Opal (Rare Gems Series Book 4) (12 page)

“
I’m on break.” He nodded and stood there. “Do you know who I am? If you do, you’re well aware that I’m sister to the alpha bitch. I’m not going to go down easily if that’s what you think. I’m a wolf of her own right.”

“
Yeah, I can see that. And I know who you are. You be the sister to Sloan’s mate. And I comed here to see if you could help me out. I tried to fix it myself, but I can’t.” He lifted the coat he’d had draped over his arm, and she could see the rod sticking out of his arm. “I think it might be inside of a bone or something. Darn near passed out when I worked it to death. I might be needing to…do you think you can fix me up?”

She moved to help him to one
of the unused cubicles and pulled the coat off completely. The rod, about nine inches long, was protruding from both the top and bottom of his arm just below the elbow. He looked like he was in a great deal of pain too. Her heart went out to the man, because every time she touched his arm or the rod, he’d simply inhale sharply but said nothing.

“
I can offer you something to ease it, but I don’t think it’ll work. I’ve got some things here I can use to help you, but again, I don’t think it will do you much good.” He shook his head and watched her closely. “I’ll help you, but you need to give me something in return.”

“
Return for help? Boy, you sure you ain’t related to Sloan by blood? Never seen a man that could bargain you to near ruin if he wanted you to do something.” He eyed her hard. “I’m not going to kill anybody for you. I done seen the way that there doctor talked to you, acting like he was so much smarter. He ain’t, you know. Dumb as a box of nuts and bolts if you asked me. Durn near went to him and tore his throat out. Might still do that, too, if’n he don’t change his music.”

“
Thank you very much. But please don’t kill him just yet. I’d have to cover his shift, and even though he doesn’t do all that much, it’s better than me doing it all by myself. I think he’s a moron as well.” Ruby stepped back before she decided to help him anyway and put out her hand. “Do we have a deal? Or do I go find Nuts and Bolts and let him work on you?”

S
he knew he was very weak, terribly so. But she held her ground. It was everything she could do not to simply give in. But a perfect opportunity had been handed to her, and this might be her only chance to get at least part of what she’d been thinking of for years.

“
I’ll do it.” She smiled at him and he looked at her suspiciously. “You don’t want me touching you. We’ll have a connection that won’t be broked up by washing your hands with that handisizer.”

It took her a moment to realize that he
meant hand sanitizer but nodded anyway. But in the end he took her offered hand. She studied his arms for several minutes before she told him what had to happen. Making small talk first to sort of relax him, she asked who else might have been hurt.

“
That alpha, but he’s not hurt much. A bump on the head, maybe. Me and Sloan got the worst of it, but Blair, he held his own. Was taking care of Sloan when I had to chase down Fleming.” He winced twice when she touched him too hard. “I don’t want you to be offended, but if’n you keep that up, I’m not going to be all that pleasant to be around. I ain’t used to being on my best behavior around womenfolk like you, and I might say some words you ain’t never heard before.”

“
I live with a household full of women. I’m pretty sure whatever you have to say, I’ve heard it before. And working in the emergency room, people tend to say what they think there as well. But I want you to know that I have to re-break the bone. It’s fused around the rod, and that’s the only way I can think to get it out.” He nodded and told her to go for it. “You’ll need blood. I can get you a few bags if you tell me what—”

“
Can’t. I don’t…I can’t drink from no Baggie. I won’t even go into what that shit tastes like when you wrap it up all pretty like.” He shivered and stared at her before looking away. “You just fix me up and I’ll find me something. But I gotta pull the darkness around us before you start. There are a few out there that would come to running when I start yelling, and I’d just as soon they didn’t find me like this.”

“
I want you to bite me.” He shook his head. “It’s what I want in the deal. And I want to have a real climax when you do it. It’s what I’m going to trade you for, for fixing your arm.”

