only too happy serving as a tray for the second half of the ice cream, and it had never tasted better than licking it off a warm, willing body.
Returning to the bed after I’d cleaned up, I expected him to be up for the next round—whatever that was—but he shook his head and simply kissed me deeply when I suggested as much.
“I think it’s for the best to keep the rest of that list for next time,” he suggested.
I put on a pout, but I had to admit that I felt worn out enough to sleep for a century. Then what he really had said seeped through the haze of exhaustion clogging my brain.
“Next time?” I wanted to know.
“If you’re up for it,” he amended, then flashed me a toothy grin that made desire all over my body flame up anew. “Why do I get the sense that you won’t say no?”
“I could ask Emily to match me with someone else. Sample the buffet, you know?” I teased.
His lips twisted into a wry smile, and before I knew what was happening, he had me pressed deep into the mattress, his cock pressing eagerly against my hip. While I stared up at his—decidedly hungry—grin, I felt him harden, which made me gasp.
“Now that’s fast,” I remarked, then tried to shift my hips in a way that would let him slide into me, but he moved his hips back out of range.
“Told you there were advantages to screwing a vamp,” he offered, then leaned in for a last, deep kiss, leaving the taste of blood on my tongue where he nicked it one last time, making me shudder with need all over.
“So, next time?”
“Next time,” I agreed, then closed my eyes and stretched out as I felt the bed dip as he got up.
I watched him dress with a certain sense of melancholy, but couldn’t manage to wipe the stupid grin off my face. When he saw me watching, he laughed under his breath and shook his head, then returned to me one last time to steal another kiss.
“Feel free to stay and rest as long as you want. And order some breakfast when you wake up. I hear it’s delicious.”
“Will do,” I promised, then closed my eyes again, and I was asleep before the sound of the closing door fully registered.
I woke up several hours later, the early morning sun bathing the room in a warm glow as no one had bothered with closing the drapes.
Heeding Lewis’s advice, I called room service for breakfast, then took another long soak in the tub as I enjoyed my morning coffee.
Studying myself in the full-length mirror in the bathroom, I decided that I looked less worn out than I felt. Sure, I was a little pale, but not as much as I’d expected. All of the bite marks were healed already, thanks to whatever it was that vampires had in their saliva, but they were still tender, leaving wonderfully echoing reminders of last night all over my body.
I dressed, not bothering with makeup, then made my way back to the elevators after one last, lingering look of nostalgia into the room.
My mind was half lost in daydreaming about last night as I stepped into the elevator, but when it stopped immediately after starting to descend, I frowned at the number on the display. Sure enough, the cabin came to a halt on the floor underneath the one I’d gotten in on, and when the door opened, Rachel—of all possible people—backed into the elevator, a stupid grin on her face as she waved to some guy who was leaning against the wall outside.
“I’ll call you!” he remarked dryly when she blew him a raspberry.
The doors closed and she leaned against the mirrored back wall of the cabin, sagging with exhaustion. In fact, she seemed so out of it that I had to clear my throat noisily for her to notice me, and even then she didn’t jump, but just turned her head to look at me.
If I felt worn out, she looked worse, but that inane grin that remained on her face spoke a very clear language of where it hailed from. Cocking one brow, I did my best to give her a haughty glare.
“Hi, Rachel.”
“Celia,” she acknowledged, trying for a stern