Chapter 16
Chapter sixteen
Cora
Cora nearly collapsed onto the bed, and it had nothing to do with her medical condition and everything to do with the naked guy in the shower. His tight boxer briefs had left little to the imagination, and her brain was having no trouble filling in the blanks as she listened to the water turn on.
She cursed him again under her breath, not caring if his vamp hearing could pick it up.
It was driving her nuts, trying to figure him out. Had he intentionally been trying to get a rise out of her, or did vamps just not see anything wrong with stripping in front of humans?
If it was the former, then what kind of game was he playing? It felt like seduction, but why would he be interested in her? She needed to figure things out fast because if it was a game, she was pretty sure she was losing.
It dawned on her then that he never really answered her question about his needing to feed. He said she was safe with him, but safe was a very subjective word, and one that they might not agree on. Was that his game? Was he trying to seduce her so he could bite her?
Fucking undead asshole. He was trying to turn her into dinner. Just because he was convinced that he could control how much he took, didn’t mean she would offer her neck up as a midnight snack.
Or maybe she should. Maybe if he got a sample of how disgusting she tasted, then he would give her a wide berth. It’d be like eating a burger and realizing the cow had Ebola.
Okay, that was an exaggeration, but there was no way she could taste good. Not with all the medication coursing through her diseased blood.
She’d spent a good chunk of time debating if she should bring up her condition. If he heard about her situation, he might take pity on her and let her make her film. It’s not like she was freaking Spielberg and the entire world would see her movie. He could show a little damned compassion.
Ultimately, she decided to save that ploy for her chat with Marquin. She would not use her illness to invoke pity unless she had to.
Well, at least not a second time. The first one barely counted, though. He should have been willing to let her swing by her apartment just as a basic human decency. It wasn’t her fault he wasn’t human, and she had to employ a little manipulation to stay on his level.
She heard the faucet turn off and leapt from the bed.
Grabbing his pants and shirt, she deposited them right outside the bathroom door and then slid into the desk chair, pointing it noticeably in the opposite direction.
Her willpower was only so much, and if he walked out naked and dripping wet, even a hoard of catholic nuns wouldn’t be able to resist the allure of his seductive darkness.
Reaching into her bag, she pulled out her phone and scrolled through her messages.
There were a few texts from her crew letting her know they were fine pausing the film for a few days while she dealt with family business.
Mentally she thanked Jinx for handling all of that.
There were also a couple emails from actors who had missed her open call but would like to be considered.
She dug out her laptop so she could watch the videos they sent over.
She was halfway through a rather painful demo reel from an acne-riddled adolescent when the door to the bathroom opened.
Don’t look. Don’t look. Don’t look.
She forced herself to continue watching this kid butcher Shakespeare in his garage.
It was beyond painful, but she was caught between a rock and a very, very, hard place.
She had known Saiden was in good shape but hadn’t realized he was hiding that many muscles under his baggy t-shirt.
He was the complete opposite of those lean, emaciated vamps she typically saw in horror films. Which was precisely why she’d been drawn to him.
She wanted her villain to radiate strength and virility.
There was just something decidedly un-intimidating about Bram Stoker’s pallid and sickly kind of vampire.
How were you supposed to be scared when they looked like a strong wind might knock them over?
Saiden, on the other hand, looked like he could stroll through a damned tornado with less concern than a lamb frolicking in a field.
Hot breath tickled her neck as Saiden leaned down behind her.
Don’t look. Don’t look. Don’t look.
She looked.
And found herself with a washboard stomach inches from her face. A bead of water rolled down his olive skin. She watched that single drop slide down the valleys and ridges of his six—eight?—pack abdominals until it reached the band of his jeans and wicked away.
“My eyes are up here, Cora.”
His words were all sinfully smooth, but she could have sworn she heard a tiny waver, as if he was almost worried about how she might react.
Slowly, she slid her eyes up to meet his and gulped at how intensely he was drinking her in.
He tracked the subtle bob of her throat and gave her a lascivious grin.
“You know,” he purred, all hesitancy fading as he dropped his already sultry voice into a deeper octave.
