Enraptured, p.18
Enraptured, page 18
part #4 of Vampire Awakenings Series
His smile vanished, his eyes glittered dangerously. “No one is ever going to take you or hurt you again.”
“They could have killed you,” she whispered. “You were outnumbered.”
“It would have taken a lot more than the three of them, and I would have gladly killed them all to keep you safe. My life is intertwined with yours Paige; there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.”
Inexplicable tears burned her eyes; she rapidly blinked them back. “Is that because you believe I’m your mate?”
He sat on the bed again. Taking hold of her hand, he pulled her down beside him. She perched on the edge of the bed, afraid to get too close. His touch could make her forget everything, and right now she didn’t think burying her head in the sand was the way to deal with what was happening in her life.
“You are my mate. There’s no doubt about it in my mind. I’d die for you, and I would die without you.” Paige couldn’t breathe as his eyes burned into hers. Lifting his hand, he brushed back a strand of her hair. His fingers lingered on her cheek as he leaned closer to her. She could feel the warmth of his breath against her lips. “I know, as a human, this is difficult for you to understand, but you’re everything to me. There will never be anyone, but you, for me from now on.”
“Ian…”
The brush of his lips against hers caused her heart to jump. He didn’t deepen the kiss but sat back and slid his fingers into hers. “The man you first saw in that bar is gone. If you decide you’ll stay with me, then I’ll be with you, and only you, for an eternity. If you decide to leave me, there still won’t ever be anyone else for me again. You’re everything to me.”
She didn’t know how to respond, not when he was staring at her with such reverence and need. “You barely know me,” she whispered.
“I know enough. We haven’t gone far in our relationship; I could let you go if you chose to walk away from me.” He wasn’t sure he could let her go, but he couldn’t tell her that. She had to make this choice on her own. And if she did decide to walk away, he would let her, even if it destroyed him. Her happiness is all he wanted. “But I will always be there to make sure you’re protected.”
“I can’t stand the thought of you being hurt by anyone, and he will keep coming for me. If I leave he’ll follow me.”
The flash of red that ran through his eyes caused her breath to inhale sharply. “So will I,” he grated.
“I don’t want you to be hurt because of me.”
“I could have killed twenty of them today; I will not be hurt. Don’t ever worry about that, and don’t leave me because that’s what you fear. If you chose to leave me do so because it’s what you want, but know that I am here willingly and will not go anywhere until this vampire is dead.”
Paige nodded, but she couldn’t shake the lingering doubt and fear that she would be the cause of his demise. She’d be broken if anything happened to him, she realized. “What exactly has to be done to complete the mate bond?” she inquired.
“Sex.” The way he said the word caused the hair on her nape to raise and a shiver to go through her. “Blood. You’d have to become a vampire.”
The heat seeping through her body was doused by those words. Her mouth dropped, she closed it again, before it fell once more. Ian braced himself for her rejection, for her recoil, or shouts of denial. She remained stunned into silence. Her eyes drifted down to their laced hands; he thought she would jerk away from him, but her fingers stayed entwined with his. He could hear the rapid beat of her heart, see the pulse vibrating in her neck. Her scent intensified as she continued to stare at their hands before finally looking at him again.
“That’s such a huge commitment. It means certain death. My death.”
“I know.”
“I barely know you.” And yet he was the only person in the past four years who had shown her any kindness. He’d risked his life for her, before he’d believed her to be his mate. He’d protected her and cared for her; he’d listened to her and gone out of his way for her. He was the best man she’d ever met, and he wanted to spend an eternity with her. In some ways it all sounded so wonderful, yet she couldn’t shake her lingering fear and doubt. “What if you’re wrong?”
He rested his forehead against hers. “I’m not. If we ever completed the bond you would never have another doubt about what I feel for you, and you would know how much I love you, all of the time.”
A breath escaped her at his ‘I love you’. “The bond would make it so you could sense my thoughts, my feelings, and we’d be able to communicate with each other without saying a word out loud,” he continued as if he hadn’t just completely rocked her world. “You’d never doubt how I feel for you, ever.”
He loved her? She leaned closer to him, unable to ignore the lure of him, the physical pull he had over her. Was it love? She didn’t know the answer to that question, she kept telling herself she hadn’t known him long enough for it to be love, but she’d definitely never felt this way about someone before. She cared about him so much that when he’d mentioned her becoming a vampire, it hadn’t sent her screaming out of here like it would have two weeks ago.
“Does becoming a vampire hurt?” she asked.
His eyes flew over her face. She hadn’t said no and she hadn’t completely denied him. She still sat beside him and hadn’t screamed at him that she would never become a vampire. “I’ve been told it’s exceptionally painful,” he admitted. “But it’s over quick.”
Her thumb caressed the back of his hand as she contemplated his words. “I’m not sure about drinking blood…”
“You’ll only ever have to feed from me. I will keep you nourished.”
How was it possible that he somehow made drinking blood sound tempting, or at least his blood? She looked at the vein in his neck, was she actually considering this? She shook her head, but it didn’t clear her of the troubling thoughts filling her mind. “I see. I… uh… I need some time to think.”
