Vampire for Christmas (11 page)

He gave
her his best grin and her cheeks coloured.

When she
had finished drying the cuts on the side of his head, she carefully
tended to the ones on his face and neck. He watched her the whole
time, absorbing how different she was now that she had overcome
whatever barrier she had placed between them in her heart. She set
back on her heels and he let go of her waist. The towel was pink
with blood.

“
Sorry.” He took it from her and she took his and started
drying her hair.

“
It’s not a problem. I can wash it.”

The blood
probably wouldn’t come out even if she washed it at a high
temperature. It was the reason he had bought such dark
towels.

“
Will they heal?” she said and he dragged his gaze away from
her body. She nodded towards him and he presumed she meant the cuts
on his head. He tentatively touched them and they stung.

“
Given time.” He wasn’t sure how much time. Normally when he
sustained bad injuries he went out the next night to replenish his
body with blood, and that helped him heal. This time, he had come
to see Shannon instead, and he didn’t feel like leaving her to
track down some prey. Not for a few days at least. He might heal in
that time.

“
Do you need—?” She didn’t have to finish that question for him
to understand it.

His gaze
flickered to her neck and then back to her eyes. “I will be
fine.”

She
smiled. “You really are a terrible liar.”

He was
lying because he didn’t think she had a store of bagged blood in
her refrigerator and he wasn’t about to bite her. His eyes slid
down to her bare throat and the marks on the right side of it. His
fingers shook as he reached out and slowly ran them over the scars.
Shannon didn’t smack his hand away this time.

Rafe
stared at the marks, his hunger rising inside him and his fangs
extending. He knew the moment his eyes had switched to their true
state, the one he so often tried to hide from her. The bathroom
sharpened and brightened, the light hurting him, and Shannon’s
pulse doubled. He wished they were his marks. If they were, they
would have been done far more gently. He would never hurt her. His
beautiful Shannon.

He traced
his fingertips over them again, struggling against his desire to
pull her into his arms and sink his fangs into her neck. Her heart
thundered in his mind. The smell of her blood permeated the air and
his senses, pushing him to go through with it. He breathed slowly
and deeply, trying to rein himself in and change back, trying to
force his fangs away and the urge for her blood to the back of his
mind.

Shannon
placed her hand over his, holding it to her neck, and his eyes
darted to hers.

They were
honest, open, but he still couldn’t believe her when she
spoke.

“
You can... if you want to, Rafe.”

****

Chapter 7

“
I will be fine.” Rafe slipped his hand out from under hers and
Shannon knew he was lying again. He wanted to bite her, and deep
inside, far beyond her fear, she wanted it too.

It
frightened her, stirring a whirlwind of anxiety in her stomach, but
there was so much ardent desire in Rafe’s eyes, and so much care
and affection in his touch, that she found herself wondering what
it would feel like if he bit her. She knew in her heart that he
would be as gentle as possible with her, would try not to hurt her
even when that would be impossible, and that he would find a way to
make it pleasurable. He had proven himself a gentleman and had
always taken care of her. She trusted him. The hunger in his eyes
said that her trust and his love for her were part of the reason he
had refused. He didn’t want to scare her or make her hate
him.

She
wouldn’t feel either of those emotions if he went through with it.
Just the thought of it happening thrilled her and knowing how
special it would be to Rafe, how much pleasure he would take from
it, added to her desire to go through with it.

She
nodded and didn’t press or question him, even when she wanted to.
Would it make a difference if she told him that she wanted it?
Would he see that she was strong enough to handle that side of him,
and that she knew he wouldn’t hurt her? If he bit her, it would
feel different to how it had when the vampire had attacked her. It
was Rafe after all. It would be his arms that held her, and they
would do so with care. It would be his body against hers, and she
would thrill because of it. It would be his fangs in her throat,
and he would make it blissful.

She
wasn’t afraid of him biting her.

There was
another reason why she wanted him to go through with it too. She
wanted to move on, and Rafe could help her do just that. If he bit
her, maybe she would finally get over what had happened to her all
those years ago.

Shannon
held out his black bathrobe to him. He seemed relieved to see
it.

“
It’s not as though I was going to keep it,” she said to fill
the silence.

“
It is not that. I had forgotten you had it and I was half
expecting you to give me a pink bathrobe.” He smiled and her heart
fluttered. He was so handsome even when he wasn’t trying. He took
the robe from her and dabbed the side of his head with
it.

A drop of
blood slid down his neck. Had she reopened the cuts? She had tried
to be gentle when cleaning his hair and then drying the wounds. Had
she not been gentle enough?

Shannon
reached up, caught the drop of blood on her fingertip, and followed
it upwards, wiping it away. She stared at the crimson liquid on her
fingers. Their blood looked the same but it was so different. The
agency had shown her in one of the science labs when she had
questioned them about it. Vampire blood needed human blood to
regenerate itself. Without human blood, vampires grew weak. They
could even die if they didn’t feed for months. She didn’t want Rafe
to grow weak.

Rafe
caught her wrist, brought her hand up to his face, and licked the
blood off her fingers. She stared at his mouth and the tips of his
canines between his lips. She had expected the sight of him tasting
blood to be revolting but it didn’t bother her in the
slightest.

“
That won’t help you,” she said, distant in her ears as she
looked at his mouth and her fingers still beside it. Shannon’s
heart beat harder, drumming in her chest. She held her breath and
pushed her fingers forwards, past his lips, catching her index one
on the tip of his left fang. He pulled away, both horror and desire
in his eyes, and she flinched when his fang sliced her finger
open.

