Her gaze lowered to his mouth and his dick twitched shamelessly. “You won’t get offended if I don’t eat, Will you?”
“You’re not hungry?”
She shook her head. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. Listen, I don’t want to freak you out, but...” He hesitated, knowing he could really fuck this up.
“But?” she prodded, meeting his gaze again.
“I grabbed a hotel room nearby. Not because I thought I’d take you there tonight,” he assured her hastily. “Just because I planned on shooting for a fol ow-up breakfast date.”
“Real y?” she asked drily, with a sparkle in her eyes. “Either way, you’re very optimistic.”
“More like unable to accept failure. Not about this. So you want to grab a bottle of wine and go there? I got a suite, so the bed’s in a different room. We can just sit in the living area and talk?”
It took her a long moment to answer, one in which he could see her visibly struggling with the idea.
“Or we can go into the restaurant,” he offered. “I’m fine with whatever you’re most comfortable with.”
“No. Let’s go to your hotel.” Siobhán exhaled in rush. “I don’t have much time, so quiet would be good.”
Her all usion to the end of their evening got him anxious again. “Okay. Let’s go.”
* * *
Siobhán settled on the smal sofa in Trevor’s hotel room and noted the carry-on and duffel he’d been carrying earlier. “You were supposed to travel today.”
He tossed his black suede jacket over the back of an armchair and took a seat on the sofa beside her. “Yes. I’m part of a scholarship program Gadara Enterprises is sponsoring at the University of North Carolina. I’m an EMT with an Army medic background, so I’l be attending med school.”
“That’s wonderful.”
“Yeah. This morning I thought my life couldn’t get any better. Obviously, I was wrong about that.” He reached for her hand, linking his fingers with hers. “What do you do?”
“I study infectious diseases.”
Trevor grinned. “We’re both in the health field, then.”
She could see he thought that was another sign they were meant to be together. “I work in an underground laboratory. Weeks can go by during which I see only my col eagues. Today was the first time in a long time that I’d seen the sun.”
His smile faded. “Are you working for the government?”
“Not quite.” She looked down at their joined hands. “But the disease I’m presently focused on does have some military applications.”
“Are you trying to save lives or end them?”
“I’m searching for a cure.”
His breath left him in a rush. “That’s good. I couldn’t see it being the other way. Not with you.”
Siobhán squeezed his hand, loving his tender healer’s heart. “Maybe you’l see now why it’s not possible for us to date. You need to go to North Carolina as soon as you can. You shouldn’t have missed your flight today.”
“Hang on.” He stood up and went to his duffel bag, then returned with the envelope of photos she’d left for him at reception. He sat and poured the pictures out onto the sofa cushion between them. “This is my sister’s family. The only family I’ve got left. This is my newest nephew. He was named after me, but I’l never get to see him in person.”
She looked up into his face, trying to gauge his feelings about that. “Oh?”
“Apparently there was a bit of a screw-up and the military reported me kil ed in action. They paid out four hundred thousand dol ars in life insurance money, which my sister used to set up col ege funds for her kids and to move into a bigger house. Gadara Enterprises has some government contracts and contacts, and they worked something out so that my sister gets to keep the money if I stay dead. I’m not sure how that al
worked out, but I know my sister really needed the money and I can’t pay it back, so the best thing for all of us is for me to let them believe I’m gone.
I’l never be able to cal or send gifts or stop by.”
Siobhán set her hand over his and gave a comforting squeeze. “I’m sorry, Trevor.”
She knew Raguel would’ve strengthened the fictional background story with mental suggestions that eased Trevor’s focus on the logistics and possible workarounds.
“I’m tel ing you this,” he went on, “because I want you to know that I understand how these things work. I know the difficulties some of these government arrangements can cause. But I don’t think that means we have to throw away any chance we have of seeing where this can go.”
His tenacity moved her. That trait had helped him survive the pit he’d lived in for a year. It was also likely to cause problems between them if she left him with any memory of her at all. The best thing she could do would be to wipe him again, then leave him sleeping on the couch with a plane ticket from Ontario to North Carolina on the coffee table.
