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Her heart slammed into her ribs. Standing so close, having his vamp powers, he had to feel the sudden kick. She swallowed. “Th-that’s good?—”
“No, it’s not.” Definitely angry. “It’s shit. It’s me, thinking about you all the time. Me, wanting you every damn minute. Me, not being able to even breathe without tasting you.”
“I feel the?—”
“I want to make you smile. Want to make you laugh. Because you know what, Dee? You don’t laugh. You don’t. And you should. Cause you’re beautiful when you smile and when you laugh, I bet you’d take my breath away.”
He’d just taken hers.
“I want you naked, yeah. Hell yeah. But I want to hold you in the morning. Want to talk to you in the darkness. I want to look at all the nights that are coming and know I’ll be spending them with you. Because if I know that, then forever sure doesn’t seem like such a bad deal.”
Not bad at all.
He glared down at her. “I want all that. I want you. Right now, I’m scared because I think you’re about to tell me to get out because from the moment that I came into your life, I’ve just brought you trouble, while you’ve brought me everything.”
Oh.
He sucked in a breath and stepped back, releasing her. “I’m not going to force you to stay with me. I couldn’t, even if you weren’t strong enough to kick my ass.”
Her lips wanted to curl. No, she wanted to laugh. For him.
“You want to walk out that door and go back to the life you had before me, then do it.” Simon moved aside. “But know this—you won’t find another man who loves you like I do. And if you do, I might just have to show up and kick his ass.” He yanked a hand through his hair. “If you wind up with that demon bastard, ah, Dee—just don’t.”
Zane.
“We almost slept together once.” The admission came out, probably at the wrong time. She always said the wrong thing.
His face hardened.
“We’re friends. Thought maybe we could be more.”
His fangs were coming out. A jealous vampire was a dangerous one.
“But we were better friends than anything else. Zane understood me and the anger and pain I keep inside.” Because he had the same brew stirring in him.
“Why didn’t you sleep with the prick?”
“Because I wanted a friend. Needed one, and I never let my lovers get close.” Not even Tony. “Until you.”
That had his eyes widening. “What are you saying?”
So hard. Dee inhaled and took a risk. About time for one. “I’m saying I didn’t count on falling for you, vampire. I knew you were using me. I thought I’d use you, too.” Brutal truth time. They should have that, now. “I couldn’t hurt you physically. You could handle my strength and my bloodlust and me.”
He just watched her. His dark gaze was so steady.
“I never counted on falling for you,” she said again, softer now. “That wasn’t part of my plan.” But she’d gone and fallen anyway. “I taste you, too. I want you, always. I want to protect you. Fight for you. I want you in the dark. Even in the light.” Though it seemed like she’d had little light in her life. Maybe that would change now. Who would have thought? It might have taken becoming a vampire to see the sunlight.
And to see that sometimes, the best things could be hiding in the darkness.
Not just monsters.
Men.
“I don’t want to go back to the way things were before.” Cold. Hollow. With pain shadowing her every move. “I want to try living this time. Really living, and I don’t want to be alone.”
His lips parted. “Don’t tease, Dee, just don’t fucking?—”
“You’re not perfect, Simon Chase. We both know you’re a liar and a dirty fighter.” She smiled. A big, wide smile. For her. For him. “Good thing for you that I am, too.”
