Romani Armada (10 page)

But that was a match with everything the agency did, the world over. Deonne had yet to find a lack of attention to detail or lack of care in anything they did. More and more, she wanted to find a way to capture
this
quality about the vampires and present it to humans. It was intriguing and different and not at all scary. But it wasn’t a purely vampire quality. It was an
agency
quality, which stemmed from the two executives that steered it.

As she turned through a slow three-sixty degrees for a second time, taking in the qualities and details of the apartment, Kieren and three other men filtered over to the front door of the apartment, while Justin sauntered to the big bank of windows.

“Should you stand by the windows?” Deonne asked, visions of laser guns, or worse, forming in her mind.

Kieren gave a small smile. “They’re polarized and blanketed armored glass. You can see out, but no one can see in. You can gaze all you want.” He nodded. “Have a safe night. We’ll be monitoring the grounds.” He shut the door and Deonne heard the locking mechanism drop with a heavy mechanical thud. There was an electronic pad on the door, too.

Deonne turned to face Justin. “What is eating you, Kelly? You’ve been avoiding me all afternoon and evening and why did you get all coy about Kieren asking you to check out the neighborhood for him? You were almost embarrassed about it.”

He hadn’t moved from the windows. The apartment was on a high floor, high enough that she could glimpse the sea to the far left. To the right, the sun was setting in a small, hot ball of orange and red over the city horizon. The rest of the sky was already an indigo black, the short Arctic night just starting. It was a view worth taking in, no matter what one’s mood might be.

Justin’s mood was indecipherable and his posture wasn’t giving her any hints. He stood with his feet apart and his hands thrust into the pockets of the simple black trousers he wore. No expensive business suit to impress clients today. But without a jacket, the trousers emphasized the length of his legs. He wasn’t extraordinarily tall, like Ryan or – heaven help her, Brenden — but he was tall enough so that she had to look up into his eyes no matter what shoes she was wearing and that suited her just fine.

His unruly dirty blond hair was jutting forward over his eyes, casting shadows.

Deonne would have said he was brooding, if she was in the habit of guessing about people’s moods, but she had learned long ago never to assume what people were thinking, even if their body language was telling her in twenty point font. There were professionals in her field that were expert at giving off all the right signals with absolute sincerity and not a single word could be relied upon. She was one of them.

“Justin,” she prompted again, when he didn’t move. “Talk to me, or it’s going to be a long, awkward night.”

He turned and she read reluctance in the slowness of his turn. “How do you do it? How do you mix with us so…recklessly?”

“I’ve been accused of a lot of things in my life, but reckless isn’t one of them.”

“Baiting Brenden to the point of giving him an embolism isn’t reckless?”

“He was making an error. I had to correct his impression of me.”

Justin pulled his hands out of his pockets and spread them. “There. That’s what I mean. You were the only human in a room of vampires that could have casually swiped your head from your body and finished the other half of their sentence without pause. Including me. Did it ever occur to you to be afraid?”

Astonishment rippled through her. “
That’s
what you’re wondering? Why I’m not afraid of you?”

“Among other things,” he replied. He still made no attempt to close the distance between them and Deonne was wary about trying to move toward him. Unlike most men, she was not always absolutely certain what was going on in Justin’s mind and right now was one of those moments when she was lost. “What other things?” she prompted, staying right where she was by the low, square
chaise longue
.

“You really aren’t afraid of us?”

Deonne gave the question fair thought. “No,” she decided. “Not anymore.”

He shook his head, studying her. “Maybe that’s why you were so impressive today.”

“I was?” She was pleased.

“You mixed with them so easily. Humans don’t, as a rule.”

“
Them
?”

“Us,” he amended. He pushed his hands back into his pockets. “You
like
them.”

Deonne shrugged, puzzled. “Well…yes. They’re all fascinating people and if you can ever get them to open up about their personal history, which is harder than shelling oysters, then they move beyond fascinating. It’s mesmerizing, listening to them. I caught Brenden ruminating once about a battle he’d been in and it was only afterwards I figured out he was talking about the war of the Spanish Succession in twelve-ninety-nine.” She took a careful breath. “You’re like that, too, but you’re worse than an oyster.”

