And fuck me, my heart might actually be stuttering.
"Because I felt something. For astranger. Avampire. Something stronger than logic, than experience, stronger than every scar that saiddon't you fucking dare, and I still fell for you in that moment…"
Shove.
I catch her wrists this time.
Pull her in.
"You…fellfor me?" I breathe.
I heard it. I just… can't believe I heard it.
"Yes, you idiot," she snaps, eyes flashing. "So maybe stop acting like a three-hundred-year-old child andtalk to me."
I let out a stunned laugh. "Fell for me," I echo, head tilting, something twisted and warm churning low in my chest. "So the big, bad vampire got under the skin of the elusive, forest-tied nymph with just a kiss, huh? Must've been onehellof a kiss."
Her arms twitch like she's going to swat me again, but I tighten my grip, grinning.
"You're an asshole," she growls.
"Yeah. And you still fell for me, nymph. So who's really at fault here?"
I pull her against me, wrapping her in my arms that didn't know they could hold someone like this.
"Say it again," I murmur into her hair.
She exhales like I'm impossible. But then, soft as moss in moonlight: "I fell for you, Kayden. It was strong. Visceral. I still don't understand it."
"I bit you tonight," I say, low, my breath tracing her jaw. "I lost control."
"I know," she replies. "But then you stopped. You managed to stop. Even after tasting me." She pulls back just enough to look me in the eye. "You chose to stop."
I nod once. Slowly.
Fuck. I almost ruined everything.
Again.
But I don't say that out loud. Instead, I ask, "So what now?"
She smiles, a dangerous, heated smile that still somehow looks sweet.
Her hands flatten against my chest.
"Now," she says, voice turning molten, "you shut the fuck up, stop acting like a broody vamp with a puberty complex…"
A push.
I let her.
Another push, harder this time, and I hit the bed, landing with a grunt.
"…and we make love."
She climbs onto me like a queen claiming her throne, her body sliding over mine, hips brushing just enough to make my cock twitch.
"Is that so?" I ask, folding my hands behind my head, smirking up at her like the cocky bastard I am.
