Night's Promise (13 page)

Going to the couch, the man put his arm around her shoulders then kissed her neck. His free hand moved to grasp her breast, and she shrugged him off. Looking at him, the woman said something, shaking her head.

Warning bells went off inside of Duncan’s head when the guy ignored her and resumed groping her. Duncan’s teeth lengthened and his hands curled into fists as he forced himself to remain and watch. He’d seen a semi-reluctant partner become all too willing too many times in the past to rush in before he was sure the situation warranted it.

Once again, he saw the woman on the screen push the man away. This time she attempted to stand up, but the man jerked her back down onto the green cushions. He couldn’t hear what they were saying—damn Bram and his belief that there should be some privacy in that room—but from the look on the man’s face, Duncan would guess he was yelling.

The woman looked scared, cringing back as far as she could from him, which wasn’t far given his grip on her arm.

Not caring to see what happened next, Duncan practically flew down the stairs and out the door leading to the club. Looking at the first bouncer he saw, he gruffly ordered, “You. Up there. Now.”

The man didn’t argue, or waste any time. Practically running, he reentered the door Duncan just exited.

His position covered, Duncan sped through the club, shoving people out of his way as he took the quickest route to the backroom. At the door he forced himself to take a deep breath and tried to turn the knob.

It was no use. The fucker had locked the door. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out the only key he always carried with him and unlocked the door. After another—quick—deep breath to control his temper, he opened the door, trying to act as casual as possible.

Glancing at the clock first, he noticed less than two minutes had passed since he left the control room. Looking over at the couch, he saw the girl holding her cheek, protecting her eye, cringing on a corner of the couch as the man fumbled with his pants.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Duncan asked innocently.

“None of your business, asshole,” the man answered without looking back.

“Are you okay?” Duncan asked the woman. Her eyes were wide, but she didn’t answer him. “If you don’t want to be back here with him, you don’t have to stay. You can leave whenever you want.”

She looked at him hopefully, and tried to inch her way off the couch.

“If you move, you’ll wish you hadn’t,” the man spit out.

“You can leave if you want to,” Duncan told her again, approaching them.

“I told you before, mind your own business.” The man whirled around, a knife in his hand. “Before I make you regret sticking your nose in where it don’t belong.”

Before Duncan even realized what he was doing, the knife was on the floor, the man’s arm broken, and his nose bleeding. Grabbing the man by the collar, he looked back at the woman.

“I’ll be right back.” Shoving the man out the door, he threw him at the first bouncer he saw, thankfully the man was also vampire. “Take this trash out.” He turned to reenter the room. “Oh, and he might need to go to the hospital.”

Not waiting to hear what, if anything, the other bouncer had to say, Duncan returned to the woman, still sitting on the couch.

Sitting down beside her, he noticed she was crying.

“It’s okay, that dick is being thrown out now.”

“I’m so stupid,” she cried. “I should’ve known.”

Releasing a breath, he asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”

She shook her head no, and he wanted to sag against the couch with relief. He hated being the one left to comfort a near victim. He sucked at it.

“It’s just, that guy’s my ex, and he swore things had changed. He swore he had changed, that he was in anger management classes. He swore it would be different…” Her voice broke as she cried harder. “I should have known it was too good to be true. I should’ve known he’d never change. If you hadn’t come in here…”

“But I did. Do you want to press charges on him? For hitting you?”

The woman looked up, her eye already swelling shut.

“Y-yes. But I can’t…I…”

“Come on, I know someone that’ll take you down there, help you with all the paper work.” Moving to the lockers, he opened one and reached on the top shelf, grabbing a card. Closing the door, he handed her the business card. “This has the club’s number and address, and my name on it, in case you need to contact me.”

Guiding her to the door gently, he ushered her to one of the human bouncers. “Tim, take this pretty lady to the police station. She wants to press charges for assault. And help her fill out a restraining order too.” Looking at the woman, he smiled. “Tim’s a great guy, he’ll make sure you don’t get hurt.”

“Where should I tell them to pick up the guy?” Tim asked, already wrapping a protective arm around the woman.

“Hospital. Bastard pulled a knife on me. No major injuries, he should be out in a few hours.”

Tim nodded and, gently guiding her thanks to the arm he had around her, escorted her out of the club.

Turning around, he saw Melissa watching him. Tonight he didn’t care if Gareth walked up on them or if he started shit. He strode over to her table. He needed to calm down before he put another guy in the hospital that night.

Instead of sitting down, he pulled her out of her seat, and onto the dance floor. Moving until they were in the middle of the floor, he held her in his arms as they danced together. Her presence soothed the nerves left raw by dealing with a jerk.

Of all the things he hated the most, breaking up a near rape in the backroom was his least favorite. Men who tried to take by force what a woman would—should—give willingly infuriated him. He shuddered, his thoughts returning to what the woman had said. If he’d been even a minute later, he wouldn’t have been in time.

And then Bram would have been pissed, because they’d have needed to call an ambulance. Or a coroner.

“Rough night?” Melissa stepped closer to him in the dance.

“Yes.”

When she moved, Duncan wanted to fall to his knees from gratitude. Instead of moving away from him, or asking him twenty questions about what happened, she pulled him to her. Turning her back on him, she danced with him, moving against him intimately. Melissa circled around him until he could feel her breasts pressed against his back.

Without knowing what she was doing, she managed to cage the animal roaring inside him to go finish his job, to make sure that bastard could never try to hurt another woman.

Without trying, Melissa was somehow able to soothe the savage beast within him.

Chapter Eight

Watching the monitors in front of him, Duncan wished he were anywhere else. He’d been in a relationship with Melissa for two weeks and he’d kept a hard-on almost the entire time. He wished Bram would come relieve him for a little while so he could go take yet another cold shower, maybe try to jerk off again. But he knew that wasn’t likely to happen. Not since that woman, Dani, had begun to come to the club every night.

