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“Iris, I’m really sorry you lost your sister. You never discovered who did it?”
“No.”
“Can you tell me when this happened?”
“I’d rather not go into it. I’ve worked hard over the years to let it go. Had to, otherwise I was slowly going insane. But I miss her.”
“I understand.”
She considered him for a moment. “Have you ever killed a vampire?” She knew what she was doing; she was looking for some reason to dislike Connor. The proximity of the situation was beating her down and giving rise to a lot of unhelpful ideas. If he confessed to showing partiality to his own species, she could think badly of him and maybe then she wouldn’t crave him the way she did.
Mostly, he sat so close she had to keep resisting a powerful urge to touch him and to glide her hand over his massive shoulders.
God help her, was she falling for a vampire?
~ ~ ~
Connor felt weighed down by the conversation. He hated sharing the nature of his actions and the why’s of anything he did. Yet he felt a strong need to as honest with Iris as much as he could. “I have a lot of guilt over some of the vampires I’ve taken out. But each time, I’d caught them in the middle of a violent crime. I’m sure my answer isn’t what you expecte
d, but, yes, I kill my kind as well.”
She shook her head, eyes wide. “I’ve never met an officer like you. Most of the Crescent Border Patrol spit at me and refuse to share details about a scene I’ve been sent to report on. And since we’re being honest, I thought all of you were corrupt. That’s the word on the street that no officer is beyond being bought off.”
He hated the stereotype. “Not me. Not some of my brothers, though maybe half the force is greasing its fingers.”
“But not you?”
“Did you need to ask twice?”
She shook her head and released a whistling sound through her lips. “No. I apologize.”
She shouldn’t be so pretty. That’s what he thought. She had large brown eyes that glinted when she was mad. He’d like to see those same eyes lit with passion.
He knew she was interested. She might even need a good lay, especially someone like her who seemed to go it alone. They were alike in that way. He’d been checking up on her for months and in all that time she’d never gone out on a single date.
His gaze fell to her fingers. She had beautiful hands, the nails trimmed close and covered with some kind of shimmering violet polish. But he had to remind himself that with enough power, she could release a killing shot from the tip of one of those fingers. If she felt justified in doing it, she’d kill him without batting an eye.
He’d be smart to keep his distance, but the proximity tonight had doubled his desire for her. The whole time they’d been talking, he was hiding an erection. What was it about Iris that got to him so completely?
“I’m going to need a change of clothes,” she said. “And a quick shower. Also, you might want to bring some fresh gear with you to my house.”
“Why?” The thought of needing to put on a different set of clothes for any reason, had his groin humming once more.
“Call it an instinct, though it’s closer to prescience this time. Trust me, you’ll need some of your things at my house.”
“All right. I’ll take your word for it.”
She sighed. “But after that, where do we find Big Nuts this time of night?”
Chapter Three – Blood Flame
A few minutes later, Iris had her arms pinned around Connor’s neck as he flew her through the air. With his arm tight around her waist and her feet balanced on his boot, the t-shirt was drawn up to the bottom of her buttocks. To anyone below, she would have been fully exposed. But Connor had taken them to an even higher altitude than before. This meant, of course, that she was frightened half out of her wits and worked hard to keep from repeating her strangling technique.
Yet at the same time, desire flowed through her once more. Her breasts were flat up against Connor’s muscled chest and as he maneuvered through the air, his pecs would tighten and release, teasing her badly. Each time, she had to repress a moan of pure pleasure. It had been a long time since she’d been with a man. She’d had a few casual relationships since her alter, but nothing significant.
She’d been married for two years when she entered Five Bridges with her sister. She’d lost so much because of the alter, something she tried not to think about very often. Grief was never a simple process and hers, because she’d had to leave a husband she loved behind, was still a decade old, still hurt, and might always be an ache in her heart.
Even worse, she’d been pregnant at the time and the alter had taken the life of her little girl.
