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What would she think of his home and why did everything feel so damned important right now, as though he needed her to like what she saw and to feel comfortable, to want to stay?
But he had to make the offer. “I can take you home if you want.”
* * * * * * * * *
Charlotte worked to calm her nerves. In other circumstances, with another man, the idea of ending up at her date’s home, on a first-date, would have been unthinkable. Yet with Willem, she felt as though she’d known him for years. Sure, she’d done a mountain of Realm Internet research on him so that she felt as though she had a solid idea about his character and his temperament. But something else was helping her to feel safe, something she could only describe as very Realm-ish.
Mastyr Willem was tall at six-five,
heavily muscled, and if she hadn’t trusted him as much as she did, she would never have let him take her to such an isolated location. From the flight in, she’d seen that the nearest house was a quarter mile away.
Yet she trusted him in that way, that he would never hurt her. Never.
But, Sweet Goddess — as realm-folk liked to say — he was one tall drink of water. He had eyes she could get lost in. They were hazel, a beautiful blend of gray and green surrounded by thick black lashes. His dark brown hair was always in sexy disarray and he used his hands often to push it away from his face. He always wore a snug, two-inch leather band on his left wrist, with a silver hook closure.
She felt drawn to him on every level, as though he’d been made for her. But the man was a vampire and she’d always planned on returning to her home in Lebanon, Tennessee once she’d finished her studies. She’d thought of her several-year stint at Grochaire U as temporary. Yet, here was Willem, a huge surprise in her life in every way imaginable because after about five minutes of being with him she’d become determined to end up in his bed.
On their first date.
And that was a rule she never broke.
Yet for Willem, she felt ready to break a lot of rules, like never donating to vampires.
She didn’t know what it was, but she wanted him tapping into her vein and taking his fill. Her heart even labored being this close to him, as though longing for him to release his fangs and have at her.
He smelled amazing as well, like a rich cologne laced with the smell of the sea as it crashed over the shoreline.
When Willem started to remove his black leather jacket, she shifted a little more in his direction and didn’t bother to hide her interest. He wore a sexy snug black T-shirt that clung to his muscled warrior’s body like a second skin.
Her lips parted as her gaze drifted slowly over his massive pecs, shoulders, and biceps. He wore tailored slacks and a black leather woven belt. He lifted a hand to push his hair back, which of course caused all those tempting muscles to flex.
He smiled, that big gorgeous smile of his, completely aware of her perusal. Somehow she managed to draw air into her lungs as she settled her satchel at the foot of the table. He turned and hung up his coat on a peg by the door, which of course gave her another exquisite view of broad shoulders and tight buttocks.
Dragging her gaze away from him, she took in the beautiful old red brick floor of the foyer that looked like it had been there a couple of centuries. A heavy planked-wood table, gleaming with polish, sat in the center of the space. An unusual arrangement of driftwood sat off to one side with a stamped brass bowl at the opposite end. Beyond, a seascape hung on the wall showing not just his home on the bluff, but the sandy beach and waves below. But like the lived-mostly-at-night Realm world she’d come to love, the scene was set at night, although lit with a warm glow, a bank of stars in the background.
“The living room is this way.” He took her hand in his, a gesture that made her heart beat heavily once more.
Over the months, she’d gained a strong sense of the man because she’d done her homework. The realm internet hadn’t lacked for information since he was a prominent figure in the Grochaire Realm Investigative Unit. She’d read article after article about him, including a few hundred blogs. She could probably recite his work history and case-solves as well as he could. He also often served as an advisor to the other realms when it came to tracking serial predators.
He was essentially a military man, a fighter, a warrior. His service in Mastyr Quinlan’s Vampire Guard had lasted over two decades, which meant he’d spent every night of his life during that time battling the Nine Realms principle enemy, the frightening Invictus wraith-pairs. Charlotte had never seen one of these terrible pairs and she counted herself beyond lucky. The pairings of wraiths with other realm-folk had resulted in persistent violence and death for hundreds of years. The Vampire Guard of each realm worked to hunt these pairs down and to destroy them.
But Willem had left the Guard some time ago, focusing on methods to hunt Grochaire’s version of serial killers and rapists. Because her friend Susie, a wonderful, gossipy troll, worked at the RIU, she’d streamed lots of information Charlotte’s way. Willem had the highest solve rate in the entire realm. He’d also failed at one case in particular.
For decades he’d been on the trail of the Infinity Killer who preyed on young boys leaving behind the figure-eight infinity symbol on his victims. Yet in all this time Willem hadn’t been able to uncover the monster. The entire department believed that some kind of fae spell must be keeping the killer hidden.
On the social side, Susie had shared with her that Willem had a rocky history with women and a clear inability to commit, which in many ways made no sense to Charlotte. From all that she’d learned about him, he was a man of honor and integrity and therefore should have been married with a dozen vampire babies by now.
Because on a basic level, Charlotte was sensible, she hadn’t come to his beach home with the belief that she’d be able to establish a long-term anything with him. Clearly, he had issues.
Guiding her to the threshold, Willem waved a hand. “Living room, dining room. The kitchen is off to the left.”
A bank of windows flanked each end of the space, one that overlooked the sea, and the other opening onto a well-groomed lawn and garden, with a massive oak tree in the center. A dark, thick trestle table and chairs sat in front of the far windows, while a group of oversized furniture, fit for a man who’d once served in the Guard, filled the area in front of Charlotte.
The wall adjacent to the front windows housed a fireplace also surrounded by the same red brick that she thought might have been recycled from an old factory.
The décor was in blue, beige, and brown, but instead of the usual beach-y seashells scattered here and there, Willem displayed a number of antique daggers and swords along with a few ornate candle holders supporting fat, white pillars. She had a sense of age within the room, and that nothing here had been bought in recent years or even decades, a reminder that Willem was a hundred-years-old.
With her hand still held in his, she turned to him. “There’s something I think I should tell you.”
