“And you have the kind of seductive smile that would require zero words to get a girl into bed. But if you think I’m going to throw my panties or my jugular at you, then you are seriously mistaken. Now, if you don’t mind, how about you take your third question and shove itup your obscenely tight ass because all I’m planning to do is sit at this desk and watch a hundred demo reels from guys whose acting is so bad they couldn’t even be in a Marvel movie. All in the hopes that I will find someone who has even a fraction of your innate menace. And I don’t need your shirtless body and sexy grins distracting me. Okay?”
Her chest heaved up and down from the exertion of her rant, but it needed to be said. Despite Jinx’s many attempts to reign her in, she was always the first to address any elephant in the room, and Saiden was one big ass pachyderm.
Crossing her arms, she stared at him and waited for a response.
His lip twitched. It must have taken a solid minute before he quietly walked over to the bathroom, picked up his shirt, and slid it on over his still damp torso.
“Is that better?” he asked, amusement coloring his voice, that damn lip still trying to curl up into a full grin.
“It’s a start,” Cora mumbled, turning back to her laptop.
She started to open it, but a muscular hand slid over the top of hers, keeping it shut. Sighing, because obviously her speech had resulted in little more than him putting a shirt on, she turned to face him.
She was surprised to see all traces of seduction gone and his resting murder face back on full display.
“You need to get some sleep,” he insisted, holding the laptop lid—and her hand—firmly in place.
“I’m not tired,” she replied while trying, and failing, to slide her palm out from beneath his much larger one.
“You not only fell asleep in the car, but you look exhausted. Why won’t you just lie down?”
She evaluated the stubbornness flaring in his dark eyes and gave up the struggle. “Look, that was a fluke. I don’t sleep much, and even if I did, I’m not sharing a bed with you.”
He released her hand and took a step back. “I said you were perfectly safe with me, Cora, and I meant it. No biting. No seduction. Just sleep.”
“Never gonna happen.”
He ran a hand through his wet hair, and the action dislodged a few water droplets that ran down the thick cords of his muscular neck. Now,hehad a biteable neck, and she wasn’t even a vampire.
“How about this?” he offered. “I need to make a phone call. If you lie down and at least try to fall asleep but are still awake when I come back to the room, then I’ll leave you alone for the rest of the night. You can do whatever you want without interruption from me.”
Cora pretended to analyze his offer. It was a sucker’s deal because there was no way she would fall asleep in a crappy motel room with a dangerous vampire right outside the door. If it would get him off her back, though, she’d play along.
“Deal,” she agreed and crossed the five feet to the massive bed. He eyed her warily as she slipped under the covers fully dressed and plumped the pillow beneath her head. Closing her eyes in an effort to convince him that shewasattempting to sleep, she listened while he grabbed his keys and quietly shut the door behind himself.
Phone call my ass, she thought. He was probably heading out to find dinner since she’d firmly rebuked him.
Nestling into the surprisingly soft mattress, she waited for him to return so she could get back to her work. And she would get back to her work because there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of her actually falling asleep.
Chapter seventeen
Saiden
Saiden slid down the door of the hotel room and leaned his head back, his eyes lazily drifting up to the stars winking overhead. Allowing his hearing to amplify, he focused on the sound of Cora’s breathing. He needed to wait until it smoothed out and he was certain she was deep into a REM state before he could walk away. He didn’t know exactly how close he had to be for the relaxation effect of mate proximity to kick in, but he’d heard from Marquin that sometimes just the knowledge that Eliana was in the same house was enough to knock him out like a frat boy after a kegger.
Less than five minutes later, her breathing leveled out, and the gentle sound of soft little snuffles reached his ears. He wondered if she knew that she snored. It was sweet and cute, like little puppy chuffs. It had been difficult to pull the car over earlier because he hated to wake her up.
He was deeply thrilled that he did, though, just for the opportunity to hear her passionate explosion. It had taken all his willpower to stand there and let her describe the depths to which she found him attractive. If only she knew how little he cared about the apparenteffect he had on other women. He only cared about the effect he had on her. And while it wasn’t a declaration of love or a request to spend eternity at his side, it was a start.
Obscenely tight ass. He wouldn’t forget those words as long as he lived. Every grueling second he’d spent training over the last three hundred years was suddenly very worth it.
She clearly desired him at least on a physical level, and while he wanted far more than just her body, for now he’d take whatever she offered. Not that she was offering anything currently, but the heat was there. It just needed fuel. If the way to her heart was through her panties, then he would gladly put in the work.
First, he really did need to make a phone call.
Confident that she wouldn’t wake until morning, he sped over to his car and settled into the driver’s seat. He tapped the start button in the center console and said, “Call Baylin.”
He listened to the ringing sound for a second, waiting for his brother to answer. Baylin wasn’t his biological sibling, but they both thought of each other as family. More so than the other members of their cadre they affectionately called cousins. Vamps were only allowed to turn one mortal, and Marquin had sired Saiden a couple decades after he and Eliana mated. They’d stumbled across him dying on the battlefield and said they knew right away that he belonged with them.
