Chloe and Eliza didn't have so many friends. Actually they didn't even have any, who wasn't their co-worker. So when it came to Eliza's soon-to-be-here birthday, Chloe didn't need to plan so much. Find a perfect present and... Just this. Find a perfect present. But this wasn't as easy as she thought.
Chloe sat in a coffee shop, where Eliza worked, at a corner table, drinking a cup of coffee and searched on her laptop for the super perfect present.
"Exciting subject?" Her best friend's voice pulled her out of the thinking as she sat down on the opposite side of the table. With a quick click she changed the site and smiled.
"Not at all. Just buying some clothes." She lied. She did it easily.
"Show me some."
"I-I can't. I closed the page, sorry." She did it again. She could see the suspect on Eliza's face, but didn't do anything with it.
"I have to work for a few more hours."
"Don't worry! I'm not gonna do anything dangerous."
"What's your plan for the next few hours of the day?"
"I'm going to the gym and then probably the bar. I need some... you know." She smirked knowingly at her and winked.
"Let's go girl! Find some hot guy." Chloe closed her apton, grabbed her coffee from the table.
"I have to go." She gave a kiss to Eliza's cheek.
"Have fun, Peach!" She smiled at her with her sweet smile.
"Write to me if you get home."
"I will!" She promised before watching her friend stop in the door. For a few seconds she felt a weird feeling. It ran through her body down her core, and made her shiver. This was one of the reasons why she didn't go to the coffee shop not as much as earlier. The last 6 months, it felt like the camera, which was watching Chloe's table, didn't even break eye contact with her. Watched her always, every time when Chloe was there. Or it just felt like it did.
"Is everything fine?" She quickly turned around the face with Eliza.
"Y-yeah. Yes, of course. I'm just going to go. Bye!" She waved goodbye to her and stepped out of the street.
After the sky went dark Chloe found herself at the bar. Again. But this time the other side of the counter without an apron. The glass of beer felt almost freezing under her hot skin. After the way that her fingers went through on the surface of the glass, it left watery drops. The wet bottle felt strangely interesting, but she thanked that for the couple of beers she drank before. The girl's phone buzzed slightly in her pocket.
Eliza<3: Hey girl! Are you in the bar?
Chloe: Yes. You don't need to come here. I'm fine. Don't wait for me tonight.
Eliza worried too much for her best friend, so she calmed her before she could even start to worry.
Eliza<3: Relax a little. Good night Peach!
Chloe: Good night Eliza!
After a few seconds without any response Chloe let her phone slide back to her pocket. The bar was strangely full. People talked, danced or even argued with each other. Some of them celebrated their bachelorette party, some of them just wanted a last good, crazy night before the new week had started. Or both.
"You know, that you will not get paid after the drinks you have drunk?" The laughing man stood behind the counter with an apron around his hips.
"Yes, of course I know. If I would, I could buy this whole place." Chloe rolled her eyes at her boss. "Not like I can't do it anyways."
"Would you like to drink anything else?" He asked as a good bartender.
"No thanks, I'm good. What are you doing behind the counter by the way? You always play this role when I'm not here, I just don't know about it?"
"No. Olivia's son got the flu and she needed to run home to him."
"Shit sorry, I didn't know about that. Is he ok?"
"Yeah. She called me to cancel tomorrow's shifts. She doesn't want to leave him alone." Joe continued and didn't even look at the man on the other side of the bar, who was flicking with his fingers to him.
"That is understandable."
"Yes. It is. So now, and tomorrow I am working instead of her and paying her the total payment."
"Well...If you need anything, just tell me." Chloe offered. Joe was so... selfless. She didn't understand. She was selfish. She thought about herself as a selfish person.
"Thanks for offering. You can take Olivia's shifts tomorrow." He hit her shoulder playfully and with a smirk on his face turned around and walked away.
"What? I-never mind." She took out her phone again and wrote a quick message to her friend about tomorrow.
Chloe: It so happened that I accidentally assumed tomorrow's shifts instead of Olivia, whose kid is sick. Sorry for canceling your plans. I will make it up to you somehow. I promise.
When she put it back in her pocket and looked up Joe stood in front of her with a big grin again.
"Seriously, now you aren't my boss, just some guy who makes me feel uncomfortable, please leave me alone and let me drink my beer, before I need to come in again for a double shift."
