“What did I do?” I whispered, touching his cheek.
He opened his eyes and they seemed to burn right into my soul. I stared in awe as a fire ignited around his irises and grew into flames.
My eyes widened. “Are you okay?”
He touched my cheek with his finger, drawing circles. “I’m fine… and you’ve done nothing but… make me want you more than ever,” he whispered. “I just needed a second to regain my control.”
“Oh.”
“Now, where were we?” he asked as his fingers moved down my neck and across my chest. Before I could respond, the front of my dress was ripped open and his mouth was on my skin.
“Oh,” I moaned as his tongue trailed wet kisses to my nipples, teasing and driving me insane with desire.
“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered, cupping my breasts as his mouth moved upwards. When I realized where he stopped, I tensed up, wondering what would happen next.
Was he actually going to bite me? And worse, would I care?
His tongue stroked the skin near my collarbone and then moved up towards my ear, nibbling and licking. As I began to relax, his right hand released my breast and his fingers moved down my ribcage, across my bellybutton to my panties, stopping right at the edge of the cotton.
“Invite me in,” he whispered against my neck.
“Yes…” I whispered, my legs trembling.
He ran one of his fingers over the top of the material and I gasped. “Say it…” he demanded.
“Come in, Ethan…”
Just as his fingers began to slide under the fabric, the door burst open and he shot up. His face was a mask of monstrous rage and my heart stopped as I saw his fangs for the first time. “What is the meaning of this?!” he growled.
Sheriff Caleb stood facing us while I pulled the blankets over my exposed body. His face was burning red, as were his homicidal eyes. “Why in the fuck did you bring her here?!”
Chapter Twenty-Four
They’d locked me in the bedroom but I could still hear their angry shouts from somewhere in the house. Caleb said he had to bring me back, but Ethan raged that I belonged with him. I wanted to go home desperately and prayed that Ethan would give in and release me.
There was a soft knock at the door and then it opened. An attractive red-haired girl entered the room, who I only assumed was Celeste, Caleb’s daughter. This time she wasn’t wearing glasses and her startling green eyes stared at me with interest.
“Here,” she said, throwing me a pair of shorts and T-shirt. “I heard you needed this.”
I stared at her, wondering if she was a vampire, too.
“Yes,” she said with a sardonic grin. “I am whatever it is you think I am.”
“What, you can read minds?” I asked.
She laughed. “No, I could tell what you were thinking by the expression on your face.”
“What are they going to do with me?” I asked.
“If Ethan had his way, you’d never leave his side. Caleb doesn’t really trust you, but he has the hots for your mom and isn’t willing to hurt her.”
I scowled. “How fucking sensitive of him.”
She laughed. “So, what do you want to do?” she asked. “Do you care for Ethan?”
“I don’t know,” I said, pulling the T-shirt over my head, “he stares into my eyes and I want nothing more than to be with him. But that’s not real, is it? Isn’t that some kind of power he has to control people?”
She nodded. “True.”
“But, even now…” I said. “He has this effect on me and he’s not even in the room. I guess I really might feel something for him. It’s all so confusing.”
“It’s only natural to feel lust towards him, if that’s all it is. He’s very sexy.”
“That is no lie.”
“Caleb said he caught you with some guy named Duncan,” she said.
“Yeah,” I answered. “I’ve kind of been seeing Duncan.”
“Are you in love with this, Duncan?”
“I think I’m confused. I don’t know. Maybe I’m a little in love with both of them.”
She smiled. “Being in love with one of us is dangerous. If you decide to stay with Ethan, you can’t live a normal life.”
I swallowed. “So, are you vampires?”
She grimaced. “I never did like that word.”
I swallowed. “So… do you suck people’s blood?”
She stepped closer to me and touched my cheek as I held my breath. “We take nourishment wherever we can get it. Some are willing to give us our nourishment, some don’t have much say in the matter.”