Min's Vampire (59 page)

Conversation was
surprisingly light. Just about the weather, some more about Four
Corner’s
suddenly fascinating
history, and a couple questions about where his
family came from originally: Both his parents’ families came from
Romania, having immigrated to the west two generations before
Gabriel was born.

Lucy thought about the little story
Jonas Enoch had told her about how he and Gabriel’s mother had
fallen in love. She couldn’t imagine what their parents were like.
She just couldn’t picture it. Vivian Enoch had seemed like she was
born the way she was—fully formed and cold as ice.

Gram had Lucy help her clear the
dinner plates, insisting Gabriel remain seated while they brought
out coffee and dessert—a magnificent chocolate-chocolate cake. It
wasn’t until they’d finished eating the last bites of their
desserts that Gram dropped all pretenses and dropped the other
shoe, so to speak.

“
So wolf.” Gabriel looked up
from his coffee and met Gram’s gaze. They both looked very serious.
Lucy was just about to interrupt when her grandmother continued.
“How far, exactly, are you prepared to go with this?”

Gabriel almost smiled, tilting his
head as he studied Lucy’s grandmother.

“
I see you’re committed to
this ruse—pulling the wool over your family’s eyes—just so you can
be with your vampire lover.” She sat forward in her chair just
enough that Lucy thought she was going to throw something. “What
I’m wondering is, are you just as committed to keeping my
granddaughter safe?”

Gabriel’s brown eyes softened. “I will
let nothing and no one hurt Lucy.”

No small thrill swam up into Lucy,
like a bird taking flight in her chest, hearing him pledge himself
to her safety.

“
Does that mean protecting
her from your creature-of-the-night girlfriend too?” Gram said
pointedly.

Gabriel didn’t move a muscle. He
didn’t even seem to be breathing. But his entire body seemed to sag
almost imperceptibly. But Lucy noticed, and her heart sank with the
sting his silence evoked in her.

She closed her eyes and
these thoughts rushed through her mind.
What was I thinking? Why did I think he’d choose me over her?
Why the hell is Gram dragging all this up in the first
place?
And finally:
Why am I falling in love with a man like this?

Lucy opened her eyes when she heard
Gabriel’s halting answer.

“
I don’t want to hurt Delia…
I never planned on… on having these feelings for Lucy…” He closed
his eyes this time, just for a moment, but Lucy could tell he was
being torn up inside. Conflict made his youthful features appear
much older than he was. “I’m just not ready to… to choose. I never
thought I would be having these feelings for two people, not at the
same time… and I never expected to feel like this for a
human.”

What a prince…

But another part of Lucy was hanging
onto every word like they were the lyrics to her favorite freaking
song.

“
But will you protect my
daughter from harm—even if that danger comes from your beloved? I
think she deserves to know that you will keep her safe, since she
is technically your employee, and obviously more than that from the
look on you handsome face... and the kiss she told me you two
shared last night.” Gabriel suddenly blushed. “You know, at the
engagement party I wasn’t invited to.”

Lucy rolled her eyes.
Gram is never going to let me live that down, is
she?

Gabriel’s gaze stayed on Lucy’s
grandmother for what seemed like forever, and then it moved to
Lucy. “I pledge my life to her safety.” Lucy felt a knot of nervous
tension build in her stomach. “I will not let anyone or anything
harm her. This I swear.”

Lucy gulped as she felt her face flush
this time. Her hands were shaking as she nervously fumbled with her
empty coffee cup.

“
Well, now,” Gram chirped as
she stood and picked up her cup and the empty plates. “Now that
that’s all settled, I think I’ll go to bed… let you two have some
private time to… talk.” She moved from the room with a graceful
speed that didn’t seem natural.

But Lucy didn’t take time to
ponder her
grandmother’s
other-natured-ness. She already had someone with a
definite otherness sitting right across from her, and the way
Gabriel was looking at her, she felt like a doe being hunted by the
big bad wolf. Or was that Little Red Riding Hood?

She could swear the expression on his
face was saying, “I wonder what she would taste like?”

Lucy stood up, bumping the
dining room table hard enough with her knee to cause a sharp pain
shoot through her entire leg.
Good work,
Grace. Nothing looks better than limping away to
safety
. Lucy suddenly flashed back to
a
Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom
moment where a silver wolf pounced on a fleeing
fluffy white bunny, jaws clamping down on the rabbit’s soft fur,
the life evaporating immediately from the poor thing’s entire
body.

How tempting would she look if she
tried limping away? Lucy hoped he’d filled up on her grandmother’s
cooking. She turned and tried not to hobble as she beat a steady
path toward the front door. She needed some air. And what better
way to get him to leave than to lure him outside?

It worked… a little too well. He moved
to follow her so quickly that he ended up holding the door open for
her as she exited to the porch. Lucy gasped, feeling a quick,
startled jolt crackle through her body. She forced herself to
breathe, and she forced herself to keep walking. She gulped the
cool evening air as she moved toward the porch railing. She had to
keep it together. He’d said he had feelings for her, which made her
feel like she was going to burst into lustful flames any moment.
But there was the other part, the part where he couldn’t choose
between her and the vampire.

That really shook her to the core. Of
course he’d known Delia far longer, and he did love her—Lucy had a
front-row-center seat for that fact—but he’d said he would protect
her from Delia, no matter what. And that made her feel even more
confused. On the one hand he would risk his life for her. But he
was risking her life so he could be with his vampire girlfriend.
Not to mention Lucy still had a huge honking problem with him being
in love, or whatever he was feeling for her, with two
women.

That alone makes him…
Lucy couldn’t decide on the right word: a letch, a
jerk, a monster?—he already was one of those. Or did it simply mean
he was a man?

