Roland frowned, "No you're not. You were eight when your dad gave you up but you weren't eight in human years, more like eleven in real age."
She gasped, "I'm twenty-one? How is that possible?"
Roland sighed, "No in real years you're more like twenty-eight. You age differently as a child when one of your parents is a Siren."
She grimaced, "Twenty-eight? Gross!"
He laughed, "I think the bigger problem is what you're going to do about the police officers feelings? I can tell you like him, a lot."
She nodded, "I do. He's sweet and kind and gentle and respectful. He would never lie to me, I just know that. I could trust him with my heart and he would treat it like it was the most delicate flower." She flopped onto the couch nearly spilling her win. "He does birthdays and holidays and lives a normal amount of time. He probably has normal families with weird aunts and his mom smothers him in love. He's the all American boy next door."
Roland sat across from her frowning, "Sit nicely in your dress Hanna."
She sat upright and scowled at him.
"You need to think about this seriously. You can't like one guy and really like the other and lead them both on. That’s a terrible thing to do to someone." He sighed, "You need that charm bracelet as well."
She nodded, "I just don’t know who to pick. Andy is sweet but Marcus is hot. He makes me think things and want things. He opens my mind and my bod.."
"STOP!" Roland put his hands over his ears, "By the gods is there no female friend you could discuss this with. My word."
She laughed, "I think of you as a father Roland."
He nodded, "Trust me my dear, no father wants to hear this conversation, not even by accident. This is best discussed with a friend."
She tried not to look hurt.
He softened his face, "Hanna try Aleksander, his life is always some kind of disaster. If anyone can offer some kind of advice on this its him."
She laughed, "I will. I'll see him tomorrow." She got up off the couch, "Thank you for dinner Roland. It was spectacular."
He smiled, sipping his brandy, "It is as always my pleasure."
She went up the stairs to her room. She looked at herself in the mirror. She wondered what it would be like to be with Andy. His handsome rugged good looks and strong muscular body. She imagined his arms around her waist, kissing her neck.
She smiled feeling the imaginations coming true. She looked into the mirror, she tried to see what they saw. Her eyes were boring, her hair was shiny and pretty but not enough to drive men to madness. Her thin upper lip always bothered her more than anything. Her ruddy skin seemed so imperfect compared to women like her mother. Even in a picture you could fall in love with her.
"You look beautiful."
She turned seeing Marcus sitting in her windowsill.
His grin looked cruel.
She felt her stomach twist, he knew about Andy coming for diner. Guilt filled her.
"How was dinner?"
She smiled, "It was delicious."
"Of course it was, Roland is a master chef. Did he make lamb?"
She shook her head, "Pheasant."
"Ahh yes." He stepped into the window, with every step toward he looked more menacingly at her, "I do love his pheasant. Was it the cranberry stuffing?"
She took a step back toward her door, "It was."
"How did Officer Paulson enjoy his meal?"
She sighed, "He enjoyed it."
Her back pressed against the wall near the closed door. His next step brought him directly over her, "Of course he did, he had my girl with him."
She frowned, "I did nothing wrong?"
"You never kissed him once?"
She wanted to shake her head, but the smell of him had her mind playing tricks on her. Had she kissed him? She recalled his kisses on previous occasions but Marcus was over powering her mind.
"I don’t know, maybe a small kiss. Like I would give any friend."
He bent down into her face, "He isn’t just any friend though is he?"
She swallowed hard, she wasn’t afraid of him. Not completely. "No, he isn’t."
His face dropped down into her neck, he licked his way up her throat.
"No he isn't. Do you know how I know that?" He planted a hot kiss on her jugular.
She shook her head, "You smell him on me?"
He pulled back from her neck, his fangs hung slightly from his mouth over his lower lip.
He kissed her cheek directly beside he mouth, "I do smell him yes. But," his hands roamed the front of her body, "I also can smell your response to him."
His hand rested at the bottom of her stomach. His mouth continued to kiss her cheeks, always staying out of reach of her lips.
She felt her breath grow ragged, she wanted him to lower his hands and touch her where he was making heat build inside of her.
"Has something happened you need to tell me about?" He kissed her mouth, taking control of it. His lips sucked her in, his teeth dragged softly against her lower lip as he bit it gently.
