Forbidden Blood (10 page)

Her smile faltered, but she was a classy woman and
wouldn’t beg him to stay.

“Sure.
Towels are under the sink.”

“Thanks, babe.”

He kissed her neck and reluctantly withdrew from her body. He got off the bed and pulled the covers over her. She rolled onto her stomach and watched him. He stared at her for a few seconds before he grabbed his jeans and headed to the bathroom with disappointment leaving a lingering touch beneath his skin.

Boom
.
Boom
.
Boom
.

The pounding on her apartment door woke Kenzie
up from a deep sleep. Almost always a hard sleeper and with her bedroom door closed, she had no clue how long the racket had been going on.

She glanced at the clock.
5:35
!
Shit
.

Whoever was hammering on her door was bound to wake
up her neighbors. She scrambled out of bed and sprinted to her bedroom door to throw it open. The sun had begun to rise, and even with the heavy curtains blocking out most of the light, for Naya’s sake, it was just bright enough for her to see her way.

S
he opened the door in mid-pound, squinting from the harsh glare from the hallway, to see Sawyer standing there with his fist in the air. He actually had the gall to look pissed off even though she would be the one to get a call from the apartment manager on Monday morning.

Despite
that, it was too early to fight, and she simply didn’t have the energy.

“Oh, it’s you,” she muttered, turning around and letting him follow her into the room. “You here to pick up Vaughn?”

A grunt was the only response she got.

Figures
.

She went to find Naya and Vaughn. The sooner she got Sawyer out of her apartment, the better. The shower was running in Naya’s bathroom, so she walked over to Naya’s room
. The door was slightly ajar, so she leaned forward to peek in and prayed she wouldn’t see anything that would scar her for life. Naya was sprawled on the bed, sleeping under the covers. It was no wonder no one else had answered the front door. Vaughn was in the shower, and Naya slept like the dead. Kenzie chuckled to herself, thinking how people assumed vampires were the living dead, and in this case, Naya practically was.

Kenzie
stepped away from Naya’s room and returned to Sawyer. “Looks like Vaughn is in the shower.”

Sawyer
leaned against the front door. His face looked freshly shaved, and his hair lay effortlessly in place. He’d probably recently showered while she was standing there in her pajamas and had what she could only guess to be a serious case of bedhead.

“You can come in, you know.”

“I’m fine,” he said.

Still an ass this morning
, she noted.

She rol
led her eyes. “Whatever. I’ll wake up Naya.”

Kenzie crept in and sat on the edge of Naya’s bed. After five minutes of gentle poking and prodding, she finally got a response.

“Hey, sleepyhead. Sawyer’s here to pick up Vaughn. I thought you might want to say good-bye.”

“Yes.”
Naya moved to lower the covers and then stopped. “I’ll be out in a minute.” She gave Kenzie a timid smile.

Kenzie chuckled and pointed her finger
. “I want details, girlfriend.” She left to give Naya some privacy.

After shutting Naya’s door,
Kenzie turned around and stopped short. Sawyer was holding her traitorous cat in his arms. She had never witnessed Crabby Abby acting that way, and she couldn’t remember ever hearing her purr either. Yet, there she was, rubbing herself all over Sawyer, and her purring could be heard from the middle of the room.

“How the hell did you get her to do that?”
she asked him, dumbfounded.

“Get her to do what?”

Kenzie didn’t answer since Naya came out of her room. She was wearing an over-sized T-shirt, not her typical nightwear.

Sawyer set the cat down.

“Hello, Sawyer. It’s nice to see you again,” Naya said to him.

He stood as
Kenzie opened her mouth to tell Naya not to even bother with being nice.

But Sawyer stepped away from the door and gave Naya a pleasant smile. “You, too.”

Kenzie snapped her mouth closed. Apparently, he acted like a jerk only with her. Shocked and alarmed, she suddenly found her feelings were hurt, and she didn’t like it. To make matters worse, she’d considered him handsome before, and then he had to go and smile. Now, he took her breath away.

After this, she hoped
to never see him again. He messed with her head too much, but thankfully, the asshat didn’t know it.

They all turned as Vaughn came out of the bathroom.
Gratefully, she was distracted from her thoughts. It was obvious as to why Naya had chosen to bring the guy home.

Vaughn had designer stubble that
Kenzie bet had grown in overnight, and he was standing there, barefoot, with his jeans unbuttoned. His chest and abs were ripped, and it appeared he was sans underwear.

Wow.

As he walked past her to Sawyer, she noticed he had an awesome tattoo and scratch marks on his back. She nudged Naya, and when they made eye contact, Kenzie winked and gave her a thumbs-up.

Naya laughed and pushed Kenzie’s hand down. “Stop it,” she whispered with a laugh.

Sawyer handed Vaughn a T-shirt he’d been holding.

“What time do we have to be there?”
Vaughn asked as he pulled the shirt over his head.

“Seven.”

“Okay, give me a minute.”

