Page 45 of Trapped for Her Blood
“Nothing.” He turns away.
“No, tell me. Please.” I swim toward him. “What do you mean?”
He disappears under the water, his arms rising overhead as he disappears straight down, leaving a small vortex and some bubbles. Then he surfaces, shooting out, his entire torso rising above the water for a moment and he shakes his hair, spraying water in a wide circle around us both.
Back at the surface, he tips his face toward the cave’s ceiling, his eyes flashing in the faint light, and then he fixes their preternatural gold brightness on me. I react with a sharp inhale that contracts my whole body. I will never get over how his brilliant eyes seem to glow.
“You’re not going to tell me what you meant?” I tread forward slightly, moving toward him. “About me and Zuben?”
“It seemed…” He rakes back his hair. “Awkward, that’s all.” He shrugs.
“Itwasawkward. Right?” My words burst out before I have a chance to consider my response. I’m embarrassed that he saw us at all, but that he thought it was awkward raises embarrassed to new levels. But on the other hand, that word describes it perfectly and I’m glad that someone recognized it other than me.
I wish I had someone to talk to about what happened, but I don’t know how much Axe saw, whether he saw the more intimate, gentle beginnings, and it seems wrong, like a betrayal, to discuss the sex with Axe, before I’ve even had a chance to do so with Zuben.
“Zuben seems like a very serious person,” Axe says.
“Yes.” I smile. “Serious is one word to describe him.” I float onto my back for a moment, letting my hair go under and it feels so good.
I straighten and Axe makes eye contact, eliciting another involuntary inhale from me, and a tightening of my belly.
“Your eyes,” I say softly. “They seem to glow from inside.”
He nods. “It happens in dim lighting. Becoming a vampire enhanced the effect, but it is a trait of a bear clan alpha.”
The word “alpha” stirs something inside me, something I’m not certain I want to acknowledge. Each of these three men who’ve entered my life are appealing—very appealing—and yet so different. Ryker with his cool, reckless charm; Zuben with his protectiveness and intelligence; and Axel with his brute masculinity and strength that I feel sure are masking loss and sadness.
I’ve had sex with the other two, and the experiences couldn’t have been more different, and now, treading water and looking into Axe’s eyes, I wonder…
How would it be with him? Which side of Axe would come out during sex—the alpha bear, ferocious and strong, or the sad, lost soul who’s spent decades mourning his wife alone in this cave and scaring away anyone who came near?
My insides still feel raw; I need to think of something beyond sex—but my mind keeps going back there.
“You and Zuben…” Axe pauses. “Have you known each other a long time?”
I shake my head. I know I don’tneedto explain why I had sex with Zuben—it’s my business—but for some reason, I want to.
“Zuben…” I consider where to start. “We’d met a couple of times before we were captured, and down here, he rescued me from a vampire who planned to…to hurt me.
“Then after he got me somewhere safe, I was so thirsty and tired I could barely speak. We couldn’t find any water, so he—”
Axe’s eyes widen. “He gave you his blood.” He looks away. “You had sex out of gratitude for his blood?”
“Not really… No. I mean, I was grateful, Iamgrateful…but Zuben… I know he seems stiff, but he’s got a dry sense of humor and he’s kind…”
“You don’t need to explain.” Tipping back his head, Axel brings his arms down with a strong stroke that moves him at least twenty yards away from me in one rapid motion.
Swimming the breast stroke, or at least the version of the stroke my mother taught me in the pond on our farm, I progress slowly toward Axe’s new position where he’s treading water.
As I approach, he looks up to the faint light coming through the hole high up in the cave. “I need to get out of the water soon.”
“Why?”
“You said it’s November?”
I nod, wondering what that has to do with anything.
“It won’t be long before the sun hits a point where enough light will reflect through that hole to burn me.”
