Dare I? (3 page)

Abandoning these two to each other, she
started once more to observe the crowd, her eyes drifting between
bodies and faces, looking for that attitude she was certain came
with fangs and immortality. And finally, she found him. He wasn’t
on the dance floor, not yet, but his slow steps as he descended the
staircase, eyes scanning the crowd as Anna had been doing just
seconds earlier, had the same prowling grace as those dancers Anna
had labeled as vampires in her mind. She had to reach him before
someone else did; this hunter was hers.

As quickly as she could while wearing heels
made more for a slow and sexy walk than for speed, she hurried off
the bridge and down the metal stairwell, leaving her empty glass on
the first convenient surface she found. Her eyes never left the
man—the vampire—as she wove her way toward him through the dancing
crowd. He was still moving, as though looking for someone, but she
planned to make him forget whoever it was very soon.

When she finally reached him, she stepped
right in front of him and threw her arms around his neck. By a
lovely coincidence, at the same instant, the fast beat of the music
shifted to something slower even as the flashing lights dimmed
slightly. Anna couldn’t have timed it better if she had tried.

The vampire looked at her with surprise as
she started swaying in front of him, not too close yet, tantalizing
but not, she hoped, overwhelming.

“Hey.” She smiled, swallowing back what
remnants of nervousness were trying to come forward. “My name is
Anna.”

The music was still loud, even if it was
slower, and for a second she wasn’t sure he had heard her. But of
course he had; vampires had superior hearing.

“Chase. Can I help you?”

“Yes. You could dance with me for a
start.”

The surprised tilt of his eyebrows shifted to
amusement, but he brought his hands to rest on her hips and finally
started moving with her. Anna tried not to sigh her relief aloud.
He—Chase—was playing her game, following her steps, and unless she
messed up very badly, she would get what she wanted.

She kept her eyes locked to his as she swayed
to the music. The dance floor was dark, but she could still see
their color; they were green, light and full of life. They were,
also, still puzzled, and a little amused. As the song drifted on,
though, and Anna danced her way closer to him, the amusement slowly
transformed into something that, to Anna, looked like hunger. She
might have imagined it, but his hands felt a little heavier on her
hips. She could feel each of his fingers, tight on her flesh.
Somewhere at the back of her mind, she couldn’t help hoping he
would be just as possessive when she took him to her bed.

Too soon, much too soon, the song came to an
end. Lights started pulsating over the dancers again, the music
following a wild beat that had the crowd cheering its approval.
Anna remained as she was, her hands on Chase’s shoulders, and
slowly came to a stop. Chase blinked, then let go of his hold on
her.

“Drink?” Anna suggested.

She didn’t even hear her own voice, but after
a second Chase nodded. Dropping her hands off his shoulders, she
looped her arm through his. They walked up the staircases together.
With each step, a nagging voice demanded that Anna stop, that she
realize what she was doing, what she was risking. She refused to
listen. She would talk to him before going any further, and make
sure that she was safe with him—as safe as she wanted to be.

When they reached the first floor, Chase led
the way toward the private alcoves lining the walls rather than
sitting at one of the small tables on the open floor. Anna’s heart
jumped inside her chest, but she tried not to show her burst of
nervousness. She slid into the back of the booth, smoothing her
dress down her thighs and placing her purse next to her on the
leather bench. On her right, Chase was leaning against the back
rest, his head tilted to one side to look at her as though he were
trying to puzzle out a mystery. Before either of them started a
conversation, a waitress came by and asked for their order.
Thinking a bit of alcohol might help her relax, Anna ordered the
same cocktail she had had earlier. Chase, on the other hand,
requested a soft drink, which puzzled Anna.

“Afraid I’m trying to intoxicate you before
taking advantage of you?” she teased.

He smiled. “I’m just not very fond of
alcohol. And you should be the one worried about someone taking
advantage of you.”

“Someone?” Anna repeated, leaning forward.
“Someone like who? You, maybe?”

