“You memorize a lot of songs after a hundred years, I suppose.” Jackie laid her hands out over the keys. Duet. Do I even know one? Will my memory even function to make my fingers play it? The warm, syrupy feeling had swelled into her head now, leaving an odd, tangy, metallic taste in the back of her mouth. The wine did nothing to get rid of it. It felt like her head floated just above the rest of her body, barely attached. She wanted Nick’s cool hands on her face, bringing her mind and body back into one piece.
“You pick,” she said, pulling her hands back. “I can’t think of anything.”
“All right. How about this?”
His fingers moved with deft surety, but with a touch light and soft as a feather. Jackie thought she knew the song, but the notes ringing out of the piano filled her head with color, sound, smells, and the bittersweet taste of tears. Abruptly, the sweet melancholy of the song came to an end.
“Jackie?”
She rubbed her clammy hands on her pants. Oh, my God, what was that? “Keep playing. That was so sad and wonderful.”
Nick’s cool fingertips brushed against Jackie’s cheek, and she realized she had begun to cry. Without thinking, Jackie leaned into the touch, and the fingers slid down to cup her chin. He turned her head toward him. “Jackie?”
“What?” Goddamnit, if you don’t kiss me now, I will show you what sharp lines and hard edges are all about.
“Look at me,” he said, voice firm.
Jackie brought her gaze up at last to meet his, locked on like a moth to the flame, charming and deadly both. She could taste his lips against her own, crushing and soft. I wonder if his tongue is as cool as his hands? Could he make me into his slave if he wanted? Unable to resist his every whim? Fuck, Nick! Kiss me or let go before I do something stupid.
“Did Shelby do anything to you? Anything to make you feel better?”
She swore she could feel his pulse through the tips of his fingers, picking up pace against her skin. She nodded. “Said it would have me back on my feet by morning.”
He snorted and shook his head. “Probably said you looked good enough to eat as well.”
You could eat me right now, Sheriff. Just lay me down on this beautiful, polished piano and eat me right up. Jackie nodded slowly, feeling as if too much movement might indeed make her head float away from her body. “She did.” Jackie held up her hands to him, some part of her brain that was normally restrained from active duty brought to the surface on a warm seepage of vampiric goo. “What’s the matter, Nick? My blood not good enough for you?”
He leaned back a few inches. “What? That’s not even an issue here.”
“Shelby wanted it. Why don’t you, Nick?”
“She wasn’t referring to your blood, Jackie. She had, well, other things in mind.”
Jackie wondered if she stood up and sat on the piano keys there before him if he might have a little more compunction to rip her pants off and fuck her brains out. Just a little. I only need a little. Make me feel so much better. Some little part of Jackie’s mind screamed at her, insisting she get the hell out of there, lock herself in a closet until things settled down, but, apparently, the willpower to use it had gone back down to the kitchen for more ice cream.
“Nick,” she said, laying her hand against the rough stubble of his jaw. “I know exactly what she meant, and that’s exactly what I want, what I need right now.”
He reached up and took her hand off his face. “You’re really warm. Shelby did this, damnit. I’m going to kill her.”
Jackie guided his hand down to her breast. “She knows what I need, Nick. Is it really that hard? Am I so undesirable?”
“No, it’s not that, Jackie. This just isn’t the real you here. Shelby did this, filled you with some extra energy to help you heal. It has certain… effects.” He cleared his throat and removed his hand from her breast.
Jackie stood up and stepped over Nick’s legs so that she stood astride him. The keys chimed together in a disharmonious clamor when her butt leaned back into them. “Does it matter?” She laid her hands on his shoulders, squeezing the firm muscle beneath, and found herself strangely and pleasantly oblivious to his fathomless, glowing stare. “I get the impression you don’t sleep around much, Nick. When’s the last time you had a nice, hard fuck?”
“This isn’t the time or place for this discussion, Jackie.”
“And you’d prefer to wait until after you’re dead?” She leaned forward, fingers digging in until her face was only a few inches from his. It really did look like death back in the depths of those eyes. “I don’t want your soul, Mr. Anderson.”
Nick stood up, knocking the piano bench over to the floor with a loud clatter against the wooden floor, his hands hooked under Jackie’s arms. He pushed her back until she was arched against the front of the piano. “You don’t know what you want, Jackie, and I have nothing left to give you.”
She sucked in her breath at the quickness with which he had responded, a tingling wash of heat coursing through her at the feeling of being pressed between him and the piano. It was not exactly comfortable, but Jackie didn’t notice. He stood over her, staring down at her half-opened mouth, holding her gaze, and Jackie knew his words were only that-just words. You say it, and you don’t want to believe, Nick Anderson. You’re just as desperately lonely as I am. “I know what I want at this very moment. Question is, will you give it to me?”
He leaned farther, pressing his torso against hers. Jackie responded by wrapping her legs around his waist and got rewarded with the feeling of him swelling up against her. Nick’s hands gripped the edge of the piano on either side of her, and his mouth hovered perilously and deliciously close to her own. “Jackie…”
God! Do you have to be so fucking chivalrous! Just fuck me! Jackie brought her head up and found his mouth. She could feel every little bump and curve of his lips, nibbling them, licking the crease until after a moment he responded, opening to her and letting her tongue swim with his, tasting of wine, sweet and woody. After a few seconds he pulled away, leaving Jackie licking her lips, wanting to taste more.
“Nick, don’t stop. Please. I want that mouth all over me.”
“No,” he said, closing his eyes and pushing back upright. “Damnit, Jackie. I want to, but no, not like this. Not under the influence of the other side.”
No, no, no! You bastard. You can’t bail now. “I don’t care, damnit.” She reached for his neck, to pull him back down, but he grabbed her hands in his.
“I do. It’d be like taking advantage of a drunken woman. Come on, a cold shower actually helps the effect go away.” He pulled her to her feet and led Jackie to the stairs.
Jackie didn’t complain, thinking perhaps she could coax him into the shower with her, but he removed no clothing, only pointing out the bathrobe hanging on the hook behind the door.
“It’s Shelby’s. She won’t mind. Cold water, Jackie. Cold as you can stand it. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”
Jackie yelled at the first contact, but the pulsing contact from the jets of water did indeed begin to cool her down right away. Gradually, her head floated back to its rightful place on her shoulders, and her will ventured back to take up shop once again. Only then did Jackie feel the mortification of what she had done. What the hell would she say to him now? She had truly wanted him though, sort of. Some part of her had, at least, and Shelby had unleashed it. How am I going to live this down? Maybe I can just sneak out and walk back to town. I really wanted him. Fuck, what is my problem? I’m going to have to thank him for saying no.
It struck Jackie then, beginning to shiver under the cold spray of the shower, that Nick Anderson was the first guy that she could remember who had refused to take advantage of the situation offered to him.
Chapter 43
“Will you give it to me?” The words kept echoing around inside Nick’s head. He listened to Jackie finish her shower and then lock herself in the bedroom. Tough not to blame her for that one. Embarrassment was never fun, but he was thankful nonetheless. Nick did not know what he would say to her. Part of him had known what was going on. The symptoms had all been there, but he realized now, after a couple beers and two hours of mindless channel surfing, that he had wanted her. When she had finally irked him enough to push her up against the piano, his body had responded in a way he had not felt in a long time.