Darkest Desire of the Vampire: Wicked in Moonlight\Vampire Island (Harlequin Nocturne) (6 page)

“Well, I don’t think you want to kill me,” she murmured, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, “or you would have already done it.”

“So now you’re no longer afraid of me?” he asked, that inscrutable expression back on his face.

“Why should I be?”

His voice went eerily soft again. “There’s a hell of a lot I could do to you without killing you, Lainey.”

“True. But you wouldn’t.”

“Yeah?” His blue eyes were shadowed...dark. “And why’s that?”

“I can just...tell.”

“Christ, I don’t believe what I’m hearing,” he muttered, the moment of teasing over as he shoved to his feet. Suddenly she found herself staring up at almost six and a half feet of pissed-off vampire. “You can just
tell?
”

Her chin went up a notch. “That’s right.”

He gripped the chair they’d been using as a table, their mugs nearly tumbling from the tray as he shoved it out of his way, that raw, violent tension she’d glimpsed in him earlier riding his large body all over again. “The way I see it,” he bit out, glaring down at her, “you should be screaming bloody murder right about now.”

She would have explained if she could, but she barely understood her own mind at the moment. All she knew was that she felt safe with this man...or vampire...or whatever he wanted to call himself. Safer than she had in...a really long time.

Locking her gaze hard on his, Lainey looked him right in the eye and said, “I’m not afraid of you, Nick. So why would I scream?”

“Take off the goddamn blinders,” he snarled, swiping one of those large hands through the air. “The world is shit, as evidenced by what happened to your brother. You shouldn’t trust me. Hell, you shouldn’t trust
any
man. The sooner you start to realize that, the better your chances of surviving.”

“Yeah, well, you know what I think? I think you need a woman who can help you learn to lighten up a little.”

He went completely still except for the hard rise and fall of his chest, those big hands fisted at his sides as he stared her down. “Is that right?” he finally asked, his voice doing that soft, raspy thing again that made her feel like the words were stroking her skin.

“Yes,” she breathed out, trying not to shiver.

“You mean a woman like
you?
” He moved even closer to the side of the bed, the look in his eyes both dark and bright, as if the midnight sky had been spread out over a hot, molten glow. “Is that what I need, Lainey?”

Her temper spiked. As much as she wanted him to flirt with her, she knew damn well that wasn’t where he was going with this. “Cut it out, Nick. Now I’m starting to think you just like being mean.”

He came a little closer, his knees bumping the mattress. “Explain.”

Tilting her head back farther so that she could hold his piercing gaze, she said, “You keep making references to the two of us...you know. So I’m wondering if you’re actually trying to
make
me dislike you because I’m not afraid of you. Is it
that
important to you for me to keep my distance?”

His brows went so high they nearly reached his hair. “The idea of having sex with me is grounds for dislike?”

Gritting her teeth, she said, “Despite some of the comments you’ve made tonight...or this morning...or
whatever
it is, we both know you’re just mocking me. I’m obviously not your...type.”

“Not my type?” He made a sharp sound of frustration, absently rubbing his hand over his bandaged biceps. “You’re being serious, aren’t you? You really think you’re not the type of woman I like to fuck?”

Her face went crimson. “I know I’m not.”

“I don’t screw around with human women,” he grated, veins thickening beneath his dark skin as he squeezed his hand around the wound. “But it doesn’t mean I wouldn’t want to.”

Her soft snort seemed to set his teeth on edge. “So it’s my humanity that throws you off?
Right.
”

He cursed under his breath as he turned away from the bed, starting that relentless pacing again. As if they could sense the tension in the room, the wolves started another incessant round of howling, accompanied by the nerve-racking scratch of their claws against the door.

Following him with her eyes, Lainey ignored the monsters and focused on the vampire in the room with her. “I’m not going to think you’re a jerk for being honest,” she told him, knowing damn well what he would say. Something along the lines of
You’re a great gal, Lainey, but I just don’t think of you that way.
How many times had she heard that little spiel before? Lifting her chin, she tried not to sound upset as she added, “We both know you’re not attracted to me, Nick.”

