Spencer held her tongue as Ethan stirred, then settled back on the table again. At least he was alive and that was something. She let her shoulders sag, thinking it was probably the first second she’d allowed herself to relax since Joffrey had dumped her here.
She struggled with the bonds that held her hands captive. What the hell was keeping her from breaking them? Christ, she felt like a newborn baby.
And what the hell had allowed her to hear Larkin in her head?
She had too many questions she needed answered. First of which was where in the devil she and Ethan were and how to get that information to Larkin without freaky Joffrey knowing? He couldn’t know they could communicate or that Larkin could read her mind, could he? And now she could hear Larkin in her head, too. What the frig was going on?
Spencer tried to shimmy up the wall of the basement and ignore the spiders scurrying around at her feet. As she struggled to walk her back up the cement wall, her legs buckled and shook. What the hell was wrong with her?
The door to the basement jiggled, then swung open, leaving her staring at Joffrey.
Perfect.
Joffrey was as crisp and as cool as ever as he scanned Spencer, still struggling to stand upright. He snickered. “I see you’re not giving up. I like a good fight,” he mocked as he came to stand before her. He grabbed a fistful of Spencer’s shirt and hauled her up, scraping her back along the cement wall.
Her head swam, but she refused to look away, no matter how eerie Joffrey’s eyes were. “What the hell is going on, Joffrey? You went to an awful lot of trouble to get me alone,” she cracked.
He pressed his slender body against Spencer’s more petite one. “Oh, no, Spencer. I don’t want to be alone with you. I want to kill you.”
Good, very good. They were off to a good start. Shit. “Where are we, Joffrey? Couldn’t you think of a more original locale for our first date? I mean, you’re creepy and all and I get the whole dark brooding thing, but just once I’d like our little get-togethers to be about me, you know? Maybe next time we could try a nice sidewalk café?”
Joffrey cupped her jaw and dug his fingers into her cheeks, mushing her lips together and effectively cutting off further verbiage. “Shut up, Spencer.”
“But don’t you vant to talk?” Spencer asked between her lips, lips that were puckered and fish-like.
Joffrey squeezed harder, making Spencer cringe. “I said, shut up, Spencer.”
She reared her head up and pulled from Joffrey’s tight grip, smacking her head against the hard wall, but she ignored the pain. She had to find out where they were and communicate that to Larkin. “Where are we, Joffrey?”
Joffrey pressed his forehead to hers and grazed her lips with his own. “Your final resting place,” he said with the calm arrogance that Spencer had come to hate.
Spencer glared back at him. “Well, could you share that just so I know? I mean, like my last death wish or something?”
He clucked his too-pink tongue. “You’re in my cabin. Out in the sticks of Easton. No one knows it exists, so it doesn’t matter. So, Spencer, how would you like to die today?”
Didja hear that, Sherlock? I’m somewhere in the boondocks of Easton. I’m guessing somewhere north of I-36. There’s a dirt road off of exit twenty-two. Take it and you’d better hope that car doesn’t break down or I’m going to have it repo’d. And please hurry up? Tell my father. He’ll be able to smell me.
Crap, Spencer hoped Larkin had heard her because the straits were becoming dire and she was too afraid to focus enough to listen in case Larkin sent her a message back.
“Answer the question, Spencer,” Joffrey demanded with a curt tone.
She shrugged her shoulders. “Can I have my options, please? Do you have death packages? You know, like package A is the virtually painless death package. No gore, no nasty entrails. Oh, wait. I don’t have entrails, do I? Can I have the options for package B, Joffrey?”
Twilight was not amused. It was obvious from the way his almost always unlined face began to crack. “You talk too much, Spencer. I can’t imagine what that human detective finds so interesting about you. You’re rather droll,” he quipped sarcastically.
Like that statement was an arrow to her heart, especially coming from Mr. Lily White. Hurt me, why don’t you? “But you have to admit I’m rather likeable. I mean, you did want to be my life mate, didn’t you? I couldn’t be all bad, Joffrey.” Spencer smiled wickedly at him, pushing her envelope of death just a bit further.
If Larkin didn’t get his ass here soon, she’d run out of stall time and then she’d have to haunt Larkin for the rest of eternity.
Joffrey gave her that look.
Spencer nodded her head in complete understanding. “I know, ‘shut up, Spencer,’ right?”
