"It's okay," Victor said quickly. "I was just passing through. You forgot to unlock the
door downstairs. I knocked, but there was no answer, so I thought I'd just slip through
your room to do it."
"Oh," Elvi breathed her shoulders relaxing. "I—You startled me. I didn't expect…" Her
voice trailed away and she glanced down at the bundle she'd dropped. Clutching at her
towel with one hand, she bent to retrieve the bundle with the other, but something
slipped free and wafted back to the floor as she straightened. Victor moved forward at
once.
"Here, let me get that." He knelt to pick up the bit of silk, his brain slow to realize they
were red silk panties. Recognizing that, he started to raise his face to glance at her
apologetically, but his eyes got caught on her naked legs. They were lovely. Pale, but
perfect. And there was a drop of water she'd missed while drying. It was at the top
inside of her knee and he had the sudden, crazy urge to lean forward and catch it with
his tongue.
A small sound from Elvi dragged him back to his senses, and Victor forced himself
upright. He held the bit of cloth between them. "Your… er…"
Flushing, Elvi took the panties from him, murmuring, "Thank you. I'm sorry I forgot to
unlock the door."
"Yes," Victor mumbled, his eyes locked on her lips. There was another drop of water
just there in the center of her lower lip. It seemed to be taunting him, daring him to
capture her lower lip between both of his and suck off the drop.
Her expression was confused and uncertain, but he could also hear her heartbeat and
knew it was racing in response to his nearness. As was his own, he realized.
"Victor?" His name was barely a breath of sound, but it was enough to send the water
droplet tumbling forward. Before it could roll off, Victor swooped forward, closing his
mouth over her lower lip and drawing on it gently, capturing the drop and taking it into
his mouth.
Elvi drew in a small gasp of surprise and Victor took full advantage. Shifting, he covered
both her lips, allowing his tongue to fill the space between. She tasted sweet and
smelled of vanilla, the aroma of home‐baked cookies. Victor had an urge to eat her up.
It was a reaction he hadn't had since his wife had died and was impossible for him to
ignore. Giving into it, he used his tongue to urge her mouth further open, slid one hand
up to her head to tilt it, then deepened the kiss even as his other hand slid around her
waist to flatten against her lower spine and urge her body forward.
Elvi moaned into his mouth, her own hands creeping to his arms and clutching as he let
the hand at her back drift down to the edge of the towel and slip beneath to close over
one firm cheek of her behind.
It was the stomp of feet on the stairs leading to the deck that made him stop. Breaking
the kiss, Victor glanced toward the open door to the sunroom, cursing himself for not
closing it. He released Elvi with an apology and stepped away, pausing abruptly and
bending to catch at her towel as it began to drift to the floor. When his hand closed
over it, he found his face directly in front of one round breast, it's nipple a puckered
rose.
Victor closed his eyes briefly against the temptation, then forced himself upward and
wrapped the towel around her. He then placed her hand over it, turned her toward the
bathroom and gave her a gentle push back into the room as someone knocked at the
sunroom door.
"I'll get that," he murmured, pulling the bathroom door closed behind her. Then Victor
took a moment to run his fingers through his hair, gave his head a shake to get it
working again, and moved into the sunroom.
Chapter Eleven
"Sorry," DJ said when Victor opened the door. "We were starting to get worried. First
Elvi went to unlock the door and didn't return, and then you went with the same
result. We thought maybe something was wrong."
Alessandro nodded from his position on the step below DJ.
"No. Nothing wrong," Victor assured them. "Elvi just forgot and went to take a bath."
"Ah," DJ murmured, and then raised an eyebrow, obviously expecting an explanation
for his own failure to unlock it.
Victor ignored the look. He stood there, solid as stone, waiting.
"Alessandro has to use the facilities and I need a bag of blood. I haven't eaten all day,"
DJ announced when Victor remained silent.
"Oh." Victor hesitated, his gaze moving to the closed bathroom door and then he
reluctantly stepped back and gestured them in.
"Thank you," Alessandro said as he slipped out through the bedroom door Victor
opened a moment later. "I'll unlock door to kitchen on my way back out."