Under a Vampire Moon (37 page)

Giving herself a wry smile, Carolyn moved to go to the bathroom, grimacing when she noted her dress, a damp heap on the shower floor. She then returned to the bedroom and glanced around. Christian still hadn’t returned and when she spotted the black T-shirt, discarded on a chair, she walked over to claim it. Carolyn tugged it on over her head, murmuring with pleasure as she inhaled his scent. God, he always smelled so good.

The T-shirt stopped below her bottom, which was good enough, she decided as she tugged her hair out of the neck and crossed to the door. The villa was silent as she slipped out of the bedroom and headed for the stairs. Christian wasn’t in the living room. She could see it was empty as she descended the stairs, so she turned left off the last step to head into the kitchen and glanced around expectantly as she slipped inside.

He wasn’t there and disappointment immediately claimed her as she wondered where he’d gone. As far as she knew the only other rooms were the bedrooms. Had he left the villa? After making her promise not to leave before they talked? She frowned over that, worrying that he wouldn’t return. That was quickly followed by the worry that he would, and she began to fret over how he would greet her, how she should greet him. This was another situation she wasn’t used to.

Sighing, Carolyn walked to the dining room windows. Staring out at the night, she absently plucked at the neck of the T-shirt she wore and pulled it up over her nose so that she could inhale his scent again. For some reason the smell soothed her and made her smile. Christian did smell heavenly. His kisses were also heavenly, and his touch and . . .

Feeling her body begin to tingle as she thought of just how heavenly his kisses and caresses were, Carolyn gave a little shiver and hugged herself, hardly able to believe he wanted her. Boring little Carolyn Connor. And he definitely wanted her. There was no way for him to be faking the passion he showed her.

Why not? Robert had,
the heckler in her head whispered.

But she’d been pretty inexperienced then, Carolyn argued with herself. Besides, Robert had fooled her with sweet words and limp kisses that hadn’t even compared to Jack’s, which couldn’t hold a candle to Christian’s. And Robert had never made love to her six times in one night, or done all the delicious things to her that Christian had, or . . .

No, Carolyn assured herself, Christian wasn’t faking his passion. He wanted her. The problem was, she didn’t know what he wanted her for. Jack had said Christian was in it for the long haul and wanted her body and soul, but she was afraid to get her hopes up. Because she was scared silly she’d gone and fallen for him.

Carolyn let the T-shirt drop back into place with a sigh and tried to sort out her feelings. She’d spent a lot of time with Christian over the last few days, most of her time with him actually. They’d relaxed together, talked a lot, and had fun. She enjoyed his company a great deal. In fact, she enjoyed his company more than Bethany’s. Spending time with Beth always seemed to leave her feeling depressed and hopeless for some reason. So much so that Carolyn had actually been rather disappointed when she’d returned to the villa to find that her friend was feeling better. Mostly because it meant she wouldn’t be able to spend time with Christian. She enjoyed his company more, had more fun with him, laughed more with him. He made her happy.

But that wasn’t all. She’d somehow come to trust him. Carolyn wasn’t sure how that had happened. But she did. She wouldn’t have let him tie her to the bed last night if she hadn’t trusted him. She’d also trusted him to look out for her on the cruise yesterday. Carolyn didn’t think she would have drunk as much as she had if she hadn’t known Christian was watching from the back of the boat. Despite his anger, she’d been confident he’d be there at the end of the trip to see her safely off the boat and back to the villa. As he had.

But what did he want from her? What exactly had Jack meant when he’d said Christian was in it for the long haul? And was he even right about that?

Carolyn shifted from one foot to the other with frustration. She wouldn’t know the answers to anything until she had that talk with Christian. But the thought of it left her nervous and dry-mouthed. Grimacing, she turned and walked back across the combination kitchen/dining room, and slid around the island to the fridge. She was thirsty and knew there was bottled water here. Christian had gotten her two bottles last night.

He wouldn’t mind her getting another while she waited, Carolyn thought and pulled the fridge door open and then simply stared. There was water. Several bottles of it lined up on the fridge door shelves. The main part of the fridge though was what made her pause. It was filled with what had to be more than fifty bags of red liquid, all stacked on top of each other, that looked suspiciously like blood.

The sound of voices from the other room had her quickly closing the fridge door and moving guiltily away. She had no idea what the blood was doing in it. Christian had mentioned an allergy to the sun, but he’d never mentioned hemophilia or anything like that. Although, she wasn’t sure hemophiliacs carried around bags of blood with them, and even if they did, surely they wouldn’t need so much?

Frowning, she started for the door and then paused. Obviously the rest of the band had returned, and while she was covered up and relatively decent, she . . . well . . . she’d rather not be seen running around in nothing but Christian’s T-shirt. God, they’d all know she— That they’d— Oh dear, she thought with a sigh.

“Caro?”

Carolyn glanced to the door to see Gia there, with the rest of the band crowded behind her and immediately felt her face grow hot. Actually, her whole body did and she suspected she was blushing all the way down to her toes.

“Hi,” she said weakly, tugging at the bottom of Christian’s T-shirt, which suddenly seemed extremely short under their stares.

“Where’s Christian?” Gia asked

“Er . . . actually . . . I’m not sure. I came in here looking for him,” she admitted and then, seeing no hope for it, drew her shoulders up and headed quickly forward, murmuring, “I think I’ll go back to his room now.”

Carolyn was pretty sure her blush was darkening, and she probably resembled a tomato with legs as she hurried forward, but much to her relief, Gia stepped aside and the men backed away to make room for her to leave. Muttering an embarrassed “Thank you,” she moved past them, crossed to the steps, and scampered upstairs.

Eighteen

“C
hristian? What are you doing?”

