Forbidden Blood (4 page)

Kenzie Swanson
looked away from the guy she was dancing with to watch her best friend—and vampire princess—walk toward her with two guys she’d never seen before. They were both huge and muscular, and she told herself to close her mouth before she started drooling.

While th
ey were both attractive, the guy with the scowl on his face was the one she couldn’t take her eyes off of. He was freaking gorgeous. He was well over six feet, with clean cut golden brown hair that hit his neckline. His ripped frame showed off wide shoulders with a slim waist and hips. He was by far the hottest man she’d ever seen. If he would wipe the grim look off his face, he might be even hotter.

Naya and the grumpy one came closer
while the dark-haired guy stood on the edge of the dance floor. Naya motioned Kenzie off to the side, so Kenzie gave her dance partner a hold-on-one-minute finger and walked over to the two.

Up close, she could see
Mr. Grumpy’s eyes were the color of amber, matching his hair. She’d never seen anything like them.

“Kenzie, this is Sawyer,” Naya introduced them.
“Sawyer, Kenzie.”

He crossed his arms
over his chest. Remembering the character with the same name on the show
Lost
, Kenzie concluded his name fit him, attitude and all.

“Hi
, Sawyer. Nice to meet you.” She held her hand out to shake, but he just stared at it with his jaw clenched.

Okay
then.
She shrugged, dropped her hand, and turned to Naya. “What’s up?”

“I’m leaving
…” Naya paused and let out a nervous laugh. “With the guy over there.” She pointed to the other guy she’d walked over with. “His name is Vaughn.”

Although Kenzie
tried to hide her look of shock, she wasn’t sure she pulled it off. Naya
never
went home with guys. That was more Kenzie’s specialty. Naya’s past had consisted of only one semi-boyfriend, and he was the only one she’d ever slept with.

Despite Naya being absolutely beautiful, Kenzie sometimes
thought Naya didn’t realize how attractive she was because she was reserved when it came to the opposite sex. Kenzie didn’t know if it was Naya’s personality, the stuffy vampire culture, her role as a princess, or a combination of all three. But Kenzie knew if anyone deserved to get laid, Naya did. Lately, she had been more uptight than usual. Maybe this Vaughn guy would help her loosen up.

Kenzie took Naya’s hand and squeezed. “Good for you. It’s about time.”

Naya smiled uncertainly, her gaze darting to Sawyer then back to Kenzie. “Yeah. Nonetheless, I wanted to make sure you would make it home safely.”

Even when Kenzie
had taken the occasional guy home, the two of them always watched out for each other.

“Sawyer is going to stay with you until you’re ready to go home. Is that okay with you?”

Sawyer’s arms dropped, and his mouth opened as if he were about to protest. Then he glanced at Vaughn, and he closed his mouth without a word. His frown deepened from obvious annoyance as he narrowed his eyes at Kenzie.

Wow
. He wasn’t even trying to hide his hostility. Maybe he didn’t want to wait to take her home. Maybe he didn’t want to take her home at all. If he saw her as some babysitting job, he shouldn’t have volunteered in the first place. It wasn’t like she was forcing him to stay behind. And with that attitude, hot or not, she didn’t want to be stuck with him either.

But Kenzie had a bratty streak. Since he was choosing to be
a dick to her, she decided to make him wait to leave, even though she would rather go home at that point, especially since she had lost interest in the man she was dancing with. She didn’t want Sawyer to know that though. He needed to work on his behavior. He might be hot, but he was also acting like he had a stick shoved up his ass.

Kenzie
turned her attention to Naya. “Okay. As long as you’re sure, go have fun.”

Naya walked over to Vaughn as Kenzie looked at Sawyer
.

She
resisted the urge to mockingly bat her eyelashes at him. “I’d like to stay for another hour, two at the most. Where can I find you when I’m done?” she asked him with just a hint of too much sweetness.

He stared at her for half a minute
. “I’ll be upstairs,” he finally said through clenched teeth.

Kenzie looked down at her nails as if he wasn’t important enough for her to pay attention to. “Sounds good. I’ll come find you when I’m ready.” With a grin on her face
, she spun around, looked over her shoulder, and gave a little finger wave before sauntering back into the crowd.

She strolled back over to the guy she’d
been dancing with before—she thought his name started with a B—but she was watching Sawyer out of the corner of her eye. He paused by Vaughn and Naya, and the two men spoke for a minute. Vaughn grabbed Naya’s hand and led her out the door while Sawyer went upstairs to sit in the area above the bar. He positioned himself with a view to see Kenzie through the glass opening beneath the handrail.

She turned away and pretende
d he wasn’t up there, watching. She leaned in close to B-Something. Even though she tried not to be, she was aware of Sawyer’s eyes on her.

