Page 116 of Vampires of Eden

I shift down to my elbows, bringing our faces closer together. “You heard me.”

His chest rises and falls in shallow breaths. Softly, he lifts a hand and sweetly caresses the backs of his fingers along my cheekbone. “My brain is having a hard time catching up to this—you kissing me.”

An amused laugh bubbles from my throat as I bend and brush our noses. His hand cups the back of my neck. “Oh Rabbit, I could do so much more. You have no idea.” Playfully, I lick the fullness of his lips, drawing a vertical line across them with the tip of my tongue.

Alexander gasps, which creates the perfect opportunity for me to softly bite, then suck his bottom lip. I pull at him, just a little as I draw up. Savoring his mouth like a delicious piece of sugared orange taffy.

When I release him, I’m pleased at the sight of his lip—lightly bruised and damp from my effort. I smile. “I’d be more than okay with kissing and tasting every inch of you, if you let me?” I could strip him naked and have him right here in the dirt and sunshine. I’m about to express as much, but then I notice he’s wearing that deer-in-the-headlights expression yet again. “Are we okay?” I ask.

“Danny, we need to—Can we pause for a second?” He shifts upright, which makes me scramble back and onto my ass at his side.

“I’m moving too fast,” I speculate, feeling a twinge of the old Danny rearing his head. Young and hedonistic. Excited and fearless. “I’m stressing you out.”

As he sits, he rubs his fingers through his mussed hair, concentrating. “No, I think we… we need to clarify some important things. At least, I do? You said that you’d be willing to explore what my nature wants, and that you like me, too?—”

“Yes,” I confirm. “Is there some confusion, here?”

He swallows hard, hesitating as he meets my eyes. “How much do you like me?”

This question again. “Alexander, what do you mean?”

“I mean, would you be willing to form an official bonding arrangement with me? If we became engaged, would you come to Central to live long-term and help me with the Governing Board? Would you meet my parents? Would you… feed from me?”

The dreamy springtime realm we inhabit quickly falls away. Hollows out.

I can’t breathe. “I… How can you expect me to do those things?’

“How? Because it’s proper,” he explains. “It’s how we should do things.”

“ButIcan’t do those things. No onein Central Eden wouldaccept or recognize me as your partner—least of all your parents! The Royal Governing Board? It’s impossible.” The very suggestion feels ludicrous. There’s no way in hell.

Alexander’s face falls blank. Unreadable. “So, when you say we could explore, you mean… just sex?”

I scowl, offended. “Notjustsex. Why would you even say that? I think what we have is unquestionably more profound than ‘just’ sex.”

“Right, but, what do you mean exactly? If being with me formally and in Central is impossible?”

Perplexed, frustrated, I sit back and fold my legs and arms. I don’t like how this moment has shifted so drastically. We kissed, but now I’m supposed to uproot my life and move to Central? The epicenter of snooty and classist purebred vampires who spurn and belittle ranked vampires exactly like me. I’m supposed to willingly walk into the same kind of abusive and awful environment that almost destroyed me? A situation that would undoubtedly be ten times worse than the one it’s taken metwo yearsto heal from?

I don’t fucking think so.

“When I say we should try,” I begin, choosing my words carefully, “I mean that there is clearly something significant between us. Do you agree?”

Alexander nods. “I do.”

“So, we should explore that and see where it gradually leads us. Maybe you come visit the cottage regularly because you’ve become part-owner of the vineyard, or we meet the way we have been at Kat and Roland’s, supporting the safe house. We explore our connection. We enjoy each other.”

In my desire to be with him, I never once thought he’d ask me to do this because it feels so far beyond reason. So outlandish within the scope of Eden’s rules and practices.

Alexander’s eyes shift to the side. “So, we have sex in secret, basically.”

“That’snotwhat I said.”

“But that’s what I hear, Danny. You want me to come out here so we can casually ‘explore our connection,’ but you won’t meet my parents or come to Central?—”

“Your parents do not want to meet me.”

“My father would love to meet you again!” Alexander says, pleading. “My mother is another issue, but one thing at a time?—”