2. Chapter One
Chapter One
Aiden
M y brain feels like mush as I wake. I’m half awake and clearly in zombie mode as I arch my back to stretch. My dick is throbbing and straining against the soft fabric. I wiggle my hips against the hard warmth underneath me. A part of me wants to just snuggle further against the warmth and go back to sleep.
Why is my bed so hard, and whose dick am I gripping, because it’s not mine… Something is nagging at the back of my mind like warning bells going off. A soft groan filters into my still half-asleep brain. I feel groggy as I blink my eyes open slowly.
Looking down at myself I find I’m somehow wearing silk candy corn pajamas. I don’t own candy corn pjs…
“Fuck, keep going, please little bat,” a gravelly voice moans out. My stomach clenches and my cock jerks at the sound of that voice. The voice is rough with sleep and pleasure and has a warm sensation burning through my entire body.
I look up to find bright blood blood-red half-lidded eyes staring down at me. I blink again trying to make sure I’m not going insane. Did I bring him home with me last night? His tongue flicks out swiping along his plush bottom lip causing my cock to throb and my hips to flex in response.
“Cool contacts,” I mumble, and my voice sounds weird and gruff. I clear my throat feeling like warmed over death. He gives me a strange, confused look, “I’m not wearing contacts.”
I blink my eyes slowly as my brain tries to register what the hell is going on. Suddenly I realize that my leg is thrown over his hip resting between his legs and my hips are flush against his thick warm thigh. My hand is shoved down his pajama pants and wrapped tightly around his hard length.
Finally, my brain seems to come back online, and I freeze. I release his dick so fast as I scramble to get away from the stranger in my bed.
“What the hell are you doing in my bed,” I shriek as I fall off the other side of the bed and land on the hardwood floor.
“Ouch,” I grunt out as I rub my tailbone. I don’t have hardwood floors…
My eyes are wide as I look around trying to frantically take in my surroundings. This isn’t my fucking room! Whose fucking room is it then? How the hell did I get here? A head full of messy brown hair looks over the side of the bed and down at me with a sheepish look.
“This is my room,” he mumbles like he can read the expression on my face.
“How the fuck did I get in your room! In your bed,” I scream like I’ve been abducted by aliens.
“Calm down, little bat,” he grumbles, “it’s too early for you to be screaming like a banshee at me.”
“Little bat,” I ask as I cock an eyebrow at him.
“Well, I have no idea what your name is…” his words trail off as if waiting for me to respond to his unspoken question. When I don’t answer him, he grumbles out, “Plus the nickname kinda suits you. Don’t you think?”
I swallow thickly as I stare up at him not knowing what the hell to say.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to hurt you,” he murmurs as he starts to crawl off the bed to get down onto the floor with me.
He leans forward so close to me that his nose softly grazes mine, and I try to flinch away in the small space. I slam the back of my head into the wall behind me in the process to get away.
“ew,” I whine as I rub the back of my head and choose to glare at the stranger in front of me.
“Good to know,” I grit out with a little frustrated huff as I cross my arms over my chest, “did you… change me?” He definitely doesn’t know about personal space, but who am I to talk when I was trying to mount him in my sleep? His face almost looks like he’s about to have a stroke as he wheezes out, “How did you know?”
“Um,” I give him a what the fuck look as I pinch the fabric of the sleeve of my pajamas.
His whole expression suddenly changes on a dime as he nods enthusiastically and a grin splits his face, “Oh… OH… I wanted to make sure you were comfortable!” His hand runs up my arm, and I push back from him. He pouts at me but doesn’t say anything about it.
“Riiight,” I mumble rubbing the back of my neck, “well, I’m just gonna go now… thanks for the… uh, weird ass experience, I guess,” I say a little wary as I go to stand up.
“You can’t go,” he says as his face drops into a serious expression, and he grabs me pulling me back down with more force than I thought he was capable of.
