15. Vi
vi
. . .
When I woke up, the only signs of Juniper were the indent she’d left on the pillow and the traces of her floral perfume lingering in my borrowed sheets.
I rolled over, pulling a pillow over my head to block the sunlamp with a groan.
I’d make a point to wash Kaylee’s sheets for her, even if that meant using the horrible coin-op machines downstairs. They were inconvenient as shit. I hated traipsing my laundry up and down four flights of stairs every time I needed fresh socks—another reminder that made me ache when I remembered my beautiful, sunny Upper City apartment.
In. Suite. Landry. Included.
With my salary from O, I could finally start looking at apartments, but even thinking about the club made my stomach twist with anxiety.
In the artificial light of day, last night was… mortifying at best.
Guys had been pushy with me before, sure, but I couldn’t remember a time when I’d been force-bitten by a vampire.
I wasn’t entirely sure what was worse—that he’d grabbed me over the bar or the hazy panic-induced nightmare that followed. Like a memory but… worse.
So much worse.
I cringed at the thought. Even with Juniper’s care, my forearm and wrist were still aching from where the vampire’s teeth were forcibly ripped from my arm, tearing the skin in the process.
I could make out the dark, circular fingerprint bruises that lined my arm, so I forced it under the covers, closing my eyes.
It felt… strange. Like something seriously fucked up had happened to me, but there was something worse just on the fringes of my memory. Like my mind was trying to downplay my terror in a feeble attempt to help me through my discomfort.
Because that’s all it was, right?Discomfort. Manageable, bland, felt in mundane situations like when the train was a little too full.
Not vein-chilling, breath-stilling terror. Panic.Unmanageable amounts of horror that made my heart race at the idea of walking back into that bar.
Suddenly, I was very glad I was alone. Relieved that I didn’t have to try and mask my rapidly changing moods with Juniper, who, despite her tenderness and gentle care last night, was still an exceptionally prickly woman.
There was no way I was going back to the bar tonight. Partially because of…
My mind strayed whenever it came too close to the memory of his fingers locking around my wrist, turning immediately into happier thoughts.
It was… jarring.
But I was too emotionally raw to fight it, so I allowed my brain this little kindness.
It wasn’t just the moment and the fear.It was the embarrassment too.
Vi, what kind of insane victim-blaming bullshit is that?
If it had been Kaylee, I’d be telling her that she was being incredibly unfair to herself. And yet here I was, beating myself up because most of the staff and half the clients got a front-row seat to my meltdown after the venom wore off.
And tonight would be the second busiest night of the week.
No. Nope. Not happening.
I’d call in sick tonight. Totally reasonable after being assaulted at work.
Then, I’d wallow in my embarrassment for a bit, let myself feel my feelings, and rally next week. Or I could quit and beg Jay for my job back at the Silver Bullet; at least there I knew that I’d be able to defend myself if I had a problem. Well, Daxton, their bouncer would. But still.
Jay was serious about safety, not that I didn’t trust Dana to keep me safe. Last night had been a freak fucking thing and could’ve happened anywhere. I just… God, this whole thing was such a mess.
I pulled my phone into my cocoon, unlocking it to text the O group chat with my brilliant excuse for not coming in today—a headache—when Dana’s message popped up on my screen.
Dana
Stay home today, don’t worry about the hours. I’d like you to rest. If you need anything, call me.
Warmth invaded my chest, a soft sigh escaping me when I realised I wouldn’t have to say anything—lie, excuse, truth, or whatever.
A hard knock at the door drew me from the comfort of Kaylee’s bed, bare feet meeting the cool hardwood and making me shiver.
If I had to guess, that would be Danny. There’s no way Kaylee didn’t text them the minute I was on the way home. They’d want to make sure I was all good.
I knew my roommate—if you can call the person whose couch you usually slept on your roommate—had already fucked off to get to the garage to work on her car. It didn’t matter that there was freezing rain damn near every night—races didn’t stop for any season.
In layman's terms? Babydoll needed to make sure that her ride was race-ready.
I checked the clock on the stove. It was getting late enough that if she wasn’t showering at the club, she’d be back any minute to rinse off the motor oil and get ready for a night of dancing.
Steeling myself for whatever state Kaylee had worked my sibling into, I padded my way across the room and threw the door open.
