Page 36 of Taken By the Vampires
“Were you a flipping-burger type of grease cook, or more gourmet?” I asked.
“Oh, grease cook for sure,” Davon laughed. I liked hearing him laugh. It made my soul lighter. I couldn’t help but smile as well.
“There it is. I knew we’d bring her out of her shell sooner or later. It’s good to see you smile, Ella,’ Cassius said.
I thought they’d brought me out of my shell quite nicely last night, but his smile was filled with warmth and humor and let my own smile widen. A warm, fuzzy feeling washed through me. I wished I could have this every day. Wished it with all my soul despite my fears and doubts, but I wouldn’t be a realist if I’d thought whatever spell I was falling under here while a storm raged was going to last.
Chapter Twenty Five
“Are you ready, Ella?”
I spun at the sound of Xander’s deep voice. How did he manage to startle me all of the time? The man never made a sound when he moved. It was unnatural.
He leaned against the doorframe and swung one leg in front of the other. He looked deceptively relaxed but his muscles bunched and tensed beneath his smooth skin. A predator waiting to strike. He pinned me with a stare that made me feel he saw deep down into my soul.
Part of me wanted to defy him, to look away. Another part wanted to challenge him, to take him up on whatever he offered. Another part of me, a more seductive part, wanted to sink into his depths and lose myself in that caramel color. Wanting to see them glint with need and desire, for the pupils to dilate and bleed any color away, leaving only single-minded intent.
Another part of me, the stronger, logical part, drew in a deep shaky breath and reached for a glass of water. My hand only slightly shook as I brought it to my lips. “I don’t need any training.”
He’d left last night when I’d reached for him. Rejected me, in the height of my arousal. He’d walked away when he could have had me and I would have let him.
I wasn’t going to reach for him again, and training would certainly have me in close proximity with him. I didn’t think my nerves could handle it. I wasn’t going to put myself in a position to be rejected again. I did have my pride.
“You do.”
I placed my glass on the countertop. The slight clink sounded loud in the room. “I’d like to go back to the library.”
“But the library won’t help you learn self-protection. Not in the way you need to be protected.”
“I’ve looked after myself a long time. I’m capable of looking after myself for a long time more.” I wanted to leave the room, to ease the tension thrumming through the air, but his large frame filled the only exit.
“You are a very capable woman, but if the townspeople are like I remember them, if thisGary,” he said the name with a sneer, “is how I remember some men, I will make sure you have extra protection once you return home. I know something about you, Ella.”
“And what’s that?” I folded my arms over my chest, needing the extra armor while knowing how insubstantial it actually was.
Xander stalked towards me, his lithe body moving with practiced ease. I tightened my grip on my arms, not caring I’d bruise myself. I tilted my chin. I wasn’t going to give in to his intentional intimidation. The man was maddening.
“That you are a survivor. You won’t refuse anything that will give you an edge. You won’t stop looking for answers, even when most would give up. And that you won’t be able to refuse the offer of anything that will help carve a better life out for yourself. And I am offering to help with all of that, so in the end, you won’t be able to resist my offer of assistance because it will give you all that. It will give you an edge and it will make you stronger. So, Ella. Are you ready to begin your training?”
He stood so close, my senses were assaulted with a vision of his straight, square shoulders, trim waist, lean biceps and scent of frigid, fresh air. He must have been outside in the storm to have it clinging to him like that.
But he was right, damn him. I had no idea how he’d gleaned all of that from the relatively short time I’d been here. Certainly nobody else had given me the attention to discern all of that, but that was Xander to a T, wasn’t it? Nothing escaped his attention.
Not the fact my fingers had loosened their death grip on my arms, or the way my shoulders slightly relaxed, or the way my attention was riveted on his sensual mouth. The ends ticked up at the edges. He knew he’d won.
“Come, then. We’ll begin now.”
“I’ll clean up and be there in a minute,” Cassius said.
Xander fixed me with his penetrating stare. “I want her alone.”
My heart sped up and I looked between Davon and Cassius, silently appealing to them, but Xander was Xander, and not even his friends had the balls to disobey his words. Because that was what this was. Obey and disobey. There was a definite dynamic here and I was falling in line as though he’d compelled me somehow to capitulate.
I mentally shook my head, trying to loosen my imagination. I wasn’t being compelled. No human could have the power over another, but he was certainly persuasive and he’d hit the nail on the head.
If Gary came on to me again, or didanythingto me again, I wanted to be able to stand up to him. Really stand up, and if Xander could teach me something that might help, then I’d take it.
I’d just have to forget about how he made me feel. How much he really did rattle me. How much the darker side of me craved to know exactly how it would feel if he made me scream. I sucked in a hard breath. Xander smirked as though he knew what had just run through my mind.
