Coffin Girls (Elegantly Undead: Book 1 of the Coffin Girls Witch Vampire Series) (8 page)

“It should only take a few minutes to help the worst of the
hangover,” he offered that hope. “I think we should wait for half an hour and
then you can have the toast and tea.”

Anais shimmied down under the sheets again “Don’t talk about
food. Makes me want to puke.”

She was utterly adorable when grumpy and as cute as it was,
he was worried. She’d been grumpy a lot lately and it wasn’t like her at all.
It gnawed at him. He didn’t want one of his best friends in the world to be so
bogged down emotionally. “Flip over, Anais, I’ll give you a massage. It will
help those stiff muscles I felt yesterday and relax you while the brew works.”
God, what was he doing? It was hard enough to see her looking all rumpled and
sexy in her underwear and now he volunteered to platonically put his hands on
her – fucking masochist!

Half-way through the turn, she realized her state of
undress. Blushing, she pulled the sheets up to her chin. “Sorry, I didn’t
realise I was in my underwear. I guess I was too out of it last night to get
into PJ’s.”

Raulf chuckled, “I’m not sorry. It’s a view a guy can
appreciate.” He gently nudged her on her side. “Turn around, let me help you
relax.” At her hesitance to let go of the sheet, he tugged it gently. “I’ve
already seen what’s there before you pulled the sheet up so don’t be a prude.”

“I’m not a prude,” Anais bit back. Irked by being called a
prude, she kicked all the sheets off and flopped inelegantly onto her stomach.
Completely ignorant of the reaction she was having on Raulf, she briefly
acknowledged that the brew was working; she was glad that she could move around
easier – and the tingles she felt around him were nearly at their normal
elevated levels.

Lord have mercy, thought Raulf. She was even more perfect
than what he’d imagined. Tantalizing scraps of black lace barely covered her,
making his fingers ache with the desire to rip it off. Inhaling deeply, her
scent hit him; a combination of subtle spice and jasmine. The breath was
supposed to ground him. With that failed attempt, he called on his alpha and
fed off the control it reluctantly offered. The wolf wanted to play with Anais.

Anais moaned as he began working, kneading at her back.
“That’s bliss. You have magick hands, Raulf.”

“You say the best things.” His tone was playful but he was
heating up. His wolf howled with need. Gritting his teeth as her skin became
warmer, more pliable he focused on the job at hand; working his way down her
spine to where it met her perfectly shaped rear. Fuck he ached for this woman.
No, don’t think ‘fuck’ he mentally berated.

Moving down to her feet, he began massaging there, thinking
it safest to move his focus away from more tempting places. It didn’t help. It
just gave him a better view of the rest of her as he worked his way up her
legs. Anais was aroused, he could smell it. The wetness pooling between her
legs assaulted his senses inciting his wolf to howl in frustration. It was
self-inflicted torture but years of repressed lust for her impelled him to continue
touching her. 

Gently, slowly, he continued the rhythm he set in loosening
her muscles as he made his way up her thighs. The higher he went, the wetter
she got and the more he smelled her desire, increasing his own. When he moved
just past the point of her that was throbbing, he reached out and touched her
perfectly shaped bottom, a hand spanned across each delectable cheek. Anais let
out a moan of pleasure.

“Magick hands, Raulf.” The words slipped out. One part of
her was screaming against this obvious seduction and another wanted it, ached
for it involuntarily making her push into his large, warm hands.  

Anais turned around and looked at him with raw lust, her red
eyes telling. Pulling her into his arms, he continued his gentle assault and
kissed her. Soft lips met firm as he drank her in through the kiss, fueling the
passion between them. 

Anais fell into the moment, ensnared by those kisses. It was
as though her very essence was being drawn into what they were doing.
Instinctively, her arms pulled him closer, crushing her breasts to his chest.
She began to move, rubbing her breasts against him, enjoying the friction of
soft breasts in lace against the hairs covering his chest. The kissed, moved
and sank deeper. 

Raulf had waited for this moment for longer than was
comfortable, biding his time until she was ready. He hadn’t expected it to be
today but the wait had been worth it. More than worth it - she was magnificent.
She made him ache like no other woman had before.

