need. She'd just come but she was close to doing so again.
She shifted again, taking another thick, hard inch into her body.
Then the phone rang.
Zane swore as he pulled Sophia toward him, impaling her on his cock. She sucked
in a deep breath and he could feel her inner muscles clenching and relaxing, trying to
accommodate him.
The phone rang again.
Sitting up, he reached into his back pocket and yanked out his cell phone. "What?"
There was silence on the other end and then a male chuckle. "Busy, are you?"
"Fuck you, Dalakis. What do you want?" Zane tried to calm his breath, tried to
ignore the tightening of Sophia's hot pussy around him and concentrate on what Stefan
was saying.
"We've been talking and studying the police reports." Zane had dropped off all the
information he'd had before he'd come over to Sophia's. "We think we may have an
idea of who may be behind this."
"Who?" Zane shook his head to clear it.
"That's the thing. We don't have a name, but we think we know who."
"That doesn't make any sense." Maybe it did and Zane just couldn't think properly
with Sophia's lush body milking his cock.
"It does when you know the entire story." Stefan paused and then cleared his throat
politely. "When can we expect you?"
"Fuck." Zane tucked his phone between his shoulder and his ear and wrapped his
arms around Sophia to keep her from moving. She buried her face in the crook of his
neck, her throaty little moans driving him crazy with desire. She was rocking against
him and the motion was driving him out of his mind. His cock was throbbing and he
was seconds away from coming and he damn well didn't want the other man hearing it.
"Soon." He could barely get the word out as his fangs lengthened, his body demanding
sustenance.
Stefan chuckled. "We'll see you when we see you."
Zane heard the line go dead and dropped his phone. He heard it bounce off the bed
and clatter to the floor. He didn't care. The only thing that mattered was Sophia. Stefan
Dalakis and his family could wait.
Gripping her hips, he lifted her and plunged her back down on his cock. Sophia
nipped at his neck with her teeth. "Harder," she groaned.
Past all caring and reason, he lifted her again and again, driving his shaft as deep as
he could with each thrust. Her fingers dug into his shoulders as she lifted and slammed
her hips down onto his cock.
Her vagina gripped him hard. He couldn't see, he was so blinded by need. His balls
pulled up tight and he came. "Sophia," he yelled as he pulled her down hard, driving
himself deep. Semen flooded her pussy, setting off her orgasm.
Zane buried his face in her hair, breathing in her scent as her body milked his cock
dry. Bloodlust roared over him, and as if she sensed his need, she tilted her head to one
side, offering him her neck.
There was no hesitation. No thought of denying himself. She offered. He would
take.
His fangs sank into her flesh. She jerked and he felt her pussy spasm around him.
She cried out, wrapped her hands in his hair and held him tighter, pushing his face
against her throat.
Zane groaned as her blood spurted into his mouth. His starving cells soaked up her
essence. He drank slowly, knowing he couldn't take too much but wanting to savor
every precious drop. When Sophia finally stopped convulsing and slumped against
him, he withdrew his teeth and ran his tongue over the two small holes to close them.
She shivered.
Reaching behind him, he fisted the covers in his hands. He managed to raise
himself enough to yank them out from beneath him and then he bundled the blankets
around Sophia. She burrowed closer to him and he held her tight, content just to feel the
weight of her against him.
Finally, she lifted her head and blinked at him. She looked like a little red owl, her
eyes bleary with exhaustion. "That was one of the Dalakis brothers?"
He nodded as he gently pushed a damp lock of hair off her forehead. "Yeah."
Zane didn't want reality to intrude but knew there was no other choice. "He thinks
they may have a lead on the murderer."
Sophia sat straighter, the blankets slipping down and exposing her shoulder and
one of her pert breasts. Zane yanked the cover back up, knowing that if he didn't they'd
never get out of her apartment. "Who?"
He shook his head. "He was pretty cryptic about it. We should get going and go
over there." He wanted to howl with the unfairness of it all. He'd discovered the perfect
woman for him and there was no time to explore it, to just tuck her beneath the covers
and talk.
It was laughable. He'd avoided romantic entanglement his whole life and now he
was the one who wanted to snuggle down under the covers and talk. But Zane didn't
feel much like laughing. He'd tried to stay away from Sophia for her own sake, but he
just hadn't been able to. He'd known when he'd come here tonight that even if she'd
never wanted to see him again, he'd have protected her for the rest of her life. He had to
be part of her life, even if that meant watching unseen from the shadows.
Then she'd opened her arms to him.
He knew Sophia was leery of relationships, and after what he'd discovered about
her past, he wasn't surprised. On a hunch, he'd checked to see if Sophia had ever been
in trouble with the law. Digging deep, he'd found her in the social services system.
