"I don't wantto do this," I grumbled. Again.
"Don't care," John told me. "You used your powers, and I want to test your blood against the blood samples taken when you hadn't."
"You've done that before."
He held his ground. "The more I do it, the more I can find the consistencies and differences."
"You're a blood monger, you know that?" I was still at PSI headquarters, but I was now sprawled out on a gurney, my beautiful dress replaced by an ugly, paper-thin, unflattering hospital gown. I should have been alone - this was a private room, after all - but John and his blood-testing goon refused to leave my side. I covered the vein the goon wanted with my hand. "Enough is enough."
"Wrong," John replied. "It's never enough until I say it's enough." Such a man thing to say. "Can't we at least do this the normal way? You know, with needles? No offense," I told the guy waiting to drain a pint or so out of me with his teeth. No lie. His teeth.
"None taken," he said with a grin. He hadn't removed his hand from my wrist, though.
"No, we can't," John said, then prompted the goon, "Reese. Sometime today." Reese, a tall man with a handsome yet innocent face and a dimpled smile, gently lifted my hand closer and closer to his mouth. His teeth were white, straight and a lot longer than the average human's. And sharper. God, were they sharper. "Don't worry, Belle. I'll treat you the same way I'd treat my girlfriend.
If I had one."
There was something so hypnotic about his voice. Something wicked and wanton that belied the sweet purity of his face. He'd worked for the agency for several years, and had taken my blood many times before this. He'd always been tender with me, even the times Rome had stood over his shoulder, snapping at him to hurry.
Rome. Was he in a room similar to this? Maybe even the room across from mine? Was Lexis with him?
Tending to his wounds like a loving girlfriend? Bitch.
"Wait," I told Reese just before he started chomping. He stilled. "I'll let him test my blood, but you need to leave," I said, pinning John with a fierce stare. "I don't want an audience. It makes me nervous.
Besides, I want you to check on Rome." Ensuring he did have an audience.
John waved a hand in dismissal. "Rome's fine."
"Make sure." Or rather, play chaperone. "I won't be able to settle down until I know for sure he's racer-ready."
"Belle - "
I arched a brow at him, hoping I looked as stubborn as Rome did when he used the expression. "This is not a negotiation. Go, before I change my mind about the bloodletting and roast Reese alive." Reese chuckled, a lock of blond hair falling onto his forehead. I liked the way his eyes sparkled with his amusement. I mean, I might love Rome, but I wasn't dead.
"So feisty," he said, and there was a ring of affection in his tone.
"One day I'm going to start docking your pay for trying to act like the boss." John stomped from the sickroom, as I called it, and slammed the door shut behind him.
"Alone at last," Reese said, his thumb tracing over my pulse. "I've been hoping for a chance to talk to you."
Every muscle in my body stiffened. Oh my God, was he hitting on me? Was he my secret admirer, perhaps? "Uh, Reese. As you know, I'm kind of engage - uh - " wrong " - I'm kind of seeing someone."
"Like I could forget the way Rome used to hover. But, uh, I don't want to date you, and please don't be hurt by that. You're just too scary for me. I want to date your friend Sherridan. I saw her yesterday, when she was looking for you, and thought she had a nice pair of...legs." He looked away from me, suddenly...shy? "Does she have a boyfriend?"
Somehow, I'd become the resident matchmaker. Ironic, considering the state of my own love life.
"She's single. But..." I pressed my lips together. As it turned out, I didn't need to finish the sentence for him to understand my meaning.
His gaze lifted, a little tortured but not offended. "You want to know if she'll become a vampire like me if we get hot and heavy."
I gave a reluctant nod.
"That would be a big fat no. You haven't, and I've bitten you countless times." Reese was John's preferred method of blood testing. Said the vampire was more reliable than any machine, his taste buds sharper than any piece of equipment, and that he could tell anything and everything about a person's body simply by ingesting the life-giving fluid.
In the beginning, I'd worried that exposure to my blood would make Reese turn out like me. I think perhaps John had hoped for such a thing - two powerful element-wielders for the price of one - and that was the real reason he'd had Reese perform the tests on me. But the agent had never sickened like I had when first infected. He'd never shot uncontrollable fire beams out of his eyes or accidentally frozen PSI headquarters so that the entire operation had to be moved. And as unstable as the powers were at first, he would have done something.
"Yeah," I said, "but we weren't caught up in passion. What if she bites you back? What if - ?"
