Unbound, page 7
part #1 of Forbidden Bond Series
“Maybe we can find something to drink,” He suggested and grabbed her hand to tow her down the hall. Dani felt a pang of jealousy as every girl they passed looked at Lucas like fresh meat. In the kitchen, there were several kegs on tap and large basin of some kind of punch people ladled into cups. It was an odd purple color. A guy walked up and added a bottle of grape juice and a whole bottle of clear liquor to the mix.
“What is that?” Lucas wondered aloud.
The guy smiled at them and spoke slowly as if he were speaking to children. “It’s called Purple Jesus. Everybody brings a bottle of liquor and dumps it in. Then we add enough grape juice to make it purple.” He poured a ladle full in a cup and handed in to Lucas. He took a big swig.
“JESUS!” Lucas coughed and sputtered while the guy laughed.
“And that’s why it’s called Purple Jesus. That’s what everybody says the first time they try it.” Laughing aloud he walked away.
Lucas held the cup out for her to take a drink. “I don’t drink.” Dani wrinkled her nose.
“It’s alright if you’re with me. I won’t let you go overboard.” He gave her a chiding look and all but forced the cup into her hand. She’d missed him so much and wanted to make him happy. Peer pressure was a bitch. She took a big gulp from the cup. Coughing and gasping she handed it back. He laughed as he put his arm around her waist and led the way to one of the kegs.
“Maybe you should start with something less potent.” He handed her a cup of beer and watched expectantly. She took a drink at his coaxing. It wasn’t pleasant but not nearly as bad as the other stuff. He chugged his cup and refilled it with beer. Lindsay and Olivia came down the hall with their eyebrows drawn together at the sight of her holding a cup of beer. Dani shrugged and inclined her head toward Lucas. One of the guys hanging out in the kitchen struck up a conversation with Lucas and they stood several feet away. Dani spoke to Lindsay as Lucas continued to drink and talk with a group of students. They were making her uncomfortable taking turns staring at them. She could hear them talking about her hair and complimenting Lucas on his taste in women. Occasionally he would come and refill her cup or insist she have a drink of his purple punch. Numbness was setting in. “Maybe you should take it easy. It’s not like you to cave this way.” Lindsay chastised her for giving into Lucas’s wishes.
“I’ve missed him so much and he has to leave tomorrow. I don’t want to upset him. I want him to be happy,” She slurred leaning against Lindsay. “I gotta pee.” Dani realized it was unusual for her to announce her need for a ladies room as she staggered down the hall. She saw a guy she recognized and she couldn’t seem to stop herself from being social. He was on his cell looking confused. She patted him on the shoulder.
“Don’t I know you?” Realizing too late that this sounded like a pick up line. “I mean, really. I have seen you somewhere before haven’t I?” That close it was hard to miss how large and absolutely yummy the guy was. He looked like a body builder with the face of a very tough angel.
“Yes, I’m sure it’s her,” he said into the receiver while looking at her. “Dani, how are you?” he looked at the phone and rolled his eyes. “I mean Danielle. How are you, Danielle?”
“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to disturb you.” She stumbled past him and he steadied her before she ran into the wall.
“I’m Cayden, a friend of Chase’s. You probably recognized me from the club. I haven’t seen you since that first time.” He said this with the phone still to his ear. That was odd but Dani was too numb to care. “Are you here alone?” he asked.
“I’m here with some friends and my boyfriend.” There were so many people passing in the hall she’d been pushed a bit uncomfortably against Cayden.
“Your boyfriend is here? Do I know him?” he asked then he jerked the phone away from his ear. The person on the phone was yelling. He turned away from her to prevent her from overhearing and said, “I can hear you so stop screaming. I’m trying but she’s drunk. Why don’t you get your ass over here?”
“I really gotta find the ladies room.” She took off before she peed on his feet and tripped twice on the way up the stairs. She realized she was drunk when she had to lean against the wall to stop the room from spinning while she relieved herself. Going back down the stairs was slow going. She pushed through the crowd back to the kitchen but Lucas and his new friends were gone. This was bad. Dani wanted to leave and didn’t think she would make it alone.