Sophia's mother had been a drug-addicted hooker who'd basically neglected her
daughter until Sophia had run away from home just before her sixteenth birthday. It
hurt Zane unbearably to think about Sophia out on the streets by herself.
By looking into her past, he was essentially invading her privacy, but he didn't care.
He'd use any method it took to keep her in his life. Even as he'd tried to distance
himself from her for her sake, he'd been unable to stop thinking about her, been unable
to stop wanting to learn everything there was to know about her.
But there was no time. A murderer was on the loose and innocent women were
being slaughtered. The man had made a mistake by dragging Sophia into this mess. She
was his now and he'd do whatever it took to protect her.
Zane shifted her until she was seated across his lap. Curling one arm around her
shoulders and the other beneath her legs, he stood. "First we shower, then we go to visit
the Dalakis family."
She nodded, resting her head against his heart as he carried her to the bathroom.
Chapter Sixteen
Cassidy paced the small confines of his living room waiting for Blythe to wake up.
He'd finally gotten her settled away in his bed near dawn and she'd slept the entire day
away. He hadn't wanted to leave her but hadn't had much choice. Once the sun came
up, he'd had to go over to the main house and keep watch. With several attacks on the
family, he wasn't taking any chances. Intellectually, he'd known that Blythe would be
safe tucked away in his apartment. As a man, he'd wanted to stand guard over her and
keep her safe from all harm.
A wry grin crossed his lips. She certainly didn't make it easy on a man to take care
of her. He'd gotten the distinct feeling that B
lythe didn't think much of men as a
species. Not that he blamed her. He'd done a bit of discreet digging, talking to some
folks who'd worked at The Club the same time that she had. The picture they'd painted
of her relationship with Prince wasn't pretty.
One former waitress had put it this way. "It was like he owned her. Dressing her up
and having her do exactly what he wanted. She was like an accessory or something. He
enjoyed the fact that other men envied him because they wanted Blythe and couldn't
have her. But she hated him, you could tell. She never said anything, but you could see
it in her eyes."
Cassidy had heard a variation of the same story from a bartender who'd moved to
St. Louis after Katrina and from a cook, who'd gone on to open his own small
restaurant. However he looked at it, Jethro Prince had had some kind of hold over
Blythe.
Then there was her father. Again, Cassidy didn't have all the information, but he'd
had no trouble uncovering the fact that Blythe's father had walked out on his family
when she was only five years old, leaving her and her mother to struggle for years.
for years before she passed away a month ago.
Cassidy quietly walked across the room to stand in the doorway. She looked small
and almost childlike as she slept. She didn't sleep sprawled out across the bed, but
rather curled into a tight ball with the covers pulled protectively around her head. Only
a cap of blonde hair could be seen above the blankets.
She certainly hadn't been childlike last night. In spite of her fatigue, she'd been
more than vocal with her thoughts about him and the Dalakis family...
"You're all crazy. Certifiably insane." She'd closed her eyes, allowing him to carry
her out of the house to the carriage house. He knew now that she'd been just gathering
her strength. The second he'd carried her up the stairs to his apartment, she'd struggled
until he put her down.
"Blythe." He wasn't quite sure what he should say to her. He didn't want to lie to
her, not even to protect the Dalakis family, and that told him just how deep he was in
over his head. Hell, the woman didn't trust him, but it didn't matter. He wanted her
more than he'd ever wanted a woman in his entire life. He'd lived thirty-five hard
years, more than enough to know that this was more than just physical need on his part.
He genuinely liked her. She was brave, compassionate and independent. Maybe just a
tad too independent.
"You want to explain what I just saw in there?" She crossed her arms over her
chest, rubbing her arms, her agitation plain.
Cassidy crossed the floor to the sofa, ignoring the way she shifted away from him
as he passed. Grabbing a throw blanket from the back, he stalked over to her again and
wrapped it around her shoulders. "You didn't see anything, Blythe. You're tired." The
lie almost choked him.
"Don't patronize me." Her voice was level, but he could hear the underlying anger
beneath it. He imagined that quite a few men had lied to her. "I know what I saw."
Sighing, he scrubbed his hand over his face. It was going to be a hell of a long night.
Turning, he made his way back to his favorite chair and threw himself down into it.
What he really wanted to do was take Blythe in his arms and comfort her, but he knew
she wouldn't allow that. Yet. "Why don't you tell me what you saw?"
She licked her lips and pulled the soft throw tighter around her body. "I saw two
men arguing with each other. Then their eyes changed color." She stared at him
belligerently. "They were red and they glowed."
She said it almost as if she expected him to deny it. He nodded and she continued.
"Their teeth grew." She buried her face in the blanket, her shoulders heaved and
then she raised her head to meet his placid gaze. "They had fangs. Both of them. They
grew right in front of my eyes."