“
Damn it, Shannon.” Rafe held her wrist and frowned at her, and
then his nostrils flared. His pale blue gaze shot straight to her
finger. A bead of blood blossomed from the ragged cut. His voice
dropped to a bare whisper. “Damn it.”

He
swallowed hard.

His hand
shook against her arm.

Shannon
took a steadying breath and offered her finger to him. “Take
it.”

It seemed
he didn’t need much convincing when her blood was already on
display. He seized her waist in a tight grip, dragged her against
his hard body, and sucked her finger onto his mouth. His eyes
closed and he frowned, breathing out hard through his nose as he
suckled her finger. She stared at his mouth, so focused on it and
the way his tongue lapped at her finger, that she didn’t notice him
open his eyes, or the way his gaze fixed on her throat.

He
growled.

She
stilled.

Her eyes
darted to his.

His
stayed on her neck.

A split
second later, he was across the other side of the bathroom, leaning
into the wall near the shower cubicle as though he needed to place
more distance between them and was going to do so by somehow
melting through the white tiles and into the next room.

“
I am sorry.”

Shannon
might have been more convinced if he hadn’t been staring at her
throat with so much hunger and desire in his eyes.

“
I’m not,” she said and his eyes finally came back to hers.
They widened, his expression asking her if she had gone insane.
“I’m not sorry. It was my choice. It’s all my choice,
Rafe.”

She held
her hand out to him.

“
Maybe we should dress and go downstairs where it is warmer.”
Rafe tugged the black bathrobe on and fastened it.

Shannon
sighed and put her white one on. She dabbed her finger on the
bloodied towel and caught Rafe staring at her hand. He wanted it.
She wasn’t blind or stupid. He could deny it all he wanted, but she
knew that deep inside him, he was battling his desire to taste her
blood. She was stronger than he gave her credit for. He wouldn’t
break her if he followed her lead. She could handle him, every
aspect of him, and she was going to prove that.

She would
go downstairs, but she wasn’t going to give up. She wanted him, and
she was going to have him. Now that she had opened the barrier, had
overcome her fear and the voice inside her that said she could
never love a vampire, she felt strong and courageous, and she felt
tired of waiting. She had waited a long time to kiss Rafe, to
finally let herself go and to embrace her feelings instead of
running from them. She wasn’t going to wait anymore. She had
thought that he would give her what she had wanted in the shower,
that he would give in to the passion that so often showed in his
eyes, but her momentary fear and the words that had left her lips
had stopped him for some reason. She remembered that he was over
one hundred years old, born in a time of propriety. He had been a
gentleman to her since she had met him and had abided by what she
had said in the shower, at least until she had started touching
him. If she told him that she wanted him, needed him, and touched
him again, would he make love with her then? If she made the first
move, would he follow her lead?

Shannon
walked out of the bathroom and downstairs to the living room. She
stopped in the middle of the room and ran her gaze over the
Christmas tree in the corner near the closed curtains. The baubles
and decorations were her family’s ones. They glittered in the warm
light of the fake fire to the right of the tree. She had kept them
along with all their other possessions. Most of them were in
storage, but she had gone there this year and retrieved all of the
Christmas things that she could find.

Rafe
stepped up behind her and put his hands on her waist. She leaned
back into him, settling against his firm chest, and sighed. How did
he give her so much comfort by only being close to her? She placed
her hands over his and shifted them, bringing them to settle on her
stomach and holding them there. He wrapped his arms around her and
held her close. She stared at the tree, remembering the good things
in her past and pushing away the bad. It was right to move on and
start to live again. She’d had her vengeance and Rafe was right. It
didn’t make her a monster that she had felt good after she had
killed the vampire. It was natural to feel that way.

She
turned in Rafe’s arms and looped hers around his neck. The cuts on
the side of his head weren’t bleeding anymore. She stroked the
short hair at the back of his head and looked deep into his dark
eyes.

It was
natural for her to love him.

No other
man had ever chased her the way he had, had ever persevered when
she had pushed them away, or had ever fought to better themselves
so they could protect her.

Shannon
kissed him for that reason, for protecting her over the past two
years and for not giving up on her. His grip on her tightened and
he tilted his head, deepening the kiss. Her tongue tangled with
his, unafraid of the coolness of it in her mouth. He groaned and
leaned into her, until she had to arch her back to remain standing.
She traced her tongue over his teeth, teasing his dull canines,
aware of how dangerous it was to do such a thing but unable to
resist the thrill of it. His groan became a growl and he swept her
up into his arms, still kissing the breath from her.

She
smiled when he pulled back and then kneeled down on the rug in
front of the fireplace. The fake flames flickered in the grate,
emanating warmth that chased the chill from her body. She held his
gaze as he laid her down on the plush rug and leaned over her,
planting his hands either side of her head.

He kissed
her again, his mouth rough against hers, stirring her passion and
the heat inside her until she was burning to feel his body on hers.
She smiled against his lips when he tugged on the tie of her
bathrobe and swept it open, and she sighed into his mouth when he
caressed her stomach. It tickled when he reached her side and she
giggled.

Rafe drew
back again.

Shannon
stared up into his dark eyes, the passion and desire in them
echoing through her. She teased the black strands of his hair,
twirling them around her fingers, and then ran her hand over his
cheek to his jaw. He closed his eyes when she scraped her short
nails down his neck and he growled. The low feral sound sent a
sweep of tingles dashing over her skin. She licked her lips to wet
them and slipped her hand into his robe, and then her other joined
it, pushing the item of clothing down his back. She wanted to see
his body again. She needed to feel the coolness of it against hers,
quenching the burning within her.