Page 33 of Into The Light

And once again I felt our bodies connecting as her blood coursed through my veins... thrumming through me and awakening every inch of my body.

And my soul.

When I realized I’d drank too long, I forced myself to break our connection. She settled back and eyes shielded by heavy eyelids met my own.

“Are you all right?” I asked, examining the neck that showed no sign of my presence.

“Better than all right. It really is as good as they said it was. It puts sex to shame,” she said, her voice still dazed.

Her hand stayed splayed on my chest. Emotions long thought dead flooded my body under the warmth of her touch. Like the embers of a smoldering fire I’d extinguished centuries ago, they crackled and sparked as she dragged her fingertips across my chest. My emotions had been buried along with Isobel when her mortal nature had ripped her from my life. I had begged for death, desperate to rid myself of the pain her loss had seared into me. I’d mourned for a century, and then I’d mourned even more.

Emilia evoked a feeling in me that no other had ever awakened. None but my Isobel. But like Isobel, Emilia was mortal. I couldn’t bear the thought of mourning another woman when old age ripped her from my arms and my life.

No. These feelings for her can’t happen. I won’t let them.

“Thank you. I hope you have a good night,” I said as I pulled myself to my feet, her hand slipping off my chest as I rose.

She frowned, confused eyes searching mine. “Did I do something wrong?” She sat back on her hands.

“No. It’s not you. I’m sorry. It’s just...” Words eluded me. I barely understood my own roiling emotions, let alone explaining them to the woman who’d caused them. “Goodnight.”

Without another word I spun and hurried off, closing myself behind my heavy bedroom doors. I wanted to go back out there, grab her and pull her into my arms, drink more of her blood, and listen to her stories. And then I wanted to do something else I hadn’t done in centuries.

Kiss her.

At times over the centuries, my grief and loneliness had driven me into the bed of a woman that I’d used to ease the ache Isobel’s loss had left behind. But I’d found nothing but more loneliness awaiting me in their arms. And even though I’d tried to find solace in their bodies, I’d never allowed their lips to touch mine. My lips, my kiss, belonged to Isobel and Isobel alone. But for the first time in five hundred years I longed to touch them to another.

Emilia.

Though I knew I couldn’t submit to my growing feelings for her, I had been rude tonight. Tomorrow I would make it up to her. Tomorrow I would do better.

CHAPTER SIX

Emilia

“Dessert?” Mark asked, pushing back his plate.

“No way. I will be five hundred pounds by the time my contract ends if I keep eating like this.”

We had just dined on another one of Nancy and Mary’s incredible creations. Butternut squash ravioli. It was to die for, and I had eaten way too much.

“You’re probably right. I need to keep my abs in check, so they stay with me for the rest of my eternal life. I worked my ass off for these things. No sense in seeing them go to waste now.” He patted his washboard stomach.

“My abs were much flatter before Jeff left. I swear I did nothing but eat ice cream and watch The Notebook every night for a month straight. The only thing that stopped me was lack of funds. I was so broke, I couldn’t afford all the ice cream and then I had to get that stupid cocktail waitressing job.” I groaned.

“Lucky for us or you wouldn’t be here. And you look great. I wouldn’t change a thing.”

“Thanks, Mark.”

“Only an idiot would walk out on you. And I still can’t believe Aiden called him an asshole.” His eyes tripled in size before he sputtered out laughter. “He really said that? Asshole? It’s so not Aiden! Hoodlum or scoundrel, maybe even rapscallion, but asshole? Man, I would have killed to hear it.”

I threw my hand up in the air like an oath. “What an asshole. True story.”

“Well, that closes up that short mystery. He definitely likes you.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head, “I got all swirly and a little too handsy after he fed on me and he freaked out and ran away.”

“Trust me. He likes you. Being weird, that’s just Aiden. He’s a strange bird.”