Intimate. God, she loved the way he talked. She used to think he was just extremely proper, but now she realized it was also a function of his age. He’d come from another time, arriving here long before her own ancestors had even set foot on this soil.
The whole situation was a hundred-and-one kinds of crazy.
“I’m sorry to worry you,” he said, still stroking her face. “I didn’t think to explain before things… escalated.”
Charley blew out a breath. “It’s okay. I mean, it’s good. About the… not having to worry about… It’s really good.”
Really good?What the hell was wrong with her? When had she turned into a nervous teenager?
Right about the time you started fucking a hot vampire and shut off half your brain…
She closed her eyes, forcing the spin of her mind to stop. She didn’t want to think about the impossibility of it all right now.
But hell, how could she not?
She’d just had the most intense, amazing sex of her life… with an immortal fucking vampire.
She was standing in the luxurious marble bathroom… of an immortal fucking vampire.
A sinfully hot man had brought her to ecstasy like no man had ever comeclose… and he was an immortal fucking vampire.
“You’re an immortal vampire,” she blurted out, the reality smacking her in the face again. “Jesus Christ, Dorian. You’re a fucking vampire! You have fangs and you’re insanely fast and stronger than a freight train on steroids and you… you drink blood, for the love of God!”
“God has nothing to do with this, Charlotte. I assure you.”
“But you’re not human!” She pushed against his chest with her fists, suddenly desperate for space. For air. But the steam from the shower was quickly filling the room, and Dorian’s presence was so imposing, so all-consuming, she felt like the walls were closing in.
“Call me a monster if it eases your conscience, love, but we both know the truth.” He fisted the back of her hair and tugged, forcing her to look at him. “You sing averydifferent tune when the monster shoves his tongue between your thighs.”
Her knees weakened at the memory of his demanding mouth, taking and taking and taking until she was a hot, trembling mess.
Charley’s fists uncurled, her palms flattening against his chest, his skin warm and slick in the steamy bathroom. His cock was already hard again, nudging her belly, ready for more.
She was so close to giving in, so close to climbing into his arms, wrapping her legs around his hips, and letting him take her any way he wanted. On the bathroom sink, against the shower door, under the water… She could think of a million fantasies, each one more delicious than the last.
But her head was too heavy, her body spent from their battle between the sheets, and suddenly all she wanted to do was melt under the hot shower and evaporate into nothingness.
“I’m sorry, Dorian,” she said softly, lowering her eyes and taking a step back. “I need to think, and I can’t do that with you here.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m asking you to leave.”
“You’re telling me I can’t use my own shower?”
“Are there no other showers in this mansion?”
“A dozen, actually, but—”
“Then find a different one!”
“Charlotte—”
“I can’tbreathe,Dorian!” She turned her back on him and stepped into the shower, losing herself for a moment under the rush of hot water.
When she opened her eyes again, Dorian was gone.
* * *
