Dead and Dateless (20 page)

B
y the time I reached Ty’s loft, I’d abandoned the idea of a confrontation and glommed on to the notion of delving.

Confrontation was such an ugly word and hinted at wrongdoing, and Ty really hadn’t done anything
wrong.
The guy was helping me—for whatever reason—and so there was nothing to call him out on.

But
delving
…That I could do subtly, carefully, without appearing ungrateful and mega bitchlike. I would just kick back, keep the conversation going, and ease into the subject slowly. Very slowly. And sort of feel him out.

Can you say paranoid?
I wasn’t trying to be, I just couldn’t help myself. I wanted to know why. Even more, I needed to know. Then, if Ty really wanted the money more than he wanted to help me, I could classify him as a good-looking shit and maybe, just maybe, I wouldn’t be so in lust with him.

But if he really was trying to help me with no thought for his own personal gain…My heart fluttered at the prospect and my determination grew.

“Where the hell have you been?” he demanded when he hauled open the door before I’d so much as turned the knob. He wore the usual black jeans, but he’d traded the black T-shirt for a black leather vest that made his shoulders look even more broad and muscular. He looked as sexy as ever, and royally pissed. “Didn’t I tell you to stay put?”

“Are you just after the reward, or are you helping me because you want to?” So much for
delving.

He blinked. “What?”

“You heard me.” I moved past him into the apartment and turned. Our gazes collided. “Why are you helping me?”

“Because you asked me to.” He slammed the door closed and threw the deadbolt. “Not that I’ll have to do it for much longer because you’re
this close
to landing your sweet ass in jail.”

That wasn’t really the answer I was looking for.

“I know I asked, but
why
did you agree?
Just
because I asked or because I’m sitting here with one hundred thousand dollars stamped on my sweet ass and you know if you help me, you’ll find the real killer and collect the bounty?”

He eyed me. “What the hell difference does it make?”

“I know it seems irrelevant because, bottom line, I’ve got a safe place to stay and zero reason to bitch, and I’m not bitching. Not really. And I wasn’t even remotely concerned about it until Remy said that you—”

“Remy?” he cut in.

“Remy Tremaine. He’s the police chief in Fairfield where my folks live. He said that you—”

“Wait a second. You’ve been with the Fairfield police chief for the past three hours?”

“Not exactly. I was at my parents’ most of the time, but then I ran into Remy when I left—he had this roadblock set up—and we talked and he said—”

“You talked to the chief of fuckin’ police?”

“It’s okay. He’s a good guy. Although in this situation, I suppose we could call him a bad guy since I’m considered the bad guy and he’s on my side, but he’s totally cool and he said you were a really smart guy.” There. That should ease the frown drawing his face tight.

The face got tighter. “You mentioned me to the chief of
fuckin’
police?” He raked a hand through his hair. “Did you write down my address and invite him over for dinner, too?”

“Well, no. He likes to eat alone, but—you’re being sarcastic, aren’t you?”

“Shit.” He went a little red around the cheeks. “Why don’t you just advertise your whereabouts in Times Square? Better yet, put it on CNN. A late-breaking story. Stop killing yourselves, guys. She’s right fucking
here.
”

“What? You’re really worried about
Remy
?”

Even as the question left my mouth, I remembered my own initial panic in the cab when I’d seen the Fairfield police chief. Friend or foe, I’d wondered—for, like, five seconds.

However briefly, the point is, I
had
wondered.

Still. We’re talking Remy.

“He’s a very good friend of the family’s and completely devoted to my folks, as well as all of the extremely wealthy members of his community. The real killer could torture him and he wouldn’t spill his guts.” At least, I didn’t think so.

“And if he’s the real killer?”

What?
“You’ve got to be kidding.” I couldn’t help but smile.

Just as the expression slid across my face, Ty’s look grew even more thunderous. His eyes narrowed to dangerous slits and I felt a tingle down south.

Wrong time, wrong place, wrong man, I know. What can I say? I was desperately horny and a total sucker for dark, dangerous, delicious-looking bounty hunters.

