Deceived (7 page)

“How did you end up standing on the side of the road?” Aiden asked as he cranked the heat to full blast. The contrast of the warm air hitting my frozen body made me shiver.

“The cab driver wasn’t going to call the police, so I jumped out and called them. I wanted to make sure they were all right,” I told Aiden. Out of my peripheral I could tell he was staring, but I ignored him. Aiden was really protective of me, sometimes to the point of being annoying.

“Look, I’m fine. I did the right thing, who knows how long it would’ve taken the police to get here if I hadn’t called them.”

“Why didn’t you call them from the cab? Why did you have to stay, in the middle of a thunderstorm no less?” Aiden’s voice was calm, but a twinge of anxiousness colored his tone.

I
let out a heavy breath
. “I don’t know.” It was the truth. It had been stupid to jump out of my cab in the middle of nowhere. I wasn’t helpless though, I had magic on my side. “Can we just go back to your hotel, please?”

Aiden pulled back onto the road and within ten minutes we were in his hotel’s parking deck. We walked to the elevator and rode up to the sixth floor in silence. When the elevator doors opened, I followed Aiden down the long skinny hallway and to room 614. Once the door was shut, Aiden’s arms wrapped around me and our mouths met, eager to make up for lost time. It didn’t matter that he was annoyed with my stupidity or that I was ticked he thought I was as fragile as an eggshell. In the end, we loved each other and were hungry for one another.

Aiden’s deft fingers unzipped my wet jacket and let it fall off my shoulders where it plopped to the floor. He bent before me and untied my sneakers. When both shoes were off he moved upward where he skillfully tugged my tank top off and threw it across the room.
Lowering
his head
to
my cleavage, he bit through the front clasp of my bra, freeing my breasts. Aiden’s tongue darted out and swirled around my excited nipples sending a flood of heat through
my body
that erased any chill I had previously felt.  He nipped at one and sent a jolt of desire ricocheting through me. I moaned with delight as he led me towards the bed. Sex with Aiden was exactly the stress reliever I needed.

Aiden pushed me onto the bed, and I stretched out so he had a clear view of what was waiting for him. He stripped off my yoga pants and white lace panties, then stepped back to admire the view. Sitting up on my elbows, I gave him my best “come and get it” look. A grin lifted one side of his mouth up and mischief played within his blue eyes.

Oh he wanted to play, did he?

I bent my left leg up and
languidly
raised my right crossing it over my knee, giving Aiden a slight peepshow. He unbuttoned his shirt while watching me. I smiled, my body excited and happy that this gorgeous vampire was mine.

He walked over to the desk in the corner of the room and pressed a button on the
CD player.
Bad Company’s
I’m Ready for Love
rang out of the speakers, and I laughed hysterically.
Bit by bit he
pulled his shirt off while his hips rocked with the music. My laugh died down to mere giggles as I watched his abs and hips move.

He made his way to the bed with a satisfied smile and I grinned. The art of seduction wasn’t over yet. I hopped off the bed and said, “Sit.”

Aiden laughed but complied by sitting on the edge of the bed.

“Close your eyes,” I ordered, and he squeezed them tightly closed. I conjured a stripper pole and a black and hot pink lace corset and matching panties. I was determined my strip tease would bring him to his knees, and I’d be declared the winner of our playful foreplay.

I magically produced my favorite Paula Cole CD and placed it in the radio.
‘
Feelin
’ Love
began to play, and I gripped the pole with one hand and rested the other hand on my cocked hip. “Open your eyes,” I told Aiden. The surprise on his face was priceless, but when I started to walk around the silver pole, his mouth hung open, making me laugh.

Fiona had dragged me to a pole dancing class at her gym a couple years ago, it was a great work out, but I didn’t have much use for the moves, until now. Gripping the pole with both hands, I swung my body around and slid down the length. I whipped my hair around and did a bend and snap that would make Elle Woods proud. Aiden rested his arms behind him while his eyes devoured every inch of me.

I flipped up and gripped the pole with my legs so I was looking at Aiden upside down, and when I got to the floor, I bent so that my ass was front and center. Looking at him over my shoulder, I smiled and winked. I’d definitely won.

An hour or so later Aiden and I lay naked in each other’s arms, our desires sated. I was at peace beside him like all of my worries just fell away. I propped myself up on my arm and looked over at
him
. A stray piece of dark hair hung carelessly over his blue eye,
a five o’clock shadow lined his normally clean shaven jaw, and his chest rose and fell as he tried to slow his panting. The muscles in his arms bulged while they were tucked behind his head. My eyes ran the length of his body, settling on his fabulously chiseled stomach and the dark trail of hair that led beneath the sheets. He was beautiful, and he was mine.

“Give me ten minutes and I’ll be good to go,” Aiden said with a smirk.

I laughed and lay back on the bed. Even if he was ready in ten minutes, I needed a day to recoup. Aiden had been rougher than normal and lost in my own desires I hadn’t minded. Our separation had driven us nearly mad, but the sex was fantastic.

Thoughts of the man I’d seen at the wreck occupied my mind as I stared up at the ceiling. He looked very normal, well maybe not normal, but human. He was gorgeous.
The only clue that he was something otherworldly was his cloudy eyes.
I was intrigued by him.

“What’s wrong?” Aiden asked.

I looked over at him quizzically.

