Finding Fire: Paranormal Romance (Bad Boys Of The Underworld Book 1) (16 page)

Anna and Nicolas didn’t stay in Chicago long. They said brief good-byes to Shirley and Nancy and then wandered off into the city.

As Anna hadn’t eaten all night, Nicolas found a small restaurant that was open. By the time she’d finished eating, he was back with a nondescript Ford sedan.

After one stop at a gas station to refuel, they were back on the highway.

The only thing Anna had to occupy her mind during the slow morning hours was looking out the passenger window at the dark scenery. On previous road trips, she had some form of entertainment, be it books or music. At this hour, it was too dark to read. During the commotion at her apartment when she’d left the city, she’d forgotten to bring her MP3 player with her and there were somehow no radio stations playing anything she could stand.

Her only form of entertainment was Nicolas, and she didn’t feel like talking to him. She didn’t understand his motives and was unsure of how to proceed. Whenever she tried to talk to him about his past or his race, he evaded her questions and she didn’t want to have a verbal sparring with him at the moment.

After a few hours of silence, she broke down and asked, “Aren’t you bored?”

He looked over at her. “I have a lot of things on my mind at the moment.”

“I can relate to that. I’ve spent all night trying to push all my worries away, but they won’t leave me alone.”

“No happy thoughts? Things to look forward to?” He glanced over as if to gauge her response.

“Hmm...happy thoughts? Let me think,” she said. “Nope. Mostly just worries.”

“What if you get the answers you’re hoping for from Aleksander? What if you find out your father is alive? Isn’t that a happy thought?”

Anna tensed up. If Charles were still among the living, it would be her nightmare come true.

Nicolas must have noticed the change in her. “That’s not good?”

Anna didn’t feel up to discussing Charles with Nicolas, so she switched topics. “You remember that man Aleksander killed in front of me? His daughter and I were close. I don’t think it’s likely, but I would love to be able to see her again. Is there anyone you’ve missed while you’ve been gone?” she asked.

“There were some men I worked closely with for a long time. They were not happy when Aleksander took over. I’ll be happy to see all of them again.”

She narrowed her eyes. “No women to welcome you back?”

He laughed. “Are you asking if I’m available?”

She shook her head. “No. I’m asking if you had a whole line of women just waiting to get their chance with you when you were best buddies with the king.”

“That’s another way of asking if I’m available.”

“It might be, but now I’m getting the feeling you don’t want to answer the question.”

“I don’t.” He kept his eyes on the road and didn’t look at her. “I told you about the woman who took me in when I was on the run?”

“The bitch who turned you in? Yes, you mentioned that.”

He grinned at her. “Yep, that bitch.” He took a deep breath. “I was supposed to marry her.”

Anna gasped. “You were supposed to what? She did that to her own
fiancé
?”

“I can’t say I forgive her, but I will say we were getting married for political reasons and not for love.”

“Even so, could you imagine if you had married someone who was capable of betraying you like that? How uncomfortable that would have been for you?”

“We probably wouldn’t live together anyway.”

Anna frowned. “If you’re trying to defend the idea of marrying for politics, you should stop because nothing you’re saying is helping.” He got a small grin on his face but remained quiet, so she decided to see whether his chatty mood would continue. “Do all vampires marry for politics?”

“No. Most vampire marriages are because of deep, soulful companionship. Just the powerful ones will unite for politics. Not unlike humans, by the way,” he added.

“Still grosses me out.”

“I can understand you not liking it, but it ‘grosses you out’?” he asked.

“Well, imagine spending the rest of your life, which is a long life, with someone capable of turning you over to men who mean to kill you.”

“Annabelle, I think you’re forgetting something.”

“What’s that?”

“I’m a formidable opponent. If I ever had married her, she would have to be on the lookout as well.”

“That just means both of you would be miserable and unhappy. Two powerful miserable and unhappy supernatural beings are not healthy for any species.”

Nicolas nodded. “I can see a logic in that.”

Anna smiled. “I’m a very logical person.”

“I noticed.”

Once again, Anna was unsure whether he was happy about that or not.

“What about you?” asked Nicolas. “Are there any college boys pining after you?”

Anna tried not to laugh. “I’m not very nice to college boys,” she said. “I’m either their teacher and they’re too focused on grades, or they’re my colleagues who have no time to socialize because we’re all trying to work and write our dissertations.”

“You can always make time for the opposite sex if that’s what you want, especially an attractive, smart woman like yourself.”

Anna raised a brow. “Flattery? I think you’re more scary when you’re being nice. Now I have to figure out what you want so badly that you’ll hold your dark side at bay.”

Nicolas kept his eyes on the road. “It’s my dark side that wants you so much that it’s willing to play nice.”

She averted her eyes to look out the window. “I don’t want to talk about that.”

Nicolas obliged her by changing the subject. “Have you given any thought to what you would like to ask Aleksander?”

“Only for the past fifteen years. Why?”

“You might not have much time. You’ll have to have your most important questions at the tip of your tongue,” he said.

Anna nibbled on her lower lip while she thought. “Well, I need to know if my father and Evie are still alive, first and foremost. If they are alive, I would need to know how to find them.” Well, find Evie. She didn’t know what she’d do if she found out Charles was alive.

She continued, “If they are dead, then I’ll try to find out why. What’s your plan on getting me a chance to ask these questions?”

“We don’t have a plan quite yet,” he said.

