Tasha

I was surprised that it took Melissa Etheridge to impress Wanda. Then again, I was surprised that she even knew of Melissa. She’d achieved mainstream success by any standard, but everyone knew she was a lesbian icon. She had many straight fans for sure, but if I met a Melissa fan, she was almost always a lesbian.

“I take it you’re a lesbian?” I asked.

Wanda gave me one of those long looks. “My sexuality isn’t relevant to my job.”

“But wouldn’t I know if my cousin was straight or not?” I asked.

When she didn’t answer I hit the mute button on the projector and scooted closer to her on the couch. She had an intoxicating smell, like fresh cut grass and a tinge of iron, which shouldn’t work, but it did.

“I’m a lesbian.”

“No kidding,” she said wryly.

I looked at her curiously. “What are you saying, I look like a lesbian or something?”

Wanda shook her head. “I could tell by your nipples, the way they get hard when I’m close to you. And the fact that you got aroused when I manhandled you in the car. I could hear your heart rate increasing too.”

Fuck, I’d forgotten about that. My face heated with embarrassment. Obviously, I was attracted to her, and she knew it. So why didn’t she act on it? She seemed like a take charge kind of person, but maybe I intimidated her or something. No, that couldn’t be right. She had the advantage of knowing I was attracted to her and would likely be down for her acting on it. Unless she wasn’t attracted to me? I had the feeling she was, but Wanda was hard to read. Maybe I was getting it all wrong.

As if she’d read my mind, Wanda said, “You’re a talented and beautiful woman, Tasha, but I have a job to do here. Your safety has to be my top priority, above any attraction you might have for me.”

She paused, and met my eyes before adding, “Or any attraction I have for you.”

I felt relieved that I wasn’t imagining this strong connection between us. Wanda and I stared at each other for a long, pregnant moment before I dragged my eyes away. The room suddenly felt uncomfortably warm. I shrugged off my hoodie and moved back to my side of the couch. Maybe it was my imagination, but I could swear that Wanda breathed a sigh of relief as I put some distance between us.

She wanted to keep things between us professional, and I knew intellectually she was right. Time for a distraction.

“Okay, let me show you who Lila is.” I leaned forward to grab the remote and queued up another video. “If you like Melissa Etheridge, I bet you’re going to like her music too.”

The next few days passed quickly. When I got up in the morning Wanda would be working at the dining room table, already dressed and showered. She was an early riser, apparently able to fall asleep early as well, while I lay in the room next door to her staring at the ceiling and obsessing about my bodyguard. Wanda was a light sleeper though, something I’d learned when I got up in the middle of the night to get a bottle of water and she’d practically sprung out of the door of her bedroom to see what I was doing.

I’d ignored the sight of her lithe body in sleep shorts and a tank top, just like we were both ignoring the increasing attraction between us. But it was there all the time. With every accidental touch or stolen look, the air would almost vibrate between us. I’d never been so horny in my entire life.

We fell into a routine of working out together in my home gym, sharing breakfast, then I worked on my business while she worked on hers. We shared every meal together, staying mostly at home, but when we went out, we pretended to be cousins despite the growing bond between us.

Wanda and I were also opening up to each other. I shared some stories about my messed up childhood, and she shared a little about growing up a vampire in a community of mostly humans, and how great it had been when she joined the military and was assigned to a unit full of supernaturals like herself.

After five days together, things were feeling almost domestic between us, like we were a couple or something. It was easy to forget that she was my bodyguard, at least until the package arrived.

One of the guys from the front desk called up around eleven a.m. to let me know that a courier service had dropped off a package for me. Assuming it was some contracts I was waiting for from my business manager, I asked them to send it up. Wanda stood next to me as we waited for the elevator, her body angled slightly in front of mine. As was their practice, the desk staff had placed the package in the elevator along with some other mail and sent it up unoccupied.

When the doors opened, Wanda sprang forward, immediately alert. “Wait.”

She pulled out the little wand that she used to check for explosive devices, then circled the box slowly.

“This must be from your stalker. There’s something dead in here,” she told me, giving me a regretful look.

“How do you know?” I asked.

She pressed a finger to the side of her nose. “Vampires have a good sense of smell, remember? Especially with vertebrates.” She sniffed, then added. “Smells like a rat.”

I recoiled, as if the dead rat was going to reanimate and attack me.

“Oh my God!” I squealed. “Get it out of here!”

