“You’re absolutely right about that.” I took another sip of my drink and looked at the silver framed picture on top of the box. It had been thoughtful of him to clean out my desk. “How is Banner doing?”
“Resting comfortably in the back of an ambulance. He’s under the impression that there was some kind of accident with the elevator doors.” Jacobson frowned. “Unfortunately he might get other ideas if he sees you again. It’s difficult to erase a traumatic incident completely from a human brain without doing permanent damage.”
I nodded. “That’s okay. He’s never going to see me again. I don’t ever want to go back. I only took the stupid job in the first place…”
“Because you were going to be promoted to attorney?” Jacobson finished for me when I trailed off.
I frowned at him. “Don’t start that again. I was just beginning to like you—even if you are a vamp.”
“I apologize.” He nodded at the picture in the silver frame. “Your husband or lover?”
“My brother,” I said and added, “I’m single.” Then I mentally kicked myself—why would I tell him a thing like that? As if he’d be interested or I’d be willing to go with him even if he was. A vamp and a were out on a date—what a laugh.
But Jacobson looked pleased. “I was hoping you were.”
“You mean you didn’t already know from shaking my hand?” I took another drink.
“I got brief impressions of the things you were recently thinking when we touched and only because you were thinking about them so hard.” He shrugged. “Sometimes it happens but usually only when the person I am touching has a very forceful personality. Truly, I’m not much of a mind reader, Ms. Velez.”
I sighed. “Call me Luz.”
“Luz, then.” He smiled, careful not to show fang. “And I would be honored if you’d call me Jude.”
I nodded. “Fine, we’re officially on a first-name basis. Now would you mind telling me what you wanted to talk about? What is this proposition?”
Jacobson—or Jude as I supposed I should think of him now—took a deep breath. He looked at me carefully, as though trying to gauge how I would take what he was going to say. “I want your blood,” he said at last, apparently deciding that the most direct route was the best.
“What, all of it?” I asked. “Because I’m kind of using it right now.”
He smiled. “Of course not. What I am saying is that I want to drink from you.” His voice got deeper and his gaze was suddenly very intense. “I want to drink from you more than any other female I’ve ever met.”
I shivered at the hot look in his eyes. I don’t know much about vamps but I do know that when they take blood it’s not just about getting nourishment. They often combine their dining practices with…other things. Things I had never considered doing with a vampire, that was for sure.
And I’m not considering them now, either, I told myself firmly. “Why me?” I said, giving him a level look to let him know I wasn’t impressed.
His gaze never wavered. “As a non-shifter the supernatural power in your blood has never been tapped. It would be like drinking a fine and extraordinarily rare vintage of wine—one I might never get a chance to try again.”
Well, good—at least he wasn’t trying to come on to me.
“Also you’re a very, very beautiful woman,” he continued, dashing that idea to smithereens. “The very thought of holding you in my arms, tasting your skin while I bite you…it’s intoxicating.”
His eyes met mine and he held me trapped in his gaze for a long, long moment. Long enough that I felt my heart pounding crazily against my ribs and the gathering heat and dampness between my thighs. He’s a vampire, I reminded myself sternly. You’re a were. You can’t date a vamp! But no matter what I told myself, the fact was, it had been a very long time since a man—any man—had looked at me like that.
Finally I tore my gaze away and took another hasty gulp of my melting piña colada. “And why should I let you? Bite me, I mean?”
“I can make it worth your while to submit to me,” he said and I definitely got the impression he was talking about more than a quick nip on the neck. “There are many things I can offer.”
“Such as?” I asked, trying not to look at the intense gaze that was still aimed at me like a spotlight.
“Well, I could help you get rid of that pesky virginity that’s been bothering you.”
I felt my cheeks heat with a sudden rush of blood. So he had picked that out of my brain along with everything else, the bastard. My deepest, darkest secret. My ultimate shame. Well, except for… I pushed the thought away and looked up at him.
“So you think I’m so desperate I’ll have sex with a vamp?” I put every ounce of scorn I could muster into the words.
“I think you are, yes,” he said, mildly. “Your virginity bothers you greatly and you wish to be rid of it by any means necessary.”
“Not by any means,” I said, but I was just trying to save face and we both knew it. The truth of his words made me wince with shame.
Since no self-respecting male were will date or mate with a non-shifter, I had been single for years. But just because there were none of my own kind available to me didn’t mean I didn’t want a man. I listened to other women talk about their sex lives and I burned to be touched and taken and held. I wanted it so much that finally I had stooped to dating humans. And one night I let one of them take me home. What I hadn’t counted on was my panicky response to being held down. When he spread my legs and climbed on top of me it was just too much. To awful…
“I broke his pelvis in three places,” I murmured, lost in the memory of that awful night.
“You didn’t mean to.” Jude’s deep voice was curiously gentle.
I looked up at him. “How much do you really know about me? Are you reading my mind right now?”
He shook his head. “I swear I’m not. I only know what was at the top of your mind when we shook hands. You were thinking about your perceived failures. Your status as a non-shifter, the Bar exam…and buried under all that, so deep you probably didn’t even know you were thinking about it yourself…the other.”
