Rivals: Episode Two Read online

  “Vampires aren’t like humans. We sense things differently, more intensely. We know instantly when we are a perfect match with someone. It’s called linking, and it happened with you.” His voice was still low, but now it had another edge to it. A dangerous desire, one that I felt myself wanting to give into fully. He shifted his weight, his cock feeling like a steel rod between us, pushing against my belly now. My blood felt like it was on fire. My head was light and my nipples were hard enough to poke through my shirt. I needed to be played with. Suckled. Teased. Nibbled.

  I need him in me, around me, taking me, licking me. My mouth craved the same, to be wrapped around him, to taste his salty pre-come on my lips. I let my gaze trail down towards his throbbing cock. He brought a hand up to my chin and lifted my face back up, locking our gazes once again. He tilted his head down and met his lips with mine. At first it was soft and tentative, as if we were both testing out the other. But in seconds, my mouth was parted by his powerful tongue as it slid in and found mine. His hands fell to my ass and pushed me into him. I felt his hips gyrate as he rubbed his cock against me. A moan escaped my mouth and entered his as my hand glided up to his muscular shoulders. I could feel the power practically rolling off of him.

  “Kimberly,” he said my name between heavy breaths. “I need you.”

  His voice was low and raspy, dripping with sex and passion. His hand moved from my ass and slid to my front. He pressed his palm up against my pussy, making me even wetter than I had been. I was positive he could feel my dripping sex on his hand, even through the clothes. Another moan escaped my lips as he pressed harder against my mound.

  I can’t believe this, I found myself thinking. Here I was, about to have sex with a billionaire vampire who was also my boss and had a vendetta against a werebear. I had no idea what choices I made in life to lead me to this very spot, but in the moment, I couldn’t care less. All I wanted was his solid manhood parting my wet lips, slowly at first, his tip teasing me as he towered over me, threatening to plunge his full size into me.

  That’s all I wanted and I’m sure that’s all he wanted too.

  So you can imagine how upset we both were when the doorbell started to ring. Frantically. It was definitely one of those emergency type of rings.

  “Shit,” Xavier said into the air. He looked at me and I knew he couldn’t ignore this one. “It’s Vladimir. I can sense him. I’m sorry, Kimberly.”

  “It’s ok,” I said, mentally understanding but physically feeling like I would rather be set on fire than separate from Xavier. He gave me one more lasting, hungry kiss before stepping away from me. “I’m sure this is important and I don’t want you to get dragged into anything anymore. Is there a safe place you can stay at until I get everything handled?” he asked.

  “Yeah, I can go to Rachel’s,” I said, turning to leave.

  “Good. Let me know when you get there. And, Kimberly?”

  “Uh huh?”

  “This will all be solved and we’ll pick this up again. If I had a choice, I would carry you to the bed right now and fuck you senseless, but it sounds like Vladimir has something important to say.”

  As if to punctuate Xavier’s sentence, another flurry of knocks erupted from the door. I smiled, once again not knowing what to say, and gave a weak wave. It was the only action my body could muster. Well, that and moving my legs towards the door.

  CHAPTER SIX

  KIMBERLY

  “I can’t believe this. You go out on one date and you come back telling me you're being hunted by a shifter and linked to a vampire? Jesus, girl, what celestial lotto did you win?!” Rachel exclaimed as I took a seat at her small dining room table. The chair creaked under my weight as I tried to just let my body relax. It wasn’t happening. My muscles were tense and my nerves were on edge. I expected a shifter to break down the door any second now and take me away, dragging me to some lair where I would be turned into a sex-slave until they got what they wanted from Xavier.

  “Trust me, this isn’t a lotto, Rachel. I didn’t win a round-trip vacation to Ireland with all amenities included. I didn’t even win a new fucking washing machine. Instead, I almost died in a seedy Miami bar and then I was cock-blocked harder than I’ve ever been in my life. It’s like the complete opposite of a lottery.” I put my head in my heads, letting out a deep breath and wishing that my life would stop being so damn complicated.