Justin’s jaw rippled. “‘s that mean you like me, Rinaldi?” he asked gruffly.

Deonne’s heart began to slam against her ribs in painful, heavy thuds. “Only when you drop the shield and let me.”

For a moment she saw behind the shield. His grey eyes locked with hers and for one infinitesimal moment she saw something that might have been warmth or caring there. Then his gaze wrenched away from her and he turned his head to look out the window again. “You’re barmy.”

It took a moment for her to figure out what he meant, because it was such an unexpected reaction. “I’m crazy for liking you? Or for liking them?”

He licked his lips. “Vampires aren’t admirable. They’re not interesting. Just because we’ve lasted a long time doesn’t mean we should get accolades. It’s hard to die when you’re the meanest fucking son of a bitch in the jungle.” His eyes slid towards her and away again. “It’s not even natural selection. It’s cold, hard reality and it shouldn’t be applauded.”

Deonne caught her hand to her mouth in shock as she realized what he was really saying. “
You
don’t like vampires,” she breathed. “You don’t like your own nature. When Kieren asked you to check the area, you really were embarrassed about having attention drawn to your abilities like that.”

He rounded on her. “Why on earth do you want to become one of us, Deonne?” Suddenly, the shield behind his eyes was gone and the emotion she had sought to find was there for her to see, blazing like a neon sign in his eyes, his face, and his coiled, tight posture. “Why would you trade being human for
this
?” He spread his hands to either side.

Deonne cast about for an answer. For another answer. A more truthful one than any of the answers to this question she had given him so far. He had never understood this long term goal of hers and in gross and subtle ways had tried to talk her out of it since the first time they had made love. She had given him truthful answers, but never deep, core reasons because she wasn’t sure she could formulate the full reasons into coherent words herself.

Perhaps it was time to try.

Justin didn’t give her a chance to speak. He strode to where she stood, driven by the emotions pushing through him so suddenly. “Why do you need whatever mystical bullshit you think immortality might give you? You held an entire room of media in the palm of your hand this afternoon and tonight you toyed with Brenden, got him spitting mad, then backed him down, all by yourself. No one stepped in to protect you. No one helped you. You don’t need vampire strength. You’re a powerhouse all on your own.”

She looked him in the eye. “Is that why you kept your distance? You don’t like power?”

“No!” He took a step back, astonished. “Are you crazy?”

“You said I must be crazy if I liked you.”

He laughed in a way that told her the laugh was against his better judgment. He didn’t want to be put into a better mood. He wanted to be wounded or angry but her response had caught him by surprise.

Deonne found herself smiling, too.

The air shifted between them. The strong emotion that had pushed him across the room to confront her dissipated. Justin reached up and pulled the big silver clip out of her hair. “I stayed away, Rinaldi, because I didn’t much feel like letting every other joker in the agency know how I feel about you, and you were putting out such power today that if I’d got within a few feet, I probably wouldn’t have been able to help myself.”

“Ah, then you do like strong women,” she replied, as his hand dropped to the fastener at the neck of her jacket.

“I prefer petite brunettes who stay at home with their knitting,” he growled as he slid the tip of his finger down the length of the zapper, reversing the polarity. The jacket eased open under his finger and he looked at her. “It’s not keyed to your prints? Anyone would think you were expecting someone else to remove your clothing.”

“I brought this barely an hour before the meeting. I didn’t have time to get my prints registered.” She frowned. “And how did you know this was a customizable fastener?”

His hand slid under the jacket opening. “You wouldn’t wear anything less than high class.”

“Compliments aside –
oooh.
” She drew in a sharp, gasping breath as his big square hand circled under her breast, stealing almost all of her attention.

“I know about security fasteners and couture because you’re rubbing off on me, Rinaldi. It works both ways, you know.” He was standing close enough now that she could feel the breath he needed to speak brushing her cheek.

His strong fingers were stroking the side of her breast, under the jacket. They lightly drew across the mound, staying clear of her nipple, and it was as arousing as hell. Deonne fought the impulse to turn a few degrees to bring her nipple into direct contact with his fingers, even though she longed for him to touch the aching tip.

