Charmed (2 page)
“I’m a vampire, Chloe,” Tristan sighed as if they had been through all of this before. “I am the leader of one of the oldest and most powerful covens made up of more than two hundred thousand or so beings like myself.”
Palming his chin in his hand, he waited for her reaction. With nothing forthcoming he spun on his heels and disappeared into the bathroom, slamming the door soundly behind him.
Oh. My. Lamb. I’ve married a nutcase!
Chloe felt even sicker. She knew there had to be something wrong with him because no one that gorgeous would want to be stuck with the “fat girl”, and here was her proof.
Warily, Chloe approached the bathroom. The faint sound of running water could be heard on the other side. She cleared her throat and squared her shoulders then knocked on the solid-wood frame. Before she could ask him where her clothes were, he yanked her inside.
“I knew you would come to your senses, love,” he murmured while showering kisses along her shoulders and neck. “If you would have left me, I think I would have died. Ha! Imagine the irony of that,” he chuckled.
As if she were a lightweight, Tristan easily lifted her up onto the counter. Obviously he was just about to shave for he’d prepared a bowl of lather, the water was running and his razor was lying on top of a crisp white towel.
“You have to be the sexiest and most desirable woman I’ve seen in centuries,” he breathed, his nose buried deep in the curls lying on her shoulders. With one deft movement, he quickly snatched her sheet out of its careless knot and wedged himself firmly between her thighs. Chloe opened her mouth to protest but she was silenced by the insistent press of his warm lips and his roaming fingers, which ran riotously through the curls covering her pussy.
Why does he have to have such soft warm lips and such naughty fingers?
Chloe groaned in defeat. She would leave just after she got some more nooky.
She arched her neck as he placed kisses down her throat to the valley between her breasts. As if she were a tasty morsel, he began to draw patterns around her right nipple with his tongue, stopping every now and then to nip playfully at it. Tired of his play, he finally popped it into his mouth and began to suck on it.
“Ah, Mrs. Smythe, this is where you were meant to be,” he groaned while switching from her right nipple to her left. “With me sucking on your delicious mounds and me wedged between your creamy brown thighs.”
In one swift movement, Tristan laid Chloe on her back on the granite countertop. He tugged the sheet from under her hips and tossed it aside. As he placed his right hand on her stomach, his eyes darkened to a shade of green that appeared almost black.
“Look at how arousing my skin looks next to yours,” he whispered.
Unable to resist, Chloe looked down at her torso and silently agreed with his observation. Although it was rather erotic to see his paler skin next to her own, it wasn’t half as erotic as watching him grip his cock in his hands.
Lord save me.
He was huge—a good ten inches and incredibly thick. Fear crept into the pit of her belly as she wondered how he’d been able to stuff all of that in her some time ago. But her fear quickly turned to desire as he slid the tip of his cock across her slit, causing her clit to jump.
“Ssss… You are so hot,” he hissed. “Tell me you want me,” he growled, while pressing the head of his cock just inside her tight opening.
Oh Lord, he was teasing her! Didn’t he know she wanted him? She was running her hands all over his chest like she couldn’t get enough of him and she was making little mewling sounds like a hungry kitten. She wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction by begging as well. However, he had other plans because he withdrew the tip of his cock and palmed it in his hands once again.
“Nooo,” Chloe moaned.
“Tell me!” he ordered with an insistent slap on the side of her thigh.
Chloe looked at him and was taken aback at how feral he looked. His skin stretched tautly on his body, his nostrils flared and his pupils glowed like black diamonds. She looked down at him pumping his delicious cock in his hand. Unbelievably, it appeared to grow even larger!
“I want you, Tristan—” she groaned. He stepped back between her legs and the rest of her words died in her throat as his cock pressed hotly into her eager sex. He pressed so deeply into her, his pelvis was flush to her own. As his hips retreated, she grabbed for him, causing him to chuckle.
“You are a greedy one! I love it,” Tristan bit out, driving back into her.
