Jagger (Blood Brothers) (7 page)

Camryn giggled. “You’re outrageous.”

Jagger chuckled enjoying this easy banter with her. It was the first time he felt he was making some actual headway, albeit small. “Do you like outrageous? I can be even more outrageous if you’d like me to be.”

“No. I just want you to act normal.”

“Normal is boring. But if your friendship is what you have to offer me for now, I’ll take it. Shall we shake on it?”

“Don’t push your luck, buddy.”

<><><><>

Montana Donavan squealed on the other end of the phone. “She’s having the baby now? Why didn’t she call me earlier? I thought we were girlfriends!” Her godmother was an excitable woman; Camryn sometimes wondered how opposites like her mother, who was calm and laid back, and Montana, who was high maintenance and outspoken, had remained best friends for nearly thirty years.

“I don’t think she had much of a chance. I would imagine since this is Marc’s first baby after losing his son that he was so excited he rushed her off. At least, that’s the version I’ve been told.”

“Who told you? Wasn’t your mother there when you arrived?”

“No. Actually, Marc’s nephew, Jagger, was here. He’s keeping me company, but trust me, you are the second person I called. I had to tell Darren first, of course. He’s thrilled.”

“So you’re in the house alone with...” Montana’s voice lowered several decibels, “one of them?”

“Why are you whispering?”

“Can’t he hear you? They have great hearing, you know.”

For as long as Camryn had known Montana, the older woman had never seemed to be afraid of anything or anyone but there was a surprising hint of fear in her voice. She wondered what had happened between Montana and the Grimaldi family to frighten her fearless godmother. “I’m aware of that, but Jagger’s hauling my stuff to my room.”

“You’re not still driving that black hunk of junk, are you?”

“I am and it broke down on me ten minutes from the house. My cell phone battery died and I was stranded.”

“How did you get there?”

“I played with some wires under the hood. This guy, I know, showed me how one of the cables keeps getting disconnected from this thingamabob. I don’t know what it’s called, but he told me what to do if my car stalled again. I must have done something wrong because there was a mini explosion, but I managed to reconnect the wires.”

“So it did start?”

“Sort of. It made the most awful noise, coughing and sputtering the entire way here, and to top it off, it only went five miles an hour. I think my poor baby is on its last legs.”

“That piece of crap has been on its last legs for the past ten years. When your father bought that car for your mother, it was already three years old. That cheap bastard could have sprung for a new ride, he certainly could have afforded it instead of spending his money on his floozies.”

“Montana, even though he isn’t my favorite person right now, he’s still my father.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry. I just get so angry when I think about how that assh—he treated your mother for all those years.”

“She had the option to leave but she never did.” Camryn tried to inject a nonchalance into her voice that she didn’t feel. Talking about her parents’ marital problems was a sore spot for her. It still had the ability to make her tear up for the little girl who’d lived through the arguments, mental, and verbal abuse.

“You have to know it wasn’t that simple. She believed she was making the right decision by staying. But enough about that, I just need to leave the past where it belongs, in the past. Anyway, do you want me to come over to keep you company? In case you don’t want to be alone with that…with whatever he is.”

“I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? I know Maggie says vampires are safe, but...there’s something I can’t quite shake about them. Something I don’t like.”

“Look, I’m not exactly ecstatic my mom has become a bloodsucker, but she’s happy with Marc so I’m happy for her. If I for a second thought he’d harm a hair on her head, I’d stake him through the heart.

“I guess you’re right, but once when I went to visit something happened.”

“What?”

“That’s just it. I don’t remember anything, except the color red, so it must have been horrible. I get chills when I try to force the memory. Just be careful, okay?”

“I usually am. You have nothing to worry about. I can take care of myself.”

“Famous last words. You just watch yourself, young lady. Maggie tells me the Grimaldi men are great charmers.”

“I can’t be charmed,” Camryn shot back, growing frustrated with the conversation.

“Your mother wasn’t looking for anything either and the next thing I know, she’s pregnant, in love, and getting married. Trust me, those men move fast. Once they decide they want you, you can pretty much count your freedom goodbye.”

