Page 25 of How a Vampire Falls

“Not in the slightest,” Leslie said. “In fact you’re so impressive it’s annoying. Annoyingly attractive too. I’m telling you right now—I don’t want to hear any more about ‘stupid.’”

A slow smile lifted one side of his mouth. “Annoyingly attractive?”

Leslie gave an exaggerated sigh. “Let’s be real here. You belong in a magazine. Or a romcom—and not as the guy whodoesn’tget the girl.”

When they kissed, it was the most mutual decision Leslie had ever made with another person. They leaned in at the same time. Her thumb stroked the line of his cheekbone. He wrapped a hand around the back of her head, and his fingers sank into her hair. Their lips met, and he was delicious, and Leslie wanted to go on tasting him, grazing her fingers over the muscles of his back, savoring the press of his fingers against her scalp, tasting and tasting his kiss.

Minutes passed. They didn’t breathe. They held each other and went on kissing.

Then it ended, the same mutual choice to pull back.

“One more thing you’re good at,” Leslie said, and the melody in her own voice sent another surge of triumph through her. Kissing Ryker had unmuted the parts of her nature she kept from humans.

“You’re better.” Ryker’s voice sang too, and the beauty of it sent gooseflesh down her arms. “You’re perfect.”

Hardly, but right now, her body fizzing with joy like champagne, she’d take it. “That was…”

“Perfect,” Ryker said.

“Okay, sure, it was perfect.”

She kissed him again, initiating this time. This kiss was brief, and then she nestled into his chest while he wrapped her in his arms. He was solid but careful, not as if Leslie were fragile but rather as if she were something too precious to take chances with. She hummed against his chest, and her voice still resonated in her ears.

“I wish I was better at sounding like this,” she said. “You know, um…lusty.”

His fingers went still in the act of stroking her hair. “Better? What do you mean?”

“Muting myself is such a habit, you know. Letting go of that…cloak or mask or whatever you want to call it…isn’t natural.”

His fingers tightened in her hair, then relaxed again. “If it makes me a snob, so be it, but I’m sorry you’ve spent so much of your life hiding yourself.”

“I don’t mind, Ryker. Well, not usually, but…do you think it makes me less of a vampire?”

“Absolutely not.” He tucked her closer to him, and she leaned in, scooting halfway off her boulder onto his. “And if I gave you that impression, I’m sorry.”

She gave herself a moment to think that through, knowing she was safe to mull and decide and justbein Ryker’s arms. “It might not have been you. It might have been me.”

Around them, the trees rustled and sighed. Crickets, frogs, katydids, cicadas, and a random insomniac mockingbird made a lively chorus.

“The whole forest is serenading us,” she said.

Ryker gave a soft, satisfied hiss. “Apex dating ritual. They’re duly impressed.”

“You’re something else.”

“I thought I was annoyingly attractive.”

She gave a little hum. “At the moment, less annoying.”

“More attractive?” he whispered against her ear, and a delightful shiver swept her body.

“Let’s find out,” she said.

Their lips met again, but this kiss lasted only a few moments. She wanted to talk. She sensed he did too. He tugged her to her feet, and she followed him back along the trail, toward town. As they walked, he kept hold of her hand. He no longer seemed to need contact, as he had when he’d first come out of his catatonic freeze. Instead he swung their hands between them as if he felt somehow lighter. She did too.

“Ryker, who’s the oldest vampire you know?”

He glanced at her as they walked. “Random.”

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