Must Love Fangs (Midnight Liaisons) (12 page)

I suffered through two hours of the date before calling it done. Even then, I felt his gaze watching me as I left. We were only two blocks from the dating agency, but I didn’t trust him enough to make
the walk alone. I called a taxi and hid in the restroom until it arrived.

Another lesson learned.

When I got back to the agency, Josh was there, waiting in my seat.

He was chatting with Ryder but got to his feet when I entered the door. A sexy smile curved his mouth at the sight of me, and he pulled out an enormous box of chocolates with a big ribbon on the top. He held the chocolates out toward me and pulled out my seat, inviting me to sit down. “Peace offering?”

I glanced at the chocolates, then back at his too-innocent face. “Are you going to interrupt one of my dates again?”

“It depends,” he said easily. “Is another man going to offer to give you the shocker?”

“Do
what
?” Ryder’s wide blue eyes turned to me. “Did he just say what I think he said? Did someone try to give you a shocker?”

“No,” I hissed, yanking the chocolates out of Josh’s hand and dropping them on the desk. “Can we please change the subject? I’m still mad at you, Josh. What you did is unforgivable.”

Josh looked nonplussed. “So I should have left you there and let that guy manhandle you? Say disgusting things to you? Perhaps let him demonstrate his moves on you?”

“Yes,” I snapped. “You should have. Are we dating? No, we’re not. Therefore, not your business.”

Josh’s face grew hard. “Well, then, I’m sorry
if I took up your time, Marie. It won’t happen again.”

My chest began to have this funny ache, but I said nothing when he stormed out the front door, making the bell clang loudly against the glass.

Ryder stared at it. “I think that’s the first time I’ve ever seen Josh mad.”

It was the first time for me, too. I’d pushed him too far. Instead of being indignant about the whole thing, I just felt . . . awful. Like I’d screwed up. He’d only been trying to help me. He’d been protecting me, been a friend. And I’d been nasty to him. He’d come to apologize and I’d chased him away again.

I chased everyone away.

Suddenly weary to the core, I laid my head on my desk and felt like crying.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Ryder asked softly.

“No.”

“Do you have someone else you want to talk about it with?”

I had only one other friend besides my coworkers. And he’d just stormed out the door because I’d been awful to him. I sat up and pressed my face in my hands. “Why am I so bad with people, Ryder?”

“It’s a gift,” she said lightly.

“Thanks.”

“I don’t know Josh as well as you,” she said thoughtfully, toying with the glittery ruler on her desk. “But unless I miss my guess, it’s hard to get him angry, and it’s probably harder to keep him
angry. Maybe you should . . . gee, I don’t know, try apologizing?”

I stared at the box of chocolates on my desk. I’d turned down his flowers and his coffee, and yet he’d kept trying. He was determined to break through my icy shell and get to the real me inside, the one I hid away from everyone. Why? Was it the challenge of trying to score with me? Was he fascinated because I turned him down? Or was Josh simply being the nice white knight to me like he was to Carol?

Either way, after tonight, I doubted he was going to flirt with me ever again.

Maybe it was the exhaustion, or my disease, but I was tired of pushing everyone away. “Ryder—”

“Red Bull run? Sounds great,” she said. “Pick one up for me, will ya?”

“You’re the best.”

She grinned. “I know.”

I hurried out to the parking lot, thinking for a moment. I could text him . . . or I could swing by the diner and see if this was one of Carol’s nights.

Sure enough, I caught Josh as he was tucking Carol into the passenger side of his car. I threw mine into park and jumped out, racing over to his side. “Josh, can we talk?”

He gave me a cool look as he calmly closed Carol’s door, then turned away from me. “I’m pretty sure we’ve both said enough tonight.”

“I think there’s more to be said,” I added quickly.

“I don’t.” He began to walk around the other side of the car.

“Josh,” I began.

He didn’t turn around.

“Josh,” I said again, louder, trying to get his attention.

He opened his car door, as if he was about to drive away.

“Will you please pay attention to me?” I snapped. “I’m trying to apologize to you.”

He paused, then leaned against the side of the car. His eyes flashed like a cougar’s, and I knew he was still angry about my words earlier.

Merde.

“Doesn’t sound much like an apology so far,” he told me.

