Unbound (10 page)

Dani half opened her eyes and mumbled, “I’m nobody’s bitch!”

“Where’s her boyfriend?  He should be protecting her!”  What had happened to her that’d brought about that comment?

“Dude, I never saw him.  The only vampires I scented were us two.  I think he may have left her here.  Nobody inside is even looking for her.  I would have left her to her own devices had I known you’d be treating me like the bad guy. 
Shit
,”
Cayden said indignantly.

Feeling like a heel, Chase apologized, “Look, I’m sorry, man.  Thanks for calling me.  She looks like she needed both of us tonight.”

Chase lifted her luscious body into his arms and carried her to his car.  He hooked her seatbelt as she breathed his name, “Chase?”

He pulled back thinking she was awake but her eyes were still shut.  “Yes, Lovely, I’m here.”  She sighed reaching up to his face and pulled him closer.  His heart was pounding as she brushed her lips across his cheek to just below his ear and inhaled deeply.  Her hand fell and she turned her head to rest against the seat.  After leaning against the car for a few minutes to calm down and put his thoughts back together Chase drove to the dorm area.

When he carried her into the dorm, he had to enthrall a group of girls so he wouldn’t be seen.  No boys were permitted at night.  Her room number was on the key he’d fished out of her pocket.  Inside her room he found a note on her bed.  Chase laid her down and pick up the note.

“BE SAFE!  I’ll be back tomorrow afternoon.”

He spied a box of condoms on the bed and his blood boiled.  She was being left alone tonight to have sex with a guy that didn’t even care enough to see to her home safely.  Be safe?  What a joke!  Chase was struggling to understand why he felt so possessive and protective of Danielle.  She was making him crazed.  He’d never been territorial like this and she wasn’t even his friend, much less a girlfriend.  He decided to leave her there and do his best to move on.  He’d done his good deed and it was time to go.  She must love this guy that left her tonight.  He went for the door.

She stirred on the bed, “I’m too hot,
” she
whispered and began to disrobe.  Before he knew it she had her shirt off and was shimmying out of her jeans.  She sniffed the air, “Chase, where’d you go?”

“I’m here, Lovely.”  Maybe he could just stay a little while to be sure she’s well.  Making an excuse to stay near her, he shut the door and locked it.  A sliver of moon light spilled from the window across her body revealing the perfect peaches and cream skin of her abdomen and her black panties.  She patted the bed next to her in an irresistible invitation.  Chase climbed in next to the delicious heat he’d been craving for weeks.  She nuzzled in closer to his chest.  He brushed the hair out of her face.

She opened her eyes and leveled him with the full force of her ice blue gaze combined with her skin against him and the scent of vanilla and lavender.  She turned her head, brushing his cheek with her soft lips and told him, “I can smell you.  You smell like happiness and sunshine.”

The smile that crossed his face threatened to crack it.  She was perfection and knowing that the attraction was mutual made him feel a little less insane.

“Why did you do that?”  She spoke with her lips near his ear, sending chills over his skin.

“What did I do, Lovely?”  He tensed hoping he hadn’t somehow offended her.  She’d invited him into her bed after all.

“You make me think of you, dream of you.  Why?”  She was spilling the truth with no inhibitions.

“I’
ve been dreaming of you also my Lovely.  Every minute of every day since the first night
I found you,
”
He admitted.  He couldn’t take it anymore.  He turned his face to find her lips soft as petals.  She kissed him back so sweetly, stroking him with her little pink tongue and he thought he would lose his heart right there in her arms.  He began to run the back of his hand down the bare skin of her side and farther down past her lace panties.  The waves of goose bumps rising and falling on her tender flesh made him want to follow them with his mouth.

“Do you want me, Chase?” she whispered around wet kisses.

Chase’s mind swam with the thought of having all of her but he wouldn’t do that tonight.  She was drunk and he couldn’t violate her trust that way.  He’d already taken too much from her tonight.  He was already invading her private thoughts and she likely wouldn’t remember it.  “I do, Danielle, but I don’t think this is the best night.”  She giggled and threw her leg up over his hip.

