about the encounter and continue on her way.
I just won’t tell Baker I did that.
Instead of waiting for the elevator, I find the stairs and blur my way up them to his floor, pausing at the stairwell door to make sure the hall’s clear before I blur to his apartment.
I’m about to knock when I smell something different.
Something wrong.
My boy’s blood.
Before I can stop myself, my fist clenches and I pound on the door. It’d be too easy to rip it from the frame, but I don’t want to draw even more attention to this situation. “Baker. Open this door. Now.”
I hear him cry out, but it’s suddenly muffled, like someone covered his mouth. I’m about to go ahead and rip the door out of its frame when it opens and a large man stands there. “John Cameron isn’t available right now. You can leave.” I can’t see past him but I scent at least three men in the apartment besides my boy, including this one.
I put the full force of my thrall into it. “Let. Me. In. Right now.”
The man’s eyes go wide. “Come in.”
But I still can’t step through the doorway.
Fucking duh. Baker has to be the one to invite me, because it’s his apartment.
I just failed Vampiring 101.
“Move,” I order.
He steps aside and I see two other men with their hands on my boy, who looks like he’s been beaten up. One of the guys is holding a hand over Baker’s mouth. Our gazes lock, and the pain and terror in my boy’s green eyes nearly drives me insane.
Then he bites the hand covering his mouth. As that guy yelps in pain and punches him, Baker screams, “Ty! Come in!”
I blur through the doorway, snagging the throat of the large man who opened the door and launching him across the room, where he crumples against the far wall and collapses. The other two men’s eyes widen and they both release Baker and start backing away from me.
I grab them by the throats and slam them together, knocking them out and letting them crumple to the floor.
Before Baker can even hit the floor, I’ve scooped him up in my arms. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost him. I went from being alone a few days ago, to now this little human being the most important thing in my entire life.
The most important thing ever in my very long existence.
“Baby, are you all right?” I set him on the counter so I can examine him, fussing over him while he futilely tries to bat my hands away.
“I’m fine, Ty,” he grumbles.
“No, you’re not. You’re bleeding.” And while normally the scent of his blood would completely inflame me in sexy ways, right now, it makes me sick at heart.
Especially since I can also tell he’s in pain. And his beautiful face is bruised.
I wrap my fingers around his wrists and gently hold him still as I look into his eyes. “Stop,” I order. “I need to check you for injuries.” I don’t use my thrall, either.
He blushes but finally complies and lets me examine him. He’s not used to me fussing over him but he will soon grow used to it.
He won’t have a choice, because I plan on spoiling my little human as much as possible.
No one has ever drawn this kind of reaction from me in the past, and I have lived an extremely long life and literally cannot count how many partners I’ve had.
This leads me to another revelation—I’ve also lived a very lonely life. I despise having to admit that. Yet before Baker’s arrival, I was truly isolated and didn’t realize how much so.
No amount of disingenuous mental contortions will change that fact, either, or erase these revelations from my soul.
I need this man in my life in a way I’ve never needed anything before.
Ever.
I cup his face in my hands and kiss him. It’s the kind of kiss where I wish to breathe my very soul into his body so he can see and feel the depths of my love for him. I need this sweet, precious, fragile creature to understand how much he means to me.
Not only am I vulnerable now because of him and my love for him, I know it would rend my sanity from my body if I were to lose him.
I have never truly loved in my very long life, that much is obvious. Nothing has ever felt like this before.
That I came so perilously close to