Dread makes my stomach clench. Oh my god is he like a stalker or some shit? There’s no way in hell I have this level of bad luck! What the fuck?
“Why can’t I leave,” I ask hesitantly as I try my best to keep my glare to a bare minimum. He swipes both of his hands through his hair and my gaze gets caught on his muscles flexing with the movement. He fidgets like he’s becoming more nervous by the second, “weelll, see I kinda turned you last night when I found you in the coffin. You kinda died…”
“What do you mean turned me?” My eyes find his blood-red gaze once more.
“You know like,” and instead of finishing his sentence he takes his pointer fingers and makes fake fangs as he hisses. It would have been absurdly cute as hell if I wasn’t currently fighting against a straight-up panic attack.
The last thing I remember from the other night was screaming my lungs out as I was being buried alive in a fucking coffin. I will probably have nightmares for the rest of my life and some crazy PTSD whenever I’m stuck in cramped spaces. I remember strawberries and red eyes. Fuck, his eyes.
I thought I was going to die alone and forgotten buried in someone else’s coffin, because my curiosity got the best of me. God, that really would have been a horrible way to go. I mean, I always wanted an exciting death… until I was being buried alive. But I didn’t… because he… saved me? My breaths become quick and shallow as I start to hyperventilate.
He said I died. I died. I died, and now I’m a fucking vampire! My vision darkens and I feel like I’m about to pass the hell out. Instead, I push everything so far down and ignore the panicky feeling starting to give me indigestion. I’m going to live in ignorant bliss.
“Yep, nope,” I scramble to my feet. Jumping onto the bed away from him and all his crazy talk about vampires. I just need to get away from everything right now. Including the sexy so-called vampire giving me golden retriever vibes and hearts in his eyes. I just need to get back home where I can process all of this.
There was no fucking way! I mean, did vampires even exist? I’ve always wanted the paranormal world to be real, but now that it’s in front of my face it’s all so surreal. I don’t even know how to deal with it. How am I supposed to wrap my mind around something this insane?
Everyone’s always like, I wish vampires were real, until one of them was latched onto your neck sucking out your blood. A memory flashes through my mind of him sinking his fangs into my neck, and instead of feeling mortified I feel turned on. Maybe I hit my head at some point or something because I shouldn’t be getting turned on over thinking of him biting me.
I jump off the other side of the bed towards the bedroom door without a backward glance, but somehow, I can still hear the fabric of his clothes rustle when he shifts to get up. I hear his footsteps echoing as he chases after me. I’m getting the fuck out of here and pretending none of this ever happened!
“WAIT,” he shouts in panic from behind me and all I can do is shake my head violently. Not today, Satan! I keep running praying to whatever god that might be listening to me that I’m heading towards the front door.
“No fucking way,” I shout back over my shoulder and of course, I manage to trip over my own two fucking feet in the process. A little undignified shriek escapes me as I start to fall. Instead of faceplanting onto the shiny hardwood floor strong arms grab me around the waist pulling me back into a hard chest.
“You can’t leave, little bat,” he growls against the side of my head, “you don’t have a ring, and the sun is up. You’ll burst into fucking flames.” His chest is flush against my back, and I can’t even move a muscle with the tight grip he has on me.
My chest heaves as I try to process the words he’s saying, but all I can concentrate on is how close his body is pressed against me. I can feel his hard length pressed snugly up against my ass, and some little fucked up part of my brain wants to push back against him.
A needy little part wants to know that if I do will he make that delicious sound he made while I was lying on top of him in his bed?
“Please,” his voice hitches with emotion causing me to pause in my lustful thoughts. Why does he even care what happens to me? We don’t even know each other.
My hand at some point grabbed his forearm. I fixate on my hand wrapped barely around his arm as my breathing slowly turns back to normal. My fingers trace the thick veins along his forearm. I take another deep breath through my nose and let it out slowly through my mouth.
