Chapter 189: Chapter Seven

Kyra

I hated how much I thought of him.

Timber left like the hounds of hell were chasing him. From next to me, Tarek snorted out a laugh like something I said was funny.

Only I wasn’t talking.

“You okay?” I tossed one of the bar rags in his direction. He swiped it out of the air with his right hand and gave me an amused grin.

He was beautiful in a hipster sort of way.

Why wasn’t I thinking of my new coworker instead of my boss?

“Life and death are a lot like love and hate,” Tarek said cryptically again like he could read my thoughts. His brown eyes went almost black as they darted back and forth as though reading an invisible book in front of his face. “One cannot exist without the other, counterparts exist to bring balance to the world, just like good and evil.”

“O…kaayyyy…” I narrowed my eyes and was tempted to press my hand against his forehead to see if it was burning up. “Too many shots?”

He snorted out a laugh. “Not near enough, I have a fast metabolism.” He patted his flat muscular stomach. No crap it was a fast metabolism, I saw him maul two burgers an hour ago, if I did that they’d have to roll me out of here.

I gave my head a shake. “Do you need help with anything else?”

“Nope.” He shrugged and gave me the goofy grin I was used to. “You can go home. I’ll make sure all the drunk college kids make good choices.”

“Hah.” I rolled my eyes. “They come in here to make bad choices not good choices.”

“True.” He winked and again I felt nothing, huh. “Go, just…” He sniffed, then sniffed again.

“Hey, are you getting sick?” I reached out toward him, but he was already backing away and looking out the front window down the street. “Tarek?”

“Shadows,” he whispered under his breath. “On second thought…” He shrugged. “I think I’ll just walk you home.”

“I live only a few blocks away,” I pointed out. “And I have pepper spray.”

He winced. “Yeah, pepper spray hardly keeps someone away if they’re hell-bent on killing you.”

“Wow, great bedtime story, thanks!” I snatched up my purse and jerked my head toward the door. “You can follow me if you must…”

“I would be the most obedient dog, you have no idea,” he teased.

And for some reason I had this vision of him with fur covering his body, golden eyes alert and watchful.

What the hell was wrong with me?

Our eyes locked. “After you,” he put his hand on my back while I gave my head another good shake. The vision had been so clear.

“Right.” I gulped and walked out of the bar and into the cool Seattle air. The streets were still filled with college students and the few random families out for dinner. It wasn’t like we were in a crappy area of Seattle, so I wasn’t sure why he felt the need to walk me, but I wasn’t going to say no to company, especially after his weird warning.

He kept his hand on my back as we weaved through the crowds and even weirder it was like he was able to dodge people before he even knew which direction they were coming at us from.

I stared straight ahead and almost stumbled when I noticed a flicker in front of me, something dark, maybe a dog, moved to the right of my vision.

“Shit,” Tarek grumbled under his breath and then fully wrapped an arm around me before jerking us off the sidewalk and into an alleyway where he pressed his mouth against mine before I could protest, his hands running up and down my arms like he was suddenly on fire for me.

I shoved against his chest only to have him move his lips down my neck, his teeth nipping my ear. “Go with it.”

Maybe it was the tone of his voice, or the chill that suddenly wracked my body, but I nodded briefly before wrapping my arms around him.

It was a nice kiss.

Hot.

Aggressive.

But it felt like I was kissing my friend, my very good friend, and I was too confused to ask him why he suddenly felt the need to do that.

His kiss deepened, and then he pulled back, his eyes completely black. He gave his head a rough shake before dropping to his knees in front of me.

“Tarek!” I was starting to panic. He was a good guy, right? Right? He wasn’t trying to take advantage of me? Was he? I was about ready to scream when his gaze softened.

“You smell like him,” He said it so matter-of-factly that I had nothing, absolutely nothing to say back as Tarek straight up ran his tongue from the bottom of my calf all the way up to my bare thigh.

Chills erupted all over my body as the scent of cedar and pine mixed with the warmth of pumpkin and cinnamon, all my favorite fall scents filled the air.

My knees almost buckled as I gripped his head, tugging his hair with my right hand, hauling him back toward my other leg.

A guttural moan erupted from the back of his throat as he gripped my left leg with both hands and mauled me with his mouth like my leg was an ice cream cone and he wanted one more lick, or—God help me—seven.

That ~was~ lick number seven, not that I was counting.

He gripped me by the ass, his fingers digging into my skin as he slowly looked up at me like he was ready for the main course.

And the main course was me.

Heat enveloped my core in pulsing waves as his scent filled the air around us, and then he jerked his head to the street, sniffed, and relaxed.

Panting, I was stunned as my arousal started to wear off like he’d just doused me in the strongest pheromone known to mankind.

I shook my head out of the daze. What was happening?

His eyes flashed back to brown, a trick of the moon maybe, as he stood to his full height, towering over me. Bracing me against the wall, he leaned in, his nose nuzzling my neck like he was a cat needing a bit of attention. “It’s really too bad.”

“What is?” I almost reached for him again as waves of heat pulsed off of him. “The fact that you tricked me and just wanted to make out or that you stopped?”

He stilled, pulled back just enough so I could see his brown eyes, at this angle they almost seemed to glow. “I was going to say it’s too bad you’ve already been marked.”