  “Ok, fine. So it didn’t go exactly as planned, but at least you’re still alive. And, the good news? It looks like Xavier is the good-guy in all of this.”

  “How is that good news?”

  “Well, because he sounds like the hottest guy on earth AND he’s not a blood-thirsty monster like I was scared all vampires were. So what if it didn’t work out with the shifter? A vampire, now that’s a real catch… What did he say the shifter did?”

  I brought my head up, wanting to see Rachel’s reaction. “He said Gaige murdered his sister.”

  Her face dropped. The mischievous smile was wiped clean as the reality of the situation slapped Rachel across the face. “Shit,” she said, trailing off. She pulled a chair out and sat down, her butt hanging off the edge of the seat as she leaned over the table. She grabbed my wrists and looked at me. “I’m being serious now, Kimberly. You’re my best friend—my sister for all intents and purposes—don’t do anything dumb. I was joking before, I guess I didn’t really think anyone close to you was capable of murder.” She said the word like it was a foreign object stuck in her throat. “Just forget about both of these guys. We’ll make you a profile on OkCupid and you’ll be getting creepy messages in no time.”

  I chuckled. “Thanks, Rach, but I think I’m already too involved in this to just walk away.”

  “What? How?! It hasn’t even been a week yet. Just change your phone number and forget about them.”

  I shook my head. “Gaige knows where I live and so does Xavier. Not only that, but these are supernaturals we’re dealing with. They work on a different level. Xavier told me that he ‘linked’ with me.”

  “Linked?” Rachel asked, her perfectly done brows furrowing together.

  “Yeah, I’m not sure I understand it either, but I can’t deny that I didn’t feel something. He says it means we’re perfect together. Like on a chemical level, not like a horoscope level.”

  “Shit, that’s serious.” She suddenly perked up in her chair. “I have an idea.” She got up and walked to the dark black cabinets above the sink. She opened one and pulled out a half-full bottle of tequila, the light brown liquid sloshing around the bottom of its large glass container. She grabbed a shot glass from the sink, looked at it, and then put it back down, instead grabbing a normal sized cup and putting it down on the counter with a clink. She poured a hefty amount of the alcohol and brought it over to me, placing it in front of me with a smile from ear to ear, as if she just handed me the solution to all the world’s problems.

  I took it, hoping the warm liquid would at least be the solution to my problems.

  Spoiler: it wasn’t.

  “Thanks,” I said, shaking my head a bit at the strong after-taste. I was never one for heavy liquor without a chaser, but tonight wasn’t the same as the others. We weren’t pre-gaming for some douchey frat party.

  “Ok, so you can’t go back to Gaige but at least you know Xavier is looking out for you,” she said, grabbing herself a glass and being even more generous with her tequila. She capped the bottle and put it back in the cabinet, leaving it there for the next time one of us was caught in a life-or-death situation between two incredibly hot men, one of which was a killer.

  “Yeah, he obviously does feel this link or whatever it is. And he stopped the whole mission he was on once he realized I was in that bar. I just don’t know how I’m going to be able to feel safe.”

  “Well, when you have a studly bodyguard that can run at a hundred miles per hour, I’m pretty sure you start to feel safe. Maybe he’ll handle the whole shifter situation and then that would be the end of that
saga. You guys could buy a nice little villa and fuck the rest of your days away.”

  Although she was painting a perfect picture, Rachel didn’t realize that there was way more to life than that. “Ok, so let’s say he does handle Gaige,” I said, playing devil’s advocate. “That means he would have had to kill him. So I go from dating one murderer to another.”

  “Kim, you realize he’s a vampire that is like a thousand years old? I have a feeling that your moral compass should have gone off the moment you met him. He’s had to have done some bad stuff, horrible stuff even, but I think that comes with the territory.”

  I took another drink from the glass. The tequila sat in my mouth for a moment before I shot it back. “I guess you’re right… Jesus, when did life get so complicated? Can’t we just go back to high school prom and worrying about how losing our virginities was going to feel?”

