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“Then I shall leave you ravenous for later.” His hot mouth scorched a path down my jaw and teased my neck, fangs scraping, igniting a thousand tiny fireworks in my veins. I turned my head away, inviting him to sink those fangs in deep.

Mercy, yes.

Hooking a leg around the back of his, I ground against his hip, needing the delicious friction.

“Adam, tease me at your peril.” His warm hand encircled my neck, his thumb tilted my chin up, and I was caught, pinned in his embrace, absolutely at his mercy.

“You know when you say things like that it just makes me want to tease you more.”

He wet his lips with the tip of his tongue, making them shine like his eyes in the dark. “Later then, and I will not be gentle.” Easing off, he backed up and stroked his ravenous gaze over me.

I fought a broad, satisfied grin. “I’ll hold you to that.”

“I should be finished making this dresser in an hour. Perhaps we might go dancing?”

A glance out the window revealed a man standing across the street, peering right up at me. If he had any kind of night vision, he’d probably seen me and Victor getting personal, but if he was going to stare into windows, what did he expect?

“Adam?”

Victor’s voice faded behind a sudden flicker of recognition.

“Hm?” I grasped the sill and peered through the dusty glass. Torn, dark-blue jeans and a faded, loose-fitting T-shirt. Brown hair. Kinda . . . average looking. He could be nobody, but a shiver tracked through me. I knew him, but I didn’t remember him. It sounded crazy. I’d never seen him before, yet inside some part of me recognized some part of him.

As though we were . . . connected.

Oh dear.

Shoving away from the window, I dashed across the room, skipping over pieces of furniture.

“Adam?”

“Nothing. It’s fine. Everything is fine.” The words fell out in a rush. “I’ll uh . . . see you later!” I called back, already out the door and hoping Victor wouldn’t follow.

Everything was fine.

It was probably nothing . . . but I needed to see that man up close, right now.

The elevator would be too slow. I shoved open the stairwell door and hurried down the stairs, cut though the foyer, ignoring Madame Matase calling my name, and burst outside onto the front deck. A few startled guests looked up from the porch seats.

I scanned the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street. He wasn’t there. Up and down the street . . . nothing, only a few cars cruising away. But it was late, and apart from the hotel’s bustle, the evening was quiet. I jogged down the front steps, still well within the hotel’s overextended wards, and crossed to the opposite sidewalk.

In the spot where I’d seen the man, there was nothing to indicate anyone had been there, of course. I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting. A neon sign? Breadcrumbs to follow?

Maybe the man really had been a nobody, just like I’d thought. Was my mind playing tricks?

Turning, I looked back at the hotel. All its wonky old windows blazed. Chatter from inside filtered out onto the ocean-scented breeze. Everything appeared as it should, and everyone was perfectly safe.

The garden to the left of the hotel was dark, though, because we hadn’t installed proper outside lighting yet. Zee had trailed a few fairy lights through the brush to light the path, but that was all.

“Just a quick look,” I told myself.

After crossing the street again, I creaked open the old gate and entered the garden.

We’d tried to clear it, but as fast as we did, the weeds and brush grew back even thicker than before, as though the yard didn’t want to be maintained. Jimmy was supposed to get the gremlins onto it, but since much of the grass still came up to my thighs, it looked like he hadn’t yet.

I found the fairy-light path and headed deeper into the garden.

Overgrown bushes muffled the sounds of the hotel, and just a few stars twinkled above. Reaching the end of the path brought me to a rotten picnic bench.