Aiden scrubbed his jaw and she sensed that he was about to put distance between them, sensed that he thought she believed him to be a monster. She knew this because his memories, and his feelings, were hers now. She owned a part of them. Suddenly, she was aware of what it had cost him to show her what he had – to expose himself, to let her see his pain, feel his pain. Instinct was all she had, and that instinct had told her from the moment she’d met him, that he was someone she could trust…maybe even someone she could love.
She didn’t give herself time to think. Kelly grabbed him and pushed him back against the couch, climbing on top of him, her hand settling on his chest. “I know you aren’t one of those monsters, Aiden. I can’t pretend I’m not freaked out. Make that really freaked out. I just don’t know how else to put it. And yes, I’m scared, but not of you.” She reached for his face and he shackled her wrist.
“I’m dangerous, Kelly,” he said. “The one time I let myself forget that, I made someone I cared about a target for my enemies.”
Translation. That person had died. God, how much had this man endured? “A woman?”
“Yes.”
“Human?”
“Yes.”
“Did she know what you were?” “Not until she was already dying.” Her chest tightened on those words. “Why didn’t you convert her to vampire?”
“It’s against our laws to convert a human without council approval,” he said. “But I would have, if I could have. She was...” He shook his head and seemed to rethink his words, then started again. “I hesitated when I saw the awareness in her eyes, the knowledge of what I was. And, the hatred. She hated me.”
“No,” Kelly said, rejecting that answer. “She couldn’t have hated you simply because you suddenly grew fangs, Aiden. You have to be mistaken.”
“It wasn’t sudden to anyone but her,” he said. “I lied to her by hiding it from her. And I’m not mistaken.
A vampire attacked her and, well, I’m not sure what she thought in the end. Maybe she thought it was me when she saw my fangs. I don’t really know anything except that I hesitated before I converted her and in that short moment, I was attacked. By the time I killed the other vampire, it was too late. She was dead.”
“Oh God. Aiden-”
“I won’t le
t you become a target.”
“I’m already a target.”
“I plan to fix that. When I leave here, you’ll be safe.”
“And without my memories. I get that part loud and clear.” She leaned into him, wrapping her arms around his neck. “When you bite me, will it hurt?”
“It doesn’t hurt.” His eyes darkened, turning into inky velvet, laden with desire. “But I have no intention of biting you, Kelly.”
“I plan to fix that,” she assured him, repeating his own words.
“You have no idea what you’re asking.”
“I’m not asking.” She untied her robe and let if fall off of her shoulders, then full away from her body.
She was naked, offering herself to him.
He pulled her to him, his hand on the back of her head, a snarl on his lips. “You have no idea what you are playing with, Kelly.” He pulled back, letting her see his fangs. “Look at me. This is what I am.” She sucked in a breath at the sight of his elongated cuspids, at the darkening of his already too black eyes.
He turned away from her instantly, but not before she saw the torment flash across his handsome face.
He’d thought that Darla had looked at him with hatred, and she didn’t want him to see that in her, to imagine that in her.
Her heart squeezed at the pain he’d felt in his life, at the pain he still felt. She pressed her hands to his face, urging him to look at her. “You’re a vampire,” she said, wanting him to know she fully understood.
Her fingers traced his lip, his fangs. “I see you, Aiden, and I’m not afraid. I see you and there is no monster here. There is just the man who woke something up inside me that no other has before.” She leaned into him and pressed her lips to his, molding her nipples against the dark hair on his chest. “Now it’s your turn. See me, Aiden, not someone from your past. Be with me.” Another second passed, then another, and she worried he wasn’t going to respond. Then, suddenly he was kissing her, his mouth devouring hers. Passion simmered before exploding into a wild, raging river of desire. Minutes faded into the pleasure of his mouth, his touch, until finally, finally, they were both naked, and he was buried inside her. She whimpered with the scrape of his fangs near her ear, erotic chills racing down her spine and he hadn’t even bitten her yet. Her body clenched around his cock, an automatic reaction, to what was more erotic than she imagined possible.
“No pain,” he whispered, pulling back to look at her, “Just intense pleasure.”
“Do it,” she pleaded, her body aching with some sort of blind anticipation. “Do it now.”