The firm weight of conviction and resignation settled over her. She knew he was okay, that he would continue to be okay. She knew from seeing him in the atrium at Gadara Tower that he would be content, even happy. That was enough for her. She could live with that and be satisfied with that. She’d have to.
Calmly, she took the photos from his hands and put them back in the envelope, then set them aside on the coffee table. Trevor watched her, his eyes heating as he judged her mood. It was as if he could see inside her and knew that her heart was beginning to beat faster, that excitement was quickening her blood. She wanted more of him before she said good-bye for the last time. She wanted to feel his lips on hers... his hands on her bare skin... the weight and heat of him against her...
For just a moment.
Tilting her head up, Siobhán offered him her mouth. He stared at her lips, his breathing quick and audible.
“Siobhán...” He slid closer. His arms circled her slowly and careful y, as if she might bolt if he moved too fast. “I won’t say no. I can’t. But this isn’t why I brought you here.”
“I know.” She’d seen his intentions when she touched his hand. He was actual y afraid to take things to the physical level, afraid she wouldn’t believe his sincerity if he did.
But she did believe him. And she trusted him. Cared for him. Wanted him.
His hands bracketed her spine, pul ing her closer until she was pressed flush against him. He groaned softly when her breasts flattened against his hard chest and she shivered, startled by the fiery sensations of pleasure that spread through her veins.
“Don’t be afraid,” he whispered, his breath caressing her lips.
“I’m not.” And she wasn’t. Not anymore. She was beginning to think any punishment she might face would be worth this. He was worth it. “Kiss me.”
His mouth sealed gently over hers, his lips so soft and warm. Desire surged through her and she leaned into him, her hands pushing into his silky hair to cup his scalp. The sound he made, something raw and lustful, pulsed through her in heated waves. She gasped and his tongue stroked deep into her mouth. The flesh between her legs tingled and grew hot. His hands were everywhere—in her hair, down her back, against the side of her breast. He pushed beneath her sweater, his palm pressed flat to her naked skin. A whimper escaped her as he scorched her with his touch.
“My god,” he breathed hoarsely, pressing her back into the cushions. “I want you, Siobhán. I’m burning up with wanting you.”
Her eyes were squeezed shut against the surfeit of emotions battering her. She couldn’t think, couldn’t remember why they couldn’t be together like this. It felt too good, too right. “Trevor—”
His weight settled over her, his long frame stretching out atop hers. He pushed his forearms beneath her shoulders and anchored her as his mouth slanted over hers. His passion was evident and wild, his kiss demanding and seductive at once. Every thrust of his tongue made her body tighten in anticipation. She kissed him back greedily, catching his tongue and sucking on it with an innate, instinctive rhythm.
With a practiced nudge of his knee, Trevor spread her legs and settled between them. He cupped her buttock in one hand and lifted her into a skil ed rol of his hips, pressing the hardness of his erection directly against the spot between her legs that throbbed for attention. She moaned as her body seized in startled delight, the seam of her jeans adding the perfect amount of pressure.
His lips traveled across her cheek to her ear. His chest lifted and fel rapidly against hers, his breath gusting hotly. “You feel so good. So soft and warm.”
He rocked against her again, murmuring praise as she shuddered with her growing need for him. “Shh,” he soothed. “Don’t fight it. I’m going to make you come like this. Then I’m going to strip your clothes off and make you come with my mouth.”
Her nails dug into his back as his passionate words inflamed her senses. Her body writhed beneath his, confused by the rush of hunger it had never experienced before. She was desperate for more.
She struggled to relax, afraid she’d hurt him if she lost control. “Trevor, please...”
“I love the way you say my name.” The tip of his tongue fol owed the outer curve of her ear and made her cry out as her breasts swel ed and ached. “I’m going to end the night inside you, Siobhán, and start tomorrow the same way.”
His voice was guttural now, his touch growing stronger and more possessive by the moment. “You’re mine,” he growled, lifting his head. “Look at me and say it.”
