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Even reminding myself that Darcy’s seductive heat is stolen from human blood fails to take the edge off my longing. I still want to curl up, rest my head on his strong chest, and forget all of the problems of the past year.
Forget my missing, presumed dead, mother, forget my struggling sisters, forget the stress of slowly losing my livelihood and watching the light go out of Annie’s eyes when the library shut down. And most of all, forget that I’m a fish out of water in a world where my ignorance could easily end in my death and then there would be no one left to hold my family together.
I’ve always been the strong one, the surrogate mom to my sisters, the tough nut no amount of trial or tribulation could crack.
But now, suddenly, I want to crack. I want to break down the middle and bare all my secretly squishy insides to a predator I barely know.
It’s so, so dumb.
If I were a heroine in a movie right now, I’d be screaming at the screen for this chick to wise up and get a grip on her hormones before her bloodsucker crush ends in disaster.
Instead, I let Darcy take my hand and lead me past the gaping crowd into the house, feeling both safer and more confused than I have in a damned long time.
Chapter Fifteen
Darcy
I should take her back to her rooms, deliver her into Elsbeth’s capable hands, and return to my guests.
Or if I’m determined to go above and beyond, I should deliver her to Elsbeth then send one of the other servants to check and see if the dresses I ordered earlier this evening have been delivered so she’ll have something dry to wear aside from her overalls and handywoman clothes.
Instead, I mist us both into my office upstairs.
The moment we’ve both materialized, I slam the door behind us and press her back against it, kissing her hard and deep. She returns the kiss with the same almost frenzied intensity. It’s like I haven’t fed in months and her kiss is the only thing keeping me alive and warm.
Fuck, she’s so warm, so hot and alive in my arms.
“I can’t get enough of your mouth,” I murmur against her lips as we stumble across the room to the couch by the window, kissing every step of the way.
“Same,” she says, shivering before her arms tighten around my neck. “It’s bad, Darcy. This is bad.”
“It doesn’t feel bad,” I say, but I know what she means. This is trouble we don’t need. We’re supposed to be fooling our siblings not getting into some kind of fraught, enemies-with-benefits situation.
But she doesn’t feel like an enemy anymore.
If I’m honest she never did. From the beginning, she was like a light flicked on in a long-darkened room. At first it was startling, irritating even, but now…she makes me see things, feel things I haven’t in so long.
When I’m with her, I almost feel…
I almost…
“Human,” I murmur as I guide her back onto the couch. “You make me feel human, again.”
“You make me feel…scared,” she says in a small voice that isn’t like her. But it’s honest and it cuts through the lust fogging my brain as effectively as the water Janet dumped over our heads.
I pull back, brushing her damp curls from her forehead as I search her troubled eyes. “Why? I would never hurt you, Blaire. Never. I swear it.”
Her lips tremble at the edges. “Yeah, just like Annie would never hurt Colin.”
“Like Annie…” I trail off, every last bit of heat draining from my face as the implication of her words hits full force.
Her breath rushes out with a wince. “Yeah. That’s about how I thought you’d take that news.” She tries to rise from the couch, but I’m halfway on top of her and too stunned to move.
Of all the things I expected from this woman, a vulnerable confession that she’s developing feelings for me is pretty much the last thing on the list.
Hell, it wasn’t on the list. Not even close.
She pushes at my chest. “Let me up, please. I’ll go change in my room.”
