“I also tied you to a bed with iron and gave you permanent scars!”
“And you were sick to your stomach after it because you didn’t know what you were doing.”
“I’ve killed.”
“So have I.”
“I’m not … good.”
“No one is justgood. We all have good in us, but we all have bad. We have light and dark. You’ve lived in the dark for so long,you think there’s no light in you. But I see it. I see it all, and I think every part of you is beautiful. The dark and the light. Nothing you say will change that.”
Fear and hope coalesced inside her. Trembling a little, she turned from the warm heat in Elijah’s eyes and closed hers against it.
At least she was now more preoccupied by this thing between them than the fact that they were on a train in a tunnel in the middle of the English Channel.
18
The drivenorthward through the UK wasn’t filled with easy conversation this time. The motorway grew quiet once they hit eleven in the evening, and Echo and Elijah fell into a tense silence. Awareness surged between them, and all Echo could hear was his heartbeat. All she could smell was that fae scent of earthiness mixed with heady, hot caramel. She could still remember what he tasted like. What an exceptional kisser he was. How his strong hands felt on her waist. Elijah wasn’t like the alpha douchebags she’d grown up around. He was a modern man who respected her opinions and often let her take the lead.
But when he kissed, he dominated.
And she couldn’t help but admit to herself she liked the dichotomy. She was always in charge. Always had the weight of the world resting on her shoulders.
What would it be like to let someone else take the lead in bed only? Someone she trusted.
Echo couldn’t help the traitorous musings that flooded her mind. If Elijah was as dominant in bed as he was with his kisses … What could he do with that immortal body of his? Worse, inher hunger, she wondered what he’d taste like. If he’d come if she bit him while he thrust between her legs.
Not wanting him to scent her arousal, she’d quickly shoved the thoughts from her mind, clenching her hands into fists.
She wasn’t going to make it to the Highlands, she realized, as her stomach clenched painfully.
Somehow she got through one more day, sleeping off the hunger, though it made for a fitful rest. She was even more taciturn on the drive from Yorkshire to Scotland, and she could sense Elijah’s impatience and confusion. By the time they reached the medieval city of Stirling, one of the tiniest cities Echo had visited, she was hanging on by a thread. While she had phenomenal control for a vampire, this was the longest she’d gone without blood.
She hoped Elijah thought her strange mood was about whatever was pulsing between them. In fact, she counted on it.
They found a national chain inn in the middle of the city that allowed twenty-four-hour check-in. Using his magic to make them unrecognizable, Elijah secured them a room.
As soon as the hotel door closed behind them, Echo announced, “I’m going for a walk.”
They’d left Yorkshire at ten o’clock in the evening because the sun didn’t set until then in Stirling. It was one thirty in the morning when they arrived in the Scottish city. Sunrise was at four thirty, so Echo only had a few hours before she needed to be back at the hotel.
Hopefully, it was enough time to get what she needed.
“Shouldn’t we stay together?” Elijah asked. “Grab a meal?”
Echo couldn’t look at him. “You grab something. I just need … some alone time. Sorry. But we’ve kind of been in each other’s pockets for days.”
She winced at the hurt and confusion she sensed in him but walked out of the room before he could make her feel guiltier.
Echo followed her senses as she left the hotel. Within five minutes of walking toward the city center, she heard the dull pounding of dance music with her hypersensitive ears. It led her to a nondescript building that didn’t look like much. But there were young men and women coming in and out of the door where a burly bouncer checked IDs. The girls were dressed for nightclubbing, and the music thrumming from beyond the door told Echo she’d found what she was looking for.
More guilt rode her shoulders but her need was too great.
Echo knotted her T-shirt so it revealed the taut skin of her stomach and easily tore the neckline to reveal her cleavage. Pushing the waist of her jeans down and shoving up the sleeves of her cropped leather jacket, she put an extra swing in her hips as she strode toward the club.
She approached the bouncer and released the hold she had on her own supernatural energy. While she couldn’t mind-fuck anyone unless they were hooked on her bite (something she’d never done and never would do), she could give into her otherworldly energy. And amp up the sexy.
Eyes hooded, she dared him to stop her from entering the club with a sexy smirk.