“All my most embarrassing secrets,” I said dully. “Must be nice to be able to pick things like that out of someone else’s brain. If you ever get tired of being a rich and powerful vampire you can have a whole second career in blackmail.”
Jude frowned. “Please don’t imagine I would ever try to coerce you into giving yourself to me, Luz. If sex isn’t your payment of choice we can certainly move on.”
“Move on, then,” I said, making a gesture with my hand. “No offense but I’m not having sex with a vamp, no matter how desperate you think I am.”
“Very well.” He nodded. “There are other, more prosaic things I can offer you. Money, for instance.”
I cleared my throat. “This may sound weird but I think that would make me feel even more like a whore than if we had sex.” I couldn’t believe I was still discussing this with him but somehow I couldn’t just get up and go. His intense gaze wouldn’t let me.
“Consider this,” he said, steepling his long fingers in front of him. “You saved me a considerable sum tonight. If I had signed those papers your foolish colleague was offering me I would have been legally committed to a very expensive and useless project. What if I gave you the amount you saved me tonight in return for the right to drink from you on several occasions?”
“And how much is that?” I said, taking another sip of my watery piña colada. Wow, it was almost gone. I needed to slow down.
He named a sum that made me take another drink despite my internal decision to go easy on the alcohol. What he was offering was enough to keep me going for the next two months at least. Rent, groceries, car note—that amount would pay it all. I could stay home and study night and day for the Bar exam which I had been stubborn enough to sign up for again. It was tempting but…
“That’s still money,” I reminded him. “And a freaking big bunch
of it at that.”
Jude looked frustrated. “Money that I would have lost if not for you. Also, you were kind enough to punish that idiot Banner, which saves me the trouble of paying him a visit later on tonight.” His eyes gleamed and I felt a shiver go down my spine. No matter how polite he was, there was an edge of darkness in him that peeked out every once in a while and reminded me of what he was.
“I didn’t exactly break his hand because I was upset that he screwed up your case,” I pointed out. “But I’m sure if he’d been given a choice he would prefer what I did to anything you might dream up.”
He smiled dangerously. “I am certain you’re right. So…back to our deal. What if I offered you something else besides the money? Something that would help you solve your problems—or what you perceive to be problems, anyway?”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “What—you’re going to give me a copy of your latest self-help book? Solving Your Problems the Vampire Way? Or maybe, Men are from Mars and Vampires are from Venus?”
He laughed softly and shook his head. “No, in exchange for your blood I will give you…my blood. Some of it, anyway.”
I looked at him blankly. “So we’d do a blood exchange? Isn’t that some kind of a vampire sex ritual? And what purpose would it serve?”
“It doesn’t have to involve sex,” he murmured but the intense look was back in his eyes again. “And as for the purpose, my blood will help you overcome the obstacles between you and the things you want.”
“Explain.” I pressed my thighs together tightly under the table, trying to ignore the heat that was building there as I remembered the lurid rumors I’d heard about vamp sex rituals. The thought of him biting me didn’t excite me—did it?
Jude leaned forward and took my hand. I tried to pull it away but he didn’t let me. After a while I relaxed and let him hold it. What the hell—he already knew so many embarrassing facts about me there didn’t seem to be any point in fighting. Almost nothing else he could learn from touching me was as bad as the fact that I was a twenty-seven-year-old virgin. Almost.
“Has it ever occurred to you, Luz, that the reason you can’t shift and the reason you can’t pass the Bar exam are connected?” he asked, eyeing me intently. “That the panic and fear you felt when you tried to have sex were related to the anxiety you felt during those other two determining events in your life?”
“I-I…” I shook my head, at a loss for words. As a matter of fact, it hadn’t occurred to me. But when I thought about it, when I remembered the way I’d felt every time I attempted to shift, each time I’d tried and failed the Bar exam, and the one disastrous time I’d tried to have sex, it all made sense. Test-taking anxiety? I had life anxiety. “My God…” I ran my free hand through my hair. “I don’t know why I never thought of it like that.”
At least Jude didn’t say I told you so. “My blood can help you,” he said looking at me intently. “It will give you confidence and allow you to stay calm under pressure.”
“Really?” I looked up at him. It seemed too good to be true.
Jude nodded. “I swear it.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Weres aren’t susceptible to anti-anxiety drugs, you know.”
“I know. But this is different. It’s not a drug—it is the essence of me. You may have noticed that I am a very calm person. By taking my blood, you’ll be taking some of my attributes as well.”
“Mmm-hmm. So will I suddenly have the urge to bite people?”
One corner of his mouth quirked up. “Hardly. Taking my blood will give you my attributes—not my appetites.”
It was like making a deal with the devil and I knew it. But the thought of becoming the person I wanted to be—the person I always should have been if the stupid fear and anxiety hadn’t gotten in the way—was too much. I found myself nodding my head almost eagerly.
“Where and when?” I asked. I was ready to do almost anything to get what he promised.
“My house would be best—if you think you’d be comfortable there?” He raised an eyebrow at me.
