Blood red love by Dripping Creativity

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Blood red love 

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“She is going home,” Vidar said to Burt. Charlie felt her temper slip. 

“I am?” she asked as she twirled around on top of the stool. 

“You are,” he confirmed. Vidar wasn’t looking at her, he was looking at Burt. Charlie had intended to go home, but hearing him order her to do so made her do the opposite. The small piece of her brain that wasn’t drunk told her she was acting like a child. She didn’t care. 

“And if I don’t?” she asked in an icy voice as she stood up. Why was he so freaking tall? He looked down at her and his fucking eyebrow shot up. She was sick and tired of that eyebrow and how it always made her fold. But not this time, no sir! “Don’t go raising that thing at me,” she snarled. 

“Charlie,” he said, sounding tired. Well tough luck, she was tired as well. 

“I don’t think the lady wants to leave. Get out and leave her be,” Burt said. He sounded as determined as Vidar. 

“She’s mine. Back off, mutt,” Vidar growled. He actually growled. The sentence contained too much information for Charlie’s drunken brain to process all at once. Was it really okay to growl in public? And why was she so turned on by it? Wait, had he called Burt a mut? Was Burt not human? And had Vidar called her his? Her brain struggled to make sense of the complexity. In the end, she settled on deciding she shouldn’t be alone with a magical creature 

she didn’t know. 

“Fine! I was going to call a taxi and go home anyway. You can give me a ride, so I don’t need to spend the extra money,” she told Vidar. “Thank you for your hospitality, Burt,” she said, turning around to wave at him. 

“It was a pleasure. Come back anytime, Charlie,” Burt said. Vidar growled and put his arm around her shoulder. Charlie tried to shake it off, but it was like it had become attached to 

her. 

“Behave,” Vidar hissed in her ear as he escorted her out. Charlie didn’t object. She knew she 

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stood no chance against his physical strength. But she was seething. She tried to smile at 

Malcom as he held the car door open for her, but she knew it looked stiff. The mood in the 

car was cold as ice as they drove off. It was then Charlie remembered the waitress Lilly had 

gone home with had been the sister of the bartender. Fear gripped her. 

“The bartender? He was a werewolf?” she asked Vidar. 

“Almost everyone in the bar was,” Vidar said in an icy voice. 

“Do they hurt humans?” 

“Not unless provoked.” Charlie felt the fear ease a little. 

…sex 

“And would they see… sex… as a provocation?” She felt Vidar’s eye snap to her and the mood in the car seemed to take a downward turn, if that was even possible. 

“No,” he said. He turned away from her to look out of the window. Charlie was relieved Lilly 

didn’t seem to be in any danger. She took a note from Vidar and looked out of the window. 

She didn’t want to speak to him. 

“This is not the way to my place,” she said, feeling annoyed she had to break her own resolution so quickly. 

“No, it’s the way to my place,” he agreed without looking at her. Charlie glared at the back of his head, but didn’t say anything. She knew objecting would be useless. She would go with 

him to his stupid penthouse and she would march right into his guest bedroom and shut herself in there. When they both had calmed down in the morning, she would go home. Malcom parked in the underground garage and Vidar opened her door. He had a strong grip on her upper arm as they walked to the elevator. It was powerful, but it didn’t hurt her. They spent the elevator ride in silence, Vidar still gripping her arm and Charlie doing her best to ignore it. They stepped into Vidar’s apartment and Charlie started moving towards the guest room, but was stopped by the grip around her arm. She looked at the hand holding her in place and then shifted her focus to Vidar’s face. “We need to talk,” he told her. 

“No. I need to take a shower and then go to bed,” she said, trying her luck at yanking her arm out of his hand. It didn’t work. 

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“You can sleep when I have talked with you,” he told her, towing her along towards the living 

room. 

“I am not going to agree to do things your way just because you are stronger than I am,” she 

objected and dug her heels in. 

“Stop being so fucking stubborn. This is important,” he told her and let go of her arm. She wasn’t prepared for it and her drunken brain couldn’t react fast enough to compensate for the sudden loss of an opposite pull. She felt herself fall backwards and braced for hitting the floor. There was no impact. Instead, she felt Vidar’s arm wrap around her waist as he steadied her and helped her on her feet. “You’re drunk,” he remarked. 

“And you’re being a jerk,” she said. 

“Listen, Charlie. It’s my duty to protect you, to guide you into this new world. I can’t do that if you insist on barging into it with no consideration for the consequences,” he told her. 

