This story is a long, slow burn. I promise it gets smutty, with lots of male/female action, male/male/female action, bondage, denial, and other kinks, as well as lots of supernatural drama. Thank you for giving it a chance, and I hope you like it. -PDreadful
Seneca Mahon was bored. Dinner was taking too long, and Chip was talking about some type of fighting and muscle drinks, but she didn't hear what he was saying. Didn't care what he was saying. Wished he would shut up already. She just wanted to leave, go back to his place to feed on him, and then go home. Without him.
She knew it was shallow, but the only reason she was with him in the first place was that he had this amazingly perfect set of washboard abs. Like, drool worthy abs, male model abs. Had she mentioned that she really liked his abs? He was attractive enough, in a high school quarterback kind of way, with his sandy brown hair and smaller than average nose. He'd kept his body fit by becoming a personal trainer, which was good because he was kind of an idiot.
She decided right then. She was done, over him, even over those fantastic abs. He was too much work, his abs just weren't worth it anymore. There was a relief in knowing that tonight would be her last night with Chip. She could get through this terrible date, get through his stupid talking and childish narcissism. How someone could be so sickeningly nice, and yet so self-absorbed at the same time was beyond her.
She wished the waiter would bring more bread just so she could shove it into his stupid mouth. Why was she so terrible?
She swallowed down a stab of guilt. Chip was a nice guy. He called himself that all the time, and she supposed he was nice, in an overgrown child kind of way. He'd be a good boyfriend, probably? Maybe if he found a Norm girl who worshiped him as much as he worshiped himself. Seneca for sure wasn't what he wanted, he just didn't know it.
Tingling on her neck caught her off guard as Chip rambled on. She scratched it idly, which just intensified the sensation. A quick glance around the restaurant did nothing to ease the sensations, or expose who might be staring at her with such intensity. Despite what she saw, she couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching her. The taste of her own blood as she bit the inside of her cheek calmed her slightly.
"Senny Baby?" Chip asked, his nickname for her grating on her last nerve. He reached out for her hand on the table and she pulled away, then tried to make it look natural.
"Ah, I'm sorry, what were you saying?" she asked, hiding her hands in her lap.
"No worries, Senny Baby. Looked like you were lost in your head."
"Yeah, I guess," she admitted, looking down at her plate.
"I was just asking if you wanted to do anything after this?"
"After this?"
"Like, going to the bar or something?"
She swallowed down what she wanted to say to him. "Sorry, Chip. I'm kinda tired today."
"Oh, yeah, no problem. I get it. Maybe just back to my place?"
"Yeah, sure," she agreed, hating herself nearly as much as she hated Chip right now. She shouldn't have let it go on this long, but when she said something he didn't want to hear he got all pouty, like she'd kicked a puppy in front of him. Once he got like that he would dwell on it until she babied him enough to restore his ego.
The tingling grew to something more like pins and needles. She scanned the room again, but everyone seemed to be engaged in their own little islands of conversation. She shook her head, trying to clear it, trying to shake the feeling of being watched, but it lingered on.
"Senny Baby?" Chip asked.
She forced herself back into the moment, guilt condensing even as she wanted to yell at him not to call her that. "Yeah, sorry. Just got a lot on my mind. What were you saying?"
"You haven't touched your food. You aren't hungry?" he asked, glancing at her nearly full plate of pasta and shrimp.
"Ah, yeah. I guess I'm just not that hungry right now," she said, fisting her hands into tight balls as she tried to work up the courage to break up with him. Actually, she was starving, but not for food. She was more than anxious for the meal that flowed beneath Chip's tanned skin. Her last bite, she reassured herself. "Like I said, I'm just kinda tired." How could she hurry this along? She had to work tomorrow.
"Did you want dessert?" he asked, even though she'd just said she wasn't that hungry.
She balled her hands up in her lap, her nails digging into the flesh of her palms as she prepared herself. "I, Chip, it's, ah..." She knew she couldn't leave yet. She hadn't fed in days, and she needed his blood to tide her over until she found another blood source.
"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked. That look, his pathetic pouty face, it had her feeling terrible about herself. What was it about him that made her feel so bad?
"No, yeah, I'm fine," she insisted, probably a little too strongly. "I just, ah, have a lot going on at work right now, distracting me," she lied, each syllable weighing down her soul, tethering her to Chip more and more.
He smiled, because yes, he was that stupid. "Oh, I know! Your job sounds real stressful sometimes. Well, I have just the thing, a surprise. Something to take your mind away from work for a while," he said, the joy on his face warning her something terrible was coming. "A surprise I was saving for just the right time."
She hadn't felt this tense since she was a child, living on the streets. He was going to do something stupid. Whatever the next words out of his mouth were, they were going to ruin everything. Chip stood up with his glass and a butter knife in hand, smiling like an idiot as he appraised the room.
Oh, god, he wasn't. He wouldn't. No, no, no, please, don't do this, please just sit back down, she begged internally. Time seemed to slow down and thicken like taffy, and she was helpless to prevent what was going to happen. The temperature in the room must have raised ten degrees as Chip rapped dramatically on the glass three times with the knife. The din disappeared instantly, and the last tink seemed to echoed loudly around the small Italian restaurant.
"Excuse me," he announced. "Hello, sorry to interrupt. Excuse me, everyone. May I have your attention for a moment?"
She wanted to leave, had to run. She had to get out. She wanted to sink into the floor. Why wasn't one her skills turning invisible? Why was everyone looking at this idiot? Why didn't they ignore him like regular people? Even the servers had stopped, literally everyone in the room was watching her idiot blood donor. She sank down in her chair, wishing she was anywhere else, wishing she'd cut things off with Chip ages ago. Wished she wasn't so easily swayed by semi-okay blood, his idiot nature not to question things, and a beautifully toned abdomen.
The pressure of everyone's eyes was unbearable. Chip smiled gallantly, enjoying every second of this circus. He was practically feeding off of it. She tried her best to disappear as he dropped to the floor on one knee, pulling something from his back pocket. Something black and palm sized. Something box-shaped and covered in velvet.
She wanted to puke, to throw up the glass of red wine and two bites of pasta she'd managed to get down all. She wanted to puke all over Chip, just to stop this train wreck that was coming at her head-on. She hadn't puked since she was a child, since her first-blood, but she wanted to puke now, would rather puke in public than go through what Chip was doing.
Please, please, please, shut up and sit down, she begged him internally. She should run. She would run. She tried to move, but time was acting taffy-like, both weighing her down and sticking her to her chair.
That feeling, the pins and needles on her neck grew stronger again, stronger than ever. Instead of pushing her further into her panicked state, this time it seemed to soothe her, just a little. Before she could think about it, her idiot bloodbag opened his mouth again.
"Senny Baby," he said, and god, could he grandstand anymore than he was? Please don't let it be... He opened the box, exposing a gold ring with a huge diamond affixed to it. "Will you marry me?"
Bile rose up her throat, and for a moment she really did think she was going to puke. Oh god, everyone was watching her, now. Every set of eyes in the room felt like a lead weight in her stomach. She chugged the rest of her wine, then looked at the empty glass, feeling like it had betrayed her. Everyone watched her, so many eyes, all expecting her to say yes. All ready to celebrate.