Trust Me When the Sun Goes Down (Forged Bloodlines Book 8) Read online

  “Some place to secret away the undesirables.” Leander nodded his approval even as Rob scowled.

  “Is that what I am now?”

  They bickered back and forth, the insults getting more and more barbed until it descended into taunts of “get stuffed” and hand gestures, but it was all in fun.

  This was a more relaxed Rob, similar to how I’d seen him act in London at his favorite watering hole, Pandora’s Cross. He touched me often, a hand on my thigh, brushing the hair back over my shoulder, a light knead of the muscles on my neck. They warmed me more than hot cocoa on a cold winter’s night.

  A small crowd grew, as it often did when I put in a public appearance. Eventually the conversation turned to more serious topics, namely speculation on who’d been so careless to leave bodies behind for the cops to find. Rob sounded surprised to hear it, but not overly concerned. “Accidents will happen,” he shrugged.

  “These are looking more than accidental,” I pointed out. “And the more the media picks up on it, the worse it’s going to be for us.”

  “Too right there, violence is bad for business any way you slice it,” Leander agreed.

  Finally, the voice of reason. Now, more than ever, I was convinced he was the right man for the job.

  “So a few humans died, it’s no more than they do to themselves,” one of the guys said, blowing it off. I think his name was Thomas or Ted, definitely a T name. “No one cares.”

  I fixed him with a quelling stare. “I care, and I’m pretty sure the Order’s going to care if it gets too many people looking into it. Keeping ourselves hidden from human eyes is the biggest law we’ve got.”

  “They’re too busy with their heads up their arses lately,” a plump vampire piped up, her high pitched voice instantly grating on my nerves. “They haven’t got time to look into it. Besides, I haven’t seen any reports of vampires in the news,” she snorted.

  “And how long do you think that will last when bodies keep turning up suffering from traumatic blood loss from the neck?”

  T guy didn’t seem to care. “So, we’ll compel the problem to go away. Jakob kills when he wants to. We’re at the top of the food chain, why not take what we want?”

  “That doesn’t mean we can’t act with courtesy and respect. We all used to be human, it can’t be that hard to remember how to act like one.”

  They looked at me as if I had lobsters coming out of my ears.

  Rob cleared his throat. “I think we can all agree, a bit of discretion is wanted. Like Leander said, too much violence is bad for business. We don’t need that kind of scrutiny.”

  “Struth,” Leander nodded and the others added their grumbling assent.

  Suddenly I didn’t feel like hanging around anymore.

  Chapter Eleven

  “Give them some time, they’re only sewing their wild oats.” Rob put his arm around my waist as we strolled, and I leaned against his shoulder, in no hurry to get home. I’d missed our walks together, made even better by the fact that he was by my side instead of lying in wait, ready to pounce. Come to think of it – that might be fun too.

  “It’s a problem though, you get that, right? I’m not making a big deal out of nothing. I mean sure, it’s a big leap for the police to think vampire, but the more suspicious deaths we give them, the more danger we’re in. Aren’t we?”

  “No, you’re not wrong,” he agreed after a moment’s thought, but I could feel the hesitation in him. “I don’t think the danger’s all that big is all. Word’ll get out that you’re not pleased and it’ll die down, you’ll see.”

  “Do you honestly think it’ll be that simple?”

  “Course I do.” He kissed the side of my head. “It’s no secret how eager they are to please you.”

  That was debatable. They might hang on my every word when I was right there in front of them, but I didn’t kid myself into thinking my opinion counted for much when I was away. Especially given their general feelings about human rights. “Then you don’t think I screwed up by changing the Order’s charter and making them less lethal?”

  Rob gave me a sidelong look. “Who’s been putting that idea into your head?”

  “Felix said people aren’t afraid of the Order as much anymore.”

  “That may be so, but it don’t got nothing to do with their charter, it’s more about the fact that they ain’t on the street in numbers at present. Everybody knows they’re to be feared once they’re back in full force.”