He strode over to Naya and put his arm around her. Cupping the back
of her neck, he leaned over and gave her a deep and thorough kiss.

Kenzie felt her eyes
widen.

“See you later, Naya. I had a great ti
me,” he said in a low voice, meant for her alone. He gave her a secret smile.

“
I did, too. Bye, Vaughn.” She smiled back, and it was obvious Naya liked him.

“Keep the shirt,” he said as he tugged on the front. Vaughn
turned to Kenzie. “Hi, Kenzie. Nice to meet you. Sorry I didn’t introduce myself earlier. This one”—he cocked his hand like a gun, pointing at Naya—“distracted me.” His tone was teasing.

Naya blushed, but Kenzie could
that see she liked his words.

Kenzie smiled
. “That’s okay. I understand. It’s nice to meet you, too, Vaughn.”

“Thanks for letting me crash here last night.”

“You’re welcome. Thanks for arranging a ride home for me.”

This earned her a snort from the door.

“Not a problem. Sawyer was happy to do it.”

Sawyer sounded like he might choke on his own tongue, but at least Kenzie g
ot some satisfaction out of it. Vaughn gave Naya another kiss and brushed her cheek with his thumb. He reluctantly let her go and grabbed his boots in the entryway before Sawyer opened the door.

“You’re leaving barefoot?” Kenzie asked him.

He shrugged. “I’m used to it.” His eyes turned to Naya. “See you ladies later.”

The two of them waved a
s the guys walked out the door.

After they left, Kenzie turned to Naya. “I want details
—now. ’Cause that man is
fine
.”

Naya raised her eyebrows.

“
What
?” Kenzie held up her hands. “I’m just sayin’.”

With the sun already rising before Vaughn and Sawyer
had left, Naya spent the day at Kenzie’s apartment. It wasn’t as if she couldn’t go out in the sun per se. The sun did hurt vampire eyes and required them to wear sunglasses, even in the shade, but a lot of the other stuff was legend. There was a reason the myth about the sun burning vampires had begun centuries ago, but they wouldn’t actually catch on fire and burn to ash like Hollywood had portrayed.

Around the age of twenty-five, vampires went through their conversion—or vampire puberty as it was sometimes referred. Until then, vampires were a lot like humans. They didn’t need blood, and they weren’t affected by the sun, like adults. At that time, they would also undergo hormonal changes most humans went through, including the ability to have children.

For years, all vampires had known was that if adults went out in the sun, they would tire easily and need to feed more often. Naya, like most vampires, would feed about once a month. For a previous volunteering position, she’d had to attend a seminar that was held outside during the day. Being a newly converted vampire, she’d thought the sun’s effects were exaggerated, and she’d simply planned to wear SPF 50, sunglasses, a big hat, and as much clothing as possible. Well, she’d done all that, and she’d still found that spending eight hours in the sun cut her time between feedings in half. Afterward, she’d ended up sleeping a full sixty hours. Thankfully, the seminar had been on a Friday, so she’d had the weekend to recover. Needless to say, she’d learned her lesson.

Nowadays, researchers
—both human and vampire—knew that the sun gave off UV radiation, and this radiation could damage the skin’s cellular DNA, producing genetic mutations leading to skin cancer and suppressing the immune system. As fair-skinned people were more affected, so were vampires, but even more so than their human counterparts. Not all vampires had pale skin, of course, but their skin was approximately ten times more affected than light-skinned humans. However, vampires could heal much faster than humans, and their skin never actually showed signs of sunburn. Vampire researchers now knew that when vampires were out in the sun, the skin would constantly burn and then heal itself. The process occurred too quickly to see with the naked eye, which is why they would need to sleep and feed more.

Because of all
of this, vampires had naturally adapted to sleeping during the day and being awake at night. If they were awake during the day, they stayed away from the sun.

A
nd Naya planned to do just that today. With Vaughn’s blood running through her veins, she wanted to keep it there for as long as possible. She wouldn’t dare risk having to feed sooner than necessary, but it was something she’d have to do regardless since he was human.

Truthfully, she didn’t want to go home sooner than necessary
either, so after Vaughn and Sawyer had left, Naya and Kenzie had both gone back to sleep. Naya was now lying in bed, loving how her sheets smelled like Vaughn and feeling sad because she wouldn’t be able to sleep in them for the rest of the week. At least she’d kept Vaughn’s shirt, which she could take home with her. She couldn’t help but smile because he’d left it for her.

She rolled onto her back. It made her sad to know she’d probably never see Vaughn again. She’d only just met him, but he was special
, and she’d never felt that instant connection with anyone else the way she had with him. He’d made her laugh, and she’d felt comfortable around him. In fact, she’d hardly thought of her parents and the impending betrothal all night. Her restless feelings had almost been forgotten around him.

Plus, the sex
—she couldn’t even put what it was like into words. He’d known just where and how to touch her and what made her feel good. Nobody had made her body come alive the way he had. She’d never thought she’d be so into sex that she’d forget herself and feed from someone.