“I know.” He leaned forward and pressed a tender kiss against her forehead. “But you have to know what you mean to me, and there’s nothing I won’t do for you. If you decide to walk away from me, I’ll let you go, but if you decide to be with me, it’s irrevocable. It’s an intense bond that can never be broken and I want it with you, more than anything.”
She lifted her head to brush her lips over his. A sigh of pleasure escaped her when the heat of his mouth seared into her. An eternity with this man sounded like a little bit of heaven to her lonely soul. She may have only known him for a short time, but he’d become the most important man in her life.
He pulled away from her reluctantly. “If you don’t mind, I should probably take a shower.” He glanced pointedly at the blood still staining his skin and clothing.
“Oh yeah.”
“Are you still going to be here when I get out or am I going to have to hunt you down again?”
She folded her hands in her lap and lifted her head to look up at him. A million witty retorts went through her mind, but in the end she responded with the simple truth. “I have nowhere to go.”
He stood, torn between washing the blood off of himself or comforting her. She looked so lost and confused. A part of her world, something she’d believed strongly in, had been taken away from her today and he didn’t know how to make it any better for her. “The hunters aren’t bad either. They simply have it wrong,” he told her.
“What is it they have wrong?”
“Like I’ve told you, we’re not all monsters. They don’t realize that just as you didn’t. The ones of us who are killers should be stopped, the rest of us only want peace and to be with our families.”
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“You kept trying to tell me that, but I wouldn’t listen to you.”
Walking over, he knelt before her and took hold of her hands. “There are always things we never want to hear; things we have a difficult time believing.”
She squeezed his hands then released them. She’d believed him to be a murdering, heartless bastard, but he was the kindest man she’d ever met, far kinder and more selfless than her. “Yes, there are. Will they come looking for us here?”
“Not if they plan to live.” A shiver went down Paige’s spine when his eyes became the color of rubies. “Who is it that keeps coming after you?”
Paige opened her mouth to blurt out everything, but the words stuck in her throat. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him; she simply couldn’t bring herself to reveal that horror to him.
She stared up at him helplessly; her eyes shimmering with uncertainty. Ian sighed as she remained mute and broken before him. Anger festered in him, but he kept his face impassive so that she wouldn’t see it. He’d mistakenly believed he’d been making headway with her. “I have to shower.”
She gave a brief nod, but her eyes remained haunted. The idea of leaving her there, looking so vulnerable, tore at him but he didn’t have a choice, he had to get this blood off of his body. Walking into the bathroom, he turned the water in the small shower on as hot as he could stand it before stepping into the driving spray. He’d believed her when she’d said she would stay, but he kept his senses honed on the other room just in case. He’d have no qualms about dragging her to safety kicking and screaming if it became necessary.
Resting his hands against the shower wall, he bowed his head as he let the water wash over his aching muscles and knotted back. The wounds may have healed already, but his muscles were still sore from the pounding they’d taken today.
He stared down at the pink water running down the drain as the blood washed away from him. He tried not to picture her out there sitting on that bed looking so lost. What was he going to do with her? He couldn’t simply let her go out into this world, unprotected, with everything she knew? The idea of letting her go caused his fingers to curl into the tiling and he had to fight the impulse to drive his fist into it. She hadn’t flat out told him no; she’d actually seemed to contemplate what he’d told her, but he refused to get his hopes up. She’d hated vampires for far longer than she’d known him.
She was a walking bull’s eye, and she would be alone in the world if she refused him. He knew what she was to him, but he couldn’t force her into something she wasn’t ready for, not when she was trying to sort out her life and everything she believed in. If she would only open up to him, maybe he could better understand what drove her obsession. Maybe he could help her. It was getting her to open up that would be the tricky part. She was one of the most private people he’d ever come across.
He grabbed the small motel bar of soap and scrubbed his skin as the water began to run clean. When he was done, he turned the now warm water off and stepped out of the shower. He toweled himself off, slipped on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. When he exited the room, Paige slipped by him and into the shower beyond. He listened as she moved about and the water turned on, but he sat on his hands as he fought the urge to go to her.
Steam followed her when she re-emerged in a pair of loose fitting sweats and a baggy blue tee. He watched as she mutely brushed out her hair before crawling onto the other bed. The news she’d turned on before going into the shower, barely registered as he watched her simple, mundane movements.
“Paige…”
“I need to sleep,” she murmured.
Though she doubted she’d be getting any sleep tonight, not after the events of this day, and the revelations that had unfolded. She’d believed in the hunters, believed she could carry out her mission, and now she had nothing. He believed she was meant to be with him for an eternity. She wanted more than anything to trust in him, but all she’d ever known was disappointment and betrayal.
She watched him walk over to the other bed, pull back the comforter, and climb in. The sound of his breathing drifted to her, if she stretched her hand across the two feet separating them, he would take hold of hers, she was certain of it. Instead, she forced herself not to think about him being so close to her. Rolling over, she focused on the opposite wall. He switched off the light and changed the channel on the TV.
