Riding the Storm (11 page)

She didn’t point out the fact he’d gone six days without
contacting her while he figured things out, as it would sound too much like she
was trying to punish him for making her wait. She wasn’t punishing him, she was
just busy. She didn’t get why it was suddenly an emergency to see her now, when
it hadn’t been before. Had he thought she’d just drop everything and come
running when he finally made up his mind?

“Goodnight, Eric. I’ll see you Saturday night.”

She’d known Abbott was busy earlier tonight, but figured he
should be through with his business by now.

Abbott? Are you free to talk?

Yes, what’s up?

Eric says you gave him tentative permission to put
vampires in a video game?

Yes. I’ve filled out the appropriate forms and made a few
phone calls, to try to pave the way.

I don’t want him exposed to them.

Neither do I, but at present time the Media Council is only
checking to be sure no one gets everything right about us in books, television,
and movies. They aren’t looking at video games, and they need to be, which
means they’re likely going to need to interview him, and spend some time
learning about this particular market.

He was right, of course, but exposure to this group put Eric
in danger. Abbott could work politically to try to keep the group reined in,
but if they decided to keep Eric — locking him away to work for them
indefinitely — there wasn’t much she
or
Abbott could do.

Are you handling this yourself, or assigning someone?

For now, I’m handling it.

Can I ask to be kept apprised?
Many Master Vampires
didn’t allow such questions, and even with Abbott, she had to be careful how
she phrased the request.

No promises, Kendra.

Thank you, Sir.
No matter how close of a friend he
was, she couldn’t assume their friendship would alter the way he handled his
responsibilities to the vampires and humans in his territory. Sometimes, it
did, but it wasn’t a given, and she respected him too much to make demands. Not
to mention, few people had the balls to make demands of The Abbott.

I value your trust, so thank you, as well.

Abbott’s inner circle approved Eric’s proposal, and plans
were made for Eric to meet with Josef and the contractor to begin finalizing
the security system plans on Wednesday.

When Kendra rose Wednesday, she left the house as soon as
the sun went down, and had nearly an hour at the mall to shop before heading to
TBC to work for the night.

It was a stormy night, and not too many people braved the
weather to go play pool. She talked with the bartenders and waitresses, and
even accepted an invitation to play a game of pool with what she assumed were
some college guys, and later found out were part of the local university’s
football team. They were
hunks
. Self-centered, overly macho jocks with
egos bigger than their shoulders and chests, but still gorgeous.

And so when Eric walked in a little after midnight, he saw
her cutting up with them as she played pool with their small group. She didn’t
see him at first, but she smelled him as he walked behind her on his way to the
bar. She turned things up just a notch with the college guys, not really
flirting, as that wasn’t her style, but having fun with them. She pretended to
notice Eric about five minutes later, giving him a smile but not going to him
yet. When her game with the football players was over, she told the boys she
had to get back to work.

She walked to the bar, stepped behind it, and poured herself
a glass of bourbon on the rocks. It wouldn’t get her drunk, but three or four
of these would at least help her chill out a little. She tossed the drink back,
poured another, and looked at Eric, waiting for him to say something first.

“I didn’t realize filling in for the manager meant
fraternizing with the customers.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “It’s a slow night, and they
asked me to join them for a game. You’re the one who said we aren’t exclusive.
Why are you here? Are you stalking me now?”

He shook his head and looked down, uncertain for a moment,
but then looked up with more confidence. “No, Josef told me you were working
here tonight and I thought I’d come in and say hi. And… I’m sorry for saying
anything. You’re right, I
did
say we wouldn’t be exclusive, and I have
to remember it goes both ways. If I don’t want you flirting with other guys
then I have to agree not to flirt with girls, too. I keep screwing up, Kendra.
I’m sorry.”

Yeah, she could see and smell his regret, but she was
working and just couldn’t deal with him right now. She downed the drink she’d
already poured, dumped the ice, and put the glass in the bin to be washed as
she told him, “I need to check on the kitchen, and walk through the other rooms
to make sure everything’s still okay. I’ll tell Ace your drinks are on the
house, sit here as long as you want.”

She walked to the other side of the bar to let the bartender
know she’d take care of Eric’s tab, and then headed to the kitchen before
making her way to check on the hidden vampire room. She ordered six ounces of
blood while she was back there — just
smelling
of Eric had made
her hungry. Then she strolled through the nearly empty party room, as well as
the smoker’s room, and a few others, before heading back to the main pool room.
Eric was still sitting at the bar, still nursing a beer, and he was eating some
cheese fries.

When she stepped into the room, the biggest football player
walked to her and asked, “Doll, is that guy bothering you? You looked sad when
you were talking to him. I can get rid of him if you want me to.”

“Thanks Ben, that’s sweet, but I don’t want you to get rid
of him.” She grinned as she added, “Not in the way you’d probably do it,
anyway. He and I were trying to make a relationship work and now... I don’t
know. Sometimes real life just gets in the way, and you have to think maybe it
wasn’t meant to be.”

He hugged her. “Sorry you’re hurting, doll. If you want
someone to take your mind off him, help heal your broken heart, I’m the guy for
the job.”

