Stefan (Lost Nights Series Book 1) (2 page)

His voice sounded incredibly close. Turning to look that the door hadn’t swung completely open from where I had partially closed it, I gasped to find the vampire standing in the bedroom just past the open door. “Hey!” I shouted, grabbing the towel I’d dropped so I could cover my chest. It wasn’t like he could see much, but he didn’t need to see anything as far as I was concerned. “I didn’t say you could come in here! Get out!”

“You asked me a question. I thought you wished to speak.” A smirk rose to this lips and I was tempted to throw a shoe at his head, regardless of whether he was a vampire.

“Through the door!” I snapped. “You could have answered through the door. Now get out. I’ll be dressed in a minute.” I turned my back on him and pulled my sweatshirt on. I couldn’t hear him moving, so it wasn’t until I peeked under my arm behind me to find that he had left the room and returned the door to its previously partially open position. A sigh escaped my parted lips and my shoulders slumped. Someone needed to put a bell around that man’s neck. But then, I guess that would make hunting humans a little difficult.

After running the towel over my hair one last time, I dropped it on the floor with my wet clothes and grabbed a brush to quickly run through my short brown hair as I searched for the large men’s sweatshirt that had belonged to an ex. I gave up after a minute when I couldn’t find it. Apparently I hadn’t packed it like I initially thought.

“Sorry, but I don’t have anything that would—
Whoa
.”

I had started talking before leaving my bedroom, confident that my voice would easily carry to him, but thought completely left my brain as I stepped into the living room. A mostly naked vampire was standing in the middle of my apartment. Stefan had stripped out of his wet clothes and wrapped a towel around his narrow hips so that I was staring at a wide muscular chest and lean, strong arms.

The “Whoa” that had slipped unchecked from my lips should have sounded more like a “Holy shit! What the hell!” kind of angry. Instead, my voice had dipped to a low, husky tone I didn’t know I possessed and sounded more like a breathless “Wow” than “Whoa,” which could also be translated to “Yum.” It was only when he crossed his arms over his chest that I even realized that I had been staring with my mouth hanging open like an idiot. I jerked my eyes up to his face to find a smug smile on his lips.
Damn! Why did this man have to be a vampire?

I jerked my gaze away from him completely, preferring to stare at the scarred hardwood floor under my feet until some kind of organized thought returned to my brain. What was more disturbing to me was the fact that I obviously hadn’t accepted the fact that this person was planning to snack on me! If I really believed that this man was going to drink my blood and potentially kill me, I wouldn’t be attracted to him, right? Dear God, I hoped I wasn’t that kind of a masochistic sicko. I’d dated some less-than-stellar guys in my life, but being attracted to a potential killer was another ball of wax.

“Sorry. I—” I started again but stopped when I realized that I had no memory of what I had been talking about when I walked into the room. It was like my mind had been completely wiped clean. My cheeks burned in my humiliation, my mind churning for anything intelligent to say.

“I put my clothes on your heater to dry but it doesn’t appear to be on,” Stefan said, amusement skipping through his words. He wasn’t laughing outright at me, but he didn’t sound far from it.

At least his comment succeeded in snapping my brain from its trudge through nothingness. Keeping my head down, I walked over the cold cast iron radiator and picked up the clothes he had neatly laid out there in hopes of speeding their drying. “You know who would be a good snack for you?” I demanded irritably as I swept past him and stomped into the small kitchen. “My landlord. And while you’re draining him, maybe you could work your vampire magic and convince him to fix my heat. Or the roof. Or the hot water heater so that I can have a hot shower at least once while I’m in town.”

I dropped his clothes in an empty chair before I opened the oven and checked the pilot light. Satisfied that it was still lit, I turned the heat up, leaving the door open so that it would chase away the chill in the air. Very carefully, I laid Stefan’s clothes across the two chairs that were tucked into the tiny dining room table and positioned them before the oven so they would dry faster. I mentally shoved aside the realization that I had not seen his underwear.
Did vampires go commando?

