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Vinny is a vampire.
Vinny is—
A breeze fluttered the tendrils of hair hanging around my face.
Standing in front of me now.
Too close.
Too dangerous.
I breathed deeply and braced myself. Then I opened my eyes to his, nearly crimson now and mere inches away from my own.
His fangs were extended, just the tips of them exposed where they rested against his full bottom lip.
Fangs. Because he is a monster, Jacqueline.
Regardless of how beautiful he was—with those strong arms and that dark brown hair trimmed close to his head, those intense Italian brown eyes—Vincenzo Ricci was a monster.
I swallowed hard and he smirked. His gaze flicked to my throat, zeroed in on the rapid beat of my pulse. He bit down on that full bottom lip and a spot of blood pooled beneath the tip of his fang.
The desire to lick that spot of blood should have terrified me but only worked to make me want him more.
“Have you changed your mind about me?” he asked, his voice low and threatening, but somehow still stoking that flame of desire between my legs.
Shaking my head, I took a step back and he tilted his head inhumanly slowly. “Don’t run from me, little Fiorino.”
Not a request but a warning.
Do not run.
All running would do was inspire the monster’s need to hunt.
And once that happened, I’d have no chance of survival.
He’d explained that at the very beginning of our training sessions. “Face them. Fight them if you can. But never run from us.”
Us. Because he’s one of them.
With a curt nod at the reminder, I took another step backwards, slowly inching away from the predator in the room. My heart drummed a million beats a minute as I edged further and further away from Vinny. Even though he’d been training me for months, I doubted I could truly take him in a fight. And, even if I could, I was currently armed to the teeth with fake fucking stakes.
A lot of good those would do me if he decided he was done training and came for me.
He watched me like a hawk, his eyes still ringed with the red of his desire—or thirst. There was no way to tell the difference, as the two were so closely related for his kind. “Same time Friday,” Vinny said, his voice tight and controlled, evidence of his restraint.
I should say no, should put an end to these training sessions and find some other vamp willing to teach me how to kill their kind. One who was turned when he was eighty or something so I wouldn’t always feel the need to rip his clothes off. But I nodded instead, acutely aware that if I spoke now, my words would come out too breathy—or too weak—both of which could spur something primal in Vinny.
Something I may not be able to escape.
When I reached the door that led to the locker rooms, I opened it without taking my eyes off my trainer, then I sidestepped and slipped through the narrow opening, closing the door quickly behind me.
I rested my forehead against the cool metal and breathed deeply.
In spending three nights a week with him for months, I’d gotten too close to Vinny. I’d begun to humanize him, to see more than just the monster but the man he used to be. I’d allowed myself to see something akin to friendship somewhere in the midst of this working relationship, and now the lines were blurred. I enjoyed our sessions, looked forward to them.
But I needed to get my shit together. Vinny was a vampire.
I paid him to teach me how to fight, nothing more.
