Chapter Twenty-Eight

Alice eventually became aware that a phone was buzzing. Somewhere. Not that she particularly cared. She might not ever care about answering phones again. It might be a rescue, though, so she forced herself to turn over even though her body was so saturated with pleasure she was finding it very hard to move. She blindly reached out, fumbling around her bedside table for the phone, and managed to knock the lamp onto the floor. Luckily, it landed on the rug, so nothing shattered. She was horrified to hear herself giggle—she hadn’t done that since she was maybe five years old.

“What’s happening?” Hunter sounded as dazed as she was, which utterly delighted her.

“I think it’s the phone.”

“Whose phone?”

“I don’t know. Hey, maybe it’s yours. In that case, I don’t need to answer.” She dropped her head back on the pillow and threw her arm over her eyes, content to drift back into sleep.

Hunter wrapped one muscular arm around her and pulled her close, and her feeling of blissful contentment grew even more wonderful.

“Was it okay?” Suddenly, she felt a little shy. “I mean, I haven’t done it before so I’m probably not that good at it, but I’m sure I’ll get better with practice.”

He responded with a lazy grin. “If you get any better, I might not survive. I think my brain may have exploded this time.”

Alice giggled again and realized her phone or his phone or whoever’s phone it was had stopped buzzing. She put her hand on the side of his face and stroked his cheek, marveling at the realization that she had both the ability and the right to do so. He wanted her to touch him. He wanted to touch her.

This was a truly miraculous state of affairs.

Then she had an even better thought. “Can we do it again?”

Hunter groaned and tightened his arms around her. “We can definitely do it again and again and again and again and again, but you’re going to have to give me a moment or two to recover first. I’m sure I’ll be up to the job soon.”

She knew he was amused, but she wasn’t quite sure why. No matter, though. She just loved that she could make him smile. She loved that she’d brought humor and light to his life, especially after everything he’d been through since almost dying in that fire. She loved his courage and his heart.

In fact, she was starting to believe that she might be falling in love with him. Falling so hard, so fast into love with a man who was nothing at all like what she’d ever imagined on those rare occasions when she had dreamed of meeting someone to share her life with—it was scary.

But, somehow, her heart was beginning to be convinced that he was everything that she’d never known she needed.

The phone started buzzing again, and this time she didn’t have to worry about whose phone it was, because a few seconds later a second phone started buzzing.

Hunter’s gaze sharpened, and he sat up. “It must be important if they’re calling both of us.”

He rolled over and grabbed his phone, which had been under the comforter for some reason, and then took hers off the bedside table and handed it to her. Their gazes met with a shared reluctance to open the door to anything that might ruin their time together, but he sighed and answered his.

“Bane? You’re calling me on a phone?”

It took a moment for Alice to understand the question, but then she remembered that Hunter had mentioned the mental pathway vampires could use to speak to one another when they’d been chatting in the rescue.

“Little Darlings. Alice Darlington speaking,” she answered her phone.

“Hey, Alice. It’s Ryan. I’m calling you about coming over for movie night tonight.”

She glanced up at Hunter, who was making a strange face.

“Seriously,” he said into his phone. “You called me about movie night? Isn’t that a little outside the guy code?”

Alice laughed but then returned her attention to her own call. “I don’t know, Ryan, there’s a lot to do here—”

“Oh, is that Hunter I hear? Great! Bring him, too. We’ll see you in an hour.”

Before Alice could even think of an answer, Ryan hung up.

“No, I don’t care what kind of popcorn we have. And now I know you’re just screwing with me.” Hunter flinched at whatever Bane said in response to that, and then he ended the call.

“Let me guess,” he said drily. “We’re going to movie night.”

She sighed. “It looks like it. But that’s okay. It will give me a chance to return that ridiculous SUV to Ryan and explain why I can’t keep it.”

He dropped his phone on the rug and then snatched her phone out of her hand and tossed it onto her dresser. Then he started toward her with a very sexy, very determined look on his face. “What was it you were saying earlier? About ‘can we do this again?’”

She struck her sultriest pose and then ruined it by giggling yet again. “But we have to go to movie night. Can we do this in only an hour?”

He threw back his head and laughed. “You know, you have no idea how good you are for my ego. And yes, we can do it in only an hour. Or at least I’ll give it my very best try.”

She sighed and pretended to look resigned. “Oh, well then. If you insist.”

“No, that’s okay. If you’ve changed your mind…”

This time, she was the one who pounced on him.

…

Hunter backed the car around and waited for Alice to come out of the shelter. He couldn’t stop smiling and had even caught himself humming. He felt amazing. Like a million bucks. And it wasn’t even about the sex—well, it wasn’t only about the sex—it was about Alice.

About how she made him feel. About the missing piece of a life that he hadn’t even realized was so empty before—before he’d almost died.

Before he became a vampire.

For years now, he hadn’t even realized how alone he’d been. He’d always enjoyed his work, but a life lived with work at the center of it was hollow. He had good friends, too; it was true. But it had been a long time since he’d been in a close relationship, and he’d never been close enough to any woman to feel the things he felt for Alice after only such a short time.