He cocked his head back and nodded. “In a nutshell.”
“Just one more question,” Spencer squeaked. “Well, maybe two…”
He narrowed his eyes. “By all means…”
“You wrote that letter to Alan’s mother, didn’t you? To make it look like he’d killed himself over losing his girlfriend. You were afraid the police would find out he was gay and that he was involved with you. Alan found you after he and Ethan broke it off, didn’t he?”
Joffrey clucked his tongue. “Poor Alan, he was so distraught over losing Ethan because he was too afraid to come out of the closet. Bummer for him, eh? It’s my personal opinion that there’s nothing like a rebound affair to cheer you right up.”
Spencer wanted to gag. He’d preyed upon Alan when he was at his weakest and most vulnerable, but she couldn’t harp on that now. She had to keep stalling him. “Why did you kill Alan and the others and what does it have to do with the Polanskis?”
Joffrey gave Spencer that cool smile that sent a shiver down her spine, like a wet willy in your ear. “I found out the Polanskis were morticians—morticians who had Alan’s body. It was only a matter of time before they found out that Alan, Brian, and Eddie had vampire bites. A vampire knows another vampire’s bite. So I thought it best to find out what the Polanskis knew—if they knew anything at all. When I smelled you and you didn’t smell me back, well the conclusion was logical. I decided to pretend you were my life mate and get the information from you by wooing you—or killing you. Whichever came first.”
Joffrey shook his head as he pushed off Spencer roughly and paced the basement floor. “Sadly, Spencer, you didn’t want to be wooed. You wanted a human.” He shook his head in disgust. “What is it about your family and humans, Spencer? Anyway, now you have to die because you know far too much. And then, I’m going to drain Ethan and then we’ll go about the business of making vamps what they should be. That certainly doesn’t include a bunch of human lovers,” he sneered at her. “You know, I really will never understand what happened to the old ways, when a vamp was considered a force to contend with. Now you can’t tell who we are unless you drag us out under the midday sun. We should be feared, not invited to the neighborhood barbeque, and I kept thinking to myself, how can I change that? I want to know why the humans of this world should be anything more than a snack.”
Spencer shrugged, her big mouth open and spewing tough talk before she could shut it, knowing full well the “quiet place” was best right now. “Maybe because there are more humans than there are vamps, asshole? We’re outnumbered, you dipshit. When in Rome and all.”
Joffrey stopped pacing and hauled Spencer up by the front of her shirt, slamming her against the hard cement of the basement wall. He stuck his face in hers, the perfect planes of it contorted with anger. “Fuck Rome, you dumb bitch. It’s because of vampires like your daddy that we are who we are today. I plan to change all of that.”
“Like how, pansy ass?” Spencer threw back in Joffrey’s face, daring him to become further enraged and ignoring the bolt of pain shooting up her spine.
If Joffrey were going to kill her it wouldn’t be without a damn fight. She struggled against his fist, tightly clenched in her shirt. Her legs dangled against Joffrey’s stronger ones.
“You have a sharp tongue, Spencer, and I’ll cut it out of your head if you don’t watch who you aim it at. I plan to drain anyone and everyone I can come in contact with, thus turning them into revenants. I’ll have my own little army of vampires. I guess it isn’t just your nose on the blink, eh, Spencer? I want a super race. I want a legion of vampires who do my bidding. Poor souls that have little purpose on this earth but to serve me. They go off and bite, then drain some more poor souls and so on and so on.”
Spencer’s eyes were wide with horror. Revenants. Oh, Jesus Christ in a miniskirt. Joffrey wanted minions to do his bidding without question. A race of brainless, dead servants. “What are you? A maniac? Do you really believe you can take over the world? You sick, motherfucking freak!”
Joffrey jammed a knee into Spencer’s gut with force, making her gasp as pain seared her ribs and roared through her ears. “That’s exactly what I intend to do, Spencer. Alan and the others didn’t work out. Though, gay vamp that I am, I did enjoy their company, if you know what I mean. I just haven’t found the right balance in draining a human to the right degree. They all end up dead. But I’ll figure it out and besides,” he stopped mid sentence and licked his thin lips, “I’m having a helluva time in the process.”
Spencer heard the crash of the basement door just as she was about to give in to the dizzying black hole that called her.