“Why has this landlord not taken care of these matters for you?” Stefan inquired. The word landlord sounded so foreign rolling off his tongue, as if he’d never said it before.

“You mean other than the fact that he’s a lazy asshole and he’s clinging to the hope that if he puts it off long enough I’ll be gone before he has to actually fix anything?”

“Yes, other than that,” Stefan said in a cool tone that forced my gaze back to his eyes. He was struggling to keep a straight face.

I picked up a dishtowel off the table and flung it in his direction with a laugh. There was something infectious about his amusement. It was like watching a shaft of sunlight break through a bank of clouds. His proper speech and just the stiff way he held his body made me think that he wasn’t the teasing, laughing, joking type at all.

But too soon the silence grew between us and it stopped being comfortable. There was only the steady drip and plop of water as it leaked from the ceiling into the buckets around the apartment. It was on the tip of my tongue to offer him something to drink as I would anyone I was entertaining in my home, but that something to drink was me and I wasn’t too keen on the idea.

“Do you have to do this every night?” I asked, clinging desperately to the idea that I could be brave with him.

“What’s that?”

“Go out and… find…” My voice stumbled and I struggled to find the right words that wouldn’t insult him.

“Hunt for prey?”

This time it was my turn to smirk. “You cannot call what you’re doing tonight hunting. I nearly pulled you into the canal and then after discovering what you are, I invited you into my home to take shelter from the storm. I might as well have jumped on a platter and shoved an apple in my mouth.
This
is not hunting.”

Stefan chuckled, sending a shiver through me that had nothing to do with the cold. Hell, I was starting to feel uncomfortably warm, but I couldn’t decide if it was because I was standing so close to the oven or from staring at the sexy naked man before me.
I’m gonna go with ‘Naked Vampire for $1,000,’ Alex.

“No, this is not hunting in the traditional sense,” Stefan admitted. He cocked his head slightly to the side, sending several strands of hair down to hang before his eyes. “You have done this before?”

“What? Been dinner for a vampire? Hell no!” I said sharply, my voice jumping before I could catch it. I walked over to the sink and grabbed a glass I had washed earlier in the day and carried it to where a bucket was half full of water. Putting it under the dripping water, I carried the bucket into the kitchen and dumped its contents. It hadn’t really needed it, but I felt better doing something instead of just staring at the vampire.

“Then I am confused. Why are you so calm?”

I paused in my trek back with the bucket and smiled at him. “What would you have done if I had screamed and run?”

“Stopped you.” There was a coldness to his voice that I hadn’t heard before, instantly reminding me that I was alone with a predator.

I cleared my throat, holding onto my smile. “And if I had tried to fight you?”

“You would not have had the chance.”

I gave a little shrug as I changed places with the glass and bucket. “So there you go. There wasn’t a shot in hell I could get away. You won before the fight even started. I just hoped that you wouldn’t kill me.” I stopped there with the glass tightly clenched in my hand and met his gaze, waiting.

Some of the coldness that had filled his eyes disappeared and he nodded, reaffirming his earlier statement that he would not kill me.

“So why panic?” I said with another shrug, trying to stay light while clinging desperately to my logic. “I’ve given blood to the Red Cross before. I can donate a little to you.”

He frowned as he looked at me. “If all humans thought like you, hunting would become…”

“Obsolete,” I suggested.

“Boring,” he finished.

“Boring?” I threw my hands up in mock disgust. “Oh my god, the man thinks I’m boring! Can you believe that, Venice?” I said, talking to the furniture as I placed the glass on the coffee table before the small sofa. Moving as fast as I could, I snatched up a pillow from the sofa and launched it at him. He easily dodged it as I had expected, but I continued to throw pillows, towels, and anything else soft I could find at him while giggling like a lunatic. “There! How’s that for boring? Ever had dinner throw pillows at you?”

