Under a Vampire Moon (12 page)

The night air was cooler than it had been all day, but still felt warm after the air-conditioning in the villa. It was also dark. The only light from the stars overhead and the villas she was passing, it left the narrow road shadowed and made Carolyn wish she’d switched to flat sandals for the walk. Aside from the fact that she couldn’t see that well and was likely to stumble over something and break her neck, one sandal was broken, the fix only a temporary one. With her luck it would give halfway down the mountain and she’d break her neck that way. Either way, she’d have a broken neck, which wasn’t looking all that unattractive at the moment all things considered, she thought glumly, and then glanced around when she heard a rustling in the vegetation behind her on the right.

Not seeing anything, Carolyn turned and continued walking. She wasn’t too concerned about whatever she’d heard. This was a private resort, after all, with only honeymooners and staff running around. She figured she was safe enough, but glanced around again when the rustling came once more, this time behind her on the left. As far as she could tell there was no one on the road, or in the bushes alongside it, but it was dark.

Carolyn’s imagination kicked into action. Were there wild animals on St. Lucia? If so, how big were they and were they carnivores? Death suddenly didn’t seem that attractive after all.

Biting her lip, Carolyn briefly considered heading back to the villa and calling for a van, but it would mean walking back toward whatever was making the sounds she’d heard. Breathing out slowly, she listened for another moment, her ears straining for sound behind her.

“Cara?”

Carolyn whirled around, pausing when she saw the dark figure in the shadows ahead. Whoever it was, was tall and big and had apparently just come around the corner at the turnaround. She stared uncertainly until the man moved closer. He was a foot away before she recognized Christian.

“Oh.” She sagged with relief, and then immediately tensed up again. Really, he was the last person she wanted to see at the moment. She was confused and had made enough of a fool of herself tonight what with falling all over him when he’d kissed her, and God he smelled good. What was that cologne he was wearing?

When he paused in front of her, she cleared her throat and asked, “What are you doing here?”

“I couldn’t sleep.” He took her arm, urging her to walk again.

“Probably jet lag,” Carolyn muttered, wishing he’d let go of her arm. He smelled too damned good and she didn’t like the tingles his touch sent through her. Or to be more honest, she liked them too much.

“I’m sure it is jet lag,” Christian agreed as they turned the corner and started down the next road. “I thought a nice walk would make me relax and hopefully help me sleep. What about you?”

“I left my purse at the bar earlier,” she admitted. “I’m going down to get it.”

“You should have called for the van.” He sounded like he was frowning.

“Yes, well, I thought I’d be safe enough on resort property,” Carolyn muttered.

“Few places are safe for a woman alone anymore, especially at this hour,” he said solemnly.

Carolyn grimaced. In the city, she never would have risked a long walk at this hour, but it was easy to forget such built-in cautions in this paradise.

They walked in silence for a bit, Carolyn worrying her lip as she tried to think of something to say. Unfortunately, the only thing she seemed able to think of just then was the kiss. And her reaction to it. And how much of a fool she was.

“I’m glad I ran into you,” Christian said suddenly, and then proved he’d been thinking about that kiss too when he added, “I wanted to apologize for the way I kissed you earlier.”

“Apologize?” she echoed uncertainly. She hadn’t been expecting this.

“Yes. I appreciate your help in this difficult situation, and that you were kind enough to go along with it, but I realize that kiss was expecting a bit much. I caught you by surprise and apologize if my kissing you like that made you uncomfortable.”

Uncomfortable? Was that what he thought her reaction had been? Good lord, he didn’t know women at all if he mistook her response for discomfort.

But then, Carolyn supposed, she hadn’t really responded at all other than to cling like he was a life raft on rough seas. It wasn’t like she’d kissed him back or started groping him, Carolyn realized. He
had
taken her by surprise. That kiss had curled her toes. It had been better than any kiss she’d experienced in her life, actually. Affected her more than anything her husband had ever done too. And Christian was gay.

She wondered what that said about her. Or perhaps it said more about her soon-to-be ex-husband’s skills in that area. Robert hadn’t been much of a kisser. If she hadn’t seen his tongue flapping about inside his mouth over the years as he’d lectured or insulted her . . . well, she would have been hard-pressed to say for sure that he had one. Certainly, it had never left his mouth for hers.

What other areas had he not been up to scratch in? Carolyn wondered. What had she been missing out on? If other men out there kissed like Christian . . . well, it seemed to her she’d been missing out on a lot.

Perhaps it wasn’t really him she’d responded to, Carolyn thought, feeling a little better about the whole thing. Perhaps had any man she found attractive kissed her with the same skill . . . well, maybe they would have stirred the same reaction. The thought was intriguing, because she definitely wouldn’t mind experiencing that heady passion again . . . with someone who was feeling it too, though.

“I think we can avoid situations like that in the future,” Christian continued. “I don’t want to take advantage of your generosity in helping me.”

Translation: He didn’t want to swap spit anymore, she thought and couldn’t help but think it was probably a good thing. While she did want to experience more of that passion he’d shown her, she’d rather do it with someone straight. Too much of the kissy-face business with him would just confuse her, she was sure. She was probably too new to this business to be able to separate her body’s natural response from her emotions.

“My family won’t think anything of it if we slip away to be alone, maybe on tours, or out for dinner and such. They’ll just assume we want to be alone. That way we could avoid the necessity for such actions and get to know each other better.”