“That’s because you’re not making this easy,” I said, stalking toward him. I moved directly in front of him, and when his gaze grew even more direct, I dropped my eyes. “And I’m not good at apologizing.”

I felt his hand go to my waist, and a shiver ripped through me.

“Nor am I good at letting people in,” I admitted. “I’m sorry. Please don’t be mad at me. I can’t stand the thought of you being mad at me.”

His hand reached up and brushed my cheek. “Marie,” he said, so softly I could barely hear it. “I don’t know what’s going on in that gorgeous head of yours. I don’t know why you’re determined to visit every vampire in this territory and see if he wants to sleep with you. I can’t begin to imagine what this is.” His beautiful eyes studied me. “Some sort of personal challenge?”

“Something like that,” I told him. Seemed safest.

His thumb stroked across my lower lip. “What do you have to prove? I know that you are beautiful. And sexy. And you drive me crazy. You know that, too.”

My eyes widened.

“And if you want a one-night stand with a supernatural,” he said, leaning in so close that his breath brushed against my cheek, “I’ll break out my fangs, lick you for hours, and then ride you so hard that you’ll be bowlegged the next day.”

And he kissed me. Hot. Wet. Possessive. His mouth swooped over mine and his tongue thrust against mine in a move that was a decided claim. And then he pulled away, leaving me dazed and wanting.

“So you think about that,” he whispered.

He got in the car, buckled his seat belt, and drove away with Carol.

I thought about his hard, possessive kiss. Josh was so laid-back and easygoing, yet he’d grown fierce on vampire Lonnie when he’d felt I’d been threatened. He’d grown even more possessive when he’d kissed me. He constantly touched me and complimented me. I felt branded. Claimed by him.

This . . . was going to be a problem.

And yet I toyed with the idea of taking what Josh was promising. Not as a solution to my problem—if he turned me, it’d be a death sentence, like Sara said. It would destroy the Russell clan if one of the cougars turned a human when they’d banned the act for others. No one would trust them, and the Alliance would crumble.

So I still needed a vampire.

But I could have just a quick fling, like he’d offered. Get this wild attraction out of our blood, since he didn’t do long term and I couldn’t do long term. We could make wild, passionate love with no strings attached.

And then he could go back to just being Josh, and I could go back to finding a vampire to turn me.

Did I want a one-night stand? I wasn’t a virgin. I’d given that up back in high school, despite being gawky and insecure. My boyfriend then had been equally gawky and insecure, and a few rounds of sex had done nothing for his confidence or mine. After my mother’s death, I’d deliberately had very few friends. I didn’t date. I didn’t do casual sex.

I didn’t do casual
anything,
I realized. Maybe it was time to change that.

I thought of the vampire I’d had dinner with tonight and I shuddered, getting back into my car. Josh was sexy and alive and inviting. That man had been a cold killer. A night of hot were-cougar sex might be the only opportunity I had for pleasurable sex ever again.

• • •

The rest of that evening at work crawled by. Ryder and I answered phones, updated files, and went through a backlog of email. The usual stuff, except that I was working at half speed. I was finding it hard to focus, and I kept rubbing my eyes and seeing the letters on the screen blur anyhow.

“Girl, you need to go home and get a good night’s sleep,” Ryder told me, sounding cheerful and buzzed despite the early hour. She sipped another cup of coffee and straightened her stack of folders. “You look wiped.”

I shook my head and squinted, trying to focus my gaze. “I’m good.” It wasn’t as if I’d be able to sleep anyhow.

My phone rang and I picked it up, fighting the wave of anxiety crashing through me. My screen was still blurry, my vision skewed. “Hello?”

“
Ma petite puce,
it’s me. Got a minute?”

Oh, Lord. Little flea—my nickname from when I was a child. “Of course, Dad. What’s up?”

“Well, I was realizing it’s been a few weeks since we’ve gotten together,” he said, all smiles in his voice.

My vision finally cleared, and I breathed a sigh of relief. “It has been a few,” I agreed. “I thought you were busy with work?”

“I am, but I have this next week off,” he said. “Posey and I are going to Vegas again!”

I forced a smile so he’d hear it in my voice. “That sounds great, Dad. You’ll have to have a drink on me.”

