Page 42 of Seph

“Did you say... you liked a guy?”

“It took you long enough.”

Silence.

“What kind of like? Because you made sure to say a guy. As in me.”

“We’ve established that, Crow.”

“Like as in ‘he’s such a helpful, useful sort of person’ or like as in... Like as in ‘ah, sweet romance’ sort of thing?”

Emily was silent.

He reached back and dared to poke her gently with one finger, finding the barely cushioned spot above her hips. “I can’t sleep if I don’t know. Curiosity killed the vamp.”

A frustrated sigh. “Somewhere in between.”

“But on a scale of one bein’ ‘I won’t kill you when this is over’ and ten being ‘a slave to your every desire’... Where are you?”

Emily hit him with a pillow. “Sleep, idiot.”

She wasn’t sleeping. That was a hard question. Why did he make her think about hard things?

Hard things.

Stupid, immature vampire next to her. He’d infected her with randy teenage humor.

Because hard things now meant hard vampire cock.

Hard, solid vampire cock that was going to pack so much stamina and passion, channeling the man behind it, who would know this might be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to turn her into boneless, writhing, moaning mush.

She’d never had anything like that before. Would Simeon care? He had to know she was inexperienced.

Although... No. Because all these teens hooking up in the back of cars or on prom night, how experienced are they? They use their bodies and not their heads.

I’m inexperienced but not immature. I know what I’m doing. I think.

At least I know what I want.

We both know what we want.

I want someone who won’t leave. Someone who thinks love is permanent, believes that it can last a thousand years apart and still be true. Someone who brings me flowers and coffee—but more importantly, someone who would haul my broken ass into the woods to help me train.

Someone who would pay my bills. Someone who would believe I deserved a better life.

Someone who believed he deserved a better life, too, and who would change to get it.

Simeon Crow was surprisingly good for her. On paper.

And in real life, too, and that shouldn’t be possible.

Annoying vampire, making impossible things possible. Not immature. Just sexy. And annoying.

“You’re annoying.”

He answered at once, proving that he was also still wide awake. “So, that’s around a two?”

Emily rolled onto her side. “It’s a solid five, okay? I like you for the way you help me and the way you help people in town. I hate you for what you did and what every Van Helsing would say you’d do again. And then—when I don’t know if you’d do what my training says you’d do—I don’t even know who I am anymore.”

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