“Three hundred? Did you say three hundred?” Sophie repeated. “How can that be? That would mean you were born…like in the seventeen hundreds.” She laughed because what else could she do? “What a joker you are.”
“Actually, I’m not joking and your math’s a little off. I was born the year of our Lord sixteen hundred nineteen.”
“Yeah. Right. And I’m the queen of England.”
He bowed his head. “Your Grace.”
“Why are you lying to me? I hate liars. I mean, so I was a little pushy. I don’t deserve such blatant teasing. I’d be happy to tell you how old I am. I’ll be twenty-six this July.”
“Hmmm…that makes us three hundred forty years apart in age. Do large age differences bother you?” he asked, sounding serious as death.
She scowled. “Shut up.”
“I’m not joking. I really am three hundred eighty-six years old. Okay, I’m actually three hundred eighty-five. But my birthday is next month and considering my age, a month doesn’t make much of a difference.”
“Are you trying to creep me out? Because if you are, it’s working. How could you be almost four hundred years old? Huh? How is that possible? It’s not. And that’s why I know you’re lying,” she rambled to no one in particular. When he reached out to give her shoulder a reassuring touch, she shrunk away. “No touchy, buster. Like I said, I have a thing against liars.”
Ric steered the car off the road. The tires skidded in the gravel at the shoulder as he brought it to a stop. Then he turned his entire upper body to face her. “This shouldn’t be too much of a stretch for you to believe, considering the story you told me about last night.”
“Are you mocking me?”
“No.”
“Then what are you trying to say?” Suddenly feeling very cold, she crossed her arms over her chest.
“I’m trying to tell you that I’m a member of a very rare race.”
“Huh? What race?” She scooted closer to the door. Suddenly Alric Grant Vogel, stone fox, was resembling a wolf in fox’s clothing. Was he on the bad guy’s side too? Or just a nut job?
“A race of people who have their roots in an ancient place that was destroyed a long time ago.”
“You’re not making any sense. Use some terms I can understand or I’m outta here. This is getting too weird for words.”
“Okay. How about vampire? I know you recognize that word, although it’s not my first choice of terms. It’s really a misnomer. A very general term to describe a number of races, all very different from each other.”
“You? A vampire?”
“Yes.” He looked dead serious.
“Aw, nuts! No.”
“Yes.”
“Darn it! I knew you were too good to be real. Gorgeous, intelligent—”
“Thanks.” His expression brightened.
She smacked his shoulder. “I didn’t mean that as a compliment. There’s an unspoken ‘but’ there.”
“What but? But what?”
“But…but you’re certifiably insane,” she mumbled.
“I assure you, I’m perfectly sane.”
“I’ve never met a nut who thought they were nutty.” She released the door lock.
“Where are you going?”
“I think I’ll take a walk. A long walk.”
“And you’re calling me the nut? We’re sitting in the middle of nowhere, on a long stretch of highway with nothing but miles of farmland all around us.”
“That’s okay. I could use the exercise. I ate a big dinner.” Sophie pushed the door open, but before she could get out of the car, Ric caught her left arm in a grip as tight as a sprung bear trap. She glared at the offending hand, letting anger hide the panic blossoming in her chest. “Let me go.”
“Not yet. Please, let me explain.”
“Let me go. You can explain in the relative safety of the open space outside the car.” She made sure to emphasize the word outside.
“Fine.” He released her.
She stepped out of the car and slammed the door. Darn it! Now what? She had a friend being drained of blood by his wife, a real vampire. She needed the shield and spear to free him from that sticky situation before his wife drained him dry. She couldn’t be trusted anywhere near her friend, now that some other stupid vampire had bitten her. And now she had a traveling companion who was claiming to be a vampire himself—or some such thing. What the heck did he mean by race of people?
We are descendents of the Atlantians, his voice said in her head as he rounded the front of the car. A small number of our people survived the Great Calamity but our land and history were struck from the pages of history, a great tragedy to humankind. We were successful in curing a great many diseases that still plague humans to this day.
