Demon Night

to stay. Going now will hurt something terrible. But it won’t be anything like being with you through the night, as close as two people could possibly get, then watching you choose someone else’s blood tomorrow—even though I’d crawl across Hell to give mine to you.”
    Oh, God. She hadn’t even considered…“I wasn’t thinking of tomorrow.” Only that she wanted him with her so badly now, for any amount of time, any way she could get him. Her voice was raw, thick. “And I don’t mean to make this worse. I’m sorry.”
    She was just going to have to drop this. Just wait for him, and keep fighting the need inside her, as she should have from the start—
    “Are you sorry? Because every day I have to walk away from you, it’ll get worse, and I ain’t getting any closer to figuring you. So I’m thinking this hurting will only stop one of two ways.” His chest rose and fell heavily. “You ask me for what it is you’re needing, Charlie, and we’ll head on up to that bed together. You keep quiet, and I’ll go—and when I fly off that deck I won’t be coming back, so as I won’t be having to walk away again.”
    A tremor shook through her. Charlie clutched at her belly, her chest, curling in against the darkness unfurling within them. She couldn’t have heard that right. Couldn’t have. But no matter how she played it through her mind, it came out the same.
    He’d given up on her. Given an ultimatum…and she lost either way.
    This hadn’t been worth the risk, then. And it didn’t matter if she’d been wrong about him, that 1 percent, because now she would plead so that he wouldn’t leave, and he’d say he loved her because she’d beg him to. And she’d keep asking him, because it’d be hollow when he said it, and she’d want the words to fill up the emptiness of it all. And she’d cling, trying to hold on to him, knowing her need was the reason he’d stayed, knowing her neediness would eventually push him away.
    She tried to hold it in. But she could already feel it shattering open within her, projecting outward like sharp, broken glass, and there wasn’t anything left inside that wasn’t torn.
    “Oh, Christ Jesus,” Ethan said, his face white as he leapt toward her, his weight sending her staggering back until his body pressed hers up tight against the wall, his hand covering her mouth. “Don’t let it out. I’m sorry. So damn sorry. I felt I was losing, and I tried to cheat—but I shouldn’t have, not with this. Not with your heart. So just don’t let it out, and I’ll figure you. I swear to God I’ll figure you.”
    He dropped his face into the curve of her shoulder, his breath a hot shudder against her neck. Charlie stared at the play of moonlight on the water outside. Slowly, she stopped shaking, and the pieces of her that had broken fell into place again, their edges smoothing.
    She’d be all right. Even if he left, she’d get by.
    And his body caged hers, but she was strong enough to push him away. His hand sealed her mouth, but a bite or a kiss to his palm would move it.
    So she waited. And when Ethan raised his head, she hoped.
    “I wouldn’t have flown off,” he said, and his palm slid from her mouth. “If going meant never coming back, I wouldn’t have left. I’d have stood out on that deck until time made a statue of me, and I’d ponder all the reasons why a woman could need something so much, but not ask for it.”
    His gaze searched her face, but she couldn’t speak. Just waited for the constriction on her throat to loosen.
    “But no matter how long I stood there pondering, I don’t imagine I’d get anywhere, because I’d focus on what you’re needing, when maybe I should be wondering why it is you ain’t asking . So I figure it must be one of those things that don’t mean nothing if you got to ask for it.”
    Charlie trembled, and his thumbs wiped the corners of her eyes. He brushed a kiss across her lips before lifting his head.
    “And I don’t reckon I’ve ever told you how much I love you, Miss Charlie.”
    Her throat finally loosened, but a relieved sob broke from her instead of a response. She could only wind her arms around his neck and kiss him, I love you and thank you on her lips and tongue, trusting he’d recognize their taste.
    And she recognized Ethan’s as he projected it, bright and clean and strong—so incredibly strong. He drew back, and grinned before sweeping her up into his arms. “I also reckon this calls for the