“Let go of my daughter, Joffrey, or I’ll see you in the fires of hell!” Edgar Polanski roared as he erupted into the basement of Joffrey’s cabin and grabbed the vampire by his collar, lifting him off his feet.
Joffrey dropped Spencer to the floor just before Edgar launched him into the air. She saw the arc of Joffrey’s slender frame as she scraped to the floor. Her head slapped the cement again and again as she slid down the wall and fell to a heap of limbs.
Larkin ran to her side and said out of the corner of his mouth, “I think Daddy Polanski is pissed.”
Spencer was so grateful to see Larkin and her father that she found herself smiling. “You heard me…thank God.”
Larkin tore at the duct tape holding Spencer’s hands together. “I heard you, and your dad heard lots of things too. We have some splainin’ to do, Lucy,” he joked. “Are you okay, you look…well, you look paler than usual.”
“I’m fine, but I’m so weak…I think Joffrey drank from me.” As Larkin freed a hand, Spencer ran it over her neck. Yep. He sure did. Just enough to keep her weak. The chicken shit.
“Does that mean you have Joffrey cooties now? I can’t have a chick with cooties.” Larkin grinned, kissing her on the tip of her nose and pulling her into the shelter of his strong arms.
Edgar Polanski had Joffrey by the throat, half lying over the edge of the table that Ethan was strapped to. Spencer had never seen her father this angry, ever. It almost frightened her to see his usually calm exterior rigid and radiating rage.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done, Joffrey?” Her father said Joffrey’s name like it had the plague as he jammed his face into the vampires. “I’m going to have to kill you, you know, and I hate to do that. Such a pity, but you must never, ever hurt one of mine.”
Joffrey’s usually calm exterior twisted with fury as he struggled beneath Edgar, clawing at the hands that held his neck. “I’ll see you in hell first, Polanski!” he screamed into Edgar’s face.
“Ah, but I’ll have the better room, Joffrey, and I’ll be waiting for you…” Edgar’s voice was hushed, his words floating out of his mouth on a hiss of contempt. “You’ve killed people, Joffrey. That’s not nice.”
“I killed humans, Polanski! Humans that are useless. What kind of vampire are you anyway? Living amongst the lesser like you’re one of them?”
Edgar shook Joffrey hard, making his chattering teeth echo in the small basement. “And who are you to judge, Joffrey? You will pay for what you’ve done. What would have happened to my family if the police had found out about those vampire bites, weakling? For that alone, you will suffer!”
Larkin helped Spencer up, but she shrugged him off and shuffled to her father. “Dad! Dad, stop! If you kill him, you’ll be no better than he is!” Spencer tugged at her father’s arm, gripping the bulging muscles of his arm, but he wouldn’t be deterred.
“Larkin, get Ethan and take Spencer now!” Edgar yelled with sharp clarity. “Do it now, Detective!”
Larkin grabbed Spencer by the arm, tucking her close to him as he untied Ethan and hauled him over his shoulder. “Move your butt, vampire,” he ordered Spencer.
“But—” Spencer began to protest on a yelp.
“Detective,” Edgar growled. “Learn now how to control your wayward woman and get her out of here!”
“Now is not the time to get cheeky, woman. You heard your father. Move it!”
As Spencer let Larkin pull her out of the basement, she looked over her shoulder one last time to see her father reaching into his suit jacket. Spencer knew what he had.
A stake.
A wooden stake.
And tonight Joffrey would die.
* * * *
She continued to protest as they made their way to Larkin’s car and laid Ethan in the back with a blanket.
“Spencer, stop. Your father’s doing what he has to, to protect you and your family. I won’t fault him for that.”
Spencer begrudgingly got into the car and let Larkin strap her seat belt around her. Then he kissed her forehead and said, “Good girl. I think I could adjust to you silent.”
They drove back to the parlor, each of them lost in their own thoughts before leaving Ethan in the care of her mother. After explaining the situation, they headed back to Spencer’s apartment. Her mother was upset to say the least, but didn’t seem at all concerned about Edgar. Her father must have a side to him that she’d never witnessed. She’d left her mother with a kiss and the promise that Spencer would hear from her when her father arrived home.
As they drove to her apartment, Larkin didn’t let go of her hand once as he explained the conversation he’d had with her father on the way to Joffrey’s cabin.
