Scorned Read online

  “LeKrista,” he said, copying my pronunciation, le-KREE-stah. He lifted my hand to his lips and brushed the lightest kiss over my knuckles, and I felt my body go hot in the freezing wind. That just wasn’t even fair. “Until next time.” The accent was there now, stronger, thicker where it hadn’t been present before. I didn’t know it, couldn’t tell where he was from.

  El gusto es mio. Ha! I’m dumb.

  I actually smiled at my stupidity, but when he looked up, he thought I was smiling at him.

  “It is an antiquated practice, I know, but...” He shrugged like he didn’t care and he was going to do it anyway because that was what he wanted to do.

  Good for you!

  I should have said it out loud, but my voice wouldn’t cooperate.

  “Well, Ms. LeKrista, I won’t keep you.” The accent was all but nonexistent now, and I was sad to hear it go. “I see you have some partying to do, yes?” He chuckled. “I do hope you enjoy yourself.”

  I smirked right back at him, because I thought it was funny. A party.

  Nope. Just going to get something to eat and hang out with my boyfriend in front of the TV. Lazy, drunk bums is all we are.

  What I said out loud was, “I will.”

  “It was a pleasure to meet you.”

  “And you.”

  He saw me into my car and closed the door for me like we’d been friends for years. It was awkward, but then it wasn’t. He watched me pull out of the parking space, which racked my nerves. I hate for people to watch me drive because I just know they’re critiquing every move I make. I know this probably because I do the same thing.

  Wouldn’t you know it, I caught every red light there was to catch between Wal Mart and Pierce’s house. Pierce and his younger brother Gable lived together in Gable’s house. Pierce moved in to help pay the bills when the younger man fell on some hard times and hadn’t moved out yet. He wanted to, but like me he didn’t have the money for it. I keep trying to talk him into getting a place together, but he’s afraid we won’t be able to wait if we’re living together and sharing a bed. Maybe he’s right, but it would solve one big problem that always seems to be in the way; family. Still, it’s easier for him to say no when neither one of us has the finances to actually make a move in that direction. In any direction, really.

  I was so busy fuming about not having any money that I didn’t realize how close I was. I turned onto his street and pulled into the yard. Three other cars sat there. I squeezed into the only place left, pulled my key out of the ignition and put them and my cell into my bag which I slung over my shoulder. The front door doesn’t like to open, so I gave it a good shove.

  There was no one in the first bedroom, or the living room, or the kitchen, so either they were in the bathroom, or Pierce was the only one home.

  Crap, dang! I forgot the beer. Oh well.

  “Baby?” I rounded the corner to Pierce's bedroom to find him laying on his bed in nothing but basketball shorts. His beautiful, muscular chest was on full display. His dark skin was smooth and perfect. I don’t know what he sees in me. My face is a little too round to keep my hair in a ponytail like I do. I’m not huge, but I’m anything but thin. I’m heavy. Thick. Whatever you want to call it, though proportioned well. It doesn’t sit in any one particular place, except maybe my boobs and no one but me seems to have a problem with that. I don’t lose weight, no matter how hard I try and I’m about ready to go to a doctor about it.

  “What?” Pierce asked, turning amber eyes from the TV long enough to see me.

  “I forgot the beer,” I told him. “Could you go get it?”

  “You go get it. You forgot it.”

  “It’s out in the car. It fell out of the box.”

  “Oh, geez.” He grabbed a shirt and slipped into a pair of shoes.

  “You’ll need these,” I said and handed him the keys.

  I dropped my bag on the floor, kicked off my shoes and took off my jacket. I thought about stripping out of my pants too, but I left them on. I never know when someone will walk in. If I had a place of my own I could run around naked if I wanted.

  Pierce came back in with the beer and groceries, and I heard him put the two bags in the fridge before he got a beer for himself. “Thanks, babe,” he told me and gave me a quick kiss.

  “No problem,” I replied. “You get the next one though.”

  He rolled his eyes. “I’m getting this one. How much was it?”

