“But what if I did ask?” he whispered.
Mayday. Mayday. I was in deep doodoo here because all I could think about was how good he smelled and the shape of his lips. They looked soft and I wondered if they would feel that way as well.
Then, I realized I was staring at his mouth like I wanted to take a bite out of it and ripped my gaze away, lifting my eyes upward to meet his.
That emerald light was back in his eyes.
Chills erupted over my chest and arms when his hot fingers skimmed up the side of my throat before they curled around the back of my neck. My nipples tightened beneath the flimsy cotton of my top and my legs suddenly felt weak.
I knew what was about to happen. And I knew it was a terrible idea.
But I didn’t give a damn.
I tilted my head back and rose up on my toes, my hands going to his waist. His hand tightened around the back of my neck.
Our lips touched and another shiver ran over my body. I’d always thought that vampires, if they were real, would be cold. Instead, he was pure heat. Or maybe the heat was inside me because I no longer felt the coolness of the room around me.
I leaned into him, wrapping my arms around him, and he stilled.
His body went rigid, and his hand clasped the back of my neck with an almost painful grip for a split second. Then, he stepped back. I was so surprised by his reaction that my arms relaxed their hold on his waist and slipped away.
“This can’t happen,” he said. “You said so yourself.”
I opened my mouth, then closed it, because I had no idea what I wanted to say much less an idea of what I should say.
“Bethany was a friend, and I can’t betray her memory this way.”
I could only blink at him as he took another step back. Then another.
“I’ll see you in the morning,” he continued. “I don’t work Saturdays so feel free to sleep in.”
He wasn’t just polite, he was utterly cold, as though all that heat he’d been exuding only moments before had never been.
Without another word, he left the library, leaving me alone in the shadows.
I stared at the chair where he’d been sitting earlier and wondered what in the hell had just happened.
* * *
Since I hadno idea how to process what happened in the library that night, I carried the book upstairs, read until the wee hours of the morning, and passed out with the book still in my hands.
I woke up the next morning with a crick in my neck and a shitty mood.
It was late, nearly ten-thirty, when I woke up, so I rolled out of bed to take a scalding hot shower. My eyes were a little more than half open when I stumbled downstairs to make the biggest cup of coffee possible.
I made toast after I managed to gulp down some of my coffee and realized the house was completely silent. Though Daniel moved quietly, the house felt empty.
I munched on toast, made another cup of coffee, and wandered through the first floor, peeking into the rooms.
I wasn’t lookingforDaniel. Just checking to see if I was alone. That was all.
When I walked into the back hallway, I heard the low thump of bass. I checked the man cave but it was empty. I wandered back down the hall and the music grew louder as I approached the laundry room at the very rear of the house. There was a door with a glass window in the upper half leading out into the backyard. The music was louder there. As I shifted to look out the window, I saw a white metal building standing about twenty feet from the house.
I opened the door, and the music was even louder. It was coming from the building.
Carrying my coffee, I trekked the twenty feet to the building and opened the door. A blast of rock n’ roll greeted me. I stepped inside and realized that it was a home gym. Not just a treadmill and a couple of weights, but a fully outfitted gym with multiple machines, free weights, and what looked like specialty equipment.
As I moved deeper into the building, Daniel came into view, lying on a weight bench.
