Under a Vampire Moon (19 page)

“But you said she hadn’t experienced any passion,” Christian reminded him.

“She didn’t,” he said dryly. “In her mind, his kisses were pleasant when he was first making the effort, and sex wasn’t horrible.”

Christian winced. Sex wasn’t horrible? It wasn’t much of an endorsement of Robert’s bedroom skills, he thought and then began to grin. Carolyn was in for a gigantic surprise. There was
so
much he could give to her: family, passion . . . lots of passion. Hell, they’d be lucky if they didn’t go into comas after their first time rather than just pass out if she had that little experience with passion.

“Yes, well, you’re not going to get to show her anything if you don’t dial it down now,” his father said dryly, obviously reading his thoughts. “And you’d best try to control yourself when you kiss her at the door too.”

Christian cursed, and shifted impatiently in his seat. “I suppose you want me not to sleep when she might be sleeping and avoid shared dreams in future too?”

“No,” Julius said at once and when Christian glanced at him in surprise, he shrugged. “That is tempting her without the added fear and worry about what she thinks is your age difference. She’s not totally comfortable with the dream the two of you shared this afternoon. She suffered some guilt over it, but she doesn’t know you shared it. She also enjoyed it enough to overlook her guilt and tell herself it wasn’t her fault for having it. Besides, the passion in the dreams is muted. Perhaps half the passion we can experience for real. It’s like an appetizer, while the real deal is the appetizer, a four-course meal, and dessert all in one.”

Christian’s eyebrows rose. If that was muted and just the appetizer—

“Hell,” he muttered under his breath, and almost didn’t believe his father. But then he recalled the kiss they’d shared on her doorstep and changed his mind. That simple kiss had carried as much punch as the entire dream and had left him just as hard and aching. And that had only been a kiss without the caressing and . . .

“Hell,” he muttered again, his eyes widening.

Julius nodded solemnly. “If you ever want to enjoy the full meal deal I suggest you get yourself under control . . . and now,” he added with a grim expression. “A slow song is on. The women are returning to the table.”

Christian turned sharply to see that this was the case and was immediately seized by panic. His intensity wasn’t dialed down at all. If anything, everything he’d learned had just ratcheted it up several notches.

“Hell,” he muttered for a third time, and this time there was an edge of panic to the word.

“Men’s room,” Julius ordered, catching his arm and pulling him to his feet. “Zanipolo, dance with Carolyn,” he ordered loud enough for the women to hear as he dragged Christian off to find the bathrooms.

Nine

C
arolyn stopped walking to stare as Julius dragged Christian away, and then glanced around at a touch on her arm. She blinked at Zanipolo’s solemn face and then, recalling Julius’s last order, she assured him, “Oh, we don’t have to dance.”

“Don’t be silly, it’s always a pleasure to dance with a beautiful
woman,
” Zanipolo said, tugging her toward the dance floor.

“Oh,” she mumbled on a sigh.

A slow song was playing, and Carolyn wasn’t used to dancing to slow music anymore. Robert had always refused to dance and it had been years since she’d accompanied Brent to business functions with dancing, so she felt awkward and stiff when Zanipolo took her into his arms.

“Relax,” he chastised. “I’m a good dancer, I dance a lot . . . with
women.
Because I like women. A lot.”

Carolyn stared at him blankly. “Ah. Well, that’s nice, I guess.”

“It is,” he assured her, and asked, “Do you like my new haircut?”

Carolyn glanced at his hair. She’d noticed that he now sported a brush cut. It actually looked good on him, though, and she nodded. “It’s very nice.”

“Very manly,” he pointed out. “Not gay at all.”

“Ah.” Carolyn bit her lip to keep from laughing as she realized he was still bothered by the fact that she’d thought him the homosexual in the band. Relaxing completely now, she patted his arm. “Don’t worry, Zanipolo. Gia was just teasing you. I never said I thought you were gay,” she assured him, and then added, “I’m not even sure how she knew I thought that. I didn’t say it out loud.”

