Stepping to his shoulders, Kate reached under his arms and gripped the fabric there. Her hands were so cold that she had to fight for purchase against the material. She rose into a crouched position and tugged.
Nothing. Not even a budge. Oh, no. “Come on, mister. We have to go before the ambulance gets here.”
This time she tried hooking her arms under his, and that worked, but it placed so much strain on her back she had to keep pausing. Thank God the authorities moved slowly in Moscow. Her ears strained to hear the far-off sound of sirens that would tell her she was out of time.
As she dragged him in uneven starts and stops over the gravel, her hunched-over position brought her face close to his. A warm thrill zinged down her spine and settled into her stomach like a shot of vodka. His spicy scent was so strong and appealing up close she had to resist leaning in farther, pressing her nose to his cheek, his hair. His throat.
Jeez, Kate, get your freaking head together.
They rounded the back of the building and victory flared in her gut. Now to find a place to conceal him while the ambulance came and went. Kate straightened to a standing position and pressed her palms into her lower back, stretching and soothing. A street lamp on the other side of the building’s rear revealed a small parking lot with a half-dozen cars parked against a chain-link fence and a Dumpster close to where she stood. Maybe she could hide him behind the line of cars. Maybe the ambulance crew would assume it was a false report. Maybe they wouldn’t see the disturbed gravel where she’d dragged him. That was a lot of damn maybes, but what else could she do?
“We’re almost there, now,” she murmured as she bent again and hooked her arms under his. “Hold on.” Pushing herself harder, she tugged him toward the row of cars. But what was she going to do with him after this crisis passed? She shook her head and focused on pulling him. She could only worry about one thing at a time.
A wet, throaty groan sounded from the vampire.
Kate’s gaze dropped to his face, only dimly illuminated by the distant light. “It’s all right,” she said. “You’re gonna be all right.”
Her foot went down farther than she expected. Kate stumbled, her boot wedged in some kind of hole, and struggled to hold her balance. She failed.
She landed so hard her breath exploded out of her. The way she’d had her arms wedged under his kept them hooked together, and the vampire’s dead weight landed on her aching legs.
Her tailbone throbbing from the impact with the ground and the way the gun’s barrel dug into her skin, Kate groaned and fought to pull herself free of him.
Another, louder growl rolled out of his chest, like the low rumble of thunder, and he stirred, his head jerking against her thighs.
If he regained consciousness, this would be so much easier. “Hey, are you—”
A tearing pain ripped into her wrist.
Kate cried out and tried to wrench away, but— Oh, my God! He bit me! She gasped and moaned, “No!”
She threw every muscle into escaping the iron grip of his hands on her forearm and his impaling fangs in her radial artery. Her boots scrambled for purchase against the loose gravel but his weight held her down. With her free hand, she grabbed a fistful of blond hair and yanked.
The sound that ripped from his throat issued an animalistic warning her body recognized. Her heart raced in her chest, her scalp prickled and the hair rose on her arms and neck. Clutching her arm, he rolled onto his side and settled most of his big body within the cradle of her thighs, one shoulder pinning her hips tight and hard.
Pozhalui?sta, pozhalui?sta. Please, he begged over and over, wearing down her resistance as his tone became more desperate.
Blood rushing behind her ears, the sound even louder for the deep, sucking draws exiting through her wrist, Kate went still.
Please, he groaned in her head. Dying.
The abject need in his voice sucker punched her. Her hand slackened in his thick hair, but didn’t fall away altogether.
Dying. The possibility made her feel dizzy and weak. Or maybe that was just the blood loss. For sure, though, injured as he was, he must require a lot of blood. Could she really deny him what he needed to survive? Did she even want to? His tongue laved over her skin, and her body knew the answer even if her brain resisted.
As she acquiesced, the hard metal digging into her sacrum captured her attention. The gun. Kate debated and rejected the idea in the blink of an eye. He was one of the good ones. And he wouldn’t kill her. As soon as the thought passed through her brain, her heart knew the truth of it.
I give…my word.
His being in her head felt inexplicably right. She fell back against the ground and gave in to his desire.