"Not too kind." He leaned against the counter with side of his. "It is not nice to talk to someone who brought you whiskey."
"I didn't order whiskey." Chloe shook her head with ununderstanding. Was she really this slow, or was it just the alcohol that affected her?
"You didn't not. But he did for you." He pointed the other side of the counter a few chairs away from Chloe. His face was.... it was really familiar to her. She almost could say it out, but she still didn't recognize him. His characteristic jaw, deep dark eyes and hair, his shirt that fit him as well like he would be born with it, like skin. Slowly, so slowly Chloe started to remember. She saw him in a book, in the school. So she is a magical creature. She was sure of this the first time she saw him, because he looks too good for being only human. And when he turned her head to her, and their eyes met... Chloe gasped immediately. He stood up slowly, and moved closer to her gracefully, sat down next to the girl. From closer his hair looked more balck next to his grey shirt.
"Do you not like whiskey?" The deep voice fitted perfectly to the look.
"What? No, yes I do."
"Cause I can order you something else, if you want to." He offered it for the blushing Chloe.
"No, it's perfect. Thank you." She smiled and let out a big sigh.
She had two options. Stay, and see what will happen, or go home, to her perfectly safe house, to her best friend. Why was the first one so attractive?
"I am Mark." The britt accent sounded so good from his mouth. Mark reached out his hand and waited for Chloe's. She bit her lip hesitantly, but reached out hers too and shook them together.
"I'm Chloe. Nice to meet you."
"The pleasure is all mine!" The sweet smile that played on his face, made her so much more adorable than scary or dangerous, compared that he was a vampire.
"So Mr. Windsor, what brought you here? This bar isn't your place."
"I didn't tell you my last name." He wasn't even surprised by me knowing his name. He knew that most of my kind did know his name.
"You did not. But I'm pretty smart. And you are pretty famous in our world as you know."
"Well... I guess you are right Miss Jones. In our world, we know, the pretty famous people's names." The confident smile went away from Chloe's face and a knowing smile appeared on Mark's.
"So you know who I am." It wasn't even a question. Of course he did.
"I'm not here for some vampire, sorcerer business. I'm just here as a rich man in a pretty junk bar. I swear it was nothing to do with you Miss Jones." He swore honestly. His eyes told the truth, and what Chloe could read from them, was the exact same thing that his mouth said.
"Don't call me like that. Chloe is perfect."
"You should appreciate your name. This is the only thing, that really and only just yours. Nobody can take it from you."
"But they can use it against me." Experience? Yes.
"They can... but if you have a name that can be used against someone... You are so much more powerful than them."
"It isn't too usual to meet with a Windsor vampire." Chloe changed the subject quickly.
"Says the sorcerer." Chloe drank from her glass of whiskey and leaned closer.
"One of the best."
"Oh I know that." He nodded with a smile.
"So, for what reason can I thank this meeting?" The alcohol's painfully savory burned Chloe's throat. At this point everything felt much more intense. The people were louder, the smell of the cheap beer in the air was stronger, the heat from Mark's body felt hotter than anyone's ever.
"I already told you that I am not here in a Vampire-sorcerer case Chloe."
"Yeah, but I don't believe you."
"Well you should. I am never lying. Now I am just a man who is talking to the most beautiful woman he has ever seen." He looked at the girl with a tempting smile.
"That would be me?" She asked back jokingly.
"Well I do not see any other beautiful women here, so yes. That would definitely be you." His pure confidence made Chloe's knees weak. Probably, thank you for the alcohol, her body was more attracted to him, than her mind was. Mark seemed honest, good, pure. Not her type. In personality... but in physique, the chemistry they had, the body, the smile. That was definitely her type. He embodied everything that Chloe wanted from a man's body. She didn't see under his shirt, but how it fit to him, it didn't leave too much for the imagination. Even if he was a Windsor, he was too good and pure for the sober Chloe, but the drunk Chloe really really liked him.
"I can not make you be here with me. I mean I can, but I will not. So if you wanna go you can." He offered.
"Why would I want to go?"
"I don't know, but I can feel your distancing and slightly judging. If you wanna ask something you can ask."
"I don't know what to ask." She shrugged.
"You know what? Tell me the things you know about me, and I will tell you if they are true or they are not."
