Girl Desecrated 1984: Vampires, Asylums and Highlanders, page 19
Growing horror slid down her features as it became clear to her I now had only one target. She turned her cheek to the cool wall, mumbling in terror.
Something about her helplessness made me stop. She was really afraid. Immobilized by her terror. It thrilled me and alarmed me, all at the same time.
I blocked out the trembling excitement, pressing against the growing threat.
When I did not pounce on her, her posture changed, alerting me to her intended escape. She chanced a glance at me through the side of her eye. Then she clutched her shirt together in quaking hands and took a few slow steps towards the exit. Whimpering sobs kept escaping her quivering mouth.
I didn’t have enough control, yet, to let her know she was free to go, but I had enough control not to stop her.
She rushed out.
At her exit, a shadow of disappointment dulled my excited state, and then a flick cast through my guts as if a whip had been cracked in the recesses of my bowels. I clutched my stomach in surprise.
“You’re really hardcore,” a soft voice spoke behind me.
I was careful not to turn around completely and reveal my face. Instead, I turned until my peripheral vision picked up a petite blonde in baby blue standing by the smoky mirrors.
If I hadn’t been on the meds, I would have known she was in the room before she spoke. Hell, if I hadn’t been on the meds, she might have been a liability, a witness to what I would have done to the biker and his hairy ass.
Or maybe the meds allowed it to go this far… further than I’d ever allowed things to get.
“I didn’t have the guts to tell them to leave,” she timidly confessed.
I kept my face turned away. “They’re total losers.”
My voice wasn’t quite right.
I cleared my throat and slipped into a washroom stall before she could approach me. Pulling up my short jean skirt, I sat down and tried to see my face in the toilet paper holder. The reflection was distorted, blowing my skull out around my eyes and jaw. The blurred image didn’t divulge the reason for the biker’s reaction to me, so I stopped looking.
“My name’s Karen,” the voice said, and I wanted to rip her throat out.
“Whoa,” I whispered, pressing back, seeking myself.
The silence dragged on. She needed to leave.
I couldn’t trust my own voice, so I used Deniro’s. “You talkin’ to me?”
She laughed, “Yeah, I’m waiting to buy you a drink.”
I nodded at the inside of the washroom stall. “Rye and Coke. I’ll meet you at the bar.”
Finally, her heels clattered their way down the concrete hall. I waited for the air pressure in the room to signal the door had opened and shut. The hairs on the back of my neck felt the change. I opened the stall door and hurried out to do a quick check in the mirror.
There was no time for whispered prayers before I faced my reflection. Besides, I wanted to catch whatever they had seen.
My eyes shone like luminescent amber, Angus’ honey grown hard and brittle, and lit from something not of this world. My nostrils seemed winged at the base of my nose as if a bloodless slice had released them from connecting to my face. And below, my mouth was swollen, my lips curling up and away from my teeth. My skin was pulsing with vibrant blood flow. I wasn’t sure, but my jaw seemed longer. I ran my hand along my jaw bone, feeling the strange juts under my gums through the flesh of my cheek.
This was new. This was a physical reaction to letting “her” have a little more control. And on the inside, the lust I’d felt watching him pound the woman while she stared fearfully into my eyes had been hotter than the yearning I had felt in Angus’ arms. The rush of slamming his head against the wall had been a better high than the hash oil. The anticipation of him attacking me had made me more physically exhilarated than I’d ever been before.
This was dangerous.
The lion’s crouch before the spring.
And, I liked it.
CHAPTER 20: LIKE FLIES ON HONEY
~
SOMETIMES, COWARDS COLLECT THEIR COURAGE and get you later. I was feeling reckless, and I hoped the biker man with his hairy ass was waiting to pounce on me. Full of delicious expectation, I left the washroom.
As I passed through the crowd, my shoulder blades tingled, alert for an attack from behind.
At the polished wooden bar, Karen was standing up on the brass foot rail, shouting over the noise ordering me a drink. Last call had been announced while I was in the can, and the King Eddie always cut off the booze at curfew.
