Chapter 27
27
I didn’t think my thighs were ever going to stop shaking. Sexed into blissful oblivion, we flopped on our sides to catch our breath. Well, I caught mine. Robert, being dead, didn’t have a breath.
I couldn’t recall a single instance in my life when I’d felt more natural with a man. Which was funny, with Robert being a vampire. I’d had good sex before, but this was earth-shaking. How could I ever hope to be with a mere mortal again? It was a worry for another time, because my brain was presently mush.
I curled up against Robert, throwing an arm and leg across his magnificently chiseled torso and magnificently chiseled thighs . . . Literally everything on Robert was magnificently chiseled. Humming quietly, he stroked my hair and kissed the corners of my lips. I blinked up at the ceiling lazily. Even my eyeballs were relaxed.
“What will happen now?” I murmured.
“I was hoping you’d be with me?” He shifted under me and sat up on an elbow. “A commitment, I mean. I don’t want any woman other than you.”
“And I only want you,” I assured him. “But that’s not what I’m asking about.”
“Oh? You’re referring to me . . . No, I’m unable to impregnate any woman, human or vampire.”
“What? No!” I giggled. “I know that .”
“Then what are we discussing?”
“I know nothing is going to happen, but I won’t be able to sleep tonight if I don’t check.”
“Okay?”
“When you bit me earlier . . . Is it going to change me?”
He chortled.
“Don’t make fun,” I pouted, swatting his solid thigh.
“Don’t worry, my sweet. The only way a human can be turned vampire is if they drink vampire blood after being bitten.”
“Not what I was thinking. I know I won’t become a vampire, but while we’re on the topic, how long does it usually take for a human to turn?”
He glanced at me as if he didn’t fully believe that I wasn’t worried. I smirked. He said, “It’s different for everyone. For me it was two days, like I mentioned before, though some humans can change in an hour or two. On the rare occasion, instantly. I’ve never turned anyone, but I’ve seen it done.”
“I was wondering about side effects. Am I going to get really sunburned when I go outside? Blistery?”
He raised his eyebrows. “ Now you ask me this? What if my bite had changed you permanently?”
“I trust you wouldn’t do anything to harm me. And I got caught up in the moment,” I said with a shrug. “I’ve always wondered what your vampy bite would feel like.”
“And how did it feel?”
“Amazing. Indescribable .”
He eased down on his back. “You won’t become sunburned more than you normally do.”
“What about having superhuman strength?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“Damn,” I said, touching the sensitive area on my thigh where his teeth had gone in. There were two small crusty circles there. I stood up and started to pull on my dress.
“You aren’t leaving me, are you?”
I wanted to laugh. Not a chance. “No, but since I won’t be changing into vampire any time soon, I need to take care of a few human matters. Where is the, uh . . .” I looked towards the door. It seemed ridiculous, feeling shy about needing to pee. The man had sampled my blood, for goodness’s sake.
“Oh, right,” he said. “Unfortunately, I don’t have a bathroom in my sleeping chamber, as I have no need for it. The closest is up the stairs and down the hall.” He paused. “I will have facilities installed for you very soon.”
“You’d install a toilet for me?” How strangely romantic.
“Anything for you, Olivia.”
I went upstairs to do my business, whistling along the way. I swiftly concluded that I might be in love with the vampire. Giddy as I was, I considered revealing this to him as soon as I was back in his strong arms. Would he think it was too soon? We really hadn’t been in each other’s lives that long, though it felt like I’d known him forever. And, no, I didn’t think it was afterglow talking.
In the bathroom, I stood in front of the vast marble sink and splashed water on my face. My mascara, which now clung to my lashes in clumps, required some scrubbing. Eyes stinging, I moved a hand over the surface of the sink until I located a bar of soap, which smelled divine.
I washed and dried my face, which devastated me unexpectedly, because I was reminded of how Liz and I had often shared our apartment’s tiny bathroom while we did our hair and make-up. Suddenly, I burst into tears. I sank down against the wall, pulled my legs under me, and cried for all I was worth. Nose dripping, I reached up and ripped off a wad of toilet paper. I’d heard that grief can hit when you least expect it, and now I knew what that truly meant.
A glittering object in the soap dish caught my eye. I stood up, extracted it, and exhaled sharply once I comprehended what I was looking at. I was so stunned that I dropped the ring— Liz’s heirloom ring —on the counter.
I backed away, as if the ring emitted poisonous gas. There was no denying it; beyond a shadow of a doubt, I knew it belonged to my dead best friend. I’d seen her wearing it every day since I’d known her. But why was it at Robert’s?
Liz had likely been killed by a vampire. Her throat had been ripped open. I shook my head. No-no-no. I couldn’t assume the worst—
Collapsing on my haunches, I scrambled to the toilet and vomited. When my guts dried up, I stood on weak legs and rinsed out my mouth. I closed the lid of the toilet and slumped down on it, trying to convince myself that there had to be a reasonable explanation for the ring. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what it could be.
Liz and Robert had only met the one time at the apartment. They were hardly what I’d consider friends or even casual acquaintances. So . . . what the actual fuck?
Though I sensed I was falling in love with the vampire, I was still level-headed enough to recognize how far away we were from marriage, so there went any theories about Liz helping Robert pick out a wedding ring for me. And he’d already paid off my student loan, by far my biggest economic burden, so he couldn’t have been consulting her about improving my financial situation—which, thanks to the outburst at the coffee shop, he knew better than to do, anyway. Crazily, I wondered if they might have been planning a surprise party. No, my birthday wasn’t for months.
