Page 57 of Love Lives
“Maybe you were wrong.”
I was not, but… maybe this was my chance to get rid of my Velcro vampire. “Why are you still here anyway?” I asked. “You already got what you wanted, didn't you?"
"I don't think I have." Aldrich grabbed my arm and pulled me up from the bed so I stood before him. "There's still things I want to do to you."
"To me? Not with me?" I tried my best to draw on my anger, on the frustration his callousness caused in me, rather than the interest his proximity inspired in certain parts of my anatomy.
Stay angry,I told myself. Angry was better than aroused. Better than getting swept up in the heat of Aldrich’s gaze.
"To you, with you..." Before I could resist, my vampire pulled me closer. "Doesn’t matter to me as long as you’re involved.” His eyes traveled down my body before locking with mine again. “That's going to be difficult if Vlad sucks you dry."
"I’ve got to do something," I insisted, trying very hard not to look at Aldrich’s lips as he spoke.
God, what was wrong with me?
Aldrich raised a hand to trace the line of my artery with his thumb. "Whatever you do, don't let other vamps bite you."
I narrowed my eyes at him, doing my best to suppress the shiver his touch invoked in me. "So you're jealous, is that it?"
"I'm just not insane."
"Because you don't care about other people. Never have, right? You've always been a cold-blooded killer."
Aldrich studied my face as if trying to judge what exactly I was getting at, but after only a moment, his eyes dropped to my neck again. "I should just bite you until you can't walk anymore."
My breath caught in my throat. An instinctive reaction to his words before I had time to tell myself that this idea did not appeal to me. At all.
Aldrich heard it, though. He gave me a wolfish smile, then leaned in a little closer to speak into my ear. "I know you want it."
My cock stiffened.
Goddammit. What the hell was I doing? I shouldn't let this vampire bite me again. I needed to get rid of him so my vision wouldn't come true.
But maybe I could do that even if he bit me.
"If you're so sure what I want, why don't you just do it?" I said.
Predictably, Aldrich didn't hesitate to take me up on that. He dipped his head, kissed my neck. I took a deep breath to steel myself, arousal and apprehension warring within myself. A sharp sensation as Aldrich's fangs broke my skin. A feeling that was already starting to become familiar.
The fight went out of my body. Most of it, anyway. I struggled to hold on to a tiny bit of it, not to lose my resolve. I couldn't just relax against Aldrich and let him have his way with me, much as I maybe wanted to. That wouldn't solve anything. It wouldn't show him the error of his ways.
No, I wasn't just going to stand here and let him drink from me. I was going to remind him that he hadn't always been a monster. My mind pushed against his, until I found what I was looking for. Memories, locked away and forgotten.
Memories that he didn’t want to see.
I got a vision of the brown-haired mortal he'd been once upon a time. He didn't look as happy in this memory as he had in the last. Understandable, because he was at a cemetery. An icy wind blew through the trees and the crowd of mourners gathered around the grave. The casket had already been lowered into it. Aldrich--or whatever his name had been--stared sullenly at the earth to his feet.
"They say he liked men," someone in the crowd whispered. The voice sounded feminine, but I couldn't place it. "That's why he hung himself."
The speaker was shut up by loud shushing noise. Aldrich never even glanced their direction.
A second later, I felt myself kicked out of the memory. Before I really knew what was going on, I was falling backward onto the bed. My vampire had pushed me away. I couldn't even really blame him.
It was, after all, exactly what I’d wanted.
"Was that... your lover?" I asked shortly after my back connected with the mattress.
For a long moment, Aldrich said nothing. Then, in a move so completely uncharacteristic of him it left me stunned, he turned and walked away.
