“One phone call, that’s all it will take, Fawn,” she said, pulling herself to her full height and crossing her arms over her chest.
“You’re gonna come in commando-style, rescue me?”
“More like nag-or-insult-the-big-scary-men-until-they-give-me-what-I-want style, but you get the idea,” she responded.
I laughed. “I appreciate it, but I’m not a damsel in distress. I don’t need anyone to rescue me. But I want you back in my life. I miss my best friend,” I said.
If I didn’t know better, I would have thought there was a tear in my friend’s eye, but if so, she recovered quickly and flashed me a bright smile.
“You won’t be able to get rid of me,” she said.
“I didn’t think so, but I’ll make sure to keep you away from Sorin,” I said.
“Who? The dude at the door?” she asked incredulously.
“Yeah. The huge, kind of crazy Romanian dude you were barking at. You’re nuts, standing up to him like that.”
“I’m perfectly sane, and I was confident I could handle him if necessary,” Esther said, voice brimming with unshakable confidence. “But in the spirit of reunification, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. You gonna drop by this weekend?”
“I’d love to,” I said.
Nineteen
Vasile
Two Months Later
* * *
“Are we done here?” I asked.
Priest nodded, and I stood, ready to leave.
“You aren’t hanging out tonight?” Sorin said.
I shook my head, and he frowned. “Going to play house? Again.”
“Careful, brother,” I said, letting a warning edge bleed into my voice.
“Suit yourself,” he replied, and then he turned and headed behind the closed doors to Priest’s inner sanctum.
I left without looking back, but while my steps carried sure and true to my destination, my mind urged me to slow down. Not that I paid it any attention or could have stopped myself even if I had. The urgent, clawing need I felt whenever I was away from Fawn ripped at me, and I knew it wouldn’t subside until I saw her again, held her body against mine so close that nothing else mattered.
She did that to me, made me think and feel things I hadn’t ever, made me more than clan and at the same time less. Made me a man, one who had become addicted to a woman. This ruse would have to stop at some point. She’d want her life, a chance to be away from me, away from memories of the monster I’d taken her from.
But until then, when she finally came to her senses, I’d take as much of her as I could.
I’d gotten her settled at my father’s estate. He’d acquired it from a prominent family that owed him, and he’d been so proud of it, the huge house and exclusive address proof to himself that he’d finally made it. He hadn’t enjoyed it long though, dying less than two years after he’d gotten it. But in just weeks, Fawn had managed to make it feel like a home.
Our home.
When I arrived and entered, I heard her in the kitchen, and as I came to her, she smiled at me, her eyes going soft. “Vasile, I…”
I cut her off with a hard kiss, covering her lips with mine and then swooping my tongue inside her mouth. I kissed her with everything I had, trying to give physical form to emotions I couldn’t name, feelings that went beyond words.
And when I pulled back and stared down at her, her lips wet and swollen from my kisses, her brown eyes wide and lit with that unrestrained passion I could never get enough of, I lost control.
Hands on her shoulders, I turned her so that she was face-first against the kitchen island. “Oh!” she said when I lifted the long T-shirt she wore and revealed the smooth expanse of her back and the plush curves of her ass, the thin little scrap of her thong peeking from between her cheeks.
“Did you wear this for me?” I asked as I hooked one finger, then another under the string.
I got closer and exhaled, watching as goose bumps rose across her skin. I kissed the padded point of her shoulder blade and then chuckled low when a full-body shiver thrashed through her.
“Did you, Fawn?” I asked as I pulled the panties down her thighs.
She opened automatically and I lowered them until they dropped around her ankles.
“Y-yes,” she said quietly, her voice breaking as I stroked my fingers over her full hip and then over her thigh.
“Nice,” I said, but that didn’t get to half the matter. She’d told me how much she disliked being on display, so that she’d worn such a garment for me sent my desire sparking and my heart seizing with a feeling I didn’t yet dare give name to.
“Vasile…” she said on a broken moan when I traced her smooth mound and then went lower to delve between her slick, plump lips.