Cooper's Passion: Scanguards Hybrids #5 (Scanguards Vampires Book 17), page 12
He hesitated, before he finally replied, “All right, but I’ll decide when and where.” Then he plunged his erection faster into her. “But right now, you’ll need to learn that sucking a man while he’s driving has consequences.”
“What kind of consequences?” She looked over her shoulder, trying her best innocent look, her lips in a pout.
“The kind that are best enjoyed naked.”
20
Hunger awakened him, and Cooper realized with horror that his fangs were fully extended, his face nuzzled against Anita’s neck.
Fuck!
It was bad enough that the previous night he’d accidentally bitten her lip because his fangs had extended automatically when he’d climaxed so hard he’d been afraid to black out. Now his need for Anita’s blood was even more urgent. He’d expended a lot of energy making love to her, and his self-control was at an all-time low. His cock was already hard again, and all he would need to do was to thrust into Anita’s pussy, waking her so they could both find pleasure again. He knew that Anita would welcome him just like she’d done before, but how would she react to his fangs? No, he couldn’t spring it on her like this.
As quietly as possible, Cooper got out of bed, slipped into a pair of jogging pants, and left the room. He hurried downstairs. From the kitchen he heard voices and the clattering of dishes. He glanced at the large antique clock in the hallway. It was already past three o’clock in the afternoon. No wonder he was hungry.
In the pantry, Cooper went straight for the fridge. While he gulped down two bottles of blood, he relived his lovemaking with Anita. He’d never been so crazy about any woman before. And he had no qualms about telling her that she meant something to him. It was best that she got used to this fact as quickly as possible, because the way he felt about her, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to restrain the vampire inside him for much longer. Because the vampire had found his mate and was ready to make her his, even though his human side was able to show more restraint.
When he stepped out of the pantry, he nearly collided with Wesley.
Wesley grinned unashamedly. “So, you’re finally giving your girl a little break, huh?”
“Look who’s talking,” Cooper countered. “Like you ever let a night go by without making love to Virginia.”
“Life’s short. Gotta live every day like it’s your last.”
Cooper rolled his eyes. “Says the immortal.”
Wesley chuckled, then he gestured to the upper floor. “So, Anita’s the one, huh? I must say, you’ve got excellent taste.”
“How do you—”
“May I introduce myself? I’m your uncle. I’ve known you since you were a baby, and trust me, I can see the change in you. You’ve never looked at anybody the way you look at Anita.”
Cooper couldn’t help but smile.
“Besides, you wouldn’t risk exposing us and yourself and all our secrets by bringing her here if you only wanted to fuck her.”
“You’re quite perceptive as always. But don’t worry, so far, she’s not suspecting anything. I’ve been careful.” Accidentally drawing blood by kissing Anita could have happened to anybody—well, any horny vampire. “Now, go, and mind your own business. I’ve got an insatiable woman to satisfy.”
Laughing, Wes entered the pantry, while Cooper headed for the stairs.
Anita slapped both hands over her mouth in order not to cry out and give away that she was standing at the top of the stairs, hidden from Cooper’s and Wesley’s view, but able to hear their conversation. When she’d woken without Cooper by her side, she’d first assumed that he was in the bathroom, but the door had been open and Cooper was nowhere in sight. She’d slipped into her bathrobe, her feet bare, and had walked toward the stairs when she’d caught Wesley mentioning her name.
“So, Anita’s the one, huh? I must say, you’ve got excellent taste.”
“How do you—”
“May I introduce myself? I’m your uncle. I’ve known you since you were a baby, and trust me, I can see the change in you. You’ve never looked at anybody the way you look at Anita.”
Her heart had made a somersault. If his uncle noticed how Cooper looked at her, everything Cooper had told her the night before had to be true. He was falling in love with her. She’d been ecstatic, but a second later Wesley had added something she couldn’t make head nor tail of.
