"Why not?"
"Because for better or worse I wanted you to know, I needed you to know who and what I am."
Sera's heart melted and she found herself suddenly able to breathe easier again. "Then what is this ability to attract people?"
"There's a power inside me that draws people in, but they don't do anything that they wouldn't want too."
"Even letting you feed off of them?"
"We have to survive Sera, what would you suggest we do? Kill them?"
"No!" she cried in horror. "But it seems wrong."
"Because it's not the nicest thing to do to a person, but most of them don't know what we're doing, and the ones that realize it, well, we just bend their will to ours and force them to forget it. No one leaves unhappy."
"Bend their will?" she croaked. "How?"
"It's easier when someone has been drinking. You just sort of make them forget. It doesn't hurt them, and they don't even know that we're doing it."
Sera was wishing again that she hadn't started this conversation. Her mind was beginning to spin. She didn't want to know what else he could do. What all of them could do, but there was one more thing that she had to know. "How have you been feeding since we got together? Are you still sleeping with all these girls?"
"No!" he cried indignantly. "Of course not. Sleeping with them was just an added bonus. It was a bigger rush, more power, more thrilling."
Nausea twisted in her stomach as she shook her head in an attempt to clear her befuddled mind. "More thrilling?"
Liam was silently kicking himself in the ass. He should have kept his big mouth shut, but she was being so obstinate and aggravating right now. His brain wasn't having enough time to tell his mouth to stay shut. "Sera come on; you don't want to hear this."
She bit on her bottom lip. No, she probably didn't want to hear this but she had come this far, and she couldn't turn back now. "Yes, I do. I need to understand Liam."
He groaned as he straightened away from the bureau. "Because we're pleasing ourselves in more than one way. The blood is a giant rush, and sex on top of it makes you feel like you could rule the world. Are you happy now? Is that what you wanted to know?" he demanded savagely.
She blinked back tears as her stomach threatened to empty itself. "No," she choked out.
The distressed look on her face was enough to help calm him down. "It's my past Sera. I haven't slept with anyone since I met you, I don't ever want to, but I cannot change my past. No matter how much I wish I could now that I know you."
Sera took a steadying breath. "How are you feeding now?"
"I don't have to sleep with someone to feed off of them. I can make the marks go away almost instantly. I can feed off of someone, and ten minutes later send them back into a party as if nothing happened. Their neck may be a little redder, or they may appear to have a tiny hickey, but no one is ever the wiser. They don't even know that I was there."
Sera felt even sicker. She closed her eyes as she tried to block out the nausea in her stomach. She felt as if he was cheating on her, even though he wasn't. But she couldn't help feeling that he was going to someone else for something that she could give him. Something that he had never asked her for, or seemed to want from her.
What had she gotten herself into? What was she doing here? With him? With all of them? And now Kathleen was vulnerable to Mike. She wanted to run from the room, grab her friends, drag them out of the cabin, and back to safety. She opened her eyes. Liam was staring at her with a mixture of resentment, and indignation.
"Changing your mind?" he sneered.
She had wanted to know, and as he had promised, he'd told her the truth. She had brought this on herself. She had known what he was when she had stayed in his room yesterday. She had made her choice. She wasn't going to leave now. He needed to survive. She couldn't turn her back on him because she didn't like the way that he did it.
"Kathleen," she whispered.
"Mike won't hurt her. I know that he likes her and cares about her as a friend. If things progress, I don't even know if he'll feed off of her."
Sera felt like she was abandoning her friend, but there was nothing that she could do. She couldn't go barging up there and tell Kathleen to stay away from Mike. It wouldn't happen. In fact, it would only make Kathleen more determined to go after him.
Liam turned away from her. His shoulders were slumped as if he had the weight of the world on them. She walked over to him, wrapped her arms around his waist, and rested her chin on his back. He remained rigid before his hands enclosed hers. He turned around and she tilted her head to look up at him. He was so unbelievingly gorgeous that it made her tremble with longing. She ran her hands down his shirt, and slipped them underneath to feel the warm skin pulled taut over his ridged abdomen. She pushed the shirt up. He lifted his arms so that she could tug it over his head and toss it to the floor. Stepping back, she took the time to admire his solid chest.
She smiled as she stepped close. His muscles rippled beneath her touch as he stopped breathing. Her smiled deepened as she realized the full extent of the power she had over him. The power that only a woman could hold over a man. She dropped a kiss on his chest and tasted him. His hands wrapped into her hair as he pulled her head away, and lifted her mouth to his. She kissed him passionately, her tongue entwining with his as her body began to tingle with anticipation.
His hands leisurely roamed over her. Breaking the kiss, he pulled her sweater over her head and unhooked her bra. His eyes were clouded with passion as he gazed at her. His hands skimmed to the waist of her jeans, he unbuttoned them and bent to slide them down.
