In the Dead of Cold (24 page)

“And, James?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Do whatever is necessary to get her here fast, understand?”

“Yes, sir.”

James slipped out the door.

“Jane?” Milo touched her shoulder.

“I don’t want to leave him.”

“There’s nothing more we can do for him,” Milo whispered.

“That explains his distraction. He’s been distracted by Dr. Stevens, not by any sense of disloyalty,” Mr. M. added as an afterthought.

Milo gripped her arms and pulled her to her feet. “You need to step away from him. He might mistake you for someone else in his dreams.”

Like a snake in the jungle…

Jane let Milo lead her into the living room, where the two of them sat down on the sofa. She turned to face Graham. “I think I know how Bart got in.”

“Oh?” Graham asked.

Milo took her hand, and Jane held on to him as if he were her life ring in a stormy sea.

“Did you see more when he grabbed you in Mr. M.’s apartment?”

Jane shook her head. “No, not much. He knew to keep his thoughts hidden from me this time. But he said the fire distracted you and kept you occupied, so you couldn’t feel his presence.”

Graham nodded. “We already deduced that the fire was a distraction. But who started the fire? Who helped him? James was able to question the woman who was with him, Roberta Foster. The last thing she remembers is waiting for her husband in a nearby bar and grill. James was able to read her thoughts enough to know she didn’t start the fire, but that someone else had. She ordered a coffee in the coffee shop and opened the door to let Bart in.”

“I promise you, sir, I’ll find out who it was,” Milo said.

It wasn’t long before James returned to August’s suite with a tall, redheaded woman wearing a navy sweater and jeans.

“Dr. Stevens,” Mr. M. stood and greeted her. “I’m Graham Masterson.”

“Mr. Masterson,” she replied in return. She greeted Milo and Jane when Mr. M. introduced them. “James tells me there’s a problem with August.”

“Yes.”

“A health-related problem?”

“Of a sort.”

“Perhaps he should be at a hospital, then,” she suggested.

Graham took her hands in his and looked into her eyes.

Jane noticed the immediate change. Dr. Stevens looked a bit like Roberta Foster, the zombie woman, who’d helped Bart earlier. Then a moment later, a look of complete understanding crossed over her lovely features.

Never taking his gaze from hers, Graham continued speaking. “Do you understand everything?”

She blinked at him a few times as if she’d awakened from a strange dream. “Yes. Yes, I do.”

“August needs you, and only you can help him.”

She stood straight and tall, not quite appearing stiff. She was elegantly pretty, but now her features were tense with concern. “He needs to drink blood, doesn’t he?” Dr. Stevens asked. “My blood.”

Jane noticed Dr. Stevens accepted the idea of vampires much easier than she herself had, but then, perhaps Dr. Stevens had never had a frightening vision of one about to sink his fangs into her throat.

“Yes. And anything else you care to offer or share with him would be helpful.”

Dr. Steven smiled. “I’ve always cared for him and felt connected to him. I dream…” Her words faded away as though she either didn’t quite understand what she felt for August or didn’t wish to share it. “Where is he?”

“Let me show you.” Holding her hand, Graham led her toward the bedroom. At the bedroom door, he turned back to Milo and Jane. “I’ll stay here and make sure August gets what he needs. Why don’t you two go get some rest?” He led Dr. Stevens into the bedroom.

Jane watched until Mr. M. closed the door behind them. “He’s going to watch?” she whispered.

“For a while, yes. August could be dangerous. Mr. M. doesn’t want Dr. Stevens hurt in any way.”

“He didn’t come watch us before,” Jane pointed out.

“He didn’t know how ill I was, and August is three times worse, as you saw.”

Jane swallowed hard and remembered the terrifying nightmares Milo had. “I hope she helps him.”

“She will.”

Jane couldn’t help but notice that his words were more hopeful than convincing. “Is it always that easy to control people like Mr. Masterson controlled Dr. Stevens?”

“Sometimes it’s not easy at all,” Milo confessed. “But he’s not controlling her.”

“He’s not?”

“No. He explained the situation by putting thoughts into her mind, then let her decide for herself whether or not she wanted to help August. It’s apparent by the easy way she complied that August and Dr. Stevens have a connection.” He took her hand and moved them toward the door.

