When the next song ended, Isabelle stepped away from her dance partner, determined to escape. She made it two feet before arms swept around her. She knew instantly who held her by the fierce jolt that rocked her body. Her urge to flee vanished as she turned toward him. His dark hair was damp with sweat, and clung to his forehead with a tussled boyishness that melted her heart and caused a fluttering in her stomach. Without thinking she reached up and gently brushed it back, startled by the wave of tenderness that washed through her. The amount of caring that swamped her.
She hesitantly met his gaze as he stared down at her with dark, turbulent eyes. His jaw was clenched so tightly that a muscle began to twitch in his cheek. The anger, and self loathing, in his gaze caused her eyes to widen in surprise. There was an air of hostility surrounding him that shocked her as she tried to figure out what could have caused it.
Then, the look vanished, as the fierce hunger she had become accustomed to replaced it. For a moment, her breath left her as that look sizzled through her. Then, he was pulling her tightly against him.Her body meldedto his as if he was the missing jigsaw piece that she had been searching for. The world disappeared as he rested his forehead against hers, his dark eyes filling her vision, piercing her soul. What she had been trying so hard to find with everyone else blazed to life. She pressed against him, her heart thumping wildly in her chest as a feeling of contentment, of coming home, stolethrough her.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and turned her head to rest it against his shoulder. It didn’t matter that the music pulsing around them was fast and hard. Nothing mattered as she moved slowly with him, relishing in the feel of his hard arms around her, in the warmth of his body enveloping her.She lovedthe feeling of strength, security, and desire that rushed over her.
Stefan held her tightly, moving slowly. He closed his eyes and rested his cheek on top of her silky head. The fresh apple scent of her hair enveloped him. Beneath that, he could smell the sweetness of her blood, and her delicious natural fragrance. He found himself growing hard as desire was finally awakened in him, desire and something more, something shocking. Something that shoved all of his earlier resolutions away.
He felt as if he had come home, as if he had finally found the place where he belonged. A fierce urge to protect her, to keep her safe, and to cherish her rocked through him. With horrifying clarity he began to realize how much he truly did care for her. He wanted so much more than just her body, he wanted all of her.
Fear lanced through him as his hands tightened upon her. He didn’t needthis;he didn’t want to feel like this. It made him vulnerable in a way that he hadn’t been since he was a child, and he didn’t like the feeling one bit.
He wanted to get away from her as fast as he could, but he couldn’t bring himself to release her, couldn’t bring himself to step away. The music ended, and it was Isabelle that pulled away. Her eyes were dark and cloudy;tears brimmedin their vivid depths. The sight of those tears rocked him. He had never expected to see tears in hereyes;he had thought that she was toostrong for that, to proud for that. He instantly wanted to get rid of them, to shield her from whatever was hurting her. Then,he realized that it was him that was causing her hurt,himthat was tearing her apart.
He released her instantly, too shaken up to do anything else. She stared at him for a moment longer before turning and bolting off the floor. He watched her go, his own fear keeping him rooted in place as she hurried through the crowd. A sense of loss began to enfold him, but he refused to go after her, refused to stop her.
He needed to figure out his own emotions, needed to get rid of the horrible vulnerability that was filling him before he could be near her again. He needed to get the hell away from her before he began to care for herevenmore than he already did. He knew what happened when he cared about people, and he was not about to let it happen again.
Isabelle pushed her way through the crowd, determined to put some distance between her and Stefan. It seemed useless. His scent clung toher;her skin still burned everywhere that he had touched. The door at the back of the club beckoned to her like a homing beacon. She slammed into the bar, shoving roughly against it, and nearly falling in her eagerness to be free.
Fresh air assailed her and she inhaled gratefully. She was still shivering from the aftereffects of his touch, and the burning desire that coursed through her. She couldn’t do this anymore, she simply couldn’t do it. She wrapped her arms around herself and fell against the cement wall as she desperately fought back the tears that wanted to fall. She hated him for doing this to her, for making her feel like this, for disrupting her perfectly nice life. She hatedhim for the fact that, even nowshe wanted to feel his arms around her again. Wanted him to hold her. Wanted to know every inch of him.
In his arms she had felt whole, complete. Now, without him, she felt vulnerable, and open, and wounded. She didn’t even like him, how the hell could he make her feel like this, when she didn’t even like him? And yet, she had to admit to herself, she did like him. She liked his lazysmile;the way that he looked at her, the fact that he had been willing to help out with the house, and to help her mother with Kathleen. She liked that he had made it possible for Aiden to have a large party, the way he had saved her and Julian, the way that he had protected her from Jess.And she was truly beginning to like the way that he made her feel like a desirable, precious woman. The way he made her feel likeshe wassomething that he couldn’t part with.
She was even beginning to like the way that he made her body feel.
A tear slid free as she began to realize that everything she had been fighting so hard against was happening anyway. That all herresolutions, and fierce determination to stay away, werecoming to naught. He had managed to work his way through all of her defenses, and he had managed to work his way into her body. Into her soul. She wanted to hate him for it, but she found herself unable to summon up the strength for that emotion, or the desire for it. She couldn’t hate him, she could never hate him.She knew that now.
Isabelle bent her head as she shuddered. It was time to concede defeat. There was no use fighting against the inevitable. She wanted him, and God help her, she was beginning to need him. She was beginning to feel empty, and alone, whenever he wasn’t near. Why fight something, if it was meant to be?Why keep putting herself, and him, through this torture?
She sighed wearily as she straightened away from the wall. All she wanted to do now was go home. She was completely drained. She was reaching for the handle when a thick, large hand seized hold of her armandspunher around. Isabelle cried out in surprise as she was shoved into the wall.
“Look at this!” a man cried.
Isabelle blinked in surprise at the four men in front ofher;one was tall and blond, another short with red hair, and the other two of average height, with brown hair. All of their eyes narrowed as they slowly, leeringly, scanned her body. She stiffened angrily and stepped away from the wall. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she demanded.
Then, the smell of them hit her. She instantly recognized what they were as their eyes came back to hers. “Well, I’ll be,” the redhead said, his eyes slowly surveying her again.
Isabelle’s hands clenched, but she didn’t make a move. They were her kind, but unlike the feeling she had experiencedon first meetingStefan, fear was beginning to coil tightly within her belly. She forced herself not to show it, forced her face to remain impassive as they surveyed her. They smelled awful, they smelledwrong.
They smelled like death, and she knewinstantly thatthese werethe ones ofher kind that took pleasure in killing humans, thrived off the feeling of power that it gave them. She had never encountered anything like them before, but she had heard about them, and she knew that they existed. She had just never thought that she would meet them. Unfortunately, she had been wrong.
“Excuse me,” Isabelle said coldly.
“No need to get so haughty,” the blond said. “We’vejustnever run across a female of our kind that was so lovely before. We’re just a little curious.”
“Well, now that your curiosity has been satisfied, I need to get back inside.”
She moved to go around them, but the blond grabbed hold of her arm and shoved her back. Isabelle’s eyes flashed with rage. “Oh,she’s a feisty one,”he leered.
“I like it,” one of the brunette’s chimedin.
“Let me by,” she hissed.
“Just calm down gorgeous,” the redhead said. “We just want to talk to you.”
“Let me by!”