"Yes." Cassidy's fingers dug into the supple leather of the arms of the chair. She
looked so lost, so bewildered. He wanted to protect her from this but knew that if they
were ever going to establish any kind of relationship, he had to be honest with her.
"Yes," she repeated. "Is that all you have to say?"
He sat forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "What else do you want me to
say?"
She seemed taken aback by his bluntness. Then she shook her head, sighed and
slowly inched her way toward the sofa. Toward him. Cassidy held himself still and
willed her to keep going.
"One of them said something about taking my memories. Could they actually do
that?" The backs of her legs hit the edge of the sofa and she sat down heavily on the
cushion.
"Probably." He reached out and laid his hand on her leg. The muscles jerked
beneath his fingers, but she didn't pull away from him. "I'm not one hundred percent
sure of the extent of their powers myself, but if Zane said they could, then I'm sure all of
them can."
She picked at a loose thread on the blanket. "I can't even believe I'm talking about
this like it's real. It's not real. There's no such thing as vampires."
She glanced back at him and Cassidy could see by the look on her face that she
wanted him to agree with her and just laugh off the whole incident. He couldn't. "Why
can't it be real?"
Blythe's big blue eyes widened and her mouth fell open. "Because," she sputtered,
"it can't."
Taking a chance, he shifted from his chair to sit beside her on the sofa. Her eyes
followed him, watching his every move. She reminded him of a small, hunted creature
keeping an eye on a hungry predator. He would like to devour her, just not in the way
that she imagined. He wanted to bring her pleasure, not pain.
"It can and it is."
"No." She shook her head vehemently. "I don't know what kind of a scam you guys
are pulling. I don't care if you're mafia or criminals. I just want to get away from here. I
just want to be left alone."
"I'm sorry, Blythe." Cassidy reached out his hand to cup her cheek and felt anger
churning inside him when she flinched as if she'd expected to be hit. Her expression
was flat, giving away nothing. It was as if she'd distanced herself from him and the
situation.
"You can't keep me here."
He gave in to his need to touch her, gently grazing the side of her face with his
fingers. The dark bruising on her smooth, pale skin was obscene. "No, I can't keep you
here. Not indefinitely. But, Blythe, it's not safe for you out there. Why don't you stay
here for a few days until the heat dies down? If you still want to leave after that, I'll help
you."
Her eyes narrowed. "Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why would you help?" He could see her mind working furiously to try to figure
out his angle. "You want to sleep with me."
She stood and threw off the blanket, her fingers going to the hem of her blue
sweater. She whipped it over her head and tossed it aside. Cassidy could feel his cock
swelling at the sight of her ample breasts cupped lovingly by pale blue silk. She went
gracefully to her knees in front of him, reaching for the opening of his jeans.
"Is tha
t what it will take for you to let me go, Sam? I can give you the best blowjob
you've ever had if that's all you want." Her voice was husky, but her eyes were flat.
Dead. He could tell by her expression that she didn't really want to do this but was
prepared to do whatever she felt she had to. It was like a bucket of cold water being
dumped over him.
He blinked, once again seeing the bruise on the side of her face, the bruises that ran
along the length of her rib cage. He grabbed her hand, flattening it against his stomach.
She slid it out of his grip and curled her fingers over his erection. He sucked in a breath.
Damn, that felt good, but it wasn't what he wanted and certainly wasn't how he wanted
it. He wanted Blythe to want him, not to use her body to bargain with him.
Leaning forward, he plucked her off the floor, mindful of her injuries, and pulled
her into his lap so that she was straddling him. Her breasts brushed against his chest
and he could feel the hard nubs through the thin fabric of her bra. He figured she was
more cold than aroused. She grabbed his shoulders for support but held herself
incredibly still. Cassidy leaned forward until their noses were all but touching. "Let's
get something straight. I don't want anything from you. All I want to do is help you."
Confusion momentarily flashed across her face before disappearing behind her
mask of indifference. "Whatever you say." She slid off his lap, picked up her sweater
and calmly pulled it over her head as if nothing had just happened between them.
Cassidy felt like yanking his hair out he was so frustrated. His cock was throbbing
worse than a damn toothache and his balls were so tight they were painful. He stood,
discreetly adjusting himself while she was busy with her sweater. It didn't help. He was
in for one hell of a long night.
Sighing, he held his hand out to her. "Come on. You can take a long, hot bath to
soak your aching muscles. After that, you need a long night's sleep. We can figure
everything out in the morning."
"I'm not forgetting that you think your employers are vampires," she warned as she
picked up the throw and wrapped it around herself.
He slowly lowered his hand, trying not to take her continued rejection of him
personally, but it was hard. He wanted her to trust him and to want him the way he