Lindsay appeared suddenly from a door Dani had assumed was a pantry but it led to the basement. “Lindsay have you seen Lucas? I’m ready to go back to the dorm.” She slurred leaning against the wall.
“I just saw him downstairs with the jock squad. He’s trashed. You don’t look so good either.” She looked Dani up and down disapprovingly.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she slurred, and headed down the steps ignoring Lindsay’s critique of her appearance. She needed to find Lucas and get out of there.
She found him at the bottom of the stairs with his new friends laughing at someone vomiting in the corner. “Lucas I’m ready to go now,” she yelled over the music.
He turned to look at her, annoyed. “Don’t be such a bitch. It’s still early,” He snapped.
A bunch of girls she hadn’t noticed laughed from behind her. The leader of the jock squad patted Lucas on the back and said, “That’s right man, you can’t let a bitch ruin your fun.” He stepped closer to her and picked up a lock of hair from her shoulder and sniffed it, “If you want I can distract her a while.”
Dani smacked his hand away and the effort knocked her off balance. She stumbled against the railing, hurt that Lucas would speak to her that way and more hurt that he would allow this jerk to speak to her the way he had. She glared at Lucas as he laughed with the others and went back to partying. Anger and embarrassment carried her up the stairs. She lurched for the door to find her way home before passing out. On the porch, she literally ran into Cayden. He once again saved her from a spill. She looked up to find his amused face. Leaning into him, all her muscles went limp.
“I don’t think I can walk home.” She paused. “Hey, has anyone ever told you how beautiful you are? Damn boy. You are beautiful.” It sounded like her voice but she didn’t remember deciding to say the words, true as they were.
“Don’t worry, Dani. I’ll give you a ride. To answer your question, I have been called handsome or attractive many times but I don’t believe beautiful is one I’ve heard.” He scooped her up into his arms and smiled down with something like satisfaction in his hazel eyes.
* * *
Chase pulled up to the address Cayden had given him to find Danielle being loaded into Cayden’s car. “What happened to her?”
He pushed Cayden out of the way and snatched her up trying not to jostle her too much. He leaned her limp body against the side of the car. He supported her head while he checked her for injury. Looking her over, Chase’s heart sped. He was using his lower body to pin her against the car in an effort to hold her up and the contact was torture.
“She fell into me literally and said she couldn’t make it home alone. She passed out. I was going to take her to the dorms and try to track her scent to her room.” He looked on, annoyed at Chase’s attitude. “You should talk to her about feeding on people that are over intoxicated. The practice is dangerous and a bit unethical.” Cayden filled Chase in.
Dani half opened her eyes and mumbled, “I’m nobody’s bitch!”
“Where’s her boyfriend? He should be protecting her!” What had happened to her that’d brought about that comment?
“Dude, I never saw him. The only vampires I scented were us two. I think he may have left her here. Nobody inside is even looking for her. I would have left her to her own devices had I known you’d be treating me like the bad guy. Shit,” Cayden said indignantly.
Feeling like a heel, Chase apologized, “Look, I’m sorry, man. Thanks for calling me. She looks like she needed both of us tonight.”
Chase lifted her luscious body into his arms and carried her to his car. He hooked her seatbelt as she breathed his name, “Chase?”
He pulled back thinking she was awake but her eyes were still shut. “Yes, Lovely, I’m here.” She sighed reaching up to his face and pulled him closer. His heart was pounding as she brushed her lips across his cheek to just below his ear and inhaled deeply. Her hand fell and she turned her head to rest against the seat. After leaning against the car for a few minutes to calm down and put his thoughts back together Chase drove to the dorm area.
When he carried her into the dorm, he had to enthrall a group of girls so he wouldn’t be seen. No boys were permitted at night. Her room number was on the key he’d fished out of her pocket. Inside her room he found a note on her bed. Chase laid her down and pick up the note.