For a moment I balked. Was this really smart? Agreeing to go to a strange vampire’s house to let him bite me? This man is stronger than me, I reminded myself. He could do things to me that human men couldn’t. He could…force me. I couldn’t allow myself to think the word rape but the memory of being held down by the drunken human was very strong in my mind. And there was another memory, one that was buried even deeper and almost forgotten. If only I could forget completely… No! I pushed it away before it could rise to the surface of my mind like a bloated corpse floating to the top of an algae-encrusted pond.
Jude must have known what I was thinking about. “This is a business proposition, Luz. I am bargaining for your blood, not your body. I won’t take anything that you don’t offer me freely.” His voice was dry and no-nonsense but his eyes were strangely gentle.
I could feel myself blushing again. “It’s just…I’ve been in the human world a long time so I’m not used to being with anyone stronger than me. It’s…a little scary,” I forced myself to admit.
“I understand. But I would never use my strength to hurt you. I’ll give you some time to think about it.” Jude sat up straighter and released my hand. I realized he was about to go. “But let me be clear about the terms. You will come to my house at least three times and allow me to drink from you. In return I will give you some of my blood each time as well as the money you saved me tonight.”
“That…sounds straightforward enough,” I said.
“There’s one more thing you should know.” He looked me in the eyes, making sure I understood him. “I don’t intend to drink from your neck or your wrist, beautiful one.”
“Then where…?”
“Your inner thigh.” He gave me a slow, hot smile that seemed to melt me from the inside out and I had a sudden flash of him kneeling between my thighs, his broad shoulders holding my legs apart as he leaned in to bite. Was I really so desperate that I was getting turned-on by a vampire? Apparently so. I could feel my pussy getting hot and wet and I suddenly wondered if he knew about my arousal. The idea was terribly embarrassing, yet somehow intriguing as well.
“I…” I swallowed hard, my mouth suddenly dry. “I understand.”
“Good.” He nodded and stood, fishing a card out of the inner pocket of his immaculately tailored suit. “This is my address. Please be at my door this time next week if the arrangement suits you.”
“All right.” I looked at the plain white card that had his name and address embossed in curving black script.
Jude smiled at me, his eyes glinting dangerously under half-closed lids. “I hope to see you there, Luz. I can’t tell you how much I look forward to tasting you.”
Chapter Two
This is crazy, I told myself as I stood outside the glossy black door with the polished brass knocker shaped like a bat. Somebody had a sense of humor, at least. Jude lived in a large, elegant Tudor-style house that just missed being a mansion by a few square feet. It was set in the middle of an immaculately manicured lawn and surrounded by high hedges, maybe to block the sunlight during the day? Either that or his gardener had an overdeveloped sense of privacy.
Jude’s expensive gated neighborhood in West Chase was about as far from my run-down apartment building in Ybor City as you could get and it had taken me a while to find it. In fact, I was more than thirty minutes late. I wondered if Jude had given up on me. Maybe I should give up on me—what was I doing here?
I’d had a whole week to talk myself out of this but somehow I hadn’t because I couldn’t help thinking of what he’d said—that his blood could help me. I just hoped I wouldn’t have to drink a gallon of it to get the good effects. Being a non-shifter I’d never acquired the taste for blood and raw meat that most weres have. Speaking of other weres, what would my family think of me now? Fraternizing with the enemy.
Like they’d care, I told myself scornfully. It wasn’t like my mom and dad had disowned me but we’d drifted apa
rt after the awful night it became clear I was never going to come into my own. And there were other things that had happened, which had put distance between us. Things I preferred not to think about and it was easier to keep them at bay when I wasn’t in touch with my parents.
About the only family member I kept up with now was my little brother, Diego. We were really close and talked often. Like me, he had broken out of the mold and left our family pack. Now he was running with a tough bunch of Latino wolves called, fittingly enough, Los Lobos. Not very imaginative but weres tend to be more practical than creative.
I lifted my hand for maybe the fifth time to knock and put it down again. Was I doing the right thing? Would I regret my decision once I was on the other side of that glossy black door?
Before I could change my mind again, the door in question swung open and Jude looked out at me. “Luz, I’m so glad to see you. I was afraid you might have decided against coming to see me.” He made it sound like a social visit—like I was just dropping in for a drink. Well, I was, in a way. At least, I was dropping in to let him drink from me. I felt my skin pebble up into goose bumps and tried to push the thought away. It was easier to pretend I was just here for a business deal and leave the idea of those sharp white fangs I could see peeking out from under his sensuous upper lip out of the equation.
“I got a little lost coming here,” I said stiffly. “Sorry I’m late.”
“You’re here now—that’s all that matters.” Jude stepped to the side and made a sweeping gesture of welcome with one arm. “Please, come in.”
I stepped past him into the dim interior of the house, my heart racing about a hundred miles a minute. Now I knew how human women felt when they went on blind dates. Vulnerable.
“Please be at ease,” Jude murmured. Tonight he was wearing a thin black crew neck T-shirt that hugged the muscular planes of his chest and tight, faded jeans. I liked the more casual look on him and hoped I hadn’t overdressed myself. I had on a short, flirty black skirt with red flowers on it and a silky bright red blouse to match. I knew the red would bring color to my cheeks and make my eyes look brighter.