“Danny, whatever she told you—” I started, but my placating speech died on my tongue, replaced with a high squeak at the sight of the vampire standing on Kaylee’s ‘ Sometimes, the back door is better!’ doormat.
Ren was uncharacteristically nervous, holding a cardboard tray with two coffees, free hand raised as if she was going to knock again. She’d dressed in a pair of fitted black trousers, a long grey jacket over what looked like a white T-shirt. Decidedly casual, if not a little too put together, thanks to the layered necklaces around her tattooed throat that matched her silver earrings.
Her eyes trailed over my state of undress, unbrushed hair, and tracks of mascara no doubt still smudging my face from the night before. The tiny pyjamas I’d thrown on could barely be called shorts, with the snatch of skin at my waist and upper thigh catching the vampire’s eye.
I’d given Juniper my biggest T-shirt and made a mental note to go online and order something that’d be comfier for her before she slept over again.
If she ever wanted to sleep over again.
The twitch of Ren’s lips was more of an awkward grimace than a smile as she ran a hand through her short hair.
“Please don’t tell me to leave. Babydoll let me in.”
I stared at her, dumbfounded. “What are you doing here?”
“I thought we could have breakfast together,” she suggested hopefully, shifting awkwardly. “If you’d rather not, I can leave this for you. But I...” She straightened to her full height, peering down at me with concern in her dark gaze. “I’m sorry for showing up like this.”
I bit down on a smile. Despite my best effort to be annoyed that the pushy vampire had arrived uninvited on my doorstep, it was seriously cute.
“Um, let me go get cleaned up a bit.” I stepped away from the door to let her inside. “Why don’t you make yourself at home? The living room is through there.” I nodded in its direction, easily visible in the tiny open-concept one-bedroom.
She grinned, taking off her shoes carefully before heading toward the sofa in socked feet.
“Thank you.”
The sofa was still pulled out into a bed from Kaylee sleeping on it the night before. I watched her curious gaze hit the takeout containers on the counter, along with the dishes in the sink, and cringed internally.
Ren was in my apartment— Kaylee’s apartment, really—where I lived out of a couple of suitcases haphazardly stacked into the corner.
And I hadn’t even cleaned up the dishes from last night.
Fuck.
I escaped to Kaylee’s room to catch my breath, borrowing a pair of black leggings and shedding the tiny tank in favour of a fitted crop top that showed off my waist and, when I raised my arms above my head, a hint of underboob.
Was it basically as revealing as the last outfit?Yes.
Did it also feel far more reasonable?Yes, times two.
When I flicked on the en suite’s light, I groaned at my panda eyes.
A little makeup remover and one fistfight with a brush and another with a toothbrush that made my injured wrist throb, and I was ready to join Ren in the living room. I found her perched in the middle of the pullout, her jacket discarded over the back.
She was studying a painting that Kaylee had done back in college, hung now just beside the TV in a jumble of colours and textures that she’d told her professor represented her inner self. It was actually something we painted together with our fingers and a couple of palette knives while insanely drunk the night before.
Kaylee got an A minus.
Okay, fine, it was a B plus. But why ruin an otherwise epic story with semantics, right?
She kept the hideous thing because it made her laugh whenever she looked at it. And when I moved in, we hung it up together after one too many glasses of wine as a bit of apick-me-up.
Honestly? It kind of worked.
“Sorry, I wasn’t really expecting company,” I said, coming to sit at the edge of the lumpy mattress.I’d think about the damn thing murdering my back another time.
“No, no!” Ren answered quickly. “I should’ve called ahead. I just… Is it terrible to admit I was afraid you’d say no?”
I probably should, you pushy-ass vampire.
But... I was either stupid or smitten.Or both.
Absolutely both.
“It’s kind of cute. If it wasn’t slightly insane.”
“I’ll take slightly , though I was really aiming for charmingly dedicated .”
She rubbed the back of her tattooed neck, and I laughed.
“How much did you have to pay Kaylee to let you inside?”
There’s no way my overprotective barracuda of a bestie would’ve been willing to let anyone into our apartment that I didn’t expressly ask to see without a hell of a bribe.
“Enough for those special-order heart-shaped taillights she wanted—custom welded. Not the inserts.”
I let out a low whistle. “That’s a pretty sweet trade. Guess I can’t be too mad she sold me out.”
