one man on his mind.
* * * *
Conrad had been tiptoeing around his emotions. When he saw Kimberly in the barn in her animal form, he realized he really didn’t know much about his shifter mates, and that bothered him. They didn’t know much about him either, and he found that fact equally disturbing.
After Kimberly gave him one hell of a blow job, she ran off, shifting into her pony form and galloping away before he asked questions. He wondered if this relationship he’d started with Kim and Kimberly was a commitment they wanted developed on their terms.
Frustrated, Conrad returned home to mope. He wondered where Kim had been all day and decided until they reached a decision between the three of them, what Kim or Kimberly did in their free time really wasn’t any of his business. They weren’t exactly formally committed. They hadn’t taken vows. They sure hadn’t promised to love and protect one another, or whatever they were supposed to swear once they became mates.
“We’re already mated,” Kim told him when he entered the kitchen. He handed him a beer and a heated gaze to match.
“I didn’t expect to find you here.”
“Where else would I be?”
Conrad shrugged. “Running with Kimberly?”
Kim laughed. “I wondered when she’d finally show her true colors.”
Great word choice, Conrad thought, considering she was a gorgeous golden Palomino. He suddenly had a sensational urge to ride that little pony.
Kim backed against the sink and, gripping the basin, he said, “I think there are a few things you should know. Kimberly is young. She doesn’t understand as much as you and I do.”
“How young?” Conrad asked, sensing and fearing he might be robbing the cradle.
“She’s thirty-two.”
“Thank God,” Conrad breathed. “For a minute there, I thought I might have stripped her from her diapers.”
“No, but keep in mind, she’s a sex shifter and a horse shifter, which means she’s as volatile as a young, untrained filly.”
“Why aren’t you?”
Kim grinned. “You have to ask,” he growled, working his strut enough to make Conrad’s butt clench.
“I’m curious. I really don’t know much about the shifters. I’m a vampire, remember.”
“A sexy vampire,” Kim whispered, stripping his shirt over his head. “A hard and capable vampire,” he continued, unfastening his pants and stepping away from them.
Conrad’s breath caught. God, he was so attracted to Kim. There was something about being with Kim that made him feel complete, loved, and so fucking sexy.
“Good,” he said, gaping at Conrad’s lower half. “I’ve been waiting to hear you say those very words.”
“But I didn’t.”
“You thought them, and that’s good enough for me,” Kim replied, pulling Conrad into a loving embrace, complete with bracketed arms around his waist and a mouth willing to open and accept his heated kiss.
Conrad was a goner. He lowered his head and took Kim’s kiss, delivering his tongue like an arrow, greedily wedging his way through Kim’s bow-shaped lips.
The bloodlust had been burning in his system all day. He’d thought of Kim and Kimberly, but he’d longed for Kim’s blood and wasn’t sure he had the resistance to postpone the bite.
Kim arched his neck and shot Conrad a smile. “Do it, Conrad. Drain me. Then, train me. Let me become your protégé. I want to be your lover, your mate, and your vampire shifter. Change me, Conrad.”
Conrad snarled. For generations, he’d vowed to never turn a human. He’d never wanted another person to face the kind of doom he’d felt when he’d walked the earth a hundred years, and then another hundred more. He didn’t want someone he cared about to be standing at the end of time, wondering if he or she had an afterlife or if he deserved one because of the crimes his bloodlust required he commit.
Kim drew him in for a deeper kiss, working his hands up and over his arms and chest. “Bleed me, Conrad. Don’t just bite me.
Learning to Kill: Stories