Page 90 of Bewitched By a Vampire

She pushed to her feet, causing her book to fall onto the coffee table, and her fear laced the air, tainting her sweet scent.

“What’s wrong?” Her caramel-coloured eyes searched his as she hurried to him.

He looked down at her hand when she gripped the front of his grey shirt, his blood rushing in his ears, and his breath leaked from him.

“I thought you were gone. I was trying to find you and Luca said you had been crying, and I was afraid you had been upset because you had decided to leave… me. I thought you had left me.” His brow furrowed as he wrapped his arms around her and tugged her to him. He held her to his chest, his fingers tangled in her dark hair, and lowered his head, pressing his lips to the top of her head and breathing her in. She was here, in his arms. Not gone. She was here.

She wrapped her arms around him and held him. “I’m not going to leave you.”

He ached for her to tack a ‘never’ onto that sentence.

He reluctantly eased her away from him and gazed down at her. “You’ve been avoiding me.”

The way she averted her gaze said he was right and she had been.

“Why?” He framed her face with his hands and angled it towards his, making her look at him. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No.” She shook her head, moving his hands, and then heaved a sigh. “I have. I did something wrong. Oh, Night. I know you’re going to be mad at me, but I needed to know, and now I do. I have proof. I can show my coven and they’ll leave you alone.”

He frowned, a feeling building inside him as she spoke, one he focused on to make it clearer—stronger.

“You’re mad at me. I knew you would be.” She placed her hands over his. “Please, don’t be.”

“All day I’ve been trying to put my finger on why I feel different.” He tried to keep his tone soft, but it was hard as he thought about what she had done. She had taken his blood without his permission, binding them together as master and servant. He focused on the connection he could feel linking them, and murmured, “I thought it was just because I love you.”

Her mouth gaped open.

“You love me?” She blinked up at him.

Night nodded. “I love you.”

“You’re sure?”

He frowned at her again. “Of course I’m sure. I’ve never been more certain of anything. Do you want me tonotlove you?”

She was quick to shake her head, causing her fall of dark hair to brush across the shoulders of her plain black dress. “No. It’s just… I love you too, and I was worried that you didn’t feel the same way and I could have taken a peek at your feelings in your memories, but I resisted and now all day I’ve been fretting over whether or not you love me as much as I love you.”

The fact that she had resisted finding out his feelings from his memories warmed his heart. If he’d had the talent she possessed, he wasn’t sure he would have been able to resist taking a look at the times they had been together to discover how they had made her feel and how she felt about him.

He would have been greedy, wanting to know her innermost desires and how deep her love for him ran.

“You are right. I do not love you as much as you love me.” He tucked a rogue wave of hair behind her ear as he banded his other arm around her and she stared at him, horror shining in her eyes now. “I love you more.”

She slapped his chest and pouted. “You do not.”

Night feathered his fingers across her cheek, the softness of her skin stealing his focus for a moment before he thought of another way to tease her and couldn’t resist it. This lightness between them was too bewitching. He wanted more of it.

“Alas… I cannot wed you.” He set her away from him. “For you are already spoken for.”

A little crinkle formed between her eyebrows. “By who?”

“Luca.”

She slapped his chest again, hard enough that it stung this time.

“I’m not marrying Luca.” She twirled away from him when he tried to seize hold of her and shot him a naughty smile. “I’m not marrying you, either.”

Night would see about that.