I forced my lustful thoughts aside and shook my head. “Remy’s a nice guy.”

“He’s a vampire.”

“A nice vampire.” Okay. That sounded ridiculous even to me, and I’m the one who said it. “Sure, we’re all vicious bloodsuckers, but some of us aren’t as vicious as others. We have a civilized layer beneath the hunger. And the greed. And the narcissism.” I was definitely digging my hole deeper. “You just have to peel all the other stuff back to get to the real character beneath. Besides”—I shrugged—“he likes me.”

“He likes you? So you spilled your guts and compromised our position because he
likes
you?”

“I didn’t tell him where you lived.”

“He can find out.”

“If he wanted to find out, which he doesn’t.”

“Because he’s a nice guy and he
likes
you?”

“Exactly.”

He shook his head. “You’re going to get us both staked.”

“The cops don’t want to stake me. They want to arrest me.”

“I’m not talking about the cops. There’s a murderer out there.”

“And there are two extremely powerful vampires in here.”

“More like stupid.” His eyes blazed. “You should’ve stayed put.”

“But—”

“Dammit, Lil, can’t you just own up to it? You’ve made a mistake. The least you can do is admit it and apologize.”

He shook his head again and looked as if he wanted to wring my neck. Or kiss me.

I voted for number two. I lost.

“What the hell am I saying?” He threw up his hands. “I don’t need your apology.” He glared at me. “You don’t set foot out of this apartment.”

“I—”

“Or float out.”

“I—”

“Or fly out.”

“But I—”

“
Nothing.
You got that?”

“I really think you’re blowing this out of propor tion. Even if he had it, Remy wouldn’t disclose our location to anyone. He’s not like that.”

“Says you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“That you’re not exactly the best judge of character.”

“For your information, I’m an excellent judge of character. I can see right through anyone.”

“Except other vampires,” he pointed out.

I gave him a pointed stare. “Oh, yeah? I can see right through you.”

“Is that so?” He stepped toward me.

While I’ve never been one to cower in front of any male—vamp or otherwise—I found myself stepping back.

Not out of, you know, fear or anything. We’re talk ing pure, unadulterated, just call me “Old Faithful” lust.

My nerves hummed and my pulse quickened. The sound thundered through my ears. He stepped even closer and my gaze anchored on the small scar just shy of his eyebrow. I wanted to reach out and touch the flesh, feel it beneath the pad of my finger, imagine what sort of man he’d been when he’d been wounded. Just a man.

My nostrils flared, drinking in the delicious aroma of worn leather and soap and fierce male. Talk about yum.

“Then why did you ask me about helping you? If you’re so insightful, then
you
tell
me
why.”

“Because I asked.” I tossed his words back at him and he grinned.

His bright blue eyes sparked, blazing with a sudden feral intensity that made me take another step back, and another, until I came up against the wall. Sheetrock pressed into my backside, while Ty plastered himself to my front.

He leaned into me, his erection hard and thick against my leg. Catching my elbows with his hands, he slid his fingertips up my bare flesh, until his palms rested on my shoulders. His thumbs played at the edges of my clavicle.

Electricity sizzled through me from my head to my toes, and damned if it didn’t pause at several choice spots in between.

Duh. He’s questioning your judgment of character—the jackass. Of course, your heart is pounding and your body is tingling. You’re thoroughly pissed.

My head knew that, but my arms…They weren’t as quick to agree. But they were quick to snake around his neck. I pressed my lips to his.

He stiffened at first (the rest of him, that is) but then his resistance seemed to crumble. His mouth opened and his tongue darted out to tangle with mine.

Where I’d initiated, he quickly took the lead, press ing me up against the wall and devouring me. His mouth was hot and wet and
hot.
It was the best kiss of my life.

Even better than the first time he’d kissed me while hovering outside an eighth floor window, watching a human couple have S and M sex.

“You like me,” I murmured when we both finally came up for air. I leaned my head back against the wall, a smile playing at my lips, and closed my eyes. “I knew it.”

