More sodding tears formed as I gaped at him like the proverbial goldfish. “I…I…” I croaked. I wondered why I couldn’t have a useful power like telepathy instead of invisibility.
Except, Luc took my hands in his own, and squeezed them. Then looked directly at me. “It’s okay,” he breathed, sounding pretty shell-shocked himself. “I understand. I just needed you to know.”
I managed to wobble my head up and down a bit, but all that came out was a pathetic whine. Luc shook his head with a tender smile. “Yeah, it’s a lot, isn’t it? Shall we head back and get Pavel to make you a big mug of hot chocolate?”
Pavel took one look at me and threw a blood bag in the microwave, muttering under his breath about ‘the youth of today’, while he grabbed cocoa powder, sugar and milk. He handed me the blood with a flourish, and shooed us out of his kitchen. We gravitated by mutual agreement to the library, the sounds of too many folk in other rooms making me antsy. I didn’t want to meet anyone new right now. I had enough going on without the effort of filtering what came out of my mouth in front of strangers.
Luc jerked his chin at the blood bag in my hands. “You gonna drink it or cradle it like a newborn?”
I snorted. “Drink it, obvs. I was trying something out.” I ran my tongue carefully around my mouth.
He caught on. “Ahh, your fangs?”
“Mm hmm.” I held the blood up and felt a tell-tale prickle in my gums. “Come on,” I muttered, and concentrated. My fangs slid down. Now for the hard part. I set the bag down on the nearest table and crossed to the window.Retract, damn you.
“Oh my god, it worked!” I spun, and beamed at Luc. “I made them go away.”
He grinned at me. “Now whip ’em out again.”
I thought about blood, more specifically about Rosie’s wrist upturned towards me, her veins a tempting blue against her pale skin. My fangs descended. I flashed them at Luc, and sauntered as casually as I could to the bag. Seconds later, it was empty. Huh, apparently Pavel had been correct in his diagnosis of my need. I licked around my fangs, cleaning them off. “I think I’m getting the hang of this.”
Luc approached me. “You didn’t lisp that time either.”
“I know.” I beamed at him again. And they werestilldescended. I was aware I was in control. I crooked a finger at Luc. “I want to kiss you. Right now.”
His pupils blew wide, but his fists clenched, ever so slightly, and I watched his throat work. “Like that?”
“Yeah. You trust me?”
He swallowed again, before nodding infinitesimally. “Always.”
The kiss went from tentative to downright filthy in the space of ten seconds. When I found myself raking my fangs over the tender skin of Luc’s supremelyavailableneck, I pulled away a fraction and mentally commanded them to retract. Christ, the temptation to bite down had been almost irresistible. As it was, I was dry humping his thigh like an excitable puppy. “Take me upstairs and fuck me through the mattress?” I pleaded.
His growl was low and feral. “Absofuckinglutely.”
* * *
So much forkeeping vampire hours. After a marathon shagging session, where Luc had edged me for what felt like days, we passed out, rumpled and sticky, barely taking time to drag the duvet up to cover our cooling limbs.
The bells in my dream were attached to a vague celebration. The ringing sound was suddenly accompanied by the sensation of rocking, or falling. I didn’t like that so much. I burrowed deeper into the pillow in the hope of returning to the party.
“Charley! Your phone keeps ringing.”
Oh, that was Luc, shaking me. I groaned, and prised my eyelids open a fraction. “Whaa?”
“Your phone. Fuck’s sake. Of all the times it chooses to work, it has to be at—” He rolled over and I heard the click as he unlocked his own device. “Oh, it’s just after seven. Still too early.”
I dragged myself up and rummaged through the pile of clothes on the floor. “It’s stopped. I’ll set it to silent and we can go back to sleep.”
“Charley…”
“Yeah?”
“At least see who it is. They’re calling you at seven in the morning. Might be important.”
I sighed exaggeratedly, but rubbed my eyes to clear the sleep from them, and peered at the screen. “Oh crap, it’s Nita.”
Luc was upright in a heartbeat. “Your mum? Dude, you’d better answer. Or call her back.”
