Lover Awakened (Black Dagger Brotherhood #3)(70)

Oh…God. Was he really going to do this?

“John? I just want to…see.”

Okay, he was going to do this.

He stood up and nodded at the doorway. Without a word Sarelle followed right behind him, going all the way down the hall, all the way into his bedroom.

After they stepped inside, he shut the door most of the way and reached for the top button of his shirt. He willed his hands to be steady by vowing to saw them off if they embarrassed him. The threat seemed to work, because he unbuttoned the shirt down to his stomach without much trouble. He stretched the left side open and looked away.

When he felt a light touch on his skin, he jumped.

“Sorry, my hands are cold.” Sarelle blew on her fingertips, then went back to his chest.

Good God. Something was happening in his body, some kind of wild shifting inside his skin. His breath grew short, strangled. He opened his mouth so he could get more air in.

“That is really cool.”

He was disappointed when she dropped her hand. But then she smiled at him.

“So do you think you might want to go out sometime? You know, we could go to the laser-tag place. That could be cool. Or maybe the movies.”

John nodded like the dummy he was.

“Good.”

Their eyes met. She was so pretty, she made him dizzy.

“Do you want to kiss me?” she whispered.

John’s eyes cracked open. Like a balloon had popped behind his head.

“Because I’d like you to.” She licked her lips a little. “I really would.”

Whoa…Chance of a lifetime, right here, right now, he thought.

Do not pass out. Passing out would be a total buzz kill.

John quickly called on every movie he’d ever seen…and got no help at all. As a horror fan, he was just swamped by visions of Godzilla stomping across Tokyo and of Jaws chewing on the ass end of the Orca. Big help.

He thought of the mechanics. Head tilt. Lean forward. Make the contact.

Sarelle glanced around, flushing. “If you don’t want to, that’s cool. I just thought…”

“John?” Wellsie’s voice came from down the hall. And got closer as she kept talking. “Sarelle? Where are you guys?”

He winced. Before he lost his nerve, he grabbed Sarelle’s hand, pulled her forward, and planted a good one right on her mouth, his lips tight against hers. No tongue, but there wasn’t time, and he’d probably need to call 911 after something like that anyway. As it was, he was practically hyperventilating.

Then he pushed her back. And worried about how he’d done.

He risked a look. Oh… Her smile was radiant.

He thought his chest would explode with happiness.

He was just dropping his hand as Wellsie stuck her head in the door. “I need to go to—ah…I’m sorry. I didn’t know that you two…”

John tried to marshal a nothing-special smile and then noticed that Wellsie’s eyes were fixated on his chest. He looked down. His shirt was wide-open.

Scrambling to button the damn thing up just made the situation worse, but he couldn’t help himself.

“I’d better go,” Sarelle said easily. “My mahmen wanted me home early. John, I’ll be on the computer later, okay? We’ll figure out what movie to go see or whatever. Night, Wellsie.”

As Sarelle walked down toward the living room, he couldn’t resist glancing around Wellsie. He watched as Sarelle took her coat out of the hall closet, put it on, and got her keys from her pocket. Moments later the muted sound of the front door closing drifted down the hall.

There was a long silence. Then Wellsie laughed and pushed back some of her red hair.

“I, ah, I have no idea how to handle this,” she said. “Except to say that I like her a lot and she has good taste in males.”

John rubbed his face, aware that he was the color of a tomato.

I’m going to go for a walk, he signed.

“Well, Tohr just called. He was going to swing by the house and pick you up. Thought you might want to hang with him at the training center, since he’s got some admin work to do. Anyway, it’s your choice to stay or not. And I’m off to a Princeps Council meeting.”

He nodded as Wellsie started to turn away.

“Ah, John?” She paused and looked over her shoulder. “Your shirt’s…um, it’s buttoned up kind of off-kilter.”

He glanced down. And started to laugh. Even though he made no sound he just had to let his joy out, and Wellsie smiled, obviously happy for him. As he did the buttons up the right way, he had never loved the woman more.





Bella spent the hours after she returned to the mansion sitting up in Zsadist’s bed with her diary in her lap. She didn’t do anything with the journal at first, too caught up in what had happened at her house.

Jesus… She couldn’t say she was surprised that Zsadist was every bit the menace she’d thought he was. And he’d saved her, hadn’t he? If that lesser he’d killed had gotten its hands on her, she would have ended up back in a hole in the ground.

The trouble was, she couldn’t decide whether what he’d done was evidence of his strength or his brutality.

As she decided it was probably both, she worried about whether he was okay. He’d been hurt and yet he was still out there, probably trying to find more slayers. God… What if he—