Lover Arisen (Black Dagger Brotherhood #20)(80)

Don’t touch him, she told herself. You touch him right now and there’s no going back.

“There isn’t one anyway.”

“What?” he murmured.

“It doesn’t matter.”

She got so close that his knees had to part to accommodate her. And then she brushed at his hair, thinking of how she’d stroked it when he’d been lying there on the floor of that storeroom, in a pool of his own blood.

“Show me,” she demanded. “If you can’t tell me, show me.”

There was a heavy pause that seemed to have the same density as the aftermath of a bomb blast. Instead, it just turned out to be the preamble for what really knocked her over.

His upper lip rolled back off his front teeth.

And as she noticed that he had really, really long canines…

…they dropped down from the roof of his mouth, right in front of her very eyes.

Erika started to breathe hard, and even that didn’t do anything to relieve the crushing suffocation in her chest.

“Vampire,” she whispered.

“You have nothing to fear from me. You need to know that—”

“Oh… God.”

With an expression of exhaustion, he put up his hand as if trying to stop the conclusions running through her mind. “Hold on, you humans have it all wrong. There’s no biting and turning people, and a stake through the heart is no different than a dagger. And to hell with the defiler of virgins bullshit—and no, garlic and crosses don’t do anything.” He shook his head. “We are a separate species from you and we just want to live our lives in peace, something that’s really hard to do when there are so many of you around—and when we have other things unrelated to humans that want to kill us. It’s a battle, all the time. Good thing we’re really good at fighting.”

On that note, he linked his arms over his naked chest and sat back in the chair. Going by the jut of his jaw, she had a feeling he was offended by a lot of her kind.

Join the club, she thought to herself. Sometimes she wasn’t all that impressed with humans, either.

“Why are you smiling?” he said.

She reached up and touched her mouth, unaware that there was a wry lift to her lips. “Um… I guess I’m just surprised I’m not scared. And shocked that I don’t feel as though we’re all that different.”

“You shouldn’t be frightened of me.”

“I’m not. Instead, I find you…”

As she let the words drift, she focused on his mouth. And wondered what it would feel like to kiss him. Just bend down and press her lips to his.

But are you ready for what would happen next, she asked herself.

“You can finish that thought,” he said in a husky way.

“Hmm?”

“Finish your thought about what you think of what I am. Because you’re totally free to share any opinion when you’re looking at me like that.”

“How am I looking at you.” Her voice lowered, and not because there was anybody around to hear her. “Tell me.”

“Like you want to kiss me.”

Erika opened her mouth. Closed it.

He put both his hands up. “And honestly, even if you’re just curious, that’s okay with me.”

Erika frowned. “As if I’d use you as some kind of experiment?”

“It’s all right.” His lids lowered. “Because if you try me, only to see if I’m the same as a man, it gives me a chance to prove to you I’m better than anything you’ve ever had.”

“You’re pretty confident.”

“Not at all. Facts.”

As her body heated up, she could have sworn he purred in the back of his throat—and she became very aware, as she stood so close to him, that this… electric moment… was where things had been heading all along. Probably from the first time she set eyes on him.

“Do you believe in fate,” she murmured.

“Kiss me right now and I’d say yes, absolutely, I do.”

Erika waited for some kind of self-protective instinct to steer her into such neutral conversational territory as: So how long have you been possessed by a demon? How many times have you fought a shadow? Are all of your buddies, including the one with the tats on the temple and the goatee, vampires as well?

Any plans for the summer?

Yankees vs. Mets?

But nope. Her warning system stayed silent.

So she did the only thing she could think of.

She leaned down and took his face into her hands. As he tilted his head even farther back, the way he acquiesced to her touch made her feel even more in control. And wow, that cologne of his… it was as if he’d just put more on.

Right before her lips brushed his, he sighed. Like he had been waiting for this for as long as she had.

“Me, too,” she whispered.

And then there was the first contact, her mouth pressing into his, the sizzle of pure lust going all the way through her body as that purring sound rose from him once again.

Turning her head to the side, she gently explored what he so willingly offered. And what do you know, he was right.

He was one hell of a kisser.

When she finally eased back, his eyes glittered up at her. “So what do you think?”

“I think…” She brushed his hair away from his forehead. “It’s a good start.”