“Would Mr. M. have used mind control if she had refused?”

“I know I would have done whatever August needed. He can control Dr. Stevens enough to get what’s needed to help August; then afterward, he can erase the memory from her mind.”

Once they were in the empty elevator, she asked, “But wouldn’t she then be connected to August and unable to be with anyone else?”

Milo still held her hand. “By the way nothing else has helped him, I’d say yes, and she wouldn’t understand why touching another man repulses her. It’s obvious he’s tasted her before, which is why nothing else would suffice now. And while he would live in agony wanting her, he’d be dying without her blood. I know; I’ve been where he is, except when I experienced it, it wasn’t as bad for me as it would be for him. I didn’t know you existed. He knows where she was. I hate to think how bad it would be for him if she hadn’t accepted him or wanted him.”

“That sounds awful.”

They reached their floor, and the elevator door opened. With her hand still tucked in his, Milo led her to his suite. “It can be.”

Once inside, she downed the two glasses of water he forced on her. She felt his warm gaze as she slid her clothes off and slipped between the bedsheets. She thought it took forever for him to slip off his jeans, sweater, and underclothes and slide beneath the sheets with her.

But when Milo settled against her and fit his cock nicely against her ass, she thought it was well worth the wait.

“I need you in me, Milo.”

He moved her hair and kissed her throat. “You sound sleepy.”

“I am. But I need you more than I need sleep.”

She lifted her leg out of the way, and he could not deny her invitation. “Fuck, you’re tighter than before,” he said as he wiggled and pressed his entire cock into her from behind.

“You’re bigger than before.”

He drove her crazy with need as he moved at a snail’s pace. Slow in—deep. Slow out until she moved her hips to find him. He held her to him with his hand on her abdomen. She held her hand on his hip. Then she moved her leg and crossed it over his.

“I love the way you hold on to me.” His words were warm on her neck.

“I love the way you do me slow. You hit a wonderful spot in this position.”

“Every spot inside you is a wonderful spot.”

“With my legs spread, I can do this.”

She reached down beyond her spread legs and cupped his balls, pressing them and squeezing them as he continued his slow, sweet torture.

In. Out. In. Out. “I could keep up this pace all day.”

“Even while I do this?” While rubbing his balls, she shifted one finger and caressed his taint.

His orgasm hit him hard and swift, and he filled her. As his hips slapped against her thighs—and he didn’t even get the chance to groan through the exquisite taste of it—she giggled.

After a few moments, when his breathing was once again under control, he asked, “What was so funny?”

“That little place beyond your balls is like the spot on my throat. Now I know how to drive you insane.”

He shifted so fast she gasped with surprise. In nothing more than a lightning flash, he’d pulled out of her, settled on top of her, and slid back in. Then he put his tongue on the mark on her throat.

Her pussy contracted and shivered all around him.

“Like that?”

She giggled again. “You better believe I like that!”

After a long, endearing kiss, he pulled out and settled himself behind her. He fell asleep with her tucked safely in his arms and let their dreams take over.

In the dream they shared, Jane wore a sparkling white dress and a crown of flowers in her hair. Milo also wore white. Hundreds of candles lit up the night sky, and the two of them danced while soft, beautiful snow fell around them. It landed in his hair, making Jane laugh.

“This is so much better than those other dreams.”

“Yes, oh much so.” He kissed her. “You’re not cold, are you?”

“I could never be cold with you—unless, of course, you’re sick.”

“I’m not sick now.”

“Good.”

The kiss they shared started off light and fun and left Milo with a giddy feeling. But it quickly filled him with need and want and warmth.

And even when the dream Milo made love to the dream Jane in the snow after a long dance and more kisses, he made sure she was never cold.

