Concentrating on his teeth, she leaned closer. “Are you really a vampire?” He opened his mouth wider. His teeth were very long and very pointy. “Yep. And if you don’t get out of here right now, I’m going to suck all of the blood out of your body.” Amber shivered—with excitement. A real vampire lived in her house! Had any other author ever been so lucky? She shook her head. “Bullshit. No way is your stomach big enough to hold all the blood in my body. I’ve been researching vampires for the last month. That’s what I’m writing about.” He snapped his mouth closed. “You’re writing a book about vampires?” Again Amber shook her head. “No, I’m writing a romance and the vampire is the hero.” Lines appeared on his forehead. “Hero? I thought vampires were always the bad guys.” Excitement danced its way up Amber’s spine.
I’m talking to a real vampire. Oh wow! Just think of the
information I can get for my book!
“Oh no. Vampires are very popular as heroes now. Would you mind answering a few questions for me?” She stepped forward.
Rusty stepped back. The woman had a really strange look on her face—like she’d just found a long-lost friend or something. And what kind of questions did she want to ask him?”
“How much blood do you drink when you bite people? Do you lap it or suck it? Do you prefer the neck or some other part of the body?”
He scratched under his beard again. “Ah…”
“Who do you prefer to bite, men or women?”
He stopped scratching. “What the hell kind of question is that?” She stepped closer, her eyes sparkling with some kind of fanatic blue light. “Does biting someone make you horny? Do you get a hard-on? Do you like to have sex when you bite people?” He edged toward the front door. Horny! Hard-on! “Jesus, lady, you’re crazy.” She came closer. “But I can get such good information from you. No other author has ever had this kind opportunity—at least I don’t think so, anyway. Please, say you’ll help me. I’ll let you stay here.
Please?”
“Look, lady…”
Smiling broadly, she stuck out her hand. “Amber. Amber Blake. Pleased to meet you. You have no idea how pleased I am to meet you.”
Staring at her proffered hand, Rusty continued to back away. “Ah, thanks, I think. Ah, I gotta go now.”
A brighter smile lit her face. “That’s right. You just woke up. You have to hunt for blood.” He reached behind the door and pulled out a rifle. “Ah, yeah. That’s right. I have to go hunt.” Frowning, she stared at the rifle. “What’s that for?”
He glanced at it then her. “To shoot a deer.”
“Shoot a deer. Why?”
He shrugged. “Like you said, I’m hungry.” Turning, he strode out the door.
She followed him. “No. That’s not right. You can’t go hunting deer.”
“Why not?”
“Because vampires drink human blood.”
“Not this one. I like deer,” he yelled over his shoulder. Without a backward glance, he hurried across the porch, vaulted over the railing and disappeared around the side of the house.
Grinning, her mind dancing with ideas, Amber hugged herself as she stared at the spot where Rusty had disappeared. A vampire. A real vampire. Her nipples puckered as she shivered and orgasmic satisfaction surged through her body. Her very own flesh and blood vampire. A best seller. She was going to write a best seller. The publishing companies would be begging to buy her book.
Turning, she headed back into the house, her mind spinning with possibilities. Of course she was going to have to cure him of this stupid taste for deer blood and get him to bite some humans. And she would have to do something about that beard. It would have to come off. His long hair would be okay, after a trim. She wrinkled her nose. But those clothes would have to go. Vampires were debonair and well-dressed. A plaid flannel shirt and bib overalls weren’t going to cut it.
She grabbed a suitcase and started up the stairs. No, she’d go to Harrisburg—there were bound to be some decent men’s stores there—and get him appropriate clothing. Once that beard was shaved off, his hair was pulled back in a ponytail and he was dressed in appropriate clothing, he’d look much more vampirish.
As her foot settled on the top step, Amber frowned and bit the inside of her cheek. He had red hair.
Did vampires have red hair? Her mind ran back through all the “Buffy” episodes she’d watched.
Angel had dark hair. Spike was a blond. And all the other vampires always seemed to have dark hair, the male ones anyway.
Midnight sat in the middle of the hallway and stared at her.