“
Real? What do you mean, real? You ain’t had a man so you can’t have had one yet.” He glared. “Sloan put you up to this to see if I’d do it. Damn that man to hell and back. And here I was thinking he’d been too hurt to do more’n let his mate fix him up. Well, you tell him that I ain’t like that. That I ain’t going to—”

“
No. No, you misunderstood me. I need to have a real climax, not one I manufacture for myself. I have toys that I use, you see, and I just know that there is more to it than the little bit of satisfaction I get when I use them. And since I never plan on having a mate—I’ve taken precautions for that—I want to see what the difference is. And I’m sure there is a difference. There is, right?” Rufus started to shake his head even before she was done. “You can make me come without using your body, can’t you? I know you can. You’re just being stubborn now.”

“
Maybe I am, but that don’t mean…damn it, woman. And as for giving you a climax? I can, but I ain’t gonna. What the hell is wrong with you that you…what the fuck is a toy? You mean one of those vibrating dicks? You use one of them?” She nodded and flushed again. “You know a man can eat you right up and it not be sex? Go and find you a nice man to have some pussy eating with you. You’d like that real fine. And I’m betting it’ll be a damned sight better than that vibrating dick you been using. Damn it…double damn and shit fire.”

“
No, I don’t want to have oral sex with a man. I don’t want a stranger’s scent on me.” He told her she’d have his scent and she nodded. “I know. I’m hoping that…with me helping you and you needing my blood, no one will be the wiser as to what I’ve done. My family won’t know what we did about me coming, only that you bit me. Not that I wanted you hurt, but I thought I’d just be one of your donors and get you to help me this way. Any vampire would have been okay, but I know you, sort of, so it’s okay.”

Rufus stared at her again. She wanted to squirm but she only looked him in the eye. When he finally nodded
, she did as well. Suddenly she was embarrassed to the point that she could no longer look him in the face.

“
We can’t be doing this here.” She nearly cried with relief. “If you’re set on this, we have to go somewhere we can have some privacy. When you come like you want, I want to be able to make it worth your while. And this here place is not where I’d like to hear you scream. Cause, darling, you are going to scream.”

She nodded once and was suddenly sitting on a big bed with him. Ruby looked
around the room, then back at him. This was his room, and he’d brought her here to let her come and for her to help him. Ruby wanted to tell him there wasn’t going to be actual intercourse, but was afraid he’d change his mind so she looked at his arm.

It took her nearly an hour to get the rod free. She was drenched in sweat
by the time it had come out, and he’d been cursing like a sailor on leave nearly the entire time. When he slipped away at one point, she’d broken another smaller bone and had the rod out before he opened his eyes. She taped the ends of the wound closed so that he’d not scar. Ruby did what she needed while he lay there looking at her. To say she was uncomfortable would have been a gross understatement. But instead of begging him to stop staring at her, she tried her best to ignore him. At some point, however, she had a feeling he’d changed his mind.

Ruby was
cleaning up when he spoke again. “I ain’t gonna to do this, honey. I can’t be taking your blood, and making you have your first climax with a man isn’t really anything I wanna do either. I’m real sorry. But you have to understand that this is the job of your mate, and I’d be taking something that belonged to him.”

“
I didn’t think you would.” As she cleaned up the room, stuffing the bloodied rags and gauze into the bag she’d had out at the hospital, she tried not to think what she’d just done. While she never thought of herself as all that much, being turned down by a vampire who needed her was more painful than she’d thought it would be. Instead of giving into the tears that seemed right on the surface, Ruby tried to think if there was anyone else that she knew who would do this for her. When she was ready to go, she looked at him and smiled.

“
You gonna give up this notion? Or you gonna go out and find the first vampire you can see and have him take over where I didn’t want to step?” She shrugged and moved to the door. “I wish you’d give this up. You could get hurt, or even worse, you could get yourself killed off. What the hell would your family do with that on their heads if’n you did that? Just give up this foolish idea and we’ll be friends. Deal?”