  “I sure hope you’re right.” I didn’t want to go down in history as the Elder responsible for destroying vampire/human relations.

  “Try not to borrow trouble, luv. Enough will find us on its own.”

  “Gee, that’s a cheery thought,” I said with a sour smile.

  “Sorry, force of habit, I suppose.”

  We meandered along in companionable silence for a while, neither one of us in a terrible hurry to get home. “This is nice. Just the two of us without Lee and those guys around.” I’d been surprised when Rob had agreed to it.

  A pucker appeared on his forehead. “I thought you liked Lee.”

  “I do, but I like you better,” I grinned, leaning up to steal a kiss.

  “That’s as it should be,” he nodded, the beginnings of a smug smile tilting his lips. “Sorry I ain’t been around as much, time’s been getting away from me.”

  I was dying to ask him what kinds of things, but I chickened out. “No, it’s fine. Things have finally settled down, there’s no reason for us to be in each other’s pockets all the time.”

  His hand slipped off my hip to slide into my back pocket. “What if I like being in your pocket, yeah?” His head dipped to capture my lips, turning me to stick his free hand in my other back pocket, pulling me close.

  “No complaints here,” I breathed, sharing the motion to slip my hands against the firm curves of his backside. It was late, but not so late there weren’t other people on the street. Still, he pressed me up against side of the building, his hands roaming to abandon pockets and slip into the waistband of my jeans.

  “Maybe we should go home?” I managed to get out between kisses.

  “Don’t think I can wait that long,” he growled, dragging me into the nearest entrance. The polished door was locked, but with a sharp jerk Rob pulled it open, a testament to his strength. Inside, I scented leather and caught sight of dark polished wood out of the corner of my eye as he herded me to the elevator, his mouth never leaving mine. Blindly, he hit a number and we started to climb, his hands tugging off my sweater, and I made short work of his leather jacket.

  I don’t think he knew where we were going and I didn’t care as long as we got there together. But the janitor standing slack jawed in the hallway didn’t share our opinion when the doors slid open on the top floor.

  “You’re not supposed to be in here,” he objected, clutching tightly to his mop.

  “Leave,” Rob growled, his every muscle tensed into a hard bulge, ready to explode into action if he wasn’t obeyed. The janitor dropped his mop and bolted for the stairs without another word.

  “Rob, we can’t compel him to abandon his job,” I started to object. We were the ones trespassing after all.

  “I didn’t, that was good, old fashioned fear,” he smirked, tipping my head up by the chin to kiss along the underside of my jaw as he nudged me out of the elevator and into the nearest office, the wood door splitting under one solid kick.

  “Rob!” I gasped, getting a brief glimpse of a richly decorated office, probably belonging to a lawyer or a high level executive before he deposited me on the deep couch. I was going to have to pay to replace that expensive door, but he didn’t seem to care. Rob peeled off my clothes shockingly fast until I sat completely naked on the cold leather while he was still fully clothed, far too interested in pleasing me to stop for anything else.

  “What if he calls the cops? For all we know there’s a security camera in here.”

  “Then they’ll get a good show, won�
�t they?” His raspy voice sent a shiver of anticipation through me that curled my toes. What if someone did barge in?

  “We should stop.” But still I didn’t let him go, too interested in what his hands were doing.

  He pulled back to look into my eyes. “You don’t really want me to stop, do you?” he asked, his hands busy, daring me to say another word. My mouth opened, but all that came out was a harsh breath as he played my body like an instrument. I couldn’t look away from his gaze, all the while his fingers dipped and swirled, curved and pinched. My eyes fluttered closed, my head flinging back as he took me higher and higher. “What good’s being a vampire if I can’t take what I want when I want it?” he growled, surging between my thighs as the first tremors overtook me and I shouted in delight.

  Rob made love to me like he had something to prove, daring me to stop him at every turn, putting my pleasure above his own, all in this foreign place that we had no right to be in. We tasted each other again and again, and each time I thought we were done he was up for another round, until I felt like I might actually pass out from pleasure.