“So he knows Ethan is gay?” Spencer asked Larkin, biting her lip and worrying over her father’s reaction.
“He sort of guessed, I think. He said he knew something was troubling Ethan and he and your mother had discussed it at length. I didn’t really tell him the details. He sort of pieced it together after I told him about Joffrey and Alan. He knew Joffrey had both you and Ethan at the cabin. It was easy for him to piece it together after that. I tried to be evasive, but you must know your dad when he wants answers.”
Spencer groaned. She certainly did. He could be as stubborn as she was. “Well, now it’s up to Ethan to talk to my parents.” She’d explained to Larkin why Joffrey was picking people off and the detective in him seemed satisfied, albeit a bit sickened and bewildered.
Alarm crept up her spine and she asked, “Maybe we should go back and help my dad? I’m worried, Larkin. I’ve never seen him like that.”
He chuckled as they pulled into Spencer’s driveway and parked. “Yeah, well, don’t worry too much about your dad. I had no idea how strong he is and he’s older than Joffrey, according to him. I think he can take care of himself. I know Joffrey’s going to regret screwing with your family. Your dad knows Twilight’s father. I think Joffrey just might be grounded for bad behavior.”
She swiped at his broad shoulder. “That’s not funny, Larkin. Dad said he was going to kill him.”
“Yep. And if you ask me, it’s the only way. Something ain’t right about that pasty freak. The vampire world will thank your father.
“I’m worried about my dad.”
“You should be more worried about me. He really gave me what for over this whole mind reading thing.”
Larkin got out of the car and came around to Spencer’s side to help her out, but she was already beginning to feel much better. She’d begun to heal as all vampires did. “He knows you can read my mind?”
“Yeah, honey. How do you suppose I was going to tell him that I knew who took you and Ethan?”
“Oh, great. And what did he have to say about this?”
“C’mon, you need to feed. I’ll tell you inside.”
Spencer smiled and let Larkin guide her up the stairs to her apartment. He was concerned about her feeding. Dreamy sigh.
“Of course I’m concerned about you. I love you.”
Spencer caught another odd nudge at the edge of her brain, rather like the one she’d had just before she could hear Larkin in her head as clearly as if he were in the room with her. She chuckled then. “Yes, Larkin. I believe you now.”
“Get out of my head, Spencer.”
“Not until you get out of mine, Detective,” she taunted. Turnabout was delicious.
“Look, Spencer. Your dad explained the whole mind reading thing. You know what it means, don’t you?” Larkin pushed her unlocked door open.
“Um, now we can say, ‘can ya hear me now’ and it has real meaning?”
Larkin chuckled as he settled Spencer on her couch and went to the fridge for her storage of blood. “Among other things. It means we’re life mates and you’re stuck with me.”
Huh?
“You heard me, woman,” Larkin teased as he brought her back a mug and the mason jar of blood she stashed in her fridge.
“Life mates? How do you figure?”
“I didn’t. Your dad did. He said some life mates don’t just smell their intended. They can hear them and sometimes, like in our case, it happens to one before the other. Apparently, you were so busy being pig-headed and stubborn about me that you couldn’t hear me until you really needed to.”
“My father told you this?” Spencer was astonished.
“Yep. He said that your mother and he didn’t develop the mind reading thing until they’d been together awhile, but they did sniff each other out. It’s a vampire gig, I guess.”
Spencer rolled her eyes. “And why didn’t you figure this out, detective that you are?”
“Oh, no. Don’t go blaming me. I’m not a vampire. How was I supposed to know the ways of you creatures of the night?”
Spencer set the cup and blood on her coffee table and patted the spot beside her on the couch. “So I have to live with you for eternity?”
Larkin plopped down next to her and pulled her close. “You say that like it’s a bad thing, Elvira.”
“Who is Elvira?”
“You know, the woman on television? Mistress of the dark…comedy?” He shook his head. “Never mind. Anyway, you’re my woman. Adjust.”
“So I don’t get a say in this?”
“You could have Joffrey…”
Spencer laughed as she snuggled close to Larkin’s broad chest and listened to the beat of his heart, a heart that reminded her of something. “But we won’t have an eternity, Larkin.”
“We can…” Larkin’s sentence trailed off into the air.