Siobhán forced her heavy eyes open, her gaze focusing on his face as he rose above her and stroked his hips against her, making her feel every hard inch of him as he slid between the lips of her sex through their clothes.
She froze, her eyes widening with stunned horror. Trevor looked down at her with a hunger she knew all too well, his handsome face tightened by lust and need, his mouth red from her kisses.
“Trevor,” she gasped, her heart breaking as reality penetrated the haze of pleasure. She was instantly taken back to her first horrible days on earth, when she’d watched the bril iant blue of angelic irises turn into the molten copper of vampiric eyes.
His inky hair gleamed in the light of the table lamp, his smile widening into a predatory grin as he licked his fangs and eyed her with the glowing amber gaze of a vampire.
Chapter 11
“What are you going to do with him, Siobhán?” Malachai barked, pacing the length of the hal way outside of her room in the Ontario laboratory. “How the hel did this happen?”
She ran both hands through her hair, her nerves frayed by the last twenty hours of watching the Change sweep through Trevor’s body, stealing his mortality and replacing it with the needs of a vampire.
“I should’ve known,” she said grimly. “I felt the damage to his soul when I found him. He must’ve been Changing even then. They must have accidently taken too much blood from him. I knew they had to be injecting him with smal doses of vampiric blood to keep him alive and disease-free in those conditions, but they wouldn’t have Changed him on purpose. It was his mortal blood they wanted.”
“Why’s it taken so long to kick in?”
“My blood. I transfused him with my blood to heal his injuries. It kept the Change at bay.” She clenched her hair in her fists. “Damn it. After all he’s been through.”
“You didn’t answer my question about what you’re going to do with him.”
Her hands fel to her sides and she inhaled a deep breath. Lifting her chin, she met his gaze directly. “I’m going to nurse him through the Change. Then I’l put him to work around here. He has the experience and the skil, and he’l put the other vamps at ease. I can use him.”
He stopped pacing. “And what about you?”
“What about me? I have feelings, Malachai,” she confessed without shame. “Whether he’s here or not, I still have those feelings, and I’ve come to accept that whatever consequences I may face are worth it to be with him. And don’t worry about tel ing Damien or Adrian. I’l be tel ing them myself, face-to-face, as soon as I possibly can.”
He had the grace to look chagrined. “What can I do to help?”
“Help Aurelia as much as you can. I’ve had to leave the infirmary to her while I deal with Trevor. Once he’s a fledgling, I can begin the experiments on the captures. I’m sure his presence Will help ease the way for that.”
“Okay.” He hesitated a moment, then said, “Siobhán...”
She offered him a harried smile. “Trevor believes everything happens for a reason. I think he may be right. Things Will work out the way they’re supposed to.” She caught his hand and squeezed it. “Adrian Will be coming with the angel blood I asked for. I’m not sure when, but it’l be soon. You know how quickly he acts.”
“Yes.”
“Give me a heads-up when he arrives, Will you?”
He squeezed back. “Of course.”
* * *
Trevor woke with a start, jerking upright with a startled gasp. Something hard lodged in his throat and he coughed, sending a gleaming projectile from his mouth to land on the blankets covering his knees. He stared at it even as he felt something else on his tongue.
Spitting it out in his hand, he realized it was one of his canine teeth, as was the one he’d coughed up. He explored the interior of his mouth with his tongue and cursed as a razor-sharp point of a fang cut him and drew blood.
He was drenched in sweat and shivering, his body aching, his mind spinning as memory returned to him. He was back in Siobhán’s room at the Ontario laboratory, once again sleeping on her couch, but she was nowhere to be seen. Extracting the IV line from the back of his hand, he prepared to go find her.
“Siobhán!” he roared, his throat burning with the effort of volume. His mouth felt and tasted like he’d swal owed an ashtray.
The door flew open and she rushed in, looking beautiful and sexy and worried.
“You’re awake.” Hurrying over to him, she placed her cool wrist against his forehead. “You’re burning up. Here.”
He accepted the insulated cup she had in her hand and he drank deeply of the ambrosia inside. It was cool and tart. Delicious.
