was in vain. If she continued touching him like she did, he would have her naked underneath him in a short while. But was she ready for this? For him?
Or would she curse him when she came to her senses? Because he wasn’t any better than the vampires who’d taken her blood and . . . Oh God, he couldn’t even finish the thought of how else they had used her body. How could he, Oliver, dare to do the same?
Before he could answer the question for himself, he felt hands on his shoulders, ripping him away from Ursula. He stumbled backwards, crashing against the banister before he caught himself.
“What the—?”
His last word was shoved back into his throat by Blake’s fist landing in his face.
But Oliver had already recovered and caught the fist flying toward him once more. With a practiced blow, he catapulted his interfering half-brother against the wall, then pinned him there.
“I didn’t bite her, you idiot!” He tossed a sideways glance at Ursula, whose eyes had widened.
She shrunk back from him now, her hands nervously smoothing over her T-shirt. Her lips were swollen, her neck red from where he’d kissed her. Only now Oliver noticed that the overhead light in the corridor was on. Blake must have switched it on, and in his addled state, Oliver hadn’t even noticed. His vampire senses had deserted him while kissing Ursula.
Blake followed his look, his eyes traveling over Ursula’s body. “Then what . . . ” He stopped himself. “Oh! Jesus, Oliver! You’re still a jerk! After all she’s been through?”
Sobering, Oliver let go of him. Blake was right, but he would never admit it to him. He sought eye contact with Ursula, but she avoided his gaze.
“I’m sorry, Ursula. I don’t know what got into me.” It was a lie. Yes, he was sorry, but he knew what had gotten into him: Ursula. She’d gotten under his skin. She’d awakened desires in him that he hadn’t paid much attention to in his short life as a vampire. Was that why they were overwhelming him now, because he’d not stilled those desires in a while?
Ursula didn’t answer.
Christ, he felt like an ass. He’d seduced her, and by the looks of it now, she regretted having let herself go. And what added to her obvious embarrassment was that Blake had caught them in the act.
He glared back at his half-brother. “What do you want up here anyway? Weren’t you supposed to guard the doors?”
“Cain’s calling. He has some information for you,” Blake answered.
“Is he still on the phone?”
“He’s waiting on Scanguards’ internal system for you.”
“Excuse me.” With an apologetic glance at Ursula Oliver turned and went downstairs, leaving Blake with her.
At least he could be sure of one thing: Ursula wouldn’t allow Blake to touch her now, not after what had just happened. And Blake was smart enough not to try anything, if only not to be thrown into the same pot as Oliver.
Oliver marched into the study and dropped into the chair behind the desk. The screen showed Cain, also sitting at a desk. They were connected via Scanguards’ secure communication system, a video conferencing program similar to Skype. However, it was encrypted and, thanks to Thomas’s programming skills, hacker-proof.
“There you are.”
“What’s up? What did you find?”
Cain looked serious. “Quite a bit, but I’m not sure you’ll like it.”
Oliver squeezed shut his eyes for a moment. He was in so deep already, he could only hope that the news wasn’t all bad. If Ursula was lying to them and turned out to be a plant by a rival vampire group, he wasn’t sure how he’d extricate himself from the situation he was in. He wanted Ursula, and with every kiss his need grew stronger.
“Go on, don’t make me pull it out of your nose.”
Cain nodded. “I’ve found newspaper articles about her disappearance, and Thomas was able to get me the corresponding police reports. The photo is definitely her. Her name is Ursula Wei Ling Tseng. Daughter of a Chinese diplomat stationed at the Chinese embassy in Washington DC. An only child. She went to NYU before she disappeared.”
Oliver relaxed, dropping his shoulders to release the tension in his neck. “So far it checks out then. So, what am I not gonna like?”
Cain grimaced. “She told us she was abducted.” He shook his head. “More like she ran away.”
A gasp from the door made Oliver look away from the screen.