blinked. I replayed what I had just said before snorting as his eyebrows shot to his hairline. “That came out really wrong.”
Why was I an idiot around him? I was usually cold and in control. Instead, I’d made out with Rhys, and got my first orgasm in an entire year from the one creature my mother expressively had forbidden I encounter. It was as if his eyes met mine, and all coherent thought stopped, then my body took over.
“Indeed, Silversmith.” His free hand rubbed the back of his neck as we started moving up the staircase again.
“How many brothers do you have?” I asked, trying to save face from inserting my foot into my mouth.
“How many siblings do you have?” he countered, turning to look over his shoulder at me with a knowing smile.
“Touché,” I muttered. “How often do you have to move?”
“Let’s stick with impersonal questions. Preferably ones that don’t give away our secrets, shall we?”
“How do you feed?” I asked, shrugging.
“I feed from sex, Remi. Are you offering to feed me? You’d be delicious.”
“No, I would not,” I rushed out the words, shaking my head as a smile curved his mouth. “You ask something. I’m all out of ideas.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-one,” I replied, knowing he’d already asked me this.
“How many men have you fucked, Remi?”
I swallowed, biting my lip while I decided if I should answer him or not. I hated awkward silence, and the moaning within the hallway was making the walk to his room strange enough. “Three, but one pretty much never got it in before he’d made a mess all over my dress. So I normally don’t count him.”
“Indeed, poor child,” he laughed soundlessly.
“He was twenty-six and not a child,” I ground out with irritation.
“Are you defending him?” he asked, and my gaze zeroed in on the way his shoulders shook.
“Not at all,” I argued before snorting. “I was just pointing out he wasn’t a child, which should have indicated a better adventure into womanhood. The second one was okay, but he wasn’t anything to write home about, either. The third, well, he had some kinks that were a little too strange for me, so we parted ways after the first time together.”
“How many times have you had sex?”
“Twice,” I answered, turning toward the screaming that erupted behind us, but Rhys grabbed me, pulling me forward before I could see the couple going at it hard at the end of the hallway.
“You don’t want to see them feeding each other, trust me. Did you say twice?”
“Need me to write it down for you? I don’t make it a habit of screwing random people. I work long hours in the armory at E.V.I.E., which leaves little time for me to have much of a personal life, which suits me fine. I’m immortal, so there will be plenty of time to do that stuff.”
“You do realize you’re mortal until you become immortal, right? And that most potential immortals never make it to the age to become immortalized.”
“What?” I asked, pulling on his arm to stop him.
“Did Eliza teach you nothing?” he countered. When I blinked at him, he peered over my shoulder, tugging me with him down the hall. He moved to a door, opening it before pulling me through. “Did she leave you to die?”
“My mother? No. I ran away at seventeen, and this is my first time home since leaving. She refused to move again because I’d left home and was unprotected. In her words, I was too damn stubborn to not run headfirst into a Van Helsing, and trip, getting pinned on his dick without even knowing it,” I said, narrowing my eyes on him as he smirked. “I came looking for you to know my enemy and figure out who to avoid.”
“How did that work out for you?”
“Not so well. But this particular Van Helsing doesn’t seem so bad yet. Plus, he doesn’t seem to want me dead. If that changes, I’ll cross that bridge when we get there.” I dismissed him as much as I could while holding his hand. Normally when the curse struck, I was in bed, which was on the floor because every frame we’d tried had snapped or given out beneath the curse.
“Strip,” he ordered, and I turned, glaring at him. “Do you plan on sleeping in your clothes, then? Might make bathing an issue as well,” he said, shrugging broad shoulders as his lips tugged into a frown, studying the horror marring my face.