It didn’t make sense, and he didn’t care. Maybe being a vampire had intensified his feelings, or maybe the answer was simply Alice. Her strength and her beauty. Her kindness and her compassion. Her trust and belief in him, and also her willingness to trust anyone, ever, given what she’d been through.

She was incredibly brave and fiercely independent, and he felt honored that she’d allowed him into her life. Not just allowed but welcomed him into her life and her home and her bed. He stared out the windshield at nothing in particular and caught himself humming again, and he was still smiling like a damn fool when she came out of the shelter, spoke to Ian for a moment, and then dashed over to the car and climbed in.

“Charlie says he wants to stay and hang out with Ajax. He’s also making friends with Ferret Bueller, strangely enough.” She looked thoughtful and a bit concerned. “I hope my understanding of what he means by ‘make friends’ is the same as his understanding. I’d hate to come back and find out that what he really wanted was a crispy ferret snack.”

“Charlie told you he wants to stay? Henry didn’t hear him, did he?”

Alice had told him that Henry volunteered every Sunday afternoon so she could have some time to herself, which—although she hadn’t said it—was why she’d had time to come and curl up next to Hunter for a nap. He made a mental note to buy Henry a bottle of scotch.

Or a house.

She laughed. “No, Charlie is careful about that. But Pete did hear, which is okay, because he knows all about Charlie. All the wolves do, he said. He told me he’ll keep a special eye on our little dragon, although he used the other D word.”

Hunter leaned over and kissed her. He couldn’t help himself. She was so damn beautiful, and, with her face glowing like that, she looked like a goddess. He hoped that he’d been a big part of causing the joy on her face.

No, he didn’t hope. He knew he had. Whatever insecurities he hadn’t realized he’d been carrying around, after all those times of being told he was only a buddy or too nice to take seriously—those insecurities had disappeared, or at least packed their bags and prepared to move out. He grinned. Evidently happiness was contagious.

Then he tried to focus on what she’d been talking about. Oh, right. “Yeah, Pete seems like a good guy.”

Alice fastened her seat belt, nodding. “I like him a lot. He’s a quiet person, never says much. But he’s very calm and gentle with the animals, and they respond to that very well. He said that after this issue with the Chamber and the Institute is resolved, he’d like to be added to my volunteer roster. I think he has his eye on Cleo, too, which surprised me. I don’t know why. I guess I wouldn’t have thought a cat would like a werewolf. But she loves him, and he’s very good with her.”

“Who knew?” He put the car in drive and headed for the gate. “Cats and werewolves. Speaking of surprises, I also can’t believe we let ourselves be dragged into movie night when we could’ve stayed home in bed and played indoor games.”

He snuck a glance at her and saw that she was blushing again, which made him smile. “You can’t keep blushing after I’ve seen and touched and tasted every part of your body, sweetheart.”

Her face turned even pinker, but then she raised her chin and put on a fake posh voice. “Yes. I’m definitely a wanton, jaded woman now. With all my experience and everything, you know. I might teach classes.”

Then she spoiled the effect with that charming giggle he’d heard from her for the first time only a little over an hour before.

“Well, if you do teach classes, please sign me up as your one and only student,” he said lightly, forcing away the uncomfortable feeling in his gut at the idea of her with anyone else but him. He might be a vampire, but he wasn’t a Neanderthal.

“It’s a deal.”

On the drive to the mansion, they chatted, getting to know each other even more. What kinds of foods they liked, their favorite restaurants—Alice hadn’t been to very many, because she put all of her money back into the rescue. What he liked about his job and whether he thought he might go back to it now that everything had changed.

“Well, they’d certainly be happy to have someone who wanted to work the night shift all the time,” he said ruefully. “I just don’t know how long I could hide being a vampire from everyone.”

When she didn’t answer, he glanced over and saw the surprise on her face.

“What is it?”

“It’s just— I mean, what are you talking about, how long you could hide it? Won’t everyone realize there’s something different right away when they see your eyes glowing?”

“Right. I forgot you can see that. Before I met you, I thought only vampires, werewolves, and angel kin could see the glowing eyes. Normal humans can’t.”

Alice shook her head. “This conversation is so bizarre. You know, sometimes I’m just fine, and then other times I feel just how much my life has turned upside down when I catch myself in the middle of surreal conversations like this about which kind of supernatural creature can tell that a vampire’s eyes glow.”

He laughed, steered the SUV expertly around a tourist trolley bus, and continued toward Bane and Meara’s house. “I know exactly what you mean. I’ve known about vampires for a while, of course, because I happened to rescue Meara from being caught out after dawn once, a few years back. For whatever reason, they didn’t try to wipe my memory. In fact, Bane and I started up a monthly chess game. But since it happened to me—since I became a vampire myself—everything is so much more immediate, if that makes sense.”

He suddenly wondered why he hadn’t realized how lonely he’d been for so long, to the point where his closest friendship had been with a vampire he only saw once a month for a chess game. Funny how being with Alice—feeling such almost-overwhelming happiness—had allowed him to see the sadness that had been hiding beneath the surface of his life even before he’d been Turned.

She put a hand on his arm; for comfort or in solidarity, he didn’t know, but he didn’t care which it was. He was just happy that she was touching him.

