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“Let me know if I get too heavy.”
“K.” She drew in a deep breath. She still felt drugged out and sleepy at the same time. She really needed to head to bed for the day.
She closed her eyes, reaching for Jude’s hand. When she found it, she clasped his fingers tight. “Thank you.”
She felt him sigh. He was a solid weight on top of her, even though he held himself up on his forearms. He felt so good. He’d remained half-aroused, which made her wiggle a couple of times just to feel him.
But as she lay there, sweat began to trickle down her forehead. She was really perspiring, something that made sense given what she’d just been through and yet didn’t. In fact, she felt warm all over, and she could tell her temperature was climbing in a very bizarre way.
“Jude, something’s wrong. Get off. Please. I’m sorry, but I think I’m in trouble.”
Jude pulled out of her then moved backwards. She slid sideways from the bunk then headed straight to the bathroom where she quickly started up the shower, though leaving the temp on cold.
She heard him follow after her, his bare feet padding on the tile floor.
“Hannah, did I hurt you?”
“No, of course not. This is … I don’t what this is. I’m just over-heated in a way that is really off.”
She stepped into the cool spray, and groaned because it felt so good. She dipped her head under the water, savoring the icy feel. But how strange that she actually liked the temperature. She should have been jumping and shouting because it was so cold.
Instead, heaven.
Yet her whole body seemed to be on fire. Did having sex with a vampire do this to a human? Or feeding a vampire maybe?
She’d had plenty of friends who’d crawled into bed with vampires, even donated from a willing vein. But she’d never had one tell her she felt like her body had become a living inferno.
When she finally felt cool enough, she stepped from the shower and wrapped herself up in a towel.
Jude had remained by the door. And as naked as he was, with just his long mane of black hair surrounding his muscular shoulders and arms, he’d never looked sexier.
She almost suggested a second round, but he stared at her with an odd expression, his gray eyes wide and a frown between his brows. “Hannah, what’s going on? You look like you’re sunburned, stem to stern.”
She turned and looked at herself in the mirror over the sink. He was right. She was very flushed. She glanced down at her legs and toes. Same thing.
Shifting to face Jude once more, she shook her head. “Do you think I might have some kind of allergy to you, because I can’t explain this heat at all. Or is it something that occasionally happens to your donors?”
He shook his head, his frown deepening. “Never.” After a long moment, she grew uncomfortable with the way he kept staring at her. He looked worried. “Okay, what’s going on?”
“I’m not sure. But, I do have a question. Can you tell me how you felt after I fed from your wrist?”
She spread her hands wide. “Good. I mean a lot better, actually. I’d had this kind of weight on my chest.” Something about that sounded familiar, but her mind wouldn’t bring anything into sharp focus. “Afterward, though, I was just fine.”
~ ~ ~
Jude stood rooted to the floor. He’d finally realized that something very realm was going on with Hannah.
He took deep breaths because he was afraid of what was coming next and he didn’t want to look at it, not even a little. “I should head back to Kellcasse.” A completely irrational statement given that the sun was up. But, yeah, he wanted to run.
She chuckled. “You can’t go. You’d be fried to a pile of ashes.”
He nodded. She was right, but she was still bright red, beautiful as hell with her violet eyes glittering and her damp hair drawn away from high cheekbones. But still her skin was such an odd shade. “I know.”
“Jude, you look distressed.”
He closed his eyes. He didn’t want to think about this or to acknowledge any of its truth. He knew this particular phenomenon was racing through the Nine Realms, perhaps even in response to Margetta’s aggression against their world, but it couldn’t happen to him. Not now. Not ever.
He couldn’t have a permanent woman in his life. He’d lost his wife and daughter and that had been it for him, his last attempt at normalcy while he was ruler of Kellcasse. He was too much of a target and Naomi’s death, as well as Joy’s, had been a deliberate attack against him.