"Alright." That seemed more than a good offer. Chloe turned in her chair facing him, crossed her legs and thought for a few seconds.
"I know that you are a vampire. You have 3 siblings and you are the most inoffensive of them. I heard that you are good, and equitable. You can thank for this fact that I'm still here."
"And I am very grateful for this." One of his fingers caressed Chloe's palm, which relaxed on the counter. She played that she didn't even notice it, but her whole body went goosebumps, and her heart beated superfast. She ignored the smirk in Mark's face.
"I know that you have a foundation with a lot of money. From the money, you pay down the people in the town, when someone in your family does something not too noble."
"That is a foundation Chloe. I made it many years ago to help people. The others are just lucky profits." Mark cut her off a little huffy.
"Does your brother think that too?" She questioned with a raised eyebrow. Chloe knew exactly the answer. Not just from Mark's facial expression, but from the fact that James Windsor used people like marionette puppets.
"Honestly, I do not think so. Have you ever met my brother?"
"No. I just heard the stories. We all did. The maniac serial killer who runs the town from behind the big people." Just for a moment she thought, she saw him once. In a picture, at the old times at the school. She could almost picture him.
"This does not stand too far from the truth. The truth is that this town would be nothing without my brother and my family. You all can thank him that this town thrives." He said resentfully.
"Give three cheers!"
"You are prejudiced." From the tone he used, Chloe felt blushingly embarrassed.
"I'm sorry. You are right. I don't know your brother. I judge by the news, and from experience they aren't always true." She apologised
"Oh, the news about my brother... These are true. Actually, probably all of them are true. He is just so much more than some bad news."
"He killed a lot of people." It was a fact, not a question.
"We all did. All of my family members did, including me."
"And you don't like my kind. Sorcerers."
"No we don't." He agreed.
"But you are all still here with me, letting me say bad things about your family. Acting like that isn't a big thing, while deep inside, you are mad at me for it." Now Chloe was the one who ran her fingers up and down on the man's hands, looking into his eyes. Mark's hand somehow was on her jeans-covered thigh.
"Yeah, but I am not here because you are a sorcerer. I didn't even know that you would be here."
"I work here, so I'm here a lot." She explained and a part of her wanted Mark to remember later of this.
"I heard it." He touched his own ears. Of course he did.
The silence between them didn't feel awkward. It felt burning. Chloe felt like she was burning under Mark's gaze. He watched every move of hers, and every time their eyes met, it felt like... She didn't know, but it felt intense.
"Just to be clear," Chloe cleared her throat. "If anything happens tonight between us, it won't continue after I'm sober. You are not my type. I mean yes you are, because you are hot and you have an accent which starts something in me, but... You are too good for me. My best friend always says that I have a thing for broken, bad men. And you are not that type."
"Why? What will happen tonight Chloe?" His face studied the girl's. Chloe leaned closer. Their lips were inches apart. Mark didn't take any move, just waited for Chloe, but the heat from his body pulled her closer and closer.
"I don't know yet." Chloe whispered and leaned back against her chair. Mark clenched jaw and raised eyebrows, made her giggle.
"Why does your best friend say this?" He alluded to her earlier sentence.
"Because she knows me." She shrugged her shoulders. Eliza knew her. More than anyone ever.
"This is not the kindest thing you can say about your best friend." Chloe cleared her throat nervously.
"Maybe... But this is the truth. Eliza knows me, and she is the kindest and the best person I know." She raised her voice a little.
"I am sorry if you feel like I am offending her. I didn't want to do anything like that." He apologised immediately, when he saw my reaction. I defended Eliza how he defended his brother.
"So tell me about this girl." He seemed much more interested than Chloe would have expected it.
"Elizabeth is my best friend. She is the only person in my life that I trust. She ran away with me when I needed to run. I owe her. I owe her a lot. And she is kind and precious. I have been repaying her since the day we left the school."
"Does she expect you to do that?" He ordered another drink for her.
"No. I don't think so. She just lets me do it. Let me pay the bills and buy things."
"Do not get offended, but if you work here, from what money can you..."
"Since my first birthday my father has given me a lot of money, which my mother didn't let me use until my 16th birthday. But when I turned 16, she said goodbye and sent me away. So I have money." She cut him off and explained.
"Yeah, like this it's understandable."
"So I'm doing my best to be there for her how she was for me. She is my family, she is my sister."
