Adrianna smiled at him as he sat down beside her. "Cozy," she remarked.
Navarre nodded. There was something primitive about the sound of the rain combined with the heat of the flames. He could smell the wood and the fire and the storm.
And the woman.
Hunger rose within him. A hunger that had nothing to do with food, and everything to do with Adrianna.
He stared into the flames, feeling the hunger swell within him, feeling his desire flare to life, as hot as the fire blazing in the hearth.
The sound of the doorbell came as a relief.
Adrianna jumped off the sofa to pay for the pizza.
Minutes later, she had dished up the pizza and poured two glasses of wine.
"To us," she said, lifting her glass in a toast.
"To us," he repeated.
Adrianna sipped her wine. It was warm and smooth, but not nearly as intoxicating as Navarre's gaze. His dark gray eyes seemed to glow as though lit from within, the heat reaching out to caress her skin. She blinked, startled by the force of his gaze, by the unshakable impression that hehad touched her, that his hand had stroked her cheek even though she hadn't seen him move.
Navarre held her gaze a moment more, and then looked away, breaking the bond between them. How easily she succumbed to the force of the dark power he possessed! How easy it would be to steal into her heart and mind, to make her long for his touch. She had no weapons with which to fight him, no knowledge of the monster who shared her table.
The knowledge that he should not be there struck him with the force of a blow. She was a young, vibrant woman with her whole life ahead of her. He was not of her world, and he had no right to make himself a part of her life, no guarantee that he could be with her and not destroy her.
Adrianna placed two slices of pizza on his plate. The smell of sausage and pepperoni sickened him.
"Dig in," Adrianna said, smiling at him. "Tony's makes the best pizza in town."
He stared at his plate a moment. It would be so easy to bend her mind to his, to plant the illusion that he was eating in her mind while he disposed of the nauseating mess on his plate, but he couldn't bring himself to play games with her mind, couldn't bring himself to exert his power over her. If he was going to dwell in her world, then he would play by her rules.
Lifting a slice of pizza, he took a bite. It was the first solid food he had consumed in almost two thousand years, and it took all his formidable self-control to chew and swallow.
"How do you like it?" Adrianna asked.
"It's the best pizza I've ever had," Navarre replied, thinking it was the first, and last, he would ever eat.
They spoke of inconsequential things as they ate. He was relieved when the meal was over. He waited until Adrianna carried the dishes into the kitchen, and then he went into the bathroom, shut the door, and retched.
When he returned to the front room, Adrianna was sitting on the sofa watching the local news.
"It's awful, isn't it?" she said, gesturing at the television screen. "They found a lady huddling in an alley near one of the beach shacks last night. She'd lost a lot of blood, and she kept babbling about a monster who had bitten her neck, just like Dracula."
Navarre went suddenly still as he stared at the screen. He had never taken blood from anyone who lived in Moreno Bay. Always, he went to a neighboring town, choosing his victims with care, making certain that he erased all memory of his presence from their minds.
"Navarre? Are you okay?"
"Yes, fine."
He slipped his arm around Adrianna's shoulders and drew her close. Was it just a bizarre coincidence, or was there another vampire in Moreno Bay?
Adrianna snuggled against him, then lifted her face to his.
"Aren't you..." She bit down on her lower lip to keep from asking him to kiss her.
"What is it?"
She stared up at him, mute, the wanting evident in the depths of her clear blue eyes.
"Annie." He pressed her head to his chest and held her tightly, a sudden nameless fear knifing through him.
He felt her hand caress his cheek, then slide down his neck to rest on his chest. "Don't make me beg, Navarre," she whispered.