Chapter Eleven

“
And in other news this morning, Roberta Foster from St. Louis, Missouri, was found behind the Moonlight Resort late last night, suffering from a broken hand and hypothermia. She had been skiing while she waited for her husband, who was attending a conference at the nearby Shaw Hotel. It was obvious that she took a major fall and became disoriented and lost. She is expected to make a full recovery from her injuries
.” The pretty news reporter paused and looked at her male counterpart, who shared the desk with her. “
And Dan, it’s a good thing one of the employees at the Moonlight Resort noticed her, or this story wouldn’t have had a happy ending with the weather the way it was last night.
”

“
That’s right, Sarah. Last night, with record cold temperatures, another twelve inches of snow landed in the area…
”

He went on with the forecast. Snow. Snow. Snow.

It reminded Jane of the dream she and Milo had shared.

She sat up in bed and held the covers against her breasts. The dreams were nice, but now that she’d made love for real with Milo, she needed him all the time. Her nipples tingled just thinking about him.

The sound of the shower touched her over the voices of the TV newscasters. Then Milo’s rich, deep voice drowned out the news as he sang.

Jane recognized the words in his off-key country ballad. “‘I’m drowning in my beer to forget you left me…’” She laughed. Milo was strong, kind, good, loyal, and a monster when the circumstances called for it. But he couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket or in the shower.

She flipped back the covers and reached for Milo’s shirt that he’d thrown over a chair near the bed. She paused long enough to button several buttons and roll up the sleeves. Then she entered the bathroom and looked for Milo through the rising steam.

MILO STOOD IN the spray, took a deep breath, and let his worries go down the drain along with the water. True, Bart was still out there, no doubt planning another attack on the people Milo loved at the Moonlight. Yet, it didn’t matter right then. All that mattered was that Jane was safely tucked in his bed. He could make love to her in his dreams or in reality, and he could even drink from her and keep his control so that he didn’t kill her. Thanks to his early morning call to Mr. M., he knew August was well, resting, and healing. Dr. Stevens was still with him and needed no mind control to keep her around, although he knew she’d soon leave to see her kids off to school. It seemed she’d had a few dreams about August too.

So yes, despite Bart, so much more of the world felt right at that moment. Milo drew in a heavy breath of steam and let it out with a sigh before beginning the second verse of his song. When he couldn’t remember the words, he made them up.

Jane stepped into the bathroom and brought his song to a halt in midsentence. “Good morning.” He looked her up and down. “That shirt looks better on you than it does on me.”

She smiled and stepped to the edge of the shower to keep from getting the shirt wet. “I like what you’re wearing too. And I beg to differ, since this shirt fits you perfect and is a bit big on me.”

“Oh, I don’t know. It looks like it fits you in the right places.”

“You sound happy. Things must be better than I remember them.”

“Well, I think so.” He relayed Mr. M.’s call and added, “The night Bart called you out into the snow, he did something to Steve Abel, the man who was guarding that area. Like Garth, the guard at the penthouse elevator, Bart left him alive but unresponsive. One of my men, Stan Parker, is very good with psychological manipulation. He was able to undo whatever Bart did to Garth and Steve.”

“And what about Zombie Woman, Roberta Foster? I heard them talk about her on the news, and I know Mr. Masterson said she was safe at the hospital. Is she, or is that just a story?”

“She is.”

“So she’s okay now?”

“As soon as the broken wrist August gave her heals, she should be all right. But I’m afraid she was bitten by Bart. So Bart’s control of her had to be taken back.”

“Like it was with me?”

“Yes.”

“So who…”

He stepped close and gently put two fingers on her lips to stop her words. “Sometimes, it’s better not having all the answers.” Then he kissed her, savoring her taste. His cock thickened and grew hard with the touch of her lips.

“But did it hurt her, like Bart’s touch to where you bit me hurts?”

“No. Bart wasn’t her soul mate, and neither is the one who took back the control. And he has no plan to control her. So she’ll be just fine with her husband. Neither bite affects her like mine affects you, but she has no other connection to either. Fate has connected me to you. Like this.” He leaned down and moved his tongue in a circle on that spot.

Jane began to unbutton his shirt.

“What are you doing?”

“I considered pulling until the buttons popped to get this shirt off in a hurry, but this is a nice shirt. I’m not wasting any more time.” She stepped into the shower with him. “I need you. Now. Like we made love in here the last time.”

He licked his lips. “What about breakfast?”

She tilted her head and looked at him seductively. “This is the first course. I’ll feed you breakfast in bed later.”