Read Laney Online

Authors: Joann I. Martin Sowles

Tags: #Romance, #fantasy, #General, #Fiction

Laney (20 page)

BOOK: Laney
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“Are you okay?” He sounded concerned.

I didn’t respond with words. I grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him to me. I kissed him hard. He seemed to catch on that I was fine and he returned the kiss.

I ran my fingers down his back; grabbing the bottom of his shirt, I pulled it up. He hesitated for just a moment, then pulled it off. He immediately returned his mouth to mine. He wasn’t holding back and neither was I. He kissed down my jawbone onto my neck and then down onto my chest to the scoop of my tank top and back up the other side of my neck. I kicked the covers off. He was back to my mouth, his body pressed against the side of mine and it was obvious he was as excited as I was. I ran my fingers up his smooth, cool back. His skin was flawless. He held himself propped up with one arm beside me; with his other hand, he intertwined his fingers with mine and raised my hand over my head. He unlaced his fingers and gently ran them from the palm of my hand all the way up my arm. He kissed down my neck again and trailed his fingers down my side, just brushing the side of my breast. I’d left my bra hanging on the back of the bathroom door, so the only barrier between his fingers and my boob was my thin tank top. My breath caught and my back arched. A rumble came from within him and it only added to my need for him. I grabbed his face and kissed his mouth with everything I had. His body pressed against mine, his fingers sliding lower down my side to my thigh…

“Whoa,” he jerked out of the kiss. “Where’d your pants go?”

“I took them off when I woke up,” I managed to breathe. I was still trying to kiss him.

“I thought you were just taking off your socks.” He came back closer to my face.

“You might be able to feel emotions, but you’re not very observant,” I joked, running my fingers through the curls in the back of his hair.

In the thin strip of moonlight, I saw the corner of his mouth raise into a smile with a little hint of white poking out. Then he kissed me again.

“Laney,” he whispered between kisses to my neck and jaw.

“Um hm,” was all I could get out.

“I think I’m…” He paused.

“Yeah?” I inhaled, losing myself in his intoxicating fragrance.

“I think we should stop,” he sighed and rested his head on my chest.

I ran my fingers through his hair and down his bare back. “Your call. I most likely won’t hurt you if I get carried away,” I said playfully.

“You’d be surprised,” he joked back, giving me a quick kiss on the lips and returning his head to my chest.

I continued to run my fingers through his hair and up and down his back while my body hummed. Eventually, I fell asleep again.

Chapter 22 - Kiera Spills the Beans

I woke up early again. My sleep was totally off. I guess dating a vampire will do that to you.

Oliver left to get ready and he told me to stay inside until he got back. That freaked me out. I couldn’t go out alone even though there were vampire “sentries” everywhere—or was that why I couldn’t go out? Either way, only a fire would get me out of here without him and even then I might hesitate for fear of running into his brother again.

As I packed my bag, I couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling I woke up with. Maybe it was nerves from the thought of spending the night at Julz’s place. Maybe it was the fact that I kept playing what Oscar had said over and over in my head, which I’m sure was being triggered by going to see Julz. It all led back to her…

Why would he say Oliver had stolen her? Something wasn’t fitting together. Maybe my brain didn’t want to know the truth.
It’s probably obvious and I just can’t see it and maybe I don’t want to…

“Laney!” Kiera shouted.

“What?” I said, startled. I must have been so distracted that I didn’t even notice that she had come into the room and sat down on my bed.

“I
said
, ‘How are things with Oliver?’” She gave me a weary smile.

“Things are fine,” I said absently, shoving my clothes into the bag.

“That’s good.” She seemed sad and it took my attention away from what was bothering me.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, as I shoved the rest of my stuff into the bag and zipped it closed.

“Nothing.” She looked away from me.

“Hey,” I said softly, sitting on the bed beside her.

“Everything okay with Carter?”

She nodded.

“Then what is it?” I pressed.

She took a deep breath and blurted out, “I slept with Carter!” She hid her face in her hands.

My first thought was
“So? You sleep with him every night.”
Then I realized she meant she had
slept
with Carter. My mouth fell open. I wasn’t sure what to say and I was shocked at how she told me.

