THIS WAS NOT GOOD.
The thought struck even before Abby knocked on Brent’s door. He knew it the moment she made up her mind to stop resisting and give in to the lust that burned inside of her. It was a knowledge that had nothing to do with his heightened vampire senses and everything to do with the awareness that sizzled in the air around him. The expectancy that settled in his gut. As if something monumental was about to happen and it was just a matter of time.
The feeling dogged him while he finished up his shower. Then a knock sounded on his door, confirming his worst suspicions. His heart skipped a beat as he stepped out of the shower. His hand trembled as he reached for a towel. Excitement zipped up and down his spine and he stiffened.
The last thing he wanted was to see Abby on his doorstep. He needed distance. Safety.
He wiped at the water dripping from his face and knotted the towel at his waist. Another knock sounded and his muscles clenched.
He wasn’t going to answer. That’s what he told himself. He would pretend to be asleep and slip out once she’d given up.
But then she knocked again and he caught a deep whiff of her sweet shampoo. He reached for the knob.
“Yeah?” He hauled open the door and got the surprise of his afterlife.
She looked nothing like the Plain Jane woman who’d followed him from the Dairy Freeze and everything like the woman he’d glimpsed last night in her bedroom. Sexy. Seductive. Irresistible.
Her dress was short and tight, cut down to there and up to here. Red spandex hugged her voluptuous curves and left little to the imagination. And where there wasn’t shiny red fabric, there was skin. Lots and lots of soft, supple, tempting flesh that made his mouth water and his pulse race.
He didn’t mean to stare. He meant to play it cool, to close the door and ignore her, but he couldn’t help himself.
His gaze shifted up before sweeping back down and pausing several places in between. The smooth column of her throat. The frantic beat of her pulse. The bare curve of her shoulder. The deep swell of her luscious breasts. The press of her ripe nipples against the thin material that barely passed for a dress. The flare of her hips. The long, bare legs that seemed to go on and on.
“I hope I didn’t wake you up,” she murmured, only the faintest tremble in her voice giving away that she might be the slightest bit nervous.
“I was in the shower.”
“I see that.”
And so could he. For a split-second, her guard faltered and he read the thoughts that raced inside her pretty little head. Her gaze drew him in and suddenly he was right there, seeing through her eyes, feeling what she felt, wanting what she wanted.
He’d been partially hidden behind the door when he’d first answered her knock, but he was completely visible now. Visible and nearly naked, with only a towel slung low on his lean hips and water beading on his dark skin.
Nearly naked and oh so close.
She could feel the heat coming off him, smell the enticing aroma of clean soap and virile male. She took a deep breath as her eyes drank in the sight of him. The white cotton wrapped around his lean waist was in stark contrast to his tanned muscle. Broad shoulders framed a hard, sinewy chest sprinkled with dark hair that tapered to a slim line and disappeared beneath the towel’s edge. The same hair covered the length of his powerful thighs and calves. He was every bit as hot as she remembered and she gave herself a great big mental kick in the ass for not acting on her feelings sooner.
She wanted him.
Her body clenched and wetness rushed between her legs. She should have reached for him last night, pulled him down, invited him in. She’d held back. She was still holding back, but not because she was afraid. She wanted to fulfill her deepest fantasies. To tempt him with her body and lure him with her smile. She wanted him so hot that he couldn’t keep his hands off her. She wanted him to throw her on the bed and strip her bare and lick her from head to toe—
“What do you want?” he blurted, killing the vivid image.
His groin tightened and he stepped back behind the door again, desperate for a barrier between them. Something to keep him from reaching out and pulling her inside the room. He was close. Too close. The hunger pushed and pulled inside of him and he knew he wouldn’t last five seconds if she kept looking at him with such passion in her eyes. And he had to last. He didn’t do sex. And he certainly didn’t do it with the locals.
Then again, she wasn’t actually a local. She was temporary. In town in search of her ex. Or so she said.