“I don’t know if I like what you’re thinking, Larkin, and yes, I can hear what you’re thinking. I love you and I don’t want you to do something you may end up feeling damned for.”
“I don’t feel damned, Spencer. In all of this crazy madness, it seems right.”
“I can’t do this, Larkin. I just can’t. It’s not like I’m asking you to be my steady and give me your high school ring. I’m asking you to give up your life—or at least life as you know it.”
Larkin squeezed her arm. “I know what it means. So let’s not talk about it, let’s do it.”
Spencer’s indecision gnawed at her stomach. “I can’t. I love you too much.”
“Okay, so I love you, you love me. It’s like a Barney thing. Established, now let’s get me turned.”
“Who is Barney?”
Larkin grinned and kissed her. “You know, the big purple dinosaur that kids like? He sings that song, I love you—you love me?”
Spencer shook her head. “Uh, no.”
“Forget it, honey. Let’s get to the turning thing.”
Spencer pushed at his solid chest. “Larkin, if you let me turn you, nothing will ever be the same for you. You won’t want big, greasy burgers and pizza. You won’t want to work the day shift. I mean this is huge, Detective. It has far reaching ramifications that you can’t possibly begin to grasp.”
“I know what it means, Spencer.”
Spencer sat up and pulled away from Larkin’s reach so she could look him in those sexy eyes of his. “And what about the blood thing, sissy? The idea makes you sick. You can’t be a vampire and not drink blood.”
On cue, Larkin turned green. “But if I’m a vamp it won’t matter, won’t I crave it?”
“Yes, you will, but this is a major, life altering choice, Larkin. It’s like changing from a giraffe to an elephant.”
Larkin snorted. “I hardly think it’s quite the same. I’ll still be me, just a bigger bad-ass version of me.”
Spencer shook her head at him. “That’s what worries me, right now you’re focusing on the tough guy bullshit, but you’re not paying attention to the rest of the vampire stuff. First, what about your family? Do you even have any family? Second, you won’t be able to have children. Do you even want children? There’s so much I don’t know about you. At least a million things.” She shook her head again. This was crazy.
“I was a foster kid. No family. And we can adopt. Maybe save a kid or two who needs a family.”
He said it as if it were all so simple.
Her eyes captured his. He had to know how serious this was. The kind of commitment he was making. “You will live for eternity. E-T-E-R-N-I-T-Y,” Spencer spelled. “You can’t ever go back to being human again, Larkin.”
He shrugged his broad shoulders and grinned again. “But then I get to spend E-T-E-R-N-I-T-Y with you, right?”
Spencer couldn’t help but smile back. “Yes, yes, Larkin, you do, but I really think you should give this more thought. You’re thinking with something that doesn’t have a brain,” Spencer said as she pointed to his crotch.
Larkin reached for her hand and dragged her back into his arms. “I am not either. I’m thinking I could do a lot of good with all those acute vampire senses as a cop.”
She frowned against his hard chest. “Back home?”
Larkin kissed the top of her head. “Nope. Right here in Easton.”
Spencer’s smile was smug, but she kept her face buried in his chest to hide it. “Not a lot happens here in Easton, Larkin, and what about the counseling you said they were going to make you attend. You’d have to go before they’ll reinstate you.”
“No, but I can live with that now. It doesn’t all have to be about guns and dope, and I’ll go to counseling. I realize that little boy’s death had an impact on my life. A lot of things have had an impact on my life lately, Spencer.”
No truer words.
He gave her a nudge. “Are you a sissy vamp? You have a willing participant here, Spencer. Quit jabberjawin’ and hit me with your best shot, woman.”
“I don’t know…”
“Are you afraid I’ll be able to take you in hand-to-hand combat when I’m a vamp?”
Spencer shoved him down on the couch and straddled him. “Please. I’m older. I’ll always be able to take you.”
Larkin grabbed her hips and ran his hands along them. “Prove it.”
“Don’t goad me, Detective,” Spencer warned, fighting a giggle.
“Goad, goad, goad.”
“Dammit, Larkin, knock it off.”
Larkin pointed to his neck. “Right here. C’mon, you girl.”
Spencer’s limbs trembled. God, Larkin’s neck looked inviting. So inviting, she had to fight a swoon. “You need—to—to—think about this more—longer maybe.”
