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I grinned. “The ones at the stores were not suitable. It appears they build furniture out of wood dust now. Those things would fall apart on you in months. And besides, they were too large for the space. It made sense to build something specific for your room.”
“It made sense to you because you’re the sweetest vampire I’ve ever met,” she said with a raised eyebrow.
I chuckled. “I’m one of only a handful of vampires you’ve ever met.”
“Still the sweetest,” she said.
I looked up, pointing the chisel at her. “Do me a favor and don’t spread that around. It wouldn’t be good for my reputation.”
She mockingly zipped her lips.
I tested the fit of the drawer I’d been working on, found it satisfactory, and moved on to the next. “The bond should be weakening any day now.”
There was a thick silence before Cara finally spoke. “And you’ll go when it does?”
I looked up. “I have to.”
“You don’t,” she said. She got off the bed and moved to sit beside me on her knees, taking my hand in hers. “I could learn to be safe in your world. With you. I don’t want you to go, Lucian.”
“That’s my fault for sheltering you from the worst of this. You still can’t fully understand what you’d be getting into.”
“I’ve been around you ever minute of every day since that night. How different could your world really be from what I’ve seen?”
I took my hands from hers and started hammering the dovetail I was working on but rushed the cut and mangled it. I clenched my teeth, staring at the wasted wood before looking back up to her. “You wouldn’t survive being with me. It might not happen today, this week, or even this month. But eventually someone would come for you. The work I do makes me a target. That would make you a target.”
“I don’t care,” she said.
I sighed. “I do. I’m not willing to let you throw your life away.”
“It’s not your decision.” Tears were welling in her eyes, but she got on her hands and crawled closer to me, pulling the chisel from my hand and then the mallet next. I was sitting cross legged, and when she crawled closer, our faces were just inches apart. “I don’t want this to end,” she said, voice a hot whisper against my lips.
“It has to.”
She kissed me suddenly. I nearly fell back from the burst of warmth that spiraled through me. My skin tingled and my hairs stood on end. My hand was cupping the back of her neck before I knew what I was doing, and my tongue was swirling with hers.
She let out a soft moan in my mouth, and I tried to pull back. She shook her head fiercely, eyes blazing into mine. A hot tear pattered from her cheek to my arm.
“No,” she said. “I care about you, Lucian. If the only reason you want to get away from me is for my own sake, then I’m telling you no. You don’t get to choose that for me. It’s my life to risk, and I’ll risk it for you. To be with you,” she added, punctuating her words with a kiss that nearly shattered me.
I kissed her back, mind racing for some excuse—some way out. Every caress and touch felt like I was writing her death sentence.
She climbed into my lap, letting me envelop her in my arms. She wrapped her legs around my waist, pressing herself against the pulsing need between my legs. I groaned into her mouth, taking her hair in my fist hard enough to make her gasp.
“We can’t,” I said. “I’ve told you what this would mean.”
“I don’t care,” she said. “I don’t care.”
I was kissing her again and letting her lean me backwards. I was on my back and she was sitting on top of me.
Her small hands were holding fistfuls of my shirt and my own were greedily exploring her. She was letting out the sexiest, breathy moans every time she grinded her hips into me, fucking me through my clothing.
This is okay. So long as we keep our clothes on. We can both get it out of our system and have a rational conversation about this later. So long as—
Cara sat up on me, tugging her sweater over her head and releasing two beautiful breasts that were briefly lifted and then fell heavily when the fabric was peeled away. Her nipples were erect, and my hands and mouth were all over her before I could think better of it.
She arched her back into me, hips digging against my erection as she did in a wonderful rush of friction and heat.
Cara’s chin was resting on the back of my head while both her hands wildly ran through my hair, her body pulsating with her need. “I want you to take me,” she whispered. “Make me yours.”