“So what if I do?” He nibbled my neck. “It doesn’t change who I am.”

“A nice guy,” I breathed, all the while my con science whispered, “A
made
guy.”

But we’re talking
nibbling.

“You bought me bottled blood,” I added to emphasize my point—and drown out the whole
made
thing.

“Maybe I’m just protecting my investment.”

“Maybe. Then again, we’re talking my
favorite
blood type.”

His grip on my shoulders tightened until it bordered on painful and killed my smile. My eyes snapped open to find that he’d abandoned the nibbling. He stared back at me, his look fierce, his eyes the brightest blue I’d ever seen them.

“You don’t know anything about me, Lil. You don’t know who I am. What I’m capable of doing. What I’ve done.”

The thing was, I did. I knew him. I know it sounds ludicrous, but I felt…safe with him. Even now with his gaze drilling into me and his fingers biting into my skin.

Because I knew it wouldn’t go beyond that. My body was completely and totally safe with him. As for my heart…That was a different matter altogether.

I ignored the last thought (for obvious reasons, including the whole made vampire issue) and blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “You helped me after I got staked in the shoulder.”

“For my own pleasure.” His grip softened just enough to ease the pressure. He feathered his lips over mine before grazing a path across my cheek. “Not yours,” he murmured in my ear. “I liked having you draw on my vein. It felt good.”

“So you only agreed to help me because of the bounty on my head? If that’s true, then say it. Look me in the eyes and say it.”

Please look me in the eyes. Because with your mouth so close to my neck, all I can think about is you taking a bite and then me taking a bite, and then you. And then me. You. Me. You. Me. Me. Me…

His lips trailed from my ear, down my throat, tracing my jugular. His body stiffened and a growl tickled my skin, followed by the sharp prickle as he unsheathed his fangs.

A sliver of fear worked its way up my spine and I stiffened.

Crazy, I know. Biting was a totally erotic experience, and not the least bit scary.

But this…This went beyond the two of us and the desire that drew us together so tightly it felt almost suffocating at times.

This was all about Ty and the emotion tearing him up inside.

“Pain and agony and self-loathing.”

As soon as the deep voice sounded in my head, he jerked away from me. His image was little more than a blur before I heard the door slam, and then I was alone.

I leaned against the wall, my heart pounding and my lips tingling.

What was
that
about?

I wasn’t sure, but I had the gut feeling that it had something to do with his past before becoming a vampire. Maybe he’d been a terrible, awful human and his horrible, criminal actions had led him to be coming a vampire.

So that he could right his wrong?

Or spend forever agonizing over it?

I really don’t do pain and agony all that well, let alone self-loathing, so I ignored the questions and focused on the one thing I could deal with at the moment—being majorly ticked off.

My mind reversed back through the past few delicious moments, through the like and the lust and the
awww, poor thing,
and latched onto the actual conversation we’d had.

I blew out an exasperated breath and tried to process his words. What was it he’d said? Something about me compromising our position and getting us staked and apologizing—

Apologize?
As if I’d done anything wrong.

I’d merely been following his advice.

Connect with your parents, he’d said. Let them know you’re okay.

Sure, I’d connected via an actual face-to-face rather than the suggested phone call, but it was the principle of the thing that mattered.

If you looked at it that way, I’d done exactly what he’d said. Not that he should be giving me orders in the first place. I mean, hel—
lo
? We’d evolved to the twenty-first century. I was a mature, rather attractive born vampire fully capable of making my own decision.

I didn’t need some overbearing
made
vampire dictating to me. I hadn’t lived five hundred years (and holding) by being stupid.

Spoiled maybe, but not stupid.

If anyone should apologize, it should be Ty.

You said it, sister. Talk about balls. All he’s done is give you a safe place to stay
(
regardless of his motivation
)
and a helping hand to untie the noose tightening around your neck while you’ve
(
a
)
risked getting yourself caught by flying around in full view of New York to round up alpha males and
(
b
)
dragged him in for aiding and abetting by mentioning his name to the chief of the Fairfield Police Department. Yep, he owes you big time.