He didn’t stop until he finished it all, his brain inundated with images of Siobhán lying beneath him, arching into him and begging for more. Of all his memories, it was the ones of her in his hotel that stood out most vividly.
“You wiped me and got rid of me!” he accused, remembering the days he’d spent at Gadara Enterprises.
She sat on the edge of the coffee table. “Then I made you remember.” Tapping a fingertip to her temple, she explained, “I wiped you, but everything I erased was stored in here. I gave you back what you need to understand what’s happened to you.”
Trevor sat for a moment, breathing hard, feeling whatever it was he’d drunk spreading through his body like a cooling balm. He knew what he was, what he’d become. And yet that paled in significance compared to losing Siobhán. Somehow, he had to make her keep him. Imagining his short mortal life span without her had been torture; an eternity was a fate worse than what he’d suffered in the pit.
He paused, abruptly realizing that she’d given his memories back and yet he couldn’t remember the details of what had been done to him, only how he felt about it—helpless, agonized, terrified, so unbearably lonely.
“Why are you so afraid of what we feel for each other?” he asked quietly.
She knotted her fingers in her lap. “I didn’t tel you everything about the Watchers. They fel for many reasons, but mostly because they mated with mortals. They took them as wives and husbands, and had children with them. They were supposed to be impartial observers; instead they total y changed the face of the world. They lost their wings and their souls for love.”
He stared at her for a long moment, his chest aching. “I see. That’s what you were talking about when you said your job wouldn’t let us be together. You weren’t making that up.”
“No, I wasn’t.” Her blue eyes stared into his. “I have to apologize to you, Trevor. I believed that what you felt for me was based on gratitude and fear. It felt wrong to accept your feelings if they were based on confusion.”
“And now that you know they’re real?” He ran a hand through his hair. “What does it mean now that you know I’d feel this way about you no matter what? Can we be together?”
“If you’l still have me after everything that’s happened.”
He swung his legs off the sofa, feeling better by the minute. He was afraid to ask what it was she’d given him to drink, afraid he already knew. “What Will happen to you if we’re together?”
“I don’t know.” Her gaze was clear and without guile or fear. “We’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it. In the meantime, Adrian—the captain of all the Sentinels—has taken a vampire for his mate. I won’t say that gives me permission to do the same because it doesn’t, but I’ve learned a lot about what you’l need over the weeks and months ahead from what Adrian has had to do for Lindsay.”
Trevor caught her hands in his. “Like what?”
“I’l explain everything.” She smiled and his heart stopped for a moment, then started racing again. Unless he’d lost all ability to read women, she had an open sexual invitation in that curving of her lips.
His blood began to heat, his body stirring with desire. Despite everything that had happened, everything that could go wrong and had gone wrong already, and everything they had yet to resolve, he wanted to finish what they’d started in the hotel.
“For now,” she went on, “let me show you to your room. You’l find your luggage in there.”
“Siobhán.” He stroked his thumbs over her inner wrists, feeling her pulse quicken. She wanted him, too. She was Will ing to risk everything for him.
Maybe the right thing for him to do would be to walk away so she didn’t endanger herself for him, but he refused to accept that what they felt for each other was wrong. It was worth fighting for. They were worth it.
Trevor pushed to his feet, sucking in a breath when the room swayed. He was a vampire. That fact final y struck him like a blow, tensing his stomach and sending a vicious pain piercing through his brain.
He could deal with what he was, if he had her and she could bear it, but she was putting him in another room. Away from her. He’d been Willing to live with abstinence when he thought sex wasn’t her thing, but after their time in the hotel...
He had to have her, but damned if he knew the best way to bring that up.
“Come on.” She linked arms with his and led him to the door. “Lean on me, if you have to.”
Trevor knew she was strong enough for him to lean on in every way a man could lean on his woman. He knew she would take care of him through this trial as she had the ones previously. He could depend on her, share with her, trust her. She was a friend and a companion and soon to be his lover. She was everything to him, and it didn’t matter that it had happened fast. The only thing that mattered was that he’d found her.
She led him out to the hal way and to the right, opening the next door over.