“Is that so?” His voice was rough but soft. “You have no idea how tempted I am to prove you wrong.”

She started to launch another argument but found the words drying up on her tongue when she caught the way he was looking at her. It was unlike anything she’d ever seen—a scorching look of savage, visceral hunger. She went breathless, her heart starting to pound with shocked excitement. “If...if that’s true, then tell me.”

He shuddered, the muscles beneath his dark skin bunching with tension as he clenched his hands. He looked like a caged animal prowling the confines of its cage, but she still wasn’t afraid. Captivated, thankful,
hopeful.
Those were all far better words for what she was suddenly feeling.

Licking her bottom lip, she said, “Better yet, why don’t you show me?”

There was something deliciously provocative about the way he angled his head as he cut her a sharp look of warning. But it was a little intimidating, too. Animalistic and raw, making it clear he was anything but human. Yet, she still wasn’t frightened.

As if he read that in her eyes, he growled, “You’re playing a dangerous game, Lainey.”

“Oddly enough, Nick, this is the safest I’ve felt all night.” Her voice was quiet but firm.

“Damn it, woman!” He turned toward her with a fierce scowl, eyes burning like blue chips of flame from beneath his dark brows. “You should be terrified!”

With a little shrug, she said, “If you want to scare me, you’re going to have to do a better job than you have so far.”

“You have no idea what you’re asking for,” he snarled, moving so fast he was nothing more than a blur. Before she could process what was happening, she was upright, being pinned to the wall behind the bed by nearly six and a half feet of hard, muscled male. Sweat beaded on his brow, his breaths warm against her lips, eyes glowing and bright, the irises now a pure molten gold without a glimmer of blue. She could feel the hunter in him—that dark wildness that saw her as something more like food he could fuck than a woman he could make love to. Could see the battle he was fighting to keep that vicious predator in check. Keep it from breaking loose and doing something she knew they’d both regret.

He’d said he didn’t screw around with humans, and she was beginning to see why.

As if he saw that flash of vulnerability in her eyes, he flinched, something shadowed and pained moving through that savage gaze. For a split second she thought he would pull away, but then his big hands were wrapping around her wrists, lifting them over her head and trapping them against the wall. He leaned harder into her, grinding his massive erection against her lower belly as he tilted his face down and stared into her eyes. Stroking his thumbs against the damp heat of her palms, he said, “When you’re bound like this, I could do anything to you, Lainey.
Anything.
And there’s nothing you could do to stop me.”

“Chains or no chains, Nick, you could take what you want from me anytime you wanted it.”

“And that frightens you,” he whispered, the look in those inhuman eyes daring her to disagree. But despite everything, she still wasn’t afraid. Just because he
could
hurt her didn’t mean that he would.

When she shook her head in response to his statement, he cursed something guttural in Spanish that sounded exceptionally dirty. In English he simply demanded, “Why, damn it? I know you’re not stupid, so what the hell is your problem?”

“I don’t know how to make you understand,” she whispered, wishing she could break out of his hold and touch him. She wanted to rub her hands all over that hard, breathtaking body. “I’m not sure I even understand it myself. Did you...have you used some kind of vampire trick to mesmerize me or something?”

He gave a sharp snort. “We have enough advantages over humans without needing to be able to control your lust.”

“Then I guess I just want you,” she whispered, giving him a tremulous smile.

“Goddamn it!” His body shook as he pressed his forehead against hers, releasing his grip on her wrists. But he didn’t take his hands off her. Instead, he ran them down her body—across her forearms and over her biceps, and when he reached her breasts, he made a thick, guttural sound in the back of his throat. “You feel so fucking good,” he growled, rubbing her nipples through her shirt with his thumbs. She groaned in surrender, tilting her pelvis toward him, and his hands left her breasts in a flash, his breath hissing sharply through his teeth, as if she’d hurt him.