“What’s so funny?” he asked.

She was quiet for a moment. 
“I like hearing you say my name,” she sobered.
“You’re not the first to turn me down.”

“What is that supposed to mean
?”  He wasn’t turning her down.
He just needed to wait for her to be there with him mental
ly before he crossed that line.
Who in his right mind had turned this girl down?

Now she rolled the rest of the way to straddle him and laid her face against his neck.  It was not in a sexual way
,
but affectionately.  “Lucas never wanted me either.  I thought boys were supposed to be horny but after four years together, he never wanted me.  There must
be something wrong with me,” She slurred.
“Something is definitely wrong with me.”

Chase’s breath caught in his throat.  Was she really untouched?  The most alluring creature he’d ever laid eyes on was still innocent.  How could no one want her?  Had she just offered him that innocence?  She drifted off to sleep and he held her all night.  He watched her breathe and played with the streaks in her hair.  He daydreamed about what they could have together.  He inhaled her seductive scent as he drifted off to sleep.

Chase woke in the morning to the sound of the door slamming.  He jumped up to find Danielle’s friend scowling at him.  “What did you do to her?”  Olivia shouted.

“What?  Where is she?”  Chase was confused and his Lovely was nowhere in sight.

“I don’t know.  She called me crying and said she had to go away for a few days.  That I shouldn’t worry about her.  She said I should ask you to leave before Lucas comes looking for her.”

“How long ago was that?”  Chase jumped up and picked his shirt up off the floor.

“Fifteen minutes ago maybe,” Olivia snapped.

Chase took off out of the room and ran smack into a large blonde wall at the door.  Olivia called from behind him, “Lucas, what happened to you last night?”  Chase realized he was eye to eye with the competition and shock floored him.  He was human.  Lucas moved first having no idea Chase had spent the evening with Danielle.  Stepping around the offending human Chase followed Danielle’s scent down the stairs and out the front door, wishing he could move at full speed but there were too many witnesses.  It led him to the other end of the courtyard and into another dorm.  She’d entered a male dorm building.  He stalked up the stairs still
following the vanilla trail
until he reached the door where she had entered.  He could hear her crying inside as a male voice consoled her.  Then she gasped and w
hispered, “He’s here, Charlie.
Tell him I’m not here.”  She retreated into the bathroom.

“Who is here?  What are you talking about?”  Charlie asked through the bathroom door.

“I can smell him.  Tell him I’m not here,” she whispered.

“Smell him?”  Charlie was confused.

“Just open the damn door,” she hissed.

Chase stood there trying to decide if he should force his way in or obey her wishes.  The door opened to yet another blond human male.  This was beginning to piss him off.

“I want to speak to Danielle.”  Chase sent the mental command to Charlie.  Charlie stepped out of the way in a daze.  Chase entered the room and grabbed a pen and paper from the desk to scribble on.  He entered the bathroom and found Danielle curled up in the dry bathtub, crying.  He leaned over to kiss her forehead.

“Please call me when you’re ready to talk.  I’m sorry if I offended you.  Nothing happened between us last night,
lovely
.  I swear.  Please don’t be angry with me.  I just wanted to protect you.”  Then he walked away, heavy hearted, leaving his cell number behind.  She didn’t want to see him and knowing that ripped him to shreds.

* * *

Tessa was sleeping restlessly on the sofa after dozing off while watching the TV.  She sat up with a
jolt and let out a little gasp. Tessa snatched to phone from its cradle to call Danielle but i
t went to voicemail.  She paused to calm her voice before leaving a message. 

“Dani, give me a call as soon as you can.  I was thinking that maybe you could come home one weekend soon.  Love you.”  She hung up and ran upstairs to dig for a box hidden in the back of her closet.  She sat on her closet floor holding the old shoebox on her crossed legs.  She closed her eyes and sat there ta
king deep breaths.  “Just relax,
” she told herself.  “Don’t jump to conclusions.”  Once she crossed that line there would be no turning back.  She would hold off as long as she could before she made that phone call
,
but she dug out the number she needed and programmed it into her cell phone.

