Sucker Punch (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #27) - Laurell K. Hamilton Page 0,112

threatening other women. You know that doing shit like that is not the way to my heart.”

He frowned up at me now. “So now I cannot even tease and taunt other women? I have given up doing other things with them, because I know you will not approve. You have no idea what it has cost me to give up certain . . . things.”

I took in a deeper breath and let it out even slower. “I have some idea, and I really appreciate that you’re trying to behave yourself.”

He stood up then, and he was angry. I had no idea why he was angry, but it made the heat in the room rise as if he’d turned up the thermostat. His beast’s energy prickled along my skin. Jesus, he was powerful. My lioness stirred inside me, flashing golden eyes at me. If we could tame him, she liked him, but she finally understood that I thought he was a cub killer, and that wasn’t okay with her either.

“I am not a child, Anita, to behave myself!”

“I didn’t mean it that way.”

“Yes, you did. All your men are pussy-whipped, but I will not be unmanned, not even by you.”

Olaf took a stiff step toward me, his big hands in fists at his sides. I wanted to take a step back. The room wasn’t that big, but he was so angry. It made me sniff the air as if rage had a scent, and in a way, it did for me now. His beast was warm, but his anger was hotter. A heat that would feel so good to drink down. My stomach almost cramped with the nearness of such a bounty. All I had to do was touch his skin with mine, and I could feed on all that rage.

I hugged myself, not trusting that I wouldn’t do just that if he crossed the distance between us, because if anything would push me from would-be girlfriend to victim in his mind, it would be turning him into my gazelle.

I decided to try for truth between us. “You’re not the only one that’s trying not to make one of us into their victim, Olaf.” We were alone, so I could use his other name.

He took another slow step. I should have been afraid, but I knew he wouldn’t kill me just like that. He wanted too many things from me that a quick death wouldn’t satisfy. “I have tried so hard with you, Anita. Harder than with anyone else.”

“I know, and I’m trying to give you the same courtesy.”

“What does that mean?” he asked, and there was a growl in his voice now.

My lioness was crouched inside me, ready to spring, but would that hurt me more than him? “It means I can feed on things besides sex, and I’m trying very hard not to feed on you.”

“I know you are trying not to have sex with me.”

Great. It was like he’d edited what I’d said and heard only the sex part. I should have known he would. “That’s not what I said, Olaf.”

“It is the truth.”

“Yeah, because you can’t guarantee that you would be satisfied with plain sex. Aren’t we both worried that if we have sex, you’ll want to push it to that next serial killer level?”

“I told you, Anita, there are things I want to do with you that require you alive and whole. I do not want just one night with you, but many, and for that, I have to find a different path with you.”

The anger was beginning to fade a little. It helped that aching need inside me to let go of me. I’d eaten physical food recently. I’d fed the ardeur before I left home. I shouldn’t have been having this much trouble with it yet. I was usually good for twenty-four hours at a time now with no ill effects. So why was his anger so tempting?

“And I’m trying to let you do that, but I feed off anger, too. Olaf, do you understand what that means for you and me?”

He frowned at me. “What do you mean, you feed on anger?”

“I mean I can feed on the emotion.”

He frowned harder. “I don’t understand.”

“Have you ever fought a vampire that fed on fear?”

He nodded.

“Like that, but instead of fear, I feed on rage.”

“So, when I became enraged just now, it tempted you?”

“Yes.”

“But you do not want to feed on me.”

“No, not like that.”

“How long have you been able to do this feeding on