Page 85 of Bewitched By a Vampire

Night brushed his thumb across her cheek.

“I’m quite familiar with the complex and often infuriating conundrum of no longer really knowing where you stand on something or how you feel. One of the few perks of being fourteen hundred years old.” He smiled softly and she wanted to tease him about his age, but she liked that look on his face, loved how gorgeous he was when he let that smile come out to play. “You’ll figure things out. Don’t force it.”

It was hard though. She was no longer sure where her loyalties rested or whether her coven was going to come after her to kill her or whether she even wanted to go back to them if they didn’t. Her coven—her family—had been her home for her entire life. The thought of no longer being a part of it was frightening, even when she knew they had wanted Night to kill her. She still clung to the hope she could make them see they had been wrong about her.

She still believed she could make them take her back.

A foolish endeavour? Try as she might, she couldn’t convince herself to let them go. Her family meant too much to her.

“Come here.” Night gathered her into his arms, slipping his hand on her cheek around her nape, and angled her head back.

He dipped his head and captured her lips, his kiss soft and tender, warming her and chasing the chill from her heart. She pressed her hands to his chest and tiptoed, craving more of this sweet kiss that told her things he wouldn’t put into words—things she needed to know.

When he drew back and gazed down at her, there was more than affection in his eyes. There was fatigue too.

“You need more rest.” She stroked her hands over his chest.

“I know.” He gently combed his fingers through her hair. “I was too worried about you to go back to sleep. You’ll just have to come to bed with me. Nurse me back to health.”

She arched an eyebrow at him and he smiled wickedly, not even trying to hide that he was angling for more than sleeping together. If she set foot near his bed, she would be naked and under him in less than a minute. It sounded tempting.

His heated gaze took on a shrewd edge that had her wondering what he was plotting.

Or what he knew.

“What’s that look for?” She pushed her palms up his chest to his shoulders and looped her arms around his neck, tempted to pull him down for another kiss.

He shot down that urge. “What did your coven say in response to your message?”

She came dangerously close to cursing him. Apparently, he could see straight through her. Or read her like a book. Or maybe he just knew her better than she had thought.

“I didn’t tell them where I was.” She quickly put that out there, not wanting him to get any wrong ideas about what she had done or that she was a danger to the vampires here. “I was careful. I know Elissa got into a lot of trouble with our coven and I’d never place her or anyone here in danger. I just… I want to clear your name… and mine too. I don’t want them coming after you.”

“I take it their response wasn’t a favourable one.” His eyebrows knitted as he swept his knuckles across her cheek and searched her eyes, concern glittering in his pale blue ones. “We will find a way to make them see neither of us did what they believe we did. I promise, Lilian.”

She nodded, warmed by how he wanted to help her even as she chilled at the same time. Because there was a way he could help her, but he would never go for it. The only way to clear his name was to take his blood and dream his memories, and capture them with a spell so her coven could see what she had.

“I’ll stay with you this time if you sleep. I won’t go anywhere.” She slipped her hand into his and eased past him, tugging him around to face the door.

He didn’t look as if he believed that, but the flicker of heat in his eyes said that he was more than happy to follow her upstairs to bed. Wicked vampire. She glanced back at him from time to time as she led him up through the theatre to the bedroom he had been given, the heat that built in his eyes stirring in her too, until the desire to sleep beside him became a fierce need to sleep with him again.

By the time she crossed the threshold of the room, she was aching for him, her mind filled with the last time they had been together and how incredible it had been. Her vampire was insatiable and she wanted to bring out that side of him again, but knew she couldn’t. Not yet.

He was still healing and recouping his strength.

So she needed to make sure he didn’t overexert himself.

She smiled wickedly as an idea hit her.

Chapter 22

Lilian closed the door behind Night and led him to the four-poster bed, the fire in her veins burning hotter as she thought about what she was going to do. When they reached it, she pushed him down to sit on the black covers, and he cast her a curious look.

His lips parted.

Before he could ask her what she was up to, Lilian crawled onto the bed beside him and kissed him. He groaned and tunnelled his fingers into her hair, clutching her to him as his tongue tangled with hers, and she kept moving forwards, forcing him to lie back. She swept her lips over his and then broke away from them, kissing a path down the straight line of his jaw to his throat.

She lingered there, peppering it with kisses as he slowly tilted his head back, his grip on the back of her head tightening as she teased him. She stroked her tongue over his vein, feeling the point where his scar intersected it, and did it again as her mood shifted, desire becoming laced with something akin to sorrow.

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