Page 27 of Desperately Seeking Vampire
The orgasm claimed my attention then, my body thrumming in time to the beating of his heart, his breath harsh against my neck as his hips went wild when he found his own moment of pleasure.
“Yep,” I said a long time later. We were both lying flat on the bed, desperately trying to breathe, our bodies damp with our exertions.
Ivo tried to lift a hand from where it rested on his belly, but it fell back immediately. “What?”
“Yep, if this is going to be the standard level of lovemaking, then I’m going to have to take up a fitness routine. Because otherwise, I might die.”
“You are immortal,” he said. “Although you don’t seem to heal like Dark Ones do.”
I rolled onto my side, and kissed his bicep. “No, cartomancers are just your run-of-the-mill immortal. We know cards, and live a very long time unless someone lops off our heads or something like that, but we don’t do the healing thing. And besides, that wasn’t at all what I meant. I was giving you a compliment. It was a reflection on just studly you are. I’ll say again—for a man who’s been asleep for eighty-six years, you are really, really good at sex. Exceptionally good. Possibly godlike.”
He looked pleased, but waved a hand in a vague gesture. “You helped some. You deserve a bit of the praise.”
“Smart-ass,” I said, pinching his arm before scooting up so I could lean against pillows. “Now that I can breathe again, do you mind if we pillow talk for a bit? I have a few things I want to talk about.”
“You must eat.” He looked with distaste at the bag holding my burger and fries. “You are hungry.”
“Oh, yes, pass that over, please. Damn, I wish they’d had shakes. I would kill for a chocolate shake right now. I can pillow talk and eat at the same time. First, what did you think about the kidnappers?”
“I try not to think about them,” he answered, lacing his fingers beneath his head as I munched my way through my burger. “What did they say to you?”
“Nothing other than they were taking me to see Jason. What I want to know is why. It makes no sense, Ivo. They aren’t working for him—they said they were hired by someone in Paris. I assume it was the shop owner from whom Jason stole the spell. So why are the baddies so hot and bothered about dragging me to a police station to see my boss?”
He was silent for a few minutes. “Could it be some sort of intimidation tactic?”
“Threatening to hand me over to the police, you mean?” I thought about that while consuming a few fries. “I don’t see how it is supposed to scare me. I’ve already been grilled by them and released. They know I’m not the one who tried to abscond with the festival funds, and no one at the station mentioned a spell. I mean, they wouldn’t, being mortal. No, something else is going on, and I want to know what.”
“We will have to go see this employer of yours,” Ivo said in a decisive tone, reaching for his clothing.
“I guess so, although from what I know of him, he doesn’t seem to be too forthcoming with information. When do you want to go?”
He pulled on his shirt, frowning at the few spots where buttons had popped off when I ripped the shirt from him in my frenzy to get his naked body on mine. I grinned, and handed him the shirt I’d taken from his closet and had worn around my waist. “Is there anything wrong with now?”
“No, but you got red riding around in the sun.” I gave him a quelling look that he avoided meeting. “When you weren’t covered in road rash, that is. I assume the vampire lore is right in that you are sensitive to sunlight?”
“Somewhat. Those Dark Ones who have Joined with their Beloveds have more tolerance than others, but yes, in general I try to stay out of direct sunlight. Overcast days like today, however, pose even less of a threat than normal. We will go to the police station and see your employer.”
“Not on your bike, we won’t.” Done eating, I went into the tiny bathroom and washed up, taking the opportunity to freshen up those parts of me that were still enjoying little aftershocks of tingling happiness.
“Finch has placed an automobile at my disposal,” he told me, sitting on the edge of the bed, looking at something on his tablet.
I made a mental note to buy him the fanciest computer I could find. “Do you know how to drive?”
He reared back like I had insulted him. “Of course I do.”
“Let me rephrase that—have you driven any car that was made after the year 1950?”
“Your point is invalid,” he said, dismissing it with a little sniff that made me want to laugh. “I have driven an automobile before.”
“I think maybe until we can find a nice big empty parking lot for you to have a refresher course, I’ll take over driving duties,” I said, gathering up my stuff, such as it was. “Come along, you handsome vampire, you. Let’s go beard my boss in his police-laden den.”
“Very well, but I’ll have you know that I just looked up instructions on driving modern cars, and it says it’s automatic. So I should be able to pilot the vehicle without any problem.”
A half hour later, after spending the entire ride from Drahanská Castle to the police station trying to explain to Ivo the difference between manual and automatic transmission—and failing miserably, because I wasn’t any too hip on the subject—we arrived at the police station, and I asked to see Jason.
It took another ten minutes while they checked to see if he was allowed visitors, and once they decided he was, they had to notify him that I was waiting.
We were finally escorted into a small interrogation room where Jason was handcuffed to a metal rail that ran along the top of the table, loudly bitching about his treatment. “I’ll have my lawyers on you, see if I don’t!” he shouted to a policewoman as she told us we had five minutes before she left the room.
