wouldn’t be interested in humans. This one lost his blood partner a few years ago and probably wouldn’t be looking for a serious relationship.
As Josh ticked off the reasons why they would be bad choices and handed me the cards, I kept a few of them. The playboy. The widow. Both of those sounded like likely prospects to me.
“This one is not a good idea,” Josh said, picking another card off the table and handing it to me. “He’s a kinky fuck. Men and women together, and he’ll just watch.”
I took the card with a frown. “How do you know this?”
“I got an invitation once.”
I raised my eyebrows at him.
“I didn’t go. I’m not into that sort of thing. I am a one-woman-at-a-time sort of guy.” He leaned in, as if confessing a secret. “I like to devote all my attention to one woman. Make her feel sexy. Needed. Touch her body and bring every nerve ending to attention. Make her feel like she’s the only thing in the universe in that moment.”
My breath caught in my throat.
His gaze slid to my mouth before he looked away again. “Can’t do that in a group.”
“Guess not,” I said weakly. The room sure felt awfully warm. Distracted, I placed the card at the bottom of the stack I was holding.
He watched, then reached over and snatched the two cards I’d earmarked. “What’s this?”
“Nothing,” I said defensively, reaching for them. “Give those back.”
He looked at the first card, then at me. “You want to date the fanged Don Juan? Are you serious?”
“If he’s not discerning about his dates, I have greater odds of getting him to go out with me.”
“Marie, I thought you were looking for a guy with fangs. This makes it sound like you’re looking for
“No,” I said and reached for the card again.
He held it over his head, out of my reach.
As if that’d stop me. I climbed onto his lap and ripped the card from his hand, then shot him a triumphant look.
Suddenly his arm went around my waist, pinning me against him. My face was just an inch away from his, and his gaze was focused on me, his eyes intense. I became very aware that my breasts were pressed to his chest, and my legs were now straddling his. It was very . . . intimate.
“If I’d known that was all it took to get you to climb all over me, Marie,” he said in a husky voice, “I’d have done that hours ago.”
The words were playful, but I remained frozen by that soft, sultry tone in his voice. His gaze held mine pinned, and I noticed how beautiful his eyes were, how long his lashes. I thought of earlier, with him behind me, his hand knotted in my hair, his eyes flashing to cat.
And I suddenly didn’t want to move.
“How good are you at kissing?” Josh asked me, his gaze dropping to my mouth.
“Kissing?” I repeated.
“Vampires have an oral fixation,” he said, his hand stroking down my back in a move that made my entire body shiver in response. “Do you need to brush up on your kissing?”
I hadn’t kissed anyone in over ten years. “I . . . I don’t know,” I admitted. “Are you . . . offering?”
“We can kiss and I’ll tell you how you’re doing, if you like.” That hand continued to stroke my back, drugging me in an almost hypnotic way. His voice was low and soft, as if he was afraid I was going to bolt, and his gaze gleamed golden-green, reflecting like a cat’s. “I can show you a few techniques. You can get comfortable with the thought of kissing someone with fangs in their mouth. See what it’s like to taste them.”
My gaze dropped to his mouth, imagining his lips on mine. My pulse beat slowly, awareness tingling through me. He wanted to kiss me and was just using this as a pretense. Yet . . . it didn’t seem like a bad idea.
Perhaps I was crazy.
Or perhaps I really just wanted to kiss him. Perhaps that hand on my back was driving me insane, that low, soothing voice, smoothing away all my inhibitions.
And if he was right that vampires liked to kiss, I did need to brush up.
“All right,” I said, suddenly feeling shy. I closed my eyes and waited.
Josh rumbled a laugh, and I felt it all through my chest. His other hand stole to my nape. “You don’t want to watch my technique?”
Oh. Oops. I opened my eyes just as his mouth brushed lightly against mine.
All rational thought vanished. I stared at him, dumbfounded, as he closed his eyes and his lips played over mine. Oh, that was . . . erotic. I gasped against his mouth, feeling desire surge through my body. I watched, fascinated, as he tilted his mouth ever so slightly against mine and his tongue stroked between my lips, demanding entrance.
And then my eyes closed and I fell into the kiss, wrapped up in the sensation of his soft lips against mine, the harsh rasp of stubble against my cheek, the warm, solid thrust of his tongue that moved in a slow, delicious rhythm that made my pulse pound. His tongue slid against mine, coaxing and rubbing, before stroking deep again. Possessive and sweet and playful all at once. As if he had all the time in the world to kiss me.
His hand slid to my ass and he pulled me tighter against him.
I yelped and pushed at his chest, not sure where to look. Anywhere but at him. I pried his hand off my ass and slid away down the couch.
“Thanks, I think,” I said softly. My mouth felt swollen and slick.
“You were right,” he said. “Your technique needs some work.”
I gaped at him. “I can’t believe you just said that!”
A hint of a teasing smile played at his mouth and my gaze locked there, fascinated by his lips. I felt the absurd urge to lean down and lick them.
“We should probably practice more, until you’re comfortable with it,” those gorgeous lips said.
Then the reality of what he was saying sank in, and I grabbed a throw pillow and smacked him with it. “You just did that to kiss me!”
“Hey,” he said, raising his hands to ward off my blow, a grin on his face. “You were the one crawling into my lap.”
“Good night,” I said pointedly.
“Suit yourself,” he said, rising from the couch. At the door, he turned back to face me. “Just call me if you need me. I’m off for the next four days, then I’m on for the next eight. We can work on prepping you for your first date with a vampire, if you like. And we can practice more.”
I shut the door in his face.
And then I leaned against it, ignoring his chuckle from the other side, and touched my mouth with wondering fingers. That kiss . . .
If I could have fallen asleep, I’d have dreamed about a kiss like that. To think that it had come from him, the man who was supposed to have been helping me prepare for snagging a vampire. The man who had repeatedly offered a one-night stand. No strings attached, because strings weren’t allowed between human and Alliance. I had scoffed at the offer every time. Sleep with Josh, just for the sheer pleasure of it?
Before that kiss, I’d have never entertained such a thought.
Yet now it was all I could think about. One night. In Josh’s arms. Kissing. Making love.
Part of me wondered if I should seize the opportunity while I could.
• • •
I was still thinking about that kiss when I went in to work on Monday night. Maybe I could get Josh to turn me?
Beau would be furious, but he couldn’t stay mad at his brother, and Josh seemed to like spending time with me. He wouldn’t have to marry me, after all; just change me. Enough to give me a second lease on life.
“Bad news,” Sara said as I entered the office. Her face looked drawn and unhappy.
My heart clenched. “What kind of bad news?”
“Remember that were-tiger who changed the human girl? It just got worse.”
“What happened?”