“Besides, you wouldn’t risk exposing us and yourself and all our secrets by bringing her here if you only wanted to fuck her.”
Exposing what? What secrets?
Cooper’s cool voice interrupted her thoughts. “You’re quite perceptive as always. But don’t worry, so far, she’s not suspecting anything. I’ve been careful. Now, go, and mind your own business. I’ve got an insatiable woman to satisfy.”
Panic surged inside her. He’d been careful? Careful about what? What was he hiding from her? Her heart pounded out of control. Cooper was on his way upstairs, clearly to make love to her again. She couldn’t let that happen, not now, not after what he and Wesley had said.
Barefoot she hurried back to the room, pulled the door shut soundlessly, and went into the bathroom. To her horror, she noticed that there was no lock on the bathroom door, maybe so a child couldn’t lock itself in accidentally. Damn! What now? If she went back to bed and pretended to sleep, Cooper would most certainly want to have sex with her again. And if she turned him down, he might suspect that something was off. Maybe he had even heard her footsteps or the opening and closing of the door. She had to stall until she figured out what to do next.
The shower! She reached into the shower enclosure and turned on the water, then quickly took off her robe, tossed in on the vanity, and stepped underneath the lukewarm water. For a moment, she felt chilly, but then the water started to heat up. She forced herself to breathe evenly to calm down. Had she misinterpreted Cooper’s conversation with his uncle?
The door opened, but she didn’t turn around. She knew it was Cooper.
“Hey, Baby,” he said, his voice dripping with tenderness. “Good morning.”
Was it all fake? Every touch? Every sweet word? Every kiss? What did he want from her?
“Good morning,” she forced herself to say, still not turning.
“How about I join you?”
It wasn’t a question, she knew that immediately, because he was already stepping into the shower, and pulled her against his broad chest, his arms reaching around her, gliding up her torso, until he cupped both breasts possessively.
She gasped, apprehensive now. Was it just sex he wanted? Or something else too? Something nefarious?
Cooper dropped his head to the crook of her neck and kissed her there, while he continued kneading her breasts. Her nipples beaded automatically, not listening to her brain that warned her that something wasn’t right about Cooper. He wasn’t the honest man he pretended to be. He had secrets. Secrets even his uncle seemed to be concerned about.
“Hmm, you’re getting me so hot, Anita,” he murmured into her ear while he slid one hand down her body to caress her pussy. To her shock, she realized that she welcomed his touch and that her clit was already pulsing with need, with desire for his touch.
Before she knew what was happening, Cooper thrust into her from behind, plunging deep, his erection stretching her tight channel, while she moaned involuntarily as intense pleasure charged through her. Despite Cooper’s lies, she couldn’t resist him. Was this how women who were in a relationship with bad men felt? Did they feel just as helpless as she did now, unable and unwilling to push him away even though she suspected that she was getting into something that was bad for her?
Cooper moaned softly as he fucked her from behind, one hand still on her breast, while he caressed her clit with the other. How could a man be such a considerate lover while at the same time keeping secrets from her and lying to her? How was that possible?
She couldn’t think straight anymore. Cooper’s pistoning cock robbed her of her ability to keep a clear head, and his skill at caressing her clit just how she liked it, was sending her toward another earth-shattering climax, killing millions of brain cells in the process. When she came, she couldn’t help but cry out in pleasure, then felt his cock spasm inside her, filling her with his semen once more.
“Anita, fuck, you’re amazing,” he murmured into her ear, his voice shaky as if he had trouble speaking.
“I didn’t do anything,” she deflected.
He chuckled. “Are you kidding? The way you grip me when I’m inside you… it’s out of this world. I don’t know if I’ll ever again get any work done when you’re around.”
His words gave her an excuse to free herself from him. “I forgot about work. We need to find the killer. We can’t stay here all day.” It was probably afternoon already.
“Unfortunately, not,” he whispered and pulled out of her. He reached for the liquid soap. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to forego the pleasure of washing you.”