She returned the box to its hiding place.  Then she jumped when the phone rang.  It was Danielle returning her call.  “Hello sweetheart, how are you doing?”  Anxiety laced through her tone.

Danielle’s re
turning voice was shaking.
“I’m on the way home, Mommy.  I’ll be there in an hour.”  She hung up.

Tessa sat back d
own on the floor of her closet.
She stared at the wall and waited.  The time had come.

FIVE~

Lucas woke to bright sunlight in his face.  His head was pounding and he had no clue where he was or how he’d gotten there.  Praying for the pain to stop, he searched his mind for a memory that was trying to surface.  Then it all came back to him in a deluge of shame.  He remembered going to the party with Dani and her friends.  They danced and had a few drinks.  He’d been hanging out with a group of football players. 

They all thought Dani was the hottest thing at the party and he liked that until he started thinking about the fact that he would be going home and Dani would be staying there with all those guys.  The more they drank the more comments the guys made about her.  He made sure to go kiss her and touch her often while they watched.  He would refill her drink regularly too.  He knew he was there to spend time with her but he was having fun.  Was that wrong?  He hoped she wouldn’t be upset.  They wouldn’t be there all night, anyway. 

Dani started to look a little wasted.  He saw her leave the kitchen area and followed her.  When he reached the hall, Dani was talking to a guy and smiling.  She stood there too long for his liking.  She stumbled and the guy grabbed her.  He was holding onto her when a bunch of people passed in the tight hall so she couldn’t pull away.  Lucas swayed with drunken agitation.  Dani pulled away and went up the stairs alone.

Lucas went back to the kitchen where the guys were now joined by a bevy of girls.  Lucas stood watching the group and imagined Dani with all the ball players that wanted her more than any of the other girls.  He’d already had more than enough to drink but he refilled his cup anyway.  The crowd headed down the stairs and he followed.  At the bottom of the stairs was a room with several seating areas, two pool tables and a few pinball machines.  Looking around the room, he noticed the girls were checking him out.  “That’s
right,” he thought to himself. “S
he’s not the only one that can find someone else.”

One of the girls stepped forward.  He smiled slyly at the girl and said suggestively, “What can I do for you?”

The girl raised her eyebrows in disgust, “You can get your shit together and go find your girlfriend.  You got her all drunk and left her alone, asshole!”  She stomped up the stairs.

Shit!  He recognized the girl now.  It was Dani’s friend, Lindsay.  She was going to tell Dani he’d hit on her.  One of the jocks patted Lucas on the shoulder and he staggered under the weight of his hand.  “You’re screwed man.  You might as well have fun while you can.”

His head spun but he tried to smile.  A guy started puking in the corner and everyone started laughing.  Lucas joined in with the crowd until he felt a tap on his should and a small voice trying be heard over the music.

“Lucas, I’m ready to go now.”

That was fast.  Lindsay must have gone straight to Dani.  Lucas was afraid to turn around but he did very slowly.  “Don’t be such a bitch.  It’s still early.”  He was hoping to delay her judgment.

She turned to look at the girls who were laughing at the words he’d just slapped her with.  Was this a dream?  Lucas was so numb.  When she turned back to him the large
st of the jocks stepped forward.
“That’s right man.  You can’t let a bitch ruin your fun.”  He stepped closer to her and picked up
a lock of her hair to sniff it.
“If you want I can distract her for a while.”

That was all he could recall.  Now he was lying on the floor of a bedroom he’d never seen before with six other people and a half-n
aked girl sleeping in his arms.
He got up and wandering down t
o the first floor of a building
he didn’t remember entering.  This wasn’t the frat house Dani had brought him to last night.  He w
ent out the door cursing
.  He had one night to be with her and he’d spent it with total strangers.  Walking down the street, he asked for direction to the dorms and ran the whole way back to Dani’s room.  The door opened before he knocked and he collided with a guy straight off the cover of GQ magazine.  His panicked expression made Lucas suspicious.  He stared the guy down until Olivia called to him from inside the room.