“You can talk in my head. Does that mean you can hear my thoughts too?”
“Yes.”
“Every one of them?”
“Pretty much.”
That fact made her more uncomfortable than the part about his people being from some place that supposedly never existed.
“I do try to respect your privacy. I don’t strive to hear your every thought.”
“Thanks…I think.” She leaned back against the car, tipped her head until it rested against the car’s roof, and stared up at the starry sky. When had it gotten dark outside?
“Then you believe me? You don’t doubt my sanity any longer?”
“I’m beginning to doubt my own. Yours? Well, that’s yet to be determined, and I admit it’s not my place to decide.”
“But you do believe you were visited by what you called a vampire last night?”
“Yes. But I saw him with my own eyes. He did things to me, things no man has ever done before.”
Ric gave her a wounded look.
Was he jealous? Why did that make her feel all warm and happy inside? “Not pleasant things. Oh no, not the least bit enjoyable.”
“I know you’re lying.” His expression darkening with each step, he walked nearer until his chest was a mere fraction of an inch from hers. She could feel her nipples straining against the silk cups of her bra and thin cotton of her shirt. Traitors!
Down, you two, she scolded. There won’t be any action for you—not now. A shame. I had such high hopes. “And he came to me after dark, like a real vampire. You, on the other hand, walk in broad daylight like it’s nothing. You can’t be a vampire.”
“There’s an explanation for that.” Ric caught her chin between his thumb and forefinger and held it. His eyes dark now, as dark and glum as his expression, he stared into Sophie’s eyes. “He’ll come back for you.”
“Who?”
“The one I see in your memory. The one with the dark hair.”
“Why would he do that? I figured he’d been sicced on me to make me sleep in so I’d miss Dao’s doctor’s appointment and snakewoman could have her way with him. Or to make me hurt Dao somehow. But I figured if I stayed away from Dao’s house—”
“No. I can smell his mark on you. Whether he was sent to ruin your plans or not, he has decided you are his.”
“Well, I do have some say in that, don’t I? Because he wasn’t my type, even if he was—” She stared at Ric’s lips as he glared at her. So soft, even when twisted into a troubled frown. If only he didn’t think he was one of those, a bloodsucker. A vampire. Like snakewoman and the dark man last night. How could she possibly be attracted to him now?
With a slight shift in his weight, he leaned forward and pressed his body against hers. Her knees all but gave out.
Okay, so she was still attracted to him. When it came to chemistry, logic plain didn’t prevail.
“There is only one way to save you,” he said through those scrumptious lips.
“Oh yeah? More garlic? Come to think of it, why didn’t that work?”
“Old wives’ tale. Garlic won’t keep away a real vampire. No, the real solution’s quite simple, actually.”
“Simple? For some reason,” she said, breathless and squirming thanks to the brick wall that was his body being so up close and personal with hers, “I’m having a hard time believing that.”
He lowered his mouth until those adorable lips were a fraction of an inch from hers. His gaze snared hers. “When will you cease to doubt me?”
“When you start telling me something that’s believable,” she answered as she struggled to keep her wits about her. They were running for the high hills, taking her willpower with them.
She let her eyelids fall closed and did what every atom in her body longed for—she kissed him. She realized almost immediately that her intended semichaste kiss was going to end up far from harmless.
Even though she was being a good girl and leaving her tongue where it belonged, Ric obviously wasn’t going to give her the same respect. Never mind that it was her choice to open her mouth to let him in.
Lip to lip and nipple to chest with the sexiest man on the planet. Well, a girl could resist for only so long.
Sophie figured she’d lasted at least a second or two. That was darn good.
The moment she opened to him, his tongue swooped into her mouth. Lips, tongue, teeth, they all did things that made Sophie’s knees buckle. Thankfully, before she slid to the ground, a couple of strong hands caught her by the waist and held her up.
Figuring she owed him a little taste of what he was giving her in retribution, she kissed him back with equal fervor, holding nothing back. And tossing some proverbial gas to the fire, she let her hands roam over his chest. Through the material, she felt the tight nubs of his nipples and teased them with her fingertips. As a reward, she received a throaty groan.