“You don’t have to do—”
“But I want to,” he interrupted and began lathering her skin, starting with her boobs. When her nipples pebbled under his gentle ministrations, he whispered, “Damn, Anita, are you always so horny when you wake up?”
He kneaded her breasts with firmer strokes, and she let it happen. It felt good, even though she knew something about Cooper wasn’t what it seemed. And she had to find out what it was, and hope that he didn’t turn out to be a bad guy, because despite all the warning signs she was falling for him.
21
After they’d gotten dressed, Cooper had asked her if she wanted to eat something, but Anita was too nervous to eat, and had therefore claimed that she wasn’t really hungry. Cooper had accepted her claim without questioning it, and hadn’t eaten anything either. Had he noticed the change in her behavior? She hoped not, because she had no idea what he was capable of doing if he found out that she’d been listening in on his and Wesley’s conversation.
In the car, she took some of the notes she’d made on Janet’s case out of her handbag, leafed through them and pretended to read them again, just so Cooper wouldn’t hold her hand.
“Is there anything else about Janet’s file that looks like a lead?” Cooper asked as they headed into heavy late afternoon traffic.
Anita shrugged, but she knew she had to say something, or Cooper would wonder what was wrong with her. “I still think we’re overlooking something.”
“You mean apart from the victims’ physical characteristics and their jobs?”
“I wish I knew.”
When she saw him take one hand off the steering wheel, she quickly snatched another paper with her free hand, and continued, “What about the abductions themselves?”
“What about them?”
“Janet was taken after midnight,” she replied and searched for more things to say. “And if I remember correctly, all women were taken at night.”
“That’s not unusual.” Cooper turned at the intersection and hit more traffic.
“I know. But for all thirty-five or thirty-six women to be taken at night, and not a single one during the day, is a pattern. Almost as if he doesn’t want to be out during the day.”
Cooper seemed to hesitate a bit and cast her a sideways glance. “You think he’s worried that he might be recognized? That he’s somebody well-known, a celebrity of sorts?”
“Hmm.” Anita contemplated his words. “That might be the case if he limited the abductions to one state or one city, but it’s not very probable that he thinks he can be recognized in five different states. That would mean he’s nationally well-known. And I somehow doubt that.”
“Then I’m not sure the time of the abductions gives us much of a lead.” Cooper pulled into the Scanguards underground parking garage. “Besides, the prostitute, Ginger, didn’t mention that she recognized him from somewhere.”
“You’re right. Well, let’s see if we recognize him.”
Cooper pulled into an empty parking spot and switched off the engine. Anita opened the passenger door and exited the vehicle. At the elevators, Cooper caught up with her and put his arm around her waist. She tensed involuntarily.
“Something wrong?” he asked, his voice laden with concern.
Anita forced herself to smile up at him. “No, it’s just a little anxiety.” She searched for another excuse. “I wasn’t able to help Janet. What if we don’t find him before he abducts his next victim?”
“I know the feeling.”
He pressed a kiss to her forehead, his tenderness surprising her—and simultaneously confusing the hell out of her. How could he act like the most caring man and lover when he was keeping secrets from her? And how could he look so innocent doing it?
When the elevator door opened, the elevator wasn’t empty. A young man with raven-black hair and blue eyes stood there, looking at a tablet in his hand. He looked up at them.
“Oh, hey, Coop, I was just on my way to your office.”
Cooper ushered her into the elevator. “Anita, this is my colleague, Benjamin.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise,” Benjamin said, then looked at Cooper. “Just got the sketch.”
He pointed to the tablet, and Anita sidled up to him, and looked at the black-and-white drawing of a man. Cooper looked over her shoulder at the tablet, and she heard him suck in a breath of air.
“Ginger saw this man?”
Anita stared at the drawing, her heart beating out of control, her palms sweating, everything before her eyes blurring. This couldn’t be. This couldn’t be the man.
