A Job From Hell (Ancient Legends #1)

stronger, clouding my mind,
consuming my body. I couldn’t think straight, just let myself fall into the
dark needs I had ignored for five hundred years. For a moment I hesitated, my
lips lingering over her skin, then opened my mouth. My fangs touched her skin.
The sudden knock on the door jolted me out of the moment. I sat up, startled.
    “Go away, Kieran,” I yelled.
    “Don’t stop,” Amber whispered, sitting up
on her elbow, so cute with her disheveled hair and innocent gaze.
    “You’ve no idea what you’re requesting.” I
pressed my eyes shut, mad at myself for what I’d just been about to do. How
could I let myself lose control like that?
    The room seemed to spin as one pang of
hunger after another washed over me. Setting my jaw, I pulled Amber to my
chest. Her blood’s call tortured me, but I deserved it. I deserved any torture
I’d get for being so careless.
    “I know guys do the casual relationship
thing all the time, and I want you to know that I’m okay with it if you are,”
Amber said.
    “What do you mean by ‘casual’?” I pushed her
away as my temper flared.
    Amber shrugged and pulled the covers over
her body. Her face was hard, any traces of love gone. Somewhere at the back of
my mind I heard Kieran’s voice say, I told you so. Damn him. Damn her. Damn that bloody bond . Not only was I stuck
with a mortal; I was stuck with a mortal commitment phobe , and I was growing sick of it. Fate was
probably watching right now, laughing her head off at my expense.
    Without looking at Amber, I jumped out of
bed, shrugged into a clean shirt and left the room, slamming the door behind me.

Chapter 25

 
    I propped up on my elbow and watched Aidan
stomp out of the room like a bomb had just gone off. Okay, I didn’t make the
most romantic statement in the world, but after the experience with Cameron who
could blame me for thinking all guys were morons? There I was, basically
offering him dating with no strings attached and he acted like I just deceived
him and robbed him of his most precious possession. Our knee-weakening kiss still
lingered on my mind. Trust me to put my foot in my big mouth and get the nicest
guy I’d ever met to make a run for the hills.
    Wrapping the bedspread around me to keep
off the Scottish chill, I jumped out of the bed and went in search of my
clothes. My pair of jeans was torn to pieces. The shirt I’d worn the night
before didn’t look much better. I shimmied into what was left of them and
headed for the privacy of my room. Closing the door behind me, I switched on
the lights. My heart thudded in my chest as I kneeled on the floor to peer
under the bed and beneath the sheets. The scary snakes were gone. Taking a deep
breath, I relaxed a little.
    What happened to Layla ?
I couldn’t remember anything between the sudden, piercing pain in my thigh and
then waking up in Aidan’s arms. Aidan’s
arms —it sounded so right, the place I should be rather than in my
pretty yet empty room, all alone with a sore thigh and no one to comfort me.
    I rummaged through my bedside table until I
found a pack of aspirin and swallowed another pill with the stale glass of
water I’d carried upstairs the night before, then peeled off my shredded
clothes to take a quick shower. The water cooled my feverish skin. With a
shaking finger, I brushed over the bruise on my thigh, just above the knee,
where the snake had sunk its teeth. I trembled, a sudden wave of dread washing
over me. The memory of Aidan sucking out the venom was faint, but enough to
remember I hadn’t put up a fight. I’d found it too easy to trust him with my
life.
    After rubbing my body with a dry towel, I
gave my teeth a quick brush and slipped into my flannel PJs, then snuggled
under the covers, musing.
    Should I go after him and clarify that I
wasn’t actually keen on anything casual? I sighed and switched off the lights.
Cameron had always been the one to run and I the one to do the chasing, trying
to woo him and rectify whatever I’d done wrong. In the end, he’d ended up
cheating on me anyway. Whatever I’d seen in him was now gone, but I’d learned my
lesson. No guy would ever make me trip over myself to please him. I figured, Aidan
was a big boy. His ego could deal with a bit of rejection. And if not—I
didn’t want to go there. He simply had to be different and like me the way I
was now that I’d fallen in love with him.

 
    ***

 
    Living with vampires was messing up my
routine big time, slowly