Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 142050 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 474(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142050 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 474(@300wpm)
When they got to the buttons to summon the lift, he wanted to redirect them both to somewhere, anywhere, just to prolong things. How about another stairwell—
“Oh?” she drawled. “Would you like to walk up fourteen floors?”
If she was willing to unzip his jeans again? He’d go to the top of the fucking building—with a car on his shoulders.
“Sorry, guess I was thinking out loud.” He punched the up button. “Although you’ve turned me on to fire doors. Who knew that was my kink.”
“Safety first.”
“Always—”
Bing!
As the doors opened, he extended his arm to make sure she got in safely, and then followed. He’d had some idea that he was going to leave her off at the glass doors. Then at the elevator. Now it looked like he was going to head all the way up to that apartment—
Lyric took one step and brought their bodies together.
She didn’t say a thing. Her eyes did all the talking.
“I can’t stay,” he said hoarsely. “I… shouldn’t. I know I keep going back and forth, but every time I’m with you, I forget my fucking mind.”
Her disappointment was almost hidden. Almost.
“Okay,” she whispered.
Stroking her hair back, he lingered on her shoulders and imagined what she looked like underneath his windbreaker.
“Lyric, I want to…”
“What,” she prompted.
“I want to be with you tonight, but I have something I need to do first.” When all she did was nod, he felt the distance of everything he wasn’t telling her. “Here’s the thing. I want to take care of you, I want to do the right thing.”
The tension in her eased a little. “You do?”
“I do.”
There was a bump and the doors opened. Extending his arm again to hold things back, he made sure she cleared the threshold before stepping out himself, and it seemed like the most natural thing in the world to put his arm around her and escort her down the hall.
When they got to her apartment, she took out a copper key and slipped it into the dead bolt. As she unlocked things, he liked that she didn’t beg him to come in or try to seduce him into staying. Not his Lyric. She was above all that.
As she stepped through and turned around, he recognized the shadows in her beautiful eyes, and even though there were so many reasons to keep his mouth shut short of a goodbye, he wanted to ease her. Even though he couldn’t.
“Don’t think so much,” he said quietly. “Bad for the soul.”
“I’m not sure the great philosophers would agree with you.”
“They’re all dead. So what do they know.” He dropped a kiss to her mouth. “Thank you for tonight. And no, I don’t want to end us here. I keep trying to, but… the idea of never seeing you again feels all wrong.”
Her hands drifted up to the pads of his chest. “It’s the same for me.”
His eyes roamed around her face and then he brushed his thumb over her lower lip. “You shouldn’t worry… over what you’re concerned about.”
“Wouldn’t that be nice advice to take.”
As Lyric gave him a rueful look, he kissed her one more time and then eased back. “See you tomorrow night?”
“Yes,” she said.
“It’s a date, then.”
He forced himself to turn away, and as he started to stride off, she called out, “What do you think I’m worried about?”
Dev paused at the elevators. As he looked down the hall at her, he knew in his gut he was going to remember the image of her standing in that doorway, her thigh-high boots all sex-symbol, his windbreaker more this-is-my-boyfriend’s.
“I’ll see you tomorrow night.”
Bing! As the doors parted for him, she said, “Wait! Your windbreaker!”
“Keep it,” he tossed back as he got in and punched the L button.
* * *
Lyric ran down the hall after Dev, but she didn’t make it in time. The elevator closed and sealed up just as she skidded to a halt. She didn’t even manage to catch one last glimpse of him.
Crossing her arms over her chest, she glanced at the hem of his jacket. Then she walked back to the apartment and shut herself in. As she leaned against the door, she had the eerie sense that he knew what she was, and had been trying to indirectly reassure her.
But she’d been so careful about not flashing her fangs, and it wasn’t like he’d ever suggested they meet up during the day—something she was never going to be able to do. Even that lesser fight had been too distant for him to see anything that might be a tip-off something paranormal was going on.
And most humans had no clue vampires lived in their midst.
“I don’t know,” she muttered.
As she went down to the bedroom, there was a marked disappointment that he wasn’t with her, that there were no naked things happening on the soft mattress—not that they would have made it all the way down here.