Chapter Three
It took about five minutes before he stopped shivering and could enjoy her nearly nude body draping over him. Emboldened by earlier, he kissed her throat, murmuring apologies that she was hurting between kisses, then licks.
“Sorry, Penny. Poor Penny. Beautiful Penny. How’s that?” He sucked her scalding pulse point into his cool mouth.
“Better. Hurts inside.”
“I’ll go to my flat and get you some ice water. Well, ice cubes. They’ll turn to water as soon as I hand it over to you.” He hated to leave her presence, but topless, clingy Penny made it hard to think. He was being nice and keeping his sanity for a few more seconds.
“Thank you.” She kissed him on the lips as he pulled away, laying her cheek to his warmer, but still cool abdomen.
Plus, kisses. Topless, snuggly kisses. He felt like he could float on this new sensation, something his long-dead man craved, and his demon was oddly silent and accepting of. He coughed gruffly, “Be right back.”
“Okay.” She flopped back. “I wonder if I could cool myself down better from the inside out? Extra ice cubes?” she called through her raw throat. “When I try to touch anything, it melts.”
“I don’t have that problem!” he hollered back.
I’LL PUT THE ICE CUBES in my throat. No. No, I can’t swallow solid chunks of ice. I’ll choke. Anyway, they’d melt immediately. I need something cold that won’t melt. Want to put it in my mouth and down my throat and—an image flickered into her mind, a horrible, inappropriate image.
Brax’s fingers in her mouth. They wouldn’t reach very far.
Bet his cock is longer.
I can’t suck his cock. That’s wrong and slutty and not truceful. That’s why he said no. He doesn’t want that. It was wrong to even ask.
He returned with a tall glass, more ice than water. She snagged it eagerly and drained the water in a second, then scooped out ice and ran it all over her neck and chest.
brAX’S MOUTH DRIED out watching. She must not realize.
Must not get how it turns a man on to see his girl rubbing herself all over— not that she’s my girl.
Penny let out a tiny, pleased yip as the ice found her nipple.
Or maybe she wants to torture me. I admit, I deserve some kinda torture. She’s awfully creative about it.
“Turn around, I need to try something,” Penny commanded and didn’t even wait for him to obey to start fishing out an ice cube, hand heading between her legs.
Brax turned, trying not to moan, trying not to reach down and stroke himself.
“Oooh. Oh, that’s better. That’s good.” Her voice was breathy.
She’s putting ice in her pussy. Or rubbing it on her sweet little slit, over her little nub.
No. That’s impossible. She would never do that with me in the room, where I could see her any second with one little turn of my head— stoppit, Head.
Stay still, eyes forward. Or eyes closed.
That’ll be it. Eyes closed. I passed out from the cold.
I’m in some sort of frozen comatose state, and all of this is a bizarre dream.
“Argh! It melts in seconds. It’s not working. Why does ice have to melt? Brax, do they make non-melting ice?”
My dreams wouldn’t come with an ice cube suddenly pelting me in the back of the head, would they? He turned back halfway, in time to see the crotch of her panties tugged back into place, now see-through with wetness. “What’re you trying to do?”
“Break my fever. I remember they put people with heatstroke in tubs of ice and packed ice under their arms and on the back of their necks. The ice is melting on my skin right away. I need something that won’t melt. I need you.”
“Okay, I’m here, Penny. Right here.” His mouth, much warmer than it had been, turned into the Sahara, dry as sand. What does she need me for? I have a feeling it isn’t going to be to fetch another glass of water. What the hell am I going to say?
“IS YOUR —” PENNY PAUSED. Should I be polite or casual?
I know it’s wrong. He might not think it’s wrong.
He might like it. He’ll love it! But I should ask nicely.
“Is your penis-cock cold?” She decided to use both the anatomically correct term so she sounded professional and the sexy term so he’d know she was being friendly.
“And could I borrow it if it is?” She smiled, pleased with her request and certain (in her fevered state) that she’d asked in the perfect way.
HIS MIND FROZE. HOW funny. It was slow, frozen into a solid state of reluctance, want, and worry. Then, like someone losing their footing and skidding helplessly, the words slid out. “I don’t know. I think it is, I haven’t checked,” he was startled into answering.
“It’ll warm up inside me right away, I know that, but could I borrow it for a few minutes?”
“I can’t exactly take it off!”
“I know! We could use it together. Submerging it in me might be good for you.”
