Gladly,Belfry preened, cackling as he leapt into the air.Don’t wait up!He vanished into the rafters, laughter echoing long after he was gone. As far as I knew, my roof was sound and whole, and I had left no window open. Yet Belfry always knew the way out, ways even my vampire-sharp eyes could not track.
My librarian had also tracked Belfry’s fluttered exit from the apartment, her mouth still curved in a wide smile. Then she settled her eyes on me and arched a brow. “Girlfriend, huh?” she asked, and I wasn’t sure if she was talking about what I’d said to Belfry or the crack my bat had made.
I groaned, the sound rumbling up from deep inside my chest. “Absolutely not. Belfry lives to cause trouble.” I wasn’t sure if I was talking about the bat or her, either. Girlfriend? That’s not what I wanted to call her at all, and the idea of Belfry with a friend… that was most disconcerting. Imagine all the chaos they’d create if there were two of them.
“We have that in common.” She bit into a slice of bruschetta, and I forgot all about my own tempting slice. It was much more pleasurable to watch her chew and savor each taste. “Though, I suppose I can understand why we got off on the wrong foot,” she added once she’d finished chewing and taken a sip of the wine.
“You mean when you broke into the library,” I couldn’t help but point out. I knew that wasn’t what she’d been doing; after the fact, I could even admire her good sense to do a little recon. Still, it wasn’t exactly safe, what she’d done, either. What if someone other than me had seen her? Jackson might have arrested her, Drew would have tried to deport her from town, and Kai? I shuddered to think of what Kai might have done if he’d seen her snooping around.
“I wasn’t breaking in, I was just looking around,” she corrected sharply. “You’re the one who stormed over there like some overdramatic gargoyle and threatened me.” Oh yes, I remembered that all too well. Belfry warning me there was something going on outside, the sight of her in the library’sbackyard, and the visceral response I’d had to that. In hindsight, I could recognize that perhaps I’d felt a bit territorial; she had enticed my mating instincts. I had not been acting entirely like a rational being.
“You were skulking,” I defended, but I was smiling, a hint of self-recrimination mixed in. I’d been an ass, and she knew it—we both knew it. The threats to the town were still too recent, too raw, and I’d reacted before I’d thought it through. That reminded me there was a good reason I had brought her to my home, a shadow I didn’t want to think of just yet.
“I was working.” She pointed her fork at me. “You’re lucky I didn’t report you to the Mayor.” Oh, Liz had known. She’d definitely heard me making threats with those sharp wolf ears of hers, and she’d put me in my place when she told us we had to work together. Too bad I’d enjoyed every agonizing minute with my librarian; that couldn’t possibly have been an outcome Liz could have predicted.
I smirked. “I am many things, Jade, but lucky is not one of them.” She smiled into her wineglass, and for a moment, it was very easy to forget why I’d insisted she come here tonight. I was all too willing to let the mood sweep me away. She was safe here, why spoil it with words of shadows and danger? The air felt warm, thick with her scent, with her presence. All of it was too pleasant, and far too distracting.
The light outside dimmed further, reminding me how late it was getting. I rose, crossing the room to draw the heavy curtains shut, and locks clicked softly as I secured the shutters. Privacy sealed around us like a cocoon. When I turned back, she was watching me; curious, cautious, and dare I think it: entranced.
I crossed to the record player and lowered the needle. The room filled with a slow, sultry melody, one I’d never share with anyone I didn’t trust. I didn’t know what had gotten into me; I just knew I wanted to keep that soft expression on her face. An expression that said she was on the cusp of true discovery, of believing in the unbelievable, but not quite yet.
I extended a hand. “Come.” To my never-ending surprise, she didn’t hesitate, rising from her seat and setting down her crystal wine glass. She slid into my arms as though she belonged there, and I gathered her closer, letting the music guide us in a slow, circling sway over the Persian rug.
Her breath warmed my neck and sent chills down my spine, warm, soothing, exhilarating. Her body pressed close to mine, each soft curve fitting perfectly against hard muscle. I had never ached for a woman the way I ached for this feisty librarian. Blood swirling, pooling low, cock hardening until I was almost certain she had to feel me each time her hip brushed, like wildfire, across my sensitive flesh.
“So, this is a date, is it?” she asked lightly, her voice breathless and hushed. The air around her tasted like desire, and she was warm and soft in my embrace. My heart thudded in my chest, the unnaturally slow beat somehow managing to kick it up a few notches.
