"You have my number. Use it." He growled.
And I did.
We had a few dates and they were as enjoyable as this one had been, but I didn't let things go beyond kissing and a quick feel of my boobs. I did grab his arse—his buns were worth a squeeze—but I knew I was holding back, and goddamn it, I also knew why.
My ex.
Noah
I shouldn't have waited for her. It was a mistake.
She'd quite rightly challenged me and what could I offer her?
Nothing. A big fat zero.
I couldn't get her out of my system and that was my problem, because after getting this far, I wasn't going to leave my friends behind. This was the dream I'd sold to them when I'd been turned and we'd first got together.
I owed them.
I'd already abandoned one person who now clearly despised me. No sense in adding another three people to the mix.
Stacey Williams wasn't mine.
But my brain wasn't getting the message. Neither was my little brain, because it remembered a random night three years ago… when just for a moment, I’d thought everything might work out. I should have known it wouldn't be that easy.
Three years earlier
“There’s been a change to tonight’s line up.” Zak said, as we prepared to go on stage at The Limelight, a club in North London.
“So?” Roman shrugged his shoulders. “Nothing new there. As long as it doesn’t affect us.”
“It’s a band called Seven Sisters. They’re following us on. The thing is, I just saw the lead singer...” His voice trailed off as he looked at me. “It’s Stacey.”
“Stacey? Noah’s Stacey?” Rex clarified.
“She’s hardly mine, is she?” I huffed. “We split up a long time ago, remember?”
We went out on stage and like usual I lost myself to the music, forgetting all about my ex. That was until she went on stage to do her own performance.
The girl I’d split from had been beautiful back then, but she was now all woman. Her brown hair was now a deep purple and rested over plump breasts encased in a leather bodice. Leather hot pants hugged her arse, and fishnets failed to cover shapely thighs and calves. She was spellbinding. The voice I knew had matured and learned its craft and Stacey sang like a powerhouse, the audience erupting in applause when the band finished.
I couldn’t keep my eyes off her and as hers finally found mine as she left the stage, what felt like electricity shot through my body at our connection. But then I realised it wasn’t electricity. It was magic. As she came nearer to me, I could smell it on her skin, could smell it on the other band members. They smelled like rose petals with an underlying hint of sage. However, as she finally approached me and stood right in front of where I was, her hand on her cocked hip, the intoxicating aroma of adrenaline danced in front of my nose, along with the sweet scent of her blood.
I picked her up and threw her over my shoulder and walked out of the club.
She beat at my back and then when that didn’t work, she made an illusion of stakes all pointing towards my heart.
“Nice try, but the only wood around here right now is tenting my trousers.”
I did however place her down on the ground and I turned to look at her, my arms folding over my chest.
“We can talk now. Or I can fuck you now and we can talk afterwards.”
“Afterwards.” She said, and we made our way into the nearest hotel.
“I’m going to use you for sex and then this time I’m leaving you.” She said, stripping out of her clothes and revealing that hot body in all its glory.
“If it'll make you feel better, then be my guest.” I shrugged off my own clothes, picked her up and threw her on the bed.
“How did I not realise you were a vampire?” She said.
“Because you weren’t a witch then. You were human and in order to protect you, I had to keep away from you.” I let my fangs descend and I bit her nipple. Then I sunk myself inside her.
She arched under me.
I moved my head under her ear and trailed kisses down her neck, smelling the blood that sang to me. “When did you become a witch?”
“After you.”
“Ouch.”
"Don't flatter yourself. I meant I found my calling and a new set of friends. Not that you drove me to look for how to turn you into a frog."
I stared at her and arched a brow. "You telling me it never crossed your mind?"
"Well, maybe every time I saw you with that other woman."
I thrust inside her again. "What other woman?"
Stacey stopped me from moving and stared at me. “The woman I first saw you with in the doorway. You were at her neck kissing her. I kept seeing you together.”
Smiling, I shook my head. "Mya is my sire. She made me a vampire. Nothing more. There was never more. I’ve only ever kissed the neck of one woman.” I licked up hers, feeling her skin goose bump beneath me. “I was feeding.”
“What does it feel like?” Stacey gasped, and so I showed her.
I pushed deep inside her and then I bit down on her neck. I thrust and sucked, thrust and sucked until she came hard, her pussy clamping around my cock and making me spill inside her. I licked the bite wounds, closing them and moved to her side.
“That was…” She said and I waited for her to finish. To tell me how good we were together. Maybe this was our fresh start now we were talking about the past.
“Okay.” She said, pushing off the bed and gathering up her clothes.
“Okay? What do you mean okay?” I scrabbled to get off the bed, trying to work out what she was doing.
She pulled a bored face. “I meant it was adequate. I got off and the bite was a nice touch. I’ll just go freshen up now, excuse me.” I watched, my jaw dropping as she sauntered away from the best defining moment of my life.
After she’d been in there a few minutes, my ego decided that this wasn’t how we were leaving things. I’d have to continue fucking her until she admitted it was perfection. But when I walked into the bathroom she wasn’t there. There was just a hint of the scent of rose and sage and a message on the mirror written in bright red lipstick.
Fangs for the memory
Even now, the memory came back to me like it happened just yesterday. That was the thing about being a vampire. Time had a different meaning. Stacey had left and at first I'd considered finding her and begging for her forgiveness, but then I'd decided I deserved it all, and that if she'd really wanted me back she'd have said so. The woman was not shy. Plus, I had other thoughts and feelings of why it was better to just leave it be.
A day later a talent scout had approached us with a promise of a recording contract which we came so close to signing, until a recession hit and we were dropped like a 100% mortgage offer. The interest had been enough for me to distract myself from Stacey. That was the excuse I gave myself anyway.
Deciding we just weren't meant to be.
That she was better off without me.
Deserved someone who put her first, always.
I let her go.
Again.