Glancing over the monitors, he found the one he was looking for, the one that showed Bram and Dani talking. He wondered if both really were that clueless to the attraction between them. Searching the monitors, he smiled when he saw Melissa sitting at a table, alone. Shaking his head, he stood up. Leaving the control room he tapped one of the other bouncers to go upstairs for a while. The man looked at him skeptically.

“I’m not going to have to clean the room am I?”

“No,” he growled. The bouncer nodded and slipped silently through the door. Thankfully it didn’t appear as though his exit had been noticed by many patrons.

The post covered, Duncan moved through the crowd, glaring at any woman who tried to brush against him until he reached his destination.

“Hey, beautiful,” he said, placing a kiss against Melissa’s neck. He knew he took her by surprise when her elbow connected with his nose.

“I’m so sorry. You have to stop doing that,” she scolded him as she pressed a piece of ice from her water to his nose.

He couldn’t help laughing at the situation. Her reactions were always so varied. “I think I’m beginning to like it,” Duncan teased, earning him a shove on the arm. “You wanna get out of here for a while?” Wrapping his arms around her, he awaited her answer.

“And where did you want to go?”

“Someplace quiet, without an audience. Or at least one without a guy who will happily try to rip the head off my body.”

“Okay.”

Moments later, they were on the street. “How have you been sleeping?”

“Some days better than others.” She shrugged. “I still wake up from nightmares now and then, but at least it’s not every day anymore.”

“I’m glad. So, what’s helping the nightmares?”

“You know good and well what’s helping.” Melissa bumped into him.

“Yeah, but it’s nice to have my ego stroked now and then.” He clasped her hand in his and brought it to his lips.

“Duncan?” She moaned his name. He loved her reaction to him. It was always so honest, so real and free.

“Yes, Angel?” He nibbled on her knuckle.

“Are you a sorcerer?”

“I’ve drank a few in my time,” he teased. “No, Angel, I’m not.”

“You make me feel… No other guy has ever…” She shook her head. “If you’re not a sorcerer, then how can you be so magical? One kiss from you and I feel like everything melts away. I don’t have a past, no one else exists, nothing else matters.”

He looked at her. She was different from that first time he’d held her through the night. She was less guarded around him.

“I feel the same way,” he told her honestly.

“Then why won’t you—? Why haven’t we—?”

“Oh, Angel, I just want you to be sure.”

“I’m sure. I’m completely sure. If I take one more cold shower, I’m going to move to Alaska, or maybe Antarctica.”

He chuckled.

“I’m not joking, Duncan.”

He couldn’t banish the smile from his lips. Holding her hand, he felt her begin to pull him in a direction. He didn’t stop the chuckle when she hailed a taxi and gave the driver her address before climbing inside.

Sitting beside her, he pulled her close.

“I’m not joking, Duncan,” she told him again. “I want—”

He placed a finger against her lips. “I know, Mel, I know.”

* * *

A dark figure was on the street a half a block away from her house when the taxi finally dropped them off. But since it wasn’t very late, she decided to ignore it. Besides, she hoped to be doing something more special with her night than worry about some stranger lurking in the shadows. Especially since he was probably just taking a walk.

Melissa unlocked the front door, her hands shaking slightly. She hoped Duncan wasn’t watching her too closely. She was excited and scared, terrified and anxious. What if she couldn’t please him? What if he changed his mind and wanted to be with someone else as soon as they had—

She shook her head to dislodge the thoughts. No. She was ready. More ready than she’d ever been before.

Opening the door she entered the house, knowing Duncan would follow her. She headed for the kitchen to get some water for her suddenly dry mouth.

“Nervous?” he asked in that way of his. The one that said it was all right to be feeling whatever she was feeling, the one that told her he accepted her as she was, with no pressure for anything.

She shrugged, but he would not be put off. “Melissa…”

“A little,” she admitted. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to do it.”

“It’s a big step.”

Melissa smiled and handed him the bottle, watching him drink from it. “I’m ready,” she told him when he finished drinking. Taking his hand in hers she headed for the basement room. Over the last few weeks she’d grown to think of it as their room.

Inside the room, she stared at the bed, suddenly more nervous than she’d ever been before. What did they do now? Should she just start taking all of her clothes off? Should she wait for him to make a move? Sit on the bed and try to look seductive? Stand in the middle of the room and look like an idiot?

“Relax,” Duncan told her, placing a kiss on her neck. “There’s no rush.” He gently pulled her to the bed. Sitting down, he tugged her down onto his lap. Her arms circled his neck automatically.

“I just feel so stup—”

“Shhh.” His finger lay against her lips. “I don’t ever want to hear you say that about yourself. Mel, I’m…well, I’m old and I’ve never met a woman that was braver or smarter than you are.”

“I’m not brave.” She shook her head vigorously, denying his praise. “I’m just a scared, stup—silly girl. I mean, there’s nothing to be scared of right? Everyone does it. Aren’t I a little old to be acting like some kind of cowering virgin? It’s not like I don’t know what happens. I watch TV. I’ve watched cable. You can’t get more descriptive than some of those shows without actually being considered porn. I’ve read books…” she admitted, her face warming.

“See, that’s just it. Those are actors, or fictional characters. It’s one thing to see it happen on TV or read about it. And yes, there is a lot to be afraid of, it’s a big step. What if you get pregnant? What if the guy’s a dog and he just walks away when you’re done, then never wants to talk to you again? What if he’s a vampire and wants to drink from you? What if he’s got something, a disease? What if you think you’re ready but you’re not?”