Demon Night

needed something, or if he’d asked for something in return.
    And she was uncertain about expressing her gratitude; he hadn’t wanted it before. But it was the only thing she had to offer.
    “Ethan.” It sounded rougher than normal, so she swallowed to ease the dryness in her mouth and throat.
    He raised his brows in question, moving from beside the bed to tower over her. “Miss Charlie?”
    “I just wanted to say that I know I’ve been resentful of…” The bloodlust. Having no control over her life. Losing so much with a couple of swallows of Henderson’s blood. “Of parts of what happened to me, and angry, especially with Jane—and kind of self-absorbed with all of that.”
    His brows drew in; the corners of his mouth pulled down. “Charlie—”
    She shook her head, dropped her gaze to his chest. “But I wanted to make sure that I said thank you for saving my life, and for doing all of this.” She indicated the room with a sweep of her hand. “And also that I hope you don’t feel any guilt about not being able to get to me until after Henderson had taken my blood. Because if you hadn’t been around I’d still be a vampire by now, but dependent on Sammael—and he’d probably have me locked up somewhere, I guess.”
    “I reckon.” Ethan tipped her chin up with a touch of his fingers. His eyes were solemn. “I wish it had gone differently, Charlie. But if you’re resentful and angry, you’ve good reason to be—and if you think your reaction has been irrational or that you’ve put a burden on me, you unthink it.”
    She shifted her feet. “I just wish there was some way I could repay you. For saving me—and for the rest.” She darted a glance at the door to the hallway. Her knees had cracked the wood when she’d jumped on him; further down, he’d splintered a plank by banging his head against it. “For feeding me, because it couldn’t have been easy.”
    “It wasn’t a hardship, either. You don’t owe me for it, and I sure in blazes don’t want anything from you in payment,” Ethan said softly. His lips curved slightly. “Except maybe a story now and then.”
    That wasn’t anything; it didn’t take any effort. But she bit back the reply that leapt to her tongue: I want you to need something from me, too . It would have sounded too pleading, too pathetic.
    “That’s easy enough,” she said instead, but she thought her smile was probably wan, so she dipped her head. He was close, and she desperately wanted to touch him. She settled for reaching out, sliding his left suspender between her thumb and fingers. “And when we sleep together—”
    She broke off when his taut abdomen turned to steel beneath the backs of her fingers. She glanced up, but he wasn’t looking at her. He was staring down at the floor, the muscles in his jaw bunched.
    “Ethan?”
    His response was as tight as his body. “Is that the kind of man you think I am?”
    She blinked quickly, her eyes searching his face. “What kind?”
    “Using the bed in trade for blood.”
    It took her another second. Then her fingers curled hard around the leather strap before she forced her hand open and stepped back. Not far; the room was too small, and her shoulders came up against the wall.
    “No,” she said evenly, though hurt and anger were singing within her. “But you must think I’m the kind of woman who’d trade sex for blood, or it wouldn’t have occurred to you that I was insulting you like that.”
    His head jerked up, and he stared into her face for a long moment. “No,” he said finally. “I don’t think that. I didn’t get that far into considering it. I reckon I just heard you jump from repaying me to sleeping with me, and made a jump of my own.”
    “Oh,” she said, trying to decide what that meant. Except when he was joking, she’d only known Ethan to be particular in his replies, working everything through before he answered. But if he’d been so stung by the first conclusion he’d drawn that he hadn’t tried to go deeper…well, she didn’t know exactly what it meant, but it felt pretty damn good. She couldn’t stop the smile that lifted the corners of her mouth. “Okay.”
    Ethan’s brow was furrowed, as if he had thought about his reaction and come away just as surprised as she had. “All right. Suppose then you tell me what you were jumping to?”
    “The opposite, actually. That even though you say I don’t owe you anything, I still feel…like a leech.”
    His jaw