Must Love Fangs

masking his expression.

Uh-oh. I paused on my side of the door, thinking.

“I can hear you there, Marie. And I can smell you. You smell good, by the way.”

I blushed.

“You can’t hide from a shifter. Might as well open up and let me in.”

Damn. I opened the door and looked at him, taking in his clean-shaven face, the sexy mouth pressed into a firm line. The tense shoulders. He didn’t seem happy. Well, that made two of us.

I tilted my head. “What are you doing here?”

“We need to talk,” he said, and he didn’t look very pleased at the thought.

“I thought you didn’t have anything to say to me.”

He adjusted his baseball cap, a sure sign he was annoyed. “Can you just invite me in, already?”

I moved to the side, my face a careful mask. Inside, I churned with a mixture of irritation and hurt and . . . if I was being honest with myself, pleasure at seeing Josh again. “So what brings you over? Just get off work? I’m surprised the boss didn’t keep you late. You know, just in case more of those ill-timed calls came in.”

He tugged his cap off, then raked a hand through his hair, trying to judge my expression. “You mad?”

Caught red-handed. “I’m just trying to figure out your game here. It seems remarkably coincidental that you’re bodyguarding the guy that I’m seeing.”

“Not coincidental at all,” Josh said, coming closer, “considering that a friend of mine made up the threat as a favor to me. Andre called in an extra guard for the night, just in case.”

I stepped back, glaring at him. “You faked a threat just so you could shadow him on his date with me?”

“No. We just told him there was a threat. We let vampire paranoia do the rest.” He looked rather smug.

“I don’t believe you,” I said with disgust. “Is that going to happen on my next date, too? Because I don’t know if you’ve thought about this, Josh, but if he’s going to turn me, he’s going to want to do more than hold my hand.”

That familiar scowl darkened Josh’s handsome face. Was that possessiveness I saw in his eyes? I stalked across the room to put some distance between us and sat on the small love seat that was at a right angle to my couch. If he was going to talk to me he’d have to sit on the couch, because the love seat couldn’t sit more than one comfortably.

No sooner had I thought it than he was sliding next to me, his hips pushing against mine, his thigh pressed to my own. He turned his big body toward me and leaned in.

“Are you going to let him kiss you again?” There was that gleam of possessive cougar in his eyes again.

“Josh,” I said softly, “I need him to turn me. You know that.”

“Let me talk to Beau,” he said, his voice dropping. “We can tell him that I want to turn you.”

I eyed him, wary. “And then what? You go into exile with me? Because I’m pretty sure neither of us will like Greenland.”

“That won’t happen,” he said confidently.

“Don’t lie to me, Josh.”

“Fine,” he bit out, looming over me, all delicious and sexy. “Here’s the truth. I don’t like it when he kisses you. I don’t like it when he touches your hand and you smile at him. It makes me so fucking crazy that I want to drag him away from you. I want to pull you into my arms and kiss you the way you should be kissed. By a man, not by some undead guy.”

That was a lot of honesty. My breathing was faster, more shallow. He was so close that I could smell the warmth of his skin, and it was doing crazy things to me inside.

“So yes, I hate it when he touches you. I couldn’t stop myself from interrupting. And I’m not sorry. The only reason he’s still in one piece at the moment is because this is what you need, and I am trying”—he ground his teeth, then gritted out—“to be understanding.”

That was . . . sweet.

“I didn’t enjoy kissing him,” I told him.

Josh scowled. “Oh, come on, Marie. Every girl enjoys vampire kisses. Their saliva is an aphrodisiac.”

“It’s . . . what?” That explained how I’d been completely uninterested, and then it was like a switch flipped and bam, insta-lust. “Aphrodisiac?”

That sounded . . . appalling. He’d deliberately drugged me with his kiss?

Josh looked surprised. “You didn’t know?”

“Well, that explains a lot. I guess there are some rather large gaps in my supernatural education.”

I felt violated. Andre had taken me to a quiet, secluded spot knowing how I’d react to his kiss. And if Josh hadn’t stopped it, I was pretty sure there would’ve been full-on sex. I shuddered.

“Now you see why it bothers me to see you with him?” His fingers stroked a curl of my hair, brushed it behind my ear in a tender caress.

A very tender caress for a man who had ignored me for the past two days. I shoved at his chest. “You don’t get to be jealous. I poured my heart out to you and told you my secret, and you ignored me for two days.”

I couldn’t help the note of hurt that had crept into my voice. I only hoped he hadn’t noticed it. Mr. Playboy didn’t get to hurt my feelings. I was ice. That was how things were safest.

But he just kept stroking my hair, then lightly grazed the shell of my ear with his fingers. “Give a guy a break, Marie,” he said softly. “You just told me that the girl I’m crazy about is dying. And the only way to stop her from dying is to let her sleep with another man and have him turn her into a vampire. And there’s nothing I can do about it, because I understand it. But that doesn’t make me feel any less helpless.”

My gaze went to his mouth, so firm and strong. His gaze was direct, and I resisted the urge to reach out and brush my fingers over those impossibly long lashes. So unfair for a man to have lashes like that. They made his eyes soft. Sultry. Delicious. His gaze sent shivers through my body. “You’re crazy about me?”

“Must be my hero complex,” he said softly. “I wish I could leave you alone and make this vampire thing easier for you. But it’s driving me nuts. All of it. You in his arms. The thought of you dying. The thought of walking away and just leaving all this to play out. I’m stuck no matter which way I turn, Marie.” His fingers trailed across my cheek, and his thumb slid to my mouth, brushing over the curve of my lower lip. “So I’d rather be stuck here with you.”

His touch felt incredible. He was here, with me. And I realized that this was his way of supporting me.

I bit at the tip of his finger when he brushed it over my lip, then released it. “So what are you going to do?” I whispered.

“Well,” he said, and his weight pressed over me on the love seat, his mouth moving ever closer to mine. He plucked my glasses off, then tossed them onto the nearby couch. His hand moved back to me, cupping my cheek and tilting my face toward his. I felt hot and flushed, in a clearer, purer way than when the vampire had touched me. This time, I felt the heat pulsing through my body, felt that delicious excitement at his touch. “Right now, I’m fighting the urge to throw you down on this love seat and fuck the hell out of you.”

That sounded way too tempting. “Why are you fighting it?”

He groaned and leaned in, pressing his mouth to my neck. “Marie, I can’t be with you without . . . putting some sort of claim on you. If you and I do this, I’m not going to be able to walk away like you want me to.”

“I don’t want you to walk away,” I said, and bit his lower lip, unable to help myself. “I never said that.”

“I don’t know what the solution is, but we’ll figure something out,” he said and nipped at my neck. The bite was flutteringly light, just a tease.

“Let’s just take it one day at a time,” I told him. “And today, I want my hands all over you.”

“Good, because mine are about to be all over you.”

“Then do it,” I dared him. “Or are you chicken?”

“Fighting words,” he said. His mouth was hot on my skin and incredibly distracting, and I loved it. He buried his head against my neck, and I felt his tongue swipe over my collarbone.

I gasped at the sensation that jolted through me.

He pulled up, eyeing me. “Everything okay?”

“I hope you’re not going to ask that every time I make a noise,” I told him, smoothing my hands down his