Secret Life of a Vampire(19)

"Do you really believe I would kidnap a young woman?" He tossed her purse on the coffee table, then scooted closer to her.
She stiffened. "What are you doing?"
"If you think I'm a criminal, you obviously don't know me well enough." He scooped her onto his lap.
"Stop it." She tried to wiggle off his lap, but he held her tight. "You could get in big trouble for hindering an investigation-"
"Lara," he interrupted her, gazing fiercely into her eyes. "I was at work last night."
"At Romatech Industries?"
"Yes. We celebrate Mass there on Saturday night. There was a reception afterward." He gritted his teeth. "About thirty people were there, if you wish to question them."
"I-I'll do that." She couldn't find a place to set her hands other than his chest or shoulders. "You had a church service at work?"
"Yes. Father Andrew comes every Saturday night. Our …  enemies know about it. They've attacked before, so I had to be there to provide security."
Enemies? That sounded over the top. But on the other hand, if Jack was at church, he couldn't be involved with Vanessa's disappearance. It looked like her prayers had been answered. "What about the mind manipulation? "
His frown deepened. "There are others with the ability."
"Friends?"
"Yes." His eyes hardened, the gold glinting with anger. "And enemies."
Gooseflesh skittered down Lara's arms. Friends and enemies with mind-control power? She shivered, suddenly feeling like she was teetering on a precipice, about to fall.
He touched her cheek. "This is shocking to me."
"Tell me about it." What on earth was she getting into? She tried to make sense of everything, but it was hard to think with him touching her and looking at her so fiercely.
He skimmed his fingers along her jaw. "I'm …  stunned by how much it hurts for you to think ill of me."
She swallowed hard. "I didn't want to. It was making me sick. I-I didn't want to believe it."
"Then don't." He raked his hands into her hair.
"I want to trust you, Jack." But it was damned hard when his eyes were taking on a reddish glow.
"You can." He pulled her into his arms and kissed her.
                       
       
           



