The Reluctant Vampire(54)

“Oh God,” Harper muttered against her neck, his caress becoming frantic as their mingled pleasure and excitement bounced between them in growing waves.

“Yes,” Drina gasped, eyes closing and hips rotating to his touch, so that she ground back against him with each movement. She was clawing at his hands now with excitement, her only thought reaching that peak they were racing toward, and then he slid two fingers inside her and sank his fangs into her neck at the same time, and Drina screamed as pleasure exploded over them.

“So tell me again about that mouse Drina saw that made her scream and faint?”

Drina turned in the front passenger seat of Harper’s BMW to make a face at Stephanie in the backseat. “All right, smarty-pants. You can read our minds and know there was no mouse. Get over it.”

“Well, even if I couldn’t read your minds, you don’t really think I would have bought that whole mouse story, do you?” Stephanie asked with amusement. “I mean, seriously, a hunter who faints at the sight of a tiny mouse?”

Drina shook her head and turned to face forward again. As usual, Harper had woken from their postcoital faint before her. He’d been trying to rouse her when Stephanie had found them on the pantry floor. She had no idea why he’d even bothered to make up the mouse story when the girl could read them so easily, but he had. As one would expect, it hadn’t gone over.

“It wasn’t exactly a postcoital faint, was it,” Stephanie said dryly. “I mean coitus is—”

“Stephanie!” she barked, swinging on her with horror.

“Well, it wasn’t,” Stephanie said defensively. “Harper didn’t actually insert part A into part B. Well, I suppose there was some insertion, but of part F not—”

“How do you know that?” Drina interrupted her teasing sharply.

Stephanie rolled her eyes. “We’ve been through this. I can read your mind, remember?”

“Yes, but I wasn’t thinking of it,” Drina said at once, aware that Harper was glancing from the road, to her, to Stephanie in the rearview mirror with a troubled frown.

Stephanie shrugged. “You must be. Otherwise, how would I know what you two did?”

Drina stared at her silently, more than troubled. She hadn’t been thinking of what she and Harper had done. She’d been thinking of the after, the waking up on the floor. Yet Stephanie apparently knew what had happened between her and Harper and obviously in detail. It should embarrass her, but she was too concerned by what the girl’s apparently pulling—not just thoughts, but—actual memories from her mind could mean to worry about embarrassment.

Usually, for an immortal to access someone’s memories, they had to get the person they were reading to recall them. Stephanie apparently could access them whether the person was thinking of them or not.

“You think I’m a freak now,” Stephanie said unhappily.

“Not a freak,” Drina said quietly. “Apparently very gifted.”

The girl relaxed and smiled a little at that. “Gifted?”

“Very,” Drina murmured, and turned in her seat to face front, doing her best to keep her thoughts as blank as possible. Stephanie’s abilities weren’t normal, but she didn’t even want to get near that thought in the girl’s presence. She needed to think, but away from Stephanie.

She also needed to find a chance to talk to Harper, Drina thought on a sigh. While she was glad he wasn’t avoiding her this morning, he had last night, and his blowing hot and then cold was leaving her uncertain and worried about the future. She had started out her journey to Port Henry determined to be patient, but that was before she’d met and spent time with him. The more Drina got to know Harper, the more emotionally invested she became, and she’d started out pretty invested to begin with for the simple reason that he was her life mate.

The moment Drina had walked into Casey Cottage, tried to read him, failed, and acknowledged that Marguerite was right, and he was her life mate, she’d thrown in half her emotional chips. But with every conversation they had, and every experience they shared, she was throwing in more chips, and Drina was afraid of getting hurt here if his guilt proved too strong for him to put aside.

“Are you feeling all right, Stephanie? You look pale.”

Harper glanced to the girl at Drina’s words and frowned as he noted her pallor.

“I’m fine, hungry is all,” Stephanie mumbled. “Can we stop and get a sundae or something on the way out? That’ll settle my stomach.”

“I don’t think it’s food you’re hungry for,” Drina said solemnly. “We’ve been at the mall for hours now, and you’re a growing girl. You need to feed.”