Her green eyes flicked to him before returning to the stage. “I’d run away from my folks, and I was trying to support myself as a waitress. I took those dreams as a sign I really would be a director. Until I met Miss Wei, they were all I had to cling to.”
He covered her hand where it curved over the chair’s arm. She turned hers until they were palm to palm.
“I wish I’d known you existed,” he said, meaning it with all his heart. Before this, he’d resented what their separation had done to him, but she’d been left alone as well. No protectors. No allies. And he’d been on this earth with her all this time. The thought of what he might have spared her tightened his throat. “I wish I could have made your life easier for you.”
She nodded, her profile to him, her lips pressed flat with emotion. “I remember you,” she said.
He wasn’t prepared for this new bombshell. Heat flashed across his face. He should have felt triumphant. He’d been trying to get her to recall the past ever since they’d met. His fingers curled closer on her hand, but he caught himself before he could hurt her.
“You remember me?” he asked hoarsely.
She turned fully to him, her expression like a painting of a saint who’d just had her first vision. “I remember what happened after I died. I remember being a ghost and going back in time to meet you. I remembered your friends . . . being slaughtered on the Ponte Vecchio. That’s what
you
remember, isn’t it? You’re not going to tell me I’m crazy now.”
“That’s what I remember. You coming to me. Us falling in love.” He looked to where their hands joined together. “There’s more, Grace. Things you might have a harder time swallowing.”
She flung away from him and stood, her hands squeezing her temples as if they hurt.
“Grace—”
“I know,” she said. “About you being a vampire. I know Miss Wei turned you into one. Oh, God, it’s all so insane!”
He was on his feet beside her, sliding his palm down her back. She wore a simple outfit, a white-necked gray-knit dress with a coordinating jacketlike sweater. Conservative as it was, she hardly looked like a woman who’d believe in monsters. “I’m afraid I can’t make the craziness go away.”
“You bit me, Christian. Am I going to turn into a vampire?”
Her face turned up to his. He could tell the thought alarmed her, which hurt to an extent that stunned. Had he truly been hanging so many hopes on her? Preferring not to let her see that he had, he chafed her shoulders. “I’d have to do more than feed from you for that to happen.”
“Right,” she said, nodding to herself. “I’d have to drink your blood, too. Like in the movie.”
He stroked her face with his fingertips, bringing her gaze back to him. “
Not
like in the movie. Nim Wei made certain the film is misleading. That stuff about ‘born’ and ‘made’ vampires, about turning humans with an exchange of blood—it’s all nonsense.”
Her luscious mouth was hanging open, her cushiony lower lip a temptation for his thumb. She closed it and swallowed with a visible effort. “Does Miss Wei know who I am? Does she know the ghost-me saw what she did to you and your friends?”
He tried not to resent that she was thinking about her boss. “I don’t think so. On some level, yes, she probably was drawn to hire you because she sensed a tie. I know you admire her, but the queen can be intuitive about exploiting advantages.”
“The queen . . . ” Grace shook her head.
“She rules the—You don’t want to hear about all that now.”
“I should want to hear. My head is jangling. I keep getting flashes of what happened in your time. I was so different when I was a spirit.
We
were different.”
His heart constricted inside his chest. Did she mean she couldn’t love him anymore? “Everyone changes over time,” he said carefully.
A look of determination hardened her expression. “Show me your true face. I’ve caught glimpses of it, I think. You have some sort of disguise.”
“You mean my glamour.”
“Yes.”
Dropping it was harder than he expected. He felt naked without the concealment, especially when Grace went up on her toes to peer in his face. He was glad she didn’t seem afraid, but being examined this closely was uncomfortable. He realized he liked passing for human.
At last, she settled back on her heels. “You’re so beautiful. No matter how hard I look, I can’t find a flaw. You must lure people in without trying.”
“I don’t hurt them. I’ve learned not to harm the people I feed from.”
Her gaze rose to his. Her cheeks were pinker than they’d been a moment ago. “How often do you need to . . . feed?”
Despite the circumstances, Christian’s cock stirred in his jeans. Talking about feeding—and with her—was inherently erotic. “Ideally, every few days. I’m older, so I can go longer.”
“You’ve been going longer since—” She stopped and rolled her soft lips together.
“Yes, since I met you. I haven’t bitten anyone but you since you strolled into my barn.”
“Your man, Roy, brought something to my house.”
“Bagged blood. He bribed someone at the local blood bank.”
“But biting a person is more pleasurable.”
Christian’s prick was thick enough to be stiff. “You know yourself how pleasurable it is.”
Her breasts were rising and falling within her modest gray dress, the tightness of her nipples visible even through her bra. Her hand rose, hesitated. “Could I—Are you—”
“Am I what?”
“Are your fangs down now?”
“Peel back my lip and see.”
He wasn’t sure she’d do it, even though she seemed to want to. His muscles coiled with anticipation. His incisors jutted the last bit longer the instant she touched his mouth.
“Oh,” she said, jumping just a little. Christian held his breath, but her interest overcame her alarm. Shifting, she held his lip up with her left hand. The forefinger of her right slid onto his gum, lightly stroking the reddened place where his elongated tooth rooted. The nerves she stimulated were intimately linked to his cock. Its crest, which felt like she was touching it, knocked against his zipper. Though he didn’t moan, he couldn’t keep his eyelids from growing heavy with enjoyment.
“You like that,” she mused.
“You might as well have shoved your hand between my legs and rubbed.”
“Oh.” Her finger drew slowly back, letting his lip fall. “If this feels so good, why would you give up feeding for me?”