“
If you’d take me back to the hospital again, I can finish up my shift. I know that if I lay these things out in the sun, your blood will disappear, right?” He nodded but didn’t move. “I’ll make sure I do that before I toss them out. And no one will know that I helped you either. I understand that a wounded vampire can be prey to all sorts of problems.”

“
You didn’t answer me.” She only stared at him. “You’re gonna do this without me helping you, ain’t you? You’re going to go on ahead and find you somebody that’ll bite you, might even tear your throat out, just so’s you have a real climax. What if you find yourself a man like Fleming? What if he wants more than just a quick climax and he takes what you ain’t offering?”

“
I’ll be fine, Rufus. Believe it or not, I’ve given this a great deal of thought. And I’m not nearly as stupid as some people think that I am. This is no longer any of your concern.” Ruby looked at him and tried to hide the fact that she was dying inside. He’d turned her down was all she could think about. “I’d like to leave now.”

When he stood up
, she waited for him to wrap his arm around her to take her back. It had happened so quickly before that she’d been startled. But now she was prepared. She wondered about the few pieces of equipment that had come with them but didn’t want to ask him. Her heart was breaking and she wanted gone. But when he pulled her to his body, she was still and her mind shut down.

“
I’m gonna do this, but you know you’re signing my death certificate, don’t you?” She shook her head. “I’m supposing you have a plan for that, too? You do have it all worked out in that pretty little head of your’n, don’t you? Well, I’m hoping so, for both our sakes.”

“
I’ll tell them you needed blood and I gave it to you.” He nodded and turned her in his arms. He was strong even with all the blood he’d lost, and she had a slight moment of panic. But he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her body flush with his. His cock was there, but he wasn’t hard like she’d expected. Before she could ask if he was hurt there too, he spoke.

“
I can’t get hard, but you don’t need me to be for this.” She moaned when he licked her throat. “Christ, I forgot you’re a wolf. Drinking from you is going to give me the energy I need right now. I done went and forgot that for a minute. Do you know what your blood does for me?”

“
No.” He licked her again, and she had to press her legs together to try to give her heating pussy some relief. He told her to stop. Then he cupped her ass and brought her tighter to him. Ruby had to hang onto him or fall. Her entire body was on fire.

“
Your arousal helps me.” He licked her again before he grazed his fangs over her pounding pulse. “I need more than I thought. You okay with me taking a sip or two more?”

Before she could form a thought, not even sure what it might have been
, he bit her. His fangs sank deep and she cried out a release. She nearly pulled away from him, disappointed that the vibrator had given her more, when he cupped her breast, bra and all. His cock began to fill between them and she rocked back into him. He moaned again and put his hand between them and cupped her pussy while she fed him.

Come for me.
His command had her coming hard. His fingers dug deep into her folds, and he set her off again when his fingers touched her clit. The second and third time he told her to come, she cried out and held his hand to her while he gave her another brief yet satisfying climax. He lifted his head from her throat, and she could see his beast. For whatever insane reason she had, Ruby wasn’t afraid of him. But he looked at her as if he could have devoured her without a single thought.

He
didn’t kiss her, and as badly as she wanted it, she knew that it would be too much for her. When he lifted her up, her legs wrapped around his hips and then the wall was at her back. The moment she was fully against it, he started rocking into her with punches of his cock, his shaft, so hard now all she could think about was him filling her with it. As she built even higher, her body as tightly strung as a bow, he lifted his head and looked at her again. He looked hungry, and she wanted to feed him as badly as he looked like he wanted to feast on her.

“
Scream for me when you come. I want to drink deeply from you when you do, and you’ll heal me.” She nodded, knowing that no matter what, she’d give him whatever he needed. This time when he suckled at her throat, she felt his hand slide into the back of her pants, and he pressed against her tight hole. It was so unexpected yet so wonderfully amazing that she cried out when he pressed his finger into her.