Exposure: Bloodlust Series Book 1 Read online

“We’re together,” I nodded, opening my packet of ketchup too harshly so it squirted up on my face.

  “Shit...” I mumbled as I found a napkin, but a finger brushed against my cheek where I’d felt the sticky condiment hit me.

  “Seems you had a little accident,” Clarence said as he stood beside me, the ketchup on his thumb.

  Genie’s jaw dropped and she stared from him to me and back.

  “Are you going to sit with us?” I asked him hopefully and he dipped his head before turning to Genie.

  “As long as your companion doesn’t mind,” he said before taking a seat.

  “By all means,” Genie waved her hand in front of her at the seat next to mine.

  “Thank you,” Clarence nodded and took a seat, wiping his thumb on the napkin in my hand. “It’s nice to make your acquaintance,” Clarence started but I poked his shoulder and leaned into his ear.

  “You’ve gone all 1800’s on Genie.”

  Clarence smiled and I heard the shift in his voice.

  “I mean, it’s nice to meet you. Addie’s been telling me I talk like an old man. I’m working on it.”

  Genie grinned and looked at me, bouncing her eyebrows.

  “So, Clarence. Addie’s been insanely tight lipped about you. Mind if you tell me yourself?”

  “Has she?” Clarence gave me a side look accented with a smile. “I’ll do what I can.”

  “Addie said you guys kissed, but she’s refusing to tell me the deets. I told her about my hook up but zip, nothin’ for her about her weekend.”

  “Hm,” Clarence hummed in understanding. “I don’t prefer to kiss and tell, Genie. It’s not very gentlemanly, and it can be embarrassing to the lady involved.”

  “You don’t care, do you Adds?”

  I shrugged.

  “Tell her what you want,” I told Clarence and took a bite of my ham and cheese sandwich.

  Clarence hummed again and sat forward on the bench, looking Genie in the face as he started talking.

  “We went to the festival,” he began. “Addie and I found delicacies at the variety of stands there, trying every different morsel and savoring the flavors as they hit our tongues, one by one.”

  My thighs clamped together as I heard him tell this story in a tone he’d never used before. It was raw and sensual and I was flooding with moisture.

  “When I took Addie home I kissed her in the shadows of the streetlights. Her lips were pliant, but firm until I pressed her mouth open, thrusting my tongue into her mouth until she began to cry in pleasure, our mouths dancing in the sensual rhythm.”

  Genie’s eyes widened, her lids disappearing as shock passed her face. But she leaned forward, enraptured.

  “After I walked her home, she went inside, but I didn’t leave her. I climbed up to her window and as she was undressing, naked in the moonlight I opened the panes, moving into the room and took her into my arms. I pressed her down into her mattress, and feasted, one after the other on each bountiful breast, taking the pebbled buds into my mouth, tongue tracing every curve until she cried out in pleasure...”

  My entire body had drained of blood except the warm, soaked apex between my thighs as I pressed them together with vigor, feeling every word hit me just there.

  “Oh my GOD...” Genie breathed. “Are you freaking serious? Did that really happen, Addie?”

  “Of course it didn’t,” Clarence told her, standing from his seat at the table. “But you wanted a scandalous, seductive tale and that’s what I gave you. We shared a kiss Saturday night, but it was an innocent one. And for your future knowledge, it’s incredibly rude to ask a man or a woman of their personal lives, and about the intimacies shared between them.”

  Clarence kissed me on the cheek before he excused himself from the table. But not, however, before I saw the bulge pressing the front of his pants. Evidently me and Genie weren’t the only ones turned on by his tale.

  Genie’s eyes were still wide as saucers as she turned to me.

  “Oh my God Adds. What the hell was that? I think I creamed my panties just from listening to him speak.”

  “He’s a man of many talents,” I choked, worried that I’d just done the same to my underwear.

  “If he has sex even half as good as he can describe it, holy hell, I envy you my friend. The man needs to write erotica.”

  I laughed my tension away.