Unlike her room, this was an actual bedroom, with a king-size bed, a couple nightstands, and an entertainment center armoire. His carry-on was by the closet, and his duffel bag sat on a loveseat. The pictures of his sister’s family had been framed and scattered around the room, and his personal items were set out on a dresser. The room’s colors were a mixture of rich blues and coppers, the palette both soothing and attractive.
“You did this?” he asked, touched.
She nodded, looking up at him with hopeful eyes. “Do you like it?”
“It’s awesome, Siobhán. Thank you.” He turned to face her. “So you’re keeping me around?”
“Yes. Unless that’s not what you want.”
“Of course that’s what I want. I want to be with you.” Pressing his lips to her forehead, he murmured, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Trevor pul ed back and studied her face, his mind fil ed with an endless number of questions. “Let me grab a shower. Then We’ll talk. Will you be where I can find you?”
Her mouth curved. “Yes.”
* * *
As he stepped beneath the spray of the shower, Trevor closed his eyes and groaned as the stickiness of sweat washed away. He ran soapy hands over his body, cataloging every inch of flesh to see if he could notice any differences.
Aside from the loss of his canine teeth and the paleness of his skin, everything seemed to be where it should be. Certainly everything seemed to be in working order, since his dick was hard enough to drive nails. There was no reason for him to be sporting such a major hard-on. Yes, he wanted Siobhán with a vengeance, but she should actual y be in the same room with him before he got this turned on.
Which led him back around to wanting her to share his bedroom. Maybe she was holding back because of the other Sentinels, but if that was the case, he wanted to know that... so he could pul everyone aside and tel them to deal with it.
He and Siobhán were capable of making rational decisions, they knew there might be consequences, and they were taking the risk anyway. As far as he knew, they weren’t hurting anyone else in the process. Unless Siobhán told him otherwise, he didn’t see any reason to spare the others at the expense of their love. If he’d learned anything over the last year or so of his life, it was that one should never take anything for granted—especial y the people you cared about.
By the time he’d shaved and brushed his teeth, he was feeling weak and achy, as if he was recovering from a long bout of the flu. Slinging a towel around his waist, Trevor reentered the bedroom and nearly tripped over his own feet.
Siobhán was in his bed.
He stared at her, frightened by the force of his hunger. It surged inside him with such violence it was only his affection for her that held him back from pouncing on her and fucking her until neither of them could move.
His fists clenched at his sides. “What are you doing?”
Her gaze dropped to where she was fidgeting with the hem of the sheet. “You need to feed. Over the next several months, you’l need to feed every few hours until your body has completely Changed. Right now, you’re a fledgling. You’re very vulnerable in this state and you’l require a lot of care.”
“Okay.” His chest heaved with the effort of restraining himself. His erection was tenting his towel and throbbing painful y. In his mouth, blood pooled as his newly emerging fangs sank into his bottom lip. He could hear the beat of her heart and the rapidness of her breathing; he could smell the lush sweetness of her skin and the softer notes of her desire. His senses were so sharp now that she barraged him from all sides. “That doesn’t explain why you’re in bed.”
“Feeding is very... erotic for vampires,” she said shyly. “You’l want sex while you drink from me.”
“Every few hours?” he growled, gripping his cock in his fist through the towel, trying to ease the ache that was driving him half mad.
Siobhán nodded.
He swal owed hard. “You’re going to give me blood and sex every few hours? ”
“You’l need it.”
“Is that what you want?”
She licked her lips. “Yes. I want more of what we had in the hotel.”
“More.” His eyes closed against the sight of her tucked in his bed, unable to bear the stimuli. “I want that, too. Desperately. But—” He inhaled sharply. “Are you a virgin, Siobhán?”
There was an extended pause. “I’ve never had sex before, if that’s what you mean.”
Jesus Christ.
“Sweetheart.” He looked at her. “A woman’s first time... It’s special. It shouldn’t be with a salivating, bloodsucking half-animal with barely any control. It should be slow and gentle—things I’m not capable of right now.”
