Blake's Pursuit (Scanguards Vampires, #11)(60)

He knew he shouldn’t tell her this, but he was done hiding things from her. If he had any chance of winning her for good, he had to be honest about every aspect of himself. Winning her for good? The thought suddenly struck him. Did he truly want her in his life? When had he made that decision?

When she didn’t respond, he slid his hand under her chin and looked deep into her eyes. “I would never force you. I want you to know that. But you should know that every time we make love, my desire to drink your blood will grow.”

Understanding shone back in her eyes. “Is that why you think that Hannah let Ronny bite her?”

He stroked his hand over her head and drew her against his chest. “You said they’d been dating for at least six months. No vampire, no matter how civilized and tame, will stay with a woman for that length of time without biting her. With or without her permission. Though I doubt Hannah would have denied him. She knew what a vampire’s bite entailed, before she ever met Ronny.”

“Knew, how?”

“Because I bit her.”

Lilo shot up to a sitting position. “What?” Her eyes were wide with shock. “You and Hannah? You were lovers?”

At her appalled look, he couldn’t help but laugh out loud. “Hannah and I?” He sat up and pulled Lilo to him, but she pushed him back. “Hannah and I were never lovers. We were never attracted to each other. Not for a single second.”

She frowned, obviously not believing him. “Then why?”

“You wouldn’t by any chance be jealous?”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” she shot back.

But he knew he’d hit a nerve, and that fact made his heart beat out of control. Lilo had a fierce streak of possessiveness in her that he hadn’t expected. But he had no time to revel in it, because first he needed to calm her down and assure her that the bite had had nothing to do with sex.

“Hannah offered me her blood to save my life.”



~



Still skeptical, she searched his eyes. Was he telling the truth? And why should it matter that Blake had bitten her best friend? It was none of her business.

Oh please, just admit that you can’t stand the fact that he bit Hannah, but not you, the voice in her head said.

“I had an accident.” Blake’s words pierced her thoughts.

Slowly she nodded. “What happened?”

He reached for her then and pulled her onto his lap, so she was straddling him, before she could protest. Well, maybe she hadn’t wanted to protest because she liked the fact that he sought a physical connection to her.

Blake caressed her back gently. “Baby, there was never anything between me and Hannah, though she did save my life, just like you saved mine last night. And while I was very grateful to Hannah, I never touched her the way I can’t stop touching you.” He brushed his lips over hers in a feather-light kiss.

Then he leaned back against the headboard.

“I was in pursuit of a suspect one night close to sunrise. The road was wet, and I was driving too fast. There was no time to call for backup. I knew I had to catch him before he was gone for good. It was a winding road in a wooded area. I lost him behind a bend in the road. Or so I’d thought, until I realized he’d managed to pull onto a dirt path to hide. When I saw the headlights in my rearview mirror, I knew he’d outsmarted me.”

Her heart beating rapidly, she asked, “What did he do?”

“He shot at me. The rear window shattered, but my seat and backrest were steel-plated. He couldn’t know that. But he realized very quickly that he couldn’t eliminate me by staying behind me, so he pulled to my side. His truck was bigger and heavier than my BMW. He rammed me. I did everything I could to keep control of the car, but behind the next bend there were road works. The truck managed to get past it. But my car flipped over and rolled down the hill, overturning several times.”

She gasped. “Oh my God!”

“I would have been okay even during daylight while I waited for help, because the windows in my car had a special UV-impenetrable coating. Something Thomas, one of our geniuses, invented. But the rear window was shattered. And at the angle the car landed, the rising sun would have fried me. I was at nature’s mercy.”

Blake ran a hand through his hair, then placed it back on her back, and continued to stroke her.

“Why didn’t you get out of the car and take shelter somewhere?”

“I couldn’t move my legs. The front of the car had been crushed and the engine was practically sitting on my lap. I was bleeding. I tried to get free, but I wasn’t strong enough. My injuries were draining me of my strength, and while I ordinarily would have been able to push the collapsed engine parts off me and wedge free, in my injured state, I was powerless.”

She felt tears brim in her eyes.

“Had Hannah not been out walking her dog, I wouldn’t be here today. Frankenfurter found my car and alerted Hannah. When she found me, she tried to call 9-1-1, but she couldn’t get reception. My phone had the same problem. We couldn’t call anybody, and the sun was about to rise. I had no choice but to tell her the truth. I was as good as dead anyway.”

“Don’t say that!”

“It’s the truth. I had no way of knowing how Hannah would react.” He shook his head. And he’d been too weak to exercise any kind of mind control on Hannah to make her help him. “But all she said was How can I help? Imagine my surprise. She wasn’t afraid. In fact, she seemed excited.”