“I don’t want you to die,” he murmurs so softly that I doubt he means for me to hear him.
“If you’re telling the truth then I’m already dead,” I whisper back hesitantly barely holding a scoff that wants to break free.
“Yeah, but if I let you walk out that door then you’ll be dead dead,” he huffs in frustration. His grip tightens further around me.
“Oh God, does this mean I’m enthralled to you, or some shit?” Yep, the panic is back. “Am I supposed to call you master now?!?” My voice sounds shrill even to my ears and I grimace.
“What? No,” he rushes out to say while shaking his head vigorously.
“Since you popped my mortal cherry does that mean you’re going to pop my other cherry?” Shut up, Aiden! Shut the fuck up right now!
“What other cherry,” he asks, and I swear I can hear the amusement in his voice. That just pisses me off further as I wiggle to get free from his grasp, and I let out a little frustrated growl. I had no idea what had me blurting out that question… maybe the stress of the situation.
Maybe my strange fascination with him. Maybe it was the fact that I woke up in his bed dry-humping him. Instead of shutting my mouth like I know I should have I just kept going. Clearly, self-preservation was nowhere in sight.
“Oh, do I have to be a certain height to ride this ride? Or maybe I don’t have the right equipment,” I hiss out suddenly feeling jealous and unsure of myself. Yep, rational thought jumped out the window and clearly committed social suicide.
I really need to shut the hell up right about now, but I tend to ramble when I get nervous or overwhelmed. I guess I’m also going to be oversharing today with a stranger. He releases me slowly and walks around me to look me up and down.
“No, little bat. I would say you’re the right height and have the equipment I want,” he grits out, and I swear his voice lowers an octave.
Something is seriously wrong with me especially when a little thrill runs down my spine with the way he’s looking at me. My chest tightens from embarrassment and nerves. I open my mouth, but nothing comes out. I rub the back of my neck as I try to process everything.
“Well, at least I don’t have to worry about walking into the sunlight and turning into a disco ball,” I finally mutter. When in doubt, dark humor is the perfect coping mechanism. A cute little snort laugh escapes him and he quickly covers his mouth like he’s embarrassed.
“Nope, you don’t have to worry about being the cause of a ten-car pile-up. So, I guess there’s that,” he mumbles through his hands with a little shrug.
“Well, good to know,” I say while turning away from him to hide my nerves. I don’t know how I feel about all of this. It seems crazy and it’s difficult for me to process. I’m a fucking vampire… He makes a strangled noise in the back of his throat and my gaze whips back to him thinking he’s having a problem. Instead, he’s choking on his laughter.
“Stop laughing at me,” I whine.
“I’m not,” he wheezes out as he waves me off.
“Well, then stop smiling at me,” I grit out. His smile changes into something cringy.
“You smiled more,” I whine stomping my foot to get my point across as I cross my arms over my chest.
“No, it was more of a grimace,” he mumbles running his hands through his hair and I’m almost positive it’s a nervous tick of his.
“So, you’re grimacing at my suffering?” I ask as I cock my hip and raise an eyebrow.
“Would you rather me smile at your suffering?” His eyebrows shoot up in question.
I let out a little grumpy noise and roll my eyes at him like he’s the one being absurd. A sad expression crosses over his face before he mumbles, “I wish your eyes were still blue. They were so beautiful, little bat.” He shakes his head as if reprimanding himself, “I’m sorry where are my manners… I’m Calder Jones.”
“Aiden Whitlock,” I mumble.
“You must be thirsty?”
“Why would I be… oh,” I trip over my words and then take a deep breath trying to calm myself. Calder gives me a knowing look and grabs ahold of my wrist tugging gently.
“It’s okay to not be okay, Aiden,” the way he says my name makes my brain turn to mush again.
“Let’s get you something to drink, hmm? I’m sure you’re going to need some blood rather soon,” he explains, and all I can do is nod numbly.