  “He’s an extremely private person, and I think his sensitive inhibitions were slightly offended by your question.”

  “Sensitive inhibitions?” she scoffed. “From the man who just very vividly described eating boobs?”

  “He’s a complex person.”

  “Well I didn’t mean to offend him. I guess I was just testing him… but I’m thinking I was the one who was just tested by your boyfriend.”

  Boyfriend? Wow the word sounded strange.

  “I’ll talk to him. I’m sure he’s fine.”

  Genie sighed and shifted on the bench.

  “I need to go change my underwear. See you later, Adds.”

  I waved at her with some humor and sat there, staring at my food, most of it uneaten.

  “You should eat,” came that low, distinct voice behind me.

  Clarence sat beside me again at the table and I turned to him, propping my head on my hand as I observed his expression.

  “I’m pretty sure you just made my friend come in public, and I’m not sure of how I feel about that.”

  He had the decency to look ashamed.

  “I shouldn’t have said those things. I was wrong. The way she talked about you, asked such personal and rude questions… I wanted to shock her and, though I think I succeeded, I didn’t consider how it might embarrass you. I’m sorry.”

  “I’m ok,” I shrugged. “It’s just Genie. Though I don’t think my underwear made it unscathed like my humor.”

  Clarence grinned and closed his eyes, leaning against his hand on the table, too.

  “Beautiful,” he inhaled then looked at me with lust-clouded eyes.

  “Just exactly how well do I have to know you before you actually do those things you just described, because I’m beginning to get jealous of a made up version of myself.”

  Clarence laughed softly.

  “Until you’re ready,” he whispered and touched my hand. “A woman’s maidenhead should be considered extensively before it’s given away to anyone other than her rightful husband.”

  I blanched.

  “How the F-”

  “Your blood,” he interrupted. “It smells sweeter than the rest. That’s how I know.”

  All my embarrassment must have been saving itself for that moment because my blood re-diverted back into my face.

  “Don’t be embarrassed,” Clarence said and wiped at the tear that escaped my beet red face. “It’s charming, and it’s special. You should never feel ashamed for having waited when this modern world gives such sacred things away so easily and quickly.”

  “And why is it so special for a girl and not a boy?”

  “Because women are treasured, and a woman sacrifices with pain the first time. Men never have such a sacrifice.”

  “Like with the rich widow?”

  Clarence sucked in his bottom lip, touching his forehead to mine.

  “I sold myself, Addie. There is no honor in what I did, but I did it for honorable reasons. I could have worked hard and found another way but I didn’t. I gave my virginity to someone who didn’t appreciate it and I was left a monster in the end for it. I hope that when you choose to give yours you do so freely, for no other reason than because of love.”

  “Then why do you make me wait? I told you I love you.”

  “You still barely know me,” he touched my cheek. “I want you to know the man and the beast before you make a decision like that. Does that not agree with you?”

  “But you’ll still kiss me?”

  “As many times as you’ll let me,” he grinned at me before proving it and sucking my bottom lip between
his, nibbling.

  I giggled and took my lip back before gently kissing him, then scooting back.

  “Fine. I’ll let you know when I’m ready,” I told him and poked at my sandwich.

  “Are you upset, Addie?”

  “No, Clee, just frustrated...sexually.”

  A half smile turned up his lips as he dug through his backpack.

  “Then that makes two of us,” he agreed, retrieving his notepad and the chemistry book.

  I wanted to demand why he was making me wait when he was as horny as I was, but I was distracted by the figures and symbols on the notepad.

  “What’s this?” I asked, running my fingers over the page.

  “It’s the formula Mason is working on,” he sighed, tapping the table impatiently with his pen. “He’s so close but every attempt has turned out to be ineffective.”

  “What formula?”

  “A cure,” he said under his breath, catching my eyes for only a moment. “But I’m little help to him. I’m not a man with a mind for figures and numbers. I’d much rather be given a puzzle or physical labor.”

