Page 19 of The Silver Fox Vampire

“Just across the road.” She pointed to the building opposite. “My apartment is on the first floor.”

His mouth quirked to one side. “You still choose to live close to a graveyard, then.”

“I guess it makes me feel safe. You know how it is with habits from childhood.”

“Yes, habits can make us feel safe. Even when we are not.”

“Is something lurking in these graves to get me, Oliver? Is that what you’re saying?” She laughed, trying to waylay him, make him stay a while longer.

“Maybe not in the graves.” She felt his gaze on her, intent, hungry. “I will bid you adieu.”

She swallowed caustic disappointment.

At least don’t show it.

With a bright smile, she stuck out her hand to shake his. “Thank you for a lovely evening, Oliver, and for walking me home.”

For long moments, he stared at her hand, and suddenly, so swiftly that she didn’t even see his arm move, he’d grasped it tightly in his own.

Electric energy pulsed up her arm, down her spine, swirled in the dark place between her thighs.

He stared down into her face, holding her gaze in thrall. With her hand sandwiched between them, she couldn’t tell if it was the staccato beat of her own heart she was feeling, or his.

Or both.

“Surely you must know I am not indifferent to you,” he growled. “You must have sensed it over the past months.”

Her heart leaped at the rawness of his tone. He was admitting his feelings, so how could she deny her own? She let out a little mewl of acquiescence.

“Yes,” she whispered, unable to find any more words. “Yes.” Emboldened, she stepped closer, tilted her head, let her lips part softly.

“Yes, what? Yes, you know, or yes you feel it too?”

“Sir—I?—”

“If you keep staring at me like that, I swear you will regret it.” He raised his thumb and rubbed it over her lower lip.

The pulse of lust in her belly grew so strong her breath caught.

Finally, she found her voice. “I could never regret tonight.”

His energy surged toward her, but then he appeared to rein himself in.

“Clare,” he said softly, “we’ve had a very pleasant evening. We’ve talked about our lives, we’ve called each other by our given names, and your eyes told me you would be willing to take this further. But it is you who must draw the line, because I do not have the restraint to curb my unholy desire for you. It must be you who says no.”

“I—I won’t say no.”

The silence crackled in the night air between them.

“That is a yes, then?”

“Yes, it is a yes.”

He bent his head closer, his lips moving a silken path around the shell of her ear, sending goosebumps ricocheting across herskin. “Foolish, beautiful human,” he muttered harshly, then he took her face in his long fingers, angled her head and claimed her mouth.

This kiss. Oh, sweet fucking goddess,thiskiss took no prisoners. Her bones melted, her blood ran like fire through her veins. Heat pooled between her legs as his tongue plundered her mouth. She pressed against him, felt the ridge of his cock hard against her belly beneath those perfectly styled pants.

She clung to him as he deepened the kiss, his tongue swirling with hers in a dizzying dance of pleasure. She heard her own mewls and sighs, as if she was one possessed.