Zanipolo had started to relax after her first words, but looked stricken by her last ones, and Carolyn could have kicked herself as she realized what she’d said.

“I mean— Ignore that last part. I was just . . .” Unsure what to say to repair the matter, she cleared her throat, and asked, “Why was Julius rushing Christian away?”

Zanipolo hesitated, and then suddenly brightened and announced, “Julius caught him winking at one of the waiters. No doubt he is demanding an explanation.”

“Oh dear,” Carolyn breathed, glancing anxiously toward the bathrooms.

“No, this might be good,” Zanipolo assured her. “Christian will tell the truth and then he won’t have to hang all over you and make you uncomfortable anymore.”

Carolyn frowned, part of her relieved at the idea and the other part just worried about Christian and how Julius would react if he did come out of the closet. Cripes, if he was really as homophobic as all that . . . at the very least it would be unpleasant, but it was possible the two men could come to blows. Halting, she said, “You have to go check on Christian.”

“Julius said to dance with you.”

Carolyn clucked with exasperation. What control did Julius have over these people that they obeyed his every order without question? she wondered with irritation. Tugging herself free of his arms, she said, “Well, you can tell Julius I refused. And I do,” she assured him firmly. “Now go check on Christian or I’ll march into the men’s room and check on him myself.”

“Fine, I’ll go, but only because I have good news to impart,” Zanipolo announced as he began to lead her back to the table. She didn’t bother to ask what the good news was, merely smiled, grateful Christian would have support in dealing with his brother.

“I
f the passion is that strong, surely she won’t be able to resist,” Christian muttered, pacing the bathroom, his mind working on overdrive as he sought excuses to go out there and drag Carolyn straight back to the resort.

But the resort was so far away, he thought with dismay. There must be hotels nearby they could go to. Yes, a hotel would do. Even a cheap, dingy one if necessary so long as it was close. He just needed to get her alone, get her naked, and show her what they could have together.

“Once she sees what I can offer her, she can’t possibly run from it. She’ll want it. She’ll want me. She—” He stopped abruptly as cold water suddenly splashed across his groin. He stood gasping for a second, but raised his head, gaping when he saw that his father had turned on the taps in the sink, and cupped his hand under the faucet to send a stream of the liquid at him.

“What are you doing?” he cried, stepping quickly to the side.

“Putting out the fire.” Julius simply turned his hand to make the water jet follow. “Your pants were about to start smoking.”

“Christ!” Christian snapped, moving again. “Stop that.”

“In a minute,” he said calmly. “You’re halfway back to human again.”

“Halfway back to human? What the hell?” Christian shifted again, only to be followed once more, but he began to understand what the man was saying when he saw the bulge in his jeans. He’d been half-erect since he’d started to watch Carolyn dance on arriving here. But his talk with his father and the resulting thoughts it had stirred in him had probably raised it to a full erection before the first gush of water. It was definitely receding now, however.

“That’s better,” Julius announced cheerfully, turning off the taps. “Good talk, son. Let’s go back and join the women.”

When Christian just stood there dripping and glowering at him, he sighed.

“Your pene was doing your thinking for you. But I’m sure you’re a little more clearheaded now and can see that you need to continue on the path that was set.”

“No, I don’t see that,” Christian growled. “She’s had enough time to get to know me. We’re friends now. She won’t—” He paused with surprise when his father cuffed him in the back of the head.

“Snap out of it!” Julius roared. “It’s only been twenty-four hours for Christ’s sake!”

“What?” Christian asked with amazement, and then protested hotly, “It has not.”

“It has,” Julius said at once, and then sighed and pointed out, “You only met her yesterday evening before the show, son.”

Christian blinked several times, his mind going back over the events in his head. It felt like months, but he knew that wasn’t the case. Still, surely it had been longer than twenty-four hours?