Before Lainey could ask him what was wrong, he slammed his hands against the wall on either side of her head, his breaths coming hard and fast and rough. In the next instant, she heard an odd, high-pitched grating sound, a gasp of shock rushing past her lips when she looked from side to side and saw that he was scraping two vicious sets of talons down the metal surface of the wall. When she brought her startled gaze back to his face, she gasped again at the sight of the deadly fangs hanging beneath his upper lip. They were long...sharp...gleaming.

If ever there was a time to be out of her head with terror, Lainey knew it was now—but the haunted look on his beautiful face nearly broke her heart. In that single instant, she could see and understand so much, as if she were slipping right inside him, strolling through his mind, sneaking peeks at his secrets. Sensing, with some unknown skill, what he needed to ease the struggle and tension seething inside him.

He started to pull away, but she caught his face in her hands and leaned forward, pressing a tender kiss to the corner of his mouth. He drew in a ragged breath as she kissed the other side, his chest working like a bellows. “Shh,” she whispered. “Just take a deep breath and trust me.”

“I can’t,” he panted, jerking his head to the side. “Goddamn it! Breathing you in is the
last
thing I should be doing. You’re too—”

He cut himself off with a low growl, and she wanted to stamp her foot with frustration. “I’m too what?”

“Forget it,” he snapped, jerking away from her. “This isn’t happening, Lainey.”

“Nick, it’s okay,” she murmured, sinking to her haunches as she watched him step off the bed with pantherish skill. “Come back.”

She could see how badly he wanted to, but he jerked his head in a sharp, negative shake, refusing to look at her as he scrubbed his hands down his face. “Can’t.”

“You
can.
I trust you. Come back to me.” She didn’t understand
why
this was so important to her, but it was. It mattered in ways that meant a hell of a lot more than sex—though she had a feeling that any kind of sex with Nick Santos would be pretty damn meaningful.
“Please.”

“Christ, Lainey.” Dropping his hands, he turned his head toward her, his expression tight with lust and things that were too primal for her to even understand. “I might be the vampire, but
you’re
the dangerous one.”

She shook her head, filled with confusion. “I doubt that. I mean, I’m practically a librarian!”

He gave a throaty laugh as he rubbed a hand over his eyes, the dark, husky sound making her tremble and melt. “I never would have guessed that a smart-ass little bookworm could tie me up in so many knots.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment, so thanks.”

With those simple words, she had him clenching his jaw all over again. “You shouldn’t be
thanking
me!” he roared. “You should be slapping my face and demanding I get you out of here. You should be cursing me to the depths of hell and telling me to keep my bloody hands off you!”

“But I happen to like your hands on me, Nick. And call me practical, but I’d rather be in here with you than out there with them any day of the week.”

He glanced at the bite mark on his arm. “You might not think that come nightfall tonight.”

“Why?”

Instead of answering, he grabbed the tray and started heading for one of the doorways. “You must still be exhausted,” he said over his shoulder, his tone low and flat. “You should get some more sleep before we talk any more. Once the sun is up, the wolves will quiet down a bit, so the howling won’t keep you awake.”

“Nick, wait! I want to—”

But he’d already touched a switch on the wall that muted the light and disappeared through a doorway, leaving her alone.

Scooting down onto her side, Lainey huddled beneath one of the light blankets and tried not to dwell on how frustrating Nick Santos, badass vampire with a serious attitude problem, could be. Or all the things he wouldn’t tell her. Prickly, irritating male!

But most of all, Lainey tried not to think about how badly she wanted him.

Chapter 4

D
ripping in sweat, Nick attacked the set of weights he kept in the back room of the bunker, so furious he probably could have taken on the entire wolf pack on his own. But he wouldn’t risk putting Lainey in harm’s way. If his rage weren’t enough to cut them down, she’d be the one to pay the price. Which meant he’d just have to find some other way to work through the most severe, excruciating case of sexual craving he’d ever experienced...for a woman he couldn’t—
shouldn’t
—touch.

