BloodGifted (23 page)

‘I know it will be difficult for you to call me mother, so Judy will be fine,’ she said.

‘You’ve always been more than an aunt in so many ways. It makes sense to me now and explains why I came to you whenever Mum was stressing out.’

‘I could never tell you.
’ Fresh tears ran down her cheeks.

‘You’re hom
e now, finally home.’ Luc hugged me tighter.

I g
lanced over to where Alec stood—silent, unmoving. As our eyes met, he smiled and my heart leapt.

Chapter 17

Into the Garden

LAURA

There was an hour left before Matt was due to pick me up. His shift didn’t end till 8 p.m. I had time to kill—so to speak. Luc and Judy were giving me some breathing space to digest the momentous revelations about my birth.

It had been a day full of surprises and even as shocked as I felt,
somehow it made sense. I would never stop loving my adoptive parents, John and Eilene. I could not have been loved any more than if I had been their natural daughter. But now I knew, and any stranger could easily detect the physical resemblance between my birth father and myself—the same oval-shaped face, high cheekbones, slightly full lower lip. Why hadn’t I seen it? Perhaps I did, but my mind had been unwilling to accept it. Pity I didn’t inherit his sunny fair hair, though. My mother gave me her rich copper locks and creamy complexion. Ah well!

Initially they’d both been deeply conce
rned how I would deal with the double truths about my parentage and my heritage. It’s not everyday a person finds out their biology is the result of an ancient curse and, unlike other fathers, mine happens to be a vampire. Would I accept or reject them? Would I run and hide from it all? I think, overall, my acceptance was as much a surprise to me as it was to them.

I left Luc’s study and
made my way down the stairs and through to the other end of the house. There was something I wanted to do, alone. Following Judy’s directions, I walked through the French doors in the downstairs dining room and went in search of the garden where my parents had met and fallen in love.

As I stepped outside, the heady scent of gardenias filled the air and the sky above had begun to change from a deep, azure blue to a dusky apricot. The cicadas were warming up to their nocturnal hum promising a warm night ahead and a hot day tomorrow. A slightly overgrown
and untidy sandstone path, whose edges were softened by velvet-eyed pansies and peeping violas, led away from the house. It meandered for several yards before opening up to reveal a lush verdant lawn dotted with young beech trees at one end.

At the other end towered a
majestic Morton Bay Fig tree, whose discarded and decaying fruit littered the ground around its massive trunk. At its base, on the browning grass, leaned an ivy-green, wrought-iron garden seat with scrolled arms and delicate leaf tracery. It blended comfortably with its surroundings.

This was the place.

I wandered over and sat on the leaf-strewn bench trying to imagine Luc and Judy in this spot fifty years ago. Had much changed?

I closed my eyes and listened to the sounds of the encroaching night; the local bird life noisily arguing over a disputed nest; the soft croaking of green tree frogs; the breeze whispering through the lofty branches of the fig tree above me, feelin
g it stir my hair and waft strands lightly across my face.

A cool hand gently swept the stray locks from my cheek. My eyes shot open
. Alec sat on the bench next to me, one arm bent on his lap, the other casually curling the loose ends of my hair in his fingers. It was enough to give me a cardiac arrest.

‘
What are you doing here?’

‘
Checking if you’re okay. That was quite an ordeal you went through.’

‘Oh.’ I was about to tell him to go. This was my time and I resented the intrusion.
‘How did you know where to find me?’

‘Look at your ring,’ he said. ‘The serpent’s eyes glow whenever any of us is near.’

I glanced down. A strong, warm glow suffused my hand. Why hadn’t I noticed it sooner? ‘Did it react this way with my mother?’

‘No. It was very faint, but enough to convince the Elders. It only flared brightly when your father
was by her side. On her visits I passed the ring to Luc and left the apartment.’

And now mine flared whenever Alec was near. I didn’t want to pursue the implications of that at the moment.
‘You rarely fed from her.’

‘I had my own—
sources.’ He grinned.

I bet he did.
I could visualize women trampling over themselves in their stilettos to offer him their throats!

‘
How are you?’ he asked with real concern, my hair twined around his finger.

‘Fine, oddly enough. It
slots everything into place for me and I can’t hate them for what they did.’ I looked at him questioningly. ‘Does that make sense?’

‘
Perfectly. Laura, that was the hardest thing anyone could face. By rights you should be angry, even knowing their actions stemmed out of their love for you.’

‘That’s the very reason
I can’t be.’ I shook my head. ‘You know they sent me a gift every birthday? I never knew who it was from.’

‘That sounds like them.’ A warm smile lit his face.

I sighed and bowed my head. ‘I would never want to be faced with a terrible decision like that—to give away my baby. No matter what the reason.’

Alec dropped my hair and lifted my chin to meet his gaze. ‘That’ll never happen,’ he said wit
h such passion in his voice I was puzzled.

He would make a good fat
her. Kind, caring and patient
… I mentally shook my head to clear it of the images those words evoked. Why was I even thinking that way? I certainly had no intention of finding out. Desperate to get my thoughts on another track, I decided to bring up the subject of his kiss. Had that been part of the Ritual or not?

I angled my
chin out of his grasp—he held it for too long—and sat back a little further. It felt safer. The closer he came, the more he disturbed my peace of mind.

‘Alec, can I ask you something?’

‘Anything.’

‘During last night’s ceremony
, you kissed me.’

Alec leane
d in closer and slid his arm along the back of the seat behind me. I continued. ‘Was that part of the ceremony or not?’ I tried to focus on his eyes, aware of the arm creeping closer to my shoulder, but I refused to budge.

He paused and looked at
me thoughtfully before replying, ‘No. I took advantage of the close proximity of your lovely mouth.’ His gaze went directly there.

