“Then come for me, rajaaka.”
Nikolas’s words seemed to have the desired effect. Jon cried out as he came, cum splattering on the counter beneath him. He shouted again when Nikolas bit into his shoulder, snapping his hips rapidly as he growled, taking in his life’s essence.
Jon fell back against Nikolas’s chest as Nikolas licked the wound closed. He tightened his arms around Jon, just breathing. His cock, while softening bit by bit, was still incased in the silken heat of Jon’s body. Jon’s heartbeat pounded against Nikolas’s chest. His breath blew against Nikolas’s cheek.
“I love you, Jon.”
“Hmm.” Jon smiled up at him, his golden eyes misty but full of promise. “Love you, Nikolas.”
Yep, just breathing was good.
“Nikolas, what’s that noise?”
“What noise?” Nikolas asked as he nuzzled Jon’s throat, his tongue running over the twin pinpricks in Jon’s skin.
A ceiling tile clattered to the floor, followed almost immediately by a loud crash as the heating duct fell out of the ceiling, and a thin man rolled free of the shiny metal.
Jon yelped and pointed at the vampire crouching several feet away from them. “That noise!”
“Bloody hell!”
Chapter Twelve
Jon felt like his jaw was going to be permanently attached to his chest as he watched Nikolas vault over the center island and attack the man that had fallen from the ceiling. Nikolas fought like each movement had been planned and plotted, his gestures choreographed well before he made them.
It took Jon a mere moment to figure out that the man Nikolas was fighting was a vampire just like him. The fangs were a dead giveaway. Jon jumped down off the counter and scrambled for Nikolas’s pants. He stayed crouched down on the floor as he grabbed Nikolas’s cell phone out of his pocket and dialed Louis.
“Louis,” Jon snapped the moment the phone was answered, “you’re fired!”
“What in the hell are you going on about?”
“You’re a fucking lousy head of security!” Jon snapped. The head of security was doing a piss-poor job of keeping the place secure. “A two-year-old could do a better job.”
“Look, I don’t care if you are Nikolas’s rajaaka or not. If you keep speaking to me in this manner I will come up there and—”
“Perfect! Come up here and bring every security guard you have. Bring your guns. We’ll have a party. I’m baking muffins.” Jon snapped the phone closed before Louis could say another word. He just prayed he had pissed the man off enough that he would bring the whole frigging security force.
Jon screamed when Nikolas and the vampire came barreling over the island, landing on the floor right in front of him. He knew getting close to the fight was a very bad idea. Jon turned and scrambled away as fast as he could crawl. He headed for the small dinette set, climbing beneath it. He probably should have run from the room, but leaving Nikolas here to fight on his own just seemed wrong—even if he was hiding under the table.
He was getting his bearings.
Really.
Anger boiled up and over, rolling through Jon when the vampire took a swipe at Nikolas and he saw bright red gouges appear on Nikolas’s chest. He climbed out from under the table and jumped to his feet, racing across the floor to one of the drawers he had been in earlier while he was baking. He grabbed the hefty wooden rolling pin, swinging it through the air a couple of times.
This would work.
Jon turned and waited, watching Nikolas and the vampire fight. Blood was everywhere, scrapes and scratches marring both men’s bodies. Bruises were healing just as fast as they darkened their skin.
And they were destroying Jon’s beautiful gourmet kitchen.
The moment the vampire was within distance, Jon raised the rolling pin and brought it down on the man’s head just as hard as he could. The vampire dropped like…well, he had been hit with a rolling pin. Unconscious and slumped on the floor or not, Jon went with the urge he had to kick the vampire in the side.
“Stupid vampire.”
“Well, that was a little anticlimactic.”
“Maybe for you,” Jon said as he raised his eyes and looked at his mate. “I’m about to get wiped out by your head of security.”
Nikolas’s eyebrow flickered. “Excuse me?”
Jon’s lips twisted as he dropped his eyes. “I may or may not have fired Louis for being a lousy head of security. He’s supposed to be bringing every member of your security force up here to discuss it with me.”
“I see.” Nikolas sighed as if he was greatly put upon by Jon’s dilemma. “Well, do you suppose you could put some pants on before my security force arrives so I don’t have to kill all of them?”
