Page 11 of First Blood
Laurie stepped forward.
And…that simply wasn’t fucking happening. I strode across the icy pavement and reached him right as he moved to talk to the driver through the window. His head turned, startled, his damp, snow-dusted curls flying, and I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and yanked him close, leaning down to look through the passenger-side window.
“He’s taken,” I snarled. The driver started to argue, took a better look at me, and screeched off down the street without a word.
I looked down at Laurie and froze yet again, unable to do more than stare. His cheeks flushed a deep peony-pink as I watched, fascinated, and his eyes went wide with an emotion I couldn’t quite guess. Apparently he remembered what had happened the night before, and he wasn’t happy about it — a thought that didn’t give me any pleasure.
He jerked out from under my arm and took a step away, his dark eyes flashing. “You fed from me,” he said, his voice wavering with something between defiance and terror. “But that doesn’t mean you own me.”
I’d already opened my mouth to make some retort to whatever he was going to say. I snapped it shut again. Not much to say to that, because…it was true. I didn’t own him. I had no claim on him whatsoever.
Only…the marks of my fangs stood out rust-red on the pale skin of his neck, and my blood burned and my heart pounded to the rhythm ofYou’re mine.
“I’m willing to pay more than he is for your time tonight,” I finally managed. “It’s a good business decision.”
“It was your choice to pay me that much! And I can return some of it. It’s too much for one feeding. I’ve never done it before, but I know that much. I don’t want to be paid in advance for something I didn’t agree to.”
I blinked at him, nonplussed. Did he think I’d left that much money out of a desire to manipulate him? Apparently, which didn’t say much about his opinion of me. But what was I supposed to say to contradict him?I left you a ridiculous amount of money because being near you made me so fucking crazy I didn’t care, I’d have paid anything to leave quickly and even more to stay?
Laurie had his fists on his hips, and his lips pressed together stubbornly. “I’m not going to be a feeder,” he said desperately. “I tried to use makeup to cover the puncture marks, but it didn’t work. Any vampire who sees me like this is going to think I’m fair game.”
“The fuck they will,” I growled. “Those aremymarks. No one’s going to touch you. Tell them they’re my marks and they’ll back off.”
“Oh yeah?” he snapped. “And who the hell are you? I don’t even know your name. Why should they care?”
“Victor Schmidt, at your service.” I didn’t bow, even though the tug of my long-ago upbringing demanded that I ought to. “And they’d care.”
It took a second for that to register. I knew it had when Laurie turned away, rubbing a hand over his face, and said, “Oh, shit.”
Apparently he knew my name, even if he hadn’t recognized my face. He had to have figured out that I worked for Fenwick, but there were employees and employees, and I was one of the notorious ones.
“I’m not going to force you into anything even though we both know I could,” I said, getting a little desperate myself. If my reputation made him run screaming, I’d have to nail my feet to the ground to keep from chasing him, but he had that right. Fuck, he had it, and I had to respect it. Only — persuasion of the verbal and non-violent kind had never been my strong suit. “It’s a lot of money for a few minutes of work with no fucking and no risk of getting hurt. Five hundred a feed. You set the parameters of how often. Consider all the rest from last night a tip.”
Laurie looked up at last, glancing coyly through his long lashes, and fuck, but he was biting his lip again. The sight went straight to my cock. Did he know what that gesture did to me? He had to. It was his job to notice things like that. The little bastard was playing me like a violin.
“Not tonight,” he said, his blush deepening. Snowflakes landed on his cheekbones, melting instantly against the heat of them and gleaming there. I wanted to lick them off. “Once — once a week. Come to my apartment in six days, okay? I’ll stay home all night. Whenever you want to show up, I’ll be there. Until then, don’t…don’t interfere. I have to make a living.” He paused. “If you’re serious about not forcing me. You’re right. I can’t stop you from doing anything you want to me.”
Part of me, about nine inches of me to be precise, wanted to throw him over my shoulder and drag him off somewhere warm and quiet where I could show him exactly how fucking true that was. My gums ached where my teeth were trying to descend.
“I’m serious.” He stood there, his head cocked, waiting. Right. Waiting for me to fuck the hell off. I chose my next words carefully. “You’ll see me in six days, then.”
I turned on my heel and strode back the way I’d come.
He’d see me in six days. I’d see him sooner than that. There was no point in pretending otherwise.
Chapter 5
Obsessed
Laurie worked every night.
When the fuck did he rest up, without ever taking a night off? And what did he spend the money on? I couldn’t take the risk of following him during the day, so I couldn’t find out if he ran any errands or what they might be. The temptation to break into his apartment to look for bank statements or a birth certificate, or anything to tell me more about him, hit me every time I walked by his building on my way to lurk in the alley and masochistically watch him get picked up and driven off to be fucked by some stranger.
Watching him come back was worse, sometimes. The bastards usually didn’t have the courtesy to drop him off again. Instead, he would trudge back to his spot, shivering in the cold and more tousled than when he’d left, sometimes limping a little.
I was surprised he couldn’t hear the grinding of my teeth from all the way down by his streetlight. I’d found a fire escape on one of the buildings by the alley, and I had a spot in the shadows of the third-floor stairs, far enough up that no one would notice me unless they were looking for me.
Snow had been falling on and off for three days, and it had mounded against walls and filled the gutters with filthy slush. My fire escape was covered in it. Not that I gave a shit, since cold didn’t bother me much; my coat was mainly for effect.
