Must Love Vampires (24 page)

“Aidan, are you all right?”

Not all right, not all right
, rolled through his brain, but he still couldn’t strangle out a response.

Bringing his arms up, he pressed the heels of his hands into his eye sockets, hard, and began to rock like a child. He hated this. Hated the pain wracking his body, yes, but hated the defenselessness even more. Hated her seeing him like this.

And then he smelled the burning. His skin was beginning to smolder. The intense heat battering his face and the back of his hands must be where his flesh was turning black and crisp and beginning to peel.

“Oh, my God,” Chloe breathed. “Aidan, you’re burning.”

She sounded frantic, but his first inclination was to laugh. Isn’t that what he’d told her would happen? Isn’t that why they were up here—so he could show her what happened to a vampire when they didn’t find a dark hole fast enough and were met with the agony of sunrise?

“Okay, that’s enough.”

Her voice was firm and decisive as she threw his jacket over him and started tugging him to his feet.

“Get up. I believe you, now get up right this minute,” she said, yanking until he found his footing and let her drag him away.

He didn’t know where they were going, but he hoped it was inside, away from the big ball of burning gas that was broiling him alive. He also hoped she meant what she said about believing him. Because if he had to go through something like this again just to convince her of what he really was, their marriage was going to be a short-lived one, indeed.

One minute, the sun was scorching him. The next, he felt blessed shade encompass him, and nearly sagged with relief. He shrugged off the jacket and lifted his head just as the heavy metal door leading to the roof slammed closed behind them.

Dropping onto the steps, he leaned back against the wall and let the cool darkness seep through him, soothe him. His skin still prickled and throbbed, the burns still aching, but at least things weren’t going to get any worse.

Lowering herself to the step beside him, Chloe was shaking as badly as he was. “What the hell was that?” she asked, somewhat breathless.

Rather than answer, he arched one dark brow.

“I know, I know. I just can’t believe . . . You told me, and I was halfway ready to agree with you, even if you were in need of shock treatments and a Thorazine Big Gulp, but I don’t think I really believed it could be true.”

Which was the number-one reason vampires weren’t integrated into human society; the myths and legends were too scary to begin with, and they probably wouldn’t believe it unless it slapped them right in the face. Chances were, human beings came in contact with vampires a lot more often than they realized. Especially at night. Especially in downtown Las Vegas. They didn’t call it Sin City for nothing, and vampires did have a tendency to be drawn to all things sinful.

Her gaze ran over his face and arms and hands, taking in what he assumed were some rather nasty burns. The ones on his hands were bright red in places, bubbling and white in others, and he knew his face must look similar.

“Are you all right?” she asked, sympathy tingeing her voice. “I mean, I know you’re not all right, but . . . will you be okay? Is there anything I can do for you?”

“Do you believe me now? What I am, how I have to live?” he asked instead, answering her question with what he considered a more important one of his own.

Silence echoed through the narrow stairwell for several long seconds while she considered that, studied him, mentally ran through the very short list of other possible explanations.

“Yes. I believe you,” she said softly.

With a stiff nod, he held out his hand and started to push up, wincing as his scalded skin stretched and pulled. “Then help me downstairs. I could use a nap, a drink, and some burn ointment—not necessarily in that order.”

Being very careful in her movements, she hooked his arm over her shoulder and propped him up as they made their way down the single flight of stairs to the first level with elevator access. From there, they zipped down to the parking garage and shuffled the short distance to the private elevator that would take them to his apartment.

Once inside, he stumbled toward the sofa, dragging Chloe more than she was guiding him, and dropped onto it with a long, ragged sigh.

“Don’t you have any light switches in this place?” she grumbled.

Forcing his eyes open, he saw her as clearly as summer morning—or what he remembered a summer morning looking like, at any rate. Around her, every detail of the apartment was equally clear, but he’d forgotten that her night vision didn’t stand a chance of comparing to his own.

“Sorry. There’s a lamp over there. And a wall switch over there.” When he raised an arm to point, he was embarrassed to see that it shook, and quickly lowered it back to his side before Chloe noticed.