Magda bounced up to us, raising a sharp eyebrow at me taking a drink from Karen’s delicate fingers.
“Might as well make it a party.” I made the introductions.
There was an awkward pause, and I was reminded of Magda’s possessive tendencies. Instead of trying to rescue Karen from Magda’s petulant stare down, I relished the tension it created.
But Karen didn’t rise to Magda’s challenge, and I got bored. I searched over their heads for a new distraction. That’s when I saw Lene.
“Hey.” Lene barely looked at me as she breezed by with Duncan in tow. Her black hair reflected the blue stage lights like raven wings under moonlight.
“Where’s Reg?” I asked loud enough for Duncan to hear.
Lene gave me a soulless smile. “Who’s Reg?”
I didn’t let her response convince me they were over. He was probably traveling or working late at his office, completely oblivious to the fact she was here with Duncan.
The sight of Colin coming up behind Duncan jacked up my sense of excitement. Where there are two Scotsmen, there could be three. I scanned the crowd looking for the Highlander.
Sure enough, he was leaning against the half wall that separated the dancers from the bar, staring right at me. One side of his mouth quirked up when our eyes met. He raised his beer in a salute, but made no move to come forward.
Good bloody job, because even though a flush of expectation was washing over me at the sight of him, my pride was demanding I hold onto being pissed. His heroic actions had come close to getting me evicted. I should be mad at him, big time, only I wasn’t.
After the washroom run in with the rutting couple, I was looking at things in a new light. The way Angus had twisted the landlord’s wrist had me licking my lips. If I’d been in this state, I would have taken advantage of the landlord being on his knees. I would have made him beg and pay. I would have told Angus to twist…
Colin, appeared at my elbow.
“When did you get here?” I asked him, wondering if Angus had been watching me dance.
“We four caem t’gether. Lene’s showin’ us th’ town,” he piped.
From across the way, Angus kept his eyes on me as he took another drink of his beer. Strangely, he still wasn’t making any move to come forward. What was it he had said right before he left my apartment? Let him know when I was ready to talk?
I tilted my head slightly to the side and cocked an eyebrow. He raised his chin. I gave the man a cool nod.
He pushed off the wall and started our way.
Karen was at my shoulder sipping a Shirley Temple through a thin straw. “Who’s that?”
“Oh,” I kept my eyes on Angus, letting him know I was talking about him, “Some egotistical Scottish bastard.”
“Maybe so, but he’s gorgeous.”
As he walked, he finger-combed his bangs back out of his eyes. The movement parted his brown, leather jacket, revealing a forest green shirt clinging to his pecs. Shamelessly, I dropped my glance to the faded wrinkles at the front of his tight, blue jeans. The bulge behind the zipper proved Magda’s theory about inversion wrong.
I elbowed Magda, “That’s the guy who shared the tea.”
The three of us girls stood side-by-side and had inspired, naughty thoughts about Angus as he walked our way.
Angus stirred many good feelings in me, but tonight, they came with dark, scary ideas. My ‘alter’ was getting way too predatory. I battled her back, and with her dissolving in my bloodstream, my courage to face Angus slipped away. I bit my lip, wondering if I too should slip away.
Then Karen grabbed my arm and the rye in my glass crested up like a wave to splash over my hand.
“Introduce me,” she begged, never taking her eyes from his self-assured approach.
I cursed, switching the glass to my other hand and looked around for someone to wipe the spill on.
“Och!” Angus grabbed my wrist, “Dorn’t waste it.”
Everyone around us faded into the background as he brought my hand to his lips. He grinned at the wide-eyed look on my face, and made a move to suck my fingers clean.
“Whoa!” I pulled away from his grip, covering my reaction with a shaky laugh, “I don’t think so, big guy.”
Karen stepped in front of me. “I’m Karen.” She thrust out a petite hand.