Bloody amazing for me, but probably not like this. “Sweetie—”
“You’d warm up,” she wheedled.
“Penny! You cannot have sex with a person just to warm ‘em up.”
“Yes, you can! That’s why August has the most babies. Cold weather means couples keep each other warm, and then sex, and then nine months later, babies!”
“Oh, God,” he sighed, shaking his head, trying to stifle the insane laughter waiting to burst out, “we’re not a couple.”
“We’re a friend-couple. A truce-couple. And I don’t have any frozen bananas.”
“What in the name of—” Oh, holy sweet mercy, picturing Penny slipping a banana in and out of her—
She continued, cutting him off, talking to herself and to the ice cubes that liquified as soon as she got them into her palm.
“I had a bunch for smoothies, but I haven’t been to the store, and you won’t melt, and I promise not to stake you, and I like you now, and it hurts to talk, so can you please just say yes and make me feel better? ”
“No! I’ll go to the store! The bananas will freeze before I’m five feet out the market door and oughta be ready for—for whatever y—”
“But it’s Christmas Eve! The nearest open store is probably miles away, and by the time you get back, you’ll be frozen solid, and I’ll have to come find you alongside the highway, and I’ll die before I get there, a giant fireball of sore throats and sweat!
” she whined miserably. “Can’t you just help me like this?
I’d be helping you, too, and we could be breaking the spell! ”
She wants my help. Every instinct he had told him to say yes, unequivocally yes. His demon whispered that he should say yes for selfish reasons, for painful reasons. She’d be humiliated later, and he’d have his kicks, and that would be a score after months of being sidelined.
And the human voice in him, getting louder every day he didn’t kill, practically screaming in his face tonight, reminded him of a night a century ago, a night when he wanted to get Jenny the money she asked for, sweet, gorgeous, sinfully hot Jenny, one of the girls who hung around the quarter, the kind his mother would have shooed him away from.
He’d gambled it all because Jenny needed money, and she’d asked him to get some.
And you always say yes to the woman you love, never refuse her needs.
Gambled his life away that night.
Felt like he might be gambling with something just as important now.
His heart, his humanity, and his demon all wanted him to say yes for one reason or another, so of course his obstinate, sorry-ass mouth said, “I don’t think so, Penny.”
She let out a helpless whimper, high-pitched and annoyed.
But he shook his head. “Sticking my cock in you—” he winced at the harsh sound of his words, “is not how I want to break the spell. Because... Because I don’t want it to break us with it. You said you like me.”
“Well... You’re oddly likeable.”
“Same to you. I like you, Penny. I didn’t know that until tonight. I’d like to keep being a—what did you call us? A friend-couple? Truce-couple? Or more. After this night is done.”
“Yeah, well, if I combust or your face freezes off and you explode into ashes, there won’t be a night after this, will there?”
“No. Might not be.”
“Look, I don’t love you.”
“I know that. I don’t love you, either.” His insides twisted and huffed. No, he didn’t love her, but he wasn’t stupid enough to pretend that the signs weren’t there. If things kept on this way—with less atmospheric interference—he could see himself falling for the human.
That wasn’t as scary as he thought it would be.
“But we like each other—and if you’re worried that we have to be more than just friends to make things work out, well... Why don’t we add that to the paper, too? That we work backwards?”
“Sex first, dates later?” Brax raised one eyebrow.
“Yes, because if we don’t fix this problem, there might not be a later to get to.
And if you’re worried I’m just saying stuff to get what I want—you’re nuts.
I never wanted a vampire. I wanted to get away from them.
But you’re not all bad. I mean... I’ve seen the vamps in this town.
The ones who stay. They seem like they’re just trying to lead good lives, do good things.
And I don’t know... I think it’s kind of nice that you could take charge of your life again, and choose not to hurt people, cursed or not. ”
“No, Pen, I didn’t think you were putting one over on me. You’ve made it all too clear you don’t like my kind, and I don’t blame you.”
“But I think I like you, and I don’t think I can lie. Lying right now would mean I’d have to be able to think of the truth and then a lie to put over top of it. I can barely handle talking.”
It was true. Her breathing had become labored, her head dipping forward more weakly. He noticed that her skin radiated heat even without touching it.
“I believe you.”
“I want to use you. You’ll cool me off. I’ll warm you up. And I’ll feel better. You’ll feel better. If you help me and don’t hurt me when I need you most... I won’t hate you later. I won’t be in love, but I’ll like. Because I already like. Today, I like.”