The Sorceress Screams (17 page)

I stepped
aside because I had no other choice. If I wanted the ring back, I had to make a
go of this dating-a-vampire thing.

Maximo glanced
at my lips as if he were contemplating a kiss. My cheeks warmed as the memory
of his previous kisses played out in my mind. I turned my back on him, hiding
the reaction. Back to my futon I retreated so there’d be space between us.

He stood clad
in his blue jeans and black button down shirt near the door. His attention
darted around the room as I plunked down onto the futon. More than likely he
found my apartment lacking in comparison to his beautiful Spanish
Colonial-style villa. I could only claim a lumpy futon, a huge beanbag chair,
and one torch lamp as my furniture. None of it matched.

“Graduate
student chic.” I picked up my laptop, hiding my embarrassment.

Maximo’s focus
switched away from the open bedroom door where my bed sat unmade. Fortunately it
was around the corner and thus unseen.
“Hmm?”

“I said,
‘graduate student chic’.” I waved to the futon beneath me and the other items
atop the bare travertine floor. “I didn’t have room for more than this at my
old place. And I was on a budget.”

His amiable
smile increased. “It’s cozy.” After a last glance around, he neared the futon.
And then he sank down on the opposite end.

I closed my
laptop’s browser windows so he wouldn’t know I’d been looking up how to cleanse
the blood of his faction’s muck. He continued taking in the room for a few
seconds before facing me.

“You don’t
have a television,” he said. “I thought all mortals your age had at least one.”

“Mortals my
age use the Internet more than television.”

“Ah.” The fact
he didn’t argue implied he hadn’t been around “mortals” my age often. That
figured if he’d dated the same woman for the last century and a half.

He slid his
back against the futon’s wooden arm, drawing a knee up in front of him. The
pose shifted his torso in my direction. “How was your day?”

That seemed
like an odd question.

While popular
culture would have us believe it was an ordinary query, I wasn’t sure anyone
had ever asked me. My mother would have known the answer without asking. And
Trip… He’d never cared how my days went so long as I was miserable.

“Fine,” I said
uneasily. How much news did Maximo get about the day’s events while he was … sleeping?
I went ahead and told him in case he’d find out. “
Dea
Woods asked to have lunch with all of the enthralled witches and had me come
along. Desmond hosted it.”

Maximo’s lips
pursed until he brought his leg down and slid a foot closer. “Was it tedious?”

I forced my
back to relax. He wasn’t touching me, yet, but he was near.

“There was a
lot of repetition in the stories,” I said. “But it wasn’t tedious.”

“What did
Desmond the dick serve?” Though his tone was light, his expression was still
dark. He and Desmond clearly had history neither had mentioned.

“He made
manicotti.”

The vampire’s
head drew back a few inches. Surprise colored his eyes. “He really cooks?”

“Yes.”

“Does he cook
well?”

I glanced away
before realizing what I was doing. My eyes swung back to his. “He’s not a
horrible cook.”

Maximo made a
sound of contemplation. Then he reached out a hand. He brushed the hair away
from my cheek. His thumb slid over the shell of my ear, drawing another
shiver—this one I couldn’t hide. Tiny waves of sensation spread out across my
arms even though he hadn’t touched them.

The vampire’s
lips lifted into a full smile. Twin lines formed from his nose, curling around
his mouth in low relief. Several fine wrinkles formed around his eyes. He had
the kind of smile that was almost impossible not to return. And when he’d lower
his head until his gaze was hooded, he looked just a little mischievous. His
open collar invited me to look. The top two buttons on the shirt had been
unfastened to show his olive-sienna skin and the spattering of sable hair on
his chest. He was also a little too sexy.

Maximo dropped
his hand from my ear and simultaneously drew back against the futon’s wooden
arm. I shouldn’t have experienced a pang of disappointment that he’d put
distance between us. But I did.

His thigh came
up against the cushion in what couldn’t have been a comfortable position.
Without a word, Maximo took hold of my bicep. He drew me across the piece of
furniture until my
tush
was settled against his
pelvis. My spine went rigid along his chest as I struggled with competing
emotions of fear and something warm I refused to name.

With slight
pressure on my shoulders, he repositioned me until my
tush
and legs remained on the futon and the rest of me reclined against his cool
body. His lavender scent flooded my nose as the air settled around us.

Maximo let out
a soft sound of contentment as his right arm wrapped around my waist. The other
hand brushed the hair over my ear for the excuse it gave him to touch the
sensitive outer shell again.
Damn my
shivering body
.

“Relax.” His
lips were far too close to my opposite ear and more importantly my throat.

“I’m sorry.” I
couldn’t seem to slacken my muscles. Though I was afraid he’d fibbed and that
he
would
bite me or enthrall me, the
fear was equally arousing. My heart pounded wildly, and my breath came in
quicker gasps.

“I understand.”
He continued sliding his hand over my hair, alternating between running his
fingers through the strands at the top of my head and those around my ears.
Tingles ran down my scalp into my neck and spine with each new movement. I
couldn’t concentrate on the laptop in front of me while he stroked.

Maximo’s lips
brushed beneath my right ear. I inhaled a sharp breath. His movements ceased,
perhaps as startled by my reaction as I was. He lifted his mouth but didn’t
draw away.

“Rebecca,” he
said my given name in a whisper.

I inhaled a
ragged breath because once again that sound was an aphrodisiac.

“Are you…?
Have you been with a man?”

My desperate
laugh sounded like an answer all on its own. But it wasn’t.

“Yes,” I said.

His grip on my
right side tightened a smidgeon. “When was the last time?”

“Um…” My mind
raced. “Six months?”

