A Scent of Longing Page 4
“Are you feeling any better today?”
“No. But I’m sure it will pass,” she lied. Lily had told Roxie she hadn’t been feeling well, but she hadn’t broken the news of her impending death.
“If you don’t feel better soon, maybe you should go to a doctor.”
“I can’t do that. My vampirism would show up in my blood. They’d find out instead of O positive, I’m V negative or something.”
“What exactly are your symptoms?”
“I’m tired all the time.” A glance at the warming beaker of crap churned her stomach. “I get queasy at the thought of feeding. Even certain smells turn my stomach. I cry at the drop of a hat, and my boobs hurt.” She omitted mention of the tumor.
Silence filled the receiver.
“Roxie, are you still there?” Lily stirred the blood with a spoon then stuck a thermometer into the liquid. Not ready yet. She tried not to retch.
“What about your periods?” Roxie asked, an odd note in her voice.
“Vampires don’t get them.”
“Sweetie…is there a chance you could be pregnant?”
“Of course not. Vamps can’t get pregnant,” Lily responded. Except…Luc had been born, not sired. Oh God. Could it be possible? Lily shook.
“I don’t know! Oh, Roxie. I don’t know. Maybe.” Tears of hope sprang to her eyes. She pressed a hand to her lower abdomen. What if it wasn’t a tumor growing inside? What if it was a baby? “How would I know?”
“Do you have one of those home pregnancy kits?”
“I think I have a test left from my pregnancy scare a while back.”
“Go do it, girl.”
“Okay. Do you want me to call you back?”
“No, I’ll wait. Go pee.”
Lily turned off the blood, set the phone on the counter, and raced to the bathroom. She got a good idea of the length of eternity while she waited for the test results. When the blue positive sign popped up, she screamed.
She ran to the kitchen, shrieking all the way.
She could hear Roxie yelling. “Are you okay? Answer me!”
Lily grabbed the phone. “I’m pregnant! I’m going to have baby!” She laughed as tears poured down her cheeks.
After hanging up with Roxie, Lily wanted to dance around the kitchen. Instead, she pressed a protective hand to her womb. Luc’s baby. She straightened her shoulders, hope renewed. She had two more names on her list. If those failed to yield results, she’d extend her search beyond L.A., hire a private investigator, ask VA for help, track down Madame Eve, and shake the Frenchwoman until she surrendered Luc’s surname. She would find Luc. She closed her eyes and focused on the image of blue eyes turning green. She could almost smell his spicy scent now.
The doorbell rang. Her eyes flew open and she jerked her head toward the sound.
Nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, and anise, stronger now, touched her nose. Tremors shook her body. Oh God, oh please, oh God…she prayed as she sprinted to her living room.
***
Luc took a fortifying breath and rested his forehead against Lily’s door. It had taken him two weeks to shore up the courage to approach her and another four to locate her. He’d contacted every damn graphic arts business in the entire frickin’ city of Los Angeles. He hadn’t even been sure he’d found the right place this time, until he’d reached her apartment.
In her rush to leave, Lily had forgotten her suitcase, but it yielded no answers. Her freshly laundered clothes bore little trace of her scent and no clues as to where she lived. Why the hell hadn’t she labeled her bag with her name and address! And why had she brought blood—vile, bagged stuff, no less—to a sexual encounter where feeding would occur? He’d taken one whiff of the flask and thrown it away.
He was glad now he’d kept the suitcase—it gave him an excuse to contact her.
Spring rain, sweet flowers. Her scent and the memory of her touch had claimed his waking nights and hijacked his dreams until he’d thought he’d go mad. He had to convince her to overlook his mixed race. If she got to know him better, maybe she could come to accept him. She’d liked him until she’d discovered his nature.
Luc inhaled her scent and stiffened. Lily’s fragrance had changed since their mating. She radiated a growing joy like a single blossom bursting into a full bouquet. Had she met someone else? Had Lily mated with another?
He would rip out the bastard’s throat and stake him outside for the morning sun to fry. Luc squeezed the handle of her suitcase as pain and jealousy ripped at his chest. The hard plastic shattered in his hand, and the bag fell to the ground.
Dieu, he was making a mess of this. Luc tucked the luggage under his arm, his emotions under an icy façade, and pressed her buzzer.
The door flew open.
Lily. Not a dream, not a memory, but the real Lily stood there, her hair wild and tangled as if she’d just arisen for the evening, her eyes moons in her face, which paled whiter than the cavorting cartoon sheep on her pink pajamas. Her beautiful face glowed. His spine stiffened with such rigidity he would not have been surprised if it snapped like a twig. What if she sent him away? He’d pinned everything on this moment. And now that he’d found her, his tongue stuck to the roof his mouth, and words refused to form in his brain. How could he convince her of anything when he couldn’t even speak?
“I came to return your suitcase,” he grated and thrust the bag out. “I broke it. I’m sorry.”