She flipped on both, and he clamped his eyes shut, hissing as the bright light stung his still-sensitive eyes.

“Sorry.” It was her turn to apologize, and she immediately flicked off the overhead, leaving only the lower-watt lamp to wash the room in a dull yellow glow.

“Now where’s the burn ointment?”

“I don’t actually have any,” he replied.

She gave an annoyed, motherly
tsk
that almost—
almost
—made him smile.

“What about a first aid kit?”

Not like he had any use for one of those most days, either.

“I don’t know,” he muttered from beneath the heavy shield of his arm thrown over his face. “There might be one in the kitchen or the bathroom.”

Was a first aid kit something a designer would have supplied when she outfitted the place with everything from dishes and flatware to toothbrushes and toilet paper? He’d hired someone to fill the apartment from top to bottom before he’d moved in, then he’d slowly added some of his own belongings, but he hadn’t removed much of anything. It sort of made him wonder what all he would find if he started poking into nooks and crannies.

He heard Chloe moving around, and then she called out, “Found it!”

A minute later, he felt the sofa give as she settled beside him.

“Move your arm,” she told him a second before gripping his forearm and slowly prying it away from his face.

He let her, opening his eyes in time to see her wince at the condition of his face. Flipping open the tube of burn cream, she squeezed a little onto the tip of one finger and lifted it to his cheek.

More gently than he would have thought possible, she spread a thin layer of the cool medicine over his marred skin. Cheeks, brow, the tip of his nose. Then she started on the tops of his hands and backs of his fingers.

“I thought vampires were supposed to heal instantaneously or something,” she murmured, her gaze intent on what she was doing.

“Rapidly,” he replied, “not instantaneously. All of this will be gone by tomorrow morning, after I’ve had a chance to feed and rest.”

Finished playing Nurse Betty, she sat back to study her work, searching for any spots she might have missed.

“So this is the deal, huh?” she asked. “You’re a vampire. A real, authentic vampire. Up all night, sleep all day, can’t go near sunlight, need blood to survive. I get it. I can even accept it, as surreal as it still feels at the moment.”

Leaning away from him for a second, she set the tube of first aid cream on the coffee table before wiping her fingers off on her jeans. “But what does it mean for us? For, you know”—she gave an all-encompassing wave of her hand—“our marriage and everything.”

Ten

Chloe held her breath, waiting for Aidan’s reply . . . and she wasn’t sure why.

What did she want him to say? What did she
expect
him to say?

She was pretty sure she was in love with him. For real this time. Not just pretending to be in love because she was looking to hook the big fish, land herself a rich husband who could provide not only the necessities, but a lavish lifestyle for both her and her son.

And not just because he was a novelty. Being married to an honest-to-goodness vampire . . . ? That
was
pretty awesome, if she did say so herself.

Not that she could ever tell anyone. She might not be completely schooled in the dos and don’ts of immortality, but she was pretty sure keeping it under wraps was a must. Otherwise, everybody would already know about vampires, and Aidan wouldn’t have had to work so hard to convince her, right?

So she understood that if they stayed together, there would have to be some adjustments to her routine and basic mindset—not to mention Jake’s and the rest of her family’s. She might not tell them the whole truth about Aidan, if his “condition,” as he called it, was something he preferred to keep to themselves, but she suspected excuses would have to be made when Aidan couldn’t attend daytime functions or passed on a second helping of Christmas dinner.

Despite the burns on the back of his hand that must hurt, even if they were preternaturally on the mend, he stitched his fingers with hers and pulled her hand to rest on his firm abdomen.

“I guess that depends on you,” he said in a low voice, his coffee-brown eyes glittering intently into hers. “I’m in love with you. I want our marriage to work. But I also know I lied to you . . . or at least deprived you of some rather pertinent details. So if you want an annulment or whatever, I won’t blame you.”

