Page 39 of Bewitched By a Vampire

Rather than making him stop, she twisted his shirt into her fist and tugged him closer. The book fell from her hand and from his, and she wrapped her arm around him and clung to him, her body arching against his as her lips parted in invitation.

Night growled as he accepted it, angling his head and deepening the kiss, starving for more. She moaned, the sound the most wonderful thing he had ever heard, and kissed him back, her tongue brushing his and their lips clashing hard. He stepped into her, pinning her to the bookcase, and pressed his palm to her lower back, drawing her closer still, unable to get enough of her warmth and the soft feel of her body cushioning his.

“Miss Lilian.” Ellen’s sharp voice rang along the hall.

Lilian shoved him so hard in the chest he staggered backwards into the table in the centre of the room, striking it with his thigh and knocking it. It scraped across the wooden floor, the sound loud in the tense silence, and Lilian flinched.

Night sensed the housekeeper approaching the door and quickly moved away from Lilian, and she hurried away from him too, rushing back to the spot where she had been and picking up her duster. He grabbed the book she had dropped and seated himself at the table just as Ellen walked into the room.

“Miss Lilian, I swear if you are slacking off again—” Ellen came to an abrupt halt as she spotted him and bowed her head. “Lord Van der Garde. I do hope this servant isn’t bothering you.”

“No bother at all,” Night said, or more accurately, squeaked. He cleared his throat and tried to sound less like he had just been caught doing something wrong. “She is no bother at all. I was just catching up on some reading.”

He flashed the cover of the book at the housekeeper.

Her eyes widened and she backed out of the room. “I will leave you to it, sir.”

He had wanted to tell her that he needed to speak with her about moving the staff somewhere safe, but his gaze fell to the book instead, dread chilling his blood as Ellen made a fast exit.

An intricate ink drawing of several naked people in a rather impossible-looking and compromising position greeted his eyes.

Those eyes darted to Lilian. No wonder she had been so flustered when he had come upon her and had been so desperate to hide the book. Wicked little minx.

She blushed and scurried away from him. “I should get on with my other chores.”

Night was at the door, blocking her, before the book he had dropped even hit the table. “I need to speak with you.”

“Oh. Um.” A blush stained her cheeks and her hand drifted up, towards lips that were still red from his kiss. “I—I won’t tell anyone.”

He scratched his neck. “No. It’s not about that. It’s about my brother.”

“I won’t tell him either.”

“I mean Grave. But I suppose it is also about Bastian. But not like that.” He wasn’t doing a very good job of this. “I’m worried about Bastian. I expected him to be back by now and he isn’t answering the messages I’ve sent.”

The colour drained from her face. “Oh. I see. If there’s somewhere you need to be, you don’t have to wait for Bastian to return. I won’t go anywhere.”

“No. It’s not like that either.” Forget not doing a very good job—he was doing a bloody terrible job of explaining himself. Now she thought he wanted to get away from her.

He grimaced as he recalled how upset she had been in the kitchen, and as he spotted the flicker of hurt and shame in her eyes. She honestly thought he was tired of looking after her? Even after he had kissed her and had wanted to do so much more with her?

So. Much. More.

He weighed up the pros and cons of telling her everything, and settled on her needing to know, and not only because it would explain his desire to find Bastian and have him come home, making her see he wasn’t tired of her at all.

Quite the opposite.

He was worried that when Bastian came home, everything would change for the worse and he would lose her.

“There is a demon prince targeting my family.” He tried to sound calm about that, not wanting to scare her, but inside he felt as if someone had turned loose an entire basket of snakes and they were writhing and twisting, making him feel sick as he did his best not to imagine why Bastian hadn’t returned his messages or if Grave and Snow were still alive.

Lilian didn’t look shocked to learn that demons existed, which led him to suspect that she knew more about his shadowy world than he had thought.

“Grave told me to leave this place and I wanted to wait for Bastian. My brother believes the demon will come after us and we’re not safe here.” The snakes inside him only writhed harder as one of them hissed that he should have left when Grave had told him, that waiting for Bastian to return had only placed everyone here in danger.

“And you’re just telling me this now?” she said, her eyes darkening in a way he didn’t like because it only made him feel more guilty about the route he had taken.

“I thought Bastian would return. I thought we could all leave together. But Bastian isn’t returning my messages and I’ve sent dozens of them. He’s reading them…” He swallowed hard as a chill skittered down his arms. “Or at least I really hope he’s the one reading them.”

---