I was really grasping at straws. Best way to get the bottom of things was to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth, which terrified me. I’d gotten the sense earlier that Robert had been hiding something, and I was hoping this wasn’t it. If he hadn’t been doing anything wrong, why not just tell me?
Plus, the last time I’d seen Liz—right before I’d left to decoy for Jerry—she’d been wearing the ring. Like her hair or those flirty dresses she liked to sport at work, it was so much a part of her appearance that I would have noticed if she hadn’t been wearing it. Which meant that the only time she could have left it at Robert’s was sometime yesterday evening before she was murdered. How could that be? If that was truly the case, he might be one of the last individuals to see her alive, which he probably should have mentioned.
I grabbed the ring and headed back to Robert on shaky legs. When I entered the sleeping chamber, his expression turned from happy, to confused, then worried, as if he suspected that I’d gone insane during my trip to the bathroom. I felt like throwing up again.
Fighting to keep my voice even, I said, “I’m going to give you one chance to tell me the truth.”
He sat up quickly. “What’s going on?”
I shushed him. “What did you do last night, Robert?”
“I told you. I worked.”
“Is that all?”
“Yes, that’s all.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Literally. I did not believe him. “You’re sure you’re not forgetting to tell me something?”
He got to his feet, dodging my question by presenting one of his own. “What’s that you’re holding?”
I brandished Liz’s ring like a smoking gun. “Like you don’t know.”
“I don’t know. What is—”
“Why is Liz’s ring here? You tell me why!” My best friend had been murdered, I’d been up all night, and I’d just puked my brains out. But what really made me lose it? Robert lying to my face. I hurled the ring at the vamp with all my might, hitting him square on the shoulder.
“Oh, shit,” he moaned. I couldn’t recall ever hearing him use profanity, and it sounded strange coming off his tongue. It also told me everything I need to know about him not telling me the truth. “Please, let me explain. It’s not what you think.”
“Did you kill her?” I sobbed. “Was it my punishment for rejecting you at the coffee shop?” In my grieving, traumatized mind, it all made perfect sense. Of course, it was just my luck, that the first male I fell in love with after Nick was a psychopath. There always had to be a catch, didn’t there? He couldn’t snore or be messy. No, he was a murderer. “It’s you whose been stalking me!”
Robert made a move toward me.
“You stay back!” I screamed. For the first time since my arrival, I was feeling genuinely afraid. I thought of Carl upstairs, wondering if he could hear us shouting. If I called for help, I wasn’t completely convinced that he’d come running. His loyalty to Robert seemed to run deep. He’d probably even help dispose of my body.
“Okay, Liz did come here last night,” he finally admitted. He looked guilty as hell.
“No shit, Robert!” Another disturbing possibility suddenly struck me. “Did you fuck her? Oh my God! And, what, you killed her so she wouldn’t tell me?”
“I didn’t murder Liz, Olivia.”
“So, you just fucked her, then?” After what I’d gone through with Nick, such betrayal was on par with murder in my book. “I feel so disgusted! I shared my body with you, let you inside me. How could you?”
“You have it all wrong. Liz came over here to discuss you . That’s all. I swear. She left right after her boyfriend called. I had Carl drop her off. You can ask him.”
“Right, because Carl would never lie for you.” If what he was saying was true, then Liz had betrayed me as much as he had. “Liz would never do that to me, talk about me behind my back.”
“She didn’t do anything to you. I called your phone last night looking for you and she answered. Check your phone if you don’t believe me. I had to plead with her to come over. She gave me advice on how to make things right with you.”
“How convenient for you that Liz isn’t around to validate any of your claims,” I snapped. “I may have been born at night, Robert, but I wasn’t born last night.”
“Liz loved you and wanted you to be happy. She was only trying to help. I’m sorry that I lied to you.”
“And why did you lie, if you had nothing to hide?” I countered.
“After you were so furious with me for following you to the coffee shop, I knew you’d be upset if I told you I’d gone to Liz for advice. But you hadn’t made things easy by refusing to answer my calls.”
“Oh, so now this is my fault? How dare you!”
“That’s not what I meant!” he quickly said. “Then, when you told me Liz had been murdered, I didn’t know what to say. I knew how suspicious it would look.”
“Because it is suspicious, Robert. Put yourself in my position,” I said, folding my arms across my chest. “You and Carl are probably the last ones to see her alive. Don’t you think that’s something the police should know?”
He shook his head roughly. “You can’t be serious. I’m a vampire, Olivia! I can’t risk having suspicion cast on myself, and I know nothing that could add value to their investigation. But I swear to you, Liz was alive and well when she and I departed company. I even told Carl to wait until she made it into the apartment before driving off, which he did.”
“He obviously didn’t wait long enough!”
I wasn’t sure what I believed anymore. Robert always had an explanation for his actions, but only after getting caught. Regardless of his so-called good intentions, he was, at minimum, deceptive. A lie by omission was still a lie.
Robert reached out for me. “You have to believe me, Olivia.”
“I don’t have to do anything,” I hissed, recoiling from his touch. “How can you expect me to trust you after you followed me around, did reconnaissance into my personal affairs, and then lied about seeing my best friend on the night she was murdered? I trusted you.”
“What do I have to do to make you believe me?”
“There’s not anything you can do, Robert. Not right now.” I gathered my things up off the floor and made a move to leave. “I need some space. If you truly care for me as much as you claim, you’ll respect my boundaries and stay away.”
“Please don’t go. Stay with me for a few more hours, until the sun goes down. It may not be safe for you out there, so I can stay by your side to protect you. We still don’t know who killed Liz or why they did it.”
“I’ll take my chances,” I said as I brushed past him. I marched out of the chamber, refusing to look back. I ignored Robert shouting my name as I slammed the door shut behind me.