  I shrugged. “It’s fine. I have a little cash left.”

  Pierce didn’t argue, but I knew the subject would come up again later. He went back to the kitchen and set to work getting dinner started.

  “Throw me the chips,” I called to him and he did, deliberately bouncing them off my head before they landed on the floor. “I said throw them, not break them all up into tiny pieces so no one will want to eat them.”

  “Oh, well that’s what I heard.”

  I rolled my eyes and opened the bag. The smell of jalapeno’s was enough to knock me back a few inches and I had to hold the bag away to keep from suffocating.

  “I thought you didn’t like those,” Pierce said.

  I laughed. “I don’t.”

  “Then why are you eating them?”

  “I’m hungry.”

  The front door opened and its squeaky hinges screamed in protest. Gable offered his customary “Hey” as he passed through to the bathroom.

  The front door opened again a few moments later, and I knew it could only be one person. A young girl rounded the corner a few seconds later, protruding belly first.

  “Someone in there?” Petrice asked, indicating the bathroom. Petrice was their pregnant sixteen year-old niece. She loved to wear collared blouses and scarves, especially during the South Carolina winter.

  “Yeah. Gable,” I answered her.

  “Damn. He’s going to be in there a while. I might as well go to the neighbor’s house.” She was joking. It’s an inside joke, but I can’t remember how it started.

  I laughed. “Come here and let me rub your belly.”

  “Just don’t push on it,” she warned.

  I rubbed her belly in a circle three times, my usual little ritual, and she took a seat on the edge of the bed. I sat up and looked at her. She looked so tired with her droopy eyes and her hair a little askew.

  “You okay?” I asked, trying to keep my tone friendly and not concerned.

  “Yeah,” she answered. “I just want to pee, get something to eat and drink, and go to bed.”

  “Well, we bought a steak,” I told her. “Pierce is in there fixing it right now. Maybe he’ll share.”

  “Hey, Uncle P. Can I have some of your steak?” she called.

  “You can have a bite.” Pierce kept his back to us and continued to fix his steak. I rolled my eyes and Petrice giggled.

  Gable finally came out of the bathroom and pulled the door tight. I grinned and, when he left I turned to Petrice. “You probably don’t want to go in there right now.”

  “I’ve got it,” she said, and disappeared. A moment later she came waddling back with a bottle of air freshener. Petrice opened the door and sprayed inside. “Why does he always have to kill the bathroom,” she complained and I laughed.

  “‘Ey,” Gable said, coming around the corner. When he saw the air freshener in Petrice’s hand, he stopped. “Where’d you get that?”

  “It was under the sink in the bathroom,” she lied and I tried not to smile.

  “I didn’t see it.”

  “You must’a just missed it, Uncle Gable.” She was too good at playing innocent. She was going to have a hell of a time when that baby finally got here.

  Gable shrugged. I wasn’t sure if he believed her or not, but he turned to me and continued his question. “Can I take your car to the store?”

  No.

  I had to think, did I have enough gas to make it to Friday? Not if I let everyone use my car. But I did have some gas money left over. Ten dollars that should cover me until then.
I was too nice.

  “Yeah.” I handed him my keys and he offered a half-hearted thanks.

  Pierce had the meat marinated and in the fridge to sit for an hour. That was my least favorite part of him cooking. He always decided to do it last minute. He kicked his shoes off and lay down next to me on the bed, wrapped his arms around me, and turned the TV on. I smiled and snuggled into him. He smelled of warmth and soap and, underneath all that was the faint scent of sawdust. I didn’t understand it, but I didn’t question it. It was that sawdust smell that lulled me into sleep.

  Her tousled hair, blonde/black and long, splayed across the red satin pillow case. There was a look on her pale, pale face that could only be described as a hungry lust.

