long nights of passion, but was that enough? His body craved hers with a single-mindedness that he hadn’t felt in his long existence, but was that lust or something stronger? He wanted to feel her pliant and accepting against his body, but was that enough to tie her to him for her lifetime?

“Would it be so bad to mate me?” The soft words whispered from between his lips on their own volition. He jerked as his words echoed through his mind. What was he doing?

“What?” She looked at him incredulously. Her eyes were too large for her face and were taking on the amber hint again. Her breathing had increased to almost pants. Her arousal tickled his nose and made his mouth water. Hunger of the sexual nature flowed through her feline eyes and made his cock respond with an answering need. Her animal was very close to taking control.

Nick needed to backpedal quickly, or he was going to find himself a mate to a half-vamp shifter. He watched her battle her inner animal and sighed. He wouldn’t be responsible for her tying herself to him under the influence of her shifter nature no matter how much he wanted to have her naked under him at the moment. “I’m sorry. It just slipped out. I’m going to go take a cold shower and try to get my hormones under control. Do you have a computer?”

* * * *

The change in conversation took Willie by surprise, and it took her a moment to even register his question. Her body felt hot and too tight. Her cougar was yowling so loudly she was afraid she would end up with a headache. She knew her eyes had changed. She was fighting so hard to maintain control and not attack Nick that his question about the computer seemed like it had been asked in a foreign language. The thought of him standing in the shower, water sliding slickly down his body was almost too much. She gulped in air through a tightening throat. She shook her head to try and dispel the image.

“Yes, I have a computer. It’s in the den.” She stood on shaky legs and walked toward the hallway. She didn’t look to see if he followed because one look at his face would shatter what little handle she had on her sanity. She pointed to the door as she stalked by it. “In there. The passwords are on the notebook next to the keyboard. I’m going upstairs.”

With that she climbed upstairs to her room and threw herself on the bed. She had to get him out of her house, away from her, away from her cougar. Every ounce of strength she had was being tested as her cat stalked back and forth in her head, pushing against her mind, tempting her with Nick’s scent, the warmth that radiated off his body, the image of his body pressed against hers last night. Oh, her kitty was playing dirty. All Willie could hope for was some oblivion until they could leave the house and she could send him on his merry way, out of her life. She cringed at the clamoring inside her head increased. Fate was such a bitch.

She forced herself to shut down. She needed some time to strengthen her resolve. To not touch him, kiss him, lick him. Shit. She couldn’t even think her own thoughts without the need for him entering her mind. With slow breaths, she calmed her mind, her body, and her mountain lioness enough to rest.

Willie came to and was a little disoriented. She could tell it was almost sunset but couldn’t remember why she was still resting. The past few hours cascaded through her thoughts. She took a deep breath. Right. She stretched on the bed and grimaced at the fact that she was fully dressed in now very wrinkly clothes. She rose and stepped into her shower to quickly scrub off the sloth-like lethargy.

After a shower and clean clothes, her outlook on the evening improved. Her plan was to get Nick set up in a hotel someplace and then come back to her empty house for some well-needed alone time. She needed to flush him out of her system. Maybe she would go to the bar and drink herself stupid, although for her that would take gallons of liquor. She could go to the waterfront and let the soothing movement of water wash away her overwhelming need for the man downstairs.