His response only acted to crank up the heat in her own body, specifically to the parts south of her waist. She tipped her hips, literally grinding the aching parts against his thigh. Naturally, that wasn’t even close to enough. God help her, she wanted him to touch her there, to stroke away the burn, to fill her. Vampire or not. Imaginary vampire or not.
She moaned into their joined mouths.
He broke the kiss for a split second, stared into her eyes, then pressed the lightest tickly kisses to the corners of her mouth. “Then you are in agreement?”
“Huh?” she asked, running her hands down the center of his flat stomach in search of some lumpier terrain. “Agreement to what?”
“You agree you need to become mine. To save you from a fate worse than death.”
“If that isn’t the most original pickup line I’ve ever heard.” She gave the firm bulge at the front of his pants a pat.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” He scooped her up into his arms and she squealed in surprise.
“What are you doing?”
“Taking you away from the road. I assumed you’d prefer a little privacy but if I was wrong…” He let the rest of the words trail off, but he didn’t exactly leave the sentence incomplete. The rest was spoken by nonverbal means—some waggling eyebrows, a silent suggestion in those golden eyes that practically melted her, and a cockeyed grin.
“No, no. This girl’s not into exhibitionism. Sorry to disappoint.”
“I will never be disappointed with you.” He effortlessly carried her to the rear of the car and with one hand opened the trunk.
“What are you doing? You weren’t thinking of…of going in there?”
“Heck no.” Still holding her, his knee serving as a temporary support for her bottom, he reached down and pulled something from the trunk’s dark interior. Then he slammed the trunk closed and turned toward the field. She smiled and wrapped an arm around his neck and nuzzled his chest. He smelled wonderful, his cologne spicy and masculine. Underlying the tangy scent lingered his own more subdued aroma. It wasn’t as powerful, but it was far more intoxicating. She practically hyperventilated trying to capture that scent in her nose.
Ric set her on her feet, shook out a blanket on the ground, and then kneeling, pulled her down to him. “My people’s process of claiming a wife is a little more complicated than the process humans go through. There are stages of marriage. There are no laws governing how many we must take.” He kissed her silly again until she’d almost forgotten her objection to his words. Almost.
“Wife?” she said around his tongue, which wasn’t exactly easy.
He reclaimed his tongue from her mouth. “Yes, wife. How else would you become mine?” He pulled off one of her shoes, then the other.
Sophie didn’t try to stop him. “I didn’t realize…I mean, you seem to be a very nice man—er, vampire—but wife? I wasn’t planning on making any major life-changing decisions on this trip. We’re supposed to be tracking down a shield and spear to save my friend Dao from a bad marriage. Why would I go rushing into a marriage with someone I hardly know—a man who claims to be a vampire, to top it all off?”
“Believe me, you won’t be rushing into anything.” He removed her other shoe. “We may remain at the first stage indefinitely. That would be okay with me. It will also serve your purpose.”
Again, she didn’t stop him. Nor did she stop him when he pulled off her socks. Having him see her bare feet was no big deal. Of course, when he started to tug at her top, she had to put up a little resistance. It was only right since she was a respectable woman.
“I do respect you, Sophie,” he said, just before he pulled her shirt off.
She crossed her arms over her now nearly bare torso. Only her satin bra remained. “Quit poking around in my thoughts. That’s not fair. I can’t do the same.”
“You will be able to once we’ve become one, for a few moments. You will see soon.”
“I could appreciate that benefit.” She caught his hands at her waist, before he’d unbuckled her belt. “Hold up a minute. I’m practically naked and you’re still fully clothed. That’s not right.”
“Oh. Well, far be it for me to be unfair.” He yanked off his shoes, then slipped off his socks and stuffed them in his shoes. When he went for the hem of his shirt, Sophie stopped him.
“May I?” she asked.
“Absolutely.” He lifted his arms in a show of surrender.
She curled her fingertips around the bottom hem of his pullover and pushed it up, revealing some of the most cut abdominal muscles she’d ever seen. That scrumptious sight was followed by an even better one when she uncovered his chest.