She laughed as she hugged him and then pushed him away. “You
big goof, thanks for making me laugh. Now, go play pool with your friends.”

As she walked back to the bar, Eric looked pissed. Kendra
raised herself up on a barstool, leaving an empty one between the two of them.
“How are the fries?”

“Not being exclusive doesn’t mean flirting with other people
in front of each other, Kendra.”

She kept her voice low. The other supernaturals would hear,
but the humans wouldn’t. “You’re beginning to piss me off. In the first place,
what you saw when you walked in was good natured interaction with customers.
I’d have played pool with them even if you and I’d been exclusive. And what you
just saw was the macho football player telling me I looked sad when I was
talking to you, and asking if I was okay. We weren’t
flirting
.”

She looked away a few seconds, took in the room, and then
met Eric’s gaze again as she continued. “I told him you and I’d been trying to
make a relationship work but now it wasn’t looking so good, sometimes real life
fucks things up and some things just aren’t meant to be.
That
was why he
hugged me. If you weren’t here, he’d have never seen me get emotional and I
could’ve kept things good natured with them. And while I’m at it, it took you
six
fucking days
to make up your mind whether or not you wanted to see me
anymore, and then suddenly you can’t stand to go another night without seeing
me? You didn’t miss me those six days, why the emergency all of a sudden? You
say you want to date me, but want to hedge your bets, don’t want to take
yourself off the market.
Fine
, we can do it your way, but don’t you
dare
say a word to me when you walk in on me working when you weren’t invited, and
happen to see me playing a game of pool with customers on a slow night.”

“You don’t think a relationship can work between us? What’s
changed? You said we’d make it work if we both wanted it, and I want it to
work.”

“Oh, a relationship could work just fine if you’d get out of
the way and let it. Right now, I’m just waiting on the next thing to come along
and freak you out and make you take another six days to decide whether or not
you can live with it.”

“Kendra, that’s not really fair. You hit me with a lot that
night. I didn’t even know... you know… existed. And to be told they do, and you
are, and then you bit me, and then the scene we had was pretty intense, and...
I just needed to process all of it. Are you going to hit me with that much all
in one night again? I really hope not.”

His words brought everything into focus, and Kendra suddenly
realized why she was so emotional about this man. She couldn’t tell him here,
though, where they’d be overheard.

“Follow me.”

When they were in Abbott’s office with the door closed, she turned
to him, her hands on her hips as she said, “Did it occur to you that I haven’t
submitted to anyone sexually in over a thousand years, and I made myself pretty
emotionally vulnerable to you when I fucking
gave
myself to you? If the
tables had been turned and you submitted to me, and then the next night as soon
as you saw me I freaked and said I needed time to think and it was almost a
week before you heard from me again, how the hell would
you
handle it? I
just realized it, but I’ve distanced myself emotionally from you, and I’ve been
avoiding anything that might close up that distance, because I’m pretty sure
you’re going to freak again and then I’ll just have to do it all over again.”

Shit, and now she was getting emotional,
again
. She
turned her back to him, crossed her arms, rubbed her left shoulder with her
right hand. “I can’t do this here. I’m supposed to be working. The door at the
end of the hall will bring you out at the side of the building. Turn left and
the sidewalk will take you to the parking lot. Please leave, Eric.”

“I’ll go because I’ve hurt you and can’t fix it right this
minute. It isn’t because I’m avoiding a discussion about it, though. I can’t
believe I didn’t consider how you’d feel with me pulling away like that
after... after...” He sighed. “I’m sorry, Kendra. I’ll go, but know that I
don’t want to. I want to take away the pain I’ve caused, but I can’t do it
right now. Not here. God, I’m sorry.”

And he walked out the door.

Kendra could tell something was up when she arrived home. No
one would look at her, and there was an air of tension and uncertainty. Abbott
was there, and he said, “There’s something you need to see.”

He took her downstairs to the playroom door, and pulled his
key out to unlock it. It was only locked if someone were inside playing, and
only five people had a key to the room. No one used their key unless it was an
emergency, but he opened the door, motioned for her to enter, and then closed
it behind her without following her in.

Eric was naked, kneeling on the floor, head up, eyes
lowered, with his hands behind his head. Every muscle in his body was taught,
strained, and she could smell his fear and trepidation, oozing from every poor.

Not the sweat scent of fear and anticipation, but the stench
of true fear — and if his scent wasn’t enough to turn her off, his soft
cock confirmed he wasn’t the least aroused.

Abbott, what the hell? Why is Eric in here naked?

He contacted me, told me of your fight, and asked me to help
him with this. Said he didn’t know how to make it right. He begged me to let
him in so he could submit to you. I have everyone upstairs right now, so no one
is on the basement level but the two of you. I turned radios on in several
rooms downstairs, plus one at the bottom of the steps. The dungeon is partially
soundproof to muffle loud screams anyway, so the two of you should be able to
talk quietly without being overheard. Give him a chance, Kendra. I think he
really cares for you.

