She hadn’t spoken since telling him the body parts in the jars were her father’s. He settled on the other end of the couch and leaned back to survey her as she stared at the blank TV screen. The flashlight she’d set on the coffee table cast shadows over her pale face and illuminated her red-rimmed eyes.
“I was a waitress before this at a family restaurant in my town,” she said.
“Where was that?” he asked.
“A small town in Pennsylvania.” The blanket fell away from her as she abruptly sat up. “Wherearewe?”
“Upstate New York. We’re in the Catskills,” he told her.
Her shoulders slumped, and she brushed the long strands of her chocolate-colored hair back from her face. “So not Alaska.”
He smiled as he stretched his legs before him and crossed them at the ankles. He couldn’t stop his gaze from drifting to the slender column of her throat and the bare shoulder exposed by her too big sweater.
He tried to ignore the stirring in his cock, but this was the longest he’d gone without sex since he stopped aging and became a full-grown vampire at twenty-five. Usually, he would be going out of his mind by now, but for some reason being in Elyse’s company was relaxing. Which was surprising to realize considering she’d threatened to stake him.
“Not Alaska,” he said.
She settled back again and drew the blanket up to her chin. “That’s good to know.”
A blast of wind rattled the windows, and the fire popped louder in the hearth before settling down again. “So you were a waitress,” he prompted.
“Yeah. I was taking some online college courses for archaeology, but I mostly worked.”
“You’re going to be an archaeologist?”
“No, but it fascinates me, so I decided to learn more about it. I’m not sure what I want to be when I grow up, but I’ve explored a little bit of everything. It’s not exactly great for my bank account, which is why I spend most of my time working, but I enjoy learning new things.”
“And what subject has interested you the most so far?”
“Anthropology.”
“Interesting.”
“I might pursue it further one day, but I assumed I had plenty of time to figure out my life. I guess I was wrong.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-two. And you?”
“Two hundred and fifty.”
She let out a low whistle and smiled at him. “You’re ancient.”
When he folded his hands behind his head, her gaze fell to his broad shoulders. She tried not to drool when the material stretched taut across his large frame and pulled up to reveal a tantalizing glimpse of his chiseled abs. What she wouldn’t give to pull off his shirt and run her fingers over the muscles there before bending her head to taste his flesh.
She bit her bottom lip as the alluring prospect of exploring him caused her nipples to tingle. She almost rested a hand against her breast to ease the ache building inside her, but she managed to stop herself. However, she couldn’t stop herself from drinking in the long length of him before her eyes settled on the noticeable bulge in his pants.
When she realized she was becoming aroused, she jerked her gaze away from him and focused on the wall over his head. Sex had been the last thing on her mind since coming here, but being this close to Saxon made her realize how much she missed it.
Given her current circumstances and what had so recently been in the next room, she shouldn’t be thinking about kissing him now, but there was something entirely too enticing about the man sitting only a couple of feet away from her.
Chapter Eleven
“What do you do, Sexon?”She realized what she said as soon as the word popped out of her mouth. Her mouth dropped as a blush burned her face; she would give anything to melt into the couch. “I… I… mean Saxon!”
He smiled at her in amusement as he draped his arm over the back of the couch; Elyse couldn’t hold his gaze as her face grew hotter and hotter. She lifted a glass of water from the table beside her and took a sip, but it did little to cool her off.
It took him a minute to reply as the scent of her desire permeating the air held him enthralled. He’d never smelled anyone as sweet or enticing as Elyse. And that blush… well, she was adorable when mortified. He wanted to tease her by telling her to get her mind out of the gutter, but he hoped it stayed there.
