Vampire for Christmas (10 page)

Rafe lost
his ability to breathe at all.

She
turned towards him and smiled.

“
Come in, Rafe.”

He wanted
to pinch himself to make sure that he hadn’t imagined those words.
He stared at her, everything slowly sinking in. Her smile held.
With a heart full of trepidation, Rafe moved a step forwards and
then watched his left foot as he cautiously edged it towards the
threshold of her home. He didn’t breathe until it had crossed the
line. Relief coursed through him at the sight of his foot on the
other side of the doorway. He looked up at Shannon to see her still
smiling at him, and then slowly stepped into her house.

Rafe
looked back at the open door and porch beyond, and then down at his
feet. He wasn’t sure what to say to her, how he could sum up the
incredible feeling of awe and gratitude that was close to
overwhelming him. This gesture by her meant the world to him. It
showed him how much she trusted him and he still couldn’t believe
that she had welcomed him into her sanctuary.

He
glanced at her and then his feet, and then his gaze came back to
her.

“
Thank you,” he said and stepped aside when she moved forwards
to close the door.

“
You can shower first.” She removed her jacket and dropped it
on the pale wooden floor, and then toed her black trainers off.
“I’ll find you something to wear while your clothes are in the
wash.”

Rafe
nodded, only half listening to her. The other half of him was
engaged in memorising her home. He had seen it often from the
outside but it had been difficult to get a true feel for it and
what it looked like inside. The layout was similar to his home,
with the wooden stairs directly in front of the door, and the
living room to the left. The room to his right was still a dining
room. Her taste in decor was certainly better than what the agency
had given him. Pale colours adorned the walls and there were modern
paintings and furniture. Had she chosen the colours and things in
her home, or had the agency done it for her? Was this Shannon’s
idea of a home, or the agency’s idea of Shannon?

“
Do you like it?” she said and he dragged his eyes back to her
and nodded. She smiled mischievously. “It’s far less drab than your
place.”

He
frowned at her and removed his coat. There were other, clean, coats
on the pegs beside the door so he dropped it on the floor with
hers. He untied his boots and tugged them off, leaving them with
her trainers.

Shannon
mounted the first step on the stairs. “I’ll show you
around.”

Rafe
followed her, still convinced that he had hit his head harder than
he had thought and was unconscious and dreaming all of this. She
stopped at the top of the stairs and pointed along a hall that led
towards the back of the house.

“
The bathroom’s this way.” She motioned for him to
follow.

He did,
still taking everything in. There were several large bedrooms, all
with their doors open. Which one did she use? The agency had only
bothered to put a bed in one room of his house, and he was glad of
it. He kept the other bedroom doors closed so the house didn’t feel
as big. Shannon’s house was at least the same size as his. Both of
them felt too large for just one person to live in. Did she feel
that way too?

Shannon
leaned into a room and turned a light on. He stopped beside her.
The bathroom was standard white with a shower cubicle, basin on a
vanity, and toilet.

“
There should be soap and things.” She didn’t sound sure. “Just
toss your clothes on the vanity and I’ll add mine to them. I have a
robe you can wear.”

Rafe
walked into the bathroom and she closed the door. If the robe she
had gone to retrieve was at all feminine in style, he was going to
have words. He looked around, stripped off his shirt, jeans and
underwear, and left them on the vanity just as she had told him to.
He stepped into the shower cubicle and turned the water on. He
hissed out his breath at the freezing temperature and stepped back,
giving it time to warm up. The water still sprayed onto his feet,
numbing his toes. It wasn’t good to lose body heat. It took him a
long time to warm up again. The downside to no longer being human.
He didn’t have a beating heart to burn energy and warm his blood.
The colder his environment was, the colder he was. He had touched
Shannon tonight and she hadn’t seemed to mind about the difference
in their body temperatures.

He had
kissed her.

The
memory of their first kiss rose up in his mind, sending it
spiralling down paths that twirled ever outwards, multiplying to
imagine all the possible outcomes of kissing her again. It would be
difficult to keep it as chaste if he kissed her now. At the time of
their first kiss, it had been imperative that it had been nothing
more than a light meeting of lips. His fangs had been
out.

If he had
kissed her with the force of the passion burning inside him, he
would have caught her tongue on them. He wasn’t sure what he would
do if he tasted her blood.

The
thought of it stirred him and he stepped into the cold water to
chase his desire away. The water started to warm, as though wanting
to foil his attempt to keep his ardour under control, and he
grabbed the shower gel from the chrome rack in the corner of the
cubicle.

Their
second kiss had caught him off guard. He had been nervous about
whether she would let him in, distracted by it enough that he
didn’t want to risk kissing her as he had wanted to.

If she
gave him the chance now, he would kiss her with all the hunger and
desire he felt for her.

The
bathroom door opened.

Rafe
paused. His senses fixed on her.

She must
have come to take his clothes and to bring him the bathrobe to
wear.

He waited
for her to leave.

She
didn’t.

She
opened the frosted glass door of the cubicle.

Rafe’s
gaze instantly dropped to her bare body, taking in every luscious
curve and the swell of her breasts. His eyebrows rose. His breath
hitched in his throat.

Why was
she standing naked in front of him?

Was he
dreaming?

He
seriously considered pinching himself and then forced his eyes up
to meet hers. Her cheeks coloured deeply, tinted rose pink. She
stared at his chest and spoke to it rather than him.

“
I just want to get clean.”

