Once Bitten, No Longer Shy by Julie Steimle (chrome ebook reader txt) 📕

coats, Troy pressed his hand against the pad to open the Lazlo Holyfield entrance while she stared at the dark. When the door opened, he led her into the lab. It was quiet in there. He could hardly hear the sound of the music.

“Wow,” she said, breathless. “You have a secret lab?”

“Don’t tell anyone.” He chuckled. He then turned on the security cameras to watch the party mess. Seeing those three leave, he shut it off again, getting close to her. “Did he hurt you?”

She colored, lowering her head. “No. It’s just the same old. He’s handsy.”

Troy cast her a dry look. “Handsy? Nicole. He was groping you in a public place. You should have kneed him in the groin. You should have bit him when he was kissing you.”

She kissed Troy, a tear running down her face. “This is why I like you. You’re so innocent.”

He pulled back. “Me? You’re joking.”

Laughing painfully, crying also, she whispered while leaning against him, “Yes. You. You don’t touch a girl unless she wants it. Not even until she actually, verbally asks for it. You don’t try to charm me. You tell me what’s really on your mind, and you don’t pretend to be all that to impress me. You’re like an innocent boy, eager to learn.” She brushed his hair from his pale face. “It’s like you had been frozen in time since your parents attacked you, and you need me to bring you into adulthood.”

She heavily kissed him. He pulled her in, tasting her passionately. They were soon up against the counter, doing everything to remove all those things that kept them physically apart—especially their clothes. And as the party got broken up in the other room, they hooked up in the lab.

Someone knocked on the lab door about an hour later. They only had a second to throw something on—which was not quick enough when Matthew walked in.

“Woah!” Mathew shielded his eyes and turned away. “Troy! Maybe you should have hung a sock on the closet door.”

Pulling on his pants, tossing Nicole his shirt, Troy stood up, “Would it have made a difference?”

Rolling his eyes—still keeping them averted, though, Matthew said, “Possibly. Is this what you came in here for?”

Shrugging, Troy then shook his head. “It was safer in here. Less noisy.”

Peeking once to Nicole who was now mostly dressed, Matthew said from an extremely red face, “Did you have to bring her in?”

Glancing back at Nicole, then handing over her panties, which she had been looking around the floor for, Troy said, “Yes. An ex of hers was assaulting her, and I didn’t think it wise to leave her out there.”

“Assaulting?” Matthew peeked once at Troy as if to say what he was doing wasn’t that different. Yet he said to Nicole, “Someone was assaulting you at the party?”

She blushed, shaking her head. “Don’t worry about it. I’m fine.”

But Matthew shook his head. “If you need protection—”

“I’ll be ok,” she said. But she looked embarrassed. And Troy could tell Matthew was reading what she was thinking. He frowned.

Yet he said to Troy, “Ok. You two stay in here—but no more hanky-panky. At least until we’ve cleared out the place. I gotta go wash my eyes out…”

She giggled as Matthew exited the room. “My goodness, you are all little boy scouts. Why couldn’t I have met guys like you sooner?”

Troy kissed her on her forehead. “Maybe you are looking in all the wrong places.”

Matthew did not return for another half hour. When he did, Joshua Johnson also came in.

“Is there a problem?” Troy asked, as this was not a good sign. Two cop friends on the scene? And one was JJ? Who died?

“No problem,” JJ said. He then looked to Nicole. “Are you sure you don’t want to press charges?”

Nicole colored, knowing exactly what he meant. And Troy clued in too. Her mouth opened in protest.

“Because sexual assault should not be taken lightly,” JJ said. “And if he is not held accountable, he could go after someone else—and do you really want that?”

“I…” She went pale, peeking to Troy. “I can’t afford a lawyer. And plenty of people will say I was asking for it. We were dating, you know, before Troy and I…” She blushed again.

“We can hire a lawyer for you,” Matthew said. He then nodded to Troy, “We have an incredibly wealthy friend who has plentiful resources—including excellent lawyers. And he would consider it an honor to help out a friend of a friend.”

Troy felt a wash go through him. They were taking his relationship with Nicole seriously. Though short notice, Matthew was no longer looking at Nicole as the ‘nymphomaniac’. Perhaps Matthew saw something in her thoughts that he had not seen before. Or perhaps he finally understood she was not just any girl.

“You’ll watch out for her?” Matthew said, looking to Troy meaningfully.

“Absolutely.” Troy stared back, wondering what he knew.

They then gestured for all of them to leave the lab together.

Going out the Lazlo Holyfield entrance, they came into a messy living room. Troy moaned, looking at it. “Why Bobo…?”

“He was testing you,” Matthew whispered.

Troy whipped around with a look. “What?”

“He’s making sure you are not going full vampire,” Matthew murmured as he walked through the tossed paper cups and chips ground into the carpet.

“Make Bobo clean it up,” JJ said with a huff. “It was a bad call in his part, and he made a mess of it.”

“How is this a test of my going vampire?” Troy protested.

JJ shrugged.

Nicole watched them, looking around quietly as they talked with the mood of someone overhearing something she would not have heard in most cases.