A heartbeat passed. Or in her case, half a dozen. Her heart was pounding in her chest like a hummingbird’s wings, her palms sweating. And she could only wipe one on the seat of her sister’s pants because he was clasping the other.

“What if I don’t?” she asked quietly.

His fingers flexed on hers, the only outward reaction to her words.

“Then we’ll stay married. It won’t be easy. There are things you’ll need to know, certain things we’ll need to do that you may not be used to. But I’ll do whatever I can to make you more comfortable. Answer any questions you have, and try my best to fit into your life, though I realize there will probably have to be more changes made on your part to fit into mine.”

His mouth twisted at the last, taking her stomach with it. How had he lived until now? she wondered. How long had he been a vampire, and what kind of family, what kind of life, had he experienced? Good, bad, indifferent?

There really were so many questions she had for him, and was glad he’d offered to answer them all. She suspected there would be a lot of very long, intense discussions in their future while she grilled him like a shish-kabob. But that would come later, after this first and most important decision had been made.

“You’re really good with Jake,” she murmured, loud enough for him to hear, but mostly to herself as she worked through her own thought processes and myriad emotions.

“He’s a great kid.”

“You’re good to me.”

His free hand rose, and he ran his fingers lightly through the hair at her temple, tucking a strand behind her ear. “You deserve to be treated well.”

That made her throat tighten and her eyes grow damp. “Maybe not,” she whispered.

His brows knit, and he looked at her askance, waiting for her to continue.

In a rough, watery voice, she said, “I have one more confession to make. I . . .” She paused, swallowed hard, tried to school her rushed breathing. “I married you for your money, Aidan. I cared about you, I had fun with you, but I don’t know if I’d have gone through with it if you weren’t a millionaire Raines.”

Dropping her head into her hands, she covered her eyes, trying to hide from the wave of shame that washed through her. She’d been so stupid, convincing herself that she was doing the wrong thing for all the right reasons . . . that she cared enough for him to make a marriage work, even if it was based on lies . . . that he was flush with cash, and if she didn’t take advantage of that, some other woman would.

But he wasn’t quite the man she’d thought he was. He wasn’t just a man at all, really—he was that and so much
more
. And even though he’d kept that from her, she understood why. He’d certainly had a better reason for lying to her than she had for lying to him.

“I’m sorry,” she said, nearly weeping into her hands. “I’m a terrible person, I know. I’m just so afraid of being trapped as a showgirl all my life, of never being able to give Jake anything more than he has right now, when he deserves so much! And I convinced myself that we got along well enough, were sexually compatible, that you wanted to marry me, and we’d do okay.”

With a sniff, she straightened and forced herself to meet his gaze. “If we didn’t, I figured we could always get divorced, and I’d still be left with a very comfortable settlement, at the very least.”

“And alimony?” he asked in a low voice.

Her chest hitched and tears spilled over her lashes to trail down her cheeks. She nodded weakly. “I know, I’m horrible!” she cried.

For a minute, Aidan simply stared at her, his eyes dark, his gaze unreadable. She hoped he wouldn’t lose his temper so much that he flew into some sort of murderous, vampiric rage and bit her to death.

And then he threw back his head and laughed.

Chloe pulled away, her eyes going wide at such an unexpected reaction. Was he going crazy? Was this what the beginning of a murderous, vampiric reaction looked like?

But still he laughed. Deep guffaws that rippled the muscles of his tight abdomen.

When he settled down to mere chuckles, she licked her lips and said, “You’re going to kill me, aren’t you? Drain me dry and leave my lifeless body in an alley somewhere for the rats to nibble on.”

He chuckled again, a single low rumble of amusement. “I’m not that kind of vampire,” he teased. And then, “Actually, I was just thinking that we make quite a couple. First we dash off to elope after one of the shortest courtships in history, then we kick off our honeymoon by admitting all of the secrets we’ve been keeping from each other.”

He didn’t sound angry at all, which frightened her a little.

“You aren’t mad?” she asked warily.

He shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. I think it’s kind of funny, actually. My one big secret probably trumps your two smaller ones, anyway.”