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I ground my aching cock against her pelvis as I devoured her mouth, and she parted her thighs to let me press into their apex. I wanted her so badly, wanted to shred her clothes off of her right here and fuck her until my name was the only one she could ever say again.

A clatter at the front of the room startled both of us, shattering our frenzy as we both shot our heads in that direction.

“Oops, sorry,” one of the maos mumbled as he drunkenly stumbled against the doorway. “Carry on.” The idiot pushed away from the doorframe and left.

I looked down at Arya’s face, at her kiss-swollen lips, and reality came crashing back down on me with a vengeance.

I shoved myself back from her, rebuilding the invisible wall between us with impeccable speed. I watched as the savage desire in her features morphed into silent fury, and for a moment, I thought she was going to slap me.

Instead, she pursed her lips and stood taller.

“Goodnight, Tobias,” she said like it was an insult, then whirled around and strode out of the room without a look back.

I stood there for a moment, struggling to rein in the storm of emotions she’d left me with as I stared after her. No one had ever talked to me like that, except for my mother. She made me feel small and powerful all at the same time. She challenged me in a way I didn’t know how to handle, and she frustrated me to no end.

And I was an absolute fucking idiot for jumping her like that.

What the hell was wrong with me? I hadneverlost control like that in my entire life. I prided myself on my self-discipline and the mastery over my emotions that Arthur had drilled into me since birth. And yet, I had kissed the one girl who was completely off-limits. Hell, forget kissed, I’d orally assaulted her.

And she’d kissed me back. Just the memory of the feel of her lips on mine, of her delicate fingers scraping down my ribs, made my painfully hard dick throb with my unrequited need.

I shoved those memories away. I couldn’t let things get physical with Arya.

She was right. I had no right to intervene in her business. I wasn’t her boyfriend. Thanks to the stupid Dracul curse, I’d never be anyone’s boyfriend. As long as the curse went unbroken, I couldn’t allow myself to fall for anyone or allow anyone to fall for me.

That was why I planned to join the military with my father as soon as I graduated because I refused to do to someone what my father did to my mother every single day.

Over a hundred years ago, a Dracul woman pissed off the wrong witch, who’d cast a spell on her and the entire Dracul line and anyone connected to it by marriage, that they would be cursed with unrequited love.

My mother loved my father deeply. And because of that, hecouldn’tlove her back.

But Arthur hadn’t come out unscathed, either, because he clearly loved my half-brother’s mother, and never once had she asked Arthur to leave Octavia.

We Draculs were forced to arrange our marriages to keep the line from dying out. But anyone who agreed to the marriageknew the risk. Any Dracul who fell in love was destined to never be loved in return.

So…no girlfriends. No romantic entanglements. Ever.

I hated to admit it, but Arya dating fish boy was best for everyone. If she was dating someone else, it would be that much easier to keep thisfriendshipstrictly business. I’d be forced to stay on task and get the information my father wanted without…complications.

I was strong enough to fight this need for her. I had to be, for my family, for my mother. For Arya. And as I left the room to find my traitorous friends who’d deserted me, I was determined to make sure nothing like this ever happened again.

Chapter 19

Julian

I pinched the end of my straw and swirled it through my glass of iced water. The ice cubes spun around and around, trapped in the current I’d created. What an accurate metaphor for life.

I ran my other hand through my hair and sighed heavily. I remembered a time when water was the only liquid I craved. That had been over a hundred years ago. Since then, only blood could quench this endless thirst that plagued me. It was the current I was trapped in. And there were a dozen humans in this diner ripe with it.

I’d drained several blood bags that I borrowed from the hospital before I came to ease the temptation. It helped. The rich aroma of the blood pumping in the mortal veins around me teased my nostrils and tickled my throat with an incessant dull ache, but I was in complete control of myself.

The late afternoon sun streamed into the windows of the booth I was sitting in, and although I still preferred the darkness most times, it humbled me to know that I was the only known vampire who could survive the sun’s powerful rays.

The young waitress with braided auburn hair walked up to my table.

“Sir, you’ve been here for over a half hour now,” she said sweetly, holding a pot of coffee with steam wafting out of thespout. “Are you sure you don’t want to order anything else while you wait for your friend?”

Friend. The word bounced around in my head like a ping-pong ball. I’d hardly call Caesar a friend. Sure, we were on friendly terms, but our relationship was strictly business. I had a lot of baggage when it came to shifters, and I knew damn well how much Caesar hated vampires. I still half expected Caesar to kill me one day, just on principle. Or at least attempt it.