Page 25 of Guarding the Rock Star
I couldn’t write a damned thing. It wasn’t the bears. They were mostly quiet and out of site, patrolling the perimeter and taking turns resting in their trailers. I only saw them for dinner or when they came into the house to have a strategy session with Wanda.
No, the problem was Wanda. We’d been here for three days now. It had been three days since she’d laid me out on my dining room table and fucked me with her fingers and tongue until I was ready to burst, and then pulled away. And ever since then she hadn’t touched me once.
I made a point of initiating contact, brushing by her whenever I could, pressing my leg against hers under the dinner table, or touching her shoulder as I walked by. But there had been no reaction from her, other than a subtle stiffening in her posture or the slight movement of her moving away from me.
A few times our eyes had met, and we’d exchanged long, heated gazes like two people in one of those Victorian period romances about star-crossed lovers. But this wasn’t the lady in love with the stable hand. This was real life.
Wanda was laser focused on her work. I got that. I also understood that I’d hurt her with my reaction to the mate revelations. I don’t know why I’d acted like that. It had just seemed so absurd, like maybe someone was pranking me or something. For a girl who’d grown up always feeling unwanted and unloved, it felt too good to be true.
Plus it all seemed so fantastical. Some mysterious power that determined who your life partner would be. The idea that there was one person who was perfect for you. It went against everything I knew to be true about life and relationships.
I’d been doing some research about fated mates while I was here, and yesterday when I took a walk with Boris I’d asked him about how it worked. In only three days, it felt like Boris was one of my best friends.
Most of the research I found on fated mates was about shifters, not vampires. Boris had explained that fated mates were more rare with Wanda’s kind, and since they were a cooler headed species, they didn’t get as crazy about their mates like the shifters did.
“They feel the pull very strongly,” Boris explained. “But shifters are more in touch with their primal sides, where vampires have more human characteristics than us. But one thing I do know, is that once they mark you, there’s a mating frenzy that happens.”
“Mating frenzy?” I asked.
“Once they are fully bonded, they can’t get enough of their mate. Sexually I mean. That’s when their demon side comes out. They say the first few days with your mate, the building could fall down around you and you wouldn’t notice because you’re too busy having sex again and again.”
Maybe I was imagining it, but I could swear that Boris was blushing a little as he said it.
“Demon side?” I asked in confusion.
“Most supernatural people are two spirited,” he explained. “Me, I have bear inside me as well as man. The vamps have a demon inside. Not the scary demon like in movie – although they can be scary – but a regular demon.”
“A regular demon?” I felt ridiculous just parroting questions back at him, but sometimes when we were talking the language barrier got in the way.
“There are many demons in this world, Tasha. Some are good, some are evil, most are just regular people like you and me, they just have different kinds of powers.”
Later that evening we were sitting around the table eating dinner when I slammed my hands down on the table and moaned, “I need my chef!”
Conversation stopped as all eyes turned to me.
“What is wrong with the spaghetti?" Wanda asked.
The pasta came from a box and the sauce came from a jar, for one, but I didn’t want to be bougie about it. Even though I was totally bougie about my food.
“We’re eating too many carbs,” I complained instead. “Bread, spaghetti, lasagna, rice, I’m not going to be able to fit into my clothes when we get back. Plus, it’s making me sluggish, mentally and physically. I can’t get a damned thing done.”
Of course, I wasn’t sure how much of that was due to being around Wanda and how much was due to carbs. I was hoping it was the carbs, because I really needed to get some songs written for my new album.
“If you’re done with your little tantrum, Princess, we were planning on telling you that we think we should come up with excuses to bring some of your team here one or two at a time,” Wanda said. “Since they’ll have to stay with us or nearby, we can watch them more carefully. Hopefully one of them will misstep and show their hand.”
“And if they don’t?” I asked.
“Then I guess it’s back to the drawing board.”
There had been no letter since we left Seattle, but we all knew it was only a matter of time before another one came. Hopefully, there wouldn’t be anything dead with the next one.
“Great. Start with Monica,” I said emphatically. “She can prep stuff for a couple of weeks for us while she’s here. I don’t care how much extra I have to pay her, I need some decent food before I die.”
I was full on whining now and I could see Wanda resisting the urge to roll her eyes.
“Fine, we’ll start with Monica. Does that make you happy, Princess?”
“Very.”
