out," he said, his voice softening to a dark, pleasant rasp that feathered down her spine. "I didn't mean to frighten you. It's just…"
Against her will, her eyes lifted to clash with his silver gaze. "Just what?"
"I want you to know me for who and what I am, not as some sugar-and-spice image of what you wish I could be."
"I saw you fight that demon, Dante. I know what you are."
Surprisingly he grimaced in the dusky shadows. "No, you don't, but you will before all this is said and done. And that's what I fear."
Suddenly Abby understood. This was about more than just her uncertain opinion of vampires. It was about faith. Trust. In him.
"We both know I would already be dead if you were a human. I'd be a hypocrite to wish you to be anything but what you are," she admitted, a reluctant smile touching her lips. "Besides, my record with men of the human species doesn't precisely make me anxious to be saddled with one for an eternity."
His features thankfully softened at her rueful confession. "No knights in shining armor?"
"Knights? More like mooks."
"Mooks?"
"Well, my last boyfriend dumped me for our mailman, and I do mean mailman, and the one before him stuck around just long enough to steal my ATM code so he could clear out my savings account."
"Worthless vermin." He narrowed Ms gaze.
"Unbelievably they were an improvement to my first boyfriend, who thought the best way to end an argument was with his fists."
There was a stark silence as he studied her face. "He hit you?"
"Only once. I at least learn from my stupidity."
"Do you want me to kill him?"
Abby blinked, not at all certain he was teasing. "Ah… well… a tempting offer, of course, but I suppose I should pass."
He shrugged. "It's an open-ended offer if you change your mind."
"Actually, I prefer to simply forget they ever existed," she assured him.
"A solution of sorts." His gaze swept down to the fullness of her lips before lifting. "But do you think it wise?"
Abby frowned. Surely to God she was not about to receive dating advice from a half-naked vampire who just happened to be perched on top of her?
A deliriously sexy half-naked vampire.
"I would say it's at least wiser than having them eaten," she forced herself to mutter.
"I only wonder if you truly have learned from your mistakes," he said.
"I've learned that I have rotten judgment when it comes to men."
"Or you seek out those who are destined to disappoint you so that you needn't worry about an emotional attachment."
"Oh God, please don't turn Dr. Phil on me," she grumped, not at all in the mood to consider he might be right. "The last thing I need is to be psychoanalyzed by a vampire."
He arched a raven brow. "It is the fact that I am a vampire that gives me some insight. You don't live among humans for four centuries without learning something of their peculiar habits."
"Well, you don't know anything about me."
"No?" His lips curled in a faint smile. "I know that you hate onions and tuna fish, that you consume your weight in chocolate every day without ever gaining a pound, and that you need a recipe to boil water. I know that you pretend to enjoy classical music but change the radio station to punk rock when you think no one is around. I also know that you hide yourself from the world and that you're lonely. You have always been lonely."
Abby dutifully tried to breathe. Unfortunately her lungs refused to cooperate.
Damn him. It was one thing for her to have spent the past three months watching him with covert fascination. After all, she had discovered nothing more intimate than the fact that he was shamefully gorgeous and possessed a haunting skill upon the piano. To think that he had seen so easily through her carefully erected barriers was more than a little unnerving.
"Fine," she muttered. "I have intimacy issues. Yadda, yadda. Now, can we get up?"
His smile only widened. 'There is no hurry. The sun is just now setting."
"Well, you could use a bit of sun," she informed him dryly. 'You are very pale."
'You would see me a pile of ashes, eh?" The silver eyes smoldered with a sudden fire. "And how would I protect you if—"
Mesmerized by his dark honey voice and the promise that softened his features, Abby very nearly missed the shadow that slowly rose up behind the raven head. But when it shifted and neared, her eyes widened