“No, I haven’t.” Stefan’s voice dance around me, sounding extremely close. I twisted around, trying to keep him in sight, but he was gone. My heart pounded in my chest as I searched the apartment. But as I started to turn back toward the kitchen, Stefan grabbed me by the waist from behind. I screamed in surprise and tried to dart away from him, but his hands fastened on my upper arms, holding me in place. His grip didn’t hurt, but there was a tension and strength that made me think that I hadn’t a chance at escaping.

“Don’t,
ma petite
,” he said in a harsh whisper, as if he were suddenly straining, fighting something that I could not see. He leaned close, pressing his nose into my wet hair. “I do not wish to hurt you, but you may come to harm despite my wishes if you struggle.”

“Wait, Stefan. Not yet,” I said before I could stop myself. I hated the anxious pleading tone to my voice. I had been handling this all so calmly and rationally, but now that I was out of time, I could feel the panic rising.

“It is best if we do not put this off. I would rather have you smiling than gripped with fear when you need not feel any.”

“Okay, but not from behind like this. Let me face you. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life with some unexplained fear of what I can’t see behind me,” I said, proud that my voice was strong and even.

Stefan seemed to hesitate for a moment before his hands loosened from my arms. Taking a deep breath, I turned around to face the vampire and immediately took one step backward to put just a little breathing space between us. Somehow in my panic, I’d forgotten that he was naked except for a towel and I was now staring directly into his wide chest. Until that moment, I had been sure I couldn’t be attracted to a pale man, preferring men with a somewhat swarthy complexion, but Stefan made pale skin look good. Really,
really
good.

While his physique was lean, his chest was clearly defined with thick muscles. His shoulders were impossibly wide and muscular; reminding me of pictures I’d seen of Olympic swimmers. His chest was completely hairless except for the most interesting trail of dark hair that started at his belly button and disappeared under the towel. I was desperately trying to keep my eyes from that dark trail because it would lead me to think about where that trail ended and …
Wow, I really didn’t need to be thinking about that when Stefan was about to snack on me!

Forcing a smile when I dragged my eyes to his, I extended my arm out to him with my wrist turned up, confident that he couldn’t tell I was shaking. He could easily take my blood from my wrist or the inside of my elbow.

Stefan smiled, his fangs poking out below his upper lip as he gently took my wrist in one hand. He pressed a light kiss to the inside of my wrist and then shook his head at me. “I don’t think so,
ma petite
.”

“Wh-what do you mean?” I stammered, forcing my brain away from the goosebumps that were slipping along my arm at the sweet touch of his lips.

“That is not my preferred spot,” he murmured, his eyes dropping to my neck.

I instantly took a step backward, but he stepped with me as if we were dancing, not allowing me to put any more distance between us while at the same time not trapping me by halting my movement. “But doesn’t that seem a bit… intimate?” I frowned as soon as the words left my lips and I stared up at Stefan. “Well, I guess maybe not for you.”

A puzzled expression crossed his face, wiping away the heated look he had been giving me. “Why do you say that?”

I shrugged, the last of my fear draining out of me. “I guess because I never felt any kind of attraction for a steak. That’s how you see me, right? A nice big juicy steak?”

Stefan’s head snapped back on a loud laugh. The sound filled the room, bouncing off the walls so that it brushed against me and hugged me close. The vampire gave my wrist a little tug and I fell forward against him. My free hand landed against his chest, but I couldn’t stop myself from completely crashing into him. His other arm wrapped around my waist, trapping me flush against his hard body. He was cool to the touch, but not uncomfortably so.

“You are not a steak,
ma petite
,” Stefan said gently.

“Erin,” I corrected while trying to remain stiff in his arms and not melt against him like a pat of butter. “My name is Erin Prescott.” I figured if Stefan was going to use me as a meal, he could at least know my name, not that I didn’t like him referring to me as “my little one” in French. I certainly felt small in his arms.