Teased (8 page)

Chalton nodded. “Okay. Go get mom, and get all the information you can. In fact, bring her here, just in case she’s in danger from whomever is trying to get us all involved in this. Find out who told her to hire you.” He reached for his phone and called Jared, having kept tabs of his brother’s location and contact information through the years. “Where are you?” he asked when his brother snapped a greeting.

“On my way to have a little discussion with the group that hired me. Somebody is setting us up, and I’m starting with them.”

Chalton nodded. “Good plan. Theo is getting mom and bringing her to Benny’s. Apparently somebody got to her, too…and that’s how he was hired.”

“Fuck. I’ll call you when I get answers.” Jared clicked off.

Chalton shoved his phone in his pocket. “He gets more charming every year.”

“Look who’s talking.” Theo opened the door. “I’ll be back with mom. Bye, Olivia.” He swept outside, and the door automatically locked behind him.

Olivia turned around, nicely framed by sparkling lights across the city. “Your family is very interesting.” She glanced at the door behind him, at his bare chest, and then at a spot over his shoulder. “So.”

“So.” Amusement dashed through him as his body finished repairing itself. His injuries weren’t bad enough for him to need somebody else’s blood, but he’d truly love to bite her anyway. So far, he’d treated her with kid gloves, and now they had to come off. “I know it’s been a long day, and you’ve had more than one shock to your system, so as soon as you give me the name of your source and the location for your research materials, you should catch some sleep while you can.”

“No.” Her eyes, tired as they looked, still spit sparks at him.

“No?” he asked, pushing away from the door.

She held her ground, her gaze turning very alert. “I will, however, make a deal with you.”

“Is that so?” He reached her in several long strides, stopping just close enough to force her to tilt her head to meet his gaze. Intimidation was a necessary evil, and although he hated to frighten her, other enemies would do much worse. “Give me the terms of this deal.”

She crossed her arms beneath her ample breasts. “Back away.”

“No.” His dick went hard as rock, and tension began to filter around them.

Pink climbed into her cheeks, and she licked her lips.

He bit back a groan. Why did she have to be so delectable? “What’s the deal, Olivia?”

She cleared her throat, and a vein pulsed wildly in her delicate neck. “I’ve been thinking about the situation, and I guess I understand why you’d want to keep your existence private.”

“Good.”

She relaxed her arms and pushed back her hair. “I’ll stop writing the articles so long as you fix my friend, Ronni.”

Ah, what a sweetheart. “Who’s your source?”

“My source stays protected.” Her chin firmed into a stubborn, albeit very cute, rock.

“No.” Regret tore through him, but he couldn’t allow for emotion quite yet. “I have to know the identity of your source to figure out how they gleaned the information.” While Olivia may not understand the issue, the breach in protocol merely ended with her. It had to have started somewhere else.

“Sorry. Source stays protected.”

He rubbed his chin and studied her. “I want to be reasonable, but I have my orders, Livy. Give me the source, and I’ll do my best to make sure he’s protected throughout this.”

Her nostrils flared. “You’re lying.”

He lifted his chin. Yeah. There was a good chance that her source was an immortal enemy that had wanted to draw out the Reese brothers, and as such, he would be beheaded for leaking such information. “How do you know?”

She shuffled her feet and broke eye contact. “Good instincts.”

“Are you empathic?” he murmured.

She jerked. “No. I don’t think so.”

Interesting. “But you can tell a falsehood?” He’d never heard of an enhanced female being able to do so, but it could be an offshoot of empathic abilities, so it did make some sense.

“I just have good instincts.”

Ah, the lies humans told themselves to avoid anything they couldn’t rationalize with logic. He stepped right into her space.

“What are you doing?” she gasped, her chest rising.

He slid curly dark hair off her shoulder. “I’m facing a bit of a dilemma.”

Her head lifted, although her gaze only reached his lips and stayed there. “How so?” Her voice lowered to a breathiness that licked along his cock.

“I need a shower to wipe off the blood and grime, so my choices are to bind you or have you join me.” It was crazy, but he’d give his left arm for her to join him in the shower.