  “I wish. But that’s part of growing up.”

  “Dealing with vampires and werebears?”

  Rachel chuckled, letting the absurdity sink in. “It’s a new world out there. Or rather, it’s a world that was always there, we’re just taking notice now. Things change and we adapt. Yeah, there might be more to worry about now other than your dismal credit score, but doesn’t that make life that much more exciting?”

  I finished up the last of the tequila. “I’m kind of over getting excited right now,” I said, not knowing just how much more excitement was in store for me.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  XAVIER

  Vladimir stood in the living room. His black shirt was torn across the shoulder along with three huge claw marks that ran down his back. Vampires don’t bleed as much as humans so the crimson red was barely visible on the dark fabric.

  “I followed Gaige to wherever that flea-ridden monster was hiding. I saw him meet with another shifter and overheard them talking about revenge.”

  I paced my living room, my mind racing almost as fast as I could run. Vladimir’s news was a surprise, but it wasn’t anything we weren’t able to handle. If Gaige was rallying support, then so fucking be it. He was going to need a whole country to stop me from tearing him apart. I would just have to deal with it before he could build up even more momentum.

  “Vladimir, get me a meeting with him. Three days from now, just so I can make him squirm for some time.”

  “A meeting, sir?” Vladimir asked, probably thinking that he had heard me wrong.

  “Yes. Just me and him. Tell him that if I sense even the slightest hint of someone else’s presence, then it’s over.”

  “But… why?”

  I looked to Vladimir, surprised at the question. It wasn’t unusual for my peers to sometimes question my actions, but a subordinate questioning me was difficult to swallow.

  “Sorry, sir,” he quickly said, realizing his mistake. But he didn’t stop. “I just wonder if it’s perhaps safer to send one of us out to end your problem. There’s no need for you to risk a meeting with him.”

  I folded my arms across my chest. “I need to hear it from him. I want to hear him say he killed my sister. And then I’ll end him. It’ll be an honorable fight, but a quick one no doubt. Now go, Vladimir, before I decide to release my pent up frustrations on you.”

  He nodded and left, leaving me behind with my thoughts. There was another part of me that wanted to meet with Gaige, a part that I kept from Vladimir. One that was morbidly curious. A side that wanted to know the man that had captured Kimberly’s attention. What was it about him that she was attracted to?

  “Kimberly,” I said to no one. I wanted her name on my tongue. The way her name felt coming out of my mouth was like a sweet honeysuckle, setting my lips and tongue onto a slow-roasting fire. I leaned back on the light gray stones that surrounded my black fireplace. I felt a familiar twitch come from between my thighs, reminding me that every moment I spent away from Kimberly was a moment wasted.

  I needed to have her. I wanted her by my side tonight.

  My hand slipped into my pocket and pulled out my phone, it’s sleek gray back feeling like liquid metal in my palm. Having super-human strength made things feel much more fragile than they actually were but exerting the amount of control I had made it so that nothing ever broke accidentally.

  I pulled up her number and dialed, letting the phone ring until I heard her voice greet me with a confused “Hello?”

  “Kimberly, if your evening permits, I would like to take you out tonight.”

  There was a brief silence and some whispering on the other end of the phone. “Yeah, I’m available, but honestly, Mr. Thorn, I think I’ve had enough excitement for one day. I may just stay in tonight.”

  “I respect that choice, but I have to say that my yacht will feel very lonely with only one person on board.”

  “Yes, she’ll go!” I heard another voice answer from the background. “I’ll be ready in an hour,” Kimberly answered.

  “See you then.” I hung up the call. Normally, I didn’t need to bring out the big guns to attract female attention, but Kimberly was different. She lacked confidence and yet had a well of it lying just underneath the surface. It looked like it was going to take a little bit of coaxing, but I was going to make sure she knew how beautiful of a woman she was. How desirable her body was and what kind of effects it had on my own. I could spend the rest of my centuries inside of her and I would be happy.