"Wouldn't matter. I'm not a virus. No one can catch what I've got. Besides, I would never allow anything bad to happen to her. Or you," he added fiercely. "I hope you know that." I settled more deeply against the bed pad. Unlike Cody, Reese didn't strike me as a player, therefore he might just be acceptable. "Before I give you my seal of approval, I have some questions for you." While I admired his zeal, the BF in me needed to know more. "Have you ever cheated on a girl?"
"No," he said, and this time he was offended.
I wished Tanner, my lie detector, were here. How was Tanner, anyway? He'd been bleeding, but on his feet, yet John had insisted on a CAT scan. "Are you looking for a long-term relationship or just a friend with benefits?" Either way, Reese was a much better choice than Cody, I decided. To my knowledge, he didn't have a river of broken hearts running behind him.
Reese eyed me for a long, silent moment. "Are you her dad or something, and I just didn't know it?"
"Think of me as her guardian angel. Her very powerful, fry-you-like-battered-shrimp guardian angel. So answer the question before I give you an eight-hundred-degree suntan." He rolled his eyes but said, "I'm looking for a date. To get to know her, see if we're compatible.
Anything that happens afterward is private, suntan or not. If you'd like, we could even make it a double date. Sherridan and me, you and Cody. I, uh, hear you two are a couple now. That true?"
"No, it's not true," I grumbled. Exactly how had such a rumor gotten around so quickly? I studied him.
You can trust me not to hurt you, those green eyes said. But could I? I no longer trusted my instincts when it came to men. Damn, but I wished I'd paid more attention to office gossip. I might have learned why Reese and his girlfriend, someone he'd been with for over a year, had broken things off last month.
A sigh slipped from me. "Feel free to ask her out," I said, "but know that if you make her cry, I really will ash you."
He shuddered, though there was an amused glint in his eyes. "First time I've ever been issued a threat like that and known it could actually happen." His gaze flicked to my wrist. "So...are you ready?" Reluctantly I nodded.
Slowly he raised my hand to his mouth. His warm tongue laved my pulse point, massaging the skin.
Nothing sexual about it, but I found myself wondering if he perhaps lingered a little too long. Then I tensed slightly, expecting the coming sting. It arrived a second later, his sharp teeth sinking into my vein, his mouth giving a gentle suction.
"How'd you become a vampire, anyway?" I asked, though I knew he couldn't talk with a mouth full of, well, me. "Experiments, I bet. Blink once if I'm right, twice if I'm wrong." He blinked once.
That's how Rome had acquired his abilities. That's how I had acquired my ability. Tanner and Lexis were the only legitimate superheroes in the bunch (though I hated to think of Lexis as either super or heroic), having been born with their gifts.
Even Rome's daughter, who could mist through walls and come out the other side, was the product of science. Lexis hadn't known she was pregnant when she'd signed up to "enhance" her already powerful intuition.
"Enjoying yourself?" a hard voice suddenly asked.
My attention whipped to the now-open door, where Rome towered like an ancient god, glaring over at me. He'd dressed in another black T-shirt and matching pants. Between him and Tanner, can you blame me for having decorated our house in the brightest possible color scheme? His hair was combed, his face clean. Always a supernaturally fast healer, he had no injuries that I could see.
"Yes," I said defensively. Had he just come from seeing Lexis? Had she showered with him? Bitch, I thought again. I'd probably think it a thousand times more. "So?" Reese pulled his teeth from me and straightened. There was an odd sheen in his eyes, a sheen of some dark emotion I'd never seen him project before. Anger, maybe? Then he leaned his head back, eyelids closing as though he was savoring the flow of my blood through his veins. He wasn't, I knew. He was processing, scanning my blood as John wished.
"Reese," Rome said.
Reese's lids cracked open. "Can't a guy work in peace? Jeez. But fine, whatever. I know my cue to leave. I'll step into the hall and analyze the blood out there."
"Stay," I commanded, just to be contrary.
"Leave or die," Rome said.
Reese winked at me and stood, covertly patting my arm. "I'm certainly raking in the death threats today.
At serious risk to my health, I just have to say your blood gets sweeter every time I taste it." With his free hand, he kissed the tips of his fingers. Then he turned on his heel and marched past a grim-faced Rome.
Rome kicked the door shut with his foot, the sound of the knob clicking into place almost deafening in the sudden silence.
The old Rome would have tripped Reese for saying such a romantic thing. The new Rome hadn't even glanced at him as he stalked out. I couldn't complain, though. Finally, I was alone with my kind-of/kind-of-not fiance, no one looking in through a two-way mirror, no one recording our every word.
Rome tossed a small square at me. "This yours?"
