His sire really had been part vampire, hadn’t he.
All Dev’s life, he’d taken after his mother’s side of things, no fangs, no drinking blood, no transition, and no night-only shit. But there was something primal happening, right under his skin, as he carried Lyric to that apartment she didn’t really live in… something that felt ancient and important.
Not that she could ever take his blood.
“What else were you going to talk to me about,” she asked. “Back at the stairwell.”
“Before or after the incredible blow job.”
Lyric’s laughter vibrated into him, and he would have closed his eyes just so he could track every nuance of it if he could have. But he didn’t need both of them on their asses.
Up ahead, the vertical lettering on the side of the high-rise glowed like a false moon: COMMODORE. Of course she would have an apartment in a place like that—a place where she could take humans if she was going to be with them—
A sudden urge to snarl cut off that line of thinking.
But come on. Like she hadn’t had lovers before? And maybe there were other reasons for her to have a crash pad in the midst of the other species: Like a pretend driver’s license or social security number, it was another level of nothing-to-see-here.
Part of the necessary ruse.
“Dev? What do you need to tell me?”
He shook his head. “Sorry, I just…”
“It’s okay.” She cleared her throat. “Look, I know that you’re not going to see me again after tonight—”
“That’s not what I was going to tell you.”
“It isn’t?”
No, his revelation was going to lead to that, though. When she threw him out for being her mortal enemy.
All he could do was shake his head again, and take them across the street—jaywalking, of course, because there was no traffic—so they could go down the last block. As he surmounted the steps to the glass ring of doors, he felt like something was stabbing him in the chest, and the sensation got so much worse as he lowered her back down onto her own two feet while he leaned forward to get the door for her.
The warmth and light of the lobby should have been a welcome relief, but as they both waved at the security guard behind the front desk and headed for the elevators, the sense that he was sending her off into a world he could never be part of made him long for the darkness and the cold.
When they got to the buttons to summon the lift, he wanted toredirect 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.
