before stepping closer, face tortured. “You’re sure you’re not hurt?”
He can’t stay away from me. The omission made her want to be truthful. “I think I might have strained my Achilles running from the police.”
Jonas’s right eye ticked. Twice. “Christ.”
The next thing Ginny knew, she was being settled onto the edge of the bed with Jonas kneeling in front of her. He started to roll up her pant leg, but paused, his gaze ticking to hers. “No blood anywhere?”
“No.” She rolled her lips inward. “Wouldn’t you…smell it?”
Briefly, his grip tightened on her calf. “I smell your blood at all times, but seeing it…”
Ginny’s mouth went dry at the way Jonas stared up at her, as if it took all his inner strength to keep from pressing her backward onto the bed. Oh my.
“Farewell, lovebirds. I hereby resign my post,” Roksana announced dramatically from her position at the window. “I apologize for failing you tonight, Ginny. You could have been a pancake and all because some parasite got the drop on me.”
“Roksana, no.” Ginny reached a hand in her friend’s direction. “If this vampire is as powerful as you say, what could you have done to—”
“Let her go,” Jonas cut in, never taking his attention off of Ginny. “Roksana is right. She didn’t do her job.”
“I will take some time to train and once again become unstoppable.” Roksana turned and gave them a final, anguished look. “Dasvidaniya.”
With that, the slayer’s blonde head ducked out of view, leaving Ginny and Jonas alone in the bedroom. Shaken at the sudden loss of her friend after everything she’d already been through that night, Ginny smacked Jonas’s hand off her leg. “Why didn’t you make her stay?”
“Tonight you could have…” He broke off, nostrils flaring. “Hell, two weeks ago, you could have been gone and I never would have met you.”
“That wouldn’t have been her fault, either.”
His hand landed back on her knee and smoothed down, around to the swell of her calf, massaging there. “I’m quite aware I’m not being rational about anything concerning you, Ginny.”
Lord, it was hard to argue when he was touching her. She never had this manner of skin to skin contact with a man and could only liken it to being hugged in a towel fresh from the dryer. Or sinking into a hot bath. The cool temperature of his skin did nothing to stop the goosebumps from rising on her arms or the tiny wrench to twist beneath her belly button.
Fight the distraction. She had to. Jonas knew there was a vampire purposefully putting her in dangerous situations and she had no information left to withhold. This could be the last time she looked into his eyes and knew him.
But then, his thumb found her Achilles, pressing and sweeping along the sore tendon—and Ginny moaned.
Jonas’s open mouth dragged up her bare thigh, searing her skin, stopping just short of her dress’s hem. “This is madness. How do you pull me under like this?”
“You do the same to me,” she managed, breathily, sliding her fingers into his hair. “Don’t make this go away. Please.”
His hand tightened on her leg. “The longer I let you keep your memories of me, Ginny, the harder it will be once they’re gone.” He pressed his face to her stomach, using his grip on her calf to tug her closer. Until she could feel the outline of his features against her belly. “You’ll lose days, weeks, as opposed to hours.”
“And once I’ve forgotten you exist, you’ll stay away, just like that?”
Jonas’s shoulders tensed, his fingers on her skin. “We’ll have to wait a little longer to find out,” he said hoarsely. “Knowing it’s a vampire trying to bring you harm, and not some easily overcome human, changes everything. I need you alert and I need you to trust me implicitly. Without Roksana to watch you during the day, I have to bring you somewhere without sunlight. To protect you until this is over.”
Oxygen trapped itself in her lungs. “Meaning?”
Jonas leaned away, the green sparks shooting off in his eyes telling Ginny how much their closeness was affecting him.
“Pack,” he said, doom lacing his tone. “You’re coming with me.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
“I’m sorry, what did you say?”
“You’re coming with me.” Jonas gave Ginny’s legs one last, longing look and stood. “I can’t and won’t leave you here alone while your safety is in jeopardy—and I can’t stay.”
“There are no windows in the basement. You could stay there.”
“With the other corpses, you mean?” he drawled. “I suppose I