Page 57 of Taken By The Vampire King

“I asked a bunch of questions.”

He nodded. “You did.” His mouth didn’t even twitch. This was a serious conversation with no high-handed amusement.

“But you didn’t answer any. You only introduced more.”

His expression didn’t change. He merely watched me like he was waiting for the next words out of my mouth. And I was waiting for a prompt. Something that would let me know it was okay to ask the things I needed to know.

Even pondering the questions in my head made me question my sanity, but currently one of us was insane…and I called dibs on being the one who… Hell. I didn’t even know what I wanted.

“One of us is crazy,” I moaned as I drew away from him, back to my safe space, almost on a cushion just for myself. He was so big and took up so much room. And he might have been magnetic. I wanted to touch him, for him to touch me. When he held me, he soothed me. Despite everything.

“How so?” His question took me by surprise.

“Really? We’re having this whole conversation about you being impossibly old in a room filled with blood bags and one of us isn’t crazy?”

The amused twist to his lips returned, but he inclined his head in acknowledgement or concession. “Put that way…”

“So?” I lifted my chin toward him, prompting him to answer the question I hadn’t asked, the one I didn’t even want to think.

“So?” His voice was soft, a little of the deadly predator I’d come to recognize in him evident.

I released a long slow sigh, a hiss of air as I finally deflated and let go of any confidence or certainty I was holding onto in this situation. Feeling as crazy as I’d joked about being, I asked, “So, Nicolas Dupont, the impossibly long-lived man…what are you?”

His eyes flickered like he was surprised I’d put the question into words, that it was finally free in the space between us. Then he held my hands, his grip soft but still strong.

I looked into his eyes, and they took on a red hue, almost glowing. For a moment, he looked like Sebastian, but I couldn’t draw away. Something inside me wanted to press closer.

“Vampire,” he whispered.

“For fuck’s sake,” I blurted as I yanked my hands from him and whirled away to stand a short distance from him. “You could at least take me seriously.”

But my stomach clenched and my legs trembled as I squeezed my eyes closed. Vampire. The word echoed in my mind, and the truth of it resonated deep inside me, even though the logical part of me was screaming about how absolutely insane that was.

I shook my head. “You can’t be. Vampires are just stories. Fairytales. Things we talk about to frighten our children and our women into behaving.”

“Do I frighten you?” Nicolas’s voice was no more than a seductive rumble behind me as his chest pressed against my back and his warmth seeped into me.

A strangled sound escaped my throat at his proximity. “If you are what you say you are, you should.”

His hand drifted down my upper arm, and heat flared through me before coming to settle between my legs. He drew a breath.

“Jesus Christ,” he groaned. “You’re aroused.”

“Ha!” I spun around and jabbed my finger in his chest. “You’re not a vampire. How did you say Jesus Christ?”

He clutched a hand over his heart and staggered before standing straight again and grinning, the effect maddening in its attractiveness. “Because holy hell, Leia, churches, crosses, and religious words don’t affect me.”

“Okay.” I looked around the room. “Okay then.” My tone turned challenging. “Well, there’s no way a fucking vampire would arouse me.”

His grin intensified, and his voice grew soft again as he stepped closer and looked down at me. “Well, I am very sexy, Miss Boucher.”

I took a breath and stepped back, looking away from the gray eyes I suddenly wanted to be whirled away in. They were turbulent today, like a storm was coming, and I shivered. “But I’ve seen you eat.”

He nodded. “Yes.”

I laughed. “Well, vampires don’t do that.”

He examined his nails for a moment then glanced at me. “Really? All vampires or just the sparkly ones?”

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