She hadn’t had a whole lot of time to process it or anything about him really, but it was impossible to ignore the way he smelled. When he carried her over his shoulder, his scent filled her lungs until she was dizzy with it.
Felix smelled like smoke. He smelled like caramel. He smelled like clean skin andgood bourbon and even better sex.
It made her hungry in a way she’d never experienced before. It wasn’t just a growly stomach and the compulsion to fill it. It was something older. Something raw. It made her itch with an urgency to curl her fingers into his flesh and hold on, maybe, or drag him into a shadowy place and climb him like a tree.
It was the need to eat, true, but it was also the relentless urge to fuck.
For someone who’d never had those impulses tied together, it was deeply unsettling. She'd loved a good lasagna, but she'd never wanted toscrewone. Seeing as she had more than enough confusing shit to deal with in a day, Dahlia elected to ignore all of it.
“You smell fine,” she answered, stumbling a little when she bumped into one of the couches.
“Fine, huh?”
Felix’s eyes didn’t twinkle. There would have to be some warmth in him for that sort of thing. Instead, they gleamedwith a sinister sort of knowing that hadn’t seemed quite so bad through a phone screen but when viewed from as few feet away was greatly alarming.
“You know why I dug up your number all those years ago?”
Dahlia licked her lips. “Because you were attracted to me?”
“Because you looked and smelled likemine.”He took a handful of measured steps toward her. His boots didn’t make a sound, but she wouldn’t have been able to hear it if they did. Her heartbeat was too loud.
A wave of heat rolled through her as he stalked around the coffee table, his focus on her complete. “What are you doing?”
“I’m gonna do what I should’ve done the night we met.”
TWELVE
Dahlia had been attractedto men before. She’d felt that gnawing touch-hunger of the lovesick and the bright spark of need for an attractive stranger. Nothing compared to the tension between herself and Felix.
It was the cruelest twist of fate that gave them the most combustible sort of chemistry she’d ever experienced.
“Felix,” she rasped, putting a hand on his chest. He looked calm, but his heart raced under her palm. “Stop. Whatever we had— Nothing can happen. Not anymore.”
Gods, she really hated the way her eyes welled up and her voice cracked. If she started crying, he’d think he’d won her over — a secret she’d been hoping to take with her to the afterlife, just to spite him.
But she was wrung out. There was nothing left to hide behind. Her entire life and identity had been swept away, and the part that upset her most was that she’d lost something she’d never wanted in the first place:him.
An irrational sort of anger crackled in her chest when he didn’t appear to listen to her. He just kept on coming. Felix pressed close, until his hands found her hips. He gave them a squeeze and guided her backward.
“Why aren’t you listening to me?” she demanded. “I’m a vampire, Felix!”
He slid his palms up and skated them beneath her loose, silky top. The heat of his skin burned a path over her fluttering belly and the curve of her ribs. “I am very aware,” he murmured, cupping her breasts with a greedy, possessive squeeze.
It was getting hard to think past the throb in her mouth, which had synced with the one between her legs. Her anger was there, but it was almost indistinguishable from the burn of lust as he delicately rolled her nipples between his thumbs and forefingers.
He hunched his shoulders enough to put his lips by her ear. “I should wait until my doctor confirms it tomorrow, but I’m just not that patient. I’ve waited years for this, pet. I’m not going to bite you tonight, but Iamgoing to get a taste of you.”
“What are you?—”
She yelped when he abruptly dragged her shirt over her head and threw it aside.
Stepping back to get a good look at her, he continued in that same cool, unruffled voice, “There’s a lot you don’t know about being a vampire. It’s a good thing you have me to guide you, pet. Now… plant your ass on that couch.”
She didn’t mean to sit. It just sort of happened.
The light in the sitting room was dim. Only a gold glow was cast from the milk glass lamps on the walls. They threw long shadows across his face, and when he smiled down at her from his great height, all she saw was the dark hollows of his eyes and gleaming white fangs.
There was no reason for his slow crouch to be as hot as it was. Felix took his time placing his hands on her knees and prying them apart. Dahlia’s face went scarlet. She didn’t need to look down to know that the dove gray silk of her pajama bottoms was shamefully soaked. It clung to every fold and crease.
