Demon Night

breath caught as he gingerly slid from inside her.
    Say something , she told herself. Something that wasn’t about her emotions, or her need, or how very much she loved him. She settled in next to his side, and Ethan half-turned to face her, looking her over with a soft, searching gaze.
    Could he see what she was feeling? Did he already know? She hadn’t sensed him inside her mind, but he could have slipped in, and she just hadn’t recognized his mental touch over the sound of his blood—or his Gift.
    She grabbed at that, and cleared her throat. “When you unlocked the handcuffs, it sounded…” She couldn’t come up with the right word to describe it, but she forced her way through. “Different. Beautiful, but strange. And not as it did when I felt it before, when I wasn’t drinking your blood. Though it was still you , and a lot like the way you taste.”
    He continued studying her for a long moment, his brows lowering as if he was trying to work through a puzzle. “And how do I taste?” he finally asked.
    “Good.” She needed to touch him; she lifted her hand to his jaw, smoothed her fingers down the strong line to his chin. “Really, really good.”
    His smile crooked his lips. “Now, that’s more like what I expected to hear from you when you rolled on over, Miss Charlie.”
    So much for his modesty. She turned her cheek against the mattress to laugh, and he drew her in close against his length. Her legs met the fabric of his pants, but he didn’t replace his shirt as quickly.
    Ethan pushed her hair back from her face. “You stiffened up a bit with my Gift; it didn’t hurt you?” When she shook her head, he pressed, “And the rest went all right, too?”
    “Yes,” she said, and he looked at her again so seriously that suddenly she was laughing. “Stop that. I’m okay.”
    But it struck her now that something in the way he had asked was expectant, as if he’d anticipated that there would be a change.
    Her amusement faded, and curiosity had her rising up on her elbow. “Did you do something differently?”
    “Well, I didn’t resist it at all, Charlie—what you make me feel when you’re drinking from me.” He rolled onto his back, cocked his arm up behind his head to prop it up. “But don’t you worry that you still can’t have the feeding separate, if you want it. I figure I can control myself well enough.”
    “That doesn’t sound like a very good plan.” She leaned down to swirl his flat nipple with her tongue, to scrape her fangs over the small nub. “I think I could get used to feeding this way.” She glanced up with a wry smile. “Probably too used to it.”
    “That’s fine by me.” He shuddered beneath her mouth, and an instant later his unbuttoned shirt was covering his torso, and she was teasing cotton.
    She lifted her head, narrowed her eyes. “That’s cheating.”
    “I’m just awful scared of being naked with all these snakes and scorpions crawling about.” His gaze dropped to her breasts, and their peaks tightened when his lips widened in an appreciative grin. “But I’ll protect you real well, so you ain’t got to worry none.”
    But he must have been concerned that she was uncomfortable; an instant later, a big shirt landed in her lap. She pulled it on, smiling. The hem almost reached her knees. “Would I have to worry if I was bitten?”
    “No. You could shoot bleach into your veins and it wouldn’t do much but burn a little.” He sat up, caught her mouth in a hard kiss before pulling back. “Unless I’m drifting, I ain’t much for lying around. You feel like taking a walk?”

CHAPTER 23
    She did, and it was odd—marvelous—to stroll barefoot across the desert sand under the moonlight as easily as she might have a beach and the sun.
    And there was little need to block. There were only the sounds they made—and the occasional scurrying of feet, the beat of tiny hearts. When she stopped, tried to locate the source of a strange, whirring chirp, Ethan pointed out the bat hunting insects.
    Charlie watched its flight over a distant mound of flat, stacked stones, every motion of its small body clear to her in the darkness—and she was suddenly, stupidly overwhelmed.
    She didn’t turn away fast enough. Ethan cupped her face, frowning down at the tears that spilled over her cheeks. Yet it was a laugh that broke from her, and she didn’t think she could relate the absurdity of it. But she managed to say, “It’s so ugly. But not . It’s not