Banshee Seduction (Montgomery's Sin Book 1) (18 page)

“Please.”

Roni chewed her bottom lip; her white fangs gleamed vividly against her red lipstick. “I guess I’ll be in the kitchen too.” Vagueness flitted over her face as she wandered away as though lost.

With a sigh, Matt glanced at Ginny. “She’s a strange woman.”

Ginny’s soft body squirmed under his, encouraging him to stay where he was just a while longer. “She’s a vampire.”

“I can tell.”

“She’s also my best friend.”

“Yup.” He gave a slow nod of his head, aware of the soft press of Ginny’s flesh against his. “It’s daytime. How come she didn’t incinerate?”

“I have black-out blinds all through the apartment especially for her.”

“I suggest you remove them in here.”

“But then she’d—” She flicked her fingers. “—tssst.”

“Precisely.”

At her shocked look, he gave a low chuckle before the spit dried in his mouth as her intense gaze made him forget everything other than her and the warm invitation in her eyes.

His hand still full of her plump breast tempted him just to close his eyes and forget about the outside world. If he did, Daniel would soon come hammering again, and the tall, skinny vamp would probably charge the room with static. If he weren’t a dragon, he suspected she might possibly have singed his flesh. In fact, from the sound of it, it might have been what she’d just done to Daniel. They certainly didn’t appear to like each other.

Reluctantly he rolled off Ginny, giving a last, affectionate squeeze of the lush breast in his hand. He reached out to help her up. His breath almost choked him as her face came level with his groin for a brief moment. The evidence of his desire was unmistakable. She opened her mouth and touched her tongue to her plump lips. He ground his teeth and willed away the thought. Not now.

Oh God, he wanted to beat his head against the nearest brick wall.

When? When would he ever get it on with this woman? His mate.

•
●•

Well, heavenly chiming bells. Heat still ran roughshod through her veins as she tried to concentrate on the conversation now the big guy was dressed. She wrapped her hands around her coffee cup and stared into the thick, creamy liquid of her cappuccino, not sure she could swallow past the lump in her throat.

It was the first time she’d ever seen a man’s penis—well, up close and personal anyway. She certainly couldn’t have gotten any closer, not unless she… Liquid heat shot through her, flaming its way along her veins. She’d seen pictures and the occasional flasher in the park when the weather was warm, but she’d never been treated to a view like that. If he’d been any closer… She smiled and dipped her head to take a long sip of her coffee, aware as she came up for air she’d given herself a cream mustache. She raised her hand to wipe it away before anyone saw. Too late. Deep jade eyes gave her a lazy perusal as Matt touched his tongue to his upper lip and sent sex signals in silent pulses across the table to scorch her face and boil her blood.

Daniel’s voice gave her a sharp nudge. “So what do you think?”

Guilt shot heat up her neck to jerk her out of her reverie. “Huh?”

But he wasn’t looking at her. “Matt, are you paying attention?”

Matt smiled without a single sign of the blazing remorse she felt. “Nope.”

“Well, you need to because a photo of your dragon is about to appear worldwide.”

Sea-green eyes widened with surprise as Matt turned his head in Daniel’s direction. “What?”

“That’s what I was telling you. Some reporter managed to get a photo of you flying toward this building. Jesus Christ—” Daniel looked heavenward and crossed himself, and Ginny found herself smiling at his actions. “—you weren’t even flying in a straight line.” The disgust in his voice said everything about what he thought of Matt’s lack of control.

“Because someone spiked my fucking drink.”

A jolt of alarm struck her and dragged her attention back to the matter at hand.

“I understand, but why here?” Daniel’s piercing stare cut through her heart. “Why did you come here?”

Matt’s brow pulled low over his glowing green eyes; fury vibrated off him in waves as he pinned Daniel with his glare. The other man appeared completely unperturbed and waited patiently for Matt to answer.

Matt slid his gaze over to her; his expression softened, and a small smile kicked up one side of his mouth. “I wanted to see Ginny.”

Delicate musical tones warmed Ginny.

“Puh.”

They all turned to stare at Roni; her long legs dangled from the counter where she’d hitched herself up. She twirled a straight red lock of hair through her fingers and blew a bubble with bright pink bubblegum, looking for all the world like she was a sullen kid, not a hundred-and-sixty-year-old vampire.

Matt raised his eyebrows “Puh?”