"Wait. So you are just friends or she is your sister." Mark looked at her confused.
"She is my best friend. But she is the closest thing to my family." Maybe because of the alcohol, but Mark was thinking and speaking slower too.
"I do not understand. She is not your family." Chloe giggled quietly.
"You never have someone, who wasn't your family, but you loved them like they would be. You know someone with whom you don't share blood, but it feels like?"
"My loyalty to my family is unshakable. You love her, but you don't love your family?"
"Exactly." Chloe just realized how close they were to each other. Their tights were touching and his hand was on the back of her chair. He was gentle and didn't urge anything. He knew what he was doing.
"You would like her. If I remember this in the morning, I will introduce you to her. She would like you too." She smiled. They would like each other.
"I already have a sister. She is... She is as important to me as Elizabeth is to you." The girl's name slipped out of his mouth like a spell. It sounded shiny and bright.
"I like how you say her name. It sounds magical." He smiled at the brunette.
"What is she like? Your sister." Chloe reclaimed her head on her hand and glanced at him.
"She is powerful, cold and sometimes really evil. But at other times, she is like Christmas morning. Like sweet and magical, and every second of it feels amazing. She looks cold hearted but she falls in love with every second person. She has a big heart and she can love so much with it. She is like you." His eyes sparkled while he said the words. Chloe didn't even pay too much attention to what he was saying, 'cause his eyes were so beautiful.
"Yeah. You know a really short time to know already how can I love."
"From how you are talking about your friend, I can see that you can love so deeply."
"I like you." She said it out loud and froze immediately. A smirk appeared on Mark's face and leaned closer. His hot breath burned Chloe's skin, but it felt so good. His hand on her waist, his mouth at her ear.
"I like you too Chloe." Before he would lean back he gave a kiss to Chloe's cheek. When he looked at her again, his eyes were darker than the darkest black.
"How drunk are you?"
"Enough to know, it will hurt in the morning, but not that much to don't know, what am I doing." She answered and tried to look as confident as she could. Her shaky voice betrayed her. He slowly let her get off the chair and pulled the girl closer. He was still sitting, but spread his legs and pulled her between them. One hands on her hips and the other caressed her hair back, behind her ear. She grabbed his shoulder to keep her balance.
"Will you regret this in the morning?" Mark's voice was octaves lower than usual.
"Will you?" She asked back.
"Definitely n o. I just want you to be totally sure of it. I don't want you to think about the first time, when you met with a Windsor vampire as a bad thing."
"God you are a good guy." She leaned her head against his chest. Even though he was sitting, he was a little taller than Chloe. He laughed at her and caressed her waist. They stand like this for a few minutes. It felt so safe in his arms. Safer than usual.
"Mark?"
"Hm?"
"Do you wanna come home with me?" She asked after looking up to him. "I have good wine there." She added with a smile.
"God and I thought you could not be more perfect." He laughed and jumped down from the chair and took an unnecessarily too much money to the counter. Mark let Chloe grab his hand and led him out of the bar. When they got out of the bar, Mark pointed at his car. It was a balck sports car, but in the dark Chloe couldn't see anything else from it.
"The wine at home is almost as old as you."
"Do you wanna marry me?" He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer as he kissed her neck. Chloe shook slightly between his arms. She felt his confident grin on her skin.
"Shut up." She rolled her eyes at him.
"I didn't even say anything." He protested quickly and let go of her. Mark opened the car's door for the girl and let her sit in. It smelled like Mark, it was strong and pleasurable.
"Nice car." She said after the man got in from the other side.
"Thank you. I got it from my brother as a propitiation because he sent away our sister and didn't let her come home."
"What?" Chloe looked at him surprised.
"Long story."
In a normal way she would ask about the car. Not because she wanted to weasel in with him, because she would care about it. But Mark's hand on her tight got all of her attention. She told him the address and they were there less than 5 minutes later. The balck haired one jumped out and with super fastness went to the car's door and opened it for her.
While they stood in the front-door, Chloe's leg just didn't want to move. Because Mark stood so close, barely inches away. She couldn't get a single letter out distracted by the dark black eyes, which looked her up and down slowly. She felt two fingers touching under her chin, and lifted up her head. For moments there was nothing, but deathly silence in her mind. She made a decision and closed the gap between them by grabbing the back of his neck and crashing their lips together. They both let out a big sight of the connection. It felt sweet and so so dangerous. They both tasted like whiskey and cheap beer.