That’s what Camryn was afraid of but she wouldn’t admit it. “Like I said, I’ll be fine.”

When she finally hung up the phone, Camryn was struck with the decision of whether to join Jagger in the living room or run to her room and hide. Though the idea was appealing, she couldn’t avoid the guy forever and she’d already made the appropriate phone calls. It was nearly one o’clock now, but she wasn’t sleepy.

Pulling an elastic band from her pocket, she fixed her hair into a ponytail as she remembered how Jagger had told her he wanted to run his fingers through her hair. That wasn’t going to happen if she could help it.

She found him on the couch playing solitaire on the coffee table, a look of concentration on his handsome face. She had never had the chance to study him like this when he was unaware of her. A lock of thick black hair fell over his forehead, and his profile was strong, his jaw square.

Camryn’s breath caught in her throat. Jagger’s looks were almost surreal. She’d only ever seen men like him in magazines and even then, she knew they were heavily photoshopped. All the Grimaldi men were incredibly good-looking but none of them affected her the way Jagger did. At that moment, she wished he wasn’t so easy on the eyes. Instinct told her to turn around and head to her room, but she remained rooted to the spot. “You can do this. You are not interested in a relationship. You don’t need a man,” she chanted under her breath.

Without turning away from his task, he asked, “Are you going to stand there talking to yourself or will you join me?”

She’d forgotten about his sensitive hearing. “I wasn’t talking to myself.”

“Oh, so I didn’t hear you muttering about not needing a man? My mistake.” He continued to lay cards on the table, still not bothering to glance her way.

Why his sudden lack of attention bothered her was baffling. “Okay, fine. Maybe I did say I don’t need a man. It’s true.”

“Of course you don’t,” he murmured, still not turning his head in her direction. His accent was too sexy for words. Was there anything about him that wasn’t hot?

Again, she had the chance to leave the room but remained in the same spot. It was as if a force she couldn’t quite explain kept her from running away. She wanted to blame Jagger for putting a spell on her but deep down, Camryn knew that wasn’t the case. “So, uh, what are you doing?” she asked despite knowing the answer already.

“Playing solid.”

“Solid?”

“You know, the card game one plays alone.”

She giggled at his mispronunciation. It was kind of cute. “I think you mean solitaire.”

“
Da.
That’s probably what I meant. My English gets mixed up sometimes.”

Camryn took the seat on the opposite end of the couch from Jagger. “You sound as if you’ve been speaking it for years.”

“I have, all my life, actually, although I don’t use it as often as I should and I don’t speak it as well as I’d like. My grandmother is English, so I learned Russian and English from the cradle. She would speak English exclusively to me but when I was around ten, she stopped coming around. I believe she and my mother didn’t see eye to eye on some things and that was the end of her visits. My mother is pretty proficient with languages so I would practice my English with her as well. It’s not as good as I’d like it to be because I still mess up a word from time to time.”

“What other languages do you speak?”

“Czech, French, Polish, and a smattering of German.”

“That’s impressive. I took five years of Spanish in high school and college but I’m nowhere near fluent.”

“It’s really not that remarkable. My father speaks over fifty languages and there are so many more for him to learn. I’m sure you can imagine I have a ways to go before I even catch up to him or my uncles.”

“You’re only thirty, right? For your age, I think you’re definitely on track to pick up several more. After all, you do have an eternity to do it,” she whispered, remembering he wasn’t human.

“I sense your unease; there is no need to be frightened of me. I’m not so different from you.”

Camryn couldn’t help snorting at that comment. “Um, I’m not a bloodsucking warlock vampire, or vampire warlock. Whatever you call yourself. What do I call you anyway?”

He looked at her, then revealed a perfect white smile that made her heart flutter. “Jagger will do nicely. And I agree you’re not a bloodsucker, as you so quaintly put it. You’re a beautiful young woman—and an extremely desirable one, at that, but as I was saying, you shouldn’t judge immortals so harshly without getting to know us.”

“You suck blood and have magical powers. What else is there to understand?”

