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When something touched the back of her neck, as gentle as the brush of a feather, Toni thought she’d imagined it at first. It happened again, and she whipped around and stared at him in shock.

Holy sweet Jesus.

Lawrence was here.

“Turn back around,” he said.

Despite the command in his voice, which might have raised her hackles at another time, she listened. Her mouth moistened.

She’d pulled her hair into its usual messy bun, completely exposing her neck, a fact she’d not thought much about until a pair of lips kissed her at the base of her neck.

“What . . . what are you doing here?”

Another feather-soft kiss.

“Hopefully making up for leaving,” the deep voice said against her skin.

“How did you find me?”

His lips moved toward her shoulder. “I got back to Stone Haven just in time to find you gone. Kenton and I—”

“Kenton’s here?”

That explained Alessandra’s quick departure. She would have felt him coming.

But when his tongue flicked against her skin, she found she didn’t really care about Kenton. Or why Lawrence was back. Or much of anything, really.

His lips glided over her neck, tasting and teasing her as he arrived at the very spot—

“Oh!”

The distinct feel of two sharp points was like a trigger to her very core, which tightened in response. Was he going to bite her? After the way they’d parted, she should be saying no for so many reasons right now . . .

But he didn’t bite her. Instead, he grazed his fangs along her neck so delicately she had to concentrate to feel them. When he ran his tongue more deliberately against her flesh, Toni’s spine melted like butter. She had to push herself up in the seat to avoid being swallowed by the bubbling water.

“Don’t turn around,” he repeated as she tried to do just that. “When you do, it will be to pull me into that hot tub with you as you beg for me to make love to you.”

All she wanted was for him to continue his gentle assault, and yet she couldn’t leave everything between them unsaid.

“And why would I do that after you left me, Lawrence Derrickson?” she forced out. Her voice, strained, sounded foreign to her own ears.

“Because I made a mistake . . . Toni O’Neill.”

He must have retracted his fangs because she didn’t feel them anymore. Just a set of moist lips and a tongue deadlier than two pointy teeth could ever be.

“And I mean to atone for it.”

Oh God, not the ear.

“If you’ll let me—” he murmured between nips, “—I plan to climb in there with you and remind us both of how good it is between us.”

If she could speak, Toni would have responded that she already knew how good it could be. That wasn’t the issue.

“And then?” she dared.

Two powerful hands wrapped around her shoulders, cementing her in place as his teeth grazed her earlobe.

“And then I plan to repeat the lesson, over and over again, until there’s no question in your mind about what you want.”