The vampire’s
grip eased.
“So long?”

“I was busy. I
had my thesis to write and exams to take.”

“A beautiful girl like you.”
He smoothed
his hand over my hair, deliberately delaying his words.
“Should
be fighting the men off.”

I didn’t think
I was beautiful. But my looks had nothing to do with why I wasn’t fighting off
men. It had everything to do with Trip fighting them off for me.

Maximo brushed
another kiss beneath my ear. This time he murmured in lyrical Spanish about how
beautiful I was. The telltale sign of arousal nudged my back. My blood heated,
pushing warmth all across my body as it raced within my veins.

“You’re so
warm,” he said in Spanish while nuzzling his nose into my neck. “Warm like the
sun. I want to wrap you around me like the softest of blankets.” In English he
said, “Rebecca.” The pause he always placed before and after my name was unique
to him. The sound alone made my pulse quicken. “I want you, so very much. But I
want to go slowly. You need me to go slowly.”

I kept my head
still rather than nod.

“Do you have
something to distract us?” he asked.
“Movies on that laptop
of yours?”

This time I
let myself nod.

“Play one.”

And so I did.

Chapter Twelve

We’d begun
watching the second comedy I’d saved on the computer when Maximo’s phone
vibrated in his pocket. It startled me half out of my skin because I’d felt it
beneath my back. He fished the device out while holding me captive in his lap.

He’d been
remarkably good for the past two hours. His hands had remained above my
clothing and away from my hot spots. Forty-five minutes of smoothing my hair
away from my face had passed before I’d relaxed my muscles enough to fully rest
against him. His arousal had faded long ago. If it hadn’t, I probably wouldn’t
have been able to relax at all.

He was
definitely right about my needing him to go slow. I may have been with men
before him, but I’d never been with a man who could kill me quite as easily. Or
one who was dead.

“¿
Sí
?”

The voice on
the other end of the line was male, but I couldn’t make out what words he was
speaking. Part of it was because he spoke rapid Spanish.

Responding in
what I was beginning to think was his native tongue, Maximo said, “Yes,
apologize for my absence. And tell him I will be there shortly. Do what you
need to do to keep him there. I won’t be long. Adios.” He disconnected the call
and then drew both of his arms around my middle for a gentle squeeze. “Nadir
has arrived,” he said in English.

A spike of
fear shot through me. Every muscle in my body froze. Jacqueline had warned me
of this, but I’d held onto the hope she was wrong.

“
Shhh
.
You’re safe.” He brushed a kiss against the soft skin beneath my ear. “I’ll
keep him entertained for the night. Tomorrow I may call on you. We need to
establish we’re together before he discovers your identity. I’ll delay it as
long as possible. But you,” he paused for another kiss, “must not leave your
apartment after dark without me.”

The idea of
being under house arrest after the sun went down irritated me, but I didn’t
argue. I wanted to live more than I wanted to gallivant around
Wipuk
at all hours of the night.

“This has been
enjoyable.” His careful pronunciation made me take note. “I wish I could stay
longer.” After one last nuzzle, he lifted me to my feet.

I scrambled
away so he’d have room to stand.

The left
corner of Maximo’s pink lips curved upward in a half smile. He set his hands on
my cheeks, thumbs hooking beneath my chin. Maximo paused, perhaps to give me
the opportunity to protest as his mouth hovered over mine for a breathless
moment. I didn’t dare inhale.

The vampire’s
lips feathered against mine before settling. His kiss was a slow, sensual slide
of his tongue that promised this would not be the last kiss, only the last kiss
of the night.

He drew away
with a soft laugh. “It’s probably good we were interrupted. I may not have been
able to go slow with kisses like that.” His cool fingers dropped away from my
face. Dismay dimmed his smile until he rallied with a lift of his shoulders.
“Good night. Rebecca.”

I was barely
able to draw in enough air to reply before he was past the door. “Goodnight.”

****

Desmond’s BMW
was parked in the Sedona lot when I popped down to turn on the lights in the
shop at five minutes to noon. I unlocked the front door so I could find out
what he wanted.
Veronika
perched in the leather
passenger seat, gesturing toward the windshield while Jacqueline stared out the
back window in my direction. Was that a plea in her eyes?

The high
priest unfolded himself from his car and shut the door, perhaps to keep our
conversation quiet.
Or by habit.

“Nadir arrived
last night,” Desmond said once he’d traveled half the distance to me. “Maximo
kept him entertained with red tape. I learned the news shortly before sunrise
when they called to set up the meeting.” He glanced at the storefront. Searching
for Nell? “I tried to call you. I would have left a message, but I wanted to
talk to you.”

I lifted an
eyebrow.

“Tonight he’ll
be meeting with the coalition under the guise of a diplomatic visit,” Desmond
said. “But you need to seek safety in case we don’t keep him busy the entire
night.”

After his
reaction to the photograph of Maximo and me at the Mexican restaurant, I wasn’t
sure it would be a good idea to come clean about my latest deal. What could I
tell him instead that wouldn’t be a lie?

“I think you
should leave
Wipuk
,” he said.

My insides
clenched in anger. Was he
still
trying to get me to move away?

“Temporarily,”
he said.
“Until we decide how to handle Nadir.
Do you
have family you can visit?”

I shook my
head. He knew my father was dead and that my mother had “passed on to the other
side”.

“I’ll book you
a room in Phoenix for a few days. Nell can run the shop while you’re gone.”

“I’m not
running away from the situation I caused, Marino.”

“It’s not
running away. It’s…” His gaze darted around the sky, perhaps for inspiration.
“Temporarily avoiding the situation until we’ve evaluated the
options.”