I looked down, saw Cody's smiling face in my lap. "Yeah. So?"
"So. It was found in your purse. You guys really dating?"
Rather than answer him, I said, "How's Lexis?" Let him stew, I thought, feeling a little mean.
His jaw tensed for a moment. Then he shrugged, as if the answer hadn't mattered to him. "She's good." Too bad. On both counts. "And Tanner?"
"The kid? A little cut up, but he claims he needs the scars. He's a little...out there." A polite way of saying he was weird. "No, he's not. Chicks dig scars, therefore he likes scars. It's perfectly logical. And just so you know, if I hadn't decided to marry you, I would have married him." If he would have had me. Right now, only my admirer - who may or may not want to kill me - seemed interested.
Rome blinked over at me. "You're lying."
I was, and I didn't feel guilty. I raised my chin. "How do you know? You don't know anything about me."
He couldn't refute that, and he clearly didn't like the reminder. His expression darkened. "Isn't that child a little young for you?"
"I'm twenty-five. He's twenty. Hardly a big difference."
"Yes, but when you were learning to drive he was telling girls they had cooties."
"Yeah, well, that turns me on." Apparently it had turned Lexis on, because she had dated him and she was older than I was.
Rome's tongue flicked out, tracing the seam of his lips, as if the picture in his mind made him hungry. So very hungry. For what? "What else turns - Never mind." He stuffed his hands into his pockets, his skin flushing. "It's better if I don't know."
Me. Hungry for me.
How close we were to actually flirting. How far would he take it, this man who had no idea who I was?
Let's see, shall we? "So...you came in here because you wanted me?" I asked, knowing very well how suggestive my words were.
His pupils dilated, the only sign he'd noticed. "Yes." He cleared his throat. "I wanted to...thank you for helping me back there. You didn't have to, and hell, everyone would have understood if you hadn't, considering how shitty I've been to you. And on that note, I'm also here to apologize." My eyes widened, and I sat up straighter in the bed. I would have stood, or thrown my legs over the side and sat up completely, just to be closer to him, but that would have revealed the hospital gown in all its ugly glory. Right now my legs and stomach - and thereby my modesty - were covered only by a light blue blanket. "Well, I wanted to thank you, too, for coming to my rescue. But if you're going to apologize to me, I'd rather it be for forgetting me when you said you'd love me forever. Oh, and for treating your ex like a freaking queen."
"Good. Because I'm apologizing for all of it," he said, his jaw clenched. "Everyone knows we were a couple, and until a few days ago you thought so, too. You didn't know this would happen to me, and you didn't - don't deserve my cruelty."
Were, he'd said. Everyone knew we were a couple. Past tense. I fingered the engagement ring I still wore and tried not to sink under a wave of depression. "Why did you treat me like that?"
"Because I - " He shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. His gaze remained fixed on me, even though it was obvious he wanted to glance away. "Because I woke up thinking I was supposed to be working things out with my ex-wife, but I took one look at you and - " Once again he stopped, but this time he didn't continue. He'd taken one look at me and had...wanted me? Craved me like the air he breathed? The way I did him?
"Yes," he said, clearly shamed. "Whatever you're thinking, yes. I wanted you when I should have wanted her. And every time you looked at me, that wanting just got worse. I thought if I pushed you away, made you angry, something, you'd stop looking at me and the wanting would go away.
It...didn't."
My skin heated, burning, blistering, the thought of his desire sparking my own. But that desire was underscored with a jubilation so complete, tears filled my eyes. Even without his memories of me, he couldn't deny his body's reaction to me. That was a start. A very promising start.
"Don't cry," he croaked. "Please don't."
"I'm not." Shaking, I swiped my eyes with the back of my wrist. At least I didn't have to worry about rain falling from the ceiling. These were tears of hope, not sadness. Not that I was crying, I reminded myself. "Really. It's dusty in here, that's all."
His gaze zeroed in on the puncture wounds, and he bared his teeth in a scowl. "John should use a needle on you."
So we were off the subject of his desire for me, were we? "You've said that before. About the needle." He ran his tongue over his teeth, a sure sign of irritation. With me? Or himself? "I wish I remembered. I wish my memories hadn't been taken."
Himself, then. "Me, too. So...are you still trying to work things out with your ex?" The question tumbled from my mouth before I could stop it, needy and whiny. That embarrassed me, but I didn't try to take back the words.
"No. Yes. No. I don't know." He strode forward and claimed the seat Reese had formerly occupied.
He propped his elbows on his knees and scrubbed his face with his upraised hands. "This is such a mess."