He laid the deck of cards down. Sweat broke out on her forehead, when she noticed his muscular hands flex and stretch.

“Can I ask you a question without you becoming offended?” His gaze bore into her.

“It depends on what the question is.”

“Okay, answer me this: do you always make judgments about people you barely know without getting to know them or does that particular honor just belong to me?”

His question threw Camryn for a loop. “Of course not. I try to give everyone I meet a fair chance.”

“Yet from the moment we met, you’ve been hostile toward me and I don’t believe I deserved it.”

“You were stalking me! How else was I supposed to act?”

“That excuse would actually be valid if you weren’t that way at our first meeting and as for the stalking, I admit that I visited your school twice, once without your knowledge. By the way, the first time, was simply to see you and nothing more. I couldn’t stop thinking about you so I wanted to know for certain if I had imagined the instant attraction I felt toward you. I saw you on campus, watched you have lunch with a couple friends and that was it. Afterwards, I left. The second time, I revealed myself so if you want to call me a stalker fine, but you don’t get to use that as an excuse to describe your passive aggressive attitude toward me.”

Camryn opened her mouth to refute his statement but Jagger wasn’t finished.

“And you make disparaging remarks about my heritage.”

“How and when have I done that?”

“You don’t think calling me a bloodsucker marginalizes who I am as a person? Trust me Camryn. I’m much more than that. I’m not easily offended and the word itself doesn’t bother me but the vehemence you use behind it does. I bet you’d be surprised to know, I’ve only ingested blood only once in my entire existence.”

By now, she was mortified that she had somehow offended him by throwing words around so carelessly. She was no stranger to discrimination and it sickened her that she could be that way toward anyone else. She cupped her flaming cheeks as she looked away from the intensity of his stare. “I didn’t know. This is pretty embarrassing.”

He scooted closer to her on the couch and gently placed his hand on her knee. An electric current tore through her body at that slight contact. Before she could move away from his touch, Jagger removed his hand first. “Camryn my goal isn’t to embarrass you but to get you to see me. There are bad warlocks, shifters, and vampires out there and, they’re a threat to all of us. But just as there are bad immortals, there are bad humans. Yes, I’m a vampire-warlock hybrid but that’s not all I am. I’m a man who saw a woman I felt an instant connection to and whether you believe it or not, you’re more of a danger to me than I am to you.”

“Now you’re pulling my leg,” she muttered still too afraid to make eye contact.

“Look at me, Camryn.”

She shook her head.

“Please.” Even though he’d asked politely, the command still remained in his tone.

Slowly, she raised her head and gasped at the naked and unabashed lust in his amber gaze. Camryn couldn’t move if she wanted to. It seemed like the more she tried to fight the attraction between the two of them, she found herself even more drawn to him.

“You have the power to hurt me more than you can know, Camryn. I know you’re not ready to hear this yet, but I have feelings for you and I think you may feel the same way. And before you use the short span of our acquaintance as an excuse, my heart doesn’t need forever to know how I feel. I respect that you still have to come to terms with those feelings and that’s fine, but don’t use my being immortal as shield for your hang-ups. I think it’s best if I go to another part of the house before I do something like break my promise to my father.”

Camryn wasn’t sure what that last part meant but she felt like a first-class jerk. Though he hadn’t come right and said it, she’d hurt him. She didn’t want to be the source of anyone’s pain, let alone someone who’d just poured their heart out to her. When Jagger stood to leave, she grabbed his wrist. “You don’t have to go.”

A half smile curved his lips. “I think I do. I’m not sure I can trust myself around you without a repeat of Atlanta.”

There was a flutter in the pit of her stomach as she remembered that day. The scary part was, even if he did make an advance toward her, she wasn’t sure she’d stop him. “Okay, but…I wanted to apologize. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to come off as ignorant in my comments. You’re right, they were offhand and I didn’t think.”

“Camryn, I don’t want you to apologize, but if you have any questions about my being a vampire, I’d rather you asked instead of making blanket assumptions based on what you might have seen in a movie or read in a book. Deal?”