       Chapter Nine
 

He must have turned masochistic in his old age. How else could he rage with desire for a woman who suspected him of being a criminal? Jack molded his mouth against Lara's, easing her lips apart so he could invade her with his tongue.
He rubbed his hands down her back. Mine. Santo cielo, he was becoming possessive. Possessive to the point that common sense no longer made sense. So what if they were wrong for each other? So what if every affair he'd had in the past had come to a terrible end? He no longer cared. She was Lara, and he had to have her.
He stroked her tongue with his own, and a surge of joy shot through him as she grabbed his shoulders and kissed him back. Yes! She wanted him, too.
"Lara." He dusted her face with kisses. Her cheeks, her brow, the little freckles on her nose. "Cara mia."
"Jack." She delved her hands into his hair. "I-I shouldn't let you."
"Don't be afraid," he whispered against her temple.
"But …  you have strange powers."
"The better to love you with." He drew her earlobe into his mouth and suckled.
He knew from experience that a Vamp's saliva tended to make a woman more sensitive and titillated, but it usually required some mind control to work, and Lara was immune to that. He tickled her neck with his tongue.
She moaned.
He grew hard. She was so glorious, so responsive. Even without a mental connection, her body reacted to him as if …  as if they belonged together.
He ran his hand down her hip to her thigh and squeezed.
"Mmm." She wiggled closer to him.
He winced as her hip rubbed against his erection. He'd reached the limit of how much torture he could bear.
"Time out." He shifted her lovely rump onto the couch beside him, so she was lounging sideways with her head resting against the side cushion and her legs draped across his thighs. Her pink tint warned him that his eyes were still red. He turned his face away from her and circled a hand around her ankle.
"I saw your eyes, Jack," she whispered. "They're glowing and red."
"I know." He massaged her delicate ankle bone. "It's a sign of how much I want you."
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I want to know your secret. Who are you?"
He closed his eyes briefly "Nine circles of hell. I'd tell you if I could."
She groaned. "This is so frustrating. At least tell me what's the deal with the nine circles of hell?"
"It's an old habit." He took her hand and stroked her fingers with his own. "When I was a young lad in Venice, my tutor was an old priest. He taught me to read with Dante's Divine Comedy. It starts with Inferno and the nine circles of hell."
She grimaced. "What a strange choice of reading material for a child."
He laced his fingers with hers. "Father Giovannni was trying to scare me into being good. He didn't want me to follow in my father's footsteps."
She gave him a wry smile. "Did it work?"
He smiled back. "Unfortunately, I found the descriptions of Inferno more interesting than Paradiso."
"Well, most kids would. It's the literary equivalent of a horror movie. So nine circles, huh? That's a lot of hell."
"According to Father Giovanni, there are a lot of sinners."
She snorted. "What a fun teacher. So which of the nine circles is waiting for your untimely demise?"
The question caught him by surprise. After living two hundred years, Jack no longer gave much thought to death. And that was a mistake. He could always die in battle with the Malcontents. And then, what would happen to his immortal soul?
Would he prove Father Giovanni right and end up in Inferno? He'd killed before, but only in self-defense. He'd fed off women, but he'd always tried to repay the favor. When it came to sin, only one loomed before him that he couldn't possibly deny.
"Jack." She squeezed his hand. "You look so serious. I was only joking."
He met her gaze. His vision was no longer tinted red. Nothing like thoughts of eternal damnation to kill the mood. "I would go to the second circle, and there, I would spend eternity, being tossed to and fro by a violent storm."
She made a face. "That's awful. What sin have you committed to deserve that?"
He lifted her hand to his mouth and pressed a kiss into the palm. "Lust."
Her eyes widened. "That hardly seems fair. I mean, lust doesn't seem all that evil. At least your lust doesn't. Not when it's directed at me. It is me, right?"
"Oh yes." He rubbed his thumb over the spot he'd kissed, wishing he could permanently imprint his claim on her skin. "Definitely you. Only you."
Her eyes sparkled. "I like that." Her gaze swept over him with a seductive look. "Maybe we could find a way to appease your lust."
"Cure a sin by giving in to it?" He smiled as he wrapped a hand around her calf. "That's a novel approach."
"Hey, what good is a sin if you can't enjoy it?"
He chuckled. "What a naughty angel you are. But as tempted as I am, I don't believe your solution can work."
"Why not?"
"You're assuming my lust can be appeased." He gazed at her body with a wistful look. "There is no cure for this. The more I get, the more I want. Even so, I am touched that you would so nobly sacrifice yourself to save me."
Her face turned a deeper pink. "It wouldn't be entirely unselfish on my part. I'm afraid I'm suffering from the same sin."
He leaned toward her to touch her face. "Don't worry, cara mia. There is an easy way out. Easy, but also very rare. If lust grows into true love, then we would find ourselves in Paradiso."
"Jack, you're so sweet." She curved a hand around his neck. "There's something very old-fashioned and romantic about you."
He was definitely older than she thought. "You bring out the romantic in me."
She watched him with worried eyes. "There's so much about you that I don't know. I wish you would tell me more, 'cause I …  I just don't know what to think."
"I understand." How could she trust him when he wouldn't confide in her? Maybe he could prove himself by earning her trust. He kissed her lightly on the lips, then straightened. "Tell me about this case you're working."
She groaned. "Okay." She told him about the college student who had disappeared Saturday night, and how the friends all appeared programmed to tell the same lie.
"Here, I have some stuff to show you." Lara slipped a hand into her jeans pocket, lifting her hips slightly in the air.
Jack groaned. "Have mercy, bellissima."
She grinned. "You have a one-track mind." She handed him the photo, then unfolded a pink sheet of paper. "LaToya and I found this on a bulletin board. We checked it out, and the building manager did the same zombie act that the girlfriends did."
Jack studied the photo and then the flyer. "Do you want to stay young and beautiful forever? Free seminar."
"Yeah, I think that's how the perp attracts the girls. Then he picks one out like Vanessa and makes sure no one else can remember him. Roxanne said there was another girl last year who went missing."