Page 35 of Secret of the Vampire
Chapter 13
Alex
The sense of relief that hit me was so strong I grew lightheaded. “Good,” I told her.
She came to stand in front of me, and I couldn’t stop myself from running my eyes over her. She was so fucking gorgeous with her hair in soft curls and her curves complimented by form-fitted dress pants and a tapered jacket.
“You said you wanted to talk,” she reminded me.
I almost laughed out loud.Talk.Yeah, I’d said that. I’d even meant it at the time. But now that she was here, so close to me, all I could think about was kissing her again. “How are you?” I asked.
“I’m fine,” she told me.
Fine. Any man worth his salt knew what that actually meant. She wasn’t fine at all.
She was nervous. Jumpy. It made me want to take her in my arms and kiss her until she was making those little noises deep in her throat and her fangs were bared with lust. I wanted to feel her sink those fangs into my throat, or anywhere else she wanted to bite me, for that matter. I wanted to give her pleasure. Give her life.
I…hungeredfor her. It was like nothing I’d ever felt before. And from the way the tips of her fangs peeked out from beneath her full upper lip when she spoke, she felt the same about me.
I racked my brain for something to discuss, something that would make me sound somewhat intelligent, rather than the jumble of raw emotions I really was whenever she was anywhere near me.
“I think this was a mistake,” she suddenly whispered. Fast as a whip, she turned to leave.
But I was faster, appearing in front of her before she could run off.
Kenya pulled up short with a gasp. “How do you do that?”
“What?” I asked, distracted by the sight of her close up and personal. Gods, she was beautiful. Her skin smooth. Her eyes bright. In the dark, I could see different shades of browns and greens and golds, the vampire she was lighting her up from the inside out.
“How do you move so fast, Alex? You move as fast as I do. Something no human, not even a witch, should be able to do.”
Oh. That. “I don’t really know,” I answered honestly. “I’ve always been able to do it.”
She stared at me for a long time, her hands fisted at her sides. “It’s the djinn inside of you.”
“Perhaps.” It could possibly explain many things about myself, about my magic. But I didn’t want to talk about that. I didn’t even want to think about it right now. “Please don’t be frightened of me, Kenya. I’m still the same guy.”
“No,” she said. “No, Alex. You’re not.” She paused, looking away for a moment before she brought her attention back to me. “This isn’t a good idea. I shouldn’t have come.”
“Stop saying that.” The words came out harsher than I’d intended, and I made an effort to get a grip on the whirlwind of emotions slamming around inside of me, forcing myself to relax and not frighten her more.
“Alex, I can’t keep doing this. Someone is going to find out about us. They’ll pull you from my head when I’m not paying attention, and then the secret will be out—”
“So, let it be out.”
She snapped her mouth shut. “We can’t do that.”
“Why? Why don’t we just tell them, Kenya?”
“Tell them what, exactly?”
I opened my mouth to speak, and then shut it again, thinking carefully about my words before I said them. “Tell them that we’re friends.”
She studied me above the rim of her glasses. “Is that what we are, Alex? Friends?”
“No,” I told her.
My honesty seemed to surprise her. Unable to stand the distance between us anymore, I reached out and took her hand, lacing my fingers through hers. Her hands were graceful, slender, so fragile feeling, even though they could crush my skull with very little effort on her part. “Come here.” She let me lead her between two large graves. Two smaller tombs stood between them, providing us a secluded area of sorts. I didn’t like having to hide, and honestly, I was tired of it. But I thought it would make her more comfortable to not be right out in the open.
