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“What hospital, so I can call her mom?”
He told me. I hung up and called Amy’s mother. One hysterical phone call later I got to hang up and now it was my turn to sit on the edge of the desk and look down at him.
My feet didn’t touch the ground and that made it hard to look graceful. But then I’d never tried to compete with Jean-Claude on gracefulness; some battles are made to be lost.
“There was a time, ma petite, that you would have insisted on riding to the rescue yourself, questioning the girl’s friend, and refusing to bring in the police at all.”
“If I thought threatening Barbara with violence or shooting her would have made her talk, I’d be perfect for the job. But I’m not going to shoot, or hurt, an eighteen-year-old girl who’s trying to help her best friend save her leg, if not her life. Zerbrowski could threaten her with the law, jail time; I can’t do that.”
“And you never threaten anything that you cannot or will not do,” he said, softly.
“No, I don’t.”
We looked at each other. He at ease in the straight-backed chair, his ankle propped on the opposite knee, fingers steepled in front of his face so that what I mostly saw of him were those extraordinary eyes, huge, a blue so dark it treaded the edge of being black, but you never doubted his eyes were pure, unadulterated blue, like ocean water where it runs achingly deep and cold.
Ronnie was right, I should leave, but I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to stay. I wanted to run my hands over his shirt, to caress the naked surprise of those shoulders. And because I wanted it so badly, I hopped off the desk, and said, “Thanks for your help.”
“I am always willing to be of assistance, ma petite.”
I could have walked wide past his chair, but that would be insulting to both of us. I just had to walk by the chair and out the door. Simple. I was almost past the chair, almost behind him, when he spoke, “Would you have ever called me if you hadn’t needed to save some human?” His voice was as ordinary as it ever got. He wasn’t trying to use vampire tricks to make the words more than they were and that stopped me. An honest question was harder to turn my back on than a seductive trick.
I sighed and turned back to find him staring straight at me. Looking full into his face from less than two feet away made me have to catch my breath. “You know why I’m staying away.”
He twisted in the chair, putting one arm on the back of it, showing that flash of bare shoulder again. “I know that you find it difficult to control the powers of the vampire marks when we are together. It was something that should have bound us closer, not thrust us farther apart.” Again his voice was as carefully neutral as he could make it.
I shook my head. “I’ve got to go.”
He turned in the chair so that he leaned both arms on the back, his chin resting on his hands, his hair framing all that red cloth, that pale flesh, those drowning eyes. Less than two feet apart, almost close enough that if I reached a hand out I could have touched him. I swallowed so hard it almost hurt. I balled my hands into fists, because I could feel the memory of his skin against my hands. All I had to do was close that distance, but I knew if I did, that I wouldn’t be leaving, not for a while anyway.
My voice came out breathy. “I should go.”
“So you said.”
I should have turned and walked out, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to do it. Didn’t want to do it. I wanted to stay. My body was tight with need; wet with it, just at the sight of him fully clothed, leaning on a chair. Damn it, why wasn’t I walking away? But I wasn’t reaching for him either; I got points for that. Sometimes you get points for just standing your ground.
Jean-Claude stood, very slowly, as if afraid I’d bolt, but I didn’t. I stood there, my heart in my throat, my eyes a little wide, afraid, eager, wanting.
He stood inches away from me, staring down, but still not touching, hands at his sides, face neutral. He raised one hand, very slowly upward, and even that small movement sent his fingertips gliding along my leather coat. When I didn’t pull away, he held the edge of the leather in his fingertips inside the open edge of the coat at the level of my waist. He began to slide his hand upward, above my waist, my stomach, then the back of his fingers brushed over my breasts, not hesitating, moving upward to the collar of the coat, but that one quick brush had tightened my body, stopped my breath in my throat.
His hand moved from my collar to my neck, fingers gliding underneath my hair until he cupped the back of my neck, his thumb resting on top of the big pulse in my neck. The weight of his hand on my skin was almost more than I could take, as if I could sink into him through that one hand.
“I have missed you, ma petite.” His voice was low and caressing this time, gliding over my skin, bringing my breath in a shaking line.
I’d missed him, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud. What I could do was raise up on tiptoe, steadying myself with a hand on his chest, feeling his heart beat against the palm of my hand. He’d fed on someone, or he wouldn’t have had a heartbeat, some willing donor, and even that thought wasn’t enough to stop me from leaning my face back, offering my lips to him.
His lips brushed mine, the softest of caresses. I drew back from the kiss, my hands sliding over the satin of his shirt, feeling the firmness of him underneath. I did what I’d wanted to do since I saw him tonight. I passed my fingers over the bare skin of his shoulders, so smooth, so soft, so firm. I rolled my hands behind his shoulders, and the movement let our bodies fall together, lightly.
His hands found my waist, slid behind my back, pressed me against him, not lightly, hard, hard enough that I could feel him even through the satin of his pants, the cloth of my skirt, the lace of my panties. I could feel him pressed so tight and ready that I had to close my eyes, hide my face against his chest. I tried to keep my feet flat to the floor, to move away from him, just a little, just enough to think again, but his hands kept me pinned to his body. I opened my eyes then, ready to tell him to let me the hell go, but I looked up and his face was so close, his lips half parted, that no words came.
I kissed those half-parted lips almost as gently as he’d kissed me. His hands tightened at my back, my waist, pressing us tighter against each other, so tight, so close. My breath came out in a long sigh, and he kissed me. His mouth closing over mine, my body sinking against his, my mouth opening for his lips, his tongue, everything. I ran my tongue between the delicate tips of his fangs. There was an art to French-kissing a vampire, and I hadn’t lost it; I didn’t pierce myself on those dainty points.
Without breaking the kiss, he bent and wrapped his arms around my upper thighs, lifted me, carried me effortlessly to the desk. He didn’t lay me on it, which is what I half-expected. He turned and sat down on the desk, sliding my legs to either side, so that he was suddenly pressed between my legs with only two pieces of cloth between us. He lay back on the desk, and I rode him, rubbing our bodies together through the satin of his pants and my panties.
His hands rubbed up my leg, tracing my thigh, until his fingers found the top lace of the thigh-high hose. I pressed myself into him hard enough for his body to arch, spasming our bodies together. And there was a knock on the door. We both froze, then Jean-Claude said, “We are not to be disturbed!”
A voice I didn’t recognize said, “I am sorry, master, but Malcolm is here. He insists that it is urgent.”
Evidently Jean-Claude did know the voice, because he closed his eyes and cursed softly under his breath in French. “What does he want?”
I slid off Jean-Claude, leaving him lying on his desk, with his legs dangling over the end.
Malcolm’s smooth voice came next. “I have a present for Ms. Blake.”
I checked my clothing to make sure it was presentable; strangely it was. Jean-Claude sat up, but stayed on the edge of his desk. “Enter.”
The door opened and the tall, blond, dark-suited figure of Malcolm walked through. He always dressed like he was a television preacher, conservative, immaculate, expensive. Compared to Jean-Claude he always looked ordinary, but then so did most everyone. Still, there was a presence to Malcolm, a calm, soothing power that filled every room around him. He was a master vampire and his power was a thrumming weight against my skin. He tried to pass for human, and I’d always wondered if the level of power he gave off was his version of toned down, and if this was the toned-down version, then what must his power truly be like?