“Good idea,” she said brightly, feeling much better about all of this. She was now positive it hadn’t been him she’d been reacting to at all, just his skill. And being that skilled, he obviously had a lot of experience. Of course, that experience was with other men, but it was still experience. He might be able to help her with this business of sex. Give her some tips and pointers. She obviously had a lot to learn, and Carolyn had been able to talk to Brent about almost anything. They’d never really discussed sex much, except for him to lecture her about her needing to get out, have fun, and get laid, which she’d always laughed off. But she would have felt comfortable talking about sex with him. He’d been more like a girlfriend than a male friend. Probably because he was gay and therefore not interested. It lowered a lot of the male/female barriers when it came to talk. It should be the same with Christian once they got to know each other a little better, she thought now. Then she could grill him about kissing and other stuff she might have missed out on, about how it was supposed to be. She suspected what she’d experienced in her brief marriage wasn’t the way it had to be.

“I’m glad. I’d like us to be friends,” Christian said, drawing her gaze. Not that she could see much in that light or lack thereof.

“I’d like that too,” she assured him, patting his arm. “I could use a friend.”

“Aren’t Bethany and Genie your friends? I thought they’d been friends since university?”

“Yes, but—” Carolyn paused and frowned, unsure how to explain the situation to him. The fact was while Beth was a friend, she’d never discuss sex with her. It would mean revealing parts of her marriage it was just too humiliating to admit. And while she’d revealed all to Genie in e-mails the last two years, she already knew any mention of Robert or what had gone on in her marriage was likely to make the other woman angry. She didn’t want to have to wade through Genie’s upset for her, to be able to discuss what she wanted to. Christian seemed the perfect solution. He was experienced, knew nothing of her marriage, wouldn’t get angry, and wasn’t interested so could be like a girlfriend. It was almost too perfect.

“There are some things I just wouldn’t be comfortable discussing with them,” she said finally.

“Like?” he prompted.

“Just stuff,” she said vaguely, not ready to start talking to him about things like that yet.

Six

C
hristian glanced at Carolyn curiously. Just moments ago he’d been standing on his terrace, staring down at her villa below. He was supposed to be trying to sleep so that the shared dreams would come, but sleep had evaded him and he’d pulled his clothes back on and walked outside to simply stare down on her lighted villa as his mind filled with imaginings of what he would do to, and with her, once they’d gotten past all this and were life mates. His fantasies had definitely been in the not-gay category, but had been interrupted when he’d seen her leave the villa to start walking down the road.

Christian couldn’t have stayed on that terrace had his feet been Krazy Glued to the tiles. He’d leaped over the railing and run down through the sloping hill of vines and foliage to the road, then continued past her villa and down to the next road so that he could come up the lane in front of her as if their meeting was accidental.

“Stuff I’ll need to get to know you better before I’ll be comfortable discussing it,” Carolyn added, drawing his mind back to their conversation.

Christian murmured in understanding, but wondered what the “stuff” was. He didn’t ask though. He suspected he was on shaky ground at the moment. The minute he’d left her at her villa Christian had begun to worry that the kiss may have scared her off. He was walking a fine line here, using the cover of homosexuality to keep her from avoiding him so that he could build a relationship and earn her trust, while also fighting an attraction that was only going to grow between them.

The irony that he was lying to gain her trust didn’t escape him. Although he wasn’t the one who had actually spoken the lie, Gia had. But he’d let it stand and furthered it. As for the growing attraction, that was going to be the hardest part. Even now it was a struggle not to simply pull her into his arms and kiss her again.

That kiss at her door had hit him even harder than the ear nuzzling earlier. It had been too long since he’d experienced desire for him to be able to handle it with any kind of equanimity. It had been centuries since he’d even been interested in sex. That wasn’t uncommon for his people. They often became weary of food and sex after a century or two. Both became more a bother than a pleasure, so immortals generally stopped troubling with them.

His interest in food had ended by the time he was about a century and a half old, sex at about the same time. Both had just slowly seemed to lose their flavor and excitement. But since encountering Carolyn his long dead desire was like a lion in his gut, yawning itself awake and hungry after a long sleep. If he hadn’t been aware of everyone waiting and watching in the van, Christian wasn’t sure he could have ended that good-night kiss as he had. He certainly hadn’t wanted to. He’d wanted to peel away her clothes and— Hell, had he followed his instincts, Christian wasn’t sure he could have managed the willpower to take her inside, he might have ravished her right there against the door, or on the cold stone walk. He definitely needed to keep his hands and mouth off her when they were alone, Christian acknowledged grimly. He just hoped he could do it.

Grimacing at the thought, he tuned back in to Carolyn’s voice as she chattered away about St. Lucia. She was much more relaxed than when he’d first encountered her. It reassured him that he’d chosen the right tactic by voicing an apology and mentioning the bit about avoiding the others to avoid the need to kiss her again. If the passion of their kiss had scared her, his words had obviously reassured her.

“I was really bummed when we got here and I saw all the honeymooners around,” she was admitting now. “And then with Bethany out of commission . . . well, it was really getting depressing. It’ll be nice to have a buddy to hang around with.”

Buddy? Christian grimaced, but kept his mouth shut. Friend first, lover second, and then spill the beans and convince her to turn and be your life mate, he reminded himself grimly of the plan.

“But it is a lovely spot,” Carolyn continued. “Even at night.”

“Yes.” He glanced around. It was lovely, but he doubted she could see just how lovely with her mortal eyesight. He could give her the gift of seeing at night. He’d like to see her reaction once she had immortal eyes.

“Oh, good, the bar’s still open,” Carolyn said as they walked through the main building several moments later. Christian glanced ahead and could see the bar lights twinkling over the happy guests.

“I hope my purse is still there,” Carolyn said fretfully. “I can’t believe I left it behind. I guess I was a little distracted.”

Christian supposed the distraction had been her eagerness to escape him. He was sure that was the reason she’d decided to leave once they’d gotten back from the beach. He’d known he’d upset her by asking about her husband, but hadn’t realized how much until they got back to the table. He would definitely steer clear of the subject for a while. At least until he was sure it wouldn’t send her running again.