Almost Midnight (Shadow Falls: After Dark #3.5)(25)

“I think he would have but he’s got another problem on his hands.”

“What?” Della asked.

“Supposedly Helen was attacked.”

“Helen? Our Helen?” Helen was a bashful half-fae who Della couldn’t believe anyone would hurt. “Is she okay? Who did that?”

“Burnett’s been at the hospital with her. He said she was okay. I asked who did it, and he said they didn’t know. But you know Burnett, he’ll get them and when he does they’ll get hell.”

“Yeah, and I’d like to help him dish out that hell. Thank God she’s okay.” Della’s stomach grumbled, embarrassingly loud, too.

Steve chuckled. “I think you’re hungry.” He bounced out of bed. “I’ll get it for you.”

Sitting up, she leaned against the bed’s headboard and held the sheet to her chest. She watched him go to the small fridge and pull out a plastic bag with blood. But it wasn’t the same blood she’d brought with her on this trip. That blood she’d left at the cabin.

Questions started floating around her head. “That’s not my blood. Where did you—”

“My mom worked at this town’s ER for a couple of weeks when we first moved from Alabama. There’s a blood bank right down the street, that’s why I chose this hotel.”

His words bounced around her head. “You stole blood from a blood bank?” She shook her head. “You’re never supposed to do that!”

“I didn’t. Well, not technically.” He moved to stand by the bed and handed her a cup.

She took the cup and stared down at it. The wonderful aroma filled her nose. “Is this O negative?” she asked, recalling how good it had tasted when she’d been semicomatose.

“Only the best for you.” He sent her a crooked smile.

“I guess you can’t take it back, can you? And if you try I might have to kill you.” She took a big sip.

He grinned. “Drink up, and besides, I didn’t exactly steal it.”

She glanced at him from the cup’s lip. He continued to stand there just looking at her. “What do you mean?”

“I went in to donate a pint and just left with it.”

She licked the last drop of blood from her lips. “You’re O negative?” No wonder he always smelled so good to her.

He nodded. With his grin now spreading to his eyes, he said, “You’re welcome.”

“I didn’t say thank you.”

“Yeah, but your appreciation was in your eyes.”

She frowned, hoping to mask her appreciation. Then sitting up a little more, she drained the cup and set it on the bedside table. “Where are my clothes?”

“In the bathroom. They should be almost dry. I washed them out really good. But before you get dressed I need to put some more ointment on your cuts. One last time.”

“I think I’m fine.”

“Oh, you’re fine,” he said and smiled, “but your cut still needs one more dose of ointment.” He moved back to the dresser and picked up a tube of something along with some other supplies.

He sat down on the edge of the mattress, put his supplies on the nightstand, and carefully removed the bandage from her arm. He squirted some medicine on a cotton swab and dabbed it on the cut. She studied the cut on her arm, and like the one on her chest, it appeared almost healed.

Then he reached up and nudged the sheet down. Not low enough to see anything, but low enough to hint at the breast below and to get to her bandaged wound. Gently, he pulled back the dressing and patted the medicine on the cut.

When she glanced up at him through her lashes he was staring at her. “You’re beautiful, by the way.”

She felt her face heat up. Okay, now he stared at her like a normal boy, thinking about how naked she was beneath the sheet. Yet, instead of being repulsed, she was … She was relieved to know he didn’t find her unattractive. And he’d obviously seen almost all of her, too.

“If you tell anyone you saw me naked, I’ll kick your ass.”

He dropped the cotton swab on the nightstand and then reached over and tilted her chin up with his index finger. “I wouldn’t tell anyone.” His voice came out a little deep, and he sounded completely sincere.

He ran his finger over her lips.

“You aren’t going to kiss me,” she said.

“We’ll see about that,” he said and then he did it. He kissed her.

*

How it went from a simple kiss to him stretched out beside her, the sheet down at her feet and his shirt off, was a mystery. A delicious one.

His mouth moved from her lips to her neck and then lower. She moaned, lost in how good it felt. But when his hand softly, seductively slid down below her waist, she grabbed it, and swallowed a big dose of reality.

“I’m sorry,” she muttered and sat up. “I can’t … We can’t.”

She heard him inhale and she knew he was filled with want and desire just as she was. But supposedly it was even worse on a guy. It had always been hard on Lee before … before she let things go all the way.

The thought of Lee had her breath catching again.

Tears filled her eyes and all she could think was how she’d gone down this road already. She’d given herself to Lee and look where that’d led her.