“Oh, yeah.” Jon’s face burned bright red as he raced around the kitchen looking for his pants. He found them on the floor next to Nikolas’s pants. He tossed those to his mate before grabbing his own clothes. He got his pants zipped up and his shirt pulled on just as the kitchen door swung open and several armed men came running in, spreading out in a defensive grouping, guns drawn. Jon grabbed the rolling pin again before realizing who it was.
He just turned and looked at Nikolas.
“Sir.” Louis glanced at the mess then at the unconscious man on the floor, and then up to the ceiling before looking at the rolling pin in Jon’s hands and then at Jon. “You mentioned something about muffins?”
Jon crossed his arms, keeping a good hold of the rolling pin in case he needed it again. Knocking a few heads together was starting to sound pretty damn good to him. “Who is that man and what is he doing in my house?”
Louis glanced around again, shaking his head. “Well, I don’t think he’s here for your cooking skills.” There was a heavy dose of sarcasm in his voice. “But I could be wrong.”
Jon started for Louis, only to have the rolling pin ripped out of his hand by Nikolas. “No, rajaaka. You can’t hit Louis. We need him.”
“I fired him.”
“And somehow, I’m pretty sure this won’t be the only time that happens.”
“We can find another head of security.” Jon was positive of it.
“No one is as good as Louis.”
Jon’s eyes rounded with frustration as he looked at Nikolas and waved his hand at the body on the floor at the same time. “I’m not impressed.”
Nikolas chuckled. “You will be.”
Jon had his doubts. He had heard of the attack that had killed Nikolas’s former assistant, and now this one. If Louis was supposed to be so good at his job, how had the rogue vampires gotten through? Hell, they had reached the penthouse.
“Louis, did you catch the others?” Nikolas asked.
“Yes, sir.”
Jon gulped. “Others?”
Louis gave him a brutal and unfriendly glare. “Yeah, you know, the other rogue vampires I was stopping when you fired me.”
Jon forgot all about being scared or confused. His fingers curled into claws as he went for Louis’s throat. Vampire or not, the man was going down. Jon’s scream of frustration when Nikolas caught him around the waist and held him back echoed through the room like a sonic boom.
“Rajaaka, you can’t attack Louis.”
“I won’t hurt him…much.” Jon lunged again. Something deep inside of Jon snarled with satisfaction when Louis jumped back, a look of fear flashing over the vampire’s face before he could mask it.
“Jon!”
“Fine.” Jon crossed his arms, his lower lip sliding out in a mutinous gesture. “But I reserve the right to fire him again.”
Nikolas chuckled. “Yes, dear.”
Jon huffed as he looked around at the chaos. His kitchen was a complete mess. Food was splattered everywhere. Dishes lay shattered on the floor. Furniture was overturned, some of it broken into pieces.
“This is going to take forever to clean up.”
“I am so sorry, rajaaka,” Nikolas said as he pressed a kiss against the side Jon’s head. “I will send someone to help but I have to deal with my own mess.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Jon waved a dismissive hand. “Go kick some vampire butt. I got this.”
Jon stepped back and watched as the guards picked up the vampire on the floor and carried him out of the room. Louis was right behind them.
“I’ll have someone come up and fix the ceiling,” Nikolas said.
“That would be good.”
Nikolas pointed to one of the guards standing by the door. “I’m also leaving someone here to guard you in case there are any more problems.”
“Are you expecting more problems?”
Nikolas’s mouth curved up in half a smile. “Jon, I’m the leader of a vampire tribe that provides synthetic blood to seventy-five percent of the vampire population in the world. Of course I expect more problems.”
“Right.”
Jon got to work the moment Nikolas left the kitchen. Apparently, being mated to the head of the tribe did not mean he had people waiting on him hand and foot. Jon actually appreciated that. He wouldn’t have minded having a little help to clean up the mess in the kitchen but he didn’t need servants catering to his every need.
But he might demand a massage after this.
By the time he got the kitchen put back to rights, he was a mess. He needed a shower. Again. Jon headed for the bathroom, stopping at the entrance to his bedroom when the guard went to follow him. “No.” He pointed to a spot on the floor right outside the door. “Unless you hear me screaming bloody murder, you stay outside this room. Understood?”