“It wasn’t because of the other day in my cabin?”
Immediately, all of Chloe’s blood rushes to the surface. And I can’t help myself. I grin.
“That’s why I wanted to seeyouagain,” I say.
“I’ve never seen you smile before,” Chloe mutters sullenly, which isn’t true. I know I smiled at her while I was fucking her.
I don’t bother to correct her, though. “I don’t usually have a reason to smile.”
Not unless I’m killing someone, of course. Plenty of my victims have seen my smile before they died. But this is different.
Chloe breathes out, her breasts rising and falling beneath her shirt. I suddenly want nothing more than to see them again. To shove her shirt up and close my mouth around her pebbled nipple. To taste her sweat on my tongue. To feel her racing heartbeat.
“What’s so special about me?” Chloe says. “Why don’t you want to hurt us?” This last question, she signs, tilting her head toward the tent.
“Oliver is a kid,” I respond. “I don’t kill kids. And he reminds me of how I was when I was younger. Before I died.”
The wind gusts again, stirring Chloe’s hair around.
“Is he a Hunter, too?” she whispers.
I shake my head no.
She breathes out.
“As for you,” I say. “I told you the night we met.” My heart hammers. “You’re beautiful.”
Her body responds to the compliment, all that heat and sweet scent perfuming the air. I don’t just want to taste it, I realize. I want to hunt it. I want to hunther. Not to kill, though.
I shift closer to her. She doesn’t pull away. Her arousal blooms, hot and sweet on the wind.
“Are you going to kiss me again?” she murmurs, so soft I almost think I’m imagining it.
I stare at her for a moment, my breath tight. “No,” I sign. “I want to chase you first.”
Her fear bursts like fireworks, hot and bright and dazzling before they sparkle back into the darkness. But, like fireworks, it leaves behind a smoky trace of excitement.
“I want to chase you,” I say, my hands shaking. “And then I want to fuck you when I catch you.”
Chloe sucks in her breath. “What about Oliver?” she signs.
“I can sense if he wakes up,” I sign back. “You know that, right? From your friend?”
Chloe’s lips part. Her breasts push against her thin shirt.
“I can sense humans,” I continue. “If they’re awake or asleep. If Oliver wakes up, we’ll come back.”
“You can sense me, too,” she signs, and it’s clear to me she doesn’t mean it as a question.
All I do is nod.
Blood rushes to Chloe’s cheeks. “You can sense what I’m feeling now.” Her hands flutter against my chest.
“You want to be chased,” I say.
The fire flashes in the darkness, casting long shadows across the campsite. Chloe stares at me for a long time, and I can feel all those emotions warring inside her—lust and fear and excitement. “Yes,” she whispers.
I stand up. It does not escape my notice that my cock, already painfully hard, is just inches from her face. But I refrain from doing anything. Not with Oliver here, even if he is asleep in the tent. His slow, steady breathing is more than clear.
