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“I can give you firsthand knowledge of the history you’ll be passing along to those poor, unsuspecting students each day.”
She looked over at him in disbelief.
“What did you think I meant?” Kenton smiled, his teeth as bright white as the pupils of his eyes. Vampire . . . man . . . he was the finest specimen of both. “Saucy minx.”
“You would stay here, in this little town, when you could go anywhere in the world?”
They climbed the stairs on the side of the house that led from the garden to the main floor.
“I’ve lived everywhere. Done it all. And there is not one place I would rather be than here,” he said, his voice firm.
Opening the door, Kenton flicked on a hallway light, its soft glow guiding them deeper into his home.
“Any other objections?”
He led her to another set of stairs, his pace urgent, and it was only when Kenton opened the last door in the second-floor hallway, the door to his bedroom, that Alessandra worked up the gumption to say the one thing that had been on her mind all night.
“Just one.”
Kenton pulled her inside, the only light coming from a single electric candle in the window. Though shrouded in darkness, a line of windows allowed in enough moonlight for her to see a large room, sparsely furnished, with nothing more than a bed, two dressers, and an oversized chair in the corner.
She wanted him, desperately so, but she had to say this first.
“I will age, and you will not.”
He brought his hands to her cheeks.
“And I will love you always.”
He deliberately misunderstood.
“You said once you could not turn me—”
“It has not been done before, to my knowledge. A Cheld—”
“But if I could be turned?”
His thumb ran across her cheek as he held her firmly, irrevocably. For a long moment, he was quiet, considering her request. Then he said, “You know little of my ways yet, Alessandra. What it means to be a vampire in truth.”
“Show me.”
His eyes widened.
“You said a bite did not hurt, that it could be erotic if done here.” She pointed to her neck. “And that it was a sign of deep intimacy.”
She was determined to know Kenton, fully and completely, this night.
“Show me,” she pressed. “Bring me fully into your world.”
She could tell he was torn. But if they were to truly be together, there was no other way.
“Kenton?”
For a moment, she thought he would deny her—the possibility of it could be seen in the play of light and shadow on his starkly handsome face—but then he grabbed her hand and led her toward the massive four-poster bed.
“I will do as you wish, love, tonight and always. If this is a world you wish to be a part of, I will give it to you gladly, if I’m able. An eternity with you would be more than I deserve. And if you are repulsed by—”
“I could never be repulsed by you,” she said, hoping he understood her sincerity.