Or mad at all. Having company was nice. Not being left with my racing thoughts and misplaced guilty feelings felt good.
“She knew I had good intentions.” She grinned, flashing a hint of fang. “She’s gone for the day to give us a chance to talk—something about the garage and a nap on Danny’s couch before work. Now, come here; your coffee is getting cold.” I couldn’t help but look at the space between us, and Ren raised an eyebrow.“I mean, if you want.”
Crawling over the mattress, I settled close without touching her and collected the paper cup with my name scrawled along the side from the cardboard tray.
It felt surprisingly comfortable to lean back against the plush cushions of the sofa while sipping the warm drink and peeking at my companion.
Of course it is.
From the moment she’d saved my ass from dissolving into embarrassed tears at the café, Ren had always sort of been my hero. And here I was, yet again, putting myself in a position where I was in need of saving.
I cleared my throat.
“Listen, Ren, I’m sorr?—”
“Don’t you dare,” she interrupted, dark eyes narrowing. “Last night never should’ve happened. I need you to know that. Dana would’ve come herself to apologize, but she’s collecting the footage so she can finish the report for theCIU.”
I sighed, tucking my feet under myself to keep them warm.
Of course they’d want to report the incident to the Coven Investigation Unit; attacks like the one last night could threaten the reputation of the entire club. Using compulsion was a serious offense, but it also meant witness statements, court dates… And I wasn’t sure I wanted to deal with all the fuss that would create not only for me but for the coven too.
“I shouldn’t have?—”
“No,” Ren interrupted again flatly, leaning to place her cool hand gently on my forearm, pinky just barely brushing the edge of the gauze wrapping my injured wrist. “Vi, there’s nothing you could’ve done differently. You set a boundary. You did not give consent. And he chose to walk straight through that. That’s not okay. And I’m not going to sit here and let you blame yourself for it.”
Her thumb stroked my forearm just above the crook of my elbow, like she couldn’t bear to sit so close and not be touching me.
I found myself tracking the movement with my eyes, my nerves dissipating in the domesticity—the normalcy—of the moment, so familiar that it felt like we’d done this a hundred times instead of it being the first.
“Ren, I…” I paused, my tongue darting out to wet my lips. “Thank you. For making sure I got home okay. For helping me.”
“I wish Dana would’ve let me finish that dickbag,” she admitted. “If there’s anything I can do, just say the word. It’s yours.”
I took a deep breath, steeling myself for what would come next.
“I don’t think I can go back to the bar. I just?—”
Ren’s thumb stilled and she swallowed. “It won’t ever happen again, Vi. I promise.”
“I can’t be sure of that,”I whispered, looking down at my hands.
She withdrew her own, running it through her hair and making it stand up on end. The tattoos on her bicep—koi swimming in a traditionally styled Japanese sea—jumped with the movement. “Okay.”
“ Okay ?” I repeated skeptically, expecting an argument.
Not to flatter myself, but I thought she’d put up at least a little bit of a fight. You know, the usual stuff? I really need a good bartender. You’re leaving us in a bind. At least give two weeks’ notice.
But Ren seemed resigned.
“I can’t and won’t force you. It’s your decision.” She sighed, a deeply defeated noise that made my heart squeeze. “But… Would it be alright if I visited you sometimes? Brought coffee? Took you to dinner?”
She met my eyes with a stubborn set in her jaw even as her foot bounced with nerves. If I were standing, my knees would’ve gone weak.
My pushy vampire was more worried about our personal relationship than our working one, and it felt good. My heart was pounding harder in my chest at the realization that the gentle emotions that’d been growing between us weremore important to her than some workplace flirtation.
Something worth protecting.
“You’d want to?”
“ Yes ,” she breathed.Ren moved slowly, intentionally, as her hand reached for me. Dark eyes searched mine for permission before it made contact with my jaw and chin, tilting my face up to hers. “But the real question is—would you want me to?”
“Yes.”
There was something in the way that she looked at me, the stark contrast of nerves and resolve, that emboldened me. I leaned into her touch, relishing the gentle caress of her fingers warmed by her coffee against my skin.
“Okay,” Ren murmured.
Her eyes studied my face in a way that made me think the answer surprised her.Like she didn’t quite believe me and was trying to add this moment to her long list of memories in case she had to say goodbye.
