Page 20 of Taste of Forever (Vampires of Sanguine #3)

Laith

T he seconds crawled by while I waited for an answer from Heather. When she didn’t respond, I said, “Don’t you dare protect your boyfriend if he’s hurting you.”

That seemed to snap her out of whatever trance she was in, and she pulled her arm away from me. “I told you Justin’s not hurting me. That’s ridiculous.”

“Is it?” I challenged.

My gaze fell to the fading purple dots on her upper arm that could only be from fingertips digging into her soft flesh.

There were four of them in a vertical line with just over an inch of space between.

I’d bet my luckiest pair of boxers that she had one more bruise on the inside of her arm where a thumb would have squeezed.

Five marks from the fingers of a strong, aggressive man.

Faster than she could perceive, I reached for her other arm and drew it forward for a closer look. My vision went red at the sight of matching bruises on that side too.

“What the fuck, Heather?” I hissed.

She drew back and started feeding her arms through the sweater she’d just taken off. “What the fuck, yourself. You can’t just grab me, Laith.”

“I want to know who hurt you. If not your boyfriend, then who?” I couldn’t bring myself to say his name. It would have sounded too familiar, too close to the man who had the woman I needed.

“No one,” she insisted.

My pretty little liar. Why would she lie to me about this?

Then again, why wouldn’t she? We were complete strangers in her eyes. She didn’t know the significance of the blood mate bond. At least, not yet.

“I can keep you safe,” I said, forcing my tone to soften. My own anger was making her defensive, and I needed her to realize I was on her side. She didn’t need another angry man demanding things from her.

“Whoever is doing this, they’re no match against me. I can promise you that. Not only am I a vampire, I’m part of the ruling clan of Sanguine. We’re powerful and we protect our people.”

Heather hugged around herself, hands rubbing her arms where the bruises hid. “I’m not your people,” she said. “I’m not one of you.”

“You can be,” I said. “We have humans. Well, a human. And a couple of brusang, who are human-ish. Let’s say we have one and three-quarter humans already. You’ll feel right at home.”

She let out a soft breath of laughter.

“And if you come with me as my blood mate, the whole clan will go to war for you if need be,” I added.

Heather gave me a skeptical look. “Yeah, right.”

“They will. We take these types of bonds very seriously.”

She sighed deeply, her hands falling to clasp loosely around her elbows.

I felt a surge of elation, like this was it.

She was finally going to admit that he had done it, express what a piece of shit he was, and that she didn’t want to hold on to that farce of a relationship any longer.

Not when she could have something real, lasting and satisfying with me.

“It’s stupid,” she said with a sheepish glance.

“They had just mopped the floors at work, and I forgot a document in one of the labs. So I went back and slipped on the floor. My feet just went out from under me. Luckily the janitor was there and he caught me right before I hit the ground. But he had to grab my arms pretty hard. I was dead weight.”

Heather, Heather, Heather. I should spank you for lying straight to my face.

She started to squirm, her heartbeat quickening in my ears the longer I sat there with no response. It was interesting how she clearly didn’t enjoy lying. She wasn’t naturally deceptive and seemed uncomfortable with dishonesty. So why do it?

Either she was protecting someone, the stupid boyfriend mostly likely, or she felt like she had to because of some threat or danger. But there was nothing more dangerous to a human than a vampire.

Regardless, she didn’t trust me enough to come clean. And forcing the information out of her was not a great way to start a relationship of our own.

“That’s unfortunate,” I said after a prolonged silence. “You sure there wasn’t a banana peel on the ground?”

Heather snorted an adorable little laugh. “I don’t know, there might have been. I do feel like a cartoon character sometimes.” She straightened, smoothing her hair back. “So, when should we do this again?”

“Again?” I repeated, surprised. “You want to do this again?”

I could smell the arousal from her before and after I had fed.

It was even more potent than the first time without the sterile environment of the blood bank.

Moving away from her had been the hardest thing I’d ever done in my life.

All I’d wanted was to sink in and give her the pleasure and release she so desperately needed.

But I could also sense her distress, the guilt and betrayal she felt.

Along with a touch of fear. It all tainted her scent, made it bitter.

I hated that she couldn’t let go and just enjoy this for what it was.