She’d seen him before. Many, many years before. So why was he still so young? He would be much older by now. Twenty-one years older to be exact. She focused on the man’s face. He was handsome, with very short hair, a straight nose, piercing eyes, and a square chin. It was him, there was no doubt. When she looked at his mouth and saw the tips of two sharp canines peek past his lips, she knew she wasn’t wrong. It was him.
Reno, Nevada, twenty-one years earlier
Anita shot up from her bed. Around her it was dark. Only the nightlight near the door was casting a little light on the carpeted floor meant to help her find the bathroom if she needed to pee in the middle of the night.
Something had woken her. A sound. She heard two voices, one was that of her mother, the other she didn’t recognize. It wasn’t her father’s. He was on duty at the sheriff’s department and wouldn’t be home until it was time for her to go to school. Or had her father come home earlier?
There was no clock in her bedroom, and she had no idea what time it was. Only dressed in her nightgown, Anita got out of bed and walked toward the door. She turned the knob and opened the door by only a sliver, when a man’s voice drifted toward her.
“You have no choice!” he ground out, the menace in his voice impossible to ignore.
Anita shivered despite the warm temperature in the house.
“No, please, take all the money and go,” her mother begged, her voice laden with tears. “There’s more hidden in the bedroom.”
A growl sounding like that of an animal came from the living room, and despite the fear Anita felt, she had to help her mother. On tiptoes, she left her room and walked into the dark corridor. At the bend, she stopped and peered past the corner.
“I don’t want your fucking money, bitch!”
The angry words came from a tall man, a stranger she’d never seen before. He had dark hair and a chiseled face, but she barely looked at that, because what captured her attention was the fact that he’d snatched her mother by the throat, lifting her in the air, his face only inches from hers.
He glared at her mother, his eyes like red beacons, his teeth sharp like those of a lion or a tiger. Frightened, Anita reared back, slamming her hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming.
“I’m taking you, and there’s nothing you can do about it!” He hissed like a beast warning its prey. “And if you don’t come quietly, I’m taking your girl too.”
Anita’s heart thundered in her ears, and tears filled her eyes. No! She had to save her mother from that beast, that monster. Frantically, she thought of how to help, and remembered that she had a baseball bat in the bedroom. She rushed back to her room, and grabbed it, then hurried back to the hallway. When she went around the corner, ready to charge the intruder, she heard the front door slam shut. She rushed to the door and ripped it open, only to see a white van race away.
Her mother was gone. A monster had taken her. A monster with glaring red eyes and sharp, white teeth. A monster that shouldn’t exist. A creature that only existed in lore and myth, in fiction and on TV: a vampire.
San Francisco, today
Anita was still staring at the black-and-white drawing. As far as police sketches went, this one was as accurate as they came. The only thing that she couldn’t explain was the fact that the man hadn’t aged. After two decades, he should look more like a man in his fifties. But perhaps even that could be explained, now that the old memory of her mother’s abduction finally resurfaced with every detail. She’d suppressed the horrifying incident because her father hadn’t believed her, no matter how often she’d told him. He’d claimed that she was making up this story because she didn’t want to face the fact that her mother had left them without a word.
But now she was certain: her mother had been abducted. She’d been taken by the same man who’d taken many other women looking like her mother, and killed them. Everything about the victim profile matched. Her mother was blonde, blue-eyed, tall, and she’d been a school principal of a small elementary school in Reno, a woman in a position of power.
“Anita? You okay?”
Cooper’s voice drifted to her, and she ripped her gaze from the sketch. “Yeah, yeah, it’s just…” No, she couldn’t say that she suspected the man of being a vampire. Cooper and his colleague would think she was crazy. And she certainly wasn’t ready to tell him about what she’d seen when her mother had been abducted. After all, she wasn’t sure she could trust Cooper right now. He was keeping secrets from her. But she needed to know if she was the only one who looked at the drawing and saw the face of a vampire. “Bad teeth, what do you think?”
