Page 57
“I don’t like Tyler,” she said plainly, not mincing words. “I’ve never understood why Toni likes him. In every other way, she’s an intelligent woman. But somehow, she can’t see him for what he is.”
Kenton didn’t react at all, his face as still as if it had been carved from marble.
“As for your first question . . .”
Another sip.
“Toni thinks I’m gun-shy. She says every doomed relationship of mine stems back to my father’s sudden abandonment of our family. Of the hole he left that was never quite filled.”
“And what would you say?” The way he said it, as if her opinion were of the utmost importance to him, sent another wave of heat through her.
“Every time I’m too close to you, I lose the ability to think straight.”
He leaned forward, the clink of his glass on the table in front of them a little louder than it should be. And then he closed the gap between them, sitting close enough for their legs to touch and twining his arm around her. His hand, gliding under her hair and coming to rest at the nape of her neck, threatened to drive her mad with desire.
“I would say both are accurate,” he whispered, his lips mere inches from her ear.
His thumb massaged slow, methodical circles on her neck, making her want to demand more, for she knew Kenton held back. Unleashed, she could only imagine what this man was capable of.
Alessandra knew that if she turned her head toward him, even the slightest bit, he would kiss her or she would kiss him.
“So why exactly did you excuse us from my friends?”
Kenton’s incessant thumb did not relent.
“To talk,” he claimed, although his tone said otherwise. “And friend, not friends.”
She dared inch her head sideways, just a tad.
“Pardon?”
His eyes twinkled, the mischief in them unmistakable. “Toni is your friend. Tyler is not. And your assessment is quite accurate. The man is an asshole.”
Her eyes widened.
“But you already knew that.”
His thumb stopped moving. Kenton’s hand tangled into the hair at her nape, gripping just the slightest bit harder.
“Just as you know exactly why I asked you over here.”
Lord help her.
She could lose herself in him. But Alessandra wouldn’t give him everything if he intended to give her nothing in return.
Nope. No, thank you.
Taking a deep breath, she stood her ground. “We can’t do this.”
His fingers dove deeper into her hair.
“I disagree.”
Cocky Englishman.
“You’re holding back, Kenton, and you know it. You waltz into town and turn my life upside down. But instead of giving me an explanation, you give me evasions and partial answers.”
His fist closed, her hair inside.
“Do you truly want it all, Alessandra?”
Their faces nearly touched.
“I do.”
When he pulled her head toward him, she thought for a moment he’d kiss her. Damn if she didn’t want him to despite what she’d said to the contrary. Instead, he used his nose to nuzzle a tendril of hair away from her ear. “You, my love, are Cheld,” he whispered, “and I am the one thing your kind despises above all others.”
Her heart hammered wildly.
“Thing?” she whispered to the air as Kenton buried his head against her neck. His lips tickled her ear, they were now so damn close.
“I am a vampire.”
