Eternal Hearts (16 page)

She punched at the comforter. She hated playing Christian-Says. Not only because the mere thought caused her blood to rebel for some strange reason, but because no matter what she did, she never seemed to win.

“Did you talk to Robert?” The hollow tone of Drake’s voice signaled he must still be in the bathroom.

“Yes, I talked to Robert!”

“What?” he boomed right next to
her.

Not expecting him to be so close, Toni screamed, jumped, and then fell off the edge of the bed, landing with a loud and awkward thud. She flung the comforter away from her face only to find Drake standing in front of her.

“Kinda jumpy, aren’t we?”

She clutched a hand to her chest as the heartbeat she hadn’t realized how much she’d missed pounded out of control. “I didn’t even hear you come out of the bathroom. You scared the ever living shit out of me.” Her cheeks burned hotter as he stared down at her half hiked up tank top a little bit longer than he should have.

She straightened her shirt then crossed her arms over her chest. “What are you looking at?”

“I’m glad vampires can’t shit,” he finally mumbled.

She shook her head. Where did that come from? Attempting to follow the little bouncing ball, she snapped her fingers. “Why are you glad vampires can’t shit?”

His gaze slowly slid back up to her face before he smiled. “Oh, because that’s the only way you’d have ever living shit.”

She crawled to her feet and flopped across the bed again. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“I bet I know what you’re thinking.”

“After that last comment, I don’t even know where to start.”

“You’re thinking about how lucky you are. You’re thinking about how great it is that you have to take me everywhere you want to go tonight, huh?” He leaned across the bed until his lips hovered only inches above hers. “Will you let me buy you dinner? You can order the lobster raw. I swear I won’t say no.”

Toni swallowed her heart, which felt like it had leaped up into her throat. “Did you just proposition me?”

He stood up and flashed a devilish smile but his eyes stayed glued to her mouth. “I suppose it depends on what your answer is. If you say yes, then yes, of course I did. If you say no, then you completely misinterpreted what I said. We had a communication breakdown and we should really work on that.”

“Oh, yeah?”
She sat up as fast as her body would allow and whipped a pillow it at him. “Should we work on that, too?”

He jumped back as if he’d been anticipating the assault the entire time, turned sideways, caught the pillow behind his back, then brought it over his head and threw it back at her. She couldn’t help but to laugh when the pillow bounced off her head and flew across the room.

She rolled over onto her side and smiled at him. “I said it yesterday and I’ll say it again, you’re just not right.”

“If making you laugh is wrong,” he said, lowering his already deep voice, “then maybe I don’t wanna be right.” He sat down on the edge of the bed and draped a perfectly sculpted arm over her hip. “So what would you like to do tonight? Do you want to stay in or would you prefer to go out?”

She took a moment to consider his question. While the teenager wanted to stay locked in the room with him all night hoping that something naughty happened, the woman who’d missed Chicago and everyone in it had a much different idea.

Toni brushed her hand over the scars littering Drake’s forearm. “I’d really like to go down to Grey’s, if that’s okay with you.”

“Grey’s Coffeehouse?”
When she nodded, he cocked his head and arched a brow. “Are you some kind of closet caffeine junkie? Like a little jolt with your blood, do ya?”

“No. I…I have a friend who used to spend a lot of time down there. Well, three actually, but one’s a little more…he’s kinda like a surrogate Sire. I haven’t really talked to him since I got kicked out. I was hoping maybe he’d be there. But if you don’t wanna go I understand. It’s not like I expect you to take me around so I can see all my old friends or anything.”

He smiled as his warm fingers drew slow circles against the small of her back. “I have no problem taking you to see Clint.”

She ignored the tingles fluttering under her skin and narrowed her eyes on him. “How did you know who I wanted to see? Are you using your Jedi mind tricks on me?”

He looked absolutely appalled. “I’ll have you know that Martin Grey gives me free beer whenever I visit one of his fine establishments. And I also happen to know that aside from him, only two people go to Grey’s so much that the couch cushions are permanently ass-grooved to fit them perfectly.” He ticked off his fingers.
“Clint and Jacob.
And since Clint’s an old Warrior and Jacob’s an old Paladin, it only made sense.”

She blew out a relieved breath. Okay, maybe she was being a little jumpy. “I didn’t know Grey’s served beer.”

“Grey’s doesn’t serve beer, but The Underground does.”

Toni scrunched up her face. The Underground was a dark, rave style dance club in the basement of Grey’s. And for some reason, she just couldn’t picture Drake out on the crowded dance floor. “You go to The Underground?
Really?”

He gasped as he surged to his feet. “Hell yes I do.” He clapped his hands together as if struck with the most brilliant of brilliant ideas. “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll take you to Grey’s, but you have to come down to The Underground with me afterwards so we can get our dance on.”

Toni could barely keep her mouth closed as Drake swiveled his hips in a wide, erratic circle while he pumped his arms. Nearly everything about the man was attractive, but that…that so wasn’t.

She closed her eyes and tried to erase the sight from her memory. “I’ll go to The Underground with you, but you have to promise that you’ll never, and I mean
never
, do that again.”

