Chapter 8 #3
Sensing the absence of the man’s presence over my shoulder, I turned to find the door to the inner sanctum closing with a whisper soft swish.
What the hell was that?
Before I could bring my attention back to Todd, I was hit by an ice-cold wave of wet. Water splayed over my chest and down the front of my dress, carving a path of liquid metal to my navel. And lower. Lower.
My throat tight with shock, I inhaled sharply. It was so fucking cold.
And there was Todd. At my side, looking a little too giddy. It took me all of one second to realize the jerk used my plan against me. That he’d intentionally knocked my arm because he’d known what I was up to.
“Whoops.” Todd shrugged, feigning apology, before taking the glasses from me.
“Ugh.” I ground my discomfort out through my teeth. “It’s disgustingly cold.”
Todd gave me a look that I took to mean “better you than me” as he went to put away the glassware, leaving me high and dry.
No, that wasn’t right, it was the opposite, he was leaving me low and wet.
With no towels or napkins in sight, I let out a flustered moan.
If my plan had worked as intended, Todd at least would have been able to take off his shirt.
Not that he would. But I was trapped in a sorry excuse for a dress, with very few options to dry myself beyond relocating to a washroom.
And there wouldn’t be any vamp attention in there.
Clack. Clack. Clack. Clack.
As if on cue, the room parted as a voluptuous woman in strapless red dress made her way towards me, the waves of her hair falling just past her shoulders.
The confident clacking of her heels turned heads from across the room.
Everything about the way she styled and held herself accentuated her figure. Every bit of her screamed femme fatale.
Producing a handkerchief from god-knows-where, she handed it to me with a confident flourish.
“Thank you.” Accepting the material with a grateful nod, I wondered how she hadn’t made it in with the vamps yet.
“He hasn’t taken his eyes off you, you know.” The woman watched me intently, leaning against the nearest wall, jutting her chin towards Todd as I blotted away the moisture within reach. She crossed her legs over, a sultry smirk on her face. “Now, tell me, No-one-of-consequence, why would that be?”
I ceased my drying.
She wasn’t in the room because she wanted to be chosen. She was doing the choosing. Which meant I had to play my cards carefully. “He takes joy in watching me make a fool of myself.”
“And here I thought you were fascinating because you came in with your own man-toy.” She gave me a wink, and a flash of her fangs. A full-fledged vampire then. The pieces were coming together.
“Do you usually get your familiar to scent people for you?”
She pushed herself off the wall, placed her hand over mine, and took hold of the handkerchief she loaned me. “Familiars are good for many things. But my Xander takes great pride in ensuring prey meet my standards… and that they’ll put on a good show.”
If the man in black—Xander—was her familiar, she most definitely was Carmen.
“I’d hardly call spilling water all over myself a good show.”
“Now, that is where we disagree, No-one-of-consequence.” She brushed her hand over a pulse point near my throat. “How do you think your man-toy will feel when I bite your neck?”
“I doubt he’ll care.”
“Hmmm… that would be… disappointing, but somehow, I don’t think that’s true. Let’s find out, shall we?” Despite all of her posturing, she raised a brow, a silent ask for permission.
If I used words, my voice would have given my hesitation away, so I willed numbness into my mind as I tilted my head, exposing my neck.
A few seconds and the bite would be over. A few seconds and I would be in.
Carmen chuckled to herself, lips parting in a smile. “Lovely. Just lovely.” Her hand clasped my chin, keeping me positioned to her liking. “Now, be a good girl and hold still.”
She brought her lips to my neck, trailing them over my exposed skin. The way she snaked and circled her mouth, I got a sinking feeling that I wasn’t going to get the quick bite I’d been counting on. She had every intent of drawing this out.
Or perhaps she was looking for something… searching for where my pulse was strongest. Where the veil was thinnest. That would be the vampy thing to do.
Abruptly, Carmen stopped. Her mouth hovering over the base of my throat, her breath fell in steady warm waves, where she waited. Unmoving. Savoring.
I fought the temptation to clench my hands at my sides. To squeeze until my knuckles blanched from the strain. Though my jaw tightened, I did everything in my power to keep my face from revealing my discomfort.
The anticipation of the bite-yet-to-come released a steady stream of adrenaline into my system. My heart pounded in my ears. A cold sweat blistered my palms. My patience was growing thin—like a water droplet eating through paper, thin.
And just when I was sure I couldn’t take any more, just when I was on the edge of shouting “hurry up and do it already”, she bit.