  I approached her, my own lust taking over as I watched her move sensuously in the sheets. I knelt on the bed and crawled to her slowly on my hands and knees. She smiled at me. The tips of her porcelain fangs barely showed between her red, kiss-swollen lips. For one moment, I was on top of her. Then we were spinning, faster than possible, and I had her on the edge of the bed, one arm tucked under her chin, the other pressed against her forehead so her neck was vulnerable. She smiled at me. I licked the side of her neck and caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror across the room.

  Though I was darker-skinned, there was a paleness to me. My short, black hair and eyes stood out starkly. I was bared to the waist where I was clad in dark leather, nothing else. I was an attractive man.

  I pressed my nose to my lover’s neck and took in a deep breath. There was no scent of life like there is with humans. The scent of blood was light, soft. It hadn’t pumped through her veins in a long time. I opened my mouth and sank my fangs into the soft flesh of her neck.

  The sweet, metallic taste of blood ran over my tongue and filled my mouth...

  I didn’t realize I’d fallen asleep until Pierce flopped down on the edge of the single bed and I rolled toward him. I blinked up at him, my disturbing dream making it hard to focus. I tried to push it to the back of my mind and forget it for the time being.

  The storm hit while I was asleep. The dark threatening clouds had finally released their fury upon the earth. Dinner was ready, but I wanted to go play in the freezing winter rain. It took me forty-five minutes to convince Pierce that he wanted to come with me.

  We stepped out onto the porch and I closed the door. The rain fell in torrents. The dirt patch that made up most of the small front yard was flooded.

  “Come on.” I grabbed Pierce’s hand and pulled as I stepped into the rain and mud and wind. He was reluctant to follow, offering every excuse he could think of.

  “I’m not wearing a shirt.”

  “I didn’t tell you to strip,” I countered, though I didn’t mind his shirtlessness. “The rain might be good for your aches and pains,” I teased and he gave me that you’re-so-full-of-it look.

  “It’s cold,” he complained some more. “I might get pneumonia. You know how easily I catch a cold.”

  “Then we can take a hot shower after.” I’d been with him long enough to know how to counter even his most ridiculous claims. He knew it too, and finally quit complaining, though the pout never wavered.

  I resolved to wipe the pout from his face and pulled him close, pressing my lips against his hard enough for him to catch the hint. Immediately, he tensed, sensing my intentions, and kissed me quickly, trying to make the contact between us as brief as possible. It was like a wall went up between his body and his emotions, cutting them off completely. I understood why he did it. Per his insistence, we were waiting for marriage to have sex. In the five years we’d been together he hadn’t told me exactly why, but I knew it was important to him.

  Not being a virgin himself there were certain acts that made it more difficult for him to refrain. Kissing was one of those acts, and the last thing I wanted was to make it harder on him than it needed to be.

  Like I said, I understand but that doesn’t make it any easier. I’ve tried, on multiple occasions, to make him understand how rejected I feel when he shuts himself off from me. I don’t know if he understands or not. He’s a man of few words.

  Still, I need things to make this work too. Kissing is one of them.

  “Please,” I whispered desperately against his lips. “Please, kiss me.”

  He did. His lips were soft against mine. He smelled of man and rain and warmth and, as always, that soft, underlying scent of sawdust. I pressed my lips harder against his, his scent turning me on more than anything, and that little jolt of electricity that usually accompanies his touch ran through me like adrenaline. It wrapped me in its energy as I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer. I felt his hands on my hips. They were still, but there was tension in them. He was holding back.

  I knew I wasn’t being fair when I slipped my hands over his back and lightly scratched his skin. I knew I was making things harder on him than was prudent, but at the moment it wasn’t something I cared about.

  The wall that he put up between his body and his emotions was stronger than that, though. He’s had more practice than I in matters like this, and it showed whenever he thought he might lose control. I felt nothing from him as we kissed in the downpour, except for his lips, his tongue, his hands still resting on my hips, but not as gently as they had first been. That should have been enough.

  Nothing kills the mood better than an uninvited audience. It wouldn’t have bothered me if it was one of the neighbors or even Gable. They’d all seen us kiss before. But I felt the eyes on me from every direction, watching and intent. It was like they were trying to make me uncomfortable, and they were succeeding. I tried to ignore it, hoping it would go away, but the more I ignored it the stronger the presence became until I thought I was going to scream.