Turning from the closet, Christian found Gia standing in the doorway and sagged with relief. “Thank God you’re back. Can I borrow—” He stopped in surprise as she suddenly crossed the room to grab one of the two robes arranged on the bed and tossed it at him.

“Cover up,” she said with disgust as he caught it. “I love you,
cugino,
but not enough to have you waving the family jewels in my face.”

“Sorry,” he muttered, pulling on the robe.

“So what did you want to borrow?” Gia asked once he was decent.

“Oh, yes. Can I borrow a feather? And maybe a pair of gloves?”

“Why would you want . . .” Her words trailed off as she concentrated on his forehead, and then she said, “Ewww. No. You can’t.”

Christian was just sagging with disappointment when she added, “You can
have
a pair of gloves and a feather, but I do not want them back. Ever.”

Christian grinned at her disgusted expression as she moved to the dresser. “You’re just jealous because I’ve found my life mate and you haven’t.”

“Yeah,” she agreed, digging out the desired items. “Let’s just hope you can hold on to her.”

“I will. I’m not letting Caro go,” he said grimly, taking the red feather and black gloves she held out.

“Then you’d better come up with a good excuse for the blood in the fridge,” Gia said quietly.

Christian stiffened. “What? Why? She doesn’t know about—”

“She woke up and went in search of you. In the kitchen, she stopped for a bottle of water and found the blood.”

He felt himself pale. “What did she—?”

“Don’t panic,” Gia said soothingly. “Carolyn really isn’t sure what to make of it at the moment. Hemophilia crossed her mind, but she didn’t get much chance to think about it. We returned then and she heard us and closed the fridge door. She was standing in the center of the kitchen looking guilty when we walked in, which is why I read her memory,” Gia explained, and then added, “And discovered she loves you.”

Christian felt his heart stutter in his chest. “She does?”

Gia nodded solemnly. “You should maybe go tell her you love her too. If nothing else, it should distract her from thinking about the blood.”

Christian nodded, but hesitated and frowned. “How the hell am I going to explain the blood if she asks about it?”

“Tell her it’s fake blood for the stage show.”

Christian turned to glance toward the door at that rumble from Santo. The man stood leaning against the door frame, arms crossed. Raising his eyebrows, Christian asked, “Stage show?”

Santo shrugged. “Rock bands do all sorts of weird things, biting heads off bats and such nonsense. Say Zanipolo wanted to use it in the show, but the rest of us refused.”

“Why Zanipolo?” Gia asked with amusement.

“Because he’s just crazy enough to do something like that,” Santo said dryly.

“Good. That’s good, Santo,” Christian said, nodding as he moved toward him.

“Thanks,” Santo said with a wry twist to his lips as he turned to let him pass. “I do occasionally do more with my head than shave it.”

“And I’m glad you do,” Christian said wryly as he moved into the hall. “Cause nothing was coming to my mind to explain it.”

He heard Santo grunt as he hurried back to his room.

Christian found Carolyn in the bathroom wearing one of his T-shirts and hanging her dress over the shower door to let it dry out. He watched silently, trying to figure out how to bring up the subject of the blood in the fridge. He wasn’t supposed to know she knew about it.

“Oh.” Carolyn’s surprised murmur drew his attention to the fact that she’d turned and spotted him. A slow blush slid up across her skin and he smiled.

“Sorry I wasn’t here when you woke up, I went to find—” He paused and suddenly whipped the hand holding the gloves and feather behind his back. It was just better he didn’t even think about those items until they’d talked, otherwise they might never get to the talking. Seeing the question on Carolyn’s face he finished, “A surprise.”

“Oh?” Carolyn remained where she was, looking uncertain.

“Wait here.” Christian turned to move to the dresser in his room and stowed away the borrowed items, then called out, “
Cara?
”

“Yes?” She came to the door of the bathroom.

“Are you thirsty or hungry?” he asked innocently.

“Thirsty,” Carolyn admitted quietly.

Nodding, Christian grabbed one of the two robes that he’d tumbled to the floor earlier when he’d carried Carolyn to the bed and held it out to her. “Come on. We’ll go get a drink and see if room service is still available.”

“Oh . . . er . . . your cousins are back,” she said uncomfortably.

“That’s why I’m giving you the robe,” he said with amusement.

“Yes, but . . .”

His eyebrows rose as he noted the embarrassment and discomfort on her face and he said gently, “
Cara,
there’s no reason to feel shy around my family. They understand the situation.”

“Do they?” she asked uncertainly. “Because I don’t.”

Christian turned to toss the robe on the bed. The talk would be about them before the blood then. Obviously she wasn’t as concerned about his having blood in the fridge as she was about what was happening between them. He figured that had to be a good thing. It showed some trust, didn’t it? She wasn’t jumping to mad conclusions and suddenly concerned that he was a freak or something.

Turning back, he caught a look of yearning and fear on her face before she quickly ducked her head, and he felt his heart tighten. Gia said she loved him, and that look made him pretty sure Gia was right. But that love wasn’t going to reassure her about what she thought was their age difference. He could reassure her pretty quickly simply by telling her everything, but her feelings were too new and he was afraid of what would happen if they weren’t yet strong enough to withstand what he had to tell her. He had to work with what he
could
tell her.

“I love you.”

Her face came up, eyes wide, and then she began to shake her head. “I know you want me. At least I’m pretty sure you haven’t been faking that, but love?”

“Yes, love,” Christian said firmly and then frowned. “Carolyn, I know your husband did a number on you. It’s obviously left you feeling . . .”

“Old, ugly, useless, and unlovable,” Carolyn said dully.

“Bastard,” Christian breathed, fighting fury as he saw her eyes glaze with tears. If he ever met the man— He cut off his own thoughts. Anger wouldn’t help. He needed her to talk to him, and pleaded, “Help me understand. Tell me about him.”