“Hey,” I said in a soft voice, rubbing her back, “Are you okay?”

She nodded, still not looking at me.

“Then what’s the problem?”

She peeked sideways at me. “I wasn’t sure how to tell you.”

“Not yelling it at me would’ve been nice.” I smiled reassuringly.

She giggled and stopped hiding. “Sorry about that.”

“No worries. It’s not like it’s a big deal.” To Kiera, it was a fine line. Her parents were the ‘Wait until you’re married’ type. She didn’t feel the same way, but it was always in the back of her mind that they had told her it was wrong.

Her eyes got big, obviously not seeing where I was going with this.

“You love him, right?”

“Yes.” She smiled.

“It’s obvious he feels the same way about you.”

She beamed.

“So, I don’t see this as a big deal. You were careful, right?”

She nodded, then asked quietly, “So, have you and Oliver… you know?”

I shook my head and stared at the tan carpet. “I don’t think I’m ready to take that step yet.”

“You’ll know when the time is right.”

Will I?

We sat there in silence for a moment and then I asked really quietly, still avoiding eye contact, “Did it hurt?”

“At first, but the second time was better.”

I shot her a look of surprise. “Second time? When was the first time?” I had been too worried about my own upcoming first time to even consider there being a second time.

She looked down again, her cheeks flaring pink. “The other night when I thought you were staying with Oliver.”

Ah, that explains her embarrassment that morning—and now.

“I didn’t know you were here or I wouldn’t have...” she trailed off.

“No biggie. It’s not like I heard anything.”

She looked relieved.

“Was it his first time, too?”

She shook her head and avoided eye contact again. I wasn’t sure what to say to that. Was she okay with that? Did it matter to her? I was curious who he’d been with and how many others there had been. I wondered if she wondered, too, but I didn’t want to ask. So, I asked a different question.

“How did you know the time was right?” I felt my own cheeks warm.

“The time and the moment just felt right.” She smiled at me and I smiled back.

Sure, easy for her to say; she’s not sleeping with a vampire.

She got up to go and I stared after her. She didn’t look or seem any different.

“Have a good weekend,” she said as she left my room.

“Bye,” I said softly. My mind had already wandered back to my own distractions.

We were in Oliver’s car on our way to Julz’s place when he mentioned that we needed to make a quick detour.

We stopped and got gas at a corner station, then waited in the parking lot.

“What are we doing?” I asked.

“I have to meet someone to get…um…” he trailed off.

“Are we meeting your blood dealer?” I added air quotes to the word “dealer.” I was feeling a little agitated and his not being direct didn’t make me any less so.

He looked at me in surprise. “Yeah, that’s what we’re doing.” He sounded a little annoyed himself.

This was gonna be an awesome trip…

We waited about twenty minutes and all the while Oliver kept texting. I wanted to grab his phone and fling it out the window.
Man, I’m irritated! Maybe I should have had breakfast.

“I’m going inside and get myself something to eat,” I said and I started getting out of the car.

“I’ll go with you.”

I huffed. He didn’t seem to notice.

He trailed behind me as I grabbed a bottle of water, a blueberry muffin, a banana, and a small bag of Hershey’s kisses. Oliver raised an eyebrow as I set them on the counter.

“Don’t you judge me. You know you’d eat this crap, too, if you could.”
Seriously irritated!

His eyes narrowed at me and then he paid, not letting me do so.

As we walked back out to the car, there was a truck sitting beside it. It was like a Schwan’s truck, but white and it had some sort of dairy logo or something on it. I didn’t pay attention; I was too busy shoving Hershey’s kisses into my mouth.

“That’s him,” Oliver said. “I’ll be ready to go in a moment. Wait in the car, please.” The “please” seemed almost like an afterthought, but I was too busy eating to give a rat’s ass.

As I got back into the car, I considered the possibility of going back home. We could be on the verge of our first fight.
Huh, a lover’s quarrel with a vampire—seems like a fantastic idea!

I checked out what he and the other guy were doing.
Was he a vampire, too? They appeared to be swapping large ice chests. I couldn’t see the other guy, only his legs; the back door to his truck was in the way.

