Page 22 of Hot Blooded

“Well, not much about you, personally. Just that I’m getting live blood from a willing human.” He said the last bit wryly. “Anyway, last night her bloodmate apparently had my fridge stocked with food for you while I was… um…”

“Getting flash-fried on the roof of my workplace?” Tessa suggested, one eyebrow raised.

“Yes, that.” Amos turned his attention to the array. “Anyways, I hope you’ll enjoy what she picked out. She texted me that I was giving you boring, healthy food.”

Tessa smiled. “Trust me, Amos, I’m not here for the food.”

“The money?” he asked in a careful tone.

She hesitated. “Honestly? The money is why I signed up in the first place. But I’ve kind of lost sight of that… I mean, I’m starting to think I should be paying you.”

Amos let out a breath. “Tessa,” he began gently.

Oh god. Oh no. That was the sound of a man who was about to let her down easy. Panicking, she tried to backpedal. “I don’t mean—”

“I’d like to court you,” Amos said.

She froze. “You… what?”

Amos threaded his fingers together, resting his forearms on his knees as he searched her stunned face. “I’d like to court you. If that’d be acceptable to you.”

“Court me?” she repeated faintly, imagining carriage rides and calling cards and lemonade at Almack’s. “What does that even mean?”

“It means I don’t want money to be the reason you see me. I want to see you because I like you, because I think I could very easily feel more than just ‘like’ for you.”

“Amos…” Shit. “I would like that. But I…”

“You don’t feel that way,” he finished grimly, looking down at his hands.

“No!” She reached for him, cupping his jaw, turning his cheek to look back at her. “I do like you. A lot. But I…” It was her turn to look away, shame-faced. “Amos, I need the money pretty badly.”

“Ah.” The rigidness dissolved from his posture. “That’s no problem. We can keep up with the donor service. I just want to give you more than what a purely professional relationship would allow.”

“More than a boatload of cash and endless orgasms?”

Amos snorted, shooting her a grin. After a moment, he sobered. “I want the right to watch over you at night.”

“Oh.”

“And I’d like to do more than just visit you on your lunch breaks. I’d like to see you in your free time, take you places, give you things.”

“Things?”

“Gifts.”

“Amos—”

“And I’d hope to earn the right to touch you.”

Tessa swallowed her words.

Amos’s eyes were still dilated, watching her with hungry intensity. “Not for feeding. Just for the pleasure of touching you. I want it to be me making you feel good. Not my venom. Me.”

Awareness shivered over her skin, heated her blood. She swallowed against a dry throat, licked her lips. Amos’s blacked-out gaze tracked the movement and Tessa had to repress a shiver. Her head swam as she searched for the right words. “I…”

“You don’t have to answer me right away. Just think on it.”

“No.” Impulsively, she leaned in, catching his mouth with a soft, light kiss. Drawing back, meeting his gaze, she said, “I want that.”

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