He slowly pulled away.
"If you regret this in the morning, that would be totally your mud." He joked.
"Really?" She asked with a smile. Chloe just wanted to kiss him again so badly, so she wrapped both of her hands around his neck.
"No, I would probably take the responsibility." He laughed softly. "Seriously, if you..."
"Shut up and kiss me again." She cut him off. This is the problem with the good guys. They worry and think too much.
"Alright Ma'am." He didn't need to be told twice. He pulled Chloe closer and connected their lips again in a much more passionate kiss.
The hands on Chloe's hips pushed her against the door. Mark's teeth nip at her lips and causing a whimper that she fails to keep in and escape her throat. But then he stopped again and Chloe groaned in dislike.
"Do you fancy going inside?"
"Y-yeah. I would love to." The door was still unlocked. Chloe always told her friend to lock it and she always had forgotten it. She stepped in and closed the door after Mark.
"Would you like some wine?" She asked from behind the kitchen counter.
"No, thank you. I think I drank enough alcohol today." He giggled with his hands in his pocket. "Do you mind if I take off my jacket?" He pointed at the black jacket.
"No." She said it maybe too quickly. He unbuttoned the jacket and took it off slowly, not breaking eye contact between them. Chloe bit her lips really hard, trying not to say any inappropriate thing. The first two buttons were unbuttoned on his blach shirt.
The minutes in silence were a bit awkward. Mark sat down on one of the chairs in front of the counter, leaned forward and looked around in the apartment.
"Where is your friend?"
"She is sleeping. There." Chloe pointed at the door at the left side of the room.
"So I assume that your room is upstairs." Chloe just nodded fast.
"So you don't want wine?" She cleared her throat.
"No, I do not. Thank you. But," He stood up and walked to Chloe. "I really really want to kiss you again." He whispered, pressing Chloe against the sink.
"I-I really wanna kiss you too." Mark lowered his head and reconnected their lips. Chloe's hands wrapped around his neck and he kept her body close to his. The kiss starts out slow and tentative much like the first time, but this time it quickly turns into something else much more passionate, tempting. Chloe's fingers messed up Mark's black curls as she ran her finger through his hair.
A loud moan resonated in the room, and she wasn't totally sure that it came from her or from him, but it made her want to kiss deeper.
Mark's hands grabbed the back of her thighs and pulled her up. She crossed her legs behind his leg. That was it, there was no distance between them. It was perfect. Chloe had no idea how, but Mark walked up on the stairs without breaking the kiss.
It felt like a second and she was on top of him in her bed.
"Mark" his name fell from her lips but quickly turned into a moan as he grabbed the two sides of her thigh. Mark sat straight, broke the kiss to give all of his attention to Chloe's neck. With one hand he turned her head and the other found their way under her shirt. A quiet yell escaped from her mouth from the cold touch on her skin.
"Do that again." She moaned as he licked a special spot on her neck. His laugh sent a vibration all over her body straight to her center..
"You are beautiful Chloe. So. Amazingly. Beautiful." Whispered between sweet kisses. The girl unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it down on his shoulders as she slipped her tongue into his mouth meeting with him. Her hands ran on his hard abs, up to his chest and shoulders. She barely noticed the necklace in his neck, but didn't pay too much attention to it. Who thought that this kind of body was under the shirts? Chloe's hands explored enthusiastically with dire need, trying to sate the desperate craving she felt for Mark. She slid down her hand between their bodies, grabbing him through his pants. Mark's hips moved upside and his palm cupped her breasts from the side, squeezed gently. Chloe shuddered under his fingers. The only sound in the dark room was their heavy breathing and the lost moans, which were louder at the time.
"God." He mumbled against her lips. "You are fantastic. May I?" She nodded and let him pull her shirt off. Mark paused, staring at Chloe's bare chest and her black bra. Her back hit the mattress in the blink of an eye and Mark crawled between her legs. She lost herself in Mark's kisses, touches on her stomach. She drew a sharp, deep breath, squeezing her eyes tightly shut as she felt the sensation spike throughout her eager body, when he started caressing her inner thigh.
"Oh God."
"Are you alright?"
"I'm so much more than alright."