Demon Night

bed.”
    She’d have laughed, but his mouth was already on hers as he raced up the stairs, and he didn’t stop kissing her for breath or speech, but asked with the thrust of his tongue and his body what she wanted. She wanted the pleasure of his blood for them both, and he trembled above her when she took it.
    It was a long time before she eased away from him and lay back against the pillows. Ethan rolled on top of her and smiled crookedly, his hands tangling in her hair.
    “You ain’t slow, Charlie. You must’ve known what I felt for you. I thought for certain you did, or I’d have figured you the first night.”
    “I did know.” She drew a shaking breath, and he skimmed a kiss over her forehead. “I just didn’t know if you did.”
    He reared back at that. “I ain’t slow either.”
    “I know. But you said your dad taught you a lesson about loving a woman too much. I didn’t know if you’d ever let yourself—and if you couldn’t help it, if you’d admit to yourself that you did.”
    His brows lowered, as if he were trying to figure her out again. “So as I wouldn’t be hurt?”
    She pressed her lips together and nodded.
    “That would have been the wrong lesson to learn,” he said, his voice rough. “You love a woman that much, so that life ain’t worth living without her, then you do everything you can to see she isn’t hurt. And once she’s safe, you do everything you can to make sure you don’t lose her. And if you don’t give her everything she needs and she goes, you do everything you can to make it right again, because when she’s hurting or needing something you can feel it, and it’s like a poison tearing you apart, killing you slow. So you give her everything she needs or can’t get for herself, and providing for her becomes a need as powerful as your love for her.”
    “Oh. Why didn’t you tell me this, lay it out straight for me?” She felt her face beginning to crumple with another sob, but she punched his shoulder instead.
    He grinned. “You’re beating on me for it? I recall that you held on to your declaration an awful long time, Miss Charlie.”
    “I was afraid.”
    “Well, so am I.” His grin faded. “There’s another side to all of that, Charlie. Because when you love a woman that much, you need her just to keep moving every day. You’ve got to live—but without her, nothing much matters anymore, and the couple of hours you see her, and knowing that you’re keeping her city safe are about the only reasons to keep going.”
    “Or the moment he sits at your bar,” Charlie said quietly. “And when you see him, it’s actually easy to smile.”
    His gaze moved over her features for a long moment, his throat working. “Yes,” he finally said. “It ain’t living as much as getting by, and I know it wasn’t like this before I met you. Now there’s something missing when you aren’t with me, but I didn’t want you to think you was a salve.”
    She wouldn’t have. “Generally, those are bad for you, and you’ve already told me I make you a better man.” Smiling, she wrapped her legs around his waist. “And ‘getting by’ is what you’re doing when you have the salve. That’s why you’re trying to get rid of it, so that living feels right again.”
    He stared down at her, then finally shook his head, chuckling low. “You see, Charlie? I haven’t been able to figure you at all, not since day one.”
    “I still think it’s easy, but at least you won’t get bored.” She bit her lip, then said, “I won’t use Sammael’s blood anymore, but I’ll have Jane keep sending it to me, just for those times when you can’t show up those couple of hours a night. And what I don’t use, we can store for any other vampire who might need it.”
    “You can do that, Charlie, if you like—but I reckon those times won’t be all that often.” When she looked at him, her gaze questioning, he told her of the offer Lilith had made.
    Considering the reason he’d been assigned to Seattle was the looming threat of the nephilim, perhaps she shouldn’t be quite as glad that he’d be there—but it was difficult not to be. And he seemed pleased by it, as well, which only made it better.
    “So you’ll be sheriff of this here town,” she drawled when he finished, and although the rasp in her voice ruined it, his smile was broad and his laugh low.
    And when it faded, his eyes were glowing, his gaze intense upon hers. “I’ll lay it out straight now,