She was lying. Even more, she was good at lying, at masking her feelings, which made him all the more suspicious of her. She wasn’t who she pretended to be.
Not that it mattered.
Regardless of who she was or why she was here, she wasn’t from Skull Creek. She was temporary. She wouldn’t be hanging around next week. Or next month. Or next year. And he wouldn’t have to face her again should he come back and visit Cody. So why shouldn’t he take her up on what she was so obviously offering?
At the same time, there was just something about her that made him wary. The fact that she wasn’t easily influenced by him bothered him to no end. He couldn’t bend her to his will, otherwise she would turn and walk away right now.
Walk.
He stared deep into her eyes and sent the silent command, but she simply batted her eyelashes, her gaze hopeful, hungry.
She was stronger than any other woman he’d ever known. Different. Dangerous.
To his resolve. His peace of mind. His heart.
When the last thought struck, he drop-kicked it back out. That was the last thing he had to worry about. He didn’t stick around long enough for his heart to get involved. He kept his distance and took his sustenance only when he needed it.
His dick throbbed, reminding him that the one thing he needed right now was a warm, lush woman.
The woman standing before him.
“I really have to go,” he murmured. “I’ve got someone waiting on me.”
“Oh.” Disappointment flashed in her gaze and he couldn’t help himself.
“My brother,” he heard himself blurt. What the hell? He didn’t explain. Even more, he didn’t talk. Just shut up and let her think the worst. Even more, shut the door right friggin’ now before you do something you’ll really regret. “He’s getting married next Saturday and tonight’s the shower. It’s a couples’ shower,” he explained. “Not that I’m a part of a couple. But it’s for men and women and I’m family so I have to go.”
“Oh.” The disappointment faded in a rush of relief. She smiled. “Where are they getting married?”
“A friend of ours has a ranch outside of town. The wedding is there, but the shower is at Darlington House. It’s this old restored mansion over on Main, near the town square. It used to be the home of Sam Black, the founder of Skull Creek, but now it’s a historic landmark. They give tours and use it for special events. Weddings. Receptions. Anniversary parties.”
“Showers,” she added. She smiled and his chest tightened. “What about afterward? We could meet up later.” She looked so hopeful that he almost agreed. Almost.
But Brent had been resisting the lust for sex that burned inside of him far too long to give in so easily. Sex was off limits while he was in Skull Creek. It was a vow he’d made when Cody had asked him to stick around, one he intended to keep. It would be hard enough to leave his brother when all was said and done. He wasn’t adding a woman to the list.
“I’m busy later,” he murmured. And then he closed the door before he did something really stupid like pull her close, sinking his fangs into her sweet neck and his cock into her warm and willing body.
No sex, he reminded himself. Even more, no blood and sex. That was a double whammy. A sure-fire way to find himself in a heap of trouble.
Having sex with her would be bad enough. But having sex with her and drinking her blood? That would tie him to her emotionally. He would be able to hear her thoughts, feel her feelings, know her.
No way. No how. Hell, no.
Brent listened as her heels clicked back toward her room. The knob clicked. Hinges creaked. The door thudded shut and he welcomed a rush of relief.
But it was short-lived when he realized that all that separated them was measly sheetrock. His hands trembled and his body tightened and he pulled on his clothes with lightning speed. Snatching up his keys and his Stetson, he headed for his car, his gaze locked on the Camaro. He wasn’t going to look toward her room. Or think about her and the way she’d looked in her tight red dress and sparkly shoes. Or the fact that he was so hard he could have cut diamonds at the moment.
Getting the hell out of there. That’s all that was on his mind at the moment.
That and finding a little relief. No way would he make it fifteen minutes at the shower in his present state. He needed to sate the hunger deep in his belly. He needed calm. And he knew just how to get it.
He fired the engine, pulled out of the parking lot and headed to the Dairy Freeze for a quick bite.
