Wicked Sunset (Sunset Vampire Series, Book 4) (9 page)

We made a couple of brief trips back to our table to our drinks but always ended right back out on the dance floor.

Paige looked like she was having as great of a time as I was. I felt relieved to suspend my angst-ridden, depressing thoughts about my relationship with Kat, particularly everything that had happened earlier.

We returned to our table, and this time, Paige let me sit down to wipe my perspiring forehead with a cocktail napkin.

“Awesome dancing, tiger. I noticed somebody’s been doin’ their cardio,” she said. “Good boy; we’ll reconsider that biscuit.”

I couldn’t help but laugh as I looked past her toward the club’s entrance.

As if following some cosmic script, “Stripped” by Shiny Toy Guns blared overhead at the moment that the newest entrant to the bar made her presence known.

Kat was attired in an alluring black leather halter dress with matching stilettoes, and she carried a small leather clutch wallet. Her red hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, and her black lipstick gave her a dark, foreboding look.

Her penetrating gaze scanned the bar, flashing bright green as soon as she fixed her gaze upon me.

My breath caught in my throat as I watched her part the room while she approached me in a stalking, methodic fashion.

She looked like a beautiful but dangerous red-haired demon that had come to collect her next unsuspecting soul.

Me.

A number of people stopped dancing and simply stared at her as she passed, giving her a wide berth.

“Subtly was never Red’s strong suit,” Paige said.

Kat stopped just short of our table, her eyes never leaving mine.

“I’m gonna’ snag a fresh vod and cran,” Paige said, smoothly slipping from her chair as she grabbed her cell phone and headed toward the bar.

“I hope you don’t mind if I join you,” Kat said, commandeering the empty chair immediately to my left.

“A lady wouldn’t presume,” I said.

“A gentleman would’ve offered,” she countered reproachfully.

Okay. I didn’t have a response for that.

“You haven’t returned any of my calls or text messages,” she said. “I was worried about you.”

“And now you’re here to retrieve me?” I asked.

“That’s rather unkind,” she said coolly. “Don’t you want to feel wanted? Shouldn’t I want to seek you out and show my love and concern for you?”

I hesitated and took a long swig of beer.

“Caleb, it’s quite an interesting little place you’ve discovered here, but please, let’s go home and talk things out,” she said.

“I’m not leaving.”

“Well, you can’t camp out here forever, you know,” she said.

“Ever hear of hotels?”

I got a small, perverse thrill over her resulting stony expression.

“Oh, please,” she said. “Don’t you think that’s overreacting a bit?”

Oh, really?

I simply stared back at her.

Her eyes narrowed. “I see,” she said. “At the very least, perhaps you’d permit me to sit with you while appreciating your new hangout?”

“Okay,” I said with a shrug. “Actually, this place will grow on you if you just give it half a chance.”

“I’m sure,” she said. “But home would be more comfortable for us to talk, wouldn’t you agree?”

“I’m not going home,” I said. “Things are still a little raw with me right now.”

A sad expression permeated her features, though it didn’t alter either my resolution or my feelings.

One of the servers who had been making her rounds stopped by our table.

“Welcome to Old Skools. What can I get for you?” she asked, fully focusing her attention on Kat.

Maybe it was merely the lighting in the place, but I’d swear our server’s skin flushed as I watched her.

“Dark and Stormy, please,” Kat said.

“Right away, ma’am,” the server crisply replied, making a beeline for the bar area.

The irony of Kat’s drink order wasn’t lost on me.

Fitting, actually.

In addition, I couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy over how quickly she had commanded attention and responsiveness from our server.

Typical vampire allure.

Was I so different?

“I see you have a fan club already,” I said.

“What?” she asked, taking notice of the attentive stares that she was receiving from those nearby.

As I watched, she swept each of the faces of onlookers with a flat, icy stare. Almost instantly, prying eyes averted to other locations.

Then, she calmly interlaced the fingers of both hands before her on the table and returned her full attention to me.

Jeez, she’s in full-on alpha mode right now.