  “But science is a puzzle,” I told him, looking again at the complicated formula. “You’re really working on a cure?”

  “We’ve been working on it for the past 250 years,” Clarence sighed. “It’s hard not to lose hope after so long and so many failed attempts.”

  “But it only takes one success.”

  “Yes, but we’ve yet to have any success.”

  I sighed, wishing I could understand it.

  Clarence sat there, staring at the paper for the rest of lunch. When the bell rang he began to pack it up.

  “Why do you come here, Clee?” I asked him. “It’s pretty obvious to me you don’t need to learn anything here.”

  He shrugged.

  “Unlike my surly counterpart, I prefer the company of the living. It makes me feel human to be apart of them, even if from a distance.”

  “And that’s why you decided to love one, too?” I teased him.

  “That was entirely coincidental, and to be honest, accidental. I wasn’t looking to fall in love, but from the first moment I saw you, from the first smell of your blood… I knew. Sometimes fate chooses for you, who you proceed in your life with. And I’m ever humble and grateful that you choose, for now at least, to walk your path with me.”

  The way he said it sounded so impermanent. Walk my path with him...for now? I didn’t want to leave his side for the rest of my life. But that wasn’t what I’d told him. I’d said I’d try it. I’d said I would give it a shot...for now.

  And still he devoted himself to me. He was a good man, and I felt like a first class bitch for leaving him dangling on a string behind me.

  “May I walk you home?” Clarence asked as he helped me up from my seat, taking my lunch tray from me and carrying it to the trash nearby.

  His sea blue eyes sparkled at me and I was lost.

  “What? Huh?” I shook my head to clear it and he grinned.

  “May I walk you home, Addie?”

  “On one condition.”

  “And what is that?” he asked, stacking the tray with a bunch of others.

  “I want you to charm me. I want to know what it feels like. If I’m going to be around a bunch of V’s in the proceeding future, I need to know how to protect myself, at the least.”

  His face sobered, but he nodded.

  “If that is your wish,” he agreed and took my hand, walking me silently out of the cafeteria.

  English Lit was painful. Clarence sat right behind me, but we didn’t touch, I couldn’t look at him. I felt his overwhelming presence at my back without any tangible sense of him. When school let out he immediately grabbed my hand and we headed out, not even stopping at my locker to trade out my English book for my math homework that was due tomorrow.

  As we walked out of the front square in front of the school, Genie caught sight of us and ran up, stopping as Clarence caught sight of her.

  “Genie,” he said gently. “I wish to apologize for...”

  “Oh shush!” she stopped him, waving her hands around. “Please don’t apologize for it because you’ve set up my wet dreams for the next decade, easy. It was me who wanted to apologize. Adds told me I might have offended you with my questions, and upon reflection, I can see that it was completely inappropriate. So, I promise not to ask about yours and Addie’s sex life, beyond the mild girlfriend need-to-know sorts that I’ll address to Addie herself. And in return, I hope we can start over again and you can not see me as the sex-deprived friend of the girl you’re dating. It’d be nice to be your friend, too.”

  Clarence nodded and gave her a small smile.

  “That sounds entirely fair, Genie. Thank you for the apology and for forgiving my rudeness at the table earlier. I would like to start over too, so here...”

  He put out his hand and Genie took it.

  “Ok, I’m Genie, and I’m Addie’s best Grayland friend. And out of obligation to the role, I have to tell you that if you hurt her, I’ll kill you.”

  Clarence laughed.

  “It’s my pleasure, Miss Genie. I am Clarence, lucky enough to be Addie’s beau, and out of no obligation I must say, I’d murder myself before hurting her.”

  “Then you and me are going to get along just fine, old man,” she grinned and hugged Addie before running to get onto the bus before it left.

  “Well, that was unexpected,” Clarence said as we watched her go. “I can see why you like her. Bluntness may not always be an admired quality, but I appreciate honesty in any form it comes.”

  I chuckled.