I couldn’t quite explain it, but in that moment, with the sincerity of her gaze… Something about it made it feel safe to be a little reckless.
“I’ll… try.” My voice was so quiet that without her improved hearing, I doubt she would’ve heard me at all. “To come back to the club, I mean.”
“We’ll keep you safe,” Ren promised, her gaze dipping to my mouth for a moment before rejoining my eyes. Her hand shifted until she was cupping my face with her thumb stroking my cheekbone.
“I know, but I’m not promising anything.”
“I know.”
My eyes flicked to her lips, the usual magnetism of the vampire heightened by how quickly she’d jumped to my defence the night before. And now she was here and beautiful and so close.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I leaned forward until our lips were all but touching, my hand snaking into the fabric of her shirt.
“I’m sorry I pushed you away. I’m sorry I flinched yesterday.”
Ren froze at my words, her lips parting. We were so close that when she spoke, I could taste the words.
“May I?—?”
I had barely started to nod when she surged forward, pressing her lips to mine in a decadently chaste kiss that stopped as quickly as it started.
Ren brushed her nose against mine, and it wasn’t nearly enough.
Not even in the same planet as enough.
Fuck planets, actually. It wasn’t even in the same universe.
Ren’s hands trailed down my neck to my shoulders in soft strokes of her fingertips over my top. The thin material did little to hide my hardened nipples, something I should’ve considered when I’d gotten dressed. But as I scooted closer, my thumb pressing over the opening in my coffee cup to stop it from spilling everywhere, I sort of appreciated that the barrier between us was as flimsy as my rapidly failing self-control.
“Ren, I want?—”
I wanted more .
More of her.
More of whatever this was between us.
To explore and taste and revel in the feeling of closeness Ren gave me simply by being herself. In the sensation that whatever was brewing between us felt like it’d been decided long before now.
Ancient. All-consuming.
Completely undeniable.
It was all the invitation the vampire needed, and her lips met mine again and again in a series of demanding kisses that betrayed her matching desires. She controlled our pace, tongue snaking to swipe against the seam of my mouth before I parted my lips to grant it access, surprisingly cold as it explored, massaging against mine.
She lifted my drink from my hands, breaking away only long enough to deposit both cups on the floor before she returned to me with that same intensity, one of her hands tangling into the back of my hair.
All pretence of restraint out the window, I crawled into Ren’s lap, my thighs bracketing her narrow hips as I pressed my body against hers.
The magnetism that drew me to the vampire skyrocketed. Kissing her wasn’t enough—I wanted to envelop her with my body, welcome her right into the core of my being as her home for now and for the rest of my days.
It was fucking exhilarating.
It was fucking terrifying .
A quiet growl escaped her as she broke our kiss to trail her mouth along my jaw with gentle nips and grazes of her fangs against the tender skin.
“Vi, I’m so sorry,” she murmured, her hands moving up my back underneath my shirt. “I’m desperate for you. I can’t possibly take this as slow as you deserve.”
Desire pooled in my centre with every caress, my breath hitching into a breathy moan as she stopped to suck at the soft spot between my neck and ear. Her sharp fangs toyed with the sensitive skin, the bite washed away with a pass of her tongue, turning me to jelly on her lap.
With monumental effort, I pulled away to grip her face in both my hands, looking at the vampire through my lashes.
“Not interested,” I murmured, bending for a kiss. “We’ve been dancing around each other for weeks, I’m tired of slow. I want you to fuck me, sir .”
Ren groaned, a low sound full of yearning. Her fingers dug into my skin, hips lifting to grind against mine as she crashed her lips against mine in a scorching kiss.
“Temptress,” she half-hissed, easily manoeuvring me onto my back on the pullout, my head propped up on one of the squishy throw pillows as she settled between my legs. “Did you put this on to torture me?” she asked, a note of humour in her voice as her fingers brushed my ribs, moving up the thin cotton material of my top up to bare my breasts to her.
“Maybe a little,” I admitted, chewing my lip as the chilly air of the apartment met my stiffened nipples.
She blew over the pebbled flesh, and I gasped, my pussy eagerly clamping hard around nothing. I tried to press my thighs together for relief, but Ren’s body stopped me, making her chuckle. She moved back, her eyes assessing me, her gaze roving over my face like she was trying to commit it to memory.