Though I wasn’t about to admit it, I found it both intimidating and somewhat sexy.

“I realize and accept that you’re upset with me, and I’m willing to concede that my little demonstration went too far with you earlier this afternoon,” she said.

“No. The way that you treated me today was no less than downright cruel,” I said. “I came to you to rationally discuss my feelings, just as you’ve suggested in the past.”

She scowled at me. “To calmly accuse me of
emasculating
you,” she said flatly. “Do you have any idea how that made me feel, Caleb? To think that after all the efforts that I’ve given to love, nurture, protect, and support you that it had all been in vain; because instead I’ve merely emasculated you? You seemed to throw that word out like it was some new toy to play with. That’s a hard, harsh word; or at least to me it is.”

I fought back a wince from the venomous tone in her voice.

She closed her eyes and clenched her jaw, as if in the midst of struggling against some hidden, yet intense, urge.

When she finally opened her eyes, she appeared composed and more relaxed, though I still noted a look of strain in her eyes.

“Please, go on,” she said. “You were saying?”

“There’s no point, really.”

At that moment I didn’t have the stomach to say much else. It seemed we both felt hurt and affronted at some level.

We looked away from each other for a time.

When I finally looked over at her again, she gazed into my eyes in a suddenly tender manner that threatened my firm resolve.

Never breaking eye contact, she leaned closer to me. “Please. Talk to me. Something else is bothering you, and I need to know what it is.”

What was it about her that made her so maddeningly obstinate and hard one minute and then seemingly gentle and nurturing the next?

The server promptly arrived with her drink and carefully placed it on a crisp-looking napkin before her. The woman stared down at Kat like she was in a degree of awe.

“Thank you,” Kat said with a polite expression.

“You’re very welcome,” she said with a lilt to her voice. “I’m Ellie. Please don’t hesitate to motion to me if you need anything.”

I nearly gawked over the way the woman was gushing over Kat.

Seriously?

Ellie was blushing, and honestly, I’d noticed in the past that Kat had that effect on a number people; men and women.

And me.

Kat nodded and waited for Ellie to depart before returning her gaze to me and gesturing for me to continue.

“It’s very simple,” I said. “The point is you were wrong to do what you did to me today.”

She considered me at length before speaking.

“Unfortunately, and unless you haven’t noticed, you have a tendency to require very direct methods of demonstration in order to bring errant behaviors or blatant misperceptions to your attention,” she said. “For all your agreeable nature, you can be such a stubborn man sometimes.”

I stared at her.

Why am I having such a hard time trying to explain to her how I feel?

“You don’t have to be an overbearing dominatrix with me to make a point,” I said.

Her momentary look of shock was priceless and I felt satisfied I made the impact I’d hoped.

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and slowly exhaled. Then, she regarded me with a tight-lipped expression.

“Oh, please. Do you actually know what being, much less serving under, a dominatrix entails? You know, for an intelligent man with a Master’s degree, you’re having an awfully hard time with your vocabulary recently,” she said. “But then, perhaps my outfit and this environment contributed to your misinterpretation.”

I frowned, not sure how to respond to that. Of course, it didn’t help that she was very much looking the part at that moment.

“First of all, I’ve never asserted the role of dominatrix over you. If I had, you’d damned well know the difference,” she said.

I didn’t really know what to say to that.

“You mean, you’ve been a—”

“Not professionally, but you’d be surprised at the host of talents I’ve acquired over five centuries that I haven’t revealed to you yet,” she said. “Make no mistake; people have never paid to have sex with me. If you neither earn it nor deserve it, you certainly don’t receive it, money-be-damned.”

I stared wide-eyed as my mind reeled over her revelation.

A host of talents? Just how far out of my league is she, anyway?

“I have a pretty good idea what you’re thinking, my love, and I recognize that look on you face,” she said. “Stop doubting and belittling yourself. You’ve come a long way in the short time we’ve been together. You’re neither as fragile nor inferior as you think.”

She gazed back at me with a patient, knowing look.

Taking up my nearly empty glass, I finished off the remainder of my beer.