Larkin pulled her down to graze her lips with his, sending that now familiar fire of sensation throughout her body. He skimmed her mouth with his tongue, slow and simmering. Spencer squirmed above him, rubbing her lower body against his in an enticing circle.
Lord, this man made her body parts turn to butter. Then he cupped her breast, thumbing a nipple through her shirt, making Spencer groan with need. She couldn’t think clearly when he was doing that. Spencer grabbed Larkin’s wrist and muttered against his mouth, “Stop trying to charm me, McBride. It won’t work.”
He chuckled and lifted her shirt and bra, enveloping a breast with his lips before saying, “Yes, it will. You’re my life mate and you have to do what I say.”
Her hips bucked. “I do not—oh…” Spencer sighed as he nipped the underside of her breast, licking as he skimmed his way to her nipple. “There is no rule in the life mate handbook that says thaaaat. Ohhhhh…” Spencer gave in, pulling her shirt and bra off and then attacking the button on Larkin’s jeans, but he placed a hand over hers. “No nookie until you turn me, miss.”
“Are you going to hold out on me every time you want something, Larkin? Because I will not be threatened. Do you hear me?” Spencer sat up and crossed her arms over her bare chest.
He pulled her to him, brushing strands of hair from her cheek before cupping her jaw in his hands. “Listen to me. Listen well. I need you to hear what I say. Really hear me. I’ve given this a lot of thought. I don’t do anything without thinking it through. And this is my conclusion. I want you, Spencer. I want you forever. I’ve never wanted that with anyone or anything in my entire life. I want to be a part of your life, unlife, whatever, for as long as possible. I want to love you for as long as possible. I can’t do that as a human, and you can’t become a human. I’m not doing this because it’s cool. I’m not doing this because I want super powers, though I won’t lie and say that’s not pretty awesome. I’m doing this because I love you and I don’t ever want to be without you.”
Her fists tightened on his shirt and her throat threatened to close up with emotion. She lifted her head and looked at him. “How am I supposed to say no to you?”
He smiled from beneath her. Turning his head, he pointed to his neck again. “You’re not. Now, give it to me, baby.”
Spencer was hesitant and afraid. “I’ve never done this before, Larkin…”
“I wonder if it hurts,” he mused out loud.
Her stomach turned. She didn’t know if it hurt. She didn’t want to hurt him. “Are you sure, Larkin? I mean really sure?”
“Yep. Do me.”
Spencer leaned forward and nuzzled the skin of his neck. He felt so good. So right. She let her incisors gently graze his skin and Larkin tensed beneath her, making her stiffen. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, honey. Swear it. Just do it. But before you do, tell me something. What happens after you bite me? Do I fall asleep and wake up a vamp, or is it like insta-vamp?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never done this before, Larkin. I think Cathy said it happens in a variety of ways and every person is different.”
Larkin kissed her cheek and grinned. “Okay, so let’s do this and find out.”
Without giving any further thought to the consequences, she did just that, sinking her teeth into Larkin’s neck, relishing the salty tang of his blood. Larkin bucked beneath her and his arms came around her to hold her close. His grip grew in strength as Spencer felt the surge of power leave her body and enter his.
Spencer lifted her head to look at him, worried she’d hurt him. Larkin’s eyes rolled to the back of his head and then he went limp. Ain’t that just like a man? she thought.
His skin grew cool to her touch as Spencer watched the transformation take place, his body taking on a strange glow. It didn’t seem like that big of a deal. He looked the same.
When his eyes popped open and he stared straight ahead at her, she began to freak. Oh, God. What had she done? Shit, shit, shit. Spencer wasn’t sure what to do next. She was afraid to touch him. “Larkin,” she whispered down at him.
“What?” Larkin’s mouth moved, but his body didn’t.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I feel fine.”
“Then move or something. You’re scaring me.”
Larkin sat up with a suddenness that scared them both. Spencer jolted above him, still straddling his hips.
“Whoa. That was weird,” he said as he rubbed his hand over his forehead.
“What’s weird?”
“I dunno. It’s like I don’t have to put the effort I once did into something as simple as sitting up. I feel a little wired. Like jerky, you know?”
Spencer ran her hand over his lips. “Open your mouth.”
He complied and as he opened wide, his incisors grew. Spencer found herself incredibly turned on by them. Her fingers itched to touch them. “Oh, my,” she whispered, amazed and awed.
