But when I reach the main room, I freeze.
Vex is there.
He’s standing by the window, staring out at the darkness beyond, and the moonlight coming through the glass turns his hair silver.He’s still in the t-shirt and jeans, barefoot, and there’s something almost vulnerable about him like this.Almost human.
Then he turns, and his eyes find me in the darkness, and I remember, he’s anything but.
“Can’t sleep?”His voice is low, careful not to carry.
“No.”I step into the room, wrapping my arms around myself.“What about you?”
“Vampires don’t sleep much.”He moves closer, each step measured, predatory.“What are you doing out here?”
“Needed air.”It’s not a lie, but it’s not the whole truth either.
He stops a few feet away, close enough I can see the way the muscles in his jaw tense, the way his hands flex at his sides as though he’s fighting the urge to reach for me.“You should go back to your room.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s not safe out here.”
“You just said the clubhouse has wards.”
“I wasn’t talking about the creature.”His voice drops lower, rougher.“I was talking about me.”
The admission sends heat spiraling through my veins.I should be scared.I should turn around and walk away.But instead, I take a step closer.“Are you saying I should be afraid of you?”
“Yes.”The word is barely more than a whisper.“You should be terrified of me, Tessa.Do you know what it takes for me to sit in that booth every morning and not touch you?Do you have any idea how much restraint it requires to keep my distance when every instinct I have is screaming at me to claim you?”
My breath catches.“Then why do you?”
“Because you deserve better than a monster.”
“Maybe I get to decide what I deserve.”
The air between us crackles with tension, thick and electric.His eyes have gone white again, glowing softly in the darkness, and I can see his fangs pressing against his lower lip.He looks feral.Dangerous.Beautiful.
“Go back to your room, Tessa.”His voice is strained, barely controlled.“Please.”
I should listen.I should turn around and walk away before this goes somewhere neither of us can come back from.But my feet won’t move, and my heart is pounding so hard I can barely hear anything else.
“No.”
Something in him snaps.I see it happen, the last thread of his control fraying, breaking.Then he’s moving, closing the distance between us in a heartbeat, and suddenly his hands are on my waist, burning cold through the thin fabric of my sleep shirt.
“You don’t know what you’re asking for,” he growls, his face inches from mine.
“Then show me.”
For one perfect, agonizing second, he hesitates.Then his mouth crashes down on mine, and the world explodes.
The kiss is nothing like I imagined.It’s brutal, claiming, all teeth and tongue and desperate hunger.His hands grip my waist hard enough to bruise, pulling me against the solid wall of his chest, and I gasp at the shock of how cold he is.How strong.How utterly inhuman.
I should be scared.
I’m not.
I kiss him back with everything I have, my fingers tangling in his hair, and he makes a sound low in his throat that’s pure animal.His fangs scrape against my lower lip, not breaking the skin but close enough that I taste danger, and heat pools between my thighs, slick and shameful.