“What? You don’t like my moves?”

Afraid he might still be doing the broken robot dance, she opened her eyes just enough to peek between her lashes. Luckily, he wasn’t. “I’m not trying to be mean or anything, but some people just shouldn’t dance…and I think you might be one of them.”

“Oh, really?”
He held his hand out. “Stand up.”

She did as he asked but hesitated as she reached for his hand. “You’re not going to hold me captive while you do that…whatever it was you did before, are you?”

He laughed and wiggled his fingers. “Take my hand and find out. Unless, of course, you’re gonna chicken out on me again, which reminds me, you still owe me fifty bucks.”

She rested her hand in his. “I don’t even have fifty bucks.”

“Then I guess you’ll just have to work off your debt.”

She’d no more than opened her mouth to respond when he spun her away from him then expertly twirled her back, tango style. He even ended the fluid motion with her dipped back, one hand flattened between her shoulder blades and the other cradling her bent knee against his hip.

She shivered as he leaned forward and pressed his moist lips to her ear. “You’re not the only one with Spanish blood in you.” He gently stood her up then beamed an accomplished smile. “Now, why don’t you go get dressed so we can leave?”

She stared up into his eyes while every nerve in her body flared to life, wildly clapping for an encore. “Okay.” The word came out a little more breathy than she’d intended.

He cracked a grin. “I take it you like those moves better?”

Tell him you want a naked encore.
She shook the traitorous teenager from her mind. “I think I should go get dressed now.”

It wasn’t until after she’d picked up her boots from the side of the bed then closed the bathroom door behind her that she blew out the dreamy sigh she’d been holding. If she hadn’t even been awake for a full thirty minutes and was already swooning over the man, where the hell would she be by the end of the night?

Swooning under him?
Unwilling to even consider the thought, Toni went about her normal morning routine. She brushed her teeth, washed her face, and then dressed in a simple black t-shirt and a pair of jeans. Once she’d laced up her boots, she headed back into the main room to find Drake sitting on the couch with his eyes closed.

She walked over and stood in front of him. “Are you ready to go?”

He didn’t open his eyes. He didn’t answer. He just sat there with a weird, almost goofy smile on his face.

She leaned in a little closer. “Are you ready to go?” When he didn’t answer again, she reached out and pulled his hair. “Hello?”

His eyes shot open and he flashed an even bigger smile before he met her gaze. “Sorry, I was just thinking about someone. I didn’t realize you were out of the bathroom already. Usually women take longer in there.”

“Oh…well, I’m ready to go whenever you are.”

“Just give me a minute.” He lowered his eyes then frowned. “My knee is bothering me again.” He winced as he leaned back, straightened his left leg out then bent it again. “Old injuries, ya know?”

“I didn’t know it was bothering you before.” She looked down at his leg, but it didn’t take her long to realize it wasn’t his knee that was swollen. She forced her eyes away from his impressive bulge and focused back on his face. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Uh, well, no. I think it’s just stiff from falling asleep on the couch with my legs stretched across the coffee table.”

Yeah, it’s stiff all right.
She cleared her throat. “Maybe the walk to the elevator will help stretch it out.” She bit at the inside of her lips as she finished the sentence. There was absolutely nothing she could say right now that didn’t have some kind of innuendo attached to it. “Come on,” she said as she held out her hand. “Stand up and I’ll ride you…err…uh…walk you, I’ll walk you to the door.”

He laughed then flashed a knowing smile. “The jig is up, isn’t it?”

She curled her fingers around his thumb and pulled him to his feet. Even though she felt like she’d just stuck her face in a raging bonfire, if he could hint at the obvious, so could she. “Well, it’s certainly not down at the moment, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“You know,” he drawled as he tugged the tight leather away from his upper thighs, “you didn’t exactly do me any good when you asked if you could help.
And offering to ride me to the door…that was just cruel.”

She swallowed the huge knot in her throat.
“Ready to go now?”

“You don’t even know what to say right now, do you?”

She fanned her face. “No, I really don’t. I mean, if I did something to…not that I’m saying it was for me, you could’ve been thinking about anyone. It’s just that…” She paused and tried to order her thoughts as way too many emotions smashed together inside her. “Did you ever think you want something…but then when it starts to happen you get scared? And then you can’t breathe, because you know you’ll mess it up somehow? Because you know you’re not the person someone thinks you are. But you get so caught up in feeling good for the first time in so long that you convince yourself that you deserve something you really don’t? But then you can’t even run away because you don’t have anywhere to go?”

He didn’t say anything in response; he just snatched up her hand and led her out of the room then down the hallway towards the elevator. He didn’t pull her, didn’t drag her, but he moved at a brisk enough pace that she had to jog to keep up with his long strides. She didn’t get the sense that he was angry or upset, but she couldn’t really tell what he was thinking because she wasn’t in a position to see anything but the back of his head.

Once they were inside the elevator, he smacked the button for the lobby then finally turned to face her. He stared down at her, his dark eyes glowing with all the sadness and pain she’d seen before, plus a dozen other emotions she couldn’t even begin to place.