Lily wrenched it out of his grasp, tossed it aside, and flung herself at him, laughing and sobbing. She peppered his face with tear-salted kisses. “You came. Oh, my God. I couldn’t find you.” She clung to his neck in a stranglehold.
She’d looked for him? His façade shattered. He grabbed her as the feeble human in him went weak at the knees. Who was he kidding? His vamp shook like a leaf, buffeted on a rising current of giddy hope. “Do you know how many graphic design firms there are in L.A.? If you were a female sumo wrestler, I would have found you sooner.”
One of her kisses landed on his mouth, and he used the advantage to fasten his lips to hers. Relief, love, and desire ballooned and demanded release. He kissed her in a fierce and mutual clash of lips, tongue, and fang. Spring rain, flowers, and honey filled his nose, his mouth, and seeped into skin, into his blood. An elusive murmur teased his nose, a scent too delicate and fragile to identify, but the dream that had once seemed so desperate, so unattainable began to solidify under his hands and mouth. He and Lily. Together. For eternity.
The hallway where anyone could come along was no place to begin that future.
He tightened his arms around Lily and inched into her apartment, continuing to kiss her. Luc kicked at the door, unbalanced, and stumbled over the broken suitcase.
They fell.
He twisted and turned mid-air to absorb the full brunt of the fall. His head thumped against the carpeted floor, but she landed protected on top of him.
“Are you okay?” Her worried gaze met his eyes.
“The best I’ve been in my entire life,” he said soberly.
“Your eyes, they’re turning green again.” She stared. “That’s because you’re a vamp, isn’t it?”
“Partly. Emotion causes them to change color. But it only happens with mated pairs.”
“Mine don’t do that.” She frowned as if she’d been cheated out of something special. “They’re plain brown.”
Luc stroked a finger over her lower lip. He smiled and shook his head. “You’re not plain anything, and they change from dark brown to almost yellow.”
She rounded her caramel eyes. “They do?”
Luc nodded.
She blinked and her gaze darkened with regret. “I’m sorry, Luc. I never should have run out on you.”
“I should have told you what I am.” He sucked in a breath of residual fear. He held her in his arms now, but could her love weather the scorn she would be subjected to for consorting with the likes of him?
Lily slid off him, and his heart constricted, but she cur
led against his side and tucked a leg between his. “No, I was wrong. I didn’t tell you either. It upset me that I had been turned without my consent, so I overreacted to you being a vampire.”
“Vampire?” Luc frowned in confusion. “That bothered you?”
“I’m okay now.” She pressed a kiss to his mouth, flicked her tongue at his protruding fang.
Luc shook his head, still not comprehending. “My Half Breed nature didn’t repulse you?” The word in his mouth tasted worse than bagged blood.
“Half Breed?” She blinked and drew back.
“Part human,” Luc bit out.
“Why would I care about that?” Lily knit her eyebrows. “I was human once.” She balled a fist and thumped his chest. “That’s crazy.”
A wave of relief cascaded over him. He cupped a hand behind her neck and met her halfway with a searing kiss, plundering her mouth to release longing accrued over centuries. Her scent and taste soothed the ragged tears in his soul. Again, he detected that odd whisper of a scent, a little stronger now. He sniffed. Rain and flower and spice. Part Lily, part him.
Mon dieu.
He broke off the kiss to stare at her in awe.
Her amber eyes glowed happily. Her lips, kissed to a deep rose, curved into a smile. Her fangs glinted.
“You’re…pregnant?” He pressed a shaking, gentle hand to her abdomen. “We’re having a baby?”
She nodded. “I found out just before you got here. I knew something had changed, but I didn’t know what.”
“A baby!” He laughed, unable to believe his fortune. He hugged her to his chest and inhaled. He beamed. “A daughter.”
She widened her eyes. “Are you sure?”
He took another whiff. “Definitely.”
“I didn’t think vampires could get pregnant,” she mused. “The VA didn’t tell me anything about that.”
“They might not have known. Only in very rare instances can human males impregnate female vampires, and it never occurs in the reverse. Many vamps discount the possibility as myth. And not much is known about the fertility of….” He paused as he searched for another word; he would not use that odious one with his child involved. “Hybrids. We tend to be loners to avoid detection. Many vamps created by the bite of another look down on those who are born and remain part human. ”
Lily’s amber gaze stroked his face. “I love you, Luc. I don’t care if you’re vampire or human or any combination thereof.”
“I love you. Je t'ai attendue toute ma vie. I’ve waited for you all my life.”
~ABOUT THE AUTHOR~
Cara Bristol writes spicy contemporary tales of love and lust that are fun, sexy and stirring. A Scent of Longing is her first paranormal romance and her fifth published work. When she’s not whipping up erotic stories, Cara travels the world with her husband, and though she hates to admit it, watches reality TV shows. Oh, and she reads—erotic romance, of course.
You can find Cara on her blog, http://www.carabristol.com,
on Twitter, http://twitter.com/#!/carabristol,
or on Facebook, www.facebook.com/Cara-Bristol-Erotic-Romance-Author
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Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven