"Goodnight, Sarita," Mrs. Dressler said, reaching out to squeeze her hand affectionately. "Sleep well."
"You too," Sarita said and then stood to kiss her cheek, before straightening to hug her grandmother and kiss her cheek too.
Both women beamed at her for the affectionate display, and then Mrs. Dressler smiled at Domitian and said, "Thorne's room is the first door on the left at the top of the stairs. You should run along to bed. You look ready to drop."
Domitian nodded politely and stood as Sarita's grandmother began to wheel the woman away. When the ladies disappeared into the room and Sarita turned back, he kissed her cheek gently. "I'll leave you to your grandmother and go get some rest. Sleep well."
"Goodnight," Sarita whispered, and he saw her earlier concern flicker across her face. "Are you okay?"
"I am fine," he assured her and then turned and slipped away before she could ask anything else that might force him to lie.
"Well, this is Elizabeth's old room," Sarita's grandmother said, a little breathless from mounting the stairs. She gestured to the door on their right as they stepped into the upper hall.
"Oh." Sarita glanced at it and then said, "I'll just walk you to your door."
"Don't be silly. It's only a couple feet. Go on in and go to bed. I know you must be tired." She patted her shoulder, then turned her cheek up and Sarita bent to kiss her again, which made the woman beam once more. Turning away, she headed for the door at the end of the hall and said, "Goodnight, dear."
"Goodnight," Sarita murmured and watched her, but then she opened her door and slipped inside when her grandmother reached her own door and glanced back.
Sarita eased the door closed and then simply stood there listening until she heard her grandmother's door open and close. Letting her breath out on a little sigh, she then eased her door open again and glanced out into the hall. Finding it empty, Sarita hesitated, her gaze sliding to the door across the hall where Domitian was. But finally, she slipped out and tiptoed across to his door.
She started to raise her hand to knock, but caught herself at the last moment and rolled her eyes. Someone would hear. She was definitely tired. Giving her head a shake, Sarita turned the doorknob slowly and carefully and then slipped inside.
Domitian was lying on top of the bed, fully clothed and wide awake. He sat up at once as she entered, but remained silent as she eased his door carefully closed. He didn't say anything after that even, but simply watched silently as she approached the bed, Sarita noted as her gaze slid over him.
He was wearing jeans and a backless shirt. She'd noticed that when he'd walked away to go upstairs. But then she supposed she shouldn't have expected anything else. Thorne wouldn't have shirts with backs in them. Still it had startled her and she'd had to bite back a laugh.
She wasn't laughing now. You couldn't see that the shirt was different from the front and this was the first time she'd seen him in anything but boxers. He was sexy in boxers, but she found him just as irresistible in clothes. Domitian wasn't as pretty as Thorne, she supposed, if you took him feature by feature, but there was just something about him that appealed to her.
"Sarita," he growled in warning and rolled off the other side of the large bed as she started to sit on the edge of it beside him.
Straightening, she frowned and walked around to the bottom of the bed as he did.
"You should not be here," Domitian whispered, catching her arms as if to hold her back. "We need to sleep."
"Yes we do," Sarita agreed. "But you need blood too."
"Si," he admitted grimly. "Unfortunately, there is none to be had just at the moment."
"There is," she said solemnly and shifted her long hair away from her neck. Pushing it over her shoulder to trail down her back, she bared her throat to him. Sarita didn't say anything, simply tilted her head to the side, offering him her neck.
"So," the word came out on a hissed breath, and then Domitian pressed a kiss to her throat and murmured, "the impossible has happened."
"What?" she asked with confusion, shivering as his lips ran along her throat.
"Hell has frozen over," he whispered, reminding her of her words on first meeting him. Hell would freeze over before she let him bite her, she'd claimed.
Before Sarita could respond, his teeth sank into her throat. She stiffened at the sharp pain it caused and then relaxed as that was suddenly gone and pleasure slid through her, a warm wet sensation that settled low in her belly.
Moaning, she pressed closer, her arms sliding around his shoulders, her hands cradling his head as he drank from her. Somehow one of his legs was between both of hers and she gasped as it rubbed against her, and then she shifted, rubbing back and adding to her pleasure as he-was suddenly gone.