Page 23 of Sassy Embrace

The wolf invited the vampire back to her place, and he accepted without hesitation.

She hadn’t made a conscious decision to go with it, but that was what happened anyway. There was no space for second-guessing or ruminating. She wasn’t living in her mind when shewas with Claude. She was there; she was present. And all was well.

Leigh gave him her address, and he followed her back to her apartment. They met in the lobby, and the wolf felt compelled to touch him. It all felt so natural, holding his hand in the elevator, peppering kisses onto his delicious neck and cords of muscle as they sauntered up to her unit.

When Leigh opened the door, she felt abruptly self-conscious. On the handful of occasions she’d had one-night stands, she always stayed at the other person’s place. That gave her a sense of control, especially when the sex was sub-par and she needed to flee.

No one, besides maybe Karla and the Wolfe family, had seen her own private paradise.

And it was a stark paradise, filled to the brim with her secret obsession. Strategy board games.

“Wow."

Claude walked into the dark apartment with his hands in his pockets. A blush bloomed on Leigh's cheeks and spread down her neck when she rushed in front of him as he went to flick on the overhead light.

“I didn't think I was going to have company,” she warned him. “Please, no one else comes here, I didn’t…"

Claude was smiling, but it was endearing. He placed his hands around her waist and rubbed up and down, edging the boundary of the cups of her bra. He then kissed her forehead, and Leigh thought she was going to melt into a puddle.

"What are you worried about? This is amazing."

He reached around her and flicked the light on. The living room was plain with small embellishments of comic book character figurines and a poster or two. The couch was black leather, and the floor lamp was simple with a pea-green shade.On the coffee table were the board games, and they lined the shelves next to a small oak desk.

“This is incredible,” Claude said, praising her. “I’m sure you wouldn’t mind if we played a little game. I haven’t played inages."

Leigh was moved by the candidness of his tone and helped him pick out one of the unique games. When they sat next to each other on the couch, Leigh felt a warm sensation in her belly beginning to blossom. It was that feeling of home that was often indescribable. A feeling she hadn't encountered in decades.

“What do you want to eat?”

They’d set up the game when Leigh took out her phone to order food. She cut herself off when she remembered that Claude was in fact a vampire, and there was only really one thing he would be genuinely hungry for.

Besides sex with wolves in unfinished bars, of course.

“…Sorry,” she said, covering her mouth.

Claude shrugged, his eyes glued to the board game and its various multi-colored pieces.

“No need to apologize. Go ahead, eat. I always keep some synthetic blood around just in case the hunger strikes."

Leigh felt a stab of fear at the way he bit into the wordhunger.There was an intensity there she hadn't considered, being in the company of a being whose sole sustenance was the blood of others. She realized at that moment that she actually really knew very little about vampires.

Claude must have noticed her silence because he raised an eyebrow at her inquisitively. Detecting her hesitation, he leaned back on the couch, dropping his arm along the headrest.

“I suppose that’s something we should talk about,” he said softly. “You can ask me anything. Anything at all. I’ll be honest.”

Leigh asked the one question that plagued her not so much with fear but with the novelty of the entire situation. But shestumbled with her words, afraid that the direct question may offend his vampire sensitivities.

“Do you only ever drink synthetic blood?” she asked, swallowing dryly.

Claude eyed the movement with a faint flicker of his eyes, then returned his gaze to her. He smiled small, a means to soothe her concerns.

“I don't drink human blood if that’s what you're really asking,” he said, void of offense. “Human blood can be addictive. Aria prohibited her followers from partaking in it at all. It actually serves us better not to drink human blood. It's worse for our system. Synthetic blood helps us live longer, and we're stronger too."

Leigh felt relieved, but she wasn't entirely sure why. She scooted closer to him on the couch and laid a hand on his thigh. His eyes crackled like a firestorm under her touch.

“Thank you for sharing that. I suppose I know less about your kind than I thought.”

He moved in closer so she could drape one of her legs over his. Leigh felt something thumping beneath the fabric of his wool shirt and placed her palm flat over his chest.

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