She arched one brow.

“It’s only my third,” I replied to her unasked question.

Jeez, I’m not some idiot alcoholic like my father was.

“And have you eaten anything?” she asked.

“Here?” I asked. “They were all out of goth snacks by the time I arrived. After all, we’re in a club, not a restaurant.”

“There’s no need to be snippy,” she said.

She glanced over her shoulder and motioned to a nearby server. It was then that I realized that the server and a number of other patrons were once again casting curious glances in our direction.

We always attract so much attention when we’re out.

Of course, I realized that it was likely to be less me and more Kat; she commanded the attention of most eyes in a room.

She’s got vampire allure on steroids.

We sat in silence as the server brought a fresh beer and a Dark and Stormy to our table. She cast a longing look at Katrina but offered me a polite smile before departing to check on some nearby patrons.

Kat frowned after her and returned her attention to me.

“Our server probably wants to ask you out for a date,” I said. “As would a number of guys in the room.”

“Not happening,” she said. “Now, where were we?”

I smirked. “You know full well where you left off,” I said. “You’re just testing to see if I’m keeping up. I haven’t had that much to drink just yet.”

She appeared amused as she took a sip of her drink.

“I think we left off at my self-esteem issues,” I said. “And your revelations about hidden talents. A dominatrix?”

She frowned at me. “
Not
a dominatrix.”

Hopefully, the mood was lightening between us slightly.

“I bet you’d be a really good one, though,” I said in a mock-conspiratorial tone.

The edges of her mouth curved upward slightly.

“Maybe I’ve never been an actual dominatrix, but I’ve known a couple of them over the years, and you might be surprised at how well I can fulfill that role for you,” she said with a grin that looked half-menacing. “Interested? We could take things very slowly, if you like. It doesn’t have to be conducted in a… How did you put it?
Cruel
manner.”

While slightly scary, there was a forbidden allure to the idea of roleplaying with her.

Crap. What the hell am I thinking?

“I don’t think that’s a very good idea, after what happened today,” I said. “Do you?”

“Caleb,” she said. “What loving couples do together, or share together, is entirely between them. I don’t care what other people think. They can all go to hell, for all I care.”

Her eyes glistened. “Dammit, I love you, and I want to be whatever you need me to be. I want to fulfill
your
needs. You’re all that matters to me.”

Her admission hit me with full force; like a tidal wave of emotion.

I swallowed hard, feeling a lump grow in the back of my throat. “That means a lot,” I managed to say.

The sudden emotional overload in my brain threatened to overwhelm me.

I deliberately glanced past Kat to see Paige obviously enjoying herself while dancing to the sound of Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love” with a young man who was dressed in classic Goth rave wear.

I couldn’t help but smile.

“That’s your Paige look,” Kat said.

“I have a Paige look?”

“Oh, yes,” she said. “It’s quite distinctive, actually.”

“Does that bother you?” I asked.

“That you have ‘a look’ for her? Not as long as I continue to see the ones that you have for me,” she said.

“Look, I’m not contemplating leaving you, if that’s what you’re implying,” I said. “I’m just really disappointed, shocked, and still a little hurt.”

God, how over-the-top-emo did that just sound? What the hell’s wrong with me all of the sudden?

Her body language appeared more relaxed. “Well, at least we’re finally talking, and you’re being honest with me about your feelings.”

The fact wasn’t lost on me that vampires were the world’s best lie detectors; not that I was trying to mislead her about how I was feeling.

We sat for a few minutes, sipping our drinks and staring at each other.

“So, where do we go from here?” I asked.

“You could start by telling me what’s really bothering you,” she said. “That is, if you’re ready to talk about it.”

What? Somebody hasn’t been listening very closely, it seems.

“That’s funny. I thought we’ve been discussing what’s bothering me,” I said.

“No, it’s not about today. The heart of the matter isn’t so much about me, neither my dominance nor your perceived embarrassment over your submissive nature, my love,” she said. “Although the real topic of concern, the true culprit here, has affected your sense of masculinity.”