Amber stopped chewing her cheek. “I know. We can dye his hair black. Yeah, that’s a good idea.
There are a lot of good hair dyes for men available. Yeah, I’ll dye his hair. He’ll look like a real vampire then.”
Humming happily, followed closely by her cross-eyed cat, she sauntered into her bedroom—and closed the door firmly behind her.
Once inside, Amber leaned back against the door and stared at her cat. “My very own vampire hero.
Aunt Ernestine—thank you.”
Pushing away from the door, she sashayed across the room wrinkling her nose as her wet sneakers squished and her clammy jeans chafed her thighs. “Ugh. I need a shower. And these clothes need to be washed. But that bathroom has to be cleaned up first.” Momentarily she paused. There was a puddle of water from the toilet on the floor. What’s more, did she really want to take a shower in a bathtub where a vampire had been sleeping? All those whiskers.
She wrinkled her nose. The tub was probably filthy and the drain probably blocked. At least the water in the toilet was just water. Vampires didn’t pee.
Sighing, she toed off her wet shoes, unfastened her jeans and shimmied out of them and her clinging underwear. “Yuk. Falling into the toilet. Mandi will never let me forget it.” She pulled her tee shirt over her head, reached behind her and unhooked her bra. Naked, she grabbed her suitcase and lifted it onto the bed. Her robe was in this one.
Hot pink robe belted tightly about her waist, she headed for the bathroom. Once there, she planted her hands on her hips. First, the puddle of water. In a cabinet on the other side of the room, she found some old towels.
Midnight sat in the doorway, her head turning this way and that as she attempted to watch her human.
Amber tsked. “Figures they’d be threadbare, Midnight. Aunt Ernestine never threw anything away—
even if it had holes in it. Glad I brought my own towels, but these are good enough to soak up this mess for now. I’ll scrub the floor tomorrow.
Grabbing a metal bucket she found under the sink, she dropped the sopping towels into the puddle and continued wiping up the floor until all the water was gone. Then she turned to the tub. She pulled back the shower curtain and stared into the tub.
Midnight padded into the room and meowed.
Amber put the lid down on the toilet and lifted the cat onto it. “The tub isn’t as bad as I thought, Sweets. A couple of hairs here and there. I can give it a quick rinse and a spray with Lysol and it will be okay for a fast shower. I’ll scrub it tomorrow.”
Fifteen minutes later, she was relaxing under a hot shower.
The old bird dog whined and wagged her tail as Rusty hung the dead deer from the hook sticking out from the corner of the porch roof. He’d had as much blood as he wanted and had even chewed up a couple of chunks of meat—nothing like the taste of fresh venison. But there was no reason to let all that good meat go to waste. Ted Musser had been laid off for over a year now and his family could use the extra meat.
After patting the dog on the head, he grabbed his rifle, turned and loped across the field and into the forest. Home was thirty miles away but now he was able to travel a lot faster than he used to.
Rusty frowned. Home. She was there—the goofy author lady. What was her name? Alice—Amy—
no, Amber. Yeah, Amber, that was it. He shook his head. Fool woman wasn’t afraid of him at all. Why the hell not?
His mother had sobbed and run away from him when she’d seen his teeth. His father had suggested he go live somewhere else. And his grandmother. Fuck. She’d started a prayer circle to drive out the devil in his soul. All the old ladies at her church were still praying. He shrugged. Not that it had done any good.
But this writer, this Amber. She wasn’t afraid of him. No, the exact opposite. She was happy because she was writing one of those crappy romance books with the half-naked people on the cover that a lot of women seemed to like.
As he loped along, he stroked his beard. Christ, those freaking questions she asked were personal. Did biting people make him horny! Where did she get off asking a question like that? He didn’t even know her.
A smile tickled the corner of his lips as he trotted along. She was kinda pretty. Blonde hair, blue eyes.
Her nose was a little bit pointy but at least it wasn’t big. She had a nice smile, too. And not only were her teeth straight, but she wasn’t missing any. Seemed like most of the women around here were missing a tooth or two. Rusty grinned. His father had always told him to make sure a woman had a mouth full of teeth before he spent any real amount of time with her.
