Page 97 of My Vampire Plus-One

I had no idea what I’d find when I read these pages. But I put them in my bag all the same, hoping there’d be something of value there.

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My apartment was a disaster,by my standards. There were dirty clothes strewn across my bed from when I’d dumped my suitcase out earlier that day. There was a plate in my kitchen sink from my afternoon snack. And the mail that had arrived while I was away was still stacked, unopened, in a pile by my front door where Sophie left it.

Reggie hadn’t told me how long it would be before he came over. And we didn’tspecificallysay what we’d be doing when he arrived. Either way, I didn’t want him seeing underwear on my bedroom floor or dirty dishes in my sink. I started shoving random things into closets and drawers for the first time in my life. Gracie glared judgmentally when I wiped the crumbs off my plate and put the dish away without washing it, but honestly, she would just have to deal.

If all went as I thought it would, her mommy would be getting laid soon.

By the time I’d finished vacuuming the living room and dusting the handful of knickknacks on my shelves, he was there, knocking on my front door.

I opened the door to see him standing in my hallway, looking as nervous as I’d ever seen him.

He swallowed, Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat. “Can I come in?”

“Of course.” I stepped aside and gestured with my hand for him to enter.

“Thank you,” he said. He sounded breathless. I wondered if he’d run all the way there. Or flown.

When I turned to face him, his eyes were everywhere, roaming over everything in my home. But he wouldn’t meet my gaze.

Something was wrong.

“What is it?” I asked. “Do you think you were followed?”

He shook his head. “No. I flew. None of that lot know how to fly. I wasn’t spotted.”

It was surreal, listening to him talking about flying in such a matter-of-fact way. Though if I’d been able to fly for hundreds of years, maybe I’d also find it just as mundane as going for a walk.

“If you weren’t followed, why are you so nervous?” I asked. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” His eyes widened, and for a moment I thought maybe I’d said the wrong thing.

Before I knew what was happening, he had me crowded up against the wall that separated my living room from my bedroom. He nipped a gentle line down the column of my throat, letting his teeth lightly scrape against me as he moved.

Hisrealteeth; not the ones he showed the world.

“I’ve wanted to touch you for so long.” His mouth was everywhere. On my neck, my collarbone, then moving back up to kiss along my jaw. He gave my ass a firm, possessive squeeze.Mine, itsaid. It felt so good I nearly moaned out loud. “Do you know how many times I’ve thought about it?”

“Tell me,” I gasped. I didn’t know where that bravery was coming from, but Ineededto know. “Please.”

He answered with an excruciatingly slow swipe of his tongue along the sweet, sensitive spot where my neck met my shoulder. His touch was like wildfire, and I keened, my body alight with anticipation as he mouthed at me. My knees felt seconds away from buckling. I threw my arms around his neck so that I wouldn’t fall to the floor.

As though sensing my instability, he thrust his hips forward, pinning me in place between his body and the wall.

“At the coffee shop,” he mumbled against my neck. His words were gentle vibrations against my heated flesh that I could feel down to my toes. “At your family’s party. Every time you touched my hand, smiled, leaned over in thattinyfucking black dress.” He shuddered against me. “By the end of the night, it was all I could do not to grab you and take you right there in front of the buffet table, your family be damned.”

I huffed a breathy laugh. “Don’t talk about my family right now.” As hot as the idea was of Reggie losing control like that, thinking about it happening in front of my family was the last thing I wanted.

He chuckled against my shoulder. “You don’t want me to talk about your dad and how I’m still upset we haven’t had a chance to bond over the History Channel?”

I swatted his shoulder. He grabbed my hand and pulled it away from him, kissing its palm, the heat building between us shifting to something playful and sweet.

He leaned in, resting his forehead against mine. I didn’t know much about vampire physiology, but I would have assumed thatsince he had no pulse, and wasn’t technically alive, he wouldn’t need oxygen to survive. But Reggie was breathing as heavily as I was, his chest rising and falling in time with my own.

I placed my hand flat on his chest, over the place where his heart would beat if he were human. I felt nothing beneath my palm but the fine musculature of his pectorals, the even cadence of his breathing, and the soft fabric of the plaid shirt he was wearing.

What had his human life been like, I wondered? I was coming to know the man in my arms. To care for him. But he’d had an entirely different life, once. Had he been so very different as a child? Had he had a lover, a wife—children—before his sires turned him and he became what he was today?

I flexed my hand, gathering the fabric of his shirt into my grip. Pulled him closer. I realized that I wanted to know every part of who the human Reginald Cleaves used to be, too. Not just the Reggie who was currently gazing at me like I’d hung the moon.

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