Lynsay Sands - The Reluctant Vampire

But that wasn’t even the worst of it. The thing that really ate at him was that he couldn’t even remember what Jenny had looked like anymore. That wasn’t because of Drina’s arrival. He hadn’t been able to recall her face for a while now. Her image had faded from his mind almost before she’d been in the ground. It was wrong. Shameful. She’d died to be with him and deserved better than that.

“And what does Drina deserve?” Anders asked, obviously still in his thoughts.

Harper turned and scowled at the usually uncommunicative man. “What do you care?”

“I don’t,” Anders said with a shrug, moving cards around on the table. “If you want to throw away a good thing when fate is kind enough to give it to you, go for it.”

“Thank you,” Harper said dryly, turning back to the counter.

“But I’ll tell you this,” Anders said in a conversational tone. “If it had turned out that Drina could have been a life mate to either you or me. . you’d be dead. I’d have killed to claim her. Most immortals would. So I’m thinking you’re either a fool or seriously fucked up. Either way, she’s better off without you.”

Harper whipped around to gape at him, but Anders didn’t even glance up from his cards and continued matter-of-factly playing his game as he added, “I’m doubting she’ll see it that way, though. This’ll eat at her, distract her from what she’s supposed to be doing, and a distracted hunter usually ends up a dead hunter.”

Anders paused to glance to Harper, and added, “That’s all right, though. You’ll have two life mates’ deaths on your hands and can completely submerge yourself in guilt and misery, right?”

“Gin,” Stephanie said triumphantly, laying her cards on the table.

Drina tore her gaze from the ceiling and reached for a card from the deck.

“Hello. I said gin, ” Stephanie said dryly, making Drina pause and blink at her in confusion. Heaving a heavy sigh, the teenager shook her head. “You aren’t even paying attention, Dree.”

“Sorry,” Drina muttered, and then a small smile tugged at her lips, and she set her cards down, saying, “Beth calls me that.”

“Dree?” Stephanie asked, collecting the cards and beginning to shuffle them again. “She’s your partner, right?”

Drina nodded, suddenly wishing Beth were there. She could use some advice at the moment.

“Harper’s avoiding you,” Stephanie murmured sadly as she began to deal cards.

“It would seem so,” Drina said on a sigh, her eyes sliding to the ceiling again. He’d been avoiding her ever since their return the night before. He’d escaped to his room to shower and change the moment they’d gotten their coats and boots off and hadn’t left it until she and Stephanie had retired for the night. She’d heard him come down from the third floor and descend the creaky stairs.

Now it was midmorning, and he was apparently still sleeping. Or hiding in his room. She didn’t know which but suspected it was the latter.

“What are you going to do about it?” Stephanie asked quietly, finishing dealing and setting the remaining cards on the table.

Drina shook her head. She’d lain awake most of the night trying to figure that one out, and she’d been fretting over it since rising with Stephanie this morning and still didn’t have a clue. It was hard to know what to do to drag him out of his gloom and preoccupation if he was going to just hide in his damned room.

Oh, she knew what she wanted to do. Drina wanted to go to his room, climb into his bed, and wipe the memories of Jenny from his mind with hot, live-life-mate sex. Unfortunately, she had responsibilities here. She had to spend the nights with Stephanie to be sure the girl didn’t take it into her head to run off to her mortal family, and she had to spend the days watching out for her until Anders took over. That left only the evening hours for her to do anything, and Drina suspected Harper was going to use the presence of the others to keep her at arm’s length, or-

Her thoughts scattered to the four winds, and Drina stiffened as she heard footsteps moving along the landing above them and then start down the stairs.

“It’s him,” Stephanie whispered, sounding excited, and Drina glanced at her with surprise. Before she could ask how the girl knew it wasn’t someone else, Harper came around the corner and into the kitchen.

“Good morning, ladies,” he greeted, crossing straight to Drina and bending to press a kiss to her forehead.

“Morning,” Drina whispered huskily, surprise and relief leaving her wide-eyed as he straightened.

Harper paused halfway upright, his gaze caught by hers, then bent to kiss her again, this time on the lips.

“Oh geez, gag,” Stephanie said with disgust, as the kiss turned carnal. “Really, Harper? At least Dree is imagining dragging you upstairs to the privacy and comfort of a bedroom and not throwing you on the table to have her way with you.”

“The table?” Drina asked breathlessly when Harper immediately broke their kiss.

“Sorry. A stray thought,” Harper muttered, straightening.

Stephanie snorted. “More like a full-blown fantasy. I mean, it was pretty detailed.” Standing, she moved around the table, heading for the stairs. “I’m going to brush my hair and change my clothes if we’re going out. That gives you two about ten minutes to get it out of your system, so I’m not stuck with a couple of frustrated horndogs all day. But no pressure,” she added on a laugh as she swung out of the room and started upstairs.

“We’re going out?” Drina murmured, turning her gaze back to Harper.

“I thought I’d take you girls to the city for lunch and some shopping,” Harper admitted, catching her hand and dragging her from her chair.

“Oh,” she breathed, stumbling after him through the kitchen and into the pantry. “What are we doing?”

Harper came to a halt in the small pantry, turned to catch her by the waist, and lifted her onto the counter in front of the window overlooking the backyard.

“What-?”

“You heard her. We have ten minutes,” Harper muttered, catching the hem of her T-shirt and tugging it upward to reveal another of her new bras, this one a pale pink that stood out against her olive skin. Pausing, he breathed, “Damn, I think I have a new favorite.”

“Harper,” Drina protested on a laugh, grabbing for his hands as he tugged one cup aside to free a breast. “Stop, we can’t.”

“Ten minutes,” he reminded her, bending forward to latch onto the nipple he’d just bared.

“But we’ll pass out, and she’ll find us naked on the pantry floor,” Drina groaned, releasing his hands to grab his head instead. Unfortunately, while her mind was being sensible-at least a tiny part of it was-her body wasn’t like-minded, and instead of forcing his head away, she laced her fingers through his hair, silently urging him on.

“Damn,” Harper breathed, letting her nipple slip from his mouth. He remained still for a moment, and then straightened and slipped her breast back into her bra.

Drina nearly groaned aloud when he then tugged her shirt back down, but she knew it was for the best.

“We’ll just have to manage it with our clothes on.”

She blinked with confusion. “What?”

“We’ll stay dressed,” Harper announced, and then stepped between her open, jeans-clad thighs and kissed her.

Drina didn’t have a clue what he was up to, but his tongue was now in her mouth, his hands finding and caressing her breasts through her T-shirt and bra, and she found it hard to think about anything but the sensations now flooding through her.

When he moved closer and ground his hardness against her through her jeans, Drina groaned and dug her nails into his T-shirt, dragging it upward. Harper immediately broke their kiss, and muttered, “Clothes on,” as he trailed kisses across her cheek to her ear.