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He had to be joking. “Seriously?”

“But it happened on the way home, so you can still berate me for not calling. I just needed to do this alone. I thought about calling before I left Scotland, but—” he smiled deliberately, “—I wanted to talk to you in person.”

“Talk?”

“Aye, talk.”

It was official. Any time he spoke in that thick Scottish brogue, Toni was going to jump him. Starting now. She was straddling him in record time.

Lawrence claimed her mouth in a kiss that should have happened the minute they awoke. Making up for lost time, his lips moved across hers expertly, tasting and exploring.

She pulled back ever so slightly. “I have something to tell you.”

He kissed the corner of her mouth. “And I have something to ask you.”

Surely, not that.Not yet. But she’d have to wait to find out. Because his lips were already blazing a path down her neck as she tilted it to the side for better access.

“Do it,” she said, wanting to see if it would feel as good as Alessandra had said it would. She just wished she could remember the first time.

“It sucks that I won’t remember.”

As his tongue flicked against her neck, she felt the slightest touch of his teeth.

She clenched in anticipation.

“Over time, you will. As you get more accustomed to my bite,” he murmured against her neck.

She waited.

Nothing.

“Lawrence, are you going to—”

Oh God, he did. It felt like the tiniest prick of a pin and then . . . and then just sensual pressure against her skin, like the press of his palm when he slid his fingers inside her. Between that delicious sensation and the way he was massaging her head, Toni tried to remember how often he needed to feed. Once every few weeks? Once a month? Could he do it every day?

Lawrence pulled away with a groan and looked at her, his gaze quickly descending to where her robe opened at the front. Supporting her with his hands, he guided her backward until she was suspended above the chair midair.

Nope.

Never.

She would never get used to the strength of her vampire. As he trailed a path of kisses down her chest, she vaguely remembered him mentioning a question.

But that was for later . . .

* * *

“What?She asked me to do it.”

Lawrence looked from Alessandra’s accusatory glare back to Toni, who slept soundly on the lounge chair by the pool. Shoving away thoughts of his brother and sister running all around Amsterdam, or wherever they were by now, he focused on his friend’s mock anger.

“Asked you to do what?” Toni said, sleep still evident in her voice. She’d swapped the white bikini for a sleek black one-piece, somehow even sexier than the one with less material. The two gold clasps on the shoulders were like beacons, taunting him to reach over, slip them down and . . .

“Seriously?” Alessandra said from the other side of Toni. “Get a room.”

“We have a room.”

She rolled her eyes.