Page 33 of Dance for the Dragon
Devon held her breath. Luckily, the words had sounded a hell of a lot more confident coming out of her mouth than they had inside her head.
Kohl tightened his fingers around hers for a few seconds, then he released her hand and sat back in his chair. He rubbed the back of his neck, his bright eyes never leaving her face. It was a habit of his, she’d noticed. Rubbing his neck like that. He seemed to do it when emotions were running high. But the average person looking at him wouldn’t realize they were in the company of a hungry vampire. However, after only a couple of days, Devon knew him well enough by now to see the signs.
The brown of his eyes, though not gone entirely yet, had lightened a shade or two—something she now knew was caused by the shifter side of his nature. Specifically, his dragon. It made total sense now. His cheekbones appeared sharper in the candlelight. And if it weren’t for his close-cropped beard, his jawline probably would, also. The muscles in his arms tensed and swelled beneath his long sleeves. He looked larger and harder overall, less relaxed, and if she looked very closely, she could see the tips of his fangs peeking out from beneath his mustache.
She wondered what they would feel like embedded in her throat. While working at Parasupe, she’d heard vampire bites could be quite pleasurable, especially if you were with someone who was experienced in that sort of thing. It didn’t frighten her exactly, but she’d be lying if she said the thought didn’t make her a “wee bit” nervous.
“Devon.” His voice was deeper, raspier, and she knew he was just as affected by her as she was by him. He didn’t say anything else, just her name.
“Let’s get out of here,” she said.
His eyes met hers, and his were pained. “I was sent to get information from you,” he blurted.
It took her a minute to catch up with the change in subject. “What?”
“The Master of my coven ordered me to find you again and…get to know you, to get information out of you about your former company.”
If he had thrown a bucket of ice water over her head, it would’ve felt warmer than the way she was feeling right now. “And you agreed?”
“I had to, Devon.”
“Because he’s your Master?” She couldn’t keep the sarcasm from her voice if she’d tried. And she didn’t try.
He flashed his fangs at her. “Because you would be dead right now if I hadn’t.”
She sat back in her chair. Hard. “Why? Why erase my memory and let me go if he was only going to kill me anyway?”
He scrubbed his face with one hand. “Hawke isn’t the Master. He’s the second oldest and his right-hand man, and much more rational than the leader of our coven. The Master is ancient, and very paranoid. And he doesn’t like witnesses. Whether or not they remember what they saw.”
She sifted through this new information. Though she wasn’t happy about the fact he’d totally ruined the mood, she respected him for telling her now, rather than after he fucked her. “I don’t really know what to say here, Kohl.”
Leaning his elbows on the table, his eyes pleaded with her. “I just wanted you to know. I don’t want to hide anything from you. Not with the way things are happening with us.”
“Is something happening here?” She was beginning to wonder. Or was she nothing more than a convenient meal, and he was just playing his vampire games?
His eyes were filled with conviction when they caught and held hers, and there was no hesitation when he said, “Yes. Much as I would wish it otherwise.”
Her heart began to pound. She knew he would hear it, but she didn’t care. And there wasn’t much she could do about it anyway. “I want to be with you, Kohl.” She didn’t know how much more blunt she could be. They could talk about everything else later.
“I want to be with you, too. But, I don’t trust myself around you.” He seemed to rethink that. “Well, not me, the vampire. I can control the thirst. The urge to bite. But I don’t trust the beast. I’m afraid if we do this, I won’t be able to contain him and I’ll hurt you. Or worse.”
Devon could see he truly believed that. But, somehow, she didn’t. “But it’s a part of you. If you have these—” She looked around, as though searching for the words in the wallpaper. “Feelings for me, wouldn’t the dragon within you feel it, too?”
“Honestly, I don’t know, Devon. I’ve never felt this much for a woman before.”
The words, spoken so matter-of-factly, threw her for a loop, and she laughed self-consciously. “You barely know me.”
Reaching out, he took her hand. “That’s where you’re wrong. I do know you, Devon. I may not have been around until just recently, but I know your heart, and I know your soul. I can feel you, all the way down to my gut. I know you almost as well as I know myself.”
Again, she was at a loss for words. Not because she thought he was out of his damn mind, but because she felt it, too.
Maybe they were both out of their minds.
The waiter came by to check on them and she asked him to wrap up the rest of her meal. Downing the remainder of the wine in her glass, she came to a decision. It was the craziest thing she’d ever done, but she wanted this man. Or vampire. Or dragon. Or whatever he was. She had no thoughts of the future, only of today. And she was tired of feeling sad. Tired of feeling like a pariah to society. Today, she wanted to take a risk. Life was too short, and as she saw just two nights ago, it could be ripped to shreds at any moment. She wanted this experience with Kohl. “I want to go back out to the lake.”
He immediately started to shake his head no, but then he seemed to catch himself. “If we go out there, I don’t know what will happen.”
The uncertainty in his voice grabbed at her heart. “How about another dance? To start.”