“I want you, Anais. I’ve wanted you for so long,” he said in
between kisses, hungry, demanding, filled with emotion.

The spell broke. Sensibility won. “Wait!” She put a hand on
his chest to stop him. “We need to stop.”

“Why?” he asked looking at her straight in the eye. “I can
smell that you want me, want this.”

“I know. The scent is all over the place.” Taking a deep
steadying breath, she explained, “I do want you, Raulf but we can’t.”

The endearment didn’t soften the blow. Dragging his hands
through his hair, he propped against the headboard waiting for the explanation.
“Why?” he repeated.

Anais was battling the same frustration but she had to do
what was best for them. “I do want you.” She repeated and met his gaze hoping
he’d see the bridled desire and remorse evident in them. “But your friendship
means more to me than a quick bout of hot sex. Friends are hard to find when
you’re a vampire or a wolf. I couldn’t bear to lose you and not have you in my
life.”

“I think we’ve gone beyond friendship today, Anais. I have
enough faith in our friendship to believe that this is more than a quick bout
of hot sex and that we can overcome obstacles to our relationship when they
arise. We’ve known each other for so long that we’re well accustomed to each
other. We know each other as best friends and now I hope we’ll know each other
as lovers too. We can be so good together if you’d just allow it.” His voice
was filled with disappointment and hurt.

“We don’t know that for sure.” She moved up next to him and
took his hand. “I just don’t want to mess what we have. If it’s more than sex
to you, are you telling me that you’re ready to settle down into a long-term
relationship with me Raulf?”

“I want you, admire you and have loved you as a friend for
my whole life. A more intimate relationship between us will cement that, not
harm it.”

“I’ve always known you to be a romantic.” Anais commented.
“When you’ve lived as long as I have, you no longer belief in those fairy
tales. You still have some growing up to do and when you do, it will strip away
that romantic naivety.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it.” His voice held the fire
of angry frustration and fear of loss. “You’re just too scared to open up, to
share. I would never hurt you. I’m not your ex.”

“Of course you’re not my ex. But we can’t guarantee the
rest. I know you would never intentionally hurt me and neither would I you. But
we could still hurt each other unintentionally. If I were to hurt you like
that, I couldn’t live with myself.”

“You’re hurting me now.” Physically, his need was still
throbbing and emotionally, his heart was breaking while he heard her shatter
his hopes and dreams with every word. Exasperated by her obstinacy, he gripped
her arms, fixed his eyes on her. “Look at me and tell me that you don’t want
this, that you don’t want us. Tell me that you don’t want what we can have.
Love, togetherness and family.”

“I can’t give you family. I’m a vampire.” Better to break
his heart while he was young and had time to find happiness than later when it
was less probable.

“I don’t need children, Anais. You know that’s not what I’m
speaking about. You’re being deliberately obtuse and difficult. You’ve already
given me family. My family is here, in this house and the pack.”

“And the pack needs a leader with a partner that can stand
at his side. As alpha you need heirs to pass the sovereignty to.”

“That’s just tradition and I’m the alpha so I can change it.
There is no explicit law that states that I have to mate with only my own or
that an alpha is only born of another alpha. I can even recruit an alpha from
another pack – there are packs where an alpha is forced into submission by
another because of bloodline.”

“I can see that you’ve thought of this before.” Anais shook
her head. “For that, the hurt I’m causing, I’m sorrier than you could know but
I’m still not willing to spoil what we have with potential, not certain,
long-term romance.”

He pleaded to her, through the pain, “Give us a chance,
Anais. I know we’ll be good together and happy. I can make you happy.”

“No, Raulf, we’ll make each other miserable in the end. I
don’t want a romance between us.” She hated herself for the pain she was
causing them.

“You’re lying. I can take your fear, your self-depreciation
and your closely guarded heart as excuses but I won’t have you lie to me. That
is what will damage this friendship you claim to honor so much – lies.” Hurt
flashed to anger turning his eyes feral; the wolf was angry. He stormed out,
the echo of the slamming door reverberated across the room.

