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Disappointment gnaws at something inside of me as I watch Scarlet sprint toward the edge of the forest. I’m not surprised that the allure of freedom and her inability to understand my answers have led to this moment, yet still it makes me … sad. I suppose some part of me had fantasized an easier conversation, where her curiosity and our mutual attraction held her rooted to her seat. Perhaps I am more of a fool than I knew.
I stand and turn only enough to watch her beautiful hair streak through the early evening sky, a fiery trail in her wake. Ironic, really. She glances over her shoulder at me and I make a point of holding her gaze as I polish off my wine, a drink nowhere near as satisfying as her meal, if sensual groans of delight are any measure to go by.
When she’s within a few yards of vanishing from sight, I set my emptied glass down and give chase. Of course, catching her before she could cross into the foliage is not an issue.
Only then, finally, does her conscious mind seem to accept that there is more to the situation than she knows. It takes very little prompting from there to get her to ask the question I have been simultaneously dreading and anticipating since the day I brought her home.
“What are you?”
She pants the words and her body is frozen before me in a familiar combination of shock and trepidation. Only it isn’t me she fears, but the answer I will give.
I hold her gaze unflinchingly, making sure she can see the absolute seriousness of my response in my eyes. She has dismissed all prior evidence from her dreams as merely dreams, the same as she has dismissed the dreams themselves, or she would already know what I’m going to say. “I am a vampire.”
Scarlet swallows hard and her heart beats faster, but moments pass before she finds words. “You expect me to believe that?”
A small grin tips my lips. She is truly resistant to the end. “Do you have a better explanation?”
Her gaze breaks from mine and sweeps over me again. I can see her desperately searching for an answer that doesn’t shatter her world view.
I choose to challenge her. “Would you find it easier to believe I’m an alien?”
She makes a face immediately. “So you are teasing me.” She sucks in a large breath, her chest heaving and distracting me, and crosses her arms. “You told me to ask you. Doesn’t that imply you’re going to be straight with me?”
“I have been honest with you from the start.”
Her expression screams her disbelief. “You just tried to tell me you’re a—”
I’m in her personal space before she finishes the statement, before she can blink or react. I know she could not have seen my feet leave the grass or my body so much as prepare for movement. Her scent assails me, tinged with the remnants of her dinner, and I take hold of her chin to keep her from ducking her gaze.
“Vampire.” I say it slowly, deliberately, so she can see perfectly the proof she needs. The fangs that have so often pierced her delicate flesh in our shared dreams.
A shiver dances through her and she gasps.
I release her chin, not wanting to make her feel threatened.
Scarlet raises a hand to her neck, her fingers grazing the spot I have marked in her sleep. Fresh desire floods her scent, overriding the confusion and previous flicker of fear. My body responds immediately and I take a small step back to remind myself not to succumb.
Her arms drop to her sides and her exposed throat flexes with a swallow. “I have more questions.”
I fight not to smile. “My offer remains. Come join me, and I will answer your questions. I have nothing to hide from you.”
Scarlet glances back toward the table she fled previously, her head lifting as though her gaze roves over the building beyond. Then she faces me again, a tempting pout briefly bending her lips. “Could we … please … sit here instead? Just for something different? I won’t run. I swear.”
Sit here? My eyebrows arch and I reflexively scan our surroundings. Of course, they haven’t changed. Though the Black Forest expands well beyond our compound, the area nearest our home is as secure as it can be. And the night has only begun. There is no reason to think it would be dangerous for her.
“All right,” I say, gesturing to the lawn at our feet. “Let’s sit, then.” I would prefer to at least get a blanket for her, but I doubt very much Scarlet’s in the mood for pampering. I also doubt she has entirely surrendered the option of escaping, but I choose to hope further conversation will sway her. Now that we have cleared a few secrets.
Scarlet settles herself carefully, her scent revealing a mix of lust and self-conscious awareness as she fiddles with her dress skirt in an attempt to sit modestly. She manages it, but I still fight the urge to simply pull her onto my lap and hold her there while we speak. Caging her in has proven to shut down her interest in conversation.
I bend a knee as I sit, facing her with my back to the forest. “You said you had new questions. Don’t be shy with me, Scarlet. I desire to know all sides of you.”
Desperately.
I am at times my own worst enemy, as my words have the intended effect of spiking the arousal in her scent. Her breath catches in her throat and a moment passes before she speaks. “Are you planning to eat me? Or, drink me, I guess?”
A growl rolls past my lips before I can catch it, but I hold myself otherwise in check. So many contradictory responses assail me, I don’t know whether to grab her to me or kill something for a precious second. “You are not in danger here, Scarlet. This is your new home, and someday, I hope it will feel as such to you. As for whether I intend to drink from you, as I told you before, I will not touch you without your consent.”
She looks less than convinced. “Why did your face say something else just now?”
