Page 53 of Santa's Wish
"I'll miss being able to bite you," he said. "That's been a fun bonus to our lovemaking."
"Lovemaking?" I chuckled. I was overtired and still reeling from the television show. Maybe I misunderstood his words or heard what I wanted to hear.
"Fucking a vampire is intense." Santa ignored my question and chose a different descriptor. "I've found myself wondering what it would be like with you, if I didn't have to hold back."
"You've been holding out on me?"
"I don't want to break your pelvis accidentally." He leaned down and kissed my shoulder before resting his head on my chest. "The sign at Fanglory … new vampires aren't the problem. It's the older vamps who try to overpower me. We've cleaned up so many destroyed sets over the years. I finally said no vamps."
"So when Colette turns me, I'll be the only vampire you'll fuck?"
I felt his lips turn up in a grin against my arm. "Yeah, you will. I haven't attempted a casual vampire romance for decades."
I don't know why those words made me happy, butmy chest felt lighter than air as I smiled at the ceiling. "Casual vampire romance. That's what I'll be to you?"
He mumbled something against my arm.
"I call bullshit," I said. "You're not too tired to enunciate."
His gentle nibbles on my arm tickled, and I laughed.
"You're more than that to me, and you know it. I fucking l-like you. I don't like many people."
"I like you, too, dork."
He frowned up at me. "Dork? I am the sexiest being you've ever seen."
"So tell me your real name, and I'll call you that."
"Fuck you." He shifted from nibbling my arm to tickling my ribs, and I dissolved into tearful laughter. I was overtired and in love with a vampire I still knew little about.
He knew how to put me to sleep, though. He stopped tickling me and rolled us onto our sides, curling around me like a weighted blanket. My mind finally settled, and I slept.
As tired as I was,my Friday morning was productive. It was almost eleven when my cell phone vibrated in my pocket, pulling me away from proofreading a new report for Kristin. So far, I loved my next project afterexposing the financial planning department's mishandling of the empress's money. I hadn't realized how stressful it had been. When I glanced at the time on my ringing phone, 10:50 a.m., I realized I'd been in a flow state poring over the numbers for the last two hours.
It was my mom. I didn't bother to take my phone to one of the common areas. Kristin was in her office with the door closed, and the rest of the department sat far enough away to give me some privacy at my desk. At night, the two rows of cubicles outside Kristin and Colette's shared office were reserved for visiting vampires. I was the only one in the department not hoteling with someone on the night crew. It got lonely during the day, but the result was uninterrupted work time, which I loved.
That also meant I was the only one close enough to hear the phone conversation that instantly escalated. "Your dad and I have been talking about … things. We think you'd be better off at a different job. We've found you a decent place in New York City, and you can work with Matt. You'll be roommates, too."
"I am not moving in with Matt." He'd been my best friend in high school, and I'd been to that shithole he called an apartment. "No way."
"You're throwing your life away!"
My dad had been excited to learn I worked for Imperial Accounting. He said he'd applied when he and mom first moved to Boston, but he hadn't passedthe tests. It was the first time he'd said he was proud of a choice I'd made, not one he'd made for me.
With one sentence, my mom erased my good mood. "We don't approve of you becoming a vampire."
"We talked about this," I said. "I'll still come home to see you, same as always. The time of day will be a little different, but?—"
"You won't be the same. You'll change into one of those monsters like the ones that visited here last night."
I sucked in a breath. "Vampires came to your house?"
Through the frosted glass, I saw Kristin rise from her desk. She opened her door and stuck her head through a moment later. "Who are you talking to?"
"My parents," I whispered back while my mom shouted more nonsense about devils in suits.
"I need to go to them," I said.
