Vampires Need Not…Apply? (Accidentally Yours #4)(35)
Author: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

“Ixtab. Are you all right? Ixtab?” Shit.

He hovered his ear above her mouth. At least, he thought it was her mouth. Not that he could see her face.

Her breath was shallow at best.

Santa Maria. He grabbed her wrist to check for a pulse. Yes, there was a faint, slightly irregular beat—caray! A soft wave of throbbing tingles wrapped its way up his arm, over his shoulder, and spread through his body.

Joy. Light. Euphoria. Warmth.

Unable to pull away, he closed his eyes and allowed the sensation to saturate each corner of his body and mind. She was like a drug. A delicious, sensual drug that he now recalled tasting earlier when she’d touched him during their fight. Only then, he’d mistaken it for vampire adrenaline.

Now, come to think it, the sensation felt eerily similar to when she’d touched him in the hospital and the other time when he lay there dying.

This could not be a goddess of evil and death.

So what was she?

He slowly lifted her lacy veil, trying not to stare at the two firm br**sts cloaked by snug black fabric. He swallowed hard.

As she lay there completely still, he realized he could make out the full outline of the body she tried so desperately to hide. She was actually quite lovely. A long, lean form with a small waist and curvy hips. And he already knew she was perfect in the breast department.

Of course, she was a goddess. Why wouldn’t she be perfect?

Her sister, Fate, had painted her out to be a monster. A killer. And Ixtab had admitted freely that she was.

So what did the face of this killer truly look like? He slowly lifted the veil. One inch. Then another. A smooth neck with light golden-brown skin revealed itself. No. It wasn’t the pale, corpse-like flesh he’d expected; it was simply beautiful.

He glanced down at her hands. He’d never noticed them, but they, too, were a soft, creamy mocha brown. As if she spent her days in the Mediterranean, sunbathing. Lovely.

He lifted a little further, his heart racing with anticipation, with morbid curiosity, with hope.

A chin. Perfectly rounded to a small point and made of the same silky skin on her neck. Then… Dios mío, lips…

Words of blatant, ungentlemanly lust stuck in his throat. Two full, sexy lips stared back at him, mesmerizing him with their voluptuous perfection. Did they feel as silky as they looked? He leaned in close and ran his fingers over her lower lip. They felt like rose petals, soft and velvety little pillows. He placed a small kiss on her mouth. Heaven. Kissing such soft lips felt like heaven.

His mind instantly panned south, imagining how her other soft and tender spots might look and how he might enjoy kissing those, too. His fangs suddenly popped from his mouth and his shaft burst through the buttons of his jeans.

Christ. Now he finally understood why vampires wore leather pants. He’d have to order a pair or two immediately. In the meantime, his long apron would have to do.

He lifted a little bit more to see the rest of her face, and then…

“Ixtab!” She simply dissolved into thin air, leaving nothing behind but a pile of empty black lace and a very sexy set of pink, lacy lingerie.

Chapter Diecinueve

“What do you mean, you ‘lost Ixtab’?” Kinich stood in the doorway of his apartment with a white towel wrapped around his waist, smelling of sex and woman. A really hot woman. Literally. The smell of sunshine seeped from his every pore.

“Lost. As in… Coño, she f**king vanished. Is this one of her powers?”

Kinich scratched his head and stepped aside to allow Antonio to enter. “How hard did you say you hit her? And what’s with the apron?”

“I haven’t ordered my leather pants yet.”

“Ah. I’ll give you the name of the local tailor. We get a bulk discount, and he does excellent work—triple stitching in the crotch.”

“Fantastic.” Antonio sank down on the black leather couch and dragged his hands down his face. “Santa Maria. I hit her so hard she crashed to the floor like a bag of rocks. I’m not used to this new strength.”

Penelope, with her dark hair appearing as though it had been teased in every possible direction, scrambled from their bedroom wrapped in a pink Hello Kitty bathrobe.

Antonio raised a quick brow.

“What?” she squabbled. “I borrowed it from Helena’s closet upstairs.”

Wasn’t Helena the current ruler of the vampire race? This strange, new world he’d been sucked into was farcical.

Kinich looked at Penelope with the utmost adoration. “Antonio says he lost Ixtab.”

Penelope stifled a laugh and then turned sheet white. “The Maaskab aren’t back, are they?”

“Maaskab? You mean the evil priests we fight?” Antonio asked. Fate and Viktor had spoken to him about the “situation.” And one might presume it was the reason he’d decided to continue on with his work. But no. It was her. The haunting woman from his dreams who appeared the very first night he possessed the tablet. Only now, now that he didn’t really sleep, he heard her voice each time he closed his eyes, pleading to end her agony. And dammit if he didn’t feel drawn to her—like she pulled him with invisible threads attached to his soul. There was simply no denying that he was destined to meet this woman, whoever she might be.

So what did this… thing with Ixtab mean?

“No,” Kinich replied. “The Maaskab have not returned. We haven’t seen any aside from Emma’s grandmother since the last battle. Our physicist here says he accidentally hit Ixtab, she passed out, and then she disappeared.”

Kinich and Penelope exchanged several rounds of awkward glances.

“What?” Antonio asked.

“I believe you killed her,” Kinich replied.

Killed her? “It was only a thrust with my elbow, for Christ’s sake.”

“Lucky hit, vampire.” Kinich shrugged. “You must have cracked her neck.”

“Isn’t she immortal?” Antonio argued.

Kinich snickered. “Oh yes. And when she returns, she’s going to be pissed. And not pissed in a mortal female kind of way where she throws her shoes at your head.” He looked at Penelope.

“Hey!” She took a swipe at his arm. “I was really mad that day, and you weren’t being a very nice Sun God.”

Kinich pulled her close and kissed her nose. “No, I wasn’t. And you may throw your shoes at me anytime you like. You look extremely beautiful when you are venting.” He kissed her deeply. “And you are even more beautiful carrying my child. By the way, I cannot wait to find out the sex. If it’s a girl, I would like to call her—”