Angus wrapped his thick fingers right up to her wrist and gave her hand a little shake, all the while piercing me with his smoldering eyes over her head. He was oozing male sexuality, and I couldn’t find any words in my dry mouth.
“We need tae talk, Rachel,” he said. “Alone.”
“Alone,” I whispered like a love-struck idiot.
Oh, it was clear there was no way I could be alone with him. Not when I was swinging between sadistic sexpot and … another kind of sexpot.
“Yeah, well, I don’t have time to talk to you,” I scrambled for a reason, “because I’m busy having a life.”
Take that!
“Ah shouldn’t have said what Ah did.”
He did look regretful.
“Which part? Hmm?” I put my hands on my hips and narrowed my eyes at him. He didn’t expand on his apology, so I continued.
“The part that got me kicked out, or the part where I’m a loser with no life, or the really scary, stalker words about me being your destiny since you were born?”
“Stalker?” Karen stepped out from between us. Angus stepped in to face me, his body language tense.
“Ye still have nae idea what’s going on, dae ye?”
“Why don’t you tell me if you’re so all-knowledgeable,” I said in a snarky tone, feeling much more in my element. “Start with how you seem to know everything about my name, my age, my address, my …” I cut my eyes at Karen. “…bleeding.”
Karen’s head pivoted back and forth between us.
“Well if ye picked yer friends better, maybe Ah wouldn’t ken all yer secrets.”
My mouth dropped open in outrage. I turned and gave Lene an accusing look.
Magda gave me a pinch, and I looked down at her. She held her hands in front of her belly and arched out the shape of a pregnant gut.
I rolled my eyes. Clearly, I was surrounded by idiots!
Karen took advantage of the pause to pounce. She drilled Angus about his life. I eavesdropped to learn all the details I hadn’t asked him about. It was embarrassing to acknowledge my selfishness and how totally lacking my conversation skills are.
Karen discovered he was unmarried and involved in the family business, which was some sort of Scottish land holding. He told her he was here in Canada on this family business, which could take another week or so. He came from a big family. Hell, she even found out Duncan and Colin and Lennox were his cousins. They were all close, but he was his father’s only son, hence the family pressure.
Wow. Fifteen minutes and she found out all that. And, “all that” made Angus less threatening somehow. He had real problems and responsibilities.
I was still digesting his life story when the first chords of the slow song “Make Me do Anything You Want” rang out. Beers and glasses were set down as people paired up for the last dance of the night. The band, Helix, was working hard to ensure no one went home alone.
I watched Lene and Duncan make their way to the dance floor, holding back a wistful look from my face. I liked the slow songs, but could rarely find anyone tall enough to dance with. What a stupid move, driving away the only guy taller than me.
Karen was still jabbering away at Angus, but he ignored her. Stepping into my view, he held his hand out. “Will ye dae me the honour, Kit?”
I’d never met a man who could disarm me so easily.
Patrick was in my head, telling me to say “no”. I chewed at my lip and tried not to look too tempted.
“Dance with me.” Angus gave me a meaningful look as if he had a good reason for me to say “yes”.
Then, Karen had the nerve to say, “I’ll dance with you”.
Unexpected jealously quaked through me, and I glared at the little man-stealer with malicious intent. Angus was watching too, his thoughts veiled behind a neutral expression, but his muscles were tense.
I handed my drink to Karen, almost dropping it on her feet when she didn’t take it. As she fumbled to steady my glass, I brushed by her. Three steps toward the dance floor, I turned and gave Angus a sultry look, “Are you coming?”
His long stride caught up to me by the time I stepped out onto the dance floor. He gripped my arm from behind and spun me to face his “no more bullshit” expression. The move caused his bangs to slip down and brush his cheekbones, and I wanted to thrust my hand into his hair and yank his lips down to mine.
He tilted his head to the side.
“Yoo’re a handful, ye are.”
“You have no idea.” I tilted my nose into the air.
Angus shook his head and pulled me into his arms. The warmth of his body touching mine sparked my senses into a living current. I could feel every inch of him and it purged every defiant, bitter, rebellious urge from my being.
