Page 10 of Taste of Forever
“Jamie? Jamie, are you alright? Can you hear me?”
“Who the hell is Jamie?” I muttered.
“It’s okay. We have a recovery room if you’re feeling faint. Just follow me.”
I blinked, the hallway and Cedric’s face coming into focus. Everything slowly filtered in, and the more I processed what had just happened, the more horrified I felt.
“Oh, God.” I held up my wrist and stared at the two small puncture marks left behind by the vampire’s fangs.
It really happened. And it really made me feel like…that.
Cedric said something, probably asking if I was okay again, but all I heard was noise.
“I can’t stay here. I have to go home.”
No one tried to stop me as I turned and went down a hallway, then pushed on a door markedDonor Exit.The cool night air against my heated skin felt like the slap of reality that I badly needed.
Another man had brought me to the brink of orgasm.
Not only that. I had been really,reallyinto it. I didn’t want it to stop.
Guilt sat heavily in my chest as I started toward home, where my boyfriend of five years would be waiting for me.
Chapter 3
Heather
Ididn’t check the audio and video recordings until I was safely in my car with the windows locked. Relief flooded me as I listened to and watched what I’d captured. Everything was there. Not all of the audio was clear, but that could be cleaned up with some editing software.
Vampires were real. And now I had proof.
Despite the guilt riding me, I turned up the volume when the anonymous vampire was speaking to me, trying to recapture the memory of that voice. I could still feel his fingers wrapped around my forearm, the warmth of his lips sealed to my wrist.
Just as abruptly, I stopped listening and tossed my phone into the cup holder. With a shake of my head, I started up my car and began the short drive home.
I didn’t do anything wrong,I told myself.I did not cheat on Justin.
It wasn’t like I expected to become so turned on by the blood-drinking. I was still trying to wrap my head around my own response, but surprise horniness alone wasn’t a reason to feel guilty. Right?
My thoughts churned as I drove home. I felt more guilty about the fact that I kept thinking about the vampire’s voice, andthat I couldn’t stop wondering what he looked like. I saw only a glimpse of his hands and was now trying to imagine how the rest of him was built.
He had a presence on the other side of that screen. His footsteps had weight to them. He felt like he took up a lot of space, like he was probably tall. Or strong.
But there was no point to wondering, no reason to fantasize. Getting turned on had to be due to some kind of vampire evolutionary thing. Something to make their victims more compliant. Cedric had mentioned potential euphoric or pleasurable sensations, which still seemed like a far cry from orgasms. Had I misunderstood?
“Damn it. Of course.” I muttered curses as I entered my apartment complex and spotted no open parking spots near my building. Justin’s car was in our designated spot, not that he needed it, since he worked his IT job from home. It always turned into a fight if I asked him to let me have the parking spot, so I let it go.
After circling the complex a few times, I gave up and decided to park on the street a block away. Thanks to working overnights at the crime lab, I usually came home when everyone else was leaving for work, and parking usually wasn’t an issue. I was not thrilled to walk a block home alone in the middle of the night.
I grabbed my phone and shoved it in my pocket, resisting the urge to listen to the vampire’s voice once again. The sooner I copied it to a hard drive, the better. And then…I didn’t know exactly what to do with it. But, as a most-of-the-time happily attached woman, I definitely wasn’t going to listen to it repeatedly like a psycho.
The walk home would be short, but I kept my pace brisk. Why I felt safer hiking in the woods at night than walking in my own neighborhood, I had no idea. We didn’t live in the best part of town, but it wasn’t the worst either. Maybe it was somethingabout this area, with all of its apartment complexes and parked cars. So many people living in such close quarters almost guaranteed I was being watched, no matter how late it was.
That was the feeling I couldn’t escape, like there were eyes on my every move.
I had only walked a few yards when I decided to pull my phone out. Better to have 911 at the ready than not.
My senses were on high alert as I quickened my pace. My phone was in my hand, but my gaze swept widely in front of me. I felt ready for anything, and yet somehow I wasn’t fast enough for the car door that opened just ahead of me, and the man stepping out of the passenger seat.