This time he would take the pace slow. He wanted her to have no doubts of who was making love to her. It had taken all of his willpower restraining himself from shaking some sense into her when she’d asked him for a divorce. Hell would freeze over before he let this beautiful, vivacious creature out of his life—especially since he’d been waiting for someone to complete him for several hundred years.
Tristan had waited centuries to find his soul mate and he’d known instantly that she was the one. In fact, when he first laid eyes on her seven short days ago, the bloodlust had fallen on him like a ton of bricks. It was good for both of them, especially Chloe, that she’d fallen under his spell. He shuddered at what he would have become had she refused his pursuit—his bloodlust for her was that strong.
“Tristan, what are you doing to me?” Chloe panted as she grabbed at his forearms.
“What does it look like, love? I’m trying to fuck the daylights out of you,” he puffed. And he practically was doing just that, Chloe thought to herself as his hips pummeled into her with lightning speed. Reaching down between her legs, she heightened her pleasure several levels by using two of her fingers to strum her clit.
“Oh…Tristan…Tristan,” Chloe chanted. “I’m going to come!”
“Yes, baby, that’s what I want you to do. I want you to cream all over my cock.
Your
cock,” Tristan encouraged as she clenched around him. As she screamed her release, her sex gripped his cock almost to the point of pain. It was his undoing as he felt his own orgasm wash over him.
“Oh shit…shit,” he groaned, grinding his hips into her pussy. After the last of his seed had emptied into her, he collapsed on top of her.
“I guess I better leave you alone and let you finish your shaving,” Chloe announced, pushing gently at his shoulders to get his attention.
“I’ll let you off
only
if you agree to take a bath with me afterward,” he purred, placing a kiss on her rounded belly.
Gosh, this man was insatiable, Chloe thought. Yet, although she was tempted, she knew if she didn’t leave now, she would never leave. He would just keep on seducing her and as attracted as she was to him, she would let him. It was now or never.
“That sounds good. Run the water, will you? By the way, where is my luggage?” Chloe asked innocently. To ease his suspicions, she wrapped her arms around his neck and began to plant kisses on his hair-roughened chin.
“Why do you want your luggage?” he asked.
Chloe’s breath caught in her throat at his question. She looked away to hide the guilt in her eyes. “Well…it
was
going to be a secret but I have my favorite bath oil in my suitcase and I want to pour it in the bathwater.”
Chloe’s mind went blank and she held her breath as he contemplated her words. The seconds seemed to tick by like hours. However, to her relief, he gripped her waist and helped her off the counter. Chloe snatched up the sheet, or what was left of it, off the floor and quickly wrapped it around her.
“Your luggage is in the dressing room, which is on the other side of the bedroom. You can unpack while the water is running.”
Nodding her head, Chloe made a move to leave the bathroom but something made her turn back to him. This would be the last time she would see him like this, the next time would be across the room in a court of law.
Feeling a twinge of guilt, she reached up on tiptoes, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him for the last time. Chloe closed her eyes and committed him to memory. She memorized the softness of his lips, the way his hair curled around her fingers and the hard feel of his chest against her breasts.
Sighing, she finally ended the kiss then stepped back. As she left the bathroom, she made sure she closed the door behind her.
Picking up the tail of the sheet, Chloe raced around the bed to the double doors leading to the dressing room. Upon entering, she was shell-shocked by the sheer size of the room, which was slightly larger than many people’s garages. And amazingly enough every single wall was taken up with rows and rows of expensive suits and shirts, which were most likely handmade and of every color imaginable.
Chloe walked over to the nearest rack and fingered the tailored pants, which were separated by style and color. Her husband was a man after her own heart—he was a true clotheshorse! She would never have to be ashamed of her hundred pairs of shoes living with him.
Despite discovering something they had in common, she didn’t waste any time in locating her luggage at the back of the dressing room.
As she unzipped her rollaway bag, she noticed that a wall had already been cleared to hang her belongings. Flipping open the top, she pulled out a pair of jeans and a cashmere sweater. As she pulled on her pants, she speed-dialed Shirley on her cell phone.
Chapter Two
“Come on, come on, wake up!” Chloe prayed.
“Calling to gloat?” Shirley yawned into the phone.