Slowly, deliberately , she wrapped her fingers around my throat. Her grip wasn’t choking, my airflow completely unhindered as she held me still.
It was possessive. Dominating.
I was powerless to resist her.
Not that I wanted to.
“You are magnificent , Pet.”
My mouth popped open at the nickname. I’d never been one for honorifics before. But the way it sounded on Ren’s lips… The effect was powerful. Delicious in the way that it claimed me as hers with a single syllable.
I licked my lips as though I could taste it in the air, my eyes trailing over the corded muscle of her lithe arms hidden beneath the colourful scrawl of her tattoos.
She followed my gaze, flexing her fingers.
The look in her eyes was wild, desperate. “Is this okay?”
“Yes,” I breathed.
“Yes, what, Pet?” Ren crooned, bending to brush her lips against mine. She paused, waiting for my response as her teeth teased my bottom lip.
I couldn’t hold in the moan that escaped me. The decadent possessiveness of her touch paired with the sure dominance in her voice was as good as a lick between my legs.
The words were out of my mouth before I’d consciously thought to say them. “Yes, sir.”
She grinned, flashing her fangs at me.
“If you wish to stop at any time, you’ll tell me, and we will. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir,” I whispered again, eyes catching at the dragons protruding from the collar of her T-shirt.
I needed to get that off her—now. I need to explore and touch and taste the tapestry of tattoos and add my own marks to it.
Lips travelled down my neck, speaking into the warmth of my skin. “Do you have any hard limits?”
“No,” I said, too quickly. Whatever Ren wanted to offer, I was more than willing to accept. “Touch me, please.”
That endearing lopsided smirk returned as she peeled my leggings away, adjusting to get them off with a little help from me. “Am I going to find you wet for me, Pet?” she purred, tossing the fabric to the floor.
A soft snarl escaped her as she took in my bare pussy with its short snatch of trimmed hair along my pubic bone.
I’d dressed so quickly I hadn’t bothered with underwear.
Oops .
She dragged her short nails along my thighs, and I whimpered. A pathetically needy, desperate noise that was as good as begging for her to use me like a fucking hand puppet. I was sure that if I looked down, I’d be able to see the moisture slicking my folds; I’d been wet since her very first touch.
I panted as Ren traced torturous patterns along the crease of my thigh, careful not to touch where I needed her most as her lips worked over my collarbone and chest. My hips bucked in a futile attempt to coax her fingers to the part of me demanding attention, back arched to tempt her lips around my tight nipples.
“Stop teasing,” I demanded, the effect considerably less powerful than I would’ve liked due to the whiny element in my voice.
“So eager,” she murmured, nipping my ear. “But I intend on savouring this moment, Vi. I’ve been so patient. So. Incredibly. Patient ,” she said, puncturing the last three words with a slow glide of her fingers through my arousal.
“And whose fault is that?” I managed to say, and her only reply was to use her thumb to circle my clit.
The move was so practiced, her pace so maddeningly perfect that if I didn’t know better, I’d think we’d done this before. Ren played my body to pull sounds from my lips as surely as tapping piano keys.
“Ren, please ,” I begged, straining my neck against her grip in an attempt to give her space.
There was no warning before she plunged two digits into me, bending them to find the textured expanse of my G-spot. I reacted immediately, the rest of my request dying on my tongue to be replaced with a chorus of colourful curse words and gasping moans.
“Oh, look at that,” she teased, running her tongue over her teeth. “ So fucking wet for me, Pet.”
She flexed her other hand along my throat as she pumped her fingers in and out of me. My hips chased her every touch, eager for more of the pleasure steadily building at my centre.
I was prisoner to her hungry gaze.
No, not just hungry— starving .
When we first met, I’d written her eyes off as brown as the dark rust of dried blood—a stupid idea, really. They were so much more than that. Like delicious pools of cinnamon.
Warm.
Comforting .
Nearly black with desire from her blown-out pupils as my blood thrummed under her tightened grip.
Ren fucked me with her hand, grinding her palm against my clit until I was whining senselessly, an orgasm ripping through me without warning.
She growled as my pussy clamped tight around her fingers, a low noise in the back of her throat that should’ve screamed danger but just made me wetter.
The need for more pulsed through me as steadily as the aftershocks the vampire worked me through with slower, tender touches and kisses while her fingers still expertly stroked my sensitive inner walls.