“It feels like months have passed because your adrenaline has been on high and your emotions and hormones have been going crazy,” Julius said quietly, apparently reading his mind. “But it’s only been a day.”

“Jesus,” Christian muttered, sagging with defeat.

“So,” Julius said after a moment. “Do you think you can control yourself for the rest of the night?”

Christian nodded wearily. He’d have to.

“Good.” Julius patted his back, and then glanced down at his jeans and muttered, “Maybe you should stand under the hand-dryer for a bit or something. You look like you wet yourself . . . a lot.”

Christian glared. “And whose fault is that?”

Julius grinned, but before he could respond the bathroom door opened. His smile was immediately replaced with a scowl when Zanipolo entered. “What are you doing here? I told you to dance with Carolyn.”

“I did, but then she wanted to stop and she insisted I come check on Christian,” he explained as the door closed behind him.

“Why would you need to check on me?” Christian asked with surprise.

“What happened?” Zanipolo asked rather than answer the question. “You look like you wet yourself.”

“Zanipolo,” Julius gasped. “What have you done?”

Christian glanced to his father with surprise. Judging by his expression, he was reading Zanipolo’s mind and was horrified by what he’d found there.

“Uh.” Zanipolo eyed Julius warily and then glanced to Christian and said, “I was helping.”

“Helping?” Julius asked with disbelief. “That wasn’t helping, you idiot.”

“What did you do?” Christian asked, alarm beginning to crawl up his spine.

“Uh, well.” Zanipolo was beginning to look worried. “Carolyn asked me if you were all right because of how Julius dragged you off.”

“And he told Carolyn that I had caught you winking at a waiter and I’d dragged you in here for an explanation,” Julius said heavily.

Christian grimaced, but relaxed a little. She already thought him gay, telling her he’d winked at a waiter wasn’t great, but he couldn’t see it really being a problem. He could explain everything when he revealed all later.

“And then he told Carolyn that this might be for the best and if you came out of the closet you wouldn’t have to hang all over her anymore.”

“What?” Christian squawked.

“But this way you don’t have to kiss her and stuff. You can keep your distance and just gain her friendship and trust,” Zanipolo said quickly. “I mean, I thought the kissing and having to control yourself was proving to be a problem.” He glanced to Julius with alarm. “Isn’t that why you dragged him in here?”

Christian growled deep in his throat and headed for Zanipolo, physical violence on his mind, but Julius caught his arm.

“We can fix this,” he assured him quickly when Christian turned on him.

“Fix what?” Zanipolo asked with confusion. “She already thought he was gay. Now she just thinks you might know.”

“Which means he doesn’t need a beard,” Julius snapped.

Zanipolo frowned. “Well, yeah, but they’re becoming friends and—”

“We can’t trust in that,” Julius growled. “It’s only been twenty-four hours. It’s a very tentative friendship at best right now. Should that roommate of hers wake up in the morning feeling better and ready to have fun, Carolyn could drop spending any time at all with Christian.”

“Oh,” Zanipolo said, with dismay. “I didn’t—I mean, I thought—” He paused when Christian began growling again and sighed. “How do I fix this?”

Julius thought briefly and then said, “An orchid. You’ll find one and—”

“Where am I going to find an orchid?” Zanipolo interrupted with a frown.

“I don’t care. Rob a florist’s if you have to, but if you do, leave the money in the till for it,” Julius added with a frown. “But find an orchid, or something equally exotic and have the waiter bring it to her along with a card saying that she is as beautiful and rare as the flower.”

Christian cleared his throat, and asked, “How is that going to fix—”

“Because you are going to tell her that was the explanation you gave me when we got in here, that you’d paid the waiter to go get the flower for her. That he’d winked to let you know that he had found a flower and that you winked back to indicate you understood. And, of course, you’ll tell her that Zanipolo is out getting a flower now to uphold the lie.”