It was smooth, muscular, and covered with only the slightest sprinkling of crisp hair at the center. Two small pink nipples poked out at her, beckoning her touch. She traced each areola with an index finger and received a sharp gasp as her reward.
She smiled at his covered head, then took advantage of the fact that his shirt was inside out covering him from the neck up to tease each pebbled nipple with her tongue and teeth.
He didn’t let her get away with that. He yanked the shirt off, tossed it on the blanket, and playfully pushed her onto her back. “That isn’t fair,” he growled.
“What? I didn’t do anything that any other red-blooded American woman wouldn’t do.”
“That’s beside the point. Now, off with your pants.”
Sophie shuddered—and not because she was scared. “Are you going to spank me?”
“Not unless you want me to.” Ric grappled with her belt for all of three seconds before he had it unfastened. It took even less time for him to unbutton and unzip her pants. They came off before she drew her next breath. Granted, that had to have been a lifetime, since she was struggling mighty hard to make her insides cooperate.
Why was it when she got around Ric her autonomic nervous system shut down? In contrast, the other part, the part that registered sensations, like taste and touch and smell—she inhaled and sighed—seemed to be working just fine, maybe too well. She wondered if, since he was a biology teacher, he’d have an answer to that conundrum. When he slipped her panties down over her hips, she decided she’d have to ask him later. If she wasn’t in a coma.
Within a couple of stuttering heartbeats, she found herself lying completely naked under the heated gaze of one hot vampire wannabe and a million, zillion stars.
She was dizzy, hot, and tense. There wasn’t a part of her body that didn’t scream for his touch, even the soles of her feet. Luckily, he seemed willing to oblige. Still dressed from the waist down, he kneeled before her and lifted one leg. He massaged her foot and she emitted a sigh of contentment.
“You like?” he asked, with one eyebrow quite a bit higher than the other. One side of his mouth quirked too. It seemed he had issues making both sides of his face do the same thing.
“I’ve never had a foot massage.”
“Did you know that according to Eastern medicine, there are points on your feet and ankles that are directly connected to erogenous zones?”
“You’re joking.”
“Not entirely.” He stroked a small area on her big toe. “Like here.”
She gasped as a rush of warmth gathered between her legs. Score one for the Eastern medicine guys. Course, she couldn’t be positively certain it was his touch that produced that yummy effect or that smoldering gaze of his. Could be both.
His gentle strokes wandered up her ankle and she squirmed as her more delicate parts heated more. By the time he reached her thigh, she was a sweating, trembling ball of gelatinous goo.
No man had ever done that to her. She was practically begging for him to make love to her before he’d even touched her genitals. And when his hand slipped between her thighs, his fingertips grazing her folds, well, that was nearly the end of her.
She cried out into the night. Her voice sounded small and hollow in the open field. He lifted his hands to her knees and gently pulled them apart.
“I want to taste you.”
“Like, drink my blood?” she asked without thinking. His face was nowhere near her neck, but then again the real vampire hadn’t bitten her on the neck either.
“No, I want to taste you here.” He swiped a long, tapered finger down her slit.
Her spine arched automatically at the invasion. Rather than draw closed, her knees parted wider, giving him all the access his heart desired.
And he took it, greedily. His hair tickled her thighs as he tipped his head down and took the first shy taste of her with his warm velvety tongue. That first taste was followed by lots more, and not so shy. His tongue, teeth, lips moved over her, licking, tasting, teasing until every muscle inside her body was tied into tight knotted coils. She trembled all over, writhing under him while he licked, nipped, and kissed her to oblivion and back. Just as she was at the cusp of release he stopped.
She blinked open her eyes. “Why?” she asked between panting breaths.
“It’s time now.” He unzipped his pants and pushed them down his long legs. He kicked them off, then took care of his snug black underwear.
His erection was something to behold. She burned with the need to feel it deep inside.
“Soon, my love. Very soon.”
“Now,” she begged, knowing if he made her wait another second, she’d die.