Fucking stupid mortal man. And fucking stupid vampire,
too. Why the hell would you think this was a good idea?
Yeah, she had to
speak to him with politics in mind for some things, but for personal matters
like this, he rarely expected her to hold her tongue.

Talk to him, Kendra.

Dammit, what the hell was she supposed to do with this?

“Eric, what are you doing?” Her voice came out sharper than
she’d intended.

“I don’t know any other way to... fix things. I screwed up,
Kendra. I was all wrapped up in myself, in what you being a vampire meant to
our relationship. What I did was unforgivable, and I won’t blame you for never
submitting to me again. You offered me something so... so...
special
,
and I blew it. The only thing I can think of is to make myself vulnerable to
you, too. Not because I want you to submit to me again, but because I want you
in my life and I need to do something to try to make things right. Not that
this will do it, but maybe it will be a start?
Please
, Kendra, just
saying I’m sorry isn’t good enough. I need to do something to show you.”

She made an attempt to soften her voice. He was trying, and
even though she couldn’t do this now, she had to give him credit for offering.
“You can’t submit to me like this. If you ever submit to me then it’ll be under
different circumstances, but...” She sighed and looked away a few seconds
before meeting his gaze to say, “I appreciate the sentiment.”

“You’re turning me down?” His voice sounded surprised and
disappointed, but his scent told her he was simultaneously relieved and
disappointed.

“Please get up and put your clothes on Eric. Yes, I’m
turning you down, but I
will
talk to you. Like I said, I appreciate the
sentiment.”

The playroom had a little seating area with a loveseat and a
few chairs. Kendra walked over to one of the chairs and sat, her back to him so
perhaps his getting dressed wouldn’t be quite as awkward. The dueling smells of
relief and dismay grew stronger as he stood and retrieved his pants.

“We’ve only spent two nights together, Eric. The first night
we rappelled, and the second night I told you about me, and then we went on the
boat ride, and then... well... you know. But still,
two nights
. It’s
ridiculous that things are this heavy already.”

He zipped his pants and walked to her as he said, “And yet,
here we are.”

“We’re going to slow things down, Eric. We are going to slow
things way, the
fuck,
down.”

He walked into her vision, sexier than he had a right to be,
with no shirt, and jeans that hugged every scenic curve. “Okay,” he agreed as
sat on the loveseat, his chiseled abs flexing with every move.

She forced her eyes up to his face, and said, “When we first
met, you told me you were an adrenaline junkie, and you scared girls off when
they got to know you. It seems to me the kind of girl you’d want to marry is
always going to run from you. A girl who wants to do nothing but party and play
would be fine with your dangerous adventures, but you aren’t looking for a
party girl, you want
substance
. You want a family.”

He nodded in agreement, but didn’t say anything, so she
added. “A woman who wants to settle down, have a mortgage, get pregnant and
have those two point three kids, that kind of woman wants someone stable, safe
— not a man who jumps off mountains and out of perfectly good airplanes.
If she wants the family and kids thing, she’ll want a husband who doesn’t
engage in death-defying adventures on a regular basis.”

He leaned forward and put his head in his hands. “I know.”

“But jumping off mountains and out of perfectly good
airplanes is part of what defines you, it’s who you are. If you cut back on
your escapades to make a wife more secure someday, you’ll still be compromising
who you are, in order to have the wife and kids you want.”

“I know, Kendra. I
know
.”

She was quiet a moment, and he didn’t offer anything else.
She realized she didn’t have anything else to add to the conversation without
his input, and said, “Okay, then. I’ll walk you upstairs so you can get home.
You should put your shirt and shoes on.”

He looked up, pain written all over expressive face. “We’re
through talking?”

“Is there anything else you want to say?”

“I don’t get the feeling everything’s okay.”

She threw her hands out in exasperation, “How can it be?
You’re still conflicted, Eric. I get that you have feelings for me, and you’re
sorry you made me regret submitting to you. But, you still have conflicted
feelings — I can smell them on you, and I can hear them in your voice.
We’ll go out on some dates, take it slow, see where that takes us.” She shook
her head, looked away, and added, “Your conflicted feelings aren’t just about
me, you’ve had to face the fact it’s going to be hard enough to find a woman
who can deal with your adrenaline stuff, and then to find one who’s also
submissive... the odds aren’t in your favor.”

She looked back at him, and when he didn’t say anything, she
continued. “You’ve realized you may have to change part of who you are in order
to get your ideal, and now there’s a different possibility in front of you. One
you think could make you happy, and will allow you to continue your adventures…
continue being who you are, because you know I’d never ask you not to do
something just because it’s dangerous, but this other possible life means you
give up on some of those ideals you thought you wanted in a marriage.” She
sighed. “I understand this decision isn’t so much about me, it’s that no matter
which path you choose, you have to give something up, but I think you’re
over-analyzing things right now, given that we’ve had
two
nights
together and a few conversations.” She stood, took a few steps toward the door,
and added, “I’ve called Abbott and he’s walking down the stairs now. He’ll walk
you upstairs and to your car, and I’ll see you Saturday night at sundown,
assuming you still want to take me out on a date.”