“BE SAFE! I’ll be back tomorrow afternoon.”
He spied a box of condoms on the bed and his blood boiled. She was being left alone tonight to have sex with a guy that didn’t even care enough to see to her home safely. Be safe? What a joke! Chase was struggling to understand why he felt so possessive and protective of Danielle. She was making him crazed. He’d never been territorial like this and she wasn’t even his friend, much less a girlfriend. He decided to leave her there and do his best to move on. He’d done his good deed and it was time to go. She must love this guy that left her tonight. He went for the door.
She stirred on the bed, “I’m too hot,” she whispered and began to disrobe. Before he knew it she had her shirt off and was shimmying out of her jeans. She sniffed the air, “Chase, where’d you go?”
“I’m here, Lovely.” Maybe he could just stay a little while to be sure she’s well. Making an excuse to stay near her, he shut the door and locked it. A sliver of moon light spilled from the window across her body revealing the perfect peaches and cream skin of her abdomen and her black panties. She patted the bed next to her in an irresistible invitation. Chase climbed in next to the delicious heat he’d been craving for weeks. She nuzzled in closer to his chest. He brushed the hair out of her face.
She opened her eyes and leveled him with the full force of her ice blue gaze combined with her skin against him and the scent of vanilla and lavender. She turned her head, brushing his cheek with her soft lips and told him, “I can smell you. You smell like happiness and sunshine.”
The smile that crossed his face threatened to crack it. She was perfection and knowing that the attraction was mutual made him feel a little less insane.
“Why did you do that?” She spoke with her lips near his ear, sending chills over his skin.
“What did I do, Lovely?” He tensed hoping he hadn’t somehow offended her. She’d invited him into her bed after all.
“You make me think of you, dream of you. Why?” She was spilling the truth with no inhibitions.
“I’ve been dreaming of you also my Lovely. Every minute of every day since the first night I found you,” He admitted. He couldn’t take it anymore. He turned his face to find her lips soft as petals. She kissed him back so sweetly, stroking him with her little pink tongue and he thought he would lose his heart right there in her arms. He began to run the back of his hand down the bare skin of her side and farther down past her lace panties. The waves of goose bumps rising and falling on her tender flesh made him want to follow them with his mouth.
“Do you want me, Chase?” she whispered around wet kisses.
Chase’s mind swam with the thought of having all of her but he wouldn’t do that tonight. She was drunk and he couldn’t violate her trust that way. He’d already taken too much from her tonight. He was already invading her private thoughts and she likely wouldn’t remember it. “I do, Danielle, but I don’t think this is the best night.” She giggled and threw her leg up over his hip.
“What’s so funny?” he asked.
She was quiet for a moment. “I like hearing you say my name,” she sobered. “You’re not the first to turn me down.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” He wasn’t turning her down. He just needed to wait for her to be there with him mentally before he crossed that line. Who in his right mind had turned this girl down?
Now she rolled the rest of the way to straddle him and laid her face against his neck. It was not in a sexual way, but affectionately. “Lucas never wanted me either. I thought boys were supposed to be horny but after four years together, he never wanted me. There must be something wrong with me,” She slurred. “Something is definitely wrong with me.”
Chase’s breath caught in his throat. Was she really untouched? The most alluring creature he’d ever laid eyes on was still innocent. How could no one want her? Had she just offered him that innocence? She drifted off to sleep and he held her all night. He watched her breathe and played with the streaks in her hair. He daydreamed about what they could have together. He inhaled her seductive scent as he drifted off to sleep.
Chase woke in the morning to the sound of the door slamming. He jumped up to find Danielle’s friend scowling at him. “What did you do to her?” Olivia shouted.
“What? Where is she?” Chase was confused and his Lovely was nowhere in sight.
“I don’t know. She called me crying and said she had to go away for a few days. That I shouldn’t worry about her. She said I should ask you to leave before Lucas comes looking for her.”
“How long ago was that?” Chase jumped up and picked his shirt up off the floor.
