face as puzzled and yet rapt as if she were a particularly fascinating specimen of talking parrot or trained monkey. “Do you always say everything that comes into your mind?”
Irritation scratched at her. “No, I do not. I do not say, for example, I’m sorry, Mr. Smith, but this cancer is inoperable, which makes us pretty damn worthless to you, or We really can’t help you, Mrs. Jones, because your child is very ill, and we can’t figure out why, or even I must be ridiculous to be alone in a room with a man who either believes he’s a vampire, in which case he’s crazy, or really is a vampire, in which case I’m crazy. So no, Bane, which can’t possibly be your real name, I don’t blurt out everything that comes into my mind, and you really can’t read every emotion on my face. Maybe now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, you can show me to your bathroom, which hopefully has a door that locks?”
He blinked, and then he started laughing.
Damn the man, even his laugh was beautiful.
“Do you really imagine that a lock would keep me out?” His voice was mild, but his eyes still sparkled with amusement.
“You don’t actually think you’re coming into the bathroom with me, I hope?”
“Hope. Ah. The last resort of disappointed humans.” He stalked her across the room, a predator cornering his prey.
Too bad for him that she was definitely not prey.
“Then let me put it this way. You should stay out of the bathroom while I take a shower. If you can’t promise that, then I’m out of here.”
His eyes gleamed a hot blue that seared through her all the way to her toes.
“There is no should to a vampire, Dr. St. Cloud,” he said, reaching out to touch her hair.
She yanked her head away. “Ask.”
He froze, his silken brows drawing together. “Ask what?”
“If you want to touch my hair, ask me,” she told him, hating that her voice sounded far more breathless than demanding, but still proud of herself for forcing out the words.
“Ah.” He took a step back. “You demand consent?”
“Yes. I demand consent.”
In a fraction of a second, he put his hands on her waist and lifted her into the air, pushing her back against the wall, until only Meara’s towels and not even a breath of air was trapped between them.
“I am a vampire. I don’t give a damn about your consent,” he rasped.
Something heavy, with sharp, jagged edges, sank from her heart to her stomach, but she glared defiance at him. “Then you will never, ever have it.”
He tilted his head to one side. “Do you know that your skin glows when your emotions are heightened? I wonder why that is.”
“I what?”
He leaned even closer and whispered into her ear. “I want you, little human, and I always, always get what I want. Do you think to tame me with your refusal? I am not human. The Turn stripped me of any gentle emotions that you might expect or prize. And you forget—I can hear your heartbeat. I can see your skin glow. I know that you want me, too.”
“Put me down. Now,” she gritted out. “Enough about this glowing skin lie. And you might want to remember that anger and fear make the heart beat faster, just as much as arousal, not to mention several varying degrees of cardiovascular disease. And yes, in case you’re wondering, I just compared my feelings about you to my feelings about atherosclerosis.”
Instead of putting her down, though, he threw her over his shoulder, opened another door, marched through an enormous bedroom that she was too furious and too upside-down to really see much of beyond deep, rich colors of midnight blue and burgundy. Then he shoved open the door to an equally large, though blindingly white, bathroom and, finally, put her on her feet.
“Here you are. You wanted to get clean. Strip. Now,” he demanded, his voice hard and dark with anger or lust.
Or both.
Fine. Fury and a spectacularly misplaced wave of arousal were surging through her body, making her skin feel hot and tight. But not glowy. She glanced down at her arms, just in case.
No. Not glowing at all. Whatever the hell that was about. She bared her teeth at him. “Not this time, Vampire. Just go ahead and kill me. I’d rather die than get naked with you.”
He took a step back, the fire in his eyes banking and then hardening to blue