Niko turned them so that he leaned against the vanity and spread his legs, pulling her in closer. His brows dipped in the center as he lifted her hand for inspection. “I’m not sure about that.”
When she opened her mouth to protest, he touched the top of the sliver, making her gasp.
“Hear me out. Manchester was already in the area. Whether you showed up or not wasn’t going to change that. The vampires would have come regardless.”
That was true. She sagged closer to him. It wasn’t her, per se, that the vampires were chasing, it was that damned hard drive. The fact that the beast thought to use her to get to it wasn’t her fault at all. “You said vampires. As in, plural,” she said, her heart kicking up a notch again.
“The one you disposed of wasn’t the one that was after you before. No one has seen him, but he may still be around.”
She appreciated that he didn’t lie to her or try to placate her by downplaying the danger. “So, what now?”
“We hunker down for the night and start the search again tomorrow. At least the bloodsucker can’t come after us in broad daylight.”
As much as she wanted to believe that, she wasn’t a fool. “It wasn’t dark when I rolled into the garage. The vampire had been on my tail for a while. The clan he belongs to either has a lot of money, or he works for a billionaire. Not many can afford the outfit he had on that would let him be out in the daytime.”
“You have a point.”
“We’ll be careful.”
“We?” he asked, his whole body going rigid with that one little word.
She tried to tug her hand away and step back, but he refused to relinquish it. “Yes, we. I still have a job to do.”
A growl rumbled from his throat. “I don’t like it.”
“I know.”
He sighed and lowered his gaze to her hand again. “We’ll be extra fucking careful.” He reached next to him and pulled a pair of tweezers from the opened first aid kit.
She didn’t have time to say anything more before he had the tip of the sliver caught in the wannabe forceps, otherwise known as a household instrument of torture. Gasping, she turned her face away. She didn’t need to see her flesh stretched this way and that as he worked at removing the splinter from her hand.
“It’s out,” he said. A second later, he pressed his warm lips to the center of her palm. “All better. Almost.”
She couldn’t have stopped her smile from emerging even if she’d wanted to. He’d kissed her boo-boo to make it better. She couldn’t even remember her mother doing that when she was a kid—before she’d abandoned her. “Almost?”
His expression soured as he straightened and pushed her from his warmth. “This is the part that hurts. I’m sorry.”
Before she could process what he was doing, her hand was above the sink, and a cool liquid poured onto her wound. Fire raced along her palm, and she let out a little yelp. When she would have pulled away, Niko held firm. He curled his free hand around her neck and tipped her head up. Then his lips were on hers. The bite in her flesh faded to nothingness as he coaxed his tongue between her lips. When he finally released her, his eyes were glazed and his pupils dilated. He leaned his forehead against hers. “No more pain. Only pleasure,” he whispered as he rinsed her hand under the warm, running water.
Twenty
Water dripped from Rylee’s hand onto the gleaming tile floor, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. Niko had reached up, taken her hair down, and now stood in front of her, his skillful fingers doing things to her scalp that she swore should be reserved for the bedroom. Her eyes rolled back. “That feels so good.” Any better, and she might start to drool. How sexy.
“I can make you feel better,” he promised as he brought his magic hands to her shoulders.
“Is that right?” she asked, her voice sounding a little raspy and a whole lot needy.
“I think so.” He leaned in closer and licked the corner of her mouth before pulling back.
“And how would you do that?”
With his hands on her hips, he pulled her forward, taking her with him toward the glass-enclosed shower. He reached inside and turned the faucet. Before long, steam billowed around them. “First, I’d remove my clothes,” he said as he pulled his T-shirt up and off, exposing the hard chest she loved to run her hands—and tongue—all over. Next came the jeans. When he pulled them past his hips, he took his boxers along with them. Those, along with his socks, joined his T-shirt on the floor.
He reached into the shower again and adjusted the temperature. Her mouth watered at the sight of all that muscle twisting and reaching. There wasn’t a single part of him that wasn’t hard.
When he turned again, he caught her ogling and grinned. “Then, I’d take all your clothes off.” He quirked an eyebrow as though asking permission to proceed and she almost laughed. Like she’d ever say no.
He reached for her then, stroking his hands from her shoulders to her wrists and up again, then down her chest and over her breasts, making her nipples pucker into tight nubs before moving to the hem of the T-shirt she’d borrowed.
For a second, from the way he’d grabbed the material, she thought he’d tear it in half. She brought her hands down to cover his. “Don’t. I love this shirt.”
“I’ll buy you twenty more,” he promised, then when she gasped and tried to pull away, he loosened his hold.
She didn’t want twenty more. She needed this one. His scent permeated the fabric. It didn’t