  And so tonight, I was going to take her out on a yacht and fuck her until her body turned to jello in my grip. Then I would deal with Gaige.

  I pulled up to her friend’s apartment complex. It was a well-kept building on a quieter street kept away from the hustle and bustle of South Beach. Lights were dimmed in all the surrounding houses. A dog barked behind a chain-link fence, it’s jaws opening and snapping with drool falling down to the ground underneath it. The dog turned it’s focus to Kimberly, who was walking down the steps and towards me. She was even more beautiful than I remembered, even though I had seen her just hours prior. Her hair bounced on her shoulders, her cheeks pushed up with a smile that would melt the tallest of ice sculptures. Her eyes glistened even in the moonlight. And her breasts were being held up in a dark red shirt that cut low with it’s cleavage, leaving my mouth watering and my cock hardening. I tucked my growing dick underneath my waistband and sped over to her side of the car, lifting the door and allowing her in before she could even say thank you.

  I went back to my side and sat down, looking over at her as she buckled the seatbelt. She must have just sprayed perfume because a soft, fruity Victoria’s Secret scent immediately filled the air and mixed in with her own natural scent. It was no where near as artificial as the perfume and, if you had asked me, much more desirable than anything that could have been bottled.

  “Thank you for coming. It’ll be worth your while,” I said, throwing the car in drive.

  “Thanks for thinking of me,” she replied. “Everything’s been so absolutely, mind-bendingly crazy lately.”

  “It has been more than I expected. I’m sorry again about earlier. You should have never been put in the middle of that situation. But for the rest of the night, we’re going to forget that ever happened. I’m going to take you out to the sea and share some of the finest wine, eat the most succulent oysters, and escape, at least momentarily, from the chaos that’s infiltrated our lives.”

  She looked over at me and smiled, pushing a lock of rebellious hair away from the side of her face. “That sounds perfect.”

  “It will be,” I assured her and pressed down harder on the gas.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  KIMBERLY

  The waves lapped at the side of the yacht, moving the massive thing along as we sat on the luxurious white leather couch atop the highest level. It was dark, but the moon added more than enough light on the scene. I could make out Xavier and his lithe, muscular form. The way he smiled with an edge that made me squeeze my thighs together just so I could try and relieve the pressure building up inside of me. His chiseled cheekbones and a
lmond-shaped eyes were inviting and dangerous at the same time, like a predator so slickly luring in its prey. The way his lips cupped the oyster as he dropped the soft, wet meat into his mouth. He was working his magic on me and I felt myself giving in. I wanted to fall for his trap. My whole life, Xavier was the kind of guy I would have dreams about, waking up in a puddle of my own excitement. I never imagined I would be able to touch a man of his calibre, much less kiss. And sure, he may have been a crazy-powerful vampire with the ability to suck me dry and throw me off into the ocean, but I didn’t feel scared around him. The complete opposite actually.

  At this point, I didn’t even care that he was my boss. Clearly, he didn’t have reservations about it either. Besides, after everything that happened with Gaige and almost losing my own life, I felt like I was entitled to some morally questionable behavior. At the rate the night was going, I was ready to throw out my no-sex rule in one sweaty, sticky heartbeat!

  I cupped the wine glass and brought it up to my lips. It was heavy and red, feeling rich as I sipped at it. He wasn’t lying about this being some of the best wine in the world. I wasn’t even sure what to look for, but I knew that this wine was really good. Like really, really good.

  “You’re beautiful,” he said, almost as if to himself.

  I giggled into the glass. “Stop, you’re going to make me blush.” I corrected myself. “Well, actually you’ve been making me blush since we met, but still.”

  “If only you knew the effect you had on me,” he said, the suggestive tone not slipping past me. It sent a sharp tingle down my back.

  “If only you knew the effect this wine is having on me,” I said, using a lame joke to cover the fact that I had no idea what to say. I was in no way used to this type of attention from this attractive of a man.