“That’s it, Pet, tell me how good it feels.”
“Fuck, Ren, don’t stop,” I pleaded, grasping at her shirt, wanting to tear it off her if she didn’t remove it soon.
Her chuckle dripped with lust as she freed her fingers from where she’d buried them in my cunt before bringing them to her lips. She licked them slowly, holding my gaze as she cleared away my shining arousal with a self-satisfied purr.
I moaned at the sight. It was so fucking erotic that she might as well have wrapped her lips around my clit instead.
“Ren,” I whined, and she swatted my thigh, her eyes narrowed. “ Sir ,” I corrected quickly, my face and chest going warm at her returned smile.
“Yes, my pretty little pet?”
After last night, being at the mercy of a vampire should’ve made me quiver with fear. But as Ren grabbed my hips and flipped me roughly over on the sofa bed, all I could think about was how good it felt to have her in charge. To let my worries dissolve into simple commands to be rewarded with pleasure.
At her touch, I was putty, letting her drape me over the arm of the couch with my knees on the cushion, leaving my dripping cunt bared to her.
“Do you enjoy impact play?” Ren asked conversationally, like we were discussing the weather.
I quivered eagerly, arching back as if to invite her to find out for herself.
“Like, spanking? Yes.”
“Perfect,” she hummed, her hand connecting with my ass hard enough to make me gasp at the snap of pain. She smoothed her hand over the ache before striking me again.“You scared the fuck out of me yesterday, Pet.”
“I’m sorry,” I whimpered, pressing into her touch.
The initial smack had hurt, but the following tenderness had me relaxing all over again. Only for the cycle to start over as the burn steadily mounted along my ass cheek.
She swatted me again, harder this time, and I keened.
“Fuck, more .”
“I am supposed to protect you,” she breathed.
“Ren—”I started to argue but was interrupted by another smack directly against my pussy. My yelp of surprise transformed into a low moan of pleasure as she rubbed my clit like she’d memorised a manual on how to make me come.
“I think I should make you come until you forgive me. Would you like that, Pet?”
She spanked me again, hard enough that I was sure there would be a mark, and while the idea was exhilarating, it wasn’t quite enough.
There was something else I needed from her.
I moaned as her tongue soothed over the sore spot on my ass, fangs grazing my skin as she trailed closer to my core in a tease of what I was craving. I could’ve mentioned that I’d already forgiven her—that there was nothing to forgive in the first place.
A better person would have.
But payment in orgasms by a possessive vampire was exactly what the doctor ordered after an extremely stressful night.
“Yes, sir.”
Ren kissed along both sides of my pussy.
Teasing.
Worshipping with the tip of her tongue in slow strokes.
“How many do you think is fair?” she asked, pressing a finger inside my tight hole to pump slowly in and out. I clenched my thighs and rocked my hips back against her, chasing another deliciously won orgasm building rapidly from her hands and tongue.
She stopped the movement, making me whine.
“How many, Pet?” she asked again, voice stern.
“Five!” I shouted impatiently, pushing back against where her hands had stilled.
I felt, more than heard, Ren’s huff of laughter. Her mouth was so close to me that when she spoke, I felt her breath ghost my clit.
“Deal.”
I should’ve asked for more.
I wanted more.
She added another finger, setting a punishing pace as she worked me effortlessly toward release. My hands found my breasts, rolling my nipples between my fingers as Ren’s lips closed around my clit, sucking hard.
Stars danced in my vision as I came, my body shuddering, and I hadn’t even caught my breath when I gasped, “I want to touch you!”
A derisive snort was her only response as she lapped at my desire, her teeth grazing my folds and clit in a way that had me hurtling toward the edge even faster than the last as my body grew more sensitive.
I thought Ren’s lips were made for kissing—I was so, so wrong.
Her mouth was made for eating pussy.
Ren’s tongue left my sex, and I whimpered, chasing her with my hips. I didn’t have to wait long until her fingers were there instead, working my overstimulated clit until my whole body shook.
She nipped the back of my thigh, trailing a line of scorching kisses over my ass.
I was moaning her name like it was a prayer, my hips rocking to the rhythm of her touches as I hovered over the precipice again.
“Bite me,” I begged. “Please, sir, I want you to.”