The rest of Amber was really nice, too. Her breasts had been hidden under her baggy tee shirt but they were two very noticeable bumps. She was tall, almost as tall as he was, with legs that seemed to reach to her neck. Rusty sighed. How he loved women with long legs. Amber naked would be a sight to see.
“Not like I could do anything with her if I wanted to. Fuckin’ dick doesn’t do anything but hang there now anyway,” he growled to the empty night.
Still, he could pretend. Pulling a picture of Amber to his mind, he stripped her naked—high, pert breasts with pink nipples, flat stomach, golden curls between her legs. Yep, mighty fine woman to look at.
As Rusty hurdled a fallen log, his stomach rolled. His stomach muscles rippled and clenched as heat flooded his groin. Blood surged into his cock. When he landed on the other side of the log, he staggered and almost fell flat on his face. Groaning, he jerked his zipper down and his cock leaped free
—hard, throbbing, aching. He reached down and touched the head. It jerked. Dropping his rifle, Rusty fell to his knees. A single tear rolled down his cheek and disappeared into his beard. “Buddy, you’re back!” He fisted his cock and slowly began to pump.
Joyful warmth permeated his body. He felt his canines lengthen but he ignored them, concentrating on the sheer pleasure of the first hard-on he’d had ever since he'd become a vampire, of the total bliss he felt from his warm hand massaging and sliding the soft skin of his cock up and down over the engorged muscle beneath it. Fuck, but this felt good. How he’d missed the aching need. Moaning, he pumped harder. If only he had a woman.
Just the thought of burying his cock inside a slick, tight woman hardened it even more.
Sitting down, he leaned back against a tree and spread his legs further apart. Arching his back, he thrust his hips forward and closed his eyes. A woman. What woman?
Amber appeared in his mind again—this time, naked. Oh yeah, baby. Long legs. Golden curls there between them. Would she play with herself? Come on, sit down honey. Spread those legs for me.
Rusty’s teeth began to ache as she sat, spread her legs and cupped her breasts. He sucked in his breath and held it as she pinched her nipples to hard points. So white, so round. Her nipples were so pink. Oh, to be able to suck those sweet buds into his mouth.
When drops of cum dribbled out of his cock, he stopped pumping and smeared them over the head.
Not quite the same as a woman’s cum but now he was slipperier. He began to pump again.
Eyes still closed, he watched as both of Amber’s hands slid from her breasts, down over her stomach and into the golden curls between her legs.
He began to pant. “Yes, baby. Let me see you do yourself.” She smiled at him then looked down at herself. With her left hand, she spread her lips. “Do you like what you see?”
Rusty began to pant. “Oh, yeah, honey. Let me see more. Dip your fingers in.” Her chuckle was low. The fingers of her right hand slid between her lips. They dipped and swirled then circled her clit then dipped and swirled again. She shifted and moaned. “Hmmmm. This feels good. Do you like it, Rusty?"
He ran his tongue along his teeth. Blood seeped from the shallow cuts. His cock got even harder. He pumped faster. “More, baby. Finger-fuck yourself.”
She leaned back against the log that appeared out of nowhere and he had a clear view of her cunt. It was red and moist and swollen. She slid her fingers inside and moaned. Her hips jerked. She slid her fingers back out and rubbed her clit. She slipped her fingers back inside again. She pulled them out and rubbed her clit harder. “I’m going to come, Rusty. I’m going to come.” His teeth ached. His cock ached. He wanted to bury all of them inside her. “Come, baby. Come for me. Now!”
His orgasm exploded. Opening his eyes, he watched his cum shoot out before him, splatter against a tree a good four feet away. Sweat cooled on his body.
In his mind, he heard Amber shriek, then something popped and his vision of her disappeared.
When his breathing finally returned to normal, Rusty gazed in the direction of the house. Had she experienced the same thing he had? Had he connected with her mentally? “Christ, Amber. I sure hope it was as good for you as it was for me.”
Now, if only his teeth would stop aching.