“Yes. It makes perfect sense,” she said in her gorgeous, husky voice. “I’ve been able to see ghosts and talk to them and communicate with animals since I was about eight years old. But it’s only since I met you last week and learned about this whole other supernatural community that I feel like the world really is entirely different from the way ninety-eight percent of the people on the planet imagine it to be.”

“Maybe not ninety-eight percent. I keep meeting more and more people who know. For example, I didn’t even know ghosts were real,” he told her. “I just thought all those reports of weird noises and houses were all about old wood shifting or plumbing problems.”

She looked at him in disbelief. “I can’t imagine what that’s like, not to believe in ghosts. I’ve had to live with them as part of my life for so many years.”

He braked for a student driver and tapped the steering wheel with his fingers. “This is a strange segue, but I actually was going to talk to you about your plumbing. I kept hearing knocking noises in the basement pipes all day.”

Alice groaned. “That’s not great. Fixing the plumbing is definitely not in my budget. Although, I guess with the check that Meara gave me, I might be okay. I’m using all of her money for the rescue, of course,” she hastened to add. “But since I won’t have to pour all of my own money back in, at least for a little while, I might be able to afford a plumber.”

“You don’t even take a salary, do you?”

She snorted. “Like there’s money for that. I’m lucky to be able to pay Veronica, and I have to give her far less than she’s worth. But maybe…maybe things are looking up.”

He wrapped his hand around hers, brought it to his lips, and kissed her fingers. “Things are definitely looking up for me. And hold off on that plumber. I’m actually pretty handy, and I’d be glad to take a look and see what we’re dealing with. If it’s too complicated, we’ll call in the professionals. But if it’s something simple, I’ll be able to handle it myself.”

“I can’t ask you to do that,” she said, sounding shocked.

“You didn’t ask me to do it. I volunteered. That’s what friends do, you know.”

“No, I didn’t actually know. I haven’t really ever had any friends,” she said in a voice filled with so much sadness that his heart ached. “But I’m trying to change that. Is that what we are, Hunter? Friends?”

He gave her a very direct look before quickly turning his gaze back to the road, because, while he was sure he could survive a car accident, he sure as hell didn’t want to involve her in one. “I hope we’re far more than friends.”

Her smile lit up the world—at least his world—and he held her hand all the rest of the way to the mansion.

…

Wow.

Nobody could say that Alice’s life hadn’t changed completely. Here it was Sunday night, and she was arriving at a vampire mansion for movie night. With her…boyfriend?

No, too soon.

With the man who had only a short while before so deliciously relieved her of her virginity. She smiled a secret smile and unbuckled her seat belt, and then he was already around to her side of the car, opening the door.

True, she was a little sore in places where she’d never been sore before, but every time she’d shifted in her seat on the drive over, she’d started smiling all over again.

She’d caught Hunter humming a couple of times, too, so she hoped very much that he shared her happiness, because making love with him had been absolutely wonderful. She still couldn’t believe that she’d had not one, not two, but three orgasms during her very first time.

That she had was all about him. The care he’d taken with her; his patience. His absolute focus on her pleasure. She felt so lucky to have had the experience with Hunter, when she thought of how badly her first time could have gone.

She’d been imprisoned and isolated for much of her life, it was true, but since she’d escaped, she’d read books. She’d watched movies. She knew very well, even if she didn’t have friends to talk about such things with, that first times rarely went well and almost never went brilliantly, like hers had.

“I was part of it, too,” she said out loud, a feeling of epiphany washing over her. Sometimes she needed to remind herself that she was a valuable person in charge of her own life and future. She’d spent far too long being told that everything she did was wrong and that she had no worth to anyone except for how they could use her powers.

Hunter, walking beside her from the car to the house, slanted a puzzled look at her. “You were part of what, too?”

“I was part of making those orgasms happen,” she said, just as Ryan opened the door.

Hunter made a muffled sound that she knew must be laughter, and she could feel her face flame so hot that she knew it must be turning a hideous beet-red color, based on prior experience.

She considered her options and then laughed, shrugging. “So, angels don’t have any way to make somebody disappear from sheer embarrassment, do they? Because I could really use that right now.”

Ryan grinned at them and then put her hands over her ears. “I’m sorry, did you say something to me? I have a very rare medical condition that has rendered me completely unable to hear anyone or anything for the past five minutes. I’m sure it will clear up soon, if you want to hang around for movie night. But now? Nothing.”

Impulsively, Alice hugged the smiling doctor. “It’s no wonder everyone loves you.”

Ryan hugged her back, giving Hunter a sly glance. “If only I had been able to hear anything, I might’ve said apparently everybody loves you, too, Alice. But since I have this temporary hearing loss, I’m just going to say welcome back to our home. I’m so glad you came. You can team up with me against Meara. She has terrible taste in movies, and she misunderstands the ones she does like. When we first met, she had the nerve to tell me she liked Pride and Prejudice mostly because of the way Elizabeth only fell in love with Mr. Darcy after she saw how big his house was.”

Alice looked at her with interest. “Who’s Mr. Darcy? Is he one of the werewolves?”