“You don’t know anything about me.” His grin
seemed forced, now. “For all you know, I could be the man your
mother warned you about when you were a child.”

The waitress returned with their drinks, and
Anna took the excuse of sipping on her glass to observe Chase a
little more closely. In the stronger light of the booth, his eyes
seemed even brighter than they had on the dance floor. His features
were strong, masculine, but light, very short hair made his face
appear softer. She wondered how old he was, and how old he had been
when he had been turned into a vampire. He seemed to be breathing.
She had heard recently turned vampires needed between a few months
and a few years to stop breathing involuntarily. She didn’t dare
ask, though; for all she knew, he would have taken a question about
his age as badly as she would have.

“I don’t think you’d hurt me,” she said at
last. “I’m good at reading people, and I don’t get a sense of
danger coming from you. Not any more than from what you are, that
is.”

“What I am?” He picked up the glass in front
of him, but took no more than a small sip before putting it down
again. “I’m curious, now. How do you know what I am? I thought I
was being discreet, but obviously I must be doing something to give
myself away.”

Smiling, Anna slid closer to him, dropping
her voice to a whisper. “I knew from the instant you stepped down
that staircase. The way you moved, the way you looked around you… I
just knew you were the one I came here to see.”

A last sip on her glass strengthened her will
and courage. She usually wasn’t one to make the first step or to be
too forward, but she was feeling something for the man in front of
her. Something she couldn’t explain, a connection she had only felt
before after weeks of dating someone. Remembering her resolve to be
daring, she closed what little space was left between them,
pressing her thigh to his, turning her body so that she could clasp
his hand on the table, and slowly, so very slowly, leaned in until
she met his lips. He went very still against her at first, as
though frozen, but soon he seemed to relax. Their lips parted at
the same instant and Anna’s tongue darted forward tentatively,
meeting his to discover the sweet taste of his drink. He stroked
back gently, more hesitantly than she would have expected, but it
made for such a sweet, tender first kiss that she couldn’t wish for
anything else.

* * * *

At the store, the row of tiny buttons closing
Anna’s new dress looked like a lovely and attractive detail. Now
that Chase is undoing them, one after the other, and pressing his
lips to the skin he gradually exposes, these same buttons are sheer
torture. Anna wishes he would just rip her dress open, although she
knows he won’t. It just isn’t in his character. He has a seemingly
infinite supply of patience. She guesses it comes from the hunting
he does most nights.

Her fingers card through his hair as he
slowly travels down her body. The champagne and strawberries left
her contented, and just a little lightheaded. Above her, the stars
twinkle to the sweet melody of violins, and she almost feels like
she’s flying.

Finally, the last button comes undone and
Chase opens the dress as though he were unwrapping a present. He
sits back on his heels and she can practically feel his gaze on
her, sliding over her bare breast, her belly, down her legs, and
back up again. She looks down from the sky and at him. The
expression on his face is pure hunger, and she shivers.

When he leans forward again, she expects him
to come up and kiss her. Instead, he kisses her bellybutton before
lapping at it, causing Anna to squirm and laugh.

“Shh…” The whisper trails as a caress down
her body, ending at the edge of her thong. “Be still, now,
lovely.”

His fingers hook behind the lacy fabric of
her panties over her hips and he pulls them down, excruciatingly
slow. The gentlest push of his hands and her legs open for him.
Anna closes her eyes and waits—not very long—for the first touch of
his mouth. When it comes, unhurried and sensuous, she sighs. His
tongue traces her nether lips, delving in to taste her wetness for
just a second, and then it nudges her clit.

Lazy warmth
spreads through Anna. Without even realizing it, she rests a foot
on the bed, pulling her leg out of the way and opening herself
further to Chase. He takes advantage of the space and pushes two
fingers inside her, his mouth still on her clit. The barest hint of
teeth ignites the sparks coursing through Anna and her breathing
becomes ragged. She wants to urge Chase to pump his fingers a
little faster, to curl them a little more, to bite a little harder,
but all she manages is a word.

