Reborn Yesterday - Tessa Bailey Page 0,40

grip was tight to the point of almost snapping the desk. Her fight or flight instinct revved like an engine, but her common sense told her it would be pointless to run when Jonas could break the sound barrier.

And perhaps stupidly, she still firmly believed he would put a stake through his own heart before harming her.

How could she believe that so insistently?

“I’m sorry,” he said hoarsely, self-disgust rolling over his features. “I thought this animal part of me was long dead, but it’s not, Ginny. Every time I think I’m getting a handle on my need to…”

“To what?”

“Possess you,” he growled, dropping his open mouth to her neck, his hands sliding beneath her knees and tugging her closer. “Every time I have it handled, I’m proven painfully wrong. I’d almost fooled myself into believing I was nearly human. Then I meet you, I smell you, and I’m reminded I’m a beast. The man knows he can’t and shouldn’t have you, but the animal refuses to share.”

Oh wow. “It’s not sharing if you haven’t…partaken yet,” she whispered, barely able to keep her neck from losing power in the presence of such honest sensuality. Bite me, she wanted to say. How bad could it be if it would bring him such pleasure?

Without warning, Jonas yanked her to the barest edge of the desk, settling her inner thighs on his hips. “Partaken,” he repeated, inhaling against her neck. “Do you have any idea what that means?”

The thick ridge pressing between her legs gave her some idea. But that’s all it was. An idea. She’d never been with a man and knew only the mechanics of what happened in bed. Being with a vampire? She knew nothing of that.

Was it even physically safe, considering he was so much stronger?

How much would drinking factor in?

Why did she get an almost giddy feeling when she thought of him using his fangs on her? Sustaining himself with the lifeblood than ran in her veins?

“Your excitement is making it very hard to get control of myself.”

“Uhm, yes,” she breathed. “I’m actually a little worried that what everyone believes about me is true.”

Jonas lifted his head and pinned her with concern. “And what does everyone believe about you?”

“That I’m too comfortable with death and blood and ooky things.”

He made an amused sound. “Am I an ooky thing?”

“No,” she murmured, unable to lie while looking into his eyes. “You’re a beautiful thing. When you’re not damaging my property.”

His fangs sliced back in, followed by a rueful pause. “How can I want to devour you one moment and rock you in my arms the next?” Briefly, he looked down. “I shouldn’t ask you this, but I’m starting to sense I’m already up shit’s creek without a paddle.” A beat passed. “You’re worried because the idea of me having you—all of you—body and blood…it excites you?”

“Yes.”

Jonas’s nostrils flared and it took him long moments to speak again. “Every single thing about you is perfect and natural and right. Don’t ever question that.”

“You’re a flatterer, in addition to being a property destroyer.”

Jonas pinched a lock of her hair between his fingers and studied it. “Finish with Kristof while I repair the damage.” Unease seemed to settle over him. “We have another stop before the sun comes up.”

CHAPTER TEN

Tucker picked them up outside the back entrance of P. Lynn, both vampires flanking her and scanning the moonlit rooftops as they hustled her into the back seat. She was already nervous just knowing some otherworldly being wanted her dead, but Tucker and Jonas’s overprotective nature really brought it home.

Someone wants me dead.

They could accomplish it and she might never know the reason.

Sure, they couldn’t kill her outright, but the best case scenario was being dropped into a perilous location and being required to use her wits to survive—and that wasn’t a best case anything. It was terrifying.

Jonas must have sensed she’d been spooked, because he pulled her into his side and rocked her gently, his mouth ghosting over her hair. They rode in silence for a moment, before Jonas sighed and took the blindfold out of his pocket, tying it across her eyes.

“For your protection,” he murmured near her ear.

Ginny didn’t answer.

To be honest, she believed him this time. There was an unusual tension in among Jonas and Tucker, an almost predatory stillness, as if they were preparing for an upcoming battle. A battle on her behalf.

What if something happened to them while protecting her?

The car stopped, interrupting her worry and tensing her muscles.