Part 4 (2/2)
”I, uh, I don't think so. I'm fine now. I can lock this outer door after you leave. Just go, please?”
Stoic and determined, he stood on the bottom step. He was a head taller than her-and she was wearing four-inch heels. Broad shoulders squared the bruised leather jacket and caught his long, mussed brown hair, which looked clean but not combed. His dark beard was trimmed close and a mustache framed his mouth.
Bella didn't want to look at his mouth too long. She knew the feel of it. And it wasn't something she should be thinking about if she wanted to make the guy leave.
He splayed out his hands, but it wasn't a surrendering move. The man wasn't going anywhere.
”Fine.” Bella marched past him, up the first few stairs, but stopped. ”You go first.”
”I prefer to bring up the tail. Easier to keep an eye out for intruders that way.”
”But they could be lurking up ahead.”
”I don't smell any,” he answered plainly.
Bella sighed heavily, turned and marched up the stairs. So he was staring at her backside. She should appreciate the attention, but despite the wonderful kiss, it made her crawly.Her mother had drilled the whole stranger-danger routine into her brain when she was a child.
So why had she taken a new route last night? It was as though she'd been looking for danger.
And she had found it. Rather, it had found her.
Now to get rid of it.
Sticking the key in her door lock, she decided too late that she should have waited. The man pushed the door open and prowled inside.
”I didn't invite you in. Now you're going beyond a protective walk home, and entering without permission. I thought you sorts needed permission to cross a threshold.”
”'You sorts'?” He smirked and strode to the center of her living room, his limp more apparent now with the lights on. ”Just the vamps, sweet. I can cross any threshold I like. Nice place. If a bit junglelike.”
The loft had an open floor plan, the living room, kitchen and bedroom all open to share one huge room. Admittedly Bella had gone overboard with the plants, but she liked that they kept the air clean.
Severo's gaze followed the long white chiffon drape that hung from the cathedral ceiling to the floor, separating the living room from the bedroom at the far end.
Observing the wide planter with the ma.s.sive blooming cactus, he strode to the patio doors and tapped the gla.s.s. ”A pool, too?”
”Yep, living the high life. So, if you'll leave, I'll lock the door behind you and get out my garlic. I have a cross on the wall there that I can use in a pinch. So you see? I'm sure I'll be fine.”
Bella kicked off her shoes and leaned against the kitchen counter. She wiggled her pinched toes, but her focus was not on comfort. The drawer with a butcher knife inside was a leap away.
”You won't be fine.” He approached her so swiftly, the fear rose in her body and Bella felt it flush her cheeks. ”They'll watch you all night.”
”You don't know that.”
”If my suspicions are correct, Elvira won't rest until she's satisfied.”
”Meaning?”
”She must want you dead, or at the least, injured, if she believes you a threat to her latest snack.”
”Seth is not a snack.”
He backed her against the granite kitchen counter with an arm to either side of her. She should be getting used to his urgent obsession for uncomfortable closeness, but it still made her nervous. The plastic clicks of her skirt spangles made the situation slightly strange. His size made her feel small.
But she couldn't deny her interest in this overwhelming, in-your-face man who wouldn't take no for an answer.
”No human can ever be anything more than a snack to a vampire. Unless she turns him.”
”Turns? You mean makes him a vampire? Oh my G.o.d, can she do that? Will he know?”
”He'll know. But he'll be too infatuated to protest.” He dipped his head and ran his nose along her neck. ”Stop it. I want you to leave.”
”Make me.”
Bella swung her arm up and slapped the man hard across the cheek. The sound of flesh to flesh echoed sharply. He reared back, shook his head and delivered her a leering grin.
”Try it again,” he challenged coolly. ”Come, Bella, raise my ire. Stir my blood.”
This time he caught her hand before it connected with his cheek. Gripping her wrist, he licked her palm from fleshy base to quivering fingertips. And behind the lascivious act, he grinned again.
”By now you should know your fear excites me, sweet.”
”Don't call me that. I don't want you here. Can't you understand that?” Bella's glance to the phone, which was too far away, by the couch, stoked him to action.
He pressed a palm over her throat. Bella feared he might become violent. Finally he would do what he wanted to do last night.
Why had she allowed him inside the building?
Because she really was worried about the vampires.
His eyes were so intense, they stilled her. She could only gasp as he slid his hand to the red spangled neckline. His thumb slipped behind the fabric and over the top of her breast.
The sound he made was s.e.xy and wanting, a moan for something he desired but wouldn't take. Clinging to the counter, Bella reacted to the illicit touch with a whimper of her own.
”Bella,” he whispered as he moved nose to nose with her. ”You want my touch?”
She shook her head. A squeeze of his fingers rocketed a delicious twinge of pleasure from her breast to her belly and down to her loins.
”Then remove my hand. Push it away.”
She grabbed his wrist with both hands but didn't move it. And in her pause, he bent to kiss the top of her breast while he ma.s.saged the nipple with his fingers.
She craved the way he made her feel. The dangerous aura of his presence. The uncertainty of what he would say or do to her next. The erratic pace of her heart was caused by fear and a discomfiting desire.
”Please,” she whispered. What had he said his name was? ”S-Severo. It's...not right.”
”What? A man you just met touching you like this? I told you to take my hand away. And then I'll leave.”
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