  I pulled away from Pierce and he frowned at me. “Let’s go inside,” I said, panting. “Someone’s watching.”

  Pierce looked around, the frown still creasing his forehead. “I don’t see anyone.” His voice was husky, and I suddenly realized that he was on the verge of giving in, of putting down those cursed walls of his and kissing me the way I wanted.

  Dammit!

  “Trust me,” I told him, and tugged him toward the house. He came willingly, but the frown never left his face. I dragged him through the door and closed it before I finally let go of his hand. My clothes dripped a trail across the floor as I stalked back to the room and I began to shiver before I even hit the bedroom door.

  “Get your clothes off,” Pierce commanded in his deep, concerned voice. “I’ll start the shower.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  I rubbed my cheek against the red satin night gown and listened to my lover’s heartbeat. She could make it beat for me. Though I loved her and she me, I could kill her without a thought.

  I took a deep breath and smelled several things. First was the ever present undercurrent of blood. No matter where I went or what I did, the smell of blood perfumed the air until it was almost unbearable.

  The next scent I caught was the sweet, musky aroma of sex still lingering in the air and clinging to the sheets and our skin. I turned my nose into the fabric and breathed her scent until I knew I could drown in it. Faintly, underneath it all was the smell of the satin and the dye used to color it.

  I felt her fingers tangle in my hair and pull until I was face to face with her. She tilted her chin up in a gesture I knew as her begging for a kiss and I acquiesced, pressing my lips to hers until I could taste her. Her lipstick was gone, had been for a while, so all I tasted was her lips and what still lingered of me on her tongue.

  She pulled away slowly a moment later and pushed me off her so she could sit up.

  “What is it?” I asked, and the voice was deep and sensual, accented with that strange accent.

  She shook her head. “We’ve been summoned,” she told me.

  “What is it about?”

  Again, she shook her head. “I wasn’t told. Just that we’re needed.”

  “When?” It was a simpl
e question, but it carried an accusation that she picked up on. She turned to me sheepishly, with a look of apology. Instantly, I was angry.

  “Perdita!” I leapt from the bed and landed on my feet. Anger rolled off me like a thunder storm, and the porcelain-skinned woman cowered under my glare. I rattled off curses in Latin, before I began to yell again. “Why do you do this? Why do you always insist on doing this? Do you not believe in our cause?”

  “Not whole-heartedly, no.”

  I was stunned speechless. “No?”

  “No, I honestly am not wholly in it, Lucretious. I’m sorry, but I believe our time could be better spent elsewhere.”

  “So?”

  My perspective changed suddenly and I was me again, LeKrista, watching her from his eyes.

  “So, I am in this as far as you are. You know that. Just don’t hold it against me when I don’t find these things as important as you do.”

  Lucretious closed his eyes against his fiery anger and took a deep breath. “When do they want to meet?”

  “Tomorrow night.”

  Lucretious rolled his neck and it popped several times. Perdita kept her eyes on her fidgeting hands in her satin covered lap. The red sheets made the paleness of her skin shine and I felt Lucretious’ anger melt away as his lust over took him.

  “You know you will have to be punished for this,” he told her, but his voice was so sensual that she looked up and I saw a matching lust in her eyes.

  “What do you have in mind?”

  Lucretious crawled up on the bed on all fours and Perdita mirrored him. They crawled toward each other like two cats in heat. Lucretious made the first move, and it was so lightning fast that I wouldn’t have seen it if I hadn’t been seeing through his eyes. He grabbed Perdita by her long hair and threw her to the mattress on her back. Then he spun her around and pulled her underneath him in less than a second, trapping her body with his.

  “I want to taste your heartbeat,” he whispered, against the flesh of her cleavage. I could feel the woman’s alarm, but she did as was requested of her. Was this her punishment? Possible death?