He didn’t
believe that for a second. If she only wanted to get clean, she
would have told him to shower second, or to hurry up. Getting clean
was the excuse she was hiding behind. Not that he cared. He stepped
aside, backing into the jet of warm water, and made room for her.
She hesitated still. Her gaze rose a little higher, almost reaching
his jaw, and then dropped back to his chest.

And then
it dropped down for a split second and darted away to her
left.

Her
cheeks blazed.

Rafe
smirked.

She might
have an excuse for being here, but her body betrayed her. He
listened to the rapid beat of her heart and the rush of her blood
that carried heat to the surface of her skin and filled the air
with the scent of her arousal. She wanted this to be more than a
shower.

But he
was going to play the gentleman.

If his
body got the message that was.

His groin
throbbed and he kept his gaze firmly on her face and told himself
to get a grip. She had said she just wanted a shower, and that was
what he would give her. When she wanted more from him, she would
only have to say the word.

But she
would say it.

He wasn’t
one to overstep boundaries laid out by women, and he didn’t want to
mess anything up with Shannon. As excruciating as the thought of
showering with her but not touching her was, he would bear it and
would abide by her rules.

Rafe kept
still as she took the shower gel from his hand, squeezed some onto
her palm, and then tiptoed and rubbed it into his dark hair. The
feeling of her little fingers working the soap into his scalp,
nails catching occasionally, and the gentleness with which she
cleaned around the cuts along the side of his head, was divine. She
leaned closer to him when she tried to reach the back of his head
and her breasts pressed against his bare chest. They both
froze.

Her heart
hammered against his chest.

He moved
back an inch, so their bodies no longer brushed, and she took to
cleaning his shoulders instead. It was torture. He couldn’t take
the feel of her hands on him, smoothing soapsuds over his skin,
when he wanted to touch her too. This wasn’t just showering. She
had to see that.

Rafe
hesitated and then placed his hands on the arc of her waist. She
didn’t scream, shout, pull away or slap him. He took it as a good
sign and slid his hands up towards her breasts. He detoured when he
reached them, sweeping the bare curve of them, and she shivered.
Her nipples tautened, dusky peaks tempting him to swirl his tongue
around them, or at least brush his thumbs over them.
Minx.

Instead,
he took the shower gel from her and pulled the band out of her fair
hair. She turned her back to him and he ran his fingers through her
wet hair, untangling the strands. She sighed when he started to
wash her hair, gently cleaning the golden lengths, and tilted her
head back. Rafe ran his eyes down her back to her bottom and his
cock twitched. He tried to focus on just washing her hair but it
was impossible. He was a man after all. When faced with such
temptation, with the bare form of the woman he wanted most in the
world, no man would be able to resist.

She
gasped when he stepped close to her, nestling his erection against
the crack of her buttocks, and then arched into him. Rafe groaned
and rolled his eyes closed. He grabbed her hip with one hand and
dropped the shower gel from the other. He held her firm and ground
against her backside. She sighed and wriggled. The Devil he wanted
to be inside her.

He reined
himself in instead and moved backwards, bringing her under the
spray of water and rinsing her hair out for her. His cock ached and
throbbed, demanding attention, but he kept his focus on the simple
task of washing her.

Any
excuse to touch every inch of her.

She
turned around, crouched, and picked up the shower gel. Rafe kept
still again as she washed him, her hands stroking over his
shoulders, his chest, and down the taut line of his abdomen. She
took her time there, teasing each muscle and running her fingers
along the lines between them. Her pupils were wide when she looked
up into his eyes, her green irises drowned out by their dark
depths. She was enjoying this.

He was
to, and that was why he didn’t want to make a wrong move. She could
set the pace this time, building the foundation of their tentative
relationship. If it all went to plan, he would have all the time in
the world to be wicked with her and take the lead. All he needed
was a little patience.

It almost
slipped through his grasp when she handed him the bottle of shower
gel and gave him a coy smile. Rafe squeezed some out onto his palm,
lathered it, and then fought for control as he washed her. The feel
of her slippery supple body beneath his fingers was heavenly. He
paid close attention to her breasts, his gaze studying her face as
she bit her lip and sighed, and then eased his hands down towards
the apex of her thighs. She gasped then, her lips parting with it,
and her soft pink tongue traced the line of them. Rafe groaned. An
urge to tackle that tongue with his own, to kiss her breathless
until she was begging him for more, bolted through him. He slid his
fingers into her warm folds and her hand shot out towards the wall
and pressed against it, as though she needed its support. She
tiptoed, moaned and shivered.

Damn he
wanted her.

He gave
her pert nub a single swirl with his finger and removed his hand.
She shivered again and opened her eyes, staring into his. It wasn’t
a shiver of pleasure this time. The water was still warm but it was
turning colder in the room. As much as she wanted this to continue
here, he couldn’t let it happen. She would freeze.

Rafe
turned the shower off, opened the cubicle door, and held it for
her. She smiled shyly and stepped out. He followed her and she
handed him a white towel. Instead of drying himself, he dried her
with it. She did the same, using her towel to dry him. He groaned
and bit his tongue when she ran the towel over his still erect
cock. Her smile turned wicked for a moment and then her expression
shifted to concern. She sighed, bunched the towel up in her hand,
with a section of it over her index and forefinger, and tiptoed
towards him. She dabbed the side of his head with the towel, her
green gaze on it, and he held her waist to steady her when she
wobbled.

“
Do they hurt?” she whispered, her eyes not leaving the
cuts.

“
No.” They didn’t bother him at all, not when she was so close
to him, showing him such affection. She pressed a little harder and
he winced.

Shannon
smiled. “You’re a terrible liar.”