Page 5 of Hunting My Vampire

I wondered if she was perhaps another kind of creature but her smell had been unmistakably human.

I wanted to go up to her door, knock, and sweep her off her feet but I knew I had to wait. These things took time and I couldn’t rush it.

Even though I knew that behind her hostility and her dislike, she had been hiding her attraction to me. I could feel it, I knew it was there. She would only be able to resist it for so long.

Meanwhile, I had to wait a little longer.

What was one day when I’d already waited so many years for this?

But I really struggled to walk away from the house, to leave her there. I wanted to stand outside her house all night long and watch her sleep.

I didn’t want to risk being caught out though. Here was Kaya coming outside to check that everything was all right. She opened the door and peered into the night. She turned her head and stared straight at where I was hiding in the bushes. I was sure she couldn’t see me but it seemed like she was able to sense I was there.

For a moment, I thought she would call out to me, tell me to come out. I would have done that without hesitation, going to her, walking into her arms. Nothing could have given me greater pleasure.

She seemed to hesitate, unsure of what to do but then she turned around and went back inside, locking the door. She drew the curtains to stop me from looking at her but I already had her etched in my mind. I could hear her walking through her house, restlessly going up and down, back and forth.

I know what you need, Kaya, I thought, feeling myself harden at the thought. Soon, you will get it.

Chapter Three

Kaya

I slept badly and woke up the next morning in a bad temper.

I nearly overslept and had to rush to get Princess ready for school and drop her off before the teachers locked the gates. I then went to open up the auto shop and checked our book for the day.

Things were slow at work, lately.

The owner, Fuzz, had taken off some time to be with his family, leaving me in charge. It had been a quiet month so far and this was not a good thing. People needed to be paid and Fuzz had kids to feed. He didn’t pay me much but I was counting on that pay cheque too. I was grateful for the job. After I had come out of the hospital with a weak back and a mind that seemed to wander at weird times, it was clear to me that I needed to slow down and take time to recuperate. But I’ve never been one for slow walks and peaceful swims at the public pool. I needed to keep busy. I had some mechanical auto work skills, that I’d picked up, mostly from the sheriff who had been like my foster dad. We used to spend our weekends fiddling with car engines in the shed. He liked to say that cars don’t talk back, which I learned to appreciate.

Fuzz didn’t really need extra hands as business was often slow but his other employee, Roberto, was often in late, reeking of booze and was not that reliable.

That day I was alone in the shop and was about to close early when the light started fading. I was about to lock up when I saw a gorgeous Lamborghini Huracán drive up to the shopfront.

When the driver’s door opened, it was Jack Beaufort getting out of it.

I had been expecting him to be honest.

All night long, I’d been rolling around, unable to fall asleep. I kept waking up, dreaming of him putting his hands on me.

I wanted him and I knew I had to fight it. But I was not the girl I used to be and I didn’t know if I was strong enough to resist him.

“We meet again,” he said, taking off his designer sunglasses.

I was too tired to come up with a snappy response.

All day long, I had tried to keep my thoughts away from him, focusing on my only job for the moment, an old Chevy that really had only needed a tune-up. By the time I was done with it, the engine had basically been overhauled.

“I would like to know if you have the capacity to check our fleet of cars for the Topaz Group,” he said.

“You know we don’t,” I said. “We’re a small shop, we can take maybe five cars at most and it will take a few days to work through them.”

“Then we do that,” he said graciously, smiling his big grin at me. “When you’re finished with those, we send in the next few.”

He leaned over the counter. “I hear you have excellent hands.”

His voice was low, sexy.

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