“Chase…”

She could shout when, all of a sudden, his
mouth and hands disappear—and then she does shout when, after the
tearing sound of a foil package and a brief, fumbling moment, his
cock presses inside her, both too slow and too fast, too gentle and
too rough. Perfect. Always perfect.

Of their own accord, her arms and legs wraps
around Chase, pulling him closer, deeper. She was close, very close
when he entered her. Each movement brings her closer now, each
thrust, each slide, each kiss pressed to the pulse point on her
neck.

When she falls over the precipice, she pulls
him along with her and they fly together.

* * * *

Anna pulled back in shock when she realized
that his lips, his hands, his whole body against hers were warm.
She blinked and stared at him; he returned her stare, his
puzzlement obvious.

“Anna?” he asked, uncertainty tainting his
voice. He raised a hand toward her face but letting it drop again
without touching her.

“You’re not a vampire.”

The words came out too fast, and she
regretted them at once. She felt extremely foolish suddenly, and
even more so when Chase frowned in incomprehension.

“A vampire? Is that what you thought I was?
Why would you want to make out with one?”

She was utterly mortified and wanted nothing
more than to run off, but when she tried to move away, he briefly
tightened the hand still holding hers.

“Come on, Anna, you owe me an
explanation.”

He sounded a little disappointed and a little
hurt, beneath the continued puzzlement, and that was what, in the
end, convinced Anna to explain herself.

“I’ll tell you,” she sighed. “Just let
me…”

She tried to move again, and this time he let
her go. She slid on the bench, just far enough that she wasn’t
touching him anymore, and smoothed her dress down her thighs
nervously.

“I thought you were a vamp,” she started,
looking anywhere but at him, “because you move like one. I watched
you walk on the dance floor and…” She shrugged. “I was wrong.”

She dared a look at him as she finished, and
was surprised to find that the disappointment was gone, replaced by
the barest trace of amusement.

“I move like a vamp, heh?” he repeated, a
small smile touching his lips. “That’s the first time I hear it,
but I suppose it wouldn’t be too surprising.”

She wanted to ask him what he meant by that
but he didn’t leave her time to do it.

“So, you wanted to dance and make out with a
vamp, then? Why? You don’t strike me as the type of person who has
a death wish.”

Anna sat up straighter at that, feeling
almost offended. “Of course not! I just wanted to have fun.”

Reaching for his drink, Chase observed her as
he took a couple of swallows.

“You don’t have a death wish,” he said,
nonplussed, when he put the glass down again, “but you think making
out with a creature that can kill as easily as you breathe is
fun.”

She grimaced. “It’s not like that.”

“What is it like, then?”

He didn’t seem to be mocking her, or fishing
for more reasons to embarrass her. Instead, he appeared genuinely
curious. And so Anna told him about her friends, about their
adventures at the club, about fearing that she was the most boring
person in town, about her decision that she’d find a vamp and have
some fun with him. Chase let her talk, briefly frowning once or
twice but never interrupting her. When she was done, she almost
expected him to tell her she was a fool.

“If what you want is a nice story to tell
your friend tomorrow, you don’t need a vamp. I can help with
that.”

The cold edge to his voice took her aback. It
was far different from what he had showed until now. Words failed
her as outrage made her shake.

“What makes you think I would…How dare
you…”

“You’d have fucked a vamp and risked your
life to impress your friend, but a human is too safe for you?”

She opened her mouth to deny he was right or
to curse him, she wasn’t sure which, but truth hit her and wiped
away everything. She would have slept with him, if he had had
fangs, for no better reason than his being a vampire. It was as
silly—as foolish—as he made it sound. Shame burned her cheeks and
tears stung her eyes.

“Hey.” The blade in Chase’s voice disappeared
in a blink, and a glint of surprise sparked in his eyes. Strangely
enough, he almost looked guilty. “Don’t cry. I just wanted you to
realize… please. I didn’t mean—”

“
Yes, you did mean it. And you’re
right.
I’m an
idiot.”