Isis: She’s not. She threw her phone in a fountain because that girl Claire kept texting her, remember? She won’t have a new one yet because she’s too busy sucking vampire face.
Arabella: Must you be so crass?
Isis: Yes!
Komal: I’m happy for her. That girl deserves some lovin’. Alaric being a vampire and all, he’s had a lot of time to perfect his game.
Beth: Her aura has been all green and gross with sadness. A good vampire boning is just what she needs.
Arabella: Why am I even friends with you all?
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
WINNIE
Reginald takes the winding roads with even more reckless abandon than usual. Alaric has climbed in the backseat with me, and the air between us hums with possibility. But the first time one of the car’s wheels leaves the road, I break through that barrier to grip Alaric’s knee so hard that I must leave crescent-shaped gouges in his flawless skin.
He watches me with that vicious, predator-like intensity that makes it almost impossible to stay on my side of the car. Reginaldhasto notice that something’s changed between us, but he says nothing as he hurtles us through the countryside. Alaric places his hand over mine on his knee, his cool fingers caging in mine, and that touch alone is enough to make my stomach butterflies swoon.
By the time we finally rattle over the bridge and into the inner courtyard, I’m a puddle.
Alaric exits the car with inhuman speed. My heart sinks as I panic that he’s running from me again, but then his face appears at my window. He flings open my door and pulls me from the high footplate into another dizzying kiss. The moment his lips devour me again, heatflares from my core.
He breaks our kiss to pull me inside. Reginald disappears, leaving the two of us standing in the Stabby Chic room.
My chest tightens with nerves. I’ve never done this before – I’ve never crossed a line with a client, or been with someone who felt so utterly out of my league. I feel like I’m back in university, fumbling in the darkness.
“Thank you,” I whisper, “for pretending to be my fiancé. Hopefully, we won’t see them around again and we won’t have to?—”
“I will be your betrothed any time you wish.”
Betrothed.Another of Alaric’s old-fashioned words that somehow sounds hot as fuck in his rich, rumbly voice. It’s a word that’s so essentially him – dripping with history and meaning andpower.
He kisses me deeply one final time, before pulling away with a sharp exhale. His dark eyes drink me in, and tension pulses between us. I’m about to throw myself at him again when he speaks.
“We should stop.”
I must look as gutted as I feel because he quickly adds, “Not because I don’t want you. Believe me, I have lain awake dreaming of you, of the things I want to do to you. But I won’t lay with you while there is a secret between us.”
I exhale half a laugh. “So tell me your secret. You clearly want to.”
“Please.” The anguish in his voice nearly undoes me. “Give me this one night, this one perfect moment, when I can believe I’m not a monster.”
“You’re not?—”
“Goodnight, Winifred.” Alaric turns and retreats to the west wing, with a final tortured glance over his shoulder, leaving me breathless and wide-eyed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
ALARIC
Ilie on my back, staring at the closed lid of my coffin as the night fades into day. Normally, a vampire has no problem with sleep. Our sleep is not the same as humans – we do not dream. We lay down in our coffin and our bodies shut off until the sun disappears once more.
But I cannot settle myself into my dreamless sleep when Winnie Preston is occupying my every thought. Even when my eyes are open, all I see is her beautiful face, I taste her plump lips and my senses burn with sunshine and strawberries, and I remind myself how close I came to trulytastingher …
It took centuries of finely-honed willpower to walk away from her. My hunger for her is far from sated, but this night with Winnie has been the happiest of my long life.
Now I am counting down the hours until she wakes and I must tell her the truth.