His hand grabbed the dress, pulling it up as his other hand held her against the wall tightly.
He held the dress up but bent on one knee. He placed a kiss on her thigh. His warm wet lips dragged their way across her thigh to the inside.
"Is there something you need to tell me about?"
She heard his words but her body was buzzing from the anticipation of his next kiss.
She moaned. His lips pressed harder against her. She felt herself spreading her legs slightly, she remembered the feeling of him inside of her. His hands began to move up and down her thighs. She hadn’t noticed his hand no longer pinned her to the wall. He caressed her and continued to place soft kisses against her.
"I love how you taste." She felt as if she were floating above the room. She couldn’t feel her legs, just the pleasure.
Suddenly he was standing with his mouth on her. He kissed her hungrily.
"Is there something you need to tell me?"
She shook her head.
"Who do you belong to?"
She let his mouth invade hers. He pulled away caressing and kissing her throat, "You. I belong with you."
He pulled away. His warmth was gone. She looked up to see an empty room. His laugh seemed to ride along the wind coming in her open window.
She screamed, "GET BACK HERE!"
He was gone.
She looked down at her red silk underwear around her ankles over her red pumps, "Fucker." She whispered. Her satin dress was hiked up around her thighs still.
She ripped the dress off and kicked the panties across the room. She stormed to the window and closed it. She locked it for good measure.
She stomped to the bathroom to at least attempt to calm herself before bed. It was Christmas in the morning and she didn’t want to mess it up for Roland. He'd worked hard at making it special for her. She had hardly noticed the season, the death of her friend and father had been hard to handle. Becoming a monster and seductress had been impossible.
Chapter Forty-One: New Gas Prices, Kisses
Aleksander
He paced by the lake, seeing the calm of the water made him feel better, usually.
"Aleks?"
He turned to see Hanna. Ben followed behind her. He saw Sam watching as well.
He stared to laugh, "Oh wow. Uh Ben, want to give us a minute?"
He gave him a look filled with daggers.
Hanna walked looking back, "It happened the minute I got out of the car here with Ben and at the gas station. The attendant tried to kiss me."
He grimaced, "Kind of glad I took the cure, no offense."
She laughed, "None taken. I would never want my free will messed with like that either. I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to have their emotions played with."
"I don’t think it’s the emotions you're messing with."
She looked up the yard frowning at Ben watching her. She laughed, "Its awful isn’t it."
"Funny, now that I'm on the other side of it."
Her gaze fixed on Sam at the top of the yard. He pretended to be milling. "I need some help. Some advice rather."
He nodded, "Shoot."
She looked tense and stressed, "I have a predicament." She ran a hand through her strawberry bond hair. "It's worse than that. It's bad. I could be madly in love with Marcus, he makes me feel things I never knew I could. It might be love. I really want to be with him but at the same time I have some feelings for other people. Plus I don’t even know if my feelings for Marcus are real." Her eyes turned pained as she looked up the hill at Sam again, "I don’t know if any of my feelings are real."
Aleks felt a small laugh building but he kept it contained, "Am I one of those other people?"
She looked humiliated but nodded subtly.
"You don’t need to worry about that. I have that reaction on every woman. Well except for Giselle."
She looked relieved, "You make every woman want to uhm, well you know?"
He nodded, "Yeah, part of the curse."
She smiled, "Oh well that’s good news."
"Not when you’re the guy making everyone feel that way."
"And Marcus?"
Aleks nodded, "He has the same effect. It isn’t real Hanna. He can't really even feel love. You force people to feel something, unless they take the cure."
"So well anyway I also feel that way about other guys. One is a guy I met a while ago. But it's different with him. He's like the boy next door. He makes me happy and makes me feel like a normal girl. He's regular, you know?"
Aleks frowned, "A human?"
She nodded, "A cop named Andy Paulson."
"Hanna that’s a tough one but I think what you need to do it step back from both guys and take yourself out of the equation. Marcus is a tough bastard, I've tried killing him tons, it never takes. So you're safe from hurting him but you're not safe from him hurting you. He's still Marcus. If I were you I would use the advantage you have and kill him in his sleep."