At least he was honest. I thought back to the murmuring I heard amongst the assembled gu
ests and even among the Elders—Alec Munro had added his own personal touch to the Ritual. ‘It had nothing to do with the bloodlust!’

He shrugged.
‘Perhaps a minor part.’

‘
Then why?’

‘You know we can spend all day discussing the reasons why a man kisses a woman,
’ he said while his other hand traced the line of my jaw.

I moved away.
‘Don’t do that.’

‘Why not?’

I slid back further, breaking my resolve to stand my ground. ‘It’s too intimate,’ I replied.

He inched forward, closing the gap. ‘Why are you nervous?’

‘Who said I’m nervous! Besides, I’m not used to being in this position.’ I attempted to widen the distance between us. Unfortunately, I had run out of seat.

‘What position i
s that?’ he said in a low voice, and his eyes strayed back to my mouth.

The
wrought-iron arm of the garden seat dug into my back. There was nowhere left to go. ‘In a relationship with one man and…’

‘And?’ he prompted, while the hand on top of the seat
pressed against my back and slid me across the bench, drawing me to him. The movement was so sudden I thought he must have oiled the seat!

‘… Seduced by another!’ I gasped.

‘Is that what I’m doing?’ He bent his head to nuzzle the side of my neck.

‘You—very well—know—
it is!’ I barely managed to say, while guiltily enjoying the delicious sensations his mouth on my throat elicited. His lips were soft and cool and oh, it felt so good!

‘Is that a problem?’

He had to be kidding! But still I didn’t pull away. ‘Being seduced by you? Yes!’

With my hands against his chest, I battled
the twin urges to either push him away or wrap my arms around his neck. Stalemate.

His
mouth slowly slid along my jaw. ‘Do you love him?’

His question jolted me.
‘You asked me that before and I said it was private.’

He rais
ed his head and looked me full in the eyes while his hand stroked my cheek. ‘If you can’t answer, then something’s amiss!’

Rather than disagree with him, I found myself
questioning my own feelings toward Matt and a sense of unease stole over me.

Alec didn’t wait for my response
. His hand moved from my cheek to the back of my neck, stroking and caressing while his arm tightened at my waist. All the while his eyes never left mine and I knew I was in danger. Not in any physical sense, but he was an incredibly attractive man and, in a way I felt flattered by his advances—too flattered. Then as his eyes travelled down to my mouth and his head bent toward me, he said, ‘I’m going to kiss you. Any objections?’

The sensible part of me—my head—
wanted to push him off and rush back into the house, but that other—my heart—said the opposite. For better or worse, I listened to my heart and hoped I wouldn’t regret it later.

‘Yes!’ I lied.
My eyes closed as he bridged the gap between us.

His lips were
warm yet firm, demanding, insisting on my response. The tip of his tongue tantalizingly traced the outline of my lips before parting them and plunging in. It was like nothing I’d ever experienced. Total possession. Instead of fighting it, I pressed myself to him. Just as I started to return his kiss he stopped and my eyes shot open.

Alec
looked down at me with half-lidded eyes. ’This is only the beginning.’

He lowered his head again and
began to work his way slowly and sensually across my face, tenderly kissing my forehead, each eye, the tip of my nose, my cheeks, deliberately, lingering torturously at the corners of my mouth before skimming over the surface of my lips on his way down to my chin. Then he returned to hover teasingly above my mouth while his breath mingled with mine.

It was deliciously agonising and I felt like g
rabbing his head and forcing his lips back to mine. He took hold of my hands and raised them up and around his neck, before slipping one arm around my waist, and another behind my knees to lift me onto his lap. He then gently lowered my body so that I leant against his hard shoulder and his mouth was back on mine.

M
y response staggered me.

It was only a ki
ss, yet my breath came in gasps and my poor heart beat so strongly I thought it would burst. His presence was overwhelming: his scent, strong and masculine; the slight abrasiveness of his skin as it brushed against mine; the sound of his breathing, and the strength of his arms tight around me. His shoulders were broad enough to envelope me totally.

Was he just as
affected? I felt his heart beat strongly once or twice against my breast, his breathing just as ragged as my own. My earlier decision to keep our relationship strictly platonic now seemed to belong to the realm of fantasy. How on earth was I going to cope with this if we were to meet several times a week?

Now I understood why Judy had Luc nearby. Could I do the same with Matt?
If not, I was in trouble for I sensed my growing feelings for him couldn’t be blamed entirely on the blood bond between us. Yet I was too afraid to admit to anything more. Maybe… just maybe it was only an infatuation…?

The depth of his kiss i
ncreased as he crushed me to him and plundered my mouth like a starving man. His hand moved from my back to the curve of my breast and his thumb teased my nipple in slow rhythmic circles, sending waves of electricity pulsing through me. And heaven help me, I didn’t want him to stop!

H
is hand moved slowly over my fluttering stomach, my hip, and even further, sliding beneath the hem of my shorts to stroke my inner thigh.

I gasped and
grabbed his wrist.

‘No, Alec. Please.’
Only Matt ever touched me there.

‘I
f you’re worried about anyone seeing us, don’t. The men won’t rise for another half hour, Luc and Judith are in the house and there’s no one else around. We’re quite alone.’

‘It’s not that…’

‘Then what is it?’

I
n a desperate effort to regain some control I uncoiled his arms and stood up. To my embarrassment, my body began to tremble and this time I had no bite to blame it on. ‘Why are you doing this?’ I asked.

‘I want you, Laura
!’

His blatant honesty stunned me. ‘What if I don’t want you back?’

He raised one eyebrow and a slow, sardonic smile crept across his face. ‘Don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy that. I know otherwise. Your body sent out a very distinct message!’

T
raitorous body!
‘Well my mind is giving me another message entirely and I’m listening to it!’