“I still owe you a third question from the car ride. So, if you’ve seen anything that you want to ask me about, and I do mean anything, I’m all yours. ”
The implications behind that statement almost broke her, but irritation kicked the door shut on her lust. Instead of breaking, she snapped.
Slamming the laptop shut she burst out of the chair, forcing him to back up quickly.
“Okay, I’m not doing this,” she blurted out. Perhaps this was one of those times Jinx kept mentioning when she lacked the social awareness to keep her mouth shut, but she lost all ability to care about stupid shit like that when she found out vampires existed.
“Yes, you are hot,” she declared, gesturing animatedly toward his chiseled torso.
“You are extremely attractive. You look like the kind of guy that women imagine in their heads when they read romance novels. You look like the kind of guy who would awaken a number of sexual kinks both disturbing and oddly fulfilling. You look like the kind of guy who could walk into a bar and suddenly there would be so many wet pairs of panties that the owner would need to open a window.”
Saiden’s eyebrow quirked up at that last one, and she didn’t miss the slight curl to his lip as he fought off a grin.
“And you have the kind of seductive smile that would require zero words to get a girl into bed. But if you think I’m going to throw my panties or my jugular at you, then you are seriously mistaken.
Now, if you don’t mind, how about you take your third question and shove it up your obscenely tight ass because all I’m planning to do is sit at this desk and watch a hundred demo reels from guys whose acting is so bad they couldn’t even be in a Marvel movie.
All in the hopes that I will find someone who has even a fraction of your innate menace.
And I don’t need your shirtless body and sexy grins distracting me. Okay?”
Her chest heaved up and down from the exertion of her rant, but it needed to be said. Despite Jinx’s many attempts to reign her in, she was always the first to address any elephant in the room, and Saiden was one big ass pachyderm.
Crossing her arms, she stared at him and waited for a response.
His lip twitched. It must have taken a solid minute before he quietly walked over to the bathroom, picked up his shirt, and slid it on over his still damp torso.
“Is that better?” he asked, amusement coloring his voice, that damn lip still trying to curl up into a full grin.
“It’s a start,” Cora mumbled, turning back to her laptop.
She started to open it, but a muscular hand slid over the top of hers, keeping it shut. Sighing, because obviously her speech had resulted in little more than him putting a shirt on, she turned to face him.
She was surprised to see all traces of seduction gone and his resting murder face back on full display.
“You need to get some sleep,” he insisted, holding the laptop lid—and her hand—firmly in place.
“I’m not tired,” she replied while trying, and failing, to slide her palm out from beneath his much larger one.
“You not only fell asleep in the car, but you look exhausted. Why won’t you just lie down?”
She evaluated the stubbornness flaring in his dark eyes and gave up the struggle. “Look, that was a fluke. I don’t sleep much, and even if I did, I’m not sharing a bed with you.”
He released her hand and took a step back. “I said you were perfectly safe with me, Cora, and I meant it. No biting. No seduction. Just sleep.”
“Never gonna happen.”
He ran a hand through his wet hair, and the action dislodged a few water droplets that ran down the thick cords of his muscular neck. Now, he had a biteable neck, and she wasn’t even a vampire.
“How about this?” he offered. “I need to make a phone call. If you lie down and at least try to fall asleep but are still awake when I come back to the room, then I’ll leave you alone for the rest of the night. You can do whatever you want without interruption from me.”
Cora pretended to analyze his offer. It was a sucker’s deal because there was no way she would fall asleep in a crappy motel room with a dangerous vampire right outside the door. If it would get him off her back, though, she’d play along.
“Deal,” she agreed and crossed the five feet to the massive bed.
He eyed her warily as she slipped under the covers fully dressed and plumped the pillow beneath her head.
Closing her eyes in an effort to convince him that she was attempting to sleep, she listened while he grabbed his keys and quietly shut the door behind himself.
Phone call my ass, she thought. He was probably heading out to find dinner since she’d firmly rebuked him.
Nestling into the surprisingly soft mattress, she waited for him to return so she could get back to her work. And she would get back to her work because there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of her actually falling asleep.