Don't Rush Me (Nora Jacobs #1)(12)

Henry can see my vision. He watches the scene of him and his lover play out, standing, as I did, like an outsider. “My, my,” he rasps. As shocked as he is by my ability, he’s aroused by the vision. He likes watching himself. “So it’s not just mind reading that you are capable of. You are an extremely powerful human, aren’t you? How does it work, exactly? Have you always had this gift?”

“T-that’s n-none of y-your b-business.”

Henry chuckles. “Actually, this vision is very much my business, don’t you think?”

I refuse to answer that and pray he’s watching the vision and can’t see my blush.

“Sire, what’s happening? What do you see?”

Henry chuckles. “Would you like to describe it to him, Nora?”

The tone of his voice makes me wish I could punch him in his smug face. There’s nothing I can say right now that wouldn’t sound pathetic, encouraging, dirty, or like a denial of attraction, so I keep quiet.

Henry sighs, sad that I’ve not taken his bait. “Nora has been gifted with a form of psychometry,” he explains to Parker. “She can see visions of the past when she touches objects—such as my bed. Isn’t that right, Nora?”

Parker gasps. “With a gift like that, she could help us find Nadine. We could take her to—”

“All in good time, Parker. Allow me to concentrate, if you will.”

“Forgive me, Sire.”

Parker goes quiet, and Henry’s attention shifts back to the vision we’re both stuck in. His arousal increases. He sees me watching the scene and likes the thought that I saw him—as if I’d had a choice in the matter. But, whether I’d wanted to or not, I had been turned on by it when I saw it, and he can tell. He feels my attraction and groans. “Nora.” He sounds agonized. “Sweet Nora, you torture me. I can feel your desire.”

As the words escape his lips, he reaches the part of the vision where he’d bitten the woman and feasted on her blood. He watches me scream. Just as he’d felt my desire before, he feels my revulsion now. He feels my memories just as I’d felt them when I experienced them. My stark terror over what is the most intimate treasured act among his kind hurts him. It’s the closest that two vampires can get to one another, and he’s desperate to share that bond with me.

Henry lets go of me and pulls out of my head. The look in his fevered eyes screams of his hunger. His desire. “I could give you pleasure like you’ve never known,” he says.

I’m not sure if he means the sex or the biting, but either option terrifies and repulses me to a state of panic. I shake my head. “No thanks.”

He smiles, as if my declaration amuses him. “Don’t be so hasty, love. I felt your arousal as you watched us. You’re attracted to me.”

“My body responded instinctively. That’s all it was. You’re hot, but knowing what you are, you lost any attraction I might have felt.”

He gives me a knowing smile, as if he doesn’t believe me for a second, and places his hands back on my head.

“Not again.” I groan.

“I must. I don’t have the answers I need yet.”

I know there’s no point in arguing this time. Fighting him before did nothing but give me a horrid migraine and make me physically collapse. I really don’t want to lose consciousness, with Henry so close.

He dives once again into my memories. My attempts to fight him do nothing. I’m too weak, and he isn’t being gentle anymore. He works faster now, watching the night that Parker found me with shock and wonder. He’s amazed by how a human could know about the underworld, fear it as much as I do, and still face it head on.

He’s curious about Xavier and what kind of man he is that I would be desperate enough to face my greatest fear just to be rid of him. He skims over my memories of the months I lived next door to Xavier. As he swims through my past, I feel his anger. He works himself into a rage watching all of Xavier’s attempts to spy on me and drug me. He can barely control himself as he witnesses the visions I’d witnessed. Feels the things I’d felt. Hears the thoughts I’d heard. He wants to kill Xavier.

“You see?” I say, trying to change the direction of his thoughts. “I don’t know anything about your missing vampire.”

“No,” he agrees. “You are as innocent as you claim, though you are so much more than you pretend to be. Your gifts are remarkable.”

“Look, you got what you wanted. Stop invading my privacy now.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

I try to yank myself away from him, but I don’t have the strength left. My head is pounding. “Why the hell not?”

He doesn’t answer my question, but he can’t hide his thoughts from me. He could stop now, but he doesn’t want to. He wants to know everything about me. He thinks he’s been given a miraculous gift and that he would be a fool to not learn everything he can about me.

I try to push him from my head again, but the effort is almost nonexistent now, and my stomach rolls. I’m helpless to do anything but lie there while he delves, unwelcome, into my past.

At first, he analyzes everything. He tries to think of how he might be able to gain my trust, but soon his thoughts trail off, and he simply watches. He sees my lonely life and is starting to recognize a reoccurring theme—men.