“
Penny for your thoughts,”
Gabriel said, standing mere inches away from her. She turned and
saw the concern darkening his features again.

“
I don’t think you really
want to know.”

He let out a breath, and that breath
tickled the side of Lucy’s neck, making her shiver
enjoyably.

This is just a job, she tried to tell
herself. No matter what, what she wanted more than anything was to
get her old life back. Right?

Gabe took hold of her shoulders and
turned her to face him.

Riiight…

“
Why are you always touching
me?” She sounded suddenly very tired. “It’s nice, but it confuses
me.”

Gabriel’s expression changed from
concerned to a rather wicked smile. “So you like when I touch
you?”

Crap! Did I just say
that?
Lucy shook her head.

“
So, you don’t like it when
I touch you.”

“
No. I mean yes! Oh, I don’t
know what—”

Just then Gabriel leaned in, pushing
her bottom up against the porch railing, then very slowly he
lowered his face until their lips were practically touching. He
whispered softly, his lips grazing hers. “Did you like it when I
kissed you last night?”

Lucy’s head was swimming, and her
heart was pounding hard in her chest—the chest heaving with excited
breath, pressed against Gabriel’s very broad, very warm
chest.

“
Yes,” she said
breathlessly.

“
Would you like me to do it
again?” he asked, yet he didn’t get an answer; at least not a
verbal one. Lucy threw her arms around his neck and crushed her
lips against his, pulling him against her, their combined weight
making the railing of the old porch creak. All of a sudden Lucy
wasn’t thinking about Gabriel belonging to someone else, she forgot
that only moments ago she’d been pissed at him, and that among
other things, his words in the dining room had also hurt. She
didn’t care about anything except how good Gabriel tasted, how
wonderful his lips felt against her own, not to mention how having
his body pressed against hers felt. There wasn’t a word to describe
that, at least not one Lucy could think of.

Inside, Lucy had been ready for him to
kiss her, even though moments before she had been literally running
from the prospect. She hadn’t expected to attack him with her lips.
It didn’t make sense. She never did things like that. She never had
to—guys usually couldn’t help themselves, so they always made the
first move. But just being so close to Gabriel, having his lips so
close, his scent enveloping her senses so completely—and he
shouldn’t have been teasing her like that!

There was a lot of movement: hands
roaming, lips sliding, tongues searching and tasting and rubbing
together… and then there was the way his body moved against hers.
It made her shudder.

Gabriel pulled himself away first,
pushing Lucy back by the shoulders, disconnecting their lips and
putting a sudden, very unwelcome distance between them.

“
We have to stop,” he
groaned between gasps of air.

That was… nice…
Lucy was about to ask why they had to stop, yet
when she opened her eyes and looked into his eyes she saw not only
red hot longing there, but also something lurking, sliding behind
his eyes and peering out hungrily at her: the wolf.

“
Maybe you’re right,” she
croaked. Part of her wanted to go further, to have his beast come
out to play, to devour her. But most of her was terrified and
wanted to run back in the house and lock the door.
Does Gram have a shotgun in the house? Maybe some
silver bullets?

Gabriel’s eyes cooled off and he took
another step back, letting go of Lucy’s shoulders. She felt a
shiver as a cool wind whipped around her, taking away all the heat
Gabriel had generated. He suddenly looked really hurt. “You’re
scared of me.”

Lucy shook her head, wanting suddenly
to deny it, but she was shaking and her voice cracked when she
tried to speak.

“
I’m sorry Luce,” he said,
rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m not doing any of this
right.”

Lucy liked him calling her Luce. It
made a welcome warmth spread from her heart out into the rest of
her body. “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing here either.” She
moved toward him and wrapped her arms up under his arms, hugging
herself against his still heaving chest, just inhaling him and
listening to the beating of his heart. “So, don’t feel too
bad.”

“
Actually,” Gabriel
whispered, “I feel pretty good.”

Lucy smiled at the compliment and
snuggled her cheek against the warm silk covering his chest. “You
do feel pretty good.”

He laughed, and Lucy liked the way it
sounded, and how he felt in her arms as his torso lurched—the
muscles there quivering as they contracted and relaxed. Finally,
after a long still moment of enjoying their embrace, Gabriel said
he really should leave, that he had an early meeting in the
morning. Reluctantly, Lucy let him go and watched as he moved away,
looking more awkward than she’d ever seen him as he rubbed the back
of his neck in consternation. He stumbled as he took to the porch
steps, and caught himself on the railing and jumped back up on the
porch.

“
I forgot my jacket.” He was
grinning and blushing beautifully. “Oh, and I have something for
you.” He dashed through the screen door, and amazingly enough he
was back at the door with his sport coat in hand before the door
had slammed shut.

Okay,
Lucy shivered
. Super human
strength
and
speed—this is just getting more disturbing.
Gabe reached into the breast pocket of his jacket
and removed a long thin box. “I brought you a present.”

“
I love presents,” she said,
practically vibrating with excitement. It was an eight by two inch
black velvet box. A necklace? Lucy guessed, but then he opened it
and she had to look really hard to identify what was inside: a
knife. Correction, a six inch, shiny and sharp as hell looking
blade with a liquidy looking mother of pearl handle.

“
I can already tell you I
have nothing that will go with that,” Lucy said. Gabriel looked
confused. “Sorry, bad joke. So you’re giving me a weapon for a
present?”

“
Actually,” Gabriel plucked
the blade from the box and then pulled something that looked
suspiciously like a silk and lace g-string from underneath—a very
tiny, nearly non-existent one at that. “This is a two part
gift.”