He was a hairsbreadth away from ripping the clothes off her delectable little body and claiming her in ways so raw and hard and possessive most humans wouldn’t even be able to comprehend them. He wanted her marked and filled with his seed. Wanted his tongue on her clit...then lower, plunging into her hot sex while he closed his lips over her opening and sucked in every juicy drop of her pleasure. Wanted to eat at the tender flesh between her thighs until she was coming so hard he could drink her in, drowning in her, while he drove himself into her beautiful, smart-ass little mouth.

And that was before he even got to the blood. To the idea of sinking his fangs into her tender throat and feeling her spill, warm and slick and sweet, across his tongue.

Though it had confused him at first, this morning Nick had more clarity. He now understood why he’d been so short-tempered with her. His pissy attitude was nothing more than a cover. A way to hide the fact that he wanted her so badly it was twisting him into knots. Hell, his natural hungers were violent enough—no telling where they could go with the wolf’s blood flowing through his veins, creating havoc in his body.

Yet, the instant he heard the rustling of the bedding in the main room, his heart started to pound with anticipation. When a glance at the clock showed it was already nine, he figured she was probably awake. Making his way through the narrow passageway that connected to the bathroom, he took another quick, deliberately cold shower.

When he was done, Nick sent up a silent prayer that his brothers would hurry up and find their asses soon, not knowing how much longer he could keep it together, and headed into the kitchen to put on a fresh pot of coffee. A few minutes later, he’d doctored Lainey’s with cream and sugar, keeping his black, and carried the two mugs into the main room, hoping they could start fresh for the day. He didn’t want to spend what time he had left with her arguing. He just wanted to soak up as much of her as he could from as safe a distance as possible.

“I’ve got coffee,” he said, his heart giving a strange thump when he caught sight of her. She looked completely adorable sitting there on the bed with her back propped against the wall, her hair a wild tangle of golden waves that tumbled around her flushed face. If not for the chains manacling her delicate wrists, she’d have looked like a drowsy, brown-eyed nymph.

Then again, knowing what he did about nymphs, the chains might have been fairly appropriate.

With a half smile on those rosy lips, she eyed his bare chest, bit her lip as she did a quick visual sweep over the front of his jeans, then locked that heavy-lidded gaze on the steaming mugs of coffee. “Mmm. You’re an angel.”

She must have caught the word he muttered under his breath because she laughed and said, “Oops, sorry. I know how much you hate that. Would devil be better?”

“Did you sleep okay?” he asked, ignoring her question as he used his elbow to flick the light switch to a brighter setting, then walked over and handed her one of the mugs.

“Better than I thought I would. The howls woke me up a few times, but you were right about them quieting down.”

“Most of them are probably asleep,” he told her, taking a sip of his coffee. “In fact, four of them are actually sleeping against the door.”

Her brows lifted. “How do you know?”

“For one thing, I can smell them through the air vents.”

A strange look crossed her face. “Your sense of smell is
that
good?”

He took another drink from his mug, then said, “Think bloodhound but about a hundred times better.”

“Whoa!”

“I’m a vampire, Lainey. Not a human. I might look like you, but I’m not.” And the sooner she got that through her stubborn little head, the better off they’d both be.

“I know what you are, Nick. Trust me, the fangs were a dead giveaway. But that’s not the problem,” she murmured. “The problem is that I need a shower.” He couldn’t read her mind, but it was obvious from the look on her face that she was embarrassed.

“There’s no need to worry,” he said with a wry smile, sitting in one of the chairs he’d left by the bed. “You smell incredible, Miss Maxwell.”

“Hardly,” she scoffed.

He cocked his head to the side as he studied her. “But you can have a shower if you want one.”

That brightened her right up. “Really? In private?”

Shit. Just the thought of watching her soap up that sexy little body made his dick twitch. But he knew better than to tempt himself. “Yeah,” he practically croaked. “In private. You want one right now?”