  It was very near dawn when we stumbled out of there, but Rob showed no signs of fatigue. In fact, I think I was more worn out than he was. There was no sign of the janitor’s return, his mop still lay out in the hallway next to the sad bucket of dirty water. I hoped he didn’t end up losing his job over it.

  We made it home before the sky turned pink, stumbling into our bedroom with barely enough energy to pull the shutters closed and lock the door. The last memory I have of that night is of Rob pulling me into his arms, my name like a prayer on his lips as the deathlike sleep overtook us.

  The next morning I half expected to find him gone again when I woke, but we both lay curled up in each other’s arms. Deciding to let him rest, I slipped out of his embrace and tiptoed into the bathroom to clean up and brush my teeth, but was pleasantly surprised when Rob joined me in the shower to offer a helping hand.

  Okay, so we completely ran out of hot water and I’m pretty sure we woke up the whole house as we made it back to the bed, but boy howdy did it feel good to be the center of his universe again, if even only for a couple of hours. I was going to have to feed again soon with all the blood he’d taken from me, but I didn’t care. Not when it meant we could lounge around and pretend the outside world didn’t exist.

  Still, after a while, it got me to thinking. “There’s nowhere you have to hustle off to tonight?”

  “Naw, I’m completely yours,” he replied, bending my leg to kiss the back of my calf.

  In for a penny, in for a pound. “Out of curiosity, what have you been doing lately?”

  “A bit of this and that, nothing special,” he shrugged. “Been taking advantage of the spot of quiet to take care of a few things.”

  “Like what?”

  “I’ve spent a fair amount of time at the shop working on my car this week.”

  I’d forgotten about the garage full of cars he used to live over. “Oh? Which one?”

  “The Morgan, hoping to get it ready in time for a rally going on down the coast in a fortnight. She’s running, but she ain’t right yet. I’ve a fair piece left to do and it ain’t easy getting parts for her.”

  “A rally, is that like a race?”

  “Something like that. It’s timed, but it’s held across regular roads and you’re meant to stop at certain markers along the way.”

  “That sounds like fun.”

  His face took on a glum cast. “Be more fun if I could do the driving myself, but it’s a daytime race.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry.”

  “It’s alright, an old mate of mine is keen to enter and take that part over.”

  “Is there anything I can do to help?”

  “Stay out of trouble?” A brief smile tugged at the corner of his mouth and I gave his shoulder a playful punch.

  “Hey, I’ve been trouble free for at least… two weeks,” I laughed. “I wouldn’t mind hanging around and watching you work sometime though. I had some free time last night.”

  “Well, I ain’t spending all my time in the garage.” Something about the way he said it pricked at my curiosity. Did he not want me around?

  “No? I went down to see Mason, you should see the set up down there. They’ve completely taken over the first six floors of Jakob’s building. He’s going to have a hissy when he gets back. If you had some errands we could’ve done them together.”

  “Didn’t want to trouble you with them, ain’t nothing you need worrying about. Went hunting earlier, and before I met up with you at Nightshade, I was helping Laveda move a bloody big wardrobe into her apartment. It wouldn’t have been bad, but we couldn’t get it into the door once I got it up into the hallway and I had to take it apart and put it back together again.”

  “Oh.” It all sounded so mundane. I guess I could see why he hadn’t thought to mention any of it before. “You could’ve asked for help. I’m sure Gunnar wouldn’t have minded, and we’ve got plenty of muscle around.”

  “Nah, you need them for your protection.” He waved the suggestion off, but I seized the opportunity to talk about it.

  “I’ve been thinking about that. Now that Lodinn’s dead and Jakob’s gone, I don’t think I need so many guys around. I don’t see why we can’t drop down to Gunnar and Lee.” And you, I wanted to say, but I didn’t want him to think he had to stick to me like glue.

  “I suppose we could go back to how it was before Jakob insisted on all the extra bodies about,” he considered aloud. “Unless you was to make a public appearance, then you’d have to take the lot with you.”

