Craved (8 page)

“Come back, Gwen, back to me,” a familiar male
voice said. My eyes felt heavy and my body weak with exhaustion. I
slid down the wall, unable to hold myself up any longer, and
collapsed into oblivion.

“I think she’s coming around,” a male
voice said. I was lying on something hard and I could tell that
someone was next to me but my head was a mass of confusion and
fog.

“Gwen?” a female said.

I squinted against the bright light
that was in sharp contrast to the dark place I had just been. The
first thing I saw was the light on the ceiling in my kitchen. I had
been meaning to clean it for months now.

The back of someone’s hand caressed my
cheek, so I turned my head to see Aiden. His face depicted worry,
which made me worry. I sat up too quickly and was greeted with
extreme dizziness.

“Whoa, take it easy, Gwen.”

I rubbed the dizziness from my head
and looked up, noticing for the first time there were three other
people were watching me. Micah was standing by the sink, Wyatt was
next to the table, Fiona was sitting in a chair by my feet, and
Aiden was standing right next to me. They all gave me looks of
uncertainty, as if I were in danger of losing consciousness
again.

“Gwen, are you okay?” Fiona asked with
worry inflecting her tone.

“What happened?” I murmured, closing
my eyes against the lingering waves of nausea that wafted through
my stomach.

“I don’t know. One minute we were
talking, and the next your head lolled back and you passed out,”
Fiona said, “You scared the shit out of me.” A bottle of water was
held out in front of me and when I looked up, I noticed it was
Micah holding it. I grabbed it, thankful to be able to wash the
dryness out of my throat.

Aiden slipped a hand under my legs and
another around my back, lifting me up. He carried me into the
living room and placed me on the sofa. It was a lot more
comfortable than the hardness of the kitchen table. He sat down
with me, propping my legs onto his lap.

Everyone filed into the living room,
observing me like I was something strange to them.
Self-consciously, I realized I was still in my blue bathrobe, and
that my legs were mostly uncovered. I adjusted the robe, not
wanting Micah or Wyatt to see any more of my exposed
skin.

“Did you guys find anything out about
the woman in the park?” I asked the brothers, assuming that was why
they were here.

“I called them,” Fiona answered, “I
was really scared, I didn’t know what was happening to
you.”

I nodded my head, “I’m not sure what
happened.”

“What do you remember?” Aiden asked as
he rubbed my feet. I thought back and came up blank for an answer.
I hadn’t ever experienced anything like that before.

“There was a shadow, a ghost, I think.
It was like the kitchen disappeared and I was standing in an
abandoned house,” I said, not entirely sure how to describe what
had happened. It was one of those instances where “you had to be
there” to really understand.

“Gwen, you don’t have psychic
abilities. You’ve never been able to see ghosts before,” Micah
said, with a questioning glance.

“I know what I saw, Micah,” I
retorted, even though he was right.

“It was Aura,” Fiona said, drawing our
attention to her, “She jumped into your lap when it happened and
she wouldn’t let any of us get near you.”

“It doesn’t work like that. I draw
energy from her, she doesn’t project the spirit world at me,” I
said, unable to make the connection.

“Perhaps she can, this was just the
first time a spirit wanted to get in contact with you. When Aura
finally got her off your lap, that’s when you regained
consciousness.”

It made sense; Aura
was
my link to the
spirit world. But I couldn’t figure out who would want to contact
me, or why? The spirit hadn’t said anything other than the voices
it projected into my mind. Aura must have made the connection when
I started petting her, sneaky cat.

“Someone has been watching me, they’re
going to kill me,” I whispered, replaying the voice I’d
heard.

“What?” Aiden asked, “Who’s going to
kill you?”

I shook my head. “Not me, that’s what
the spirit said.”

This whole situation put me out of my
comfort zone. Sure, I was a witch, but I wasn’t a spirit seer. Now
that I’d had a taste of what those witches went through, I held a
new level of respect for them.

It was late, almost midnight, and
everyone was looking a little exhausted themselves. I felt horrible
that I was the reason for their sleepiness, excluding Aiden who
didn’t sleep at night.

“Thank you guys for coming over, but
I’m fine. You should go home and get some sleep,” I told Wyatt and
Micah. Relief showed on Micah’s face, who most likely was feeling
uncomfortable at being around me and Aiden, in the very same
apartment he used to visit.

“Are you sure?” Wyatt
asked.

I nodded my head and gave him a
reassuring smile, “Yeah.”

“Okay, then Micah will pick you up
tomorrow night around six. Good night, guys,” Wyatt said. Micah
looked between Aiden and me and gave a short head nod, then
followed his brother out the door.

Fiona said she was tired and slipped
off to her bedroom, but I expected she was giving me alone time
with Aiden. I was actually tired and not interested in spending any
quality time with Aiden at the moment. Whatever I had went through
drained me.

My legs were still resting in Aiden’s
lap but he sat rigid, as if touching me might turn him to ash. I
pursed my lips and gave him a questioning glare, “Something wrong?”
He shifted to look at me and his eyes went black as coal. Vampires’
eyes only went black for two reasons, anger or horny; I would bet
my entire savings that it wasn’t the latter.

“I waited patiently for you to come to
your senses over that dog, and I even believed you when you said
this case had nothing to do with him. But what I can’t understand
is why is he going to be picking you up tomorrow night when you’re
supposed to be going to Rush with Fiona?” Aiden asked, his tone as
cold as the December snow.

