me for starting Armageddon."
"Well, if you live long enough you just might be the cause of it," he snapped.
"Oh!" She turned back to slam some more clothes into her bag. "You're so charming. It's a wonder you weren't able to woo me into doing what you wanted."
"I never asked you to 'do what I wanted.' " Etienne ran a hand through his hair with frustration. "And this is exactly why. I didn't want to ruin what was happening between us."
That caught her attention, and Rachel stopped packing. She even turned to stare at him. "What?"
"I like you, Rachel. And I want you. Constantly," he added dryly. "I wasn't sleeping with you to get you to do what I wanted about Pudge. In fact, our... relationship is the reason I didn't push the Pudge issue. My family kept urging me to. Bastien even did it in front of you the day we were locked out in the garden, but I couldn't do it. I didn't want to. I kept putting it off. Unfortunately, I put it off long enough that Uncle Lucian caught wind of it, and now it is a serious issue."
Rachel shifted on her feet, her mind in an uproar. She distinctly recalled Bastien's asking Etienne if he'd talked to her about... He'd never finished the statement; Etienne had interrupted, assuring the man that he would. But he hadn't. Not that day or the ones that followed. Perhaps he was telling the truth. She wanted with all her heart to believe he cared about her, but her mind was in such turmoil she didn't know what to think. She needed time away from him. His nearness had the unfortunate side effect of confusing her.
Etienne added to her confusion by pressing a gentle kiss to her lips. "I don't think I'll ever be able to resist you, Rachel. You stir my blood like no other woman has managed to do in three hundred years. You make me hunger. You're beautiful."
He drew her into his arms, and Rachel was helpless to resist. She would think in the morning, she promised herself as she kissed him back. Everything would be clearer in the morning.
Etienne was a beautiful man. Rachel had known that from the beginning, but lying there watching him sleep by the light spilling out of the bathroom, she took the time to look him over minutely.
Etienne had made love to her through most of the rest of the night. Rachel had fainted as usual, but with her thoughts troubled as they were, she hadn't slept long. She had never been able to sleep at such times. It was now ten in the morning and she was wide awake, her thoughts awhirl as she stared at her lover.
He claimed to like her and to be truly attracted to her. Rachel had no problem believing the former--she thought of herself as a likable sort. But attracted to her? Did he really find her beautiful and desirable? She sighed and rolled onto her back to stare at the shadows spilling across the ceiling. Rachel could look in the mirror and see that she looked better than ever thanks to the turning, but she didn't really feel attractive inside.
She'd been the tall girl during her school years, the gawky carrot top more prone to being teased than flattered and asked out on dates. Her fiancé Steven had been her first real boyfriend, and that hadn't been until University. With him, she'd finally felt pretty and wanted... until she'd caught him in bed with her roommate.
She hadn't had much success with dating since. Some of that could no doubt be blamed on the hours she worked, but not all of it. No, Rachel wasn't confident in her attractiveness. The last few weeks had been like some sort of dream come true, having a handsome, sexy man like Etienne paying attention to her. But dreams were hard to believe in, and it was far too easy to believe he had been wooing her to get what he wanted.
Etienne sighed and shifted in his sleep, drawing her attention. Her gaze drifted over his naked body, pausing at the sheet twisted around his waist. The man was a distraction even now. She needed time away. Heck, maybe she needed therapy.
Grimacing at the thought of how that would go, Rachel eased out of bed and began to gather her clothes. She'd go walk through his garden or something. It would mean consuming more blood later, but she could do