“God, yes. I’d love that. Thank you.”

Moving back to his feet, Nick took a small key from one of his front pockets. He was careful not to touch her as he took her mug, set it on the floor beside his own, then unlocked the shackles as she held her wrists out to him. As soon as she was released, she rubbed her wrists and scooted off the side of the bed, then moved to her feet, her body no doubt feeling stiff and achy from lying down for so long.

“I’m afraid the water won’t be very hot,” he told her, watching as she lifted a slender hand to rub at the knotted muscles in her neck.

“I don’t care. It’ll still feel great.” Looking down at her bloodstained clothes, she added, “But it sucks that I don’t have anything clean to change into.”

“Wait here.” He headed through the doorway on the right and made his way back to the small bedroom he kept at the rear of the bunker. When he came back into the main room, he handed her a stack of clothing. “They’ll be too big for you, but you can use these.”

She gave him a blinding smile that damn near knocked him on his ass. “Thanks, Nick.”

“Come on, then,” he grunted.

She followed him through the doorway on the left, through the small kitchen, then into the narrow surveillance room that connected to the bathroom. He’d been hoping she wouldn’t stop to study the wall of video screens that covered the right side of the room. But he should have known she was too curious to pass them by. The instant she spotted them, she walked over to the desk that hugged the wall, keeping the clothes he’d given her clutched in her arms as she leaned forward and studied the screen that revealed the wolves gathered just outside the door. She could see the shadowy shapes of others in the distance, a few glowing sets of eyes burning in the stygian darkness, while the others slept.

“Will they just stay there all day?” she asked. “All of them?”

“Yeah,” he grunted, hands shoved deep in his front pockets as he moved to her side. He hadn’t stood next to her since the previous afternoon, and he almost grinned, surprised by how petite she was beside him. But then he looked at the wolves, and the urge to smile fled as quickly as it’d come. “They won’t risk lowering their numbers, knowing damn well that we’d try to escape if they did. They can’t take the risk of you getting away.”

There was a notch between her brows as she turned her head to look at him. “The risk?”

Nodding, he rubbed his fingers against his bristled jaw and explained. “You know the truth about them now, which means they can’t risk you going to the authorities with that information. To keep that from happening, they’ll block our only exit for however long it takes, probably thinking hunger will eventually drive us out. Idiots have no idea how much food I’ve stockpiled in this place,” he finished with a derisive snort.

“But even if I
did
go to the authorities, they wouldn’t ever believe me.”

“That’s true.” He jerked his chin toward the screen that showed the sleeping wolves. “But you’ve also seen their human faces, which could definitely cause trouble for them if the police were able to identify who they are from your descriptions.”

“Crap. I didn’t even think about that.” She took a shaky breath and closed her eyes for a moment, looking distraught. Nick frowned, completely at a loss for what to do—he’d never comforted anyone in his life. Clearly, it wasn’t going to be one of his strong points. But he was saved from making an ass of himself when she lifted those long eyelashes and glared at the screen. “They’re still in their wolf forms, but it’s daytime. How is that even possible?”

“So long as they’re in the dark, the older ones can control and retain the shape of their beasts. It’s only the juveniles who are completely governed by the moon.”

“They’re massive, aren’t they?”

“I’ve seen bigger,” he offered dryly, thinking how horrified she’d have been by some of the werewolves he’d faced in the past. “It’s their numbers that’s the problem.”

“How many do you think you killed last night?”

“I injured a lot of them but probably only killed one or two. Bastards are hard to destroy.”

She’d just started to ask him another question when she finally noticed what was on the center screen. Nick winced, dreading her next question.

Without looking at him, she asked, “Were you...did you watch me while I was sleeping?”

Deciding the best way to deal with the situation was to not deal with it at all, Nick grabbed her shoulder, steering her away from the screens and toward the bathroom. “If you want that shower, get moving.”

