She presses her body back against mine, her fingers reaching up to tangle in my hair as I kiss a trail from her wanton mouth along her jaw and down her neck. The hunger shoots like pain down my spine, raw and hot.
“I have contraception,” she whispers. “In my toiletry bag. In my room.”
This is dangerous.Dangerous because I’m considering breaking the most sacred vampire taboo. My fangs scrape over her soft skin and she smells like the summer days I haven’t experienced in centuries. I’m on the very edge of control and all I have to do is bite down and send us both into a frenzy of ecstasy—I want her to feel my fangs slide into her skin.
She knows what I am and wants me anyway. No one has ever seen me the way Winnie Preston sees me, and when I’m with her I believe that I might be something more than a monster.
This woman makes me reckless.
Our bodies fit together as though the centuriesthat separate us don’t matter, as though we’re made for each other. I draw her closer, my hands roaming over her, tugging down the collar of her shirt and sniffing, scraping, licking over her skin, shuddering as I feel her blood pulse in her veins, just beneath the surface?—
Even as another moan escapes her lips, her hand flies to her throat, covering her skin.
I draw away, mortified by my lack of control. But if Winnie is disgusted by me, she doesn’t show it.
“You’ve had your kiss,” she pants. “Now, claim your chair back from Mirabelle and sit down. You need to hear this plan of mine.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
WINNIE
Faye: What do you mean you’re staying on in Argleton? Winnie, babe, how long does it take to sparkle up one teeny tiny castle? I know you have the hots for Mr Tall, Dark, and Vampy, but we are not going to get this opportunity again. We can’t wait on this.
I could just do it without you …?
Alaric listens intently while I form my plan. It’s a wild, crazy plan, with a lot of moving parts. We’re going to need so much help and a metric fuckton of luck to pull it off, and there’s the little matter of the terrifying Lady of Agony and her threats?—
“No,” Alaric shakes his head when I finish. “Absolutely not.”
His fangs have retracted now. It’s a shame. I kind of like them.
I liked them scraping against my skin.
“If it goes wrong, you’ll beliterallyrisking your neck in a room filled with hungry, lascivious vampires, at least one of whomhas killed a human.”
“But I’ll have my handsome fake-fiancé to save me.” I smile.
I’m quite proud of this plan. I think it’s one of the best ideas I’ve had since the Winnie Wins System. Which Faye is going to pretend is all her idea on national TV, and there’s not a thing I can do about it since we both own the trademark.
But I’m not going to think about that.
Alaric scowls. His hand closes around my arm and pulls me close. So close that every breath I take tastes of him.
“If we must do it this way, I will not be leaving your side until the ball is over, mybetrothed.”
“Um … yes. Good.” The way he saysmy betrothedmakes the butterflies in my stomach dance a little conga line straight between my thighs.
Now that I know what Alaric is, the weight of him makes sense to me. Not a physical weight, but the emotional weight of five hundred years ofyearningall concentrated on me. It’s heady and addictive being the focus of such a man’s attention, especially when he kisses me likethat.
Especially when us being together is forbidden.
Which is exactly why I need some distance between us now.
You’d get plenty of distance if you were in London, the sensible voice inside my head screams.
But I can’t leave now. I can’t go back to my normal life knowing what I know, especially now that a crazy lady vampire intends to kill me.
And I can’t leave Alaric to face this alone. Not when I can help. This is the biggest mess I’ve ever tried to clean up, but if I can do this, I can doanything.