"I know," I said softly.
There was a beat of silence, heavy, uncomfortable.
When he faced me, his eyes were tortured. "I want you to know, I haven't slept with Lexis. She wanted to, but I just couldn't do it. I couldn't even bring myself to kiss her. And I won't. Not until this...thing between us is resolved. Okay? All right?"
Those damn tears burned my eyes again. Relief was like a separate entity inside me, rushing me, tackling me. I wasn't sure what I would have done if he'd slept with her. Could I have forgiven him? I'd wondered before, but hadn't known the answer. Still didn't.
Even though I'd despised my ex, the Prince of Darkness and my last boyfriend before Rome, at the time of our breakup, learning that he'd cheated had destroyed my pride, my self-esteem, my every feminine instinct. I'd felt disposable and worthless.
In Rome's mind, it wouldn't have been cheating. I knew that. But in my mind, it would have. He was still my man. Still my heart, my one and only. "Why are you telling me that? Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful.
I'm just curious about your thought process." To him, we were strangers. He didn't owe me anything.
"Because in your mind, we're engaged," he said. "I owe you that much." He owed me a lot more, but whatever. We'd get to that, one step at a time. And for the first time, the familiar thought didn't seem like a pep talk meant to get me through the day. It felt true. Like it would happen. Like everything really would be okay.
"And...I don't want you to be with anyone else, either," he finished suddenly.
I blinked over at him. Even choked, and he had to pat my back to help clear my airway. But instead, I lost my ability to breathe. Dear God, his hands were on me, hot and callused and shiver-inducing. I would have pretended to choke for an hour, just to keep those hands on my body, but all too soon he settled back on his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. Lines of strain branched from his eyes, though, as if he hadn't wanted to pull away.
"I think I misheard you," I said. "Or maybe you were kidding. Because I know you didn't just tell me, a person who currently means nothing to you, that you - "
"I did, all right? I don't want you seeing anyone else."
One, I would never consider seeing one man while engaged to another. I wish he knew that about me.
Two, Rome was the only one I wanted, period. "Until?"
"Until we work this out."
"And just how long do you think that will be? I won't wait for you forever, you know." Another lie. I'd wait however long was necessary, and I knew it. I just didn't want him dawdling. A man could not have his cake and eat it, too - unless that man was Chuck Norris.
I'd been watching Chuck Norris movies lately to improve my roundhouse kick.
Rome scowled at me. "You're being difficult, Belle."
"So give me a severe tongue-lashing. That will shut me up. Or make me scream for mercy. It's a toss-up." I didn't give him the chance to scold me or tell me to stop. "So what do we do now?" I asked.
"About us?"
Rome's jaw was tight. "I want to remember you. I do." He leaned back in the chair, eyes hot on me, boring deep. "Tell me about us."
Where to start, where to start? "Well, the sex was amazing. The best you'd ever had. Top five for me." His lips twitched into the semblance of a smile, another reminder of the Rome I so loved. "I figured that out on my own. The part about it being amazing, I mean."
My heart skipped a beat, leaving me winded and shaking. "You remember?"
"No. I...guessed."
"Oh." My shoulders sagged. "How?"
His gaze perused me slowly, lingering in all the right places, making me tingle like a woman who'd just experienced a total body caress. "Let's just say a man can look at a woman and know how it'll be between them."
"And you know it'll be, was, amazing...with me?"
"Yes." No hesitation.
Wow. Of all the wonderful things he'd said during this conversation, that little tidbit gave me the most hope that we'd end up back together. A man who desired a woman couldn't resist her for long. Could he?
"You probably burned me alive," he added softly. Wistfully.
I had. Literally. At first, I'd been unable to control my powers and had caught him - and whatever room we'd been in at the time - on fire. That wasn't what he'd meant, but I couldn't help but reminisce and ache and crave those days again. "We had fun together. I made you laugh, even when I didn't mean to, and you made me feel like the most important thing in the world to you." His gaze whipped from me, as if he were suddenly afraid to face me. "Belle, I - " Whatever he was going to say, I didn't want to hear it. I didn't have to be psychic like Lexis to know he would ruin this happy buzz I had going. "Look, if you don't need anything else, I'd kind of like to be alone. I need to dress, and then round everyone up for our meeting. So..." He didn't stand. His expression went flat and hard as he faced me again. Determination pulsed from him.
"You can dress. After."
"After?" I managed to croak out, suddenly having trouble breathing again. Surely he didn't mean what I thought he meant. But he'd gone so serious, so quickly. Just the way he did when he -
"After you kiss me."