“Speechless, hmm?” he teased.

She reached out and flicked open his trousers with a twist of her fingers. As they slid down his hips, she pushed her hand inside, under the hem of his shirt, and found the crease at the top of his thigh. She began to stroke along the angled line from his hip bone, fluttering ever closer toward his groin and the now-rigid pole of his cock.

He hissed.

“It works both ways, you know,” she told him.

Just as she was about to curl her fingers around his cock, he stopped her by grabbing her wrist.

She met his eyes.

“Take your clothes off,” he told her, holding her wrist in a vice-like grip that she had got used to. Vampires had uncharted strength, but Justin had never, ever used more than human-scale abilities around her. Now she knew he probably limited himself to that restricted movement for everyone.

“You first,” she told him.

Justin smiled. “Okay.” He kept his grip on her wrist and used his free hand to strip her of her jacket, only transferring his grip to her other wrist to let the jacket drop to the floor.

“I meant—” she began.

“I know,” he said shortly and kissed her.

The kiss was delicious. It had been weeks and there had been so few kisses anyway. Justin seemed to ration out his kisses and she had discovered that kissing Justin Kelly was one of life’s pure pleasures. It always felt like he was giving the kiss everything he had to give – all his attention and time and energy, and she would come up for air panting, her body tingling, her mind reeling with the impact.

He tasted heavenly. Deonne could kiss him for hours.

But this time, her body wasn’t going to let the kiss linger for hours. Her whole body pulsed in response and where her breasts brushed up gently against his shirt, white fire spread out from the tips.

Deonne gasped as her skirt slithered down her hips. Justin had loosened the fastening as he kissed her. The silk puddled around her shoes.

“No undergarments. You’re sure you weren’t expecting to be seduced, Rinaldi?” he murmured, his lips brushing her cheekbone.

“Seduced, no. Fucked by you, yes.”

He smiled. “Well, then…” He lifted her, his hands around her waist, and carried her backwards two steps, then lay her across the
chaise longue
. It was soft under her back, but that was the only impression she absorbed before Justin’s lips closed over her nipple, and his teeth clamped around the tip and tugged.

She clutched at his head as the fiery sensations blitzed her mind and body, drugging her. “Oh,” she breathed.

He lifted her knees, giving her legs support, for they extended over the side of the
longue
, and as he moved his mouth to her other breast, he pushed his cock into her pussy in one deep, hard thrust.

Deonne cried out at the unexpectedness of the possession and the sheer satisfaction at having him inside her. It was
good
, in a fundamental way. She began to shake as her orgasm bloomed.

“Oh hell, Justin,” she gasped, trying to warn him.

He lifted his head from her breast. His smile was broad and self-satisfied. He thrust into her harder and faster and his hand dropped to her pussy. The strong thumb dipped between her cleft and nudged up against her clit. “If you come, I’ll just make you come again,” he told her. “But you’ll scream as well.”

Deonne gave herself up to the pleasure. She was naked except for her shoes, while Justin was still fully dressed and fucking her on the sofa in front of a panorama window that she had only Kieran’s assurance the world outside could not see through.

She didn’t care. She needed to come. She wanted to feel the hard contraction of her pussy around his cock as her body tightened in the delicious spasm. There was nothing better.

Justin had taught her that.

Her orgasm lifted her back off the cushion and snapped her taut while time spun out endlessly.

As soon as she relaxed, Justin withdrew and picked her up in his arms. “Now, I’m going to finish you off properly,” he told her, carrying her over to the squared-off archway she had spotted earlier, that clearly led deeper into the apartment.

Deonne wrapped her arms around his neck. “Promise?”

* * * * *

Her second climax took another fifty minutes, as Justin teased and stroked and petted her into a sweaty, desperate pillar of trembling flesh, as she clung to the latticework headboard. His naked body drove into hers with controlled fury, coaxing her climax from her inch by inch, and all the while he gazed into her eyes, watching her, taking her measure, learning more about her in the few minutes he studied her than she would ever learn about him even if she had the hundreds of years he had already walked the earth.