“Is it?” I countered, smiling. My cheeks were aching because I had not smiled this often in so long. So, this was what my friends had succumbed to. No wonder Jackson had gone a little crazy last winter, or that Ísarr had come down from his isolated hillside cabin to socialize. If Jade asked me right now, I would offer to fly her all across the world and see all the wonders ithad to offer. Heck, I’d even let her convince me to revisit my hometown in Germany, or what remained of it.
As we turned, her gaze fell briefly on the old leather-bound book resting on my coffee table. One of the reasons I’d brought her here, that book was the perfect entryway into my world for her book-loving, scientifically oriented mind. I was waiting for the first of many questions, but instead of asking about it, she lifted her chin, baring the smooth column of her throat to me.
Bold. Daring. Reckless. “Is the next part where you sink your fangs into my throat?” she asked. I stilled, shock shivering through me along with the deep curl of temptation I knew I had to resist. Her pulse beat steadily, temptingly close.
“No,” I said softly. “I would never. I drank my fill over dinner,” I hurried to assure her. To drink at the source from her was an act that seemed far too intimate to ask, especially when she didn’t yet know how deeply she had fallen into my trap—a sensual, delightful trap, but a trap all the same. She would not be leaving my home, or my bed, without my mark firmly in place on her silky skin.
Her eyes widened a touch, but she didn’t pull back. “And… yes,” I added. “On occasion, I prefer to sip from a vein.” There, I’d said it, made it abundantly clear that I was no normal man and that what she suspected I was was not a figment of her imagination.
She swallowed roughly, as if it were a hard pill to swallow, but she tried anyway. “Oh,” she whispered, the wheels turning rapidly inside that clever brain of hers. It was starting to sink in, the truth sinking in the way I wanted to sink my fangs into thevein along her neck. My fangs ached, threatened to slide out, but I reined in the feeling with the iron hands of control.
“I would never hurt you.” My voice came out more forceful than I meant, my jaw tight as I fought the throb of pain from my eager fangs. They were worse than my cock tonight, but at least that part of me I did not need to hide. I pressed her closer, the sweet burst of sensation through my groin distracting me from the decadent bloodlust. “No one in this town would ever dare to hurt you. You’re under my protection now.”
She blinked rapidly, as if trying to grasp the words. “I think I might be losing my mind,” she whispered. “This can’t possibly be real.” A talking Belfry was not the easiest introduction; I could not blame her for struggling. Ilse hadn’t been able to handle the truth, and she’d been introduced slowly, not left floundering by a bat too dense to understand the massive reality shift he’d caused.
“It is,” I murmured, cupping the round curve of her shoulder with gentle fingers. I couldn’t believe I’d tried to threaten her, to bully her into leaving not that long ago. The thought of seeing the last of her now caused a physical ache inside my chest. “You’re not losing anything. You’re handling this better than most humans ever could.”
Suspicion narrowed her eyes, and amusement briefly pushed at desire—then won out. “You’re being too nice. It’s suspicious,” she said with a hint of a pout. Her eyes danced with something close to mirth, as if she were trying to poke fun at the situation. A way of coping I was going to allow, for now.
A soft laugh escaped me. “You haven’t seen nice yet.” Before she could make another joke, I dipped my head and kissed her—slowly, deeply—the kind of kiss I hadn’t allowed myself in centuries. She tasted of wine and warmth and everything dangerous. She tasted of everything I’d ever desired, and better. She kissed me back as if this was the only way to survive, clinging to my shoulders with tightly clenched fists.
The way she clung to me was fire to my passion, and I slipped the leash, crossed the boundaries I’d firmly set for us that night. Then she flicked her tongue against mine, and leashes and boundaries were so far from my mind, they might as well not exist. Jade Whitaker was mine, my mate, my one, and I was going to stake my claim tonight. When she woke in the morning, she would not be the same woman, and she would never forget who she belonged to.
Chapter 17
Jade
His kiss stole the ground from beneath me. One second I was teasing him, and the next I was drowning, heat spiraling, my hands sliding up and down his chest as though I’d been waiting my entire life just to touch him. Luther kissed like someone who had spent centuries learning every nuance of pleasure, slow and deliberate at first, then deeper, hungrier, as though my mouth was something he’d been denied for far too long.
When he finally broke away, I took in a shaky breath. “Luther…” His name felt different now, more intimate, more dangerous. He brushed a strand of my hair behind my ear, his fingers lingering at my neck. I swear my pulse leapt to meet his touch.