Chloe could feel the anger building in her throat threatening to choke her. Was everyone in on this farce of a marriage except her? Taking several seconds to calm her nerves, she tried in vain not to shriek in the phone.
“You know I got married?”
“Of course, I was there. You all needed a witness,” Shirley sighed. Chloe just knew she was rolling her eyes on the other end. “You know, girlfriend, for it to be so last minute, it was actually quite beautiful. He’d even flown in several dozens of your favorite Black Beauty roses.”
“Well, the honeymoon’s over,” Chloe announced, zipping up her jeans.
“Why? But I thought you were head over heels in love, well, maybe not love, but at least lust with him.”
“Was I?” Chloe asked. “The strangest thing is that I don’t remember anything! I mean, I remember bits and pieces. Don’t get me wrong. He would be a perfect catch but, girl, he’s completely nuts.”
“No! Girl, spill it.” Chloe knew that her friend was wide-awake now. Gossip could wake her out of a coma.
“Shirley, Mr. Drop-dead-gorgeous thinks he’s a vampire.” Chloe waited to hear the laughter on the other end. And, like clockwork, it spilled from her best friend of fourteen years like beans from a jar.
“No! Wait, wait, let’s use some common sense. Maybe he was just pulling your chain.” Good ole Shirley. She was always looking for the silver lining. But in this situation, there were no positives, her husband was truly mental.
“He was not pulling my chain! He even implied that I was becoming one as well. Therefore explaining my not being able to remember my nuptials.”
“Oh, this is classic! He’s trying to get you to become his Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Like in that movie.”
Although Chloe was the more levelheaded of the two, it never took Shirley too long to fall on the same page as she, thus providing the solid foundation of their long friendship.
Chloe picked up her suitcase and prepared to make her way out of this mess she’d made of her life. Praying her “husband” was still in the bathroom and oblivious to her motives, she poked her head out of the dressing room to make sure her escape would be clear.
Jumping Jehoshaphat! Her husband was richer than King Midas himself. As she crossed the bedroom, she finally noticed her surroundings. What walls were not made up of glass windows were covered in a dark teak as was the floor.
In the middle of the room sat a platform bed, which could easily accommodate ten. And judging from the seven-by-eight mirror hanging from the ceiling above, it probably had. On the opposite wall, directly across from the bed, a leather sofa and armchairs flanked a fireplace and several shelves of books.
Lord have mercy! Why did her husband have to be nuttier than her Grandma Violet’s fruitcake? Under different circumstances, she would have loved this lifestyle. But staying with him was out of the question. She had her own life back in Atlanta and she wasn’t ready to give it up for some psycho, no matter how sexy and rich he was.
“Hello, are you still there?” Shirley yelled into the phone, regaining her attention.
“Sh, you’re going to get me caught,” Chloe hissed. “Shirley, get your butt out of bed right now and meet me in the lobby in five minutes! We’re going to catch the earliest flight out of Las Vegas.”
Chloe scurried across the bedroom as fast as she could without making any noise. She looked toward the bathroom to see if she’d disturbed him but the door remained closed.
Easing out of the room, she didn’t bother to close the door behind her. Once she was in the hall, she took off like a champion track star. She flew past several doors that were most likely guestrooms or offices before she made it to the living room, which was half the size of a soccer field.
Like the bedroom, two walls were covered with the dark teak wood. And one looked out onto the strip below. However, one wall contained a set of double doors, which she correctly guessed led out to the hallway containing only a sideboard topped with fresh flowers and the penthouse elevator.
“Come on, come on,” Chloe muttered. She pressed the down button for what seemed like the hundredth time. But what seemed like hours was only a matter of seconds as the elevator dinged open. Obviously the service for this elevator was much quicker since it was only used by Tristan and his personal guests.
Stepping off the elevator, Chloe hustled across the miniature London Bridge, which connected the hotel’s guest towers to the front lobby.
As she passed the front desk, she caught the eye of the day manager. For some reason he seemed very familiar to her. Then it hit her—he’d been the one in charge of relaying messages back and forth between her and Tristan throughout the week.