Page 97 of A Bloom in Winter

“I maybe shouldn’t have done that. Not the time or place—and don’t worry, I’m not making any assumptions.”

Well, he was making one: She still wasn’t being completely truthful with him. Yes, she was worried about that ex of hers—he just had the sixth sense there was more to it than that. But hey, whatever it was had given him an in he was more than happy to enjoy: He’d been wrestling with the fucking rank-ass idea he was never going to see her again, and what do you know, for a go-with-the-flow male like him?

That hadnotbeen the right flow for him.

“No . . . it’s all right,” she murmured. “I want to do a lot more of that. The . . . kissing, I mean.”

Well, wasn’t that a hi-how’re-ya to his hey-nannies. “Me, too.”

“Good.” She laughed in a little awkward rush, and started to head for the door. “Well, I guess I’ll leave you to it—”

“Mahrci.” As she paused, he lowered his voice to a growl. “I’m not scared of your father, either. Just so we’re clear.”

As she put her hand to the base of her throat, it was as if she were feeling someone squeezing the life out of her.

“I am,” she said roughly. “I’m terrified of him.”

All that mattered, Mahrci told herself, was that Hemmy had agreed to join her at her safe house.

The one she had bought in secret, and furnished herself, and kept quiet about.

The rest could be sorted out from there, once they were both safe: Their relationship. Her father. The future in all its forms. Which, if they could just get free of her situation, she was suddenly looking forward to for the first time in . . . well, maybe ever.

Abruptly, she nodded as if she were in a conversation, instead of talking to herself. Then she blurted, “I’ll just need you to take my vein before we go—”

As she spoke up, Hemmy’s head jerked to attention. Then he dropped the laptop and lost his balance, all at the same time—and when he tried to catch himself before he fell, they both calculated where his boot was going to land at the same time: The computer. With all his work on it.

He did what he could to correct the lurch, but he went too far, his heavy weight veering off-kilter wildly. So she did the only thing she could. She launched herself at him, pushing him backward onto the bed, landing on top of him in a tangle as they both hit the mattress. While they bounced, she had to laugh and so did he.

“I guess that was a little bit of a surprise,” she said as she went to roll off him.

Hemmy put his hands on her hips, stilling her. “Where are you going so fast, female—if you’re comfortable, I am.”

Looking into his eyes, she flushed. Underneath her body, his muscles and heavy bones were a landscape that she fit herself into with a precision that seemed like destiny. She also couldn’tignore the way her breasts pressed into his pecs or how the hardening length at the front of his hips made her want to straddle him properly.

Need, hot and hungry, bloomed in her veins.

“I’m okay here . . .” she said in a guttural voice. “If you are?”

In an equally low tone, he replied, “I’mveryokay.”

Think,Mahrci. Think—what were you saying?

“Oh, the vein thing.” She shook herself back into focus. “Right. Well, I don’t want to give you an address or anything—that way, if someone asks you, you can be truthful. You don’t know where I am. But if you take my blood, you’ll always be able to find me—and where we’ll be staying.”

Reaching up, he traced her face with his fingertips. “That’s a brilliant idea. There’s just one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“It has to be your wrist.” His touch drifted down to her jugular. “Not here.”

Mahrci’s breath caught. “Why not . . . there.”

“Too much for me.” He shook his head ruefully. “I have self-control, but there are limits, and until we—orifwe . . .” He stroked her vein with his forefinger. “. . . get all the way there, I need to take from the wrist.”

A sudden image of him baring his fangs and bringing the twin, sharp points to her throat flooded her with even more heat—and it shouldn’t have been a surprise, but wow, what a relief to think of something that came with pleasure, instead of stress and worry.

She stared at his lips. “There will be time for that. Later. When we are away from here.”

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