How freakin’ weird is it that I’m sitting in a vampire’s car, eating a banana, and watching two vampires swap ice chests full of blood?
Nobody would believe it. Hell, I was having a hard time with it.

I was finishing my muffin when Oliver got into the car and made a phone call.

“Hey, it’s me,” he said. “Bryce was followed on his way to meet me for a delivery.”

I could hear a voice responding, but not what they were saying.

“Everything seems to be fine. He’s going to take a different route back and call you when he gets there,” he paused for a moment. “I will.” He hung up.

“Troubles with your fellow vampires?” I asked, popping a chocolate kiss into my mouth.

He sighed and stared at his steering wheel.

I got a little nervous. I may have gone too far.

“What is your problem today?” he asked, not looking at me.

Yep, I’d gone too far. I sat quietly, not breathing.

“Answer me, please.” He looked at me while taking his sunglasses off and I could see I was upsetting him.

Great. Now I feel bad.
I sighed. “I don’t know. I feel irritated and I think I was hungry. Something’s bugging me, but I can’t figure it out.”

He took my face in both of his hands and kissed my lips. “You don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” he said in the sweetest voice.

“I do want to. I want to be with you.”

“We’ll leave early if you don’t want to stay, okay?”

I nodded and we left.

I had to call Lilly because I forgot to send her an email and let her know what I was doing. I didn’t want her to call me and catch me off guard. I knew she was going to lecture me and I didn’t want to deal with it, but I needed to get it out of the way. My phone was dead, of course, so I used Oliver’s.

She answered, “What now?” She sounded ticked off.

“Aunt Lilly?”

“Oh, sorry Laney. I thought you were a sales guy who keeps calling. Where are you calling from?”

“Oliver’s phone,” then I quickly added, “We’re going to his sister’s for the night. I just wanted to let you know.”

She was silent at first. Then she rambled on about how I should be in school.

I rolled my eyes and Oliver chuckled.

“Be safe, Laney Jo.”

“I will.” I hung up.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

“Yep.”

Be safe, she told me.
My boyfriend is a vampire, and so is his brother who tried to hurt me, and now I’m off to stay at some girl’s house that doesn’t seem to like me one little bit and is probably a vampire, too. Things are fantastic!
I was pretty sure he sensed my stress; but, thankfully, he was wise enough not to push it.

The drive took around forty minutes. In that time, I tried to get some answers.

“Are you taking me to a house full of vampires?”

He laughed, but didn’t answer.

“Is the gothic princess one of you?”

“Gothic princess, huh? I like that; it’s very fitting.” He smiled.

“You’re not answering me.” Impatience was setting in.

“I told you. I can’t talk about it.”

“How about if you just nod if I’m right.” I smiled like I was so clever.

He shook his head.
Damn!

“Come on, pleeease,” I pleaded.

He grasped my hand and kissed the back of it. “It’s not that I don’t want to tell you. I can’t.”

“Ugh.” I crossed my arms and threw my head back against the seat. Man, I still felt irritated!

After staring out the window for a while, I calmed down some—not a lot, but enough to change the subject to something else I was really interested in getting answers about.

“You were right,” I stated.

“About what?”

“Kiera and Carter. She told me this morning.”

“I have no idea what to say to that.” He flashed me his gorgeous smile.

“That’s how I felt when she told me.” Then I added with warming cheeks, “She asked if we had.” I paused, trying to keep my voice steady. “It made me wonder about a couple things.”

“What’s that?” He tried to play it off like it was no big deal, but I could see that he had gotten tense.

Big bad vampire gets all nervous when you talk about sex.
The sarcastic voice in my head made me laugh.

He raised an eyebrow at me.

“Sorry.” I tried to contain myself.

“You were wondering a couple things?”

“Yeah, how does it work with vampires? I mean, can they… Can you?”

“It works the same, Laney. I’m still a person, just different. Kind of like being diabetic; I just need blood, not insulin. Everything else works the same.”

Alrighty. There’s a conversation we’ll finish later.

“Was there anything else?”

“Not right now,” I smiled.

He shook his head and laughed quietly, obviously amused with my moods.

BOOK: Laney
7.45Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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