Chapter Eighteen

Things Unusually Done

Ira drove us out of town opposite the way I’d come in on Thursday. I tried to make enough small talk to keep my mind off what I’d just done, what I was about to do. It whirled through my head like a thing alive.

I was in a car alone with a vampire. I was in a car alone with a vampire on our way to a secluded area. I was in a car alone with a vampire on our way to a secluded area to get our freak on. I was not a freaking genius.

Hoping I wasn’t being too obvious, I stared out the window and tried to collect myself. I felt a cool hand on mine, and I looked over to see Ira twining our fingers together, a soft smile on his face. He squeezed my hand gently. My face was warming, so I looked away hoping he hadn’t seen it in the fading light. But I didn’t pull back.

As we drove, civilization ebbed and the wilderness advanced. The sun had set by this time, the light fading as the city did. In no time at all the town was behind us, and when we rounded a bend it was like it was never there at all. Of course, right about then it hit me—I was sitting in the dark with a vampire who would now have full access to whatever powers he possessed. Powers which I didn’t know the full extent of.

Eric would be having a heart-attack right now, I thought. Thinking of my old partner made me smile as I imagined the lecture I would be receiving if he were here. I realized then that I missed him. I hadn’t lied when I’d told Milly I enjoyed being solo, but I missed Eric all the same. If nothing else there was a chance he might be able to talk some sense into me about all this. A slight chance. Maybe.

While I’d been reminiscing we pulled off the highway onto an unpaved road. Ira let go of me to take the wheel more firmly. I refused to analyze why my hand felt colder after he let it go.

The headlights turned on as Ira tweaked the button. Until now we hadn’t been using them, and I wondered if he’d forgotten he wasn’t supposed to be able to see in the dark. I debated for a second whether I would make a crack about it, but in the end let it go. This didn’t seem like the time for banter.

A gate appeared in the headlights, one of those kind made out of three metal bars used to keep cattle out. It was low enough to climb over, but anything bigger than a person would need a key. Just as I thought that the car slowed to a stop.

“Just a sec,” Ira said.

He fiddled with his key ring, unclipped what looked like a padlock key, and got out of the car. His body blocked the beam, but I doubted it would impair his ability to see the lock. He let the gate fall open and it swung wide. Quickly, he trotted back to the car. We drove just enough to take us through the gate, and then Ira was hopping back out. When the gate was closed and locked behind us we were off again.

I could tell this was a road less traveled because it was bumpier. This seemed like an awful lot of trouble for a hook-up. It was a thought I kept to myself.

Trees in this area were thicker than on the main road, which would make sense if it was private property. They didn’t make a canopy over the road, like in Eastern states. Instead it was more like the road simply weaved through them. It was spooky in the darkness, lit only by headlights, but a sight worth seeing anyway.

Silence was broken when Ira said suddenly, “Close your eyes.”

The look I gave him said everything I needed to. He smiled. It was lopsided like his grins, but still sweet, somehow.

“Trust me,” he said.

I stared at him from the corner of my eye. And then my eyelids fluttered closed.

The driver’s door opened. It shut. A barely audible crunch of ground under shoe. My door opened. Colder air from outside breathed on my face. Ira’s hand led me out of the car, around to the front, and then gently pushed me so I was sitting on the hood. I heard him sit beside me.

“Okay,” came his voice. “Open your eyes now.”

We were roughly fifteen feet away from the edge of a sharp drop. On private property there were no guardrails, so there was nothing but open sky. Well, that and the sparkling of the city beneath us. It looked bigger than I knew it was, in that way that smallish towns do at night. Every light conspired together, the darkness shielding their sources so that every street light, garage door, intruder detector, pathway marker, and the odd vehicle made a grander spread than the one that really existed. Knowing that the town sprawled down there, and there was nothing between me and it, was a hell of a rush. Guardrails are so common that they blunt the impact of a drive through the mountains. Amazing what such a simple change could make.

“It’s beautiful,” I said. It seemed inadequate, but Ira smiled again.

“It is,” he agreed easily.

I crossed my arms over my chest, pulling my jacket in tighter without zipping up. The cold wasn’t that bad, just enough to notice.

“You know,” Ira said, “all this property belongs to my family. They allow me my own house, but really it’s just to humor me.” He nodded his head, and I noticed a path leading through the trees.

“That’s okay, though,” he went on. “It still feels like it’s mine. And you can’t get this view anywhere else.”

Apparently it was share time because my mouth opened before I could stop it. “I grew up on the road, mostly. I spent a lot of time with my dad at our house, sure. But we hit the road at every opportunity, to get me used to it.”

Whoa, Regan, don’t over share. I paused to gather my thoughts. “Anyway, the house is nice and all, but it’s the open roads that really feel like home. When I get home sick, it’s yellow broken lines I picture.”

I gestured with my head to the scene below. “But it’s nice that you have this. I guess there’s something to be said about somewhere to come back to, if that’s what you want.”

“Yeah, but look at you,” he said, shaking his head. “You can go anywhere, do anything. Nobody can tell you what to do unless you let them.”

“It doesn’t suck,” I said. “It’s gotta be much better than the other way.”

He looked at me, eyes unreadable. “There’s nothing about your house that you miss?”

I thought about it. “Well,” I finally said, “there’s this lake on our property where Dad taught me how to camp and stuff, how to take care of myself. I keep promising myself I’ll make it back there for a look, but I never do.”

“You and your dad are really close, huh?” Now it was his voice that held something indefinable.

“Yeah,” I answered. “We’re all we’ve got, and we like it that way.”

Ira shrugged. “My parents split when I was really little. I didn’t really know my father that well. A part of me feels like I should try to find him, but I just…Why?” He sighed. “I only need one parent anyway, you know?”

A shaky breath escaped me. “Yeah. I know.”

He seemed to sense we were on dangerous ground, and the subject dropped.

“I don’t usually talk about this stuff.” His voice was barely there.

I replied in kind. “Me either.”

Scooting closer, he reached out to my folded hands. I gave him one, and he laced our fingers again.

“Regan,” he said. “Let me make love to you.”

Relief flooded me, and I grinned. “I thought that’s why we were here?”

“No.” He stepped closer, black eyes intense. For a second I thought he was using his mojo on me, but I reached for my meditation space and my mind was whole. “Let’s walk up that trail, go to my bedroom, and let me make love to you. Let’s do all the things we can’t do up against the wall in a club. Let’s get naked from head to toe, and spend the whole night just pleasuring each other until we’ve never felt better than we do at the end.”

His hand came up to cup my cheek. “And then stay. And I’ll drive you back to town in the morning.”

My pulse was racing, heart pounding in my chest. “I don’t,” I tried, “I don’t ever…”

“I know,” he said gently. “But you can, Regan. Spend the night with me.”

He dropped my hand and released my cheek to take a few steps away. “Or, we can fuck over the hood of my car, and you’ll be home in thirty. We both feel the chemistry, there’s no reason not to.”

This time, instead of just doing it, he held his hand out to me. “But there’s every reason to do more.”

It seemed like forever that we stayed like that, him standing with his hand outstretched, me sitting frozen on his hood. And then, slowly, I slid off his car.

With trembling fingers, I reached out to take his hand.