Roni gave an insolent shrug and blew another bubble that exploded with a loud pop.

Matt puffed his chest out, and Ginny trembled. She didn’t need her best friend to fall out with her…her what?

“You have a problem with me coming here, Roni?”

“Not as long as you don’t upset Ginny again.”

Matt turned to face her, and Ginny squirmed. Heat rushed to her face in a wash of embarrassment.

“You told her?”

“What?” Daniel’s intense stare was almost as disconcerting as Matt’s insulted amazement.

“Yeah, she told me you humiliated her.” The vampire crossed her sexy long legs and drew Daniel’s attention away from Ginny.

His voice when he spoke sounded absent. “You did what? Why?”

Matt’s was much sharper. “Daniel—shut up. Ginny?”

Her skin burned. If she could have self-combusted, she would have. She covered her face with her hands and groaned, but when she peeped through her fingers, all three still stared at her.

“No, no, no. Stop this. Roni—he apologized. Matt—I never told her any details. Daniel—butt out.”

A strange tingling sensation shot up her spine to dance along her neck. Wild voices screeched in agony inside her head so she wanted to cover her own ears. She glanced at Roni, horrified to see her raise her hand, wipe a drip of blood from her nose, and stare at her fingers, confusion wreathing her face.

Ginny turned to Matt and noted his narrowed eyes had darkened.

Daniel stood abruptly, and the voices came to a halt. “Do I have your attention?” He placed a computer tablet on the kitchen table for them all to look at. “What the hell is that?” Daniel demanded, stabbing a finger at the picture displayed.

“A dragon flying over the front of the moon,” Ginny soothed.

Roni gave a derisive snort as Ginny took a closer look. “A dragon. No such thing.”

“And I never believed in bloodsuckers, until I met you.”

Ginny drew in a sharp breath and caught Matt’s surprised look at Daniel’s vitriolic reply. Ginny saw the chaotic plea in her friend’s widened eyes, but could do nothing to reassure her. She could only imagine why Daniel had a problem, and it wasn’t her place to intervene.

Daniel ignored them all and tapped the tablet with his forefinger, making another picture appear.

Attempting to calm the situation, Ginny soothed, “Now see, I thought he was a giant moth or a bat when he flew toward me last night.”

“Who flew toward you?” Black eyes seethed with confusion.

Ginny gave Roni a reassuring smile. “Matt.”

“Matt? Matt can fly?” Roni’s voice racked up a decibel to compete with the currently dormant banshees.

“He’s a dragon.”

“You are shitting me.” Roni didn’t appear to be able to close her mouth properly. It kept falling open as she stared wide-eyed at Matt as though she expected him to suddenly develop wings.

“No, I’m not. Matt’s a dragon. A very pretty dragon. Matt, show her.” Ginny gave him an encouraging nod.

“No.”

Why did he choose now to be so petulant?

“I don’t believe you.” Roni sulked.

Irritated, Ginny dug Matt in the ribs with her elbow. “Matt!”

Whoosh.

An eleven-foot dragon crumpled the wooden chair beneath him into splinters. Ginny rubbed her fingers over her lips, regretting her insistence that he shift, as he glowered at them from where he was sitting amid the splinters of wood on the floor.

Before Ginny could draw breath, Roni scuttled down next to him, smoothed her long, elegant fingers over his wings, and peeled the ripped material of his clothes from him.

Banshee voices rose in Ginny’s head. She was about to give Roni more than just a nosebleed. In fact she might give her one of those as well, but it would be by way of a well-placed fist if the vampire didn’t remove her hand from Matt’s iridescent scales.

Daniel face-planted the table and continued to bash his forehead on the wooden surface until they all paid him attention. “Right. This is important. I managed to get these photos from the journalist, but I’m not sure if it was before he downloaded them to his editor. We need a back-up plan.”

“What story will the journalist tell?” Roni settled herself on the floor beside Matt and stroked his shimmering purple and green scales. As he turned toward Ginny, the glow of the lamplight cast a buttery hue over him and changed his color to a nacreous deep purple overlaid with a golden luster. He gave her an apologetic shrug, and his jade green eyes smoldered at her, his top lip pulled straight across his teeth. He was beautiful. In both forms, he took her breath away.

“I think it’s quite obvious.” Masked hatred gleamed from Daniel’s eyes as Roni spoke, making Ginny pay more attention. She might not be allowed to interfere, but worry tangled her emotions. Daniel stood, and Ginny narrowed her eyes to watch him pace to the window. He pulled the blind up a notch so a bright shaft of sunlight shot into the room.