“I can still feel you, Gwen. Your blood is still inside of me.” I had fed Aiden when I found out he was addicted to brew so he wouldn’t kill a witch to get his next fix. Since then he had been able to feel my emotions, though we weren’t bonded like Ian and I were because we hadn’t exchanged blood.

“How long will that last?” I asked him.

Aiden shrugged his shoulders. “Not long, a month at most. I’ll be sad when it fades, I like knowing how you feel, especially when we’re fucking. It’s so intense to feel the want you have for me, drives me insane.”

I smiled and imagined what it would be like to feel someone else’s emotions. I was bonded to Ian, but he had nearly perfect control over his emotions so they didn’t seep into me. I was happy he did, I didn’t think I’d like to feel emotions that weren’t mine. All of the talk about blood and connections directed my mind to what Ian told me, that Aiden could break the bond if he wanted to. I looked over at Aiden and wondered if I should bring it up or not. He wouldn’t be happy that I had shared a dream with Ian, but the more I thought about it, the more I needed to know the answer—or the reason why if he could break the bond, he hadn’t.

“Have you found a way to break my bond with Ian?” I asked nonchalantly. It was pointless though, Aiden could probably feel my anxiety.

“I’m close. I’m going to meet with an old friend in two days.”

“You can’t break it yourself?”

Aiden was quiet for a few moments before he sat up and looked over at me. I sat up too, pulling the sheet around my body. I could see guilt in his eyes and that worried me. I didn’t want Ian to be right.

“Why do you ask?”

“Ian told me you could break it if you wanted to,” I reluctantly told him.

His guilt was quickly replaced with anger. He hopped out of bed and stalked across the room to where his clothes sat in a messy pile.

“Is it true?”

“Seems like your mind is already made up that it is,” Aiden said heatedly.

I got out of bed and wrapped the white sheet around my body. I placed my hands around his waist and met his eyes. “I just want to know, if you could break it, then why haven’t you?” A small part of me worried that in order to break the bond with Ian; I’d have to bond with Aiden. The scenario didn’t sound bad, but I was concerned that Aiden was bothered by the idea. Perhaps he didn’t want to be bonded to me. I couldn’t begrudge his feelings if that was the case, even if it hurt my heart the tiniest bit.

“Yes, I could break the bond right now, but there would
be
repercussions and Ian knows that.” Aiden’s arms went around my waist and his body relaxed slightly.

“What kind of repercussions?”

“Once a vampire bonds with someone, they’re considered their property. If I were to replace Ian’s bond with my own, then it would be like me stealing one of his possessions and the vampire council would order a warrant for my death. I’m sure when Ian told you he hoped you would guilt me into fixing the bond so the council would kill me. Vampires are very territorial, as you know, and for all intents and purposes, Ian owns you.”

My heart pounded in my chest like a tribal drum while anger snaked its way through my veins. I hated vampire politics. I hated that they could claim an unwilling person as their own, and most of all, I hated that my supposed owner was Ian
Despereaux
.

“What if I appeal to the vampire council? Tell them he tricked me into the bond?” I asked hopeful.

“Vampires think of themselves as the superior race, they’re not going to care that Ian claimed you without your consent. I’ll find a way around this, Gwen. I promise.”

I knew I should believe Aiden’s promise, but
my
pessimism refused to let me be hopeful.

I walked up the stone steps in a daze of confusion and anger. My life had twisted so far from the norm
that
I didn’t know what to think of it anymore. The celebration from the Midnight Magical rang throughout the castle and mocked my bad mood. I didn’t want to hear laughter and happiness when my own existence was doomed to be miserable. My fellow witches and warlocks didn’t have to deal with an ounce of the grief I was dealing with, and it only made my mood that much worse.

The thought of running away with Aiden popped into my mind, but even that was squashed by the fact that no matter how far I ran, Ian could always find me. I didn’t understand his fascination with me—other than my blood being a high potency because of my spirit walker status. Did he want to own me for the endless supply of powerful blood?
Was being bonded to me some sort of game for him? Or did he have another trick up his sleeve?
I didn’t know any of the answers and I was getting tired of being in the dark about my own problems.

I trudged into my bedroom and flopped onto my bed. Aura meowed so I ran my fingers through her long black fur, and she quickly went back to sleep. I envied her, to be able to sleep all day and not have a care in the world. “You’re one lucky girl, you know?” I said to my lazy Persian. I wondered if she thought like a human or if she was as happy being a cat as I would be.

Two soft knocks brought my attention away from my cat. “Come in,” I called. My door opened, and I sat up when
Kye
entered my room. His eyes roamed my bedroom as if he were searching for something, or someone.

“What do you need,
Kye
?” I didn’t bother to mask my annoyance. He crossed his arms over his chest and said, “Holly has someone she would like you to meet.”

I laughed bitterly. “Don’t you get tired of being her lapdog?”

“No,” he said simply. I shook my head at his lack of
backbone
and hopped off my bed. I wished I would’ve showered and changed my clothes after being with Aiden but that would have to wait. I grabbed a rubber band off of my dresser and put my hair into a ponytail.

“Lead the way,” I told
Kye
.

We climbed
four
flights of stairs before we stopped and walked down an expansive hallway. The sixth floor looked exactly like my floor: stone walls and floors, arched beveled windows, and antique benches and rugs placed sparingly.