tidy up properly tomorrow. She made that vow most days.
“Where will Phil ditch the car?” she called. Apparently, he’d stolen it from the curbside on Smith’s street.
“Who knows? He might even take it back where he got it.”
After this evening, she’d got used to hearing his voice at the same volume in her mind, however far away from her he was. So when she turned and found him in the kitchen doorway, leaning negligently against the lintel, she was taken by surprise.
“Milk?” she asked with odd breathlessness.
He shook his head, watching as she grabbed the milk from the fridge and sloshed some into her own cup.
“There’s something very odd about Nicholas Smith,” she said, because he was on her mind. “Very—ambiguous. I almost believe he wouldn’t have let the vampires have me. Only what the hell did he want me for? Why would he need a lie detector or even a tracker when he has an army of vampires to do his bidding?”
Blair didn’t respond. Frowning, she looked at him. “I don’t believe he felt any malice toward me. He was more upset by the idea of me being with you.”
“Perhaps he felt the similarities between you.”
What worries me is why she smells like you. What had he meant by that?
He said, “Were your parents really drug addicts who abandoned you?”
So he’d heard her tell Phil that. He must have ears like a dog. She turned away. “No idea. They gave me my name, but I don’t remember them. I was brought up in children’s homes and foster families.” Pouring the percolated coffee into the cups, she wondered if she really could be related to Nicholas Smith. Once, as a lonely, unhappy child, she’d longed for real family. Even criminals like most of Jilly’s folks—up to and including her nefarious brother Andy—would have been an improvement on none. Now she didn’t like the idea at all, and yet wouldn’t it make sense? Both she and Smith were psychic to a high degree, and she knew that didn’t happen very often.
“Why should it be in the blood?” she demanded.
For a moment, he didn’t answer. Then: “Many things are.” He stood close behind her. She felt his touch, butterfly light on the side of her neck. “Yours, for example, is most desirable.”
She shivered, closing her eyes against the build-up of lust. “I must be insane. I let a vampire into my home. Although, admittedly, there isn’t a lot I could do to keep you out.”
“You’re not afraid of me.” She heard the smile in his voice, felt the faintest brush of his lips near her skin as he inhaled her. “I like that.”
“Oh, you’re wrong,” she said with the ghost of a laugh. “I’m scared shitless by what you are. But when I’m with you, I feel ridiculously—comfortable. Sometimes, I even think I understand you, although obviously I don’t.”
“Comfortable,” he murmured. “I’m not sure I like that.” His lips brushed her neck again, lingered in a kiss. She felt the tip of his tongue on her skin and couldn’t help moving her head in voluptuous pleasure. “Aren’t you just a little—excited?”
“No,” she whispered, half twisting around to see his face. It was a mistake, for although his mouth left her neck, it took her lips instead.
Oh God, the vampire could kiss, deep and sensual and deliberately arousing. His hands crept up over her shoulders and neck to cup her face. She could feel his terrifying teeth, long and sharp against her tongue as he drew it into his mouth. She didn’t want to give in as she’d done in the street last night; but nor could she bring herself to resist. So she hung helpless in his hold, battered by his overwhelming kiss and by her own rising passion.
His hands slid down her throat once more, stroking her neck and lower until they cupped her breasts. And Jesus, that felt good too. For a moment he just held them while he stroked her lips with his fangs and sank back into her mouth, and then his thumbs flicked over her pebbled nipples, repeatedly, making them ache with pleasure. With one finger, he circled around an eager peak, then palmed it and closed once more while his other hand slid down over her stomach to the hot, anxious place between her legs.
“Coffee,” she gasped against his lips.
“Sex,” he whispered in her mind.
“What if I say no?”
He smiled against her lips, parting them wide before he left them. “Then I’ll try and change your