  “Yeah, me too. She’s been good for me. If it wasn’t for her I never would have had the courage to approach you that day.”

  “Then I am forever in her debt,” Clarence smiled down at me.

  “How about that walk, huh?”

  I asked him and he nodded, holding my hand as we set out.

  We only got around the corner of the school before Clarence pulled me into the trees quickly, backed me against a tree then began such an assault on my mouth that my head banged back on the bark and our teeth clinked. Our chests swelled and deflated with sudden passion as we inhaled each other. The tension from the afternoon, the turn on at the table… It all came to fruition in that moment, and I instantly needed more. I needed his hands on me, I needed his body closer I needed to feel his skin run against mine.

  “Ok,” Clarence panted against me after pulling away. “This is only making it worse.”

  “Making what worse?” I breathed, wishing he’d kiss me again.

  “My desire for you.”

  He backed away completely and shoved his hands through his hair, turning a circle before blowing out a breath and smiling at me.

  “Sorry. After this afternoon...”

  “I know what you mean,” I sighed, banging my head back against the tree trunk in frustration.

  “And I had to do that before we got back to your room or I might forget myself.”

  “I keep telling you I wouldn’t mind if you forgot yourself.”

  “Addie,” he groaned in frustration, shoving his hands through his hair again. “I’ve already told you...”

  “I know, I know, save myself for my husband.”

  “That’s not the point, Addie...”

  “Isn’t it though? If it’s going to be so freaking charged between us all the time, how the hell do you expect us to keep this up?”

  He stood there, dragging his hand down his face, and shifting one hand to rest against his hip.

  “What are we doing, Clee?”

  He shook his head.

  “For once, I don’t know, Addie.”

  “Great, so we’ll just keep dancing around this. Cool.”

  “I’m trying to do what’s best for you, Addie. You still haven’t decided if you want to be with me, and until you do, I can’t in good conscience take something I don’t believe belongs to me. So maybe it’s just as much for me as it is
for you, but no amount of arguing is going to change my sense of honor. I have so little left after becoming this...monster… I have to treasure what little is afforded me. I will not take your innocence until it’s mine to take. If it ever becomes mine.”

  His words shot right to my solar plexus. My lust dissolved and I felt anger and sadness for him.

  “It wasn’t your fault you became a vampire,” I told him, whispering the V-word.

  “But isn’t it?” his eyes narrowed. “If I’d had had more self respect then, I wouldn’t be what I am today. And even if you want to pretend that I had no part in becoming this, I’ve no one to blame for my actions since but myself. The people I killed, the innocents I took into my own hand… That is on me. Not Evelyn. ME.”

  His anger diffused after the rant, and he plopped himself on a log nearby.

  “You’re forgetting one important thing,” I told him as I settled beside him, resting my hand on his jean clad knee. “If it wasn’t been for you being what you are, you’d be dead hundreds of years ago. You talk about soulmates and fate. Did you ever stop to think that maybe this was your fate, so that you could live long enough to find your soulmate?”

  My words hushed him, and I noticed his shoulders slacking as he exhaled, tension draining out of him.

  “For being so young, you have incredible wisdom, Addie Harper,” he told me, turning to me and stealing my hand off his knee and into his own.

  “Remember that next time you treat me like a kid,” I told him with a smile.

  “I’ll make a valiant effort,” he smiled back, then stood. “Now let’s finish our walk. Unless you’d rather I carried you?”

  “Pony up, cowboy,” I told him, holding out my arms for him to pick me up.

  He grinned, picked me up, one hand behind my back, one behind my knees before we were off with a whoosh.

  Chapter Ten

  “Mason, I’m not joking. The charm doesn’t work on her,” Clarence told his brother after another long day of school.

  “That’s impossible,” Mason waved an arm in irritation.

  “Try it for yourself!” Clarence insisted, motioning to me.

  “I’m not going to waste my time so you can convince your mistress that you’re not forcing her to do anything, Clee. I’ve better things to do and you know it.”