HE COULDN’T DO IT.
Brent stared at the woman draped over his arm. The waitress from the other night. Just as willing. Just as eager.
Her heartbeat echoed in his ears, begging for his fangs, but he couldn’t seem to make himself do it. As hungry as he was, he wasn’t hungry for this. For her.
“Please,” she murmured, her gaze glazed with passion as she stared up at him. While she didn’t consciously remember, her subconscious did and that’s what was in control at the moment. She wanted the sweet release he’d given her the other night when he’d drank from her. The pleasure.
And he wanted Abby.
The truth thrummed through him and he released the woman. Buttoning her blouse back up, he stared deep into her eyes.
This was just another dream. Go back inside and forget all about it. About me.
For a split second, he wished he could turn the mind control on himself. He wanted to forget Abby and the way she’d looked in her red dress. The way she’d looked last night.
Even more, he wanted to forget the way she’d looked at him.
The desperation. The desire.
He’d had women want him before, but only because of what he was. Abby wasn’t influenced by that. She was strong. Immune to his control. Unfazed by it.
Yet she still wanted him.
Of her own accord.
That’s why he couldn’t forget her. And that’s why he bypassed the various couples clustered here and there in the main parlor and headed straight for the bar the moment he arrived at Darlington House.
“What’s up with you?” Cody asked him when he cornered him later that night.
“I’m just having a drink.”
“You don’t drink. We don’t drink.” Vampires were more sensitive, which meant they not only saw and heard things that most people couldn’t. They also felt things more intensely. Translation? Brent was a cheap drunk. Usually.
Oddly enough, three glasses of Crown Royal still hadn’t been enough to make Brent forget Abby and her sexy red dress.
“Slow down,” Cody told him when he tossed down number four.
“Shouldn’t you be helping your bride-to-be open gifts?” He motioned to Miranda who stood across the room, holding up yet another silver serving platter. “Don’t these people realize you can’t use that?”
“Some are humans and no, they don’t realize it. And they’d better not realize it.” He gave Brent a warning look. “Take it easy, okay?”
“No problem.” He waved the waiter off when he started to refill the glass and Cody looked relieved.
“So what did you think about the house?” When Brent tried to look puzzled, Cody grinned. “I know you stopped by. Nice, huh?”
“It’s a house.”
“Do you think she’ll like it?”
“I think you should stop worrying about whether she likes it and start worrying over what you’re going to do with seven Crockpots.”
Cody glanced behind him in time to see Miranda unwrap the next present and his face fell. “Whatever happened to gift cards?” he muttered as he made his way back over to his fiancée.
Brent pushed away from the bar, said his goodbyes and slipped out before Cody got to the envelope he’d left on the table upon his arrival. Outside, he climbed into his car, hiked the windows down and spent the next half hour hauling ass down the interstate, feeling the wind whip at his skin. Hoping it would cool him down and ease the lust eating away inside of him.
No such luck.
He was still as hot, as horny as ever when he pulled into the parking lot later that night.
He killed the engine and sat there, staring through the windshield at the closed curtains of her room. He knew he should go out to Cody’s. He could sleep in his brother’s basement tonight and save himself a night of tossing and turning and fantasizing.
At least that’s what he told himself.
But deep down, he knew he was past the point of sleep. She was in his head, under his skin, and there was no escaping the picture she’d made on the bed with her legs spread, or on his doorstep wearing a racy red dress and eager smile.
It was crazy, but he couldn’t decide which he liked better. He knew it should be the first, but as much as he’d liked seeing her naked body, he’d liked seeing her smile, too. The tilt of her full lips. The flash of uncertainty in her gaze, as if she wasn’t half as daring as she pretended to be.
She wasn’t, despite the fact that she’d pulled the curtains aside and was now standing in the window, staring at him. Drive away.
The command echoed, but damned if he could make himself start the engine. Instead, he sat still and waited to see what she would do next.