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“It’s not that bad. I haven’t been to this place in sixty years. Before we set anything in stone, I’ll need to see what security measures are in place and who is in charge of enforcing them. I still know the layout like the back of my hand, and I have you up my sleeve, so we have some advantages,” he said.

“How am I an advantage?”

“You’re human, which is one surprise they won’t see coming. You’re also helping me, and no one would expect me to work with a partner.”

“No one would expect you to work with a partner? I can see that.” Anna smirked.

They drove past a billboard advertising a popular hotel chain. She glanced at the clock. It wasn’t that close to dawn, but it was getting there. “Where are we?” They had passed a larger city recently, but she hadn’t looked to see which one it had been.

“We are in the middle of Minnesota,” he answered.

“Minnesota? I’ve never been there before,” she said.

“Now you have. It’s nice, if you have time to appreciate it.”

Anna looked out the window, trying to get a feel for the state, but it was too dark to fully appreciate anything. “I’ll have to come back sometime,” she said wistfully to the window. “Are we stopping soon?”

Nicolas nodded. “It won’t be too long now.”

Only a little while later, they walked towards the entrance of a chain hotel together. She refused to let him go alone, considering the last time she had, he’d gotten a room with only one bed.

Right outside the doors to the lobby, Nicolas stopped and turned to Anna. “We need to discuss the room situation,” he said in a serious tone.

Anna took a breath. She’d been wondering about that too. “Can’t we get two rooms this time?”

Nicolas looked her directly in the eye. “We could get two rooms.” He took a step closer to her, and she resisted the urge to take a step back. “Or, if you would like, we could share a room.” The look he gave her left little doubt of exactly what he planned to do with her if they shared a room.

Anna did take a step back then. She’d avoided this exact question ever since they both boarded that bus together earlier that night. “How can I share a room with you after knowing what you did yesterday?”

She could see him tense up at the question, but he didn’t say anything. One of his hands came up to rest on her neck, and he tilted her face up to look at him. His mouth moved toward her, and she was so sure he was about to kiss her that she closed her eyes and waited for the electric shock that always seemed to flow through her when they kissed.

It never came. His hand left her, and he walked into the lobby of the hotel without saying anything.

Anna took a minute to collect her breath and thoughts. How could he turn her senseless in a matter of seconds? It never ceased to amaze her.

She walked into the hotel, and he was talking with the man behind the counter. The blank stare on the man’s face told Anna he was under Nicolas’s control.

She heard Nicolas’s voice command, “We’ll need two rooms next—”

“One room,” Anna interrupted. “One room and one bed.”

Nicolas’s head sharply turned in her direction. “One room?”

Anna just nodded and walked out of the lobby to grab her bag before she could change her mind.

When she walked back in, Nicolas leaned by the elevator, waiting for her. She avoided looking at him, and he was quiet as he pushed the button for the third floor. Anna’s heart beat frantically in her chest. She bet it beat so hard Nicolas could hear it.
How embarrassing.

When the doors opened, Anna rushed out, but stopped when she realized she didn’t know what their room number was.

Nicolas walked past her, and she followed him down the hall. He stopped at a door and slipped the small piece of plastic that was the room key into the lock.

When the door opened, Nicolas held it open for Anna. She walked past him and set her duffel at the end of the room next to the small table and chairs by the window.

She would have to talk to Nicolas. What could she say to him? What did she say to a man she fully intended to have sex with shortly? Anna wasn’t experienced in pre-sex conversation. She turned around and Nicolas was right in front of her. She gasped in shock at his nearness, and his mouth was on hers.

She didn’t fight it. This was exactly what she wanted. Her arms wrapped around his neck and pulled him closer. His hands slipped under her jacket and rubbed up and down her back. She almost purred at the contact. It felt so good, but she wanted more.

His tongue stroked in her mouth, and she opened for him. When she tentatively stroked his lips with her tongue, she was surprised at the feel of fangs against her. When she kissed him again, she took a second to test the feel of his fangs against her, and he must have liked it because a deep moan vibrated from his chest.

He maneuvered her arms away from his neck and pulled her jacket off in one quick motion. Now that they were separated, Anna got a good look at him. His large black eyes were completely focused on her, and his fangs peeked from under his upper lip.

A week ago, the sight would have terrified her. Now it excited her. She caused this. He wanted her that much. She’d never felt needed, but with the way Nicolas looked at her, she could almost believe that he needed her.

Once her jacket was on the floor, Nicolas grabbed the hemline of her shirt and pulled it up. Anna obligingly lifted her arms to help him undress her. Before her shirt could hit the ground, his hands found her breasts. She moaned at the new and unfamiliar pressure.

His head lowered to her flesh, and she felt the warm slide of his tongue slip under the cup of her bra. Her hands went up to his hair and pulled him closer. One of his hands pushed the cups up until her bare breasts were free.

His mouth went to one of her nipples and gently teased the sensitive tip between his teeth. The sharp tips teased her soft skin. She had to hold back a gasp as a bolt of arousal shot through her.

But instead of lingering at her breasts, he came back up and kissed her again. But she didn’t just stand there and take it this time. Now she was aggressive with what she wanted. She bit his bottom lip and gently pulled. A soft growl came from his throat. Her fingers twisted in his shirt and pulled it up and over his head.

When he was bared from the waist up, she pushed away so she could have a few moments to admire the view.

His chest was beautiful. He wasn’t bodybuilder big, but his muscles were well defined, and she wanted to trace every single ridge and crevice with her fingers…and her tongue. “You shouldn’t be allowed to wear a shirt,” she whispered while she stared in awe at him.