CHAPTER 17
It took her a few minutes to figure out where she was when she woke in the middle of the night. Nothing around her looked familiar; there had been no light or power in the cabin, but images flickered across a TV screen. Then, the happenings of the day crashed over her. Her father had found her again, somehow, and now he was recruiting vampires to help him. Terror curdled in her belly like month old milk. She didn’t know how he always managed to locate her, but she knew now she’d never escape him. She’d been living under a false sense of security with the hunters; she’d allowed herself to believe she had the upper hand and that when she encountered her father again it would all be over, and she would walk away the winner.
She’d been delusional and lucky she hadn’t gotten herself killed.
Rolling to the side, her gaze fell on the clock on the table next to the bed. Two thirty blazed back at her in vivid red numbers. She’d actually managed to sleep for four hours straight; she must have been far more tired than she’d realized. It was rare she slept more than two or three hours at a time. Sleep meant being vulnerable, and that was one thing she couldn’t afford to be.
Beyond the clock, Ian’s azure eyes met hers in the dim light. Her breath caught in her throat as he gazed at her. Her fingers curled into the pillow. He hadn’t moved, hadn’t made any sound, but there was something so magnificent and sensual about him that heat pooled within her belly and spread lower through her limbs. This man was brutal, fierce. He was everything she’d been trying to fight, yet all she wanted was to run her hands over his flesh and feel his body against hers, inside of hers.
The yearning was so strong she almost threw back the covers, slipped out of her bed, and crawled into his. She wanted to feel anything other than this extreme sense of hopelessness. She knew he was the only one who could do that for her.
“Why were you with them, Paige?” he inquired.
“Who?” she asked.
He could smell the heightened lust drifting from her body; the increased beat of her heart sounded in his ears. Blood flooded his cock causing it to harden and lengthen against his stomach. He forced himself to stay in his bed. He’d already been rebuked enough by her; he didn’t feel like getting his pride stomped on again tonight.
“The hunters, how did you know they existed?”
She pulled the worn bedspread closer against her shoulders. “I didn’t. Not until a couple of years ago, and then it took me a while to find them.”
“Who is it that keeps coming after you?”
His question caused memories to tumble through her mind. She shuddered and pulled the blanket closer against her. She could keep fighting him, keep trying to hide her past from him, but she didn’t see the point anymore. And she was so tired of fighting, so tired of keeping him at arm’s length. So tired of bearing this cross all by herself. The last person she’d revealed her secret to, Nabel, had promised to help her and guide her, but he’d only told her lies. Ian didn’t offer her those promises, he didn’t have to; he would be there for her for as long as she needed him. This man across from her was many things, but a liar wasn’t one of them.
“My father,” she admitted in a whisper. She held her breath as she braced herself for his response.
His eyes didn’t flicker, his breathing didn’t change, but she sensed a subtle stiffening of his body. “How did he become a vampire?”
“I don’t know how. I don’t know when. My mother and I fled from him when I was seven, and he was still human. He was a vicious, drunken bastard who often mistook my mother for his punching bag. One night, he came home and I had colored on the wall with a marker. He cracked three of my ribs, and broke my arm before my mother succeeded in pulling him off of me. The next day she packed a small bag for me and we fled to a battered woman’s shelter. We spent a couple of years moving around before she finally felt safe enough to settle down in a small town in Vermont. I was nine.”
Anger festered inside Ian’s chest; his teeth grated together. He forced himself to remain outwardly relaxed around her. “What happened after that?”
“I got a life,” she said with a small laugh. “At first it was difficult because I kept waiting for it to fall apart, and for us to have to run again. But after a couple of years I began to settle in, relax, and I made friends. Good friends. I had fun. I had a boyfriend, I went to prom, I graduated, and I was going to college. It was all so good and then…”
“And then what?” he prodded when her voice trailed off and her eyes focused on the far wall.
“He found us,” she whispered. The tone of her voice tore at his heart, but he remained unmoving on the bed. “And he accomplished what he’d set out to do years before. I was working with my mom as a volunteer at the hospital where she worked. We were going to drive in together that morning. The sun hadn’t come up yet. He attacked us before we made it to the car. He killed my mom, and then he came after me again.”
“How did you get away?”
“He tore out my throat and left me for dead.” Her fingers instinctively drifted to the scars on her neck. “I’m only alive because the sun began to rise, and some neighbors had emerged from their houses. The attack was swift, but my screams still drew them out. I also think he believed I was dead or as good as dead anyway.
“The only reason I’m still alive is one of my neighbors was a paramedic and somehow managed to keep me alive while his wife drove to the hospital. No one mentioned vampires; I think maybe some of them thought it, but no one said the word and neither did I. The last thing I wanted was to end up in the looney bin, and to tell the truth I believed I might be a little insane at that point. The police wrote it off as a random act of violence.”
Her eyes darted away from his. Tears pooled on the pillow beneath her. She didn’t bother to wipe them away as she stared at the wall behind his bed. No wonder she hated vampires so much and had been so unwilling to trust him in the beginning. He couldn’t imagine what she’d endured over the years, couldn’t begin to relate to it. His family hadn’t been normal by human standards, but it had been a loving, open environment. One where he’d never known fear and definitely never known abuse.