Sitting up, she tucked the sheet under her arms and frowned. “Why does it have to be slow and gentle?”
“Wel... it’s painful for a woman.”
“Trevor.” Her mouth twitched. “I don’t mean to chal enge your masculinity, but I could snap you in half like a twig. I was worried before that I might hurt you. It’s still a concern, but I feel better about it now that you’ve Changed. It’s safer for you.”
“Safer for me,” he repeated, shaking his head. “Siobhán baby, you have no idea what you’re getting yourself into with me right now. I don’t have any idea, either, come to think of it.”
Turning away from her, he debated going back into the shower and cranking the water on cold. Maybe jacking off three or four times would give him some breathing room and control...
He heard her slide out of bed and pad across the floor to him. His head bowed, his body rigid with the effort it took not to grab her. He heard the rushing of blood in her veins and felt the vampiric hunger uncoil inside him. Even as his mind rejected the thought of ingesting blood, his new instincts fil ed his mind with thoughts of pinning Siobhán down and thrusting into her, his fangs sinking deep into her neck as he fucked and fed with untamed abandon.
“Trevor.” She touched him, gently stroking across his back. He was so focused on control ing his raging desire that it took him a moment to realize...
She was caressing him with her wings.
He spun with a groan. The woman he desired above all others stood naked before him, displaying a body of breathtaking perfection. As tiny as she was, her curves were ful and luscious. Her stomach was flat and lightly muscular. She was tight and hard, yet soft and warm. Everything he’d ever admired or lusted over in the female form was framed by those wings resembling the light of dawn. He was awed by all that creamy, flawless skin surrounded by pale pink feathers that darkened into deep amethyst tips with gilded edges.
His eyes burned with tears of wonder and love, his entire being overwhelmed by the beauty of her. As he watched, her wings stretched toward him, curling around him so they were enfolded together. He felt the tips brush across his back, even as her hands reached for the knot of his towel. Extending his arms to either side, he ran his fingertips down her feathers. She gasped and shivered, her nipples furling into tight tips.
“Your wings,” he murmured. “Touching them turns you on?”
“I didn’t know.” Her wide blue eyes looked into his. “It’s never happened before.”
The miracle of her soothed his ragged need, giving him the strength he needed to make love to her with the gentleness and respect she deserved. Leaning forward, he pressed his forehead to hers. “I’m going to love you, Siobhán. Long and well. Forever.”
“Start now.”
Tilting his head, he pressed his lips to hers.
Chapter 12
Siobhán stepped out of the shower and shook out her hair, spraying water all over the gorgeous, sexy vampire lounging against the bathroom’s doorjamb.
“Watch it, angel,” Trevor purred, his amber eyes bright with sensual promise. His arms were crossed over his bare chest, his jeans hanging low on his lean hips in a way that made her stare with greedy delight. “I can get you wet, too.”
“You just did,” she reminded, shivering as she recal ed how he’d bent her over the edge of the bed and slid into her from behind, his hands stroking over the sensitive backs of her splayed wings as he rode her. She’d clawed at the comforter, muffling her cries as the pleasure inundated her in endless waves. “For nearly two hours. We have to work now.”
“I know.” He smiled and kissed the tip of her nose as she slipped past him. “That’s why I let you shower alone. Let me clean up and I’l join you.”
She squeezed his hand as she moved into the bedroom. She headed toward the armoire for her clothes, feeling so blessed to have found Trevor. He often thanked her for finding him and saving him, in more ways than one, but she knew he’d saved her, too.
A knock came to their bedroom door and she snatched up her robe, rushing over to answer it.
Malachai stood in the hal way, looking grim. “Siobhán. Adrian’s plane just landed. He’l be down here in just a few minutes.”
She took a deep breath, surprised to feel a nervous fluttering in her stomach. But she wasn’t afraid. The decision she’d made to be with Trevor had brought her the first true happiness of her entire existence. She would make the choice again, with joy. “Thank you.”
Firm in her decision, Siobhán dressed and prepared to face Adrian, the angel who wielded the Creator’s vengeance against angels who’d taken mortal mates...
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