“The vampire inclination to be promiscuous,” Matthew said with a peek to Nicole, “is accentuated by behavior at a party. A true vampire would make out with any sexy body, and you would not be exclusive. Also, you would be more flippant about other people being promiscuous.”

Troy shook his head. “You have got to be kidding me.”

Matthew shook his head. “Those are your own notes, from your own research.”

“You made copies?” Troy felt sick.

“Randon made copies for us,” Matthew said, “when he got your stuff that first day. Silvia helped getting them to us and typed out. Your handwriting is horrendous by the way. Only Randon could read it.”

Troy would have paled, as his own best friend had done this behind his back.

“You are our foremost expert on vampirism, Troy,” Matthew said, half laughing. “The McAllister book on it was mostly about appetites and protection from vampires. You’ve studied into the mind and history of the vampire. You know better than anybody what would lure one in and what changes vampirism makes on a person. We wanted to make certain you were not going that way.”

 “I’m not going that way!” Troy shouted, entirely flustered.

“We can see that.” Matthew smiled wide. But then he winked at Nicole. “We just get worried sometimes.”

Rolling his eyes, Troy tossed up his hands.

“Do you want me to drive you home?” Matthew said to Nicole.

She stepped close to Troy. “I… I’d like to stay here.”

Matthew immediately blushed. He then looked to Troy and whistled. He stepped back and raised his hands. “Oookaaay! My hands are off.”

He then signaled to JJ that they ought to go. Bobo walked in that moment, sighing with a sheepish look on his face. Then he nodded to Troy. “Sorry man. Next time, it will be a more mellow party.”

Troy saluted him, then steered Nicole with him upstairs. He opened the door, peeked in to make sure no one was there then said to her as he heard Matthew and JJ go out of the apartment, “I need to fix up a night drink. Do you want anything?”

Coming in close to him, kissing him, she said, “Is it that necessary?”

“It makes me not crave blood,” Troy said. “And it puts me to sleep so I can live like a human being. What do you prefer?”

She considered that for a second then patted his chest, “Alright. I’ll wait.”

“Do you want anything?” he asked again.

Stroking his chest, she said, “I want you. But… I’ll take something. Maybe just a nice glass of water.”

He laughed, nodding.

Troy did his best to make his drink quickly and he carried up the glass of water for Nicole. He set his drink to the side on the night stand as he handed her the water, as he did not want his drink until right before he intended to sleep. She was already undressed and in the blankets, waiting for him.

 

Troy decided to make it his new habit to go with Nicole to work whenever she stayed over with him, just to make sure she arrived safely. As they walked together the first morning, she had finally fessed up that she had hooked up with Brandon the night after their very first meeting. He was aggressive and possessive and she was afraid of him. Troy had asked her why she had left with him from their bite victim meetings then, and she had said that she was used to dominating men. It was how she had started with sex in the first place. She had been raped by someone she had trusted, and he had convinced her that she had asked for it.

She had also fessed up that she had sex once with Joshua Miller and once with Connor, as well as Dalton. She had only paired off with Brandon because he had been so persistent, and to be honest, it had a familiar feeling. She liked being desired. She admitted also to being with Cameron more than once before settling on Troy.

“Why?” Troy stared at her, halting on the road—not accusatory, though. And she could tell. She could tell he just wanted to understand her. Besides, she had chosen him over them all.

“You don’t try to change me,” she murmured, curling her fingers within his. “You accept me. You actually listen to me…. And you’ve given me the best sex I’ve ever had in my life.”

He would have blushed if he could—just for her benefit. He gently squeezed her hand instead.

“I thought you were going to kill Brandon at that party,” Nicole whispered.

“I felt like it,” Troy murmured, nodding.

He kissed her when they parted at the store’s entrance.

 

That weekend Troy went to see Randon and Silvia. Nicole had told him she was going to visit her mother to talk about her ‘condition’, which meant she would finally fess up she was getting the help she needed. She would be gone until Monday—missing their group meeting also. Matthew supported it. He was still encouraging her to press charges against Brandon… and someone else whom Matthew did not talk about.

When he arrived, Randon opened the door and gave Troy a big hug. Randon then directed him to the huge puzzle he and his wife were assembling together on the coffee table. The picture looked like an old ruin. Maybe Aladdin in the cave of wonders.

Troy glanced around Randon’s apartment, listening to Silvia call out ‘hi’ from the kitchen then start a gourmet meal that would not have garlic. She, he could tell, was giving them space.

Randon handed Troy the box top so he could see what they were constructing. Not quite Aladdin, but close. The picture had gold coins in it—and a Hobbit. After a while, Randon mentioned hearing something about the fiasco at the party—specifically about Bobo being a dunderhead for thinking a rooftop party was a good idea.

“I mean, what was he thinking?” Randon put another puzzle piece into place. It fit beautifully. But Randon was like that, someone who noticed details like an expert. “Did he forget you had to guard against vampires?”

“I don’t think he actually knew the danger,” Troy replied, picking up a piece to make it fit. It always helped to have the box top to locate the spot. Unlike Randon, he could see patterns as long as he had a reference point.

“Are you going to bring her over some time?” Randon asked, his voice indicating an odd,