Wanda grabbed the box and walked quickly to the door leading to the fire escape. I probably should have gone with her, but I couldn’t stand the idea. Instead, I sat in a chair in the hallway, staring at the elevator. Rats were my number one fear and I’d had recurring nightmares about them ever since I was a child. A dead rat was literally the worst thing someone could send me. Well, second worst. A live rat would have sent me into a catatonic state.

I wondered if my stalker knew about my rat phobia, or if it was just a lucky coincidence for him.

Wanda came back a few minutes later, looking grim. She was holding a piece of paper in between her fingers.

“Are you okay?”

I shook my head. “I’m terrified of those things.”

“Those things?” she asked in confusion.

“Rats.”

“Oh. Well, I got rid of it,” she reassured me. Wanda seemed completely unbothered by the idea of being around a rat.

“Was there a note with this one?” I asked.

“Yeah, the note mostly says the same stuff as the others,” she stopped, and I had the sense there was more.

“What?”

“There’s a picture of you in the building, reading in bed. It looks like it was taken through your bedroom window.”

“What?” I yelped.

My home was my sanctuary, the one place I could have total peace. I felt ill that someone had violated it, even with a camera. For the first time since this whole thing started, I felt terrified. Just like the stalker wanted.

“It was probably a drone shot, or someone who has access to your fire escape. I’m going to get my team here to sweep for cameras recording devices just in case though,” she said. “The team has stronger equipment than my mobile tester. I’m going to call this into my boss.”

“Okay.”

I could feel Wanda watching me as I stared at my lap, feeling shaky. She dropped to her knees in front of me, her hands coming to my thighs. I was still wearing shorts from my workout earlier, and the skin of my thighs seemed to sizzle underneath her palms.

“Tasha,” she said softly.

I looked up at her face. For once she wasn’t wearing that neutral mask. She looked softer somehow, her expression concerned.

“I won’t let anyone hurt you, I promise,” she vowed.

When I didn’t respond she pulled me into her arms, hugging me against her. I laid my head on her shoulder, breathing in her scent, taking comfort from the hug until I felt myself begin to calm again. As the panic dissipated, it was replaced with something else: desire.

I pulled back just enough to meet Wanda’s eyes again then, acting on instinct, I leaned forward and pressed my lips against hers. I expected her to pull away, but instead she cupped the back of my head with one hand and deepened the kiss.

Wanda licked at the seam of my lips and I sighed, eagerly opening my mouth for her questing tongue. The kiss was almost sweet. Comforting rather than passionate. Her mouth tasted like coffee and copper, probably from the cup of blood she had with breakfast. It should have grossed me out, but it didn’t.

Instead, my arms slid around her waist and I widened my legs, allowing her to slip between my thighs. The kiss turned hotter, rougher, and I could feel the tips of Wanda’s fangs brushing against my mouth. It didn’t hurt at all, it just added to the sensations coursing through my body.

As the kiss went on and on, everything inside me seemed to settle. Everything was forgotten. The stress of fame. The trauma of my childhood. The fear of whoever was after me. All of my focus was on this woman and the feeling of my body pressed against hers as if we were both made for the sole purpose of fitting together like this.

I wasn’t one prone to hyperbole, but this kiss was life changing. I could feel it in my bones.

When Wanda finally pulled back, I could see regret on her face. I pressed my finger against her lips, forestalling whatever she was going to say. I could see the tips of her fangs, white against the dark red of her lips, and I suddenly wondered what it would feel like to have her bite me. Then I pushed that thought away and placed my hand on Wanda’s shoulder, giving her an affectionate squeeze.

“I’m not often attracted to people, and when I am attracted to someone, it comes on slowly and gradually,” I told her. “For a long time, I assumed I was asexual, and maybe I am, that stuff is always on a spectrum. But when I’m with you, I feel something I’ve never felt before in my life. Passion. Red hot passion. I can tell by the way your body responded that you feel it too.”

She nodded slightly but didn’t say anything.

“I know you have a job to do Wanda, and I appreciate that today more than ever,” I continued. “I’m not a person who likes to be in relationships and I’m not looking for forever, but when this is all settled, I want you to promise me that we can spend some time together and explore whatever is happening between us.”

Something dark flared in her eyes, and when she opened her mouth to respond, I repeated, “Promise me.”

“I promise,” she said softly.

She studied me curiously, the tiny frown between her eyebrows that was her tell when she was confused, and I wondered which part of what I said hadn’t set right with her. Before I could ask, Wanda pushed to her feet with a grace and speed that made it obvious she wasn’t a full human.

“Let’s call my team and make sure we’re still safe here.”