To say I was shocked would be an
understatement.

“You might try asking nicely first
before you go all black-eyed on me!”

“Yes, Gwen please tell me, why is
Micah going to pick you up?” he asked in a sarcastic, but pleasant
voice.

“He’s going to Rush with us, on an
investigation we need to do. There is nothing between him and me
anymore and your insecurity isn’t very attractive. For the record,
you and I are not an item either. I agreed to go on a couple of
dates with you to see if we could become more, so don’t get your
boxers in a twist,” I snapped, not at all in the mood to deal with
a grumpy vampire.

He pushed himself between my legs and
paused just inches from my face. I could see my reflection in his
onyx eyes, and my heart tapped harder with either anticipation or
fear, I wasn’t sure.

He tilted his head a little to the
side and spoke against my lips.

“Once I have claimed something, I
don’t let it go easily, and I’ve claimed you.” His breath caressed
my skin as his words did funny things to my center. I knew Aiden,
and he wasn’t malicious or controlling in any form of the word.
Vampires tended to be really territorial, and this vampire had
declared me as his. I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about Aiden’s
words. On the one hand, his lust for me was hot as hell, but on the
other hand, I hated that he made me feel like property. Before I
could think of a snide comeback of my own, he kissed me. His lips
were soft at first, like a breeze against my skin. But when I
didn’t kiss him back, his lips demanded cooperation. When he kissed
me that way, I knew he meant what he had said, that I was his. This
wasn’t just lust overtaking his emotions, it was
passion.

My libido overthrew any anger I had. I
kissed him back with as much passion as he gave. I wrapped my arms
around his neck and held him closer; afraid he’d vanish if I
didn’t. He broke away from my swollen lips, showing his fangs had
descended. He quickly pulled me up and onto him, his hardness
yearning to break free underneath me.

Untying my robe, he licked his lips as
he appreciated my bare breasts.

“You are absolutely delicious, my
Gwen,” he said. His hands cupped my ass while his tongue did
circles around my excited nipples. I moaned through my desire and
arched my back, sending my lower region to press harder against his
erection. He growled deep in his throat and I felt the tips of his
fangs scrape against my skin, sending fear to overthrow my
lust.

I tried to get off his lap but he
pulled me back down and, placing his hands on my hips, moved me
against himself. Fire rocketed from in between my legs and up
throughout my body.

What was it that I was
afraid of again?

With vampire speed, he picked me up
and before I realized it, we were in my bedroom. Aiden set me on
the bed and watched me with unadulterated need. He stood at the
footboard and watched me so intently, I started to scoot towards
the headboard. Before I could reach it though, he grabbed my leg
and pulled me, so that I was lying flat on my back, with my robe
wide open, clad in only a black pair of panties. Starting at my
ankles, he ran his hands the entire length of my body, sending
every nerve ending to sit up and pay attention.

“Aiden, I don’t think this is the
right time for this,” I reluctantly told him. He was in the process
of pressing kisses up my leg and spoke against my skin. “I’ll need
a good reason if you want me to stop,” he said, as he continued to
kiss my inner thigh. He was dangerously close to the one spot that
would make me lose all protest. I enjoyed him for a few more
seconds but pushed through the fog of horniness.

“It doesn’t seem like our first time
should be right after I come back from being unconscious and with
my roommate right next door.”

He groaned and hesitated, as if it
were pure torture to stop his seduction. “I’ll only stop on one
condition, otherwise I’ll have you so fast your head will spin,” he
threatened.

“What’s the condition?” I asked with
caution.

“Say you’re
mine
and only mine. Tell
me that I’m the only man who can taste you.”

His words only turned me on more, was
that his plan?

I took too long to answer so he
stripped off all of his clothes in record time and I gasped at
seeing him completely naked. His length was impressive and had me
second guessing why I wanted to stop, Fiona wouldn’t hear us if we
continued, right?

He grabbed my arm and pulled me to my
feet, causing our naked bodies to press against each other, so that
his massive erection teased my stomach.

“Aiden,” I said in warning.

He turned me around so that my back
was pressed against his chest and reached a hand around to slip his
fingers under my panties, as he played with the dark
curls.

“Stop, Aiden,” I told him, but my tone
lacked conviction.

“Say it, Gwen and I’ll stop, or
perhaps you don’t want me to?”

If I said it then he’d win, he would
get me to admit that we were actually a couple and I was his. Being
very competitive, I had trouble with losing. But if he kept playing
between my legs, I wasn’t going to be able to stop this and I could
hear Fiona in the bathroom, which meant she would be able to hear
us. Call me crazy, but I don’t like witnesses when I am intimate
with a guy.

“Very well,” Aiden said as he ripped
my panties in two. They fell to the floor as if they were leaves
falling from an autumn branch. I gasped when I felt the tip of his
hardness edge closer between my legs.

“Okay, you‘re right,” I shrieked, but
he didn’t stop.

“Say it, Gwen, say you’re mine!” His
lips were very close to my ear and I could feel the dominance in
his tone as he pushed himself closer to my center. My head and my
libido were at war with each other, as they contemplated what we
really wanted. It would be so easy to let him take me right there
and worry about the jabs Fiona would send my way later, but the
humiliation wasn’t really worth it, was it?