“Fifteen minutes ago maybe,” Olivia snapped.
Chase took off out of the room and ran smack into a large blonde wall at the door. Olivia called from behind him, “Lucas, what happened to you last night?” Chase realized he was eye to eye with the competition and shock floored him. He was human. Lucas moved first having no idea Chase had spent the evening with Danielle. Stepping around the offending human Chase followed Danielle’s scent down the stairs and out the front door, wishing he could move at full speed but there were too many witnesses. It led him to the other end of the courtyard and into another dorm. She’d entered a male dorm building. He stalked up the stairs still following the vanilla trail until he reached the door where she had entered. He could hear her crying inside as a male voice consoled her. Then she gasped and whispered, “He’s here, Charlie. Tell him I’m not here.” She retreated into the bathroom.
“Who is here? What are you talking about?” Charlie asked through the bathroom door.
“I can smell him. Tell him I’m not here,” she whispered.
“Smell him?” Charlie was confused.
“Just open the damn door,” she hissed.
Chase stood there trying to decide if he should force his way in or obey her wishes. The door opened to yet another blond human male. This was beginning to piss him off.
“I want to speak to Danielle.” Chase sent the mental command to Charlie. Charlie stepped out of the way in a daze. Chase entered the room and grabbed a pen and paper from the desk to scribble on. He entered the bathroom and found Danielle curled up in the dry bathtub, crying. He leaned over to kiss her forehead.
“Please call me when you’re ready to talk. I’m sorry if I offended you. Nothing happened between us last night, lovely. I swear. Please don’t be angry with me. I just wanted to protect you.” Then he walked away, heavy hearted, leaving his cell number behind. She didn’t want to see him and knowing that ripped him to shreds.
* * *
Tessa was sleeping restlessly on the sofa after dozing off while watching the TV. She sat up with a jolt and let out a little gasp. Tessa snatched to phone from its cradle to call Danielle but it went to voicemail. She paused to calm her voice before leaving a message.
“Dani, give me a call as soon as you can. I was thinking that maybe you could come home one weekend soon. Love you.” She hung up and ran upstairs to dig for a box hidden in the back of her closet. She sat on her closet floor holding the old shoebox on her crossed legs. She closed her eyes and sat there taking deep breaths. “Just relax,” she told herself. “Don’t jump to conclusions.” Once she crossed that line there would be no turning back. She would hold off as long as she could before she made that phone call, but she dug out the number she needed and programmed it into her cell phone.
She returned the box to its hiding place. Then she jumped when the phone rang. It was Danielle returning her call. “Hello sweetheart, how are you doing?” Anxiety laced through her tone.
Danielle’s returning voice was shaking. “I’m on the way home, Mommy. I’ll be there in an hour.” She hung up.
Tessa sat back down on the floor of her closet. She stared at the wall and waited. The time had come.
FIVE~
Lucas woke to bright sunlight in his face. His head was pounding and he had no clue where he was or how he’d gotten there. Praying for the pain to stop, he searched his mind for a memory that was trying to surface. Then it all came back to him in a deluge of shame. He remembered going to the party with Dani and her friends. They danced and had a few drinks. He’d been hanging out with a group of football players.
They all thought Dani was the hottest thing at the party and he liked that until he started thinking about the fact that he would be going home and Dani would be staying there with all those guys. The more they drank the more comments the guys made about her. He made sure to go kiss her and touch her often while they watched. He would refill her drink regularly too. He knew he was there to spend time with her but he was having fun. Was that wrong? He hoped she wouldn’t be upset. They wouldn’t be there all night, anyway.
Dani started to look a little wasted. He saw her leave the kitchen area and followed her. When he reached the hall, Dani was talking to a guy and smiling. She stood there too long for his liking. She stumbled and the guy grabbed her. He was holding onto her when a bunch of people passed in the tight hall so she couldn’t pull away. Lucas swayed with drunken agitation. Dani pulled away and went up the stairs alone.
