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Charlotte tingled all over, most especially . . . there.

“Do you remember it?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Some of it. A very pleasurable memory actually.”

Torr grinned. “But nothing after the bite?”

Charlotte shook her head.

Despite the cool fall air wafting in each time the door opened, the heat that crept from her cheeks down to her chest turned into a different kind of heat. One that accompanied rising anger. Because she knew that look . . .

“You still refuse?” she asked, incredulous.

He shook his head ever so slightly, but to her, it was as if he’d shouted, No!

“Dammit, Torr—”

“You have to understand—”

“Oh, I do.” She’d asked. He’d answered. Again and again.

There was nothing more to be said.

Charlotte stood.

“We need to talk about this—”

“No.” She grabbed her purse. “We don’t. There’s nothing more to talk about.”

She would not rely solely on him to keep her safe, and if he couldn’t understand that, after all that she’d been through . . .

“Charlotte, please.”

She would not be swayed by those pleading puppy dog eyes. On this, she had to stand strong.

He wouldn’t turn her. And if Torr wasn’t ready for that level of commitment, she wasn’t prepared to give up her life for him. To follow him and allow herself to remain vulnerable and weak. To grow old and . . . no. She would not do it.

“I’m sorry,” and she was.

Charlotte practically ran from the coffee shop. After half a block, she turned.

No Torr.

What had she expected? That he would chase her down the street? Say that he’d changed his mind? Agree to turn her? Take her to all of the places he’d promised they’d visit together?

Stay by her side for all of eternity?

Yeah. Wasn’t going to happen.

Charlotte kept running all the way back to her apartment, where she promptly did what any sane woman would do after walking away from the man she loved with all her heart.

She went straight from the door to the freezer, despite the fact that it was not even ten in the morning. Her only regret? That it was a pint of chocolate ice cream and not a seven-layer chocolate cake.

’Cause she planned to eat the whole thing and not feel an ounce of regret.

* * *

“What happened?”