"Wake up," I whispered, as my lids got heavy and one of the people across the street pointed us out to the police. "Wake up, Mikhail." If I could switch him from food to sex, maybe I could survive being wrapped in his embrace? It was something I'd wondered about for a long goddamn time, but never thought would actually happen. Now that it was, I was wondering why he hadn't tried this sooner … in a controlled environment, of course. As things stood, this was less of a dream than a nightmare.
I turned my face and pressed my lips to the side of Mik's face. He was clearly in a primal sort of state, one that didn't leave much room for rational thought. Sex and food were both basic, animalistic acts, and I had the feeling I was only going to get Mik to focus on one of those.
"That's it, I'm ending this before it gets out of control," Revel said, reminding me that she was still there. For a moment, I'd forgotten about her, about the police, about Nix. It was just Mik and me and the violent wash of hormones he was pumping into my body.
Revel threw up an illusion to confuse the cops, creating a replica of us on the sidewalk two doors down. The two police officers paused for a moment, blinked to clear their heads, and then swerved that direction.
"He has thirty seconds to knock this shit off or I put a bullet in his dick, if not his brain." She was so damn serious and, even though I didn't know her, I had a feeling she was telling the truth.
"Come on, Mikhail," I whispered, massaging his cock and kissing the side of his cheek at the same time. He turned toward me with a small snarl and our lips met, the taste of my blood heavy on his tongue. For a split-second there, he was kissing me with all of that wild passion and that violent need … and then he was shoving me hard against the wall and stumbling back with a gasp, sliding his arm over his mouth and looking down at the blood with this terrified sort of facial expression.
Mik flicked his sapphire blue eyes up to mine, his pupils rapidly shrinking back to normal.
"Thea," he gasped as Revel grabbed for my elbow … and I collapsed.
The mouthwatering scent of pure arabica beans brewing woke me, and I groaned. My head was pounding and my body felt loose, relaxed. Almost like I'd had really great sex last night or something.
Wait. Where the hell was I?
Rubbing sleep grit from my eyes, I blinked a few times and peered at my surroundings. Yep, just as I had suspected: this was definitely not my apartment. Where mine was homey, with every single item of furniture a lovingly restored antique that Chris had made for me in his spare time, this apartment was almost sterile it was so modern.
Who the hell would live in such a cold environment?
I rolled over to my back and lifted the buttery soft, charcoal gray sheet, only to pause again. Where the fuck were my clothes? Something weird was going on. If I had picked up some sexy stranger and come back to his place for a night of mind-blowing sex, I wouldn't have taken off my halter top and leather pants, but not my panties.
Fragments of the night before came trickling back to me, so I lay still and allowed them to come. Something about telling Chris I needed to get laid because FInley fucking Wilde had gotten under my skin.
We'd gone out to a shifter club, I remembered that much and then …
I shot up with a gasp.
Blue-Eyes! The sexy, psychopathic kind of guy who wanted me to call him Sir. I must have gone home with him after all. That certainly explained the cold, lifeless décor of the apartment.
Why couldn't I remember anything past leaving with him, though? I hadn't drank that much to warrant passing out. Had I?
"Oh good, you're awake. Here." A steaming cup of pitch-black coffee was thrust under my nose, and I gaped up at the person holding it.
"Mik?" I frowned at my vampire boss in confusion, then looked around the open-plan apartment again. "What the hell are you doing here?"
He frowned back at me, his sapphire blue eyes narrowed. "Just where exactly do you think you are, Thea?" His gaze ducked down to my chest, and I scrambled to cover my naked breasts with a sheet.
"Uh, clearly … not where I actually am," I muttered, feeling my face flame with embarrassment. "So maybe you could fill me in? The last thing I can remember is leaving Split Skin with a guy, and then I woke up in a strange bed wearing nothing but my panties."
Mikhail's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "You thought you'd had relations with that mangy mutt? Holy shit, Thea. I gave you a little more self-respect than that."
In a lame attempt to cover my embarrassment and the sting that his words carried, I cleared my throat a few times. "Okay, so if not him then …" I waved a hand between my vampiric boss and myself, feeling my cheeks flame even hotter.
"You think …" Mik screwed his nose up in what could only be disgust. "No. No, definitely not. Absolutely not. That is most positively not what happened."
"No need to sound so horrified about it," I muttered, tucking the sheet tighter around my chest like a suit of armor.
Mik grimaced. "Please don't start right now, Thea. I brought you back here to my house only because you passed out when I fed from you. I've never taken a kitsune's blood before, so I wasn't sure what lasting effects it might have on you."
"This is your house?" I gaped, peering around at the stark, modern sort of interior. "Never would have guessed that."
He huffed a noise and placed the thick looking mug of coffee on the bedside table, seeing as I had yet to take it from his hand. "Why not? What did you think my house looked like?"
"I don't know." I shrugged. "More castle-y? With like … cobwebs and lots of red velvet?"
"Fucking hell, Thea. I'm not that old," he growled in a way that suggested, if he had any feelings, I would have just hurt them. Good thing he had none, right?
"Hold up." I rubbed at my forehead with one hand, leaving the other to grip the sheet tightly to my chest. "You fed on me?!"
The memories were coming back a little clearer now. I vaguely recalled the fight in the alleyway and out into the street with Blue-Eyes … Nix! Holy crap, I’d almost fucked the same man I’d been booked to kill this weekend!
"Sorry." Mik shrugged his broad shoulders, already dressed in one his signature black coats. "I hadn't expected Nix to take so many cheap shots, and you had a graze, so I could smell your blood. Couldn't have been helped."
"Uh-huh, right," I murmured, nodding and running a hand over my unmarked throat. I remembered what had happened now. The terrifying pain of his fangs striking and then the euphoria that followed … I was equal parts relieved and disappointed that we hadn’t fucked after all that.
"Your clothes got some blood spilled on them and it was just safer for everyone if we got rid of them. Your kitsune friend took Ziff home, too." Mikhail didn't look even the slightest bit apologetic, but then again he was a vampire.
"Ziff was okay?" I asked, changing the subject, but quietly uncomfortable that Revel had taken my little friend. She was a total stranger; how did I know she would remember to feed him or scratch him behind the ears?
"Seemed fine after he stopped trying to bite me. You know, you should teach him better manners, Thea." He scowled at me like some sort of scolding grandparent. There wasn’t even a trace of that sometimes-humour I got to see him in. Already, I missed it. It was as if Mikhail was throwing up an extra layer of protection between us by being a mega-ass. His usual dickishness just wasn’t going to cut it today, was it?
I snorted a laugh. "How old are you, Mik?"
"A hell of a lot older than you," he replied, sounding defensive. "Now, if we're done playing twenty questions, we need to get into the office to discuss the developments in Nix's case."
He stood there, tapping his shoe on the floor like he was waiting for me to leap out of bed and immediately follow him in nothing but my skimpy thong underwear.