“Marked?” I repeated. “Like with a marker?”

His lips pressed together in a smirk. “Sure, let’s go with that.”

“Tarek.” The voice was chilling and familiar. I quickly jerked my head toward the street where Timber stood. “You can go now.”

“You sure about that, boss?” Timber ground his teeth. “Because the way I see it—”

Timber held up his hand, silencing Tarek faster than a trained puppy. “She’s safer with me than with you, especially after that spectacular attempt at claiming what isn’t yours.”

Tarek jerked away from me, looking massive in the moonlight as he stared Timber down. “You know why.”

“I also know when someone’s tempted.” His smirk was gorgeous, dangerous, as his eyes flashed. What was with the moonlight tonight? “Remember your place.”

Tarek snorted out a laugh. “Funny, I was just going to tell you the same thing…” He purposefully bumped into Timber’s shoulder and then whispered something I couldn’t hear, but it was enough for Timber to look disappointed. Was I getting fired?

He nodded once to Tarek, put his hand on his shoulder, and then Tarek was gone, and I was standing in an alleyway with the boss who threatened me and made me cry.

Fantastic.

I think I would choose whatever chilling thing was out in that street than the boss whose eyes seemed to look right into my soul like he wanted to either devour it or just claim it as his own.

I wrapped my arms around my body and stared him down. “I’ll just be going…”

“And I’ll just be following,” he said in a voice I knew I couldn’t argue with.

And because I was too tired to fight and just wanted to get home without getting mauled or confused, I sighed and said, “Suit yourself.”

We walked in silence for the next few blocks.

It wasn’t until we were four blocks down that I realized every single person was walking on the opposite side of the street, which wouldn’t be strange except it looked like they were purposefully crossing.

I frowned. “Did that person just bow?”

“He’s probably high as a kite,” Timber said with nonchalance, but I didn’t miss the consistent eye contact he had with people like he was somehow bending them to his will.

Creepy.

It had just been a really long confusing day.

Sleep always made me feel better, and I always loved the dark anyway. I preferred the warmth of the hidden shadows, like the way Tarek had felt when he licked—

“Sorry.” Timber bumped into me then gripped me by the arms. “I wasn’t paying attention. I didn’t mean to run over you.”

We were at my apartment building already. It wasn’t very new, but it did the trick, and I had a load of locks and a ring camera, so I felt safe-ish.

“I don’t like your apartment building.” He eyed it up and down. “Too many windows.”

“Some of us like a little light,” I fired back. “Some of us aren’t vampires.”

I kept it to myself that I preferred shadows and a heavy darkness like a gravity blanket draping over me.

Timber gave me an amused look, his eyes lighting more than I’d ever seen them, like he was trying to hold in laughter, and then he shrugged. “You’re right, I’m much better looking.”

I rolled my eyes. “And maybe if they existed I’d agree with you, but… sorry, fresh out of those so I’m just going to be heading inside. Thanks for walking me home.”

“One minute.” Timber reached out, his skin felt colder than Tarek’s but still soft, so velvety soft that I let out a shocked hiss of breath when he somehow managed to pull me against his rock-hard body.

The problem? I let him.

And I had no idea why I was even letting him near me after today—after the kiss with Tarek, after the rejection from Timber himself.

I hated girls like that, girls that wanted the guy they believed they could fix, the angry one with a chip on his shoulder, of course I’d be attracted to that guy not the one who said he’d be as loyal as a dog.

My body started to tremble like something was going to burst out of my soul.

“What?” I tried to act normal even as his eyes searched mine like he was reading my thoughts, trying to gauge my reaction to his touch and came up empty. “Is this your way of apologizing or just committing sexual harassment after hours? Newsflash—even the boss can get in trouble for that sort of thing.”

“And Tarek?” He didn’t let me go. “A coworker?”

I opened my mouth to explain but I realized I couldn’t explain, just like I couldn’t explain why I was letting Timber touch me.

“Hmm, that’s what I thought.” He leaned in until our foreheads touched and then he just held us there.

I thought it was weird until I started to smell this intoxicating scent, like the most powerful flower in the world was permeating the air around us. “What is that?”

“Lotus—it cleanses.”

“Cleanses what?” I shuddered.

“Ancient Egyptians used to use it during funeral rituals to cleanse the bodies before they descended into Hell.”

“Or Heaven,” I argued.

“That’s almost adorable, that you still believe.”

“You don’t?”

He pulled back and gave me one of the saddest looks I’d ever seen in my entire life, his eyes empty, his face expressionless. “Heaven isn’t for me.”

“And it isn’t for me?”

“I guess that all depends on you, now doesn’t it?”

Enter the weirdest conversation I’d ever experienced.

Timber gave his head a shake. “Be safe tonight, keep your windows closed, you never know what some sort of depraved human might do when they see opportunity.”

“Like you?” I crossed my arms.

He didn’t even seem insulted; he just grinned. “Definitely not me, then again part of you knows that, the part that’s locked up inside where I imagine butterflies and unicorns exist.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, okay, I’ll see you tomorrow I guess.”

And I could have sworn I heard the words. “And tonight in your dreams.”