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“I didn’t see anything, if that’s your concern,” he began, but she was already shaking her head.
“That’s not my concern. I just…last night was crazy. I remember bits but not everything.” Her expression softened. “You held me.”
“I did.”
“Thank you.”
“You are welcome.”
She licked her bottom lip, then chewed on it. “How can I return the favor?”
If his cock was hard before, it was nothing compared to the rock that it was now. It was his call, he knew—and the temptation of that was heady and horrible at the same time. Nate deflected.
“You were sobbing like a maniac.”
Surprise coated her features, then suspicion. “I was not.”
“Well, you were hysterical.”
“I guess I was.” She pursed her lips next, tempting him even further. But it was her morose tone that got to him as he frowned.
“Is that always the case?”
“It was the first time. The pixie…she didn’t die. She wanted out of this place and freedom, and I was a researcher who just found out about the existence of the Otherworld.”
“And you couldn’t resist saying yes.”
“Yes,” she breathed out, lost in the story. He glimpsed the joy she must have felt when that happened and knew it had been her heart’s desire at that moment.
“Do you regret it now?”
“No,” was the prompt response, surprising them both. But she nodded, strengthening with conviction. “I can’t regret it. You don’t understand.”
He tilted his head. “Try me.”
She hesitated, then went on. “I wrote books as a proper researcher would. But they weren’t enough, and there was just this…yearning inside me to do more than write. So, I took the plunge—literally—and came up in the Otherworld. I first landed here and got tangled in an intricate plot between two houses, one of which accused me of being a spy.”
“House Bronson.”
“Hmm. It got cleared, and I got sent away to a trader clan that posed as a shifter clan but was actually a Fae clan in disguise trying to cause trouble with the shifter islands. I got saved by another shifter clan and was finally free enough to roam for months.” Here, a light sparkled in her eyes. “It was wonderful. I got to explore Centro and get a feel for a lot of creatures.”
“Since it’s a trading center and a neutral island.”
“Exactly. I jumped around some more, following the coordinates I wrote and whatever information I had in my head, and managed to visit a few more abandoned islands. Then I returned to Centro, got taken by a pirate, and traded to a vampire who recognized me. I guess the whole my-name-has-been-cleared thing didn’t reach everyone.”
“And there went your freedom.”
A smile flitted on her lips, brief but sardonic. “And there it went. But it doesn’t erase the number of adventures I had and will be having in the future, whether I stay in one place or jump to the next.”
“You sound so sure of herself.”
Winter grinned. “You held me when vampires are known to kill their prey without blinking. How can I not be sure of things?”
He didn’t know her well, aside from the brave bouts she displayed, the vulnerability when he held her in her arms and rocked her out of her shaking, and the bursts of passion when she loved what she was doing or talking about. But that didn’t stop the want from surging as he envisioned all the things he could do to her in this bed, starting with shoving those sheets aside and seeing everything that she hid from him. He wouldn’t stop at just watching. He would touch, then taste. He would tease until she was begging, then pierce her neck and drink her blood while he slipped his shaft inside her wet heat and fucked her to oblivion…
Nate closed his eyes, which only made the images clearer. He bit back a groan and shot up from the bed, reluctant to part from the intimacy but understanding that it was the only way.
“I need blood.”
