But she couldn’t continue daydreaming about him. She would have sex with him and then forget about him and get on with her mission. Nothing had changed. In fact, having dealt with him and some of his friends had given her more insight into their powers and if anything, she was now more prepared to fight them than before.
Amaury didn’t want to physically harm her, somehow she sensed that, but it didn’t mean he would help her out at the expense of his interest in Scanguards. Maybe he was just trying to soften her up so she would give up and not pursue her path. Well, if that’s what he was trying, he wouldn’t succeed. As if sex would change anything about what was right or wrong.
Perhaps it was better to forget about having sex with him after all. Nothing good would come of it.
Except another spectacular orgasm.
Ah, shut up!
Since when did she think with her pussy? Had the man turned her into a completely hopeless and helpless woman? This couldn’t happen. Men couldn’t be trusted, and vampires even less. Sure, he was hot, he wanted her, and he hadn’t hurt her, but that didn’t mean he could be trusted. Not that this fact would stop her from having sex with him. She didn’t need to trust a man to have sex with him. One had nothing to do with the other. Maybe it was better this way. She’d trusted the wrong person once before, and it had screwed up her life. She wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.
Nina pushed the rising memories of the events in her last foster home from her mind. This was not the time to dwell on pain that she’d tried to forget for over ten years.
Her eyes darted around the living room, and she spotted her clothes on a chair near the entrance. Both her t-shirt and her panties were ripped and unusable. She shook her head. Amaury sure was one passionate vampire.
She didn’t understand why he would leave her alone in his lair, unless … Nina spun around to the entrance door and jerked it open. No, she sighed with relief, he hadn’t locked her in. Did he trust her to wait for him, or was it just plain arrogance on his part? Or had he seen the longing in her eyes before he’d left?
Nina shuddered at the thought of how much of herself Amaury had already seen, not her body—she didn’t care about that—but her mind, her soul, and her heart. All the things she kept hidden, because it was safer to hide her true self: the scared, insecure, hurt girl she was still inside. The girl who so desperately longed to be loved, yet was scared to open her heart to anybody. The girl who wanted forever, but settled for right now, because it was all she was ever offered. The girl who’d never ask for anything, because she couldn’t face no, couldn’t handle being rejected and tossed aside once more.
No, she had to be the strong woman who had a purpose in life.
A vibrating sound from her stack of clothes brought her back into the present. Her cell phone. She pulled it out of her jacket pocket. A reminder blinked.
Damn! The text message she’d gotten just before Amaury had barged into her apartment—she’d completely forgotten about it. Maybe it wasn’t too late yet to make it to the Mezzanine to find that guy. At least she had to try. She wasn’t exactly dressed for the club, but her place was practically on the way. She could slip into something more appropriate and be on her way minutes later.
Nina snatched her jeans from the chair and put them on without her underwear.
Three hours was plenty of time to get to the club, try to find the suspect and get some information out of him. If she was fast, she could even make it back without Amaury ever knowing that she was even gone. She’d leave the window to the fire escape open and get back into the apartment that way.
And if her investigation found something that pointed to Amaury after all, well, then she would do what was necessary. She only hoped he wasn’t involved in Eddie’s murder, and that her reason for coming back to his place would be to finally have sex with him, and not to kill him instead.
***
Amaury went nose to nose with Gabriel. He’d had the foresight to use some mouthwash and quickly wipe Nina’s delectable taste off his face before leaving his apartment. Not that it would be enough to eliminate her scent on him completely. But with some luck, Gabriel would be too preoccupied to notice.
“I’m here now, aren’t I?”
“I realize that you’re his oldest friend, but not even Samson will cut you any slack if you don’t do what’s expected of you.”
If push came to shove, Samson would be on his side, Amaury knew it instinctively. They had been through more together than Gabriel could even imagine. Friendship meant something to them.