I leaned into his embrace with complete abandon. He was so tall, I could actually put my head against his shoulder, and I did. It made me feel small and sweet, like Karen must feel with every man.
As one, we moved in rhythm to the song. His hand pressed my hair down away from his face, and he put his lips against the top of my head. His breath was hot on my scalp as he whispered some Scottish saying into my hair.
I didn’t ask him to translate. I could tell by his tone he was still exasperated with me, but I could tell by the feel of his body, he wanted me.
It would not be easy with Angus. If I didn’t drive him away, today, it would be the nightmares, or my Southern Belle ‘alter’ who would scare him off. Or maybe Angus would drive me away, for I hadn’t forgotten his erratic behaviour in my apartment. It was pretty much a sure thing my time with Angus would be short. The question was, what was I going to do with that time?
The music, the room, and all the people began to fade into the background. I brushed the question aside. Que sera, sera.
With Angus’ hot body pressed against mine, it didn’t take long to get right back where I’d been when he’d been kissing me into submission in my apartment. I stumbled a bit on my heels just thinking about it, and he tightened his arms around me. More than his looks, his body, and the way his mouth had felt on mine, his unexpected chivalry thrilled me to the quick.
His promise to kiss me and nothing else had been a vow right out of a fairy tale. The trust his vow created was a new sweetener in the nectar of love—one I hadn’t much sampled.
I pulled away, leaning against his arms to look up into his face. “Seems to me, you made a promise, but didn’t keep it.”
“Which promise was that, Kit?”
He looked so serious, I almost giggled.
“You know.” I batted my eyelashes.
“Nae,” he frowned, catching on that I was playing him. “Ah dorn’t ken, but yer obviously going tae tell me.”
I smiled, and pressed my lips against his ear. “You owe me some kisses,” I whispered.
He stopped dancing and looked down at me. “Yoo’ve got a nerve, ye dae.”
“Are you saying you won’t kiss me?”
“Ah’m saying, ye had yer chance, and ye chose tae kick me out. Yer loss, lass.”
No man turns me down and goes home alone.
“What if I let you have free reign?” I tossed my hair out of my eyes and stepped back.
His hands unlocked from behind my back and slid down to the sides of my hips. “Let me what?”
“Do anything you want.”
“Yer nae likely tae go along with what Ah have in mind.” He laughed deep in his chest.
I ran my hand down his side, feeling the muscles bunching at the top of his hip. “And what exactly do you have in mind, big man?”
He stiffened, slightly. “We cannae talk here.”
I tried to hold in my laugh. “You’re kinky?”
“Nae!” He hooked his finger into the waistband of my jean skirt and gave me a little tug forward.
I laughed with delight at his uptight frown and wrapped my arms around his neck. Pressing against him, my body expressed the freedoms he could experience with me.
“A promise is a promise.” I pouted. “I thought you were a man who kept his word.”
“Poor, wee lass.”
“Well, what are you going to do about it?”
His laugh was deep and dangerous.
“Sorry, but times up fur yer mouth.” His smile dropped. “That ship has sailed.”
Before I could protest further, he buried his hand in my hair and placed his lips against my ear “We have tae move tae the next part of yer body for tomorrah.”
I slid my cheek along his, drawing our mouths closer until I could feel the heat of his breath on my lips.
“Maybe for the sake of my next body part, I’ll forgive you for the trouble you caused with my landlord.”
“Let me earn yer forgiveness, Rachel.”
I pulled back to see if he was mocking me and fell into the dark depths of his eyes.
He placed his hands on either side of my face.
“Let me drag yoo’re forgiveness from ye, kickin’ and screamin’ and beggin’ fur more.”
And then his lips were on mine and his body was pressed along my length. The room spun as my knees grew weak, and my will slipped away in a warm rush.
His mouth burned its way to the soft dip where my neck and shoulder met. My skin was alive under the soft brush of his lips and the prickle of his whiskers.