“But—”

“Move it, Lainey.”

She muttered under her breath about bossy alpha males, knowing damn well he could hear her, and he had to bite back a low rumble of laughter. He didn’t trust what he would do if he let himself loosen up around her.

The ferocity of his reaction to the little human was not only unexpected, it was unfamiliar as hell. Nick understood lust and had felt it often over the years, indulging whenever he wanted, though he’d never met a woman he wanted to tie himself down to. But he didn’t know how to explain the way Lainey made him feel. It was almost as if something essential in his life that had always been missing had suddenly clicked into place—yet, the timing and circumstances couldn’t have been worse.

“Nick?” she whispered, making him realize he’d just been standing there in the doorway to the bathroom, breathing hard as he stared at her mouth.

“Don’t take too long,” he muttered, forcing himself to step back and shove the metal door closed. He stood there for a moment, forehead pressed to the cool steel, and struggled to slow his breathing...his pulse, fighting for control. Finally, he forced himself to walk back into the main room, where he paced...and paced, his vampire hearing enabling him to follow her every movement even with the distance he’d put between them.

When she came back into the main room nearly fifteen minutes later, he’d already replaced the bedding with clean blankets and was now sitting at the table trying to clean the bloody wound on his arm just to keep himself busy. As she set her bundle of dirty clothes on the floor by the bed, then started making her way over to the table, Nick struggled to keep his attention focused on his task, but it wasn’t easy. She looked incredible wearing his white button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up, his brow misting with sweat when he realized she hadn’t put her bra back on. And the shirt’s hem was just long enough that it hid the stretchy boxer shorts he’d given her to wear. Her wet hair had been finger combed, curls already twining through the damp strands, her skin flushed and incredibly lovely. Her legs were shapely and smooth, her feet small, with coral-colored polish on her nails. It was amazing how much visual detail he could gather from the corner of his eye when he was really motivated.

“Before you put the chains back on me,” she said, pulling her damp hair over one shoulder, “I want to talk to you about them.”

Nick slid her a wary look. “All right.”

“You can let me go now,” she told him. “I mean, you can leave the chains off. I won’t try to run. I swear.”

Nick gave a derisive snort. “If you ran, you’d be dead.”

“I know,” she agreed, holding up her hands. “So what’s the point of the chains?”

“You’re better off not knowing,” he muttered under his breath.

“Don’t worry so much,” she said with a smile. “I’ll be golden, I swear.”

He smirked as he ran his gaze over her hair. “You’re definitely that, little human.” He glanced at the shackles lying empty against the blankets, then back at Lainey, and he slowly shook his head. “I have a feeling I’m going to regret this, but fine, have it your way.” He narrowed his eyes in warning. “But for your own sake, don’t do anything to rile me.”

He could see the questions in her big eyes and knew she wanted to ask what he meant, but he gave her a hard look that said
Leave it
and lowered his head, focusing his attention back on his arm.

“I’d like to feel like I’m earning my keep in here,” she murmured, coming a little closer. “Why don’t you let me help with your arm?” she offered, already pulling back one of the chairs and sitting down kitty-corner to him at the small table.

Lifting his head, he slid her a skeptical look. “And what exactly do you know about caring for wounds?”

“Absolutely nothing,” she said brightly, giving him another one of those disarming smiles. “But it seems common sense can help me out, right? So just turn toward me a little and I’ll be able to reach your arm.”

Common sense? Jesus, the woman didn’t have any. If she did, she’d know that getting within ten feet of him was a seriously bad idea, as was sitting her sweet little ass down right beside him. But his body had a mind of its own, and the next thing Nick knew, he was sitting sideways in his chair, staring down at her delicate profile as she leaned over his arm and gently dabbed with one of the antiseptic wipes he’d laid out.

“Why hasn’t this already healed?” she asked, setting the bloody wipe aside and reaching for a fresh one. “In the vampire books I’ve read, the heroes always heal super fast from their injuries.”