She half-coughed and half-laughed. “Are you hitting on me?”

His hand curled around her nape. “Yes.”

Her gaze lifted to his, and her pupils widened. “That’s insane,” she whispered.

“I know.” Hell, the woman was right. “But here’s the deal. My brothers won’t return for several hours, and then we’ll have to move again. I want you, and you want me, so let’s take the edge off so we can think.” His mind hadn’t been clear since he’d first sighted her two days ago, and he needed clarity. One good night, and he could get her out of his system. “What do you say?”

“I say you’re crazy.” She stepped back against the window. “If all I wanted was an orgasm to take the edge off, I sure as heck don’t need you for that.”

Humor bubbled up, and he full-on laughed. The woman was one of a kind. “Well then.” His hands slowly went to unbuckle his belt, and he drew the heavy leather through the loopholes, quite enjoying the way her breath caught and her eyes widened. “Plan B it is, then.”

Every dark fantasy she’d had in her wild mind flashed through her brain. “Wh-what are you doing?” she asked, her lungs feeling way too full all of a sudden.

He grinned and continued releasing the belt.

Yeah, she was more tempted than she would like to jump his bones and just go for it. The guy was a vampire—a real, honest to goodness, vampire. Somebody with advanced genes could probably go all night, right? Probably all night and all of the next day.

She liked sex. Sure, it had been a long time since she’d tried it, and it had never been crazy fireworks time, but she’d liked being close to a man. Her last boyfriend, an accountant named Chuck, had taken a while to get going but had then been all right closer to the finish line.

Something told her Chalton didn’t need any time to get going, and he’d probably be much better than all right.

Yet, she wasn’t giving up Helen, her source, and so far, Chalton hadn’t promised to save Ronni. Sleeping with him would be a colossal mistake, and she’d lose leverage. “What’s up with the belt?” she asked again, eying the thick leather. A slow shiver wound through her body.

His grin widened. Shoot. He’d seen the shiver.

“Livy.” His voice deepened to nearly guttural.

Desire unfurled in her abdomen. Then reality slammed her in the face. “Are you glamoring me?” she asked, anger rippling along her skin.

His eyebrows drew down. “Glamoring?”

“Yeah. What vampires do.” She put her hands on her hips. “Making me want you.”

He chuckled again. “Oh, you want me, and it’s all you. There’s no such thing as glamoring.”

Truth. She opened her senses, and he was definitely telling the truth. “Oh.” Then she focused on the belt, and her knees bunched to run around him.

Quick as a whip, he grasped her wrist. “That’s a pretty blush you have there, gorgeous. What exactly are you imagining me doing with this belt?”

She stopped breathing, and her face heated to the point of pain. No way was she into all the “tie ’em up and spank ’em” rage going on right now. Yet there was something undeniably sexy about that leather in his strong, and no doubt capable, hands. “We, ah, are not on the same side here.”

“We could be,” he murmured. “If you keep publishing information about us, you’re going to harm a lot of people. I know you don’t want to hurt anybody.”

No, she didn’t. “All you have to do is save Ronni, and I won’t publish another word. I promise.”

He sighed. “We can’t save human hearts, sweetheart. Hell, we can’t even cure the common cold or cancer. We don’t have the knowledge, either.”

“There has to be something you can do.”

He studied her, those dark eyes seeming to see everything. “There is one thing, but it’s asking for a lot.”

Her chin lifted. “What is it?”

“She’s an enhanced female human, so somebody could mate her, and her chromosomal pairs would increase to near immortality, so her heart would repair itself.”

“Enhanced?” Olivia asked.

“Yes. I searched her apartment when she was sleeping to see if your research was hidden there, and she definitely gives out vibrations. Strong ones. I’m guessing that’s what drew you as friends, and I’m thinking she’s probably psychic.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Many human females are most likely distant cousins to the witch nation, and they have gifts beyond the norm like visions, empathic abilities, or many others, and they can mate an immortal.”

“Mate?” Olivia’s voice wavered on the end.

“Yes. It’s forever, probably. So like I said, it’s a lot to ask.” He ran the leather through his hands. “Since this is my mission, I’d be on board. So if that’s your final offer, it looks like it’d be me.”