Roni hissed as steam started to rise from her body, but as she made a panicked move, Matt simply opened his wings and engulfed her, spreading a protective cover over her. His cool green gaze flicked over Daniel as sunlight bounced off his scales, making them glow an effervescent green and purple again.

“Pull the blind down—stop being an asshole.” The husky grumble was accompanied by a short spurt of steam.

She wondered at the flash of surprise in Daniel’s eyes. He obviously knew Matt well and certainly showed no fear of the dragon, but it gave Ginny reason to believe Matt didn’t know Daniel as well as he might.

“How about this?” She deliberately drew everyone’s attention to herself, even though heat splashed across her chest and washed up to the roots of her hair. She hated to be in the limelight. Not as much as Roni hated to be in the sunlight, though. To her relief, Daniel tugged the black-out blind back into place, and with a grudging shrug, wandered to the kitchen table.

“If it gets printed, just laugh it off—it’s a bat, closer to the camera than the rest of the perspective. It’s dusk. Look, it’s blurry. The journalist’s going to look like an idiot.”

“Okay.” Daniel put his hands on his hips and nodded.

It was simple really, but she felt the need to embellish her answer. “After all, who believes in dragons?” She directed a casual shrug and an apologetic smile at Matt.

Daniel nodded again in agreement. “Okay, that’s the stance I’ll take if it does go to press. The guy’s an asshole. They probably won’t print it.”

He turned his attention to Matt. “Are you going to shift so we can get going?”

“Nope.” A snort of fire burst from Matt’s nostrils.

“Why not?”

“Because I just shredded all the clothes off my body, and if I shift now, you’re going to have a large, naked man sitting on his chilled ass on this tiled floor with a very unhappy vampire in his lap.”

Roni leaped to her feet. “Don’t mind me.” With a fizz of electrical impulse, she flashed out of the room before anyone could reply.

Ginny’s molecules heated up and almost shook apart with the thought of seeing Matt naked again, but Daniel appeared unmoved. “Well, I need you. I’ll be back shortly with more clothes, so don’t get…preoccupied.”

The dragon gave a lopsided smile as Daniel hurried to the front door, slamming it shut behind him.

Matt came gingerly to his feet, wrapped his wings in tight, and ducked his head to avoid breaking anything.

“I should go to the bathroom to change.” A golden hue shimmered over him as he disappeared through the open doorway, and Ginny wondered what the devil he intended changing into. She raced after him and came up against the closed wooden door to her bathroom.

“Matt?”

He swung open the door, and she almost swallowed her tongue. She hadn’t a clue whether to laugh or throw him out. Once more fully human, Matt stood tall and proud, all six-feet-delectable-seven of him, resplendent in her bright pink, floral silk robe. Huge on her, falling to just below her knees, she could almost wrap it around herself twice. It barely came to mid-thigh on him, and the wide bat-wing sleeves fit snugly around his thick, muscular arms. Where they hung down over her hands and had to be turned back a fold, they barely came to beneath his elbow. She stepped back to admire him, the robe only just closed at the waist to cover his essentials.

“Nice.” He stroked the material over his chest and grinned around the toothbrush and white frothing toothpaste.

Her mouth dropped open as she stared at him. “Are you using my toothbrush?”

“Nah.” He shrugged and turned away to spit in the sink and splash water on his face. “You had a new one in your cupboard.”

The desperate wail of women’s voices rose, blocking out clear thought. “You went through my cupboards?”

“Yup.” Shameless, he wiped his mouth on her towel and turned back to her, a wide grin on his face.

Indignation rolled through her, and she pulled herself up to her full height. “Why?”

Unperturbed, he reached forward and gave a sharp yank to her pajama top, catching her as she tripped over her feet. He wrapped his powerful arm around her body, crushed her against his broad chest, and lifted her off her feet.

“So I can do this…”

He smothered her surprised squeal as he plastered his mouth over hers. The shrieking of a thousand banshees gentled to a euphoric murmur as she could find no objection to his reasoning.

Limbs weak, she turned into pliable putty as he molded her in his arms. The firm press of his hand against the back of her head held her still as he plundered her mouth, his tongue dancing with hers. Any thought of resistance was purged from her tortured soul, and she was his for the taking.