  “Oh, come on, Tommy didn’t used to go out with so much muscle around all the time.”

  “And look what happened to him.” He fixed me with a pointed look.

  “I don’t think I have to worry about assassination in my own territory. You don’t actually think I’m in danger here, do you?”

  Rob was silent for a long minute, picking up my hand and tapping his bottom lip with my knuckle as he thought it through. “No, I don’t. If you want to cut down on the security blokes, you can. If you figure Lee to watch over you during the day and evenings, and Gunnar and me at night, you should be good to keep on two more for public appearances, and a few more for special occasions and parties.”

  My heart gave a skip of happiness that he wasn’t being a stick in the mud over it and I gave him an enthusiastic kiss. “That’s exactly what I was thinking and it ties in perfectly with a project I’ve been thinking about.”

  “I’m almost afraid to ask,” he said with mock trepidation.

  I went on to rough out the idea I’d had about the private police, pitching the idea that it might give him something to do when he was done tinkering with his car, and to my great delight, he seemed interested in taking it on as a project of his own.

  “Really? That would be fantastic. Lee had some good ideas, but I admit, I’m pretty out of my element here.”

  “Sure, why not? Like you said, with Lodinn gone, there’s considerably less danger to your person. I could do with something to keep my interest most nights. I reckon it wouldn’t take me out into the field much either once it’s up and running proper like.”

  That was a load off of my mind. Not that I didn’t want to be involved with what they’d actually do if they found vampires killing or mistreating humans, but the biggest impact would be a visual deterrent by my way of thinking. That meant they had to be at least somewhat threatening to the local vampire population, and Rob was a master at intimidation.

  “Great, then I’ll leave it to you. You can start recruiting from my security detail tonight.”

  “Now there we’ll disagree. I’d like them to stay on until I can get Leila out here to respell the house. Then I’ll be able to sleep easier.”

  I didn’t bother to point out that he’d been sleeping fine. “Have you been able to reach her?”

  “Yeah, I’ve got her booked on a flight in a couple of days.”
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  “Good.” I relaxed against him, things were falling into place. “It’ll be nice to see your sister again.”

  “You’re not wrong there,” he said with a half smile. “She’s not the easiest person to talk to on the phone.”

  “I can imagine.” Leila seemed to live her life like she saw another universe within our own. Maybe she had the right of it and the rest of us were blind, but it did end up in some confusing conversations. “Well, she’s welcome to stay for as long as she likes, we’ve got plenty of room. Maybe we can even have your sister meet my sister?”

  “I’d like that. What about your parents?”

  “I’d rather keep them as far away from our mess as possible.”

  Both his brows rose. “Are we a mess?”

  “You know what I mean. I’m not calling us a mess in that sense. It’s just the less they know about vampires and magic, the better.”

  “I like our kind of mess,” he said, wrapping an arm around my waist to pull me closer.

  “So do I. But speaking of messes, you know you don’t have to push yourself to stay up as late as I do, right? I don’t want you to feel like you have something to prove with me.”

  “I’ll show you something to prove,” he rasped, and that put an end to the conversation.

  Rob definitely proved it to me (and then some) before we made it upstairs and into polite company. Somehow I think he missed my point, but I was far too dizzy with happiness and blood loss to worry about it overly much. If it bothered me in the back of my mind that he tended to distract me with sex when I brought up something that made him uncomfortable, I tried not to worry about it.

  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Sometimes I’m pretty stupid.

  Chapter Twelve

  Rob proved as good as his word, spending more time by my side over the next couple of days, working on drafting up a business plan for the new venture. Lee was keen to invest in the private police force, despite the fact that I said I’d find the money for it in my operating budget. Seeing as how we weren’t planning on charging anyone for their services, I wasn’t sure how he thought he’d get a return on investment, but they had their heads together working on all the angles, so I let them have at it, figuring they’d run whatever they came up with past me when they had a plan.