“We want you to come with us! It’ll be fun, just the three of us. We can hit all the casinos. You haven’t seen someone play blackjack until you’ve seen Posey play.”

I grimaced at the thought. “I don’t think I can get off work, Dad.”

“Oh, call in sick. How often do you get to spend time with your dear old dad?”

Not often enough. But I looked at the box of chocolates on my desk. Thought about the fierce kiss Josh had given me in the parking lot. Thought about the next vampire date, booked two days from now. “I wish I could. Maybe you guys can swing by after the trip and tell me about it?”

We chatted for a bit longer, my father extolling the virtues of Posey and me listening patiently as I nibbled on a chocolate. They were delicious—the expensive kind, and Ryder had swooped up a handful, unable to resist as well. I nodded and made the appropriate responses as my father talked about the adventures on his latest flight. The weather had been bad on his last trip; he’d been stranded for two days in Manila. And did I know that he’d tried balut for the first time last week?

When Bathsheba entered the office, I decided to end the call. “I’m sorry, Dad, but my shift’s about to end. Call me when you’re back from Vegas and we’ll meet up, okay?”

“Sounds good. I’ll put a few chips down in your honor.”

I smiled. “You do that. Love you, Dad; have fun.”

Bath paused by my desk, eyeing the half-eaten box of chocolates and scattered cans of Red Bull on my desk. “Long night? You look wiped.”

I was getting really damn tired of everyone telling me that I looked awful. But I knew she didn’t mean anything by it, so I simply gave her a faint smile and held the box up. “Chocolate?”

As she plucked one from the box, my vision wavered and went blurry again. Anxiety clenched my stomach as strange lights flashed before my eyes.

Was my disease getting worse? The next step was hallucinations—which meant it was progressing, and fast. I rubbed my eyes and silently willed the sliding colors to go away.

When I opened them again, the colors were gone. Relieved, I reached for my computer mouse . . . and halted.

It looked like a giant cockroach.

I held in a screech and abruptly got up from my chair. Ryder glanced up at me, and I gave her a shaky smile. “I think I need a soda.” I hurried away from my desk, hoping that by the time I returned, my mind would stop playing tricks on me.

It was going to be a long night.

I
was just sitting down to one of my puzzles when the phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Hey. You asleep?” It was Josh.

Oh, if he only knew the answer to that question. “I’m not tired,” I lied. “Why?”

“I have to run some errands today and I was wondering if you wanted to come along.”

I tapped a puzzle piece on the table, thinking. Was this a trick question? My suspicious mind automatically wondered what he was up to. “Exactly why would I want to come along with you to run errands? Are you bored?”

“Nah. I just like spending time with you.”

“You do?” I blurted out, surprised. Josh . . . liked to spend time with me? Immediately I wondered if it was just another flirty come-on and felt stupid. Of course it was.

“I do,” he responded cheerfully. “Plus, I have a surprise for you if you spend the day with me. It’ll mean an all-nighter for you, but I can handle it if you can handle it.”

I couldn’t resist the smile tugging at my mouth despite myself. “I’m used to all-nighters,” I told him. “But tell me the surprise first.”

“Nope. It’s a secret. I’ll tell you if you spend the day with me.”

“Is this bribery?”

He laughed. “Of course it is. It’s the only way I can get you out of your pajamas and into my arms, so I’ll use it.”

I blushed and put down the puzzle piece. “I’m not falling into your arms.”

“I’ll settle for spending some time together, then. Come on. What do you say?”

I hesitated.

“Remember, big surprise at the end of the day,” he teased. “Well worth the missing hours of sleep.”

“I’m getting dressed,” I said, standing up and heading to my bedroom, curious despite myself. “Are you coming by to pick me up, then?”

“I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

“Only ten minutes? I thought you lived farther away.”

“I do. I’m already on my way there.”

Figured. “And what would you have done if I’d said no?”

His chuckle was warm. “I knew you wouldn’t say no. You find me irresistable.”

“
Batarde.
I do not.” I hung up before he could come back with something suitable. I couldn’t stop smiling, though. Okay, Josh irritated me, but it was a fun kind of irritation. He was incorrigible and flirty as hell, but I enjoyed his antics.