Anais groaned. This was infinitely worse than the hangover.
Courtesy of ‘the cure’, the hangover was gone to be replaced by a more
excruciating ache – for him. She fought the urge to run after him. It was
better for him to be hurt and angry now than to hate her later.  A soft
knock at the door yielded her self-depreciating tirade. She hastily
straightened the sheets. “Who is it?”

“Sophie”

“Come in.”

Sophie came in and felt the remnants of desire in the air.
It felt like wolf and vampire with a low undercurrent of witch. Well, well,
well. There’d been some interesting developments here. Grinning, she turned to
tease Anais and stopped when she saw her face, felt the anguish. With the look
on Raulf’s face as he stormed from Anais’ room and the guilt reflected on her
friend’s face, Sophie connected the dots. She’d console their wolf later, for
now; she crossed the room to her friend.

“Oh, Sophie, what a mess!” Anais sobbed into her friend’s
arms.

Sophie knew that the pain came from ghosts of the past and
fear for the future. There was more to it than Raulf but Anais wasn’t ready to
hear it yet or to open her heart to understand it so that she could love and be
loved. For now, she’d just hold her friend. “It’ll be okay, Anais. Things will
work out.” Sophie comforted, not truly believing the words herself.

Conall lounging in an over-sized velvet chair, observed the
flagrant goings-on around him with disinterest, while contemplating Yves’
extension of friendship and the ladies of Papillion. He studied the swirling
multi-colored fae beverage. He couldn’t pronounce the drink’s name any more
than he could Sylvain’s true name. The fae were powerful, ancient and secretive
and their language was no exception; known only to its kin. 

They were in the bayou fae hollow, one of many such fae
dwellings throughout this and other worlds that comprised the court of Sylvain,
King of Fae and was bespelled so that none other than those invited knew of its
existence.

To other creatures, human and supernatural, nothing made
sense in the dwellings of the fae; they were a species, magick and entity unto
their own. The bayou hollow, for one, did not resemble anything remotely
related to its environment.  There was none of the hot humidity in its
climate, no mosquitoes, no gators – unless that’s what you wanted. It was each
individual’s Utopia and therein lay the danger – the old lore was true in that
many people became ‘lost’ in the world of fae. The activities and physical
environments within a court were just as staggering, catering to the
preferences of the faeries living in it. One fae home could be a snow-covered
resort-styled mansion and another’s could be a beach hut on the sand of an
island.

The space they currently occupied looked like an ancient
Turkish harem, with a huge steaming bath taking centre stage where Sylvain was
receiving erotic caresses by females of other-world beauty. Jewel colors of
fabric alleviated by the lush green of plants that shouldn’t be flowering
indoors, light of the sunny outdoors present indoors, oversized furniture for
them to sink into and tables groaning under the weight of food and drink.
Unlike vampires and witches who possessed human DNA, the fae creatures
completely comprised of magick who used their magick unashamedly to live their
lifestyle in hedonistic pleasure.

 “After all these years it still astonishes me when I
visit the court.” Conall looked over to where Niul, his life-long friend, was
prostrate on cushions scattered around the steaming pool. Unfortunately, Conall
grinned, Niul had been in Ireland too long and his skin was gleaming luminous
white. “It’s a pity you can’t get a tan there Niul. Looking at you is hurting
my eyes.”

“Sod off, Conall, I’m not as vain as you to self-tan myself
with magick,” Niul looked daggers at him for interrupting the attentions he was
getting from the beautiful fae, Siarrinah. Unfortunately for Niul, Siarrinah
took offense at his wondering attentions – even for the brief retort at Conall
so she stormed off, leaving Niul with a tan, with the swish of her hand and an
unattended erection.

Conall rolled his eyes, as beautiful as it was the fae court
was too fickle to entice him permanently. Sylvain was about to get friskier
with the women than Conall was comfortable to witness and he decided that it
was as good a time as any to interject. He linked with his friend’s minds and
sent them a message to stop and re-group to discuss their assignment.

“You’re no fun. There used to be a time when you’d have
joined us, Conall.” Sylvain sent back.

“Aye,” grumbled Niul into the mind link. “After being in a
house of gorgeous women that cannot be touched, it’s a crime that you’re
manipulating so that we stop.”  He got up and moved to sit on one of the
cushions surrounding the low table next to Conall.