My fangs would never bring her pain. I was the one she was supposed to be with.

Biology and fate had decided it. Would she even feel any guilt or betrayal over me when she went home to him?

“Yes,” she said with a fervent nod. “You do need to feed on a regular basis, right?”

“Yeah, two to three times a week is ideal.”

“And it can only be from me.”

“That’s right, unless I want to feel violently ill and slowly starve to death. Which I don’t.”

She shrugged as if that answer settled it. “When should I come next?”

You should come all the time. And you should never leave.

“How about three nights from now?” I counted on my fingers. “Sunday night.”

“Same time and place?”

“Yeah, that’ll work.”

“Okay.” She paused for a moment before shifting around on the couch and then shouldering her purse. “Well, goodnight, Laith.”

“Here, I’ll walk you out.” I stood, letting her go in front of me as we headed for the stairs.

Heather took the steps down slowly, like she didn’t really want to go.

Or maybe that was just my wishful thinking.

I wanted to put my hand on her lower back, to reassure her with a steadying, guiding touch.

The impulse was so strong and felt like such the right thing to do, I had to ball my fist at my side to stop myself.

We reached the ground floor and went to the front door together. I saw Thorne and Rhain at the main bar, their eyes following us curiously. But I kept my focus on Heather, pushing the door open for her.

She turned to me on the landing. “I’m good from here, thanks.”

“You don’t want me to walk you to your car?”

“No, that’s okay. I’m good.”

I stood in the door, halfway in and out of the building. Another impulse hit me—to kiss her goodbye. It felt so natural, I even started to lean down and had to force myself to stop.

“Goodnight then, Heather,” I said. “Be careful.”

She nodded, casting a glance at me over her shoulder as she started down the street. “See you Sunday.”

I watched her go until she was out of sight, then retreated back into the club. Like a man on a mission I cut across the floor, heading straight for the rear entrance.

“Hey Laith,” someone called out, but I ignored them.

With the firm push of another door, I was outside again. I bypassed the dumpsters, stacked pallets, and mountains of crushed cardboard boxes to where several motorcycles were parked together in a small, private lot.

I sat on my bike and fired up the engine, the way to Heather’s apartment clear in my mind.

I caught up to Heather’s car using some old, overgrown forest service roads that straddled the border between her world and mine. The roads probably hadn’t been used by humans since the bygone logging boom days of the early twentieth century. But they were getting plenty of use from me lately.

Since Heather had seen my bike when I first showed up at her place, I made sure to stay a few cars behind. In the dark, she wouldn’t be able to tell me apart from any other motorcyclist.

When she turned in to her apartment complex, I pulled into a gas station on the corner and loitered in an empty space, pretending to check my phone.

After following her from home to work a few times, I knew Heather sometimes parked on the street or a spot far away from her unit due to lack of space.

She didn’t need to see me while circling her complex.

Not until I was sure she’d leap into my arms with joy and leave that boyfriend in the dust.

I gave it a little over five minutes, paying close attention to her distant heartbeat that somehow stood apart from all the others around me. It was getting easier to pinpoint hers, probably because I had more of her blood in my system.

After five minutes passed with no odd spikes in her heartbeat, I drove slowly through the complex’s entrance, making my way to Heather’s unit. Her car sat dark and empty in a space not far from her front door. She got lucky on parking tonight.

I left my motorcycle in the darkest, shadowy corner I could find and killed the engine, waiting a few more minutes. It was late and, as daytime creatures, humans might investigate a strange noise.

Nothing stirred as I listened, so I walked through the well-lit sidewalks to where my blood mate lived. Rather than go to the front door, I went around the exterior and peeked through the windows.

It’s not stalking if I don’t want to harm her, right? It’s not wrong if I’m just making sure she’s safe.

And not sleeping with another guy.

There were blinds on the windows with the slats partially folded down, but I could still see through the spaces between them. The main large window showed a modest living area with a small nook for a table and a galley kitchen about the size of my bathroom.

Heather was nowhere to be seen, but a human man sat at an impressive PC set up, headphones on, and some kind of co-op dungeon game running on his overly large monitor.

The boyfriend. I narrowed my eyes. My arch nemesis.