“Well, how was I supposed to know it was a bar full of werewolves? It’s not like they posted a freaking sign,” she said, irritated. 

“You should have left when I asked you.” 

“You didn’t ask, Vidar. You ordered me. I’m not one of your minions. I won’t do whatever you 

tell me to do just because you say so.” 

“I wanted you safe.” 

“If you had taken two more minutes to type out ‘You’re in a werewolf bar, get out‘, I would have got out of there,” she said, making a silly voice as she made up the message. 

“You should know I don’t ask things like that without having a good cause for it,” he retorted. They weren’t quite shouting, but Charlie felt like she was one step away from it. 

“I didn’t want to leave. I was out with my friend, having a wonderful evening, getting a break 

from all of this.” 

“You wanted to stay to fuck the bartender,” Vidar growled. Charlie froze and just looked at 

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him like he had gone mad. 

“What?” she asked. Vidar stepped closer to her, looking at her with intense eyes. 

“You don’t smell like sex, or I would have thought he already had fucked you.” 

“Are you insane? First, it’s none of your business if I had sex with him. Second, what makes you think I wanted to?” She told him, poking a finger into his chest. 

“My first fucking clue was you asking the consequences of doing so,” he shouted at her. 

“You are insane. I have never done something like that. Why would I?” she shouted back at him. Then it clicked. “You thought I was asking if they saw sex as a provocation because I planned on sleeping with Burt? No. Lilly went home with his sister. I was worried about her. I needed to know if she would be all right. I practically pushed her into bed with a werewolf,” she told him. Then she glared at him. “The only person I have been interested in like that recently has turned me down every time I have offered. But he still has the fucking nerve to order me around and act all possessive and jealous.” 

“Who are you talking about?” Vidar asked, closing what little space there was between them, 

his voice low and dark. 

“It’s you, you idiot! I needed a break tonight because this hot and cold thing you have going is driving me crazy. One moment I think you would be happier to never see me again, the next it feels like you will never let me go. Just make up your mind.” The sober part of Charlie’s brain was telling her she was showing too much. She was opening herself up for disaster. The drunken, and more dominant, part was just furious and needed to get everything off her chest. “If it’s the baby goose thing, and you feel forced into something, tell me. I will 

my best to make sure we don’t end up in situations where it will become uncomfortable for us. Just fucking tell me if you never want to see me again and get it over with,” she told him. She had gone from shouting to almost whispering the last words. Charlie was looking at Vidar’s chest. She couldn’t bring herself to look him in the eyes. 

do 

“Is that what you think? You think I don’t want you? That I feel trapped by the imprinting?” he asked. He had also stopped shouting. Charlie just shrugged. The anger had gone away, and she was just tired. 

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“I know it wasn’t your choice, and I don’t know what your life was like before. You maybe have someone you love, or you enjoyed life as a single, rich man. And then here I am, something that was forced on you, a burden to be dealt with,” she said. She found herself pushed up against the glass of the floor to ceiling windows. 

“Charlie, you are not a burden, you are not a regret. If I have made you feel like you are, then I will spend the rest of my life atoning for it,” Vidar told her, lifting her chin up to make her look him. The look in his ice–blue eyes made Charlie’s breath hitch in her lungs. “You are the light in the endless night, the breath of air after suffocating for an eternity, you are everything, Charlie, and so much more.” He kissed her, and Charlie felt the world around. them fade. Vidar’s body pressed her against the glass and his kiss became more demanding and desperate as they continued. He drew away from her, just enough so their lips parted. “I have wanted you, in every sense of the word, since you stepped into that room the first Thursday night. But I also have a duty to protect you, even from…” 

“… from yourself, so you have told me. But I just need you to be straight with me. I’m not a sex crazed teenager.” Charlie paused for a second and thought that it wasn’t far from what she was. “Okay, maybe a little, but I’m still capable of handling it. I just need to know if there will be a point where you would like something more than just a stolen kiss and steamy flirting.” Vidar chuckled in a low voice that sent tingles all over Charlie’s body. 

“There will be more than stolen kisses, if you want it. I am never letting you go. Even if you tell me you don’t want me, I will be there, watching, keeping you safe. Nothing will change that, Charlie. As for turning you down, turn around, little lynx,” he said in a low voice, leaving no room for refusing. Vidar’s body stopped pressing into Charlie. She missed the sensation, but it made it possible for her to shuffle around, facing the window, looking out over the city.