He put his hand to his mouth and felt the sharp teeth that were now his for eternity. “Cool…”
Heat stirred between her legs, hot and thick, and she fought to control it. Larkin needed to adjust, not boink. “Detective?”
“Take your clothes off, now.”
“What?” Was he insane? How could he think of sex at a time like this?
“Because I’m a man,” he answered her thought. “A man with a hard-on. Take your jeans off, now.”
“What?”
“I said take your jeans off now. If I don’t make love to you until you scream, I’ll explode.” His demand was husky and thick as he churned the words from his mouth with obvious effort.
Spencer pressed against the rock-solid ridge in Larkin’s jeans. Oh, my. “Does this mean no foreplay?”
“It means do what I say, now, Spencer,” he demanded. The urgent tone sent Spencer tugging at her jeans and lifting her hips to shove them down her legs.
Larkin tore at his, too, and then they were naked. His cock lay erect against his belly, thick and hard. She licked her lips, unable to concentrate on anything else but fucking.
“Now, Spencer,” he growled in a tone that she hadn’t heard before, but his command had her in its grip.
Mesmerized, Spencer grasped his cock and Larkin thrust upward into her hand. “Christ, that feels good, baby. It’s so different now…”
She’d heard that your senses increased tenfold after turning and that must be true judging from the way Larkin was squirming from her touch.
Wasting no time, she settled over his cock, pausing only a moment before she impaled herself on him, gasping on impact.
The slick slide of flesh caught them both off guard, leaving her moaning. Larkin’s hands found her hips, clenching them hard as he jammed her down on his shaft.
His coarse pubic hair scraped her clit as they rocked, creating a delicious friction that made her dizzy.
Larkin inched up to a sitting position, and Spencer clamped her arms around his neck as he drove into her with low groans. Their fusion of flesh sent Spencer into a tailspin of sensation.
She’d never experienced this with Larkin before, this driving need to be possessed by him. But she needed it. Needed him. Needed this joining of their flesh. Their bodies crashed together with each rise and fall of her hips. Heat and fissures of electricity shot to the place between her thighs, now slick with desire for Larkin.
She ran her hands over his back as Larkin suckled her neck, making her nipples bead tightly and scrape his chest. Groaning she muttered, “Try those teeth out, tough guy.”
But he hesitated, slowing his thrusts as she clenched the flesh of his back and squeezed her eyes shut. “I don’t know how to do this, Spencer. What if I hurt you?”
Spencer rolled her hips, arching her neck against his roving lips, shivering at the satiny touch of his mouth. “You can’t hurt me, Larkin,” she panted out. “I promise and you need to feed now.”
Larkin wasted no time, his obvious distaste for blood gone and his vampire senses well on their way to taking over. He sank his teeth into Spencer’s neck and the rush of adrenaline, the surge of lust that flowed through her veins was like nothing she’d experienced when Larkin was human.
Her head fell back on her shoulders as she clenched her teeth tight, driving against him, needing him deeper inside her, needing him to quench the unmerciful fire inside her.
Larkin tore his mouth from her neck and thrust into her one last time as he came in long fits. Spencer came too and it bordered euphoria. Sweet and sharp, the orgasm ripped through her until she was spent.
She fell against him, boneless and exhausted.
“Whoa,” Larkin gasped, smoothing his hands over her back.
Spencer nodded against his neck and grinned. “Yeah, double whoa.”
“I think I’m a most virile vampire, honey,” Larkin bragged.
Spencer giggled and said, “Don’t go getting cocky here. You’re a new vampire. You need to talk to Cathy’s husband Joel about this.”
He stiffened. “I am not talking sex with Cathy’s husband.”
“No, silly. I mean the vampire stuff. It’s going to take time to adjust.”
“Not if sex is like that it won’t.”
“Detective, being a vampire isn’t just about the sex.”
“I don’t have to work at the parlor, do I?”
Spencer giggled again. “Yep, it’s a mandatory Polanski thing.”
“I think I’ll stick to detecting,” he assured her with a grin.
“That’s probably better, Sherlock.”
“Will you be my Farrah?” he asked, kissing her lips and nuzzling her nose.
Spencer smiled, content in the knowledge that she’d probably be Larkin’s anything given the opportunity. “Yep, always, Kreskin. Always.”