Page 9 of The Way You Bite
Awareness pricked his skin. A quick glance at the clinic’s rear door confirmed her exiting. Everything in him stilled.
She had spectacular bone structure. Wide set, large green eyes with a brown splash in the left, which pinned her as her father’s daughter. Her mouth, now highlighted scarlet, would make even the most pious have visions of her on her knees.
The animal within him readied. It wanted to stalk. To study her until the right moment for him to make his move presented itself.
Mating predation.Shit.
The red silky sheath wrapping her body dipped low over her breasts and accentuated the erotic way she moved. His eyes zeroed in on the slow, sensual way the fabric tightened over her hips with each stride. A vicious response gripped his body. He’d been with his share of women over the centuries. Never had a female elicited a reaction like this. He wanted to press her up against the nearest wall and lodge himself deep insider her. Then he’d mark her with his bite.
What the hell?
He took a slow deep breath to regain calm. He was centuries old. This kind of crazy didn’t happen to him. He did not mark women. Never had. Probably never would, especially not a half-vampire female.
Lexan rolled down his window. His breath caught when her scent hit him. He closed his eyes in a slow inhale. Amazing. His blood roared. With a low growl, he gripped the door handle.
A loud quadruple click indicated Eric had hit the auto-lock.
“Please tell me you don’t have it for her. I’ll grant you she’s attractive, but don’t forget she’s a leech. Or at least half leech. Plus, the girl was clearly not interested in you, and she’s engaged. You’ve got prime wolf females throwing themselves at you every day. Pick one of them. What about the wolf from a few months ago? Extraordinary bloodline. You two seemed to hit it off pretty well.”
Lexan’s gaze never deviated from his target as he replied, “She didn’t warrant a repeat.”
Eric said softly, “You didn’t touch the wolf a few months ago, did you?”
As he met Eric’s worried gaze, he didn’t want to lie. The female wolf months ago had bored him. He hadn’t even been marginally tempted by her, not like the surge beelining for his southern region right now. Instead, he’d mesmerized that girl into thinking it the best sex of her life.
He should lie. He should reassure Eric he was fine. “The guys needed to believe I did. That I’m okay.”
Eric cursed in two languages. “I thought you were close to the ennui. I’ve heard the boredom can lead you to do extreme things. Suicidal things. Is this your way of acting out, your form of going insane? You convince a vampire she’s about to turn into one of us? If so, it ranks pretty high on the lost-your-mind scale.”
Lexan had been searching for an escape from his world-weariness. He basked in the sensations now streaking through him as he tracked her. Unlike any moment in the past half century, right now he was very interested in living.
Eric waved his hand in front of Lexan’s gaze. “Snap out of it. She’s a bloody vampire. If you’re horny, I’ll find you someone to work it off.”
“I don’t want another meaningless…forget it.”I want her.
Eric clapped his hands together so loudly that it echoed like a gunshot through the car. Lexan’s gaze snapped to his guard.
“Need I remind you what her people did to you? They kept you in chains for over a hundred years. They fought you against other wolves like a common dog.”
“I have forgotten nothing.”
“Now would be a good moment to tell me your plan. You’ve seen her. Now what?”
Lexan glanced away and pressed his eyes closed. At this point, he was so aroused that remaining still was agony. He fidgeted when base needs to possess, dominate, and mate swamped his brain. He fingered the ring again, remembering his days of enslavement, which ensured hatred for all females of the blood-sucking species. The humiliations he’d suffered at the hands of vampires still remained a festering wound.
“Get us out of here.”Before I do something I’ll regret, even if I might enjoy the hell out of it.
Eric pulled out. The SUV passed her right as she opened her car’s door. Her head turned in their direction. Lexan met her startled gaze. Time froze between them in a moment of connection. Those beautiful eyes widened, and her mouth parted. Her body swayed his way.
The wolf in him roared with need to go to her and answer her invitation.
Intuition blasted him with a premonition of foreboding. She shouldn’t attend the wedding.
He thought to her, even though she probably wouldn’t hear:“Go home. No wedding tonight.”It wouldn’t work. He hadn’t yet discovered her mental wavelength. It took a bit of time to find the right way to think to each individual before the person understood him.
“Stop. Maybe I should talk to her now,” he ordered.
Eric braked.
Vee already had her car cranked. She backed out and sped away.
“Do I pursue, sir?” Eric asked.
Lexan massaged his forehead. Had she heard him? They’d had no more than a moment. Would she listen, even if she had heard him? The need to follow her clawed at his mind. It hurt his chest. He rationalized himself back to sanity.
“No. I’ll find her later. After the wedding.” They couldn’t follow her to the wedding. If spotted, their presence would be a declaration of global war. He and his guard were good, but the eight of them couldn’t fight hundreds of vampires.
The wildness of his reaction to this particular woman troubled him. He couldn’t be into a vampire. Period.