B-Something
, oblivious to Sawyer scrutinizing them, must have seen her friend leave because it only took him less than five minutes to make a move on her. He swooped in for a kiss. It was a nice kiss, but it didn’t do anything for her. She annoyingly recognized that she probably would feel differently if this had happened before she met Sawyer.

Sawyer was a jerk. W
hy did she find herself attracted to him?

Still, she gave
B-Something the benefit of the doubt and wrapped her arms around his neck to get closer, but someone yanked her away. Dazed, she found herself staring at a broad muscular chest, and her arm tingled where he was touching her.

“It’s time to go,” Sawyer said,
his nostrils flaring.

As if
.

This guy had some nerve. Sexy or not, she
’d just met him, and he was already assuming he could boss her around.

Well, he picked the wrong girl if he thought
that would ever happen.

She met his angry stare as his eyes bore into hers. He leaned into her, but she didn’t waver. She wasn’t going to let him tell her what to do
.

When she was sure he knew
that she wasn’t going to stand down, she opened her mouth to tell him off, but B-Something tried to get in between the two of them. She’d forgotten he was even there.

“She was with me first.”

Kenzie was about to agree when Sawyer turned his head and glared at her.
Yikes
. If looks could kill and all that. She swore he’d growled too, but that had to have been part of the music.

She realized
that if the two men got into it, B-Something wouldn’t stand a chance. While he wasn’t anyone special to her, she didn’t want him to get hurt.

“It’s okay. Let’s call it a night. I’m sorry. Maybe I’ll see you ag
ain sometime,” she said to B-Something.

B-
Something looked from her to Sawyer. “Yeah, whatever. Not worth it.”

He turned and stomped away, leaving Kenzie i
rritated and a tad embarrassed.

What a jerk
. I am so worth it.

Afraid Sawyer would be amused by this new development, she refused to look at him. If he
was wearing any kind of satisfied expression, she would smack it right off his smug face.

Then who would take
me home
? Kenzie twisted and marched toward the door before he could even say a word.

They
exited the building, and she let Sawyer walk past her, showing her to his car, a classic ’68 Corvette Stingray.

He’s g
ood-looking and drives a cool car
.
If only he came with an attitude to match
.

He shocked her by opening the door for her and then
he got in on his side without a word.

They still hadn’t made any eye contact or spoken
since leaving the club, but she realized that would have to change if she wanted to get away from this guy. “I live—”

“I already know where you live. Naya told me.”

She curled her lip at him but managed to keep her mouth shut.

They drove in silence for a few minutes
.

Then,
he stunned her by asking, “Why do you objectify yourself?”

Her head snapped back, his question insulting and annoying
her. “
What
?” She and her actions were none of his business.

“You were planning to sleep with him, right? Why
would you lower yourself to that?”

Did he not realize the irony of his question? His friend
had just taken her friend home to sleep with her. And after she’d met Sawyer, there was no way she would have gone home with that other guy, but she would have to be tortured with hot pokers before she’d ever admit that out loud.

Irritated by him and h
is double standards, she should have told him to fuck off. Instead, she answered him, “So, I like sex. Big deal. If I were a guy, would you ask me these questions? No. I’m sure you sleep around.” She sighed. “Why do you care anyway?”

He scoffed. “You’re right. I don’t.”

She gave him the finger, but he either didn’t see it, or he chose to ignore her.

When they arrived at her apartment,
she directed Sawyer to guest parking, noting the absence of Naya’s car. Kenzie opened the door and moved to get out. She paused and turned to him. She had calmed down some during the last few minutes of the drive, so she attempted to be a mature adult since she didn’t know the guy, and her mother had raised her to be polite. “Thank you for the ride.”

He turned
off the engine. “I’ll walk you to your door.”

“You really don’t have to,” she
said, trying to stop him.

He was already halfway out of
the vehicle.

“I can manage fine from here.”

“Trust me, I’m not doing it for you. I’m doing it for me. If I don’t make sure you get into your apartment safely, Vaughn will have my ass.” He shut the door gently. The car was obviously his baby.

Kenzie gritted her teeth
, and then she released a deep breath before exiting. All attempts to be nice were now gone, and she made sure to shut her door a little too hard. “Oops,” she said, hiding her smile.

Sawyer clenched his jaw
. He looked like he wanted to say something, but instead he huffed and stalked to the door. Once his back was turned, she smirked behind him.

They walked up the stairs to the second floor and made their way to her door. Sawyer yanked the keys from her hand, and before she could protest, he opened the door and strode in like he owned the place.

Kenzie exhaled with a grunt and followed him. Turning on the lights, she watched him as he checked all the empty rooms. She should have told him not to bother. No one would waste time breaking and entering into her meager apartment. When he was finished, he walked past her, tossed her keys at her, and headed for the exit. She turned to thank him, but the only thing she saw was the door swinging past her face before slamming shut.

He
hadn’t even said good-bye.

“Asshole.”