“I’ve already told you why, Grace.” His voice was rough with arousal, with all the strong things he felt for her. She dropped her eyes to his chest. He wouldn’t have been surprised if she could see his heart’s slow pounding.
“I didn’t remember what your fangs were like,” she said.
For the moment, Christian allowed himself to be steered in this new direction. “You didn’t know me as a vampire for very long. You disappeared soon after I was changed. I have a theory that when the medics revived you, they pulled your spirit back to the life it had been born to.”
“You must have thought I’d abandoned you. And after you’d lost your friends.” Her face changed as another memory returned, a tinge of horror darkening her dismay. “I left you after you’d killed your father.”
Gregori had been renting rooms in Florence, hiding from his son’s vengeance. Christian had found and killed him, and then Grace had found Christian. That was when she’d forgiven him for turning to Nim Wei. That last time, she’d stayed physical long enough to make love. Against the wall, as he recalled, with his father’s body cooling on the floor.
He guessed he couldn’t blame her for being horrified over that.
“I
couldn’t
forgive him,” Christian said defensively.
Grace stroked the side of his face with her warm fingers. “There’s no point regretting that now.”
He couldn’t tell what was in her eyes—if it were understanding, or if she simply wanted to avoid discussing his murderous impulses.
“God,” he swore. “I wish the bitch queen hadn’t blocked your thoughts from me.”
Grace jerked back, her fingertips leaving cold spots on his cheeks after they were gone.
“Never mind,” he said, instantly regretting his words. “I’m sorry. I’ll take you home.”
“You can read people’s thoughts?” She appeared as appalled by this as she’d been about his dead father.
“Not yours. And only when I concentrate.”
She mulled this over and then nodded—grimly, it seemed to him. “Where did you park?”
A smile broke across his face. “I didn’t drive here, Grace. Some things your movie says about us vampires really are true.”
W
as it wrong of Grace to be this gratified that he’d come after her? Surely it was inconsistent to be both alarmed by and attracted to him, to be so titillated by his true nature. It was one thing to regret her lost bravery and quite another to have everything inside her yearning to yield to him. A vampire, after all, was no better romantic prospect than a handsome male actor.
In the current instance, Christian was disqualified on both counts. In spite of this, his fangy grin was irresistible. His single dimple was winking out at her.
“Put your arms around my neck,” he said.
“What?”
“I’m going to pick you up. You need to hold on.”
He scooped her off her feet with no help from her. She had little choice but to put her arms where he’d instructed. His neck felt extremely strong.
“Don’t look so nervous,” he said. “Or is Charlie wrong about you liking to go fast?”
“I don’t—”
His initial upward leap stole both breath and words. At first, she thought he was flying, but he was simply taking the Olympic long jump to eye-popping new levels. He touched down on Highland Avenue, pushed off, and then the wind was streaming through her hair again. The traffic on Hollywood Boulevard didn’t put him off. His speed and agility landed them easily between cars. The drivers didn’t see him long enough to honk, which Angelenos were never shy about doing.
“Jeesh,” Grace breathed. “You’re better than Superman.”
Christian chuckled beside her ear. “I can’t go back in time. You’re the one who did that.”
His arms tightened around her as they bounded off again. They landed on the pavement in front of Schwab’s, leaving foot-shaped cracks in the concrete that Grace expected would be hard to explain. Fortunately, they didn’t have to. Their journey became a whirlwind of streets and parks and beautifully landscaped yards. Grace didn’t know how to be afraid; it was all too exhilarating. She caught an aerial view of Santa Monica Bay with the tiny waves glinting by starlight. She supposed Christian couldn’t rebound off water, because he turned as they reached the coast.
He barely jarred her dropping down in front of her cottage.
Her heart was beating too hard to release her tight grip on him.
“You’re chilled,” he said as he set her onto her feet. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think.”
“At least I didn’t drop my purse,” she got out between chattering teeth. “Or let my shoes fall off.”
He laughed and hugged her against him. His body was very hard, but she liked it close anyway. It seemed unfair not to admit that she’d enjoyed what he’d done.
“Thank you,” she said. “That was fun.”
“Grace,” he murmured against her hair, still not letting go. His hands slid up and down her back. “I’m afraid it’s easier for you to warm me than vice versa.”
Grace wasn’t sure about that. His words sent a flush through her. She tipped her head back and looked at him. Discovering he was a vampire should have changed her reactions, but apparently it had not. Something in her expression must have told him what she was thinking.
“Grace,” he said, lower and throbbing.
He wasn’t hiding how his eyes glowed. His normally dark irises were fiery gold with desire. When he kissed her, his fangs were sharp. She curled the tip of her tongue between them, shivering when he sucked it languorously. After a long exploratory minute—which Grace thought might have been the most sensual of her life—he drew back a few inches.
“Still cold?” he asked huskily.
She slid her palms underneath the back of his leather jacket. He was both more and less of a stranger than she had known. “If you keep that up, my clothes will catch fire.”
His face transformed. She thought it was relief she saw cross his features, but it could have been hope as well. He lowered his head and kissed her with no holds barred. She matched him moan for moan as his immeasurably powerful body crowded hers back against the ivy-shrouded door to her home. Her sense of helplessness, of vulnerability, was undeniably delicious. It didn’t take much pressure for her to feel how very ready for sex he was.
He broke free, panting, and kissed her neck where her pulse raced wildly. He licked her there and dragged his fangs gently on the spot. She’d felt him do that before and hadn’t known what it signified. Now that she did, her lower body began to squirm.