Page 41 of Crimson Oath
Tatyana’s eyes fell to his lips, full and curved in pleasure.
She reached up and touched his beard, scratching her fingernails along the edge of his jaw as a low hum came from his chest.
He leaned down, angling his head toward hers, but a moment before their lips touched, he paused. “May I kiss you?”
She should say no. “Yes.”
His mouth was a revelation. Soft and searching, he coaxed her lips open, and when his tongue touched hers, she felt human again, and every inch of her body heated.
They were in the middle of a park, but it was nearly three in the morning. She inhaled the scent of his skin, and for a moment she forgot everything else.
He was a man; she was a woman.
It was a kiss, and it felt like the first time she had ever been kissed. The gentleness was nearly painful. Her eyes were closed when Oleg pulled his mouth away.
“How could I regret anything?” he said softly. “You are becoming anextraordinaryvampire.”
Vampire.
The spell broken, Tatyana opened her eyes and saw Oleg’s fangs extended, long and sharp in the bright moonlight. She felt, more than saw, his power whirling around him.
Her blood pulled her back to him. She felt a burst of swirling anger, need, lust, and desperate longing that burned in her throat. She wanted to sink her fangs into his neck and pull the life from him until he was on his knees and begging.
Tatyana cringed at the image and took a step back.
“Tatyana?”
Bitterness stained her tongue. “You may not regret that I was kidnapped, beaten, and basically killed, but I never wanted to be a vampire.”
His chin lifted and he stepped back. “But youare. You might as well make the best of it.”
He held out his hand, but she ignored it and kept walking down the arch of the bridge and back to the pedestrian path.
Make the best of it?
Tatyana swallowed her anger and tried not to fume.
Too bad. So sad.
Sorry that you lost your ability to walk in sunlight, have a family, and live a normal life where you don’t have to drink blood every other night to keep from being a ravenous monster, but can’t you just make the best of it?
It could be worse!
It couldalwaysbe worse. Her mother never passed up an opportunity to remind her of that.
Oleg took long strides and caught up with her, following her up the path, across a street, and toward another set of apartment buildings that hugged the riverbank.
They were walking in silence, away from the tourist areas and toward the tree-lined riverwalk. Streetlights were getting farther apart, and the sound of traffic dimmed in the distance.
The moon was high, and lights in the apartments were scattered as human families slept.
“Tatyana, I think we should?—”
“I want to go back to the bar and find Samson.”
She was ready to leave.
She and Oleg weren’t at each other’s throats. Maybe now that he knew she wasn’t obsessed with him—though the kiss was regrettable—and she knew that he wasn’t going to track her down for taking Zara’s gold, they could simply go their separate ways.