No! The reaction careened inside her and planted in her heart. “I assume mating means what it, well, means?”

“Yes. Sex and a good bite…and forever.”

She blinked. “You said
probably
forever.”

He nodded. “There was a virus that attacked vampire mates, hence all the research you found, but we cured it. The queen modified the virus, so technically the mating bond of immortals can be reversed.”

“Technically?”

He shrugged. “The reversal has only worked on mates who’ve been widowed for centuries and not from currently living mates.”

“Has anyone still living and mated tried?”

“No.”

This was all so unbelievable. “Isn’t there somebody else who could mate Ronni?” Not that Ronni would probably agree, anyway.

“My mission, my duty.” He lifted a shoulder the size of a small mountain. “It’s how it works.”

Olivia kicked an imaginary pebble. “I want to save my friend, but I don’t want to force you into a forever relationship with somebody you’ve never met.” With somebody that wasn’t Olivia. Geez. She had it bad for the guy.

“A lot of matings are arranged, so it’s not unheard of in my culture.” His gaze pierced hers and deep. “I do have one condition.”

Tingles exploded throughout her abdomen. “Which is?” she croaked.

“One night with you.”

Her entire body stopped moving, and her heart probably stilled for just a second. “You want to sleep with me as a condition?”

“There won’t be any sleeping.”

She slowly shook her head. “You’re trying to blackmail me for sex?”

“It’s extortion, not blackmail. And you tried to extort me first.”

This was all just way too insane. “I can’t sleep with you and then have you sleep with my best friend for life.”

“Like I said, there won’t be any sleeping. Look at it like different lifetimes…Ronni won’t be here any longer if I mate her, and your friendship will be over.”

Olivia blinked. “Why won’t she be here?”

“My mate?” Both of his eyebrows rose. “She’ll be somewhere safe at headquarters whether she likes it or not.”

The possessive tone did very unnerving things throughout Olivia’s body, the least of all creating a little jealousy. “I can’t ask you to mate forever, even to save my friend. Besides, there has to be a cure out there. Your people must have incredible resources, and I’m sure they could find one to save a heart.”

“Perhaps.” Chalton rubbed his chin. “But I doubt it. The queen works brutal hours trying to cure diseases, and so far she hasn’t succeeded with human ones.” He dodged forward and tossed Olivia over his shoulder again.

“What are you doing?” she squawked, once again looking down at his fine ass.

“Done talking.” Turning, he began to move through the living room.

Well that didn’t sound good.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Chalton strode for the bedroom, a wiggly woman over his shoulder and fire in his heart. It would be his duty to mate Ronni, but every cell in his body protested vehemently.

He’d never believed in fate, and he sure as hell didn’t believe in soul mates.

Yet having Olivia in the same space as him felt right. When she laughed, he could actually feel the humor, and when she seemed sad, every urge he owned pushed him to make it right.

Was she his?

If so, how could he mate her best friend? How could he mate anybody? Maybe he couldn’t. There had to be something…more. In order to mate, there had to be that something that mated vampires couldn’t even explain.

He didn’t have the words, either…but he felt it for the woman now struggling to get off his shoulder. “Knock it off.” He jostled her just enough to illustrate her precarious position.

She stilled.

He’d never drop her, but the threat was there, now wasn’t it? She didn’t know him well enough to understand he’d break every bone in his body before allowing her to get even a bruise. Good thing, too. The woman would certainly use that to her advantage.

He strode through the long entrance to the bedroom and dropped her onto the larger than life four-poster bed. She bounced and quickly scooted up to the headboard, her eyes wide.

And interested.

He sighed. “I also should tell you that the mating with Ronni might not work.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m interested in somebody else, and none of us really understand how or why we mate who we do. Some believe in fate.”

Her hands curled into the thick bedspread. “Who are you interested in?” The tone came out accusatory and a little hurt.

He frowned. “You.”

She blinked and her lips formed a slight
O
. “We just met.”

“That doesn’t seem to matter to vampires,” he said wryly.

“I’m not easy,” she spat out, seeming to be arguing with both of them.